'Maranatha' Up for Grabs Again

Amazon's new 'up to 5 day freebie promotion' option has gone down a blast with us lately. We think it's the best thing yet devised for Amazon Kindle-based book promotion, on the grounds that our latest piece, 'Angel of Vengeance', shifted nearly a thousand units in its 5-day period and has already gone on to out-sell almost everything else in our Kindle catalogue to date in only two weeks.

A few months after we first started these promos, we'd like to offer readers another chance to snap up a free copy of the very first FWB title, 'Maranatha'. The promo starts on the 12th October and runs for 5 days inclusive thereafter.

As ever, you can get the 'Trinity Chronicles' freebie via the following links:

for Amazon US readers

for UK Kindle fans

'Venus' on Kindle!

'Venus in Saturn' is now live on Amazon Kindle - in the standard text-only edition without any illustrations. Chaz has experimented by dropping his royalty share on this one to see if the lower price will attract more sales. In any case, this is still dark and creepy stuff - the darkest Chaz has ever written.

US Customers can get it here.

Our UK customers can download it here.

The third volume in the Trinity Chronicles series is now in production, and sees the return of many old characters from the first two books.

The Fenris Wolf Pack

Taking a break from fantasy and dark thrillers for a time, Chaz has recently begun work on a new book for the Fenriswulf catalogue: an Alaskan wilderness adventure for younger readers, that currently goes by the working title of Prince of the Hunt. Looking for something simpler than multi-layered epics of cosmic complexity, this slightly whimsical tale is definitely a case of "something completely different".

Originally conceived some years ago as a movie script, the simplicity of publishing via the Amazon Kindle platform has resurrected this idea, and it is now well into production of the first draft. The stars of the story are wolves, and the tale is written with just a hint of Kipling (the Just-So stories have long been some of Chaz's favourite bedtime tales for...decades).

The illustration here depicts the main hero of the piece, an exile named Cikuq, who ventures out to found his own pack with two young orphans...and meets an unlikely ally on the way. A tale of courage, thrills, and deep friendship soon blossoms. Release date: likely late summer, or early autumn.

The Wish & the Will: An Illustrated Excerpt

Presenting a recent illustration for the epic fantasy series, episode 3 of which is due out soon...a Karityldian warrior chief of the tribe of people to whom one of the heroes, Captain Ssorg, belongs. The Karityldians are native to the mountains and jungles of Garuda, and their story is not unlike that of the Zulu nation at the hands of the British in the 19th C. The following excerpt is from a field guide published after one of the earliest expeditions to the Karityldian homeland...



Karityldians: A singular and quite abominable reptilian race to be found in the jungles of the North-Eastern Outlands, sufficiently far enough from the hub of our great civilisation to prevent offence to our refined sensibilities. Their primitive hunter/gatherer society could benefit from several thousand seasons' worth of contact with our own infinitely superior culture. Central to their society is the ludicrous belief that they are somehow superior to other races by virtue of their great antiquity and adherence to absurdly primitive spiritual beliefs which refer to unknowable, unseen beings referred to as “gods”. In short: I humbly propose to their Daemonlordships that an expedition be launched to exterminate these monstrosities and claim their mountainous jungle lands in the name of Middengarth's Geological and Surveying Society.

-From Notes on the Peculiarities of Diverse Races of Middengarth, And Why Gnoems are Better than All of Them by Grath Galladon, Gnoem first generation explorer

Text and art (c) Chaz Wood, 2011. All rights reserverd.

Labels, Genres, and Pigeonholes...

Chaz recently contributed an article on the use and value of labels, genres and pigeonholes in promoting and publicising fiction to a friend's blog. The post addresses general issues of promotion, and also deals with his current progress in determining exactly how to promote the 'Wish & the Will' fantasy series - specifically, how far one should go in making use of sub-genres and categories to reach one's target audience.

Read the full article here and show Julieanne some support on her page while you're there!

The Wish and the Will Episode 2: Promo Trailer

A new promo trailer for Episode 2 of the 'Wish & the Will: Sundancer's Regret', again featuring the further voice talents of Mr Dave Allison. With his help and collaboration, we may end up even extending these into small animations (rather than glorified slideshows), as he is proving particularly adept at producing individual character voices for many of the cast!



I feel the first effort was a bit too epic and ambitious for its own good, so I'll be making shorter, snappier clips in future. In any case, it's great to have somebody else on board the Fenriswulf boat who's enthusiastic about the projects and getting involved.

(If any browsing reader is interested in Mr. Allison's voice talents, he's readily available for all occasions, including weddings, birthdays, and bar mitzvahs.)

For Fenriswulf's Followers - A Springtime Freebie

Taking a break from editing Venus in Saturn, the next book in the Trinity Chronicles, Chaz thought it might be a nice idea to offer a free sample of the text to Fenriswulf's visitors and followers.

Simply browse to the e-Book page here and download the PDF. The free 63-page sample contains the first half-dozen or so chapters of Venus as things stand at present. Some of the work is still in 'beta' format, so any feedback or opinions at all will be gratefully received.

Warning: some disturbing and adult content lies within.

