Wednesday 9 November 2011

T C Southwell Books in Paperback

Due to popular demand, I'm making all my series available in Print on Demand (PoD) paperbacks, and I've started with my most popular series, The Queen's Blade. The first books of this series are now available to order on CreateSpace. The books will take anything from few days to several weeks to be delivered to you, depending on where in the world you live.

The paperback versions are of course more expensive than e-books, because of the production costs to involved in a printed book, but I've kept the costs to a miminum. The paperback books will suit readers who want a real book and don't enjoy reading on a PC or any of the e-book reading devices. I will eventually make all the series available in paperback.

You can purchase the books on CreateSpace here:

Book I: The Queen's Blade
Book II: Sacrifice
Book III: The Invisible Assassin
Book IV: Sacred Knight of the Veil
Book V: Master of the Dance
Book VI: Lord Protector
Prequel I: Conash: Dead Son
Prequel II: God Touched

Or on Amazon:

Book I: The Queen's Blade
Book II: Sacrifice
Book III: The Invisible Assassin
Book IV: Master of the Dance
Book V: Sacred Knight of the Veil
Book VI: Lord Protector
The Prequel I: Conash: Dead Son
The Prequel II: God Touched.

Sunday 18 September 2011

Book VII - When Angels Fall



 

I have received numerous queries about Demon Lord Book VII - Dark Domain, which I am currently working on. It has experienced several unforeseen and unfortunate delays due to family crises and tragedies, and it is still on-going. I no longer want to give a certain deadline for its completion, although I will still say tentatively May. The way I work, any distractions tend to throw me off and set me back, and that's exactly what has happened. The book is 90% complete now, but the final chapter is proving hard to write with all the unhappy events that have happened and are still happening.

I hope to be able to get back into the 'channel' soon, and wrap up this episode of the story so I can publish it. I do not want to rush it or force it, however, as that will produce an inferior product. So, I apologise to all of you who are waiting for the book and all I can say is: it's my current project and I'm doing my best to have it finished as soon as possible. When I do, I shall notify all those who have emailed me and post notices here on the blog and on Facebook to let everyone know that it is available and where - it will be available first on Smashwords and Amazon.

Friday 29 July 2011

Now Publishing as Paperbacks at Create Space

I have decided to publish all my books as paperbacks at Create Space, and I have set up The Queen's Blade there already. I'm just waiting for the proof copy, which will take about a month to be delivered, and, once I give the go-ahead, that will be the first book to be published. After that I intend to publish the rest of The Queen's Blade series first, then do The Cyber Chronicles, Demon Lord, Slave Empire and Broken World.

I've received numerous e-mails asking for paperback versions of the e-books, and it will be wonderful for me to have actual physical copies of all my books - a dream I've had for a very long time! I shall also order extra copies and see if I can't sell a few in South Africa. Ironically, my own country is the one place where I have made no sales. South Africans don't buy e-books, it seems, or at least, very few, and I hope to persuade a few Cape Town book shops to sell copies.

I've already set up the entire Queen's Blade series according to Create Space's guidelines, and it has been an easy process, simple and quick. I'm impressed with the service there so far. The biggest delay is the postage time, but after I receive the proofs at the end of September things should go quickly.

Thursday 19 May 2011

Now Publishing on Amazon

I have started publishing my books on Amazon.com, as well as the UK and German branches, now that the pirate who was selling my free books there has been defeated. So far, I have published 24 books, and I’ll be adding the rest very soon. I have completed publishing the entire Queen’s Blade series there, including the two prequels, Dead Son and God Touched, and also the Broken World series and the Slave Empire trilogy.

I have also published the first three books in the Demon Lord series, Demon Lord, Dark God and Grey God, the rest to follow soon, and the first four books of the Cyber Chronicles, up to Cyborg. I will be adding the rest of that series soon, too.

So for those of you who read my previous posts about the pirated books, please be assured, all these books are legitimate and legal. Thank you to all those who emailed me, concerned that the pirate had got hold of all my books. Thankfully this is not the case, and now he can’t steal them since I have published them on Amazon myself.

Saturday 30 April 2011

Amazon Pirates Defeated

Good news! The pirated copies of The Cyber Chronicles - Queen of Arlin, and Slave Empire - Prophecy, have been taken down on Amazon.com. Although the staff at Amazon did not respond to my emails regarding this matter, the message evidently got through this time. I'd like to thank everyone who sent emails or made comments on the site, which undoubtedly led to the pirated books being removed.

