Howdy! It’s with great pleasure and excitement that I reveal, at long last, the real cover for Bane of All Things!

But wait, there’s more!

As I have noted before, Bane of All Things is meant to be the first of four books. I have finally landed on a title for the series – A Silence of Worlds. (I will dig into the meaning behind that in a future update.)

Now, about this cover

It’s been a long time coming, this cover reveal – decades, even. I’ve had plenty of ideas over the years of what could be the cover for this story, drifting between a particular tense action scene, or some dramatic posing of my main characters.

When cover designer Tim Barber of Dissect Designs asked me about it a few months back, I sent him a pile of ideas and descriptions. He wanted to avoid the overused fantasy cover concepts that crowd the shelf. But still, it had to be true to the story.

Tim further brainstormed with Inkshares CEO Adam Gomolin and Deputy Publicity Manager Noah Broyles, who will be driving the book’s launch and who has, of course, read it.

“I was basically grilling Noah about what he would see if he was holding the book in his hands,” Tim told me. “He described rocks at the edge of water, a fortress/castle at the edge. Cold, but not snow. An unforgiving place. To me, this is how I pictured what he described. When I showed it to him his reaction was, ‘Yes, that’s it, that’s what I saw.’”

That scene is found in Chapter Three, where our two main characters, Ryn and Josalind, arrive at their destination – Dragon’s Claw Abbey. I asked Noah why he considered this particular image so powerful. 

It’s all about atmosphere

“The arrival at Dragon’s Claw Abbey was potent for me in terms of both the striking imagery and what it meant for the characters,” Noah said. “I imagine the reality of being a convict is no more vivid than when you first come in sight of your prison. This place is not only the end of the world as far as civilization is concerned, but also the end of the world for Ryn and Josalind. Or so they think.”

It’s a foggy morning in that scene, not a stormy night, but Tim’s fantastic design captures the scope and atmosphere of the story as a whole. There is a storm coming. What Ryn and Josalind don’t yet realize when they first set eyes on Dragon’s Claw is that it’s already begun.

What’s next?

The awesome Avalon Radys, Inkshares’ Director of Editorial and Publishing Operations, will start sending out ARCs – Advance Reader Copies. These go to reviewers and established authors to build advance buzz and net (hopefully) favourable reviews for Goodreads, Amazon and so on before Release Day. We also want to bag a strong quote from a known name in the fantasy genre to add to the cover.

I can’t wait until November when the final product will be in your hands! 

(P.S.: Noah has a novel of his own coming out in September, The House of Dust, a southern gothic horror described by one reviewer as being “full of nightmarish imagery wrapped in elegant prose.”)

Cheers

Leo

Happy Sunday!

Just a quick update on how things are going ahead of Bane of All Things’  release.

I am finalizing the manuscript with the copy editor. A copy editor scrutinizes the manuscript for the niggly things related to punctuation, American vs. Canadian spelling, and consistency with a style guide (like The Chicago Manual of Style). They are also a last pair of fresh eyes to catch things that may still be unclear to a reader or details that may be inconsistent from one end of the story to the other (like details of a character’s appearance).

The manuscript will go next to the interior designer. They will turn the manuscript from a Word doc into a stylish layout and file format ready to become an e-book and sent to the printer for the trade paperback edition.

For the cover of the book, that falls to Tim Barber of Dissect Designs, who has done a number of fantastic covers for Inkshares. I look forward to when I can share with you the real cover and that do-it-yourself placeholder down below can finally be retired.

There will be lots more work to do in the months that remain before launch day. Advance promotion is critical – this will include distribution of ARCs (advance reader copies) to generate reviews on sites like Goodreads before Nov. 9. The hope, of course, is that the reception from these advance readers will be generally positive—they get an advance copy of the book for free in exchange for an honest review.

Taking time to reflect

I found myself rather reflective this morning on the long road to get to this point.

I landed the deal with Inkshares for Bane of All Things on May 1, 2019. That’s just three years and two months after I began writing the first draft in March 2016.

That could be considered fast, especially for a debut author. On the other hand, I first started working on this idea in 1999! Two other failed versions of this story – two other full-length novels – came before. 

