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Musical Inspiration: Armada Music

Those of you who have been following my Musical Inspiration posts know I have turned into a bit of an Emma Hewitt fanboy over the past few months. I can’t help it, many of her songs help inspire me while writing.

However, while I love roughly 70% of the songs she performs in, my tastes are not Emma Hewitt-exclusive.

Music plays a huge role in shaping the stories I write, and more often than not, I find that music released by Armada Music (the production company co-created by my countryman Armin van Buuren) to be prominent among the songs I listen to (and yes, Emma Hewitt is also signed to Armada Music):

As such, here are a number of songs published by Armada Music that I listen to while writing.

And yes, one of them is performed by Emma Hewitt. Sorry :-P

Writing Plans after Hunter’s Chosen

A while ago I explained my editing plan for Hunter’s Chosen, which involves multiple re-reads and editing passes. I am still at step 1 of this process (backward re-read done, forward re-read at 16%), but I’m confident that I’ll finish both this step and step 2 (automatic checker) within reasonable time, which means the book will be sent to alpha readers soon. I have no idea how long they will take to review the book. They might be done in a week, but it might also be a month before I get any feedback. Either way, I’m guessing Hunter’s Chosen will be released in July.

That said, once Hunter’s Chosen is out, this will mean the Hunter in the Dark trilogy is complete, and I can start writing something else. I already have a number of ideas in this regard:

The Troll Warriors of Sheepbane
I’ve had a cover for this project for ages, thanks to Kindleboards member and fellow writer Nathalie Hamidi. This book is essentially a short anthology of bizarre dreams I’ve had over the years – an autobiographical journey into madness, so to say.

TrollWarriors

The biggest problem with this anthology is to actually write it. Explaining my dreams is actually quite a bit harder than writing a scene in a fantasy book.

And then what?
Once Troll Warriors is complete, I will start writing my next fantasy series. Which is exactly the problem: I have two ideas I’d really like to work on, but they are radically different.

  1. Epic Fantasy series – An idea that has been dancing around in my head since I was writing The Raven’s Endgame. Contrary to the Hunter series, this series would strictly adhere to Sanderson’s First Law. The novels in this series would be longer in length (150K words on average), and there would be more installments (5 to 7). This series would probably take me several years to complete, with at least a year between each book.
  2. Young Adult Urban Fantasy series – A very recent idea, though based on similar ideas I had in the past. This would essentially be a series of novella’s, about five books in total. Due to the short length I should be able to wrap up the entire series in 12 to 15 months, with only a few months between each part.

Each has its advantages and disadvantages. Idea #1 means the time between releases is much longer, but idea #2 means I have to pay for book covers far more frequently. Also, I have no idea where to go with #1 beyond the first book, whereas I already have a well-fleshed out arc for idea #2.

Decision?
I won’t actually need to decide until both Hunter’s Chosen and Troll Warriors are finished. While probably slightly more expensive in the short term, I think I’ll go with idea #2 first, and let idea #1 remain dormant for just a while longer (giving it time to “gather strength”).

Gift of the Destroyer availability

As some of you know, my e-books are available from a wide range of stores. Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, the iBookStore, Lulu and probably quite a few resellers of the previous. Most of these external stores are facilitated through Lulu.

My long-time readers will remember that I originally had a different cover for Gift of the Destroyer, that included the series title on the cover. As a result of this, I had to include the series title in the e-book title to get Lulu to distribute it to other vendors. For The Raven’s Endgame, this was no problem, since it still has its original cover, but the new Gift of the Destroyer cover doesn’t include the series title. Each time I revised Gift of the Destroyer, there was a 50% chance that Lulu would reject the changes due to “incorrect metadata” or something along the lines.

Today, I contacted their helpdesk to see if there was a way to fix the book title to reflect the updated cover. They told me it was impossible, and I had to completely remove the book from circulation and republish it. Quite a hassle, especially if you don’t want to lose your rankings and reviews.

Well, “fortunately”, I don’t think I have any of those on Lulu or their distributors – so the decision was easy – I delisted the books.

This got me thinking however. I could simply create a new e-book entry (complete with new ISBN) and start the process from scratch, but my sales for Lulu and affiliate distributors are not even a tenth of what I sell at Amazon, so I might as well not republish it and go with KDP Select again.

There’s one problem with this: I still have the book available at Kobo and affiliates. So, I went ahead and checked my recent sales there: exactly zero. Of course, that doesn’t mean much, so I checked my all-time sales: also zero. Result: I delisted from Kobo as well.

So, what does this mean for you?

The Raven’s Endgamewill remain available from all my regular channels. Hunter’s Chosen will be released on all these channels as well. However, Gift of the Destroyer will become Amazon exclusive for e-books. For the moment I think my books will remain available through a few more channels. Delisting takes a while to propagate. Once I’m enrolled in KDP Select. My e-books are DRM free on all channels. If you get it through Amazon you can simply use Calibre to convert it to your desired format.

Paper books will continue to be available from both Lulu and Amazon.

Spring Break Bash

For those of you who haven’t heard yet: I have finished the first draft of Hunter’s Chosen and am currently in the process of preparing the manuscript for the alpha readers.  This will probably take another two weeks or so, and after that it’ll be at least 6 weeks before the book ends up with the editor. So if you’ve already read Gift of the Destroyer and The Raven’s Endgame, but are still eager for something to read in the main time, I have just the thing for you:

Spring Break Bash

I am participating in a group promotion with a number of other indie fantasy writers. A number of our books will either be discounted or free for the duration of this promotion, and we’ll be running a contest where you can win a basket full of goodies (US only, I believe), as well as a $15 Gift card to either Amazon or Barnes & Noble. To enter, use the below Rafflecopter widget:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

You can find the participating books at the promotion website.

