So yesterday I sent off the rough draft of my new fantasy novel to Reader Force Alpha. Whenever I finish a project it is time to play the Song of Triumph.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iijKLHCQw5o
I’m really proud of this one. It is my first attempt at traditional fantasy. All of my other fantasy novels are technically “urban fantasy” because they take place in our existing world, only tweaked. This is a different world, so I got to make up an entire society. I hope you guys like brutal caste systems. 🙂
I believe the release date is in fall 2015. I’ll be sharing more details and some snippits later on.
I’ve got a short story in the Shattered Shields anthology (coming in November) which is the first glimpse of this book. That story is called The Keeper of Names. If you look down on the right side bar I’ve got a link where you can snag that.
Up next I’m working on a sequel to Into the Storm. Which if you’re one of my regular readers and you’ve not read that one yet, you are missing out. The Malcontents are knights with mad science lightning swords. Enough said. I have a lot of fun with these and they write fast.
Before I work on that though, I’ve got to alpha read Mike Kupari’s space opera, Ghosts of Zanzibar. This is Mike’s first solo project and I’m really excited for him (He’ll have to find his own song of triumph). Once that is all finalized and out the door, we will be working on the last book of the D6 trilogy.
I’ve got stories in Jonathan Maberry’s vampire anthology, V-Wars 2 and 3. Volume 2 is coming out at the end of October. I wrote a Green Beret turned vampire. And he’s not a good guy. These are cool. There are a bunch of other really good authors in there too, so you’ll need to check those out. I’ll post a link when it releases.
Speaking of Jonathan Maberry (great author, if you’ve not read him, check him out), we are teaming up for a short story in the Urban Allies anthology. That’s one where different urban fantasy authors (and a bunch of big names in the genre are in it) take a popular character from one of their worlds and have them “team up” with a different author’s character for a story. So Joe Ledger is teaming up with Agent Franks. This is the kind of geeky thing that makes it really fun to be a writer.
I’m about a third of the way through Into the Storm. Hated to put it down, but I eventually had to come to work…work pays for the books.
Joe Ledger and Agent Franks? Oh my goodness!!! I may never have been so excited.
Thank you Larry and Jon, I laughed hard enough to count that as more core exercises for the day! I do wonder what Ledger (and maybe Top and Bunny) would think of Franks.
A Ledger-Franks alliance? Please warn me when you’re going to announce something like that. Excuse me. I’ve got to go and pick up all the teeth I dropped.
Thank you! Now where’s my must-buy list…
Ledger and Franks? That might just be a more expansive urban renewal policy than putting out Godzilla bait….
I wonder if Franks is going to meet Ghost? Dogs generally don’t like Franks. I guess I’ll have to buy the book to find out.
Larry – Eluveitie is going to playing here in the Twin Cities in the next couple of weeks. If you want to give out a PO Box or a C/O address I’ll see what I can do about picking up some merchandise and sending it on.
Thanks for the heads up on still more books to spend my oh so rare spendables on.
Gonna have to get them all.
Kupari’s book gets first dibs.
I really enjoyed the story in Shattered Shields and am ready for more in that setting.
Hey Larry, any news on Project Blue?
We’re reading Mike’s space opera now. Once he turns that in, we’ll work on Blue.
I’m excited about the Into the Storm sequel… as long as you don’t kill my fave characters, of course. And also excited about the new fantasy. Should be interesting to see. (Brutal caste systems usually annoy me, because I hate even reading about injustice, but I’m going to trust you to make it something that won’t make me want to stop reading the book.) Will definitely have to see about getting the Joe Ledger audiobooks.
Oh, also, any idea who’ll be narrating your epic fantasy yet?
*Suppressing manic laughter of joy and drooling in anticipation* Must not freak out people at the math learning center here at BYU-Idaho. 🙂
Oh, I just cannot wait for the Maberry collaborations. Two great tastes that taste great together, and all that…
If you’re pairing up Agent Franks with Joe Ledger, does that mean that Mr. Church is going to be taking on Stricken?
Thank you for the update! It’s always exciting to see the many irons as they are heated!
I already have a song of triumph.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZDdVNptxAU
^_^
Monster-voice? Eh, if that’s what does it for you.
A new series? Oh I’m looking forward to see what you do with ‘make everything up’. *Excited~!*
Traditional fantasy… was the contest an influence on you?
He has apparently been planning this for awhile. I think from before Warbound was out. As I recall, his explanation was that after MHI, people where saying he didn’t count as a fantasy author or something, because it was not Epic Fantasy. So he investigated what that entailed, and then created Grimnoir. That was good, but it didn’t quite hit all the points, so he imagined this.
I had the idea for this fantasy back in 2010. I believe I was writing Monster Hunter Alpha at the time.
“I hope you guys like brutal caste systems.”
More than life itself.
Really? Y’all call those victory songs?
This is a victory song!
Step Up! (I’m on it) – Maylene & The Sons Of Disaster
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UhE2VYDi48
Send Me! – Max Impact (USAF Rock Band)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iz2z2bS6NX4
I’m gonna write a book just so I can put this up as my victory song.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VufilzHKTqk
A series that I’d love to see someone write:
Executive Assistants PMC.
The stories of gun-slinging (in a totally non metaphorical manner) lawyers, accountants and human resources specialists who bring the paranormal to the military contract business.
