Grand Theft Magic

It has been quiet on my blog for quite a while now, but only for the lack of time, not for the lack of things to blog about… Now finally I have a little slack again to give you an update:

After quite some work the third part of the Lucas Trent storyline, titled “Lucas Trent 3 – Grand Theft Magic” is finished and publicly available. Why did it take so long? Well… Because everything is different with V3… (Except for the story that is… I tried really hard to keep my writing consistent.) First of all, other than with the books before, this one has a trailer from the get go: http://youtu.be/g-QHDUvF_c0 And that was actually also the last piece to get finished… Second, I switched cover artists. The cover for “Grand Theft Magic” has been designed by renown artist Duncan Long, and looking at it I am really glad that Duncan accepted the challenge, it really is a huge leap forward. Third you might notice that the publisher has changed too. That shouldn’t impact the availability though… The book should be purchasable at any store, and should be online at amazon.com shortly.

One thing I unfortunately couldn’t change is the pricing. I am still relying on POD (Print On Demand) which keeps the production cost pretty high. Therefore I can only urge you all the more to consider getting an ebook version, which I can keep down in price significantly. (Currently selling at Amazon.com at below 4 US Dollars…) And of course, the ebook is available in all major ebook stores, like (already mentioned) amazon.com, iBookstore and Nook.

So much from the organisational side. I will not go to deeply into the story, I leave this to the reviewers, to get you an unbiased view on it. But let me at least say that much: You will see a lot more action right from page 1.

I hope you enjoy the new book. If you have any comments, questions or feedback please do not hesitate to contact me.

New Kindle Edition

I almost missed that… Amazon.com has already uploaded the new Second Edition of “Guardian in Magic” for Kindle. And as promised, the price is significantly lower. (~ 4 US Dollar when I looked) It took a while, but we are getting there…

Book trailers

When I entered the internet book tour I got a video trailer made for “Guardian in Magic”. At this time I was very grateful about this, as it was a welcome addition to my arsenal, but in the long term I was not very happy with the way this trailer turned out. So now… Finally… I set out to do better, and (as most of the time) do it myself. I know that I still have a long way to go, but at least the first two trailers are online now at YouTube.

Number one is a general trailer about the Lucas Trent storyline. You can find it here:

General trailer

Number two is the trailer for “Guardian in Magic”, posted here:

Guardian in Magic trailer

I hope you enjoy watching them.

Part 2 is out

Finally “Dangerous Potentials” is available at all major bookstores. And you might be delighted, the prices have gone down significantly. (Especially on the e-books sold at Amazon…)

The curtain is lifting…

It is finally time to lift the curtain… The long waited for sequel to “Lucas Trent – Guardian in Magic” will be available soon. The title will be “Lucas Trent – Dangerous Potentials”. The first details are already on the homepage, more to come soon.

The tour goes on…

September is nearly over and tonight the Virtual Book tour of “Guardian in Magic” will stop at “Pump up your book” with a live chat. So if you have time please stop by at the chat at 8 p.m. EST. Here is the link: Author live chat

Next step…

Finally the book trailer is ready too, check it out… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pO3j4vR6cyo

And the tour goes into its third week with some more exiting stops.

Review by Mad Moose Mama

My virtual book tour made a stop at the blog of Mad Moose Mama today. (http://madmoosemama.blogspot.com/2011/09/lucas-trent-guardian-in-magic-by.html) This actually was the first review of the tour, which makes this all the more exciting for me, thanks at this point to Mama for reading “Guardian in Magic” and providing feedback in that way.

I would like to use the opportunity to comment on one point that Mad Moose Mama brought up: Seeing the story only from the point of Lucas Trent: I thought about this a lot before writing the story, and even more after I finished. Yes, some of the backgrounds would have given a more complete picture of the situation, especially concerning Wolfman and Plague. The point behind staying focused on Lucas Trent was not that the information wouldn’t exist, I did quite intensive documentation of all of that in the background, the point was to show a picture of one person only to give my readers a sort of “first person experience” Why did I do that? Well, have you ever had the feeling watching a movie or reading a book that you would have done things differently? I always have that, and most of the time I would have because I know many angles. The whole concept behind the Lucas Trent storyline is based on the fact that you (the reader) don’t have any information that Lucas Trent doesn’t have as well. (Except for the little sidelines with Archangel.) So you will learn the truth at the same time he does… Having said that… As the storyline develops you will of course get more background information about the others of Lucas’ group, and of course there will be more encounters with the mysterious Plague… And Archangel… And all the others.

Delays all around…

The virtual book tour for “Guardian in Magic” is in full motion already and it seems that I put too much speed into it, leaving some important supporters behind. This unfortunately means that the book video trailer is still not online. But I am confident that it will be shortly. Until then please stay tuned and follow the tour as it unfolds.

The tour is on…

Finally the book tour is starting. My first stop was an interview at “The Writer’s Life” which is online now. Thanks for having me guys!

Virtual book tour

A while ago I announced that I will take “Guardian in Magic” to a virtual book tour around the blog scene. Now finally the tour homepage is online, check it out.

http://www.pumpupyourbook.com/2011/08/23/lucas-trent-guardians-in-magic-virtual-book-publicity-tour-septemberoctober-2011/

Book review

I just received word that “Guardian in Magic” has been reviewed by the US Review of Books. I hereby bow before the reviewer, thanks you very much.

Here is the link: Guardian in Magic - US Review of Books

Up and running again

After a little “communications hickup” between me and my publisher/printer I got somewhat delayed for two months, but finally everything is back on track.

And guess what: I have decided to take “Guardian in Magic” up for a spin in a Virtual Book Tour in September and October. I will of course post more details as soon as they become available.

Errata: Chapter headline

I don’t know how I missed that through all the review cycles, but there is a printing error in the headline of chapter 6. The correct wording should be “Drawbacks & Mysteries” It seems that the printing font had a problem with the “&” sign.

Prices

I just read an Amazon comment on the prices of “Guardian in Magic” and wanted to comment on that:Yes, the book is a bit more expensive than some others. (But not at the upper limit of books prices I might add…) The main reason for this is that at usual printing batches for a first time author the starting price of the printer is already higher than the ordering price of some books in the shop. Interestingly with the one sort of books where the batchsize doesn’t matter (that would be E-Books) the retailers don’t go conform with the recommended sales price. (One I checked has added 20% to the recommendation.) Unfortunately there is nothing I can do about that…

Having said all that I also want to thank the person writing the comment. I appreciate that you think the book is after all worth it.

Amazon–Look inside the book

Amazon has listed the book by now, so I had a chance to test out the “Look inside the Book” functionality. Pretty interesting feature I have to admit. Now they really have all the things a normal brick-and-mortar store has to offer…

Finally… It’s done…

It was a long and hard process, but finally the book is live and available at the stores. (The link is available at my homepage.) I got the proof copies today and I have to say that the quality exceeds my expectations. (especially for the hardcover…)

Welcome

Well, every blog has to start somewhere, so let me start with a warm welcome. In here you will find all important information I want to share, including answers to frequently asked questions about the story. Of course I will also be active on both FaceBook and Twitter. You can find the appropriate links on my homepage, as well as on the sidebar of the blog.