short story

Another Giveaway

Hey everyone! I’m having another giveaway for Across the Battlefield. This weekend, starting Friday and ending Sunday night, ATB will be Free for Amazon kindle. It’s kind of my ‘end of summer, back to school’ sale, so pick up a copy if you don’t have one, or give it as a gift to a friend. As always, reviews are super appreciated and I’m hoping this giveaway might jump me up to the 10 review mark! Thanks for the support. Cheers!

Write on!

I’ve been getting some awesome feedback on my newest project, Darkness on Daen, and am now into writing the second part of the novella. I’m also now updating and streamlining my blog, trying to get it into a cleaner state. One great thing I’ve noticed is that my traffic has gone up quite a bit in the past week, thanks in large part to posting a link to Darkness on Daen, Part I, on Reddit.

While more commonly associate with general news and interesting stories, Reddit hosts a decently large Writing subreddit (about 5,000 users) and a much smaller, but heavily used Keep Writing subreddit which urges people to post their work and review the work of others who have also posted.

I’ve also found that I’ve been getting more than a few hits of people who are finding my book reviews on search engines, so I’m hoping to get that process going again to keep adding to my review section. I will be posting the first short story from my next entry in the World Conflict’s anthology series, so pay attention to updates this week if you are interested in checking it out.

Now I’m off, to bed. Happy writings!

ATB Free Today Only!

Today only, you can get your copy of Across The Battlefield 100%, Grade-A Free!

Good enough sales pitch? Well, it does seem to be working. As of last night at about 11:30 pm when I last checked, my total sales were at 20. That’s not too bad for a .99 short story collection that has only been available for a month. As of five minutes ago, about 10:00 am, my sales have jumped to 66. Yep, I’ve increased sales (downloads) 200% overall in about 8 hours. It’s pretty neat and, even though I’m not making money from these sales, people are (hopefully) reading my work and when I release my next book they will have something to use as a reference to see if they want to buy it. Overall this is a really great sale and I’m hoping at least a few people will leave a review, since I only have one right now. If you haven’t picked up your copy, hop on over and grab one while they’re hot.

On the writing front, I’ve been steadily working on Sands of Eternity, once again. I’ve finally passed 40,000 words and am well on my way toward the first major battle scene, the siege of Arsuf. This is going to be a large undertaking but I want to finish what I started and have a really great, full-length novel to show for myself. I’ll post some more about it a little later when I’ve put some more time into it. If you’d like to get an idea of what I’m writing, I would suggest checking out 1632 by Eric Flint and Island in a Sea of Time by S. M. Stirling, two novels which heavily influenced my decision to write Sands of Eternity and two of my personal favorite books.

I’ll sign off for now, but keep watching for more on Sands of Eternity and Across the Battlefield in the coming weeks. Thank you once again for the support. Cheers and Happy Writings!

-Will

P.S. Happy Valentine’s Day

Flash Fiction, Feb. 5

Just dropping in with another short flash fiction I’ve written for IndiesUnlimited.  I’ve been making sure to stay up on them and have been making a collection of flash fiction from various competitions which I plan to publish at some point in the future.  I find I have a weakness for this type of writing. It is a really great way to get some thought on paper and just see where it takes you without being worried about how long it will be. These particular last few are also great exercises in word choice and flow. Only having 250 words to make a convincing story work is not an easy task and it teaches you to really weed out the superfluous part and just stick with the story. So here is my latest, entry, for everyone’s reading pleasure!

The Boy in the Ship

The boy listened to the swell of the surf upon the distant shore, trying to block out his fear and uncertainty of what was coming. The ship was rocking gently as it ghosted into the harbor. The boy peered through the gloom of the galley. It was dark, as it had been every day since he had entered the great, gaping belly of the wooden ship. The stench no longer impressed him, so long had it filled his nostrils.

The sharp call of a seagull caused him to start. It was an unfamiliar sound, for the strange birds did not exist in his homeland. He peered through a crack between the boards near where he sat, watching as the ship slid alongside the docks. He could see ropes being thrown down to those on the ground, who quickly fastened them to the huge logs planted in the water.

A long board suddenly appear just on the edge of the boy’s vision. It was lowered to touch the dock and two of the men who sailed the ship descended. He watched as the fat one handed the skinny one a piece of cloth. The men had marked symbols on it, though the boy had no idea what they meant. The two were confronted by another, very stern looking, man who waved at the ship and made an inquisitive face. The skinny man simply handed him the cloth and uttered the only word in their language the boy understood.

“Slaves.”

Onto the next Project!

Well, Across The Battlefield is published and it feels great to finally join the ranks of self published authors. I’ve received wonderful support from everyone and I’ve already got 10 sales in only 3 days. Not huge, but you have to start somewhere. Hopefully some of those downloads will convert into reviews and I can only hope my book is well received.

Now that Across The Battlefield is alive and functioning on Amazon, I’m back onto writing my first novel, Spellwar.  I’ve posted the first chapter on here for everyone to check out and see what it’s all about.  I’m taking what I learned with writing and editing Across The Battlefield and putting the experience to good use as I draft the first copy of Spellwar.  At just about 12k words, I think I’m approximately 1/5th of the way through.  At this point, I’m just trying to get my plot straight and power through to the conclusion. I’ve got some more I want to add to the beginning, but my goal right now is to get the first draft hammered out.

 I’ve also learned that the editing process is both time consuming and extremely important for clearing the manuscript of errors. That seems like a no-brainer but it’s surprising how much stuff slips through the cracks. 

Thanks again to everyone who helped make Across The Battlefield possible, it’s the best feeling to know that your hard work is paying off and being read by others. As a side note, I’m flirting with the idea of putting the book into the Kindle Select program. I’m not planning on putting it onto Nook or Smashwords at the moment, but I’m waiting to see some feedback before I commit to Amazon 100% for 3 months.  Keep reading and keep writing.  Cheers!

Finished – Across The Battlefield

Well, after several months of trying to keep on task, I’ve finally finished the fourth round of edits on Across The Battlefield. I’m confident this is the final draft, but I’m going to have a few friends read through for some insight into how they liked it to help me market the collection more effectively. The final word count is 11,772 words and I’m very happy with the way everything turned out. I’ve also signed up for KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) so I can start formatting a document with the collection for the (virtual) presses. I’ll update here again, and on my ‘Published Work’ page when all is finished so everyone can check it out. Thank you all so much for the support. Cheers!