After the Fall Part 3 - A seven-part red carpet roll out for Out of the Ashes

You can read the first two parts here:

• Part #1 - How a polite email led to a new Elan series
• Part #2 - A School for Wizards: From card houses to Hogwarts

SECRET IDENTITY REVEALED

(THE PROJECT BEGINS)

At this point, you’ve likely realized I wasn’t actually speaking about Harry Potter. I just used that name as a placeholder for the real person, who as it turns out isn’t a wizard, and isn’t even a boy. Her name is Lorian Ellis, and in September of 2022, I invited her to my cabin, along with the rest of the then current Novel House student body. 

From left to right: Rae (Ginny), Michael (Dumbledore), John (Ron), Lorian (Harry)

On July 2022, two months ahead of the meeting, I wrote to Lorian:

Are you familiar with using a Mac? 

She replied:

I used one for a short while after a friend gifted me a very old one that was a relic from his one-time workplace. I found it to be less intuitive than my HP laptop (probably because I’ve always used HPs), but not impossible. So I wouldn’t say “familiar”, but I won’t be at a total loss.

My response:

Summer reading, pick up a copy of Switching to a Mac For Dummies. Read it.

The day everyone arrived and settled in there was a strange and unplanned gift-giving moment where everyone brought something for me. In return, I handed out Ember Mugs (if you don't know what they are, and you regularly drink coffee or tea - look them up, you'll thank me later) to all of  them—all except Lorian. I explained I had something else for her. Then I took her aside for a private conversation. I explained that I was very pleased with her progress on the book she had been writing (a contemporary novel set in Virginia) but I had something else I wanted to discuss. 

I explained how I had just turned sixty a few days before and how my father died when he was fifty. I was at this time working on the early concepts for The Cycle and realizing how big of a project it would  be. I also had other stories outlined in notebooks that have nothing to do with Elan that have languished for over a decade, books I have longed to write. Since The Cycle would take five to eight years to create, I had to assume I wouldn’t have time for anything else. 

I had been toying with the idea of creating a set of spin-off series that would detail the thousand years of the four Heirs and their Guardians that follow after the fall of Percepliquis. Nevrik and Jerish would be the first of these series that I imagined as four sets of trilogies—one series for each of the fugitive heirs which would from Nevrik to Naron. As I would never have the time to write these works, I thought I might entrust these projects to four different writers who would be given the freedom to create their own characters and plots that would utilize my existing historical framework. 

I saw this not only as a means of creating a foundation for my world to grow, but also for it to possibly outlive me, and to create a real gateway for new writers to launch careers. I had considered established authors, but abandoned that idea for two reasons. First, I wanted to provide a vehicle for unknown talent, and second, I don’t work well with others, and an established author might not be as inclined to take direction.   

Lorian was the perfect candidate. She was a superfan of my work before becoming a writer. She wanted to learn to write like I did, and I had just spent the last two years teaching her exactly that. Most importantly…she had learned. 

And so that beautiful autumn day in the lush valley of Shenandoah, I offered Lorian the opportunity to become my protégé. This was her chance to write fan fiction on a scale she never dreamed possible. I honestly don’t recall her exact response, but I think it was something close to: “Ah…yeah.”

I explained that this was a secret project, that no one was to know what she was working on because I was giving her no guarantee. If she wasn’t able to do it—if she couldn’t reach my standards—it wasn’t going to happen. And I didn’t want her to suffer the humiliation of everyone knowing she tried and failed. As such, she couldn’t tell the world at large, and she couldn’t even tell those at Novel House. She was about to become a superhero with a secret identity. 

It was then that I revealed her gift: my old desktop Mac—the one I had bought myself when I felt my career was doing well enough that I deserved the best computer I could buy. I had purchased it back in June of 2014, but recently upgraded. There was nothing wrong with the old machine, and Lorian was working on a not-so-perfect laptop at the time. The old Mac had two other notable distinctions. It was the machine I had used to write The Death of Dulgath, The Disappearance of Winter’s Daughter, and the entire Legends series, but more importantly, it had my Scrivener file. 

