Answering Questions on The Emperor’s Edge Series

Those of you who were around on the weekend know I’m bribing people to ask questions for me to answer here on the blog (seriously, you can check out that post now — ask a question for a chance to win an Amazon gift certificate for the holidays). It’s a chance for me to give away some goodies and also find out what people would be interested in reading about here.

So, for this first post, I’ll answer a couple of the questions related to the Emperor’s Edge books:

Merry asks:

When will your next full length novel be out?

Next month! Over the next couple of weeks, I’ll be doing the final edits for EE3 (Deadly Games), then sending it off to my editor. The cover art is already done, so it should be up by Thanksgiving.

Eyezak asks:

As a soon to be owner of a Kindle (Fire), which of your ebooks do you suggest a new reader start?

This page has everything listed with reading orders, but you could start with Emperor’s Edge (the first in my series of high fantasy novels), Encrypted (a stand alone set in the same world as EE), or Flash Gold (a steampunk novella set in the Yukon in the late 1890s).

Mihir asks:

Do you have a fixed number of books planned for the Emperor’s Edge series?

And Tiffany asks:

Do you already know where you are going to end up in the EE series, how many books there will be and how the story arc will go?

I have tentative plans for six books, each with a different member of the group for the alternate POV character. As for where the series is going and how it will end… kind of? Is that a good answer? Probably not, but I definitely plan to wrap up the story arc in that six-book span rather than stringing things along indefinitely.

Anke asks:

Are you writing the 2nd, 3rd… books differently from the first one regarding how well wrapped-up they are?

I like for each novel to tell a complete story, and I try to wrap up that story. That doesn’t mean I won’t leave you hanging with some teasers as to what will come in future books though. 😉

Carr asks:

I had hoped that Sespian [snipped due to spoilers 😀 ] would have made an appearance in the second book of the series (Dark Currents), having speaking lines rather than being mentioned by the main characters in passing. Will we see more of him in the next book in which he interacts face-to-face with Sicarius and Amaranthe, perhaps following up on the infatuation that was brought up in the first book (Emperor’s Edge)?

Sespian pops in at the end of Book 3, and he’ll have a significant role in Book 4.

Stephen asks:

I read The Emperor’s Edge on my Kindle, after buying it because it was touted as a steam punk novel…and because I liked the plot synopsis. I’m not some die-hard Steam Punk type, but I noticed that you barely touched on the technology. I love your stories, but wonder if the whole steam power thing was an afterthought to gain a genre following.

But steam, no steam or Sauna Time, please keep it up!

Hah, I never promoted Emperor’s Edge as steampunk! I mentioned it was a high fantasy in “an era of steam” because I didn’t want people buying it, expecting a medieval world (I’ve come across some folks who don’t like their fantasy to have guns and more modern tech in it) and then being disappointed because it’s more of an Industrial Revolution type setting.

I guess because I mentioned steam, though, people started tagging it as steampunk on Amazon. But honestly, steampunk is a pretty niche market, so I’m not sure it’s helped sales or not. I’ve found that a lot of people who are into the steampunk culture don’t actually read fantasy (horrible, yes).

That’s it for today. Have a question? Ask it here. Thanks!