Nomad's Fury
Page 19
“Care to cut the umbilical cord?” Sue asked. Terry whipped out his knife, but Char grabbed his arm and glared at the silvered blade.
“Oh crap.” He jumped up, saw Gerry outside, and demanded the man’s knife. Gerry handed it over without question. Terry did the deed and Sue tied the end closed with a small piece of string.
Terry wiped the blade and handed it back.
“Autumn Dawn has passed away,” Gerry said quietly. “I need to go.”
Terry watched Geronimo walk quickly away. Kiwi intercepted him and they talked briefly before returning. Chief Foxtail was coming.
Inside, Char was exhausted but exhilarated. Terry rubbed his arms as he returned to Char’s side. She smiled at him. “I love you,” she said, smiling radiantly, purple eyes glowing. Seeing the look on his face, she was confused. “What?”
“I love you, too?” he tried.
“Did I say something? I’d heard that at times like this the inner evil Werewolf comes out. I don’t remember any of it, thank goodness.”
“Neither do I, lover,” Terry snickered, shaking his head, but then he turned serious. “Autumn Dawn has passed away, and Foxtail is here.”
“I thought she might. It was her time, and she was more than ready. They made it! That is good news.” She continued to smile and rocked gently as she held her daughter.
“Name?” Terry asked, thinking he knew what the final decision had been.
“Cordelia Dawn. Cordelia from King Lear and Dawn for a new dawn ushered in when one passes away and for the one we have to live without. The sun still rises,” Char said.
The lights flickered as the power plant came online. Chief Foxtail couldn’t take his eyes from the electric bulb as it hummed and brightened.
“It has been so long,” he started, then turned to Terry and Char. “Congratulations.”
The baby fussed and Char finally was able to look at her baby girl. A full head of black hair with a silver streak on the side. Her little ears were fuzzy and a touch pointed. Terry studied her closely. She looked like a normal baby except for the silver streak and fuzzy ears.
“Is she a Werewolf?” Terry asked.
“Does it matter?” Char replied.
The End of Nomad’s Fury
Terry Henry Walton will return in Nomad’s Justice, May 2017
Don’t stop now! Keep turning the pages as both Craig & Michael talk about their thoughts on this book and the overall project called the Terry Henry Walton Chronicles. And artwork! There’s a picture of something hiding back there that you must see.
Author Notes - Craig Martelle
Written February 28, 2017
Michael suggested that we bring all the collaborating authors to Fox, Alaska where the distractions are at a minimum. We’ve gotten a massive amount of snowfall and on top of that, we’ve had some mind numbing cold spells.
The snow is nearly up to our windows and we had temperatures to minus 50 Fahrenheit. We found out that my wife’s Jeep Wrangler’s thermometer topped out at -37F when the actual outside temp was -45F. I wonder if Jeep contemplated that their vehicles would be stalwart at those temps and that the drivers would be a little bummed that the display was showing it to be much warmer than it really was.
Regardless, I love writing and I love the feedback I get, whether in comments on my blog, comments on my Facebook posts, direct messages, emails, and most importantly in the reviews you leave for me on Amazon and on Goodreads.
Here is my new favorite review that Ralph Foster – you are the best!
"This is one of the greatest series I have ever read! A lot of series seem to have characters brake character just to further the plot or to fill plot holes. Not this series every character feels like a real and unique person no characters that are just plot devices. Best of all the story is believable and really allows you to get immersed in the story. Basically no wtf did they do that for moments or scratching your head at motivations of certain characters. All in all a great post apocalyptic/romance/action series that I would recommended to anyone!"
Some other highlights from reviews that are both humbling and motivating. We come back time after time to our keyboards and work hard to deliver the best stories we can. Thank you to the reviewers who posted these great tidbits. We respect your desire for anonymity.
“I think it's a very good story without a lot of gratuitous sex. Shows a task of honor that is missing in most modern novels.”
“This series can stand alone due to the great characters and well-written pacing and world-development. You don't NEED the back-story of those other "lines" in the Universe to enjoy this series.”
“I will have to admit that this is turning out to be one of my favorite Kurtherian sub-series. Post-apocalyptic, pioneering, xxx kicking fun. And a quality story coming out fast and furious.”
“A grand stand hit for Craig, the story cannot be put down and the ride gets better.”
On a side note, how do we pronounce the names? The sanskrit spelling is Charumati, but the pronunciation is SHarumati. SH is a little further back in the throat kind of in between CH and SH, but it’s easier to say and flows more smoothly by using the SH pronunciation.
A shout out to my fellow Marine Justin Sloan as we coordinated the buildup of events to make sure that the next six books in the Terry Henry Walton Chronicles flow smoothly into his books as well as into Michael’s Dark Messiah. Justin was easy to work with and quick to reply to save me from writing something that wouldn’t jive.
