Hello you brave few who come here to read my monthly updates. We've made it to August, amazingly enough, now let's dig in because July was busy.
Let's start with book news first. Binding Words 7: Noble Solutions came out last month. It was mostly loved by those of you who have kept up with the series. The few complaints that I saw was that the harem is getting to big and unwieldy. I can see where this might be the case for those who read copiously. The harem does have a finite number, and i hope you'll be okay with where it is and goes. I do put XRAY on the book when I can which let's you tap a name to get a small description of who they are. I hope that helps some.
Now some of you will wonder since BW7 came out where that leaves me now. Well, I just put the finishing touches on Aether's Revival 4: Initiate's Gambit. It's off to the editors, and then will get some beta love, and then proofing and so on. It's still slated for September though so don't get too excited. Though for Patreon that does mean you get a good slice of the book for August, and into September.
All of that means that I have just started on Dungeon Walkers 2. Been looking forward to some more dungeon fun, I hope you are too. I've listened to Travis narrating, and read through DW1, so I can dive back in character for DW2. I hope you're all ready for some bigger, better dungeons, and more perks.
Okay now let's touch on audio, as I know you're all wondering what you have to look forward to. Well first let's talk about recent audio. Luck's Voice 1: Suited for Luck came out last month. Andie did her normal amazing job. Some of her voices are favorites of mine; Posy, Sigmund, and Rosa. Here's the audible link in case you missed it. https://www.audible.com/pd/Suited-for-Luck-Audiobook/B09976JMW8
Now more audio news, Bidning Words 6: Lost Bonds. Andie has finished recording it, which is amazing. I should be getting the audio files back in a bit to go over it to catch any errors. Then she'll get it back to fix, then we send it off to ACX. Then we have the unknown wait before they give it to you all. Possibly August, but more likely September before Audible gets it. But it's coming, soon™.
In future news, Andie will be working on Aether's Revival 3: Magi's Path for my next book. I had her switch things up, and we'll be going for a rotation going forward for my books; BW, AR, LV. Hopefully this stops us from getting too far behind on any one series. Of course she is booked for August, as she has another TWI to do, and those eat the hell out of her since they are big chonky books. Be nice and polite, she is getting to them as fast as she can, while still giving her amazing performances.
I think that about wraps it all up...oh, I guess I should reinterate after DW2, I'll be moving on to AG8. My research trip is slated for early September, and I'll be wrapping up DW2, and ready to dig straight into AG8 at that point. So for those who've endured the wait for the next Apocalypse Gates... the wait is coming to an end soon. September is filled with DragonCon in the first week, then research trip for the two weeks following that. Which might slow down my writing a little, but it will immensely help me when I write AG8.
That's all for this month. I'll have something ready for posting for September as I won't be here on the 1st to kick things over myself, I might have to publish it on the last day of August just to be sure. See you then.
Daniel Schinhofen
DJ Schinhofen (@DJSchinhofen) / Twitter
Have to say that i very much enjoyed the latest BW book. I felt like it had a better pacing than the previous 2 BW books which i still liked but the story arc in general seemed to be taking a while to get through and the new one to me brought things back to a better speed. The audio book for LV1 was also great and I'm keen to see what happens next in AR4. Good luck to you with your next month of writing.
ReplyDeleteGlad you enjoyed the last book. My pacing is life, so yeah it takes a bit to get through.
DeleteThank you for all the great books you make. I do hope at some point you get back to tom, dick, and Harry. Not enough litrpg go the table top rout. I felt it was a great take on 5e.
ReplyDeleteUnlikely in any short term, RQ was my worst selling book.
DeleteSince book 1, Binding Words has been my favourite series of yours. After reading book 7, however, my feelings about the series have become increasingly mixed. I will post my constructive criticism below in hopes that it might help your writing process.
ReplyDeleteIt feels like the series has become extremely formulaic, and that is not set to the change despite the arc in the current town ending, and the cast moving to a new city. Worse, the formula it has adopted is not a good one.
The formula is essentially this: Sean declares that he will do anything to protect/avenge members of his household… before proceeding to then hermit at home crafting, expanding his commercial business, and banging his wives. He does NOTHING proactive against his enemies. Instead, he just sits there with his highly visible and socially unconventional family, in a location that everyone knows about, weathering ambushes and sabotage. Then near the end of the book, he obligingly walks into traps that he knows are traps (but don’t know the specifics of). Then he gets blindsided by an element of the trap he wasn’t prepared for, and struggles through by the skin of his teeth while his friends and family suffer for it. Afterward, the MC is angst ridden at the outcome, and the reader is supposed to be sympathetic rather than disgusted at his foolishness and passivity.
The MC’s motivations are internally inconsistent – extremely so. He gets guilty-ridden whenever he kills people. Yet he’s happy to sit around and let small minded idiots be gaslighted and manipulated into coming after him so that he’s forced to kill them. He has a house full of people who can camo while being undetectable by mage sight, yet he has not engaged in a single offensive operation. He has an army of extremely loyal and well equipped fairies. Yet he has not engaged in any form of intelligence gathering or recon. Heck, at one point in book 7, he likens his enemy’s poisoning of a dog to them poisoning a child. But... if dogs = children, and Sean is using his dogs as guards, then SEAN IS USING CHILD SOLDIERS.
His enemies have demonstrated from the moment he came into town that not only do they not care about the law… but the law itself is a farce. He was attacked by a judge in a closed court-room FFS. But even after several members of his household are killed, he’s still content to sit around and do nothing but wait for people to try to kill his family.
