Tarn and Beck: The Cursed Coin

The Smiling Stallion Inn is now available at many major online retailers, but I'm also interested in bringing another potential series to light. So I'm announcing that earlier this year, under the pseudonym Roger Nickleby (I made the connection obvious in case I ever made it public), I self-published an adventure fantasy story Tarn and Beck: The Cursed Coin.

Why am I announcing it now? Because I'm changing that story into something of a romance and republishing it soon under my name. Just a taste of what readers might like about The Smiling Stallion Inn and Legends of Arria series.

I was sort of angling in that direction anyway, even if I wasn't ready then to commit Tarn and Beck to a romance. But I hope to expand that potential series too with more stories, and that romance might be a key part of it.

So here I go, say good-bye to regular adventurers and hello to romantic adventurers Tarn and Beck in just a little while.

The Smiling Stallion Inn: preorders

The Smiling Stallion Inn is now available for preorders in advance of its November 30th release.

The Smiling Stallion Inn, Torrid Books

Here's a link to the Torrid Books page of The Smiling Stallion Inn, although the page needs to be fixed a little.

The Smiling Stallion Inn, Simon and Schuster distribution

And here's a link to the Simon and Schuster page for The Smiling Stallion Inn, as Torrid Books has a distribution deal with that publisher.

Here's the blurb:

'Basha, a wistful young man, yearns to marry his girlfriend Jawen. Yet he is self-conscious of their differences and his lack of prospects. He is scorned by Jawen’s father, the wealthy merchant Lapo, as an orphan bastard left on the innkeeper’s doorstep.

Even Basha’s adopted family, especially his brother Oaka, doubt Basha and Jawen belong together. But Basha wants to prove that he is worthy of Jawen’s love by getting a spot on the town’s militia. And he wants to propose to her the next night at the Courtship ritual.

Yet when things go awry at the militia tryouts and Courtship ritual, and Basha seems to be plagued by crows and a mysterious guardian, can he set things right again? Will Basha have to take a drastic step to prove his love to Jawen? And how might that change the course of history and legends in the country of Arria?'

Here are links to the various retailers:

The Smiling Stallion Inn, Amazon

The Smiling Stallion Inn, iTunes

The Smiling Stallion Inn, Barnes and Noble

Smiling Stallion Inn, Blio

The Smiling Stallion Inn, Books A Million

The Smiling Stallion Inn, Google Books

The Smiling Stallion Inn, Kobo Books

More to come soon.

Final Decision on series

After some consideration on my own, I've decided to go ahead and take down the rest of the Legends of Arria series, and maybe the Knights of Arria books, on November 6th, just to avoid any contention with The Smiling Stallion Inn release later this month. I may keep up the rest of the Lion of Arria series, The Grail Curse and Family On Fire, until some decision is made there, but I will raise prices, too, depending on what the sales price is for Smiling Stallion Inn to avoid competition.

I'll need some time to work on and edit Servants and Followers, Power Over Death, and The Tiger of Light on my own to lower the word count, so not sure when the new versions of these books will come out. I probably won't need to edit The Tiger Enchantment, though, when I submit it to the publisher and the future installment or installments of this series (? for series end/break) will be a lower word count, too.

Current Status With The Smiling Stallion Inn

New editing for The Smiling Stallion Inn is finishing up, and so it might be ready for a November 30th release from Torrid Books, Ebook ISBN will be 978-1-68299-210-4. Fingers crossed that it won't be delayed.

I haven't really discussed the status of the sequels or the secondary series with the publisher yet, but fair warning once more, depending on response, the other self-published versions might be taken down in the near future. I will try to provide a time frame or window if it's a week or a couple of days.

The Smiling Stallion Inn is Not Available

I'm currently in the process of setting up The Smiling Stallion Inn with a new publisher and so the book is currently not available/published. I apologize for the suddenness of this change to those who were interested in reading it, but it shall be available again in the future with the new publisher.

The rest of the series and related series is currently still self-published, but may eventually go to the new publisher, depending. Just a heads up there.

Sincerely,
The Author

Title and Cover Changes coming up

Fair warning to those who have already purchased and read my books and to those who have been interested in acquiring them--I have decided, partly as a marketing move and with the hope of gaining more casual readers to change some or most of my book titles.

I probably won't change The Legends of Arria book titles as those seem to be good enough for now.

I'm sort of leaning towards more casual or general titles, especially for the Legends of Arria 2002 series--and I'm probably going to change the name of that series as well--to attract readers who might be hesitant or uncertain about the book at first glance. I'll admit some of those titles are a bit obscure, though pertinent to the book, and maybe long winded. I'm going to stop using the Part 1 (and future Part 2) for The Kirna's Apprentice and get a more general, though pertinent, title for those books.

