Welcome, new folks!

Hi, there. I've had a number of people join the mailing list recently. I want to make sure everybody gets their free Frosthelm book, Traitors Unseen. If you haven't gotten it, you can get it free here (the site will ask you to sign up for this newsletter, which you're already getting) or here from Smashwords. It's also on Apple Books, Kobo, and Barnes & Noble. Please, enjoy with my compliments. If you'd like to leave a review on Goodreads, Amazon, or Bookbub, I'd appreciate hearing what you thought.

The Daros audiobook is approved!

I am so happy to share that the audiobook version of Daros is finished! It will now undergo a standard quality assurance review by ACX, which should take no more than ten days, and then it will be available on Audible, Amazon, and Apple Books. I'm sure you'll enjoy Jennifer Pratt's performance. She has given voice and personality to a host of characters, many of them non-human. Her reading is clear and her comic delivery and dramatic instincts impeccable. It is so great to hear the book performed by someone who really gets the story and the characters and who elevates my writing with her performance. Please, look for the book in a week or so, and have a listen.


If you need something to pass the short time it takes to get Daros approved, I also have a great audiobook of Flames Over Frosthelm performed by Simon de Deney. If you like audiobooks, please give that one a try.

Daros advances in the SPSFC

Here's another exciting bit of Daros-related news - Daros has been selected as a semi-finalist in the Self-Published Science Fiction Competition. This competition was organized by Hugh Howey, the guy who self-published Wool, a very successful sci fi book (and series) that has now sold a half million copies and is being made into a TV show. This is the competition's inaugural year.



The competition began with over 377 entries. These were narrowed by the organizers to a set of 300, which were distributed in sets of 30 to ten judging groups made up of book bloggers. The books then went through two rounds of judging. For the first round, the judges read the first 20% of each book, and then they selected a group of ten out of their 30 as quarter-finalists. Daros made it through that first cut back in November. After that, the judges read the full length of each of their ten quarter finalists to narrow their group to three semifinalist books that advance. Last weekend, my judging group selected Daros as one of their three semifinalists.

Now, the three picks from each of the ten judging groups are shared with all ten teams. That means there are 30 semifinalists, and the 30+ judges now need to try to read them all, although they're allowed the option of a DNF (Did Not Finish) for books they just can't get into. The judges will rate all the books, and the top ten become finalists, with a single winner announced shortly after the finalists are revealed.

This feels a bit like the Sweet Sixteen phase of the NCAA basketball tournament - most of the books have been eliminated, but there are still a good number left. I am honored that Daros made it this far, and it will be exciting to see what happens next. The finalists are not announced until the end of June, which is good, because the judges need time to get through 30 books each. That's a lot of reading, on top of the other reading they all do. They're all working as volunteers, from their love of science fiction and of indie authors, so I'm very grateful to them for their work.

• If you're interested in how the competition works, you can read more here. 
• If you'd like to see the semi-finalist announcement from my group, it's here.

Some stories to try

I'm part of several author collectives, and we share each other's work to try to help all of us reach more readers. In many cases, the books we share are are free or discounted. Sometimes, they ask that you sign up for a newsletter like this one.

I have three works by fellow authors and then a group event to share this time. First is a collection of fantasy short stories from Alexis Lantgen called Saints and Curses. These are quite well reviewed, with readers commenting on the variety of stories, from scary to funny. Interestingly, the reviews I read all point to different stories in the collection that they enjoyed. I haven't read it yet myself, but I encourage you to have a look.

Next, I'd like to share Siouca Remembers, a sci fi novel that is set in James Murdo's Wanderer Universe. Told from multiple perspectives and through different cultures, this story weaves those threads together as they anticipate the return of an ancient being. Sounds like great stuff, and it is very well reviewed. Please, have a look.

Third, I have Occupation, a book by the prolific indie author Jay Toney. This is the second in a series about an alien occupation of Earth, including a reimagining of early human prehistory and history.

Finally, I have a promotion from many different indie fantasy authors. The theme of this promotion is the Self-Published Fantasy Blog Off (SPFBO). These books were all entries in the SPFBO in recent years, which means they're all fantasy, and they're all fresh and new, from independent authors like me. We're now all on a Discord server together, helping each other out, and the idea for a joint promotion comes from that new community.

I entered both Flames Over Frosthelm and The Outcast Crown into the SPFBO, which was the inspiration for the SPSFC described above and has a similar format. These books are a diverse look into that competition.

Thanks

Thanks so much for subscribing to my newsletter. I'm so excited about the Daros audiobook, and I hope that if you haven't already read it and if you like audiobooks, you'll give it a try. I'm also hard at work revising The Woeling Lass, which I hope to get to my beta readers and my editor soon. And there's another book ready too, my first thriller, that I'm really excited to share. Lots of stuff in the works. 

I hope you and your family and friends are staying safe in these weird times, and that you're enjoying reading and exploring new worlds.

May the Bloodmother watch over you - 
Dave