A personal thank you to Kat Lind who helped see some things I was doing that lessened the impact of the characters and the emotions within the scenes. She also helped with the developmental editing to ensure that the stories are hitting on all cylinders. Diane Velasquez and Dorene Johnson continue to take great care of me on a developmental edit side. Same thing to my fabulous editor Mia Darien, who keeps all of my books on track, seeing things that need to be seen and giving me a high level of consistency across all my titles.
And finally, the winner of the naming contest is Angie Simon who offered Cordelia from King Lear because of her love and loyalty. I’ll gift you the next couple books in this series as a way to say thank you for helping me out.
The naming contest also helped me fill a gap with little Kaeden’s sister. Both Beck Young and Jefferey Turk Sr who offered Kember/Kimber. The K theme resonated so that’s what we went with. And then there were five. Terry Henry Walton, hard ass, tough guy, family man.
If you liked this story, you might like some of my other books. You can join my mailing list by dropping by my website www.craigmartelle.com or if you have any comments, shoot me a note at craig@craigmartelle.com. I am always happy to hear from people who’ve read my work. I try to answer every email I receive.
If you liked the story, please write a short review for me on Amazon. I greatly appreciate any kind words, even one or two sentences go a long way. The number of reviews an ebook receives greatly improves how well an ebook does on Amazon.
Amazon – www.amazon.com/author/craigmartelle
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My web page – www.craigmartelle.com
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Thank you for reading the Terry Henry Walton Chronicles!
Author Notes - Michael Anderle
Written Mar 14th, 2017
THANK YOU for not only reading this story, but stopping by the Author Notes to check it out!
Amazing changes in such a little amount of time.
This book is coming out in the same month as the last one, in fact, less than 11 days since the last one.
Freaking Awesome Craig is going to OWN March. He’s a beast when it comes to writing. When I grow up, I think I might want to be him.
Then again, he lives in Alaska…The home of freeze-your-damned-fingers-off if you go outside, so you have to work inside. Screw that, I’ll stay in Texas for now.
We are days away from releasing a new genre book “Restric
ted: The Rise of Magic - Hannah’s Tale.”
As soon as we have a freaking cover….Grumble grumble fizzle snort.
We are working in 3d modeling to help some cover art in the future…That is only going so-so. Seem’s getting 3d to work is NOT easy for rigging and bone structure and clothes and clipping and stuff. I hope that we have some success in the next week or two - time will tell.
There is a LOT going on, so I’m going to make this real short and encourage you read the “Confessions” notes right after this and keep the fun up!
Best Regards,
Michael
CONFESSIONS OF A
NO-COVER-TALENT AUTHOR
Every book has a cover. Everywhere you look, there’s a book cover. How hard can it be? Really, how hard can it be?
This was my first book, and I did the cover myself! I know, it's hard to tell, isn't it?
HOLY FUCK! If you didn’t wince and gasp in agony, then you are just like me, a no-cover-talent sumbitch.
Or, you are really, really kind to no-cover-talent people such as myself - bless you.
How do you find a good cover artist if you don’t know anything or anyone in the business? That was my real challenge. Google failed me in my numerous searches using keywords like “Make my story look great with your awesome cover.”
I published It’s Not Enough with the cover you see above. I know this may sound surprising, but I didn’t sell a whole lot of copies of that book.
The demographic that clicked most on the ad? Girls aged 13-17 because it appeared to be a self-help kind of book. Not one sale to that demographic, for reference. If you are into teen girl non-fiction, I recommend you use that title.
For post-apocalyptic survival fiction, not so much…
But the book was out there. I then found a relatively inexpensive pre-made cover artist and paid hundreds of dollars for three covers. The unfortunate thing is that they didn’t hit the genre of my books. Those were the first books in my Free Trader series.
Do you like cats? That series has cats, snarky cats that are helping their humans rebuild civilization after a devastating civil world. It happens to be on a planet about 4000 light years away. Science fiction adventure in the style of Gregor and the Underworld (Suzanne Collins’ – Hunger Games – other series) and Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonriders of Pern series.
The covers didn't do any of that, but by being published, it helped me find people who could help, real artists. I was talking with Michael Anderle about something completely different, and he suggested in one minute about thirteen times that I should change my covers. We weren't talking about my books or publishing, but he snuck it in there anyway.
I found Tom Edwards, and since I had books out, he came on board with the covers for the first three, then the next three, and is contracted to do the three after that. I should have the covers for Free Trader 7-9 by mid-May.
I love Tom Edwards' work, and these covers helped people to pick the book up and give it a try. Hundreds of four and five-star reviews tell me that people like the story. I think it's good for all ages, and the readers agree.
FYI - the Free Trader series page on Amazon US is here. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01G19OHTS
Remember that first book? By having it published, I was able to get it in front of a small-press outfit. They liked the story a lot, but the first conversation about the book included the words, “We have to change the title, and we have to change the covers."
