Book Three on Amazon

It's been a while between posts but that doesn't mean I haven't been busy. Brianna & The Perils of the Darkwood has been released and is available on Amazon. I have to say it is my favorite book so far, but then again, I say that about each book as I release them so there you go.
I've already begun piecing together the outline for book four in my head, I even have a tentative title for it that I will share in a future post. It's my plan to end the saga with book four but that doesn't necessarily mean the end of the Legends of Midralon. I am already thinking of two possibly three more books that will further chronicle adventures in Midralon!

Win A Free Copy of Emily & the Silent King at TempleCon 2011!!

I will be attending all three days of TempleCon 2011 and I will be giving away one copy of Emily & the Silent King each day! The rules are simple: the first person to say the phrase "Beware of the Silent King" to me between the hours of 9AM and 11:30PM EST gets a book!
You can't win more than one copy and I will be taking a picture of each winner!
Every day that I don't give a book away I will bump that copy and add it to the next day's free pool!
I will also have a very limited amount of extra books one and two available for sale at $10 each!
I will be there gaming along with the rest of the attendees so please be polite if I'm in the middle of a gaming session! Hope to see you there! It's gonna be a blast!!

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Legends of Midralon Book Series

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Neglecting the Blog But Not the Books

I'm the first to admit I've been very lax in keeping my blog updated, but rest assured I've been busy with the books and in fact book three is nearly ready for publication. Once it is ready I will return to regular blog postings (no promises but I will make every effort!)
I will be attending TempleCon this weekend in Warwick, Rhode Island if a snow storm doesn't derail my trip and I am hoping to generate some interest in the series with a free book give away, the details of which will be in another post.
Book four, the final book of this initial part of the series, still remains in outline form and will get some serious attention in the weeks following my return from the con! As I said I will post more as I progress!
That's all for now, there might not always be long or interesting posts but there will be posts!

I'm still here! Really I am!

I know it has been a very long time between my posts but I've been fighting to reignite the muse that inspires my creative side. For some reason it chose to go into hiding last September and only recently has shown signs of stirring to life. Now that the holiday crush is pretty much over, I find myself missing my writing more and more. I've been jotting down some notes for various writing projects and I dusted off the file for book three in the Legends of Midralon series. The good news is that the third book is already written I just need to go through it and brush it up, to prepare it for my editor.
There is more good news; CreateSpace recently expanded their distribution offerings so now Emily & the Silent King is available at Barnes & Noble and Books-A-Million as well as many other places. Schools and libraries will able to order it now using their favorite systems, so please take a moment the next time you are at your favorite local library or bookstore to request one of my books (or even all of them!)
If you've read any of the Midralon books and liked them, please stop by one of the sites selling my book and leave feedback, as I'm sure you all know, positive feedback will help sell a book more than any cover art or description can. Also, please join the facebook fan page and/or become a follower on this blog as well. You can also follow me on twitter at twitter.com/Midralon or twitter.com/IrvenK. Tell your friends, family and anyone else you think would be interested in the Legends of Midralon series.
I am also going to make time to work on the audio podcast of book 1, I hope to have at least the first few chapters ready in the coming weeks. If you've made it this far into my post here, I'd like to share with you a short piece of intro music for the podcast that I've put together. I am planning on playing this music along with a voice over introduction before each chapter I read. Let me know what you think!

Another Review Posted

Just finished reading another very nice review of Emily & the Silent King posted by Maria Luisa Antonaya over on Suite101.com. I really liked how she summarized the book, it is much better than the back copy I came up with for the cover! I continue to be very happy with how well the book has been received by the various book reviewers, especially since it's a first book. It is a welcome confidence boost and gives me additional incentive to finish the other books in the series. It will be interesting to see how the later books are reviewed! Please stop by and read the review when you get a chance and leave a comment if possible.

Book Worming in the 21st Century Book Review

Another positive book review for Emily & the Silent King has come in! Kristen over at BookWormingInThe21stCentury gave it four out of five roses! I'm very pleased with the positive reception book one is getting and I can only hope that Devin & the Empire of Wolves is as well received as the first book in the series has been! Everyone seems to love the Dwarves and I really enjoy writing them, I'm going to do my best to bring out some of the other characters as the series progresses to give Helgi and company a little competition.

