Book 4 of the Kethem series is out on Amazon. Following the tradition of the first book, it follows the path of one of the minor characters in book 3, Ziwa the elf. The origins of the Great War are revealed, and the tie between the story arcs from the first three books become clear.
The paperback version is at:
https://www.amazon.com/Ohulhug-Kethem-Novel-David-Dickie/dp/1676683496
The kindle version is at:
Enjoy!
The entire publishing-a-book thing started as a bit of a lark. I like writing. I don’t need may people to read it to make it worthwhile for me. There were a few points in time where I wrote things just to organize my thoughts; even to explore my thoughts. Sometimes, putting things on paper makes them clearer, gives you insight into your own thoughts that weren’t obvious to you until you stare at the words you’ve written down and go “huh.” But most of the time, I did it for a small group. More often than not, it was for my D&D campaign, because the story line and world building I put into it made the information from prior runs crucial to understanding the upcoming one, and I found writing up the run as a story more fun… and more readable… than a dry rendition of what happened and what element of the world of Kethem had been revealed that night.
So when National Novel Writing Month (aka NaNoWriMo) came up and someone suggested I give it a shot… I thought about it and said no. 50,000 words in a month is a tremendous effort, days if not weeks of work. And then my wife Alison said she’d really like it if I wrote a cross genre hard-boiled-detective in fantasy world novel. And it was off to the proverbial races, and “The Fair Elaine” was born.
I’m through novel number three and at this point, the entire exercise has been a very expensive hobby. Expensive because of having two of the books professionally edited. Even a low-end editor runs close to $1,000 a book, and since I make about about 2 dollars a book (for the ebook, I make pennies on the physical books), I have to sell many more books than I do to make that up.
And I’m working on book number four. Why? Well, there is something to be said for the pure satisfaction of holding a book in your hand that you personally wrote. With today’s capabilities, it takes very little money to produce a professional looking book. And there is some satisfaction in finishing story arcs in the the Kethem universe that never played out because the campaign ended before it finished. But mostly, it’s the feedback from the people that have read them. Here are a couple of unsolicited comments on the latest book, Oracle, from people on that are enough steps removed from me that I am sure it’s not just someone being polite.
” I like Grim. I like the notion of the honorable thief. I liked his inner struggle and how it resolved in the end. I like World Gate because it explains the most about the history of the world and how the magic in it works. I love Daesal. Fairer Elaine gave me a hint of things like the Great War and the gates but World Gate sheds more light on that. I like how the main characters in each book are different but still related. I wonder if you could write a book around the creation of the Gate Forged swords and the events that trigger the Great War. Maybe from the point of view of one of the humans bound to a sword.”
And, really, it’s things comments like those that keep you going.
So perhaps someday, I’ll decide to put in the time and effort to market the Kethem books, try to make it more than a hobby. But for now… I have enough to make it fun.
