October Update Post

It has been another busy month here on Yard Moose Mountain.

Book Release Aftermath Stuff:

My last regular release was Monster Hunter Guardian in August with Sarah Hoyt. I got some numbers for that, and it did awesome. I am very pleased.  On Nielsen Bookscan (the most comprehensive bestseller list) in fantasy the only things we lost to were Good Omens (two of the most popular authors ever with a new hit TV show) and James Patterson (who holds the world’s record for #1 bestsellers). So I’ll take it! 😀

I couldn’t figure out why my overall Amazon author rank didn’t jump much though. Usually when a new MHI book comes out I end up in the top ten. It wasn’t until two months later that I realized Amazon didn’t have Guardian listed as one of my books for some bizarre reason. It’s fixed now. (honestly, the only real point of ending up that high on the author list is so you can take screen caps of which big shot you are next to for bragging rights!)

Then Invisible Wars came out. This is an omnibus collection of the Dead Six novels with Mike Kupari. Omnibuses are interesting, in that they’re this oddball product, but I really like them. The Monster Hunters one has made me a surprisingly large amount of money over the years.

One note on Invisible Wars though, because it’s a collection and people have already reviewed the books, it only has a couple of reviews on Amazon so far. And one of those is a one star because the guy loved the books, but zinged it because Amazon labeled it wrong. Thanks man, but the giant soulless megacorporation don’t care. All reviews like that (or my other favorite, UPS damaged the package, one star) only punish the authors by lowering our overall ranking.

So if you guys who’ve read the Dead Six series get a chance, would you please go post a review? That’s always super helpful.

My next release is Target Rich Environment 2  in December. This is the 2nd volume of my collected short fiction. I love these. I love writing short stories. And for me it is a lot of fun to bounce all over between different universes in one collection. There’s MHI, Grimnoir, Forgotten Warrior, some original stand alones, and then I got to play in other people’s worlds, like Joe Ledger, Freehold, Alien, and Predator. All in one volume.

Plus on the cover, I look like Dad of War and my super hot wife is in a fur bikini.  So basically the best cover ever. 😀

Book Stuff: 

I’m almost done with Destroyer of Worlds, the 3rd book in the Saga of the Forgotten Warrior (Son of the Black Sword and House of Assassins). I am really pleased with how this one turned out. The rough draft is mostly finished. All I’ve got left is the final battle sequence, which I’m not going to give any spoilers for.

I believe our release date for this one is Fall 2020.

Both of the previous two in the series have won the Dragon Award, which is awesome, and I appreciate that, but you guys really need to nominate somebody else. Share the love. I got mine. I’m doing awesome. Other authors could use the boost.

Normally when I finish a rough draft I then take a break and work on some short stories for a few weeks. That way when I go back to edit I’m no longer so close to the manuscript that I miss dumb things.

Up next I need to do a short story for the LibertyCon anthology in honor of Uncle Timmy Bolgeo, and a short bit for an anthology Christopher Ruocchio is putting together.

Once the final Destroyer of Worlds is turned in then I will be working on the sci-fi collaboration with John D. Brown. John finished the rough a while ago, and has been patiently waiting for me to meet my other pressing deadlines so I can do my thing. I appreciate that. John is one hell of a good writer, so I’m really excited for this one.

There’s a bunch more stuff in the pipeline after that. More MHI, more Grimnoir (new trilogy), more Forgotten Warrior, and another planned dark fantasy collaboration with Steve Diamond.

Related Book Stuff: 

The MHI Savage Worlds RPG has been shipping! Yay!

As many of you (and everybody who backed this project) know we got hit with some big delays because Savage Worlds switched to a new edition during our project. So we were stuck, release a dated product with the old rules, or wait for the new edition.

We decided to wait for the new edition, and I’m glad we did. I think it came out beautiful.

Once that’s all caught up I really want to Kickstart Gritty Cop Show, but RPG stuff is just a fun side project for me. Regular book writing has to come first.

Also, related, the Vault Books limited edition Grimnoirs. Hard Magic has shipped and they are working on Spellbound. There are still some available for sale. These are truly the prettiest books I’ve ever seen.

I’ve got a couple other secret projects in the works, but nothing I can talk about yet.

No new updates on the TV show options. They renewed, which is nice. So I’m still getting paid to do basically nothing, which is also very nice.

