Free Serials Coming Soon!

Do you love stories? Books, movies, TV shows, video games; stories in whatever medium are incredible. They give us a chance to escape to a new world, see things from new perspectives, and just enjoy ourselves for a while.

What if you could get stories delivered to your email for free? Not just any stories, but exciting tales of adventure and suspense filled with engaging characters and set in far away worlds.

If that sounds great to you, I’ve got good news! I’m launching two brand new serials soon and the first one will go live tomorrow! These serials will be available here on CrossFireFiction.WordPress.com but they will go out to everyone on my email list a full week early.

The one that will begin tomorrow is “The Howling Wood.” It’s the first serial in the fantasy series, The Samokei Chronicles. You can already read “Everyday,” the first story in this collection, on my website. “The Howling Wood” picks up the story decades later and reveals more about the mysterious myths and legends of Samokei. You’ll follow Thom, a member of an order of woodsmen and trackers known as the Vilka, as he tries to lead a most unusual party safely through the Howling Wood. They’re stalked by a pack of deadly wolves but the greatest danger is something none of them could have ever imagined.

If you want to be the first to read Thom’s story, click here to sign up now!

The next serial will launch on July 6 and it’s set in the same world as my latest novel, The Other Side of Hope. It’s an alternate history in which the global roles of Christianity and Islam have been flipped. If you’re wondering how that could have happened, this serial is for you! It’s set in the months leading up to the Battle of Tours – the day when Charles Martel halted the Muslim advance into Europe. But this time, history won’t unfold the way you remember it. Each month, you’ll get a new chapter in the story of Adrian Bernard, loyal bodyguard of Odo the Great. Odo was the Duke of Aquitaine, a kingdom in modern day southern France, – and long time rival of Charles Martel.

To read Adrian’s story and witness the events that led to the world you find in The Other Side of Hope, click here.

When you sign up, you’ll get to choose which serial you want to receive (both is always an option!). You’ll get one chapter per month from each story. You can always find the serials here on my website as well, but you’ll have to wait an extra week. Trust me, you’re going to want to know what happens next as soon as possible!

The Other Side of Hope is On Sale Now!

The Other Side of Hope is available on Amazon in both paperback and eBook editions! Currently those are two different pages but Amazon assures me they will combined into a single page “within a few days.” We’ll see how that goes.

Either way, you can get whichever version you like now. If you don’t know what The Other Side of Hope is all about yet, you can find some information, including a video, here. You can even read the first two chapters for free right here on my website. Pro-tip, though, you can read all the way to the beginning of Chapter Four by going to Amazon and clicking on the Look Inside button. And once you’re there, you might as well buy a copy, right?

In case you’re still not convinced you want to buy it after watching the video and reading the opening chapters, stay tuned for a giveaway. There will be one coming soon and who can say no to free stuff?

Kickstarter Happening Now!

The time has come! I’ve officially launched the Kickstarter campaign for The Other Side of Hope! There are 25 days and I need to raise a total of $2,500 to fund the publishing and marketing of the book. So head follow that link and pledge now!

If you need more encouragement before clicking though, here’s a few of the rewards I’m offering supporters:

• Advance eBook copy
• Signed paperback copy
• Unpublished prologue set at the point-of-departure for the alternate history
• An illustrated map of the alternate version of the northeastern US
• MP3 of the song used in the promo video
• Ghostwriting/editing services
• Name a character (only 2 left at the time this post is going live!)

So head on over to the Kickstarter and claim your rewards now!

Just a Drop – Interactive Version

Most of you know that my short story, “Just a Drop,” was recently published by Nebular Rift Science Fiction magazine. I’ve also mentioned that I’m working on an interactive version of the same story. The final goal for that project is an iOS app and eBook, both of which will be fully interactive. But, as an intermediate step, I’m releasing an online version… today!

I built the interactive version of “Just a Drop” using a super slick tool called Inklewriter, created by Inkle Studios. If you’ve never heard of Inkle before, click that link and go take a look at some of their stuff. Their work includes interactive versions of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Jules Vern’s Around the World in Eighty Days that you don’t want to miss.

Now that you’re done looking at Inkle, I hope you’re ready for some more interactive fiction. Or, if you’re not sold on interactive fiction and want to try it out before you pay for one of Inkle’s creations, you can take a look at Just a Drop and read/play for free. All I ask is that you leave a comment here and tell me what you think!

