A fan of mine contacted me a few days ago to let me know that an author had a series of books that seemed a little too similar to mine to be a coincidence. I fully expected to go check them out and discover that they were just the standard hero’s journey fantasy tale, a situation where someone else followed the same tropes as me just as a thousand had before. I’m not a big enough author for someone to plagiarize my stuff. But I was curious, so I went to check it out.

And… I mean… Well, you be the judge.

Here’s The Book of Deacon (Book 1):

Myranda Celeste’s world has been built on a legacy of bloodshed. For more than a century, her homeland the Northern Alliance has fought the Kingdom of Tressor in what has come to be known as the Perpetual War. While her people look upon the conflict with reverence, Myranda’s hate for the war has made her an outcast.

When she finds a precious sword among the equipment of a fallen warrior, she believes her luck may have changed. Little does she imagine that the treasure will draw her into an adventure of wizards and warriors, soldiers and rebels, and beasts both noble and monstrous. The journey will teach her much about her potential, about the origins of the war, and about the threat her world truly faces.

Will Myranda unlock the secret of bringing peace once and for all, or will the world be lost to the Perpetual War?

Let’s compare that to The Eternal War (Fate Chronicles Book 1)

The world is blanketed in snow and death…

The Eternal War continues to ravage the land while mighty forces clash in a never-ending struggle for dominancy.

Laura Stillwater, a young woman who wants nothing to do with the war, is ensnared its wake. She becomes an integral part of its outcome after discovering a magical staff hidden beneath the snow. The staff is sought by many dangerous foes, forcing Laura into a deadly hunt. Along her journey, she meets powerful allies who show her the ways of elemental magic.

Follow Laura’s adventure as she struggles to defeat powerful enemies and change the world.

Now, I mean… That’s pretty similar, but I wasn’t exactly breaking ground with the plot of my book. And the name and weapon are different. Let’s just take a peek inside.

Take a look at the side by side of the first few paragraphs (you’ll want to open in a new tab for all of the literary goodness). That’s mine on the left.

I mean… you know… It could be a coincidence. Maybe the other book covers will differentiate his series.

Clearly an original story! His anthropomorphic character appears to be a badger, not a fox. What about the next one.

Oh, hey! There’s something in his books called “The Drakaran.” Not the D’Karon, like in mine. Though the cover seems to depict a battle against the raised dead like in The Battle of Verril. Moving on…

Whoa! He seems to have some sort of a fire elemental in his, too! And book four has Deadly Diplomacy, does it? The Chosen take the roles of Diplomats in mine, too. I bet Book Five is just as good!

… Now wait a minute. My book five is called “The Crescents” and this one’s called “Mystery at Crescent Islands”? And there’s a red dragon and a green dragon hanging out. And the green one is in armor.

I’ll be honest, I’m a little hurt that they didn’t rip off book 6. I was rooting for “The Doubloons of Karnved” or something.

I guess I’m going to have to do something about this, but it’s just so bizarrely entertaining to me.

UPDATE: I have been in contact with the person responsible. The books have been taken down and I’ve adjusted the post to remove explicit mention of their name, so that this doesn’t follow them around unnecessarily.

Hey folks! Because a fan asked, and I’d mentioned it on the podcast I co-host not so long ago, here’s a quick piece on how I do a story bible for my books when I need something reasonably complex yet easy to navigate. I use something called Zim Desktop Wiki. Here’s how I use it.

1. Install

I grabbed the portable app from here. Double Click it, pick a place for the install, and you’re done. For the purposes of this little test, I tossed it on my desktop. When you see this screen, you’re ready. Go ahead and leave “run” highlighted.

Alternately, you can open up the place you installed it and double click the executable.

2. Get Started

First, name your notebook. We’ll call this one Big Sigma.

You’ll end up with the “Home” page open. I like to start laying it out like this.

Just type the headings you like, and while your cursor is on the heading, go to Format->Heading 2 or just press Ctrl+2.

Once you’ve got your headings, start filling them out. You can leave these non-headings.

3. Fill in Details

Pick a section you want to fill out and highlight it. You can either pick “Link” from the top bar or press Ctrl+L.

You’ll get this window. The top box is the name of the file/article. The bottom is the actual text of the link. If you have a red box, it means you put something that can’t be in a file name, like quotation marks. Just remove them and everything should be fine.

The name should now be a hyperlink. Click it.

You’ll get a fresh file that’s blank.

Lay it out however you like. I like to fill out some headings and do the Ctrl+2 formatting thing, then start typing.

Hey! We mentioned Squee and Ma! Let’s highlight them and Ctrl+L to make articles for them too.

Note that every file you start filling out shows up in that Left Pane there. Now let’s click “Home” to get back there.

Now that you’ve written articles for Ma and Squee, you can link them here too. Highlight “Ma” in the character section and Ctrl+L.

