Phew, January was a busy month!

Looking back to a year ago when there was only Servant of the Crown and when selling a book a day was something worth celebrating, I am in awe with everything that has happened this month.

Shadow of the Crown, Book Four in the series was released, and you liked it, you really liked it, 4.9 stars on Amazon like. Not only that, but you enjoy the series so much, you, my wonderful readers, pre-ordered ten times the amount of books this time around than you did for Heart of the Crown. Thank you so much!

Carol, my wife, has taken on a lot of the admin duties of being an author so I can write. The other day she leaned over to me (we have computers side by side in our office), and said, "Guess what?" Of course, I responded with the traditional, "What," and guess what she told me? There are now over 300 reviews for the books in the Heir to the Crown series, with 80% being 4 or 5 stars! Thank you, again!

As I have mentioned before, due to your continuous support of the Heir to the Crown series, the publisher W.F. Howes, will be producing audiobooks for the first three books in the series. What has happened this month is that the narrator has been chosen, and he is amazing. Greg Patmore is a British Actor/ Voice-Over/Musician, known for his ability to bring life to many different genres of Audiobooks. Check him out here!

I have also been busy writing Fate of the Crown while outlining a new series (will say more about that later), and working on a few novella ideas that I will be asking your help with further along in this newsletter.

With all that happened already this year, I can't believe there is still so much more to come. I am very excited where everything is headed, and have some really big news to share in the near future, so keep your eyes peeled for it in upcoming newsletters.

Name the Newsletter Contest Continues!

No treat for you! (yet)

The ideas you have given for the name of my Newsletter have been fantastic! Lots with Crown, Royal, Herald, Merceria, and Gazette, plus many more! Already, it will be a very tough choice!

Now, I am going to ask you to think outside the book. I have tales to share with you that, although still medieval fantasy, are not about the land of Merceria, crowns and wars. With that in mind, feel free to continue sharing your suggestions with me.

Shadow of the Crown now available on Paperback

If you are like my middle daughter who loves to read her books in paperback form, you can now jump up and shout hurray!

If anybody looks at you strangely, just smile knowingly and continue on; life is too short to worry about what other people think.

I invite you to sit back, relax and enjoy a warm cuppa with your new book!

Mercerian Tales: Origins

I know I have been teasing you with Mercerian Tales: Origins for a few weeks now, but anticipation is a good thing, right?

When I wrote Mecerian Tales: Stories of the Past, the plan was to release a similar anthology with four or five stories about the origins of supporting characters. But, after outlining a couple, the individual stories are much longer than expected. So much longer that they will each end up being separate novellas.

The great thing about this is that they can be released individually, so you don't have to wait for a collection of them to be completed.

Now, you must be wondering why I am telling you all this! Well, I want to write stories that we both find interesting. There is no sense writing about, say Baron Fitzwilliam, if nobody is interested. Of course, I would really wonder about you if you aren't interested in finding out what makes Fitz tick!

So how can you help, you ask? By taking less than 2 minutes of your time and completing the survey below. It is hosted by SurveyMonkey; the button will take you to their website, just to let you know. And they don't ask for your email address, so all you need do is click a few boxes.

The results will be shared in the next newsletter, and an announcement of who the first Origin Story will be about! Hope you are as excited as I am!

Somedays, I think I need to focus!

As I sat writing the next chapters in Fate of the Crown, ideas percolated through my brain, bubbling up at the most inopportune moments.

When Hayley was shooting an arrow to silence a guard, the idea of Medieval Mysteries pops into my head. I ignored it and moved onto to another scene where Beverly is complaining about her legs cramping as they lay hidden, waiting for the signal to move out. What happens next?  All that comes to me is where can I come up with some great plots for this new idea.

So I stopped writing and looked behind me to my bookcase full of game binders. There are over 35 years of notes there, along with hundreds of word documents on my computer, and guess what I did? I read through them and now I have enough ideas for a serial series; lots of short adventures tied together by one main character.

No need for you to worry though, I just finished word 37,045 on Fate, leaving poor Revi worried about somebody from Hayley's past. You know Revi, he won't let up until she tells him what happened! Aren't they such a fun couple!

Looking for a new author to try?

, thank you for reading to the end of my this packed newsletter. I only email those who have given permission by signing up to receive my newsletter. As always, if you have changed your mind or are no longer interested in receiving these, please click the unsubscribe link below.

Happy reading from Paul J Bennett, 

Author of Epic Fantasy in the Land of Merceria and Beyond!