An author and editor, Niranjan’s biggest ambition is to have a character named Garth in every book they write. Niranjan writes books rooted in mythical worlds, and their stories are often a combination of magic and futuristic technology.
When they are not writing or editing, Niranjan can be found cooking or just lying on their couch watching or rewatching C Dramas and writing fanfiction.
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Blade of Castrial is Here!
Published 11 months ago • 18 min read
Hey Reader,
I really wasn't sure I'd be able to get this newsletter out. I have been sick all this week, and brain wasn't braining AT ALL. But I'm feeling a bit better, brain fog has more or less gone, though energy levels are still very low.
On to the rest of the newsletter.
News and Updates
NEW RELEASES
You've no idea just how long I've been waiting to release this book and this series. From the day I started writing it. I always knew Alaric and Lucian were special, and I can't express just how much it means to me to have their story out in the world.
Blade of Castrial is out in the wild today. It's a prequel novella to the main series, but you would understand some things about the main series better if you were to read it.
I'm almost done drafting Blade Reforged but I wanted a break from it. I was planning to take a break from Lucian and Alaric once the first draft of Blade Reforged is done, but my brain has decided it needs the break already.
I'm focussed on revising Shades of Spring at the moment and it has been making good progress till I fell sick. Some plot points have changed, but I'm getting really good feelings about it. Leymon, Sylvania, and Bresson needs more love from me while I tell their story. I hope I'll be able to pick it back up when I return to it next week (Hopefully, healthy)
Gates of Hope has extremely detailed worldbuilding, a unique magic system, sci fi elements, space dragons, an animal companion, and younger protagonists. Sci fantasy is among my favourite things to read, and I enjoyed this very much! The only complaint I have is while the individual story lines were engaging, there seemed to be nothing to connect the three PoV characters, so it felt like three different stories set in the same universe. All the same, I'm eager to see what the second book will be like!
The House of the Red Balconies is a romance plus historical vibes fantasy which is extremely queer (and hence my favourite thing to read). It was evocative, emotional, and beautifully written. I loved the characters who felt so relatable and believable. Aside from queer rep, there's also chronic illness and pain rep, which I feel we need to see more in fiction. There are so few book which depicts chronic illness/pain and its impact in any meaningful way.
Or maybe I haven't read many. Autumn Apprentice had it as well as disability rep, Loyalty to the Max had it, and now The House of the Red Balconies.
I won't say I'm living with chronic pain, but I do have chronic illness. It does hurt at time, not in the way it does for these characters or even some of the authors I know, but when the pain is bad, it's not something we can ignore or will away. It's often not an option to just wait till it goes away. So we have to power through and get things done despite the pain.
Even if you don't do it for the romance or the queer rep, I would recommend you read this book for the chronic illness/ pain rep.
Like Gates of Hope, Dragon Class too has younger protagonists, dragons, and three PoVs, but that's where the resemblance ends. The worldview and experiences of the protagonists in Dragon Class make them feel older. The dragons are an integral part of the story, and the three PoVs are interwoven to tell a cohesive, single tale. It is set in ancient China and is a mix of political and historical fantasy all of which I love. Dragon Class has classic epic fantasy vibes, which was a welcome break after The House of the Red Balconies which had so little fantasy elements in it.
Dragon Class has dragons, magic, a good vs evil plotline, morally grey characters, diversity, racism, classism, misogyny and how it impacts the culture, the characters, and their lives.
It's well written, and the plot line is compelling. I loved the characterisation as well. Even minor characters are believable.
My favourite character is not Jin, lol, though I do love her. My heart belongs to Price Tai, however. I found him the character I could get behind the most. Jin and Aadan are both well written and rounded characters, but to me, there's something visceral and raw about Prince Tai and his struggles. While I could relate to Jin's struggles as well, Aadan came across as rather boring. The only sign of personality he shows is when he's interacting with Tai, strange as it is.
I won't be myself if I didn't ship Tai and Aadan or imagine a happy little throuple with Jin, Aadan, and Tai.
I'm yet to update my reviews, though, which I plan to do very soon. This weekend for sure!
SHOWS I'VE WATCHED
Moonlight Mystique is over, and I'm sad because I really enjoyed it.
