Mitchell Hogan's Blog

It seems I was too hasty when, on the spur of the moment, I decided to set up a pre-order for THE CHAIN OF EYES, The Tainted Cabal book 2 — sequel to Revenant Winds.

Unfortunately, the COVID-19 situation where I live has escalated. Schools have been closed for two months, and it’s likely they’re remain closed until November/December. As a result I have two young girls who are now at home 24/7 and need to be home schooled, kept amused, exercised, and consoled.

After much consideration, I’ve decided to cancel the pre-order for THE CHAIN OF EYES. The book won’t be ready by December, and it’s too hard to predict when it will be ready, which I’d need to do to implement a delay rather than a cancellation.

This means that Amazon will penalise my account, and I’ll be unable to set up pre-orders for 12 months. So the next new release or two will go straight to released status. When I have updates I’ll post here and on social media.

I hope everyone’s staying safe.

Mitch

On the spur of the moment I decided to set up a pre-order for THE CHAIN OF EYES, The Tainted Cabal book 2 — sequel to Revenant Winds!

With everything going on over the last few years progress on this novel stalled (I unexpectedly had to deliver seven books… yes seven, when 47North and Audible jumped at both The Infernal Guardian and The Necromancer’s Key series). But with five of those books complete and the sixth almost done, I now have time to work on other projects!

The first draft of THE CHAIN OF EYES is at around 25%, and I figure having a pre-order up will be great motivation to finish it quickly and get it ready for release. I set the release date for December this year, but I can always bring it forward once the manuscript is in a publishable state.

Anyhow, I just thought I’d let everyone know!

The cover is a temporary one, and the blurb isn’t finalised, but it’s better than having nothing out there and no word on when the sequel to Revenant Winds will be ready.

Here’s the Amazon US link: The Chain of Eyes

And the novel should show up on Goodreads soon.

I am somewhat stunned… Booknest.eu has released their top 100 fantasy books of this century and my very own A CRUCIBLE OF SOULS was included! The crew over at Booknest.eu are very active in the fantasy community, including being judges in and administrating Mark Lawrence’s SPFBO every year, so it’s a huge honour to be included in their list.

But is the only way from here down?! Read the books I wrote after A CRUCIBLE OF SOULS to find out ;)

There are many great authors and book included in the list, so check it out here: FANTASY LIST: TOP 100 FANTASY BOOKS OF OUR CENTURY

INCURSION is finally out in the world!

This is my eighth novel and the first in a new series: The Necromancer’s Key. The series is set in the same world as REVENANT WINDS, SHADOW OF THE EXILE AND DAWN OF THE EXILE. I think the book turned out well, but I am biased…!

You can pick up a copy here at Amazon or if you prefer audiobooks at Audible.

And the print book is here: Amazon

Description:

A corrupted power stirs from beyond the grave.

A sacred order of knights sworn to protect the world from evil.

The Necromancer Queen will rise again.

Seventeen years have passed since the Necromancer Queen Talia was overthrown and slain, and her capital city destroyed by the Knights of the Order of Eternal Vigilance.

Anskar DeVantte, raised in the sacred disciplines of the Order, is now ready to face the brutal initiation trials to become a consecrated knight-sorcerer.

But the further Anskar rises in the ranks the more his faith wavers, and he is beset by harrowing dreams and uncertainty. As troubling powers awaken within him, a schism grows between Anskar and his hallowed Order, and he draws the hungry gaze of the vanquished queen’s fanatical followers.

As Anskar pieces together the mysteries of his early life, and begins to understand the malevolent forces gathering in his path, he finds himself with a crucial choice to make:

Remain loyal to the Order’s righteous mission, or control the dark powers growing within him.

Either way, his destiny is steeped in war. The only question is, which side will he be on?

I’ve been sitting on this news for a while, because it wasn’t confirmed and I didn’t want to jump the gun. Now I can happily announce that the talented and esteemed Michael Kramer will narrate INCURSION!

If you’re not familiar with Michael Kramer, he is held in extremely high regard in the fantasy audiobook listeners community, and has narrated most of Brandon Sanderson’s audiobooks, as well as Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time series, James Islington’s books, and many others! 