Personal Stuff:

Life is good.

One of my coauthors and best friends is getting married this weekend. Congratulations, Mike and Cathe. You guys are amazing and we’re all really excited for you.

We’re still unpacking boxes at Yard Moose Mountain. I got some help from the USU Extension office and we’re going to be planting a bunch of native plants in all the parts the construction tore up. And also the range, because my range is gigantic, I need to prevent erosion, and also needed something that wouldn’t catch on fire during the summer.

Some excellent news, we sold our old house. Yay! We bought and built when the market was down, so we made a pretty darn good profit on it.  Selling a house is a pain, but we had an awesome realtor. If you are in northern Utah I unreservedly recommend Cade Erickson.  He’s sold two houses for me now in ten years, and found us our last house, and the property that would become Yard Moose Mountain.

I mentioned this in the last update, but we got puppy, Panzerfaust the Krasnovian Waffle Hound (or Booflehund in his native language). Holy moly I forgot what a pain the ass puppies are. He’s a wonderful, happy, fun little floof, but my gosh potty training sucks. I’m having flash backs to our actual babies. But he’s–slowly–coming along.

Faust is a lot of fun though.  It’s a good thing dogs have the whole unconditional love thing going for them, because otherwise it would be tempting to just leave him out at 2:00 AM for the coyotes.

And thankfully the other giant time suck in our lives, high school football, the season is almost over. Don’t get me wrong. It’s a lot of fun to watch (my son is a 6’4″ 240 pound Freshman and all around beast) but my poor wife spends a lot of time driving back and forth for practices. Football is a giant time suck and I’m looking forward to this kid getting his driver’s license.

It’s weird having your kids get old. I’ve got one in college being a responsible adult (and published author!). The next one has a job and will be in college soon. That’s nuts. I don’t feel old enough to have adult children.

Simon Says by Bryan Thomas Schmidt
Invisible Wars is in Stores Now

48 thoughts on “October Update Post”

  1. Larry, it’s called “winning at life”. Embrace it, wallow in it, rejoice in it. Be thankful as always.

  2. My eleven year old son and I just finished listening to Tom Stranger. It was hilarious. He is asking if there is a new one coming out. Anyone have any thought on the next Correia audible book we should start?

  3. Thanks for the update, and congratulations on all things successful.

    Notre Dame (my alma mater) is always looking for 6’4″ 240 freshman linemen that also happen to be Mormons (you know, “diversity” and all – we once had a Jewish kid play center) – so consider sending him to South Bend. The weather is just like home, but the football is better than BYU and USU. 🙂

    Plus, Manti Te’o played there.

    (Just throwing out some name-dropping street cred – not all Mormons stay in Utah, you know)

    1. Yeah, I’m tempted to chime in on the attempts to recruit for one’s alma mater.

      I do know a school that might be a nice place to attend on a football scholarship.

      Downsides: Not local to your neck of the woods. Extreme left wing college town, though I can’t say how it compares to Provo, Logan, or SLC. So the case for it would be in specific academic programs, and I don’t know the comparisons /or/ the personal interests.

      If he wants to do football in college in three years, is aiming for good schools, I know your circles have folks who can talk about more than a few places.

    2. Ah, Notre Dame. The late Andrew Greeley commented more than once that the team should be called the Fighting Black Baptists.

  4. Quit complaining about old kids 😛 They’re a sign you’ve done well in life.

    I have 2 in college. It would be 3, except my son’s currently deployed in Kuwait.

  5. So happy for Mike and Catherine! These two wonderful, sweet, brilliant, glorious people deserve every joy in the world!

    Congrats on everything, Larry. Charmed life, man! I couldn’t be happier for you.

  6. Well, I got married later than you did, and only just now produced an apprentice Scourger of Profiles, so I’m quite certain that when I have adult children I WILL feel old enough to have adult children. :p So enjoy that illusion of youth while it lasts.

    1. Dead Six is different than Monster Hunter, but still awesome. More Tom Clancy/Rainbow Six or Ludlum mixed with a hint of mystic bad guys than the campy fun of MHI. And the audio versions are awesome. Bronson Pinchot (same guy who narrates the Grimnoir Chronicles) is amazing as always.

