4 Days and Counting...
Readers and Friends,
As it gets closer to the release of Stormsend, I have begun to reflect upon the journey that brought me to this moment. I feel like this newsletter is a great opportunity for me to share some of that story with you. Writing has been a liberating and highly invigorating part of my life for the past two years. I credit this venture with helping me to reorient myself and apply long-gestating concepts and ideas into a creatively lucrative purpose.
I have come to believe that dreams can only hold meaning if they are applied to something meaningful.
I began to place a heightened emphasis on my writing, and to pursue a career as a professional, independent novelist, after a nervous breakdown I experienced on my birthday two years ago. I turned 45 this past Wednesday, March 16th. When I turned 43, in 2020, I was in much the same state as we find Lukarde Alfans to be in the beginning of Stormsend.
I was in the grips of PTSD, untenable anxiety, and severe depression. I was at the end of my tether… and it was my family on the other side, reaching out to me, trying to coax me back from the edge.
My wife, Christine, is my biggest cheerleader. We will be celebrating twenty years of marriage in May. She has read earlier drafts of my book, cover to cover, and her investment in its success is borne out of a passion we both share for these characters and this world I’m building. Christine… my mom, my sister, my brother… and yes, even Scrappy… they were my beacon, my way of Escaping the Gray.
Writing became a catharsis, for me. Therapeutic. Liberating in ways I never really considered it could be. This project, the Saga of the Freewilds, and the people who inspired me to put my heart and soul into it… they saved my life and gave it direction. Focus. I cannot really express how grateful I am for that.
Christine… my mom, my sister, my brother… and yes, even Scrappy… they were my beacon, my way of Escaping the Gray. Writing became a catharsis, for me. Therapeutic. Liberating in ways I never really considered it could be. This project, the Saga of the Freewilds, and the people who inspired me to put my heart and soul into it… they saved my life and gave it direction. Focus.
I cannot really express how grateful I am for that.
Regards, Michael Paul Scott - Author MPSAuthor@freewilds.net TheFreewilds on Linktree
Official Book Trailer for STORMSEND
Preorders are available now for the Kindle eBook edition of STORMSEND - Saga of the Freewilds, Book One, exclusively on Amazon.com. On March 31st, 2022, the book will also be available in both paperback and hardcover formats, with the official Audiobook edition releasing on May 31st, to be available on Amazon, Audible, and iTunes.
This is the last chance I can give anyone to receive Stormsend for free! Sign up to be an Advanced Review Copy (ARC) Reader and I will give you the complete STORMSEND in Digital eBook format (PDF, ePub, or Mobi). All I ask is that after you read the book, consider giving me an honest (and hopefully positive!) review. Follow the link, below, to grab STORMSEND for free! This offer expires on March 31st, the day the book launches.
The Special Preview Edition of STORMSEND is also available through the following giveaway events:
FLIGHTS OF FANTASY: a Collection. Get these books fast! This promotion ends April 2nd!
FANTASY AND SCI-FI BOOKS: a Collection. Get these books fast! This promotion ends April 15th!
Recommended Reading
(March 27th through April 9th)
A Six-Book Saga from Author Merick N. H. Ulrik
Get the complete collection in this amazing box set!
Vandryn, a young human and Zan Cadeyn a young half-breed elf are thrown together in a desperate struggle for survival. They cross the ruthless forces of the Blood Queen, the ruler of the empire of Dalantia and must learn to fight to survive. Aided by new friends like Zylla, a beautiful young elven vixen and Zan’s father the towering elf warrior Elleezer Umbaden and an old drunk of a wizard named Tamar, the hag seer. They face horrific monsters and cult-like evil Blood Paladins. This Saga contains graphic sex scenes that do not fade to grey and gruesome violence as well as friendship, epic battles and magical weapons.
A royal court trapped by an invading army...
A dark fantasy tale
Moorkvegg Castle has been under siege from an invading army for days following the murder of the king and queen. The remaining Graunkrake family members and their court sorcerer think up a drastic course of action to save themselves while the invading army continues their attack.
How far would you go to save a life?
Homicide detective Ava Locke is good at what she does. But more importantly, she’s committed.
An insomniac with a dark, yet blurry past, she works tirelessly to make the world a little bit better. But little does she know that everything is about to change.
