Today is the last day of the Curse Merchant Blog Tour, and to send me out on a high note, Harlie has written a glowing review of The Curse Merchant. To read her review and an excerpt from the novel, stroll on over to Harlie’s Books and see what she has to say not only about Dorian, but also the secondary characters.

And thus we bring January’s blog tour to an end! I’ve posted three excerpts on eight different blogs, I’ve had four author interviews, and received seven reviews. I thank you all for sticking with me, and I’d like to thank Holly Polk at FMB Author Promotions for setting it all up. Tomorrow I will wrap up the publicity tour for The Curse Merchant with a four day event here at Fistful of Fiction, so stay tuned!

Come February, however, I return to the writing dungeon as I begin drafting the next entry in Dorian’s story… The Curse Servant, The Dark Choir Book #2. In the meantime, if you haven’t checked it out yet, hustle on over to Smashwords for a free copy of “Bait and Witch”, the short story prequel to The Curse Merchant. Not to dangle the carrot, but something in that story might pop up in the next Dark Choir book!

I take the gloves off this morning for my guest post over at A Book Lover’s Library. I dole out six nuggets of advice for aspiring writers working toward their first work. If you have serious fantasies or even half-serious plans to embark on a novel project, jog on over and drink in my wisdom!

But enough about me, let’s talk about me for a while.

I’ve written a guest post that is being hosted at KMN Books this morning. I touch on the anti-romance, or the character throughline in which love as a motivation is replaced by hate… and question whether there’s a difference.

Today’s blog tour stop is hosted by a blog with the single most adorable welcome image I’ve seen yet. You have to go see it, seriously!

And once you’re there, check out the latest review of The Curse Merchant at Happy Tails & Tales. Five Paws!

So, a quick observation I’ve made recently. The Curse Merchant has been reviewed three times in the last three days, and each of these review bloggers have commented on the same thing. Here are some quotes; see if you can spot the thread:

“While you can feel that this is the first book in the series — there is a LOT to learn, Mr. Sloan is adept at making that learning fun. No giant info dumps here… One of the things I loved was that I got a rich, full sense of backstory, as if I’d read books full of it. I felt like I knew the characters mentioned, as though I’d read the scenes and events described and lived through what Dorian went through to get to this point. That takes some skilled writing.”

“A beautifully crafted story with the character of Dorian being both uniquely voiced and incredibly detailed.  Rich in history and research…”

“The world building and research that was put into this story made it so much more real. Everything seems to flow and mesh well. I am definitely looking forward to reading book two, as this is a fantastic start to a new series. You know I normally say I don’t like big info dumps- well, this story has a ton of description, but it never felt like that because it was written excellently. It felt like you were learning the back story, and not have random info thrown at you… This is a major A+ for me!”

One of the ambitions among fiction writers is to avoid the dreaded “info dump”, or exposition. The fiction genre is replete with such chunks of patent backstory, meant to ground the reader in the world and perhaps even explain a few of the world’s rules. This has become so prevalent that the average fantasy/sci fi reader has actually developed a kind of desensitization to it. Still, one tries more artfully to lace the history, rules, and the greater world into the plot itself. It seems I’ve succeeded in that!

I feel that more often than not an info dump is a sign that the author doesn’t trust the reader to keep up. Readers of fantasy are savvy, imaginative, and experienced. If you give them a sense of the present, and if you’ve done your pre-writing, then they will absorb the milieu as quickly as you’ve written it, and perhaps even more fully!

Two reviews in two days… possible? Even likely? You bet your blood-soaked curse doll it is!

A new 5-star review is posted up at I Am, Indeed. Go see what they have to say!

Happy Tuesday, one and all! The afterglow of the Inauguration Balls, the celebration of Dr. King, and the AFC Championship game is now on the wane, but I still have something to celebrate…

I’m quite excited about today’s blog tour stop. Author H.A. Fowler has written an amazing review of The Curse Merchant. Sprint on over to Bloodthirsty Muses and see what she has to say about Dorian Lake, and the blending of urban fantasy and noir.

First, the big news… the Ravens are going to the Superbowl!!!

Okay, sportsball moment over.

Today on the blog tour, I have an excerpt posted up at My Bookshelf. Only six more stops left after today, after which I’ll run a week-long special here on the blog showing photos of the real-world locations that inspired, or reflect, the settings in the Curse Merchant.

What’s better than an author interview? How about two interviews in two days?

In truth, I feel that today’s author interview over at Books and Tales is my favorite of the blog tour. I get a little bit “real” about expectations of first-time writers and what I’ve learned during this self-publishing process. Definitely worth a click to read!

I’ve got one hell of a blog tour stop today! Run on over to Full Moon Bites and check out my interview. I touch on how I got the idea for Curse Merchant, what I think about Dorian Lake, and what I feel is the hardest (and easiest) part of writing.

I’ve detailed my pre-writing process before on this blog, and those pages continue to receive the most hits on the entire site. People are clearly interested in the varied methods by which a writer may go about planning, outlining, and structuring a new fiction project.

Today I briefly touch on my outlining process in a guest post at The Avid Reader. Trot on over to their blog and see what I have to say!

Speaking of pre-writing, I’m happy to announce that I’m elbow-deep into pre-writing the sequel to The Curse Merchant. If you’ve read my post at Avid Reader, you’ll understand when I say that I’ve pulled the project back into “incubation” phase. I had completely outlined the story and had even begun my scene worksheets… but I had an epiphany in the car one afternoon which has radically changed the course of the next novel.

For those of you who follow the blog closely, you’ll recognize that I haven’t announced my completion of Top Secret Manuscript. I have, in fact, put that manuscript on hold. Why, you might ask? Primarily, I’m running out of time before my self-imposed deadline to get the Curse Merchant sequel prepped and ready for publication. Never fear… I shall return to Top Secret Manuscript, and may even divulge what genre it’s in, at the very least!