Lots of Updates: Writing, Giveaways
Let's start with the good.
I'm super excited about the new book. My books have been edging closer and closer to true fantasy as I go along. This latest one fully embraces this trend.
The setting is a fantasy kingdom. The king has suppressed magic in the land to make sure his rule is never challenged.
The main character is a prince. He's lived a decadent life, to put it mildly. His older brother will become the king someday, so his main job is to not tarnish the royal family's name.
One day, everything changes. His older brother is kidnapped, and the king won't pay the ransom. The main character doesn't want the responsibility of becoming king, so he decides to go rescue his brother.
This is an adventure story through an unknown, magical land. Lots of humor comes from the prince not knowing anything about common people. He, of course, meets an attractive travel companion and must keep his identity as the prince a secret.
There's a ton of layers going on in the story, and I'm very happy with how all the pieces and relationships come together.
The magic system has to do with glyphs and is related to animals (not quite shifters, but kind of a twist on the concept). The world is fleshed out, and I'll be able to continue stories in the world if there's interest. The book is standalone, so I can stop if it flops.
Don't worry, though, this is an m/m romance through and through. The romance remains the primary story arc. It's not going to be super dry and technical to read like Tolkien or something.
It's still on track for a mid-November release.
Now onto the bad news. I'm ending the monthly giveaway. I just can't get the interest. After five months, I've had two months with no entrants. One month clearly went to a bot or "giveaway hunter" that had no interest in the book.
I started it to promote authors doing interesting things in the genre. It isn't achieving that goal, so I'm not going to continue it. I'll have to think of another thing to do. This might mean I blog about awesome books, but I definitely don't want the pressure of feeling obligated to blog a review every week or two or four.
