With only 19 days remaining in my campaign, it is crunch time for certain. If you haven't ordered Storm of Fury yet, please, please consider doing so now! If you're having doubts about this book, check out what some of the critics are saying about Storm of Fury:

"A wonderfully immersive example of what epic fantasy should be. Whether describing the fury of a divinely created storm, the horror of monsters and titans, or the love of pastries shared by father and son soldiers it does so in a fast paced but highly detailed way. 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." -Thomas J. Arnold, author of Exile, Magus

"Excellent world-building, great characters, a strong voice, and an engaging story make this one of the best Fantasy epics currently available on Inkshares! Highly recommended for any and all fans of the genre." -Bryon Gillan, Author of Children of the Forest

"Well-written and intricate, this book puts the Epic in Epic Fantasy. The characters leap off the page, you feel the power of Fury, and each sentence is a skillfully crafted masterpiece that makes this book a contestant in fantasy for well-known works like Eragon and The Belgariad." -Tabi Card, author of Scribbles

"The world Andrew Wood takes us to with this story is superb and believable. It's a tough act to establish a storm as an antagonist, but Wood does a great job of creating real extensions of this storm that give it a tangible, menacing presence, a la George R. R. Martin's White Walkers or Jordan's Myrdraal. In fact, the mood and tone very much conjured the familiar world of Wheel of Time, where instead of a dark one we have a menacing storm that is just as terrifying. This is fine epic fantasy and I very much hope to see this book in print so I can read it in its entirety." -John Robin, author of Blood Dawn

"Storm of Fury has a gripping beginning and an awe-inspiring setting . A young man must face god's fury unleashed on mankind in the form of a supernatural storm with nothing more than a bow and arrow and his courage and faith. The author's writing is reminiscent of a young Brandon Sanderson, especially his Way of Kings series. A good book for both adults and younger readers. If this were on the shelf of my bookstore, I would buy it." -Lisa Shumaker

A huge thank you to these great people who have supported my book and left behind such kind words. (I strongly recommend that you take a look at their work as well; its fantastic literature!) And also a massive thanks to those of you who already ordered Storm of Fury! 

Please, consider ordering Storm of Fury very soon. We're over halfway there and we can't stop now!

Continuing to run a day late. First up, I'd like to remind everyone that we're now down to only 25 days left in my own funding period, so hopefully you'll preorder my book before then.  On that point I'm going to start modifying my recommendations slightly to highlight some of my favorite reviews posted for Exile, Magus.  Without further ado, here's my Sunday recommendations on this Monday day (links embedded in titles and author names as always).

"Exile, Magus" by Me:  I couldn't recommend ordering this more... okay, so I'm horrible at self-promotion.  Instead I'll post up my favorite review, this one from John Robin, author of Blood Dawn - "Exile, Magus, brings out the grand voice of high fantasy. Thomas Arnold brings together echos of Gulliver's Travels, Terry Pratchet, and Tolkien with his witty, scholarly narrative voice, strange races with strange names, and sense of a rigorously-thought-out world. I expect from what I read to enter something amusing, thoughtful, and intriguing all at once!"

"Annabelle's Dream and Other Stories" by A.R. Patterson: Simply an amazing powerful narrative. It succeeds in not only drawing you into the events Annabelle experiences, but also into her psyche and emotional turmoil as she endures them.

"The Children of the Forest" by Byron Gillan: With a riveting action sequence for an opener, The Children of the Forest quickly draws you into a world of airships and legends of wolf-riders. In the first four chapters currently up you get an enticing glimpse into what is obviously fully developed world and its varying cultures, as well as those who people it. The writing style engrosses you in both the characters and the world, so much so that I'm impatient to read the full book.

"Prophecy of the Stars" by Melissa Berg: I love the amount of depth given to characters in such a short time. Add to that what appears to be a highly developed mythology/structure of this world's magic as well as a very engaging narrative style, and Prophecy of the Stars quickly becomes another must read for me.

I have finally caught up a bit on my recommendations(which is why I slowed to only 3 this time), with all of the above having ending dates in February if my math is correct(except for my own which ends on 1/22). Even though you have two months or more on all of these, you shouldn't delay if you're interested. That's all I've got for recommendations today. Now I'm going to return to trying to figure out what I want tomorrow's blog post to be about. Long fiction is easy, I tend to get such writer's block only when it comes time to figure out to write short things. Enjoy the rest of your day, and hopefully you'll be hearing from me about my blog post tomorrow.

My Fellow Machiners!

A fair Monday morning greeting to each of you! We are closing in on the new year and the final two (and change) weeks of the Sword & Laser contest!

We aimed for 100 readers by Sunday and did that first thing this morning! Pretty amazing. So thank you very very much to each one of you who has thought, "yeah, how about this story - not bad, not bad at all - let's get this one into the bookstores." 

I will follow-up in the next day or so once another exciting raffle has occurred for this great milestone.

And finally, though we have held onto 2nd place for the last couple of weeks and remain in the catbird seat, we are not satisfied! People get nipped at the tape all the time. Or as the New York football Giants learned repeatedly this year, leading until the last minute of the 4th quarter counts for bupkis in the win column. So, if you haven't told your best friend or significant other to grab their copy too, please do! 

Thanks so much for the wonderful support!

Happy Monday Hexers!

I have lots of news, so I'll get right to it:

First of all, my new book trailer for Deus Hex Machina is up on the funding page, so make sure you check it out.  To go along with it I have officially launched DeusHexMachina.com, which was created by my talented husband.

Thirdly, I am incredibly excited to tell you I got the chance to interview inventor and technology guru Timble Ada. He's one of the fathers of something called "perceptual computing," which seems like it might someday lead to something like the Grid in DHM. Click on over to my blog to check it out! 

We're very close to our next giveaway mark -- 60 orders, so if you know anyone who would enjoy a rolicking cyberpunk adventure, be sure to send them our way!

Have a wonderful Monday and a great week!

Good Monday readers

Blood Dawn is DONE!