Final Front Cover Art, and First Chapter!

Time is capricious.

Sam's story continues - look for the first chapters on or Writing.com!

New Year's Wishes, ASID Updates and Roari's Resolution(s)

With 2015 just over two hours away here in California, I'm not so much reflecting on this year past as I am looking forward to the one ahead.... For you, dear Reader, I hope for a year full of joy, and many pages of adventures.

My contribution to the amount of aforementioned pages available for your imagination to dwell within was not as plentiful as I'd hoped in 2014, but with A Shadow in Doubt nearly ready, and my untitled-as-of-yet NaNo novel waiting, 2015 looks more promising.

Originally, A Shadow in Doubt, Book Two of Society in the Shadow of Civilization, was to be released this fall - I almost did it, but something wasn't sitting right with me. Then, I had the ah-ha moment, and, well, made a lot of work for myself revising things. Basically, everything is the same, but rearranged, if that makes sense. It doesn't, I know. Sometimes I wish I could time-travel, it would make things easier.

So, when, pray tell, will it be released? That's complicated too....

Why? Because I've decided to try something different this time. If you know what Wattpad is, you're lightyears ahead of me - but I'm there now too. Since I pulled back on ASID, I decided I'm going to release it on Wattpad and Writing.com, chapter by chapter, as I revise, and then release the ebook in February. But, it's New Year's Eve, so I'll post more about that later this week....

Twelve Days - Jayden's account of her time alone with the Society - is also coming to Wattpad and Writing.com in January. (No, I didn't forget about it!)

Lastly, I have two writer resolutions this year. The first one is easy - no more release dates until the release date is absolutely final, promise. The second one kind of scares me - I signed up for Twitter months ago, but have yet to tweet, LOL! So I resolve to figure it out this year, and use it!

Thank you, dearest Reader, for chasing after my dreams with me ... I hope each day of your 2015 is beautiful!

Roari

Time to Escape 2169

Fore Shadows: Escape 2169 by Roari Benjamin

Check Phase 1 of the Fall 2014 plan off my list -
Fore Shadows: Escape 2169 is now available!

This free 5400 word (approx.) short story is part of the Society in the Shadow of Civilization Series - both a prequel and sequel to The Shadow Watcher - told from Samuel's point of view instead of Sam's.  My initial goal was to keep it under three thousand words, and it got close to seven at one point, but I trimmed it back down.

If you haven't read The Shadow Watcher yet, you won't be lost, but you may get some spoilers ;) The events in Escape 2169 are some of the most important in the series, and it's been screaming to be written for some time, but it's also a stand-alone story.  As tempted as I am to write full length novels about Samuel, it's not part of the plan, right now.  More short stories are coming though, I've already started two. 

At the moment, the mobi, epub and pdf formats are available - for free - at Smashwords.  (Distribution to the iTunes and Nook stores will take a day or so.  The Kindle version is live, but it's priced at 99¢ until the price-match goes into effect, I'll update this post once that happens.)  And, don't forget to check out The Shadow Watcher - now just 99¢ in the Kindle Store.

I hope you'll enjoy reading this glimpse of Samuel's world as much as I enjoyed writing it.  Have a beautiful day!

Roari

Isiterra - The Tale of the Orbs

This version is transcribed from one of three known copies of "The Origins and Histories of Isiterra" written by Terrano, found in the antiquities vault at the Iselos Learning Hall.