The third book in the trilogy. The grand finale. The final verse of the Raincatcher’s Ballad.

On the 31st of August, Serena’s story ends with Choir of the Damned.

It’s a strange feeling.

Gallows, Damien and the rest of the crew have been in my head for 6 years or so (and Serena much longer), yet during the course of each book, they surprised me again and again. Every time I knew where their arc would take them, they’d say or do something that sent them barreling off-course.

And they’d pull me with them! I saw different corners of familiar places, ventured into new realms and explored deeper veins of in-world lore. These characters and their journeys shaped the story in ways I didn’t – couldn’t – foresee; like how the way they spoke to each other highlighted different pieces of their backstory, or how the things they’d laugh at together would reveal hidden similarties. The different facets of this rag-tag group’s personalities reflected things in the Raincatcher’s Ballad universe that I didn’t even know existed.

I’ve learned so much since writing this trilogy – about the craft of writing, about myself. Knowing I won’t embark on any more crazy adventures with these characters people?

Yeah, it’s a strange feeling.

Choir of the Damned took a lot longer to write than I’d planned. It took a lot out of me.

Writing is a great way to retreat from the world, but every once in a while, an author needs to take a break from their own imagination – and the majority of drafting took place amidst the uncertainty of the Covid-19 pandemic.

With the rest of the world closed and nowhere physical to escape to, I have to admit, I struggled. The words did not come easily. Why couldn’t I concentrate? Why were things that I’d meticulously planned and set up in previous books refusing to coalesce? Cue lots of mood swings, word-scrapping and fruitless plot-wrangling.

With not much else to do and my local gym closed, I turned my focus to home workouts and better eating habits (readers familiar with Boldly Going Nowhere will remember my mental health struggles and how I have a tendency to use the gym as a refuge, for better or worse). My diet itself has never been too bad, but Gods above, I did not portion correctly.

After a while, I started working with a personal trainer. For the first time in my life, I tracked exactly what was going into my body. I cut calories, built muscle and worked on problem areas.

Workout apps and long, urban walks became the norm. And – after a few weeks of leaving it smouldering in the corner – the creative furnace roared again. The characters who’d spent more than half a decade living inside my head came back fully armed with new things to say, solutions and good ideas.

From then, the words spilled out faster than I could type them. Plot points resolved, new faces appeared and I uncovered yet more of the world that I swear I created.

Anyway, I guess the point is this: Take the time to look after yourself. It pays back tenfold, and not always in obvious ways. I’m happier, healthier, and Choir of the Damned is all the better for it. I’m immensely proud of it.

See you on August 31st.

Lee C Conley is one of a bunch of great authors taking part in the Fall into Fantasy (and SFF) promo this month, where we’ve got together with fellow authors we respect to offer a high-quality selection of free books and samples, running Nov 13^th – 30^th.

As part of the promo, we’re also hosting interviews to let the world know more about the authors involved, so you readers know exactly what you’re getting yourselves into. Today I’ve got a short interview with Lee C Conley to share. Read on!

What do you write and what have you written?

Hello, my name is Lee and I am the author of The Dead Sagas series. The Dead Sagas is my debut series, and  contains the novels A Ritual of Bone and A Ritual of Flesh. It is a perfect example of my brand of grim fantasy horror. 

What makes something a uniquely Lee C Conley book?

I write a blend of grimdark fantasy and horror. Most of my work is primarily horror in style but the settings are usually very much grimdark fantasy. I also write other fantasy, some sci-fi and contemporary horror also, but the majority of my work is certainly on the darker side.

And tell us a bit about your Fall into Fantasy offer…

I also write short stories, and my offering to this particular promo is an e-book of the short story titled A Promise: Once more into the Dark. It’s the story of a nameless warrior who must overcome a past addiction and return to face the horrors and fiendish monsters that dwell in the darkness once more. Will he survive with his sanity intact to return to the family that saved him?

When you’re writing, who do you like to read?

I predominantly read fantasy, I like it dark and grim, much like my own writing. I also enjoy sci-fi, and horror, and all things in between. I am studying a degree in creative writing so alongside my reading for pleasure I am currently exploring a wide variety of literature, but fantasy would be my biggest genre, it just keeps pulling me back and is the genre I have always loved the most.

Where else can we find you?