You’ll follow the final minutes of Scot, a man sentenced to death in a society where all violent crime warrants capital punishment. But, unlike the original version, this time, you can guide Scot’s decisions along the way. Will Scot quietly accept the fate he’s been taught he deserves? Or will his determination to survive overcome his upbringing and lead him to fight for his life? It’s all up to you!

Kickstarter Campaign Coming!

You already know that I’ve finished the first draft of The Other Side of Hope. I’m currently working on adding some extra material and making some crucial revisions. That won’t take much longer and then I think I’ll be on track to publish in April of this year!

But publishing a book takes money.

People usually assume that self-publishing is the quick, easy, cheap way to publish a book. While that can be true, self-publishing a book the right way takes money. Maybe not huge piles of money but still, money is needed. The biggest reason for this is marketing. I wish that writing a great book was enough to ensure that it would sell. It seems logical, right? Great Book = Best Seller. If only the world made sense…

In reality, lots of great books sit unnoticed while lots of mediocre ones climb the charts. Why? Marketing.

I believe The Other Side of Hope is a great story. One with potential to literally change the world. Bold, I know, but no one has ever accused me of having small dreams. However, it can’t achieve that potential if no one reads it.

I’ve put together an aggressive, but still cost effective, marketing plan that I think will spread the word about The Other Side of Hope. To help pay for that plan, as well as cover design and printing costs, I’m launching a Kickstarter campaign.

For those who don’t know, Kickstarter is a crowd funding website. It’s a place where anyone who wants to raise money for a project or product can tell the world want they want to do and ask for help. It starts with someone like me, with an idea they need money to bring to full reality. I set a fundraising goal, in this case, I’m currently expecting that to be $2,000, then people pledge money to help me meet that goal. I’ve set up a reward structure so that you get different rewards depending on how much money you pledge. If the goal is met within 30 days, the money is sent to me and I use it to pay for that advertising plan, my cover designer, and to get the book printed. If the goal isn’t met, no money changes hands and I have to find another way to make all this happen.

As you’ve probably guessed, I need to tell lots of people about this campaign if I want it to be successful. I’m starting by telling you now, before it launches, so you can already be thinking about helping out. Once it launches (hopefully right at the beginning of February), I’ll announce it here again with a link and start telling everyone I know. And plenty of people I don’t.

This can happen! And it will be awesome when it does.

Just a Drop Published!

As I work my way along the long, slow path to publication, I’ve been posting updates here. Keeping a sort of journal of the journey. Well, today I’m thrilled to share a major step on that path. My short story, “Just a Drop,” has been published in Volume 3, Issue 11 of Nebula Rift Science Fiction Magazine.

Technically, the story has been available since December 18, 2015, but I haven’t been promoting it too widely just yet. That’s because it’s currently only available to those who subscribe to magazine. If you’re interested in subscribing, you can do so on Amazon for $19.99/year. But on January 18, the issue containing my story will be available for individual purchase. Once that happens, I’ll be sure to spread the word a bit more widely, including providing a link here.

Just as a small teaser to get you interested, “Just a Drop,” is set in the future, after a devastating series of world wars. In order to prevent future conflict, the developed nations of the world have banded together in punishing all violent crime with the death penalty. The story follows the final minutes of Scot, a man who was sentenced to death and now must face his fate.

As an additional teaser, I’m also creating an interactive version of “Just a Drop.” No firm release date on it yet, but it’s close enough to say that it’s coming soon. The plan is for the interactive edition to be available both as an eBook on Kindle and an iOS app. Keep checking in for details and a release date in the near future!

Novel Readers!

The time has almost come! The first draft of The Other Side of Hope was completed a few days before Thanksgiving and I expect to be finished with an initial proofreading pass by the end of this week. Once that’s done, it’ll be time for the first round of beta-reading! I know there are at least a few of you who have expressed interest in reading the novel and I hope you’re still looking forward to it.

I’m only looking for a few readers at this point because there is still a good amount of revising to be done before an official release. So if you like reading new books and always find yourself thinking of ways they could be better, I want your help! I’m looking for general feedback on the story and how it flows, as well as the characters and your connection to them. If you come across any technical errors, feel free to point those out as well. I’d really love to hear from some fellow writers and get some great ideas for how I can strengthen the manuscript as a whole.

