CLOAK GAMES two year anniversary
I just realized that it’s been two years since the first CLOAK GAMES book came out in 2015.
Now we’re up to book #8.
Thanks for sticking with the series, everyone!
I have to admit CLOAK GAMES is probably the weirdest thing I am writing at present, though a writer’s opinion of his own work is almost always unreliable. Â CLOAK GAMES is technically urban fantasy, but it breaks a bunch of the standard conventions of urban fantasy books, and readers generally do not like books that break genre conventions.
So I’m very grateful that so many people have come along to book 8! I’m looking forward to finishing the series with books 9, 10, and 11 in 2018.
And if all this has gotten you curious about CLOAK GAMES, the first book is free at the links below:
Available at Amazon US, Amazon UK, Amazon Canada, Amazon Germany, Amazon Australia, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Google Play, iTunes, and Smashwords.
-JM
I am an AVID reader and I have to say this is one of my favorites series, because it breaks the standard mold. It has been too long since I cold read a book and not be able to know exactly what’s going to happen.
Of course I devoured Hammer Break in a few hours.
It’s definitely gonna hurt waiting for next year, but keep ’em coming. I will without a doubt be a loyal follower/reader.
Thanks! I’m glad you enjoyed them. I do hope to get to the final three books sooner, but it’s hard to schedule around some things in Real Life.
It will be impressive if you can get back to the next book by early 2018. Considering you are writing two other ongoing series and are finishing up a 4 book sci-fi series I can’t even figure out how you have time for Real Life. I look at it as 8 Cloak Games books in 2 years have been a very pleasant surprise. I always eagerly anticate the next book but now it is bittersweet because the end is in sight.i
Thanks! It does take careful planning to get to everything. 🙂
What urban fantasy conventions does it break?
I started answering the comment, and then it turned it a blog post for next week.
It doesn’t turn into a softcore porn book half way through the book or romance book
That was one of the tropes I was thinking of – a female lead in an urban fantasy book usually has a love triangle. And both male and female leads in urban fantasy books are usually, shall we say, “romantically adventurous”, than Nadia is inclined to be.
I see – the Twilight series format where two extremely powerful males would do anything for a female with no redeeming qualities other than the mere fact that she exists.
That is indeed why I no longer will read a book with a female lead character written by a female author – too many of them do indeed end up in the Twilight format even when the book description gives no hint of that, and, unfortunately (or maybe fortunately), I find that structure absolutely nauseating. How any woman can write books like that in this great age of feminism is way beyond me. Well, I guess it’s not beyond me actually – it’s apparently what sells.
I guess Ridmark, Calliante and Morigna are the opposite version of the love triangle, but at least those books don’t dwell incessantly on the romance and Ridmark has at least some redeeming qualities (he’s good at whacking orcs over the head with a stick, if nothing else).
“I guess Ridmark, Calliante and Morigna are the opposite version of the love triangle, but at least those books don’t dwell incessantly on the romance and Ridmark has at least some redeeming qualities (he’s good at whacking orcs over the head with a stick, if nothing else).”
I wrote that on purpose to invert the standard fictional love triangle. I think it worked – to this day I still get more email about that love triangle than anything else I’ve written. In fact, it worked so well that I almost wish that I had written a love triangle into CLOAK GAMES, but Nadia just doesn’t have the personality for it.
And orc-whacking is a valuable life skill in Andomhaim.
“I find that structure absolutely nauseating. How any woman can write books like that in this great age of feminism is way beyond me. Well, I guess it’s not beyond me actually – it’s apparently what sells.”
People obsess over Writing Female Characters (I think many people have spent more time writing about Writing Female Characters than actually writing female characters), but most people get it all wrong. In fiction, it doesn’t matter whether men or women are stronger or faster or work better with others or whatever. I think what really matters about writing characters is that both men and women have an equal capacity for making moral choices and taking action to resolve their conflicts or dilemmas, whatever they might happen to be. That’s what makes for a compelling character, whether it’s an Action Girl or Elizabeth Bennett. What really annoys readers is a passive character who refuses to take responsibility for his or her moral choices and conflicts.
I am sooooooooooooooooooooooo glad you didn’t write a love triangle in CLOAK GAMES!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Even worse (for me) than the fact that the characters are passive, they go out of their way to do stupid things that get them in trouble and put everybody in danger. So not passive – actively stupid! I hate stupid characters, especially stupid main characters.
Though I suppose you write a little bit of that into your characters. Examples include: Caina pulling away from Kylon because of the little knives left around; Nadia breaking up with Riordan when he could and would obviously want to help her a great deal; Ridmark’s attempts to not have anybody follow him (at least he doesn’t succeed). But to me, those came across as being lapses by the characters rather than being inherently a big part of the character. So I didn’t hate them (though they weren’t my favorite parts of the story either).
Alas, no one is infallible. Especially when it comes to romance!
Will you continue the universe after book 11
I haven’t 100 percent decided. In my outline I’ve got a couple of potential endings for #11, so I guess it decides on which one I choose.
Yeah, that’s the problem with authors – ya just can’t control them – they always get to choose what they write – how unfair! If this were the Soviet Union and I were director of Fantasy Fiction creation, then you’d be writin’ nothing but Cloak Games and Ghosts! Alas and alack, such is not the case. 🙂