The Madness of ‘The Bells’

The fifth episode of the final season of Game of Thrones brought rioting from its fans. I’ma talk about it. As if you didn’t already know, spoilers ahead.

The scene was set thusly: The Iron Fleet is burning. The city’s gates are breached. The dozens of scorpions that line the city’s walls have been reduced to ash and splinters by the creature they were designed to kill. The allied troops of the Mother of Dragons are within the walls of the city, though not yet the Red Keep, where Cersei stands looking out, stone-faced and in denial.

Dany, atop Drogon, is perched on a tower, looking down at her troops facing off with Cersei’s. The opposition drops their swords, an unmistakable sign of surrender. Then the bells begin to ring out across the city, an established signal to all and sundry that the city as a whole is capitulating. In a word, Daenerys Stormborn has won. All that remains is mopping up the Red Keep, doing a dracarys on Cersei, and giving the Iron Throne a good disinfecting.

It is then and only then, in a wordless and commendable moment of the actor’s craft, that we see in Dany’s eyes rage and hate overwhelm her. Really, it’s a brilliant bit of acting on Emilia Clark’s part. Unfortunately, it’s also completely undeserved in terms of her character’s arc.

Some people disagree. They point to all the many harsh and bloody things Daenerys has done in her struggle for power. They tote up the body count, as if every death was equal, and equally heinous. They are not; not in fiction and not in real life. If they were, every soldier would be a war criminal. Whatever your beliefs about violence and nonviolence, the world has come to a general agreement that, even in war, there are actions that are too inhuman to countenance. We call them war crimes, and when the stars align, we punish them as such.

But let us put modern, real world notions of war atrocities aside. Let us look solely at the previous actions of the Mother of Dragons. She crucified slavers in the hundreds, and burned others of them alive. She looked on as her husband killed her abusive brother, the rightful Targaryen heir, in an exceptionally brutal fashion. She burned to death a powerful witch who killed her husband and unborn child, making her barren in the process. She locked another powerful, treacherous lord away in a lightless cell, there to die of thirst and starvation. She killed a powerful, thieving sorcerer. She burned the collected leaders of the Dothraki when they were going to imprison her. She burned two noblemen who took up arms against her to death, because they refused to bend the knee. She executed by means of dragon fire lord Varys, for the crime of treason. And of course countless enemy soldiers and sailors have died by her hand or at her orders.

In short, if you are powerful and/or belligerent and oppose her, maybe don’t make long-range plans.

But do you know who she’s never killed, or had killed? Peasants. Commoners. Children. The powerless. People who have not threatened, harmed, or taken up arms against her.

In nearly eight seasons, she has shown exactly who she is – a ruthless, powerful woman who will fight to her dying breath to reclaim what she sees as her birth right. But she has also known and shown what lines she was not willing to cross.

Let’s go back to Dany, perched on Drogon atop that wall. The bells are ringing. King’s Landing is prostrate before her. Her enemy, the one who beheaded her close advisor days before, is about thirty seconds away as the dragon flies, waiting to get dracarysed.

And so Dany decides she’s gonna torch the defenceless, surrendered city, with her troops still inside it, instead of flapping straight to the Red Keep – which holds Cersei and any remaining troops willing to fight for her, and the iron throne. Why torch the town first?

Because fuck those filthy peasants, I guess.

The truth is, we know why. The showrunners decided that Jon and Dany had to go at it in the last episode. That’s all. That’s it. That’s the only reason. They tried to backpedal the character in the last season, putting her on an ‘I saved you all, why don’t you love me? The brown people loved me when I saved them!’ jag – with tasteless overtones of jilted lover sprinkled on top for added flavor – that was somehow supposed to prepare the ground for what she did in King’s Landing.

It didn’t. Most fans weren’t fooled or satisfied, because for six plus seasons they watched Dany grow into who she was. And it wasn’t that. It wasn’t perfect, mind you – but it definitely wasn’t that. The Bells required Dany to not only be insane, but stupid. To burn what she had already won. To delay destroying her worst enemy for the sake of murdering a city full of nobodies.

‘But she wants them to fear her!’ I hear the Game of Thrones writer’s room cry out. ‘She can’t have love like in Meereen, so all that’s left is fear!’

Except she’s got a fucking dragon and the living already fear her, and the dead fear nothing, and Dany is not stupid enough to not understand either of these points.

‘But she’s craaaazy now!’ that same writer’s room bleats. ‘She snapped! There’s no accounting for craaaazy!’

Except there is. There was a way to show Dany deciding to finish off her dear old dad’s bucket list item of roasting King’s Landing, a way that, while unsatisfying, would at least have made a grudging sort of sense. If she had destroyed the Red Keep first, and then some dumbfuck commoner had pelted her with horse dung while she was giving her liberation speech, I might have reluctantly swallowed the ensuing incineration. It would have been at least tenuously supported by her character development.