Venus in Saturn: Sneak Preview

Something a little different: a taster of some content from Venus in Saturn, the soon-to-be-released prequel to Maranatha.

Wherein Inspector Jack Carpenter expresses his frustration with his top freelance CSI investigator, Vanessa Descartes, for going above and beyond the call of duty...

“You’ve gone and done what?”
Carpenter threw his pen to the desk in exasperation, though Vanessa knew he would have preferred to have stabbed it into her eye at that moment.
“Look, someone needed to get close to them.”
She had guessed that Carpenter might have had some quiet reservations about her activities that morning, but the volume of voice was far in excess of what she had ever feared. “Now, you can’t get any closer than being on the inside, can you? I won't be billing you for it. Call it freelance undercover work.”
“No. I'll tell you what I call it: sodding up our enquiry. You realise I can’t do anything for you in there? Any possible future sting or inside job we could have had planned, is out the window for as long as you’re involved with that shower? And if you make one slip - one wrong word - and blow your cover, then they could do a moonlight and then we're all stuffed! Or even worse – they suss you out, and you're the next one to end up gutted like a bloody kipper.
"Now think, Vanessa. If they’re involved, then we have to approach very carefully. And if they’re not involved and it’s just a coincidence, you’re gonna get yourself all stressed out over nothing. You can't be neutral and rational in there, because you have an emotional stake in all of this. Worst case scenario, anything you pick up gets thrown out as inadmissible, and there'll be no justice for Sandra.”
“Then why can’t you set up something, using me as a decoy?”
“Jesus, what did I just say? I know we all think they’re involved, in some kind of way. Whether they had anything to do with Sandra's death is up for debate, but you’ve already convinced yourself that they were responsible for what happened to your big sister as well.”
She shrugged, jerked her head. Not so much of a nod, more an acknowledgement of his words. “I’m still hoping I can be proved wrong.”
“But you’d prefer to be proved right. Because it gives you a rationale, someone to blame. Right?”
“Wrong. There's a connection somewhere in all of this, Jack, and I intend to find it. It combines me, my sister, this case, and this unorthodox religion on some level and if I don't get a better idea of where they're coming from, we may never solve this one. I've had weird shit happen all through my life when I never asked for it. It's time I went looking for some answers, to all of it.”
Carpenter's gnawed fingertips played a slow funeral march on the edge of his desk.
"You know, Vanessa, you're brilliant. You really are. You've helped me get results on every case I've worked with you in nearly two years. But sometimes, you really piss me off. Now get out, and don't come back until I call you, or you have some facts so hard, they could crack diamonds. Okay?"

Work-in-progress illustration for the above scene:


All content (c) C. Wood, 2010.

Amazon A-No-Go

Well, as expected I didn't get selected for the second round of the amazon.com book contest, but that was hardly a surprise. A rush job at best on my part in order just to get the full submission in on time, from looking at the number of next-round contestants it would appear that selection was based pretty much on who could come up with the most intriguing 300-character storyline pitch.

In other words, this part of the filtering process is more about marketing than anything literary, where a snappy title and a few buzzwords are probably all that could be required to fox the panel. Good luck to those who made it through, but I do get the feeling that an awful lot of rather good stuff has probably fallen by the wayside simply because the writer wasn't quite able to come up with the kind of advertising tag-lines that seem to be required nowadays.

Which has made me think, that the marketing side of FB hasn't quite been allocated as much time and attention as the works deserve. It's all very well knowing that the stuff is out there for the world to see - and copies are selling, now and again - but I do still need to do more. Everyday I get a Spambox filled with junk from US-based businesses trying to screw cash out of me for book promotion, guaranteeing me reviews in high-brow publications and exposure to trade: all for a price, of course (in USD, via credit card). This is the backside of promotion, where it's assumed that somebody vain and rich enough to publish their own book is also willing to be ripped off blind for the possibility of "getting it noticed", for a price. I have no doubt that "the Trade" are perfectly well aware of such companies and how they operate, and I don't believe for a minute that they treat many, if any, books which come via those channels on the same level as real-world published works - in much the same way that all known "Vanity Presses" are blacklisted by stores worldwide. (On a side note, Vanity Publishing - paying a third party, usually on the strength of exuberent promises, to publish and promote a book used to be equated with self-publishing - simply going it alone. In the last 10 years, the advent of DTP, DIY web-publishing and POD services have helped to distinguish between the sharks, and the writer-creators).

With more works planned for later this year, and FB also looking to branch out into other media, marketing is going to be big on the agenda. How much promotion and marketing is enough? To be honest, there's probably never enough. There are always new avenues and openings to be explored, though finding the balance between being a laid-back lazybones and a pushy nuisance probably takes trial and error. I feel awkward about pushing my work at people I know, and slightly intimidated doing the same to total strangers. It's not easy, though I do understand the background theories of sales and promotion - possibly because it's my works that I'm pushing, for my own benefit, not somebody else's. Had I been busier with the promotional side of things up to this point, things may have turned out better with the Amazon contest - I would already have had a half-dozen juicy pitches, tag-lines, and 2-line soundbite Tweets or Twits or whatever the hell you call the things people post on that website, all good to go and geared up for grabbing the attention.

But nobody said going it alone was easy...