The Skin Walker War

Hello all you beautiful people.

2017 has been a long, hard road, both personally and in general, but it has also been a year marked by firsts. For me, it was the first time I've ever earned a degree, so I can't say 2017 was all bad.

I also want to try something new, writing-wise, and I thought maybe you'd like to join in on that.

I'll be launching a new series soon, as you might already know. But before I put the first book up for sale, I thought I'd allow people to take a look at an uncorrected, advance copy for free:

Now in order to make this manageable for me, I'm going to put in a few guidelines:

• You'll get a pdf copy (also offering kindle and epub files would get pretty hairy for me)
• I can't offer any tech support: the only thing I have going for me, where technology is concerned, is the fact that I have opposable thumbs
• Only Prayers in Steel, the first book, is ready at the moment. The rest will follow. I'll let you know when, don't worry. If things go well, I might do the same deal for the other two books. 
• You're under no obligation to leave reviews, though of course you're welcome to
• You're under no obligation to tell all your friends and family about this awesome new book, but I can't stop you if you choose to
• Let's not upload these to any pirate sites, hmmm-kay?
• If you would like an advance copy, you'll need to email me at mcclungmike@yahoo.com with the subject line GIMME. I'll reply with a pdf attachment of the book
• If you're not subscribed to my newsletter and would like to be, be sure to mention that. 
• If you're not subscribed to my newsletter and don't want to be, there's no need to say anything -- I wouldn't add you without your permission
• I'm gonna put a deadline of Christmas Eve on this, because I hope to have the book available for sale before the new year

...and that's it! 

I hope you and yours have a wonderful holiday season, and meet the new year refreshed and full of hope.

mm

Welcome, December

I am sitting at a coffee shop in Da Nang, Vietnam. It's a gray sky, blustery, with a thin drizzle coming down -- just enough to make the roads slick and put that squinty-eyed frown of distaste on everybody's face. You know the one I mean.

I'm going through revisions for Prayers in Steel (this blog post is my reward for finishing up a chapter that's taken me two and a half days). I'm drinking iced coffee and smoking a cigarette. I tried to quit yesterday, and made everybody hate me, so I'm gonna have to rethink my approach on that one. Cold turkey is hard when you have to be human around humans. I have to quit, one way or another. Just.. not today.

But about those revisions, about that book:

Prayers in Steel was originally conceived as a series of novellas. It was my attempt at serialized fiction. I did publish it, or rather two episodes of it, in an earlier and far different form (Blood Tempered and Weaving Steel, for the curious). The sales were dismal, and the story (as much as I liked and still like it) had problems -- the biggest problems being I've never told a big, multiple point of view story before, and that I was trying to tell an epic story in a sword and sorcery fashion.

You see, sword and sorcery as a sub-genre does not linger; it rushes through the plot all fire and fury and blood. (If you've read my Amra Thetys, series, that's sword and sorcery, tempered with a healthy dose of noir detective sensibilities.) I've been writing this sort of story for years, and so whenever I stop to smell the roses in a story, I feel like I'm cheating.

Epic fantasy is different. Multiple points of view are different.

I am in the process of revising in order to let the reader stop and smell the roses, so to speak. It's really hard, people. When you get into a writing groove, when you develop a style, it takes real effort to do something different and new. I hope, once it's finished, you find the effort worth it, because I really like these characters, and their world. As messed up as they are, and it is.

This will be a trilogy - Prayers in Steel, An Unclean Strength, and Armor of Faith. I'll keep you updated.