Joseph Terzieva
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Author
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added almost 10 years ago
As you may have already guessed, I decided to skip yesterday's blog post due to the hectic nature of my schedule this week. This will also be my last update until Saturday. I've got a fair amount of baking I need to get done today, so I'm going to try to keep this one short.
First, on Exile, Magus. We're currently at 64 copies ordered amongst 60 readers, and have 247 followers. This means that 187 of you haven't ordered yet, and if you all were to that would put us up to 251 ordered which is just over the Quill goal. So, obviously I do hope those of you who have been on the fence or otherwise waiting to order will do so soon since we only have 30 days left in the campaign at this point. Also just in case there is still some confusion(which would have unfortunately been caused by my own confusion), everyone physical copy ordered will be a signed copy.
Now on to try to spread a little book love to a book I can't wait to read.
Sunday, which means more of my recommended books to order(after you've ordered my own of course). Going for 5 again tonight, with a reposting of my reviews for the 4 I reviewed during yesterday's Review-a-thon.
"Cancel the Ark" by Nicholas James West: Opening with a wonderful imagining of prehistory, Nicholas' writing immediately hooks you. From this opening scene we are taken to a future with which the past we have just witnessed is about to catch up in a most perilous manner. With well written characters and an excellent pace, this story never lets the hook release so that you remain eager to see what happens next.
"Storm of Fury" by Andrew Wood: A wonderfully immersive example of what epic fantasy should be. Whether describing the fury of a divinely created storm, the horrible nature of monsters and titans, or the love of pastries shared by a father and son who are soldiers by trade, Andrew does so in a fast paced yet highly detailed manner. It will leave you wanting to know more about what are both highly developed characters and a highly detailed world. I can't wait to read the entire book.
"Seven Shards: The Colors of Wine" by C. Brennecke: I can't help but be fascinated by the world presented here. The societal structure and seven cultures seem to have a depth that is only just scratched in the excerpts presented here, a fact which leaves me hungry for more. Add that to this book's diverse cast of well developed characters as well as its excellent narration, and this becomes a must read for me.
"Daughter of the Mara" by Alex Bittner: What if you were freed from a life of instutionalization only to discover that you where what many would consider to be a monster? This is the question which rolls around in my head when I read the excerpts for this book. Beyond that, I'm always excited to see little known demons/dark gods being used in new and interesting ways, which Alex does well with wonderfully horrific descriptions of the nightmares such a thing entails. I can't wait to get even more of a look into the mind of Jay, and find out just where her fate is taking her.
"Captain" by Artie Sievers: Immersion at its finest. To me the hardest of the 5 senses to make a reader experience is smell, but Artie shows with his opening that he is capable of even that. I now feel that I have actually walked amid the bustle and stench that was a port in Hook's time. Add to that his superb characterization and you have another addition to my own must read list.
Unless my count is off you have until 1/10 to order Cancel the Ark, 1/16 for Storm of Fury, 1/23 for Seven Shards: The Colors of Wine, 1/30 for Daughter of the Mara, and 2/3 for Captain. Don't wait until the last minute for any project you're interested in though.
Thanks for your time, and hopefully I can figure out what I plan to post on my blog by Tuesday. Enjoy your week, only one more update before we're officially at holiday time.
Listening to the post Review-a-thon livestream now. It was a good day overall, even if it did nearly destroy my hands. Only got about 1/3 of the way through my list of books I wanted to review today at 9 reviews posted. In the interest of keeping this update brief, I'll post up the links below, and let you go to the book page to read the reviews if you're interested.
Anabelle's Dream and Other Stories by A.R. Patterson
Captain by Artie Sievers
Daughter of the Mara by Alex Bittner
Dax Harrison by Tony Valdez
Deus Hex Machina by Amanda Orneck
Feyside by Peter Birdsall
Seven Shards: The Colors of Wine by C. Brenneke
She is the End by A.C. Weston
Storm of Fury by Andrew Wood
Finally, we didn't hit the threshold for me to start posting Chapter 6 of Exile, Magus, so instead I'll be posting Chapter 1 section 3 of Exile, Hunted. Definite spoiler concerning Palkaz in this one, and to a lesser extend Pentaz and Talari(you haven't met her yet in the current early Exile, Magus chapters).
