The Ballad of the Emerald Bard: Opus 01 - The Suite of Seduction, Lost Love, and Revenge. Is Available Now!
It has been a very long time in coming. Beyond a long time, really. So many folks had expected me to publish something right out of high school. And indeed, I have written quite a bit. It has been a long road, with life constantly getting in my way.
It has been a very long time in coming. Beyond a long time, really. So many folks had expected me to publish something right out of high school. And indeed, I have written quite a bit. It has been a long road, with life constantly getting in my way.
With the start of
the blog, I knew above all else, that I was going to write a fantasy story and
put it out there. The Ballad of the Emerald
Bard was wonderfully received, yes, but let’s face it, this blog is more of a
hobby.
Yes, I pour my heart
and soul into it, and no, I’m not giving it up, but it is by no means
successful. I have a ton of page views,
but I’ve discovered that page views are worth nothing, SEO is worth nothing,
unless people click on ads or leave comments.
With a few exceptions, I rarely get either comments or ad clicks.
Knowing that The
Ballad was going to be put on a website that was going to have ads, and I was
going to market it that way, I edited the hell out of it. I toned down the themes to make sure that they
were going to be family friendly. I
hated it, but in the end, people still came around an enjoyed the story. In fact, some of the stories were in the
highest viewed parts of the blog.
Some of my dedicated
blogging friends came by and left some comments, constructive criticisms, or
said hi, but beyond that, nothing. There
was also a glaring flaw in the two starting stories of the series that needed
to be fixed. So, awhile back, I decided
that I would collect them all into a series of novel length short story
collections. I knew for a fact that I
was going to write new content for these collections and reedit the original
stories so that they were, not only the way I wanted them censorship wise, but
also more connected together. The
chopping up of the stories to fit the serial format was sometimes not kind….
Through all my
research through all the different ways I could publish the stories, it became
more and more evident that having the stories on the blog was going to prevent
me from truly publishing the stories in a way that allowed me to be as
profitable as I wanted. Biggest example
was Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing program.
To qualify for the Select, which allowed for sales, giveaways, and other
promotions, only a certain percentage of the book could be available anywhere
else online.
All this led me to
the conclusion that I needed to go “All-In” on this book thing. Meaning no more Deeya stories on the
blog. Having said that, I can still do
other things with The Ballad. Such as the
poetry Deeya uses as songs in the books will be available here. As will be in depth character analyses and
timelines. As the book series
progresses, I plan on adding quite a bit of ‘background’ information through
blog posts. So the blog will be a
handbook, or guidebook, to the world of the Emerald Bard.
So, on March 20th,
I removed all the stories of the Ballad of the Emerald Bard from A Brainless
Nod. It hurt, sure, but I am going to do
this 100%. I believe in these stories and
characters passionately…. As do the beta
readers that have helped me fine tune Opus 01.
Speaking of Opus 01,
it is available now! It is available in
two formats. The paperback format is 6x9
inches and 330 pages. It is also available
in Kindle Format (the actual live date is Wednesday the 23rd).
Opus 01 contains 3
stories.
The Concerto about
the Deal at the Crossroads. This is a
brand new story written as a better introduction to the character of El’Mindeeya
Do’Katal. It starts out with Deeya
playing a concert at a wayward inn.
Sure, she has many secrets, but so does the owner of the establishment. Tessa has owned the Deal at the Crossroads
far longer than any human should have been able to live. And Tessa…she has a request of the Emerald
Bard. What is it? Will Deeya be crazy enough to say yes? And if she does, how will she survive?
A Symphony of Old
Debts. This was originally available on
the blog as Old Debts, and has changed considerably. Ashengrey has requested Deeya’s help. But how can Deeya help the woman who broke
her heart as much as Deeya had broken Ashengrey’s? And what will it cost her to help? Deeya’s bardic reputation is on the line, and
her reputation is everything in this world in which she lives and dies by her
ability to be an unassuming traveling minstrel.
The Sonata of Buried
Secrets. This was originally available
on the blog as Buried Secrets, and the edits to this one have made it
considerably better. With Deeya walking
into a trap, after her cover of some of her secrecy has been destroyed, all her
plans simply fall apart in the blink of an eye.
Will she survive the night? And
if she doesn’t, who will arise to seek revenge?
The moral of the story? Never
underestimate the Bard.
Anyways, I hope you
will take time and check out this new book.
If I could in any way guarantee that you would love it, I would…. If you love adult fantasy, you will this
book.
--
Ballad of the
Emerald Bard: Opus 01, The Suite of Seduction, Lost Love, and Revenge
By Dan Bonser
Availabe from these
links, and elsewhere!
Dan Bonser’s AmazonAuthor Page (which has direct links to both versions)
--Dan
