Things are moving along nicely with the artwork. This is the third piece that’s complete, and another is in sketch form. The remaining two have art briefs, and sketches should be coming for those soon.
As I mentioned in the post where I revealed this sketch, this scene shows Muqallad after a particularly grizzly series of events in The Straits of Galahesh. I like how Evgeniy captured the Atalayina, the fabled stone of creation, in Muqallad’s hands. And his take on the akhoz, let’s face it, is nightmarish. And the falling ashes are a very nice touch.
Here’s an excerpt that I quite enjoyed. I never associated my writing with Robin Hobb, but then again, our styles are similar, and I greatly admire her writing, so it was very gratifying:
I’ve always said that in terms of style, Bradley P. Beaulieu’s was some sort of hybrid between Steven Erikson and L. E. Modesitt, Jr. But he also has a deft human touch that often reminded me of Robin Hobb. In addition, in The Flames of Shadam Khoreh, with its darker and brooding narrative, there was a definite Stephen R. Donaldson influence that made the Covenant books come to mind quite often. À la Erikson, Beaulieu seems to enjoy throwing his readers into the heart of the tale without offering much in the way of information. In the past, this often resulted in an occasional lack of clarity that left many readers wondering what the heck was going on. The good thing about this being the final volume in the trilogy is that we finally get all the answers we’ve been looking for.
And here’s the payoff:
All in all, The Lays of Anuskaya series is dark, ambitious, complex, and populated with a great cast of characters that leap off the pages. If you are looking for a quality read that’s different from everything else on the market today, this series is definitely for you.
These are not complete, obviously, but I liked these early sketches enough to share them. The first is a scene from The Straits of Galahesh. So as to remain as spoiler-free as possible, I’ll only say that this is Muqallad, one of the Al-Aqim, the three elemental sorcerers who tore the fabric between the material and spiritual planes.
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Creepy, isn’t it? It’s a pretty grizzly scene, so the tone is apropos, methinks.
The second is from The Flames of Shadam Khoreh. It shows a warrior of Hael about to, well, do something nasty to one of the personal guardsmen of the Kamarisi (the emperor) of Yrstanla.
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I love the horse and the way the horseman was drawn. I like the nice touch of the building in the domed background as well.
This is exciting for me. I’ve gotten to play art director on the interior art for The Lays of Anuskaya, with the talented Evgeni Maloshenkov as the artist. One of the pieces I’d always wanted to do was the dance scene between Atiana and Nikandr. It’s a fan favorite, and it’s one of my favorites as well.
It was great fun visualizing this and then talking back and forth with Evgeni to get his take on it. We played with this one a lot at the sketch stage, because it was such a strong image in my mind, and I think Evgeni did a wonderful job taking that initial vision and expanding on it.
In 2011 I called Winds of Khalakovo ‘deep and deliberate’ with poignant dialogue ‘that fits the thematic tones perfectly.’ I believed very strongly it was one of the most promising debuts of the year, kicking off what was a huge year of exceptional debuts for Night Shade Books. Two years later that promise is delivered in the form of Bradley P. Beaulieu’s self-published third book Flames of Shadam Khoreh. Given the pacing problems throughout the series, I would argue that the Lays of Anuskaya was too ambitious for a debut novelist. If that’s true, then those difficulties are on full display in Straits of Galahesh which I cannot recommend on its own.
But some glowing praise for Flames.
However, despite my difficulties with the middle volume, this final installment makes it all worth it. The Flames of Shadam Khoreh isn’t just one of the better books I’ve read this year, but one of the epic fantasy endings I’ve had the pleasure of reading. To potential readers let me stress that this is not an easily digestible collection of novels. Quite the opposite. Instead, I would call it a collection of novels worth investing in. I promise it will pay dividends.
I really enjoy reading Justin’s reviews. He’s not only a good writer, but brings a lot of good insights to the review while not stepping over the “spoiler” line.
As part of the Kickstarter I ran for The Flames of Shadam Khoreh, we met two interior artwork stretch goals, which meant that we’d have two original pieces per book. These will be added to each of the books on the page facing “Part I” or “Part II”. The artist I chose for the project is Evgeni Maloshenkov, the same artist who did the great interior pieces for my short story collection, Lest Our Passage Be Forgotten & Other Stories.
