Hungry Eyes is Out

On February 1, 2016 By SethIn Writing Updates and SalesLeave a comment

My Valducan short, Hungry Eyes, is now available in the SNAFU: Hunters anthology.

Description: Paris, 2009 – Something lurks beneath the City of Light and Valducan knights Nick Tavitian, Colin Delaney, and new recruit Malcolm Romero intend to find it. But as they search the catacombs for their quarry, something hungry is watching them from the darkness.

It was a lot of fun to write and will work very well into Ibenus, which references this particular adventure. I hope you all enjoy it.

Sea of Quills is on Audible

On December 8, 2015 By SethIn Ibenus, Sea of Quills, The Black Raven, Writing Updates and SalesLeave a comment

SOQ Audible Audiobook lovers can now find Sea of Quills on Audible, narrated by R.C. Bray. While I haven’t finished my initial listen (I’m halfway through City Beneath the Kaisers right now), I can safely say that R.C. has done another fantastic job bringing Ahren to life. It’s been ten years since I penned my first Black Raven adventure and I’m very happy to finally have both books fully out.

In other news, I’ve finished the first draft of Ibenus and am making a few final edits before sending it off to Ragnarok for approval. I hope to have it in their hands by Christmas. For those asking what Ibenus is about, here’s a little about it:

After surviving a demon attack, disgraced police detective Victoria Martin tracks down the Valducans in search for answers. Recognizing her potential, and despite the warnings of the other knights, Allan Havlock, protector of Ibenus, takes her in as his apprentice.

As the Valducans travel to Paris to destroy a demon nest infesting the catacombs, the knights find themselves hunted by an Internet group intent on exposing them. Victoria, who belongs this group, must desperately play both sides to not only protect herself, but Allan whom she has begun to love. Ibenus, however, has other plans.

Currently, it’s the longest of the Valducan Series so far, beating Dämoren by about 4,000 words. Aside from Allan and Ibenus, we will also get to see Luc, Schmidt, Sam, Orlovski, Luiza, and other characters from the first two novels. We’ll also meet a few new hunters as the Order has been replenishing their ranks after the events in Dämoren. There’s a lot I’m excited about, but even on the fastest foreseeable timeline, it’ll be many months before Ibenus would release, so I’ll share more the closer we get to then.

In the meantime, please enjoy Sea of Quills.

The Serpent’s Army is Out

On November 5, 2015November 5, 2015 By SethIn Dämoren, Ibenus, Writing Updates and Sales3 Comments

NYAMA The first of my Valducan Archive Adventures is out. Set twenty years before Dämoren, The Serpent’s Army follows knights Clay Mercer and Max Schmidt as they hunt a lamia outside of Dallas Texas. I thought it would be fun to show them when they were young, capable hunters, and wanted to try a “buddy cop” sort of feel with it. I’ve touched on lamia in both Dämoren and Hounacier, but never had a good opportunity to really show them off until now. Also… biker gang.

I enjoyed writing Schmidt so much that because of this story he will have a much more active role in Ibenus*.

I want to thank Bloodshot Books, and editor Peter Kahle, for including me in their anthology. The Not Your Average Monster Anthology: A Besitary of Horrors is available at Amazon and includes 21 other stories as well. It’s a monster book (haha get it?) at over 350 pages. So once you’re done getting your Valducan fix, you have a lot of great fiction to keep you entertained.

* Ibenus Update: I hope to finish the first draft in the next month. Currently it’s at over 90,000 words and looks to be the longest of the Valducan series so-far.

Story Acceptance – Hungry Eyes

On September 24, 2015September 24, 2015 By SethIn Dämoren, Events, Ibenus, Sea of Quills, Writing Updates and SalesLeave a comment

SNAFU Hunters I’m very happy to announce that my short story Hungry Eyes has been accepted by Cohesion Press for their upcoming SNAFU: Hunters anthology.

Set in 2009, this will be part of my Valducan Archive Adventures. It follows Malcolm, Colin, and Nick as they explore the Paris catacombs in search of a demon. I had a lot of fun with this one since Colin was one of the characters in Dämoren that I just didn’t have enough time to really expand on. Nick has been referred to several times, but we never got to meet him. So now we’ll get to see why the Valducans remember him so fondly.

In other news, Sea of Quills is set to release next week and I am pumped to see it out there, finally. In honor of the occasion, I had an interview with the United Federation of Charles where we discuss Black Raven as well as Ibenus.

Also, my long-time friend, and fellow author, Clay Sanger has begun a series of blog posts counting down to Sea of Quills’ release. This first one (Here) goes over Dämoren, as well as some personal anecdotes from back when I was first chatting and bouncing ideas off him about the novel several years before I started writing it. His help back in those early days was instrumental in how Dämoren came out. It’s no accident that Matt’s mentor was also named Clay.

