In this week’s catch-up episode, I take a break from shoveling snow to calculate just how many short stories I’ve actually published. I also talk about SEVENFOLD SWORD ONLINE: CREATION, my new LitRPG novel.
This week’s coupon is for GHOST IN THE SURGE (as excellently narrated by Hollis McCarthy), the climactic book of the first THE GHOSTS series. You can get fifty percent off the audiobook with this coupon code at Payhip:
FEBSURGE
The coupon code is valid until March 6th, 2023.
https://payhip.com/b/wWRtS
TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00 Introduction and Writing Updates
Hello, everyone. Welcome to Episode 147 of The Pulp Writer Show. My name is Jonathan Moeller. Today is February 22nd, 2023 and today is a catch up episode since I haven’t recorded one for a couple of weeks. We’ll see some reader comments about my LitRPG book, and then we’ll delve into how many short stories I’ve actually published, which I’ve been wondering for a while.
First up, some updates on my current writing projects. I’m pleased to report that my first LitRPG book, Sevenfold Sword Online: Creation, is now out. You can get it at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, Google Play, Apple Books and Smashwords (also Payhip). If you are on a non-Amazon platform, I would recommend getting it soon because I am contemplating putting it into Kindle Unlimited at the end of the month. So that’s in another six days. I was wondering if I would have to do that from the beginning because the LitRPG market appears to be mostly on Amazon, so I thought that might be an inevitability. So we’ll see if I actually do that or not. But if you’re curious to try it and want to give it a read and you’re not using Amazon, sooner would be better than later.
In other writing news, now that that’s done, I am 30,000 words into Dragonskull: Wrath of the Warlock, and I am hoping to have that come out by the end of March if all goes well, though it looks like there’s a chance it may slip to April. Depends on how March goes. I’m also 5,000 words into Cloak of Dragonfire and that’s either going to be out in April or sometime after Dragonskull: Wrath of the Warlock and I’m also 5,000 words into Silent Order: Thunder Hand.
In audio news, Brad Wills will be getting started recording the first Dragonskull book on Monday, actually. I’ve taken a bit of a break from audiobooks since October…no, November, so it’s been less of a break than I thought. But I do need to get started doing audiobooks again, partly because people are asking for them, and partly for tax reasons because if you are a self-published writer (though, you should consult with a qualified tax professional such as a CPA), you can usually deduct the narration costs and production cost of an audiobook from your taxes, which if you are running a small publishing business like I am, is a very useful thing to do. So hopefully we should have the first Dragonskull book for you in audio sometime in April or possibly May.
In other audiobook news, Hollis McCarthy, who narrates The Ghosts and Cloak Mage series, is going to narrate a couple of Cloak Mage short stories for me, specifically Prophecy of the High Queen and Dragon Song. Clock Mage: Omnibus One in audio hasn’t sold as well as I would hope, so we’re going to add Prophecy of the High Queen to that so I can do the nice quartered cover with four different covers on it that I did for The Ghosts: Omnibus One. And then we’ll do the same thing with Cloak Mage: Omnibus Two whenever I get around to uploading it. So that is what I am currently working on for writing projects at the moment and we should also mention Coupon of the Week here.
This week’s coupon is for Ghost in the Surge as excellent narrated by Hollis McCarthy, the climactic book of The Ghosts series. You can get 50% off the audiobook with this coupon code at Payhip: FEBSURGE again that’s FEBSURGE and that coupon code is valid until March 6th, 2023. And I will include the link to my Payhip store in the show notes.
00:03:52 Reader Questions/Comments
Now for a couple of reader questions and comments. The first question is from PM, who asks: I’ve been working my way through all the audios released for Nadia. I’m just finishing Cloak of Shards. I know they’re expensive, but I’d love to listen to Spears and Masks, and of course I’d really love to listen to Caina’s Ghost Night series. At the end of Cloak of Masks, it says to look for Cloak of Dragonfire at the end of 2022. Do you have a release date plan for planned for Dragonfire? I checked but I don’t see it available as a Kindle book and only see it on your website as coming in 2023. Thanks for all the hours of listening pleasure. It’s going to be tough to leave Nadia’s world.
