Win the Norothian Cycle – Holiday Hop

HOLIDAY BLOG HOP!!! Ho, ho, ho. (In a good way…)

Hello, I’m M. Edward McNally, but you can call me “Ed” (waves). Welcome to the sablecity’s stop on the 2012 Holiday Hop, and thanks much for hopping by. 🙂

Here is how I am working my giveway, which will be very simple as befits my level of techological ineptitude. I’m the author of an epic, Musket & Magic fantasy series called The Norothian Cycle, presently consisting of four books, with the fifth out early next year. The series stars a feisty Guild-trained adventurer named Tilda Lanai, and I’m gratified to say even non-fantasy fans have thus far found her stories worth reading. So please don’t let the term “epic fantasy” worry you too much. 😉

Volume One, The Sable City, is always FREE for all e-book platforms. It weighs in at a robust 183,076 words and is the longest of the four books available at this time. So here is my simple “How many jellybeans in the jar?” style question:

<<<  What is the total Word Count of the first four books of The Norothian Cycle?  >>>

Feel free to leave a guess here as a comment, and a way you can be reached online (if you are not already posting as a facebook, wordpress, whatever profile). At the conclusion of the blog hop which runs December 10th to 14th, I will select a winner by a careful process of addition and subtraction to calculate the closest answer to the actual word count (guessing higher or lower doesn’t matter, so go nuts).

The closest guess will win something along the lines of A SUBSCRIPTION TO THE NOROTHIAN CYCLE. That is, I will get you e-copies of the existing books in the series ($4.99 each), provided in any of the normal ways: either directly via Kindle “gift,” Smashwords coupon, or just sending the apporpriate files for any kind of e-reader. Whatever works for you. In addition, as each subsequent volume is released, I will send you a copy of that one as well, beginning in early 2013 with Volume V: The Channel War.

That’s all there is to it, just leave a number as a guess, and do remember to check out the main page of the Holiday Hop to visit all the participating blogs, and enter for the Grand Prize packages including (drumroll) A KINDLE FIRE! 

Thanks again for taking part, Happy Holidays to you and yours, and as I always say: Thanks for reading. 🙂

Ed McNally

 

How DO you get to The Sable City?

Thanks much to Iaqulotta for the lover-ly review. 🙂 How DO you get to The Sable City?.

 

The Haunted Collection, Free Oct 5th and 6th.

 Hiya, Halloween fans. 🙂

Happy to announce that The Haunted Collection – the most recent short story compilation from the eclectic, cross-genre authors known collectively as The Eclective (see how that name works?) is FREE for Amazon Kindle this Friday and Saturday, (Oct 5th and 6th).

Just to explain a little bit about us: The authors of The Eclective write in a number of different genres, from epic fantasy to paranormal YA to contemporary to parody, and a ton of stuff in between. But we have come together to do some projects. Actually, we mostly came together to hangout on facebook and amuse each other, but we also have a “communal” website and page, and a few times a year we put out short story collections.

These are generally built around a theme of some kind, though everybody comes at it from their own direction, and does stories they feel like doing, without regard for what genre or classification they might happen to fall into. Our theory, inasmuch as we have one, is that the story is the thing. If a reader finds a story that they like, we tend to feel genre is at best a secondary distinction.

The Haunted Collection is the fifth we have done, and I am highlighting it specifically here at The Sable City blog as it is the second collection where my story is set within the world of the Norothian Cycle. In last year’s Halloween Collection, “The Village of Those Who Touch the Dead” featured the yakuza character Yu Pao Long, years before he had left the Farthest West and come to Noroth. In the Haunted Collection, my story is entitled “Empty Vessel,” the tale of a ghost ship adrift at sea. While it does not feature any of the characters of the Norothian Cycle directly, the Trade Houses of Miilark and the Musket & Magic setting will be familiar to fans of the series.

Me and my fellow Eclectivites hope you’ll check us out, and maybe find something that you like. Even if it is outside of your normal genre preferences. Oh, and in case I wasn’t clear before, we do make all the collections FREE everywhere as soon as we are able to do so. The first four are always free, on Amazon, B&N, Apple, etc. 🙂

The Pride Collection

The Celtic Collection

The Holiday Collection

The Halloween Collection

 

Ed’s Casual Friday 7/27 – One stars for all (p4)

Two things, today. First, the countdown of 100 one-star reviews on the 100 “greatest novels” of all time has concluded over at Indies Unlimited. Can’t believe I milked a whole month’s worth of columns out of doing that. 😉

Here’s a taste:

#12 Bleak House (1852-53) Charles Dickens

“(T)here were a few too many characters, but it was really cool when a whole bunch of people died.”

Second, the Summer Splash Blog Hop continues. Hop onboard to win prizes from a huge number of participating authors, and register to win grand prizes including multiple (two is a multiple, right?) Kindle Fires. My post immeditealy before this one details how you can win all the books of The Norothian Cycle, present and future, just by picking a number. So pick one, already. 😉

 

Devil Town, Book IV of the Norothian Cycle

Now available, Book IV of the Norothian Cycle. Muskets, Magic, and Matilda Lanai. 🙂

(also: devils, demons, swords, a katana, Zeb, the Underway, a frying pan, a gnome, a half-Lamia who wants to be Queen, dragons, Uella, Fitz, a minotaur, cannons, crossbows, a language professor, a matched pair of ivory handled wheel lock pistols, a goblin, Emnaketetha, Karza, a river named Ay River, Fire Priests, Focaru tribes, shipping contracts, farmers, another Lanai, an ex-ninja / now priestess…)

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008FB93X6  Amazon UK https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B008FB93X6

 

News for Volume Four of the Norothian Cycle

Bol Aloha, all. 😉

Since I’m actually getting asked (which is cool) about when the fourth book of the Norothian Cycle is going to be released with greater specificity than “Summer 2012,” I figured I should answer it here. Let’s call it LATE JUNE, that is, before the 27th. I will of course announce it here, post frequently, laugh myself silly, etc.

Book IV is titled DEVIL TOWN, and much like Book II (Death of a Kingdom) it will follow three plotlines, in three “Parts.”

 

Map: Ay and Martas Peninsulas, political, 1396 NC

Ay & Martan Peninsulas as of early 1396 NC

Some version of this map will accompany the second part of Devil Town (Book IV of the Norothian Cycle), still shooting for a summer release on that one, hopefully June. Much like Book II (Death of a Kingdom), the narrative is likely going to be divided into three “parts” as various characters are sort of off doing their own thing. As readers may guess from the map, Part II will be picking up and combining Nesha-tari’s plot line in Ayzantium from the end of Book II, as well as John Deskata’s, last seen in Thubas on the Martan peninsula at the end of Book III (The Wind from Miilark).