Finally, this coming weekend I’ll be a guest author at FenCon XII. I’ll be on a couple panels as well as reading Dämoren. FenCon is a very special place for me because the Writers Workshop there was where I decided to put down my old practice novel and finally write Dämoren (which Clay and I had been talking about for a couple of years at that point). If you’re in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, come by. My event schedule is Here.

As you can see, everything has been busy. I’ve been writing some guest blogs that should be going live soon in honor of next week’s big release, so I’ll be posting links to those as they come.

-Seth

The 2015 Audie Awards and Other News

On June 1, 2015 By SethIn Dämoren, Hounacier, Writing Updates and SalesLeave a comment

Last week I attended the APA’s annual Audie Award Gala. While Dämoren lost Best Paranormal to M.R. Carey’s The Girl With All the Gifts, I had a fabulous time.

I met Dämoren’s narrator R.C. Bray, who was also nominated for several other awards and did win the Audie for Andy Weir’s The Martain. R.C. will also be reading for Hounacier as well as Mountain of Daggers.

Speaking of Hounacier, Audible’s editors have selected it for their Summer Preview of their most anticipated upcoming releases. It’s set to release 7/21. I don’t have a date yet for Mountain of Daggers Audible release, but R.C. told me he should be recording it soon after he’s finished with Hounacier. Hopefully with 2 new audio books in 2015 I might make it back to the Audies soon.

I’d really like to have another medal to go along with the one bestowed on Dämoren.

In other news, Bloodshot Books has just signed my Valducan short story The Serpent’s Army for their upcoming Not Your Average Monster Anthology. The story will follow Clay and Schmidt in the 1980’s. Expected publication date is late September 2015.

In the meantime, I’m still plugging away on Ibenus and have a couple more stories out there waiting acceptance. Hopefully soon I’ll have updates on those.

Guest Blogs and Events

On March 22, 2015 By SethIn Events, Story Inspirations, Writing Craft, Writing Updates and SalesLeave a comment

With two book releases in a single month, everything has been busy. However, I’ve found the time to write several guest blogs concerning my new books as well as my thoughts on the genre.

At RisingShadow I have, Pulp Heroes: Why We Love Them. I discuss how pulp heroes are not just some forgotten heroes of a bygone era and why they appeal to us (hint: I talk about James Bond).

SF Signal hosted , Sword and Sorcery: A More Intimate Fantasy, where I explain why I think Sword & Sorcery is a much more fun and relatable genre than Epic Fantasy.

Over at The Quillery, I shared, So We Saved The World…Now What?. There I discuss how sequels needlessly have to up the stakes in every installment and why I rebelled against that in Hounacier by simply changing them.

At Singular Points I have, Story Inspirations: The History and Hidden Places of New Orleans. Here I share the story of how I hadn’t planned to write Hounacier as Book 2 until a trip to New Orleans completely changed my mind.

Check them out. If you like them, or have anything to add, please leave a comment. I’d love to hear everyone’s thoughts.

Ragnarok Publications is hosting a Facebook Release event on Monday March 21st 8-10EDT. We’ll have some guest authors (Cat Rambo, Kenny Soward, Jaym Gates, Tim Marquitz, and Lincoln Crisler), give away some free books (I’ll be giving out an Audible version of Damoren and a Black Raven pendant), and have ourselves a good time. Come by. Laugh with us. Score free stuff.

Finally, for anyone in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, I’ll be speaking at the Tarrant County College Trinity River Campus on April 16th at 2:00.

That’s all for now.

Story Acceptance – The Vampire of Somerset

On September 9, 2014 By SethIn Writing Updates and SalesLeave a comment

The first of my planned Valducan Archive adventure has officially sold. The Vampire of Somerset, a 1930’s story following Lady Helen Meadows will appear in Emby Press‘ upcoming ‘Occult Detective Monster Hunter: A Grimoire of Eldritch Inquests’ anthology.

Prior to the sale, The Vampire of Somerset won the Editor’s Choice for Horror on the writing workshop that I belong to.

Jeanne Cavelos, Director of Odyssey, said:
“The Vampire of Somerset” provides some new twists on the vampire mythos, and these are some of the strongest elements of the piece.I really enjoy learning about the different types of vampires, the powers of vampires, the techniques for vampire hunting and killing, and the details of the order. These not only show vampires in a new light, but they also put the vampires in a new context, with the order and their fascinating swords.So I think the story does a very strong job of worldbuilding, providing a fresh and compelling situation.

Helen, the protagonist, is another strength of the piece.Her cool, confident, and commanding personality comes across strongly.She feels unique and interesting.As a reader, I want to follow her and see what she does.”

Release date for the anthology is set for December. It will be available in hardback, paperback, and epub.