Around last Christmas Amazon brought in its Select program which among other things allowed independent e-publishers to make their books free for 5 days in a 90 day period. The results of going free were, in some cases, astonishing. I should know— it worked for me. I made my book The Inquiry Agent free for five days during the holiday period and when it came off the promotion it jumped into the top ten bestseller lists for its category, and hit 70 plus sales a day for a while. This was in historical mysteries, a genre in which I have no track record and where people have no reason to buy any book with my name on it. This happened to a lot of early adopters, not just me. Recently, it seems to have stopped happening and people are not … [Read more...]
What To Do When You Don’t Feel Like Writing Redux
I was planning on writing a long post about magic and military fantasy this week when reality intervened. I was recently put on medication for diabetes and my metabolism still seems to be adjusting to it. I've had to make some dietary changes as well which are not helping. A lot of the day I feel pretty slow, particularly just after I have taken the tablets in the morning. It's not exactly conducive to writing either fiction or blog posts. Under the circumstances there is only one thing to do: learn, adapt and roll with the punches. I've spent the past couple of weeks watching my body's responses and I've reached a few conclusions. I am slowest in the morning, almost normal in the afternoon and early evening and then I slow down again when … [Read more...]
The Guardian of the Dawn
I am a bit out of it today so here for your amusement is a reprint of my Kormak story, The Guardian of the Dawn. The Guardian of the Dawn Copyright © William King 2005 “Open the door,” Kormak yelled. Blood seeped through his shirt, the wound in his side hurt, and he was dizzy from all the witchroot he had chewed for the pain. He needed to get inside soon. It was almost twilight and this, of all nights, was no time to be abroad. He glanced back towards the darkening woods. At least there was no sign of his pursuers on the road. They were most likely safe indoors, hiding behind Elder signs, praying to the Sun to keep them safe from the terrors of the dark. “Go away!” The voice from within was deep and rough, the accent that of a … [Read more...]
Blood of Aenarion Makes Gemmell Shortlist
I just wanted to thank everyone who voted for Blood of Aenarion in the David Gemmell Legend Award. It is a great honour to have made it onto the short list. http://gemmellaward.com/profiles/blogs/david-gemmell-legend-award-shortlist-2012 … [Read more...]
A Last Blast From the Past: The Navis Nobilitae
Here is the last article I salvaged from the old Trollslayer.net site. It comes from the time when I was writing Wolfblade. As usual, it is not part of the official Warhammer 40,000 background save where parts of it have made their way into the book. The Navigators An extract from the basic training lectures of Brother Guillame, Fabricator Scriptorum, Inquisition Library, Stalynheim. Reference: Light of Knowledge Clearance Level: Tertius Unauthorised Viewing May Result In Termination of Library Privileges and Life. Praise the Emperor. Brothers, suffer not a mutant to live is one of the most ancient precepts of our order, but as we shall see it has not been applied in every case. Today we shall talk about another ancient institution … [Read more...]
Terrarchs on Nook and iTunes
Just wanted to say that the four Terrarch books and a bunch of my short stories are once again available on Smashwords, Barnes and Noble and iTunes. I'll be adding links to the appropriate pages over the next few days, time and deadlines allowing. I have already put up the Death's Angels links. If you are interested just click on the picture in the right hand column. … [Read more...]