I just realized that I did not announce the availability of book two in the Legends of Midralon series on this blog! Devin & The Empire of Wolves is now available on Amazon and CreateSpace! It's been slowly but steadily moving up the sales charts since I announced it on the facebook fanpage last week! Thanks to everyone for your support!

My vacation is coming to an end and this means I will be getting back to work on revising the book three rough draft and working on the podcast of book one! So much to do, my weekends are going to be very busy for the foreseeable future!

Tell Your Friends!

Devin & The Empire of Wolves is now available! You can find it on Amazon here and CreateSpace here! I'm very happy with how this book turned out and I think the readers of the first book will like the direction the story is headed! I can't wait to start getting feedback from everyone! Please visit/join the Legends of Midralon fanpage on facebook for more information on a discount code for this book (code only valid on orders through CreateSpace)! International readers can purchase the book through CreateSpace.

The proof has arrived!

I've been going through the current proof of Devin & The Empire of Wolves and so far everything looks good! I'm posting a shot of the cover! Book two could possibly be available by this upcoming weekend if I don't find any glaring errors!

If I can find the time, I am going to try and post the intro music for the upcoming Legends of Midralon podcast. It's a piece I put together myself using looping software and music libraries. I think it sounds pretty good, but I'll let you be the judge of that!

I am also going to start doing the revisions on book three which has already been written. The title is Brianna & The Perils of the Darkwood.

So much to do and yet I enjoy every minute of it! If there is something you would like to see me do for the series, drop me a line and let me know! I am always looking for new ways to expand and get the word out about the books!

Devin & The Empire of Wolves

Book two is very close to being ready! I've just finished the final edits on the text and the final tweaks on the cover. I'm now awaiting my proof copy. If all is good, Devin & The Empire of Wolves should be available within a week or so!

I ended up switching the scenery around some and brightening the daylight, I think it makes the Shining Host stand out more. I've posted a sample of the cover.

Now I need to get busy on the audio podcast of Emily & the Silent King! Always something to do, I don't think Midralon will ever let me rest!

The First Book Review Is In!!

Jenny over at Wondrous Reads has just posted a very nice review of Emily & the Silent King! Please stop by and visit her site, I'm sure you'll find lots of other great reviews and interesting books there!

It's always nice to receive a review of your work from someone who is outside of your immediate family and circle of close friends. While my friends and family might like my work, there is always that little voice in the back of my head saying they just don't want to hurt my feelings or they like it because they like me. Not to belittle their support, I greatly appreciate it, but as I said, receiving outside approval of my work really adds that little extra bit of boost to my self confidence. I am not sure about other writers but I am extremely nervous when it comes to showing my work to people who don't know me.

In related news, Legends of Midralon book two, Devin & The Empire of Wolves is very very very close to being ready. If I can just put the finishing touches on the cover it should be ready for a proof within the week. I'll keep you posted! That's all for now!

UPDATE! Jenny has also posted the Author Interview she did with me, which is also a first for me!! Check it out here.

Book Two Update!

Devin & The Empire of Wolves is nearing completion! Here is a sneak peek at the cover, keep in mind it's still a work in progress. It features Devin on his stag Stomper, leading the Shining Host into battle! I have started working on the page layout and everything is coming together nicely! I am hoping to have it ready within a couple of weeks if not sooner!

Once book two is done, I will go back to working on the podcast version of Emily & the Silent King. I am still tinkering with the recording equipment, trying to get rid of a buzzing sound I hear when I record. I think I've almost got it nailed down!

Well that was a busy month!

I wanted to let everyone know where I was with the Legends of Midralon Series! I've been so busy that I haven't had time to update my blog (I know that's horrible, but I blame Twitter and the zillion other distractions in my life!)

The Kindle edition of Emily & the Silent King had a bumpy start but I found a few good sites that helped with formatting my content for their service and after checking it out on the iPod Kindle app I like how it turned out. It's on sale right now for a whopping 80 cents! I may up the price at a later date, but right now I've been pleased with the trickle of sales.