Scrivener is a word-processing program designed for writers developed by Literature & Latte. While it’s on both the Mac and Windows platforms, it’s native to Mac. If Lorian was going to work with me, I wanted us both on the same platform using the same software. I began using Scrivener back in 2014 with some trepidation, but quickly realized its full potential as not only a word processor but as a repository of project information. All of my books, notes, research, characters, settings, timelines, and maps were embedded in that one file. I hadn’t bequeathed Lorian a computer—I’d given her Elan. 

Problem was, she knew almost nothing about Macs. And so I rebuilt the old machine with Lorian in mind. I had it set up so the moment she booted it. Lorian would find messages from me explaining everything she needed to do, step by step, to learn how to use the machine, the software, and the file. I called this the “Minor Upgrade,” and included the “Video Diary” scene from the end of Spiderman: Homecoming, where Tony Stark gives Peter Parker a new suit, just in case she didn’t get the reference.  

Her next step was to brainstorm the first book in her trilogy. That was the easy part. The hard stuff was on the way, and she had to prove herself worthy before she could become an Avenger. 

(Stay tuned for more.)

Hey all, Robin here.

Now that the we've taken the hood off of "mystery writer." I'd like to tell you how you can reach out to her.  Like Michael, she is active on goodreads (something I asked her to do). Here are some specifics:

• Lorian's Website
• Lorian on BlueSky
• Lorian on Goodreads
• Drop Lorian a line at this link
• Sign up for Lorian's Newsletters

A few things to note.  Like the Out of the Ashes bookcover on goodreads, the deluxe edition on Lorian's site is just a placeholder - both will be replaced with "real mock-ups" as we get closer the design completed and the Kickstarter nears.

If you are on Goodreads, please consider adding the book to your shelf and invite Lorian to be your friend.  Soon after this post goes live, I'll be adding Lorian to the Out of the Ashes book as an author. 

And finally, I wanted to mention that another of the authors from Novel House is currently running his third Kickstarter.  He's not pictured above (because he joined NH after the first writer workshop) but his name is Greg Amato, and he's released two books in his Norse-based fantasy series: Spear of the Gods. This Kickstarter is for the third book. It's fully funded (as were the other two), and you can back it for the next two days.

Please consider helping Greg out. All authors in Novel House are worthy of your support, or I wouldn't be throwing my endorsement behind them.

After the Fall Part 2 - A seven-part red carpet roll out for Out of the Ashes

A SCHOOL FOR WIZARDS

(FROM CARD HOUSES TO HOGWARTS)

In case you’re wondering how it's possible for me to suggest that creative writing takes longer than becoming a surgeon, you first need to understand that a primary prerequisite to writing is life experience: vast and varied, good and bad. I believe this because the greatest aspect of any fictional story—second only to entertainment, without which no one will care—is empathy. The ability to cause a reader to understand (and sympathize with) someone living a life very different from their own has the potential to make the world a slightly better place. For if people get into the habit of imagining what it’s like to be someone else, they may be less inclined to make poor assumptions about strangers. But developing the ability to create empathy takes time and requires knowing what it’s like to win and to lose; to succeed in the face of overwhelming odds, and to fail after giving all you have. It demands having suffered physical pain as well as emotional despair, and to know the bliss of overpowering joy. It requires all these things to properly develop true empathy for a wide range of people as well as the wisdom to know how to instill such notions in others without condescension or insult.  

From time to time I run into people who after finding out I'm a novelist, will express a statement such as, "I've been thinking of writing a book." With all the casualty of, "I was thinking of going to the store later on." To think you can write a book because you can read and write in your native language is like assuming that because you have constructed card houses as a child you’re qualified to design and build a skyscraper.

For the uninitiated, such naiveté can be overlooked. But for me, I went into this whole "writing gig" knowing that I needed to first build the tools, then start on the buildings. That’s why when I was in my twenties and thirties and writing every day, I knew my work was insufficient to publish. For how could I write a convincing scene about something I’d never experienced that so many of my readers likely had? But I didn’t stop. I used that time to learn the craft—all the little trade skills that were necessary to build the dreams that I hoped I would one day have a deep enough well to draw from: something I could be proud of. After fifty years of practice, I can confidently say I’m still learning. That’s because there’s so much more to writing a good novel than most anyone can imagine.

