M.L. Katz's Blog: The M.L. Katz Author Blog

Author Spotlight Interview With A.M. Goetz, the Author of the Ashkettle Boys Series See Ashkettle Crazy by A.M. Goetz on Amazon. Today, we welcome A.M. Goetz, author of The Ashkettle Boys Book Series, to the blog. Welcome! Q: Tell us, who is A.M. Goetz? A: First of all, thank you … Continue reading →

Put Together Your Indie Book Marketing Toolbox What’s the hard part about working as an indie author? The honest answer from most experienced authors is that they’re ALL the hard parts. It’s fair to say that most authors live for writing and even proofing and editing. Those tasks require talent, … Continue reading →

Do Something Different to Spark Your Fiction Novel Promos Do you think that you’ve tried everything to drive more sales and establish your author brand? Are you frustrated with typical […]

Fantasy Books .99 Sale

.99 Sale Starts 9/11

In honor of my great cover, I am running a special .99 cent sale. This Amazon fantasy book sale is running from September 11 at 8 AM until September 17 at 8 AM. You can score Rise of the Gatebreakers for .99 during that time by clicking this link. Of course, you are also welcome to check it out at the regular price at any time.

Featured Fantasy Books on Sale in September

The Fuller’s Apprentice: Angela Holder offers us an exciting story about a young boy who has a craving for excitement that leads to a position as a wizard’s apprentice. This book looks great, and it’s on sale too!

Sea Tales:  This is the 6th book in Steve Vernon’s Sea Tales. They are engrossing tales of the rest of the planet– the majority of the Earth that is covered by water. Enjoy fantastic tales of mermaids, WWII sailors, and more. This book is going on sale on September, 11.

Bound in Blue: In this first book in the Sword of Elements series, Rhi learns that the creatures of myth are actually real. Her ability to visualize magic as color puts her in conflict with ancient gods. The author, Heather Hamilton-Senter, has this book on sale September 11 to 14, and this book looks really exciting.

Worlds of Wonder: Enjoy science fiction and fantasy tales that range from retelling classic fables to travels in time. Of course, there are dragons! Emily Martha Sorensen has this treasure on sale from September 11 to 18.

Reunification: Two Worlds (Book 1): Timothy Cerepaka offers us an imaginative tale of a knight who travels from his world of magic to another world of technology in an effort to find his sister. This book is on sale from September 11 to 14. 

This Fantasy Book Sale is NOT All About Me!

As you may have noticed, MLKatz.com also has comments that you can either enter with your FB ID or by registering to the site. You are welcome to promote your own fantasy book sales for September there. Just to be helpful, there is also a .99 fantasy book sale here on Patty Jansen’s website that I sadly missed the deadline for but should be very good.

If you contact me, I’ll get as many books as I can moved up into the main post. This is for books on sale in September and hopefully, concurrently with my own sale. The easiest way to let me know about your book sale is simply to add a comment to the Facebook comments below. I’ll be checking them frequently.

You can contact me by my website email form here. You can also find my Facebook and Twitter links on this page to the top right, and I will be checking them frequently as long as my promotion runs. I also have other social media pages that I plan to promote this page on.

How Authors Read Their Poor Reviews

Of course, authors feel like publishing a book is like walking out on a stage naked. Gentle readers, please don’t forget that. However, the authors in this video have a great attitude, and they are exposing themselves by reading their 1-star Amazon reviews right out loud!

Here’s the Author’s Reading 1-Star Reviews Video:

Rise of the Gatebreakers Video

To celebrate Rise of the Gatebreakers going live on Amazon, I wanted to show off this video. I’m really proud of the way that it turned out, and I hope it gets you in the mood for a good fantasy/romance epic adventure. Enjoy!

You can also watch the Rise of the Gatebreakers video on YouTube for a larger window.

The Song of Ice and Fire (GOT) Point of View

Got POV?

