kdrobertson

Neural Wraith 2 - Cover (High Resolution)

The usual high resolution cover post, now including a textless version.

I'm a big fan of the Neural Wraith covers. The full jackets aren't really that useful from a sales perspective and cost a bit extra, but I can afford the extra detail and I love them. There's a great sense of color and theme they provide. I hope anyone who grabs a paperback enjoys the full glossy cover. This has been my phone background since I got it from the artist.

Ezekiel's fancy legs didn't make it into t...

Neural Wraith 2 is Live

Welcome to 2023, and I’m back with Nick, his overly friendly army of police androids, and another cyberpunk-noir novel. If you read the first book, then you know that this is a little different to the usual genre fare, but just as good (or better) in my opinion.

Grab it from Amazon here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BP9KWBDN

Please be sure to leave a review and share the book around if you enjoy it. This...

2022 In-Review

It’s almost Christmas and that means 2022 is just about behind us. Rather than an ordinary monthly update, I figured I’d look back at the year and give an update about my plans for 2023.

Before that, the basic news: Neural Wraith 2 is off to beta readers, and I’ll be making final edits next week. I suspect there’ll be more changes to it than most of my books, probably to shore up the fundamentals (i.e. the mystery). It’ll be out on Jan 3, and the audio for Demon’s Throne 2 i...

December Public Update

2022 is almost over and I can’t really believe it. The year’s flown by. Can’t say I’ve gotten anywhere near as much down as I hoped to, although part of that is because I got burned out and needed a lengthy break. I’m pretty bad at schedules but that threw a really bad wrench in the works.

Before I go any further, Neural Wraith 2 news. It’s my next book and it’s up for pre-order, with a release date of 3 Jan. Earlier might have been possible, but I’m going to try doing a...

Neural Wraith 2 - Ch1-3

Daily updates (or close enough) start today. Th

Emperor Awakened Extra - Epilogue

Bit of a random thing, but I'm including an extra epilogue in the audio version of Emperor Awakened. It will be added to the ebook, but as I don't expect most people to reread that I'm posting it here (as I know not everyone will listen to the audio). This means this post has a pretty small audience: people who have read Empire Reforged, but who won't listen to the audio version.

This takes place after Emperor Awakened and has a bunch of spoilers for it. It was based off the original dr...

Quick Update

So it's been fairly quiet this month (other than the audiobook releases by my publishers) and no Neural Wraith 2 chapters despite my promises.

Basically, I've been suffering some nasty writer's block while also being distracted by IRL. I'm unhappy with the early chapters of the book (and have a very early chapter that I need to write, but that I've scrapped a couple of versions of). Hence why nothing's getting posted, because I'm not even sure if the first 3 chapters are ready due to so...

Demon's Throne Audio is Live

It's audiobook month for me, and it's time for Demon's Throne. Stephanie Savannah has done a great job voicing a wide variety of characters and accents and it was a treat to listen to while I was traveling recently (and makes me wish I'd written more Darus Twins scenes).

Audible US: https://www.audible.com/pd/B0BKR7K5KC 

Audible UK: 2022-11-22 12:00:07 +0000 UTC View Post

Heretic Spellblade Box Set 1 - Cover (High Resolution)

A bunch of people already saw the nearly final version and provided feedback. A huge thanks to everyone who did, even if not all changes were implemented.

There's no preview post of this cover as the book is already up for pre-order, which means everyone can see it anyway.

I've thrown in textless versions of both the final and near-final versions, and even of the sketch.

This cover depicts Sen, and I guess I'll leave it up to everyone to decide if it replaces their own visio...

Neural Wraith 2 - Cover

I imagine this wasn't the cover you were expecting to see, given I posted a preview of this book's cover months ago.

Well, with the shift in this book's plot I swapped the intended covers of books 2 and 3 to fit their themes. Helena's cover was intended to represent her role helping Nick with the Altnet and acting as his interface between the electronic and physical worlds. But that doesn't really happen in the new plot, so I went with the Ezekiel cover.

And, yes, this is Ezekiel,...