But that’s not what happened.

The Bells, and indeed the entire seventh and eighth season, has displayed other instances where the decision was made to prioritize plot expedience over established character development, but none were as unearned and unforgivable as those few, wordless seconds showing a woman atop a dragon deciding to destroy what she had just conquered.

The Bells should serve as a reminder for every writer that your plot needs to be true to your characters. If it’s not, we’re watching or reading about puppets, not people – and even Pinocchio wanted to be a real boy.

Shoutout to the Goodest Boy.

Notes from the trenches #1

It's hard to give crunchy updates, ones that can objectively measure progress on a novel. The most obvious one is word count, and it is a useful measure, of course; a book is a collection of words, after all, and the more of them there are in a draft, the closer it likely is to being finished. Currently Amra 5 is sitting at just over 11,000 words. Averaging the other Amra books, we'd get a word count of just over 70,000 words, which give you an indication of sorts. But as I get older, I get fatter, and my books might suffer the same fate.

Sadly, word counts can also be deceptive. They might not be the right words, and until a writer (ok, me) hits the flow, it's entirely possible that the word count can go down as well as up. There are approximately 80,000 wrong words, all told, from the previous scrapped drafts of Amra 5, after all.

But let's pretend that these words are definitely golden. Going by the average word counts of the previous Amra books, that means we're approximately 1/7th of the way home. In what is a good sign, last night I had a fairly brain-bending idea about the ending that I think will make it more powerful than what I'd plotted, and when I woke up this morning, it was the first thing I thought about after 'gotta pee gotta pee gotta pee'. That's always a good sign.

Thus endeth the update. The rest is just blathering.

* * *

I mentioned flow somewhere up above, and I think I should explain what I mean by it. Basically I mean being in the zone - when I've got energized focus on the book and I'm feeling fully immersed in the story and I'm perfectly confident about what's happening as I write. It doesn't mean speed or continuous effort; I've always been the kind of writer that works in bursts. But it's a feeling that what you're doing, the story you're telling, isn't arbitrary but rather inevitable. A is followed by B is followed by C, and you don't have to give it much conscious thought. It's not effortless; I've never experienced an effortless writing session. Never. But it's more like cutting grass with a power mower, and less like cutting grass with the scissors they give you in kindergarten so you don't accidentally cut Jimmy's finger off. Or maybe not so accidentally. Jimmy was a little shit.

Anyway, a book doesn't have to be written that way, not even by me. But it sure helps.

My problem is that I've always written by what I think of as the flashlight method - meaning I don't need to have the whole plot mapped out, just a beginning and an end, maybe two or three oomph scenes, and then just far enough ahead of wherever I am in the process to get to the next scene or two. In other words, the plot is mostly in darkness, but I've got this flashlight that makes sure I don't fall into a pit or off the side of a cliff.

Most of the time it has worked well enough. I like it because it means I get surprised, and if I get surprised while writing, then there's a good chance that the reader gets surprised while reading. Sure, it's a little bit dangerous, but it has worked well enough for me.

Until Amra 5.

I mentioned that I've had to re-teach myself how to plot. For this book, at least, my old method just hasn't worked. I won't bore you with the details, but after months of struggling, I finally came to the conclusion that I had to plot this book to a much greater degree than I had anything else I've written. Not because the plot was substantially more intricate than any other Amra book, but because I kept writing in the wrong direction, realizing it only when I was deep, deep in the weeds.

Why? Because this is the fifth book in a series that's probably going to be a dozen or so books long. Flashlight plotting works for a standalone, or even a trilogy. I am here to inform you that it doesn't cut it for stories much bigger than that. You have to balance the needs of the individual book against the trajectory of the series, while keeping in mind all that has gone before. You'd need a bigger brain than was given to me, to do that on the fly.

Let's just say I now have some sympathy for the later books in the Wheel of Time series, and for George Martin. That shit ain't easy to balance properly. It's very tempting indeed to descend into minor plot points and just sort of... hang out there, where things aren't so crazy and messy. And then call it deep characterization/world building instead of fear and avoidance. You even get to point to the swelling word count and say 'but I'm making progress! This book is progressing!'

Well, your word count is. Your plot...

This, by the way, was a consistent issue with the trashed versions of Amra 5. Not the only one, by any stretch, but a recurring one. It's one I am trying very hard to avoid in the latest.

* * *

On a final note, I want to thank you folks who have left comments of support. I haven't responded individually; but it's not because I don't care. My personalized flavor of anxiety makes it very difficult for me to interact for periods of time, is all. I turn into a hermit. I withdraw. I'm, uh, working on it, but it might take me a while longer to get back to being sociable. It was worse when I was younger; at least I'm not dumping my phone into the toilet because notifications have brought on an anxiety/panic attack. I ask for your indulgence.

