Just in case you somehow missed the title of this post yet clicked on it anyway: yep, THE SPEAR OF STARS (The Cycle of Galand #5) is now out on audiobook. You can get it on Audible, Amazon, and Apple.

A VERY IMPORTANT NOTE THAT YOU MUST READ IF YOU ARE GETTING THIS: Many people are reporting experiencing a very charming technical error from Audible, which is that the audiobook’s chapters are out of order.

This isn’t impacting everyone, and in fact they might have fixed it already, BUT—if your version starts in the middle of a big huge battle with the Blighted, or if chapter 1 seems normal but chapter 2 jumps into a big huge battle, YOUR COPY IS OUT OF ORDER.

Fortunately, the fix is very simple: just delete your copy and redownload it. That”s worked for everyone I’ve spoken to.

That out of the way: as always, the book is narrated by Tim Gerard Reynolds. I hear that people like this book, especially in audio format. If you liked the previous books, chances are you’ll like this one too. As with the rest of the series, the audiobook is WhisperSynched to the ebook, meaning that if you’re buying it with cash rather than a credit, you should be able to buy the ebook and then get the audiobook at a discount (about $7.50) that comes out to about the total cost of an audiobook credit. If that’s your thing.

Using my magic powers, I foresee that many of you are now asking when book #6 will be out. Well, I’m currently in the “think through the plot enough to not totally screw myself two-thirds through the book” stage. This phase is especially important to me on this one because I intended to put significantly more plot into THE SPEAR OF STARS but then more and more unexpected details kept cropping up and some of that plot got pushed into book #6.

In short, not quite as much happened in #5 as I intended. The danger here is if, in resolving the leftover plot that got squeezed from #5, then I have to likewise squeeze intended plot from #6, and the series veers into the dreaded “fantasy series grappling with the scope of its increasingly large and detailed world bogs down under its own weight and spins its wheels for several books until finally, mercifully, regaining traction.” Especially since #6 is taking place in a new environment/society, which always takes a goodly number of pages to flesh out and explore, and so you can see how, well…

WELL NOTHING! For there are three things that must happen in book 6, and by its end, those three things shall be done.

I just have to spend a little extra pre-writing time thinking them through. But I hope to start writing within a week. It’ll take me 5-6 months from there to have the book finished and ready to publish, so expect the ebook this spring, with the audiobook following that summer.

But hmm…this raised another question, doesn’t it? The question of what the lazy author has been doing since June when his last book came out and why he did not start Galand #6 months ago.

Well the answer is I wrote another book. A book about Cally, Dante’s old mentor, when Cally is a young man just learning the ways of the nether. It’s set a little over a century before The Cycle of Arawn, and it’s all written and finished. Just needs some proofreading and a cover. It should be out sometime in November or December.

Which raises one last (two-part) question: audiobook? Tim?

Yes: there will be an audiobook, yes it will be published by the same team as the others (Podium), and yes they’re in the process of scheduling Tim to narrate this one as well. It will be a kick to hear him de-age Cally’s voice from Arawn. As busy as Tim is, I’m not sure how soon he can get to it, but I’m thinking it’ll probably be out sometime this spring.

All right: this is getting long. In summary: audiobook out, next book not too long from now, surprise prequel book very soon. Over and out.