After the elation of typing, “The End,” the drudgery begins. So now, I’m up to my neck in edits and marketing plans and website updates and review requests and formatting and cover design work and writing blurbs and asking authors to write blurbs and the list goes on. To be perfectly honest, this is my least favorite part about writing self-published books.
It’s. Not. Fun. Have I ever told you about my frustrations in never being able to find appropriate black and brown images in stock photo and graphic collections? A topic for another day.
The Bonding Blade is now officially set for publication and will be released on July 1, 2019. The book is up for pre-order on Amazon.com right now. It will be available at all online retailers soon. As much as I view all that other stuff as drudgery, it hasn’t taken away from the joy of having created a real, live book. The occasional emails from those who have read it or are reading have also kept me jazzed as I plod through this necessary work.
So, while I roll up my sleeves and get back to work, life goes on. Here is a picture from my brother’s amazing house and the lake, in Minneapolis, that is already devoid of ice. We saw two juvenile bald eagles swooping around the lake a couple of days ago. Spring is officially here.
It’s been a strange couple of weeks in the Doyle clan. Some medical emergencies that are now over (praise the gods), some world traveling … my sisters have just both returned from two weeks in Africa. NO! I’m NOT jealous. I’m HAPPY for them. And then there’s me, trying my best to prepare this book for its birthday.
It’s all exciting stuff which is what you expect from springtime, right? Excitement. New beginnings. Fresh starts.
For your springtime reading, The Bonding Blade is up for pre-order on Amazon and will be available on all online retailers as of July 1. If you haven’t read The Bonding Spell, the first book in the Desert Goddess Series, you might want to consider reading it now. Here is what one reader said about The Bonding Spell: “I don’t know why I waited so long to read this! It’s a real thriller. I’m going to recommend it to …. "
Read it. I think you'll find it's not what you expect. If you take my recommendation, I'd love to hear what you think.
Now, back to work!!
It’s January and the start of a brand spanking new year. I’ve searched Roku for free fitness channels and loaded them up. I’ve packed my refrigerator with tons of leafy greens with the focused goal of not letting any of them go to waste. I have a couple of large garbage bags full of clothes and shoes I didn’t wear in the last 365 days, and I’ve tossed out all the old shampoos, conditioners, lotions, makeup and beautifying products I acquired over the last year thinking they would somehow improve my life.
I spent money on all that crap and now I’m getting rid of it. As regretful as I may be for having purchased things I shouldn’t have, it feels good to start a new year with a lighter load.
Just as we all make resolutions at the beginning of a new year, writer’s set goals for the words they will produce and this year, mine are a bit ambitious.
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For the last couple of years, I’ve been working on the second book in my Desert Goddess Series. The Bonding Spell, released in 2015, was one of the most enjoyable books I’d ever written. Staff Sergeant Hester Trueblood picks up a shiny, gold coin while on duty in Iraq and her life is forever changed. As the new embodiment of the Mesopotamian goddess Inanna, Hester returns to her home in Minneapolis, and tries to come to terms with her changed circumstances and the bitchy goddess voice in her head.
It’s a wild, Jim Butcher-style, urban fantasy romp that is funny, sexy and filled with mystery. I couldn’t wait to dig into the sequel, but had no idea when I started it, just how much more story there was to tell. “The Bonding Blade” has opened my eyes to more of Hester and Inanna’s world, the warriors dedicated to fighting and sacrificing for them, and the demi-god, Gilgamesh who is devoted, by destiny, to love them, no matter what they do.
It’s a wild, Jim Butcher-style, urban fantasy romp that is funny, sexy and filled with mystery.
As the New Year begins, my greatest goal is to publish “The Bonding Blade” with as much perfection as I can bring to it. I’m aiming for a late June or early July publication date.
While “The Bonding Blade” is going through final edits, reviews and promotions, I’ll be rewriting a couple of stories that were originally published in Amazon Kindle Worlds. Kindle Worlds have gone away, so the rights to these novellas have returned to me and I’m going to make full use of them.