The first of the pieces is now complete and ready to be unveiled. I give you Rehada, ready to kick some ass.
With only very mild spoilers, this is a scene from the second half of Winds where Rehada has gone off with Atiana, both of them disguised as peasants. Rehada is riding back toward Palotza Radiskoye and is waylaid. And what you see above her is her answer to this inconvenience.
A great new review came in over the weekend from Sachin Dev over at Smorgasbord Fantasia.
I liked his opening:
I still haven’t come to terms with this question, do I love Russian literature.
I tried Tolstoy’s epic, War and Peace. Not once but twice. And I failed both times to complete it. Dostoevsky’s short stories made me a fan but his longer books had just too much going on to invest me in as a serious reader, all this at a younger tender impressionable age.
As an adult my tastes veered away from the contemporary into speculative and I was yet to find anyone who brought in the flavors or Russia – the strong smells of vodka, the white snow and the bleak grey hopelessness – into Fantasy or Science Fiction.
And then came Bradley P. Beaulieu – who has written a deep, well researched fantasy novel set in an alternate world of mountainous archipelago completely inspired by the Russian and East European settings.
And here’s the closer:
Overall, with a rich gloriously detailed world full of symbolism, Winds of Khalakovo announces the arrival of a super talented epic fantasy author in Bradley who has chosen to tread the brave path – eschewing the traditional medieval euro-inspired fantasy worlds – Lays of Anuskaya is an intelligent series with layered complex characters you grow to love at the end of book one. An intelligent high fantasy full of original magic and swashbuckling adventure. Bradley is no Patrick Rothfuss but he definitely is in for a long successful innings. Winds of change, a breath of fresh air. Three stars.
I’ve been playing with the design for the bookmarks that were part of the stretch goals for The Flames of Shadam Khoreh, and I think I have something workable.
It was difficult to fill in the space of the front, and when compared directly to the back the font looks perhaps too tall, but I think it’s just my picky brain getting in the way.
A few August’s ago, my friend, old coworker, and major gun enthusiast Barry Geipel invited me to stop by his firing range and shoot his flintlock. I immediately said yes. I was at that time in the middle of writing my second book and really wanted to hold and fire a flintlock for myself. We went to the outdoor range and Barry showed me the ropes.
It’s one thing to learn about things by reading about them and watching videos, but it was quite another to hold the firearm, to load it and fire it, to feel the kickback as it fired (which was not as great as I was expecting). The musket in question is a 28 Gauge flintlock fowler.
Lots of little things stood out to me on the trip. For example, the spring on the hammer. It’s really strong. It would need to be, of course, because the flint it holds needs to strike the frizzen strongly enough to produce spark, so it makes perfect sense, but it didn’t even enter my consciousness until I was levering the hammer back to half cock.
Another thing was how gummed up the barrel can become and what you do to clean it. The powder leaves residue and it has to be cleared away after a certain number of firings. And the men in the civil war, lacking other things, might have pissed down the barrel to clean it because the ammonia in the urine acted as cleaning fluid.
Other interesting things are how you might get to know each individual gun. They were similar, but they’d each have their own quirks, from the way they fired and released their shot (and the adjustments you would make because of it), the way the ramrod feels as you tamp down the gunpowder and cloth and ball (the shot), the strength of the spring, how easily the frizzen opened and closed, and so on.
It was a really fun experience. It was like taking a crash course through Civil War history with Barry, too, because he’s so knowledgeable about that time period.
Thanks, Barry, for the fun time. Hopefully I’ll get a chance to do that again some time.
That may seem like a small thing, but it’s actually a big deal. Why? First of all, it indicates that I’ve managed to lay out all the pages in the book. And *that* says that I’ve at the very least identified all of the content. Every page has an intended purpose (even if it’s blank right now). All the pages of content are laid down, including fancy chapter headings. And all the front matter and back matter is in.
The only thing left is to generate the maps. I have them, but still have to add whatever borders I want, convert them to black and white, and then place them. That won’t take too much time, but it’ll have to wait for another day.
