Xenos and Worlds of Magic ONLINE!

Hey guys!

The two short stories collections I've been talking about recently have been published today! They are Xenos and Worlds of Magic.

Xenos is a science fiction work including such sub-genres as cosmic horror, first contact, weird events, and post-apocalyptic fiction. Some of them (as implied by cosmic 'horror') are actually very creepy. These are namely Of One Mind, which deals with the effects of tampering with humans minds, set between half a century and a century in the future of our own world, and Moonfarer, which is pure cosmic horror (and scared me the most while writing it).

Another story in the anthology is Immortal (A creature of a different world seeks a new body to inhabit on Earth). This one is one of my favourites because of its concept and because the alien main character is not the kind to just obtain a body by any means necessary. He goes about it much like a job interview instead.

Xenos also includes an older (but very popular) story called 2115. 2115's blurb: As alien spaceships descend on Earth, a worn-out soldier, a drug-addicted medic, and a little girl have to fight for their survival.

The Epilogue to Xenos is Eye in the Sky. I think it fits the cosmic horror theme quite well.

Worlds of Magic on the other hand is entirely different. It's half stories you'd read to children before bedtime - Lucy and the Magician, Catching Fireflies, Seafarer - and half fantasy for a more mature audience (but nothing graphic!) - The Hungry Worlds, Into the Still Places, The Path of Lost Souls -. These are gentle and adventurous stories. They excite through the adventure imagery they build and make you feel good because of the themes explored. The themes are friendship, love, and working together despite the odds. This by the way goes for both halves of the anthology!

The first story in Worlds of Magic is Seafarer. This is a pirate story with strange magics and a slightly wry way of telling it. The premise of this story went: How did the princess fall in love with the pirate? I had in mind the pirate would be a guy. But she wasn't. I had a lot of fun writing the pirate queen Aaea and the more modest (although not really) princess Isolde's father the King. They make a great comical pairing between the two of them.

Lucy and the Magician is another story (the second story in the anthology) very close to my heart. It took me a while to finish and it's fairly long but very complete in a way. While editing this story, the ending came around (I changed the first draft's ending) and it just fit. It's a story about gifts - and primarily the gift of friendship.

The other stories are Catching Fireflies (You've heard a lot about this one! It's the story that got me my first review back in September!) about a kelpie trying to seduce a girl to join him in the depths of his lake - with a twist. The girl - his prey - has a task to complete under the waves that only a human can do. And it's dangerous.

In the other half of the anthology you'll find the stories more geared towards adults (themes as well as rating of scenes. These stories are a tiny bit more bloody and serious in a mature way than the three above). The Hungry Worlds is a thief's guilty journey into a deep forest to save the village she stole from last. Into the Still Places portrays a war between two races of different worlds in which neither of them wants to give way yet both have to if they are to save their realms. The sixth story, The Path of Lost Souls, is probably the most adult-serious of the whole book. It's more grave than all the others combined (although still not graphic).

Want to give it a try? It's out on Amazon! (PS: don't mind the missing covers. I have faith in KDP that they'll update them eventually!)

Xenos: (creepy science fiction!) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07L6KHNB9

Worlds of Magic: (magic adventure stories!) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07L6KQM28

Have a good night/day! WriteBot.

Art for Seafarer!

Hey everyone!

I wanted to share with you a piece of art that was made for one of my stories:

Seafarer. Seafarer is one of the stories that will be published in Worlds of Magic when it is released on the 7th of December. The story of Seafarer follows a young woman as she tries to find out how her mother fell in love with her partner. It's a tale of how the pirate queen acquired herself a princess. The two main characters are shown on the image!

In a way this post is a character introduction as well. I give you: Aaea and Isolde! (Click to enlarge!)

(by Ngo Hung)

Isn't it pretty?

This story is one of friendship and love and light. It is about mysterious magics and screaming kings and pirates who steal underwear. It's a fun story of adventure as well as deep and insightful into the nature of human relationships.

Excited? It's coming out on the 7th of December! Stay tuned.

WriteBot.

Xenos and THE OTHER PROJECT

Hey everyone!

As you know, I've been working on edits for several stories that'll go into the Xenos short story collection. I know a lot of you also liked the cover (yay!). Today, I wanted to just quickly update you on Xenos and... surprise you!

Xenos first.

It's been going great. Xenos will be published on the 7th of December. The short stories included are nearly finished with their last edit. I'll of course update you once it's done, but the most important date to keep in mind is December 7th 2018! That's when Xenos comes out on KDP.

BUT that's not all.

Because it's Christmas soon I've decided to release another short story collection at the same time!

Here's the cover!

This collection is very much different from Xenos. Where Xenos focuses a lot on the unknown and scary in combination with cosmic events, Worlds of Magic is a collection of magical and gentle tales of friendships, love, and adventure.

The stories included are:

Lucy and the Magician (a sweet story featuring the tales of many lives)

Seafarer (How did the princess fall in love with the pirate queen?)

The Hungry Worlds (A girl thief trying to atone for stealing a village's most prized sword... but maybe primarily to impress a knight of the all female watch)

Into The Still Places (the prince of a far-away place trying to save not only his world but that of his enemies as well)

The Path of Lost Souls (a boy's trial by maze to survive into adulthood. This one isn't so gentle as the rest.)

Are you hyped yet? You should be. These stories are perfect to read when you're feeling lonely or sad. They're also perfect as a Christmas gift! They will be released on the same day as Xenos - 7th of December - and you can buy them on Amazon once they're out. I'll of course update with a link once it's on there!

That's all about Xenos and Worlds of Magic.

Another update (that doesn't strictly need to be discussed but will discussed anyway): I've been watching The Man in the High Castle (Amazon Prime series) for the last few weeks. At this point I'm almost done with season three and severely disappointed. The first two seasons were great. It all made sense (mostly). But with season three the writers have just failed in their mission to keep watchers hooked. The tension and excitement of the first and second seasons just isn't there. Why? Because the writers failed to raise the stakes after season two. How? I'll explain more in my post about this very topic tomorrow! It's a great case study in what NOT to do when you're writing a series.

For now, good night/day! WriteBot.

Cover Reveal: Xenos

Hey everyone!

This post will be pretty short as it's late and I'm stressed because I have to go to the mouth hygienist again tomorrow. It will be painful and unpleasant so please forgive my lapse. I promise there will be more informative posts again from tomorrow onwards!

All right.

Let's see about that cover!

I promised the reveal would happen in my post two days ago about my current WIP. Xenos is almost finished (only one more story to edit this week!) and will be out on the 7th of December.

Today I wanted to show you the actual cover!

This is how it looks! I'm quite pleased. The idea was that there's spaceships/missiles coming down on a city at sunrise. It's all quite mysterious (just like the anthology itself).

Do you like it? Please comment! I'd love to know what you think!

Also: keep the date in mind! December 7th the anthology will be out! It will contain several short stories at the price of one! The stories include themes in the areas of:

ALIENS
first contact
weird as heck science experiments
ALIENS
cosmic horror
ALIENS

If you like Lovecraft's works... check out Xenos! It's the best in cosmic horror you can get these days!

WriteBot needs to sleep and try not to have nightmares about the mouth hygienist... WriteBot will see you again tomorrow!