Bomoki's Gate Free for Unlimited readers. It's 554 pgs. Sadly, I don't yet control paperback pricing, which is $18.99. The Kindle edition is $4.99.
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Createspace keeps generating blank pages in the last 100 pages of Bomoki's Gate. It's killing me. In their process, you upload a file and then wait for about 30 hours for them to "approve" it. That process generates the final book file. My original submission did not have a random blank page. This is the 5th time I've tried to solve this. It's none of the obvious things like jacked up section breaks. This last time, I wrote extra content to fill this. There is no apparent reason, even in the doc code, that suggests why this is happening. Editing is hard. First off, it's hard to see your own blind gaps. Test readers help and I want to call out the following people: Brian M, Mark F, Ben D, and Tony R. In a draft, I end up with so much mark up over 100s of pages and 10s of 1000s of words that I look at it and go, "Ugh." Like this demon in the picture (not my art; thank you Google search), Bomoki's Gate was always right there teasing me. "Come on," it'd say. "Come sit down, grab a drink. Start this editing for real." I woke up at 5 am this morning and 7 hours later, I've finished the last 100 pages and incorporated notes from the test reader group. I'm exhausted. But, I thought I'd share some of my own learnings, for the curious and for other writers. When I first started the indie publishing process, I wanted to do it correctly. I scanned a few "How to Indie Publish" books and found them all lacking. Most had titles like, "How to Publish in 17 Minutes". Amazon was the worst noting you can publish in just 5 minutes. Copyright setup took about 2 hours. Submission about 25 minutes. Confirmation and payment, 10 minutes. Waiting for this to come through took 9.5 months. This scene shows Malcor facing Cor'tanos, the Shadow Dragon Patriarch from outside the flow of Time. The artist, Darko/Paganus, did a great job on all main aspects. As an author, I have very rigid ideas about how these characters look but with the art, I give scene suggestions and let the artist do their thing. In the Dragon Wars, where Tiamat separated from Bahamut - which also split the metallic and chromatic dragons - Cor'tanos refused to pledge to either. He led the shadow dragons down the flow of Time to see where it ended. They found the end, which they named the Gates of Oblivion, what everyone else named the Realm of Shadow. For thousands of years, the red dragon patriarch Alerius watched over a small group of barbarian tribes. He believed, and experimented to prove, that they could be molded as a society and culture to worship Tiamat (the goddess' kinder avatar) and Takhissis (her war avatar). Consumed with just surviving, Alerius had to increase their survivability while molding their worship of him towards having enough intelligence and wisdom to recognize that Tiamat stood behind Alerius as the real god. She was always there. Meet Finn. The first, as far as I know, 13 year old boy to read Dar Tania. Courtesy of his mom, Em, they were kind enough to post a review on Kindle. I did not intend for Forsaken Isles stories for a Young Adult audience. But, because I began playing and reading fantasy when I was 8, it makes sense to me that there would be imaginative youth out there with a rich inner world in their mind's eye. There is a certain set of fantasy tropes I have put a lot of effort into avoiding... and they predominate YA writing.
Some trope examples: - An unassuming/immature teen whose only redeeming quality is a sense of wonder OR frustration with something about their life - Secondary characters who have it all figured out and keep the main character firmly on the rails of the plot - Villains obsessed with some hidden "special something" that only the main character has; this is a way to prolong the reveal as a plot twist. It creates a climax long before the actual climax ...and then Amazon's review algorithm noted that the mother had friended me on Facebook and decided to not allow the review to stand. On December 8, 2016, Malcor's Story went live as an eBook and Paperback. I really want to get control of the paperback pricing because the price is just too much. I'd ideally want this around $8, not $18.
https://www.amazon.com/Malcors-Story-Eric-K-Barnum-ebook/dp/B01MYXCBGT/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1481502125&sr=8-1&keywords=malcor%27s Today, the USA did not elect the Libertarian Party. I'll deal with it somehow. Maybe next go around the LP will select someone that does not appear stoned in all media interviews?
In spite of this, my illustrator pulled through on an awesome cover design for the 3rd book. It almost makes me want to redo the cover to Dar Tania and Malcor's Story! Most people think of Lancelot or the various Knights of the Round Table. However, our myths are riddled with almost-paladins; warriors who fought for divine belief and received special powers because of it. When the world ends, the paladins will survive. I have no doubt of it. No one can endure impossible odds and suffering and retain the disposition required to survive and carry through with solely honor and integrity; something else is required.
In a fantasy world, one with magic and gods, I challenged myself to create a world that allowed for both. After all, how many stories are told where there are both and yet, magic trumps the gods? In this world, a paladin is rare breed of fighter who fights by faith, inspiration, and revelation. Where a normal fighter relies on their skill, training, and experience, the paladin takes this an extra step further and says, "I've trained. I've developed skills. I'm going to take to the next level and allow the divine to guide my hand, to use me as a tool to achieve divine ends." This results in a lot of straightforward fighting, but also takes the paladin off the straight course of hack, slash, and chop chop chop to victory. While paladins have certain powers, part of paladin training is to strengthen defenses against other deities and magic in general while opening themselves to their own god's power. God by god, the requirements for a paladin differ as does the type of inspiration a paladin receives in combat. A paladin of good will be energized when battling an evil foe, however if that evil foe is in opposition to the particular god served by the paladin, they will be inspired and guided to win. Going up against a skilled warrior is terrifying. Going up against a divinely inspired paladin is beyond terrifying. Tania recognizes multiple orders of paladins, each tasked with certain objectives. These orders are, at the highest level: Elemental and Tactical. The tactical orders are organized around protecting valued assets as follows:
Elemental orders are named by their element and have objectives that align with them. While they are all generally equal, their purpose and use by Tania is:
Late Friday evening, 9/29/16, I logged into CreateSpace and finalized Dar Tania. From there, I next went to Amazon Kindle Publishing and spent 45 minutes finalizing everything and hitting the various approvals to activate it. It's a bit surreal when something you've worked on this long is suddenly subject to public scrutiny. Lacking a publisher, I had little thought that this would immediately become a runaway success. Still, within 5 days, 17 people - of which only 9 were friends and family - had picked Dar Tania up. Surreal does not adequately describe that experience.
One of my goals with all my writing is to have strong female leads that are real. Dar Tania, I hope comes across as a strong female lead and I sought to have her reactions be in line with her character. Going from someone known within a tribe to comrades with what you had always believed was your god, to having a direct responsibility with an actual goddess... I wanted her to be real. Behind all of this, you have a millennial eugenics program to create a culture that accepts certain things not just as faith, but as "this is how it is and always has been". It's a powerful culture, but one that does not bend easily. I got an email from one of the readers about "strong female leads". I can't promise that all my writing with have strong female leads, but they will be there. With Malcor's Story almost done, I can tell you that there are strong females, but they are not the lead characters. The 3rd book - Bomoki's Gate - will more directly feature characters like Seline - a female paladin of the Order of Fire, Ayden - a myrmidon officer, and Dar Ana - high priestess of the Temple At Bloodstone. |
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