LAUNCHED: Hymn of the Ancients Limited Edition Hardcover Kickstarter!

It’s alive, It’s ALIVE!!!

(Oh and by the way… It’s my birthday! Wooooooooooo yeaaaaaaaa)

After a lot of prep and legwork, I’m so excited to share the launch of my first Kickstarter campaign as an author. Behold, feast thine eyes:

Hymn of the Ancients: Hardcover Kickstarter!

How sweet it is.

I’m really excited about this, hoping it blows up, but we’ll see how far it goes! I’m excited for Kickstarter as a publishing platform, and hoping my first foray will be a smashing success.

So if you’re interested, please sign up and back the campaign! You get an awesome epic fantasy story, I get a birthday present 😀

Much love all,

Evan

AUDIOBOOK RELEASE: American Rebirth

File this under my life has been far too crazy lately, but I’m proud to (belatedly) let you all know that American Rebirth, Book 3 of the American Rebirth Series was released on Audible last month!

Oh yeah.

Voiced by the incomparable Mike Jameson, I’m really proud to finally have the whole trilogy on audiobook (took me long enough to get around to doing it, lol) and I’m very pleased with his performance. Mike is an awesome guy and a pleasure to work with, it’s been so much fun watching him bring the characters to life.

I have some grand designs to try and voice my own audiobooks for some of my newer works–I’d love to give it a shot, provided I can voice-act well enough to live up to my standards. Anyway, I’ll keep you posted on future audiobook releases. Y’all are the best.

Much love,

Evan

Cover Reveal: Blood of the Demonheart

I’m really excited to share with you the cover of Book 2 of Hymn of the Ancients: Blood of the Demonheart! Feast your eyes on all its glory, courtesy of cover artist Jeff Brown. It took some time and workshopping but he had great ideas on where to go with it, and I’m really happy with how it came out. What do y’all think?

WRITING UPDATE: I’m glad to say I’m most of the way done with the first draft of Blood of the Demonheart. It’s taken a bit longer than I’d normally like with this novel, but I’d rather do it right than rush it out. I’m hoping to have it released by Spring of 2022.

In other news, I have been continuing to workshop and write both a new Post-Apocalyptic novel, and a piece of contemporary fiction as well. Those are still in the early stages, but I’ve written a number of chapters for both. I’m looking forward to continuing to work on those, because I’m a crazy person and I have too many ideas and not enough time to write them.

Much love,

-Evan

Cover Reveal: DEATH IN THE WASTELANDS

I’ve been working with Jeff Brown on the cover for Death in the Wastelands, American Rebirth Origins and I’m really psyched to say it’s completed.

Hell Yeah.

He’s a pretty special artist. If you want you can check him out here at
Jeff Brown Graphics. It’s been fun seeing it come to life, but most exciting of it all is that it’s another milemarker closer to getting the book out there.

Getting the cover made is a big part of the story feeling like it’s coming to life. I’m editing it right now, and hopefully it’ll be ready by early Summer.

Man, I can’t wait. I think y’all are gonna like it.

-Evan Pickering

VERY GOOD NEWS!! And a Moment of my Gratitude.

First off, to those readers who took a second to write a review for my new American Rebirth Trilogy Box Setthank you from the bottom of my heart. It is because of you, that this awesome news has happened:

I GOT A NEW BOOKBUB DEAL!!!!

I submitted the very Box Set Trilogy in question for a bookbub featured deal, figured it was worth a shot. I got my first bookbub deal last year for HOOD and it was incredible. I sold thousands of books in a day.

That’s how badass a Bookbub deal is.

AND I GOT ANOTHER ONE!

Thanks to those people who wrote the reviews. If I didn’t have reviews, I don’t get no deal. So thank you kindly.

The featured deal for the boxset will be on Nov. 29th-Dec 2nd. It’ll be on sale during that time.

It’s pretty baller. I’m psyched to get the box set rolling, it’s something I’m really proud of. Looking at all three books together just kinda made something click and I felt pretty happy while I was formatting it for release.

I’m trying not to flip out, but it’s pretty freaking awesome.

See you soon, wastelanders.

-Ev

Second Edition of HOOD, Free Release!

Surprise!!

I’ve been wanting to do this for awhile, and while I was on vacation in New Hampshire I decided it was time to finally get it done.

I’ve officially released the SECOND EDITION of Hood: A Post-Apocalyptic Novel!

I know what you’re thinking… What’s different? Why do this? Do I have to pay for it?

  1. You do not have to pay for it if you already own the HOOD eBook. Simply go into your Amazon, go to “Manage your Content and Devices”, and scroll until you see HOOD and press the UPDATE AVAILABLE button. Also, your kindle might already AUTO-update all books, if not you can set your kindle to auto-update under the SETTINGS tab once you’re in “Manage your Content and Devices”.  If you’re using any of the other booksellers… I’m not sure how it works yet :\ I will be updating it on other retailers shortly.
  2. Why do this? In short, I merely wanted to take the time to improve the writing, make small changes, and just bring the overall quality of the book up. It’s not that I was unhappy with it, but it is my baby, and giving it some TLC was something I’ve wanted to do for awhile.
  3. What’s New? So by in large the book is the same…I am not overhauling the story or anything. This is mostly just to make some small content changes but the overall story remains the same. Features:
  • About 1.5 New Chapters worth of content in the beginning of the book/Clearwater era! This is mostly just to set the stage more before the first plot point. I’m really excited about it though, I think it really beefs up the story.
  • Cleaned up the prose/diction and some of the internal/external dialogue throughout the book. Mostly little things, I wanted to trim down a little bit, replace a few others, just tighten up the prose and make it more readable. I think with a light touch of changing things, the book is vastly improved.
  • For those of you wondering, The ending remains the same, but I changed a few little elements throughout the book that I think make it a bit more powerful and give the reader some foreshadowing to the larger story at work throughout the series.

