Lou Paduano | Urban Fantasy Novels | Sci-Fi Crime Series

Hammer and Anvil Cover Reveal

By

Just a short missive today. It was a whirlwind weekend at the Nickel City Con and I’m in recovery mode. What a great show. If you made it and picked up a book, you have my thanks. I hope you enjoyed the experience and that your first dip into the Greystone world is a good one.

What comes next is going to be even better!

Hammer and Anvil Cover Reveal

This was never meant to be. When I originally conceived the training period pieces describing Soriya’s formative years they were always smaller in my mind. Short stories akin to those found in Tales from Portents or Pathways in the Dark – 8 chapters, in and out, with a brief nod to the larger story at play.

They would come out one per year and only for newsletter subscribers. Easy peasy.

Then I started outlining. The story grew. The pieces became more intricate and the narrative took over.

I couldn’t be happier with how it is coming together and wanted to share the cover design as soon as I received it!

A special thanks to Marraii Design for the phenomenal job at putting this together. Nat is a true artist and takes such care to hit all the right beats with her covers.

Release Info

I’m still nailing down a specific date but you can expect Hammer and Anvil to come out in early October of this year! It’s going to be a crazy month but I am so freaking excited.

Let me know what you think of the cover at lou@loupaduano.com. I’d love to hear from you.

Thanks for reading!

May Promotions

By

Nickel City Con is THIS WEEKEND!! I will be there with tons of Greystone to share, including the cover reveal and more inside information for Hammer and Anvil, the first book in the Greystone-In-Training trilogy.

All 5 Greystone paperbacks will be on sale at the show and come with my certifiably sloppy signature inside!

You can grab the entire Greystone Saga for only $35!!

Art of the Arcane’s Incredible May Promotion

The May Sci-Fi and Fantasy Giveaway is going on now thanks to the wonderful folks over at Art of the Arcane. Dozens of free titles are available so be sure to stock up for the summer! Your e-reader will thank you.

The promo runs from May 13th through the 30th so check it out.

Signs of Portents is FREE right now.

In conjunction with the Art of the Arcane May promotion, the first book in the Greystone Saga is on sale for FREE. Follow Soriya and Loren in their hunt for a centuries-old killer bent on revenge in this thrilling opener to the series.

Nickel City Con is coming May 17th!

By

I will be at Nickel City Con this year! Will you?

I’m really hoping you’ll be able to make it to see me at the Nickel City Con in a couple weeks. It’s going to be a HUGE 3 day show at the Buffalo Convention Center with hundreds of guests lined up.

I can’t believe the number of comic creators and celebrities they’ve managed to snag for this one.

Don’t believe me? Take a peek at the special guests for the show.

Ross Marquand alone makes it worth it for me. You did see his rendition of the Red Skull in Avengers: Infinity War right? (INCREDIBLE)

Tickets are on sale now for the show. Pre-Order prices are still in effect and save you $5 for a one-day pass and $15 for the three day pass. Find out more here.

I’m a little excited if you can’t tell…

There is a buzz around this show like no other. Everyone seems to be aware of it and wants to attend. I hope you’ll make the trek and visit. I’ll be part of the HorrorFest show on the first floor with another good author friend of mine, James Alan Ross.

Check out his books below.

Forevergreen

The first day of seventh-grade brings news that sends fear through the entire student body: the new girl is missing. The once-innocent halls now harbor echoes of broken relationships, secret romances, invasive police officers, and the question asked with glances and whispers:

What happened to Sissy Daniels?

The trees behind Lakewood Pines Middle School hold deep, dark secrets…

 

The Haunting of Dylan Klaypool Book One – Whispers in Black Willow

To hear the truth, she must listen to the silence.

Dylan Klaypool’s dark history has her searching for answers that can only be found down a single path: paranormal investigation. Battling demons from her past, the high school junior’s obsession with proving the existence of ghosts has become the only consistent aspect of her troubled life.

Now living with her estranged grandmother in a new town and attending a new school, Dylan’s focus has not wavered. And the boarded up, abandoned house she discovered on Cemetery Road might hold the key that can unlock the secrets that have long haunted her.