*nervous chuckle* will be the title of my memoir

Hey, everybody. Long time no talk, yeah? *nervous chuckle*

So, um, I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas, whether you celebrate or not, and I hope that the very rapidly approaching new year treats you better than the old.

Speaking of the end of the year, many of you may be aware that I made public noises with my mouth (or rather fingers, I guess, but let’s not muddle our metaphors right out of the gate) that Amra #5, The Thief Who Went To War, would be out by the end of the year.

I, uh, I’m not gonna be wrapping this bad boy up in the next 36ish hours. That’s not happening. I was wrong about that one. So very, very wrong. And I want to apologize.

Not as an excuse (unlike most of the times I say that in my life, this time I actually mean it) but rather just to let you know I haven’t been goofing off, we’re currently on the third first draft of this book. I haven’t been stricken by writer’s block; words have been coming out. They’ve just been the wrong ones. Lots and lots and lots of wrong words. So many initially promising but ultimately dreadful plot-related decisions. Allow me to illustrate where I’ve been at with this book for the last half a year or so:

it me

It ain’t been pretty.

When I first started writing Amra’s misadventures, I was this happy, innocent idiot. Nobody knew me or her, and it didn’t much matter in the grand scheme of things if what I wrote was great or dreadful. I didn’t think much about it; I just wrote.

Things have changed. Oh, I’m still an idiot, but now I’m the kind of idiot that has juust enough self-awareness to worry about the consequences of my idiocy. In other words, I really want to get this book right, and the first two drafts weren’t. Really, truly, no foolin' not good enough to publish.

I’ve literally had to go back and re-teach myself how to plot, (yes, this will be my eighth full-length novel; I wasn’t joking about the idiot part) but Amra 5, Version 3 is now coming along more smoothly. Everything seems to be working at last, and it is my top priority. I’m not going to open my big idiot mouth and give another possibly wrong time frame for its release, but I’ll be giving weekly updates on writing progress on the blog for those who’d like to check in.

So, to sum up: I’m an idiot, Amra 5 isn’t ready, but things are looking better and you can expect weekly reports on progress here on the blog.

Happy New Year, everybody!

Blood in the Cut

So sometimes a character will demand more screen time. Theiner (Moc Mien) from Amra #3 and #4 has been making it known to my subconscious that he has some things he wants to do in front of you folks. They are bad things. 

This is a little exploratory writing I did for him, just a snippet. It might end up as a short story, or as a complete novel. (I'm still hard at work on Amra #5, don't worry!)

Early morning. Spring. Bellarius, the City on the Mount. Theiner - Moc Mien, - walked up dew-slick Standard Street alone, and without even a belt knife. He was in the second third of the Girdle, rarified environs just below Gentry territory. He was deep in enemy territory. Biter’s territory.

He’d sent a request for parley first, but hadn’t bothered to wait for a reply. With Biter, it was even odds that a reply would never come. The old man had been at the top of the shitheap for a long time, and had gotten arrogant with it.

Theiner felt eyes on him as he approached the barber’s. The wooden sign, with its spray of white hearts, swung gently in the morning breeze; the leaded glass windows reflected the brightening sky. The door was closed, but unlocked. No need to lock a door that was guarded day and night.

Theiner stepped inside.

“Fucking closed,” said the fat bastard stationed inside. He was wearing a barber’s apron. He was playing solitaire. He didn’t bother looking up. “Piss off.”

“I’m not here for a shave,” Theiner replied.

The ‘barber’ looked up, and his heavy face settled into a scowl. He was middle-aged; too old to have been a street rat. Biter was still prejudiced that way, even years after the Purge.

“If you don’t piss off right now, you’re gonna feel a razor regardless.” Two other men sauntered in from a back room. They weren’t kitted out as barbers; one had a short sword, and another had a crossbow. Neither was holding his weapon with respect.

“I’m here to see Biter,” Theiner informed them. “I know the old fart gets up before dawn, so don’t bother telling me he’s snoring.”

The fat barber stood up, letting the cards in his ham-hands scatter to the floor. He was a head taller than Theiner. He pulled out a straight razor and a nasty smile.

“Last chance to fuck off, shit-brain.”

“You’re the one called Keen, then. I heard you like cut bits off and save them.”

“You heard fucking right.”

“Here’s what’s gonna happen, Keen: I’m gonna take your razor away from you, and if your two dumbfuck friends there try to do anything about it, I’m gonna start taking bits off of you.”

