Joshua P. Simon - The Accidental Author

As I referenced a few months ago, Podium Publishing is producing The Tyrus Chronicle into audiobooks.

Today is the official release of Forgotten Soldiers, the first of four books in the series.

Podium Publishing has made a strong name for themselves over the last several years as a producer of high-quality audiobooks. They've done an excellent job with this first book. Steven Brand is the narrator. He has a great reputation and has worked with several best-selling authors. I think he captured the tone of Tyrus and the story perfectly. You can find out more about them at their website, www.podiumpublishing.com.

Click here to check out a sample and/or to purchase.


Forgotten Soldiers is the first book in the military fantasy The Tyrus Chronicle.

The Turine army is on the brink of victory against the Geneshans. Sergeant Tyrus and his unit are tasked to steal an artifact from the enemy that some believe has the power to destroy the world. Taking such power from the Geneshans would end the decade long war.

Upon their success, Tyrus’s unit is among the first wave of soldiers discharged from the army. War has robbed him of time with his wife and children, but now the life he has dreamed of every day for the last ten years is just a long journey away.

Traveling home, Tyrus finds the world he left behind changed in ways he never expected. His own countrymen view returning soldiers as a threat. His own townsmen want to forget he even existed. Danger is everywhere. His dream is in jeopardy.

I haven’t done a very good job of updating my blog these last six months or so. Other than a few random posts and some end of year lists, it’s mostly been information about new releases. Not necessarily a bad thing, but not ideally what I’d like my blog to be about either. Even my Music Monday posts are getting less consistent.

There are a lot of reasons for that, but mostly it goes back to time and priorities.

You see, though I do get some traffic here, it isn’t a huge amount so it is hard for me to justify writing a deep and meaningful blog post that may take 30 minutes to 2 hours (depending on content and length) only to have it go mostly unread. Especially because I can be more productive using that time to write and get my next book out sooner (something most people reading this would probably rather anyway). Even still, I’d like to get a bit more regular with blogging again. I thought the best way to do that might be to get some general updates out the way.

New state, new house, new job and so on . . .
We moved from North Georgia to North Texas (in order to be closer to family) in February after a quick job search and house hunt. It was in the middle of all the crazy snow and ice storms so that made life pretty interesting for us (try traveling with 3 kids under 5 across that many states and then camping out in a single hotel room).

We got a lot more house than what we had before with only a fractional increase in price (Thank you Texas!). Overall, we love it, and the area. However, like most people we’ve been busy with all the small things you have to do with a new place: a heavy cleaning, some painting, fixing clogs and leaky toilets, replacing ceiling fans, etc.

Most of the pressing improvements are out the way, but there’s still a few things we’ll be working on in the coming months.

The new job is great too. It’s a step up in position and salary with lots of room for growth. The work is interesting and the people are really great (a few are big geeks like me). The one negative is that I don’t have quite as much personal time as I did before. 7:30-5:00 are the core hours with not much in the way of flexibility. The different hours and the inability to write during my lunch break as I used to have taken some getting used to. Making my word count is a bit more difficult.

Though I can’t write during lunch, the group I work with plays board/card games in the conference room during that time (pretty geeky ones) and that’s been really awesome. I’ve always loved that stuff, but rarely have I been around people with that interest. I’ll have to do a separate blog post on those I’ve played so far.

Writing . . .
Wayward Soldiers came out earlier this year. It’s sold well so far and helped increase sales on the first book in The Tyrus Chronicles, Forgotten Soldiers. I’ve been really pleased with how well the series is doing, even more so because there has been a carryover into my backlist. Hopefully, that continues.

Overall, they books have been well reviewed too, especially from those with a military background or interest which really means a lot to me. Granted, the series is different than most of what’s out there so it doesn’t necessarily resonate with everyone. That’s ok. To paraphrase Wayne’s World: “Even Led Zeppelin didn’t write songs that everyone loved.”

The fourth Andrasta and Rondel book, The Maze of Hidesi, is off with betareaders right now. Fingers crossed on feedback. It should go to my editor in early July. I’m hoping for a late August release.

I’ve started work on the third Tyrus book, Resurrected Soldiers. Though it’s early, I’m really enjoying the process so far. Ava gets to take a more prominent role in the narrative than she has in the past, and I think the story will be better because of it.

So, that’s it for right now. Busy as usual. Lots of stress and little sleep. But isn’t that everybody?

Forgotten Soldiers: The Tyrus Chronicle - Book One is now available for your Kindle! Click here to purchase or borrow if you're a member of Kindle Unlimited.

A paperback version can be found here.

Forgotten Soldiers is the first book in The Tyrus Chronicles. Three more books are planned for this series: Wayward Soldiers, Resurrected Soldiers, and Forever Soldiers. The next two are scheduled for release next year.

