A Sequel to The Secret Cold War

I have received such wonderful feedback on my book The Secret Cold War and I thank everyone that has read it. I have also been asked if I am going to write a follow-up novel to it. To be honest, I had not thought about writing one as I had never really intended for The Secret Cold War to be a book. However, now that more than one person has asked me if I plan to write one, I have decided to do it. So, once I am done with the Elven Citadel Trilogy, I will write a sequel to The Secret Cold War. It will be called The Shipping War. Here are the working titles for the chapters (working means they may change):

The Shipping War:

1. Business as Unusual
2. Not All Who Are Lost Should Be Found
3. Date Night
4. Pirates and More Pirates
5. Deja Vu
6. Move, Counter Move

All Bob and Margaret Richardson wanted to do was run their small business and make a simple living running cargo. However their corporate competition has other ideas. It will take the right amount of finesse and force to survive a full on corporate attack.

Thoughts on Second Book Being Published

I am very excited about having my second book released and available for purchase. At the same time, I am kind of reserved about it. Although it is a great book, it is just book one of three books. That means that the story is not complete. It won’t be complete until I finished the third book. This is definitely different than when The Secret Cold War was released as it was a complete story.

Although the book, Kingdom Alliance is my second book released, it was actually the first book I started. It was originally called “The Woodsman.” Why didn’t I publish it first? Well, to use a running term, I hit the wall.  I got about 30,000 words into it and then just ran out of steam. Not wanting to give up on my goal of writing a novel, I decided to go back to writing short stories, which I was doing before starting my novel as practice. I decided to write a series of short stores based on a set of characters. They would be like episodes. Those episodes turned into the novel The Secret Cold War. Once it was published, I went back to my first novel. I had learned a lot about writing a novel and that helped me pick it back up to finish it. I also realized that is was going to be long. An average book should be between 40,000 and 90,000 words (or so I have found on the internet). Sci Fi can be a little longer. Even so, this was looking to be over 140,000 words. As such I decided to break it into three short novels. I am sure a good content editor could cut it down to one novel, but I am self-publishing so three books it is.

Teaser: Hidden Kingdom - The Legend of Kisa and Seaven

The legend of Kisa and Seaven (excerpt from the book I am writing):

The first moon was poking its face above the trees. As a child Topher had always been fascinated by the two moons. Both moons were about the same size and they always appeared in order, the first moon followed by the second moon. There was a tale about how to two moons came to be. The legend was that long ago, there were two elven twin sisters, Harrah and Dauphine, equals in beauty, magic and power. Although Harrah was born first, the two ruled all the land together. Things were peaceful in the kingdom until one day a disagreement broke out between the two sisters about which of the two identical sisters was prettier. This disagreement festered and their bickering turned to fighting and the fighting became worse and worse. This caused discourse throughout the land. Finally the people convince the two to divide the land evenly between the two so that they would not have to see each other, in hopes that peace could be once more upon the land. However, their anger continued to grow and soon a war started between the two kingdoms. The two were so evenly match that although bloody, the battles would end with little ground gained. This frustrated both so they each, being twin sisters, decided at the same time to create a super warrior that would ebb the tide of war. Harrah used her magic to create Kisa, a beautiful giantess with strong muscles, agile reflexes and superior fighting skills. Dauphine on the other hand created Seaven, a handsome giant who was also a master of strength, agility and fighting skills. Since both sister possessed the same level of magic, their creation were perfect equals. Kisa and Seaven were trained by two great queens with incredible skill and knowledge. Both sisters thought that they had created something so great that no one, not even their sister could stand in the way of. Both were very proud of their super-warrior. They taught them to think, love and appreciate fighting and fighting techniques. Kisa and Seaven became the greatest warriors that the world of Anon had ever seen.

