The Forgotten King's Release and New Year's Day Tidings

Man, it's been a hell of a year.  I self published my first novel, finished the first draft of the second, moved to a new state, got a new job, and have gotten to watch my infant son blossom into the most awesome toddler of all time(no offense to anyone else's kids :)).

So, to kick off the new year, or, rather, go out on the current one, I want to announce a change to The Forgotten King's release.  I was originally going  for a mid to late March 2013 release.  I'm pushing the anticipated date to mid-April 2013.

Why?

Well, I've been at work on editing The Forgotten King after a wonderful proofread by JJ Proofing.  One thing that stands out to me now is that The Forgotten King is going to be so much more polished than The Dragon Gem.  When I got into the whole self-publishing scene, I was really naive, thinking I could do it all on my own.  I quickly learned that no, I couldn't.  Not if I wanted my books to be the best they could be.

Anyway, I have the advantage of hindsight now, having received tons of feedback for The Dragon Gem.  Also, I have the advantage of having been distanced from it for the past year while working on The Forgotten King.  I see how much better it can and should be.

Okay, I'm really getting to a point here.  Seriously.

My plan is to do a MASSIVE edit on The Dragon Gem and release a Kindle update and a re-release in print on CreateSpace to coincide with the release of The Forgotten King.   I'm even having a new cover done by the uber-talented Janette Ramos, the same artist working on The Forgotten King's cover now(which by the way, can't wait to reveal.  It's looking incredible!).  For those who have downloaded The Dragon Gem before, this will be a free update when released(though Amazon usually takes a decent amount of time to make an update available for previous buyers).  I just feel in my heart that this needs to be done.  I care for the story and want it presented in the best way possible.  Any writers out there will understand.

Anyway, obviously, this will take more time.  I am still going to devote 99% of my writing time to The Forgotten King revisions/edits so that if it looks like I can't hit the mid-April deadline I'm setting for myself, I can go ahead and release The Forgotten King anyway.  I feel strongly that I can get them both out by then, though.

This also means my other projects are on a 100% hold until both of these are finished.

If you're still reading(this is really long, I know)I just want to say thanks for all your support and patience.  Starting on March 1, I plan to post a chapter of The Forgotten King on here each week until its release for all those(read: all one) put off by the delayed release.

I wish each and every one of you(read: all two of you) an amazingly wonderful, successful, joy-filled, and productive new year.

Brian Beam

Happy New Year! 

Another Holiday Post

Okay, so I lied.  I'm posting again before Christmas.  But, I wanted to take a moment to thank everyone who has given this fledgling indie author a chance this year.  Thanks to all who read The Dragon Gem.  Also, I am very grateful for all the kind words I have received from readers through reviews, emails, or Facebook.  Your support means the world to me and really makes what I do worth it.  I truly hope that The Forgotten King exceeds your expectations next year.

2013 is looking to be an exciting year for me with The Forgotten King and possibly both my short story collection and novella seeing a release.  Korin's Journal will kind of go on the backburner for several months after The Forgotten King's release to allow me a chance to stretch my creative muscles with my other projects for a bit, but the third and final book's story is solidifying in my mind and I'm really excited about it.

I hope each and every one of you has a wonderful holiday, whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Festivus, etc.

Happy Holidays!

For starters, The Game of Books which I mentioned in my last post was successfully funded.  I'm really excited to see where they go with it.  If you put money towards it, thanks!

Secondly, it's the 12/21/2012 and no signs of apocalypse just yet.  That really would have put a damper on my day.

Thirdly, I have finished the second short-story/novellette for my upcoming short-story collection.  My projects will soon be going on hold when I get The Forgotten King back from the proofreader this month, though.  I'm going to put all my upcoming writing time into getting The Forgotten King out by sometime in March.

Fourthly, The Dragon Gem will be free on Kindle Saturday December 22 and Sunday the 23rd!

And to the point, I'll be mostly off the grid for the next week or so with all the holiday travel to visit family for the next week, so I just wanted to wish everyone a merry and safe Christmas!  No matter what you celebrate this season, I hope you all have a wonderful time with your loved ones.  And food, lots of good food.