Keen snorted and pointed the razor at Theiner’s face. “If-”

Theiner exploded into motion. He grabbed Keen’s forearm at wrist and elbow, then brought it down with brutal force on his ascending knee. The man was just too big to try for a wrist blow alone, so he got a broken arm instead. There was the sick, green-branch snapping sound, and Keen let out a short bark of pain. The straight razor fell from his hand.

Theiner scooped it from the floor and sent a kick to the side of Keen’s knee - another broken branch, a louder scream. It brought the big man down to his knees. He would have gone further, but Theiner spun behind him and grabbed him by the hair with one hand. The other, now holding the straight razor, he put against the man’s double chin. He gave a cold stare to the two toughs who were only then starting to react.

“Drop that fucking crossbow and tell Biter that Moc Mien’s here to see him.”

~ ~ ~

Five minutes later, Theiner had climbed the stairs and been admitted to Biter’s receiving room. It was filled with the sort of tacky shit that someone with more money than taste put on display – a life-size marble statue of Isin with improbably large breasts, a gilded Borian standing clock that nobody had bothered to wind, or dust, in ages. Other pricey rubbish. The floor was covered by a vast Elamner carpet that had probably taken a dozen women a dozen years to complete. It was stained beyond repair. The room smelled like old people and ignorance.

Eventually Biter was wheeled in by a woman wearing a smock and a face that said she was dead inside. Biter’s age-spotted face said he should already be dead. The woman parked Biter’s wheeled chair before the fireplace and made herself scarce.

“Moc-fucking-Mien.”

“Biter. Don’t get up.”

“You still don’t look like a Chagan to me.”

“And you’re looking fairly toothless, old man, despite your name. But I didn’t come up here to trade insults.”

“What did you come here for, then? To lick my shithole? I’ll get myself turned around for that. It’ll take me a minute, though.”

Theiner smiled. It didn’t come anywhere near his eyes.

“I’m taking the Scepter, starting today. When the doors open, your muscle will not be inside.”

The old man hawked up phlegm and spat it onto the Elamner carpet, right at Theiner’s feet. The distance and accuracy were impressive, and explained the state of the carpet. “You can take that over, you little turd.”

Theiner scratched idly at the back of his head. “I came to tell you face-to-face, as a courtesy. And to make sure there was no misunderstanding.”

The old man leaned forward in his chair. “If one of your crew so much as sets foot on Bag Street, it’s war, you overgrown street rat. And at the end of it, I’ll sink the pieces of you into the marsh my damned self.”

“Yeah,” Theiner replied. “About the marsh.”

The silence started to stretch. Biter was the first to fill it.

“Being as I’m the fucking Biter, I guess I’ll bite. What about the fucking marsh?”

Theiner smiled again, and this time it reached his pale blue eyes, if barely. “I’ll let you find out on your own, Gummer. But you’d best do it before the Scepter’s doors open. That way you can make an informed decision.”

An Unclean Strength: How to get the updated ebook

I've been working with an Amazon customer service representative the last few days, trying to get Amazon to push out the updated ebook to everyone who has already bought it. They were reluctant to do so as it would mean folks would lose their notes and highlights and such, which is fine and reasonable.

Instead, if you'd like, you can go to your 'Manage Your Kindle' page (or it might appear as 'Manage your Content and Devices'). Once you get there, there'll be a list of  your ebooks. Any book that has an available update will display and orange 'update available button - including, of course, An Unclean Strength.

Once again, I'm very sorry for the typographical errors. Going forward I will be able to hire a proofreader as a backstop for my now less-than-sharp eyes.

An update on updates: Everything is updated.

Hi all,

Well, I've just spent a week plus updating everything in the Amra Thetys and Skinwalker series. Most of it is cosmetic; Making sure fonts and such match across series.

But.

There were a couple of bugs in Amra #4, one missing word in Amra #3, one very wrong word in Prayers in Steel (No, Michael, a humerus is not generally found in the the leg), and, uh, more than a couple of typos in Unclean Strength.

Yes, I am wearing the Cone of Shame as I type this. No, I'm not gonna take a selfie.

The good news is, there's a way for everyone with a kindle to download the updates, if you'd like. I'm just going to post the link to the article from How To Geek, since they explain it better than I can:

https://www.howtogeek.com/tips/how-to-get-the-latest-version-of-your-kindle-books-including-ours/

In other news, there's a really nice review of Trouble's Braids up at Perfectly Tolerable - and it's her first time reading a self-published book! Also, lots of Felicia Day gifs, which is awesome.

Well, there ya go. I need to get cracking on Amra #5, so this Come of Shame has to come off. It's really hard to see the screen.

Amra Amra Amra

I've all but finished reformatting every book I ever wrote, and in some cases have given them new covers. All the Amra stuff is done, and now I'm working through the Skin Walker books. It has taken, uh, a long time. Days and days. I even added them to Google Play/Google Books.

