And here we have what (may) wind up being the final cover for The Children of the Forest. There are two other pieces en route, but I’m especially in love with this one. 

Greetings! Continuing in the theme of my vampire post a few weeks back, I’m going to bring you some Western Esotericism today.

Magical occultism that was highly popular during the early nineteenth century and the driving force behind the magical rules system in the world of The Seventh Age. 

Don’t worry. I’m only going to give you 3 fun facts about it. 

1. L.W. Delaurence (1868-1938) was one of the great tricksters who preyed on the rich. Conning publishing houses into printing books with his name listed as the author and selling door to door pamphlets on hypnotism. Curiously, he founded a Chicago occult society called "The Order of the Black Rose" which worshiped a cigar store Indian.  This allowed him to smuggle in occult supplies for US shipping from Jamaica. Without tax evasion, many hoodoo and other poor occult sects would of died off. 
2. If you want a masters degree in Hermetisicm, regarded as one of the highest arcane spell casting and sorceries in the world, you need only go to the University of Amsterdamn. As of 2008 they offer official programs.
3. Occultism and the rich have always had a love affair. Their parties and association with Freemasons, The Order of the Golden Dawn, and other bodies continue to this day. But one of the most infamous is the 1972 Rothschild Party. I’ve attached some pictures for you. 

Illuminati Ball 1

Illuminati Ball 2

Illuminati Ball 3.... this is the table setting!?

Inspiration for The Seventh Age is taken heavily from these occult societies and their oddities in the shadows. A future update will focus on the other side of the fence: The anarchists. 

Are you there Inkshares? It’s me, Tony.

I totally thought I sent this out last night, but it didn’t go through, I think. 

We have reached Quill! 

Dear friends

I’m writing to you from beautiful but, currently, cold Chile. Unfortunately, I had to travel here responding to an unexpected family emergency, but even when dealing with difficult times, visiting my country and my family is a blessing.

We are four months away from the release of The Catcher’s Trap and Inkshares has officially started the marketing efforts to promote the book. The Catcher has been pitched to media outlets, a couple of interviews have been scheduled, and the release party is being planned. All exciting news. Even more exciting, the fact that this is only the beginning.

As for the first official The Catcher’s Trap event, if you are in the mood for meeting a hard-working new author, come and meet me at the CT HorrorFest on August 27th, at The Matrix Conference Center in Danbury, CT. I will be there sharing advance copies of the book and paving the road for an epic release on November 8th.

More info here.

Finally, don’t forget I’m participating in the current Nerdist Contest as part of an amazing anthology with 14 other, talented and creative authors. Check out our project and get your copy of this collection of short stories.

Too Many Controllers

Have a fantastic weekend.

Greetings friends... today we have some excellent content for you to slice through while you await the season finale of Game of Thrones. 

First up: My final copy edited chapter 1. While the entire book is done, I’m only putting up chapter one for you guys to read. If you want to have some literary fun and compare the old chapter 1 vs the copy and proof edited version I’ve made it easy. 

Click HERE for the old one. 

Click HERE for the NEW FINAL SUPER AWESOME one. 

When you are done, feel free to leave a review. Consider it practice for when I start showing up at your houses begging you to leave other reviews on Amazon or Goodreads in November. 

Next: We cleared the milestone mark of 1k! I did an interview with Chris Irvin (Author of Wrestletown) for his blog HERE. Finally, Publishers Weekly has listed The Seventh Age (Gotta scroll down a bit, but I made the list!)

I’m waiting on some final artwork before I begin the raffles, so I’ve decided to leave it open. Anyone who preorders a copy of The Seventh Age before I get my final demon hunter kit ready for raffle and the art needed will be eligible. (Thinking early July).

Greetings everyone!

It’s been a while and I have some news for you guys.

First of all, I’m not dead and are just trying to juggle work and daily life alongside my goal of someday getting this book out there. Yes, I’m still working on making the book better and have officially called the first draft to an end.

Thus far, due to the fact that I no longer have to deal with the stress known as crowdfunding, I had got my stuff together and started the second draft and started to rewrite the story so that it make sense and sound less like it written with the ’visionary’ ideals of an eight-year-old ("Action! Explosion! Globetrotting! Boom!"). 

Though the overall plot and ending remained unchanged, the journey starting from chapter 4 onwards are going to radically different from the first draft as many unneccessary characters and shoddy scenes are going to be cut; and bad puns are no exceptions either. 

I plan to finish draft two within the next two months and decide on whether to submit it to the publishing companies that I had spent hours reasearching or publish it myself. So, with the help of a clear goal in mind and a much more detailed outline this time around, I shall give self-doubt and procrastination the finger. 

Until then,

Yicheng Liu.