Howdy folks! I hope y’all are doing well.
I just wanted to pop on here with a sort of overall update. This is something I had figured I’d do back in January, a sort of annual beginning of the year update. But we all see how that played out. It’s now the end of March and the weather is starting to pretend to get warmer here in Upstate New York. We’ve hit that season of mud, where there may still be another snowfall or two. Those lovely days that could be 70°F one day and 20°F the next. But weather aside, I’ve got a lot in store for the coming year… I think.
So what’s new?
I’ve been in the process of going wide with all my books. So far both Stone & Shield and The Dregs already have. Before I can continue with the other books, I need to wait for Amazon’s KDP Select subscription to end. For The Scroungers that will be late April, and for Split Paths early May. Then all of my works (including new releases) will be available wide. Just about anywhere you buy ebooks.
As for paperbacks, well, I’m beginning to look into that process now as well. But one thing at a time.
Bringing me to my next point; I suppose I just lied. Not everything will be available wide. Though I am considering this next point.
Shadows of Emros
I started a new series. There won’t be any predetermined frequency of releases for this and they generally will be able to be read in any order. And, for now at least, the ebooks will only be available through my Ko-Fi page (more on that in a bit).
I will also have paperbacks available (the first one Lucky Die will be available on April 1st on Amazon, and I may take those wide as well). But the ebook is available now, for 99c, on my Ko-Fi Page. Really the only reason there’s a paperback is because I’m a nerd that wants them for my shelf. I’ll keep the cost as low as I can in case others want them too.
Shadows of Emros is going to be a series of short stories, set in the world of Emros. Pretty simple really, they can take place any time, any place. They may feature familiar characters, they may not. Just a series of short stories connected by the world in which they’re set.
Vermin of the Old Empire
That set up is also one I plan for the Vermin series. I will be starting another series, set in that world, of short stories that will be available on my Ko-Fi page. Currently that series is unnamed, but what will set it apart from Vermin of the Old Empire is these will be tales that take place at different times. Whereas in the Vermin series, every story starts at the Battle of Torglen, these will take place before (and possibly long after), or far away from Volgsland. As of now, the working series title is simply Battlefield Rats.
The Dross
I’ve been working on the next Vermin of the Old Empire novella for a bit now. Well, technically, I’ve been working on the next three. I really love this series, and there’s so much I want to explore with it that deciding just which book is going to be next has been difficult.
The one I decided on, is one that I didn’t originally know would exist. You see, there were two characters in the beginning of one of the other novellas I had planned. But their story went in a different direction. So rather than have too many POVs, including one set of POVs that don’t even align with the others, I pulled them from the book and gave them their own.
The Dross is going to be the tale of an unlikely buddy duo. A soldier of Eastwatch, from a regiment especially devout to Enid the Bright, dead loyal to the Golden Lion of Eastwatch. And a critically wounded Gallish mercenary. For those that have read other Vermin stories, you know that the relations between Eastwatch and the Gallands is tenuous at best due to the events of the Battle of Torglen (none of this is spoilery, it all happens pretty early on).
Following the battle, the Eastwatcher tries to help the wounded Gallander (a mercenary they knew briefly from the march). But when they finally reach one of the last Free Cities of the Borderlands, any hopes they held are dashed as an army surrounds the walls.
A found family tale of friends surviving (or at least trying to survive) a besieged city.
Fall of Emros
Once I’m done with The Dross, I will finally be returning to the third Fall of Emros book, The Crooked Lord of Ruin. I don’t have much left to finish, and hope to release it this year.
General Releases
My originally plan this year, was to release two novellas and a novel. But I kinda had the wind knocked from my sails there. Financial woes have arose, and that kinda leaves everything in the air for now. I still plan on having two novellas and a novel ready to go this year. But money will determine what I can and cannot release.
Ko-Fi Page
Speaking of money (hehe, like what I did there?) I recently started a Ko-Fi Page (sorry, I’m saying that a lot) and y’all should go check it out. Folks can donate money if they’d like (aka ‘buy me a coffee/pint), but my main reason for setting it up is not that. Instead, this will be the hub to use if you’d like to buy ebooks directly from me. As mentioned before, when the KDP exclusivity is up, ALL of my books will be available there, and priced lower than the other markets when possible.
But that’s not all. I’ll also be posting weekly bits. These may take the form of snippets from my books, bits of worldbuilding and lore, short stories, anything really. And all that will be available for free.
I’m also considering the idea of tossing things up like a donation to become a character. So do you want to be a corpse tossed upon the pyres of Torglen? Or a drunk passed out in a puddle of their own vomit before the Temple to the Gods of Silver and Gold in Bright Hollow? Just a stone’s throw from the Dripping Bucket from which you stumbled? Well, maybe these will be possibilities.
New Editions!
Back to the subject of going wide. As I’ve been working on this, I’ve been reformatting my books on a new program and publishing under the new name of my imprint Revolting Peasant Press. And, quite honestly, I think they look great (this is interior formatting only). However, I’ve ran into a snag with The Dregs (available now) and The Scroungers (wide at the end of April) with them being a few pages shorter. Now, it probably wasn’t enough to negatively effect the cover, but since page count does come into play for the wrap… I figured there was only one solution…
FREE FUCKING SHORT STORIES!
So from here on out all versions of The Scroungers and The Dregs will have a free short story set in the world of the Fractured Kingdoms available at the end.
But what if you already bought these books, will you be missing out because of bad timing? No. I think that would make me some kind of an asshole. Those short stories will be going up (for free) on my Ko-Fi Page. And both are actually stories I wrote over on the GrimDarkEpicFantasy Sub-Reddit. So really, they’re just a bit of a bonus at no cost.
Signing Off
Well, I feel like there’s more, but I’ve been a ramblin’ for a while now. So I’m gonna close on down here. I’ll add that I’m going to be part of the steady review time here at Page Chewing, but I feel like if you’re here to read this, you may know that already. But if you just come to read the blog posts, why not mosey on over to the forums and say “hey” (or a “hi” will do, we ain’t picky). By the by, I realized I haven’t posted links to author websites or places to buy any of the books I’ve reviewed so far… That was silly of me. I’m new to this and will improve as I go. In the meantime, when I have time, I’ll go back and add links where appropriate.
Speaking of links y’all can find everything for my books and socials and whatnot at:
https://linktr.ee/thomasjdevens
and of course one more time:
https://ko-fi.com/thomasjdevens
And now, a song:
I usually stick with newer/current bands here. But I was in the mood for a classic:
