Roland Hess's Blog

If you’ve always wanted to have Walk in the Park on your bookshelf beside your copy of Lincoln, Fox and the Bad Dog, you can finally make that happen.

If you’re into the self-publishing pipeline, I’ll be uploading the typesetting template that I use for the series. It can save you a lot of time and grief when trying to get your own book reading for print!

So… there was a pandemic. It made it a little hard to get things done.

The Dog Who Was Also A Mountain isn’t on track, but it is happening. From a word-count perspective, it’s at around 25% done. And it’s going well. I think.

Anyway, it’s still happening, and judging by the last post I’ll say that it’s running on about a one year delay. That’s not terrible, all things considered.

Here is an adorable pup as compensation:

When I write a novel (see my series on process for a detailed breakdown) the step immediately for actually, you know, writing the thing is to do a detailed, chapter-by-chapter synopsis. It usually comes in at about 10% of the final word count of the book. In the case of the LFBD

I just finished the detailed synopsis for DWWAAM.

This means that I’ll probably start writing the book in December. I did a quick check on A Walk in the Park, with Monsters, and I started writing chapter 1 in May of 2017. The book was published in February 2019. That’s twenty months from start to publication. I had a long break in the middle of writing Walk in the Park, and while I can’t remember exactly why, I do know that when I came back from it I felt differently about writing the material. And maybe toward writing in general. It’s like during the break my muscles grew.

At this point, I’ll be shocked if it’s really [does math in head and on fingers] July 2021 before DWWAAM hits publication. That’s insane. Right now, I feel like I can blaze through this in six months flat. But who knows?

All I can say thus far is that we have another time skip, like Walk in the Park, and almost everyone and everything you liked from the previous books are back. Unless they were killed last time. Sorry. The ending is true to the characters and where they’ve gone, and most importantly to me, it’s true to the original concept behind the LFBD universe.

If you want to keep track of development and find out about the release date when it gets that far, either follow the blog or follow my Amazon Author Page.

Cheers!

Hey all — if you’re following the blog and wondering about what’s next for Lincoln, Fox, Babd, and Gwen after A Walk in the Park, with Monsters, I’ve finally gotten my shit together enough to start outlining the next book.

I’ve been really touched by the reaction that Lincoln, Fox and the Bad Dog and A Walk in the Park, with Monsters

So, if you’re wondering when you’ll get to pick up with the crew again, I’m heavily into the detailed synopsis phase of writing the third book. Sometimes titles change along the way, but for now I’m pretty sure that it’s going to be called The Dog Who Was Also a Mountain. Expect a finished book in nine to twelve months.

If you want early access as a beta reader when I get that far, hit me up at roland at lincolnfoxandthebaddog dot com

A while ago, I wrote an analysis of the plot of Pixar’s Coco and the classic Hero’s Journey story structure. It ended up becoming popular, so I just gave the same treatment to Thanos’ journey in Avengers: Infinity War. If you’re craving more Avengers/Thanos stuff in the run up to Endgame,

Thanos and the Hero’s Journey on medium.com

Thanks to everyone who has been getting Lincoln, Fox and the Bad Dog prior to the release of A Walk in the Park, With Monsters. Yesterday and today, LFBD peaked as the #4 best “seller” in among free books in Amazon.com’s Dark Fantasy category, and #34 in the much more competitive (think Harry Potter) Paranormal & Urban Fantasy category.

Basically, LFBD

From a business standpoint, I had run a small ad campaign to drive people to LFBD,

We’ll see how all of that translates to reviews and then follow-up purchases of A Walk in the Park, With Monsters.

Regardless — thanks again for getting the book!

After starting the manuscript a year and a half ago (summer of 2017), A Walk in the Park, With Monsters is finally finished, and available for pre-order on Amazon.com and Google Play/Google Books!

In addition to the release on February 7, book one of the series, Lincoln, Fox and the Bad Dog is now free on Amazon and Google. If you haven’t read it, go grab it while it’s free!

As always, beyond just buying or downloading the books, leaving a review on Amazon, Google or goodreads.com is the nicest thing you can do for an independent author. The five minutes you spend doing it means a lot!

Cheers

I’ve just finished the post-beta editing round of A Walk in the Park, With Monsters. All of the feedback that I received from my beta readers has been incorporated, and I’ve done a full read through. The last step before I start prepping for publication is to physically print the book and do a final pass.

I’m estimating that I’ll have the book available on Amazon in December!

This is Pip. She weighs 1 lb. 4 ozs. Ridiculous.

I was in Seoul for work a couple of months ago, and I took a bunch of photography walks. So, instead of Pittsburgh pics here, you’re going to get Seoul pics, and you’re going to like them!