Because sometimes the pen just ain’t mighty enough.
I would totally read that. I love the whole idea of office professionals and cubicle-dwellers who are also violent badasses. (See the story in Patricia Briggs’s recent anthology about a badass werewolf IT guy.) We need more of this genre.
We just have to keep throwing it out there until Larry sees reason and adds it into the MHI storyline.
The way I see it…
A group of dedicated white collar types gets their eyes shocked open by some truly hostile corporate take overs (complete with bloody bodies and bad monsters) and decide to try to do something about it like Buffy the Vampire Slayer or something.
With the Franks episode current or recently done, the powers that be haven’t been able to focus on suppression sufficiently enough to know about these guys.
So, now there’s a group of cubical dwellers trying to learn themselves up in run and gun skills, monster lore (most of which is utter bunk but they don’t know enough to know that yet) and all that goes with transforming from chronically envictimed to dedicated defenders of The Corporate Way of survival in the new era of for real monsters.
Please please please let there be a bare knuckle fight between Agent Franks and Joe Ledger’s annoying psychologist friend.
That’s an excellent idea… but how about this:
Franks and Ledger need to go into Washington, D.C,s worst neighbourhood, to sort out a small problem – and end up getting into a Gangsta Gnome Kicking Contest. I can picture a few things:
Points for distance.
Bonus points for the gnome landing in one piece.
More bonus points if the gnome goes through a plate glass window.
Loser has to buy coffee for the winner for a full week.
Honestly, that scene from Monster Hunter Nemesis will have me snickering like a fiend to my last day on Earth.
By the way, does anyone have any other ‘bonus point’ suggestions? 😀
.
Looking forward to Mr. Kupari’s outing. Please keep us appraised.
I picked up the eArc of Shattered Shields just for your story Larry. Loved it and am pumped to read the whole thing.
Larry – We met last year in October when you were signing books as usual at a local bookstore near Cincinnati. I just wanted to say, thanks for all the authoring advice both in person and on your blogs – it’s been incredibly useful.
It’s taken me a year to get my head turned around being a writer (you’d recommended not waiting until retirement), but I’ve finally gotten a great idea and am writing regularly. I’ve still got a long ways to go, but am keeping my expectations low and my hopes high… and keeping my day job, for now.
Since I’ve got you here (sorry, I said that when we first met and you looked kind of shocked), would you mind suggesting how I might find my own Reader Force Alpha? Your thoughts would be, and have been, appreciated.
P.s. Oh, and my apologies for saying when we met that there was so much misinformation being flung around about how to be an author like, as I said then, misinformation about guns within Ohio. I saw your Cable News interview on gun control later that day – at which point I had a real face palm moment!
p.p.s. I wrote 4000 words today, for the first time. I’m feeling pretty psyched. Or maybe it’s the Diet Mountain Dew next to me. Whatever.
4k in a day is good by anybody’s standards. Good work.
No problem on the gun stuff. I don’t exactly advertise my previous career when I’m on book tour. 🙂
Okay, how to get your own RFA. Start with your friends and family are readers. As you go to cons and writing events you’ll meet more people you’d like to ask too. You’re going to want to find specialists who know about your particular topic. So if I’m having military tactics, I make sure I’ve got somebody who knows that in RFA. Airplanes, have somebody who knows airplanes, etc.
Now, once you’ve got some people, don’t pay too much attention to any one particular person’s opinion, unless it is your subject matter expert on the topic they’re an expert on. Anything else you are looking for averages and consensus. What I mean is if one person has a problem with a scene, but nine don’t, the scene is probably fine and it is that person’s opinion (or they’re telling you how they would’ve written it, but it ain’t their book). But if 3 people have a problem, you need to look at it. If 5 people didn’t like it, then there is probably something wrong.
You will find people as you go. As word spreads that you are writing, you’ll meet other writers and readers, and pretty soon you’ll have way too many people, and you’ll have to start turning them away.
Getting my own RFA as you described sounds very reasonable. I like reasonable explanations. Now that you mention it, I can see that process starting to happen already. Cool deal. Thank you for your time!
If Mr. Greenstone thinks I could be of use to him as an alpha reader, I’ll gladly volunteer my time and dubious opinions.
Thanks, Brian. You’re on the short list. Do you have any specialty areas I should know about?
Martin: other people whose work I’ve proofread say I’m pretty decent at spelling and grammar. I’m also trained as a theologian.
If you want to proceed, I advise contacting me via my web site: http://www.brianniemeier.com/. Just leave a comment on any post with your contact information. (I manually approve all comments, so rest assured, I won’t publish your personal info.) I’ll send you an email, and we can go forward from there.
Noted. Please be aware that it’ll be some time, perhaps as much as a year, before I’ll have a draft ready for review. For the next 6 months, I plan to work on a non-fiction hobby book with potential. Again, thanks.
victory song. instruments good. vocals suck ass. why cant anyone sing instead of growl? Dio sang, Halford sang, Dickenson sang, Byford sang.
In terms of team ups, I’d love to see a four person throwdown between;
A. Joe Ledger
B. Agent Franks
C. Earl Harbinger
D. Mark Kenslir from the C.E. Martin Stone Soldiers series
Set that in downtown Tokyo and you’ve got something out of a Godzilla movie in terms of stuff getting wrecked. Tough to call a winner too….