Moonlight Mystique has literally been ripping my heart from my chest, so in one way, I'm glad it's done because I sort of need my heart inside my chest. But again, a show that creates that kind of impact isn't easy to forget or get over. Despite the many changes from "canon", ie the book, the show has created its own mythology and has tied all the loose ends together.
Though the two main leads are together at the end, it's not something I call a happy ending because (SPOILER) their little found family is no more. (SPOILER END)
The Blossoming Love also has me cry buckets of tears, and I'm hoping it really has a happy ending because I'm ripe for murder at this point. If Vin Zheng's character doesn't get a happy ending, I'll end up killing someone.
I did watch Love You Seven Times while waiting for these two to update, and it was good too. It was more funny than angsty, but boy, did I need those laughs!
I also finally watched Ashes of Love. Mainly because of Luo Yunxi and Yang Zi. But mainly Luo Yunxi. I may have mentioned I found Jin Mi annoying, and yep, she is annoying. If it was anyone but Yang Zi playing her, I would have abandoned the show yet again.
Luo Yunxi's character, however...
It made me realise I've not seen a show yet where Luo Yunxi gets a happy ending.
In Ashes of Love, Run Yu doesn't die, he realises his ambitions, but in the end, all he'd ever wanted was the love of someone who was important to him. Which he didn't get. His slow change from someone who just wanted to fight for the woman he loves, for justice to his loved ones, for revenge for all that he suffered, to someone who even he hates in the end, was so believable. I'm glad he kind of redeems himself there at the end, but even so, it's only a long, lonely road ahead of him.
I want to give him some happiness so badly. I may end up writing fanfiction, once my brain feels like it's up to writing again.
I'm also watching Follow Your Heart in the hopes that a character played by Luo Yunxi will get a happy ending. I'm not the best audience for romances, but this one does have a plot that's interesting enough and which doesn't depend on the romance, so that's nice.
RANTS OF THE DAY
Yes, you did read that right. I have multiple rants today.
I usually really don't want to rant about anything on my newsletter because that's not what y'all signed up for. But I can't keep it in anymore. You can skip the rant if you want, but I hope you'll read it because it's something that's important to me.
Please, for the love of everything that's important, PLEASE don't fucking pirate books. Don't go to pirate sites and get books from there. If you can't afford a book, it's just how things are sometimes. Try your local library. Try a subscription service like Kobo Plus, Scribd or KU. Try anything EXCEPT pirating. Most authors I know are more than happy to give away review copies of their books and we can't insist on reviews because it's against amazon's TOS, so the book is yours to keep and you don't owe us anything.
If any of you want any of my books and can't afford to buy it, let me know, and I'll send you a bookfunnel link or Google promo code or a Ko-fi code IMMEDIATELY so you can download that book for free without encouraging pirates. It's one reason why I beg you all NEVER to share the download links I share here.
Being an author is HARD. We have to pay for covers, editors etc before we can publish a book. Covers and editing COSTS A LOT, y'all. Good cover artists charge anything from $250 to thousands of dollars for a cover. Editors are EVEN MORE expensive. My editing services are cheap because standard rates are much higher.
Most of the time, we don't get back the money we invested into covers and editing. And that's not even counting the expenses for advertising, marketing, paid promos and such.
Pirating our books is not just stealing, it's depriving us of our livelihoods. Many of us work two or three jobs to pay for our author business. I only have a pension aside from the $50 or so I make in royalties every month. We all have families to support and bills to pay. None of us are making millions or even thousands or even hundreds in royalties every month.
Please don't be the reason an author can't afford their business anymore.
That's why I fucking hate AI so much. It not just steals but kills the planet in doing so. Like man, we only have this one planet, so can we NOT kill it faster by using the plagiarism machine?
For the second rant, well, it was caused by this post that was shared by someone on Bluesky
Not to put too fine a point on it, if any of you here think that the poor, the PoC, the woman, the queer, the disabled, or any minority or disadvantaged people in any part of the world don't have the right to live, to love, to speak, to write, to their bodies, to a living wage, to food, and to education, please leave this newsletter.