In the first novella, Archimedes Ford is an FBI agent who has slogged through life carrying a heavy secret. His latest case brings him face to face with someone who will make it impossible for him to keep hiding any longer. Major Corey Turner spent his entire career with secrets too, until the military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy finally ended. Archie Ford has difficulty concentrating on solving his complicated case, but he soon learns he’s not just saving the life of a young girl, but also saving his own.
“Archimedes and The Soldier,” is the first of two Archimedes Ford novellas which will both become spinoffs of The Master Sergeant Harper three-book mystery series already in existence.
And if that’s not enough, I plan to at least outline a forth book in the Master Sergeant Harper series. All I know is that Harper will be going to the Sergeant Major’s academy in El Paso, Texas. It’s a huge leap in her career and one she’s been aiming for, ever since she put on an Army uniform. But the academy is a tough school. Not everyone passes and British Sergeant Major Harry Fogg isn’t making it any easier for her.
They say, if you make New Year’s resolutions you should write them down or tell others so you have some tangible proof of your goals and a need to hold yourself accountable. Well, I’ve done it now. I’ll check back this time next year to see how close I am to meeting them.
Win a copy of The Bonding Spell, either by commenting here or on social media. One winner will be selected by random draw.
How do you measure creativity? Is it liquid so you can measure it in a cup or a bucket and carry it? Maybe it's wind since I often say someone's creativity blew me away. Or is creativity something solid that smacks you upside the head?
Three things that carried, blew, smacked me this week.
First, is the novel, The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August, by Claire North. I’d never heard of it, but evidently it was a big hit and all the talk when it first came out in 2014. Not her first book, Claire North made a name for herself after this one came on the scene and I understand why. (more…)
Once again, I'm helping best selling author RR Haywood judge the semi-annual writing contest he conducts in his closed The Living Army or TLA Facebook group. The group, made up of a couple thousand mostly British, American and Australian fans of his Undead zombie horror series, has lately become populated with fans of his new best selling time travel series, Extracted.
His Undead series, which now numbers 26 books, each of them best sellers on their own, is the kind of series with which fans become obsessed and inevitably find themselves looking for like-minded readers. It's that search for connection with others who share obsessions which spawned the TLA group, many of whom have read the entire series a number of times, have listened to them in audiobook and spend days and days arguing over who should be in the dream casts for hopeful TV and movie adaptations. (Hint, hint, movie and TV producers. This series is screaming for TV time.) I reviewed one of the books in the series here. (more…)
Some days, writing feels like a collector’s game with the goal to gather as many rejection letters from as many different agents, publishers, journals and magazines as possible. I'm winning.
Too often, authors create one dimensional super-killers in uniform who cold-heartedly carry out his or her duty like a robot. The character perpetuates the myth that the military is filled with people who mindlessly do what they’re told regardless of right or wrong. Orders are orders, in these worlds and service members shouldn’t think for themselves.
I'm convinced authors regurgitate the TV and movie style combatant because the number of people who know and understand real military life is minuscule compared to those who haven't served. People simply make it up, call it creative license and do whatever they think makes for the best plot.
Often times, these are the books I want to throw across the room.
On the other hand, there are some who go the extra mile, do some research and present accurate portrayals of military members and veterans. They work at getting at the truth of what goes through the mind and soul of people trained to go to battle, why they do it, what their motivation might be, and how what soldiers do impacts them before, during and after their service.
Nicholas Sansbury Smith, while never having served in uniform, masterfully draws three dimensional characters in uniform in all of his books. Many readers are familiar with the soldiers in his bestselling Extinction Cycle series which features Delta Force teams up against a deadly threat and a world in collapse. Through the multiple books in this series, we watch a team of men who had fought side by side for years in hot spots around the world. They weren’t best friends. They didn’t all hang out together, but they knew each other professionally and, like most people who go into danger with weapons in their hands, their connections are visceral and organic. When they lose half their team in one encounter with a kind of threat they’d never seen before, it rips them apart. They drive on, they continue to function and Smith shows us what it takes to continue your mission even though you’re torn up inside.