For someone as technologically challenged and finicky-stuff averse as me, it has been a trial.

BUT, that means, starting tomorrow, I can get stuck back in to Amra #5.

Amra #1 is a svelte 64k words.
Amra #2 is quite a bit heftier at 73k words.
Amra #3 is 67k words.
Amra #4 is the longest, at 76k words.

So far, I've got 5,024 words written for Amra #5. That's basically the first chapter and bits and bobs of later scenes. I'll try and check in weekly to update the word count and complain about random things/talk nonsense, and post snippets of the non-spoilery type.

How long will Amra #5 be? I won't know until it's done, but it will likely fall between 65-80k words.

When will it be finished? I'm shooting for about four months, but no guarantees.

Okay, I need to eat lunch before I get hangry. Good talk.

The Skin Walker War series: Epic Fantasy or Sword & Sorcery?

I’ve been thinking a lot about this question, as the release date for An Unclean Strength draws nearer. You see, there’s a definite worry that I’ll be ‘damned if I do, damned if I don’t’ because of the way I am approaching the writing of this series. Some epic fantasy readers will undoubtedly be disappointed that these books are not the door-stoppers that dominate the genre. Some Sword & Sorcery fans will be irritated at the time I take to explore certain themes and events that feature neither swords nor sorcery, nor any action at all, on occasion.

The dividing line between epic fantasy and S&S is fairly blurred. But if you look at the typical conventions of the two sub-genres, here’s what you would probably come up with:

• Epic fantasy is grand in its scale, and epic stories might well span across centuries and thousands of miles. Sword & Sorcery stories are generally tighter in focus, both in time and space.
• Epic fantasy tends to have multiple point of view characters, while S&S stories generally stick to one.
• Epic fantasy generally deals with world altering, or even world-ending consequences, while S&S very often focuses on smaller events that may make no great difference to the wider world

Based on these comparisons, the Skin Walker War pretty clearly falls into the epic fantasy category.

But there are other differences between the two sub-genres that are also important, that deal with non-plot related concerns and conventions. One of the biggest is length, which is directly related to pace.

Sword & Sorcery is the action thriller of fantasy. It was born in the pulps, and has never left them, tonally speaking. Fans of S&S enjoy the sub-genre not least because it is packed with action, with conflict, with flashing swords and, yes, deadly sorcery. For a real fan of S&S, many of the epic fantasy books out there are truly, honestly, slow and dull.

Epic fantasy readers like that magic and stabby stuff as well, don’t get me wrong. Just as Sword & Sorcery readers are not averse to an intricate plot woven through their action. The difference, to my mind, has always been about two things: emphasis and immersion.

I’ll give you an example: JV Jones’s A Sword of Shadows series features some of the best culture building I have ever read, especially in regard to Jones’s clansmen. When I spend time with, say, Clan Bludd, I don’t feel bored or impatient even if the most violent thing to happen is snarling dogs. I am immersed. I care.

In contrast, I will happily skip any feast in Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire. I do not care what anyone eats, or how it was prepared. It adds nothing to my reading experience, and I am impatient to move on to something I do care about.

What I have attempted to do with this series is take out all the feasts, as it were, but leave the snarling dogs.

I love S&S, but often am dissatisfied with it because it is often skeletal – there is action, but not enough in the way of deeper characterization or world building. We too often end up with stick figures, caricatures, fighting over stakes we care nothing about.

I love epic fantasy, but am often frustrated when I come upon multiple pages that do not advance the plot, or the characterization, or world building – do not advance anything, really, except the page count. It’s like buying a bag of potato chips, to discover when you open it that half the contents are air.

So to answer to the question – is this new series epic fantasy or sword and sorcery? – I would have to say I’m trying to make it both. I’m trying to give readers what’s best about both sub-genres, and leave the less salubrious bits out.

Whether I am succeeding or not is up to the readers to decide.

Fair warning?

So the first half of An Unclean Strength is kinda slow, for those familiar with my writing style. I'm feeling unreasonably antsy about that, but it needs to set up a lot of stuff for the slaughter-fest that is the second half of the book, and the bonkers annihilation-level stuff in book three. I'm hoping people don't mind.

Oh, and uh, spoiler alert, I guess?

May 9th

An Unclean Strength

Wow, three months already? I am... not good at posting. Or keeping track of time.

Anyway, I'm here to let you know that the sequel to Prayers in Steel is currently available for pre-order, and will release on May 9th. Prayers has seen quite good sales, and some lovely reviews, and I'm working hard to not disappoint when it comes to An Unclean Strength. It's available at all the usual suspects, should you care to place a pre-order.

In other news, the Amra Thetys series has gained a fair few new readers as well, so I have been informed that it would be a good idea for me to let folks know when book 5 might be coming out. I am committed to finishing it this year, but I can't be more specific than that. Oh, if you'd like to read the description, it's up at Goodreads now, though.