I don't believe human rights are a "point of view" or something that's up for debate. I don't believe it's a question of differing political opinions. Anyone who thinks or believes that denying people their basic rights is just a "point of view" is not someone I want around me.
If you're that person, stay away from me. I won't engage in dialogue and I don't believe in engaging in dialogue with such people.
The only conversation I will ever have with a nazi is at the end of my fist. I don't need their support, and even if I starve to death, I want them to steer clear of my books and my newsletter.
I don't want any of them in my corner.
Rant done.
OTHER NEWS
I finally manned up or womanned up to cancel the new releases for less feature for Shades of Spring. I simply can't afford to spend $500 plus that I will not make back from the feature. If I had that kind of money, I wouldn't be begging strangers on the internet to donate to my ko-fi so I can pay my bills. The bookbub people were very nice about it, though.
Instead of the NRL, I signed up for a month on Net Galley through Victory Co-op in the hopes of getting some reviews lined up when the book releases. That's way cheaper, only $57 or so, and I hope that I can leverage the Net Galley reviews to get some sales once the book releases.
The NRL for Blade Broken is still on, however.
AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT
The amazing Maya Darjani is our Author of the month. Her books need a lot of love, so don't forget to give it.
There are no promotions in this newsletter. That's because I have something even better. I don't know how many of you know Author David Green, but he's one of the best people in the indie scene. Most of his books are published through a small press, but he just got the rights back to one of his series that he's republishing himself with new covers.He wants support from all authors and readers since he's never done this before, and we all want to give him as much support as possible!
It's queer, with adult protagonists, which is one of my favourite things to read! The series has four books and all of them are releasing on the 1st of February!
I've pre-ordered all four books and since I'm in India, they're already on my kindle! I'm looking forward to devouring them!
War Comes For Those Who Forge It. And It Never Forgives...
Haltveldt is a nation built on bloodshed. With the Order of Sparkers brought to heel, Emperor Locke wields his mages - and their magic the Spark - like a weapon as he wages a war of genocide.
But the enemies of his empire multiply.
In the almost-forgotten north, the ancient citadel of Solitude, filled with two-hundred exiled Sparkers, watches over the mysterious Banished. With a new apprentice under her wing, Zanna Alpenwood pines for her estranged daughter when everything changes - for the first time in centuries, The Banished are on the move.
Miles away in Haltveldt's southern frontlines, Calene Alpenwood makes a startling discovery in the most unlikely of places and her estrangement from her mother is tested. As is her faith in the Order of Sparkers and loyalty to the Empire.
And in Haltveldt's capital, Kade Besem - whose son Arlo is training with Zanna - scrambles to react to the events at Solitude in a den of vipers.
Haltveldt is an empire forged in fire and nothing is at it seems. But one thing is certain: with the Banished returning, and the elves to the south on the brink of annihilation, Zanna, Calene and Kade stand on the brink of earth-shattering change.
A great game, millennia in the making, is coming to its stunning conclusion. Who will survive? And who is the true enemy of Haltveldt? 'In Solitude's Shadow: Extended Edition' - now with all new chapters, expanded scenes and including the prequel 'Before The Shadow', reveals all...
The magic of 'The Wheel of Time' meets the grittiness of 'The Witcher' in this fast-paced series starter!
Don't forget to join my discord server so you can chat with me and get updates, and give me updates on your lives as well! I'd love to get to know you all more!
Having set up a page for my paperbacks have made me wonder if I should set up sales of paperbacks through my Ko-fi shop too. The only trouble is international shipping costs are very high, plus time involved. Still if y'all are interested and can pay the shipping, I can try set it up so I can send signed copies your way! Another option is using amazon or other retailers to send you a copy and I can send you a sticker with my signature that you can stick on the front page. It will cost much less than me sending a book all the way from India.
I know I said no promotions, but Kobo Plus, y'all!
For those newly joined, Kobo Plus is the fast growing subscription service from Kobo. If you're familiar with Kindle Unlimited, it's similar to that, but it has a few things that make it BETTER than Kindle Unlimited.
WHY KOBO PLUS IS BETTER FOR AUTHORS
It doesn't require authors to be exclusive, unlike Kindle Unlimited which demands authors who want their books in the program should be exclusive to amazon.