Thanks for your time and support. I need to rest my poor, swollen hands now.
Thursday update time.
First off a reminder that the Review-a-thon is Saturday, only two days away. I'm going to make every effort to be a very active participant and hopefully you will as well. 
As for the book campaign, it is progressing though still more slowly than I would like but orders and followers are still coming in so I certainly can't complain.
Saturday after the Review-a-thon I will be releasing adding new content to either the Exile, Magus or Exile, Hunted page. I have been enjoying the release method I'm using for Exile, Hunted, and it gave me an idea on how to continue releasing more of Exile, Magus. Instead of waiting for large milestones in order to release whole Chapters, I will now instead release by sections of those Chapters. For every 10 orders or 20 follows I will release a new section. At this point that means that at 70 orders or 250 follows I will release the first section of Chapter 6, at 80 orders or 270 follows I will release the second section, and so on.
Also, there's been some good talk going on in John Robin's Epic Fantasy Syndicate. The first book we support will be chosen 1/15. We really would like to get as many epic fantasy lovers on board as possible so that our syndicate can support more epic fantasy books with promise.
Here is the link to the syndicate: https://www.inkshares.com/syndicates/john-robin-s-epic-fantasy-syndicate
If you like this idea but don't want to commit financially, you can still support us by becoming an affiliate. We have a Goodreads group you can join where we discuss books on Inkshares, as well as ways to get the word out about our syndicate. You can join the syndicate at any time, but there's numerous ways you can help us, and plus, it's just plain fun for epic fantasy enthusiasts to come together and chat about what we love!
Here's the link to the Goodreads group: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/177754-john-robin-s-epic-fantasy-syndicate
That's all I've really got for this week. Once again, thanks for all of your support, keep reading,recommending, and enjoying.
Its Tuesday and that means another blog post. This time I'm giving you a peek both into another continent on Pentaz' world which has been cut off by a jagged wall of sky high fire from the rest of the world since the Demon Gods' Invasion, and just how horrible a writer I was in high school. Its a narrative poem I wrote in high school and have never once got around to editing and polishing. All of the links in this update lead you to it. Read it and laugh at how awful I used to be, then be thankful I got better.
Time for another book recommendation Sunday. I'm speeding it up to 5 books this time, mainly because my procrastination on starting this weekly update has led to quite a few of the books getting really close to their funding end date before I could get around to them. While I didn't intend it this way, this week sort of puts on display one of the earliest genres that attracted me to storytelling - science fiction. My fantasy geekdom may be more often on display nowadays, but I'm still a complete sci-fi geek as well. I'm a bit of a Trekkie, Brown Coat, and Whovian(my first love of the three was Trek and without it I may not have moved on to the others). My sci-fi fandom goes far beyond that though, with an especial love for the particularly cheesy bits(did I hear someone say Ice Pirates?).
Enough of me geeking out over my own geek though, the point was that 4 of the 5 books this week are science fiction. Without further ado I'll get on with it. As always the links to the books are embedded within the titles, and links to the author pages are embedded in the author's names. After all 5 books I'll briefly list the funding time remaining on each.
"The Continuing Adventures of Starbuck McClaw" by Jen Elizabeth Rose: I love this premise, and the prologue's delivery keeps me chuckling every time I see it. To better sum it up though I'm just going to quote from near the prologue's end.
"That is where I will let the story begin, but before I do, here here are some important facts to know:
1. Mummies are mostly from Egypt. They are dead people, very well preserved because of many chemicals, the dry Egyptian climate, and also wrapping them in cloth.
