Happy Book Day--Remembering the last 13 years of Obloeron

Update: The Nook link is at the bottom. -- SMS


When I was in the closing stages of this renewed edition of THE OBLOERON SAGA, I had promised myself that I wouldn't cry. I didn't cry when I finished the final edits (both times). I didn't cry when I finished the first drafts, save the first one--and there were plenty of emotional moments during those two-plus years, let me tell you. I don't cry often (at least that's what I tell you here).

So you may be a bit shocked to hear that I cried the other day. Yup. I did.

I was in the office upstairs, getting everything finished and nice and tidy for you. I had all of my files, all four of them, formatted. I had inserted Deborah Levinson's wonderfully written Foreword into all four files. I had the blurb and all the details about the SAGA ready. The cover? Ready to go.

I uploaded to all four simultaneously (Nook, however, wouldn't process until this morning). Kindle and Kobo went straight to publishing for pre-order.

Smashwords... ah, Smashwords. It was while Smashwords' famed "Meatgrinder" went about its business of getting the book out there that all the memories of the last 13 years came whizzing through my mind......

The memory of wanting to write a simple story about a halfling. I had percolated in my mind for a few months while I sold cell phones at the mall. I then recall sitting down in my bedroom on Jan. 4, 2003, my first Gateway computer fired up. I had named the initial file YanosKingsfoil.doc. The first four chapters came formed, and I wrote them in a few weeks. I had the first line of what was then chapter five written... and then I stumbled.

I eventually finished chapter five some six months later, in between dad's funeral and his burial.

Dad, I hope you're watching. I hope you're proud of the author I have become. I did it.... and I miss you.

I had put those first five chapters on the shelf afterward and let the story marinate a bit. It wasn't until I heard R.A. Salvatore speak at the Westminster Public Library a year or so later did I decide to return to the novel--I had told my mom as we left the library that I would finish that book after I heard Bob say that "There is no such thing as writer's block." Less than a week later, I had my brainstorm about Krampel Paddymeyer. It was just an idea and didn't come fully formed at the time. I pressed myself to write those last 80,000 words or so in THE QUEST FOR THE CHALICE; I celebrated hard when I made it to 100 pages of manuscript.

I had wept Christmas Night 2004, when I thought I had lost the entire manuscript (friggin' 3D models of the save icon). I breathed a sigh of relief when I had recovered it.

I worked and worked and worked until I had my manuscript. I got right to work on book two.

I wrote book two a little faster than book one. I wrote book three, and I had my trilogy. After a few other books, I started writing my prequel stories. I wrote a series of short stories in 2009. I remember family of friends taunting me for my weird-sounding character and places names.

I published the original trilogy shortly thereafter. I felt so proud of what I had done. I did the same with more books, and more books. My skills improved.

I recall re-reading it in 2013 and discovering that it was crap. I shelved it. I removed it from sale.

I didn't want it to see the light of day again.

And then... I decided, with my present skills, to return to Obloeron. It was time. I took the short stories I had written and figured how to weave them into the story. There was a question of taking one and attaching it to the end of the third--then unreleased--prequel, but instead I decided to use it as a connecting piece. I took another, polished it up, and attached it to the start of my first novel from nearly 13 years ago.

I started re-writing the novels where they needed re-writing. That took a few weeks, before I started to salvage (and as I've already noted, that was a good thing).

I let them sit for a while. I returned to them in July of this year, then again in September.

And now... they're back. Six books, including the previously unseen third prequel novel, KRAMPEL'S REVENGE. Happy Book Day, Sean. Happy Book Day.

If you pre-ordered the box set, thank you. If you're thinking about buying it for only 99 cents, know that you're buying a project that has touched my heart and my life more than any book series ever should.

If you're new here, enjoy the ride.

At the moment, this is the only available edition of Obloeron: On Friday, I took down the two existing individual prequels for the time being: I need to update the covers and re-brand, and right now is not the time, financially-speaking, to do that. Besides, you're getting all six books for .99 cents instead of paying $2.99 each. Doesn't exactly make sense to have them all up right now, does it?

Here are the links:

US Kindle
UK Kindle
Nook
Kobo
Smashwords

***

And now, a quick word about the future of this particular world:

The last short story in this series was intended, in 2009, to be the jumping-off point for a sequel series; obviously, I took the George Lucas approach with this entire saga, writing the second three books first, then go on to write the first three books second, then drop the series entirety. It was completely unintentional.

Once I started writing the AGENT series some seven months later, I put the sequel series of Obloeron on the shelf. I started enjoying a great deal of success as a thriller author (I still do), but there is a part of me which would love to go back to that world and cause a little damage. And seeing that I'm currently in the first draft stage of an unrelated fantasy novel (more on that next week, I think), there is a desire in my heart to go back to Obloeron and write a few new books in the world.

But--and this is a pretty huge but here--I will only do so if there is a call for it. If the SAGA sells well and it is well-received, I'll start brainstorming next month. We'll get a cover made, and we'll get the book out.

Only if there's a call for it.

Let me know.

www.seansweeneyauthor.com

#SampleSunday--THE OBLOERON SAGA

A first glimpse into THE OBLOERON SAGA. I give you the opening to THE QUEST FOR THE CHALICE, my first novel and (chronologically) the fourth story in the SAGA.

***

No matter where he went in his kingdom, Radamuck Rosar had difficulty escaping the whispers.

The taunting voices, all filled with sadistic vitriol, chased him throughout the realm of Lowbridge, the rock walls failing to absorb the echoes. Even a great grumble from the dwarf king’s gut, whether through his mouth or from his arse, couldn’t silence them.

