Hey, everyone. Long time, no see! I know I left you wondering about when I was starting my new fiction and when Black Iron & Cinder would be available for purchase for two months, but I have returned to give you a definitive answer, and it's...
RIGHT NOW! BI&C is now available on Amazon for both Kindle (click here for UK) and paperback (click here for UK, it might say 'Currently Unavailable', but give it a day or so).
The 'Look Inside' function should be working now for the Kindle version, allowing you to peek inside and see its contents. It's not yet working for the paperback version, but it should in a day or two. If you're wondering how it looks, here's a picture I took of my own proof copy. As you can see, it uses a traditional novel format with chapter beginning, indented paragraphs, no empty line breaks, etc.
Now, you may be wondering: what's different? I did say I'd make some changes, and no doubt you'd like to know what they may be. Well, changes are not too significant. Obviously, there's typo/spelling/grammatical fixes, but there's also some additional or changed dialogue and descriptions. Nothing terribly huge, only small details meant to help the worldbuilding or atmosphere. In total, there's about 2000-2500 added words spread across the entire new draft. As I mentioned before, I wasn't going to make any significant structural changes or embark on a massive rewrite.
But yeah, that's the gist of it! BI&C is now considered truly complete. It would seriously mean a lot to me if you bought a copy (or, in the case of Kindle Unlimited subscribers, just simply read it), and also recommended the book to family, friends, coworkers, random people on the street -- whoever may enjoy dark fantasy with a focus on characters. Any bit of word of mouth would be amazing and greatly appreciated, as I'm just one random dude with no industry connections in the slightest. But regardless, thank you once more for reading my work and keeping up with the news!
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Now, moving on to another crucial topic: the beginning of my new fiction, The Wolf of Asano. The first chapter is out now on RoyalRoad, and can be read here!
The update schedule will vary a bit from BI&C, which was updated every three days, each new chapter between 1500-2000 words in length. For TWoA, however, it'll be updated every Friday, with each chapter at around 3000 words each -- sometimes a little over, sometimes a little under. If you read my previous announcement here on BI&C's page, you'll know what the story will be like. But for the sake of convenience, I'll paste the synopsis here:
> Los Angeles, 2039.
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> Almost every vehicle on the road is a self-driving taxi, sophisticated cybernetics require an interface to be installed in your brain stem, life-like androids initially made for labor on the Mars colonies are available for consumer purchase (though for an extremely pretty penny), and Asian gangs have a major foothold in large parts of the city, including the largest and most powerful international yakuza clan, the Sanada-gumi, who operate in the district of Kyoba.
>
> A Japanese-American by the name of Atreus Watanabe -- member and second-in-command of the Sanada-gumi's Asano family -- awakes one morning and is ordered to meet with the influential gang's senior advisor to the chairman. To his surprise, he is tasked with solving the murder of an employee of the nation's leader in cybernetic technology and the Sanada-gumi's number one source of income, Atmos Dynamics, because the event unfortunately took place within Sanada-gumi territory, and no one knows why. He must discover the culprit as soon as possible, before the clan's already unstable relationship with the corporation is thrown into the fire and causes them unprecedented financial devastation.
If you like the sound of that, please head over there and follow! It's the beginning of a new arc in my time on RoyalRoad!
Thank you once more for reading my work and sticking with me throughout the adventure through Yhordran! Now it's time to solve a mystery in 2039 L.A.!