The Journey is Free on Kobobooks

That's right folks, the first book of my epic fantasy series, Guardians & The Lost Paradise, is free on Kobobooks.com. To snag your free epub copy, simply head over to the following url:

http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/The-Journey-Guardians-1/book-SrvF_m5uJEWHA5av1MaacA/page1.html?s=ZOR_T_eA1kOKjrO18cdDaA&r=1

I'm currently trying to get Amazon to price match, so it can be offered for free over there as well. To make this happen, you can help by reporting the lower price on the book's Amazon page. Just click on the link that says "tell us about a price" on the Amazon page and paste the above url in the feedback dialog, along with the lower price (0.00).

Books 2 and 3 are currently in the pipeline, so you can expect to see them on Kobobooks real soon as well.

The Insecure Writer's Support Group

Hello again, IWSG writers. And for the benefit of those who don't know what the IWSG is... it is a monthly blogfest started by science-fiction blogger, Alex J. Cavanaugh, wherein members can share their writerly challenges, and also provide support to one another.

Right now, my number one challenge seems to be getting some actual writing done. At the start of the year, one of my resolutions was setting aside some time each day to write; in a bid to make the transition from aspiring writer to full-time writer. But ever since I started to self-publish my epic fantasy series, Guardians & The Lost Paradise, I've been bugged down with edits, cover design, and the like.

So far, this year, I have written about 60,000 words, most of which was put down during a writing challenge back in February. I would really love to do NaNoWriMo next month; God knows I could really use that extra 50,000 words. I even have the perfect project to work on, long-since outlined and waiting for realization. But with my current workload that prospect seems rather slim.

But who knows, I just might experience the spark of inspiration I need to push me in that direction. In the meantime, I have a climax and denouement still waiting to be written for my current project. I should ideally get that over with before embarking on anything new. *sigh* Oh well.

The Gathering (Guardians, #3)

We're halfway there, ladies and gentlemen. The third book of my epic fantasy series, Guardians & The Lost Paradise, went live sometime during the wee hours of this morning. Of all the books thus far, I am most excited about this one; this is where events become truly "epic," setting the stage for the final three books in the series.

Last month, I was able to serialize the first book on Wattpad. This time around, I'm working on putting it through another distribution channel: Kobo. The plan is to set it to free over there, then hope that Amazon decides to price match it to free as well. That way, more people will (hopefully) be able to discover the series, and for the wonderful price of nothing too. So, wish me luck I guess. *crosses fingers*

I'll be posting an update to let you know how it goes. Till then, here are the links for book three:

Amazon US | Amazon UK

P.S: The recently-forced Blogger upgrade has pretty much ensured that I can no longer compose blog posts on my BlackBerry. So, you might notice some relative silence from me in the days and weeks to come, at least pending when my ISP gets their act together.

Genre Favorites Blogfest

This post is part of a blogfest hosted by Alex J. Cavanaugh. Participants are required to talk about their favorite book, movie and music genres, and a guilty pleasure from any of the three.

Books:
I confess, I didn't start reading novels until well into my teens, and so, I am not as well-read as I'd like to be. I still plan on going back one day to read all the classics. Of all the genres out there today, my favorite would be everything that falls under the umbrella of speculative fiction. This includes science fiction, fantasy, dystopian fiction, and even paranormal romance (although I absolutely despise love triangles).

Movies:
I've been watching movies from as far back as I can remember. I recently posted about a childhood monster I encountered in the movie adaptation of the epic fantasy book, The NeverEnding Story. And here, once again, I find myself leaning towards the genres under the speculative fiction umbrella. But if I was forced to narrow the choice down to just one, I'd go with science fiction.

Music:
I don't know if you know this, but there are very few things in this world I love more than music. One of those things is the TV show, Gilmore Girls, but that's another topic for another blog post. I take a lot of pride in my varied taste in music (and my 10,000-song iTunes Library), which is why it is almost impossible for me to pick just one genre for this blog post. Simply put, I don't have a favorite genre. I love everything from House, to Hip-Hop, to Nu Metal, and even Dubstep. I know this goes against the rules of the blogfest, Alex, but I just can't narrow this one down. Sorry.

Guilty Pleasure:
For the guilty pleasure portion of this post, I'm sticking with music again. Like I just said, I listen to almost everything out there. Because of that, there is a disturbing volume of "pop music geared towards teenage girls" in my library. Britney Spears. Gwen Stefani. Katy Perry. Lady Gaga. Miley Cyrus. Selena Gomez. Taylor Swift. The list is endless really. If it made it remotely close to the top of the Billboard charts, then chances are I've had it on near-constant repeat at one time or the other. :D

The Insecure Writers' Support Group

Today is the first Wednesday of a new month. This means it is time for yet another round of Insecure Writers' Support Group posts. The IWSG is a bloghop hosted by science-fiction writer, Alex J. Cavanaugh, where participants are expected to share their writerly challenges, and to show support to others as well.

Last month, I was clearly burnt out following a (somewhat) successful crowdfunding campaign and the launch of a new series. This time around, I'm pleased to announce that things seem to be more manageable. I have since released book two in the series, and will be doing a cover reveal for book three on the Facebook page sometime next week.

