Category: The Crimson League

• November 17, 2023

  Why I title my chapters

  There are two, pretty quick reasons why I title my chapters. First, I write fantasy, more or less young adult, and for that subgenre of fantasy, lots of writers title their chapters. Secondly, Tolkien and J.K. Rowling titled their chapters. They are responsible for my love of fantasy literature and for showing me how deep,…
• October 31, 2023

  Tuesday Tunes: “Keep Holding On” by Avril Lavigne

  This song was written for and featured in the film version of Christopher Paolini’s “Eragon.” I never saw the movie. I read the book, and liked the story, but I’ll be honest–I thought it was so poorly written that I couldn’t bring myself to continue the series. Despite all that, I have ALWAYS loved this…
• October 25, 2023

  My villain is . . . right?

  I now have two reviews that explicitly mention my villain–certainly my favorite of any of my villains–Zalski Forzythe. He’s the sorcerer who’s killed the royal family of Herezoth and taken over. He’s witty, intelligent, courageous, and . . . intense. He’s also RIGHT, in the sense that he has a deep understanding of the kingdom…
• October 24, 2023

  Tuesday Tunes: “Heaven” by Better Than Ezra and “The Crimson League: The Fight for Hope”

  For a couple of years now, I have realized that Better Than Ezra’s “Heaven” is a perfect fit for a particular climactic kind of scene at the end of book one of my Herezoth trilogy: “The Crimson League: The Fight for Hope.” Without spoilers, the chapter is titled “The Price of Victory” You can listen…
• October 14, 2023

  The key to a hard magic system

  I LOVE a good hard magic system–one with explicitly outlines rules about magic, what working magic requires, and who can do it. The Harry Potter books are probably the most explicitly detailed hard magic system that a VAST number of people would be familiar with. The magic system in my own novels is more hard…
• October 12, 2023

  Thankful Thursday: thankful for Amazon “ratings”

  

  Any indie author could tell you that reviews and ratings are different things on Amazon. Amazon will allow you to leave a 1-5 star rating for a product or book without leaving a review along with it. Well, since the free promotion I ran for my birthday, I’ve had two new ratings without review populate.…
• October 5, 2023

  Thankful Thursday: grateful for my growth as a writer over ten years

  It’s a crazy thing, publishing a trilogy, never doing much marketing on it and taking it all down, and ten years later, going back to it to make a professional go of it. It’s amazing to see the change in quality from first edition to second, given time, greater experience, and feedback from my editor…
• October 4, 2023

  A story of three families

  One of my favorite ways to think about my Herezoth trilogy is as the story of three families. You are introduced to each of these families in book one, largely through a pair of siblings (Kora and Zac, Menikas and Lanokas, Zalski Forzythe’s family). Sibling relationships, for some reason, are very influential and important in…
• September 28, 2023

  Thankful Thursday: grateful for all who contributed to a successful free promo

  This post will be shorter. I’m tired, haha. Thanks to EVERYONE who helped make this recent 5-day/Freebooksy-supported free promotion of “The Crimson League: The Fight for Hope” successful. You shared the news. You downloaded. You put up with my posts and promotion of the promo. I really appreciate your help making Herezoth accessible to a…
• September 27, 2023

  LAST CHANCE: My dystopian/sword and sorcery YA is FREE on Kindle!

  I just wanted to highlight that today is the LAST day to get my YA sword and sorcery fantasy for free. This book has GREAT reviews. Check out the book website here. (It looks GREAT and will link right to Amazon for you). You will think you’ll see where it’s headed. You’ll be wrong. You…