"Empire Breaker" and "Hardcore History"

Last week I posted that I have a new novel out, Empire Breaker. I thought I'd follow up with a post on what inspired it.

In 2016 one of the history podcasts I listen to, Hardcore History, had a three-part series called "King of Kings." It was about the rise and fall of the First Persian Empire, in the period most associated with Biblical history, the Spartans, and Alexander the Great.

What caught me was how it arose out of the fall of an older empire. It rose to dominate the world, then it fell in time. It was an empire ruling several kingdoms and peoples. That older empire was the Neo-Assyrian Empire. It fell due to a series of civil wars and rebellions among the many peoples it dominated.

It was this idea of conflict within an ancient empire ruling over a wide area and with many constituent cultures that got me thinking. I did a little extra research, thought up a system of magic, and came up with my heroine.

Because the novel is just out, I'm not going to go into too many details. It's also been a few years since I wrote the novel. My mind is already off to what I'm writing at the present. :)

Feel free to chase down these various rabbit holes of history if you're intrigued.

If you like this post, let me know. I'm thinking of doing more posts like this as books come out, so tell me if you'd like me to talk about my inspirations.

Empire Breaker

Nonya is the daughter of the king of Cunarra, one of the many lands ruled by the Great King of Usaru. Nonya is to marry the youngest son of the Great King.

Marriage will take Nonya from her home in Cunarra to the seat of the Usaru Empire and another kingdom in the Empire, the coastal land of Poneclia. Marriage will also give her close relationships with spell-casting magisters and foreign scribes. It will also plunge her into the politics of the Usaru Empire.

What happens when the sons of the Great King come into conflict? What will Nonya do to survive such turmoil?

Empire Breaker is now available.

Writing Stats for February 2019

Here's the second post of the year on how much I'm writing in 2019.

February was a month where the words just poured out. I passed the mid-point of the novel I was working on, and I blazed through to completion on February 27. That means I wrote 216 pages. That's 30 or so pages over what I'd have written if I'd only hit my session goals.

The novel came in at 110,000 words. It's the second in a trilogy. The first came in at 115K words. My hope is that the third book will also be over 100K words.

In between all that writing I prepped my March release. I decided to go through the books I'll be putting out this year and get them edited as well. That's done so I've moved onto next year's. I figure why not get all this editing work done now and take one less task off the list for all my future book releases. Also, if I decide to put out more books in a year they'll be ready to go.

The day this post goes up is when I plan to start on book three. I hope I'll have another good month of writing!