    2. In my case, no. Dead Six is the only book of Larry’s that has disappointed me. I read through 3/4 of the book endlessly hoping that the protagonists would find, if not redemption, at least a way out of the Hell they were stuck in, and it never seemed to happen.

      But a big thumbs up to Guardian, and the Grimnoir series, and I’ll probably read anything else he puts out, just not with Kupari. YMMV.

  7. Thanks for the news! Your Grimnoir stories are my favorites…happy you’ll go there again. Sounds like life is going great. Glad for you.

  8. ::looks at almost-six-month-old puppy:: Yeah. I hear you. If she weren’t so darn cute and loving, I’m not sure I could tolerate the “CONSUME ALL THE THINGS” bit we have going on right now. Or the temper tantrums some nights because she doesn’t want to go to bed, she wants to go play with the other dogs NOW.

    We’re still working on the potty training, too (but I’ve only had her about 2 months, and she was a rescue, so it may be awhile yet…)

    Pretty sure this is why most baby things are so darned cute: so we WON’T leave them out for the coyotes at 2am…

  9. I feel Bridget’s pain. I’ve got 4, the oldest has his license, but wrecked his car so until he can afford a new one he’s at our mercy. 3 (including my daughter) wrestle, 2 play football, the oldest 3 do drama, the youngest boy is in band and chorus and all 4 are active in 4-H

  10. I’m 60 and I still don’t feel old enough to have adult children; except when my body tells me otherwise.

    1. Same here. Ours oldest son is 33, our late son would have been 32 last Sat, oldest daughter is 28 & youngest just turned 20. So, no more teens, 3 oldest are/were married & youngest is making her mark working at Target u til she can apply at Bearea College in KY in spring. She applied last yr, but had a horrid counselor who didn’t quite understand what she went thru her sr yr…one of her big brothers passed away 4 weeks into her senior yr & she still managed to have A/B average while grieving & teying to come to geips with it all. And her dad & I were not much help, just encouraging her to do her best & loving her. But the idiot counselor has been promoted (isn’t that the way it goes?) & she’ll have a different one this time. Her big sister went to Berea & she told us that Lexi’ counselor is an idiot as she knew him from her time there!

  11. The last episode of Babylon 5 premiered in November of 1998. People born after Babylon 5 are 19, even 20 years old! Not sure I can handle it when we reach post Firefly.

    1. And after all these years, there still hasn’t been anything better on the idiot box than Babylon 5.

      I saw J. Straczynski at a book signing last month, and told him so.

      I also bought his autobiography ‘Becoming Superman’. He overcame a childhood horrendous beyond belief, and went on to create Teh Awesome.

      When I see losers that claim they ‘never had a chance’ to be better than criminal scum, I know they are full of shit because their lives couldn’t possibly be harder than his.
      ———————————
      If you want to learn, the worst schools and teachers in the world won’t stop you. If you don’t want to learn, the best can’t help you.

  12. Just finished Warbound. Really enjoyed it.

    Strangest memory of series is that I didn’t see Browning explicitly said to be a Cog (may have missed it) in the first book and spent the whole book (and part of Spellbound) suspecting he was “just” an ordinary, but brilliant, inventor who happened to have some non-Cog Power. Nothing he makes in the first book was even implausible compared to the other products of Cogs shown.

  13. On the noms request:

    Sorry, but I want to nominate Sarah next year for MHG.

    I know SHE’S won, too, but it’s a damn fine book.

    Looks like you both might get another next year.

  14. “That’s nuts. I don’t feel old enough to have adult children.”

    Right? I’m old enough to have college age grandchildren, still feel 25. Except in the knees. ~:(

  15. “Both of the previous two in the series have won the Dragon Award, which is awesome, and I appreciate that, but you guys really need to nominate somebody else. ”

    Wait, I thought the plan was to beg us to nominate you so that your contrary fans would finally go vote for someone else? Instead you present us with this, like the proverbial red flag in front of a bull.

    You really, really want that giant bookshelf full of awards, don’t you?

  16. I’m 63 and I have 8 grandchildren and a great granddaughter. I kind of feel like I’m in the twilight zone. There was some starting earlier than I would have recommended if I had been consulted but they are doing very well so what do I know.

    I refuse to have a dog in the house. If I were going to do that I would adopt a child. However, when the kids were at home and wanted a dog we got the perfect outside dog for New Hampshire.