The other reason the page count matters is for the books size. See, the cover is dependent on page count (more pages, thicker book, and so, larger cover). Having the final page count means I can finally generate the cover from my chosen printing house and work up the graphics for that. That won’t be all that difficult, either, as I have the cover somewhat designed from the ARCs I created, but still, it will be a small hurdle to get that wrapped up, reformatted, blurbs added, and so on.
So 478 is a big number. It means these books are one step closer to being done and out in the world.
As my Kickstarter winds down, I wanted to reflect on what I’ve done since finishing The Flames of Shadam Khoreh. Why? I’m not sure. Most of this is pretty self-serving. I’ve been feeling … not down exactly, but itchy to get working on my next novel, the one I sold to DAW Books a few months back. Sometimes writers feel—and it’s certainly true of me—that you’re not really writing unless you’re drafting a story. Editing, publicity, taking care of the business side of writing, well, that’s not writing at all is it? Of course it is. It’s part and parcel of being a writer. But it doesn’t feel that way. The romanticized version of a writer is someone who sits at a typewriter or relaxes on a comfy chair and writes longhand. But that is merely the kernel of a writer, and even then, a rather inaccurate portrayal of one.
So I write this largely to say to myself: I have not been lazy. But it may also interest people to see what goes on “between the cracks”, as it were. So here goes.
I finished my novel roughly last November. That was when the final version was approved by my then-editor Ross Lockhart, when he was still working for, ahem, Night Shade Books. The book then went “into production,” which meant that it was headed to layout and copy edits with my copy editor, Holliann Russell Kim.
After that, I had several things that had been piling up over the months and years that I’d written the Lays of Anuskaya trilogy. There was a short story for the Crimson Pact anthology, edited by Paul Genesse, that I wanted to get done. So I wrote that. I thought it’d be less than 5k words, and it ended up being 8k, which is my natural length for a short story. I edited that a few times and sent it off to Paul to read.
I also wanted to gather my short stories and put them out as a collection. I dove into that next, pulling the stories I wanted to include and whether I wanted to write anything new for it. But how to publish it? Short story collections are a hard sell these days. Unless you’re a big name, most publishers won’t publish them, or will give you a pittance for the rights. Plus, I’d been wanting to try my hand at a Kickstarter. So I researched how to run one, I put my efforts into what it would look like, how to run it, what to offer as rewards, and I launched it in December of 2012. It ran through January of this year, and I offered new stories as stretch goals. Three of them, to be exact. So then I had to write them…
I drafted those three new stories: one a prequel to my Lays of Anuskaya trilogy, one a sequel of sorts, and one a new middle grade story set in a new Norse-inspired world I’m working on called Bryndlholt. Those ended up being roughly 30k total words. I edited the hell out of these with help from the backers of the Kickstarter and then entered them into copy editing with the multitalented Marty Halpern.
I also edited (and sort of re-drafted) two previously unpublished stories to go into the collection. These were early works that were a bit rough. It wasn’t like writing brand new material, but they were substantial drafts. Those ended up being 4.5k and 8k long. Those also went off to edits. And the collection as a whole is even now going into a full copy edit for consistency. So more work lies ahead to finalize the copy before it goes into production.
I also had an idea for a science fiction tale. I pinged Rob Ziegler to see if he might like to collaborate on it. He was open to it, and we’ve been pecking away at that for the last many months. That’s another 4k or so written, plus trading edits back and forth with Rob.
Then came the bombshell. Night Shade. I’ve already talked about leaving and deciding to launch a Kickstarter, to publish the third book, so I won’t repeat myself here, but there’s a lot that goes into a Kickstarter, especially one with three books involved. I’d run one already, so it wasn’t completely new, but it’s been a lot of work.
A lot.
I got the initial rewards and description and video for the Kickstarter together and then launched. Since then, it’s been a ton of care and feeding. And it’s being going wonderfully. We sit right now at about 200% of my funding goals, with more to go as things wrap up over the next few hours.
But I’ve also been working hard behind the scenes at getting the collection and all three books ready. A friend recently asked me what it takes to self-publish a trilogy via Kickstarter. This is what I sent her as a general outline:
Arrange for structural, copy, and line editing as needed.
