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Kal’s October 2025 Update

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October is here, the temperatures are almost down to something resembling not-awful here in the south, and I’ve been getting some writing done.

My wife is still going through cancer treatment, so that’s a big impact on my life, as well. I’ll admit the stress from that and everything has slowed down my writing process quite a bit. Thankfully she’s doing really well and things are looking good.

The other good news is that I’ve finished two novels (yay!) this past month of the eleven novels I have in progress (boo!). It feels great to clear two projects off my desk, as both of them have been things I’ve worked on for a year or more. In the case of one, it is a setting that I’ve been meaning to write in for over 25 years, in the other, well, I’ve had various drafts for fifteen years or more.

I’m submitting both of them to publishers, so it will likely be a bit before they come out to you all. In other good news, though, I’m making great progress on the next Star Portal universe novel, which will be the sequel to Shadows of Valor. I hope to have it done this month and (hopefully) published in early November.

Next on the queue is the 5th Eoriel Saga book which has been trapped in limbo for too long. Once I finish that book, I’ll have completed 4 books in 2 months bringing my works in progress from 11 down to… 13. Somehow getting more done means I have more in the queue.

I’ve got a very aggressive writing plan for the next few months, because who really needs sleep, anyway, amirite?

Anyway, that’s all for now, thank you all for reading and thanks for your patience. Here’s to hoping I have book announcements and trailers for you all soon!

Reading

Kal’s July 2025 Update

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June seems to have flown past.

If you hadn’t seen it, Three Ravens Publishing released my superhero novel, Get Wreckt, last month. It was a fantastically fun novel to write and the reader feedback has been great, so check it out.

Current projects on deck… well, I’ve got nine works in progress, several of them at 80,000 words or more which is nearing completion. My hope this month is to complete 2-3 of those projects and get them out to my beta readers.

I have a new cover for Shadows of Valor, one that I think fits the overall series much better. If you haven’t read Shadows of Valor and you *are* reading the Children of Valor series, you might want to pick it up as the next book I have planned for release in the series is Spectres of Valor, the sequel to Shadows of Valor, and then shortly after that the tenth Valor’s Child book, Valor’s Liberation. Minor hint, they’ll have some crossover, so you might want to read up to find out what’s been going on on Century while Jiden and others have been offworld. Shadows of Valor picks up after the events of Valor’s Stand, the 5th book of the Children of Valor series.

Both books should be coming this fall, as long as everything lines up.

One of the projects nearing completion is the next Eoriel Saga book, which I hope to have out soon as well.

Additionally, this weekend 11-13 July 2025 I’ll be at Congregate in Winston-Salem, NC. I’ll have a vendor table there for my books, though I’m not currently scheduled for any panels but I may fill in if they have any openings. Timothy Zahn and Michael Stackpole are both guests there, along with Jacob and HP Holo, and others. So it looks to be a fun convention. If you’re in NC, I recommend attending!

Additionally, as many of you probably know, I’ve moved my professional writing advice over to my substack. If you want to read either, you should take a look.

I’ve also been a bit more active on my YouTube channel, primarily with gaming posts, so if you’re into painting miniatures/tabletop gaming, feel free to check that out.

For everyone, thank you for your patience as well as I haven’t been as productive as I’d like while my wife goes through her cancer treatments. My focus has been on her health, which has to mean everything else has taken a back seat for the time being, though as you can see, I’m still working on multiple projects as much as I can.

That’s all for now, thank you for reading!

Reading

Heart of the Mountain Book Reviews

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DON’T BUY THIS BOOK… BUY THE WHOLE SERIES.

Larry Correia has written a lot of great books. What he has done with Heart of the Mountain is wrap up a series of books, closing out an Epic Fantasy series with a huge cast of characters and multiple plot lines.

Get the book here: https://amzn.to/4gvwgFv

His series features an array of characters, including heroes, villains, scoundrels, ronin-like wanderers, wizards, and monsters. Every character has their own motivations, and often when you think you understand a character they turn over a new leaf. Villains have redemption arcs andheroes have falls from grace.

Ashok Vadal strides through it all, a monster, a hero, in a Vedic-style epic, an evolution from a broken and in many ways mentally crippled man into a hero of legend. He is one part man, one part paladin, one part mystically/cybernetically enhanced super soldier, and all badass. Ashok is a looming Darth Vader, if Vader cut down stormtroopers instead of rebels.

Heart of the Mountain does what it says on the tin, it concludes a fantastic series in an epic ending. This isn’t a Disney ending, either, fighting requires sacrifice, some people champion what is good and right, others sink to their lowest level, and still others surprisingly rise to the occasion.

Don’t read this book because talking heads say it is unique or award winning, read it because it is fun, it is engaging, and because Larry manages to slip in interesting things about human nature, about ambition, power, and the lies people tell themselves sometimes to avoid facing hard truths.

Larry slips in fascinating sci-fi elements, prophesy, messiahs, gods, demons, and more, letting things unfold in fashions that leave enough to be understood while still keeping some mysteries to consider.

