What pushed me to complete my first book! View in browser

February 8, 2020

"This book has it all. Action, Adventure, Intrigue, Mystery, and a little Romance!"-Amber B

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On the Homefront

This week saw a significant drop in temperature as winter settled in. We were lucky here in London (Ontario) and didn’t get an excess of snow like our fellow Canadians out on the east coast. We did still manage to get our dogs out for two walks each day, but it certainly takes longer to get prepared when you have to deal with winter gear!

In other news, I finally took the plunge and upgraded my desktop to Windows 10. This was a bit of work as my Windows 7 was running the Enterprise edition and wouldn’t let me upgrade, so I went with a fresh install. I’ve had Windows 10 for years on my laptop, but it’s nice to finally use it as my main computer.
What pushed me to actually complete my first book.

I’ve always wanted to write. In fact, I have many old documents of partially finished stories crying out for attention. My problem, back in those days, was that I didn’t plan anything out, merely wrote whatever took my fancy.

Some authors are quite good at that but I found that without a clear idea of where the story was going, these tales were ultimately doomed to my unfinished pile.

My first indication that I was going to take things seriously was when I found a little program called Sigil. This free program allowed me to create an epub that I could then put onto my Kobo. I thought that was pretty interesting and it spurred me on to take writing more seriously. That story I was writing was a Science Fiction tale that I might resurrect at some point in time, but seeing my own words on my ebook reader was very rewarding.

I now use Scrivener for my writing, and Carol uses Vellum to format the final books, but I shall always remember Sigil as the program that gave me the push to continue.
...and the 5 STAR reviews keep coming in!

Average star ratings on your favourite sites:

4.9 on Amazon.com

4.7 on Goodreads

4.7 on Kobo

5 on Barnes & Noble

5 on Amazon.ca

5 on Amazon.co.uk

Immerse yourself in magic and mystery as Paul's The Frozen Flame series continues in his newest tale, Embers!
Read Embers today!

Win a FREE eBook! To enter, all you need to do is answer Daisy & Tilly's question below.

Congrats to Neal who won last week's Giveaway. 70% of you preferred Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings
I have been having fun with my new map program!

As I mentioned in my last WIP update, I've been playing around with a program called Worldographer, which allows me to quickly create a map while I am writing. Carol, of course, creates the final maps for the books using 2 different programs, but I need something that I can reference while I write, and make changes quickly.

Initially, the map of my continent was broken down into hexes, with each hex 100 miles across. I then took the area in Tempered Steel and enlarged the hexes to 10 miles each, and labelling all the cities and points of interest. The final step was to map out the immediate area of the story, in this case, a barony, at 1 mile per hex.

Here you can see the map of the Barony of Verfeld. I have not shown the labels for things since I want to keep that secret until the story is complete, but there are some interesting features if you look closely.

Worldography is available for free, or if you wish, you can purchase the premium version which has some more capabilities. For those that are interested, it is available at http://worldographer.com/

Every other Monday at 5:30 PM EST (-4UTC)
Next Session - February 10 
Learn all about how my series are interconnected!

Did you miss my last Facebook Live Video about my favourite historical fiction movies?  

Check it out here on Youtube!
Work in Progress Update

Work on Tempered Steel is progressing nicely. I am currently sitting just shy of 25,000 words for this prequel, and I’m only halfway through. Looks like this will be similar in length to Mercerian Tales: The Call of Magic.

When I first started, I had a rough outline, but the characters have taken on a life of their own. Tempered Steel will set the stage for my next series, Power Ascending, and will give some more depth to the main characters.

Once this story is done, it’s on to Temple Knight, the first book of the series, which follows the career of Charlaine deShandria, newly trained Temple Knight of Saint Agnes. She will have a significant influence on the history of the continent, as well as that of the Church of the Saints, something that you might have seen hinted at in Embers.

I’ll be talking more about the relationship between all my series on my next Facebook Live, which will be on Feb 10th, at 5:30 EST.

Until next time, Happy reading!
Author Spotlight!

Check out these featured books that are free, discounted, or new releases.
These authors are returning the favour by sharing my books with their readers.

Pawn: A day will come, when curses will be broken, the lost shall be found, the found shall be lost, and the rift between mortal and celestial will cease to exist. - Prophecy of Erinyes. Maeve of Carn is a warrior of warriors, but she’s no hero. Born with superhuman strength she sells her abilities to mercenaries and warlords in exchange for wealth. Until the night of the full moon, In the midst of a raid, led by... 

Curse Breaker: Magic is illegal. But an angry enchanted forest is killing people. Ghosts are frightening the unwary, and demons are plotting to take over because all the mages are dead. To save his son in a magical world gone crazy, Sarn must risk capture and execution to use a power he can barely control. Because doing nothing is no longer an option. This set includes books 1-4: Enchanted, Darkens, Faceted, Falls.

Merciless: Rule #1: An Assassin is cruel, cold, and ruthless. Rule #2: An Assassin is never, under any circumstance, an elf. Until Mercy. Seventeen years after being given to the ruthless Assassins’ Guild, Mercy will do anything to prove her worth to the headmistress of the Guild . . . but her cruel tutors and fellow apprentices will stop at nothing to keep from being bested by an elf. Her mission...
Book Deals & Giveaways

While you wait for the release of my next book, here are some great stories for your TBR pile!
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Paul J Bennett

Paul@pauljbennettauthor.com

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