If you type the same name as what shows up in the Left Pane, or if you click Browse and pick the “Ma” file, it’ll link to the one you already wrote. Note that the TEXT can be whatever you want. Only the “Link to” has to match the previous name. In this way, everywhere a character or name shows up, you can link to their file. I often find as I write a Bio, I’ll realize characters I think need to be added, and just highlight the text and write the article from there, then add them to Home later.

4. Get Fancy

You can do other stuff like insert images and do fancier formatting. I usually don’t, but go nuts!

Hi, folks!

I’ll be honest. Things have been a little rough these last few months. It’s “nice” to have a very good excuse, in the form of the pandemic and protests. But in truth, those things haven’t changed my life much. When I walk, I wear a mask, and I’ve donated some money and amplified some voices, but all things considered things are as they’ve always been in my little slice of the world. The problem has been me.

My focus has been in the dumps. I’ve been dragging my feet on projects and promotions. And as anyone who’s been in the self publishing game as long as I have will tell you, that’s bound to take its toll on both schedule and income. I’m not in any danger, but it’s well past time that I started taking things seriously again.

Starting today, I’m going to try to ramp up on all levels. My posts here and on social media will become more regular. I’ll start beefing up my reader perk offerings. Daily word counts will get back up where they need to be. I’ll start putting out newsletters more often. I’ll be a proper, grownup indie author again.

Or I won’t. WE’LL FIND OUT TOGETHER!

But there’s no time like the present to start making good on those plans than RIGHT NOW!

Free-Wrench 6 Update

Free-Wrench 6 is done, unless something goes wrong with the edit. I’ve even got the cover mostly made, though I can’t share it yet since it hasn’t been paid for. But one of the many things I was procrastinating was picking a title.

I think I’m comfortable picking Contaminant Six as the title! It’s very likely that my next announcement regarding Free-Wrench will be the cover reveal and the pre-order announcement. If you’re a Free-Wrench fan, keep your eyes peeled for that! We’re probably looking at a late August, early September release date.

Halfax Interview

I tried to set up a Character Interview a few weeks ago, but because of the aforementioned inactivity I’ve made an enemy of the algorithms and slipped from the mind of some longtime fans. Thus, I wasn’t able to collect very many questions.

We’re going to try again, by loading up my full social media cannon and blasting it out.

SO! What questions have you got for the big green guy?

If you’re not familiar, Hal is the sworn protector and Adopted Papa of Jade Rinton, an important figure in the Age of Ignorance, a time long after the main Book of Deacon series. He’s one of Myn’s children, along with Roka, Thorn, and Winsor. Once I get a healthy assortment of questions I’ll write the interview and share it! Here are the questions we’ve got so far!

From Shirley: Did Jade find a way to fix your wings so you could fly again? It always has bothered me that a creature meant to soar above the clouds was grounded.

From: Siberia-gravity: Halfax have you seen any Malthropes in your life or should say during the Age of Ignorance?

From Kindleworm: Hey, Halfax, what happened to all the other dragons?

Hey, folks! I’m trying to get better about doing regular updates here on my blog. (In the inevitable event of failure, you’ll find me most active on twitter, and moderately active on Facebook.)

Yesterday I finished the first revision of Free-Wrench 6. I’m still brainstorming a name and cover, but it’s good enough now that Beta Readers can take a look. The story is about 100,000 words, probably with a few thousand more once the epilogue gets added. the edit is due in July, so possibly an August launch?

What am I working on now? Well, while the Beta Readers do their beta reading, I’ll see if I can refill the hopper on short stories and such for Patrons. As it is, the pipeline is empty. I’ll either release a secret sneak peek of a pending project or else I’ll release as a standalone something that was previously tucked away in one of my old collections. Unless I’m REALLY on the ball, and then I’ll get a fresh short out. It’ll be fun to find out!

On the personal front, so far COVID-19 has been relatively kind. My dad lost a friend, but my family has been healthy. I hope everyone stays safe, washes their hands, and gets through this. I’ll do my best to keep the distractions coming!

Hey, folks!

We’ll get this part over with quickly. The Book of Deacon Main Series (the whole thing) has been discounted for quite a while. First it was to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the first book and to prepare folks for Book 6. Then it was because we’re all locked up and maybe you’d like some cheap stuff to read. But all good things must come to an end. The Book of Deacon Main Series Sale ends Monday.

So, what comes next?

Free-Wrench 6, of course! Once I hit “post” on this very article, I’ll be popping open Free-Wrench 6 to start the revision. It’ll be going to the editor in… July, I think? But I mean to have it buttoned up long before then. Like The Coin of Kenvard, Free-Wrench 6 (still haven’t picked a name) will be potentially the end of its era. Also like The Coin of Kenvard, I’ll be discounting the main series to help people prepare for the release of book 6. It’ll be a while yet, but I’ll definitely let you know when it comes along.