Over those years, I worked on other stories that might also be published someday. But I kept coming back to this one, determined to unlock its mysteries. Figuring out the best way to tell a strong and engaging story is the most difficult and the most rewarding thing that’s within my ability to do. I am compelled to do it.

While Bane of All Things was a completely fresh start from those two previous efforts – think of it like the recent Planet of the Apes reboots versus the original movies of the ‘70s – it did benefit from an already established foundation. This world and these characters were already entrenched in my mind and that made a big difference. There is absolute truth in the saying that every overnight success was years (even decades) in the making.

It remains to be seen if Bane of All Things will be a success. But no matter what happens, I remain grateful and humbled that you chose to be part of the adventure with me.

Stay safe and keep reading!

Cheers

Leo

OK, folks, this is the news I have been waiting to share for … well, more pandemic-plagued months than I care to count: 

Bane of All Things will publish on Nov. 9, 2021!

That means you will finally have your copy, or copies, for Christmas (depending, of course, on the cooperation of the postal service, if that involves print copies).

Nov. 9 is months later than it might have otherwise been without COVID, but a month or two sooner than we thought it might be a couple of weeks ago. Thanks to the dedicated efforts of Avalon Radys, Noah Broyles and the rest of the Inkshares team, the train has left the station.

You can already see the placeholder for BoAT with its ISBN numbers here on Amazon.ca (it should be showing up on Amazon.com at any time). You have no idea how much I have anticipated the day when I could point you to that!

Sometime soon, we will get into layout and cover design. The next big milestone will be the cover reveal. The current cover is of course just a placeholder whipped up by yours truly with an Adobe Stock image.

I’ve said it many times before but can never say it enough – thank you to each and every one of you. None of this would have been possible without your support and patience.

Stay safe and keep reading!

Cheers

Leo

Good day! For all of you who so generously pre-ordered Bane of All Things those many moons ago, this update is for you. (If you did already hear from me earlier today about the sequel, The Crucible Tree, this is a whole different update.)

First, I want to again thank you for being so patient. Getting BoAT into your hands has taken far longer than I had hoped. COVID-19 is the principal culprit.

What’s happening now?

At present, BoAT is off to copy edit – its last nitpicking round of editing.

As I am writing this, Avalon Radys, Inkshares’ Director of Editorial & Publishing Operations, has emailed me a tip sheet to fill out. A tip sheet is one of the essential marketing pieces for a book. We will see how my notes compare to hers.

Cover design will be next – I can’t wait to see how this goes and who will be the cover artist! When it is ready, you will be the first to see. (That cover below which you have become so accustomed to is just a placeholder by me using an Adobe Stock image.)

So, what does this mean for you?

I had hoped by now to provide a firm release date you could mark on your calendar. I can’t yet, but I will soon – the Inkshares’ team is making that determination right now. 

What I can say is that we are now aiming for a December-January release window. 

I know, that seems a looong way off. Trust me when I say I feel your pain – I live it. On the other hand, that gives us plenty of time to get this done right – to ensure a jaw-dropping cover design and make sure those reviewers and bookstore buyers are suitably wooed and wowed. Build as much advance buzz and anticipation as possible.

Why the delayed release?

As I have said before, the past year has been good for established authors as people do more reading while under quarantine lockdown. For new authors who are not yet established, the disruption of the publishing industry and the impact on brick-and-mortar retail made it a not-so-good time to release a first book.

For these reasons, Inkshares choose to delay most of the titles it had planned to release through the last half of 2020 and the first half of 2021.

But the end is in sight. Inkshares is ramping up for a slew of new releases through the latter half of this year.

Inkshares’ sales and marketing team wants to avoid rushing this backlog of releases out the door too fast. They want to make sure that every new title, including mine, gets its fair share of marketing and promotion. I can’t argue with that.

Meanwhile, I continue to work away on revisions to the next book in the series, The Crucible Tree. If you haven’t yet checked it out, you can find and Follow it here.

Thank you again for making all this possible. I truly hope you will be pleased with the result and satisfied that the wait was worth it.

