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Friends of the Skullgate - "Struggling with the Current"by A.R.K. Horton
Christopher Van Dyke • Nov 24, 2020
A new fantasy trilogy from Volume 2 contributor, A.R.K. Horton
As we work on Volume 2 of Tales From the Year Between, one of this book's stand out talents is A.R.K. Horton. She writes blogs about myths, fairytales, and folktales, and for our current Sci-Fi anthology she's been working with Jayme Bean to build a fantastic water world as the setting for a few stories.
Horton is also a fantasy author, and on November 30th she will be releasing Struggling with the Current, the first book of The Telverin Trilogy:
Princess Eya's life changes forever with the discovery of the Statue of the Goddess Winds. The long-overlooked kingdom of Hicares finds itself in a war it isn't prepared for against the far more powerful empire of Pescel. To survive, Eya must flee her home, losing everything and everyone she loves in the process.
Yet, by leaving behind all she's ever known, she learns that her sheltered life didn't prepare her for the real world's strange and frightening nature. She encounters people, places, and creatures beyond anything she ever imagined, along with sinister enemies from every direction. Perhaps her most surprising revelation is that she is developing terrifying powers of her own. Will Eya be able to find happiness in her new life, or will she continue struggling with the current?
Struggling With the Current
is the first book of The Telverin Trilogy, a fantasy war story that takes place between several countries in the world of Telverin.
Struggling With the Current is available for
PREORDER NOW AT AMAZON.
When she isn't writing, A.R.K. is building websites and managing a family of five in her Florida home. You can find her blog and links to her books at ARKHorton.com.
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HAPPY NEW YEAR FROM SKULLGATE MEDIA!
Skullgate Media is excited to announce two new upcoming publishing projects! While it saddened us with the recent news that Kyanite Publishing is closing their doors—we are thrilled that we will see some of their existing projects through to fruition. The first project is Loathsome Voyages , a collection of fourteen tales of supernatural madness and creeping horror from some of the most talented writers in the field. Edited by CD Storiz and Chris Durston, this creative anthology of weird fiction will release in early January 2020. A cover reveal will be coming soon; so stay tuned! Contains stories by BK Bass, Chris Durston, Gary Fagan, Zach Friday, Anthony Harris, Christopher Harris, Mackenzie Littledale, Tim Mendess, Michael D. Nadeau, Michelle River, JL Royce, Mark J. Schultis, CD Storiz, and Chris Vandyke that will thrill and chill you! Secondly, we are pleased to announce that at the start of next year, Skullgate Media takes over the publication of Michael D. Nadeau’s Lythinall novels. Currently consisting of two books, The Darkness Returns and The Darkness Within (with more on the way!), the world of Lythinall is a world of sweeping fantasy, dark magic, and epic adventure. Ed Greenwood, the creator of The Forgotten Realms (yes, THAT Ed Greenwood!) describes Michael as “a writer to watch” and the Lythinall books as “a fantasy series to fall in love with.” We are excited to have Michael as Skullgate Media’s first signed author for publication. We are preparing a new edition of his books which will be released under the Skullgate name on January 1st, 2021. Shortly, we will have a link available to pre-order copies of his latest works. In the meantime, get to know him at his author website and his page at Goodreads .
Saturday our Kickstart for Volume 2 wrapped up, and we finished with JUST over $1,700! Since the day our campaign launched we've been blown away by how supportive our friends and fans have been. We can now confidently move forward knowing that we can pay our contributors, commission an amazing cover, and pay for everything associated with producing an awesome book. We've now entered the REAL work -- writing! Twenty-five writers from all around the world are now plotting and planning fantastic tales of sentient space ships, intrepid Space Marines, and deep-space cosmic sharks. How will it all end? Who knows? We don't! That's what makes this so exciting and fun. As the work progresses we'll share teasers, and in a few days we'll start sending out digital rewards to our backers. But for now we're just basking in the glow of a successful campaign. And saying thank you again. In fact, Chris Durston made a video of some of us saying just that.
Things have been busy at Skullgate Media! But ironically while the news has been coming fast and furious I haven't posted an update for those of you playing along at home. Here's the quick recap: Our Kickstarter is exceeding our wildest expectations! As of 10/22 we have raised $1,642, which is more than TWICE our initial goal! We've meet and exceeded BOTH our stretch goals, so we will be paying all contributors $20 for their stories. We're a paying market! It wraps up on November 1st, so there's still a chance to get in on the Kickstartery Action! Before we closed our submissions deadline, we received 3x more applications than we could accept! On the one hand, this was a problem, as we had to send out a lot of "Thanks for applying but..." emails. On the other hand, we got to be extremely selective and recruit an amazing group of writers. We have a team of 25 writers! We'll be sharing more about the team as the project unfolds, but in the mean time go check out the updated contributor page at YearBetween.com. Damn, thats a good looking group of writers! The (world-building) game is afoot! Even as I type this, our pre-writing game is underway. Using a heavily modified version of Avery Alder's indie game The Quiet Year , 25 writers from India to the West Coast of America are coming up with characters, star-systems, alien species, and more plot-twists than you can shake a stick at! So what's next? Well, the world-building wraps up this week. I and the team at Skullgate will then massage it all into something half-way presentable... then the writing will start on November 1st! Everyone has until December 1st to write a rough draft, then until January 1st to revise a final draft. During that time collaborators will work out canonical issues, Aaron Hockett will start drawing star maps and space-ship schematics, and we'll commission our cover art. After all the stories are finalized... okay, we're getting a head of ourselves. There's a lot to do before then, but we're on track for a mid February 2021 release date. Okay, I'm off to go see what's developed today. Check back here as Volume 2 unfolds, and make sure to stop by YearBetween.com from time to time, as that site will reflect the world as we get to now it. I'll try to update here, but the News From the Skullgate goes out every weekend, so make sure to sign up for the newsletter! In the meantime, Factum Est Bonum!
Funny story. My plan was to launch the Kickstarter for Volume 2 the day we announced we had a roster of writers for the book. Figured we'd wrap up the application/selection period, then jump into the Kickstarter. I got an email from Kickstarter saying out campaign was approved, so I went to make sure the URL looked good... aaaaand accidentally launched it instead. Ooops. (That's how WWIII is going to start). To quote Hamilton, "Okay, so we're doing this." But for an accidental launch, we're off to an amazing start! In 12 hours we are at 75% funding! We only need to raise about 200 to meet our goal of $800! The bottom line is -- if you are planning to buy Volume 2, please please please (pretty please!) pre-order it NOW by backing our Kickstarter. It ensures we have the funding we need to pay an artist for the cover, buy more stock art, host the website, buy a ISBN, and all the other things we have to pay for out of pocket up front before the book even goes on sale. Also, by buying the book directly through us, you ensure more of the money goes to us, the creative team at Skullgate, and not to Jeff Bezos (who, let's admit it, seems pretty set on the cash side of things). Anyway, if you're reading this you like what we do, so you should go back us! If you already have, 1,000 thanks and our undying love. We can't wait to get to the book! We're writers, not actuaries, so we want to get this "money stuff" out of the way so we can do what we do best -- tell some amazing stories! CLICK HERE TO GO TO OUR KICKSTARTER PAGE.