It’s been an exciting week, a busy week, and an interesting week all round. On Sunday, I had so many plans for what I was going to do, what I was going to write, and so on, but planets aligned and stuff, and so I have completed about 1% of my to-do list. But it wasn’t all bad. It has, on the scale of things, been a very good week in many different ways.

5,000

That is my new favourite number. I was making a daily sales check on Amazon Tuesday evening, and discovered that for the first time, one of my books had dipped below that number on the sales rankings. The Scion of Abacus, Part I has broken the Epic Fantasy top 100 several times since then, at one point sitting directly above Tolkien’s The Silmarillion.

2012 continues to astound me, as the three volumes of Scion I have thus far released exceed all my expectations. I can say now, with only half of the volumes released , that the gamble to publish it as a serial novel is a success. And on that front, Part IV  is progressing on target to be released next weekend, either Saturday the 17th or Sunday the 18th.

I’m really excited about Part IV, as it is the first time I’ve sat back and said to myself, “This is a really good story.” And I’m not biased, or anything. (*wink, wink*nudge,nudge*) I had a similar feeling while working on The Wars of Gods and Men, and it is welcome to have that self-assurance again, that self-belief, that has often been lacking for me over the past year. What can I say but that every one of you who has purchased a book of mine in the past few weeks has contributed to that feeling. Thanks, immensely.

Religion

I have been thinking a lot lately about the different ways morality and religion manifest in fantasy novels. I have been thinking about this so much that I started writing stuff down, and soon found myself composing a lengthy essay on the subject. I have begun posting that here, on this website, and I would appreciate your contribution.

I don’t claim to have all the answers, and I come at the subject from a particular bias, being an evangelical Christian myself. There is a lot of nastiness out there when it comes to religion, but it is such a fundamental part of our makeup as human beings that it is difficult not to talk about it. I wholeheartedly believe that it is much better to have discussion than to avoid the subject. I’d especially like to hear from anyone else who is an author who has an opinion on the subject of religion in fantasy.

More

I believe it was Joe Konrath (though I could be wrong, and probably am, as this seems like it could be a very old saying) who said you haven’t made it as an author until you’ve gotten a one-star review on Amazon. Well, I got my first this week. Strangely, however, it didn’t really upset me, but it did make me think a little bit about my marketing strategy (the review was left on my free novella prequel to The Ossian Chronicles series). Nevertheless, as feedback has been universally good from those leaving reviews or those emailing me, I have actually seen this as a good opportunity to grow. Anyhow, that’s enough philosophy for now.

In other news, I have been reading and enjoying an early draft of an upcoming book called Poking Grammar in the I by Kirk Yuras. I have no idea of when it’s going on general sale, but it is a fun and humorous look at the foibles of English, and offers up a whole new spelling system to help all of us bad spellers. While such systems have been proposed often before, there is something enjoyable to me (as an amateur linguist) in seeing the ways people try to make sense of our beautiful and bastardized language.

Right, that’s your lot for this week. Cheers!