I hope these changes might yield a good response in future readership and I don't want to put off any former readers who come across these books with new titles and realize they are the same books. Admittedly I have been writing and rewriting a similar story for a while now, albeit with some changes in plot and characters.

But I would also hope that readers might eventually read both of the main series, (uh, the 2008 books are more of a transitional stage) because I hope to eventually...

Oops, not certain if I want to reveal that just yet. Near future.

Smashwords Interview Question Three

I'm on a roll here. Question Number 3 from the Smashwords Interview.

What are your five favorite books, and why?
              

A difficult question, but...Carter Beats the Devil by Glen David Gold is definitely one of them. It was one of the first adult books that I read, crossing over from the YA side of the store. It was so serious, dramatic, heartbreaking and traumatic at times, yet it was so hopeful as well.

 

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay also falls into this same category. I am not as steeped in comic books as some, but this is definitely a love letter to that Golden Age of comic books.

 

The Princess Bride is also very heartfelt, and when I first read it, I actually almost believed in William Goldman's writer's story, that he tried to get ahold of the rights to Buttercup's Baby, and couldn't get it. The book version itself went far deeper into the characters and was more serious than I had imagined it would be.

 

Deep Secret is a pretty glorious young adult novel by Diana Wynne Jones that revels in science fiction and fantasy.

 

Finally, but not least, Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman, which is a pretty hard, tough novel at times that burrows deep into your heart and mind.

 

 

So looking at these answers again, and all of these years later...it's tough to change your-or should I say, my-mind about what your favorite books are. To be honest, it's been a couple of years at least since I've read these books.

 

I do have a tendency to read a bit and place a book aside for a while. There are books filling my shelves that I have not read in years and quite a few books that I have not read at all. These books that I picked for my favorite are, indeed, some formative books that I deeply cherished and have kept for many years since I first read them in...high school, I want to say? Something like that.

 

I might do a series of posts someday reviewing all of the old books I still have on my shelves. That might be an interesting survey of sorts. I will get back to any potential blog readers on that.

Smashwords Interview: Question Two

Here's some more of my Smashwords interview and some new answers to this question:

Who are your favorite authors?
              

One of the first authors that I absolutely adored as a kid was Lloyd Alexander, who wrote such books as the Westmark trilogy, The Iron Ring, The Remarkable Journey of Prince Jen, The Arkadians and the Prydain Chronicles. The very first book of his that I read was Time Cat.

Terry Pratchett became a favorite author of mine and I have read almost all of his Discworld novels. There's a handful I haven't read, and perhaps I have been putting them off...RIP, Sir.

I really got into Neil Gaiman with Neverwhere, and went on to read Amerian Gods, Anansi Boys and several volumes of The Sandman.

J.K. Rowling and Harry Potter also became a favorite of mine, although I never would have read the first book if I had not received it at a Christmas book exchange in 1999. Thank you very much for the gift. I had my doubts, but they were definitely proven wrong.

I struggled somewhat with Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle, but it was rewarding, and I read Cryptonomicon and Reamde. I have not finished Seveneves, it just got...grim.

I am fond of Michael Chabon and The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay.

Diana Wynne Jones is also a favorite of mine, especially with Deep Secret.

Who can forget William Goldman and The Princess Bride?

In 2006, I started watching Doctor Who, and I went deep into it a couple years ago, reading various New Adventures, Virgin Adventures, Eighth Doctor Adventures, IDW Doctor Who comics and Doctor Who Magazine comics. I have sort of slowed down there.

And the poor animals of Richard Adams' The Plague Dogs and Watership Down.

Currently, I finally got around to reading The Magicians, probably should have done that sooner. Oh, and I've read The Outsorcerer's Apprentice by Tom Holt. I might need to read some more of his books. Although the bit with a cell phone...ah, well, different narrative usages for such a device.

In recent years, I've been reading more nonfiction, including Neal Gabbler's Walt Disney biography, the Joss Whedon biography, and currently I'm reading 'The Millionaire and the Bard' about Henry Folger and the history behind Shakespeare publications and collections. Who knew that would be interesting? Although the printing section was a bit numbing.

And I'm also going to attempt reading some classics as well.

In some ways, there is no simple answer as to 'Who are your favorite authors', for I like a lot of them.

My Smashwords Interview: Question One

I'm thinking about deleting the author interview on my Smashwords profile as, aesthetically speaking, it does take up quite a bit of space. And perhaps it is a bit wordy as well.

I'm trying to think realistically and pragmatically as a first-time reader, coming across a new author's page, might be overwhelmed by all of this text and information about a writer. They might not scroll down to see what books are available. Perhaps it is off-putting for some?

Well, in any case, I'm going to take it down.

But I would like to preserve its content as well, in case there are readers who might be interested in learning more about the author.

