Tag: sufferborn sequel

Sufferborn Book 3, Fist Draft Done!

On By jccarverIn upcoming book

Merry Christmas to all! I feel compelled to write this blog right now as a way to get out of a sort of funk I’ve been suffering with. I haven’t wanted to do much of anything online, besides spend money :} . It has been a bad 2 years for me, but this Christmas season, so far, is a lovely one.

My first announcement for today is that the third installment of Sufferborn has been written! It’s only the first draft and will be followed by a long few months of editing, starting in January, but the project is halfway complete at this point. It took me 11 whole months to write it and it is nearly 230,000 words long, whew! For the first two books, it only took about 3 and a half months to write their first drafts, but this year was different. I had trouble focusing. I took on a big computer building side project, two of my relatives died, and I continued to deal with publishing-related woes that are hard to explain to those who don’t work in this business. I was spread thin, and 11 months got the job done.

I’m psyched about Sufferborn book 3! This book is VERY important in the series as it’s at the center of the entire composition and it stands as a pretty big mid-series climax. So buckle your seatbelts, Sufferborn fans. By now, you all know that I don’t write slow books, haha! My books are full of action and drama.

Since I finished the book a little later than expected (LOL), I’m, of course, having to push back the release date. So I’m hoping for mid 2022 now. It’s a very big book and shouldn’t be rushed. I’ll do my best and keep you informed.

I also finished the front cover painting for book 3! Another very big task done. There will, as always, be a back cover painting too, but I’ve yet to decide on a subject. I’m currently working to create a reference and…

Dah-da-na-naaaaahhhh! This brings me to my other bit of big news: I am writing this post on a bitchin’, badass, new custom-built computer—the first computer I’ve ever created with my own hands! It’s beautiful. I talked about this project in a previous post, you might remember, but the finished project turned out slightly different. What I have learned is that building a computer is quite a twisty-turny adventure. You really have to be in tune with what you’re doing and trying to accomplish. But I did it, and it’s just fabulous. This computer is the new center of my publishing company, and not a moment too soon. As it turned out, I wound up deciding to get a Ryzen 5950x, which has 16 cores, instead of my original plan of getting a threadripper. I made this decision after discussing it with someone online who convinced me I didn’t need a threadripper for what I was trying to do, lol. Alongside it, I wound up getting a Nvidia RTX 3070 graphics card. Obviously, I would have gotten a higher tier, but the current graphics card situation was insane, and I just decided to get the best thing I could get my hands on. To be honest, my 3070 is AWESOME. Computer people in the youtube videos act like it has to be a 3090 or you’re just not at the best level, but all that talk is silly. I’m here to tell you this if you are currently trying to get a graphics card. My computer is amazing thanks to my 3070. I managed to get it by watching the Newegg website closely, checking its stock about three times a day (so not too closely, hahahah!) When I happened to catch this 3070 in stock, from a reputable American seller, I jumped on it. Ok, I didn’t even jump on it that quickly lol. I hemmed and hawed for about an hour. I asked my mom if she thought I should get it lol. And THEN I bought it. I paid about 800 dollars more than its retail value, as these were ridiculously inflated this year. My decision was justified though, because it’s for business. I really wanted my workflow to improve. And it has.

The book and the computer were the best things to come out of 2021 for me. I’m really hoping things will be different in 2022. I’m feeling good these days. I get a winter vacation, since I’m letting the book simmer before reading it with fresh eyes. And my day job has lightened up considerably, because this is a slow season for the work I do. So finally, I’m getting some rest and feeling at peace, after a long, grueling year of deaths and penny pinching and emotions coming from places both external and internal.

I hope for now, my suffering is over. And I’m excited about Christmas. How about you?

Merry Christmas.

There’s the magnificent bastard now–my computer! XD

Reflecting on Book Creation in 2020

On By jccarverIn Uncategorized

Well, we made it. 2020 is almost over, lets be joyful. I spent the entire year writing and publishing the second book in the Sufferborn series: Unwilling Deity. Sorry for my lack of a post back around November 26, when it came out. I’ve been living in a whirlwind! But yes, the book is out now, and I’ve often pondered that this one was created in 2020. I wonder if I’ll always remember that.

