The Hour has Come!

 Available Now, An Hour For Vengeance

Kirov Series Special Edition, Volume #68

From a Temporal Cyclone to burning ships struck by terrible new weapons of Imperial Japan in 2030, the War in Limbo continues right where Volume #67 left off. Karpov and Kirov have already seen what can happen when locking horns with this modern Japanese Empire, in a world made possible by Ivan Volkov. With Letters of Marque from Director Kamenski, he takes Kirov to sea again in waters swarming with ships of the Combined Fleet, and with Odo Nobunaga set on exacting revenge for the duplicity and betrayal of the Siberians when his war prize fails to function as expected.  Action from start to finish in this one, as Fedorov and Karpov hope to eventually find a way home to their Meridian in 2027.

Now on Amazon

An Hour for Vengeance, Kindle edition, $6.99

An Hour For Vengeance

 Kirov Series Special Edition #68

The Kirov Series Revisited….

 

Most fans of the Kirov Series know by now that the never ending story never really ended. The last two volumes of the main series were #63 Final Sortie, and #64 Journey’s end. Then, after over ten years dedicated to the mighty Kirov, John took a break and put out a five volume Epic Fantasy series, The Chronicles of Innisfail, basically looking for more readers in that highly popular genre. But ever since Game of Thrones, fantasy has been absolutely saturated, and it was difficult to get noticed.  So John then returned to his Keyholders Saga, which arose as a subplot in the Kirov Series when the character Sir Roger Ames hired one Ian Thomas to burrow beneath Churchill’s burial site to obtain his ashes so they could be compressed to make a diamond by services like Eterneva, EverDear, Lonite and many others. Ever since that, Sir Roger has been wagering that diamond in a number of games with wealthy adversaries. These men all seem to have mysterious keys that open highly engineered gates to hidden passages concealing rifts in time. So time travel is again at the heart of these stories, which end up being highly textured alternate histories.

Of course the keys soon become prominent in the Kirov Series as other characters begin seeking them out, like Elena Fairchild, and eventually Fedorov and Karpov as well. We learn how they are used in the Kamenski Device to open more and more features of that magic box. Meanwhile, Sir Roger leads us through four excellent alternate histories of famous battles from British History.  The first was Field of Glory (Waterloo), then Zulu Hour (Isandlwana). Returning to this series John added The Devil Ship (The Opium Wars) and then The Sands of Honor, (Sudan and Omdurman), with Sir Roger Ames again involved in both stories. These are books that are pretty much stand alone novels, so the Keyholder’s Saga can be read in any order.

Now then… the never ending Kirov Saga suddenly had an Encore, (Series volume #65) and that volume actually seemed a more appropriate way to tie things off for the series as a whole.  While it focused on the officers and crew, the vehicle was the airship Baikal, not the Mighty Kirov. But it did get us sitting in on the plans and plots of Karpov and Fedorov, and on a fairly wild mission to both polar regions.

Next John went back to the ship he devoted so much love, time, and energy to and put out two quick volumes a month apart. They were Clash of Empires, Kirov Series #66, where Director Kamenski recruited our heroes and their intrepid battlecruiser to clean up a mess caused by the disappearance of a Chinese warship. It was followed in just one month by War in Limbo, volume #67.

With Kirov fighting in just about every historical war possible, this time John took his imagination forward to the year 2030, and in a future made possible by Ivan Volkov’s interventions. In the War in Limbo, we learn that Volkov gave “the Bomb” to the Japanese a year before the end of WWII, and that enabled Japan to stage a surprise attack on Halsey while he mustered in Truk Lagoon. That ended the war by treaty instead of unconditional surrender for Japan, and voila, what do we have in 2030, a ravenously Samurai souled Imperial Japanese Empire dominating all the Western Pacific, but with modern day ships and missiles in their Imperial Navy.

