Apr 13, 2025

Why am I doing this?

Hello, Fantasy Lovers! I hope your weekend was refreshing. May your new week be filled with love and kindness.

Some of you may be wondering why I'm doing this. By this, I mean dropping new chapters from ongoing books every week in my newsletter. I mean, there's bound to be plenty of errors along the way, inconsistencies, changes in direction and such. Why let everyone see the messy side? What if they see the messy side and decide I'm never reading one of this clown's books?

Also, I'm giving away books that I hope to sell someday. There will probably be some people who read all the chapters but skip on the book. That's lost sales, right there.

Both of those are true. However, I have counters. For one, I'm thinking there's at least some of you who would like to see how the "sausage is made" so to speak. You get to see behind the scenes. At least I hope there's a few of you like that. 😊

But I think my main reason for doing this is that writing gets so danged lonely. It's a very isolated sort of activity. I spend months creating stories in a vacuum, with no real idea how others will react to them until the book is finally done and published.

My hope is that sharing these chapters with you in more or less real time will spur engagement. I'm hoping that people will have comments or suggestions (some have already; you all are the best ❤️). Or just simple encouragement.

I want all of you to know that you have no idea what it means to me to receive replies and comments. Each one is a candle lighting the way forward. They really help keep me going.

Thank you for reading. Don't forget to hug your loved ones, and forgive those you are holding anger against.

Peace,

Eric

Last Stop by Django Wexler

I just finished Last Stop a few days ago, and I simply must recommend it to you. It's set on a world that is perpetually cloudy. The landscape beneath the clouds is heavy jungle. The jungle is teeming with mantids which are like 9-foot-long praying mantises, along with plenty of other predatory insects. People can only survive at altitudes too high for the mantids to survive, which means our species has to carve out an existence on the sides of mountains, up where the air is thin.

The characters are a band of mercenaries that operate out of a ship that's basically a small aircraft carrier that flies. They escort ships from one destination to another, protecting them from pirates. But pickings are lean and their ship is falling apart.

They get offered a job to venture far into unknown lands looking for a mysterious place free from the mantids. I won't spoil any of what happens. I'll just say that the characters are excellent. There's lots of action. The world is fascinating (I haven't really done it justice here. I have a terrible time with reviews.). It's well worth the read.

What have you read lately that you really enjoyed? I'd love to hear about it. I'm always looking for new material.