Emperor Forged Audio is Live

I hope you finished listening to Neural Wraith already, because I have another audiobook out now. Emperor Forged is out and it has a stellar performance by Gabriel Michael and Katana Jones that Royal Guard put together. It’s my first book, so it’s a little rough around the edges at times and shorter than my current stuff, but I hope you give it a try and enjoy it. If you don’t know anything about it, then know that it’s more action-focused and has a more military fantasy vibe.

A...

Neural Wraith 2 - Planning

This was a post I hadn’t intended to make, as I felt I had a pretty clear idea of where the story would go and I’m trying to get as much down while on holiday. But I’m currently very tired after a bit of a horror day yesterday and not keen on crowds of domestic tourists in Kyoto on a public holiday, so have some spare time.

Parts of this post will refer to the recent Unseen Banking short story for reasons that will be abundantly clear if you’ve read it, or will otherwise be expl...

Neural Wraith Audio is Live

Neural Wraith audio is up, so grab it if you want it and settle in for a nice long cyberpunk mystery with haughty robot girls. It's a solid 15+ hours long, with the always excellent narration by Stephanie Savannah. If I had to pick a favourite character: easily Kushiel, and her country accent (which I requested) in the audio brings her lines to life.

Audible US: https://www.audible.com/pd/N...

November* Anniversary Patreon Update

It's technically November in Australia when this is posted. The real reason I'm posting this is that people will (hopefully) be preoccupied listening to my audiobooks for a while and I'll likely be busy for much of the week myself.

News will be brief. As promised last time, I'm answering questions as it's been two years since Heretic Spellblade was published and November is my author anniversary. If you have any questions of your own, leave them in a comment, and I'll answer them.

Emperor Forged Audio Preorder Live

Very quick update, as I'm getting on a plane soon.

The preorder for the audiobook for Emperor Forged is live. If you asked for a code, you should have one in your patreon messages (so check them and please redeem it ASAP - note that it won't show up in your normal library until release).

Grab the audio preorder at: 2022-10-18 17:07:55 +0000 UTC View Post

Questions & October Patreon Update

Slightly different update this month.

Next month is my author anniversary (2 years since Heretic, 3 years since I tried with Emperor) and I intend to write up something for it. I can come up with ideas myself, but I figure I'll see if people have any questions (large and small) that they want to ask me that I can give a detailed answer.

So if you have any questions you want to ask me, leave them in a comment or send me a message. I'll answer them in next month's update, or come up...

October Public Update

Quiet month, but I have lots to announce. Especially on the audio front, as November will be an avalanche of audiobook releases from me.

First, Neural Wraith 2 in December. Early Patreon chapters will start going up in November, for those interested.

I have three audiobooks coming out in November, with more hot on their heels. Pre-orders for these books will go up over the next two weeks, so keep an eye out. I’ll make separate posts whenever each comes out.

• Neural Wr...
  2022-10-09 14:03:00 +0000 UTC View Post

(NSFW) Some art and commentary

Time for a potentially controversial post. While I've been taking a break (before a proper holiday) I've been messing around with AI art generation the past few days - I'll be returning to writing for the next couple of weeks, though (I want to send some alpha chapters for Neural Wraith 2 out soon and finish Unseen Banking). This was both personal and research for Neural Wraith (as I look into new tech stuff to get ideas for the series).

As a challenge, I tried to make AI art for Demon'...

Next month (October) is free

Been a little while since I did this but things got very busy IRL suddenly and I haven't written or edited a word in nearly a week.

This week ended up being a bit crazy for me as a few things happened and I hurriedly made some plans for stuff I've wanted to do for years. That's what's held up the second half of the short story (which remains imminent as it's on the verge of completion).

In short, I'll be slowing down my publishing for the rest of this year. I expect October to hav...

September Public Update

If you read the Patreon update for this month, you know the general gist of the main announcement. I'm mostly putting this out there because I'm not really in the mood for social media stuff, but going radio silence for over a month on FB is probably a bad idea. This lets me shut up for a while and focus on writing, as I've had more than a few questions about what the next book will be.

There'll be a short story for Neural Wraith posted this weekend (finally), and potentially NW2 chapte...

