Splendid news, everyone! As I announced on my tech blog dedoimedo.com just a few days ago, I would like to invite you to the mega-nice Smashwords Summer Sale, taking place throughout the entire month of July. From tomorrow, for 31 days and nights, you can buy and enjoy the entire catalog of me digital books available on Smashwords at a lovely 50% discount. A good opportunity to grab some fresh reading material, especially since all these e-books are DRM free. And, well, nicely written, I think.| The Lost Words
Well, well, that was quick. Three months, done. Now, let me throw some lovely statistics at ya. Book length? About 80,000 words, give or take a few, thirty-five images, thirty-three tables, a combat simulation (written in octave). Study material? I read about 150 books, and about thrice as many reports, journals, monographs, and webpages in six languages. I marked about 800 annotations, and ended up with slightly under 700 citations and references. And the genre? Now, that’s something I’d...| The Lost Words
I don’t like repeating myself. Let me say that one more time. I don’t … no, wait. Aha! So, as it happens, I’m not really fond of writing “more of the same”, so to speak. Once I’ve done a certain theme, I don’t find great enjoyment in rehashing it. Some authors love their worlds, and keep spinning endless sequels in them. But that’s too familiar, too easy for me. I always need to push beyond my would-be comfort zone, and... Read More Read More| The Lost Words
A couple of months back, I finished writing my brand new-old fantasy book. A fresh, third attempt at an old idea. Why, you may ask. Well, the old one just wasn’t good enough. Despite its verbosity, almost three quarters of a million words, it was clunky, ponderous, perhaps even boring. And reading, I was quite surprised, and delighted, by how much my writing style has changed over the years, and decades. This got me wondering. How many words does it take for one to find their “true” voice?| The Lost Words
All right, listen up. Are you sitting down? Good. Here we go. As I just announced on my main blog, dedoimedo.com, I am running a discounted sale for all of the books I’ve published through Smashwords. From December 12 through the end of the year, you can grab a bunch of fiction and nonfiction works. These include the four volumes in The Lost Words fantasy series, and please note the first book, The Betrayed is FREE (zero cost), my mythological novel I Shall Slay the Dragon!, and the recentl...| The Lost Words
I did it. The brand new (yet old) 63-chapter, 160,000-word fantasy book featuring magic, dragons, wizards, gritty heroes, and lots and lots of lore is done. I finished the project within roughly six months of leisurely writing (for the most part), give or take a few weeks. On its own, this wouldn’t be a major feat, except … I have tried to “rewrite” this idea three times already, unsuccessfully. But now, I finally succeeded.| The Lost Words
Between 1997 and 2001, throughout my military service, I wrote my first proper fantasy book. It was a hefty effort, 630,000 words in total. The book had everything: magic, monsters, lore, epicness, colorful protagonists. Only I never published it. Simply put, I tried sending it to various agents and publication houses, and they all turned it down. Rightfully so, because it wasn’t very good. In fact, it was pretty bad.| The Lost Words
Sometimes, past things are best left in the past. How so, you may ask. Well, earlier this year, I told you I was working on a brand-new fantasy book. Nothing to do with Prince Dietrich, nothing to do with zombies. A fresh start. Then, roughly 15 chapters in, I gave up.| The Lost Words