These books are both available for free on Smashwords.com and it's a sad day when pirates try to make money out of other people's work. A special thanks to Tracy Falbe, who went the extra mile to email Amazon and added reviews warning people about the books being pirated copies. Thanks Tracy! Visit Tracy's site http://www.falbepublishing.com/braveluck/index.html and get a free copy of the first book of her epic fantasy series Union of Renegades.

I hope one day my books will be available on Amazon, but at the moment Smashwords has a technical difficulty with this. Other news is I have now published the rest of The Cyber Chronicles series, Book IV, Cyborg, Book V, Overlord, Book VI, Warrior Breed, Book VII, Sabre, Book VIII, Scorpion Lord and Book IX, Precipice, and they're available on Smashwords.com. You can find them all here: http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/TCSouthwell. They should be distributed to the other retailers within the next few weeks.

I am now working on Book VII of the Demon Lord series, which is tentatively titled Beast God.

Friday 15 April 2011

Pirates on Amazon

I have recently discovered that two of my free books, Slave Empire – Prophecy and The Cyber Chronicles – Queen of Arlin, have been pirated and are being sold on Amazon.com. I have contacted the relevant department – piracy procurement, apparently – at Amazon and been roundly ignored.

They evidently don’t see the need to protect authors’ copyrights – well why should they when they’re making a cut of the pirate’s profits? They demand that I jump through a whole bunch of red tape hoops to prove I am the author of these books, when they clearly didn’t make the pirate jump through any, or he wouldn’t have been able to pirate my books in the first place.

If people are buying these books at exorbitant prices – $6.99 for Queen of Arlin and $3.20 for Prophecy – they are being resoundingly ripped off, as both these books are free on Smashwords.com. I’m unable to comment on this situation on Amazon, due to the fact that I’ve never bought anything there.

So if anyone would like to help, and has bought stuff on Amazon, please leave comments stating that these pirated books are copyright infringements. Just do a search on Amazon for ‘T C Southwell’ and the two books will pop right up. Thanks to all who help!

Wednesday 23 February 2011

New Review of Demon Lord and Interview with the Author

Tracy Falbe, author of The Rys Chronicles fantasy series and owner of Her Ladyship's Quest blog, has written a stunning review of Demon Lord, which is available on the blog. She will also be publishing an interview with me on her blog soon, and she has loads of interesting stuff there about indie authors, new fantasy books and her blog book tour, so go along and check it out. You can also download the first book of her series, Union of Renegades, for free.



Download here

The epic fantasy series begins as Dreibrand Veta and the conquering Horde of the Atrophane Empire reach a mythic Wilderness that beckons with its magical call to glory…

If only I had time to read, but right now I barely have time to sleep, what with editing more books to publish on Smashwords and re-writing the lost first part of Cyber Chronicles. After that, I shall be finishing the seventh book in the Demon Lord series, which doesn't have a title yet. Still, there's nothing I enjoy more than writing books, so sleep can wait!

Friday 7 January 2011

Twenty One Books Now Published

I have now published twenty-one books on Smashwords.com, five of which are free. These are the first book of each series, the hope being that once you've read the first one, you'll want to continue reading the story. I have also now published Demon Lord book three, Grey God, book four, Lord of Shadows, book five, God Realm, and book six, Son of Chaos, all on Smashwords.com.

I'm currently working on finishing book seven, as yet untitled, and I'll publish that one there too, once it's finished. For anyone with a website, I'm giving 40% to affiliates, and it's easy to sign up and become one.

Also, if you enjoyed Demon Lord and Dark God, I know you'll enjoy my other series, The Queen's Blade, The Cyber Chronicles, Slave Empire and The Broken World. I hope you'll read the free first books and decide for yourself, and please post a review and a grading for me if you have a moment!

I still have a few more books to publish, too, and I'll keep you up to date on the blog, so check back! Below is an excerpt from Grey God. I'll publish excerpts from the others soon, too.

******

Kayos' yell woke Bane at the same moment that the hut's door imploded with a terrific bang. He rolled off the couch, landing on his feet. A monstrous fire demon in man form charged in and sliced the couch in two with a curved scimitar, making Bane glad he had quit it. He directed a lash of power at it, and it exploded in a blaze of bright fire, then he spun, his hands raised. Kayos held two earth demons in true form at bay with a shield of blinding white fire, which made their fists crumble to dust when they struck it.