So if you’re looking for something to read over Christmas break, here it is! Just fill out the form, and tell me what file format you’d like. Do keep in mind that I’m only going to take a few beta-readers now, so this post will be taken down once I’ve gotten all I need.

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Beta Readers for New Short Story

I recently learned about the Neoverse Short Story Writing Competition that Neoglyphic Entertainment is sponsoring. They’re offering cash prizes to the top 10 entries and publishing the top 20. After reading about it, I decided it was too good of an opportunity to pass up.

I’d like to send “Just a Drop,” but since that’s currently being considering for publication at Nebula Rift Magazine, I can’t send it off to a competition as well. Fortunately, I had an idea for another short story that was mostly developed and just needed to be polished off and written. I’ve spent the past week writing that story and have got a draft ready now. So I’m looking for a few beta readers who would like to take a look at it and share their thoughts.

It’s quite short, under 3,000 words, so it won’t take up much of your time. Briefly, it explores questions of fate and self-determination from the perspective of an old man who invented a device that can predict the consequences of one’s actions.

If you’re interested, fill out the form below and I’ll get a copy out to you as soon as I can.

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The Other Side of Hope – A Novel

In 732 A.D., the Frankish and Burgundian forces led by Charles Martel defeated an army of the Umayyad Caliphate led by Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi and halted the Muslim advance into Christian Europe. At least, that’s what happened in the world as you know it.

Step into the world of The Other Side of Hope, where the world as you know it is turned on its head. A world where Charles Martel fell on that field south of Tours, France and was never given his nickname, “The Hammer.” A world where Europe came under Muslim rule and Christianity was eventually forced to flee to the shores of a distant land in search of religious freedom. A land where, without support from European colonial powers, they found only conflict and poverty.

In the modern day, this world remains divided. The wealthy Muslim East and the poverty-stricken Christian West are constantly at odds. A single spark is all it takes to ignite fresh conflict and the cycle seems never-ending.

Follow the paths of Ethan Lewis and Hamid Damir as they are put on a collision course with the other side. Will they find hope for a brighter future or be lost in the despair of intractable conflict?

I’m currently raising funds for the marketing and publishing of The Other Side of Hope at Kickstarter. You can help make this project a reality and get an advance copy of the book by clicking here and pledging your support now.

Check out a preview of the book. Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 are available to read for free now!

How You Pick a Book

As I’m nearing the point of having a completed first draft for The Other Side of Hope, I’m also nearing the point of having to decide what the heck I’m going to do with this thing when it’s done. Of course, there’s still a long road of beta readers, and editing, and editing, and editing, and revising, and editing ahead, but I’d like to have an idea of what comes next.

Through this whole process, I’ve been constantly oscillating between the traditional publishing route and the self-publishing option. Now, there’s even a variation on those choices (introducing more confusion into the mix) where an author can pay to have a book published by the “self-publishing” imprint of a traditional publisher. It seems publishing houses would prefer to have prospective new authors take on the financial risk of publishing a book rather than shouldering that themselves. Fair enough, I suppose, considering the current glut of new books and aspiring authors flooding the world these days. But as one of those authors, I find it annoying. Still, it’s a guaranteed to way to get publishers to at least think about looking at my book…

Anyway, what I’d like to ask you is this: how do you pick a new book to read? Do you go for authors you know? Do you care if it’s self-published or traditional? Do you browse book store shelves or comb through Amazon? Do you look for positive reviews? An eye-catching cover? An intriguing concept?

Approaching it from another angle, what would make you not read a book? Let’s assume it’s in a genre you like, of course. Do negative reviews scare you off? Will a poorly designed cover ensure that you never pick it up/click on the link? If you see it’s from a first time author who went with self-publishing, will you assume it’s low (or at least lower) quality and look elsewhere for something with a more guaranteed pedigree? If  you read the first few pages and aren’t drawn in, will you stop at that?

I’m asking you all of these things in the hope that your answers will shed some light on the decision that’s looming on my horizons. Perhaps looking at it from this angle will give me some new insight that will make the best choice more clear.

Of course, if you have some advice concerning the traditional vs. self-publishing question that you’d like to offer directly, that’s appreciated as well!