Kirov gets marooned in this Limbo in volume #67, quite literally tossed aground on the island named Limbo by a big Typhoon. It is not long before the Japanese become aware of the ship, and they meet the same character that they encountered when this world was first introduced in the main series, Captain Sato. Things then take a darker turn, and things transpire that series fans never thought possible. Mid-way through this story there are dramatic events which cannot be revealed here. This puts both Fedorov and Karpov to the test, and they devise a plan to try and reverse their setbacks and escape this world.

The ending of War in Limbo presents an eerie stalking of the ship and crew by the force of Paradox, which appears as a massive Temporal storm. So while a physical typhoon begins the story, it is bookended by a Temporal Cyclone,  and that is where we left it last month. Well guess what mister prolific has for us in June. The Kirov Series gets yet another sequel, Series Volume #68, An Hour For Vengeance is coming soon, and while the other Encores were stand alone stories, this one connects directly to War in Limbo, picking up right where that story ended. The two volumes even share a similar cover design.

So this month the story takes off again, and puts us right back on the bridge of Kirov to resolve the ending of War in Limbo. Saying more about An Hour for Vengeance might spoil things for you, but needless to say, Karpov is pissed off with the Imperial Japanese Navy for what they put the ship and crew through, and he shows them what Mizuchi can really do. Coming this June, possibly around the 15th again, we get another Kirov fix that is utterly classic, and it looks like these books revisiting the series are becoming a stealth Season Nine. Like the four or five Star Trek spinoffs, there may be more to come as the Kirov series reboots in these tales. Don’t miss out! 

~ The The Writing Shop Press

Season 9: The Encore Series for Kirov

Volume 65: Encore

Volume 66: Clash of Empires

Volume 67: War in Limbo

Volume 68: An Hour for Vengeance

Clash of Empires!

 AVAILABLE NOW - Kirov Series #66 ~ Clash of Empires

After ending the Kirov Series last year, author John Schettler has been sneaking out stand alone novels based on the ship and crew, and putting them out as "Special Editions."

The first was Encore, appropriately titled, and a book that became Kirov Series #65. This spring we will get two more stand alone novels, each one a specific mission that needs a warship to resolve. While Encore was a jaunt to the distant future on the Airship Baikal, the next two books will be centered on the ship and crew, and they will be a mission to the past in Clash of Empires, released April 15. Next month, we get another book, one complete mission for Kirov and crew entitled War in Limbo. So if you have had an urge to walk that deck again, these two books will be just what you need.

OTHER NEWS on Website and Email.

The hosting company for my web site and email service notified me that they are getting out of the hosting business altogether. So there I was, with a 400 page web site that suddenly needed to find a new host.

I’ve been wanting to simplify the web site for some time now, and so this was a good reason to start. Here’s what I have done.

1)      The web site has moved

I’ve registered a new Domain, which is now “writingshop.press”

In the short run, I pointed the old writingshop.ws at a much leaner web site at www.writingshop.press.

Anyone typing www.writingshop.ws will get forwarded to the new, much simpler web site. It will showcase my various book series, and announce new releases, but I will no longer create a page for each series book. I’ll probably expand this site in the months ahead, but for now it just has a home page and one subpage—ah, simplicity. And also because of this move…

2)      My email has changed

I can now be reached at: John@writingshop.press 

In the short term I think mail sent to John@writingshop.ws will still reach me, but it will soon phase out, so you should switch to the .press email address to contact me reliably.

3) About Clash of Empires

 Clash of Empires marks a return to the Kirov Series for stand alone books that involve one mission or sortie, and these will be intensely focused on the ship and crew. In Clash of Empires, the book also takes us to the period of the Boxer Rebellion (1900) as Kirov goes back after a missing Chinese super destroyer, Anshan, pictured above. Clash of Empires will stand Kirov series Volume #66, (Encore being #65), and it will be followed next month with series Volume #67 War in Limbo. Again, this will be one sortie by Kirov, mostly focused on the ship and crew, and it will have some very dramatic events.

What can I say? Paraphrasing Michael Corleone: “Just when you think you’re out, I pull you back in!” After Kirov’s cameo appearance in Sands of Honor, I just needed to walk that deck again, and I hope you support these volumes, as they will probably decide whether or not there will be any further cruises on Kirov in the months and years ahead.