Kobo gives us the same royalty rate whether we are in Kobo Plus or not, unlike amazon which refuses to pay us the same royalty rates across marketplaces unless we're in their Kindle Select Program (the author facing part of Kindle Unlimited)
Kobo counts re-reads in paying authors unlike amazon where an author is paid only when a reader reads a KU book for the first time.
Kobo pays us better royalties than amazon.
WHY KOBO PLUS IS BETTER FOR READERS
Truly Unlimited Reading. With Kobo Plus, you can get any number of books unlike with KU where you can get only a fixed number of books and have to return some in order to get any more.
Cheaper than Kindle Unlimited. Yes, Kobo Plus is cheaper than Kindle Unlimited, and their Read and Listen package lets you borrow any number of ebooks and audiobooks which are in Kobo Plus.
A KU subscription in the US costs $11.99, whereas an audible subscription costs $14.95. A Kobo Plus Read (ebook only) subscription costs $7.99, and a Kobo Plus Listen (audio only) costs the same. But the real kicker is the Kobo Plus Read and Listen which gives you access to BOTH ebooks and audiobooks and costs ONLY $9.99. Even individually, it's cheaper than KU and Audible, but the combined plan is THE BEST.
A wide variety of authors and genres that you won't get for free elsewhere. Once you subscribe, every SINGLE Kobo Plus book is free for you. I personally have over 50 books on my Kobo Plus library. Just imagine how much you have to pay if you're to buy them all!
Customer support is way better than amazon. I had a technical issue with my subscription for which I opened a chat, the bot immediately transferred me to a human upon request, and they solved the issue. It took a couple of days, but they kept in touch with me and escalated and finally solved it. I've never had amazon give me that kind of service.
You can get ALL my books on it, so no having to buy any! As long as you read it on Kobo Plus, I get paid. And re-reads count as well!
There are a lot of authors and a lot of cool books on there that you may need to pay a lot more to get otherwise!
I will keep on telling you about Kobo Plus till y'all get it and READ ALL my books on it and gives me LOTS of royalties. Who knows I might even be able to pay my credit cards!
BOOKBUB
Don't forget to follow me on Bookbub because it's the best place (other than this newsletter) to stay updated on deals and new releases. You will find a lots of cool authors and fantastic deals through them!
If you already follow me, you might have got a new release alert for Blade of Castrial already! Which is way better than having to read through all my rants, right?
This is a snippet from a new WIP I've started. It was inspired by Moonlight Mystique, actually.
Also, this is a first draft, so there may be a LOT of issues.
Edgar didn’t want to leave his room. He never wanted to leave his room again. If he could find a hole large enough to crawl into and collapse it after him, he would have, but searching for such a hole would need him to leave his room. That would entail his having to face Esnir.
Esnir, who he had known all his life as Desmond.
Esnir, the god that Edgar had been named after.
His god.
The god he had worshipped all his life, to whom he had pledged himself.
He had walked the world as Desmond, and Edgar had only attempted to harm him. Even now, even as his emotions were overwhelming, he still hated Desmond.
How could Esnir be Desmond? Or was it the other way around?
The last time they’d met, he had stabbed Desmond, strung him up, and left him to die.
The time before that, Desmond had burned him with spell fire.
But Desmond was no more, and only Esnir remained now. His hatred had no target, and the truth scalded him worse than the spell fire that Desmond had cast on him.
Could he even hide from a god?
But he was damned if he wasn’t going to try.
A knock on his door had him startle and stare at it. Who could it be? Esnir and Renia were both under his roof, so it could be one of them. Edgar didn’t want to meet either of them, to be honest. He had loved Renia once, and his animosity for Desmond had started with his misunderstanding the nature of his and Renia’s relationship.
He had been barely an adult back then, but neither Desmond nor Renia had been any older, and they hadn’t explained either. But then, why should they? He wasn’t entitled to it. His feelings for Renia didn’t give him any rights over her.
It had taken him years to understand and realise it. But by then, Desmond and he had become bitter enemies. Renia was friend to them both even then, and that had stopped them both from open conflict. Till Renia decided Edgar couldn’t be trusted, that he was in her past, that their friendship couldn’t be salvaged.