For me, writing was a process of trial, failure, learning from mistakes, and then starting again. My first published book was the fourteenth novel I had written, and none of the first twelve were good enough for publication, but each one taught me something: thatch really isn't the best material for a roof; untreated wood in contact with the ground will rot; a foundation built on ground with  subsidence will fail. And, yes, I had many projects that didn't even see completion because being a "pantser" wasn't the right approach for me. But eventually, several decades later, I had acquired a toolbox filled with hammers, saws, chisels and all the other implements to start building what would become The Riyria Revelations. 

Given all the time and effort I went through, it's not surprising that I couldn't forget that fanfic story and the novice writer who penned it. I'd stumbled upon an architect armed with steel I-beams and concrete who had sat down to build their first card house and ended up with a respectable dwelling. What else was possible?

At the end of November of 2020, the world was in the grip of a pandemic and had been there for nine months. For most people, this was a terrible hardship. For many, it was terrifying. For me, it was paradise. I live in a remote cabin in a lush valley where I have created a little Shire-like existence for my wife and myself. The pandemic provided the perfect excuse to lock the door on the Sackville-Bagginses and leave me to my peaceful existence. Despite my hermit-like tendencies, there was my annoyingly overdeveloped and most inconvenient sense of empathy (see first paragraph for more information). My wife and I were fine—great even—but most weren’t. Being an old novelist living in the middle of nowhere, I didn’t see how I could help others, except to write, which is exactly what I would be doing anyway. Then I remembered that email from the previous February and an idea bloomed. 

I created Novel House, an online site where I could interact with aspiring writers. I envisioned it as a virtual Hogwarts where I would teach magic. I created a Foyer; Great Hall; a Library to house all the reference material I had amassed; a Study for homework assignments; Dormitories; a Conference Hall made up of multiple classrooms; an Inglenook for goofing off; a Conservatory to share music deemed best to write by; and a lounge I named the Dead Poet. Then I sent emails to three writers. One was self-published but struggling. The other two were amateurs who had impressed me in two ways. The first was they had submitted samples of their work that showed indications of potential. The second was passing the entrance exam. You see, Novel House has its own Sorting Hat system. It isn’t pleasant. It consists of my shredding a candidate’s best work—their heart and soul—and reducing it to ash before their very eyes. I’m not so much interested in the quality of their writing as I am at their reaction. I need to know if they can be taught. 

All three passed and began their first semester as freshmen at Novel House. Harry, Ron, and Hermione attended the first online virtual orientation where we got to know each other. Hermione was able to show off her books, which were impressive. Ron spoke of the one novel he had finished and of its many shortcomings that he hoped to improve on. And then there was shy little Harry, who had never written a novel and didn't know there was such a thing as magic or a school for wizards. He was intimidated by the other’s knowledge and accomplishments because all he had ever accomplished was one fan fiction and a killer Yelp review.

Classes were held once a week, at the same time and on the same day. Students worked on their own novels, submitting opening scenes.  Their first hurdle was to produce an opening that would grant them access to move to the next level. Months went by. 

A new student joined the class. We’ll call him Neville. 

I provided random lectures, usually on common weaknesses I saw that were prevalent in the submissions. More months went by, and I resorted to providing assignments aimed at forcing the students to confront their shortcomings. More months slipped passed.

Eventually Ron and Harry nailed their openings and moved forward, and I soon caught wind of after-school meetings in which other students approached shy Harry for help with their homework. Harry supplied advice and critiques behind the scenes. The young wizard was learning more than how to write, he was gaining confidence, and with confidence came a more powerful voice. 

At the end of the first year, I asked each of my students to list what they had learned. This was as much a report card on me as a reflection on them. Both Ron and Hermione provided about ten bullet points. Harry submitted three full pages that covered everything I’d ever said—even things I’d forgotten about. The dissertation was so comprehensive that I had him post it in the Library for future students. 

Over the next three years, Novel House gained three more students. Two dropped out quickly, but the third remained. Let’s call her Ginny. Ginny was young and excited to be there, and she began to hear what a good wizard Harry was, but she’d never seen his work. Everyone else continued to have their writings posted and critiqued. But not Harry.

By that time, Harry was working on a special project for Dumbledore—a super-secret project that no one knew about. 

(Stay tuned.)  