Finalize your copy.
Buy ISBNs for your own use. You’ll need three per book (print, MOBI, and EPUB).
Choose which venues you’ll use for publication.
I use Amazon, B&N, iBooks, and Smashwords. On Smashwords I allow them to sell everywhere *except* Amazon, B&N, and iBooks.
Arrange for use of artwork – contracts, pricing, etc.
Design the covers.
You’ll need at least 2 covers. One for ebooks and 1 for print. And if you do both HC and SC, you’ll need one for each of those, for a potential total of three.
Prepare front matter and back matter for the books.
Prepare things like maps or interior art (if needed)
Obtain blurbs.
Interiors:
Design the interior of the ebooks.
Design the interior of the print books.
These are not the same thing at all. I use Scrivener for all ebooks (PDF, EPUB, and MOBI) and InDesign for the print books. Both have a learning curve if you’re not used to them. But you can contract this out as well. Plenty of people out there will create these for a fee.
Upload ebooks and make available for sale.
Upload print books and make available for sale.
Any one of those things can take a ton of time, depending on your experience, your particular tastes, work style, your contacts, etc. It’s been a long, crazy road even since February when all this began in earnest.
But, as I said to another author friend, I’ve long since decided that being happy with small rewards along the way was the way to look at writing, and there are a ton of small “wins” on the self-pub road. Many more than on traditional publishing. This, to me, is one of the major advantages to self-publishing. It has to be taken in context. You’re putting in a lot more work. And you’d better be realistic about what you can do and farm out the rest (which takes money), but if you can manage it, it’s a very rewarding path.
What else? I’ve also been working on the brainstorming/worldbuilding for the Bryndlholt world. I have the short story, and was all set to dive into the first book of the new series in February, but I got completely derailed by the change in plans for The Lays of Anuskaya. I’m not complaining, mind you. It’s just a fact. And with the deadline for my next series looming later this year, I have to set this aside for now and shift to that. But I’ll continue to brainstorm and I’ll write a chapter here or there.
Speaking of my new series, The Song of the Shattered Sands, I’ve been doing more brainstorming/worldbuilding/plotting on that. I have a partial at 40k words that was written last year, and now it’s on to the rest of the novel. Now that the bulk of writing and editing is down with LAYS, I’ve been getting back into the world the last few days, and I’m remembering how much I love it. I can’t wait to dive back into the writing, which is happening even now.
That’s it. That’s all I got. There have been other miscellaneous (though not inconsiderable) things, like running the Speculate podcast with my friend and co-host Gregory Wilson, helping (with many others) to form a writer’s group called BookSworn, dealing with some of the fallout from NSB’s pending asset sale, and markety type things for the books and stories I have out.
That’s quite a bit, now that I look at it all. After the day job and writing, I wonder how I have time for family. I probably don’t make enough time for that, but that’s a subject for another post.
Shaun Brammer at Thaibebop just posted a very complimentary, not to mention well written, review of The Straits of Galahesh, and while doing so played against his impressions of The Winds of Khalakovo. I like how he switched between one and the other, and showed the expansion and evolution of character and world.
Here are a few of my favorite bits:
When I read the first book of the Lays of Anuskaya, The Winds of Khalakovo, I was struck by the authors world-building skills, first and foremost. The influences taken from our world were not the typical medieval European flare, but were more fitting for the Silk Road trade route during the time of the Great Game in the late nineteenth century. I loved the blend of Russian and Islamic cultural influences as well as the use of gunpowder technology. I enjoyed that Mr. Beaulieu could use such a technology and not have the whole story leave the realm of Fantasy and become a steampunk novel.
and:
I am very pleased to have continued reading this imaginative new series and would recommend it to anyone who loves a good rich fantasy world. I think a few steampunk fans might like it as well. Also, like any good fantasy series, you can’t start with the second book. So, If you have not read The Winds of Khalakovo go and get a copy and get caught up. If you have and are wondering if you should continue reading the series let me help you decide that, do it.
Author and editor Paul was one of the people on my video teaser for The Lays of Anuskaya, but his video was really quite good on its own, so I’m posting it as its own video review of the series.
