No Regrets...

Last weekend, we offered the first episode in the 'Wish and the Will' fantasy series, Sundancer's Regret, for free on Amazon. Never having been totally convinced of the value of freebies and giveaways in a world where digital products are so cheap to begin with, we nevertheless thought we'd give it a go and see if it provoked any interest. During the brief promo period, we shifted dozens upon dozens of copies, which pushed Episode 1 briefly into the top 40 for the Epic Fantasy category!

In fact, it seemed to attract so much attention that we're planning to do it all over again with one of the books from the 'Trinity Chronicles' series - either Maranatha or Venus in Saturn. Currently Amazon seem to be having some serious problems with the KDP portal, or we would have launched the new promo already by now. Watch this space, as they say...

Sundancer's Regret: Episode 1 Amazon Kindle Freebie

Having just discovered the Kindle Publishing 'Promotions Manager' facility on Amazon, we've decided to test the new service by offering for free the first episode of 'Sundancer's Regret' - Book One in the Wish and the Will fantasy adventure series. The promo is scheduled to start on Jun 30, 2012 and end on Jul 02, 2012 - beginning approx. 12:00 AM Pacific Standard Time and ending approx. 11:59 PM Pacific Standard Time, according to the Amazon FAQs. Why not take advantage and sample the weird and wonderful world of The Wish and the Will in this freebie?

The Wish & the Will's No. 1 Fan Writes...

Fellow writer and publisher Alison DeLuca recently read the first three episodes of the series to date, and enjoyed it so much she decided to blog about it, right here on her site.

Thanks a lot for all your support, Alison (readers, be sure to check out her other blogs, too).



And in the meantime, here's something brand new - a sneak preview of the art for the cover of Episode 4, featuring Loxxi, Mr. Sundancer, and a pseudo-steampunk'd Gatling gun. Chaz isn't making any promises (due to other projects and ongoing commissions) but he hopes to have the text-only Kindle version of TWatW available before the end of the year.

The Wish & the Will Reviewed...by a Fan

Recently, I ran a giveaway competition over at Natasha Larry's blog. Fellow writer and blogger Alison DeLuca won the competition to receive a bunch of digital Wish and the Will goodies - and she liked the first episode so much, she has just posted her review of Episode 1 on Amazon.com.

Getting reviews for the series hasn't been easy to date, due to the serialized nature of the episodes. It looks as if Alison's become the No. 1 fan of WatW so far. She's even planning a blog post of her own about the books very soon...

In the meantime, be sure to check out her blog and her works.

The Wish & the Will: A New Angle

While Chaz continues to puzzle over the finer details of Episode 4 (which will most definitely not be entitled 'A New Hope'). here's a visual sample of the forthcoming episode, courtesy of Mr. Frang.

Chaz commissioned Frang this year to produce a few pieces of artwork for the series, focusing mainly on architecture and aircraft design. As various forms of flying machine are integral to the books, and Chaz was never much of an aeronautics engineer, he was curious to see what Mr. Frang would come up with - and this one-man, hand-held flying device really caught his imagination:



We think this one ought to be filed under 'steampunk', even while Chaz has since refused to use that term any longer in connection with WatW.

As always, the first 3 episodes are still available for download from the banner links upon this very web page.

The Wish & the Will - on Wallpaper

Having twanged something in his shoulder early in the weekend, Chaz has been rather out of sorts lately. Weight-training may be one thing, but lawnmowers...grr (though it never helps that the grass is close to a foot long). In the meantime, to keep his hand in, he's come up with a few wallpaper designs based on characters from the Wish and the Will. 1024x768 only at this stage, but he may work on more as the series progresses. Enjoy!


Mr Jeth Sundancer


Miss Claudia


Captain Ssorg Ethdril Kthorn


King Paimon

Wish and the Will: Episode 3 Now Available!

Chaz published the text-only Amazon Kindle version of Episode 3 over the weekend. Somehow we've also managed to bring the price down, too.

The fully-illustrated version will be available in due course via Lulu.com, once the interior artwork is completed - this will take a little while due to current client commitments.

Here's the blurb:

Back in the City of Old Mid, outlaws Jeth Sundancer, Renzo K. Castello and Claudia get their 'biggest ever bank job' off to a shaky start when a bank manager confuses a vault with cask-conditioned whisky. Once underway, however, unexpected spanners are thrown into the works and Claudia is once again reminded that being a natural redhead has lethal disadvantages.

Therein they encounter a Droxen lavatory repair man, who may secretly be the legendary saviour of the Grotmongers, a race of repulsive sewer-dwelling creatures who believe he will deliver them into a promised land of light and wonder (as foretold by the quatrains of Justin the Pustulant).

Desperation and misunderstandings combine to push Claudia and Jeth into an impromptu music-hall appearance in front of the Daemonlord Prince Marbas, and a highly excitable audience of Sli'ix aristocracy. But Marbas and his lords have eyes only for one beautiful performer – and it isn't Claudia.

However, events soon take a turn for the sinister as the forces of law muzzle the growing cries from the people of Old Mid for political representation and an end to tyranny at the hands of the Daemonlords. And as Duke Barbatos, Lord of Justice, begins to pursue his own agenda, a new and terrifying threat is unleashed from the secret cellars beneath the Headquarters of the Gang, the Duke's elite secret police...

(That is, in fact, Mr. S on the front cover...in one of the weirder scenes to grace this quirky series so far.)

Here's the link for UK readers.

Here's the link for US readers.

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.

'The Wish & the Will'...Slight Return

Chaz has been thinking (and working) hard on restyling the visual identity of his current series of steampunk-flavoured fantasy adventures of late. The web poster above is the first of his new attempts at adding some depth and distinctive design elements to the books, as well as hinting at their medieval occult and magical origins.

The Wish and the Will Episode 3: A Sneak Preview

Episode 3 of the quirky comical steampunk fantasy series is well under way at present. Chaz is working on bringing a wealth of new characters and increasingly surreal situations into the series, all of which combine to create an intricate weave of weirdness and wonder. Due to the epic scale of the work, Chaz has just hired long-time artistic partner-in-crime Mr. Frang to provide some art and design works of a technical nature, and we hope to be showcasing some of those on this very blog in the near future.

In the meantime, here's a sneak preview from one of the aforementioned scenes from Episode 3, wherein Mr Sundancer and Miss Claudia, in ever-desperate attempts to evade the clutches of the Constabulary, inadvertently find themselves on stage during a Royal Command Performance...for an excitable male-only audience.