N.C. Reed's Blog, page 8

I have completed the second novel in the Stormcrow series and sent it off to the publishers just yesterday. This second novel is somewhat longer than the first in the series and will begin to delve a bit deeper into the backgrounds of Tony, Jessica, and Sean. We will also meet some very interesting new characters and have just a bit of fun here and there despite the serious situation the crew finds themselves in. When I get the cover art I’ll post it here, and I’ll also announce here and on my Facebook page when the release date for STORMCROW: Birds of a Feather, is set.

Parno’s Gambit, the third novel in the Blacksheep of Soulan series, will now be my primary focus though I do have other projects simmering on the back burner that I’m working steadily on when hung up somewhere else. I don’t know exactly when Parno’s Gambit will be finished since it really does take a while to hammer out a 150k+ novel,  even when you know how you want it to go.

I’ve been updating some fanfiction stuff I’m slowly posting here on the blog and I guess because of that I didn’t realize I hadn’t made any posts in a while. I looked at it tonight and realized that I hadn’t made a post in over a month. Sheesh.

The good news in that is that I am almost finished with the second Stormcrow novel, tentatively entitled ‘Birds of a Feather’. I’m not completely sure I’ll stick with that title, but that’s what I’ve chosen for now. If all goes well, it should be headed to the publishers before the month is out. Depending on how quickly they can get it edited and what have you, it might be available in less than a month.

Meanwhile I’m plugging away at Parno’s Gambit, the tentative title for Parno Novel Three. As I’ve mentioned before, I had always planned for Parno’s tale to be a trilogy but at the end of Destiny I realized that wasn’t going to happen. There’s just too much story to tell to end it in one last book. As of now it will be at least four books, and if Gambit keeps going like it is, it could stretch to five. That wasn’t my original plan, but. . .there it is.

And in the middle of all my own crazy I’m watching the election. Whenever I think my little world is too nutty, all I have to do is tune in to the news for maybe fifteen minutes, and I feel so much better about myself and where I’m at, lol. It’s like watching a circus of clowns, where the other acts have all gone home and left the folks with the big shoes and funny make-up to run the asylum.

We may be doomed, I don’t know.

Anyway. I got a chance to watch the Dawn of Justice movie a few nights ago on DVD. I didn’t see it in theaters because it got such bad reviews. That was a mistake. I don’t know what movie those guys were watching, but there was nothing wrong with that show except that it ended.

I wasn’t too happy about Ben Afleck and Gal Godot being cast as Batman and Wonder Woman, mostly because I felt there were others better suited for the role. There may be, but I have to admit that both of them did an absolutely outstanding job in this movie, playing the iconic heroes as well or better than most anyone, Lynda Carter excepted. (she will always be Wonder Woman)

If you haven’t seen it, give it a look. I’m telling you that the reviews were unfair, seriously. It’s a great movie.

SO anywho, that’s what’s going on in my world. Hope you and yours are good too. Got something to say? Don’t hesitate to drop me a line!

NCR

Parno’s Company, the first novel in my Black Sheep of Soulan series, is available free today on Amazon! Follow the link and enjoy!

https://www.amazon.com/Parnos-Company-Black-Sheep-Soulan-ebook/dp/B0121E9IJG/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1437356664&sr=1-2&keywords=Parno%27s+Company

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday, the more so since I spent my sick, lol. Recovering now from surgery I’ve had time to do a bit more work and also to actually read a bit and take it easy, even if it’s painful.

A few days past I saw the report about the death of Anton Yelchin, who is perhaps best known for playing Chekov on the new Star Trek movies. This was a sad thing to hear, as he was a very talented young actor. While he may have been best known for his appearance in Star Trek, and something called Alpha Dog,  I knew him from his role as Odd Thomas.

Odd Thomas is a character of Dean Koontz, who can see the dead, along with creatures who push them to die or influence them to commit murderous acts. Yelchin brought the character to life and I’m convinced that no one could possibly have done it better. I was hoping for a sequel someday, assuming someone would make it, as it was a fantastic role for him and a great movie to watch.

He’ll be missed by many I’m sure, and it will be strange to see someone else playing his roles, assuming they do re-cast those parts.

RIP Anton.