Okay, back to work for me. Good talk.

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.

A new addition to the Amra Thetys series, among other news

No, it isn't Amra #5 - that'll be out next year. But it is set in Amra's world, and features a character many have said they enjoyed. You might remember Lhiewyn, the grumpy old priest from Trouble's Braids (who also penned the Amra's World appendix). In The Last God, we get three interconnected stories told from his point of view.

It isn't necessary to have read any of the Amra books in order to enjoy The Last God, but if you have read them, this novella-length book may well deepen your enjoyment of the series. It was a lot of fun to write, and I hope you enjoy it if you decide to give it a read. I'll put links to the various outlets at the bottom, if you'd like to purchase.

In other news, the pace of my writing has slowed considerably over the past couple of years, but for a very good reason. I've been working on my bachelor's degree. It's been a long time coming, but better late than never, amiright? I'm happy to announce that I've completed my studies, and will be graduating this December with a Bachelor of Arts. Now I have to decide whether to pursue a master's degree...

Speaking of which, I have decided to focus on just two  things, writing-wise, in 2018: Amra book 5, and the first book in a new series, Prayers in Steel. Once those two are finished, I can think about what comes next. Oh, and the title of the fifth Amra book is The Thief Who Went To War.

I have a little extra Amra news to share: There will be audio books! I've signed with Podium Publishing (the folks who did the audio book for The Martian) and hopefully you'll be able to stick Amra and Holgren in your ears come December. As things get firmed up, I will definitely update.

In other other news, fellow author Steven Kelliher is about to release the third book in his Landkist saga, and to celebrate, he's putting the first two books on sale for 99 cents each, starting November 3rd. I don't know how long he'll be doing this, but if you like old school epic fantasy, you should give 'em a try! Those covers are practically lickable. Here's the link, but check the price before you 1-click, okay? mybook.to/valleyofembers

Well, I think that's me all caught up. How about you? What have you been up to?

Get yer copy of The Last God here (or here or here or):

Amazon US     Amazon UK     Amazon CA     Amazon AU     Amazon DE     Amazon FR

Barnes & Noble     Kobo     iBooks     Scribd     Playster     24 Symbols

A writing career in one graph

Dear Amazon Customer Service representative,

Good day to you. I read with real surprise that readers had noted 'errors' in my text, and was even more surprised when these supposed errors were listed in your email. They are not errors, typographical or otherwise.

Cloudroot vs Cloud root

In the first instance, I wrote 'cloudroot' and your email suggests I should change this to 'cloud root'. Since my novel is fantasy and these vegetables only exists therein, I believe that I (as the author and creator of this imaginary tuber) have the right to decide how they are to be spelled.  But if further evidence of the correctness of cloudroot is required, I have followed the same general guideline that dictates the spelling of 'beetroot' (a real thing that people eat) rather than 'beet root'. The difference is small, but I stand by my right as an inventor of imaginary vegetables to decide whether they will be spelled as compound nouns or not.

Tssked vs Tasked

In this second supposed typo, the character did indeed 'tssk', which is an audible sound of disapproval.made by quickly disengaging the tongue from the roof of the mouth. Perhaps you might recognize it from childhood, when your mother would look at you unhappily after you'd done some small, annoying thing. I certainly do. I can still hear her making that sound through pursed lips, decades later. Regardless, the character did not 'task' anyone to do anything in the sentence in question, which is something completely different as I am sure you will agree. Here, the suggested correction would make the sentence in question literally make no sense.

I am not sure who might have reported these supposed 'errors', nor do I have any interest in finding out. But you might, perhaps, cast a jaundiced eye on any of their future 'helpful' suggestions.

Sincerely,

Michael McClung, cloudroot farmer and reformed tssker.

How not to write a fantasy series

I do things, as a writer, that are not in my best interest.

When you write a series, there should be a clear progression, an arc that bends toward a final conflict in the story's world, without much deviation. When you write a first person point of view series, you should never stray from that point of view, that character. These are not complicated guidelines, nor are they arbitrary. So of course I ignore them.

Is it stubbornness? Contrariness? Self-sabotage? There may be some element of each of these things, but primarily, my answer is no. I'll tell you a secret about the Amra Thetys series: It is at least as much about the eightfold goddess as it is about Amra. This shouldn't be much of a secret to those who've been paying attention, honestly. But in Amra's world, there are very few straight-up villains. She Who Casts Eight Shadows may very well be the ultimate antagonist of the series, but she is no cartoon villain, twirling Her metaphorical mustache just off-stage. She is the prime mover of the entire story, while Amra is the primary lens through which we view it. There is a balance to be struck, in order to tell the story completely. That balance demands certain deviations from your standard fantasy series arc.

