Frequent Questions

I write fantasy, whether adventure yarns or more literary tales that have underlying themes about social issues and philosophy (a kind of thinking man’s fantasy). I sometimes write science fiction.

Llurien stories (always fantasy)

• The Tales of Llurien
• Talon Stormbringer
  • The Ever Fiend
  • The Screaming Moragul

Non-Llurien Stories

• Fantasy
  • The Never Quest Series
• Other
  • The Insultalon

They can be read in any order, as there are no story lines crossing the books, but for those who really want to read them in order, a continuously updated chronology of stories is located here. This chronology can change at any time as I write and release more Talon stories, which is being done in whatever order I think of them in.

Yes. Bewildering Stories published “The Insultalon” story in 2009. Evermore Press has published The Ever Fiend (Talon Stormbringer) and the first two volumes in The Art of World Building series in 2017.

As of 2016, here is the count of complete novels, novellas, short stories, and non-fiction works, with a word about status. I’m gearing up to begin publishing in 2017.

• Novels: 6.
  • The Sword of Sollinae: my first book (part of a trilogy), written in my teens.  Will never be published. Set on Llurien.
  • Of Hauntings and Hunting (For Once & Evermore, #1): written long ago, the book is too long. Will be fixed at some point, with #2 then written and both published. Set on Llurien.
  • The Dragon Gate (Never Quest Series, #1): written long ago, will be revisited and published, with books 2-4 following.
  • There are also three novels published under another name and genre. These were published in 2014-2015.
• Novellas: 1
  • The Ever Fiend: Talon Stormbringer: published in 2016. Set on Llurien.
• Short Stories: 12
  • The Insultalon: published in 2009
  • The Tales of Llurien stories: 11 of the intended 28 are written
• Non-fiction books: 7.
  • A memoir trilogy: to be revised and published under another name
  • A memoir about corporate life: being written in 2018-19.
  • The Art of World Building, three volumes available now.

Lots of reasons. The stigma attached to self-publishing is thankfully a thing of the past. An entire industry has sprung up around independent authors, making it easy to get professionals to design covers and edit a work, and even promote it. Retailers like Amazon have all sorts of tools for this, too. A true revolution took place in the last decade.

At the same time, traditional publishers began offering even less, from advances to promotion, while taking just as much control and royalties away from writers. The effort to attract an agent or publisher is considerable and, when unsuccessful, leaves an author completely ignorant as to why their work wasn’t chosen, making it difficult to alter their pitch into one more successful.

Self-publishing allows one to retain all creative control over everything from content to covers, promotional strategies and release schedules.