So Close, But Just Missed It: Week Near Hits

Posted on March 31, 2018 by Charles Yallowitz

The main goal of the week was editing War of Nytefall: Loyalty in preparation of the April 7th release.  I feel about 100 pages short by the time my son’s Spring Break started on Thursday.  The trifecta of this, Passover, and Easter are making this a test of patience and time management.  Convincing an 8-year-old to give you the morning to edit doesn’t really work.  My hope is that I can the lion’s share done tomorrow and then I have a 3 hour period on Tuesday when my son has a martial arts camp.  There’s a public library just down the block from the dojo, so maybe I can work there instead driving all the way home.  Plug in the head phones, hook into the Wifi, and pray I can find a seat.  Going home might be easier actually.

All I can say is that ‘things happened’.  Honestly, I was making good time on Monday until that night became a disaster.  Been battling panic attacks since then.  Feels like I sleep (fearing that I won’t wake up due to the anxiety), get up in the morning, and then work while my frustration over these personal issues grow into another late night trudge through an emotional morass.  This week isn’t going to be any easier since the kid is going to wear me down and he’s become obsessed with Lego Indiana Jones.  This game has bigger levels and is simply harder than Lego Batman.  It’s fairly merciless and makes me wonder if the company made Lego Batman easier as an apology.  I mean, how is an 8-year-old supposed to avoid spike and dart traps?  For that matter, the almost 38-year-old was a disaster at the beginning too.  You get swarmed so often in that game.

For those that noticed this week, the cover for War of Nytefall: Loyalty was revealed and it means I only have to finish my editing.  My plan is to hit publish on Friday night and spend next Saturday morning setting up all the promo sites.  I have some people helping with that, but it’s going to be a challenge.  Just thinking about how Ichabod Brooks and Bedlam had such a problem even though I promoted them the same way as Legends of Windemere.  This is instilling the fear that very few people are interested beyond that series.  I’m already getting lectures and questions about why I’m doing another series since the first one didn’t get me a contract, tv show, or movie.  It’s like people think the only way to help me is to break my spirit and erase my hope.  As if I’ll suddenly agree, put my notebooks away and take on a soul-crushing office job with a smile?  Who really thanks others for crushing dreams instead of helping?  No wonder I sometimes have issues with humans.

As you can tell, I have the pre-release jitters and doubts.  I don’t know how people will take to Clyde’s gang and allies being meaner and bloodier than the Windemere champions.  From what I can tell, many think the vampires will be the bad guys and face mortal hunters or something.  Some don’t realize Clyde is a vampire and think he’s the one fighting them.  All of this is showing me a challenge with the vampire genre.  I think it has the most amount of structured preconceptions out there, so people don’t allow for a lot of flexibility.  You inevitably get compared to a previous incarnation even if you took a little from everywhere or went completely off the reservation.  We’ll see what happens, but I’m betting on a few panic attacks over this.

Considering my son is home all week, I’m not going to expect a lot of progress.  The following week is going to be slow too since it starts with my birthday and I have some meetings.  Might not be a bad idea that I get a break right after publishing and try to do a little more with the promos.  The next project is editing Quest of the Broken-Hearted, which will be a summer release.  Might do an edit on War of Nytefall: Lost after that and then start writing War of Nytefall: Temptation.  I have April, May, and half of June to do all that on top of writing the finale for Dawn Addison.  That will clear up the summer for outlining and family time.  Might work on the next Ichabod collection during that time too since short stories can handle more breaks.  This is the yearly stuff though . . . I still haven’t even decided if I’m continuing Bedlam.  Hate to retire Lloyd and Cassidy, but people seem to enjoy seeing them on the blog instead of buying books with them.  Makes it hard to pay for cover art and promos when people don’t seem to care.  Doesn’t help that I haven’t talk to Jon since January, so I feel like an ass now.

Goals for the week?

  1. Father/son time
  2. Finish editing War of Nytefall: Loyalty.
  3. Publish War of Nytefall: Loyalty.
  4. Review War of Nytefall: Temptation outline.
  5. Decide if I’m doing anything for my birthday.
  6. Read more DBZ.  Up to the Android Saga, but still waiting on Volume 7.
  7. Prep June posts if nothing else to do.  Maybe just one or two in order to make it an easy job for my ‘week off’.
  8. Passover and Easter.  Guess I should mention those.
  9. Show War of Nytefall: Loyalty cover art again:

Cover Art by Alison Hunt

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A Dangerous Love Affair, on #LisaBurtonRadio

Posted on March 30, 2018 by Charles Yallowitz

coldhandboyack's avatarEntertaining Stories

Lisa Burton

Welcome to this week’s edition of Lisa Burton Radio, the only show that brings you the characters from the books you love. I’m your host, Lisa the robot girl, and with me today is John Williams, not the famous composer, but an author. “Welcome to the show, John.”