Thank you all for your interest and support for my books. I hope I’m giving you something good in return.

 

Best Regards

John Schettler

         

Walk the Sands of Honor!

 Available Now! A medley of John's entire universe. Book LINK

The price of honor has been high, for an Empire, a nation, a single man. And that price has been paid on battlefields all over the earth, in the hinterlands of Empire, beyond the frontiers of national power. For England, the world’s greatest empire in the late 1800s, the price of honor was paid with the blood of her soldiers, in Europe, Afghanistan, India, China, Egypt, Sudan, and Natal, and the often desolate places where that blood was shed, the battlefields where men fought, and strove and died, became the sands of honor. England sent her diplomats, politicians, her heroes and her soldiers in their khaki tunics to those battlefields, and so many young men looking to make a name for themselves.  In The Sands of Honor these ‘desert loving Englishmen’ will face and fight the whirlwind Army of the Dervish, the zealots who had rallied to the banners of the Mahdi, he who was promised to come. It's Dune in the late 1800s!

On the morning of the 2nd of September, 1898, with Kitchener’s Anglo-Egyptian Army encamped in a large defensive position against the Nile called a zeriba, the British 21st Lancer Regiment rode out to find and fix the enemy’s intentions. They would reach and climb the grey gravel slopes of Jebel Surgham just off the right flank of the camp, whereupon they heard ‘a mighty rumbling as of tempestuous rollers and surf bearing down upon a rock bound shore.’ There they saw ‘a moving, undulating plain of men, flecked with banners and glistening  steel’ extending over a front three to four miles wide. It was a dense mass, a deep bodied flood of anger raging towards that hill, aiming to flow over and around it like a mighty sea of arms. Soon the shouts of that mass were plainly heard—Allah u Akbar! Rasool Allah el Mahdi! They brandished thick bladed swords and long cruel spears, masses of tightly packed warriors led by proud Emirs on horseback surrounded by bannermen and troops of Baggara horsemen.

The Dervish Army came on as a thick dark tide on the open plain. These were the men, like the Fremen of Dune, who had stirred the restless sands of Sudan in wild rebellion; the men who had thrown down Gordon of Khartum, one of England’s dearest heroes. The men who had slaughtered the 8000 men led by General Hicks. They were fierce, proud, relentless as they came, and endowed with a fanaticism that would drive them into the teeth of all the firepower Kitchener’s army could bring to bear on them, the quick firing artillery, Maxim Machine guns, the incessant volley fire by lines of steady infantry with their magazine fed Lee-Metfords. And they would be met by England's best: The Grenadier Guards, the Cameron and Seaforth Highlanders, and Fusiliers from Lancashire and Northumberland; men of Warwickshire and Lincolnshire.

The vast Dervish army, approaching 60,000 in number, could have come the previous night, like wolves in the dark, but instead they waited for the dawn, choosing to attack beneath the eyes of Allah. Why should they creep and snipe in the dark against these, who they would now surely destroy? Now, there was nothing between this vast host and Kitchener’s Army of 22,000 but the 320 men of the 21st Lancers, watching from that lonesome desert promontory. With them, was a young Lieutenant, out to make a name for himself, a medal seeking, glory hunting 23 year old named Winston Churchill….

On came the venomous Dervish fighters in their fearless fury.

Available Now!

Kindle and Trade paperback

36 Chapters, 350+ Pages

The Sands of Honor

By
John Schettler

Prologue – Rise of The Mahdi
 

Part I – China Gordon
Part II – The Work of the Faithful
Part III – On Desperate Ground
Part IV – The Road Less Traveled
Part V – Reconnaissance
Part VI – Atbara
Part VII – Omdurman
Part VIII– Consequences
Part IX – The Uninvited Guest
Part X –  The Last Battle
Part XI – While the Iron is Hot
Part XII – Men of Valour

Epilogue

Time Terminology Lexicon

Genres: Historical Fiction, Military Fiction, Alternate History, Time Travel

Characters: Sir Roger Ames, Ian Thomas, Generals Gordon and Kitchener, Captain Gordon MacRae, Hicks Pasha, Sheikh Ali, the Mahdi, the Khalifa, Cavalry Colonels Broadwood and Martin, Lt. Winston Churchill, the Meridian Project Team--Paul Dorland, Maeve Lindford, Kelly Ramer, Robert Nordhausen, and a special mission for Anton Fedorov, Vladimir Karpov, Admiral Leonid Volsky, Kandemir Troyak, Sgt. Zykov, Pavel Kamenski, and BCG Kirov.