Happy Holidays to all!

Brian Beam

The Game of Books

So, if you've seen my Facebook page recently, you've seen me trying to promote the Kickstarter project for The Game of Books.  This is, in my opinion, a brilliant idea that has such great potential to get kids and possibly even adults into reading.

This Kickstarter is down to its last day of fundraising with less than $10,000 left to go to see it funded.  I urge all fans of reading or writing to give it a look and contribute if you can.

To explain it all would take a while, so I'm going to be lazy and copy and paste the general info. from their Kickstarter page and embed the YouTube video about it.

An Author's Christmas Wish

So, I should probably do the whole, "Hey, The Dragon Gem would make a great Christmas gift for you and your love ones" thing, but instead, I'd like to bring your attention to Patrick Rothfuss(author of The Name of the Wind and The Wise Man's Fear)'s yearly Worldbuilders fundraiser for Heifer International.

I would take some time to explain what Heifer International is all about, but their self-stated mission pretty much sums it up - "Heifer International's mission is to work with communities to end hunger and poverty and care for the Earth."

And Rothfuss describes the charitable organization on his World Builders 2012 site: "It helps people raise themselves up out of poverty and starvation. Heifer promotes education, sustainable agriculture, and local industry all over the world.  They don’t just keep kids from starving, they make it so families can take care of themselves. They give goats, sheep, and chickens to families so their children have milk to drink, warm clothes to wear, and eggs to eat."

Rothfuss has provided a couple of options to contribute to this wonderful charity.  You can straight up donate money, every ten dollars earning you an entry into a random drawing for one of hundreds of books, some signed by the authors, and other random things.  Secondly, you can buy anything from his online store, The Tinker's Packs(appropriate if you've read his books), with all proceeds going to Heifer.  With this option, you can help out the organization while also getting a Christmas present for a friend or loved one.  I'm sure we all have a geeky fantasy friend or two who would love the Fantasy-Themed Pinup Calendar that showcases a different amazing fantasy author each month from Neil Gaiman, to George R.R. Martin, to Patrick Rothfuss himself(no worries, the authors aren't the ones depicted in the pinups).  Thirdly, there will be auctions regularly posted in which you can win some cool stuff with the money going to Heifer.

I just love seeing such a prominent author set up such a well-organized, annual fundraiser for such an amazing charity and just really put his heart and soul into it.  Last year Worldbuilders raised $310,000.  This year, it's going for $500,000.  Anyway, they've got my support this year.

So, my Christmas wish is not necessarily for everyone reading this to immediately go and drop money towards this charity.  I simply ask you check it out and, if you feel you support the cause, donate.

In writing news, still putting small bits of time into my side projects as I wait to get The Forgotten King back in my hands.   My first side project will be a collection of (mostly) fantasy short stories which is trying its darndest to become a collection of novellas.  Getting close to finishing the second story on it.  The other will be a semi-short(50K words or so) fantasy story revolving around the unexplainable deaths(murders) of a group of people who are supposed to be immortal, and basically unkillable.  I'm having a lot of fun with both, but will probably not really dive into them until after The Forgotten King is out.

To end this, I will now post an irrelevant picture of my son "enjoying" his second birthday a little over a week ago.  In all fairness, he just hated the birthday hat.  Once it was back off, the world was well and right again :)

Brian Beam

Origins Of A Name

So, this is a tad random, but at least it ends with a cute baby video...of course, I'm biased, though, since it's my baby.

Anyway, a year and a half ago or so, when I was writing The Dragon Gem, I was trying to come up with a name for the demonic-ish creatures of the god of death who eventually were named eldrhims.  The first name I came up with, however, was strahdrhims.   During this time, I was a stay at home father with my son, Jonas, and when I came up with names, I would say them aloud while feeding him to get a feel for what I thought about the names after hearing them a few times.  Strahdrhim just didn't seem to roll of the tongue so well, so the name was scrapped.  Given Jonas' reaction, maybe I should've stuck with it...



Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!  Here's to a great week!

Brian Beam