I suppose this is a caution to readers – the series I'm writing may not always be the series you are expecting. But I know where it is going, and I know how it will end.

I do things, as a writer, that are not in my best interest. But I do not do things that are not in the best interest of the story. Or, ultimately, the reader.

A review of Graham Austin-King's Faithless

 I'm going to get a little personal with you here, guys. I've been really, incredibly poor for a couple of years now. Virtually everything I earn, after basic necessities, has been going towards getting my degree. Why am I telling you this in a book review? To explain why I don't do book reviews. Put simply, I don't buy books to read for pleasure, nowadays, because that's a luxury I've had to put on hold. No books means no book reviews.

While this kept me sane during the first SPFBO (when you can't read the competition, you can avoid obsessing about whether another's prose is better or worse), it's been a bit of a disappointment since then. I wanted to read everyone's SPFBO books, afterward. And someday I will. After the degree is paid for.

So along comes Graham Austin-King the other day (one of my SPFBO cohort), and he says “Psst, hey kid, wanna read an advance copy of Faithless?” To which I replied “Yup.” And then he said “So let it be written, so let it be done.” (Okay, I might be paraphrasing.) It didn't hurt a bit that Sarah Chorn had edited it. Sarah was, is and will be one of the ten bloggers who judge the SPFBO, if you aren't aware, and while “Trouble's Braids” wasn't one of her favorite books from the competition, her review of it is one of my favorite reviews to this day.

Wow, okay, that's three paragraphs and I still haven't started talking about the book. I should probably do that.

Faithless is a lot of things. It's an exercise in word-building, an exploration of faith and the loss of faith, and perhaps especially, it's a kind of meditation on morality. All of this is experienced through the lens of Wynn, a boy sold by his father to the Temple of the Forgefather to be an “aspirant” – one who might someday become a priest. As Wynn quickly learns, what this really means is he's to be a slave in the mines below the temple. And while there's a real, if pathetically slender, chance of him making it out of the mines and up to the temple, the troubles he would leave behind underground would only be swapped for other, less straightforward dangers in the temple's candle-lit halls. There is a very good reason that the religion of the god of smiths has gone into steep decline, and why the Forgefather turned his face away from his priesthood.

I'm a writer. I can't help but read with a writer's eye. To me, the most striking thing about Faithless is the world building. Graham has created, in Faithless, a meticulous microcosm of a world where the wider, outside world is barely a rumor. There is a claustrophobic, inward-turning flavor to the book that, while uncomfortable, is perfect for the material. The world of Faithless is divided into three parts: The Temple of the Forge Father, the makeshift cavern-town of Aspiration below it, and the mines and caverns below that. And for the first book in a possible series, that's quite enough. Wynn's world is grim, and literally and figuratively dark.

In such a world, it's little wonder that the main character is often faced with terrible choices. It's also not surprising that some of the choices he makes echo the title of the book. In the world Wynn finds himself in, the placing of faith in others is a necessity for survival – but keeping faith others have placed in you means never escaping a hellish existence. Ultimately Wynn is an engaging protagonist because of his flaws, his faithlessness, and his own recognition of them.

So, to sum up, I found Faithless to be an engaging fantasy in an unusual, well-executed secondary world, which is something that I love. I also have a fondness for the exploration of religion in fantasy, which is often glossed over. In Faithless, religion is one of the main themes, and it provides the central mystery and the basis for a creepy and bloody third act. What's not to like?

Many thanks to Graham Austin-King for providing an advance reading copy. I truly enjoyed it. I hope Graham continues the story.

Ye Olde Writing Update

So I've got two projects that I plan to finish by the end of February. Here's where we're at on both of them, and after:

Prayers in Steel

This is a rewrite/expansion of the Blood Tempered novella and its unreleased sequel, Weaving Steel. I'm going back and reworking the terse style and fleshing out secondary characters, as well as giving it a more 'epic' tone. It's sitting at about 48,000 words, and I estimate it'll clock in at roughly 80,000 when it's finished.

The Last God

Four interconnected connected short stories set in the Amra Thetys universe, told from the point of view of Lhiewyn, Sage of Lucernis and Grumpy Old Man. It isn't necessary to have read the Amra series to enjoy this one, but it is meant as a sort of companion piece. For those who have read the Amra books, you'll find an Easter egg or two. Also, I'm writing it in Google Docs, so you can follow along if you'd like. Currently at 7,000 words of an estimated 30,000.

After February

Here's what the calendar looks like: Once the first four are back in my control and out of Ragnarok's, I'll release How To Make A Killing In Kirabor, an Amra prequel novelette. Why not release it now? I don't want people to buy the book and be tempted to purchase the Ragnarok editions. I have no faith that I'll ever see those royalties.