Since GRR Martin’s “A Song of Ice and Fire” series has become so popular, there’s no reason not to make it a bit of a teaching moment. Students, the topic today is point of view, and more precisely, the limited omniscient, third-person point of view. This describes a point of view that lets the reader know what the point-of-view character in each chapter knows but no more than that.

Typically, third person novels are either omniscient or limited. With an omniscient point of view, the reader knows everything, or at least the reader knows everything that the characters in the book know. With a limited point of view, the reader only knows what the main character knows.

We might compare reading each of the ASOIF POV chapters to standing over that character’s shoulder during the action and also, getting a bit of a glimpse into the way that the character feels about the situation. In other words, the reader know what the character knows. However, the character may not know everything. Also, he or she could be an unreliable witness.

What’s Unique About the ASIOF POV Chapters?

The unique approach in these books is simply that George doesn’t make, as Jaqen H’ghar would say, a reader guess which character has the POV in each chapter. Instead, after a few chapters, a reader will pick up on the fact that the POV character gets his or her chapter named after them. For example, some favorite POV characters in ASOIF include Arya, Tyrion, Dany, and alas, Jon Snow (He just can’t be dead).

Most novels either use third-person omniscient or third-person limited. In other words, the reader either gets godlike powers to know everything all the time or only what one main character knows. The difference is that GRR Martin gives the readers a chance to get to know each character very well but only in that character’s POV chapters. These same characters can and do appear in other chapters, but those chapters are told from their own POV.

The prologues in this series vary from the main chapters. They also have point-of-view characters, but these characters are never seen again afterwards. Appearing as a prologue POV character is very dangerous in the World of Ice and Fire. However, appearing as a POV character in a regular chapter doesn’t guarantee protection. Ned Stark doesn’t survive the first book.

Advantages of Limited Omniscient, Third Person

This choice of POV really allows Martin to establish an emotional connection between each character and the reader. As we read, we really get to know each individual, the culture around them, and their attitude. It helps us empathize.

Of course, it also makes the book interesting because everybody is the hero of their own story. In Tyrion’s chapters, he’s brilliant, charming, and able to overcome a lot of adversity. However, he’s viewed quite differently by other characters in the book, and we can glimpse that in other POV chapters.

 

Why We Can’t Don’t Believe Jon Snow is Dead

Jon Snow Dead?

This post contains major spoilers for anybody who has not read A Dance with Dragons, seen the last episode of season 5 of Game of Thrones, and hasn’t checked the headlines of almost any Internet news feed for the last several weeks. In other words, you have to somebody who really doesn’t care anyway if you aren’t aware that Jon Snow really seemed to die/kick the bucket/get stabbed way too many times/etc.

Is Jon Snow really dead? Even Kit Harrington told the public in an interview that he was really, really dead. He said that’s what he’d been told and wouldn’t be back for season 6. Yeah, Jon Snow’s not dead. We don’t care what you say, Jon Snow! You know nothing, Jon Snow.

It’s not that I have too much time on my hands, but I am way to obsessed with this particular fictional character. Yeah, Dany’s got dragons and all, but the Bastard of Winterfell just seemed to be the on central character who grew into somebody who competently tried to do the right thing most of the time and felt really awful about it when he couldn’t always do the purely good thing.

Way Too Many Reasons Why Jon Snow Will Be Back

1. Hit Harrington didn’t cut his hair.

The actor expressed some interest in shaving off his luscious locks as soon as his term on Game of Thrones ended, and he hasn’t done that yet. Even if he would have, we understand there are these things called wigs. But he didn’t. So there.

2. He just didn’t die

In both A Dance with Dragons and Episode 10 of Season 5 of Game of Thrones, Jon Snow sure got stabbed a lot of time. The book actually left his fate a lot more open than the popular HBO TV show seemed too. However, it is possible that he survived. This brings up questions about whether both the TV show and books are going to tell the same story, but it seems likely they will be parallel.

