Seeking the Veil Series

Seeking the Veil is a story of adventure, friendship; and the exciting prequel 3-part series to the Epic Fantasy novel Veil of a Warrior.

READERS SAY:

"Fantastic...", "A really good medieval adventure..."

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PART 1
-FANTASY ADVENTURE-

Seek your Purpose, Seek your Power. Seek the Veil.

Young Hestea left his secret home to fight back against an age-old enemy. But he has no power, only the untested warhammer on his back. With his unwitting magi companion Gunter at his side, they seek their destinies in the cold wilds of Beckenburg.

Joining a band of mercenaries, Hestea will struggle to find his place in a group of unlikely heroes; and when all seems lost: discovers a power within, that he can not explain.

~60 pages | $0.99 $0.00

Currently FREE at most stores

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PART 2
-FANTASY ADVENTURE-

Sworn to Secrecy. Life and Death are on the Line.

Hestea's mysterious power defies understanding in the midst of peril, and taciturn Gunter reveals his reason to fight. But when the routine hunt for invading raiders turns dire, the Band of Orangebeard run afoul of bad tidings and Gunter's weakness is revealed.

Vows are called into question and when Orangebeard steers them toward an isolated pass in the great icy Scale, everything is on the line.

~80 pages | $0.99 

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PART 3
-FANTASY ADVENTURE-

Run. Warn. Die.

Follow Hestea and the remnants of the Band of Orangebeard as they flee for their lives in a desperate attempt to warn Becken of what comes. They must struggle to stay together and to stay alive in the cold wilds of Becken, while a terrible power stalks their every move.

Seeking the Veil comes to an exciting culmination, secrets are revealed, and the question of true power and friendship is put to the task.

~110 pages | $1.99

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REVIEWS:

“A really good medieval fantasy adventure...”
“(And) ...a fabulous venture into the world of ... sword and sorcery. (With) ...an atmosphere so intense that it's almost impossible to turn the pages fast enough.”
—Ray Nicholson, Amazon Book Reviewer

“The Tension Runs Full Throttle!”
“...author Clifton Hill has broken down this tale of Hestea into bite sized morsels that pack all of the punch, wonder and atmosphere of the fantasy world.”
—Dianne Bylo, aka Dii, Top 500 Amazon Reviewer, Book Blogger for tometender.blogspot.com
(Part 1, Part 2, Part 3)

“Hill paints a very vivid medieval style world, with miniscule details befitting a Martin or Tolkien.”
—Lars Teeney, Sci-fi author of “The Apostates”
(Part 1)

“Seeking the Veil is...fantastic...purchase Part 2 immediately so that you can read more of the story.”
—Susan Pixley, Amazon Book Reviewer

SUPPORT THE AUTHOR:

You loved the books, you want everyone to know, and you want to support the author. Here's how:

1. Join the Newsletter and be first to hear what comes next, get hot blog updates and great perks. Because you’re awesome like that.
2. Leave a review. Click on your favorite ebook store links above, and don't forget Goodreads.
3. Tell a friend about the books and get them to join the newsletter. In a world of distractions, word-of-mouth is invaluable to spread the word. And the more readers, means the faster I can write the next amazing story.

Unveiling the Cover - Hammerblood, Book 1: Veil of a Warrior

I finally have a cover that I feel good about. And the book is coming... (Have I said that anywhere before? Don't answer that.)

I'm still working on the cover for the Short Story and I'm doing some last pass copyedits for the book, but it is all coming together. More to come...

Seeking the Veil, Part 1 - A Hammerblood Story

A young man seeks his purpose. To do something against an age-old enemy. But he is no magus, he has never lifted his war hammer in anger and he must struggle to find his place.

There is humor, friendship, battle, magic and the first touch of a mystery to come, and to grow. I invite you across the threshold, meet 17 year old Hestea and share his adventure.

The story is about 60 book pages in length (17,000 words). Sign up below to join the Newsletter and get it first, and FREE, this weekend. I'll put it here on the blog later, but the dedicated few get it first. Later I'll put it on Amazon and give this whole self-published thing a real try.

So, I've been quiet for a while, longer than I wanted. But the quiet was well spent and soon I will make more noise. The full book is still coming. My little opus that has taken seven years to write: Veil of a Warrior, Hammerblood Book 1. And it is ready for the light of day. Watch for cover art to come.

You might ask about the short story prequels. Why?

I say why not? I had some silly, crazy idea to write some short stories to let readers quickly and easily into the Hammerblood universe. This was sometime back in February. Thought it might only take me a few weeks. They were supposed to be short, right?