And so it begins . . . a red carpet roll out of Michael's protégé

Hey all, Robin here. Michael and I have been keeping a pretty big secret under wraps, but it's time to start letting the proverbial cat out of the bag. I'm speaking about the identity of the co-author who, along with Michael, has written Out of the Ashes (Book one of the After the Fall series). We couldn't be more excited about this, especially because the situation is truly unique: a complete unknown (queue Bob Dylan music), who hopefully will become a full-time author overnight. 

When I'm alpha reading Michael and I'm trying to get a point across about something that REALLY needs to be addressed, I pull out my big-gun phrase: "I cannot begin to express how strongly I feel about this." It's a series of words rarely spoken that will make Michael sit up and pay attention. I use this now because I'm about to make two statements that have that same degree of gravitas.

1. Michael is "more than a little" protective of his characters and world.
   
   
2. Michael does NOT play well with others

Given those two statements (and how strongly I feel about them) the odds of Michael co-authoring a book are about the same as the sun failing to rise tomorrow. So the fact that he has, is really saying something.

Michael is so proud of his co-author, and he wants you to love what they produced so much that he's planned a red-carpet roll out. He wrote a 7-piece series of blog posts giving you a behind the scenes look into both the author and the creation process. The first one is live now, and links to the other installments will be posted over the next few days. I hope you'll tune in for them because the story of how this all came together is an interesting as the book itself.

• How a polite email led to a new Elan series
• A School for Wizards: From card houses to Hogwarts
• The Project: This time we're doing Spiderman—the Avenger's edition
• Starting the Book: How nothing becomes something—or at least it seems that way
• The Outline: For both a novel and the life of a novelist
• Chapter One: A month of trial and errors
• Out of the Ashes: An apt title for the book and the process that created it

Metrics, measures, and success

Hey all, Robin here. Michael and I might just be old fuddy-duddys, but we aren't glued to our phones (I don't know where mine is most days) like many are. As such, we've  never used Tik-Tok or Instargram, and we aren't really on social media (goodreads being the exception). Yes, we have facebook accounts, but we haven't looked at them in years, and I really need to make Michael a BlueSky account (as we don't use twitter these days either), but there are just too many other things to do.

Being as isolated as we are (both in our remote living location and electronically), we don't know much about Michael's popularity - or lack there of. But there are two metrics I look at with a fair amount of regularity and that is the number of followers on Goodreads and Amazon.

Well, today I looked and Michael hit 42,000 followers on Amazon - that's an amazing number to me. Especially when we started this whole "writing thing" and I took up the mantle of "getting people to know the books exist" I asked Michael, "So how would you need to consider yourself a success?" He replied, "If fifty people read my books." But then he paused a moment, and added a clarification. "But they have to be people I don't know."

Now, granted, not all 42,000 of those people have Michael's books, and while he has "sold" more than 2.5M copies, we also don't know many of those have been read, but based on review numbers, I think it's safe to say it's more than 50 :-)

Michael's numbers on Goodreads are even better: 92,400+ followers. There was a time when he was ranked #40 on the most followed list, but he's slipped from that height over the years.He's now barely haning on to the bottom rung (#50), and I suspect he will soon fall off completely, but I think he's been on it for over 10 years which is quite impressive.

So while I have your attention, if you don't currently follow Michael on Amazon or Goodreads, I'm going to make an appeal for you to do so. Why? Well it's not to boost Michael's ego — he doesn't know any of this "number stuff," and I suspect he doesn't care one way or the other.  It's only me, the ex-engineer, that looks at such things. But if you do hit follow, you'll be notified when a new book of Michael's hit the shelves, and I think if you are reading these words, that might be something you'd be interested in knowing.

• Goodreads - Click "Follow Author" button below Michael's picture on the left hand side.
• Amazon - Click "+Follow" button to the right of Michael's picture on the left hand side.

As always, thanks for the amazing support.

Legends of the First Empire Hardcovers Out of Print

As many of you may know, the Legends of the First Empire was a hybrid publishing project. The first three books were released through Penguin Random House's Del Rey imprint, and the last three books were self-published by us. These books were also released as mass market paperbacks, ebooks, and audiobooks (both dramatic multi-cast dramatic and non-dramatic single-narrator) editions.

