On the one year anniversary of Dan the Destructor - Barbarians of the Storm, Book I, I have finished the final draft of Swords Against Bastards - Barbarians of the Storm, Book III (the fourth book, overall).
It will feature a novella length main story, as well as a short story tacked on at the end, as has become tradition with the books in this series. That short story is called The Hunt for Cimmoarid, and it features the first adventure that Vasilia and Fenrik shared together, as well as the start of their romantic relationship. It also features Captain Agos and one gigantic monster fight.
The above header art reflects the image from the cover of the book, which features Vasilia, who moves up into the main cast of core characters with this book. Additionally, as the star of the short story, it just made sense to feature her, as she is a big part of the book, as a whole.
All I have left to do is to give the book a final readthrough. With that final readthrough will come minor editing and fine tuning. Sometimes, I’ll feel the need to add a scene, here or there, to give a bit more context if I feel like something is lacking. Honestly, though, that usually doesn’t add too much time to the overall final editing process.
So, I would assume that the book will probably release around the middle of next week. I’m trying to have it ready to coincide with my big weekly promo post on Wednesday. If that changes, I will update it here on this Substack; so subscribe if you haven’t yet.
Other than that, we’re almost there! I am pretty damn excited for this one, as it truly is a culmination of a lot of what I’ve been building towards with this series. My girlfriend said, “It broke my heart twice” and called it a “gut punch”. I guess that means the more tragic moments are indeed as effective as I hoped they would be.
With this book, the stakes have never been higher and it is impossible to move forward without some loss and a great many things shifting and changing. And that’s all I’m going to say about it.