Okay. I confess. Everything isn't exactly sunshine and butterflies right now. I'm still waiting for that rather nebulous point in time where one of my books would break out. So far, monthly sales are still in the single digits for each one. It's not easy being an independent writer, I know. But still...

P.S: This is completely off topic, but The Beatles totally rock! :D

The Fall (Guardians, #2)

The second book in my epic fantasy series, Guardians & The Lost Paradise, is out now. It went live on Amazon a few hours ago:

Amazon US | Amazon UK

As usual, you can head over to www.the-lost-paradise.com for more information on The Fall, where you can join the mailing list so you'd receive this announcement type posts without having to visit the blog. Or, you know, just to take a look at the shiny new slide I just put up for it. ;)

To celebrate the new release and show appreciation to all those that helped make it possible, I have serialized the first book in its entirety on Wattpad. For those of you who don't know, Wattpad is an online repository of sorts where writers can share their stories with readers for free. That's right. For free.

Why have I done this? Well, Wattpad seems like the perfect home for my book. It's open to any kind of writing, but it seems to lean towards young adult fiction, as most of the users fall under the teenage demographic. The Journey started off as middle grade fiction, before morphing and becoming more Pan's Labyrinth than Chronicles of Narnia. So the whole thing just seems to make sense.

Will I be serializing subsequent books in the series? I seriously doubt it. It was a real chore getting the first book up, so much so that I don't really see myself going through all that again. At least not anytime soon. But only time would tell. I know for certain that I'll be serializing The Morning Star though, a short story prequel to the series I wrote for a writing competition back in June. So there's that to look forward to as well.

P.S: Happy Birthday, mum!

The Mediator is Free

That's right. I am presently running a free promotion on Amazon, for the first book of my science-fiction series, Neuro. The promo runs until the 22nd of August, 2012, and is in celebration of the book's recently-revamped cover. So snag a copy while you can, and do not hesitate to spread the love. ;)

Amazon US | Amazon UK

P.S: The internet over here has been really poor these past couple of days, preventing me from spending as much time on the blogosphere as I normally do. Hopefully, things would get sorted out over at the ISP soon.

P.P.S: The second book of my epic fantasy series, Guardians & The Lost Paradise, is almost here. Head over to the Facebook page for a sneak peek at its cover.

What Was Your Childhood Monster?

I'd been stumbling across this blogfest on several blogs these past three days, and so I finally decided to give it a shot as well. It was started by Christine Rains, in celebration of her newly-released paranormal romance, Fearless. Participants are expected to write a post discussing their childhood monsters, and this right here is mine.

My childhood was spent in constant fear of one thing or the other. That was most likely due to the prevalence of horror movies on local television. Ironically though, my childhood monster wasn't from an actual horror movie. It was from the 1984 epic fantasy movie, The NeverEnding Story.

There was a particular scene, where Atreyu (the hero) had to pass through some kind of gateway, which was really just the road between a pair of sphinxes facing one another. The problem was that those sphinxes had a rather nasty habit whereby they'd vaporize all travellers on the spot, complete with cheesy 80s special effects. Only those who were deemed worthy were allowed to pass, or something like that.

I must have seen the movie about a gazillion times as a kid, but each time I watched Atreyu approach those sphinxes, it was with the same level of dread I felt on my first viewing. Still, The NeverEnding Story was one of the first fantasy films I completely fell in love with. It's been about 20 years since my last viewing, so I guess I really need to revisit Fantasia.

The Journey (Guardians, #1)

The Journey begins. Actually, it began about a week ago, on the 31st of July. But I'd delayed this announcement so I could iron out a few formatting issues, amongst other things. Everything seems to be reasonably okay at the moment, so I guess it's time to let the cat out of the bag.

In case you haven't been following its progress over the last couple of months, this is the first book in an epic fantasy series called Guardians & The Lost Paradise. In it I attempt to tackle the mystery of what awaits us on "The Other Side." But there are a few facts that need clarifying before I go any further.

First off, the book is NOT an 800-page monster like most epic fantasy books out there. It is actually the length of a novella, and can be comfortably read in one sitting. After a rather ruthless round of editing, the final word count is just a bit over 20,000 words. Secondly, it was written with a Christian worldview (i.e. in which God created the heavens and earth). Lastly, it ends with a major twist and a cliffhanger to boot.

So, there, I said it.

To find out more, you can visit www.the-lost-paradise.com, from where you can also join the mailing list. That way you'll receive an e-mail notification whenever subsequent books in the series become available. Alternatively, you can snag a copy directly from Amazon: click here if you live in the US, and here if you live in the UK.

It has been six years in the making. I really hope you enjoy reading it.

The Insecure Writer's Support Group

Can someone please tell me where the last four weeks went? I mean, has it really been one month since the last round of IWSG posts? It has!? Wow. Okay. I'm officially freaked out now.

Unfortunately, I am also strapped for time (and sleep) at the moment. Funny how trying to self-publish six books in six months, right after running a month-long crowdfunding campaign, can take such a toll. I wish I could get my hands on one of those Time-Turners. But it seems Hermione snagged the very last one. Well, at least I'd managed to express all that is currently going on in this other post. It would be rather counterproductive to regurgitate the very same facts here again. Besides, I am this close to passing out in front of the keyboard.

Apologies. Would try to do better next month. Hopefully.