Blog Archives
Nanowrimo 2017
As I write this, midnight approaches on the East Coast of the United States, bringing with it the month of November, or for me, National Novel Writing Month. During this month, also known as Nanowrimo, I will attempt to write 50,000 words along with several thousand other people. I’ve successfully managed the task every year since 2009, but each year brings its own unique challenges.
If you’d like to join us in the attempt, please go to www.nanowrimo.org. When you sign up, you gain access to tons of support, from fellow authors to organized writing events in your area, to the website’s own tracking system. Three of my indy novels, In the Service of the King, Souls of the Everwood, and Balefire and Brimstone, were all written during past Novembers. The wonderful thing is that whether you finish or not, you’ll be closer to a completed novel than when you started. Souls of the Everwood was started in 2008, and I failed to write 50,000 words that year. While I only managed 8,000 words, I still ultimately completed the book. More importantly, I learned how much was happening in my life which didn’t help my writing, and how to make more time to write. If you have lots of ideas, there’s never enough time to write. I look on the entire endeavor as a chance to clean house on my writing efforts and become more disciplined and organized. If you’ve been looking for a good excuse to finally write that novel, please consider National Novel Writing Month. It’s a tough but great experience. Read the rest of this entry
Hanover Book Festival 2013 – August 10
Hi everyone, I have a table this weekend at the Hanover Book Festival. It should be a fun event with 50 authors or so, plus some publishers. Lots of genres will be represented and books will be for sale. I’m bringing copies of Souls of the Everwood, Balefire and Brimstone, and In the Service of the King. Additionally, I’ll be promoting Blue Oranda as well and have copies of In My Brother’s Name by Wayland Smith plus Broken Faith by Dara Hannon. Just to add to the complexity, I’ll have several copies of my grandfather’s book about his voyages around the world and my aunt’s RV book. Come out if you can! All the best! Harry
Hanover Book Festival
Krueger returns in Balefire and Brimstone
Balefire and Brimstone, Book 2 of the Krueger Chronicles, is now available for purchase for the Kindle and on Smashwords. It’s been a good month for the one-eyed Chosen. Probably not so good for his enemies. In the next few weeks, the print copy will be available on Amazon, and I expect that he’ll have reached Barnes and Noble and the Apple store in e-format by early August.
I wrote the first draft of the book during National Novel Writing Month 2010. After I had failed to complete the first Krueger novel in 2008’s NaNoWriMo, I was determined to finish this one. After falling painfully behind schedule, no one who knew me thought that I was going to make it. Somehow, I got into a great writing zone over Thanksgiving, and I finished at 11:45 pm on the final day. I’m pretty sure that I slept well that weekend.
Souls of the Everwood, my first Krueger book, remains eligible for free purchase on Smashwords this month. Just use the coupon code SW100 listed on the Smashwords page on checkout (check the page just in case they change it). It’s a great way to take a look at the book and decide if you like it. If you don’t, well, it was free.
My original concept for Souls of the Everwood came from the idea of conflict between fantasy elves and men. As I wrote Krueger, the protagonist, he morphed into someone much deeper and darker with quite a bit of influence from Robert E. Howard’s Solomon Kane. At the same time, he’s definitely a different character, much more of a lost soul than Howard’s fanatical Puritan. Suddenly, the entire concept of the book changed and revolved around him.
In a lot of ways, I was influenced by Westerns in writing Krueger and the book has some aspects of the genre while mixing in magic, the Fey and undead.
Okay, maybe I wasn’t influenced in a “lot” of ways by Westerns, though I will admit that I liked the idea of a character using a gun against mystical enemies.
I’m very thankful to Blue Oranda for publishing Krueger and the Hawks. Additionally, one of my fellow authors, Brad A. White, has his second mythological noir novel available through Blue Oranda, A Pearl for Her Eyes. Speaking of Blue Oranda, they have a new website now with an image of HeroNet Files, which I’m lucky enough to have a short story inside.
I think I’ve done enough linking for now. If you get a chance to get a copy and would like to comment or e-mail about it, I’d be glad to discuss the book. I’m hopeful that both Krueger books will continue to sell reasonably well, as I have outlines for about 5 more.
Wishing everyone the best!
Harry
Happy July! Souls of the Everwood special on Smashwords!
Hi everyone,
June was a good month for my day job, but I didn’t post a thing here. My apologies. Note to self, never title another post “Waiting.”
I’m still working on Mummy stuff as well as HeroNet Files. I promise to post a cool pic of the cover art for HeroNet Files #1, but you can see it on Blue Oranda here. It’s located in the center of the covers at the top of the page.
Krueger has some good news. First of all, Smashwords is celebrating July with some coupons, so if you go to Smashwords and search for Souls of the Everwood, you will find a coupon code that can be used to purchase the book in just about any e-format you’d like for free. This is only until the end of July.
On another front, Balefire and Brimstone (Krueger Chronicles # 2) has been e-published, but everyone may want to hold off as there are going to be some formatting updates going in to the e-copies. If you have already purchased it, you may want to download again to get the most up-to-date version.
I hope everyone had a good 4th of July!
All the best,
Harry
Free E-Books Through March 9th
February went by in a blur. My apologies for not blogging, but I’ve been busy with work and rewrites. I keep having ideas on what to blog at all the wrong times.
Anyway, there is a promotion on Smashwords that runs through March 9 (this Saturday) which includes two of my books, In the Service of the King and Souls of the Everwood. If you create an account and enter RW100 on checkout, you can get them for FREE. I’ve linked them above and you should be able to search by title or author’s name. Free is good, especially for people who check my blog. These are only e-books and for a very limited time.
Additionally, a friend of mine, Brad A. White, has one of his books, Servant of the Muses, entered in the same promotion, and my good friend Wayland Smith has one of his books, In My Brother’s Name, about a terrorist attack on DC, on a 50% off promotion at the same site.
Everyone dealing with winter weather be careful out there.
All the best,
Harrry
Harry Heckel 