Tomorrow I choose the cover and there is a front runner, but I’m still hoping for votes. Alterations have been made to a few of the covers, so feel free to take a look. If you haven’t voted then get your clicking finger ready. Click below:
ICHABOD BROOKS & THE CITY OF BEASTS
This also means that I will be doing a small cover reveal in mid-May. I think. The book will be released in early June at this rate. Need to read it over myself and hear back from another beta reader or two. So I’m looking for cover reveal volunteers. Given that this is a very short story, I’m not 100% certain if a ‘gone live’ blog tour will be necessary, so I can only shrug on that. A lot of questions are coming up here.
Finally, here is the blurb I started working on. Let me know what you think:
In a time of heroes, a man will take almost any job to provide for his family. Nothing really illegal since he has to face his wife and son at the end of the day.
Ichabod Brooks has earned a reputation for taking jobs that others fear to challenge. It is why he has been approached to clear out the husk of a burned down village. The ruins have become a source of strange monsters that terrorize the countryside and easily elude the local warriors. The few who have entered their lair have yet to come out alive or dead.
Only a fool would take this job, but that juicy upfront payment is too much for Ichabod to resist. After all, a man and his family have to eat
Legends of Windemere 
I like it. Do I have to be further along in Windemere to read it, or does it stand alone? Oh, and I’ll help reveal your cover.
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This is a standalone. It does take place in Windemere, but I’m seeing that it occurs before the big series. No real connection.
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Cool, I’m looking forward to it. I’m starting to really enjoy shorter stuff.
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The short stuff works really work when you have an hour or two for reading. I need to gather more short stories.
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I’m working on it too. I think it’s a nice intro as to what to expect from our novels.
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Just saw the typo in the previous line. The joys of blogging and writing with a kid running around.
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It’s a blog comment. Don’t sweat it, I knew what you meant.
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Good point. Sure this is my first or last typo.
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I voted! And I think the blurb is very good. 🙂
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Thanks. 🙂
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Sign me up for the cover reveal. I like the blurb.
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Thanks for the help and feedback. 🙂
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The blurb pulls you in 🙂 There are one or two things I would tweak, but as you only just started working on it, they are inconsequential at this stage. I like the drama, and the dangerous feel of the mission – it’s a definite hook. I’d be more than happy to do a cover reveal.
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Thanks. What needs the tweaking?
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I enjoyed the tone, but ‘Nothing really illegal’ made me pause for a second. I would remove ‘really’ because I’m not sure it says what you want it to. Nothing illegal makes sense, unless you want to make a point about some of the lines he’s willing to cross 😀
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I was going for there being a few lines he’s willing to cross. At first, I thought he’d be all legal jobs, but I realized after writing that he probably had a few grey areas. Was kind of afraid that saying an absolute would get me in trouble for stuff down the line. Mostly burglary jobs that I have in mind. Probably need a better word than ‘really’.
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Ah, I’m with you. I think if you made that more explicit it would have a bigger impact. You could even say something like ‘There were lines he wouldn’t cross, he had his…’ or something like that. Because you’ve already said he would take almost any job and by mentioning those lines, a reader will understand the inference 😀
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I’ll play around with it over the weekend. I guess the trick is to be catchy while not sounding like a bad Hollywood trailer.
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lol! I hate blurbs with a passion. Blurbs and titles both! Your blurb is catchy. It definitely made me want to dig in 🙂
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Blurbs are a headache, but they must be done. I have an easier time with titles. Though I do switch many of them from time to time.
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I change my title at least a dozen times. But then I have a tendency to over-think things…it’s a bad habit!
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I think half of the ‘Legends of Windemere’ series has had new titles at some point. Though I had a great one for the final book and lost it during my computer crash. No idea what it was, so there have been the occasional casualty in that arena. Anyway, I think the original title changes as I write the book because the focus is altered. That or the first one is a screaming spoiler.
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I would weep if I’d found a good title and then lost it! I know what you mean about the focus changing – that’s happened to me too. But sometimes nothing seems to fit – I can’t shake anything loose! In the latest Morgan and Fairchild I was so desperate I asked my sister and so I owe ‘Hands of Evil’ to her!
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I have a few friends that I ask for input. Though I have to remember to write it down afterwards. ‘Hands of Evil’ is really cool.
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Too cool for me to come up with! 😉 I have friends I got to too, if my sister comes up empty that is!
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Would lvoe to help with the cover reveal!
I like the blurb too, it makes me think of Diablo though, but this is an awesome thing!
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The city is rather Diablo-like in a way. Just not a vertical dungeon. Also I forgot to have the monsters carrying piles of money and artifacts. 😉
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That is awesome, because I have been craving that done in an indepth way! 🙂
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We’ll see how it goes. The story is only 23-24 pages, so it’s a quick one.
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As always, count me in re. the reveal. The blurb is nice, but it feels somewhat wordy to me. Personally, I’d tighten it up, ideally to a single paragraph, with the “a man has to eat” the only sentence after that.
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I’ll give it a try and see how I like it. I’ve gotten used to the ‘hook line-main body-mystery line’ system that I used for Legends. Maybe I’ll read over more Conan blurbs to get some ideas.
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Or it could just be that I made a silly comment 🙂
If it works for you, that’s all that matters.
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I’m going to play around with it later today. Just did a rewrite of a bunch of parts. Going to try it with the ‘paragraph-mystery line’ method and see how it looks.
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Cool. Just feel free to ignore me, though, if you like your version better 🙂
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Got it. We’ll see what happens. Off to errands though.
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Up and awaaaay!
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DUDE! I am devistated that I didn’t know you were doing this. If I had seen the post, I would have been ALL over that! Oh well, maybe next time!
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This series will have plenty of books in it. Though you can still sign yourself up on the site as an artist and enter some of the competitions. I think you need to register with them to enter.
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Please add me to the cover reveal list.
I really like the blurb. I’m wondering about this sentence though: “Ichabod Brooks has earned a reputation for taking jobs that others fear to challenge.” Challenge can be taken two ways. I’m guessing you mean “a hard task others fear taking on.” But I at first read it as “challenging Ichabod’s right to do the jobs.” Maybe no one else will read it that way, but it stopped me at first.
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Thanks. I’ll be doing a more formal call for volunteers next week since this one is so cluttered with chaos. Maybe ‘accept’ would be better than ‘challenge’. I don’t really follow the second idea, but I can kind of see where you’re going with it. Accept seems more like a job too.
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No one else commented on that, so you’re probably okay either way.
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I’m in for the reveal. 🙂
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Thanks. 🙂
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