Welcome, new folks!

Hi, there. If you've joined the mailing list recently, I want to make sure you get your free Frosthelm book, Traitors Unseen. If you haven't gotten it, you can get it free here (the site will ask you to sign up for this newsletter, which you're already getting) or here from Smashwords. It's also on Apple Books, Kobo, and Barnes & Noble. Please, enjoy with my compliments.

The Glorious and Epic Tale is almost here!

The Glorious and Epic Tale of Lady Isovar is almost here. It will drop on Amazon next week on May 21st and is currently available for preorder. You can visit the Amazon page via the link above or the image below.

The eBook is on there now, with the paperback coming soon (as soon as I can get time to format it).

The Blurb

As I said in my last newsletter, this book is another epic fantasy story, but it's not set in the same world as the Inquisitors' Guild series - it's all new. It's quite character-driven, with the chapters alternating perspective between Lady Isovar, a bold knight, and her squire, Chevson. There are scary monsters, evil wizards, and new countries to explore, and there's a lot more goofiness in this book than in the Frosthelm novels.

Here's the blurb I came up with for TG&ETOLI:

Lady Isovar is a mighty and supremely confident knight errant who tends to leap into adventure with both feet and then track it all over the rug. Chevson, her long-suffering squire and companion, is a former student of stone magic who spends most of his time keeping his mistress from causing enthusiasm-related injury to innocent bystanders. A tragic turn of events has sent them far from home, where they roam the countryside righting wrongs, smiting miscreants, deposing despots, and taunting their foes, often with seriously questionable one-liners. This new life is more than enough for Izzy, but Chevson wants nothing more than to set right what he harmed long ago. Following clues to sites of ancient power, they might just achieve his aim. That is, if they aren't murdered, dismembered, devoured, executed, roasted, or derailed by Izzy's bravado first.

The Glorious and Epic Tale of Lady Isovar is an epic fantasy story of adventure, friendship, heroic battles, and vile villains.

Content Warning: This book includes a lot of medieval-style violence and some gore (so long as it's not a Fourthday).

The Chapters

Readers of my work know I use stupid, self-indulgent jokey chapter titles in all my books. Here are the ones for the new book. I hope they provide a chuckle.

I'm very excited about the new book, and I hope you'll give it a look!

SPFBOX

The 10th SPFBO contest (the Self-Published Fantasy Blog Off) has just begun. This contest is run each year by Mark Lawrence, a traditionally published author, and invites indie fantasy novels to enter. In past years, it has been first come, first entered, but because it began filling up so fast (it took only 41 minutes to reach the limit of 300 entries last year), Mark decided to shift to a lottery system.

I have always set an alarm and been ready on the submit button in past years, so I've never had a problem getting in, but with the lottery, I wasn't sure I'd make it this year. Lucky for me, the Lady Isovar book was one of the 300 selected from the total of 595 entries, so I'm in the competition. The bloggers judging my group of 30 go by Esme Weatherwax and Kristen (also SuperStarDrifter). You can see my group here. There's a lot of excitement and a huge community surrounding this competition, so I'm really glad to be a part of it again this year. I've done well with Kenai this year in the SPSFC, the sci-fi sister competition to SPFBO, but SPFBO is older and bigger and has a lot more people paying attention. We'll see how it goes. The best I've done in it is reaching the semifinals with The Woeling Lass.

A story to try

I'm part of several author collectives, and we share each other's work to try to help all of us reach more readers. In many cases, the books we share are are free or discounted. Sometimes, they ask that you sign up for a newsletter like this one. This month, I've got one for you:

Defiant Space by Richard Rimington is the first book in his Infinite Void series. It's about a planet facing an alien invasion which launches a desperate mission into deep space. The ship, carrying the hopes of the entire planet along with its crew, faces a host of enemies and hazards as it works towards completing its mission. It's absolutely free, so click the cover or the link and give it a try.

Thanks

Thanks so much for being part of my literary world. I'm so excited to share the story of Lady Isovar and Chevson with you - I had a great time writing it, and I put in as many jokes as I could. I hope you'll have fun with it.

May the Bloodmother watch over you - 

Dave