Hello, readers!
As you can no doubt tell from this page, I've just updated The Grind with its new, final, and human-made cover, stylized after old pulp novels like Conan and Gor. I liked the former cover too, but it was only ever meant to be temporary, and it ended up in use for a year.
It isn't just the cover that's been updated. I've learned a lot since publishing The Grind last year, which was basically my first published novel, and have made improvements across the board. I did a full read-through pass, correcting any lingering spelling and grammar mistakes (and hopefully got all of them this time) while making some small improvements to certain awkward sentences to make the prose flow a bit better. Nothing plot or story-wise has changed, but the reading experience should be much better, especially because I've redone the entire layout with better tools.
At this point, the book is basically in its final form, barring any egregious issues. I'm a bit of a perfectionist, which is why I came back to this after a year, but also because I wanted to streamline the direction for the sequel(s) to keep the series consistent. I may even bring the series to print, which this allows me to do with more ease.
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Overall, I would say I'm graduating from being a "writer" to a proper "self-published author," with the intent to keep that train on the tracks. This is also why I launched a Patreon, so I can continue to see this through.
Now that it's up to my standards, The Grind is back on KU. I've also taken ownership of my Goodreads author page. Whether or not you re-read this updated version that's now available, if you were a fan of The Grind here, and have a moment to spare, please leave a review of the book on Amazon or Goodreads, it helps a lot.
Likewise, using all my new skills for self-publishing, I've just published my new book My Goblin Homestead. It will come to KU in September, probably, but for now is available in full for sale, if that's how you like to read your books.
The current schedule involves finishing my next book, Uplift Mage, updating my novella Warm Hands, Warm Hearts to get the last of my works up to snuff, and then writing the sequel to The Grind, tentatively titled The Flames of Passion. It picks up right where the first book leaves off and will take our trio further west in Neria, dealing with dryads, faeries, dwarves, and dragons. With, as always, lots of fucking along the way.
I'll be posting more about that in advance on my Patreon, although that's probably closer to October. I'll be back here to start posting the chapters for The Flames of Passion then. See you soon!