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Available for Purchase at Amazon.com

Saturday, May 17, 2014

Gavain's Proving Available For Free This Weekend

Gavain's Proving is available for free this weekend (Saturday, May 17th through Sunday, May 18th) from Amazon.com. The last free give away at the beginning of the month was very successful, so I've decided to offer it for free again!

This also marks the end of my experiment with enrolling Gavain's Proving in the Amazon KDP Select program. Within the next week I will be submitting Gavain's Proving to Smashwords for full distribution to all of the retail outlets it services. Because Amazon requires that you remain exclusive with them while enrolled in KDP Select, I won't be able to stay enrolled and take advantage of Smashwords as well.

Now stop reading this post, and grab a free copy of Gavain's Proving!

Sunday, April 27, 2014

Gavain's Proving Give Away!

I'm pleased to announce that starting Wednesday, April 30th through Friday, May 2nd, Gavain's Proving will be available FOR FREE from Amazon*. If you haven't had the chance to check out this Saga of Thorns Novella, this will be the perfect opportunity--and if you haven't had the pleasure of reading any of the Saga of Thorns, this is the perfect jumping off point!
So spread the word and remember to go to Amazon between April 30th and May 2nd to get Gavain's Proving for free! Don't forget to post a review after you've read it!


*Available in Kindle format only.


Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Available Today: Gavain's Proving!

Available at Amazon.com
I am thrilled to announce that Gavain's Proving is now available for purchase at Amazon.com! As part of the KDP Select program, Gavain's Proving will be available exclusively at Amazon for 90 days, after which it will be opened up to wider distribution through Smashwords.com and its subsidiaries. Below is the book's description:

When Gavain learned that he was going to be assigned his final test as a squire before becoming a Wyvern Knight, he expected that his Proving would be a routine mission--escorting a noble, leading a border patrol, or perhaps even coordinating an assault on a bandit camp. He never imagined that his Proving would require him to explore the deadly Wastes south of Valdaran, nor that what he would discover there would be far worse than his superiors suspected. If Gavain cannot survive his Proving, all of Valdaran may be doomed…


Gavain’s Proving is a prequel to the Saga of Thorns. Set a year before the Saga of Thorns begins, if you have yet to read Laeryk’s Proving, Book One of the Saga of Thorns, Gavain’s Proving is a perfect place to begin exploring the world of the Saga of Thorns.

Many thanks to everyone who has helped make this latest release possible; even though I handle the majority of my publishing on my own, it would be impossible for me to release anything without family and friends who beta read, offer critiques and suggestions, or simply allow me to babble out loud at them while I brainstorm ideas or work through various issues with the story.

Laeryk's Proving, Now At A Reduced Price!

To celebrate the release of Gavain's Proving, I've reduced the price of Laeryk's Proving at Amazon and Smashwords (and eventually at all the other retailers, once the price change goes through Smashwords' distribution channels). Now you can enjoy Laeryk's Proving for the low price of $2.99!

Monday, February 10, 2014

The End of the Tunnel Is In Sight!

I am extremely pleased to report that Gavain's Proving has finally gone into final layout. 

This means that the manuscript is done, with no further edits to be made before publishing (and unless egregious errors are discovered, none after publishing either). I finished the final changes yesterday after one last review, finding only a few minor corrections. The only corrections that need to be made now are any that crop up while reviewing the layout in the document I will be submitting to Amazon.

It also means that all that is left are things like building a hyperlinked table of contents, additional little bits like author's notes, the map of Aerth (readers of Laeryk's Proving will recognize it immediately), and some preview materials I am placing at the end of the book for Laeryk's Proving.

I'm very happy. It's stressful just before a release; there's an instinct (especially when you're publishing without a separate editor) to go over your manuscript one last time to make certain that you haven't missed anything. I'd be lying if I didn't say that I probably will do a quick search through the manuscript to hunt down certain words and make certain they're consistent. However, at this point time my manuscript has entered into diminishing returns. The changes I make now won't necessarily make the book stronger, and will probably prompt me to review it further, making changes again, and again, and again as my initial instincts war with corrections that I've made. Honestly, at some point it all just becomes a delay-spiral, and counterproductive. Having made that decision to say, "It's done," is a huge relief. These last final steps are important, but not very stressful for me. Building a Table of Contents is pretty simple, preview materials are easy to generate, and layout is almost automated. It's not as if I'm doing a roleplaying game layout, which often layers backgrounds, borders, images, multi-column text, and shaded text-blocks within a page.

So what does this mean in terms of release? When will the final book be available?

Soon. Very, very soon.

I'm fighting the urge to rush it off as soon as possible; sure, my birthday is this week, and it would be awesome to tell everyone that they can buy it as a birthday present to me. On the other hand, there's something to be said for timing. Rushing things for the sake of a single day (which happens to fall right when most people are trying to plan out Valentine's Day plans) just isn't worth it.

So right now, I am estimating release on February 18th, the day after President's Day. I'll probably upload the final file late on the 17th, so Amazon might show it as available before the 18th, but I won't be making any "Hurrah!" noises until that day. 

That's all for now. I can't wait for everyone to get their chance to read Gavain's Proving! Thanks for sticking with me this entire time!