So here I am going to post up my Smashwords interview and share its content for any readers who might be interested. And I would also like to pose a question to readers: does knowing more or less about an author interest them in their work? Or does the book's content only matter?

Anyway, here's Question One:

What's the story behind your latest book?

Well, the story behind The Legends of Arria series dates back to sixth grade, 2000, when I had the idea of a girl in a rowboat adrift on an ocean, running aground on the shore of a magical realm called Arria.

After a series of adventures, she would have found a new life for her there and tried to raise a family, until her daughter was lost and had to find her way back home.

Yet the form of the ideas changed, and Arria changed, so that by 2002, it became the story of a young man who set out on a quest on behalf of the woman he loved in The Knights of Arria 2002, which had a rather simplistic style that developed a bit more in the year or two it took to write.

This story developed over several years, going further ahead a generation or two in the sequels. But then I felt the need to go back and start reworking the beginning of the story, again and again.

The 2008 version (on Amazon) was mostly just a revamp of the 2002 version, which added some more depth and plot changes to the story, yet it wasn't enough.

I wanted to find a better angle on the story, more mature and developed with characters having real thought processes and getting into backstories and realistic character motivations a bit more.

Then I got the idea to get into Coe Baba, Basha's hometown, a bit more and really showcase his adoptive parents Habala and Geda, his sword-fighting mentor Sir Nickleby, Basha's girlfriend Jawen and her family, Oaka and his girlfriend Sisila, which then included her family and finally the Old Man, who became very important in this process.

The Old Man had been lurking in the background for a long while as an immortal storyteller, but he really had no story beyond that to latch onto. So I gave him one and created new characters, Nisa and her mother Brigga, to help him fill out his new role.

When I first came up with the idea of Nisa, I thought of her as Oaka's and Basha's sister who would narrate the story and eventually team up with the Old Man.

But being their sister didn't really work out and so the relationship was changed.

I felt the need to delve into Jawen's home life more, introduce her extended family and get her father Lapo the merchant more involved. Previously, Jawen's romances with Basha and Hastin were simplified, so I made it more complex, unpredictable, and emotional.

This also happened with Sisila. I made her the baron's daughter, Hastin became her brother, and I moved away from portraying her 'crazy/grief-stricken' phase over Oaka leaving.

Iibala became Sir Nickleby's daughter and more important as a character, more heavily involved in the action of the story, same with Sir Nickleby as well.

Habala's and Geda's roles were more enhanced as parents and their relationship changed and developed, especially with the introduction of Smidge, Geda's brother, to complicate matters.

Coe Baba as a whole had been a rather simple, unfulfilled place.

So I made the town bigger and more complex, with fully realized characters and places. It was also more mysterious and haunted, being genuinely threatened by evil outside forces.

It made the lives of the characters inhabiting this place a whole lot more interesting. All of these changes were made with the start of Basha's story in The Smiling Stallion Inn.

The consequences of these changes continue on in Servants and Followers, Power Over Death, The Tiger of Light, The Tiger Enchantment and more coming soon.


(Note: Smashwords Interview is probably a proprietary trademark of that website. I am merely using the trademark/standard questions for noncommercial purposes. Or at least...I don't know, something along those lines.)

Wattpad: SmilingStallionInn

Couple of years ago, I set up a Wattpad account, but I've only recently started to make use of it, posting up snippets of my original fiction that I'm developing, including the sequel to The Kirna's Apprentice Part One.

https://www.wattpad.com/user/SmilingStallionInn

I am also going to post some of my fanfiction that I've written over the years under my other pen name. Mostly Doctor Who related, though there is a Doctor Who/Sherlock crossover.

Here's some info on my original stories:

The Kirna's Apprentice Part Two: The Desert Trek

(Title may be subject to change)

Paka, his friends, and family now head for the Za Desert, attempting to beat Mun D'hia to the Windbow tribe and warn Basha of the impending attack. Meanwhile, a devastating loss forces Wonan to take action. The Kirna's Apprentice Part 1: The Lost Family is available on Amazon.

Tarn and Beck

Beck has led a miserable life in the city of Dosile. When a bit of luck or misfortune falls into his path, he leaves the city behind him-only to be held up by highwaymen. And then Tarn shows up and turns Beck's life upside down. A bit of a fantasy comedy.

The Rascal and the Wizard

Though Rachel enjoys her life as a con artist, traveling with her friends and outwitting others, they also hide deep, dark secrets from each other. When she stumbles upon an injured young man in a field, their lives take an unexpected turn as they are pursued by a ruthless enemy who will stop at nothing to defeat them. Can Rachel and her friends stand up together against this foe?

These original stories are in preliminary, first draft stages, of course, subject to change. I will attempt to update them as much as possible, depending on the progress of writing them. That's all for now, I think.