Awful Intent: Jan 26 update

Curse of a Dark God ends with a big, BIG battle. I’ve been working on it for a number of weeks now. It contains some large revelations, a lot of action, movement back and forth between four points of view, and the need for a number of people to act heroically. When I finished writing today it was 25,573 words long and I still have one more chapter to go. I don’t think I’ve written any single action sequence this long. To put this in perspective, a normal adult novel is 90,000-110,000 words long. Young adult novels average 50,000 – 70,000 words. This one sequence is a quarter to half the size of many other novels! It’s been quite a task, but I’m happy to have the end in sight. I really think readers are going to enjoy it.

I do have a little bit of other good news that I’m excited to share, but I’ll have to wait until papers are signed.

Happiness!

Curse of a Dark God, book 2 of the Dark God series, can now be published!

That’s the short version.

Here’s the long version that will probably not be what you expect.  A little over nine months ago I initiated a contract termination with my publisher Tor Books.  A few days ago Tor reverted the rights. This means I have all the rights to all the books in the series back.

But why would I initiate such a thing? Tor’s like THE publisher of science fiction and fantasy.

There are a couple of factors, but I think the biggest issue is that we had differences in our vision for the story. This meant there were things I didn’t like about where the project was going and how it was progressing. It also meant there were things Tor didn’t like about the project and how it was progressing. This translated into some big delays. 

We could have hung together–Tor never raised the idea of termination. But I saw no benefit in limping along. If things aren’t working, I tend to want them fixed. So after I raised the issue, all involved agreed that a termination of the agreement would be the best option.

And although all of us were disappointed it didn’t work out, this was an amicable parting. Tor went to bat for me with Macmillan, their overlord, to get this thing done. And we ended up with, I feel, a fair agreement. Of course, my agent was a valuable resource every step of the way.

I don’t look at these last years as a loss. The series was introduced to thousands of readers. And I learned a number of valuable things about the business and craft working on this project with the folks at Tor. We’re farther along now that we were, even if we didn’t take the rocket ship to the stars.

Most importantly, the good news is that for those of you who have been waiting, I can now move forward! The series will be published by Blacksword Books, my own imprint. We’ll start with e-book and trade paperback formats. Both will be available online from Amazon, Barnes&Noble, and other retailers. Once that’s rolling, we’ll look to see if audio is feasible.

I’m very excited about CURSE. My agent loved it. I loved it. My early readers have loved it. I think all of you who enjoyed SERVANT will enjoy this just as much if not more.

Mokad is coming.  And bringing all its might to root out and obliterate the sleth in the New Lands.  And they’re not alone.  You’re going to meet a Guardian of awesome and cunning power who leads Mokad ‘s dreadmen army.  You’re going to meet the Dogmen of Toth.  And sleth who have rallied to Argoth’s call.  And a fearsome ally who lives in the Wilds.  All the main characters are back with Sugar and Talen learning new magic, facing new creatures, and discovering unsettling insights into what’s really going on.

I love this book. I can’t wait to get it into your hands.

But there’s a lot to do to get it out the door.

I need to make some edits to SERVANT. There are a number of maddening typos that crept into the manuscript. I’ll also be changing the sequence of the first eight chapters back to my original sequence, starting with Sugar and Legs and then moving to Talen. I know some readers like the sequence my Tor editors requested that starts the book with Talen sitting around in his under pants, but I structured it for him to follow Sugar for specific reasons, and starting with Talen undermines a number of those things. Finally, because I don’t have a word limit, I’m going to be adding some clarity to the ending that wasn’t in the Tor version. I also need to make some revisions to the last draft of CURSE, which has been done for almost two years, and then put it through a rigorous copy edit. And then there’s cover design, interior formatting for the print versions, and the publishing part.

So lots of work. But I think it’s going to be worth it. At the very least I will satisfy the young woman, soon to be a mother, dining at a pizza place I went to this last week who told me she loved SERVANT, thought it was awesome, and was angry at me because there’s no book two!

I’ll post a schedule soon. My hope is to have both books up sometime in August.

Oh, and when they do come out, please know that both the e-book and trade paper versions will be on sale for two weeks.  I’m going to put SERVANT on for a massive discount so those of you wanting the author’s cut can get it cheap. I don’t want you to have to buy the book twice at full price. And I’m going to put CURSE on sale as well because those of you who have stuck with me deserve a reward.  

Then it’s on to DARK GOD’S GLORY which I’ve already completed the working outline for. There might be another book in the same world about a team of fell-maidens (the female version of dreadmen) given a difficult task. And then there’s a whole other series—different world, different awesome magic—waiting in the wings. The first one in that series is tentatively titled LORD OF BONES.

Get zinged, Baby!  The Dark God is back in action.