A good while back (well, years now) I was surfing Netflix and came across the anime for High School of the Dead. I had ignored anime for years because to me it was just cartoons, right? Well, some are of course, but one night I watched the first episode of Trinity Blood when it was streaming on Netflix and since then I have had quite a different view of anime features. As an aside, if you haven’t seen Trinity Blood, a vampire tale set in the far future, you should check it out. Anyway.

High School of the Dead was pretty funny, despite the serious nature of the content, mostly because of the effects of traveling with four good looking women on two teenage boys. There’s a lot of gratuitous pantie flashing and things of that sort, which I’m given to understand is very popular in Japan and I’m sure here as well.

Despite all that, the story itself intrigued me, not the least of reasons being that I had a draft working at the time about high school kids facing a similar problem. I found the gravity of the situation to be fairly real, and realized that with just a bit of tweaking (because what is fanfiction if not ‘tweaking’ right?) it could become something all togeher different.

So, some time ago I wrote this fanfiction. I’m no longer doing that, but this story was never put up on FF.Net, it just sat on my hard drive until I noticed it the other day.

It’s been my practice since I started this page to put stories here that aren’t available anywhere else, so I decided that I’d do the same with this one. I may at some point add it to FanFiction.Net, but I think for now I’ll let is stay here.

It’s far too long to post all at once, so I’ll add to it as time allows. I’ll try to have the first chapter or two up sometime this evening. I hope it gives you some pleasurable reading.

Meanwhile, I’m currently working on three new projects, including the next Parno novel which I have tentatively called “Parno’s Gambit”. That title is subject to change, but my original plan of this being a trilogy has gone completely by the wayside now. There’s just no way I can tell the expanded story in three books, and probably not four, either. So. . .more work for the weary

Several reviewers and comments have posed a question about both of these books/characters over the last month or so, and I wanted to take a moment to talk about that. The question is whether or not there are/will be other books for these characters.

YES.

Parno’s Destiny is actually the second book of what was originally intended to be a trilogy, but will now probably at least be four books if not more. The story began to explode on me a bit and I didn’t want to cut it so. . .it grew. Lord willing I should live, look for at least two more Parno novels in the future.

Stormcrow was always intended to be a series of novels, and there will be at least five and probably more, again providing the Lord wills I live long enough to get them done. The story surrounding Stormcrow is complex and complicated, and it won’t get played out over two or even three books. I don’t know how far it might go, and in truth it may depend on reader reactions to future novels. So long as I can create a good story and there is interest, I’ll probably try to continue it.

SO, for those of you wondering, yes I do plan on more of both. Hopefully this year, late on, but. . .it’s already May, and it takes longer than you might think to pound out 150k words. Or at least longer than I thought it would, lol.

I sincerely appreciate all the interest, and I hope if you read them they were worth your time.

Have a wonderful week!

NCR

Parno’s Destiny, the second book in the Black Sheep of Soulan series, is now available for pre-order, delivery set for April 22 for Kindle readers. Here is a link to the pre-order information on Amazon. I hope you enjoy!

Pre-order Parno’s Destiny HERE

My latest novel, Stormcrow, will be offered as a free book for one day only tomorrow, according to my publisher. That would be a great time to check it out and let me know what you think.

Here’s a link

http://www.amazon.com/Stormcrow-N-C-Reed-ebook/dp/B01BLSRO9Y/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1455075132&sr=1-2&keywords=stormcrow

Happy Easter

NCR

Today is sort of bittersweet for me in a way. A few hours ago I posted the last chapter of the Shade tales that will ever be written. Eight years and over a half million words since I first sat down a began writing. A lot has happened since then.

And today saw the end of it. So many wonderful people have encouraged me and cheered me on over those years and all those words. It has been a truly wonderful experience for me, and I hope enjoyable for them.

Now I’m writing the story of the character I based Shade on all those years ago, a story that I had come up with but had no where to express it. Remember that I’m less of a writer and more of a story teller. Now I’ve found an outlet for Stormcrow, the original Shade if you will. I suppose then it’s only fitting that Shade come to an end. And truthfully, I don’t have the time to do it justice anymore.

But just as truthfully, I’ll miss it. I’ll miss writing for so many good people, and coming up with unique ways to leave people hanging with cliffies, as the saying goes. But doesn’t everyone love a little suspense? No?

So farewell, Shade. It has been a blast.

NCR