Book Two arrives this October!

Both are only $0.99 right now on Amazon for the ebook.  Learn more about the books and the author!

Writing Update – April 30, 2019

By

Welcome to the writing update for April 2019! It’s been a crazy month in the basement as I try and close out some stuff and start others.

On with the show!

Writing Update

DSA Season One

I am currently in the middle of self-editing the final book of season one. But Lou, you said your deadline was today? What happened?

Jury duty. Crazy, right? I am fulfilling my obligation as a US citizen at the moment, so writing time during the Easter holiday hit a big snag.

I will be finished with Broken Loyalties next weekend and reading through all six episodes the following week! Very excited to pass this along to some alpha readers for feedback.

Hammer and Anvil

Another reason for the slight delay is the opening book of the Greystone-In-Training trilogy. My initial plan was to finish DSA before diving into the script for Hammer and Anvil.

Then my brain took over.

Stupid brain.

The script is DONE for this book. 106 pages of Soriya awesomeness that will serve as the spine for the draft. It’s actually a pretty tight script in my opinion. Sometimes when I work a little faster on a project than I should – i.e. all the time – I tend to overlook the nuances of each character’s arc.

I nailed them here perfectly. Every interaction is layered for character and plot. Each scene propels the narrative forward to the next.

Can’t wait to dive into the draft next month. Hoping to close it out by the end of May with edits in June. However, as you may recall, plans tend to shift slightly as life takes over.

Release Schedule

As it stands now, there are a few things coming your way from me later this year.

August – Greystone: The Complete First Cycle Digital Box Set

All five novels of the Greystone series in one fantastic package. The cover is awesome and you already know the contents are. There will be teases for what comes next as well as some personal reflections from me (I hope).

October – DSA: Season One, Book One – The Clearing

It all starts here! The people of Bellbrook, Ohio have vanished and only the DSA field team can solve the mystery behind their disappearance. Or will they become victims themselves?

November – DSA: Season One, Book Two – Promethean

The field team investigates a mysterious murder and runs afoul of a pyrokinetic trapped in a deeper conspiracy than any of them thought possible.

December – DSA: Season One, Book Three – The Bridge

The team is split between personal tragedies and professional inquisitions. Lines are drawn and loyalties are tested.

Where does Hammer and Anvil fit? Hopefully, in September but I’m leaving it open at the moment so I can nail down the draft. By the end of May I should have a clear picture of where it will fall on the schedule.

Stay tuned.

World Hopping – Tips to Transition Between Projects

By

There is a part of me that is terrified about leaving the world of the DSA at the close of season 1 edits. It’s the part screaming for me to keep going, keep drafting the next one and the next one until the story is finished. The small voice in the back of my head promising I will never get this close to this world again. Never nail the character voices, never remember all the subtle nuances of each character’s behavior and back story.

It can be a real fear.

But I’m going for it anyway.

Here is how I am preparing for the world hop back to Greystone next month.

World hopping tips:

Take it slow.

Pretty simple, right? One would think so. Over the last week, I’ve spoken to a number of writers who have a problem with taking it slow on a project. Either they are so jazzed about the world they’ve created or are afraid of a detail slipping through the cracks that slowing down seems to be the opposite of what they should be doing.

However, when crossing to a new project it’s exactly the right move.

Instead of launching into a novel sized plot, step back. Take some notes. Learn the subtle differences. Figure out the rules of the new project.

If you’re jumping into an older world, like I am with Greystone, rediscover what makes that story special. Read relevant passages from previously published work. Revisit old notes taken months, or years, earlier.

Reacquaint yourself with old friends.

Focus on smaller aspects first.

Instead of building a new series, work on a single character. Instead of understanding their entire history, focus on one specific event. Tear it apart, build it back together, anything to learn why it should matter and what it tells about your story.

Figure out those rules. Is your lead a smoker? Does she have a tattoo? College education? Siblings? Nothing is set in stone so play with the dynamics.

If characters aren’t your strong suit, turn to the plot itself. Pick up small events, images in your head surrounding your new world. Build the sequence and incorporate different aspects – character, important objects, history, etc – all to create a fully formed picture in your mind.