“Thanks and Wow. I must say it’s a pity you’re a robot, you look gorgeous.”

“My bio says you’re a frustrated author. I think you’ll be in good company among our listeners. What kind of stories do you write?”

“I wrote what I thought an interesting action/adventure story, but the lack of sales says otherwise. I attended a book launch in London hoping to find a publishing agent to represent me. Although unsuccessful, my dismay turned into incredible joy. While I sat at the bar drowning my sorrows, to my astonishment, Sally Johnston a famous and I might add a gorgeous looking…

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What Do You Miss About Being Human? (Cast of War of Nytefall)

Posted on March 30, 2018 by Charles Yallowitz

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As you get older, you start to miss things from your youth.  The same goes for immortals that can’t interact with human society.  So, I wondered what favorite things my vampires miss from their old lives.

Clyde– The thrill of stealing something and knowing that I could die during the heist.  It’s a weird one, but things get boring when the risk is gone.

Mab–  Chocolate is high on the list since Clyde took my original one.  Considering I love money and that carries over, I’m kind of at a loss here.

Xavier Tempest– I love being a vampire, so this is difficult.  Perhaps the simpler politics of mortal nobility.  With vampires, its harder to defend against assassins and everything needs to be planned in terms of years instead of months.

Nadia Sylvan–  Going to performances as myself because crowds of mortals are dangerous.  I need to travel in various forms and only at night.  During the day, I need to find a shadowy perch as a bird or lurk underground to listen.

Gregorio Roman–  I’m so old that I don’t even know what’s out there.  Although, I’ve yet to travel the new Windemere.  So, I miss being able to roam without fear of getting mobbed by holy spell hurling priests.

Kai Stavros–  I used to enjoy fishing on the open sea.  Vampires can still do that, but the sun gives me problems.  One time, I lost my night cloak and was yanked into the water by a large shark.  Took me a long time to regrow my lower half.

Stephanie Talon–  Natural hair growth.  My tail is luxurious and beautiful, but I need to expend blood to maintain or change it.  There’s no challenge to it anymore.

Lou– Cooked meat . . . and raw meat.

Kenneth Decker–  Not to piggyback off Lou, but I used to be a great cook.  I might still be, but I wouldn’t really know.  There’s no point in cooking food if you’re unable to eat it.  I can’t taste it to make sure it’s good either.  Sometimes I read cookbooks to remember the old days.

Titus Winthrop– Ale without blood added.  You get a similar taste of both, but it isn’t the same.  On the other hand, vampires don’t get drunk or hangovers . . . Usually. You can get pretty queasy if you drain a drunk.

Bob– The aches and pains that come with horseback riding.  You really don’t enjoy such a hobby unless you’re groaning about it the next morning.  That’s when you earn yourself a sugar cube and carrot.

Luther Grathan– As cliche as it sounds, the feeling of sun and wind on my skin as I wander the forests.  When I was a mortal forest tracker, the natural world felt like it accepted me. Now, it’s like I’m a stranger on the outskirts of the land.

Chastity Sullivan– I’ve been told to behave a bit, so I’m just going to say sex.  I still have that, but it’s different for vampires.  There’s more focus instead of letting my body go with the sensations.  Look, you knew one of us had to be that kind of vampire.

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The 2018 Author Interview Series Featuring Billy Ray Chitwood

Posted on March 30, 2018 by Charles Yallowitz

This gallery contains 16 photos.

Don Massenzio It’s time for the next subject for my 2018 author interview series. Author interviews are posted every Friday throughout the year. I am honored to continue this series with author Billy Ray Chitwood. You can catch up with … Continue reading →

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Spontaneous Cover Reveal! War of Nytefall: Loyalty!