Thanks, PM. I’m glad you enjoyed the books and the audiobooks. A lot of a lot of the credit (actually most of the credit for the audiobooks) goes to Hollis McCarthy, who narrated them. In answer to your question, Cloak of Dragonfire, as I mentioned earlier in the show, should hopefully be out in April or May of 2023. Depends on how March goes, but I am 5,000 words into the book as of right now. So it is underway.
Now for our first question about Sevenfold Sword Online: Creation (which I think you should all read), actually a comment. Jeff says yay for any excuse to get back into Andomhaim. Any character is tied to Ridmark in some way is a definite must buy for me. Not very far due to being busy with mobile games and work, but loving it so far. Pretty cool mixing Sword Art Online vibe with Dungeons and Dragons. Ironically, once played as a Dungeons and Dragons character based on Ridmark’s set as an oathbreaker paladin with a few levels in monk to gain access to the quarterstaff like Ridmark used before he became the Shield Knight along with the feat of Shieldmaster to fit with his gained role of Shield Knight. My Dungeon Master was gonna let me play it as a reluctant oathbreaker who worked towards becoming a paladin of redemption. I think we ended up getting up to around level 12 before the game fell through due to people being unable to play anymore due to scheduling conflicts etcetera.
Thanks, Jeff. I’m glad you are enjoying the new book and all the other Ridmark and Andomhaim books I’ve put out. The setting does lend itself very well to role-playing games. It’s actually a pretty frequent occurrence where people write to me and say they’re basing some part of their campaign off Andomhaim or they ask if I plan to put on like an RPG supplement or that kind of thing, but people have quite frequently used Ridmark and various characters and settings from Andomhaim in their Dungeons and Dragons campaign. I’ve just never written anything official related to that. So that might be a someday project.
Our next comment is from GS, who says: just finished and absolutely loved. It’s amazing getting to encounter old favorites again, but having them in the background, letting new characters take control of the story. Really looking forward to reading more as I’m hooked, but then again, I always am when it comes to your books involving Ridmark or Andomhaim as world and character building are the best. Thanks, GS. I am glad you have enjoyed the story and I’m glad you’re finding them enjoyable. I’m hoping to be able to continue Sevenfold Online: Creation soon. I just got to figure out when I can fit it in to the schedule, which as you have heard on the show so far, is quite full.
Our next comment is from JH who says: you got me hooked again. Sevenfold Online: Creation is a very creative twist to the realm of Andomhaim. I appreciate your hard work and great series. I originally came across your works in Kindle Unlimited with the beginning of the Frostborn series. It was free. Now I look forward to spending the five or so on each new book. A great investment I hope benefits you as well. You are gifted author and I really enjoy good triumphing over evil. I feel like I am tracking with much of your culture, having spent time playing Elder Scrolls, watching the Borg on Star Trek, serving the Marines, etcetera. Keep up the good work.
Thanks, JH. I am glad you have enjoyed all the books and that they brought you reading enjoyment. I should mention I have never actually been in the US military, so I’m pleased that I’m able to write the military characters in a way that doesn’t seem too unrealistic. I’m very grateful that you have enjoyed the books so far.
Our next question is from Scott, who asks about Sevenfold Online: Creation. When will it come out in audio? The definitive answer to that is maybe. It depends on how it sells and how everything else sells because audio is expensive and you kind of need an ebook to sell it really well before it’s worthwhile to do an audiobook of it, which is why we’re starting on the Dragonskull series to put into audio and not Sevenfold Sword Online quite yet.
00:08:17 Final Reader Question Transitioning Into Main Topic: How Many Short Stories Have I Published?
And one final question that will segue into our next topic quite neatly. WD asks when I mentioned on Facebook that Sevenfold Online: Creation was my 138th novel, he says: that’s not counting short story collections, right? Because you have written quite a few of those with all your promotional stories. Indeed I have written a lot of short stories, but for a while I was not entirely sure how many short stories I have self-published.