It takes an incredible storyteller to write a story of this scope, a detailed mind to bring all the plots to conclusion, and a deep understanding of human nature to do it all in a way that feels natural.

Bravo, Larry, you magnificent bastard, bravo!

Reading

Kal’s December 2023 Update

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It’s December, already… 2023 has been a very hectic year, at once both long and at the same time, far too short. Mostly in the aspects that I have been extremely busy all year, between work, a move, writing, and all the rest.

That said, I released my forty-second book, Forsworn Valor, the fifth book of the Forsaken Valor series, on 1 December. I’m working on the Children of Valor series right now (currently finishing the ninth book).

Valor’s Uprising is set to release on 5 January 2024. I’m working on the sixth book of the Forsaken Valor series next, then switching tracks to the Eoriel Saga and Shadow Space Chronicles.

That’s all for now, thanks for reading!

Reading

Kal’s May 2019 Forecast

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Hey everyone, it’s been a bit of a crazy past few months, but I’m getting back into things and I should be on track again soon.  If you hadn’t seen, my father passed away recently and combined with some other family things, some work things, and some Army things, well, life has been a bit more hectic than usual.  I can’t say it’s getting any better in the near future, but I am adjusting and, well, there’s about as much good as (or more than) the bad.

So, anyway, what’s the rest of May hold in store?  Well, I’m hopeful to get Stolen Valor, the 2nd Forsaken Valor book, completed, edited, and published by the end of the month.  It’s a matter of completing it and getting it to my beta readers in time and I think that’s on track.

As I finish that off, I aim to do the same with the second Argonauts book, A Cold Day in Hades, which I need to finish, edit, and again, send to my beta readers.  From there, I’ll do my final edits and send it to Chris Kennedy Publishing.  My goal is to get that sent to them before the end of the month, as well.

What else, you ask?  Well, there’s quite a few projects I want to work, including a new one (gasp, I know, I have a lot of in-progress series).   But the next book I plan to publish is the last of the main-line Shadow Space Chronicles books, The Star Engine.

I know I won’t get it done before the end of the month, but it’s going to be coming in the next few months.  It’s a bit behind when I planned it, but I think it’ll be worth the wait, tying of the SSC storyline and setting things up for future series in that universe.

That’s all for now, thanks for reading!

Reading

Black Friday Book Recommendations

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If you’re like me, then the thought of going out into the crowds of Black Friday sounds about as much fun as running a cheese grater across your face.  I’ve got the perfect answer for that!

Stay home, read some books.

There’s a few interesting ones by authors I’ve come to know that I can recommend.  I haven’t read these yet, but they look interesting and a one of them is on sale:

On Different Strings is only $0.99: https://amzn.to/2Dv8o66

Guitar virtuoso Amy Ziegler ekes out a precarious living as a teaching assistant in the Mays College music department. One day a mysterious older student shows up: Ian Keenan, an engineering professor and closet songwriter. Opposites attract, and music is the language of the spirit.

Each is passionate about music, and each has been deeply wounded in love. Thus a weird yet wonderful friendship grows between the reserved English academic and the outgoing small-town Texan girl who grew up in poverty. Each secretly starts yearning for more, but the world has other ideas. Soon they become caught in a maelstrom between rivals, exes, their own pasts, activists, and campus bureaucrats. Will the rapids tear them apart, or will love and sanity prevail?

This Fallen World is a new one by Chris Woods, a Dragon Award nominee and an all around awesome author: https://amzn.to/2PClzJI

The world has Fallen, but life goes on…

Matthew Kade was a corporate assassin—one of the best agents Obsidian Corporation had. But then the bombs began falling, and the old world ended. Now he must navigate the new world he finds himself in, a world where the strongest survive, and the weaker do their bidding…or die. 

Kade was always one of the strongest, though, so when a rich man’s daughter goes missing, he turns to Kade to find her and bring her back. But she has already been gone three days, and in the Fallen World, that is an eternity in which any number of things could have happened to her. 

Can Kade—a man with a price on his head—pick up the trail of the young woman and navigate the streets of the city to find her, or will the city’s denizens be the end of him? It will take all of Kade’s abilities to find her and save her life…if he doesn’t lose his first.

Fantasy, Reading, Science Fiction

Cyber… er, Tuesday

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So, I missed Cyber Monday, but I’ve got a variety of my books available for free for the next few days!  Prisoner of the Mind, The Fallen Race, and Renegades: Origins will all be free for the next five days!

Additionally, Valor’s Child, the first book of my Children of Valor series, will be discounted to $0.99 from the 28th to December 2nd.  So you can get it for just under a dollar.  Check them all out, tell your friends, and please leave reviews!

Links:

Prisoner of the Mind: http://amzn.to/2zLbOMH

The Fallen Race: http://amzn.to/1FzQRRq

Renegades: Origins: http://amzn.to/1UJCmkU

Valor’s Child: http://amzn.to/2ukhgni

Reading, Science Fiction

Ghost Star Wants You… To Leave Reviews!