Posted on March 29, 2018 by Charles Yallowitz

I was going to wait until Sunday until a few things came to mind:

  1. This cover looks too awesome to not show right away.
  2. A cover reveal on Easter and Passover might go overlooked.
  3. Alison pointed out that debuting on April Fools Day could pose a problem

This means I only have to finish the edits and I’ll be hitting publish next Friday (April 6th) night.  I’d do it earlier, but my son’s Spring Break would make promoting a challenge.  Anyway, let’s do the reveal:

Continue reading →

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Kenneth Decker: Soldier of Fangs and Blood

Posted on March 29, 2018 by Charles Yallowitz

Vampire Dwarf

Where to even start with General Kenneth Decker?  Well, the first thing is that he acts like a bridge between worlds.  He is a trusted soldier of Xavier Tempest who is his maker and an ‘unofficial’ member of Clyde’s gang.  This gives him an interesting dynamic where he needs to act two different ways.  He has to be more polite and civil around the nobles while he can be freer in speech and opinion with the gang.  It makes for an interesting scene when he has to handle Clyde and Xavier at the same time.  Because of this Decker, tends to come off as the more serious member of the cast.  He’s always on guard with his behavior and finding ways to be authoritative while not starting a fight.  Kind of weird for a dwarf, which he wasn’t prior to the books.  So, what was he first?

Remember me mentioning the soldier that did a number on the game version of Xavier Tempest’s storyline?  This was when he was Alucard Tepes and you really don’t need the details here.  Decker was the other character that caused the derailment, which was well within his character for the game.  My friend, who had enlisted around the time he made the character, played this guy as a serious, tactician that loved to get involved in fights and cut loose.  He tended to look at every player in terms of combat use, which caused issues with my guy because he didn’t use guns and was rather archaic.  They got along, but butted heads a bunch.  In the end, Decker tended to steal the show because the player has one of those personalities.  You always know he’s there, but not in a negative way.  It also results in people expecting him to be a lot taller than he actually is.

Because of all that, Decker was turned into a dwarf and ends up being the only vampire character with a magical weapon.  While the others use natural and unenchanted weapons, he has an axe that he can charge with various elements.  Vampires typically don’t do this because it can be a drain on their blood and feel awkward, but Decker shrugs that off rather easily.  While it hasn’t been questioned in the book, the reason is that axe is a backup in case he’s in the sun and loses his powers.  This is another aspect of the character in that he, like his game counterpart, is a fan of precautions and plans where he maintains control.  At the very least, he ensures that he will not be found weak and vulnerable, which makes him highly dangerous.

The decision to make Decker the ‘child’ of Xavier came by accident while I was writing, but I wanted to have him be more than a simple soldier of Nyte.  This helped make him more of a bridge between the two worlds that are working together.  Yet, I did have to change some things because the original Decker personality wouldn’t mesh at all with that of Clyde.  I removed a lot of his take charge habits and made him more of a wise adviser/trusted friend.  He will do what he thinks is right, but he won’t force Clyde to accept his plan or go along if they’re disagreeing.  There’s a lot of trust between them to the point where they can let the other get away with a lot.  In fact, another character and Decker tend to argue because he isn’t really a thief like the rest of the gang.  This is an odd sticking point for some characters because it creates a sense of uncertainty with a character who is all about being sure of himself and the situation.

The best Decker story I have is an odd one because it was more between the player and another one.  That other one was my wife who decided to step out of her comfort zone of physical fighters, casters, and superhuman teens.  She created a vampire prostitute who gathered information.  Decker comes in because the the player and my wife tended to verbally spar with each other.  This time it was doubt that she could pull of a seductive character because, as much as I love her, she’s never been that type.  This led to her accepting the challenge and going all out on her character description and introduction to Decker.  We all got a pretty good laugh about it since she pulled it off and his only reaction was ‘Damn’.

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Dark Humor with Immortals

Posted on March 28, 2018 by Charles Yallowitz

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Okay, the quote isn’t very funny, but you can’t find much that deals with humor being based around immortality.  At best, you get jokes and running gags with the characters dying repeatedly in increasingly bizarre ways . . . Wait . . . I know of something:

He’s not technically immortal since it’s a time loop episode, but you can see how humor can be used.  Now, this becomes important to me because I tend to add some level of comedy to my stories.  Sight gags, puns, and banter always manage to slip into my writing and War of Nytefall is no exception.  Yet, it’s not the easiest thing to put human senses of humor on vampires.  They’re monsters that live for centuries, which means they can become fairly serious or adopt their own taste of comedy.  This could be overthinking though since they’re still individuals.  Everyone has loves and hates when it comes to styles of humor.