Stay safe and keep reading!

Cheers

Leo

Howdy! How is this holiday season shaping up for you and yours?

In our house, circumstances have prompted gift shopping to be already done in record time, pending a few more doorstep deliveries. (A gift for my wife has a delivery window as late as Dec. 23 – should I worry?)

I want to thank everyone who has so far taken the time to support me in Inkshare’s new All-Genre Manuscript Contest, which I introduced in my last update.

If you haven’t done so, please do! I am competing against 100+ other entries and it’s getting interesting.

My contest entry is The Crucible Tree, book 2 in what I plan to be a four-book series. You can check it out at https://www.inkshares.com/books/the-crucible-tree

Remember, this contest is not a pre-order campaign like before with Bane of All Things. It is the first time that Inkshares is running a contest that is scored on social engagement metrics only.

All you need to do is:

1.     Visit the above link

2.     Sign in to Inkshares as you did before (You may need a password reset – easy to do)

3.     Then click to Follow The Crucible Tree (It may not stick if you click Follow then sign in, without clicking Follow again)

4.     You can also help boost me up the contest standings if you read my sample chapters and post a Review

This contest is an opportunity to promote my work ahead of next summer’s release of Bane of All Things. New authors can easily become one-book wonders if their first book doesn’t sell well. Anything you can do now to support me in this contest could help me be more successful down the road.

(FYI: If you visit the Leaderboard for this contest and wonder, “Why in heck is The Crucible Tree so far down the list?”, be aware that the public ranking algorithm doesn’t reflect the actual metrics that matter in this particular contest.)

On the cancer front, I have just passed the halfway point in my one year of gene therapy. Been a few bumps along the way, but I appear to have achieved a ceasefire with the couple of side effects that were troublesome. Onward and upward!

Again, thank you for all your patience and support. Have a great holiday season and keep safe.

Cheers

Leo

Howdy! I hope this finds you well. 

I have entered The Crucible Tree, the sequel to Bane of All Things, into a new contest that my publisher, Inkshares, has just launched.

To help me win the contest, all you need to do is visit The Crucible Tree’s page and click Follow at https://www.inkshares.com/books/the-crucible-tree.

That’s it. Just follow. This contest is about community engagement, not pre-orders. 

What else can you do to help boost The Crucible Tree in the contest standings?

·      Post a Review or Recommend: I have posted sample chapters for your reading pleasure.

·      Share: Through Facebook, Twitter or by email to a friend.

If you already have followed The Crucible Tree, thank you very much. You are helping me to realize a dream I have been chasing since high school, to not just publish one novel, but to become a career author.

How does this contest work?

Inkshares will shortlist books for publication based on their level of community engagement. This is all about total number of Follows, Likes, Reviews and Shares.

Inkshares’ editorial board will then make final choices on which books to accept in the spring. (You can learn more about the contest and see the other entries here.)

So, why am I in this contest if Inkshares is already my publisher?

Bane of All Things is already pending publication next summer – it was entirely thanks to you that Inkshares agreed to publish it. (As noted in prior updates, we have the pandemic to thank for the delayed release.)

But … landing one deal for one book is no guarantee that your next book will be picked up, too. Book publishing is a business – publishers need to see a return on their investment. The great thing about Inkshares is that it doesn’t only look at dollars and cents – grass roots support is important, too.

This contest helps build buzz!!!

This contest gives me the opportunity to attract more attention to Bane of All Things ahead of its launch and earn The Crucible Tree some advance interest and attention, too. All of this will help Bane of All Things be a success when it hits store shelves and pave the way for the whole series to continue (it will be four books, BTW).

All you have to do to help make this happen is go and follow The Crucible Tree. And if you could get a couple of friends and family on board, too, that would be awesome.

Thank you again for all your patience and support. I truly hope you will find the same pleasurable escape in reading this story that I have found in writing it.

Cheers

Leo

Howdy, folks. As things continue to move along with Bane of All Things (BoAT), I have something new for you – the first look at the next book in the series, The Crucible Tree (TCT).

Please check it out at https://www.inkshares.com/books/the-crucible-tree and be sure to click that FOLLOW button!

