L.J. Hayward's Blog, page 9

Introducing the new novel...




They said it wasn't a war.

From where Bone Mage Gabriel is standing, up to his elbows in soldiers' blood and guts, it sure looks, smells and feels like a war. Sent to join the protective campaign as punishment for a controversial healing, Gabe's at odds with everything from his fellow military personnel to his own vow to save every life that passes through his hospital. Then he meets Rafe, a young man with dangerous knowledge about the war, and things go from bad to...

All right, so I haven't read any Shannara books in 20 (or more) years, but I don't remember this. Well, okay, maybe the tree. I possibly remember the tree. The rest, however, looks like a LOTR rings flashback, and not just for the NZ locales.

I guess one good thing to come out of the "Game of Thrones" phenomenon is the production value now being applied to fantasy TV. But then, anything would probably be better than that show based on the other Terry's series, right?*

Now, if only someone would...

So, I've been adding to the website, filling in some previously blank pages and adding this one...

Freebies & Samples

...and I put up a short (8000 words is short!) story for your (fingers crossed!) reading pleasure. It's inspired by the Epic of Gilgamesh, an ancient Assyrian myth, but is more about Gilgamesh's rather hard-done-by mate, Enkidu.

Adeu!

So today, we're going to make a website in eight easy steps.

One, sign up to what your friend assures you is an 'easy drag and drop web design' mob.

Two, cry because apparently your drag and drop skills are non-existent.

Three, get some sleep.

Four, take another shot at that website malarkey and actually get it to work.

Five, get cocky and fiddle with the HTML codes and don't accidentally destroy the universe.

Six, celebrate.

Seven, change the initial purple font into something less cringe-worthy.

Ei...

Especially when it's so true...

I'm not a big video-poster but this one just tickles me. The look on the cat's face is enough to make me laugh through the dreaded lurgie that's got me coughing and sneezing and feeling generally miserable.

Yeah, I had a post here about that movie. You know the one, everyone's talking about it. Since writing that post, I've done some more reading on the subject, namely this, and I only made it to point 18 before being ashamed into taking down my post. The article is about the book, not the movie, and it's clear they changed some things for the movie, but most of it's still there.

While watching the movie, I viewed these events with a distinct moue of distaste, but have to admit it was more direct...

So, in the spirit of the season and stuff, and the fact that I didn't put a sneak peak of Night Call 3 at the end of Demon Dei, I thought I'd whack up a chapter here for shits and giggles.

Blurby thing and chapter under the Spoiler tag. Please remember, it's all subject to change before publication.

Rock Paper Sorcery
Night Call Book 3

Sorcery, an arcane mystical power wielded by white bearded old men with fancy sticks? Or just another pain in Matt Hawkins’ neck? Matt knows which he would prefer...

So, when I write, I like music playing in the background. I need music playing in order to write. It gives me something to focus on while the words happen, somehow. I don't pretend to know how or why it works, but it does. BUT. Occasionally, there comes a song on the iPod shuffle that just slams me out of the writing flow. A lot of the songs that do that are Muse songs. Starlight, Madness, Undisclosed Desires, Plug In Baby, Supermassive Black Hole, Knights of Cydonia, Sunburn, Cave. Honestly,...

So, for one reason or another, I discovered that the ebooks (Smashwords and Kindle) for Demon Dei didn't have the italics formatting. I spent this morning sorting that out and uploaded the new versions.

Right now, I just discovered I somehow uploaded the Kindle version of Demon Dei to the file for Blood Work. Sheesh! I'm currently fixing it, but for anyone downloading Blood Work I apologise. The restored Blood Work should up be up shortly and the new Demon Dei soon after.

Cheers!!