Unwilling Deity is a pretty wild book, I must say—at least as far as my history of writing. I shocked myself with the things I worked up the nerve to put on paper. I tore down some boundaries, hopped to the outside of my comfort zone, and set loose the wildest side of my imagination. I guess Kalea experiences a similar whirlwind within the book. It’s almost like she goes through her own “2020.”

As usual, creating the book took total dedication and diligence, but as I sit here, on December 29, 2020, I feel relaxed and at ease. I might just be getting the hang of this book thing. Heck! I even already have book 3 outlined! I’m supposed to be on a 2-month vacation away from writing, but found it feasible to go ahead and do the outline, working for only a few hours each day until it was done. It’s not 100% done yet, I still have to arrange my scene summaries in proper order, but the hard part of that is behind me. On January 1st, the next book will begin.

Creating the book in 2020 wasn’t terribly hard, of course, even as far as taking my cover paintings to be professionally photographed. The process had its usual stresses, but all in all, I feel positive that book creation might become much easier soon. I’ve done two novels now, and am about to write the third. As a hard-working person, I feel after 2 years, that I can handle it better now, physically and emotionally. I’ll let you know if it unfolds otherwise, hahah!

Before I go, I’ll tell you a few things which might be necessary. Unwilling Deity turned out 40,000 words longer than Sufferborn, and that resulted in an increase in its printing cost—which means I had to raise the price to 17.99 USD for paperback. In order to make up for that price increase, I added two additional illustrations to the lineup. So where Sufferborn had four illustrations in its paperback form, Unwilling Deity has six! I think that’s pretty cool, and I do think that it looks good this way, so therefore I’d like to use this amount of illustrations for the rest of the series. I do wish I could write the next book slightly shorter, for my convenience and yours, but alas, my book 3 outline has several more entries than even Unwilling Deity had. This is an epic series, after all, and by nature epics tend to get thicker with each installment.

Also, Sufferborn, book 1, will get a new cover! It already has a new blurb on Amazon, and a new front cover is coming soon. I’ll talk more about this cover change soon. I’m currently working on the painting, and enjoying the process, as usual.

Hope you had a good 2020. Happy New year!

Sufferborn on Amazon

Unwilling Deity on Amazon

“Unwilling Deity” Book Cover Reveal!

On By jccarverIn Book Covers
Unwilling Deity coming November 26, 2020

Sufferborn book 2, Unwilling Deity is ready to show its face! Please excuse my lack of pageantry in this cover reveal, just a simple blog post, but I’m very very busy…publishing the darn thing! It’s the year 2020 at the time of this writing so I don’t think I have to explain that things have been a little…weird. It was not a good year for me—for other reasons. Hard to explain. Anyway! I’m looking forward to the last bit of the year because that’s when it comes out—the book (*cue the angel choir*). All my work will pay off. Just the satisfaction of holding the final product in my hands—that’s what I live for.

I work EXTREMELY hard at this stuff in order to put these books out in a timely manner. I promise, you won’t be waiting yearS to get the next installment of the story, just…you know…ONE year XD. I have to work overtime, besides doing my day job, in order to create these books, it’s a very big deal (at least to me) and it shakes up my life like I’ve never known before. And now that turbulence is the norm.

So the book cover! It’s an oil painting. Are you surprised? “Her Ecstasy,” was painted on linen stretched over a panel. In person, it’s 27×36 inches big, and I’m not sure how long it took to paint. My process usually takes about 40 hours, BUT I gotta tell ya, it took several tries to get this right. My first attempt I painted over and then scrapped my second attempt before I finally came up with this beauty, so there you have it. The book cover. A long, frustrating process, but I am happy. It says a lot about the story on the pages. Lots of themes going on here to prelude what you are about to read.

This book, folks, was really something for me to have to write as well. It put me on an emotional rollercoaster besides the whole “2020 effect.” The book is rough, dark, gritty—it’s wild! I don’t know, you should just read it.

