Dean Has a New Blog!

Just a quick post to let you all know that I've rolled out a new blog.

You can find it at deanwrites.com.

I'll be leaving this blog up with all of the old posts on it, but all of the new posts will go to the new blog. I've also created a new mailing list and I'll be moving the current list over to the new list during the next few weeks.

If you signed up to the original list with the 'email' or 'digest' option then you'll be moved over without any effort being required on your part.

I'll be reaching out to those who signed up under the 'no email' option over the next couple of months to confirm whether they would like to be moved to the new list.

Thanks,

Dean

October Status Update and A Darkness Mirrored Cover Reveal

It's been approximately two months since my last status update (I only seem to manage to get them out every other month during my 'off' month when I'm editing and formatting rather than writing nine+ hours a day like I am during my 'on' month).

In the last update I talked about the next Eldon Murphy book (A Darkness Mirrored), which is scheduled to go live on November 8th, which is now less than three weeks away. I'm happy to announce that A Darkness Mirrored has finished up the editing and formatting process and the cover has been finalized.

That's great for two reasons, firstly because that means I've been able to load it up to iTunes, where it is now available for pre-order. Secondly because that means I can do a cover reveal!

The Setup:
Geoffrey has been called a lot of things: warrior, werewolf killer, slave, lover…vampire…soulless. They are all the truth. He's killed hundreds, possibly even thousands of people without a single regret, but that's only part of the truth.

This is the story of the one and only person who called Geoffrey father, the story of an orphan that Geoffrey took in and raised, the girl who would become the woman that he would sacrifice everything for.

This is Lucy's story.

Again, I simply can't express how pleased I am with how this book turned out. I loved how well Broken and Torn fit together, but I never would have expected that I would be able to make two books written ten years apart articulate together with such strength. The Greater Darkness is a pretty good book, and A Darkness Mirrored is a pretty good book, but taken together I think they really shine.

As I've been doing for the few new releases, I'll be discounting A Darkness Mirrored down from $4.99 to $3.99 for the first week, so if you're an iTunes customer go out and purchase your pre-order copy. If you buy your books from Amazon or somewhere else, you'll want to make sure you set a reminder on your phone or double-check that you've signed up for the Eldon Murphy mailing list at eldonwrites.blogspot.com.

The next bit of news is that the first full Dark Reflections novel (Disillusioned) is currently out to my advance readers. Once I hear back from them, Disillusioned will just need a blurb and a cover and then it will be ready to be loaded up for preorders.

When I write it all out like that it sounds like Disillusioned is just around the corner and I halfway want to push forward the release date for it, but I've decided to go ahead and schedule Disillusioned for a January 23rd release date so as to avoid the kinds of delays that I ran into with Shattered Ties.

In other news, I've done my first pass of the second Dark Reflections novel and I've sent it on to Katie to do a read through and let me know what she thinks of it. Still early days there, but everything is still on track from a scheduling perspective and I'm happy with how it's turned out. I started Dark Reflections with two main goals in mind. The first goal, that of showing just how broad of an impact one of the key characters from Reflections actually had on the world, is advanced by nearly every page of every Dark Reflections story. The other goal is still going to require at least one more book (and honestly it will probably end up requiring two more books), but this second Dark Reflections novel establishes massive chunks of the foundation I'm going to need in order to make that piece of the master plan happen. Even better, this book (Adri's book as I'm calling it) has opened my eyes to something major that I think needs to happen in the main Reflections story arc.

Sorry, I'm not going to give away any more hints, but I think it's going to really ratchet up the tension in the series.

The last thing that I should probably cover off in this update is the fact that I've finished the rough draft for the next Reflections book. This one is going to be focused on Jasmin, Ben, and Geoffrey (from the Reflections story arc I've written as Eldon Murphy).

It's hard to explain how nervous I was about actually going ahead and merging these two storylines, and that was complicated by the fact that I'm having a hard time generally speaking when it comes to deciding exactly what order the post-Riven storylines needs to be written in.  I knew I couldn't do Ash, Kristen and Isaac's story yet, and I was pretty sure that I couldn't take you all off with Jess and Wyatt.

Rachel's story is another that I think is going to need to come a few books down the road because there are several things that need to take place with everyone else before you'll all be ready to really understand some of what Rachel is going through.

