Axtara

The Week’s News: Beta Call, Steps Toward Kickstarter, and More

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Hey folks! It’s been a week! And most of you will know what that means, lol.

On the home front, I’ve been having more trouble from my shoulder than usual. I appear to have some sort of tightness problem that extends down into my arm and wrist, very likely from years of hard, repetitive labor, but ultimately reaching a crescendo by my wrist injury from years ago that put all that weight on one arm to keep my head from being cut in half.

Now that I think about it, I don’t know if the doctors even looked at my shoulder that night. I honestly would assume they did, because that whole arm took the blow, but I can’t say whether they did or didn’t.

Anyway, point is, it acts up, and that runs down my whole arm. Worse, strengthening exercises are one of those things that make it feel worse before it gets better, meaning I just have to tough it out even as I try to strengthen it so that in the future it doesn’t ache or give me other problems quite so effectively. So this week it’s been not as bad as it’s ever been, but still annoying and has served as a sort of undercurrent for things through the week.

That isn’t to say that everything is bad, though. Alpha feedback on my Iron Horses submission has been positive. I’ve already made some small changes to bear to smooth over a rough spot or two. General feedback is that it’s a fun story, though, and I look forward to sending this one off and adding yet another lens to the Axtara world.

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New Axtara Fanart + Last Day For Colony Sale+ Patreon Supporter Rewards!

Max Misc , , , ,

Hey folks! Got some fun updates to break up the monotony of the middle of your week. Take this freedom and fun, please, and use it to stave off the doldrums of—Looks outside, blanches, and slowly lowers the curtain.

Well … that.

So, what have we got for you? Well, the first bit (which will be below the jump because it’s a large image) is a new piece of Axtara fanart! This one comes to the world from HumblePayson, and was shared with me this weekend on social media. I have their permission to repost it here, and you can also find it over on the Fanart Tab.

Now hit that jump to take a look!

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Beta Invites for “Axtara – Armies and Accounting” Sent! Check Your Inboxes! And More!

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I know. I don’t usually put up a new post after Monday until Wednesday to give the current Being a Better Writer article a bit more time on top of things. But there’s enough drive for haste behind this one (and past experience has shown that giving these emails a post is a vital part of the process) that I figured I’d break the rule for today.

Beta calls and invites have been sent out for Axtara – Armies and Accounting! If you’re a former Beta Reader that wished to remain a Beta Reader, check your email inbox! They actually went out last Thursday, with the first six chapters of the book uploaded to the system that night. The remaining chapters were uploaded yesterday. The entirety of the book is ready for Beta Reading.

So former Beta Readers, check those email inboxes! Either for the call or the invite to the chapter list if you’ve already responded!

Other news? Why certainly! If you’re a Super Supporter over on Patreon, the first chapter of Armies and Accounting (pre-Beta) is available to read! We don’t even have a cover, but there’s a collection for it. Just head on over to the Patreon to check it out. And if you’re not a Super Supporter, your options are A) wait or B) become a Super Supporter. In a few weeks, as the release of Armies and Accounting slowly nears, there will be a reveal post for all supporters, and then a while later, as before, it’ll be here on the site too.

Amusing side story before going further, someone once reached out to me to inform me that I had spelled “Patreon” wrong in several posts across the site, because I referred to the supporters as “Patrons” rather than the ‘correct’ “Patreons.” My explanation of the word “patron” was met with a stony silence followed by a ‘well I guess if you want everyone to know you’re wrong and can’t spell.’ And to this day I think of it every time I have to type out “Patreon.”

Other news? Well, I’m looking at ways to fund the art for the cover and internals of Armies and Accounting. Kickstarter is a possibility. The goal is to have a cover and two maps, but after that LTUE teen panel (in which a bunch of teen readers spoke about what they wanted to see in books), more art and internal illustrations would be cool. Obviously though, not cheap. The cover and maps alone all but beg for a fundraiser of some kind, but additional internal illustrations would make it a certainty.

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Axtara Is Free This Weekend!

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I mean, with a title like that, do you really need to know more? Well, perhaps outside of where to grab this fabulous deal.

That’s right, readers! In response to a recent review milestone over on GoodReads (more on that here for the curious) the first installment of Axtara, Banking and Finance, is free this weekend and this weekend only. In addition the sequel, Magic and Mischief, is discounted, so you might as well grab it at the same time and get yourself ready for the upcoming third installment!