He’s known since almost day 1 that Lord Sharpeyes, and Denmur was his enemy. He could have waltzed into either of their bedrooms at any time, disappeared them, and interrogated them for additional intel or targets in his bog (eg re: Carver). I get that insta-killing the big bad of the arc right away doesn’t make for a very good arc. But you’ve gone to the opposite extreme here and had him accumulate resources and combat potential that he then proceeds to do NOTHING with, while people are TRYING TO KILL HIM AND HIS FAMILY.
On top of that, the World-building of this universe had so much potential in book one. Yet the story has long stopped exploring the different odd and wonderous species and cultures of this world. Instead, everyone just basically acts like humans. Even the nobility, who are supposed to be some kind of Fae species just basically act human. You’ve gone from naming characters Italice, Saret, Myna and other fantasy-like, or culture-appropriate names to using common modern names/nicknames Hallie, Julian, Helen, and Skipper. So much of the creative potential that I saw in book 1 has gone unrealized, and it’s a real shame.
Sorry you're not enjoying it as much but the story will continue on in the way it has been.
DeleteI can agree to a point or two of your critique but I disagree with the majority of it.
I would tend to agree that Sean is way more passive and reactive than he should be canonically, especially considering his previous vows to himself and his family.i also agree that the world-building kind of fell of a cliff for 5 books and it would have been hmmm more "exciting" to have him and his family exploring the world. Now having said that, I love the series and I believe I understand the reasoning and the direction you are taking the series and believe that the story so far fits the direction you(in my opinion) wanted to go.but still yes, Sean is way too passive.i understand why he is like that in the story,being absurdly kind-hearted and all, but that conflicts with his vows and will to his family and himself to protect them and never let something "like this" happen again.i suggest he have some kind of epiphany similar to the second book but focused on how he has been too passive.love you're books tho and will continue to purchase them
DeleteHmm, I tried using the preview function here while writing a comment and everything I had written vanished.
DeleteTried it a second time with above message and it also failed, the only difference being that I was directed to an error msg page. Lets see if pressing the publish button works. Here goes noth...
Okay guess I will just shorten my thoughts.. and just press publish unedited.
DeleteI thought book7 was an improvement. Still a bit to passive as the OP mentions.
I thought it could have been ameliorated by small things like f.ex having the fairies take it into their own hands to do some spying or the like. Mentioned by the OP.
I think doing some such would minimize the sense of characters ending up mirroring Sean to such a degree as to make them seems to be without individual agency.
This would let Sean's character evolve at a fair pace and not change to fast.(If that is what you are going for.)
This I think would bringing a balance to the story as whole. He would be like.. Ooh why didn't I think about that!? or What!? Why would you do such a dangerous thing without asking/telling me?
Anyway this whole commenting thing has taken way more time then I had planned and I got to skidaddle.
Bw7 was a fun read. MASSIVELY looking forward to AR4 and DW2!
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed BW7 and looking forward how the Story continues. Thanks a lot and keep on writing ;-)
ReplyDeleteSo mainly out of curiosity but isn't book 6 of Binding Words titled Lost Bonds?
ReplyDeleteYes it is, and this is probably why i shouldn't write updates that early in the morning.
DeleteThank you!
DeleteHow do I use that XRAY feature you mentioned on my kindle book? I tried clicking a name and nothing happened.
ReplyDeleteDepends on which book, I haven't updated the old books, only been using it in the last year or so.
DeleteI just check your most recent book, BW7, and its not there for me either. does it not work on kindle for pc?
DeleteI set that one up a day or two after it was live. So if it's not working for you it might be the interface you're using. It works fine for my paperwhite.
DeleteMacDougal Pantheon assemble!
ReplyDeleteWe are starting to see divine title and portfolios being assigned, nice!
Loved the book and can't wait for the sequels, maybe there be many mire to come!
A hope I do have for the series is that the queens are not wholly antagonistic, I tend to be fond of the Summer/Winter courts setting and have them be more complex than straight up good/evil.
I also tend to distrust gods so I wonder what went down between them in your setting.
Anyway can't wait to read more!
P.S. Still waiting on demigod babies :D
I have loved every series you have written. My personal favorites are AG, AR, and BW. I do like DW and LV series is quickly growing on me. How can I get on the beta read list. I own all the audiobooks you have put out and all of your books as well. Keep up the great work!
ReplyDeleteSo I really enjoyed AR 3 I can't wait for the audiobook to come out for it. I gotta say one of the things I found most interesting is the turn with Hayworth. As well as the older member of swift wind. It's really kinda nice to turn the trope of the asshole on the first day on its head a bit. Without throwing it out the window entirely. Sometimes people try to make that guy likeable later way to quickly and we are all supposed to care for some reason. Instead it's been this slow turn that happened in the background for 3 books. I like it. Good character development I hope to see more from swift wind in AR4.
ReplyDeleteI was so glad I was able to actually find this website cuz I was wondering when ether's revival floor was going to be coming out I'm ecstatic to find out if it's coming out within the next month it's one of the few books I read over and over again and I have another author that I do the same thing on and I only do that to the authors that I really really like and this is one of the authors that I like for this series so I'm happy to find out that it's coming out soon
ReplyDeleteI actual had to go back and re-read books 2-6 before reading the new one because I was tired of the issues with being confused with all the ladies. I was actually kind of surprised at the gradual change in tone of the series that is much more detectable if you read them all in a row. I am glad I took the time to refresh the series and enjoyed the new one greatly.
ReplyDeleteAny word on the next paperback release??
ReplyDeleteThings are being worked on, but I don't have dates at the moment.
DeleteReally enjoying binding words and aether reborn series
ReplyDelete