The Absolution of the Morning Star series trailer and other news

It’s a constant struggle to stay relevant in this business, especially as an Indie author. I’m always searching for new ways to get my work to an audience. I never know what will work, and it always surprises me, but I do the best I can with the few resources and data that I have.

Before signing a publishing deal with Grendel Press for Koen: Quills from the Raven’s Nest, I put together a book trailer to help promote the project when I had shifted to self-publishing mode. For some reason, it got a decent amount of views (for me, anyway). I tried to re-create the magic moment with a trailer for Dawn of the Lightbearer, but it never took off. Trailers are a tremendous amount of work, so I shelved that idea for a while.

But recently, I got the bug again and took it upon myself to produce a book trailer for the entire Absolution of the Morning Star series. It can be found here, and I hope you enjoy it! It was quite the endeavor, being twice as long as my other trailers, but I am happy with how it came out. I don’t know if they help any, but they add to my catalog of marketing material and give me a creative outlet outside of writing—which I do a lot of.

Speaking of which, I have started a new writing project. After finishing editing Destiny of the Daystar (available for preorder now and will be released on January 7th), I planned to continue with book two of the Order of Thanatos series, The Monk of Thanatos. The problem is I will soon get busy editing and promoting Koen, which will likely be released in the spring (fingers crossed). I want to dedicate some serious time to making that a success, and continuing a series as involved as the Order of Thanatos just isn’t the best strategy at the moment- especially when I am querying for agents with book 1, The Novice of Thanatos, and have no idea what destiny has in store for that book. I needed a project that gets my creative juices flowing, isn’t as in-depth with lore, and that I can easily pause if life gets busy- which I suspect it will.

So, I pivoted to one of those ideas that pop into your head and cry to be put down on the page. It is a tale that takes place in my Lucardian world but 300 years before Dawn of the Lightbearer and surrounds the strange rise of King Rhimes of the Spire, the second uniting king of Lucardia (although briefly) soon after the Great Mage Purge of 650. I don’t know where this idea originated, but it popped into this giant head and wouldn’t leave. I put a few words down, and before I knew it, I had a chapter. I have always been a proponent of following the muse, so here we are. The protagonist will be a young noblewoman named Evaline from a failing house forced into a marriage with the dark and sinister Lord Rhimes. It will follow his rise to being a king and then uniter through Evaline’s eyes.

I am drifting out of my comfort zone as the book will be a dark fantasy romance with horror elements. Romance is not a direction I ever thought I would head, but that is where the story is pulling me thus far, and it is refreshing to write something new and completely separated from Erikson Gray’s major story arc. I completed Chapter 2 of this new project yesterday and am very excited about how it turned out. I plan to work on it here and there while I finish editing Destiny of the Daystar and then move into it full throttle before the work for promoting Koen (and Destiny of the Daystar) picks up.

Well, that’s it for now. As you can see, I’m keeping busy, as always. I expect to release three, maybe four, books in 2025. It will be an exciting year!

Cheers!