Now, this second book is in “Draft Mode.” I am not yet taking pre-orders. That will come later – like when BoAT is actually available and headed your way. And as I said in my last update, that is likely next summer as we wait for the world of book retail and promotion to return to some semblance of normal.

In the meantime, I continue to work away and keep the dream alive, eager to share more of this story. At the link above, you will find sample chapters to read. These have been carefully selected to A) avoid spoilers for Bane of All Things, and, B) avoid as much as possible dropping you into the middle of something with no clue what’s going on. 

So, please check it out, give it a comment on the REVIEWS tab, and click that FOLLOW button. The more reviews and followers TCT has, even in Draft Mode, the more attention it will draw from other users on the Inkshares platform.

Accessing your log-in

Now, it may have been many moons since you last logged into your Inkshares account, and you have to be logged in to follow or post a review. If you have any issue, it can usually be fixed with a password reset – click the FORGOT PASSWORD link.

This is obvious and easy to do on a desktop. But if you are visiting on a mobile device – tablet or smartphone – you may have log-in issues such as being told your password is wrong or your email is already in use. Even if it’s not obvious, the real issue, and the fix, is again to request a password reset.

If you still have a problem, you can contact hello@inkshares.com for support.

That’s all for now. As always, thank you again for your continued patience and support!

Stay safe and be kind.

-       Leo 

Howdy, folks. Hard to believe it’s been almost three months since my last update. This summer has vanished way too fast. I hope you are all staying safe and keeping as well as you can.

The Good News: Bane of All Things is almost ready to go to copy editing.

The Bad News: In The World that Was, this would have meant we were about seven months from a publication date – the day BoAT would be on bookstore shelves and up for purchase online. And most importantly – in your hands. But alas, we are stuck with The World That Is. Because of that, we are looking at a publication date in the summer or fall of 2021.

“Why is that, Leo?” you ask.

In short, it sucks right now to be trying to publish a first novel from a debut author with a reasonable hope of a successful launch. “Successful” being a mercenary measurement of how many books we actually sell in a particular period of time. 

I of course don’t want to just publish a book – I want to build a career as an author. And publishing a first book under circumstances where it isn’t likely to do well is a surefire way to sabotage that.

“But aren’t people stuck at home and reading more right now?” 

Yes, but the books that are doing best are generally the ones available from established authors…and anything about Trump.

Bookstores across the U.S. are still operating with skeleton crews and curbside pickup. The usual machinery of book promotion and launch is stuck in low gear and many people have been laid off (I mean across the industry, not at Inkshares – in fact, Inkshares just hired a new chief operating officer away from The Onion, but that’s another story).

These impacts of the pandemic on book retail and book promotion works against first-time authors like me most of all.

So in the interests of giving BoAT the best possible chance to do well, and me as an author to do well, the prudent course is to aim for that time frame a year or so from now, when we hopefully have a vaccine and the world is returning to some semblance of normal.

“So, what are you doing in the meantime?”

I’m glad you asked. Since we have the time to spare, we are doing some final additional tweaks to BoAT. This is all my idea. In fact, on our call last night, Inkshare’s CEO Adam Gomolin said he thought the book was in a quite strong place and we could just push it into copy editing now. But I figured we’ve got the time, so may as well use it.

In case you’re wondering, all the revision and tweaking up till now is what’s considered “developmental editing.” Copy editing is the real brass tacks nit-picky spelling and grammar stuff. BoAT is already pretty clean, so I wouldn’t expect that a lot of work of this sort remains.

But wait, there’s more!

BoAT is intended as the first of four books. I am just completing a second draft of Book 2 – The Crucible Tree. By the time BoAT does publish, the odds are good I will have already completed a first draft of Book 3 – tentatively titled Throne of Souls. Or maybe I will pick up where I left off a couple of years ago with the revamp of something entirely different – my post-apocalyptic weird western novel. We’ll see.

And on the cancer front

I continue to chug along – four months down, eight to go with my gene therapy meds. At present only mild side effects from the meds. Otherwise, doing well.

That’s all for now. As always, stay safe and be kind.