The Desperate attempt to save Gordon of Khartum, then General Kitchener's bold advance up the Nile to fight the Dervish, first at Atbara, then on to the decisive battle of Omdurman, where the life of a single man could change all future history from that day forward. Make room on your Kindle for this one!

Two New Books Coming Soon!

 And I'm Opening a New Substack Blog.

Hail to all my blog subscribers and those of you who signed up for emails!

The latest  news is that there are now two books in the pipeline, and Kirov & company get pages in each one. These are presently scheduled for March and April, and my Substack will be sending out the details on these projects later. There are still spots in the Advance Review Teams for each book, so if you want to be a team member, and get the book two weeks before anyone else, email me.

                        Coming April 15                                            Coming March 15

The Writing Shop is opening space on Substack!

I’ve decided to move blog and weekly email traffic to Substack where I can opine on other things and write about topics of interest. I know it’s a busy world out there for you, both online or off, and I’m just one more pulse in the wire. On Substack I’ll be hitting some different vibrations, on the craft of writing, the history behind my books, the characters walking my pages, and then even things like current events.

But my Substack won’t just be a book tour thing. I just threw up a post about ChatGPT again, the hot topic of the day, where I asked it to write fiction, do some research, and proofread as a writer’s tool. How did it do? (Hint, it’s a great proofreader). The transcript of that conversation is posted there if this AI thing is of any interest to you. I respect your time, and privacy, so I did not load my email list into Substack. If you want to get my Substack posts, news, special offers, announcements, team openings, polls & surveys, articles and such, you can find me here:

Https://Writingshop.substack.com 

 

I hope you’ll tune in!

John Schettler

READER SURVEY RESULTS

 Here's what Readers preferred in our latest survey

“It's like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were. And sometimes you didn't want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened?” —J.R.R. Tolkien READER SURVEY RESULTS: We asked readers to sound off in a brief survey, and here’s what they said.  • When asked why they read fiction, it was to escape, leave their troubles behind, indulge imagination, gain knowledge, and just have fun. But by far the most common response was to escape into another world and time, from Minas Tirith to the battle bridge of Kirov. • Readers enjoying military fiction said they liked a mix of land action and naval battles. Their favorite eras were WWI & WWII, modern conflicts, and then the Age of Imperialism and the US Civil War. I was pleased to see that most of those responded said they wanted to see another novel featuring Kirov in either a modern or historical setting. For me that was akin to Samwise Gamgee’s remark about the great stories never ending. As my characters intervene in the history, they struggle with the same question Samwise asked: How could the world ever go back to the way it was? I’ll soon have two new books for you to continue exploring these questions.  Watch this space for more on these books. I do want to hear from more of you about your reading interest. It will be an important factor to determine my writing projects. The survey will stay on for another week. If you have not already, please spend 3-5 minutes taking it. Voice your opinion, and get it heard. Please Note I've moved my novel Field of Glory out of the Kirov Series and into the Keyholder's series. It's really in both, but Amazon makes me choose one or the other. So the three books in the Keyholders Series are now: Field of Glory Zulu Hour The Devil Ship And these books can be read in any order.

Clash of Empires

 A Devil Ship meets Imperial China

In my latest book I introduced one William Jardine, the Scottish trader who established the J&M (Jardine Matheson & Company) that came to be the center of the opium trade. Jardine got rich and powerful with his fleet of China Clippers running opium  from India to China, and bringing back teas and silks to England. He came to be known as the Tai-Pan, or supreme leader of the China Trade, and he also helped the mighty British East India Company take a nice profit from that trade. Then he sees  the Devil Ship, which he mistakenly calls the “HMS” Nemesis. Even though it was a purpose-built ship, not for the Royal Navy, but for the British East India Company who would profit from the war it would enable.

