The Necromancer’s Lair

It’s been a long time since I announced a new publication.

But that’s what I’m doing today.

🙂

I wrote The Necromancer’s Tower as my 4th Quarter entry to this year’s Writers of the Future contest.  That is, in itself, a funny story.  Well, sort of funny.  The 4th quarter in the WotF contest ends 30 September, which coincides with the Federal government’s fiscal year.  I’m sure it’s just a coincidence.  Anyway, there I was, just 3 months ago, approaching the deadline.  It was September 30th, early morning.  And I had just crossed 16,000 words in the story.

And I knew I was screwed.

Because the WotF limit is 17,000 words, and I was going to go over, and I did not have the time to start and finish another story before the deadline.  Well well, what should I do?

I’m not sure what I should have done.  What I did is chop the story to the shortest ending I could manage and submit it.  Final word count came to just over 16,900 words.  It was within the limits, so what the hell?  Go for it!

Of course I knew I would not fare very well with the story, since the ending ended up being so abrupt.  So when the results from WotF came back last week with a flat-out rejection, I was neither surprised nor disappointed.  In fact, I was a bit elated.  Because I know this is a great story that just needed a proper ending to make it worthy.  So after getting some feedback from a friend about it, I re-wrote the ending.  Or rather, I added parts into the ending that I didn’t put in originally, because I had run out of room and time.  But now time and room is not a factor, so…

The Necromancer’s Lair is now complete.  And up for sale!

I have to say, not only is Necromancer a great story but it is, I think, the best cover I’ve ever made.  Of course I can’t claim all the credit for the cover.  This time, I solicited advice from friends, the Oregon Writer’s Network (if you don’t know OWN, it’s an email and yahoo group for writers who have participated in Dean and Kris‘ workshops in Oregon), and the Kindleboards.  They all gave some great feedback on my earlier iterations (no I don’t intend to show them), and pointed me toward better art and fonts.  Which led me to….this:

Necromancer

I think this cover kicks some serious arse.  But then, I could be deluded.  🙂

Anyway, The Necromancer’s Lair is now live on Amazon Kindle, for $2.99.

A vile Necromancer has been harassing the populace: raiding graves and accosting the living until they all live in fear. And so Lord Hadley posted a bounty – 500 crowns and a title to whomever can rid the land of the Necromancer’s blight.

Many have attempted to penetrate the Necromancer’s Lair.

None have returned.

Gareth intends to change that. Along with his sworn man, Hatherle, he takes up the Lord’s mission. But the Necromancer is master of the dead, and his servants are many and fearsome. It will take all of Gareth’s skill and courage to enter the Necromancer’s Lair, and even that may not be enough to bring victory.

Sounds great, right?

Yes, I said it’s just up on Amazon.  At least for now.  You see, I decided to try KDP Select out again.  You may recall I tried KDP-S out last December, with So You Want To Be A Dragon Slayer… .  I had limited success.  Well I’ve thought about it and realized I had a very limited backlist when I tried promoting with Dragon last year.  And I did not have Dragon linking to any other books, either.

Well this time, I included the first two chapters of Glimmer Vale at the back of Necromancer, with links to this site, my mailing list (and seriously why have you people not signed up for my mailing list yet?  Git ‘r done here, will ya?), and links to buy Glimmer Vale and my other books.  So maybe it will work out better.  At the least maybe it gets me a bit more visibility.  Even if it doesn’t, it’s only 90 days.  And no matter what, I’ll be taking Necromancer global at the end of the 90 day period.  So really, what can it hurt?

So yeah…go check out Necromancer.  I think you’ll like it.  🙂

And Merry Christmas!

Cheers!