Here's the description for Forgotten Soldiers.

The Turine army is on the brink of victory against the Geneshans. Sergeant Tyrus and his unit are tasked to steal an artifact from the enemy that some believe has the power to destroy the world. Taking such power from the Geneshans would end the decade long war.

Upon their success, Tyrus’s unit is among the first wave of soldiers discharged from the army. War has robbed him of time with his wife and children, but now the life he has dreamed of every day for the last ten years is just a long journey away.

Traveling home, Tyrus finds the world he left behind changed in ways he never expected. His own countrymen view returning soldiers as a threat. His own townsmen want to forget he even existed. Danger is everywhere. His dream is in jeopardy.

If you enjoy the story or any of my other works, please consider leaving a rating or review at the site of purchase as well as other places such as Goodreads and Librarything. Like many other indie authors, I do not have a marketing team working for me and a positive review (even if only a couple of sentences long) can go a long way in enticing others to give my works a try.

Thanks for the continued support!

I haven't given a new series I've been working on a lot of space here on my blog. That series finally has an official name, The Tyrus Chronicle. The series follows the main character Tyrus through the ending of a long war and adjusting to the world of supposed peace.

The first book, Forgotten Soldiers, will be released some time in December with the second book, Wayward Soldiers coming a few months later.

I plan to work on both this series and The Epic of Andrasta and Rondel over the next year and a half or so.

I’m still working on the official description, but I’m pretty excited about the cover and couldn’t wait any longer to reveal it on my website.

The illlustration is by Mario Teodosio. You can see his other work here. As usual, the cover design is by my wife.

Let me know your thoughts in the comments, and stay tuned for more information in the coming weeks.

In January of 2012, I posted the following.

2012 Writing Goals
1. Release Walk Through Fire, my prequel novella.
2. Finish Book Two in the Blood and Tears Trilogy.
3. Release Book Two, Steel and Sorrow, by the end of Summer 2012.
4. Write Hero of Slaves, a novella set in the Blood and Tears world.
5. Release Hero of Slaves, by the end 2012.
6. Complete the detailed outline of Untitled: Book Three of the Blood and Tears Trilogy.
7. Begin writing Untitled: Book Three in the Blood and Tears Trilogy.

I’m happy to say that I completed every one of my writing goals for 2012 and then some. Book Three, now titled Trial and Glory was not only started, but finished, and I turned it over to my betareaders before Christmas.

On top of that, I’ve outlined and started my next fantasy series (unrelated to the Blood and Tears universe), tentatively titled The Tyrus Chronicle. I’m calling the first book Forgotten Soldiers. More about this later.

I also managed to write a couple of short stories during the year in addition to jotting down notes for a plethora of future short stories and novels.

2012 Personal goals:
1. 2-3 days a week of weightlifting and 1-2 days of cardio.
2. Read the entire bible this year with my wife.
3. Outside of that it’s reading, listening to music, and spending time with the family.

I managed to read the bible with my wife in addition to my normal study needed for constructing sermons or teaching bible classes at the congregation I worship with so I was pleased with that.

I also read over 60 books of fiction.

The one area I’ve failed with here is my training routine. I just haven’t been as consistent as I would have liked, especially with cardio. Health, writing, family, travel, etc. have all gotten in the way of this, but that’s not a good enough excuse. I need to do better.

With that in mind, below are my 2013 goals.

Writing Goals:
1. Publish Trial and Glory, the last book in the Blood and Tears trilogy. I’m shooting for April 2013.
2. Secret project for Rise and Fall: Book One in the Blood and Tears Trilogy. Can’t say more yet, but I’ll report the news as soon as I can. If everything works out, this should all come to fruition in the first few months of the year. The success of this project could also positively affect Steel and Sorrow and Trial and Glory sometime in the future.
3. Write and finish Forgotten Soldiers, Book One in the Forgotten Soldiers Saga.
4. Write and finish Book Two in Forgotten Soldiers Saga.
5. Decide how I want to approach publishing Forgotten Soldiers Saga.
6. Write 4-6 short stories. I have outlines for three of these. The ones I have in mind would run the gambit: a post-apocalyptic modern world, sword & sorcery, and science fiction.
7. Possibly indie-publish 1-3 short stories.
8. Finish outlining and start writing Book Three in Forgotten Soldiers Saga.

Personal Goals:
1. Read the entire bible this year with my wife. Last year we read the bible in canonical order. This year we’re doing it in chronological order.
2. Continue spending time with my family as much as possible.
3. 2-3 days a week of weightlifting and 1-2 days of cardio. Hoping I can do a better job of sticking to this in 2013.
4. Read 50-60 books again.
5. Listen to as much music and as many writing related podcasts as possible.

What are your 2013 goals?