But now I have news! Several pieces of news, in fact, so I'm going to share those with all of you.
First, an update on the writing front. I am about halfway through the first draft of Son of Thunder's sequel(Working title is Lightning's Chosen) I'm very happy with where the book's going, and initial feedback from early readers is positive.
Interested in maybe reading some of that goodness early? Well, I have some news that might interest you a little later in this post.
Next up: SPFBO! Don't know what that is? That's okay, I'm gonna tell you.
As that banner states, it's The Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off. The blog-off, as that banner suggests, involves 300 fantasy novels and 10 book review blogs. Each blog gets 30 books. In the first round 290 books will be eliminated from the competition. Each blogger gets to pick one from their batch of 30 to send to the finals. Then the other 9 blogs read that finalist and all ten books are reviewed by all ten blogs. The book with the highest overall score is deemed the winner. What does the winner get you ask? Well, beyond prestige and the chance to be reviewed by 10 bloggers(Which is actually a huge deal) they get this.
I was lucky enough to get both Fixer and Son of Thunder into the competition this year. I have absolutely no expectation of winning. I am up against some damn good writers. I strongly encourage everyone to check out the awesome lineup of books and blogs. Maybe add some to your own to be read piles?
I'm stoked to see what happens this year, and regardless of how quickly I'm knocked out of the running, I'm excited to follow along and read my share of the other entries. A lot of them are already sitting on my kindle and waiting for me when I have time, and I have a feeling a lot more of them might be added here pretty soon.
What I'm really trying to say here is: Maybe buy some books? You'd make someone's day. Trust me.
I have one more announcement. This one feels kinda weird to talk about, but I'm just gonna lay it all out there for you guys. You may have noticed a new addition to the site. That little button on the right there that says, "Become a patron?" Well, if you know what that means, you know that I have a Patreon page now.
For those that might not know what that means: Patreon is a way for creators to receive support from their fans. Said fans have the option of pledging to pay x-dollars every month as a way of helping out the creator. It's a way for creators to gain that much more financial stability doing what they love. For me it means the chance of spending more time writing instead of whatever it is I'm supposed to do at work everyday.
Of course, this support doesn't come without rewards. In fact, if you didn't get something for your patronage, there'd be no point, right? For $1 a month you get early access to any blog posts for this site, as well as Patreon exclusive posts. I've posted the first one already. It's a detailed post about the different mages that exist in the world of Son of Thunder. At the $5 tier you get early access to my current projects. That means full chapters and scenes from whatever project I am currently working on. And, if you're feeling really generous, the $25 tier gets everything from the other two, plus free ebooks every time I release something new, and the ability to vote on what my next project should be.
Now, of course, I'm not going to be offended if you can't support me. I don't want anyone to think I'm begging. If you've bought my book and told your friends, you've done the most amazing thing anyone can do for a writer. Only thing better would be leaving a review.(hint hint)
But if you want to join me on this crazy journey, if you want to help me live that dream, or even if you just want early access to cool stuff, I would be eternally grateful. I will even name a child after you. Not mine, that would be weird, but some kid somewhere. Probably a fictional one... That's a nice gesture, right?