However both queens were shocked when the other revealed their giant at the same time. Their first battle was also upsetting for both as each warrior, each with perfectly matched fighting skills, had fought to a draw. What each queen didn't realize that because of all the focus on fighting and technique, the two giants fell in love with the other's battle technique. They found the other too great a warrior and that something so perfect should not be killed. With all their training, they had come to find beauty in fighting. They were a perfect match for each other in both physical strength and skill. This led them to the realization that the other was the perfect match for them. They started sneaking off to spend time together and soon they fell madly in love. When the queens found out, they were furious and ordered them to stop seeing each other and to fight. Instead, the two abandoned their armor, weapons and their queens and ran off together. They traveled far and finally found a place where they would settle down and make a life with each other. However, the anger of the sisters was so great that they forgot about their disagreement and they joined together. No matter what was between them, no one could be allowed to defy a queen. Without their armor and weapons, the two were easily captured. As punishment, the sisters cast a spell on Kisa that she had to always run. Only the touch of her true love could break the curse. They held Seaven for 15 minutes, giving Kisa a head start. Seaven then took off trying to catch his true love. Now Seaven chases Kisa through eternity across the night sky, unable to stop chasing her for his love and longing to touch her but never able to. Kisa is unable to stop running because of the curse but longing for the touch that will set her free.

Topher smiled as 15 minutes later Seaven, the second moon appeared above the trees. Topher didn't really believe that the two moons were really two giant warriors chasing each other but that didn't stop him from enjoying the legend.

Teaser: Kingdom Alliance

Here is a teaser for my next book that I am working on. It is called Kingdom Alliance (The Elfin Citadel, Book 1).

Elves once ruled the world of Anon. They had great power and great magic. But their time is over. The Elves have vanished without leaving a trace of where they went or what happened to them.

Centuries later it is the time of man. As man rises up, he finds the remains of the once great Elves, and the magic they left behind in the ruins of the their cites. An arms race between the kingdoms of man developed. The first to understand and control the Elfin magic will rule the world.

It has been 10 years since the last Great War with the Kingdom of Emoes. No one was ever sure why Queen Hellicus stopped the last time; the war just ended. Now she is back on the attack, using and wielding more magic than ever before. Queen Bellfourth’s spies have informed her that Hellicus and the Kingdom of Emoes has discovered an ancient Elfin Citadel; the source of Queen Hellicus’ magic. Queen Bellfourth launches a daring plan to destroy the citadel but first she must unite the three kingdoms.

Soon Bellfourth’s plan becomes dependent upon a mysterious woodsman. Can she trust this woodsman or will his past come to haunt her? Will she be able to destroy the citadel, stop Queen Hellicus and save her husband who has been captured by the Emoes Army?

Writing Tip #2

Here is another writing tip: Writing is a muscle: the more you work it the easier it becomes and the better you get at it. If you want to write a novel, start writing. Now I am not saying you should go from non-writer to writing a novel. I tried that and it didn’t work so well (if you can do it, great). I suggest you start by writing short stories. Short stories are great for building your writing muscles. You can also use them to practice parts of novel writing. For example, when I finally started with writing short stories, I set goals to work on for each story.

-The first goal was to just write one. It was not my best work but I wrote it and it showed me were I had promise and where I needed work.
-My next one I worked on character relate-ability. That is to say, writing characters that came off the page and that people could relate to.
-The next short short was from a perspective that I was not used to. I wrote a story from a 4 year old boy’s point of view.
-Next I wrote a short story that included a love scene and a death. I also worked on my word pictures (painting the scenery for the reader).

At this point I thought I was ready to tackle a novel so I started one, then I got burned out. I found it hard to write a full novel. I had not worked my writing muscles enough. Not wanting to give up my goal of a novel, I went back to writing short stories. These short stories were going to be about a couple and their cargo ship. My goal for these stories was to just build my writing muscle and have fun. These stories turned into my first novel.

Short stories, being short, also take less time so they are easy to fit into a busy schedule. So get out there and start working out your writing muscles.

Writing Tip #1

I have had a couple of people tell me that they are thinking about writing a book and ask if I have any advice. Now I have only written one book so does that make me an expert? A long time ago I learned a valuable piece of knowledge: The person that knows a little is an expert to the person that knows nothing. As such I am going to post little tips that I have learned in writing a novel. If these tips help or encourage you then great. My first tip is this: YOU CAN WRITE A NOVEL. If I can do it, so can you. I know that saying is over used but in this case it is true. I am a shy, computer geek that cannot spell to save my life. And I not only wrote one novel but am now working on my second. Believe me when I say, you can write a novel.

My First Book

So excited that my first book is now available. LuLu Press did a great job publishing my book. So happy when I opened the box:

The book is available in Paperback or you can download it on Kindle, Nook, Kobo or iTunes.  Be sure to check out the book page (link above) on how to order your own copy (paperback or eBook).