In the end I used some fuzzy logic to narrow things down a bit further and decided that Jasmin and Ben needed the next chapter of their story told. Originally Jasmin and Ben's book was supposed to be just them and Geoffrey, but as I started writing it I kept worrying that the storyline was too thin. I added in another storyline, essentially a third point of view, partially because I was worried that I didn't have enough material in this particular story, and partially because there is a certain individual from A Darkness Mirrored that I really wanted to get back to. I wrote a chapter or two of that third point of view, and then got so caught up with what was happening with Geoffrey, Jasmin and Ben that almost before I knew it I was only a chapter or two from the end of the book and I still hadn't fleshed out the third point of view.

Given that the Geoffrey, Jasmin, Ben piece of the book was up in the 90,000+ word range, I went back and stripped out the third viewpoint and finished off the book. I won't be reading back through this particular book until sometime in December, so I don't have a final opinion on certain aspects of it, but I can say that this one introduces a few more breadcrumbs as far as some of the things behind the scenes that are driving the overall story arc. They are incredibly subtle, but offhand I can remember three separate hints that I included in this one and they lead to some pretty huge revelations in some of the upcoming books.

October is now halfway over and I need to give some more thought as to which book to write next. That's a question that's still a little up in the air, but I'm super excited to be able to get through all of the editing, formatting, print layout and the like so that I can get back to writing again sometime in the next week or two.

Shattered Ties is Live!

I'm happy to announce that Shattered Ties, the next Guadel Chronicles book, is now live at all of the major retailers.

The Setup:
Brittle Bonds (The Guadel Chronicles Volume 3) saw Va'del and Jain driven from their mountain home by traitors among the People. The pair's time in the lowlands, surrounded by hostile priests of a foreign religion, tested them in ways they never anticipated, but they never forgot their friends and family who were fighting and possibly even dying on the frozen slopes of the White Spike Mountains.

Shattered Ties picks up the story of that fight and follows the desperate efforts of Javin, On'li, Va'ma and the rest as they try to survive against overwhelming odds. The Guadel who were so opposed to Va'del joining their ranks are about to find out that he's the only person with any chance of saving them from the enemy that they created.

You can find Shattered Ties at the following locations, and a print version will be forthcoming:
Amazon US
Amazon UK
iTunes
Barnes & Noble
Smashwords
Kobo

Sony, Diesel and others will follow as Shattered Ties makes it into the Smashwords premium catalog.

As indicated previously, Shattered Ties will be on sale for $3.99 until the end of the week as a thank you to all of you, after which it will revert to its normal price of $4.99.

As always, thank you for everything that you are doing to help spread the word.

Dean

Shattered Ties Update

Hi everyone.

A late update, I waited until tonight hoping that iTunes/iBooks would get Shattered Ties live sometime today. It looks like that isn't going to happen. The approval queue there generally takes about a week, sometimes a little less, sometimes a little more.

I loaded it up on Thursday or Friday of last week (I'm not positive which day as I'm a little punch drunk tonight). I figured that would give enough time to get it live before the release date as it was a little more than a week.

It turns out that wasn't enough time. There were a few issues on my side that led to this one not being loaded up as soon as it should have been, so I'm re-working the process on my side to make sure that I get subsequent books loaded up at least 2-3 weeks before the release date.

Shattered Ties is up now everywhere else (links below), but I'm very sorry for all of you Apple users who are going to have to wait for an extra few days. I'll do a new post as soon as it goes live as well as a tweet and a e-mail blast as soon as it goes live for you guys.

Amazon US
Amazon UK
Kobo
Barnes & Noble
Smashwords

Dean has a forum!

Some of the more observant--or obsessive :) --may have already noticed the new link on the right side of the blog, but I just wanted to put up another quick update for you all to let you know that with some great help from an awesome fan in the Netherlands named Chris (thanks Chris!), I now have a forum up and running where any or all of you can hang out, connect with other fans, or ask me some of those insightful questions that I sometimes get via e-mail.

I've got a few iron's in the fire right now, so moderation and responses might be a little slower than ideal, but I'll try to at least check in once a day and say hi if there are any new posts.

As a teaser, I've put the 'Winter Escapes' short stories up there and I'm prepared to dole out a little more information about 'The Priest' if people ask the right kind of questions.

Thanks,

--Dean

August Update

We're coming up on nearly a year of me writing full-time, which seemed like something that deserved a blog post, along with the semi-regular update that I'm past due getting out.

Since I quit the day job I've written seven books and published five books. I had two books partly finished before I quit, which means I've currently got 4 more books that are in my production pipeline and which will be published in the next six to eight months.

