novel

A thank you and other things

christianellingsen , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

It’s been a little over two weeks since Beasts of the Wildlands: Tales From Vasini II was released into the wilds. Thank you to any and all who have bought and/or read it. I hope you’ve enjoyed it.

Should you feel inclined to do so, please do leave a review on Amazon or Goodreads. Even a handful of words can help.

If you’ve yet to get your copy, you can find it here (please check your local Amazon store if you’re outside the UK).

The Cities Beyond the Signal sale

In other news, my portal fantasy novella, The Cities Beyond the Signal is on sale on Kindle in the UK and US for the next week.

UK people, you can get it for 99p here.

For US people, it’s 99c and can be found here.

What’s next?

With Beasts of the Wildlands sent out into the wilds, my attention is now turning to the other things.

Ahead of BotW’s release, I’d been editing Tales From Vasini III. However, with the next draft of that complete, it’s been put in a virtual draw, and I’m now tidying up the first draft of The Vasini Chronicles III ahead of me actually working on the next draft proper a little way down the line. So, far it’s mostly been focused on giving certain characters actual names instead of [Lawyer] or XX. There’s some other bits to do, like some little structural changes I thought of while I was writing the original draft.

Writing-wise, I’m now about 12,500 words into a non-Vasini novella. I say novella, I’m suspicious that it actually wants to become a short novel.

And that’s the end of that chapter

christianellingsen , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Last night, I finally reached the end of the first draft of The Vasini Chronicles III. Woo’hoo.

It’s taken some time to get here. A year and a half, I believe (I should really keep a better record of when I start writing a first draft). But after 157,0000 words (some of which will hopefully be good) it’s done.

It will now sit in a virtual draw for a while before I start editing it to try to put some more good words in there and take the less good words out.

Next up is a non-Vasini related novella. But I won’t be starting on that until the New Year. Well, maybe a little bit before then, if I happen to have a spare moment.

Anyway, woo’hoo.

In other news

I’m in the depths of editing Tales From Vasini III. I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the condition the novellas are in. They still need work, but its heartening that they are in as good a shape as they are at this point in the process.

Of course that will all be swept away when I next make a pass through them and despair at what I’ve written.

Don’t forget that Beasts of the Wildlands: Tales From Vasini II is out on 19 January 2023. You can pre-order it on Kindle here:

UK

US

Canada

Australia

France

Germany

Netherlands

Please check your local Amazon store if your location isn’t listed above.

If you’re on Goodreads you can find details and add it to your To Read list here.

A second quick note

christianellingsen , , , , , , , , , ,

Hi all,

Another quick note to let you know that the Kindle edition of my flintlock fantasy novel The Theatre of Shadows: The Vasini Chronicles II is on sale for the next seven days.

UK people, you can pick it up for 99p here.

US people, you can pick it up for 99c here.

In other news

Keep an eye out for Beasts of the Wildlands: Tales From Vasini II news later this week.

Three things

christianellingsen , , , , , , , , , ,

Hello,

Apparently it was June the last time I wrote on my blog, and then it was just a quick note on a Goodreads giveaway and two short paragraphs on where I was with writing and editing my works in progress.

This time though, I have a little more news with the promise of more news to come.

The Silver Mask sale

First, to the thing of immediate interest…

US and UK people — you can get The Silver Mask on Kindle for cheap for the next seven days.

UK people, it’s 99p and can be found here.

US people, it’s 99c and can be found here.

It’s a great chance to try out The Vasini Chronicles and find out about the world of Vasini ahead of…

Beasts of the Wildlands: Tales From Vasini II coming soon

The second Tales From Vasini book is finally coming in January 2023.

Beasts of the Wildlands will consist of two novellas — The Hunters and In the Ruins of the Deities.

More details — release date, cover, blurb — will come in the next few weeks.

But, yay! It’s coming and soon.

Looking back through my blog, it looks like I started work on the first of the two novellas back in 2017. So, it’s taken five years to get here.

