Derfel Cadarn

Also GRRM never pretended to have finished the whole series when AGOT came out, and that the remaining books would be released a year apart.

Homosexuality is still illegal there, so I suspect that will go against it

Pretty easy to use with trial and error. Costs either $5 a month or $25 a year. You keep commercial rights to your maps even when no longer subbed. It’s really hot for us, largely because we don’t know how to deal with extreme weather. Instead of staying in, cool and rehydrated, people will lie out in the sun and drink booze. Also our houses were not built to keep the heat out. Same in winter; we don’t know how to drive in snow or have snow tyres, so our roads grind to a halt with a few inches of snow. Climate change is really going to fuck us up.

Made a map for my fantasy novel. It’s north and west Araka (Africa tens/hundreds of thousands of years from now). It shows the part of the Kavari Caravan Route the protagonists follow on their quest. the centre is largely desert, but i’ll get round to fleshing out the northern coast and addong more caravan routes.

Has the copier guy been behaving himself, realised you’re not his intern?

Bit of a strange request here, but I'm looking for LGBTQIA sensitivity readers for my recently finished epic fantasy novel, The Blood Hour. The first round of edits have been done with my agent, and once finalised it will be submitted to the various UK/US fantasy publishers (Orbit, Tor, Gollancz etc). A number of the characters fall under the LGBTQIA umbrella, in particular one character introduced halfway through is what we might consider agender (but not asexual). Other characters in the group are pan, bi, and one likely gay though this is not confirmed in this book. As a hetero CIS male, this is all well outside my lived experience, hence the request for people in the LGBTQIA community (particularly those with an interest in fantasy) to read the book and point out anything that might cause offense through ignorance, or could be improved. The agender character will take on a more prominent role in the next book, which I'll be planning soon, and so while any feedback will help improve The Blood Hour, I'm also looking ahead. I'm not particularly after (though happy to receive) general feedback; I'm posting in this thread because I'm specifically looking for feedback relating to the LGBTQIA elements/characters. If anyone is interested in reading over this book (the Word file can be sent to kindle), please let me know either in this thread or by DM. As mentioned, the book has undergone one round of edits, so it's pretty polished and mostly error-free. If anyone's interested, I've outlined a brief description of the setting/characters, and am happy to answer any questions.

On chapter thirteen of Lucifer & Son. Seems to be going well. Using Inkarnate to try and create a map for The Blood Hour, hopefully before its ready for my sgent to submit.

@BigFatCoward Jesus. East Sussex police pava-sprayed, batoned and tasered a 93 year old man in a care home with dementia, who died. They’re being investigated for gross misconduct and manslaughter. He apparently had a knife, but talk about overkill. https://news.sky.com/story/police-pepper-sprayed-then-tasered-one-legged-93-year-old-man-who-later-died-prompting-investigation-12665534

Probably spied on all the gangs before making any move, to know who was best to hit, learn weaknessss while they were all complacent. Once bodies started dropping, they would be more alert and suspicious

Congrats!

Copier … shredder … same thing!

Curious what you said to him on this occasion? Direct him to the operating manual.

Some encouraging news

Another video showcasing a real location from my books Venture into Glasgow’s Southern Necropolis, if you dare! https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMLEjgMXv/?k=1

I’ve made a tiktok video showing places in Glasgow that feature in Resurrection Men! This one showcasea the cathedral (12th century) and the Necropolis (19th century) on the hill behind the cathedral. If you watch on the tiktok app, it will display captions. https://vm.tiktok.com/ZML37JXbk/?k=1

My agent sent back the edits for my 5th novel! Once the edits are done, I send back, and then it goes out to relevant publishers. My 4th book is still out on submission; covid has caused quite a few delays in the industry. 3 rejections for it so far. Meanwhile I’m at chapter 8 on Lucifer & Son, The Sooty Feathers #3.

My fifth book, The Blood Hour is being edited my agent Still no word from most of the publishers Diabolic Immunity was sent to last year, though Orbit UK and Orbit US have so far rejected it. Due to Brexit red tape and rising print costs, the publisher of my three books are now using Ingram Spark for the paperbacks, which makes them available cheaply(ish) internationally. A picture of my three books from the new printer:

Wll those people who did Dry January are probably wishing they hadn’t bothered, what with WWIII around the corner.

Advanced review copy

Congrats on finishkng; just bear in mind paperbacks can cost a bit of money, and 50k words isnt great calue for money.

Bought a copy, won’t be able to read straight away as reading an arc for my publisher before publication

I’d like to clarify the blurb was written by my publisher, it was they who called it ‘masterful’. Most of the blurb was taken from my ‘pitch’ to them I think, certainly it looks familiar. I did submit a blurb for Lord of the Hunt, which the publisher used. 20 reviews, and the non-verified are by review bloggers. Tbh Amazon and Goodreads reviews are the only tangible benefit to getting reviews from small bloggers since few people read their blog. The larger bloggers generally aren’t interested in self-published or small press works.

Not a great market for short stories/anthologies, unless you get a big name involved

Weekly promo thread on Reddit is a waste of time. Posted on it several times, and no one seems to get any engagement at all. That particular reddit page is only really interested in the big names.

Congrats on the release. @The Grey Wolf Strikes Back ! Can't help you with the formatting question, my publisher dealt with that side of it with my three novels. I finished the third draft of The Blood Hour (working title for now), and am now 3/5 through the revision, powering through it! Goes a lot quicker with it on my phone where I'm now only making very small amendments. Just under 140k words long. It's shaped up pretty well, imho. I plan to send it off to my agent next week. A sample blurb: Dreams of wealth and reclaiming his soul bring Garius the sellsword across the sea to the red city of Mask, ruled by priests and merchant princes. The wealth of kingdoms moves through the city, and Garius sees no reason why some of that can’t fall into his own hands. Vengeance, not coin, motivates Tamira, a young but deadly assassin. Even her skills will be tested as she plans a spectacularly audacious kill that if successful will shake a city. Roan the Red, gladiator and slave, seeks only to win his freedom and return to his homeland in the distant north. He too is driven by revenge, and no one will stand in his way. Drawn together by chance or fate, the three of them must brave the intrigues of Mask, from temple, to palace, and finally to the Xarian Arena, where one of them will face the Blood Hour, forging a dark legend that will linger on for millennia. A quest brings magicker Shukara to Mask. She seeks adventurers to accompany her across the vast Kavari Desert to the rainforests of Munin, where a temple lies hidden. Shukara knows that the tomb of feared necromancer, the Bone King, awaits within, and that she must confront this dread power, or the world may fall. Even she cannot imagine the scale of the task that awaits, as past and future entwine. Two thousand years in the future, diplomat and spy Karla Garison and her historian husband are assigned to their embassy in Mask, there to undertake a mission to bring down the shadowy organisation known as the Unbroken Circle. Karla believes the past is the past, but she will learn it can cast a long shadow as her family is ambushed on the streets of Mask by gunmen, forcing old secrets to be revealed.