However, I’m recording this on Ash Wednesday, which is the traditional start of the Lent season where one is supposed to reflect upon their sins and mortality. In my case, I spent all day shoveling out from the first day of the big blizzard and then getting my tax paperwork sorted out. Since death and taxes are the only constants in life, I suppose that counts as contemplating one’s mortality. Though I have to admit, shoveling and keeping an eye out for slick ice underneath the snow is also a very excellent way to bring one’s own mortality to the forefront of the mind.
However, since I didn’t have any time to write and I spent most of the day in spreadsheets anyway, it occurred to me that this was probably a good time to figure out your recurring reader question anyway, since I wouldn’t have any time to write new stuff today. And that question is how many short stories I have self-published. As I mentioned, I know how many novels I have published. Sevenfold Online: Creation was #138 and Dragonskull: Wrath of the Warlock will be #139, but I am uncertain of how many short stories I’ve actually self-published. I know it’s a lot.
If we go way back to Ghost in the Forge and that was at the end of 2012, I think. Yeah, Ghost in the Forge would have been either the end of 2012 or the start of 2013, but when Ghost in the Forge came out, I also wrote Ghost Aria to accompany it as a free bonus for newsletter subscribers. I’ve done that pretty consistently in the eleven years since where when I publish a novel and send out an email to my newsletter subscribers, I will very usually have a free short story included unless time constraints got away from me. So that’s a lot of short stories.
But how many of them have I actually self-published? Once I got my tax spreadsheets all neat and tidy, I dug in and started doing some math. So for Frostborn, I wrote 9 short stories. And I should know I didn’t count the short stories that eventually become the novel Frostborn: The Skull Quest, because that eventually became a novel, and I had had an eye towards those becoming a novel the entire time while I was writing them.
For Cloak Games and Cloak Mage, I’ve written 10 short stories. For Cormack Rogan, I’ve written 1. For the Demonsouled series, I’ve written 8. For Dragonskull, I’ve written 7 so far, and in fact I’ll be writing another one once Wrath of the Warlock is done. The Shield Knight short stories are short stories set in the world of Andomhaim that came out during Sevenfold Sword and Dragontiarna and I’ve written a total of 17 of those short stories.
For Caina, across all her series so far, I have written 26 short stories so she takes the cake or the crown, so to speak, as the most short stories. For Otherworlds, and those are a collection of short stories that I wrote way before the Kindle came along and then last year I bundled them together into The Otherworlds Collection and part of my anthology series. Those short stories are 23 in total. For Silent Order, that is 4 short stories and for Sevenfold Sword Online that is 1 short story so far.
I think Caina has the most short stories because her character and the setting lend themselves most easily to short side ventures I think, especially ones that have some variety because most of my short stories basically boil down to “the main character or a side character have a side quest” and I think it’s easier (at least so far) to come up with more varied side quests for Caina than it has been for any of the other characters or settings.
Anyway, that adds up to 106 total short stories. 106! That is a lot. I wasn’t going to spend all day totaling up the word counts for all these short stories but if you assume a reasonable average of about 5,000 words per short story, that means in the last eleven years I’ve published over half a million words of short fiction and then given most of them away for free.
So that means as of the day I’m recording this, which is February 22nd, 2023, I have published 138 novels and 106 short stories. So the last 12 years have been quite busy and when I say I really do like short stories, I am clearly not kidding.
So that’s it for this week. I hope once March comes around, things will settle down a bit and I’ll be able to get back into a more regular recording rhythm for this podcast, but we will see how March goes.
That is it for this week. Thanks for listening to The Pulp Writer Show. I hope you found the show useful. If you enjoyed the podcast, please leave a review on your podcasting platform choice, whether it’s Apple or Spotify or Amazon Music or any of the others. The positive reviews really do help, so if you would like to leave one, I would definitely appreciate that. So until next week, stay safe and stay healthy and see you all (and hopefully have a blizzard free) next week!
