I Never Learned the Days of the Week

11/10/2013

So I have good news, bad news, and new news.

The bad news is that I forgot to put up a blog post yesterday. This was largely due to the fact that I completely forgot it was Saturday.

The good news is that I forgot it was Saturday because I spent the vast majority of the day writing. I got lost in the writing. Yeah, productivity!

So here's the new news:

When I announced that The Traveler's Gate Chronicles (a collection of Traveler's Gate short stories designed to show off some of the Territories that never really got the spotlight in the trilogy) would be released as a Kindle Serial, some of you brought up some great points.

The most common question I got was, "How do Kindle Serials work?" or some variation thereof. The second most common question was, "What about people outside the U.S.?"

Apparently Kindle Serials are only available on Amazon.com, not on other Amazon domains.

As a result of this confusion, I have decided to make things simpler, faster, and hopefully easier for everyone.

Instead of releasing the Chronicles as a Kindle Serial, with one new short story every two weeks between now and City of Light, I'm going to release them as three normal (short) Kindle books.

Each of the three mini-collections will have three short stories inside it, and I'm going to sell them for $0.99 each (which is the cheapest I can make them).

The first book of the Chronicles, entitled Tower of Winter, will contain stories about Helgard, Avernus, and Lirial.

I'll be releasing that collection this month (hopefully as early as next week; fingers crossed), the second collection next month (before Christmas), and the third collection in January.

Part 1: Tower of Winter, November 2013
Part 2: Gardens of Mist, December 2013
Part 3: The Lightning Wastes, January 2014

Let me know what you think in the comments!

21 Comments

Will Wight link

11/10/2013 03:24:44 am

Additional information:

Since the stories are each self-contained, you can read these collections in any order. If you read Tower of Winter, you can skip Gardens of Mist if you want. Or you can read 2, 3, 1, it doesn't matter.

Also, these stories don't really advance the plotline of the trilogy, so they're entirely optional. This is just for those of you who wanted extra world-building that I couldn't fit into the main books.

Mordin

11/10/2013 05:44:35 am

Well I, for one, am definitely interested. The world you have created here is nothing short of amazing. Any chance to explore it in greater detail is a chance I am going to fight a horde of trolls on an active volcano to get!

11/10/2013 05:59:28 am

Ah, I see you found the Challenge Mode option on these books. "Fight a horde of trolls on an active volcano" is Medium.

Orca

11/10/2013 12:29:55 pm

Excellent. It's much harder to get excited about a series I may never get to see.

11/12/2013 09:57:44 am

I'm...not sure what that means. Are you in Amazon.co.uk or something?

If so, then I promise: even if I had put this up as a Kindle Serial, I would have eventually made it available for everyone. I still plan on trying a Kindle Serial at some point, simply because it sounds like fun, and hopefully by then they'll make it available in all regions. But if not, I'll do everything I can to make some version of it available everywhere.

Brian S

11/10/2013 02:57:38 pm

Lirial sounds soooo boring. The very idea that you have to do math to use you powers is enough to make me want to drag the hordes of Tartarus through that realm and burn it to the ground. Oh well, I'll still read it.

mike

11/12/2013 09:10:51 am

Hmm.. speaking of tartarus, have you read House of Hades? Fun little read, if you like that series that is

11/12/2013 09:59:02 am

Honestly, there's a lot of Traveling that would be pretty boring and/or unpleasant. Naraka's great for getting places quickly, but it SUCKS to walk through. And most of learning to be a Helgard Traveler is committing reams of information to memory.

But, you know, at the end you get to fire lasers or summon fiery crocodiles or something. So the payoff is worth it.

Harlequin

11/11/2013 02:45:26 am

Sometime next week you say? That is exceptional.

It'll be interesting to see more of Lirial, and Helgard. I dunno what to expect out of Avernus (haha). In Crimson Vault, Avernus felt more like a dream sequence and less like a actualized world. I suppose thats because they only used it to get from place to place and no hard-core "Traveling" or talking really took place there.

Compiling them into volumes sounds like a well thought out idea. If the serials would not reach some of the demographic you are writing them for - all the loyal reader's who asked for more - it was a good idea to find another way.

11/12/2013 10:05:37 am

Thanks, Harley! One of the problems with Avernus is that I've basically only shown Travelers in combat situations. For combat, Avernus is not...ideal. You basically end up throwing birds at people.

11/12/2013 09:08:39 am

I much agree with Brian on this one. Bit of a yawn when it comes to Lirial, however *cliff hanger* (yeah. See what I did there Will? You probably want to know what I was going to say. now you know what I felt like after finishing the Crimson Vault). Anyway, I'm rather intrigued about the last short story. Please do tell what that one is on.

-P.S. it's nice to be back on the blog.... haven't been here in awhile

11/12/2013 10:07:38 am

Welcome back, Mike! I actually look forward to having an opportunity to explore regular Lirial Traveling in action. Unfortunately, I'm not sure I can do it without giving away Lirial's terrible secret. I have to keep it quiet for the scene in City of Light where

11/13/2013 07:15:12 am

Alright..... I don't like it but oh well. Oh and any idea on a release date of the City of Light? Ya' know, so I can start building up anxiety and wonder what it'll be like? Because that's always fun

Will M

11/14/2013 12:51:55 pm

This is good news! Thanks for the update. In an earlier post, you initially stated that there will be a new story every two weeks till the release of the CoL. Does that mean that the CoL is roughly slated for February\March of 2014?

I'm looking forward to reading about the different territories.

Thanks,
Will

Gary Chasteen

11/14/2013 10:22:15 pm

That's great news Will. I'll definitely pick these up as they come available.

Edward Rolison

11/17/2013 03:24:18 am

I'll watch out for them. They'll slake my thirst for book three a little longer :)
Is there something on Amazon that means they won't put up 'pre order this' place holders?

11/21/2013 05:03:26 am

Yeah, Amazon doesn't let Kindle Direct Publishing authors (like me) put up pre-orders. It's just not a feature they have yet. Hopefully soon...

Adam Rosen

11/17/2013 08:16:51 am

Its really awesome that you're going to publish these short stories. I came looking for your website for news about the next book in the trilogy. To hear that I'll have something to wet my appetite is really good news.

11/21/2013 05:04:05 am

Thanks, Adam! Hopefully these three (and eventually nine) stories will help pass the time until Book 3 just a bit.

april

12/14/2013 11:47:00 am

So, I don't know how frequently you go back to older posts checking comments but just in case I would like to offer a friendly reminder that collection two was scheduled for December. It's December. That is all. You may now return to writing.

12/15/2013 12:05:45 am

I never check old threads. Ever! As a matter of fact, I'm not even responding to you now.

What I WOULD say, if I were to respond, is that I'm working on Book 2 of the Chronicles as we speak. It's basically ready to go, except the content isn't quite finished. I expect to have it up before Christmas.

Good question! I might do a blog post on this today...

In which we ramble on.
And by we, I mean me.