Editing is finished on the main part of book two: Devin & the Empire of Wolves. I am still fine tuning a few things with my awesome editor Jill, but they are minor details. As soon as I can get the cover finished it will be available. I'm shooting for the end of July but it might stretch into August, I have an ambitious idea for the cover.

The Podcast for Emily & The Silent King is still a work in progress. I finally got the equipment I need, now it is just a matter of fine tuning it until I sound acceptable to my own ears!

Promotional work is still ongoing. I find this takes the most time with the least results (at least right now). I'm plugging away though, hoping to get word of my books out there. And I appreciate the contributions from existing fans of the series along those lines. Word of mouth is priceless! Thank you so much!

That's all for now! For those of you in the states, I hope you have a wonderful Fourth of July!

June and I'm still behind

So much to do, so little time! I am feverishly working on the podcast audio book of Emily & the Silent King which I will make available for free on this blog and on iTunes once it's ready. I will be narrating and releasing weekly chapters of the book when I get the process rolling. I am having some technical difficulties with my PC (vista64 and creative labs sound cards do not play nicely) but once I have them ironed out, I should be able to whip out the first few podcast chapters of the book and put them on the intertron.

I am expecting to get the edited version of Devin & The Empire of Wolves back within a week or so. I still haven't begun work on the cover, I may gamble and hire a freelance artist to do the cover if I don't get a chance to work on it within the next couple of weeks. I want to get it out as soon as possible.

I paid a visit to the Tom's River Public Library today, hoping to schedule a book signing or reading of Emily & the Silent King and maybe get a recommendation by the library. I have my fingers crossed!

May is almost gone!

The Kindle Edition of Emily & the Silent King is now available on Amazon. It was painful to convert the file to straight HTML for that format and lose all the page formatting and wonderful fonts I had agonized over for hours, but in its current form, the Kindle only supports a very restricted set of file types. There is a new larger format kindle that supports PDF files and I am hoping that becomes the standard.

The revised version of Devin & The Empire of Wolves has been shipped off to my editor. I should be receiving it back in a couple of weeks, which means I had better get busy on the cover for the book! I have two ideas for the cover but one may be overly ambitious with the time frame I have. I thought about hiring an artist, but after reading the lengthy copyright issues raised by doing this, I've decided to continue generating my own images.

The paperback version of Emily & The Silent King is still slowly making its way through the book scene. I am planning to do some signings and book readings locally. It has been very difficult trying to get word out and I'm trying to do everything I can. I'm very new to this self promotion process so if anyone has any advice or suggestions I would greatly appreciate them!

At last!!

The paperback edition of Emily & The Silent King is finally available on Amazon! It has been available from my CreateSpace e-store for  a  couple of days, but I was waiting for it to show up on Amazon before I posted anything! The process was supposed to take up to 15 days, but when I came home from work today I was pleasantly surprised when it popped up ready to order! 

The book can be purchased direct from Amazon or from my e-store on CreateSpace. Unfortunately I cannot offer a discount through Amazon but I can offer one through my own e-store. If you haven't joined my Legends of Midralon fan page on facebook, stop by now to get the discount code! Also, don't forget to join the Legends of Midralon Twitter account! 

A Great Big Thanks to everyone for all the support you've given me!

So the final proof wasn't so final...

I have given up calling the book proofs that I order "the final one" or "the last one". Every time I say that, the proof arrives and I find an error or something that needs tweaking. Having said all that, I STILL think the latest version of the book will indeed be "the one". It shipped out on Friday so I am expected it to be in my hands by Monday or Tuesday of this upcoming week. After every rejected proof, I have compiled a list of things to check for and this one appears to have met all of the requirements! We'll soon find out!

As part of the pending media campaign for the release of Emily & The Silent King, I have created a Twitter entry for the book at: http://twitter.com/Midralon. I am still learning the ropes of self promotion, but almost every "expert" in the self publishing field stresses getting word about your book out in as many places as  possible. I would appreciate any and all recommendations anyone cares to make regarding possible promotion sites!