Follow the to see all of his work on Audible: http://bit.ly/Michael-Kramer

Needless to say, I’m looking forward to working with Michael, and for him to bring INCURSION to life as an audiobook!

The inestimable David W over at FanFiAddict kindly agreed to host the cover reveal for RAVEN: REAWAKENING, check it out here! 

And check out the cover below. There’s more information on the book and how it came about in the cover reveal post, so click the link and head on over!

RAVEN: REAWAKENING is already up on Goodreads. Publishing date TBA for the moment…

Description:

A woman transformed by the blood of demons. Deadly beyond reckoning.

Raven was once a member of the Grim Hand, a group of demonically altered assassins—until she staged her own death and began a new life free from brutality and murder.

But some secrets refuse to stay buried, and the past is reluctant to loosen its grip on those who hide from it.

When faceless assassins strike, Raven must return to a world of intrigue and violence, if only to save herself. Alone, trapped, and fighting a vengeful enemy that easily outmatches even Raven’s demon-hybrid abilities, she is forced to seek help from the man she once loved.

A man with a revelation that will shake Raven to the core and change her world forever.

The awesome Petros over at Booknest.eu was kind enough to host the cover reveal for INCURSION, check it out here! 

The cover is below, but both Petros and I add some flavour and more information on INCURSION and THE NECROMANCER’S KEY series in the cover reveal, so click the link and head on over!

INCURSION is already up on Goodreads, and on Amazon as a pre-order.

Description:

A corrupted power stirs from beyond the grave.

A sacred order of knights sworn to protect the world from evil.

The Necromancer Queen will rise again.

Seventeen years have passed since the Necromancer Queen Talia was overthrown and slain, and her capital city destroyed by the Knights of the Order of Eternal Vigilance.

Anskar DeVantte, raised in the sacred disciplines of the Order, is now ready to face the brutal initiation trials to become a consecrated knight-sorcerer.

But the further Anskar rises in the ranks the more his faith wavers, and he is beset by harrowing dreams and uncertainty. As troubling powers awaken within him, a schism grows between Anskar and his hallowed Order, and he draws the hungry gaze of the vanquished queen’s fanatical followers.

As Anskar pieces together the mysteries of his early life, and begins to understand the malevolent forces gathering in his path, he finds himself with a crucial choice to make:

Remain loyal to the Order’s righteous mission, or control the dark powers growing within him.

Either way, his destiny is steeped in war. The only question is, which side will he be on?

2019 – Revision, revision, revision…

Christmas is over, New Year’s is approaching, and so another year has passed by. Although I got a lot of work done in 2019, the year felt a lot more stressful than usual. I put that down to the fact I did far more revision than anticipated, which meant less time to write, and my two daughters getting older and cheekier.

End of 2018 recap: I signed with Joshua Bilmes at JABberwocky. You can read all about that here. And I signed a six-book deal with Audible for THE NECROMANCER’S KEY.

Most of 2019 has been spent revising and squeezing in new writing when I can, all with the aim of getting a few novels ready for Joshua to shop around to publishers. We decided to bring the quality of the novels up as much as possible, so that all were in fantastic shape (publishers aren’t looking for good, they’re looking for special). If that meant spending an extra six months to bring a novel’s grade up from A- to A, then so be it.

So as of right now I have three novels in publishable shape, all first in new series: SHADOW IN THE FLAME, book 1 of THE NECROMANCER’S KEY hexalogy; RAVEN: REAWAKENING, a sword & sorcery thriller; and FORGED IN COERCION, set in my Sorcery Ascendant world.

There should be news in the first half of 2020 as to what’s happening with each of these new series. With audio off the table for THE NECROMANCER’S KEY, my feeling is that I’ll self publish the series as most, if not all, of the big publishers will not sign print and ebook rights if audio is off the table — and if this happens the first three books are likely to be released in 2020!

I’m also now able to do whatever I want with the short story I wrote for the Art of War anthology for charity, THE LAST ARROW. I’ve revised the beginning and ending, taking the story to a more logical and grimdark conclusion, so all that’s left now is to decide what to do with it.