I’ve been working behind the scenes on a new map for The Lays of Anuskaya. And here it is!
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This was created by William McAusland, the same artist who worked on the previous maps, based on a map I had generated for the world long ago using a program called Fractal Terrains. I really like how it turned out. I’m happy to have the full set of maps now for the world. Or at least for the story told in The Lays of Anuskaya. There are parts of the world that have islands not shown so far, and perhaps I’ll explore those some day.
I mentioned yesterday that I would have two raffles for the Kickstarter. The first is a raffle for signed ARCs (of which very few will be printed). The second is for prints of the artwork for The Lays of Anuskaya. These prints will be signed by both the artist, Evgeni Maloshenkov, and me.
Just how many prints will depend on whether we reach the second artwork stretch goal. We stand at 3 prints now, but hopefully you’ll all force me to make it 6 if we break $10,000. I’m confident we can do it, but the pressure’s on now. Only a little over two days left on the Kickstarter remain. So please, keep spreading the word!
The raffle will be similar to the one for the ARCs. I’ll give each backer one “ticket” for each dollar spent as part of their reward. I’ll then draw numbers using a random number generator to choose the winners. Each backer can only win once, but you canwin both an ARC and an art print. I’ll draw the winners and send these out shortly after the Kickstarter is done this Thursday.
Thanks again for all your support along the way. You’ve made this project an amazing success already. Now let’s push through to the finish!
I’ve decided to include two raffles for The Flames of Shadam Khoreh. The first is a raffle for three advance reader copies (ARCs). I’m only printing about 20-25 ARCs total, so this is a chance to win a rare collector’s item. They are uncorrected, so there will be minor differences, but that’s part of the fun of getting ARCs, finding the errors and laughing at the author. I mean, getting a chance to see the process of writing as it unfolds. Yeah, that’s the ticket.
What I’ll do is give each backer one “ticket” for each dollar spent as part of their reward. I’ll then draw three numbers using a random number generator to choose the winners. Each backer can only win once. I’ll draw the winners and send these out shortly after the Kickstarter is done this Thursday.
Please spread the word in the remaining days of the Kickstarter. I’m still confident we can hit our next stretch goal, and even go beyond.
I’ve been working on a new video project in the background for a few months now. I gave advance copies of The Flames of Shadam Khoreh to a select few readers and asked that they give me their thoughts on the series as a whole and the third book especially to give others a sense of what the trilogy was about. The first of these videos is now complete. This one features Brenda Cooper, Paul Genesse, and Ryan Leduc. In it, they talk about their thoughts of the trilogy as a whole and how the series wrapped up with The Flames of Shadam Khoreh.
Be sure to stick around until the end for the “blooper reel.”
I’ll have a few more of these in the future as I gear up to release the books. I hope you enjoy it, and please share this, as I think it gives a great feel for the series and my writing.
The final copy editing process has begun for the three original stories for the collection. I’ll announce when that’s finished and the final ramp-up to production for the books has begun.
I’m also pleased to reveal the final two pieces for my short story collection, Lest Our Passage Be Forgotten & Other Stories.
The first is for “To the Towers of Tulandan,” a prequel to The Lays of Anuskaya trilogy. It tells the story of Nasim (pictured) and how Ashan came to meet him. It also hints at Soroush’s purpose on the islands of the Grand Duchy and his plans for Nasim. This is one of my favorite pieces, as it was taken from a piece of art that I found in Scotland when I first started working on these stories. I used that artwork (bought in postcard form from the museum’s gift shop) as the basis for Nasim. This boy blowing on the brand led to so many things for the Lays of Anuskaya trilogy. It feels like I’ve come full circle in having this illustrated as Nasim instead of as someone else I used as inspiration.
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The second is for “From the Spices of Sanandira.” In many ways, Spices is a genesis story for my upcoming series with DAW Books. It’s a story about a boy and his hidden past, and it falls to two misfit cooks to uncover the mystery.
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This wraps up the interior art. I still have to figure out if I’m going to put borders on them or not. Part of me feels like they should stand on their own. Evgeni did a great job with them. I’ll mull it over and make a decision soon and then start the layout process.
