Not much progress to report on the writing front, I’m afraid. My wife started her new job, and the release of Halls of Power on Friday distracted me. Besides, some people pointed out that I do need to take something of a break, so I’ve been playing Final Fantasy 14 a little, as a character from Halls of Power, Arise Enarra.
Speaking of Halls of Power, I’m floored by how well it’s done. For the first day it was enormously up the charts of Amazon’s Bestseller list. Even now it’s in good shape, but… well, let’s give a screenshot of where it was sitting on the Dark Fantasy bestseller list for the first day.
Saying that stunned me wouldn’t be the half of it. Thank you for your support, everyone.
I also put up a new page to the website, one which explains what you can expect from me as a writer. What I Write is simple honesty in its own way, and has a link to one of my older discussions on my tendencies when writing. At some point today I intend to put up another page outlining what my project order is looking like, so people who haven’t seen my older posts and polls know what I’m planning.
Have a great day, everyone!
Ancient Dreams 
Congratulations. It’s well deserved (both the success and the break ;) )
As for the book itself: I think your writing got a bit “smoother” over the course of the trilogy. And the proofreading certainly got better. So kind of an overall improvement on writing quality.
The conflict remains interesting with some back-and-forth between the various “factions”. Relevant subplots get their conclusion and everything kinda wraps up neatly. So I’m content with that, too.
But the constant POV changes were way too much for me. That, plus a complete lack of surprises (the two are connected), so I’m at the same time somewhat disappointed.
Well. Just my take on the book. ^^
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My break was all of yesterday. Today I got back to work on Born a Queen. ^_^
Now, as to writing? I agree. I 100%, whole-heartedly agree that it improved, both in how smooth it read, and in proofreading. I think that if I’d read Ancient Ruins and Spells of Old aloud, like I did with Halls of Power, it’d have made things enormously better. Alas, there’s no use crying over spilt milk. When I go back and do an omnibus, I may revise things a little.
As for the POV changes… I think I’m going to just have to disagree with you, there. While I freely admit there were more of them than I’d like in the books, that was my own fault and the nature of Sistina. I don’t think I’ll ever write another book with a character fixed in one place like she is, simply because it felt (to me, because I’m a ‘compulsive explainer’) like I HAD to have the other points of view to not surprise the readers.
And that’s the other aspect of it. As a reader, I hate it when the author deliberately conceals aspects of the story from me, just to surprise me. I subscribe to the following statement: Surprise the characters, not the reader.
Alas, just a stylistic difference, there. I think you’ll probably like the approach I take with Born a Queen more, though it’s hardly going to be perfect. Save for a few 1-off interludes (the prologue from Amber’s perspective, a hotel attendant, and one other that I can think of), there are 5 perspectives that I can think of, and 3 of them (Lilith, Morgan, and Warden) are the vast majority. But even so… I don’t like sticking to a single character through a book. I just don’t think it’s how my brain works, maybe.
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Enjoyed the last book, was sort of hoping for some sort of epilogue that has Tyria sorting her religion out, I think that’d be a pretty funny conversation to listen to.
Anyway, read the preview of Born a Queen and like this ones premise even more, let me know if you need a proofreader or something :P
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Tyria sorting out her religion is going to be a long, complicated mess. If I’m being honest, that very well may be a novella or novel of its own, and I felt that dealing with it would be too much for a mere aftermath summary, if that makes any sense.
I’m glad you like the premise! I put some expectation management stuff in the ‘Upcoming Projects’ section at the top of the page, so just to be safe I’d recommend looking at that.
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Quite enjoyed the series until the finale: everything got wrapped up nice and neat. It was “and they lived happily ever after” sort of finished which was disappointing on a visceral level.
I do hope that you see your way towards a succeeding story arc. Not personally interested in a prequel. Definitely interested in a sequel!
Keep it up!
Thanks!
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I’m afraid the goal was as a happily-ever-after romance style. Is everything in the world nice and neat? No, of course not! Kelvanis still has a lot of problems, as do some of the other nations, and Everium is going to have issues… but for the most part, Sistina and Phynis are safe and few things will threaten them. So, IMO, a happily-ever-after. As to a sequel… it’s possible. Likely not with Sistina/Phynis as main characters, but I’ve got a bunch more stories I could tell. Those are less pressing than my current ones that I’ve listed, though.
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I just finished Halls of Power and you know what, you play all the FF14 you want. You’ve definitely earned it. The only gripe I’ve got is that I wish we got to see more of a certain snarky meddler who won’t be named for spoiler reasons.
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The ‘snarky meddler’ had to be careful else they get themselves plastered to the wall. I personally love the character, as my wife and I created the original incarnation of them about… a decade ago, and I’d been looking for a place to put her. That said, I’m not stopping now! Too many stories to tell, and if I go too long between stories, I don’t trust myself to not get lazy.
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For Born A Queen I’m more “worried” (if that is the right word) about ending up constantly comparing it to this series, and I guess the Dire Saga ;)
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Entirely fair. Dire… is far more grimdark than my setting. I’m focusing more on the classic genre conventions, and Lilith isn’t a villain. I’m also uncomfortably aware that due to the more ‘episodic’ nature of superhero stories, this is the most likely series to be effectively ‘open-ended’.
As to worry… you have no idea how nervous I am that I turn into a one-hit wonder, and my next series crash and burn, hard. >_>
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What’s so surprising? Mister Medrano you did really well writing a good story and you kept your promises all along. You kept us involved in the writing process. THat’s good marketing!
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It’s mainly surprising because last year I was a ‘stay at home husband’, with no belief I’d manage to make money on writing in the next five years. Now, however briefly, my book was on the bestseller lists next to Steven King. It’s stunning to me, especially since the only marketing I do is to update my blog!
I obviously have improvements to make. Some people think that I rushed the ending of Halls of Power, and I can’t completely disagree with them. I was worried it might feel that way, but none of my beta readers thought it was. It’s something I need to keep in mind for future books.
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Indeed, I’m going to re-read the books anyway. Waiting for born a queen.
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