Some clarity for those who aren’t already clicking over to the books tab. Obviously this is just for the digital version. Don’t go to your local bookstore expecting to get the paperback for free. Second, the ebook will stop being free once this weekend is over. You can keep it if you snagged in that time, but if you wait for Monday, the price is going to be back to normal. This is a rare celebratory moment.

So, you can snag your copy here (or just click that book cover there). Or, if you’re a little skeptical about reading a cozy story wherein a dragon opens a bank, you can read a sample here.

What little other news there is pales in comparison to this, so I’ll just leave the news off here. See you Monday folks, and remember, by Monday the deal will be gone, so get it before then!

What Do YOU Want To See From Upcoming Being a Better Writer Posts?

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Hey writers and readers alike, I’ve got a question for you.

If you’ve read the latest Being a Better Writer post, you’ll know that Monday marked the covering of the last topic from Topic List #26. Yes, the list of upcoming topics is a very real physical thing kept on my desk, and as of right now, this moment, it is empty. Well, vacant, actually. I haven’t started writing down my ideas for Topic List #27. Which I’ve already got a few topics for rolling around inside my head, such as “Be Curious” and “Using Narration and Other Tools to Show Our Characters Rather than Tell.”

But … those are just a few that I’ve come up with. As before on Unusual Things, I’m interested in knowing what topics you would like to see Being a Better Writer discuss! That’s right, this post is a TOPIC CALL! You see that “Comment” button down below? I’d like you, reader, to hit it and let me know what concepts, topics, or ideas you would like to see covered in future installments of Being a Better Writer!

It’s really that simple. Got a topic or concept you’d like Being a Better Writer to explore in the coming months? We won’t know you want it unless you tell us! So hit that comment button and do! Then we can!

That’s really all there is to it! New installments of Being a Better Writer are coming, and while I’ve definitely filled many lists on my own (and could do so with #27 without issue), if I can cover topics that you want to see addressed—even ones we’ve covered before from a new angle—then that’s something I’d like to do.

Yeah, not much else to it. Hit that comment button and let me know!

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Axtara Hits 100!

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I was really tempted to make that say “Turns 100” but that would have been a little different in meaning, and I’m not ready to be chastised by such a gentle soul. No, readers, the news this week is that at long last Axtara – Banking and Finance has broken 100 ratings/reviews on Goodreads! It beat Colony by four. Yeah, it’s taken the crown, though still not in sales. But I suppose besting Colony in the reviews/ratings department at lower sales numbers (and lower age) does say a bit about how beloved it is.

So yeah, a milestone has been reached! And in celebration of that, I am going to do something special for the title in question. I won’t say exactly what yet, as I’m still getting the details worked out. But I did promise a little over a month or so ago that when it did crack 100, I’d do something. And as I’ve got a birthday coming up, I think I’ll blend the two a see what sort of “gift” I can drop.

Now, this is a bit of a “news-lite” day since I already covered the conclusion of the Royal Road experiment in a post earlier this week, so I don’t think I’ll have a “jump,” but there are a few more things I want to cover. Work on the next book has begun, the Metroid-homage Adventures of Kel Quarine: Interstellar Ranger. I’m already planning on a few revised tweaks to the first chapter, but not the sort of thing that’s going to happen before I move on to chapter two, then three, etc, and finish the draft.

In other news, I am still looking for some extra Alpha Readers for Blood Less Vile. If you’d like to give it a go, leave a comment and let me know. I need some more eyeballs on it before it goes into Beta.

And that’s it. Like I said, sort of a short news day. I’m now going to go write the last topic from Topic List #26 for Being a Better Writer. Which means that I need to start a Topic List #27 for that too. You’ll see that Monday, while I get back to work on Kel Quarine!

Have a great weekend everyone, and thanks for supporting!

My Royal Road Experiment Is Over

Max Misc , , ,

Well readers, yesterday shortly before noon the experiment ended. I moved over to the settings page on Royal Road and selected “Delete account.” A moment later, it was all in the process of being closed, and the experiment ended.

The result? Well … mixed bag.

All right, let’s back up a minute. Maybe you didn’t note what was going on, but a few months ago at LTUE, I was approached by would-be readers who were shocked that there wasn’t a “free preview” of Axtara or any of my other books on Royal Road, and online fiction site. Curious, I did a little digging, and yeah, there are a lot of books with free first few chapter previews on Royal Road (something the site actually has its own term for: “Stubbing” or Stub fics”).

