Some music and pseudo-philosophical rambling to start with, as always. You can trust me to bring some of the freshest and coolest tracks in the universe – by fresh and cool I mean barely known foreign songs from posthumous artists, of course.
Life and all its niceties can be fleeting, and great artists are not exempt from the hand of entropy.
Origa, one of my favorite artists of all time, was only forty four before she had succumbed to her lung cancer – a life taken before its time, or perhaps not. Who am I to speak for The Director of our play?
Despite her Russian roots, it was Japan that really took a liking to her and made her career what it was. She was featured in a lot of anime, movies, games, and more. Her folkish, ethereal styling often inspired me late at night when I wrote my first books.
I’ll miss her, at least.
I hate death, but I understand it enough to accept it, at least for now. Even so, it’s incredible how quickly the time can pass.
Now then, let’s get to it to this month’s words.
Walking The Scar: A Wild Ride in the Making
After finishing Substation 7’s last book (you’ll find out how next month when it’s out) I immediately got to work on what is now titled The Scar, a military fantasy project that I was writing alongside The Courts Divided and takes place in the same universe, timeline, and with several of the same Characters.
While I’m exceptionally excited to finally release it after all these years (long time readers that have followed me across platforms, I’m looking at you) it’s still going to be a struggle to make it as good as it can be by November while also writing the first book of Soot Knight.
Be warned, war will be in this one, including many of the things connected to war. As to what parts of this book is pulled from personal experience or not, I’ll let you decide that for yourself. For now just expect a lot of unpleasant situations, poor tactics resulting in death, war crimes, and unrequited desires of returning home and living life.
For those Knight Law lovers, get ready for a lot of scaly close calls for our favorite half-dragon.
This is less of an introspection on the lives of others surrounding soldiers in a war as it is an internal look into the lives of those who do fight. You’ll see what I’m talking about when it comes out this November. The first half will be pretty experimental, and the second half will more or less bring all of these plot threads to a head, tearing others away with death rather than tying them up neatly.
This isn’t a “subvert your expectations” sort of novel, but do expect to be disappointed from time to time. There’s going to be a lot of humor in it; most soldiers carry a sense of humor alongside their weapons, you know. It’s intended to be an enjoyable read, but also a meaningful experience – at least a little more so than my usual stuff.
It’s been an extreme write, if I can even call it that, in which I trigger an enormous amount of situations triggered by only very slight details that set them all up. I fully expect many readers will be utterly confused, and a select few will really “get it.”
This is definitely the most postmodern thing I’ve released as far as the way the story is told, but I’d argue that the story itself is relatively classical for what it is. You will not have read anything like it up to this point.
I hope you’ll enjoy.
The Nice Time:
I’m an analyst, you know that.
Of course, that could mean just about anything, but here’s a cool marker for growth that’s worth analyzing:
Last month I sold more copies than I gave away via amazon.com!
That’s the first time my actual sales have overtaken my multiple freebies!
I mean, part of this is because I’ve compiled some of my freebies together in the Nocturna League box set, but that’s only one or two of them.
This feels like a big win for us. More people are reading my stuff than ever before, and that positively tickles me white, or at least whiter than before… I don’t know if I have more of a matte finish or a nice gloss, but I’ll decide on that when I’m preparing for public appearances. Let me know what you’d prefer.
Tangent aside, it really feels like I’m starting to figure things out. I always say that, of course, but I don’t think I was necessarily wrong then either, I just needed many years to figure out how to get my work in front of people – in comparison to the writing, that part’s becoming easy.
To celebrate, I’d like to share a little something with you:
Free this month: Condemnation!
That’s right!
< FREE!This month I signed up with another one of those fancy giveaways. Last month was Courts Divided, and now it’s Substation 7 that’s getting its first book passed around for absolutely zilch!
“B-but Kell! I’m already subscribed to the newsletter! Are you actually telling me to resubscribe to get another free book?!” you might ask.
Hohohoho! Reader! Please.
I won’t tell anyone if you won’t.
You can get your free copy shot right to your email by checking out this link, finding Condemnation’s cover, and clicking it.
Get it free at: https://books.bookfunnel.com/darkfictionreads/2dfet6o1sc
Enjoy!
Oh, and also you might find something else you’d like. They’re all free, so have at it.
Join the warband!
Or were they millionaires?
Anyway, the very cool, active, and fun Facebook Group is kicking off with lots of members, and I wanted to make sure you could get in on the ground floor.
If you want to see covers for new novels, notifications of giveaways, art or just play games and chat with your fellow travelers, then take my invitation and join us. It’s also where I find beta readers for new projects, so if you want to be among the first people to read the new books just weeks before release, it would behoove you to join the party and say hello at https://www.facebook.com/groups/KellInkston/.
The Designated Soot Knight Hype Area TM:
I’m sickeningly excited to write this series, and I think you’ll really love it:
I’ve never written this far back in the lore of The Holy Verses, so I have a lot to cover in these, but expect the story of Mort and Effie to be first and foremost. This is going to be wonderfully imaginative, gritty, funny, and emotional. I’m cracking with excitement.
This is going to be my most overt attempt at “typical” high fantasy yet, because let’s be honest, Courts Divided is anything but typical.
And I don’t mean that Soot Knight’s going to feel “generic”. There’s going to be a brave new world, a whole pantheon of horrifically cool gods, and one of the most unique relationships I’ve ever assigned ink to.
While the thematic structure will indeed be closer to more conventional fantasy, it will also serve as a springboard to the very first happenings in all of the books: the very first primary story arc.
Perhaps you’ve heard the name Rondi before. She won’t be mentioned much in this series, but it’s happening alongside her. Expect thrilling conflict, secretive chemistry, awkward romance, and lots, and lots of explosions.
Maybe the name Ohkiij rings a bell? He’ll be around too!
There’s a lot of mysteries to be uncovered, so I hope you’ll be there with our duo of misfits as they figure things out for themselves.
Keep your eyes and ears out around November, as it’s when I’ll be taking applications for beta readers in the facebook group.
You can preorder books one and two here.
Conclusion for the month:
Stay healthy, stay safe. I can’t have you leaving this world too soon, okay? If we’re going to take over the world of fiction and literature then you’ve got to stay fit to fight!… or at least fit to read – I’ll admit I don’t know for sure what all’s required in planetary domination.
This has been a solid month and a wonderful time in general. I’ve had lots of time to write, but for once I’ve spent about as much time learning about marketing and advertising who I am and what I do as I have been just writing. Things are really looking up, but I have a long way to go before I can make this my job.
The amount of people reading this newsletter has more than quintupled over the last month and a half, so I think that’s a clear sign that my once slippery boots are starting to gain a little traction in this dimension. As always, thank you so much for your support. Look forward to next month’s update, where we ring in Substation 7’s final book, Emancipation!
Until next time,
Kell R. Inkston
Coffee... WRITING!... COFFEE!! 