So writing wise, what does 2020 have in store? I can now revise the next two books in THE NECROMANCER’S KEY hexalogy. Both are written, I just need to go over them taking into account all the changes and feedback for book 1. While I’m doing that, my main goal is to write a third book in THE INFERNAL GUARDIAN series (potential release mid-2020), the sequel to REVENANT WINDS, and possibly get stuck into a new Caldan book. Though depending on any publishing deals this may change.

As I’ve said before, all of these other novels took a lot of time and effort, which delayed the sequel to REVENANT WINDS, but it had to be done in the the best interests of my career, and my goal of remaining a full-time author.

If all goes well, then 2020 will be my year of getting back into the publishing game. Right now my best guess is that I’ll release at least three books, and another three in 2021, which will almost double the books I’ve published!

My heartfelt thanks yet again to everyone who bought my books, or left a review, or helped keep me sane on social media.

Happy New Year, and have a wonderful 2020!

As a few projects I’m working on have reached the end of certain stages, I thought I’d provide an update!

2019 so far has been extremely busy with writing, revision, family, etc, but mostly revision. Far more revision than I anticipated. As you may know, I signed with Joshua Bilmes at JABberwocky Literary late last year, and some projects I’m working on needed tweaking and fine tuning before being in the best shape possible to be shopped around.

This has led to three manuscripts in fantastic shape, all first books in three new series. Book 1 of THE NECROMANCER’S KEY (the six-book series I signed with Audible already), RAVEN (a sword & sorcery thriller), and my secret project… which I can now reveal is in my Sorcery Ascendant world, set a few thousand years before the first series.

It might seem like I managed to get a lot of writing done, but the first drafts for these three books were finished in Aug 2017, Jan 2018, and July 2019, so fairly spread out.

All three books are in fantastic shape, and I would be happy to self publish any of them. However, which publishing path each of these series embarks upon will not be known soon. Hopefully I’ll know by late this year or early next year. And the publishing industry is constantly in a state of flux, so I’ll have to weigh my options very carefully.

But why, I hear you ask, didn’t you finish REVENANT WINDS 2 first or another THE INFERNAL GUARDIAN book? There’s a long answer, but the short version is that I needed to do what’s best for my career. Making a living from writing is rare, and extremely difficult. I have been fortunate to have made it this far, and I’d like to continue doing this for a long, long time. Being a hybrid author means taking advantage of the many different publishing paths available, and at this stage there are no bad options for me and many benefits to pursuing multiple paths.

The last 24 months of hard work have now set me up to be able to release a tsunami of titles over the next few years. In addition to these three books, the first drafts of books 2 and 3 of THE NECROMANCER’S KEY are done. That’s five books in total in the bag, and yet to be released.

I now have time to get back to other projects (such as REVENANT WINDS 2, Tarrik, and maybe Caldan…) At the end of the day I hope to give readers who like my work a lot more to be happy about!

I foresee more hard work in my future, but is it really work if you enjoy it so much?!

Mitch

If you read my August 2018 post on THE NECROMANCER’S KEY Audible deal, then you’d know that Audible also requested a novelette to be released as an Audible Original.

That day is here. A GODDESS SCORNED has been released as an Audible Original! Narrated by the fantastic Oliver Wyman who also narrated my Sorcery Ascendant Sequence, Revenant Winds, and my novellas Tower of the Forgotten, and At the Sign of the Crow and Moon.

That link again in case you missed it ;) A GODDESS SCORNED.

Audible members now get more 2 Audible Originals and 1 audiobook every month, so pick up a GODDESS SCORNED with an Audible Original credit and get to know more about Niklaus du Plessis, the immortal swordsman in REVENANT WINDS and TOWER OF THE FORGOTTEN.

Description:

Niklaus du Plessis, master swordsman, hasn’t aged a day since being chosen by his goddess. A slave to her will, he moves from one cryptic mission to the next in the hope of pleasing her and perhaps ascending to become her equal.

After centuries of dancing to his goddess’s tune, Niklaus meets the priestess Callis Drethna, and at her urging they embark on a quest together to find an ancient artifact. As they face mortal dangers, Niklaus’s affection for Callis grows, and he begins to wonder if there is more to life than unquestioned devotion.

Except a goddess’s chains are not so easily cast off, and Niklaus must make a choice between a mortal woman and one who is divine.

Whatever he decides, blood will be spilled. But will it be another innocent’s, or his own?