Mirra cowered in the furthest corner, her wide eyes filled with shock and terror. Mithran and Grem guarded her with drawn swords, their expressions grim and scared. The demons ignored the little group, intent on Bane and Kayos.
"Get out of here!" Bane shouted.

Grem turned to smash through the window behind them, taking Mirra's wrist to help her scramble through it. Bane swung around. The Naribis stood just outside the door, directing the demons, a goddess at his side. His eyes lingered on Kayos, sparing Bane an occasional hard-eyed look. The goddess had a cold, reptilian beauty, bright red hair piled atop her head, a slight smirk curling her thin lips. Bane glanced around at the empty corner to assure himself the trio was safe before turning to face the Narabis again.

Conjuring a sword, he destroyed the cabin wall with a blast of shadow and leapt at the Naribis, but two fire demons charged forward to protect their master. Bane destroyed one with a bolt of dark fire, then the other hit his shields with incandescent eyes. Two more earth demons shot up, and Bane dropped the sword to direct a lash of fire at them. They slumped to scattered soil, and he turned to the fire demon as three more stepped from the fire the Naribis had lighted outside the hut.

One of the earth demons that pounded on Kayos' shield crumbled, but two more rose behind him. He spun and smashed them back with his shield, chunks of soil crumbling from them. Bane drew power from the shadows and sent it at the fire demons with a sweep of his arms, extinguishing them, but more stepped from the flames to replace them. Bane knew that as long as the Naribis remained unchallenged he would continue to summon demons, of which he had a vast supply.

The dark power whispered names in Bane's mind, and he spoke the words of summoning. The demon that stepped from the Naribis' fire attacked the dark god at Bane's command, and the Naribis destroyed it as Bane summoned another. An earth demon quit the battle with Kayos to attack Bane, sending him staggering with a glancing blow as he leapt aside. He destroyed it, but more rose all around him. Diving between them, he scooped up his sword and charged the Naribis, who conjured a weapon and met Bane's blade with scything stroke that showered him with fat yellow sparks.

The goddess summoned demons in his place, and Bane unleashed a swathe of unfocused dark power to cut them down as his sword clashed with the Naribis' again. The hut burst into flames, as did several dead trees nearby, causing a twinge of concern to go through Bane as he wondered if Mirra, Grem and Mithran were far enough away, or behind cover.

The goddess' presence angered him. She was an added danger he did not need. One god was bad enough, two were overwhelming. He whipped around and sliced off one of her arms. She shrieked and staggered back, her face twisted with rage. Bane spun and struck at the Naribis again, forcing him to jump back as the sword slashed under his weapon and opened a deep gash in his droge body.

Bane spoke the words of summoning, and two earth demons rose to attack the goddess. She destroyed one, but the other sent her sprawling with a scream of fury. Bane summoned two more and sent them at the Naribis, who spun to destroy them. Bane thrust his sword into the Naribis' back, unleashing a swathe of fire as two demons rose behind him.

The Naribis howled and turned, causing the sword to slice through him, almost cutting him in two. He stabbed his weapon into Bane's side, and the Demon Lord grunted, doubling over before he jerked his weapon free and sliced off the Naribis' arms. The Naribis staggered back, his arms regenerating. The goddess had also replaced her arm, and continued to summon demons.

The Demon Lord glanced at Kayos, who held three earth demons at bay, and did not seem to be in too much trouble. The hut's rotten timbers burnt fiercely. Bane glanced down at the sword protruding from his flank, gripped it and pulled it out. Blood soaked his shirt as he leapt at the Naribis again, his sword scything towards his foe's throat. The dark god conjured another weapon to meet Bane's stroke, and he destroyed the three earth demons that attacked him from behind with a pulse of dark fire.

Again he spun and slashed at the goddess, almost cutting her in half. She fell with a shriek, crawling away as the Naribis attacked Bane from behind. He turned in time to deflect a blow aimed at his neck, speaking the words of summoning again. Fire demons stepped from the flames to attack the Naribis with burning eyes and fiery fists. He destroyed them, then leapt at Bane, who parried his strokes and countered with some of his own, forcing the Naribis to jump aside. Changing tactics, Bane summoned tons of lava from deep within the earth and dumped it on the Naribis and his goddess. They shouted the word of power as it engulfed them, and their momentary imprisonment gave Bane time to destroy the rest of their demons.

The Naribis emerged first, and Bane chopped off his head. He sprouted a new one, and his droge form protected him from the dull sunlight that probed through the forest roof. Bane burnt part the dark god's newly formed face away, and the Naribis howled. His goddess, who had freed herself, vanished.