And it will release on November 26! Thanksgiving day, because this is what I’ll be thankful for (*glasses clinking*). I’m going to see about putting up the preorder soon, perhaps in a few days. So you should DEFINITELY follow this blog! Just click the button on the side panel and you’ll never miss a future book in the Sufferborn series!

The Suffering Continues

On By jccarverIn Uncategorized

Well, not really, I feel pretty good these days. So how about an update on this fine spring day? As I write this, I am two days away from doing a little “first review” of the book I recently finished: Unwilling Deity, book 2 of the Sufferborn series. It has been simmering in its dark corner of my PC for the last four weeks since its completion. The next step is a quick read-through and then I’m sending it off to the editor for a formal critique! Am I nervous? Meh. I’m psyched about the book, and I hope you will like it too!

First thing you might be thinking: what the hell is going on with this dark-ass picture? This, for your curiosity, is a little sneak peak of the new book—a character I had not planned to create, who wasn’t in the outline, and just sort of walked on and insisted I give her a part in the book. How could I say no? It was a pretty wild idea and I was liking it! So I said, “Welcome aboard, mysterious lady with horns and Cheshire Cat smile!” You’ll also notice the new art style. If you’ve been following me on Facebook and/or Instagram, you might’ve heard that I’ve been dabbling in the art medium of 3D rendering. Ok, not dabbling, I have been obsessed with it! Working with 3D character models has been something I’ve kept in the back of my mind for several years now, since I first saw the Poser software for sale on Amazon. I hemmed and hawed at the price and the possibility that my computer wasn’t fast and powerful enough for such a thing. Then a few weeks ago, I saw some other author’s Daz Studio render on Instagram. To make a long story short, Daz was free to download and I had nothing to lose by testing it out. Now I’m hooked. But don’t worry, because this isn’t the downfall of my paintings, it’s the dawn of my own paintings’ renaissance. I’m going to use Daz to create precise references I will use to paint better pictures. Fantasy art is all about painting something that doesn’t exist, and creating realistic art requires painting from real references. Daz will combine these two elements for me. No longer will I have to pick out an art model and stretch reality to make him or her look like my book character!

So that’s what I’m up to these days.

After finishing writing the book, I’ve taken this month of March to dive in and do some deep study with Daz Studio, using it to create cover mock-ups of potential paintings BEFORE ever lifting a brush to canvas. Aside from my upcoming sweep-through of the manuscript, the book cover is next, and I’m loving the creative process! This is what I live for.

Sufferborn fans, hang tight, Unwilling Deity is coming. I’m doing great and making fast, steady progress. If you enjoyed all the sex and violence in book 1, book 2 throws gasoline on that heat!

Rest Assured! “Unwilling Deity” is Coming Soon.

On By jccarverIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

Expect Sufferborn book 2 “Unwilling Deity” to be released in late 2020.

Sorry to put this so plainly, without any fancy pageantry or illustration, but apparently this must be said right now. Sufferborn book 1 JUST came out mere weeks ago (in Oct. 2019), and I am excited to state that book 2 is almost finished being written (a superhuman feat by my standards to be honest), and that’s the thing, it DOES take time. Not only did I NOT pre-write the whole series, nor am I rapid-releasing these books, I also don’t believe in doing that. At all. Yes, I’ve spent the last 20+ years developing this series, but nonetheless, the final product of the books are coming hot out of my keyboard. Why? Because I care a LOT more about quality and not about vomiting the books out onto Amazon as fast as I can.

Quality is number 1.

Please understand that what you are dealing with is a brand NEW series. I didn’t write these books ten years ago, giving you the luxury of reading the whole series in one evening; and I’m not writing them overnight and publishing them by day. That wouldn’t be a good idea at all.

A realistic but also close-cut release schedule would be to put out 1 book per year. That’s the goal. And it would only take 6 years—not too bad, right?

Thanks for understanding. But also, thanks for loving book 1! Dorhen thanks you too!