In the fifty long years since Radamuck returned from the seemingly ancient wars away to the south, there had been no sign of a coming heir to the great dwarven kingdom, the one he now ruled as its 24^th King. He and his wife had tried desperately to produce a male child, one who would take over the kingdom once Radamuck, like his father Ricanack before him, went to the Great Void Beyond.

For his part, though, Radamuck had ensured the day-to-day operations of the kingdom would continue by someone of royal blood and not a steward: upon his return, he immediately named Aidan, his nephew, as the heir presumptive to the Throne of the Golden Mug. Even so, it clearly gnawed on his nerves that he still did not have a son. He was now up there in age, and he knew that his best breeding years had passed far behind him.

If I do not have an heir soon, a true heir o’ me own loins and not me dead brother’s, he thought, the blame would lie with me.

Radamuck walked the corridors alone at night while the rest of the kingdom slept. It was a haunting thought, not being able to produce an heir. It attacked his nightmares and, at times when he was not busy, his daydreams. He wondered how he would solve this problem—he absolutely forbade himself to see a cleric about this; he knew their lips were a tad loose, even though the entire kingdom already knew what haunted Radamuck’s steps—when the idea struck him. The thought made the echoes that crept along his path cease, and instead the whisperings in his mind grew louder with each beat of his heart.

Immortality will embrace yeh, Radamuck Rosar, he heard.

He grimaced and grunted. He shook his head once as he resumed his pace.

Immortality may be the answer, he thought, but it would come at a price, a sad price: I would continue living while me beautiful wife, the Lady Rosar, would perish. I would go on in this world without her.

Another grunt poured from his lips, as if he tried to dull the sounds of his heart shattering against his ribcage.

It was a debate, a debate that he had never given heed to before: In order to produce an heir, he needed no stress at all.

He snorted.

I am always under such stress, he thought. The pressures of ruling me kingdom, the pressures o’ producing an heir, all on me broad shoulders. He shook his black beard. But should me loins not do the job with which they were tasked to do in the first place…

His thoughts trailed off with a tight grimace and a deep breath through his large, pockmarked nose. He made his way to his royal bedchamber, walking along the twisting passageways with his head down.

Radamuck didn’t even look up as he entered.

“It’s about time you got back from your stroll.”

He stifled a cry even as he jumped. He looked through the darkness until a tiny burst of light appeared near his bedside. The smell of cordite lingered.

“Yeh made me heart shoot into me throat. What are yeh still doin’ awake?”

“I could ask you the same question, dear.” Lady Rosar’s retort was sharp.

Radamuck grew silent; his left cheek twitched near the corner of his mouth.

“Ah, yeh know,” he said, scrambling for the words, his eyes darting around the room and not meeting his wife’s eyes, “just the affairs o’ the day; some thin’s that be on me mind ‘bout the direction of me kingdom.”

“You’re lying to me, Radamuck, and you know that I know you’re lying to me.”

“I’m not lyin’ to yeh.”

“You just did it again.”

The stern look she gave him, he saw, was as powerful a stare as he ever gave an underling. Radamuck’s throat went suspiciously dry.

“What do yeh want from me, love?” he said softly.

“The truth would be a nice start.”

She had said it so simply and without anger that he felt his burly, dwarven façade crumble under the weight of her words.

Lady Rosar slipped out of bed and walked toward him. He was defenseless now, and he knew this. She wrapped her arms around him. He felt the tension in his body evaporate under the heat of her flesh.

“What is it, my love?” she asked as she ran her hands across his back. “Tell me.”

Radamuck’s grunt filled the room. His mind kept whirling, the incessant vortex of thought—the thoughts that plagued his footsteps and his day-to-day life for the last decade—not shifting aside, not even for his wife.

 “Don’t tell me now. Tell me later today; you need rest. Summon Aidan to you in the morning, and tell him he’s in charge of the kingdom for the day. You and I are headed out into the fields for a day of relaxation, and that means no axes,” she whispered; Radamuck slumped. “Then, you can tell me everything you need to tell me, because if you don’t tell me, I’ll hound you until you tell me.”

Radamuck snorted.

“OK, love. I’ll tell yeh then. Until then, I need some sleep.”

“Of course you do,” she said with a smile. “Come to bed, and we’ll sleep until the sun rises.”

Once in bed and his head hit the pillow, Radamuck was out.

But the thoughts—oh, those thoughts. The thoughts remained entrenched in his subconscious. The nightmares filled his mind with visions of what he thought would come to pass; the disembodied view of his corpse slowly consumed by magical flames without a son to mourn him, the kingdom run by one of his steward’s bastardy as they went after, captured, and killed Aidan. Sweat poured down Radamuck’s face as every image made his flesh tingle with unseen tremors.

Radamuck’s eyes eventually sprang open, the sweat dropping in and stinging them as he lurched upward with a heavy gasp. His lungs burned as he tried to suck the sweet air clinging to every crevice, every nook and cranny, even from the stone itself. He wiped his wrist across his brow; the tiny hairs were damp.

The king looked to his right, where his queen slept soundly, seemingly undisturbed by the fear gnawing at her husband’s insides. He took a deep breath and tried not to grumble; he didn’t want to wake his wife with troubles he felt were his and his alone. He returned his head to its soft mooring before finally falling into contented sleep.

Like what you've read? THE OBLOERON SAGA comes out TOMORROW... Monday, Nov. 2, 2015, on all ebook retailers.

Pre-order your copy for Kindle or Kobo at the links indicated and get it before everyone else!

www.seansweeneyauthor.com