Tag: ixion

A New Writer’s Digest Review for Ixion

Looking forward to releasing my new novel in the Spring. In the meantime, I’m thankful for a recent review from Writer’s Digest. I submitted Ixion for a literary contest for Indie-authors, Self-Published EBook Awards. I did not win; however, I received a nice review, which I’ve included below:

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Structure, Organization, and Pacing:   4
Spelling, Punctuation, and Grammar:    4
Production Quality and Cover Design:    5
Plot and Story Appeal:   4
Character Appeal and Development:   4
Voice and Writing Style:   4

 
Judge’s Commentary*:

First, the cover is excellent. I love the image, the relation it brings to the plot, it gives a great idea what the reader is in store for, and it looks good. Nice work.

I really enjoy underworld mythology and was excited to read a creative take on those tales. I thought this book was quite an intense and epic ride, it seemed to be set to a level 10 intensity the entire time, and for most of the book that worked out. While the writing is compelling and the plot is exactly the intensity that is thrilling, I do think it would benefit from some variation in those levels. What I mean by that is, there are often a lot of things going on at once in the chapters, and at times it was a lot to keep hold of, especially when each of those things is really highly important. It would have been helpful to me to have a little more balance to give the more extreme plot points their full power where the reader is also given some pages of recovery time.

I think it is a testament to the strength of the writing that the scenarios seemed viable and for the most part worked for me, but I do wish there had been some more character development overall to counteract and help balance the plot.

*Judge, 7th Annual Writer’s Digest Self-Published eBook Awards.

 

New book description…

Hi everyone! Just another month until my new novel, Ixion, is released. Please find the book description below:

IXION…

Countless Titans, Demons and Monsters have been thrown into Tartarus—their vile natures condemning them to the dark depths. They are cut off from the Elysian Fields and will never know the endless joy and serenity that the just and goodhearted souls have been rewarded for their endeavors in life.

Sure, there are the unjust and depraved souls here too in the Underworld. They endure their punishments on the border between Tartarus and the Realm of Paradise. Even these souls, however, are far enough away from either. The laughter, music and whimsy of Happiness—or, by contrast, the wallowing, terrifying wails and anguish of Damnation—are only heard if the conditions are right. But such souls will seldom hear any noises other than what they themselves make. They are in their own hell, their own self-induced tortures … their selfish natures granting them some relief in the afterlife.

But some souls are not granted such mercy. What they have done in life is too terrible, too unforgivable. Too abominable. They are the ones to be feared, to be loathed, and to be held as pariahs for future generations to judge and scorn. While some of these souls are still hidden away—their forms and punishments too unpleasant for those to enjoy a proper Paradise—they are still forced to hear both the torture of the cursed and the laughter of the blissful.

Then again, some souls are meant to be seen. Some are used as constant reminders of what they had done to anger the Gods … For in the Sky of the Underworld and for all to see, one such soul has been on a flaming wheel for eons. Snakes not only bind him to it but also lash out at him with venom-soaked jaws. He is meant to be in constant torment; however, even as the fire burns at his dead skin, even as the snakes inject him with burning poison, one desire has kept him defiant…

He wants to set the world on fire. Kill EVERYTHING in it.

Then … despite the Underworld having been sealed away from the rest of the world for millennia … he gets free.