And then…

Now that Beasts of the Wildlands will soon be out in the world, I’ll be turning my attention to editing Tales From Vasini III. Hopefully there won’t be as a big a gap between Tales From Vasini II and III as there was between A Divided River (Tales From Vasini I – 2017) and Beasts of the Wildlands (Tales From Vasini II – 2023)

Work on the first draft of The Vasini Chronicles III continues. It’s currently around 130,000 words. By my estimate, it will be about 155,000 to 160,000 when the draft is finished so I’m close to the final stretch. But my word count estimates are always wrong, so we’ll see. If all goes well — and fingers crossed it will — I should be done on the first draft by the new year. Fingers crossed.

The Theatre of Shadows giveaway

christianellingsen , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

US people,

Nearly a year has passed since The Theatre of Shadows, the second part of the Vasini Chronicles, went out into the world.

To celebrate, I’m running a Goodreads giveaway. You have a chance to win one of 100 Kindle editions.

You can enter here.

You have until 15 July to enter.

And in other news…

The Vasini Chronicles III is still being written. It’s passed the 100,000 word mark and there’s still a few chapters to write until I have a complete draft.

I’m coming to end of working on the latest draft of Beasts of the Wildlands: Tales From Vasini II. This will hopefully mean I can move onto the copy edit, then a bit of proofreading and then it should — if all goes well — be in a position to go out into the world. Many digits crossed for that.

The Theatre of Shadows out now on Apple Books

christianellingsen , , , , , , , , , ,

Hi All.

The Theatre of Shadows: The Vasini Chronicles II is out now on Apple Books. It’s available here if you’re in the UK or on your local Apple Books store if you’re not.

It’s still available to buy on Kindle and in paperback. (For those outside of the UK, please try your local Amazon store.)

The adventures of Drs. Marcus Fox & Elizabeth Reid continue…

In the two centuries since the fall of the deities, only a score of city-states have risen from the ashes of their destruction. Foremost amongst them is Vasini — a city divided by politics, class, and philosophies. A city with a threat in every shadow.

Six months have passed since the events of The Silver Mask. Over the winter months, Vasini was plagued by Gareth Miller, the Winter Fayre Killer, who murdered 17 people before he was captured by Lieutenant David Locke. The city now waits for Miller to be hanged. But when Miller escapes gaol, ready to terrorise Vasini’s streets once more, Locke must hunt the murderer again to stop him from claiming more lives.

As Miller flees into Vasini’s streets, Joseph Bastin, ambassador to Vasini for the city-state of Laège, is assassinated in a brothel. With the threat of political repercussions for the death, it is up to Dr. Marcus Fox, newly appointed Commandant of Police, to find the ambassador’s killer.

Fox’s investigation soon leads to a suspect, someone who has been investigating links between the Laège embassy and the worship of the dead deities – his ally, Dr. Elizabeth Reid.

Now, Elizabeth and her friend, Catherine, must act quickly to clear her name before she is found by someone who doesn’t believe her claims of innocence and she’s forced to dance the hangman’s jig.

But these events are only a prelude for what is to come.

The stage is set. The actors are in position. The play can begin.

The Theatre of Shadows is the second part of The Vasini Chronicles, a series of flintlock-and-alchemy fantasy novels set in the city-state of Vasini.

The Silver Mask Giveaway

For those in the US, there’s three days left of my Goodreads giveaway of The Silver Mask: The Vasini Chronicles I. You can enter here for a chance to win one of a hundred Kindle editions. The giveaway ends on 21 April.

The Silver Mask Goodreads Giveaway

christianellingsen , , , , , , , , ,

Hello, a quick blog post to let US people know that I’m running a Goodreads Giveaway of my flintlock fantasy The Silver Mask, part 1 of The Vasini Chronicles. You can enter here for a chance to win 1 of 100 Kindle editions. You have until 21 April.

The gods and goddesses are dead, killed two hundred years ago.

With their destruction the moon split apart, the sun dwindled and the land was devastated. Civilisation has re-emerged from the carnage, but twisted creatures still prowl the savage Wildlands between the city-states.