Website – www.leeconleyauthor.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/LeeConleyAuthor/

Twitter: @LongswordLee  or  https://twitter.com/LongswordLee

Instagram: @LeeConleyAuthor  or  https://www.instagram.com/leeconleyauthor/

Goodreads: www.goodreads.com/author/show/14649012.Lee_Conley

Reddit: u/LeeConleyAuthor or  https://www.reddit.com/user/LeeConleyAuthor

Amazon link: author.to/LeeCConley

Lee is a musician and writer in Lincolnshire, UK. He lives with his wife Laura and daughters Luna and Anya in the historic cathedral city of Lincoln. Alongside a lifetime of playing guitar and immersing himself in the study of music and history, Lee is also a practitioner and instructor of historic martial arts and swordsmanship. After writing his advanced guitar theory textbook The Guitar Teachers Grimoire, Lee turns his hand to writing fiction. Lee is one of the founders of Bard of the Isles Literary Magazine and is now also studying a degree in creative writing while working on his debut fantasy series The Dead Sagas, which includes the novels A Ritual of Bone and A Ritual of Flesh, as well as also generally writing speculative fiction and horror.

The Guns Above is a secondary world military fantasy, kind of like Steampunk meets the Napoleonic wars. There’s no magic here, but it features airships battles, humour, and dialogue that bounces back and forth like a frantic game of table tennis.

It’s not a grimdark story by any means, but the books I thought of the most while reading this were Joe Abercrombie’s First Law novels. Like that series, our protagonists include a tough, experienced war veteran who has a better instinct for war than the army’s inept and arrogant officers, and a preening, shallow fop who’s only interested in himself until he gets a taste of the real world. Archetypes we’ve seen before, but ones that possess a lot of potential to do something fresh with – which the author does.

Captain Josette Dupre shoulders the bulk of the narrative’s weight – as the first female airship captain, she has to contend with institutionalised sexism, skeptical crew members, and an army general who would love nothing more than to see her crash and burn (literally) to prove that women shouldn’t be on the frontlines.

Enter the general’s nephew, Lord Bernat. Initially only concerned with earning more money to fund his lavish and work-free lifestyle, Bernat is seconded to Josette’s crew to provide intelligence to his uncle. Josette sees right through his pretences, but the challenges they face aboard their airship eventually fosters a mutual respect. You can tell where the narrative is going, but seeing each character overcome their flaws and warm to one another is the best part of the story.

The language is clear and easy to connect with, though there’s perhaps slightly too much detail on how airships are held together in the earlier chapters. (That said, during battle scenes, this background knowledge does a good job of making us wince every time we read about a splintering piece of wood or burst water bag). The humour keeps the tone mostly light throughout, but there’s a welcome vein of snarky humour, and a few gruesome descriptions of injuries. This helps keep things grounded and believable.

Are there any negatives? Well, I found much of the supporting cast pretty two-dimensional, primarily the crew members of the Mistral who’re named but not given much of a personality beyond their job descriptions. This is only a minor niggle, as the pace kept me from dwelling on that too much. Additionally, the enemy army isn’t given much in the way of personality or motivation, but this is partly addressed early on when Dupre reels off a list of previous enemies and territories that have changed hands over the course of several years, which serves to underline the theme of war being pointless (who cares who the enemy is if killing ’em nabs you a promotion or a new medal, right?).

The Guns Above is an enjoyable yarn when it gets going, and the battle scenes and banter between its two main characters ensures you won’t get bored. Oh, and I love that cover art.

Disclaimer: Links may be affiliated to Amazon – that doesn’t mean I’ve been compensated for including them here, it just means they’ll send a few pennies my way if you decide to buy something.

Let’s jump in: SPFBO stands for “Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off”, a contest spearheaded by fantasy author Mark Lawrence.

How does it work?

300 authors submit their indie-published book, which is then randomly assigned to one of 10 fantasy book review blogs.

I’m with you so far. Then what?

Over the course of many months, each blog will look at their allocation of books (though they won’t necessarily read them from beginning to end, or review them all, just as a literary agent wouldn’t when going through a pile of submissions).

After going through their assigned entries, each blog will put forward a finalist, which will then be reviewed by the 9 remaining blogs. When all finalists are reviewed, whichever title has the highest average score is crowned The Winner. In a contest involving 300 titles, just being among the 10 finalists is an incredible achievement!