    A friend of a friend raised Alaskan Malamutes and a German Shepard got in where he didn’t belong and they had a bunch of puppies that were worthless to them. We got Sasha for free and although we provided a place for her in the barn she never used it. She always picked the coldest place on the property. She loved playing with the kids and her greatest pleasure was going camping with my wife’s Girl Scout troop which camped every month of the year for 15 years. I recommend a Malamute Shepard mix!

  17. Are you looking for any ideas for Gritty Cop Show? I’ve had a few concepts for archetypes (Police Consultant, Hunted Witness), that might be interesting.

  18. You’ve got Destroyer of Worlds coming out the SAME TIME Trump sweeps the election?! You have GOT to tell us how you swung that, oh mighty ILOH…

  19. I think if you want to stop being nominated for stuff, then you just need to stop writing the best books! I don’t think you could do that, and really don’t want you to try, but it would probably work.

  20. Concerning the boy, Larry, in TN you can get a motorcycle license at 14, or at least used to be able to. Stick ‘im on a bike & let the wife rest.
    I jut found out my girlfriend (if one may use that word for a 50-year-old paramour of a 54-year-old) loves pancakes, but hates waffles. I’m keeping a close eye on that one. Sounds very anti-Krasnovian to me. She may be an agent.

  21. Lots of good news here. I’m planning to buy Invisible Wars because I have the first two books on paperback only (and the third as a hardcover) because of my tendency to reread stuff. Gotta get Christmas shopping out of the way.

    Son will be happy to hear about Destroyer of Worlds. He liked House of Assassins a lot! ^_^

    YAY TRE2 FOR CHRISTMAS FOR ME. Son laughed at the cover; he likes the game. Dad of War. Where’s your ‘Atreus’?

    More books to look forward to; I am a happy little drow.

  22. Well, chalk up another one joining MeWe to hang out in the Monster Hunter Nation group. Also, I was inspired by the recent Facebook stupidity to write a song about it, to the tune of Leslie Fish’s famous Banned from Argo filk. I’d post this on https://monsterhunternation.com/2019/09/23/another-example-of-why-facebook-is-the-abusive-trailer-park-husband-of-the-internet/ but that post is old enough that its comments are closed, so this is the closest I can get to being on-topic. (I’ll share this on the MeWe group too, as soon as I get approved).

    When we pulled into Facebook to have an argument
    About fictional countries and what their actions meant
    We had high expectations of the humor in the thread
    But then we learned that Facebook’s rules are run by the brain-dead

    And we’re banned from Facebook, every one
    Banned from Facebook just for having a little fun
    We had a jolly argument for just three days or four
    But Facebook doesn’t want us any more

    We’re peaceful sandwich makers and we’d never start a war
    So just pay no attention to the tanks outside your door
    And that’s all fine with Facebook, so I don’t quite understand
    How condemning bestiality could get a comment banned

    And we’re banned from Facebook, every one
    Banned from Facebook just for having a little fun
    We had a jolly argument for just three days or four
    But Facebook doesn’t want us any more

    About the waffle makers it is best to speak no more
    Nor of the awful uses they were put to in the war
    But say such things on Facebook and you’re sure to catch a ban
    Krasnovian traditions are not favored by the Man

    And we’re banned from Facebook, every one
    Banned from Facebook just for having a little fun
    We had a jolly argument for just three days or four
    But Facebook doesn’t want us any more

    But the story didn’t end there; the stupidity got worse
    The most innocent of comments could not escape the curse
    Now someone please explain to me—because I must be dense—
    Why helping to stop piracy’s a bannable offense

    And we’re banned from Facebook, every one
    Banned from Facebook just for having a little fun
    We had a jolly argument for just three days or four
    But Facebook doesn’t want us any more

  23. Tried to post a comment including one link (to this blog) and some italics, and it appears to have not posted. This is a test to see if the HTML threw it into moderation, or whether it just didn’t get posted at all. If this comment shows up, I’ll know not to repost my earlier one (which was about the Facebook saga), since it’s just in moderation until someone sees it and can release it from the queue.

  24. A nice book version of the RPG Gritty Noir thingummy would be a nice treat. Clean it up, sell it as an Indy e-book.

    I bet you could get someone fun to read it out loud and clean up on audible.

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