First, I keep forgetting to mention this in regards to my son. We’ve been trying to get him into listening to music in a way that he pays attention. He began declaring that he loved Rock music, but only because Ash the porcupine did it in ‘Sing’ and she is his favorite. So, we took this as a jumping point to get him into rock music. The only bands that have stuck are Queen and Guns ‘N Roses, but not the ballad stuff. He’s really into Queen since he had me explain Freddie Mercury. Made a little headway into Billy Joel, Aerosmith, and The Who, but it’s still a battle. If it isn’t loud with a lot of guitar or Freddie Mercury singing then he complains a lot.
Now, off to what happened and what’s about to happen:
Legends of Windemere; Path of Traitors
The book is edited, the cover art is in, and the blurbs are ready. I will be hitting publish later today then announcing it tomorrow. Anyone who volunteered to promote will get an email tonight with notes on posting time. With this book published, it means I have nothing else to focus on except the ending and it’s becoming a doozy. All Jason has told me is that he plans on the final cover being epic and I’m racking up guest posts instead of doing a generic ‘Book is Live’. Which means:
Let me know if you want to host me for a December Guest post!
With so much attention being put on the finale, I didn’t really think of much to do for Path of the Traitors. Partially because they’re close release dates and my promotion funds are getting low. I want to save enough to go out with a bang in December, which means I’m skipping some of the pay-for sites that didn’t make an impact with Ritual of the Lost Lamb. Fingers crossed that this opens the door at least. Hard to tell since I know a lot of people are simply waiting for the final book before touching the series. Still, I hope this book finds a Top 100 list like the previous 13 even though I’m not battling scammers along with legitimate authors.
Protecting Bedlam and Raven’s Dawn
This is a fairly minor point, but Protecting Bedlam will have its final entry on Thursday. Once that’s done, you’ll have to wait and see if I publish something next year with Cassidy and Lloyd. People seemed to like the blog story and it got some sales near the beginning, but the summer slump killed that momentum. With money being low, I’m left wondering what to do here. I could edit and publish Derailing Bedlam next February with barely any promoting or going only for free stuff. I could also push it back a year since I’ll be just coming off the exhaustion of finishing Legends of Windemere. Guess I have time to figure things out.
On the heels of this story comes the third volume of the Raven Series, which I’ve done throughout October since 2015. This is a horror story that I never had the confidence to publish, but people liked me using October to do a day-by-day chapter section until the whole thing was done. It fits the Halloween theme and people have enjoyed it so far. As usual, it will run from October 1st to October 31st and it will be raw instead of edited.
October Posts
Monster Maker has been set up, so thank you to the volunteers. Same goes for the Windemere Monster poll with Eusu, Calicos, Undead, and Chimeras winning the four Wednesday slots. This leaves me with Monday, which I considered leaving alone because of the Raven story. Then I tried to think of a way to promote Path of the Traitors with a Halloween twist and came up with nothing. After that, I realized that I had something planned for mid-November that depended on October Mondays being open. So, while it isn’t Halloween-y, I will be posting a ‘Question Request’ post for 6 Mondays in a row in order to set up the kick-off to the Legends finale hype. This will be an interview with each of the six champions, so I hope people will get involved.
War of Nytefall
Even though it’s my new project, Clyde’s first adventure is coming in low on the list. I wrote up 4 of the 18 chapters and am getting a feel for the characters. Mab is a little happier and playful than she is in The Mercenary Prince, which means something bad is going to happen. The action is bloody and violent, but not to the point of Bedlam. I would place it in the middle. Although, there are points where the gore is done in a comedic way that doesn’t even kill a character. Spoiler there if you couldn’t guess. My worry that Clyde wouldn’t come out right is dwindling. He isn’t the cold-hearted and cruel bastard I imagined. He’s friendly and loyal to his friends, which I did plan. He cracks more jokes and uses sarcasm more than I expected. Clyde and Mab also have some ‘former flame’ squabbles, which is proving that I can’t do anything without adding humor into it. I’m curious to see how it all turns out, but it’s going to be slow going.
Life
The gradual progress is primarily because things happen. My parents came back from Spain this week, so the noise levels are back up. I’m driven back into my room or I risk interruptions at the dining room table. Hopefully, the chaos is only this week and things will settle down next week. Except that my son gets Thursday and Friday off for Rosh Hashana. On the plus side, Path of the Traitors will be published and the promos will be out by then. Very good since I’ll be away tomorrow with a family gathering. Given the tradition of me either getting sick or hurt after a debut, I’m worried about what will happen. It’s apple picking, which makes me think a tree will fall on me. That or I’ll eat one with the juiciest worm I’ve ever seen.
Goals for the week?
- Publish and promote Path of the Traitors
- Write more of War of Nytefall: Loyalty
- Prepare the Question Request posts for the champion interviews
- Bring son to martial arts
- Family time
- Cook dinners without falling asleep on stove
- Read more One Piece
- Stop forgetting that this is basically a 3-day work week for me
- Shake fist at squirrels that keep dropping acorns on my car
Hello,
your humble host 