Tonight I have wonderful news to spread. I’ve just signed a new audio contract with Brilliance Audio for the rights to my upcoming series, The Song of the Shattered Sands. I’m very excited that the rights have been locked up so early, and with a company like Brilliance, known for their quality audio productions.
This is especially exciting as Brilliance not only publishes the audio books electronically through Audible, they also cell CDs and MP3 CDs through retailers like Wal-Mart, Sam’s Club and Costco, which should in turn bring more exposure to the series. These things have a way of creating sympathetic vibrations in the read-o-sphere. Let’s hope that happens here!
A huge thank you goes out to my agent, Russell Galen, for finding and closing this deal.
Only twelve days remain in The Flames of Shadam Khoreh Kickstarter. Time is really flying by! We’ve blown past the funding goal and two of the stretch goals so far. I’ve just added a new stretch goal—Bookmarks!—and I’m confident we can reach that soon. I’m really gunning for the $10,000 stretch goal, which adds three new interior art pieces for the books, and hopefully we can move beyond it, because I’m cooking up new goals with the artist, Evgeni Maloshenkov, now.
I’ve also added a set of new backing levels for those who are interested in the physical edition of Lest Our Passage Be Forgotten & Other Stories, my premiere short story collection.
The collection includes two brand new short stories set in The Lays of Anuskaya. One is a prequel story that reveals more about Nasim’s origins before he met Nikandr on Volgorod’s great eyrie. The other is a story about Ishkyna and what becomes of her after The Flames of Shadam Khoreh. The third story, “Unearthed,” is a story set in my Norse-inspired middle-gr ade world of Bryndlholt.
There are several new reward levels that allow you to “upgrade” to get a softcover edition of the story collection.
I’m very excited to announce that I’m also releasing a few of my reserve limited edition hardcover copies of Lest Our Passage Be Forgotten & Other Stories. I announced in my last Kickstarter that I would have a minimum run of 100 copies. That left me a few copies of the collection to sell in this Kickstarter, and I’m releasing 15 copies of these numbered collector’s copies now. 12 are available as an upgrade from the ATIANA package (though anyone can opt in to this reward level), and 3 more are available as an upgrade from the NIKANDR package (though again, anyone can opt in to this reward level).
Snap them up while you have the chance. These are some of the few I’ve held back. Most of the rest are going for promotional purposes and for things like Worldbuilders.
Here’s hoping the last week and change goes as well as the first few weeks have. Please continue to spread the word. Your help has been vital to this project’s success, and I very much appreciate it!
Another review of The Flames of Shadam Khoreh has come in, this one from Keith West at Amazing Stories. It’s a pretty spoiler-free review and is very complimentary of the entire series. Here’s the kicker:
The Flames of Shadam Khoreh is the capstone of a landmark series full of intrigue, swashbuckling, betrayal, sacrifice, and love.
But there are other great parts of the review, like this one:
These are dark books, but they aren’t nihilistic. Throughout the trilogy there’s a sense of hope. Nikandr, Atiana, and their companions refuse to give in to despair, even though there’s plenty to despair about.
That paragraph is especially gratifying, as that’s the tone I was shooting for over the entire series. It’s nice to see that it came across that way: dire but hopeful.
The Kickstarter for The Flames of Shadam Khoreh launched a little over a week ago. I ran it for only 28 days, and we’re now under the three week mark. 20 days remain, and I’m hoping we can meet several more stretch goals.
The first stretch goal, a free copy of my short story collection, Lest Our Passage Be Forgotten & Other Stories, has already been met, and we’re well on our way to the second. At $7,500 I’m going to commission three pieces of art for the trilogy, one to be included in each book. And if we reach $10,000, I’m going to commission three more (for a total of six). Those who have read The Winds of Khalakovo or The Straits of Galahesh will know that I broke up each book into two parts, so what I’ll do if we hit that third stretch goal is include one illustration for each “Part” in the three books.
In fact, I’m so confident we’ll reach the first artwork stretch goal, I’ve already started working with the artist on the first piece, this one an illustration of the dance between Nikandr and Atiana early on in The Winds of Khalakovo.