2. Mummies do not have any organs. This includes the brain.
3. A Brain is pretty essential for storing memories and thoughts and things like that.
4. The shrouded figure/young man in a lab coat is named is Steve."
"Dax Harrison" by Tony Valdez: I think this one does a great job of showing off both the shiny hull and the dirty outskirts of its universe. Plus I've always been a bit of a sucker for a captain who's at least a bit of a ne'er do well. The narrative also does a good job of changing just enough depending of the focal character to reflect that character's personality beyond relying solely on the character's actions, creating a story that has us learning about the character's through nuance as well as words and actions. To me this always serves to draw me in further, since it is the same way we naturally interact with and learn about each other. Read it and you'll both see what I'm talking about, and I suspect you'll also greatly enjoy yourself.
"Feyside" by Peter Birdsall: The one fantasy book on this week's list. I must say I find myself getting lost in this one's descriptions, which for me is a good thing. The narrative paints such vivid imagery of both the settings and the characters(beyond merely the physical) that you can't help but be absorbed into the sight of as well as by the personality of each. Beyond this the excerpts currently up do a grand job of presenting the magic of the Fae in the manner I most often think of it(both grandiose and subtle at the same time), and interjecting that magic into the otherwise ordinary world(whether rustic logging camp or prosperous trade town) in a way that only increase the effect of wonder. Again, read it, enjoy it, and order it if you're even half as enchanted by this one as I am.
"She is the End" by A.C. Weston: I may sound repetive here, but once again great use of narrative to describe both setting and characters vividly. You'll hear variations on those points often from me because honestly the two things I enjoy most about reading are being drawn into a new world to explore and being able to study well-written/interesting/unique characters. I suppose that's why sci-fi and fantasy have always been my favorite genres, because in my experience they deliver the most interesting/unique/breathtaking new worlds and characters to submerge myself in. The excerpts from this book exemplify both points, and it does it in a manner which is also wonderfully fast paced. Writing scenes that both flow at a breakneck speed and provide you with enough details to fully draw you in is(to me anyway) one of the hardest things to do, and A.C. seems to do it with complete ease. Read it and see.
"Ghosts of War" by Paul Robinson: Okay, I'm going force myself to not be repetive over my enjoyment of narrative here, but its true of this one as well. It also does a good job of flowing as a fast pace, which shouldn't be surprising since it follows a group that I like to think of as "Delta Force or Navy Seals in Space". Don't get the wrong idea from my cheesy description though, its not just a blow-em-up action flick style of story. You do get character development and drama, which again is one of the main reasons I typically take the time to read a story. Ultimately as with all good books, this one's own words show itself to be a good book far better than my words ever could. So, as always, I have to suggest you read it for yourself and see.
Since I'm posting this one so late, I'll tell you how many days there are for each as of tomorrow. There's 9 days left on the funding for "The Continuing Adventures of Starbuck McClaw", 12 days left for "Dax Harrison", 18 days left for "Feyside", 22 days left for "She is the End", and 27 days for "Ghosts of War". I know I've somewhat broken my own guideline laid down last week of focusing on books that haven't met the Quill goal yet by including 2 that have hit that goal in this week's recommendations, but they were just too good to not recommend them.
Thanks for your time, and I promise to be on time with my blog post on Tuesday.
Just a quick correction to my own misunderstanding which may have led some of you to the same misunderstanding. Thankfully today I have had it pointed out to me that everyone who orders a physical copy of the book gets a signed copy even if it is only under the smaller Quill publishing goal, so now I get to come up with a new reward. I'm horrible at this though, so I'm hoping everyone will come by my Facebook page(link embedded) and just tell me what you would want as a reward. If its something I can feasibly do, then I will work towards making it happen after we have reached either funding goal.
Also, I have just posted up the next section of Book 2(Exile, Hunted) Chapter 1. Check it out at this link(about the same amount of spoilers as the last section really). Enjoy!