The Legends series has done very well for us:

• 2 books hit the New York Times bestseller list (Age of War and Age of Legend) 
• 3 books hit the Washington Post bestseller list (Age of Myth, Age of Swords, and Age of War)
• 3 books hit the USA Today bestseller list (Age of Swords, Age of War, and Age of Legend)

A mildly successful title hopes to sell 5,000 hardcovers and 10,000 is considered a very good release. In fact, publishers use those threshold for various escalation points:

• 1 - 4,999 books sold earn 10% of list price
• 5,000 - 9,999 books sold earn 12.5% of list price
• 10,000+ books earn 15% of list price

Hardcovers generally go "out of print" after 12 - 15 months, and from that point on, the paperbacks are the only physical copies available. But the Legends sold quite well and both Age of Myth and Age of War stayed in print for many years after their initial release. As for Age of Swords, Del Rey retired it just after the second printing. When a publisher does that, they either "pulp" the books (grind them up to be used for paperback editions), or sell the excess stock by the pound to remainder companies who offer deeply discounted books. As an author, we don't get paid for pulped or remaindered titles, but our contract DOES offer us the chance to circumvent those less than desirable fates for the left over copies. So in July of 2018, we paid $8,600 for 3,360 copies of Age of Swords. In other words, we bought the leftovers. I never thought we would sell all those copies through our online store, but I currently have less than 200 copies. 

That $2.57 a book is significantly cheaper than the $14 I pay (50% author's discount) when getting the other titles from Del Rey. Anyway, Age of War's hardcover print run ended in May 2024, when I could only receive a partial shipment of a large order I placed for that title. Likewise, I snapped up the remaining copies of Age of Myth in September 2024. 

Once Del Rey had no more copies of their hardcovers available for sale, I asked if I could retrieve the print rights for that format. And they agreed! This was mind-blowing news, considering my pleas to retrieve hardcover rights for Orbit's titles (a right they have NEVER exercised), have always fallen on deaf ears. I've even begged them to do a hardcover printing themselves, but that was likewise rebuked.

All told the Del Rey versions sold:

• Age of Myth - 19,361 copies earning $50,889.16
• Age of Swords - 9,204 copies earning $25,552.48
• Age of War - 12,585 copies earning $30,397.56

Now, since the books sold for $28 each in hardcover, and given the royalty rates above, a few math nerds might say, "Hey, that math doesn't add up" and you'd be right. The issue is that not all royalties are created equal, and I earn substantially less for books sold at a high discount or English language copies sold in other countries. Had all the books sold at the "standard royalty rate," I would have earned:

• Age of Myth - $70,816.20 ($19,927.04 more than I actually earned)
• Age of Swords - $28,714.00 ($3,162.52 more than I actually earned)
• Age of War - $42,357.00 ($11,959.44 more than I actually earned) 

That's just a little tidbit for any aspiring authors out there so that they know what to expect after signing their own publishing deals. Pay particular attention to the royalty rates in your contract and whether you'll be paid based on list price or net receipts.

So, what does all this mean to you, the reader? Well, if you read printed books rather than audio or ebooks, and you haven't picked up the Legends of the First Empire books, you'll only be able to get the small mass market paperbacks when buying through the retail chain. There may be a few hardcovers in the various retailer's warehouses, but I have no way of knowing how many there are, and I wouldn't be surprised if they are gone and the only sellers who have books are through the Amazon marketplace ecosystem.

Anyway, if you want hardcover editions, you can purchase them from us, but our supplies are very limited, so you have to hurry.

• Age of Myth - 122 copies
• Age of Swords - 177 copies
• Age of War - 0 copies
• Age of Legend - 41 copies
• Age of Death - 117 copies
• Age of Empyre - 51 copies

Once we ran out of Age of War, we started taking pre-orders for it (as well as for "complete sets)." We currently have 115 orders for Age of War, and 94 for all six books. If you have yet to get your full hardcover sets (and you think you'll want them), you can pre-order from this link. 

What about the possibility of a new print run - including deluxe editions? It's quite high, but also very uncertain from a timing perspective. Over the years, there has been tremendous consolidation (and more than a few bankruptcies), within the US book printing ecosystem. The result is there are only a few printers, and while they produce decent quality paperbacks, their hardcovers are not nearly as good as I've grown used to, and totally unacceptable with regard to special edition books with hubbed spines.

