Spellheart Book Two: Secrets of the Hearthwood is now live!

GET YOUR COPY HERE! (Amazon US)

Amazon UK link

Amazon Germany link

Amazon Canada link

Amazon Australia link

Amazon Netherlands link

Amazon Italy link 

Those are all the countries I've sold to. Pretty cool, huh?

So, what next?

You might have already finished both books by the time you guys read this. You'll be glad to know that I'm already working on book 3! I've refined my writing process writing book 2 and gotten a lot more efficient. It took me a little over a year to write book one, but I wrote book 2 in 6 months. I know I wasted a lot of time during that period fiddling with the text only to delete an entire chapter and start again. My skills have grown and I hope to finish book 3 in around 4 months, though to be safe I'm aiming to get it in under 5. That means I'm going to very tentatively claim I'm aiming for a May release.

What am I doing now?

• Paperback for Secrets of the Hearthwood
• Audiobook for Zeal of the Mind and Flesh
• Reorganize my notes
• Finish fleshing out the book 3 final outline
• Making maps for the rest of the continent.
• Finish fleshing out the local cosmology around the elf planet of the Ten Thousand Worlds. I've finally settled on a naming scheme so I can actually start mentioning those in book 3.

That third step is going to take the longest, but is also where I'm hoping to amp up my productivity the most. The notes I had pre-book 1 release had information on every Spellheart book up to book 6, though I've long since retconned or tweaked things to the point that those notes are no longer useful.

We're beyond the level of content that I can keep in my head, so I desperately need to take the time and go over both books to make sure I'm not leaving anything behind. If there's anything you guys want to read about or an aspect of the story you find interesting, comment below and I'll add in my notes that it's something readers want to see. Some things are set in stone, but in many cases, I can find a way to fiddle with where in the world Theo goes to make things happen.

Fun fact, Secrets of the Hearthwood ended somewhere near the 60% mark of what I'd originally envisioned. Early on in the writing I had to restructure the story once I realized how much ground I had to cover. That's all going to go into book 3 instead, and I'll hopefully be able to tie up the Hearthwood trilogy. That won't be the end of the series mind you, just the end of our adventures in the Hearthwood before we venture out into the wider world.

Anyhow, I'll be on social media the next few days after this release. I'll be on here to answer questions, on my email, and also on Reddit (shout out to r/HaremFantasyNovels).

Facebook doesn't seem to like me very much and banned my old account, but I'll see if I can get back on there for the fans who only use that site for social media.

Book 2, Secrets of the Hearthwood, is comming soon.

Hi there everybody, this blog post is long overdue. I've been putting it off because at this point there isn't really much to say. I've long since finished my draft of book 2 and I'm working on edits. I expect to hear back from the first of my alpha readers sometime today, but the book is evolving as I make the changes that I wrote down during my own read-through. The draft is currently a bit over 120,000 words, so I expect it to be approximately the same length as the first book, Zeal of the Mind and Flesh.

Also, an audiobook is in the works thanks to Tantor Media. I would never have been able to get an audio version out this quickly without them. I've handed off the current version of Zeal of the Mind and Flesh to them and they're currently hard at work turning that into a sound file. You'll hear more about that when I do.

Basically, book 2 is right around the corner. I don't think I'll be able to make it in November as I'd hoped, but a December release is still reasonable. Honestly, the draft is currently in the state I initially published Zeal of the Mind and Flesh in, but now that I'm more confident that people will actually buy and read this book I want to put a little more polish in before release, instead of doing it after like I did with book 1.

My schedule's still hectic since I'm still looking for a better job (don't tell my manager). Hopefully an overnight clerk position or something similar so I can sit down and email myself a few notes while nobody's at the counter *wink*. I wrote this book a lot more efficiently than I wrote Zeal of the Mind and Flesh, so hopefully as I make further efforts to straighten out my life I can get book 3 in reading shape in even less time.