3. He’s sharing Ghost’s body.

In the book, Jon can “warg” into his direwolf, Ghost. In other words, he can transfer his consciousness into an animal host. The TV show doesn’t really dwell on him having that power yet but mostly shows that with his (so-called) half brother, Bran. The problem with the TV show is that Ghost wasn’t near him when he died, but in the book, “Ghost” was the last thing he said.

4. Milisandre will bring him back from the dead.

The Red Priestess is not a fan favorite and never really resurrected anybody before. However, this possibility has been set up by the fact that a red priest of R’hillor has demonstrated this ability before. The Red Priestess may not be a fan favorite, but she could have the power to bring one back. Also, she thought that Stannis was Azor Ahai reborn, but probably by now, not so much.

Rise of the Gatebreakers (SAMPLE CHAPTER)

The Gatekeepers Series

M.L. Katz

Rise of the Gatebreakers by M.L. Katz copyright @2015

All Rights Reserved

This book is a work of fiction. People, places, and events are the products of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual people or historical events is entirely coincidental.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored, or transmitted without express permission of the author. With that written, small snippets may be used for relevant reviews.

The Far Point Massacre

Year I of the Rehan War

The fourteen children of Far Point Village huddled together inside a rocky cave. Though the spring day had started out cool, the heat from their bodies and the damp cave walls soon made the refuge humid and uncomfortably warm.

After the hidden children heard the fight for the village begin, the hoarse shouts of the attackers blended with unspeakable cries from the defenders. Despite the distance and insulating cave walls, the roar of battle soon grew tortuous. The only mercy was that it did not last long.

Rabin Dranath Grandtree, the hybrid boy, sat on the dirt and pebble cave floor beside his younger siblings. He wanted to retch from the stink of sweat and fear.

Jan and Kim Grandtree Dranath, the daughter and son of Rabin’s mother and stepfather, huddled together on a mat with their eyes closed. They all knew they needed to be quiet. Rabin worried that if he opened his mouth to speak, he might start howling. Once in awhile, he reached over to pat Jan’s slim shoulder or run his his fingers through little Kim’s tousled hair. He hoped the gesture gave them comfort.

Through the day and into the night, Rabin had heard both of his younger siblings whimper quietly, doze off, and then wake to begin again. When they woke, Rabin believed he could almost taste their fear. He could certainly taste his own like an unpleasant surge of bile in the back of his throat. Hours passed. The thin stream of moonlight that filtered down into the cave melted away into gloom.

“It’s pitch dark now,” Rabin whispered to the larger boy beside him. Del Gerson, the oldest and biggest of the village children, had mostly stayed quiet. At sixteen, he wasn’t even exactly a child in the way that twelve-year-old Rabin still was. Del was already as tall as most men, and his broad arms and chest were dusted with blonde hair.

In response, the older boy just sighed and said, “Steady, there. My father and your mother told us to wait for help. We’ve got food and water for three days. It hasn’t even been one day. We have to believe that they had planned for something like this.”

After Del spoke, the children heard the muffled pounding of hoofbeats. At first, Rabin’s heart rose. That had to be their rescuers. Rough voices shouted in a language that sounded like wolves growling. Jan started to whimper. Dirt and pebbles sprayed into the cave. Rabin put a gentle hand on her shoulder to quiet her. Another younger child cried out in the darkness. Del slid over to shush him.

The Twice Dead 

I just published The Twice Dead, so it's really hot off of the e-presses. You can find out more about the book on the page dedicated to The Twice Dead and Waking The Zed.


Do you like the cover. The cover art is typical awesome stuff by CCR Book Design. Thanks for being so talented and also for mentioning the new release of The Twice Dead on your website!

You can still find the original novella (expanded and revised a bit) on Amazon if you just want a taste. I hope my cooking is as good as Hercules's cooing is in the novel though, and you'll want a bigger bite (get it, zombies?).