Curious, I decided I’d make an experiment of it. I’d make a Royal Road account and upload previews of all my works one by one. That way, readers like those that questioned me at LTUE would be able to check out the works there and then from that point decide if they wanted to read Axtara or anything else.

So, I set out to do just that. First, I set up a Royal Road account, carefully reading through the terms and conditions. All good there, everything checked out. Of course, I did have to prove I was me, and that took a little doing. The first suggestion I was given from the Royal Road staff was to post my private email publicly on my other web presence (IE this site) so that they could “confirm I was really me.”

As you might imagine, I declined. Instead I offered to adjust my links page to link to the new Royal Road profile and mention the experiment. They accepted that, but it was a sign that things were a little rocky already. For starters, the fact that the admins didn’t seem to take any other web presence with seriousness save their own. The default attitude seemed to be that Royal Road was the center of the universe, and even having my own website was odd.

But I pushed on. Got the approval, and started putting up the first few chapters of Axtara – Banking and Finance. However, as I went to put up chapters for Axtara – Magic and Mischief, trouble began.

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Big News in This Week’s Update!

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Hey readers! As you might have gathered from the title, I’ve got some pretty big news to share, news that’s going to determine basically everything for the next few weeks.

Okay, that’s a little hyperbolic. Most of you probably saw this coming because it’s the natural order of things. But … Yesterday I wrote the closing line for Axtara – Armies and Accounting.

Yeah, that’s right. The draft is complete! Final wordcount? 255,342 words.

Yeeeeah … for a YA novel too. At this point I think it’s pretty clear I accidentally wrote an “Epic YA” by mistake. That said, I do plan to rewrite the opening of this draft and see if I can cut down about 20,000 words or so. We’ll see how that pans out. There are a few other areas where I could make cuts too, though on a few of them I’ll wait to see what the Alpha Readers say (as well as what I decide doesn’t make the cut during the Pre-Alpha).

Still, there’s no denying it’s a hefty book. But given the context of the plot, well … It kind of makes sense.

Oh, would you guys like a teaser? Well, now that the draft is done, I think I can finally start spilling some details about what Axtara’s third outing covers.

I’ll put it at the bottom of the post, though. That way anyone who doesn’t want to read a quick synopsis blurb (though it’s not going to have spoilers, but rather be closer to what you’d find on the back of the book) can avoid it by just not reading that section.

Regardless of whether you plan to read it or not, hit the jump as we discuss what’s next!

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The News: Axtara 3 Details and LTUE!

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Hey folks! Doing the weekly news update today instead of tomorrow just so I can divide my writing time up a little more efficiently. Not that there’s much news any—Hah!

Actually, there is some good news this week. Axtara 3, or as some of you may know going by the full title, Axtara – Armies and Accounting has reached another milestone. Yesterday the draft passed 200,000 words, and it’s also in its final chapters.

Now, I know what some of you are thinking. A 200,000 word Young Adult novel? What am I doing, writing Epics?

Well, if you look at the rest of my library, yes. But also, I do plan to rewrite the opening of this one and cut it down by about 25,000 words. That said, it’s probably still going to end up slightly longer than Magic and Mischief, which weighed in at about 185,000 words.

On the other wing, I think this length is kind of appropriate considering the context of the story this time around. If it ends up Epic-length, well it is covering an epic journey. A sort of “road trip,” without going into too many spoilers, that sees our banking dragoness leaving Elnacier for a time to cross the entire continent all the way to … Well, that’d be spoiling it. But yes, there’s an epic journey in Armies and Accounting. Were you a reader that wanted to see more of the world and culture outside of Elnacier (and how Elnacier fits into that tapestry)? Well, get ready, because this book is going to deliver.

Also, I should probably put a map at the front, seeing as I have a doodled one on my desk. Yeah, we’ve reached that point, folks. A map of the Core Kingdoms and the continent Axtara calls home.

As to why Axtara’s off on this grand journey, well … I won’t spoil that for now, though the discord has gotten some hints. For now I leave the cause for you fans to speculate on … but she won’t be making the journey alone.

The world beyond Elnacier’s borders is about to expand, readers! Well, once you get your hands on it, anyway. Don’t forget, this is the draft. There’s a lot of work to come after this.

But for now? That draft is almost done, and it’s the biggest Axtara adventure yet!

Now, what sort of stakes could cause that, I wonder? You’ll have to find out.

Now, on to the other bit of news: LTUE!

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