I didn’t know anything about selling books, but I did know that in its current form, the book was dead. They also said that the story needed to be both shorter and longer. We’d accomplish that by breaking the first story in two, adding some text, and then delivering a third book, which thanks to an overwhelming response, became a fourth book, too.
And thanks to Monique Lewis Happy, Winlock Press, and Christian Bentulan, this is what that first book became – a four book series with titles and covers that gave the reader a better look at what they’d find inside.
Reader feedback was overwhelmingly positive and that matters to me.
The End Times Alaska series page on Amazon US. https://www.amazon.com/End-Times-Alaska-4-Book/dp/B01N6PVZ1V
I write because I like telling stories, but if the readers don’t like the characters or the stories, then I’m not doing what I’m trying to do. Thousands of readers have told me that they love the stories. I can’t ask for better than that.
As a new author, it’s really important to build your readership in one genre. I didn’t do that. I dicked that up twelve different ways from Sunday. I wrote a thriller, a pseudo-autobiography that is arguably, the best thing I’ve ever written. People Raged and the Sky Was on Fire, the first in the Rick Banik Thriller series (there is only one, but there will be a Rick Banik short story in an anthology to be released this summer - 2017).
That cover leaves things open. I like it and the book, but I’ve only sold some 50 copies total. I have the audiobook of it as well, narrated by the uber-talented fellow Alaskan, Basil Sands.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01GCWLGW0
I love my space opera! That's what I read for fun.
I am writing a spin-off series from the Free Trader that takes place in space. It is the Cygnus Space Opera. I asked Christian Bentulan who is a pure artist if he did space covers. He said no. I persisted, he said he'd try, and I wanted a unique spaceship. I didn't want anything from stock art. So Christian came through with the following covers for me. Pretty freaking sweet!
Cygnus Space Opera series page on Amazon US. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01NCYLI1A
Holy crap what a journey! It took me six months to get in front of the cover artists once they were on board. It also helped to get that bestseller tag on books to share with the artists. They are happy to get their work seen and appreciated by tens of thousands of people.
And then there's the work with Michael Anderle. These covers were done by Andrew Dobell out of the UK and this is the second set. The first were done using Photoshop using stock images. We needed that to make sure the series was going to resonate with the readership. It did, overwhelmingly so, so we decided to hire models and do a real photo shoot from which to build a consistent brand for the covers.
The Terry Henry Walton Chronicles counts on a certain frequency of release. Our readers go through these fairly quickly. Nomad Supreme had to wait on eBay UK and some other commercial providers to deliver the props that we purchased as well as the time it took Andrew to find the models and gather everything in one place at one time. It took longer than I wanted, but I am somewhat separated from the real world living in the sub-Arctic.
When everything finally came to fruition, you see that the models and all-original covers were worth the wait. Patience is a bitter cup from which only the strong may drink. I keep telling myself that, although every time Andrew asks when I want something, I always tell him “yesterday.”
The Terry Henry Walton Chronicles series page on Amazon US. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01NAWTOH3
Each was painful in its own right because I don't know dick about artsy shit.
I can’t stop being me, but I learned most importantly that I should not have anything to do with covers, besides describing the genre, general topic, and let the artist do what artists do.
Those final covers are for short stories or anthologies that I’ve done. I put together the first three to help both new and established authors increase visibility and acquire another revenue stream. It’s hard being an author as you are it. If you don’t write or market, then you don’t get paid.
In any case, there’s my story of how a complete cover moron has such great covers on his books. I got help, lots and lots of help.
Peace, fellow humans.
Amazon – www.amazon.com/author/craigmartelle
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My web page – www.craigmartelle.com
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Thank you
for reading this story.
The Terry Henry Walton Chronicles
A Kurtherian Gambit Series
Book 1 – Nomad Found
Book 2 – Nomad Redeemed
Book 3 - Nomad Unleashed
Book 4 - Nomad Supreme
Book 5 – Nomad’s Fury
Book 6 – Nomad Justice
Book 7 – Nomad Avenged
Book 8 – Nomad Mortis
Book 9 – Nomad’s Force
Book 10 – Nomad’s Galaxy
Free Trader Series
Book 1 – The Free Trader of Warren Deep
Book 2 – The Free Trader of Planet Vii
Book 3 – Adventures on RV Traveler
Book 4 – Battle for the Amazon
Book 5 – Free the North!
Book 6 – Free Trader on the High Seas
Book 7 – Southern Discontent (January 2017)
Book 8 – The Great ‘Cat Rebellion (2017)
Book 9 – Return to the Traveler (2017)
Cygnus Space Opera – Set in the Free Trader Universe
Book 1 – Cygnus Rising
Book 2 – Cygnus Expanding
Book 3 – Cygnus Arrives (2017)
End Times Alaska Series, a Winlock Press publication