Ah, how naive. Anyway, Short story 1 is done. Short story 2 is on its 2nd draft, just needing a little polish and the 3rd is on its way. I thought these might be independent shorts at first, but I realized they would closely connect.

Part 1 stands on its own, but in the end, the three will form a short novel, somewhere around 60k words. Or about 240 total pages. All three will be released free to my Newsletter subscribers. So jump on board.

Sign up for the Newsletter here

Portland Writers

Gotta re-blog this, because I just find it very relevant. I'm new to the Northwest and to beautiful Portlandia, so it is nice to find out who is up here. And Shelf Talk does a little breakdown.

Science Fiction Fridays: NW SF & Fantasy Authors Part 4: PORTLAND!

I added a couple to the comments, who can you add?

Running Behind, a Pack of Savages on my Heels

I’m going on a Social Media Blackout. I’m running behind on the Hammerblood short stories by two weeks and it’s going to take me another week to finish the first.

As much as I want to keep up with the recent blogging, it is NOT the reason I wake up in the morning.

It is disappointing to see my little production schedule crumbling, but things happen. And though part of that reason is my ancient eight-year old laptop causing more trouble than it’s worth, at least I finally broke down and bought a new one that can blow through some of the speedbumps I’ve had to endure.

So, until the short stories are done… See you on the flip side. Know that I will break that rule if I see something really shiny.

(For the newsletter crowd, you’ll continue to get weekly updates on further chapters. It’s because I love you more.)

SEO Butchery for Your Fantasy Novel

How many keywords can you cram into your title? I had to wonder after doing a recent Amazon search.

But first, a quick primer for the SEO uniniated: SEO is Search Engine Optimization. A fancy way to say that a search engine is more likely to find your site (or in this case: book) than someone else’s.
1) Use meaningful descriptions. As in, don’t title your website “Clifton’s Hair-Brained Adventure”, call it “A Fantasy Writer’s Adventure”. Boring, yes, but it is what a lot of people swear by.
2) Add lots of keywords that relate to your craft, site, book, whatever, and voila! You have SEO.

I was doing some research for my book’s release and searched for "epic fantasy" on Amazon. I found The Way of Kings (yes!), some Kindle e-books promoted as Free (to be expected) and a new series titled: An Epic Fantasy.

What? They really called it An Epic Fantasy? That just strikes me as odd. Clicking over, the book descriptions for ALL of the author’s work included SEO keywords galore.

Sneak Peak: Veil of a Warrior

I’m itching to release my book, Veil of a Warrior. It is done, for all intents and purposes—except for some minor things like a proper glossary, layout design, book cover and maybe an edit or two that I do last minute.

This puts me into an interesting frame of mind where the business side of me says to, “Wait for release,” and the writer side of me says, “Screw that!”

That said, I’ve decided to give a free chapter of my book each week to newsletter subscribers until release. Sign on up: http://eepurl.com/SVhLr

(Writer wins? Maybe. My business side closed the office door and shut the blinds.)

What can I say? I’m impatient to start sharing the world and the characters I’ve created. I’ve labored on this for seven years, growing and evolving as a person, a husband, a father and a writer. I’ve moved cross-country…twice. I’ve been laid off once, had two kids (my wife helped), read some good books, met some awesome people and grown in my world-view.

More Lightsabers? Yes, Please.

By now it is probably common knowledge, but talk of the new Star Wars movies coming out has me intrigued.

Haven't heard? Late 2015 will be VII, then I hear the others will follow, one each year. Don't go onto YouTube and do what I did, though. There are no trailers or teasers. Anything marked "Official" is just pulling your leg and wasting your time. Unless, you want to watch some pretty CG from the Knights of the Old Republic,

Rocking Your Marketing w/ RSP

I’m no business person, but I think I understand the fundamentals, and I know I have a lot of work ahead. I may write because of the love of the story and because it pulls me down a fantastic path that I must follow. But, what I really want to do with this creation is share it with others. That is when the book will live and breathe on its own and THAT is when the true magic happens.

Sales are ancillary, a fringe benefit. But then, I have a LOT of books I want to write, so, validating that time expenditure needs to happen…one day.

So, how in the world do I tell the world about Veil of a Warrior? And how do I make them care?

Short Story Progress

I'm working on the short stories that come before Hammerblood, Book 1. I *think* I found all my notes… They were a LITTLE scattered.

At times, I have to curse the muse that can wait no better than a hungry 2 year old with a good view of pizza—leaving me to record my thoughts like a mad man on any available surface or device.

Retrieving them later is like unearthing a dinosaur fossil, broken and scattered.