While I’ve been locked away finishing up King and Killers, the rest of the Hidden Gnome team has been hard at work scrambling to come up with free content for everybody stuck at home.
 
The fastest thing we could do was to put our eligible books up for free, so that’s why we gave away Traveler’s Gate trilogy for free this week. Which brings us to the next thing on our list!
 
Travis Baldree has recorded audio for one of the short stories from the Traveler’s Gate Chronicles collection: The Steel Labyrinth. It’s the short story that follows Valin, Founder of Valinhall, hunting a monster in Tartarus.
 
It’s available now, for free, on Spotify and on this very site! (And will be available on Apple and Google Play as soon as they complete the review process, so watch for that!)
 
We’re calling this the first episode of The Hidden Gnome Podcast, but like I said, we’re scrambling to put together anything we can that’s free and fast. We know everyone’s stressed and stuck at home, so we want to give away anything we can scrape up.
 
Because of the fly-by-the-seat-of-our-pants nature of this project, we don’t know when the second episode of the podcast (presumably another Chronicles short story narration) will come out. It could be next week or it could be a lot longer; we’re playing everything by ear right now.
 
But the gnomes are hard at work trying to keep you all entertained so you don’t go insane locked inside your own homes.
 
Enjoy the podcast, stay beautiful, and remember the words written on the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: DON’T PANIC!
 
-Will

We know you need some more quarantine reads, so we're giving away the ebooks for House of Blades, The Crimson Vault, and City of Light from March 17th (today) through the 21st!

I really wish I had something new for you guys to read. If it makes you feel any better, I'm locked inside too.

Not just because of coronavirus. I was locking myself in this week to get word count done, but it was nice of the government to cooperate with my schedule.

​-Will

Last night, on the fan subreddit (reddit.com/r/Iteration110Cradle), I did an impromptu AMA* in which I had some fun answering fan questions.

There was one question, or set of questions, that stuck with me afterwards and I continued thinking about today. And those boiled down to "What story are you going to write next?"

Once I finish Elder Empire and release the next Cradle book or two, I'll probably start something new. I might return to Traveler's Gate or write a Cradle spin-off or something, but I really love making up new things. That's what I always look forward to.

So I thought I'd share my thoughts on the matter!

First of all, I haven't decided anything. I tend to change my mind on this subject eagerly and often, so I'll jump from idea to idea whenever I feel like it.

But here are some of the things going through my head:

--I've worked on a world that's more game-y than I normally write. Not exactly a LitRPG, but something like a tabletop RPG world, e.g. a D&D-style universe in which the people have figured out the rules of magic over the generations through trial and error. 

--I've written a few notes on a possible system in which people have certain slots for abilities that they can fill in "builds," so to speak. This started as a supplement for the aforementioned RPG world, but it might end up evolving into its own thing. For instance, you might be able to learn three supernaturally enhanced talents, two contracted items or creatures, and one active ability.

People try to fill those gaps as synergistically as possible, but everything has a rarity rating. And one character won't settle for any ability less than legendary, even if the all-legendary abilities don't work synergistically with one another at all. So he'll take a loss or refuse to take an awesome opportunity just because it isn't rare enough.

Anyway, I think I could have some fun with it.

--I've always wanted to try to write a death game sort of story, something like Fate/Stay Night, Basilisk, or (weirdly) The World Ends With You. I like the idea of working with a finite cast of characters, each with a strong backstory and motivation, that gets whittled down all the way to the end.

Unfortunately that concept tends to work better for a standalone than a series, but it's a dream I come back to every once in a while.

--I also have a loose idea rattling around in my head about a more traditional fantasy epic with a bunch of different factions that have unique identities and histories and are represented by superhuman champions.

In this world, if you accomplish enough as a mortal, you evolve into a higher version of yourself. These mythical heroes then tend to clash with one another for various competing goals that shape the history of the world.

--I'd also love to write a survival fantasy story, if I can figure out how. The Martian is probably my favorite survival novel, but I don't know how I feel about the goal of getting back home being the primary motivation. Also, I want a solo battle of survival to be the focus, but at the same time any story gets boring if a character doesn't have anybody else to play off of.

Bonus points if it takes place on a magical ocean. Because then it's like Subnautica.

-Will 

*Ask Me Anything: essentially an open Q&A session