Gratitude bombs!
Thank you to my family – both by blood and by love. Every single one of you deserves so much more than a simple thank you in a book! Especially you, Stevie. There aren’t enough words.
Thank you to Michael, as always, for having faith in me. I am just one of a multitude of people whose life is so much better for having you in it, whether directly or indirectly. Also to Lynne for allowing me to distract her literally all the time (which is my polite way of saying I bug her constantly), and for curing me of my commaitis (not in author notes though, hahaha!) We’re working on the unnecessary gerunds.
To my beta team – who are also my bestest of friends, and everyone from JIT for their hard work and dedication in helping me get this book as perfect as possible. Also to the people who work tirelessly behind the scenes to make us all look good. Tabitha, you are literally the most lovely person and I love having you around! His Zen-ness Steve Campbell who makes me look awesome, and Karla Kay for the wiki that enables me to dip in and out of the main KG arc and weave it all together without spelling the names wrong.
Last but not least, thank you! Thank you to everyone for all the love and enthusiasm you’ve sent my way. I’ve had the best experience as a new author and I’m so utterly grateful for my community. Much love to everyone in the Facebook groups! You all keep me sane while I’m writing and human contact is at a minimum. There is always someone there, no matter what time of day (and usually night) with a meme, or a chat, and I appreciate you all! You can stop with the donut pics now though, they are NOT helping me resist! (PBTD group, I’m looking at you! ;) )
Graduation, and beyond
So that’s it. The end of the Alpha Class story! The kids are kids no more. How do you feel about that? Definitely come and tell me about it! You can leave a review on Amazon, and you can also find me in the Kurtherian Gambit Facebook groups (links at the bottom as always). I don’t want you to be too sad. You already know where Tina ends up, and you’ll be happy to know that this isn’t the end for most of the others, either! You all know I love a good cameo (hey, I’m still a fan!) and this book had a very special appearance. More about that shortly...
First, a big long waffle to get to it (please, you didn’t think I wasn’t going to waffle? It’s like you don’t even know me!) If you have just picked up this book randomly, drawn in from the main KG series by Jeff Brown’s beautiful cover (this is my favourite cover of the four, I love it!) then go back and read from the beginning! This little corner of KG has its own story.
Cue suspenseful music...
It began long, long ago... Not really. It’s been less than two years since Michael brought Scott (TS) Paul onboard to start the Etheric Academy series. But in Kurtherian Gambit terms it’s an eternity. Scott wrote two books that we all loved. So much so, that one of the most frequent posts in the fans group was to ask when the next one would be available. As a fan, I was devastated when I learned that he was unable to complete the story, even though I understood the reasons. So when I ‘graduated’ (see what I did there?) from Fans Write and Michael gave me the option I jumped on the chance to complete his story, and Scott has been a total legend throughout the whole thing. (Thank you, Scott! I wish you even more success than you’re already having!)
Discovery was the fastest book I’ve written (three weeks) and Graduation has been the longest so far (Was it like eight, or something? Nine? Too many weeks!!!) Finishing a series is complicated. Not only was it the bigger challenge, I had another level up in skill and knowledge because I started editing for Lynne. I am beyond lucky that I get to learn from Lynne. She’s an actual genius with language and also a complete treasure. I’ve learned so much in the last two months that is going to make your experience as a reader better.
Writing Graduation went a bit like this...
-Write
-Learn something
-Rewrite that last bit, which looked good last week but is so not good now I know the new thing
...aaand repeat. Totally worth it. Love you, Lynne! (Bows in awe)
Reviews. Thank you so much to everyone who reviewed Discovery! Even the ones who gave less than five stars. I appreciate all honest feedback and take it all into consideration. However, I cannot make these books longer than they’re supposed to be. There was a template, it was 50k, and I stuck to it to keep continuity across the series. YA is not 80k words like the BA books.
But my next series will be...more in line with expectations.
(And we’re almost back at the cameos now, well done for hanging in there!)