They had reconciled today. Or had they? Had Renia known Desmond was a god?
Edgar sighed as the knock on the door continued, unrelenting. She couldn’t have known. Even Desmond didn’t know, so how could anyone else?
He walked to the door and opened it, coming face to face with Esnir. He still had Desmond’s body, but even so, Edgar would never mistake him for Desmond.
He bowed his head. “My lord,” he said.
“You don’t know how strange it is to see you so deferential,” Esnir said slowly. “Even though I wasn’t influencing him, I was still aware inside this body.”
Edgar refused to raise his eyes, refused to respond even as his face burned.
“Will you let me in? I have something to say.”
Edgar moved to a side, head still bowed as Esnir entered the room. The door shut behind him, making Edgar flinch slightly.
“You’ve been avoiding me.” Esnir observed as he stepped closer to Edgar who took a step back, but Esnir didn’t stop and Edgar found himself with his back to the wall, with Esnir still in his space.
He lifted his eyes. “Do you mind giving me some space?”
“Ah, that sounds more like you.” He paused. “What is it you have to tell me?”
“You came here,” Edgar said, annoyance tinging the words with heat.
“Because I knew you had something to say.”
Edgar huffed and looked away. “I’ve nothing to say. I hated Desmond, and I loved you. I don’t know how to feel or what to think anymore. I need some time to myself to figure it out. That’s all.”
“You think that your ignorance of who I was should justify your actions?” Esnir asked softly.
“I’m not a good man,” Edgar said. “I’ve never been. So, if you want to punish me, do it. But whatever I did to Desmond, he paid back in full with interest, so that’s not something you should punish me for.”
“A debt squared?” Esnir sounded amused, but he was still in Edgar’s space, his dark eyes filling his vision, the puffs of air that accompanied his speech tickling his nose. “Perhaps you’re not a good man, but Desmond was the only one you hurt that badly. Why is that, I wonder.”
“Because I hated him,” Edgar said. “However it started, that’s how it ended. If I didn’t know the truth, if you didn’t show yourself, I would have killed him.”
“I don’t care what you did to Desmond,” Esnir murmured. “What I can’t abide is you chose to hurt someone who is mine.”
“I don’t remember hurting anyone other than Desmond,” Edgar said. “Not physically, anyway. Even if I hurt someone’s emotions, that was never intentional.”
“And you think intent matters?”
“It should,” Edgar said. “Look, whatever you’re going to do, do you have to be in my space?”
“Why not?” Esnir asked. “Why does it bother you?”
“It does!” Edgar said, frustration causing his voice to rise. “Just punish me and get it over with!”
“I will punish you,” Esnir said. “You will go back to the time when you were younger, with all the memories and knowledge of your present. I want to know if your choices will differ.”
Before Edgar could speak, Esnir leaned up and pressed his lips to Edgar’s forehead. “Make me proud, my namesake,” he whispered and vanished.
A wind arose around Edgar, causing him to stumble. The world whirled around him, and he couldn’t stay upright. He curled into a ball while the storm raged around him, the wind causing his tunic to flap and his hair tie to come undone, whipping his hair to his face. Edgar’s body shrank, and the wind changed colour into red, becoming even more fierce.
Something struck him, and he fell, darkness and red overtaking his mind.
This draft will certainly change a lot when I get around to completing it, because revise revise revise is the only way to make a book the best it can be!
I will likely be back around the 7th of February with more news and YES, promos. (Please don't hate me!). I'll be dialling down on the promotion front, but there will be Kobo Plus promos, AND newsletter promos, which will give y'all a chance to get some cool books for FREE.
There will be a new book spotlight the next newsletter AND a new Author of the Month.
See you on the 7th.Till then, stay safe and take care of yourselves.
An author and editor, Niranjan’s biggest ambition is to have a character named Garth in every book they write. Niranjan writes books rooted in mythical worlds, and their stories are often a combination of magic and futuristic technology.
When they are not writing or editing, Niranjan can be found cooking or just lying on their couch watching or rewatching C Dramas and writing fanfiction.
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