Great! So, uh… What does the winner get out of it?

Good question! And the answer’s simple:

The Prize.

And what’s the Prize?

The publicity and exposure of being reviewed on 10 highly regarded fantasy blogs!

And what’s the actual prize?

Meeting people and joining the community!

And what’s actually the actual prize?

That would be the Selfie Stick Award.

This mystical relic bestows upon its wielder all kinds of powerful sorcery, ranging from poking people in the leg to stirring cups of tea:

Amazing! Where can I find out more?

A deeper explanation of the contest can be found on Mark Lawrence’s website, and the SPFBO Facebook group is just a click away. If you’re on Twitter, you can keep up to date by searching #SPFBO.

So, there we have it – a run-down of the competition.

Let’s get personal for a moment. Entering Symphony of the Wind into this year’s contest is the best decision I’ve made in my indie career, and that’s an opinion I formed before Fantasy Book Review selected it as its finalist. Hells, it was the best decision I made before the book was a semi-finalist – and that’s all down to the people.

With that in mind, the SPFBO 2018 finalists are going to spend some time over the next few days to talk about our experiences a little, and highlight a few books we’ve picked up along the way. Like any competition, gems slip through the net – especially when 300 books get narrowed down to just 10 – so I hope you find something you like from these chosen few.

Servant of Rage

A. Z. Anthony’s Servant of Rage is a gritty epic. I discovered it when I was scoping out Fantasy Book Review’s crop entrants, and its Abercrombie/Iggulden-style aesthetic leapt out to me. Adam Weller at Fantasy Book Review said: “If the idea of a Highlander movie that takes place in the world of the Dothraki sounds appealing, then you should absolutely read this story. It’s a fast-moving, ultra-violent fight fest.” What’s not to love?

Wondrous

If YA portal fantasy is more your thing, then I urge you to check out Wondrous by Travis M. Riddle. YA isn’t a genre I’m very familiar with, but I bought this one purely through chatting with the author on Twitter, which prompted me to check out his work. (No “BUY MY BOOK!” barrages here; Travis and I have, between us, written 95,000 words on the topic of Final Fantasy in a Twitter chat. He likes IX, I like VII, we both like VIII, and Fran dies a lot in XII.)

Moroda

Speaking of Final Fantasy, L. L. McNeil sent me a signed paperback copy of Moroda. It’s been my “currently reading” entry on Goodreads since forever – I promise I’ll read it when I carve out time to enjoy it properly! – and it’s shaping up to be a fun, airship-laden adventure filled with a ragtag bunch of disparate characters – just like the aforementioned video game series. And after reading so many gritty, grimdark tales recently, I think it’ll be the perfect palate cleanser.

I’d like to extend a thank you to Mark Lawrence for doing this, and a big thank you to every blog and reviewer involved in the competition since 2015 – I don’t envy the volume of work that goes into this undertaking each year, and it’s the bloggers who make the contest the success it’s been.

I’ve been following SPFBO since its second iteration. I’ve also been a member of various writing classes, forums and Facebook groups over the years, and I can say that this is the first time I’ve felt part of a writing community. As I said earlier, that’s the true prize of the competition (Selfie Sticks notwithstanding), regardless of who ends up topping the leader board.

Finally, thank you to all the readers of our books – you’re why we do this, and I sincerely hope you’ve found something to enjoy from this year’s competition. Tomorrow, Megan Crewe will let us know her thoughts and highlights – be sure to tune in!

Steven McKinnon

PS: Amazon links will contain my affiliate information – this means I may get a small payment if you decide to buy anything, but it doesn’t cost you any extra. Pinky promise.

Howdy!

Last week I was fortunate enough to chat to Nadine Matheson at Spectrum Books.

Nadine is a writer, lawyer and, like all cool people, graphic novel aficionado. (Her latest book, The Sisters, is available here.) We talked about indie publishing, books, inspirations, favourite fictional characters, comedy, comics, and – most importantly – Batman. You can listen to our chat right here, or download it from iTunes.

Oh – there’s a chance I may have dropped one or two tiny little hints at what I’m currently working on to bring my secret quest to take over the world into Phase III for my next book, so, y’know, there’s that.

As always, thanks for tuning in!

 

 

 

 

I love you.