Next for me is Holi’s War, which is the continuation of the story that started Fans Write, Holi’s Savior. You can find that story in Fans Write Volume 1–along with the prequel to the next brand new and shiny Kurtherian Gambit series I’m going to tell you about right now. Did you notice a change in tone during the scene with Anna Elizabeth Hauser? That’s because I didn’t just have a character cameo in this book...I had an author cameo! I co-wrote that scene with my very good friend Sarah (SE) Weir—you all just got a sneaky peek into her upcoming series The Empress’s Spy! And that’s all I’m saying. You’ll have to wait...but not for long!
In the meantime, I’m getting ready to cross an ocean! Vegas, baby!! I’ll be at the 20Books Vegas convention in November, along with the other two-thirds of my coven...ahem...the Sisters Three, Sarah (SE) Weir and Erika Everest. If you read Michael’s notes in Payback is a Bitch then you’ll know that he invited the whole of fandom to Vegas on the 8th (you just have to love that!!) It’s a perfect opportunity to come and say hi and get us authors to sign your stuff while you pelt us with questions. I hope to see you there! Please leave your pitchforks at home though, yes? (snicker)
So, I think I’ve said it all. Except, for the final time on this series,
Ad Aeternitatem,
Nat
Author Notes Michael Anderle
Written June 10, 2018
First, THANK YOU for not only reading this story, but these author notes as well!
My author notes will be a bit shorter. Due to scammers and stuffers trying to do ugly things to game the system, Amazon has needed to setup a rule that no more than 10% of a book should be bonus material.
(I’m happy about that!)
So, I’m going to keep my author notes rather short and say that I appreciate all of you that have supported Scott (TS) Paul and Natale Roberts with the Etheric Academy series.
As Natale mentioned, Scott has been super helpful even though his time is at a premium as well because he is running his own publishing company (all while writing his own stories.)
I reached out to Scott to ask him what title would be best if you haven’t read any of his non-Kurtherian books and he suggested Conjuring Quantico, the first book of his best-selling The Federal Witch urban fantasy series. You can click to find it on a local Amazon website here:
http://www.books2read.com/conjquantico
A little over two and a half years ago I was basically working alone, had a few fans on Facebook and Amazon (when we could chat on Amazon), and had no idea who Natale Roberts was. Scott would enter my life about January of 2016 or so.
Due to that friendship, he would go on to produce the first two books in this series before Federal Witch blew up so big that he had to go head down, fingers flying to produce the next book in the series…
And the next one, and the next one ;-)
However, because of Scott, we were blessed to get the first two books in this series that fans have loved.
However, the story needed to be completed. I appreciate Natale stepping up that one day when I asked if she would be willing to finish the series (I had already confirmed with Scott he would not be able to get back to it.)
Having Scott help Natale is a godsend, since he takes meticulous notes about his stories and his plans. Basically, he is a much better documentarian with his Universes than I have ever been.
Now we finish with this set of the Etheric Academy. It was alway
s designed to be a way to continue with additional classes and perhaps in the future we will see what goes on with other students.
But, that will have to be another time. For now, we just got finished with Graduation, and it’s SUMMER TIME!
(No, it actually is, note the date I’m typing this. MANY students all across America (at least) just got out of school for summer.)
Coincidence?
Maybe.
I’d like to finish with letting you know something that is a bit behind-the-scenes. Natale is every bit as nice and sweet working with her as she is out on Facebook with the Fans Write efforts. (Editor’s note: She really is!)
Perhaps even more so (since she prefers to be in the background like most authors.)
BUT – she doesn’t like waiting for information WHATSOEVER. It drives her nuts, and she will weasel it out of you when you are not looking or paying attention.
I can’t give you examples, but suffice it to say…
I’m ON to you, Natale! ;-)
That ‘large eyes looking for help’ routine won’t get you what you want for the tenth time in a row.
I don’t think.
Ad Aeternitatem,
Michael
P.S. – If you missed the TS Paul book link above (because you continued reading my amazing Author Notes) here it is again:
http://www.books2read.com/conjquantico
Books By N.D. Roberts
THE ETHERIC ACADEMY
*with Michael Anderle*
Alpha Class: Discovery (3) Alpha Class: Graduation (4)
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Alpha Class - Graduation: A Kurtherian Gambit Series (The Etheric Academy Book 4) Page 17