Dear reader who hopefully likes science.
I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, "That is not a cat, Abbie."
Haha, yes, dear eagle-eyed reader, that is an eastern collared lizard - a very handsome fellow I met while hiking in the Sonoran Desert near Tucson. *insert Steve Irwin voice* Isn't he a beauty?!
My 5-year-old niece and 10-year-old nephew and their cousins were happy to get a close look at him. Sometimes these lizards run on 2 legs, but he must not have thought I was very dangerous, because, when I let him go, he scampered off on all fours. Oh, well. He was right. I am not very dangerous.
If you would like to hear me get deep into the weeds about nature as it pertains to real lions vs the creasia in Hunters Universe, I've posted 3 essays to Patreon that cover population genetics and the risks of inbreeding, bisexual behavior in real lions, what their fights actually look like, how their social dynamics play out, and realistic animal density in my made-up world. This information was all research I did for Distraction and Arcove's Bright Side. I read everything I could get my hands on and watched a lot of documentaries. I thought I knew a lot about lions, but I learned stuff I didn't know, including some things that shocked me. The first essay on genetics is at the free level. You can read the other two for a dollar.
Something odd that happened - Amazon pulled down Hunters Unlucky main novel, both ebook and paper versions. They also pulled down Lullaby ebook. They told me that my keywords were misleading. I've fixed everything they noted as soon as they emailed me, but they still took the books down and haven't explained why. I am 100% certain that this was all done by AI robots, and not a single live human was involved. I think the robots are malfunctioning, but until I can get the attention of an actual human to take a look at it, the books are gone. Poof! Possibly the reviews, too.
I gotta say, this bothers me a lot. On the one hand, the Zon has never done a good job of selling Hunters - not since it launched in 2014. In the last month, they've sold exactly 2 ebooks and 1 paperback. (Oh dear, they're taking down the books. How ever shall I pay my bills? /sarcasm)
On the other hand, that book is my stealth-favorite, and I just happen to be adding books in that universe at this precise moment, so this is frustrating. More significantly, if they'd chosen to pick on a different book, they could have killed much of my income overnight.
This is why I have been slowly trying to make the switch to direct sales, friends. I would also like to sell more on retailers besides Amazon, but I am well aware that places like Apple and Kobo are not better. They're just less powerful. It's also very hard to get traction in those places. I would like to make the jump with my A. H. Lee books, but that's a hard call, because so much of the audience is reading in Kindle Unlimited. Taking the books out of that program in order to make them "wide" and sell them direct would involve forgoing a lot of income in the short term in hopes of building a "wide" audience that I've tried and failed to build many times before.
Anyway, Hunters is already "wide." It's on just about every ebook platform. If there is an ebook retailer where you like to shop and you can't find it, please let me know. And if you really love me, buy it directly from me. Bookfunnel will be happy to put it on your Kindle.
What Am I Writing Next?
Several years ago, I heard the excellent advice that one should write a description for your book before writing the book itself. I know I did this for The Knight and the Necromancer, and I want to say I did it for Incubus. If I remember correctly, the pre-writing description for K&N looked quite similar to the final version.
This is truly a helpful exercise in terms of getting you focused on what might make people pick up the book. If you don't have a good hook or opening conflict, this becomes glaringly obvious when you sit down to write a description.
I've been tinkering with one for The Sleipner Drive. As I've said before, these characters were inspired by Silas and Percy (from Pirates of Wefrivain). I wanted to take that dynamic and run with it in a completely different direction. Here goes:
Julian Sleipner-Velt has a bright future awaiting him as a thaumaturgical engineer in her majesty’s navy. As a son of the most storied family in the city, a descent of the scientist who invented the Sleipner Drive, Julian has a life others can only dream of.
But he doesn’t want it. He wants to captain one of those mysterious ships that his family’s genius made possible, slipping between the worlds in pursuit of magic and monsters.
The officer’s academy for Slipper captains is expense and intense. Captains must demonstrate self-discipline, responsibility, and relentless determination, as well as blistering skills in math, nautical geometry, and sailing. Julian’s father, Lord Velt, is quick to point out that Julian has never demonstrated self-discipline in his life, to say nothing of the rest. He’s got a natural aptitude for both magic and violence, and this will get him a place in the thaumaturgical core in spite of his tendency to spend every night gambling and every coin of his allowance on pretty men from the theater.
His father won’t give him the money for the Sleipner Academy, and Julian can’t seem to save any coin. He knows how to get the tuition, though. It will involve winning a high stakes card game...against his father.
Julian can’t manage it himself, but he’s got a promising lead on a fellow who can. He’s a slipper sailor from the lower deck. He’s rumored to be somewhat unpleasant, with a bit of a temper, but he’s a genius at cards. Julian assumes that precuring the assistance of a lowly foremast sailor will be easy. After all, Julian has never met a man he couldn’t bribe, charm, bully, or seduce.
But he’s about to meet Tobias.
You know what? I want to read that book. Sadly, it doesn't exist, so I'll have to write it.
What Else is Happening
Rish has recorded the audio for Distraction. Guys. It's so good! He freak'in nailed it. He still needs to record "Hungry," which is a bonus story at the end, and then I need to finish up the last of the production to put the audiobook on sale. If you already picked up the ebook, I'll send you a discount code for the audio. This audio will also eventually run at the $3 level on my Patreon.
Distraction now has a gorgeous paper version. You can order it from Amazon (for the moment, haha, until they decide there's something wrong with my keywords) or you can wait a minute and order it signed from me. The digital version is only available directly from me.
A paper version of K&N Complete series (still) exists, but proofs are taking eons to come in the mail. I'll tell you when it's really ready to order.
A Hardback version of K&N exists. Once again, I haven't seen it, so don't order it yet.
Yours,
An author about to start on a new adventure