It’s been a while, but….

I haven’t posted on here for almost a year, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been busy.

What’s Next?

With Cloaks: Book 2: The Reds now available on both Barnes & Noble.com and Amazon.com as ebooks, what’s next for me?

Well, as the end of book 2 shows, the adventure continues in book 3, which I have all outlined with the prologue written and most of chapter 1 done. I’m flushing out details for new characters and how readers will be reintroduced to the players, but my biggest obstacle right now is getting motivated to write.

I’ve started a new job which drains my excitement and energy, so it’s hard to come home and write or write before heading into work. I plan to work on that, and I hope it gets easier once I fall into my new routine. As for my days off, I should be able to get even more done, and I’m confident once I get the story going, I’ll have no trouble keeping it up. Only time will tell, and I’ll try to keep everyone posted.

If you haven’t read either of the Cloaks books, head over to the Stories page to find links and excerpts of the book. Feel free to also check out my past short stories (some as short as 300 words) and some fan fiction. Have a great week everybody

Cloaks: Book 2: The Reds Now Available on B&N too

Cloaks: Book 2: The Reds is now available on Barnes & Noble.com as an ebook! On Saturday, I mentioned the ebook was available on Amazon.com and Kindle, and you can find the links here. Feel free to stop by The Reds page to read a brief excerpt and find links to both Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Enjoy the story, and let me know what you think when you finish it, good, bad, or indifferent.

Cloaks: Book 2: The Reds Now Available!

Now available on Amazon.com, Cloaks: Book 2: The Reds! I’m still waiting for it to finish processing on Barnes & Noble, and I’ll update this post when it is available. The ebook is available currently for $1.99, and can be read on an ebook reader like the Nook and Kindle, or read through Amazon’s app on a computer, which can be found on their website.

The story in The Reds follows Kylis Lawson as he travels to Tergoha to apologize for his king following the events of book one, The Royals. Our hero witnesses the destruction and torment war has brought to the kingdom, and with a renewed push from the invading Fuerzans from the south, will Kylis be able to deliver his messages and return safely to Rhinia or not?

Production has already begun on book 3, so be sure to visit back here and let me know what you think of this newest release.

Latest Goal’s Status

My goal, according to the box under my picture to the right, was to have my final read through of Cloaks: Book 2: The Reds done by today, but that didn’t happen for a frustrating and now peculiar reason.

Cloaks: Book 2: The Reds Excerpt Now Online

Now available online for your enjoyment is an excerpt from Cloaks: Book 2: The Reds, which you can view here! I was going to post the first two chapters like I did with The Royals, but I decided instead to go with this little bit of action instead. I’m over halfway through my final read through with only a few changes here and there, so I’m still on track to have it available soon. Enjoy, everyone!

New Blurbs for Both Cloaks Books

As I draw closer to releasing Cloaks: Book 2: The Reds, I’ve updated the blurb for not only that book, but also for my first one, Cloaks: Book 1: The Royals. You can check them out at the links above, but I’ve included The Reds’ blurb below. By the end of the week, I’ll also have excerpts from book 2 up to wet anyone’s appetite Have a good Tuesday everyone!

Cloaks, the masters of magic, distinguished by the colors of their cloaks. The Reds, who draw through emotions; the Illusionists, who draw through knowledge; the Directs, who draw straight from magic; the Thasos, who draw through plants and animals; the Healers, who draw through human beings; and the Royals, who rule the kingdoms of Mantau. All cloaks, divided by their philosophies, must work together as a new threat emerges.

Kylis Lawson aided his kingdom of Rhinia in repelling a small invasion force from Fuerza, much to the appreciation of his king, King James Rhine. Now, while King James prepares for an all-out war with Fuerza, he must make amends with his allies whom he alienated before the truth of an assassination attempt on the Fuerzan king could be discovered. As the hero of the Battle of Sherila, Kylis leads two cloaks and his best friend into the neighboring kingdom of Tergoha to make peace with the Red Cloaks Council, the leaders of all Reds in Mantau, and King Xaver, the monarch of the kingdom.

But the trip isn’t at all easy as Kylis prepares for his first true diplomatic mission. He must also avoid an invading Fuerzan army, which has been attacking all of the residents of Tergoha for about two years. Kylis soon discovers more about war than his history lessons could ever teach him, and he learns more about cloaks and their conflicts with each other.

And lurking, where Kylis and his new team least expect it, are hidden dangers, whose existence brings the likelihood of Kylis’s mission’s success in question.

Project Update

Last week, I set a deadline for myself to read through Cloaks: Book 2: The Reds once more. This time around, I planned to read it aloud to hopefully catch more errors and improve any poor dialogue. But with six chapters to go, I fear I’ll be a bit late on achieving that goal.

The most chapters I got through in a single day were four, which was one chapter short of my overly ambitious goal one day, but it turned out not to be that overly ambitious once I got close to it.

Hopefully I’ll get three chapters done today and three tomorrow, and after another quick read through a couple days later, I’ll have the second book available in ebook format on Barnes & Noble.com, Amazon.com, and other ebook distributing websites through Smashwords.com soon.

Until then, if you haven’t checked out Cloaks: Book 1: The Royals yet, you can read it for the new low price of $1.99 on your knidle or nook, or through free downloadable apps from Barnes & Noble and Amazon. Have a great weekend, everybody!

Another Round of Revisions Done (And Ahead of Schedule!)

Last night, I completed another round of revisions for Cloaks: Book 2: The Reds, refusing to got to bed until it was done (and I’m feeling that now). The story lost about a thousand words after I removed whole paragraphs at a time and reworded sentences to make them active and not passive. I also expanded and added a few scenes, but nothing major.

So where does that leave me? While doing these last few revisions and some brainstorming this morning, I’ll likely start writing more of Cloaks Book 3. The chapter breakdown is done, and for a while now, complete scenes have been playing through my head, wanting nothing more than to be finalized in print. I’ll only work on it today before reading through The Reds again tomorrow, and I’ll also give my beta readers a bit more time to read through it before receiving feedback.

As I read through book 2 again, I’ll be doing so vocally, which I suspect will help me catch more mistakes and lead to more revisions, but I hope those are few and far between. If anything, by reading each line of dialogue in character, I’ll probably find more ways to bring the new characters to life, increasing how much I enjoyed writing a couple of them in this book.

I’ll also be rewriting the second book’s synopsis, expanding on it and the first one to give readers a better idea of what each story is about. A mistake I realize now that I didn’t back in March is that the series is called Cloaks, but neither synopsis says much, if anything, about them. I’ve got ideas on how to address that, and you’ll all see what I mean when I post the new ones.

That’s all for now; time to get back to work

Cloaks: Book 2: The Reds Cover Revealed

For your viewing pleasure, I present the cover to Cloaks: Book 2: The Reds. Special thanks goes out to my brother who helped me capture the image and insert the text.

In The Reds, Kylis Lawson journeys to the kingdom of Tergoha to make amends for his king, King James, following the events of book 1 (available now!). Kylis (and readers alike) are thrown into the middle of the Fuerza/Tergoha war, featuring more battles, more revelations, and, most importantly of all, more cloaks!

My goal is to have the book available in June (July at the latest), but until then, check out The Royals on Amazon.com or Barnes & Noble.com and get caught up. Enjoy!