I've also been talking to a few other authors as I come up with a long-term plan as an author. Getting more titles out there is very important, especially to new authors. The downside of the Spellheart series is that the books take a long time to write, and to be honest they could be twice as long as they are and still not do all the characters justice. As a result, I've been toying with a few side-series ideas I could pursue. There's going to be a natural break point at the end of book 3 in the Spellheart series, so I might take that opportunity to launch a new series at the industry-standard 80,000 words, and structure it in a way that's a bit easier to write. Doing so would both stabilize my position as an author and keep me from getting bored, because there were more than a few times writing book 2 where I was just stuck on a scene and could have used that time to write something else. More of that later.

Basically, a lot of things are happening and not a minute passes by where I'm not thinking of you guys. I'm getting this next book out ASAP, angry relatives, possible evictions, and shitty day job be damned.

Thanks to everyone who read book 1! I'm hoping you'll enjoy Secrets of the Hearthwood even more!


PS: A couple of my beta readers are backing out or not responding, so I might want to fill a few additional positions. Email me at MarvinWhiteknight@gmail.com if you would like to volunteer.

Book 2 Draft finished

So this news is a bit old since I really finished my first draft of book 2 about two weeks ago. Right now I'm working on some revisions for book 1. This will likely be the final set of revisions, but they're much more extensive than anything I've released before. Once they're done I'll be handing book 1 off to Tantor media to make the audiobook. That's right, Tantor sent me an offer for the audiobook rights on book 1 and I accepted! Hopefully you'll be seeing that in a few months, with book 2 following close behind.

Currently book 2 is sitting at 104,000 words, but it will probably be comparable to book 1 or slightly longer because some of the scenes aren't as fleshed out as I plan to have them be in the final version. It's been moved the back of my mind as I deal with first-publication issues for book 1, but hopefully I'll have these all sorted out in advance for book 2.

So that's where I'm at right now. Polishing up book 1, then completing another draft of book 2. An audiobook is in the works. Stay tuned for more news.

PS: Also, I got my first royalty money deposit! This was the first thing I bought with it.
It seems like a good read thus far! It's still weird to think that people pay me to read stuff I write, but presumably I'll get used to this feeling eventually.

More book 2 News

You'll all be glad to know that my draft for book 1 is going strong. Last night I wrote the 75,000'th word, which means book 2 is about 65% of the length of book 1. A lot of that is really rough, but some of works as it is or has already been revised. Considering I've already got a very detailed outline for everything else that happens, I'd estimate I'm about halfway done with the book.
Previously I'd been aiming for a December release, but if I push hard I might be able to put it out sometime in November.

The book 1 edits are also coming along smoothly, thanks to fan efforts. A couple of people have found and sent me problematic lines that I have since corrected in new versions. Also important on this front is the fact that I should be seeing my first book-dollar this month! I'm not entirely sure how it all works yet, but from everything I've read Amazon should just deposit money in the bank account I opened up! Which will be absolutely fantastic, because it will mean the book is no longer reliant on my personal cash flow to survive. I can finally commission the book 2 cover and see about hiring an editor for both books with actual author money, which I can be a lot more generous with.

Also, my beta reader list has grown to 12 people as of writing this, which is great! I've ended up deciding to break them up into two groups, one who reads the really early draft and another who reads a later draft.

Email me at MarvinWhiteknight@gmail.com if you would like to apply.

TLDR; Book 2 is going well, I'm updating book 1 with the help of fans, still looking for beta readers.

This heat wave has turned me into a cliche

Hey everybody! Marvin here!


I just uploaded a fresh version of the ebook this morning, with lots of additional errors that fans have pointed out to me corrected. My writing skills evolved a lot while writing book 1, and they're evolving even more as I write book two. As I work I often stumble upon solutions to problems I had in book 1, so I have gone back and changed up a few scenes to be objectively better. At this point, I don't think there's going to be any major changes to book 1, so you'll be fine even if you don't reread. That being said, if you do decide to reread you can enjoy some new and improved scenes. I'm working on polishing book 1 up whenever I'm not in the mood to write book 2, which most of my efforts have been focused on. Stay tuned for that update not far in the future.