So yeah, I’m blessed that I have the luxury to be able to do this as a self-pub. One of the awesome perks. I love this book, and I wanted to really make sure it was as powerful and as meaningful to both myself and the readers as it possibly could be. Giving it a little love was well worth the time.

NOTE: If you look in the front matter of your eBook, and it does not read “Second Edition” in the title page, you do not yet have the updated version!

I’m really glad I did this. If you decide to go back and give it a re-read, please let me know what you think! The new content is in chapters 3 and 4.

Alright, now its back to all the thousand other things that require my attention.

Happy Summer All!

-Evan

11,315 Days.

Thirty-one.

It’s hard to believe sometimes. Happy birthday to me, 11,315 days of life. And there’s no guarantee i’ll get any more than that.

I’m grateful for all of them. For all the things that have gone wrong, my life has been pretty incredible. I’ve got a lot to be thankful for.

I think I’ll list them here.

  • The people I love. Family, friends, the great loves of my life.
  • My books. My love of storytelling, of imagination, of history.
  • My health. I feel young, stronger than I ever have before, and largely unhindered.
  • My curiosity. I’ve been gifted with a love of learning, of enjoying new things, of reveling in growth. It’s made my life a lot of fun and painless in many ways.
  • My pride. I feel proud of who I am, of the light in bring into other people’s lives just by being who I am (I know that sounds arrogant as fuck) and the pride I take in the choices I’ve made and the things I have done. Even the mistakes. Even the big ones.
  • The world. Because it’s gorgeous, endlessly interesting, tragic and beautiful all at the same time. Getting a chance to live life is so incredible.

I was thinking today about just having the chance to live, and how improbable that is. How many people, how many bloodlines died out just to the path of history? How many near misses were there where your ancestors might have died before they could conceive the next generation have their been?

Just our very existence here is a marvel of probability, an incredible gift, a confluence of chance and love.

I don’t plan on wasting it.

Have a good one, everyone. I know I will. Happy birthday to me.

-Evan P.

 

 

It’s Done…

As of last night, around midnight…

…The draft of American Rebirth is done.

It’s about 90,200 words. That’s sure to change after editing.

I don’t know if all the feels have hit me yet. I don’t think the full high will come until this shit is done and launched. But still, for me… I just gotta take a minute and say something.

I’m truly proud of this series.

It hasn’t always been easy. It’s been mostly NOT easy, to be honest. But seeing the ending of this book, and well this arc of the series (I have a feeling i’ll be writing more stories in the American Rebirth universe.) it’s a hard feeling to put into words.

All three of these books are strongly connected, all a part of one complete narrative about who we are as individuals, as a race, and what the fuck it is to make of this thing we call existence. I’ve always loved post-apoc because it lays that bare. There’s nothing but survival and the things that really matter.

All the garbage priorities we lay on top of our lives living in a functioning civilization gets stripped away. The people at the end of the world, or at least, the people who face the collapse of great civilizations, like those in the dark ages, have to face the reality of what actually matters:

Who are we to ourselves? who are we to each other? Both as strangers, as loved ones, and as enemies?

I wanted to do a lot of things with this series, but ultimately, that’s the biggest picture. I can say having finished book 3, I feel I’ve answered that. In my way.

I really can’t wait for you all to read it.

What’s next: I have to edit it. I’ll give it to a few close beta readers I trust. Then I do one more pass, and then it’s live.

We’re almost there.

-Evan Pickering

Excitement

Sometimes, there’s just no substitute for getting excited about something.

Those of you who follow me know that Book 3 has taken longer than I planned to get done. I’ve been working at it diligently, but at times the writing is slow, and I refuse to force it. I want this book to be face-meltingly awesome for readers of the first two books in the series. There’s something necessary for that.

Excitement.

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Someone somewhere once said if you’re not excited about what you’re writing, there’s no chance your readers are going to be. I firmly believe that.

Sometimes you have to embrace there are natural highs and lows to writing. When I feel I’m in sort of a lull, the writing slows down a lot. Because if I’m not excited, then what the hell is the point?

Well, I’m pretty fucking excited about what I’ve got going now. I had a few lightbulbs go off that I think will amp up the intensity of the plot recently, and I think looking back on the book as a whole, it’s moving in a pretty fucking cool direction.

I’m channeling that excitement into more writing. I want to get my ass in front of the keyboard more lately so I can bring this thing to life. After all, it’s about damn time.

I can’t wait to share it with all of you when its done.

Hard at work in the wastelands,

Evan P.

Book 2, LEGENDS On Sale for 0.99!

Happy fourth of July Weekend all!

The title says it all, really. From now until NOON Monday the eBook of LEGENDS will be on sale for 0.99! (also you can click the picture of it on the left for a link to Amazon.)

Then, the price increases to 1.99 for a few days. Then 2.99. Then it goes back to normal.

So get on it now while it’s cheap! Tell your friends they can get both HOOD and LEGENDS right now for only 3.99!

I mean, my god. That’s so little money it makes me angry. BUT sharing my books with people makes me le happy so I’ll be aight.

BOOK 3 Update: I’m about 27,000 words into American Rebirth. I absolutely love how it’s coming out, though it’s taking a bit longer than I’d have liked. Still shooting to get it out by the end of Summer!

Much love,

-Evan