Heretic Spellblade 5 - Detailed Commentary

So, I created this commentary using the Spellblade 4 commentary as a base and the first thing I saw was how thrilled I was with the Book 4 reception and overall result. It’s a bittersweet feeling, as I remember how much effort I put in during the end of 2021 and how great it felt to pull it off. This commentary has much of the opposite emotions, as Spellblade 5 was a very difficult book to write and it’s done significantly worse than expected (much more so than Demon’s Throne 3 did). 2022-09-15 14:00:10 +0000 UTC View Post

September Patreon Update

Figured I'd provide a news update given it will be a little while before I post a story or commentary (as I'm out of town this weekend).

Heretic Spellblade 5 is out. Hard to tell what the release will really be like, as I suspect the Labor Day weekend is messing with usual reading patterns (plus, the book is long). I'm pretty sure the cliffhanger is annoying people, but well, that's cliffhangers for you.

I don't really have proper news. Spellblade 5 burned me out, hard. I had idea...

Heretic Spellblade 5 - Cover (High Resolution)

Forgot to post this last night.

As always, the high res version of the HS5 cover. I've upped the resolution I post these in, so they should be better suited for high res phone screens.

This cover has definitely had a much softer reception due to not showing off enough skin (and people who prefer the old artist, who I'm not using again), but I think it suits Ciana much better.

Commentary will either be on Thursday or next week, as I'm out of town this weekend. Dunno if I'll p...

Heretic Spellblade 5 is Live

Nathan returns in the latest Heretic Spellblade, and it’s a massive volume. New Messengers, new powers, new politics, and new twists. If you’ve read the last four, you know what to expect.

Grab it from Amazon here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BC6NXML5

Please drop a review if you enjoy it and share it with those who might enjoy it. If you’ve also read the last four, you know why the drill by now.

August Public Update

Busy month, and also an unlucky month. Some audiobook news, though.

• Heretic Spellblade 5 should be out on the 3rd September. It’s been a slog putting it together, and it’s kind of huge, so this comes with caveats (read below). Pre-order will be around 5 days before it’s out if it’s not delayed.
• Following my last update, I’ve had Podium do Demon’s Throne as they did an excellent job with Heretic Spellblade. They’ve confirmed that Stephanie Savannah will be na...
  2022-08-12 14:00:10 +0000 UTC View Post

August Patreon Update + Discord Poll

It's been a little while since I've done a proper Patreon update. Audiobook stuff and writing has been taking up much of my time.

I'll leave most of the audiobook stuff to the public update later this month, as I'm still waiting to confirm some stuff before I announce it.

Spellblade 5 is behind, as most of you have guessed. A lot of my plans have kind of splattered on the ground, so I'm mostly just pressing on and trying to fix things as I realize I've missed something. End of Aug...

Major Update: Demon's Throne Audiobooks

So, this has been an unexpectedly busy week for me, and not in the writing sense. This is partly why I'm late with the Spellblade chapters, as I've been focused on another matter (probably too focused, as it turns out).

In short, I've made the decision to part ways with Audiobook Guild. I won’t go into detail about the reasons why, but I'll say that they've done right by me. I still stand by my previous comments about Audible, but things are what they are. I won't make any detailed co...

Heretic Spellblade 5 - Planning

Intro

This post will be a spoiler-lite commentary on how I plan to approach Heretic Spellblade 5 (and 6), with a focus on outstanding plot threads, writing issues, and character arcs.

This book will be a different challenge for me, as I’ll explain in a bit.

Overall Story

Book 5 actually has three major plot threads to cover: the aftermath of the civil war; the role of Trafaumh; and establishing Omria/Charlotte as the true threat.

By contrast, Book 4 had a m...

July Public Update

2022 is halfway over and it’s definitely going too fast for me, but that’s life. Another month, another writing update.

EDIT: Podium just confirmed that Stephanie Savannah will be narrating Neural Wraith, and I'm thrilled to have her doing the books. I'll probably wait a little bit before sharing this myself on FB, because FB has a nasty habit of throttling who sees my updates if I post close too together (i.e. they want me to pay). But feel free to share this news ...

Neural Wraith - Detailed Commentary

Intro

As always, this is the commentary