This is a nice moment to look back and forwards at my writing plans.
Publication of my first series, The Weapon Takers Saga, is drawing to a close. All paperbacks and eBooks are released, including the boxset of books 1-3 which has hit the Amazon bestsellers ranks over the last 2 months. The release of the audiobooks will also be finished soon. Greg and Bridget have completed production of books 3 & 4. The Jalakh Bow audiobook is already released, and The Giants’ Spear is signed off and should be available on Amazon and Audible over the next few days.
Writing such an epic series has been a gargantuan effort for me. It’s been exciting to think about what other projects to turn to next. I’m not short of ideas. But I decided I wanted to write something a bit different and less complex, while staying in the fantasy genre. I’ve therefore decided to go for a series of shorter, humourous novels, centred on the character of Og-Grim-Dog, a three headed ogre. I’ve finished the first draft of book one. It will need some work doing to it, but the story feels more or less there. I would also like to finish the first three to four books in advance and then release them within a short time frame of each other, rather than have readers waiting ages for the next one. I will post updates on progress when I have them.
Meanwhile, there are two days left of my competition to Win all the paperbacks of The Weapon Takers Saga – enter over on KingSumo.
Well, that’s it for now, I’m looking forward to 2020 and I wish you a great year ahead.
James, wish to congratulate you on a great tale. I just finished the last book and have finally come up for air, that’s how deep your writing draws in its readers. It’s so immersive in spite, and maybe because of, the many interesting characters and the large spread of the way the story unfolds.
The battles are so real that I had to check myself for injuries and blood and gore at the end. Your writing style is perfect, nothing is drawn out to become a chore following,yet so thorough and packed with everything needed. It’s like a fine meal, filling but not stuffed, a taste-walk for the mouth and mind, and variety so expansive it leaves one speechlessly, blissfully happy and fulfilled. Can’t wait for the next meal!
One request, please add the cities to your maps. And btw floors are found in buildings and not on the battlefield. All throughout the four books you have used floor in place of ground and every time you did I got yanked out of the story, eventually growling when it happened again. I figured it was an editing oversight, but my brain didn’t like it. You are putting me smack into the setup of a furious battle and my hero drops his sword on the floor… say what?…. wait NO, we are fighting a battle and there are no floors in battle, there’s the blood drenched ground, the uneven rocky grounds, no floor here. Lol…just saying…..
So, I have put you on my favorite author list and can’t wait to see how you handled humor in your next project. I like your care for us impatient readers and your planes on releasing the whole series rather than one book at a time.
I am retried, my body has retried for sure, so I pass my time with reading, reading day and night. When my body decided to retire it did it as a whole, memory included. So I have sometimes troubles remembering what I read some months ago and that can make it difficult to find my way back into the details of a story’s next book. So yes, I do appreciate your kindness to us older readers.
Wish you all the best in your career and a long and fruitful one too.
ElfqueenZ, reader extraordinaire
Thanks Franziska!
Yes. Floors. It’s a problem I have, and plenty of floors have been replaced by ground in edits, but no doubt there are many still in there. When I get in a writing flow, the floors keep creeping in.
As for the map, I’d love to do one with cities. Perhaps it would need two separate maps, because I think the current map would get very busy. I have just bought myself a map making software which I hope to use for the Og-Grim-Dog series and maybe I’ll find the time to re-do the maps for the Weapon Takers Saga, too.
Jamie