Celebration Friday!
Even old dogs can learn.
I was sitting in an auditorium next to a stranger. It was November of 2019. I was at the 20 Books to 50k Conference. My first, and only, time attending.
No one in that room that night knew that the world, our lives, our politics, our sense of community was drastically going to change in a little over a month. All we were thinking about in that room that night was listening to the gents running the conference talking about building a book business.
There was a guy next to me who was talking about this genre called "litrpg." I didn't know the first thing about it. I've been a gamer since the 8-bit days. I still game to this day. I make no apologies for my love of gaming.
But I never thought I'd write it. After all, I was a "serious" Indie who'd finally found understanding that I couldn't make a living writing stand-alone horror and suspense novels. I'd written four urban fantasy novels in five months, and was preparing to unleash them on the world in 2020.
Of course, a few months later, everything go turned upside down. Economies restricted. People, rightfully worried about surviving, didn't give a rat's ass about buying books, especially
from unknowns like me.
Those books, The first four Zodiac books, hit the world with a semi-thud, but they sold enough to encourage me to do this for real.
Over the years that followed, I continued writing that series but also branched out into my first love--dark epic fantasy. I've written seven in that genre, with two more planned for this year.
While urban fantasy is a VERY difficult genre to sell in (if you're like me a
nd couldn't care less about writing about twenty-somethings and academies or disguising a romance novel as urban fantasy). With my dark fantasy doing well, with little marketing, and with my own litrpg projects on the way, I wanted to give urban fantasy one more chance. I had a story for the genre I needed to get out of my head before the readers of these types of books gave me their final "thanks, but no thanks."
Rev Carver was born.
Now, the day before the release of "Angel's Creed," book 2 in the Rev Carver series, I'm sitting on pins and needles. A chronic nail-biter (whenever I'm bored or stressed), I might be chewing nubs again.
Thankfully, I'm a little more balanced than that, and if "Angel's Creed" doesn't do well, I'll be sad, but it won't kill me. I'm annoyingly flexible and can adjust to new targets and ambitions quickly (which probably explains why I've got books in a gazillion different genres).
When "Angel's Creed" hits the stores tomorrow, tomorrow will not define how many stories I ultimately tell. Only the sun not coming up again will do that. Oh, and my demise, timely or otherwise.
I'm very excited to see what everyone thinks of this second book. It's had 3-times the pre-orders that "Angel Assassin" did, and one very picky early reader told me months ago that it was "the best book you've ever written."
Guess we're about to find out. :)
Buckle up, everyone. Rev is ready to kick ass, take names, and punch the clock for the last time...
Maybe...
You can grab both books of the Rev Carver Series by clicking here (available in ebook, paperback, and hardcover).