I first met this man (Jardine) in the landmark novel Tai-Pan by James Clavell, one of my most admired writers. I read Shogun nearly 40 years ago in 1975 when it was in everyone’s lap on trains, planes, and subways, the book that was Clavell’s breakthrough novel. Then I discovered Tai-Pan had been written eleven years earlier in 1966, and I devoured it. Returning to that book this year after finishing The Devil Ship, I was delighted to see it covered some of the same history as my latest novel.  I even found a scene where Clavell’s Tai-Pan, who he called “Dirk Struan” instead of the man’s real name, catches his first glimpse of the paddle steamer Nemesis in the book Tai-Pan. He swears at it roundly, seeing it for what it was, the coming of a new age in shipping, and the harbinger of the death of his prized China Clippers, the most beautiful sailing ships that ever graced the seas. 

These were the sort of things I explored in The Devil Ship, a time of conflict between two empires, two ages in naval technology, two starkly different cultures. It was a time where new ships, iron-hulled steamers, were just coming into regular service, and the sparks of inevitable conflict ignited by the grinding of two cultures, the British and Chinese, started the fires of war. They were both Imperial powers with long histories that were locked in a struggle in the mid to late 19th Century, and among the prizes Great Britain secured in those wars was the island that became the glittering jewel of a city we know today as Hong Kong. They held it for over 100 years.

I hope you’ll take the time to pick up a copy of The Devil Ship and enjoy it! In my story, there had to be mention of the Tai-Pan as well, for I had learned that William Jardine all but spoon-fed the plan the British used to defeat Qing China in the Opium Wars to Lord Palmerston, the British Foreign Secretary at that time.  So here was a perfect setting, the Age of Sail meets the coming of Steam and Iron, ships that ‘endured the disgust of the seas and the contempt of the wind’ as Clavell’s Tai-Pan laments. Throw in the last days of the red coated British infantry, the Martini & Henry Rifle, the new quick firing Nordenfeld field guns, Maxim Machine Guns, a Devil Ship sailing up river to Canton with the Royal Navy, and it was a whirl of a story.

The Devil Ship starkly illustrates the importance of a powerful navy. 42 Ships of the Royal Navy and less than 20,000 British regulars were able to bring down a dynasty that had ruled China since 1636, with an army of over 1 million soldiers. How could that have happened? Read The Devil Ship and see. Yet Britain could never do today what it easily accomplished in 1842.  Since then, England’s Navy has dramatically reduced in size, to a point where it now has only five destroyers, while modern day China has over six times as many and will build five new ships in that class every year. It pays to look at history and remember the vital importance of sea power. That is as true today as it was in the 19th Century. 

Just Released!

 The Devil Ship... Available now.

Announcing the release of John Schettler’s latest novel, The Devil Ship.

 GET IT HERE

The Devil Ship was well named, both by its creators and by those who would have to face it.

 Yet when it sailed from Liverpool on its maiden voyage, a false destination was given to the press to hide its real purpose and mission. Not even its Captain and crew could know its true destination.  The ship was called the  Nemesis. Yet her Captain, Master William Hall, Royal Navy, found he would soon have the company of a most mysterious man, a company man, who supposedly knew the answers to all of his many questions. Along the way, the ship is being steered through the unfathomable waters of fate as well as the wild seas of the world.

Where were they going? What was the Nemesis designed to do? What were his orders? Soon the Devil Ship would shake all under heaven in the clash of two of the world’s great Empires, where the fate of each would hang in the balance.  

He was bound for mystery and destiny in one throw, half way around the world, where a clash of two cultures, two great empires, would write one of the darkest chapters of modern history ever seen. Something was telling him this would be grand, daring, bold beyond his imaginings, and yet terribly wrong.