I am of course working on the fifth Amra book. If all goes well, you can look for that one around August or September. I'll update as things get more firm.

I'm also considering whether to revive/continue the Comes the Conqueror series. It was an experiment with serialized fiction. I personally really like the story, but readers weren't interested, possibly because of the serial format.

Finally, there are a crap-load of Amra side story ideas that pop into my head on a regular basis. Two of them continue to pester me as I drift off to sleep.

First, the idea of writing stories/novels about the villains that appear throughout, like Red Hand, and the Sorcerer King, and the Telemarch. They've all got back stories, and we only get to see them at the end. They're all tragic heroes, in their own way, like Oedipus or Hamlet. None of them started off as villains.

Second, there's a lot going on with Theiner/Moc Mien. He's actually worthy of a series of his own.

So… I'm contemplating. I don't know if there's a market big enough for these stories. Not that that's ever stopped me before.

Until next time,

mm

Publishing and self publishing: more straight talk from Uncle Mike

I've got some more things to say. Once again, some of it won't be very popular, but I believe it to be true. Better you hear it from me than find out on your own.

1: Embrace the suck

This is army speak for the inevitability of ending up in a situation that sucks, and the attitude that will see you through it. Complaining, time honored though it may be, will not extricate you from the suck. Pretending you are not in the suck will not extricate you from the suck. Flailing around in a panic will definitely not get your suck-stuck behind out of the suck. What will extricate you from the suck is realizing and admitting that you are mired in suckitude, plotting a course to get away from the suck, and then implementing your plan. This is true whether you are a self publisher or traditionally published.

Wow, I don't think I've written the word 'suck' that many times ever.

2: Talk is cheap

Whether it's a publisher, an agent, or a so-called indie publishing expert that you're listening to, remain skeptical. They are in the business of making money from your books. They will say what you want to hear, and it'll sound really good. Just like your prom date. Yeah, exactly. We all know how that turned out.

The point here: get it in writing, and make sure you understand what it says, and what it means, before you agree to anything. Also remember that money should flow to the author in all traditional publishing scenarios. If you're an indie and money is leaving your bank account, it had better do so for specific reasons with measurable outcomes. For example, a book cover.

3: People love to make excuses

You know what? Crappy things happen to people. They miss deadlines. It's an imperfect world. I get that. But you are not immortal. Your time on this earth is finite. And people who constantly make excuses for failing to live up to agreements are stealing your time.

Scrape them off.

4: Don't be a cheap talker or an excuse maker

You want publishing success, however you define it? You are ultimately responsible for making it happen. Treat others, and especially yourself, with the same respect you want to be given. Don't make excuses that you have no time to write if you just binge-watched Luke Cake or Downton Abbey. Don't throw up your hands and say you don't know where to start if you have access to Google. And don't call yourself a writer if you keep polishing the same 1/3 of a manuscript over and over for months or years.

Yeah, this writing thing is hard. See point 1 above. It's first for a reason – because it will get you through everything else that happens to you along the way.

Give the Suck a big ole hug, and get writing.

An important announcement

Hi folks,

I've got some disheartening news to share with you this time around, I'm afraid. I've decided to take the rights to the Amra Thetys series back from Ragnarok Publications. The reasons are business-related, and boil down to this: I doubt I'll ever actually get paid the royalties due me for sales of the Ragnarok editions of the books. They seem to be in a pretty big mess over there, so I've decided to cut my losses. I wish I didn't think it were necessary.

So what does this mean? Well, for the next 3-4 months, Ragnarok will continue to sell the first four Amra Thetys books. I'd ask you not to buy them, if you haven't already, for the simple reason that my portion of the money you spend on those editions may well never make it to me. If you'd like to show your support, you could purchase the ebook edition of my short story collection on Amazon, or you could check out Ace of Swords, which is a fantasy geared for slightly younger readers. It's available both in print and electronic format.

Wha does this mean for Amra, going forward, you ask? I'll tell ya :) Of course I'm working on Amra 5, never fear. I've also got one Amra novelette pretty much completed that I've been holding back – How to Make a Killing in Kirabor. Once I've gotten the rights back to Amra 1-4 I'll be releasing it.

I'm also currently working on a series of short stories from cranky old Lhiewyn's point of view. I'm doing something different with this one: I'm writing the first draft in Google Docs, which means you can check in on its progress, make comments, point out my awful typing skills and generally kibitz during the whole process if you like. Sort of like watching the guy at the Italian restaurant make your pizza. I love that guy.

If you like/tolerate Facebook, I'm there. It's where writing things get talked about the most.

And that's about it for this newsletter. I do wish I had better news to report, folks, but the main thing is, the stories are still coming, and as I return to self publishing, they will come at a more frequent rate.

Awkward hugs,

mm