Inch by inch!

What I am sincerely hoping is the final proof of book one has been shipped to me and should arrive by early next week! I think I've finally managed to tweak the cover and arrange the interior text in a good format! So when the proof arrives I will quickly scan it and make the book available publicly!

I created a Legends of Midralon Facebook page, so if you are on facebook, I would be very honored if you would stop by and become a fan! Tell your friends, tell your neighbors, tell your local librarians! Tell anyone who enjoys a good fantasy story!

I'm going to take my wife out for a little celebration dinner when that happens, she has been so  supportive to me in what has become basically just an expensive hobby(who would have thought self publishing could be so expensive!) I wish my editor Jill lived closer too so I could invite her and her husband as well. 

Even though I technically published my book last year, that was an unedited version and it lacked some of the small changes that I think make it a better story now than it was then. So I am treating this as the first "official" launch of the book. I learned a lot from several of the costly mistakes I made using the print-on-demand services. My biggest mistake not being more patient with the process. That mistake, more than any other, I hope to correct when I release the other books in the series.

I've started the second rewrite on Devin & The Empire of Wolves. I need to get a hold of Jill and figure out an editing schedule for it, but first I want to make sure Emily & The Silent King is smoothly released to the public. I'm going to be making the rounds of the inter-tron trying to drum up some interest in the book on various book/reading group sites! Wish me luck!

On Writing

I just finished reading Stephen King's On Writing and I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed the book. It is the first piece of non-fiction that I've read in quite some time. He doled out some excellent advice, some of which I had already been doing (which pleased me greatly) and the autobiographical material was interesting. I never considered myself a huge Stephen King fan, but then, when I sat down and thought about it, I realized that I had  read quite a few of his books in my teen years. I think the first of his books I read was The Shining, then a collection of short stories titled Night Shift. Then I read The Stand. I don't remember if I read any more of his works after that, but I've seen tons of movies and made-for-TV movies based on his work, enjoying most (but not all) of them. So I guess I am a bigger fan than I realized!

As for my book, I am still making tweaks to it. I'm on the third proof version and still found a few things I want to change before I pronounce it ready for the public. Adobe InDesign helped me tame the layout problems and now I'm just tweaking a few sentences my daughter Emily wanted changed. The cover is still giving me a few problems, but I have a handle on what I want to do and it is all coming together. Soon...very soon!

Update on the proof

I received the proof copy for my book on Monday! There were a few problems that I'll have to correct so it's not quite ready for the public yet. The cover turned out very nice and with the exception of the main image being slightly too dark, I am very happy with the look of it! I would put it up against any other book on the bookstore shelf! The interior is another story. For some reason the formatting was very strange with page numbers popping up in strange areas and chapter headings looking off. I've decided to bust out Adobe InDesign (thanks to a recommendation by my editor Jill!) to redo the formatting. I had been using Microsoft Word 2007 and a freeware pdf conversion utility, but I think it will be much easier for me to do this with InDesign (allowing for some time to become familiar with the application!).

In other unrelated news I am going to be launching a second blog soon that will focus on my gaming adventures with my children. We are going to be playing several boardgames and RPG's over the next few months and I wanted to blog about it. The blog is called: Ludious Resurrectio - The Resurrected Gamer  the name reflects my attempts to get back into the sort of gaming I did in my younger years! Mostly RPG's but several boardgames as well! 

So close I can smell it....

The new paperback version of the revised Emily & The Silent King is almost ready. Thanks to a ton of help from a good friend (Jill MacCorkle) I think this is the best version of the book to date. She gave me some excellent (and candid) advice that I put to use in polishing up the book. I really think this version will give me that "it's finally done" feeling and I can put it to rest and concentrate on going back over books two and three (not to mention book four).

I am just waiting on the proof to be delivered to me and then if everything looks good (fingers crossed!) I will be offering it on Amazon and an e-store very soon! I just hope the work I put into the cover picture comes through when it's printed.

I've been working on other things to support the books in my free time (what's that?). Trying to come up with a logo and other images to jazz up the pages. Hopefully I'll get enough free time this weekend to put a dent in that!