Broaden your scope

It’s all about building. As you learn each new piece, put it side by the side with the previous ones, to see where it leads. Don’t jump in and hope everything falls in line, create from the ground up and let it expand across the canvas.

Differentiate from the past

This is one aspect I’m nervous about. Making each world unique while playing to your strengths as a writer can be a challenge. Sometimes characters seem TOO similar, or are going through the same arc previously traveled in a different world. Learning the reason behind them, finding new dynamics or changing the game completely is your goal here before you’ve traveled too far and come up short.

Why is this story different? How should it be different?

Asking questions helps the transition when world hopping. Discovering those answers is the fun in creating the narratives that fuel your imagination.

Take it slow but don’t be afraid to push yourself in new directions. Explore possibilities. Your readers will thank you for it.

Heading Toward The End

By

I’ve officially started final edits on book 6 of the DSA. This will close out the inaugural season for the series, marking this as the end for me until after alpha readers comment on the books. I’m almost DONE.

And I am FREAKING OUT.

Closing out a project…

There is this sense of trepidation whenever I reach the end of a project. I’ve spent months fine-tuning and tweaking language, plot points, dialogue and more. Months asking questions about the work, nit-picking details and mysteries to see if they do enough to push the story forward.

Yet the fear remains.

It does so for a number of reasons:

The phoning it in factor. This is a real concern. At the end of a grueling project, months of time spent hammering together the perfect draft, the worry is there that maybe I didn’t put in enough time. Maybe another week, another pass, another draft would make it pop more.

Was that last self-edit just me spinning my wheels or did it strengthen the narrative? Could another one tighten the language, ratchet up the tension, or is it merely terror at sending it to other people?

Is this absolutely ready for other eyes?

Is it good enough to hand to friends and family. Has every question, every doubt, every concern been addressed and redressed within the narrative? Reaching the end never actually means the end, but it needs to be pretty damn close in order to feel comfortable asking someone else to give their two cents. If the first feedback received mentions the fact someone’s name changed halfway through the book (IT HAPPENS) can I handle it maturely?

The answer is no…

Little discrepancies, small plot holes are the bane of my existence and one of the reasons I pour through my drafts as many times as I do. I could let someone else find these errors, could totally allow others to pick up my slack so I can move onto the next draft, the next project, the next world, but I wouldn’t feel right with that.

This is my baby and it has to be perfect.

Accepting the end.

Acceptance is a tough concept for me as an author. Letting the books take wing and fly is like asking a newborn to feed and change themselves. Daddy ain’t gonna let that happen. So what have I done to accept the end, to allow a project to reach the finale?

Slowing down for reflection. When I started this final book in the DSA Season One, I built in an extra week of edits. This isn’t because the manuscript needed it. Broken Loyalties is one of the tightest drafts in the series so far. (You’re going to love it. It’s so much fun. Well, maybe not for the cast, but as a reader you’ll dig it.)

No, the extra time was for me to reflect on the journey. To tie off all concerns, to really dig into the narrative as a whole and make sure everything lines up just right. Not just for this season but for those to follow. It’s clocked in at almost 250,000 words so it’s a journey.

This method allows the pressure of producing this work to more gradually fall from my shoulders. To better see how things started and why it is where it is at the end. Every choice, every stray notion, everything comes into play here and by giving that extra time – taking those moments to pause and consider it helps to better understand why this is the end, here and now.

Savor the win

It may be called the end, but it never is. Alpha readers will take the DSA and offer feedback, which results in new questions to be asked. New perspectives to address through the narrative. Then it heads to my editor to be torn apart and rebuilt better than ever.

More readthroughs. More notes taken creating more changes to implement or argue.

This isn’t the end, merely the first round in a marathon for the next six months. Still, savor the win and accept the end as it stands at this moment. For this part of the journey.

Then get back to work.

Disclaimer: Links throughout this site may be affiliate links. All commission earned through these links go to Eleven Ten Publishing to produce more books for your reading pleasure.

You can view our privacy policy here.

Recent Posts