The first of those is the fourth Guadel Chronicles Book (Shattered Ties), which will be available at the temporarily discounted price of $3.99 (or your local equivalent) starting on the first of September.

The next book, which I'm hoping to get out in November is another Eldon Murphy Reflections (Geoffrey) book, this one featuring the daughter that nobody…well almost nobody, knew that he had. In the tradition of my Eldon Murphy books, this one will be a little more edgy than what I usually put in my Alec and Adri Reflections books. Nothing too bad still, more PG-13 heavy than PG-13 lite, but I still would rather warn people than have something catch them by surprise. In good news, I've already sent this one out to one of my awesome UK fans, Claire, to take a first look at it and she loved it. (Thanks Claire.)

The next book that will be released is my first Dark Reflections full novel, which will be told primarily from the point of view of Alec. I'm hoping for this one to go live sometime in December, after which the second Dark Reflections book (featuring Adri) should be released in Feb 2014.

From a purely business perspective it could be argued that I'm being really stupid to write anything other than Alec and Adri books right now. Trapped, Intrusion, and the Greater Darkness haven't sold anywhere nearly as well as the Alec and Adri books.

All I can figure is that a lot of readers see names other than Alec and Adri's in the blurbs and choose to skip those particular stories, which is a shame because I've received really good feedback on some of those stories and ultimately they are a big part of what goes into making the Reflections universe—Alec and Adri's story—more full and complex.

I'm probably preaching to the choir as it's mostly my most hardcore fans that are going to end up reading this, but I do hope that you'll pick up the new releases even when they aren't directly Alec and Adri books.

On several levels I feel like I had to write these two Dark Reflections book before I could continue on with Alec and Adri, just like I have to flesh out Geoffrey's story a little more before I can continue on with Jasmin and Ben's story.

Dark Reflections gives me a chance to explore other sides to characters we already know and love as well as showing the humanity of some of our favorite villains. Dark Reflections is an alternate timeline, a parallel universe, but it's tightly intertwined with the core Reflections story and it's going to offer a level of depth that I simply couldn't pull off any other way.

Dark Reflections is a story of what could have happened. It's a grimmer place than the Reflections timeline, but not everything is terrible. Like anything else it's a balance of good and bad, but more than anything else, it shows just how much impact the actions, even just the existence, of one person can have.

I can't tell you for sure yet what chapter of the story I'll pick up next. August is an 'off month' meaning that instead of writing I'm desperately trying to get through editing passes of the next Eldon Murphy book, the first Dark Reflections novel, and tie up loose ends for the release of Shattered Ties. If I have a few extra minutes in there I've got a whole slew of print books that need finished up, and a few other assorted projects.

In some ways the sheer breadth of the options I have to choose from is intimidating, especially as the separate storylines start to interact more with each other, but it's also incredibly exciting. I really think that this story is going to be something special. I'm not a good enough writer to write it all yet, but I can see how to get there and I do get a little better with each book.

I don't know if my books will ever have a movie made about them, or if millions of people will read these stories. It's possible that they will never make the kind of splash that I'd love to see them make, but regardless of how well or poorly they ultimately end up doing from a sales perspective, I really am grateful to have you all along for the ride, I'll try my absolute hardest to deliver on the potential of these books, both the Reflections series and the places I'm hoping to be able to go with Jain and Va'del's world.

Thanks again,

--Dean

Cover and Blurb for Shattered Ties (Guadel #4)

It's getting very close to September, in fact time is flying by almost too fast. I'm going to have to really hustle to get the last few items wrapped up that need doing so that I can get Shattered Ties up for pre-order on iTunes and Kobo.

I wanted to stop for just a second though and let you all see the cover and the blurb.

The setup:
Brittle Bonds (The Guadel Chronicles Volume 3) saw Va'del and Jain driven from their mountain home by traitors among the People. The pair's time in the lowlands, surrounded by hostile priests of a foreign religion, tested them in ways they never anticipated, but they never forgot their friends and family who were fighting and possibly even dying on the frozen slopes of the White Spike Mountains.

Shattered Ties picks up the story of that fight and follows the desperate efforts of Javin, On'li, Va'ma and the rest as they try to survive against overwhelming odds. The Guadel who were so opposed to Va'del joining their ranks are about to find out that he's the only person with any chance of saving them from the enemy that they created.

I especially love the wraparound cover that Katie did for the print version. Here it is, stripped down to mostly just the art.

I hope that you're all as excited about this one as I am. Shattered Ties posed some new challenges for me, but it's got more action and magic in it than the first three books combined and I'm happy with the final product.