The Beta Runs Before the Wind

Yes, I had to tinker and
make a beta cover. 

I submitted Veil of a Warrior to a few beta readers in 2010. Though I liked the response, I realized eventually that there was more to do and the story was not ready. Back to the drawing board and four years later its off to beta one more time.

The book is ready to fly and in my excitement to finally publish, I had to hit the brakes. None of this round of beta readers uses an e-reader, so I had to look into my print options.

I don’t own a laser printer and quickly found that printing a 692 page behemoth on an inkjet to be a really bad idea. So,

Newsletter Fondness of the Fantastical

The book is coming.

Say it with me: The book is coming.

Did you feel a shiver? Me too, or maybe that was a nervous shake from fatigue.

Either way, Hammerblood is almost here, and as I have looked at its release, I lament one thing: That there is only one book. Yes, it will be part of a series of four (a tetralogy), but those books will be down the line. No cliffhangers. I swear. (My wife would give me the evil eye if there were.)

Anywho, it got me thinking, this lack of multiple books. It seemed so lonely. Should I not have something else? Something to kindle the fire of your Hammerblood-hunger? And then inspiration sparked!

And what about my Newsletter? What perks can I offer to the dedicated few? Ah...even better. A plan forms.

Make Love, Not Semicolon Carnage

It's funny how life can smack you upside the head and change your perspective faster than a raging barbarian with a bad-hair day.

I was dead-set on eliminating semicolons, chopping them off at the period, throttling their little dangling comma and tossing the whole lot into the wind. They were evil things that did not belong in my holy epic fantasy prose, and had to be exorcised.

But you know what? As I neared the finish of my current edit, the sunset brilliant and touching, I ran into places where they were the only sort of punctuation that worked.

Not An Announcement

Announcements are declarations. They are definitive. And this is not one.

However, in an effort to update my blog with something (so the bleeping spammers will leave my blog alone for a couple more weeks), I give you something that is not quite an announcement:

I will release Hammerblood, Book 1: Veil of a Warrior around May. Maybe...

My hope was for sooner, but I'm running a couple weeks behind on a last pass copyedit/trimming the fat. In the next week or two, I will need some beta readers. If you and I have conversed in the past and you have some time, let me know—I need your eyes.

Hammerblood is epic fantasy, perhaps a little sword & sorcery, there is magic, there is mystery and I want the characters to pop with their own stories and passions.