by ken

Falchion Returns!

You can’t keep a good man down. Or at least you can’t keep a perhaps not-so-nice fictional character down. If you enjoyed Boss: Falchion’s Company Book One, you’ll be happy to learn that Falchion is back, in Captain: Falchion’s Company Book Two. The book is out in print and digital, and an audio version is in production.

This means I get to engage in my favorite activity: marketing. You may note a hint of sarcasm in the preceding sentence. If not, allow me to restate it bluntly: I don’t like marketing. Shilling your own wares feels uncomfortably like begging. I honestly don’t care for it. But, it is absolutely necessary. If no one is aware you have a book for sale, no one is going to buy it. And I want people to buy Captain. I wrote it in order to entertain people, and it can’t do that if people don’t read it. 

So, yeah. Marketing. Sigh.

“Don’t miss out on the entertainment sensation of April, 2020. Pick up your copy of Captain: Falchion’s Company Book Two today. Tell a friend. Leave a review.”

Cue confetti and balloons.

Anyway, I hope you are all doing well in these interesting times.

In the Pipe

Whether we’re facing a world-changing pandemic, or not, I’m still working. Not just at my day job; I’m also still producing books. I expect to have another book out early in April, perhaps by the first. Specifically, Captain: Falchion’s Company Book Two, the sequel to Boss.

Falchion is back, now running his own mercenary company. I think you’re going to like this one.

I got the rights back to Thick As Thieves. I’m considering just putting it out myself, rather than shopping it around to another publisher. That way I’ll have a book out between Captain, in April, and Warlord, in July. What do you think? Sufficient distance? Too much? Not enough?

If you’ve read Thick As Thieves, do you have an idea what you think the cover art should look like? Or was the first edition’s cover on point?

The sequel to Karl Thorson and the Jade Dagger is off to the publisher. I’m waiting on comments. Of course, I hope it is perfect as is, without the need for more than, say, a proof read. There is a first time for everything, I suppose.

Meanwhile, work continues on a Cesar the Bravo novel. The three stories recording his adventures so far are available.

So, if you’re “sheltering in place” and in need of entertainment, I’m doing my best to keep you supplied.

Dancing on the Precipice

I understand there is some sort of kerfuffle going on in the world. People panicking, going into lockdown mode. I’ve been sitting on the beach, sipping cold beer, and listening to the waves come in. We all react to existential threats in our own way, I suppose.

S&S 202: Does Sword-and-Planet Fiction Qualify as Sword-and-Sorcery?

Does the Sword-and-Planet (also known as Planetary Romance) genre qualify as Sword-and-Sorcery? Or, more precisely, can it?

Yes. Next question.

Wait, you want some sort of explanation rather than a blanket agreement or denial. Fine.

The Words, Like the Spice, Must Flow

When I first started writing, years ago, it was primarily as a challenge. Could I get a story published? Then, how about a few more? After a while, I wanted to see if I could get a novel published. That accomplished, I discovered I had more novels I wanted to write, that it wasn’t enough to have a published book under my belt.

At the moment I find myself dealing with multiple projects in various stages. I’ve got the word mines running, and the words must flow. It is gratifying. It is also time consuming for someone with a profession that already demands most of his nine-to-five hours.

The Mega-Post

When you have more than one thing to write about but little to link the subjects, start with a bombastic title.

Don’t leave the best for last. Or do. I don’t know, it’s confusing.

How about this? Boss: Falchion’s Company Book One is now an audio book. That’s pretty good new, I think.

Brought to You by the Letter “A.”

This web log post brought to by the letter “A” for annoyance. And anger. And abashment.

Yesterday I spent a couple of hours in the afternoon at McMenamins’s Hillsdale Brewpub for the annual Battle for the Belt, wherein the myriad McMenamin’s brewpubs compete for the popular vote of best beer. Each one enters a beer. Trays full of four ounce pours are provided. We drink, we fill out a top three ballot. We drop our ballots in the box. Simple enough.

S&S 201: Five More You Should Know

In a previous post I’ve written about the five Swords & Sorcery writers the novice reader should be familiar with. Let’s assume this imaginary individual has completed that introductory course of study and is ready to move on to the intermediate-level: S&S 201.

Away from the Keyboard

Actual writing constitutes the bulk of creating a book. Sitting my ass down and getting the words transferred from my fevered, abnormal imagination and into the computer. Then there’s the revising, the editing, etc. But that’s all part of writing.

Aragorn Drops Back to Pass

Cultures, whether writ large or sifted down to the level of subculture, link us together. Like it or not, my fellow misanthropes. (Is that an oxymoron, fellow misanthropes? And, I’m really not. People are — fine.) One of linkage a culture offers is a shared day of celebration. A holiday, for example, like Christmas, or a national day of remembrance. Or, the Superbowl, a purely organic artifact of American culture, utterly secular and without government origin or sanction.