Book 2 is officially titled...

Center justified! Italicized! Emboldened... Boldened? Emboldened! Underlined! Book 2 of the Lore of the Reluctant series is officially titled:

City of Blades

Time to celebra--Dang it. Time to celebrate!

And here's the rough synopsis that will eventually go up on Amazon/Goodreads/what-have-you:

Acys, Kalen, and Jasper are a long way from home. Take abruptly from their camping trip in the Sierra Nevada, they've been plunged into a new world with fantastical tendencies -- the Realm of Shiloft. Granted new bodies by mysterious means, with new lives and memories to match, the three lifelong friends wander the world as very hesitant sellswords, hoping to someday find their way back home. 

In this adventure, which the trio have desperately tried to avoid, an unexpected detour on the long road to Vellonae drops the companions in the middle of the labyrinthian coastal city of Elsingr, where the old ways are paved over wholesale in favor of the new, and the gods and goddesses of the Starfall are unwelcome. During their mid-journey festivities, the trio are attacked by the most vicious, most regicidal assassins guild in the land: the dreaded Backblades. 

Now, they must plot their way through the winding roads of Elsingr, and survive long enough to determine who paid such a large price for their heads... Also, they're suffering from hunger, sleep deprivation, and they're generally pretty annoyed with each other, so there's a good chance they'll kill each other off before the Backblades can.

Still aiming for a late September/early October release window. Hope to see you then!

More Writing. More Shadowrun.

Back to college. Back to making more progress on Book 2!

I've updated the progress bar to reflect a rough estimate of where I am as far as writing goes. We're definitely closing in on the end, and I think now that summer fun is over and I have more time to crank out some chapters in the library, that percentage will rise drastically over the next few weeks.

I'll also work on getting another sample from the story going in the near future, along with a proper post to "lock in" the final title for Book 2. At this point, I've let it sit for long enough and it still seems right, so I'm gonna take the leap and stick with it for the duration.

On the promotional side of things, I would also like to get some kind of free ebook up on Amazon that serves as an introduction to Lore of the Reluctant. Stories like Wool have proven that having that low barrier of entry is ideal.

So just to break everything down:

1 - Lock in the final title for Book 2.

2 - Finish Book 2!

3 - Begin the editing process. Call in those old favors. Send my editor friends on guilt trips.

4 - Research the possibility of getting The Outcasts of Vampire Flats on CreateSpace (physical copy), iTunes, and B&N Nook. Consider doing the same for Book 2.

5 - Write an "Introductory Story" for the Lore of the Reluctant series to publish for free.

6 - Hire Lexy to get started on the cover art.

7 - Publish Book 2!

And, of course, since I promised myself that I'd write/publish at least three stories using this setting, I'll eventually start plotting out Book 3, which is really just a vague idea at this point.

I'll keep this blog updated as I go through the steps! And I do want to thank everyone who has an interest in this story for being patient.

--

I've been hopelessly addicted to the Shadowrun universe lately, and there's 20 years' worth of material waiting for me to read through. This is gonna get dark, I can already tell!

Word Count!

My overall goals I hoped to achieve the Lore of the Reluctant series have always included the following:

1) Create fun fantasy stories that can be read as standalone adventures, but likewise take place in a greater storyline. Much like the old Conan stories, you can certainly read them out of order, but reading them chronologically gives you a greater sense of his journey.

2) Have fun with the genre, but don't make fun of the genre. I'm writing as a fan, not as a critic.

3) And lastly, keep them short so they don't wear out their welcome. I'm writing fantasy, but I'm also writing comedy, which I feel works better when it sticks around only for as long as it needs to. As an added bonus, it also allows me to make meaningful progress on the stories, despite my rickety schedule.

But to that last point, I promised myself (in a blog post, no less!) that I'd try to flesh out the world a bit more, and I feel as though I'm doing just that with Book 2. There's a lot more lore packed into this story, and because of that, I don't think I'll be able to keep it confined to the 50,000 word count that I was aiming for.

So, as a tentative heads-up, Book 2 might be a tad longer than I'd planned, which might kick it's overall progress back a bit, but hopefully not that much. In the coming days, I hope to have another excerpt from Book 2 here on the blog, but I will say that I recently had to write a "Lockpick Rap" for Jasper, which is every bit as silly as it sounds!

~~

As for what I've been up to outside of writing, I've gone back to work at the used bookstore here in town, which, as always, is an absolute joy. I might also be taking a free online course at Coursera, since it happens to be Lord of the Rings Online-centric. It's an honor system thing, so it's not for college credit or anything beyond the experience. Sounds like fun, and it comes highly recommended by the people who've tried it, so I'll probably give it a shot.

Here's the link for those interested.

We also went to go see Edge of Tomorrow, which was an excellent sci-fi film and way, way better than I thought it would be. I highly recommend it. As for books, I'm currently reading the Japanese light novel the movie was based on, All You Need is Kill, in addition to Hollow World by Michael J. Sullivan. I always see Sullivan hanging around /r/Fantasy, and he always toes the line between contributor and promoter very well. He also just seems like a super nice guy, to boot. So I picked up his latest sci-fi/fantasy offering, and it's turning out marvelously. I love books that can strike a good balance between dialogue and worldbuilding without being too wordy, and Hollow World has met the criteria so far.

Really great stuff. It's been a fun summer so far!

Finally Finished My Final Final!

It's been a busy month filled with graduations, studying, last minute essays, more studying, and final exams. Thankfully it's all over and done with so the summer vacation can begin.

I'm still writing, and I think I'll be able to get the story done over the summer with the (very tentative) goal of publishing in September-ish. Until then, here's a quick short story I wrote for /r/WritingPrompts that includes our three adventurers from Shiloft. On the timeline, it takes place after both The Outcasts of Vampire Flats and "Book 2" during their very, very brief stint in the elvenlands.

Enjoy!

http://amlowe.tumblr.com/post/86977291507/may-26-r-writingprompts-lore-of-the-reluctant

Halfway There!

Lore of the Reluctant: "Book 2" is now halfway done!

/desk jig!

Captain America!

So, we went to go see Captain America: The Winter Soldier over the weekend and... wow. "The Marvel Cinematic Universe" has yet to disappoint, but there are some entries (Thor, The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2) that feel slightly more than baseline. Enjoyable, but not much more than that. The Winter Soldier is easily my favorite Marvel film so far. The action is exciting, the story is fun, and the characters are given room to breathe and do other things beyond protecting their respective love interests.

I liked it better than The Avengers, which I didn't think would happen.

All this brought to you by the co-directors whose last big theatrical release was the venerable (/nausea-inducing sarcasm) You, Me and Dupree. I don't know how those guys pulled off one of the best action films of the year and what I believe to be one of the best superhero films of all time. I really don't.

But go check it out if you haven't already. It's most definitely worth the price of admission!

April Update!

I know there's been more radio silence, but things have been progressing smoothly these days. Book 2 is shaping up nicely, as is another project I've been poking at for a few years. It'll be post-apocalyptic and likely zombie-infested.

I know, I know. Zombies are played out. But! I'm really enjoying writing it, and I'm hoping to put enough of a personal twist on it that people might find it interesting. Definitely no comedy there, though, so it's odd switching back and forth between the two.

I'll try to get more excerpts up in the future, but until then, I'll try and keep the word count meters up-to-date as I go!