As you may already know, since Farilane's release we've been printing exclusively from China whose quality is absolutely amazing. The Drumindor books were shipped with a 7.5% import tax - a rate which has been in effect for several years), but The Riyria Chronicles books 1 - 4 (which are still on the press) will cost me much more. Unless you live under a rock, you may have heard about a number of tariff imposed on US goods:

• 20% from first Trump administration (although books were exempt from all but 7.5%)
• 10% additional tariff Feb 2, 2025
• 10% additional tariff Mar 4, 2025
• 34% additional tariff April 2, 2025
• 50% additional tariff April 9, 2025
• 41% additional tariff April 11, 2025

In such a climate, my current plan is to ONLY do small US-based press runs, and no large print runs until after current trade war has some resolution. As it stands now, my tariff rate would be 145% + 7.5% = 152.5% which can't be absorbed, and I won't sacrifice quality, which leaves me no idea when a mass print run for the Legends books will take place.

So, unless you are satisfied with the small mass-market books, please place your order or pre-order (for those Age of War or complete sets) as soon as possible. I need to determine a quanity soon, and if you wait too long and miss that small print run, it may be several years until we have new hardcovers for these amazing books.

As always, we thank you for your continued support.

Free novels, Short Stories, and Bonus Material

Hey all, Robin again. We've seen some recent success at some of our Reader Initiatives including:

• Reading Buddies - Elan Discord Server
• The Cycle Discord Server
• Sullivan's Spoils YouTube Channel 

But there is one initiative, I've invested a lot of time in that isn't getting much traction, and it's 100% free! It may be because you just don't know it exists. So, here I am to "give you the skiny." 

For those who aren't familiar, Royal Road is a serialized fiction site where authors (both aspiring and established) post stories for free. It tends to lean toward the LitRPG and Progression fantasy genres, but there is also a fair amount of Science Fiction, Cozy Fantasy, and even a bit of traditional epic stories.

I started posting content on this site about a year and a half ago. This includes short stories, entire novels, as well as bonus features (like the deleted scenes from Esrahaddon, and recaps of Legends of the First Empire books).  

In the world of Royal Road, Michael is an extremely "small fish" - which is something that baffles me since he has more than 2.5 Million books sold. But, it is what it is, and I'm not planning on abandoning the platform. To date we have 1,645 pages posted (over 500,000 words).  Here's what you'll find there:

• Riyria Chronicles - has three full-length novels: The Death of Dulgath, The Disappearance of Winter's Daughter, and Drumindor - so if you are strapped for cash, but sill want to read stories about Royce and Hadrian, you can go there.
  
  
• Riyria Revelations - the intention was to post all six books of the Riyria Revelations, in the hopes of getting people "hooked" on his stories, but Orbit objected and they made us remove them from the site. So currently it's just a "stub" with the opening of Theft of Swords. The reason the three books of the Chronicles are still live is because we control the licensing rights to those books.
  
  
• Riyria Short Stories - while the cover implies just 4 shorts, it actually has 6 stories in it including May Luck be With You - which is a Royce background tale that indicates how he got his name. Two of these shorts were incorporated into the novel, so if you've read them, you already know what happens, but four of them contain original content released in various anthologies.
  
  
• Burning Alexandria & The Game - are non-Elan based short stories and they are fabulous. I wish more people had wread them - each has only a handful of followers and favorites.
  
  
• The Elan Dossier - is where the bonus material can be found. 
  
  
• What's Next  is the most important  chapter. I (or Michael) regularly update this to let people know where we are on various projects.  
  