A bunch of books I’ve recently finished

***This post contains spoilers***

You all know I love writing fantasy. Naturally, I also love reading fantasy, and I spend a lot of my spare time doing so. I’d say the roughly 75% of the books I read are some denomination of fantasy, with the remaining 25% split between Science Fiction and Alternative History. A lot of the books I read leave me thinking, and I have plenty of things to say about the various books I read, and I have done so at several occasions, but my “reviews” are still few compared to other stuff I blog about, and there’s quite a few things I want to say about a number of recent reads.

So today, in no particular order, my thoughts about a number of books I’ve recently read.

A Memory of Light
Brandon Sanderson & Robert Jordan

After years of waiting, the final part of Wheel of Time has arrived. I started reading Wheel of Time probably a decade ago, after getting The Eye of the World as a birthday present. I consider Wheel of Time to be one of the finest fantasy series I have ever read. Sure, parts 7-10 were a bit harder to digest than the other books (especially Crossroads of Twilight), but I’ve never considered Wheel of Time to be tedious (unlike a few other well known fantasy authors I could name).

So, how did I feel about A Memory of Light?

The short version is that I really enjoyed it. Considering the sheer number of characters and subplots that were unresolved, finishing this series was a monstrous task, all the more so because of the untimely death of Robert Jordan. But I think Brandon Sanderson did an admirable job.

Saying goodbye to characters who have been with you for this long is never fun, and plenty of viewpoint characters bite the dust in A Memory of Light. Some of the deaths were quite surprising. All in all, I feel this was a worthy ending to the series.

My biggest peeve, however, is the fact that the “future visions” plot (Aviendha and the Wise Ones), which was only recently introduced (Towers of Midnight if I recall correctly), remains unresolved.

The Dresden Files
Jim Butcher

The Dresden Files series was suggested to me by the owner of the local game store. The premise intrigued me: a wizard in Chicago working as a private investigator. The first book offers a glimpse into a vast and complicated alternative reality. Each subsequent novel expans our knowledge of this vast and rich setting, and ups the stakes for the protagonist. There is plenty of conflict both for the main character and those around him, and while most books end on a positive note, it is done in a realistic manner.

The first few novels are stand-alone, but starting with book 3 there is a big arc (the war with the Red Court) that connects the books all the way until book 12 (even if it takes place in the background in many instances), and I’m guessing the whole Winter Knight deal will turn out to be a greater arc as well.

I couldn’t get enough of this series, and I read through all fourteen released novels in only a few months time (I finished Cold Days last week), and now I’m rather frustrated that I have to wait for the next novel. On the positive side, there’s still a number of smaller Dresden Files stories, which I haven’t read. I might also have to look into the Dresden Files RPG.

The Bloodfire Quest
Terry Brooks

The second part in Terry Brooks’ latest Shannara trilogy, and one I had been looking forward to reading. I’ve been a fan of Terry’s work for some time, and for a long time I have maintained that his books have grown progressively better over the years (especially the Voyage and High Druid series). That said, I was somewhat disappointed by the Legends series (which takes place after the Word and the Void and Genesis series, but before First King). The Wards of Faerie was a pleasant surprise after that, and I fully expected the second part of the series to continue in this trend.

Instead, I found it to be rather chaotic, jumping around the various concurrent storylines in a fashion that seemed rushed to me. Adding to that, the plot is essentially Elfstones meets High Druid.

Some other things to note
I also wanted to write something about the Night Angel trilogy by Brent Weeks, but I suddenly remembered I had already done so a few months ago. It’s simple: I don’t like reading about atrocities. Some books just strike a wrong chord with me, and while Night Angel definitely was a good story, the Godking’s army ruined it for me.

I’ve also been reading a number of other books lately, most notably the Old Man’s War series by John Scalzi, but seeing as that is Science Fiction I won’t be discussing it in this post.

To-read list
I am currently reading New Religion by Tracy Falbe, who did a guest post on this site back in November, and I intend to read the final part in that series once I finish this one. Next up after that is Blood of Dragons by Robin Hobb, followed by a re-read of The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson. I also have The Merchant of Dreams by Anne Lyle on my Kindle, and I can probably think of a few dozen other books I still need to read.

Book 3 title/cover reveal: Hunter’s Chosen

In a few months, I will be releasing the third and final part of the Hunter in the Dark trilogy. I’ve been working on this trilogy since 2009, with the first book Gift of the Destroyer released in November 2011, and the second book The Raven’s Endgame released in September 2012. I’ve been working on this trilogy for four years now, and with the release of the final book, it will finally be completed.

Last Friday, I revealed the cover for the final book to my mailing list, and now I am happy to share it with the rest of you.

The cover art was done by Michael Gauss, who also did the covers for the first two books. I expect to release Hunter’s Chosen sometime this summer, but I cannot give an exact date as it depends on the speed of my alpha and beta readers, as well as the availability of my regular editor. I will keep you posted of course, and I hope you will all buy Hunter’s Chosen when it comes out.

Also, if you haven’t signed up for the mailing list yet? You can do so at promo.jeroensteenbeeke.nl