Tim Frankovich

For those unsure, or if you’ve forgotten, “NaNoWriMo” is National Novel Writing Month. Started way back in 1999, NaNoWriMo is a challenge, a community event, and a source of motivation for thousands of writers. In short, writers take the month of November to write an entire novel. More specifically, we try to write 50,000 words.

In a sense, this is accountability. You’re letting people know how much you’re writing on a daily basis. And it works! I’ve done it twice now. The first time, I wrote most of an earlier novel (that I’ll work on revising and re-writing next year some time). The second time, I made 50k words of progress on the novel you’re all enjoying now, Until All Curses Are Lifted.

This time? Well, if you’re following along, you know I’m working on the sequel, Until All Bonds Are Broken. I’m approaching 50,000 words on it already, and should be there by the end of this week. That means, if NaNoWriMo goes as planned, I should be at the 100,000 word mark by the end of November.

How does that compare? The first book is 139,568 words long. So if we assume that book two is comparable in length (and I assume that it is), then I’ll be over two-thirds of the way through by December 1st.

As always, you can continue to follow along with the tracker in the right column. Or if you want more specifics from me, follow me on Twitter where I post words counts and occasional vague hints. Or… better yet, join the Mailing List, where I’ll post some actual excerpts sometime soon…

In my interaction with readers so far, I’ve been surprised. I’ve had almost zero questions about the plot or characters of Until All Curses Are Lifted. Instead, the number one question has been: when is the next book coming out?

I suppose that’s a good thing. And it’s both encouraging and daunting. I have expectations for this next book that go beyond my own. I have to proceed with the knowledge that some people will likely have strong opinions with the direction that I take. These characters are not just mine, now.

Book 2, Until All Bonds Are Broken, is proceeding daily, though not always as fast as I (or anyone else) would like. You can keep track of my progress with the bar on the right there. As I type this, it’s at 21.4%. That’s based on a rough idea of 130,000 words for the first draft. (The first book ended up being ~139,000.)

If you loved Marshal and Seri, you will see much more of them. At the same time, we’ll get to see more of the ongoing story from the point of view of some other characters. That includes a couple of characters who were mostly just following the main characters around in the first book. You’ll also get more from an antagonist point of view. Hmm.

I can’t give too much away yet, since I’m still early in the first draft and many things can change in the course of writing and editing. I do drop occasional hints about scenes I’m writing on my Twitter account, so follow me there if you enjoy that kind of thing.

It’s a journey, and I’m no longer alone on it. Welcome, dear readers. I promise you that I want to get the book done just as much as you do (maybe more). And I’ll work as hard as I can to get there. Thanks for joining me.

Yesterday, I had the privilege of setting up a “local author table” at the nearest Half Price Books location. This was my first experience with something like this and overall, it was a good one.

I set up the table just before noon. My wife came along and her smiling face helped attract customers. HPB originally had the table in a position where few people saw us until they had checked out and were leaving. I asked permission after half an hour and we were able to move the table to a more prominent location. After that, we started getting more attention.

Half the people who came by our table were friends who knew in advance – some of them old friends we hadn’t seen in quite a while! That added some extra pleasantness, and they accounted for around half the total sales.

Side note: every so often, one of the employees will page a customer, letting them know they have an offer on books they’re selling. One of them, who we heard throughout the afternoon, had a voice that sounded exactly like the late Sir Christopher Lee. Delightful.

Most common question: how long did it take you to write this?

Heard surprisingly often: my daughter/granddaughter/niece might like this. I’ll buy one for her.

Somewhat disappointingly, none of the people who came by the table were outright fantasy fans (or at least it seemed that way). Most just seemed to be avid readers of any kind and were attracted by the cover or the “local author” allure (autographs!) or whatever.

Good news: I did sell a number of copies, gave away a bunch of bookmarks, and was invited to return whenever I wanted.

Amusing theory that won’t die: a stranger came up to my wife and asked if she was the model for the book cover (Seri). She really isn’t. The cover was done by an artist in Indonesia who has never seen nor met anyone in our family, and submitted a cover design in competition with around a hundred other artists. Throughout the design process, no one noted any resemblance to my wife. Then came the cover reveal and several people suggested a likeness. And now it won’t die. Too funny.

I’m not entirely sure what I would do differently in another such event. It’s something to consider as I continue trying to find readers/buyers.

This is it. In many ways, I’ve been dreaming of this day since 3rd grade.

As a child, I wrote little stories and stick figure comic strips for years. I moved on to longer stories, writing my own books. (They weren’t very good.) I went off to college, proclaiming that I was going to become a writer.

Then life happened. I realized that writers don’t make a lot of money. I needed other jobs. Those other jobs began to take up a lot of time. I fell in love. Got married. Had kids. Worked more jobs. Writing sort of… went away.

A few years ago, I somehow got motivated again. I began to write. And write. And write. I wrote a novel and submitted it to agents. It received dozens and dozens of rejections (almost all of them form). I moved on and wrote another novel. This one… this one was big. And it was good. I could tell.

I did everything I could think of to make it right. I hired an editor. I listened to beta readers. I worked through all the various processes of editing, proofing, re-writing, editing some more, proofing some more, and so on.

And now it’s here. I can pick up a physical copy of my first published novel. It’s real.

Today is my birthday. Why don’t you go buy yourself a present? I suggest a good book. Enjoy! And let me know what you think.

A moment of rage leads to a curse beyond hope.
Will Kishin surrender or fight back?
Witness the birth of the leper assassin.

What? What is that?

The only way you can find out is to join the mailing list! There’s a form on the right there, or you can go to this page.

Today marks the release of The Leper’s Second Kill, a short story featuring the origin of Kishin, a minor (but important) character in Until All Curses Are Lifted. He’s not a very nice guy. But how did he get that way?

Early readers of my novel were fascinated by this character. His origin story wouldn’t fit in the novel itself, as it would derail the main story, so I wrote it as a stand-alone short story. It’s a tragedy, but shows how he ended up on the path he walks in the novel.

It also might contain a hint or two about things that could show up in the next book…

So join the mailing list and read it!

I just posted chapter two of Until All Curses Are Lifted. In this chapter, meet Seri, the second protagonist. (She’s the one on the cover.)

Check it out here!

Only a few days left until you can read the whole thing!

Surprising me, Until All Curses Are Lifted is now available for Kindle pre-order!!

The paperback will be available next week.

In the meantime, if you’re interested in pre-ordering the ebook, go here now!