Also, as a small thank you to all of my backers, I’m continuing to give away my favorite recipes as part of the Kickstarter. When you join, you’ll get updates, each $1,000 the project reaches, with either a personal recipe or one of my favorites from other chefs.
I’m eager to see how the rest of the Kickstarter goes. Please, even if the project isn’t for you, I’d very much appreciate you spreading the word. Thanks so much.
I’m very pleased to announce that today over lunch I signed a contract with Audible.com to produce and sell the audiobook of The Flames of Shadam Khoreh. I’m glad we could get this deal done, as I certainly want to have the full trilogy available to readers/listeners. The rights for the first two books in the trilogy were also purchased by Audible, and those books are now for sale on Audible.com’s website:
I don’t yet have details on the timing of the release for the third audiobook. I suspect it will be after the physical and ebook versions of The Flames of Shadam Khoreh comes out in May or early June. These things do take some time, so I would expect a mid- to late-summer release. I also don’t yet know if Ray Chase, the voice actor who narrated the first two books, will be back for the third. It’s still too early, but I’ll update you further once I know more.
In the meantime, here are three more interior art reveals for the story collection.
The first is for “Cirque du Lumière,” a story about a misfit group of mutants on a far-flung world who find that a mystery, and no small amount of danger, falls into their lap when one of them agrees to take on the wrong courier assignment on the side.
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The second is for “How Peacefully the Desert Sleeps,” a story about a dying woman and a growing threat to the desert.
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And the third is for “Foretold,” a Steampunk story about a man who tells the future based on meteor sightings in the Ural Mountains.
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I can’t wait to get the book out there. I should be starting copy edits for the three new stories in the anthology within a few weeks, and once I have those back, it’s on to the final steps in the process.
The Kickstarter for The Flames of Shadam Khoreh is ready. I’m only waiting for final approval from Kickstarter to launch, which should come sometime tomorrow. I’ll be sure to send out a blast once it’s ready.
The progress on Lest Our Passage Be Forgotten & Other Stories continues. “Unearthed” is now essentially done and waiting for copy edits. “Prima” is going through edits. And I’m nearly ready to post “To the Towers of Tulandan.” More news on that in the days ahead. For anyone who’s part of the Kickstarter, I’ll be leaving “Prima” up for a bit longer in case you still want to read it, but I’ve gotten some good feedback so far. Thanks to everyone who’s read it and sent me your notes.
And in the interior art department, Evegeni Maloshenkov and I have finished up the last of the art pieces. I’ll continue to reveal them as updates as things move along. Here are three more.
The first is for “Prima,” a ballerina story with a dark twist.
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The second is for “A Trade of Shades,” a short tale about two souls passing in the place in between.
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And thirdly, we have “Good Morning Heartache,” a story about a mother’s desperate attempts to save her son from a wholly unexpected threat.
I’ve been working away behind the scenes to get the e-books for The Winds of Khalakovo and The Straits of Galahesh ready to re-launch. It’ll be a few days yet on Straits, but I’m pleased to announce that The Winds of Khalakovo is now live on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords (including affiliates). I’m setting the price at $2.99 to introduce people to the series. The Straits of Galahesh, when it comes out, will be priced at $4.99.
These last few months have been moving pretty fast and furious. There’s a lot going on with the preparation for the release of my third, but I’ve also been plugging away on the three stories for my new story collection, Lest Our Passage Be Forgotten & Other Stories. The first story, “Unearthed,” is now essentially done. It’s just waiting for the other two to go to copy edits. The second and third stories, “To the Towers of Tulandan” and “Prima,” are written and will soon be posted for early readers. Expect more on that over the coming days. Once those are done, they’ll all go through copy editing and then I’m ready to start packaging everything up.
Artwork continues apace. There are only a few more left to do. Here are three more. I’ll do more reveals as I release more news about the collection in the coming weeks.
This is for “Shadows in the Mirrors”, an dark urban fantasy about a woman and her missing daughter that through a series of unfortunate events can only just remember.
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This is for “An Instrument of War.” I love how the scratchy approach to the piece mixes with the dreamy lights above.
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And here is my favorite of the bunch so far. This is very well done indeed by the artist, Evgeni Maloshenkov.