First, I learned from the early readers that the jokes don’t always carry over.  I’ve tried a bit more with the puns and sarcasm, which occasionally fell flat.  Especially with the chummy Vengeance Hounds.  I’ve tried my best to redo them, but I did realize that there was always a violent undertone.  For example, joking around about massive injuries that they had endured in the past.  With enough blood and time, they can regrow limbs or even reattach them if they can hold onto them.  So, the loss of a limb is almost the equivalent of us seeing a human bonk their head on a low ceiling.  It was a weird jump to make in terms of things the characters find funny.

In terms of humor for the reader, I came to the same conclusion along with another subject.  The violence aspect came from vampires doing things that resulted in injury by accident with no real care.  The best example is something with Mab and Clyde that would kill a human, but they kind of casually rolled their eyes at.  Don’t really want to spoil this one, so I shouldn’t use it as an example.  Anyway, we kind of chuckle at shows where a character to something stupid and gets smacked upside the head.  With the Windemere vampires, that wouldn’t be enough, so it’s more dismemberment or other things that they can shrug off as easily as we would a small headache.

The other subject is how the older they get, the less the vampires understand the new world.  Clyde and Gregorio are the main targets of this.  For Clyde, he’s been buried for 50 years and the world physically changed on him.  So, he doesn’t always understand what’s going on.  He counters this by listening to the others and following their lead, which minimizes the comedy.  At the very least, it makes room for his arrogant snark and violent dispatches.  Gregorio is simply ancient and has isolated himself, so his manners are also at a loss.  You know how senior citizens sometimes lose their tact when speaking their mind and are brutally honest?  Imagine a person who has been around for a few centuries and start doing this.  I might have toned it down a bit, but I might up it in future volumes.

Only piece of advise I can really put here is to make sure the humor fits the mood of the overall story.  Going full wacky in a serious, action adventure will make it more cartoonish and you can’t really come back from that.  Dark humor and sarcasm can work without risking the more serious tone.  So, you really need to find that balance and brace yourself for the possibility of jokes falling flat.  An immortal character does give you some flexibility, but the core of timing and delivery are still there.

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How about some free days?

Posted on March 28, 2018 by Charles Yallowitz

coldhandboyack's avatarEntertaining Stories

Once upon a time, I wrote this book called The Enhanced League. It’s my take on a baseball league where performance enhancing drugs are not banned. It’s a little bit science fiction, and a bit human drama.

I wrote it as a collection of short stories and micros. My personal growth plan was to have these stories all set in the same environment, and to tell an overarching story from cover to cover.

It seems like I’m always trying something new, and this book has a few pieces that I called Anthems. These are short bits in second person point of view. They were well received by the reviewers, so I wrote a new one for this post. (Personal theory: second person is best in small segments.)

I thought it deserved a bit of music, and video clips seem to be the simple way to add that in WordPress…

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Another Request for War of Nytefall: Loyalty Guest Posts

Posted on March 27, 2018 by Charles Yallowitz

War of Nytefall: Loyalty sketch by Alison Hunt

Since weekends tend to be slow, I’m going to make another quick post.  It’s only a matter of weeks before I release War of Nytefall: Loyalty.  Great chance it’ll be the weekend of April 7th, so I’ll be sending out guest posts the following week.  I have a few volunteers, but I’m having trouble coming up with topics since I used so much for my own blog.  So, I’ve come up with the two options:

  1. HTML copy of the “Book is Live” post I put on my blog.  Very simple and easy with all the pictures in place.
  2. Personalized post on a topic that we discuss.  The book is fantasy vampire action adventure, which could cover a lot of ground.

I have no problem with either and am hoping this new series starts off with a bang that equals Legends of Windemere.  Hard to follow that act.  Anyway, let me know if you’re interested.  Thanks.

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Teaser Tuesday: Predators and Prey

Posted on March 27, 2018 by Charles Yallowitz

Title Card by Alison Hunt

Here’s another fun excerpt that touches on a little of the main plot.  I’m trying to show more scenes that involve characters other than Clyde and Mab.  It’s pretty tough since I’m waiting to introduce one and the others really linger around the spoilers.  Doesn’t help that the story is very Clyde/Mab heavy.  As usual, I’m putting a cut below in case people don’t want to read this.

Continue reading →

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