On that topic, book two is still chugging along. Still no firm release date, but I remain on track to get it finished by December, so long as nothing comes along and cuts into my writing time. I'm actually still hoping my speed will pick up as I get deeper into the book, and allow me to get the novel out by November. That's a stretch goal though, so no promises.


As for the title? I have found myself writing more and more of the story jumping between the public library and my local coffee shops. That's right, I've become one of those wanna be writers that sits at the back of Starbucks in the morning. Sipping coffee and ever so slowly typing away.


It unfortunately means I've got to leave placeholders for the more Rated R scenes, but that is a small price to pay to be able to write out of the hot weather.

My Ramblings & Book 2 Info

First of all, let me preface this by saying I’m absolutely blown away by the reception Zeal of the Mind and Flesh has received. I uploaded the book fully resigned to never seeing a single copy sold to anyone besides myself. I honestly thought I’d just get bragging rights and a little “author” flair on reddit. It’s been 12 days since I’ve released the book, and as of now you guys have bought 202 copies and read 100,000 Kindle Unlimited pages! Even more importantly, I just got my very first piece of fan email! That was so encouraging to read.

Amazon takes two months to pay out royalties. Once I have that I’ll be on the market for an editor to go over book 1 alongside and I’ll be pushing out a revised edition. You won’t need to buy anything new, it will just update your existing copy. I’ll let you know on this blog when that happens. My writing has improved by leaps and bounds since book 1, so you should look forward to smoother dialog, tighter prose, and more vibrant characters regardless of what I do for editing book 2.

Now for what you’re probably reading this for. The big question.

When do you get book 2?

That’s the question I always wanted to know when I read a good first book. And authors were always evasive. Readers get the evasive “Soon™”, or even worse “It’s done when it’s done.” I always hated those answers.

Q: When is book 2 coming out?

A: Soon™.

Yeah, sorry. I finally understand why authors do this to readers. Writing a book is messy and confusing. Words pile up, sometimes you cut them, sometimes you need to write more. Frankly, I can’t even estimate how far into the production process I am at any given time.

Or at least, that’s what it was like for book 1. For book 2, I’ve done a lot more prep work and plan to be a lot more organized throughout the project. Hopefully, that should amount to a vastly condensed timeframe. My current goal is to have a working second draft by October, with the goal of releasing book 2 by the end of December. But that’s just my personal deadlines. My goals involve me finishing up a lot earlier. If things continue as smoothly as they are currently, I might be able to move the release to November or sooner.

I think I’m going to be looking for beta readers once I have something I'm ready to share, so stay tuned for that as well! I’ve seen some authors start a patreon for this. Apparently, keeping your writing behind a paywall, even a tiny one, vastly reduces the issues of people copying your work over to a certain site known for illegally hosting stories that I won’t name here or getting it detected by Amazon’s bots and getting flagged as being published elsewhere and thus ineligible for Kindle Unlimited.

It lives! Behold, Zeal of the Mind and Flesh in all it's live glory!

I cannot express how wild an experience this was, first writing this book and then finally putting it out there for the world to see. My hands were literally shaking as I pushed the publish button. I'm excited for what the future will hold! There was a little disaster with the cover not showing up at first, but I talked with Amazon and got that taken care of.

There's still a lot of work to do, but it is incredible to know that there's already 3 people out there who thought my story was interesting enough to buy. It's only been 24 hours! You rock guys!

Comment below if you've got any questions. Or email me at MarvinWhiteknight@gmail.com!

ARC Live

Advanced reader copies are live! Get them on Booksprout!

https://booksprout.co/arc/15989/zeal-of-the-mind-and-flesh-a-gamelit-harem-novel