In the skies above the city of Vasini, a falling star, a fragment of the dead moon goddess Serindra, heads to earth. In the Palace district, Dame Vittoria Emerson, darling of the city, has been found dead, lying amongst her own vomit.

As Captain Marcus Fox of the Inspectorate hunts the killer, Dr. Elizabeth Reid searches for the remnants of Serindra determined to make sure the poisonous quicksilver it contains is not used. With Vittoria’s death threatening to draw the city’s political elite into a war of assassins, Fox and Reid must rush to expose the secrets that lie within Vasini before they tear the city-state apart.

The Silver Mask is the opening part of The Vasini Chronicles, a series of flintlock-and-alchemy fantasy novels set in the city-state of Vasini.

The Theatre of Shadows on Apple Books

christianellingsen , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The Theatre of Shadows, the second part of The Vasini Chronicles, will be available on Apple Books from 18 April, you can pre-order it now. You can find it here if you’re in the UK or on your local Apple Books store.

In other news

Whilst I’m here, a very quick update on some of the things I’m working on.

I’m now 94k words into writing The Vasini Chronicles III. I’m past half way on the first draft, but it’s looking more and more like it’s going to be longer than I originally thought it would be. I should know by now that everything ends up longer than I expect it to be.

Beasts of the Wildlands – Tales From Vasini II – is being edited. It needs a little bit more work than I hoped it would, but I’m getting closer to being able to put it out into the world.

And now it’s 2022

christianellingsen , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

A little late, but Happy New Year, all. I hope 2022 hasn’t already destroyed the spark of hope that can come with the change in year.

So, 2021 happened, and I finally managed to publish The Theatre of Shadows: The Vasini Chronicles II.

On that note:

UK folks, The Theatre of Shadows will be available for £1.99 on Kindle until 12am 20 January GMT – you can find it here.

US folks, it’s currently $2.99 on Kindle until 12am 20 January PST – you can find it here.

So, what’s coming up for me this year?…Who knows. But here’s what I’m currently working on.

I’m 75k words into writing The Vasini Chronicles III, which means I’m hopefully past half way done on the first draft.

Beasts of the Wildlands – Tales From Vasini II – will soon be taken out of the draw for another edit and after that I should know how much work is left before it can go out into the world.

I’ve managed a first edit of Tales From Vasini III, but it will likely be sitting in the virtual draw until Beasts of the Wildlands is close to publication.

As a bit of a break from all the Vasini-related stuff, I’ve also been looking at my supernatural noir that has been sitting in the draw for the past few years. Still like it (very much), still (very much) want to see it published one day, still not quite sure how.

What’s next?

christianellingsen , , , , , ,

The Theatre of Shadows: The Vasini Chronicles II has been out three weeks now, so what’s next?

Well, there’s a couple of things in various stages of development at the moment.

Tales From Vasini II — I’m deep into editing this. It’s going by the working title of Beasts of the Wildlands and will contain two novellas — tentatively entitled ‘The Hunters’ and ‘In the Ruins of the Deities’. This should be the next thing to come out, but I’m not going to commit just yet to when precisely that will be. The stories are set a little bit before and a little bit after the events of The Theatre of Shadows.

Tales From Vasini III — A first draft exists. It should consist of three interconnected novellas and will come out before The Vasini Chronicles III. The stories are set over the summer after the events of The Theatre of Shadows.

The Vasini Chronicles III — I’m about 30,000 words into writing the first draft of this. That’s hopefully about a quarter of the way through.

After The Vasini Chronicles III is written, I currently plan on writing something non-Vasini related as a little refresher before plunging back in with what will likely be Tales From Vasini IV. But all of that is some way in the future so could very well change.

Anyway, keep safe until next time. I’ll try to remember to let you know how things are going.

And if you haven’t already done so, feel free to pick up a copy of The Theatre of Shadows…

UK

US

Canada

Australia

France

Germany

Netherlands