When Ava’s Chief calls upon her and her partner Carl to take on an urgent case, Ava must go undercover to try and solve it. But she soon finds that there is more to the case than she had ever thought, and it begins to bring up some harrowing memories she was happier to forget...
As a dangerous and unstable man kidnaps girls from all over the city, Ava and Carl are in a race against time, not only to save the lives of the missing girls, but of Ava herself.
Author Clara Lewis offers an enthralling and thrilling detective story in, “Vanished”. With a female detective as the lead in this captivating short story, audiences will enjoy the refreshing and tantalizing storyline, and readers will find this book lingering in their minds well beyond the last page.
For fans of fast-paced, whip-smart detective stories, this is a novella you won’t want to miss.
Dispatch from the Freewilds
Book Review
Road Rage
by Karina Kantas
The Gist:
The past has its hooks in Gemma, and history seems destined to repeat itself. However, this tough, determined woman has not merely survived life. She has been honed by her experiences. Her scars may leave her lamenting the lost splendor of her youth, but in Karina Kantas’s cleverly written, breakneck-paced Road Rage, we soon learn that the true beauty of a woman like Gemma is beneath the surface, laying in wait for the right opportunity, the right man, and the right family to come along.
The Book:
Road Rage is the fourth in a series of stand-alone MC (Motorcycle Club) dark-romance novels written by Karina Kantas. It was released in January of 2022, making it only a few months old at the time I was fortunate enough to read this short, tightly paced novel. It follows Gemma, a woman with a past tied to the world of track racing, MCs, and the rough, visceral lifestyle that comes along with them. A chance, unexpected encounter with a handsome gent leads her back down a long, dark road she thought she had left behind her.
The Plot:
Gem is not exactly thriving as we meet her. She is coasting through a mediocre life; she was bored, but at least that kept her safe, for the moment, from the shadows of her chequered past. When she least expects it, she comes face to face with a man whose very presence tantalizes her beyond reason. She is taken with the man, immediately. He is everything she has been missing in her life, and as luck would have it, he seems every bit as interested in her. Tossing caution to the wind to chase happiness and fulfillment once again, Gem finds herself traveling those old, familiar roads from which she barely escaped in one relatively whole piece, last time. She does not shy away from a challenge, though. That’s not Gemma’s style.
The Critique:
This is not the kind of book I usually read. In fact, truth be told, if it wasn’t for the fact that I have come to know and respect the author so much, I might not have picked this up and given it a chance, at all. I am glad that I did, however, and not only because it is a great story. And it is, that. Karina Kantas does not mess around when it comes to moving the story forward, and much like the characters in this book, as a reader it sometimes feels like I am barely holding onto the handlebars, careening within a hair’s breadth of losing control and ditching this ride she has me on. It never happens, though. The thrill is getting right to that edge, where the pace of the novel demands your undivided attention, then whips you off in a new direction. Gemma must feel it, too… this sensation that if she doesn’t assert herself and hold on tight, she won’t be able to salvage things and find her happily ever after. There is no confining structure to this story. It is a relatively short story, and a very quick read, but it is also pretty much one big chapter, so it feels like you and Gemma have been through a lot by the time you get to ‘The End.’
The Verdict:
Yeah. I can see the appeal of modern dark-romance stories, now. It took Karina Kantas to get me there, but I can appreciate this genre a lot more having experienced it through her keen eye and deftly crafted words. There isn’t really anything in this book that would be impossible to imagine happening in real life, and that verisimilitude lends it a relatability that I wasn’t expecting to enjoy as much as I did. I wouldn’t say I am a convert, but if anyone is going to entice me to read another story of this kind, again, it’s going to be this author.
The Rating:
On a scale of 1-5, I am giving Road Rage a FIVE out of FIVE, though that is rounding up. It is no indictment of the book, itself, or of its author. The quality and craft are on full display, here. It is simply not the kind of story that a fantasy/sci-fi nerd like me would ever be able to consider perfect or ideal in my eyes. Bump that scale up to 1-10, and it’s a NINE out of TEN, for me. It is not merely competent, but cleverly constructed, exhilaratingly paced, and enticing enough to win over a D&D dweeb like yours truly. I can’t give a book much higher praise than that.
Find this novel at:
Follow the author:
Michael Paul Scott - Author