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Hi everyone, Ghost Star has been out for almost a month. As such, it’s time for me to pester my faithful readers to please leave a review!  Amazon, Goodreads, wherever you prefer… even just emailing me to tell me you hate it.

For those of you who purchased it (and I know you’re out there, I’m seeing the sales) please leave a review.  I read them all and I take what you all say into account.  This is a growing universe and your feedback helps me to improve as a writer.

Thanks for reading!  Kal

Fantasy, Reading, Science Fiction

Books for the Holidays

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If you’re looking for some books to read over the holidays, here’s some recommendations, either books I’ll be reading or books I think are definitely worth the read.  If you’re like me and you already have a huge backlog of books to read (and stuff to write as well), then you can add these to the pile.

Up first is one that I’ll be reading to my son:

David and the Phoenix, Edward Ormondroyd

When young David moves into his new home, he decided that it would be more fun to go exploring the mountains around him, rather than unpack. When he reaches the summit of the mountain, he is met by a phoenix. After getting over their initial fright, they become good friends, and the phoenix decides to show him the magical wonders of his world. During their adventures there are many narrow escapes!

 

The next one is another fun book that I’m looking forward to reading:

Castaway Planet, by Ryk Spoor and Eric Flint

NEW ENTRY IN THE BEST-SELLING BOUNDARY SERIES. Stranded humans must adapt alien technology to survive on a dangerous planet.

Lost in the dark, half a year into their journey to the colony world of Tantalus, Sakura Kimei, her family, and her best friend, the alien “Bemmie” nicknamed Whips, are torn from the safety of their colony ship. In a crippled lifeboat, they had one chance to find a habitable world. But even then, they would find that their apparent salvation was a world of a thousand secrets

 

If you’re not feeling the holiday spirit or else you just feel like the holiday shoppers are hordes of mindless zombies, this book (and series) is probably for you:

Strands of Sorrow, John Ringo

BOOK 4 AND CONCLUSION OF THE BLACK TIDE RISING SERIES FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES BEST-SELLING AUTHOR. Sequel to Islands of Rage and Hope, To Sail a Darkling Sea, and Under a Graveyard Sky. A hardened group of survivors fights back against a zombie plague that has brought down civilization.

With the world consumed by a devastating plague that drives humans violently insane, what was once a band of desperate survivors bobbing on a dark Atlantic ocean has now become Wolf Squadron, the only hope for the salvation of the human race. Banding together with what remains of the U.S. Navy, Wolf Squadron, and its leader Steve Smith, not only plans to survive—he plans to retake the mainland from the infected, starting with North America.

Smith’s teenage daughters have become zombie hunters of unparalleled skill, both at land and on the sea, and they may hold the key to the rebirth of civilization on a devastated plane

 

And if you’re looking for something big to keep you occupied, I recommend my book Echo of the High Kings:

Echo of the High Kings, by Kal Spriggs

In Eoriel, the High Kings are legend: rulers who once stood against the darkness and ruled the world for two thousand turns of peace and prosperity. In the long turns since their fall during the Sundering, Eoriel’s civilization has faded. Dark men and darker beings have torn down and destroyed the old works. While some have held out against the grind of history, other places have been reduced to primitive tribes of savages, worshiping dark spirits and demons as their gods.
Yet a spark of hope remains. Some still believe in the old legends, some still fight to restore the old ways, and some will stand against the darkness, in an echo of the High Kings.

 

Reading

How I Learned To Hate The VAT

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My fellow self-published authors have no doubt already been bombarded by emails from Amazon in regards to changes in the VAT, but I thought I’d take a moment to tell my readers why prices are going to suddenly change on a number of books and how this change affects authors.  These changes take place on 1 January, 2015.

You see, the way the VAT used to work, it applied based on the seller’s country. So an author in the UK had a 20% VAT on top of the price of their book, off each sale. Now, however, it is based off the customer’s country. So when I sell a book in, oh, say Ireland, there’s 23% tax on top of the price of the book. This means for a book that is €5, the tax is an additional dollar, making the book €6.15. The way Amazon is resolving this is that the tax comes off the top… and my royalties, therefore are still as if the book sold for €5. What this means, is that either I lower prices (IE, to €4.12) which then should make that same book €5 to the customer or it goes for €6, which pushes me up around where some of the well-established authors are, and makes it less likely for a new reader to buy my book.

Now, since I get roughly €3.42 (70% royalty minus some delivery fees and such) off the sale of a €5 book, the difference, as far as I can tell through my projections, is that I get €3 now for a book that sells for the same price. Basically, a foreign country gets a dollar off each of my book sales while I lose forty cents per sale. Not a lot, individually, but that’s around €200 a month that I won’t get (and  €500 that some other nation does get). Keep in mind, writing is my second job, I still work full time. How would you feel if your boss told you that your pay is getting cut €200 a month to pay taxes in a country you don’t live in?