  
• Reading Order - alsways a difficult subject to broach, but several options are provided
  
  
• Q&A - answers to questions posed to Michael - you can submit your own questions by sending an email to michael (dot) sullivan (dot) dc (at) gmail (dot) com - with the subject: Elan Dossier Q&A
  
  
• Two non-Riyria short stories regarding Elan: Pile of Bones (Suri & Minna), Little Wren and the Big Forest (Origin of Gronbach Myth)
  
  
• Glossaries from: Theft of Swords, Rise of Empire, Heir of Novron, Age of Myth, Age of Swords, Age of War, Age of Legend, Age of Death
  
  
• Book recaps: Age of Myth, Age of Swords, Age of War, Age of Legend
  
  
• Bonus Matter: Making of the Death of Dulgath
  
  
• Bonus Matter: Nolyn: Author's Note, Afterword
  
  
• Bonus Matter: Farilane: Author's Note, Afterword
  
  
• Bonus Matter Esrahaddon: Author's Note, Afterword, Esrahaddon in Riyria, Deleted Scenes
  
  
• Bonus Matter Drumindor: Author's Note, Afterword

As you can see there is a lot of good stuff out there but Michael's Riyria Chronicles has less only 1,057 followers and only 282,595 views.  Now 282,595 views may seem like a lot, but on Royal Road it's nothing. For instance, despite being  #31 in the most-rated completed story list, the title at #30 him has had 5,612,600 views, and the top title has 22,141,002 views.  So, if you haven't read these books, consider checking them out on Royal Road - after all they are free. Or if you have friends or family who you've been trying to get to read the books and they just haven't, remind them that they can read three full-length novels for free from here! If you are doing a re-read, consider reading on Royal Road, and of course rate and favorite it. All these actions can get its stats improved, and if that happens, then Riyria will have more visibility on a site that has millions of readers, and you'll have more people to talk to about these incredible stories.

As always, we thank you for your support.

Don't miss Nolyn in the Audible BOGO Sale!

Hey all, Robin here. I want to first thank everyone who has been commenting about our new feature Sullivan's Spoils. The first episode has been received very well - and I'm all preparing episode 2.

Right now a lot of our efforts are going to "The Cycle, a project that I'ms sure will be Michael's biggest and best work yet.  But IT IS ONLY for those who have read all 20 books in the Elan Universe. If you skip Riyria, or Legens, or Rise and Fall, then you absolutely should skip "The Cycle" - because it's ONLY designed for die-hard fans and it will make little to no sense to those who try to read it without the pre-requisites.

Luckily, Audible is going to help those who have missed the Rise and Fall series, as they put Book #1, Nolyn, in one of their huge promotions - Buy One Get One Free Sale.  And if you've read Legends, then you absolutely won't want to miss Farilane. Both Michael and I think it's his best single work ever, especially for those who read Legends first.

There are a lot of good titles in the sale, and I thought I should give you some other choices for your "other credit pick. So here goes:

Title	Author	Rating	# ratings
Nolyn	Michael J. Sullivan.	4.6	6,771
The Princess of Potential	delemhach	4.8	631
Bastion	Phil Tucker	4.7	3,318
Circe	Madeline Miller	4.7	55,327
The Wizard's Butler	Nathan Lowell	4.7	8,395
Dawn of Wonder	Johnathan Renshaw	4.7	42,418

• Nolyn is the first book in the Rise and Fall series and it follows the events directly after the end of the Legends of the First Empire series. 
  
  
• The Princess of Potential is a standalone book set in The House Witch series. It's written by delemhach, someone we feel so strongly about that Robin took the time to run her Kickstarter and we have helped her self-publish her next serie The Ether Witch. It's cozy fantasy filled with humor and a touch of romance.
  
  
• Bastion is the most popular book written by Phil Tucker, a great friend of ours who is doing very well, the rating and number of reviews speak for itself.
  
  
• Circe is one of Michael's favorite books, so an easy pick for a recommendation
  
  
• The Wizard's Butler, is written by another fellow author friend from very far back in the day when Michael self published. Nathan is a tremendous writer, and a damn fine narrator - he actually did the first audio narration of The Crown Conspiracy back in the day. His Tales of the Solar Clipper series is fabulous "slice of life" science fiction with an easy flowing writing style and great characters. We've not read Wizard's Butler but we are picking it up as part of the sale.
  
  
• Dawn of Wonder is read by our narrator Tim Gerard Reynolds. I listened to it and found it to be a darn fine tale, so big thumbs up from me, and it looks like I'm not alone in that opinion.

So, if you want to pick up these, or any of the 100 other titles that are part of the sale, head on over to Audible but be quick. The sale ends April 11, 2025 at 11:49 PM PT.  I hope you grab a few - they are a steal at twice the price!