A Military Historical Fiction, this book adds a twist common in John’s work, Time Travel, which opens the door to interventions that spin out an Alternative History. If you enjoyed Field of Glory or Zulu Hour, this volume is in that same vein, and will be sure to please.

New Book Scheduled for General Release

 Devil Ship Getting Ready to Sail!

The Writing Shop Press announces author John Schettler’s new historical military fiction, The Devil Ship, is now scheduled for release on January 12th for Kindle and in Trade Paperback. The research was even more extensive for this one, relying on official accounts by the ship’s Captain, numerous other eye-witness accounts, a couple of movies available, including a 60-episode drama of certain events translated into English for John, episode by episode, minute by minute.  The book will feature an atrocious war involving both naval and land fighting between two great empires.

Mark the release date on your calendar and be among the first to get the book!

Happy New Year!

 Exciting new books ahead!

Happy Holidays!

My next book, The Devil Ship, is almost ready and coming soon. I have put a dedicated page on my website. Check it out at http://www.writingshop.ws/html/devil_ship.html 

Hope you had a great Christmas Holiday! I asked Santa to slip something into your stocking, a free book from me. If you didn’t get yours, it will still be available for a  free download through 3 JAN 2023. Start here:  https://writingshop.ws/html/gift.html.  It would be nice to see you post online reviews. 

Hoping your new year will be full of promise, opportunity, peace and happiness. I know that’s a lot to ask, but why not?  

Happy New Year!

Here's a peek at the cover for my next release - Coming Soon!

Merry Christmas

Santa Has a Gift for You!

As I promised you last week, Santa has a gift for you from me! Just  CLICK HERE to get a free copy of one of my recently published books.

Here's that link again: https://writingshop.ws/html/gift.html 

 

Once you sign in, you will be brought to a page with links to the file in a format of your choice: available as AZW3 Kindle File, EPUB, MOBI, or PDF - - Free!  Be sure to follow the instructions for download.

 

Merry Christmas to you, and Happy New Year from John, and thank you so much for reading my books!

 

Christmas Is Coming!

I am happy to tell you that my next book, a historical military fiction, is reaching its final draft and will be released soon. The release date will be announced in early January.

As you may have noticed, there have been a lot of activities going on at the Writing Shop.  We have received a lot of emails. At present, the Beta Reader and ARC team positions are all filled. If you have an interest in these,  I will make sure you are included in the next project.

Right now, I expect most of you will be trying to fill those stockings and check off the last few items on your gift lists! I’m going to be sticking something in your Christmas stocking this Christmas Eve too. Be sure to see next week’s announcement in this space. And join the mailing list to be among the first to find it out.

Volume IV in the Innisfail Series

 ABOUT NIGHTFALL

Amazon Kindle Link:  $4.99  

Duke Morgin Grenfell fights two battles in defense of the West while the Dreadlord Sonderin recruits the Khazars and musters to assault the Raedwall. Morgin receives unexpected help from the High Mage Cedrin Woodwise in the Ravenswood. Soon Morwenna and Luth march to join Sonderin, but only after they have first gone to Dark Mornaland to release a terrible Demon, a Nightshade who can devour all light.

    As deep night falls on the Alderenh, hope fades in the darkness until the Sons of Old Mindemoya answer a desperate appeal from General Scion Cross and sail for Rammath-Innis. But the Black Sails stand in their way, and the Imperial Navy sorties to challenge them in a great naval battle.   When the Nightshade comes east into Innisfail, Archmage Vortigern leads the Order of Donn Rhy to stand against it in a deadly confrontation of Black Magic vs White. Then the Samarkon stand with General Cross to face down Luth and his Legion of Shadows--the Dharmans.

The Chronicles of Innisfail

Volume IV, Nightfall

By

John Schettler

Part I – Deep West
Part II – Charlendar Pass
Part III – Ravenswood
Part IV – The Gathering Storm
Part V – The Fields of Gwimalden
Part VI – The Luntmorgen
Part VII – A Council of Five
Part VIII – Band of Brothers
Part IX – Twist of Fate
Part X– The Raedwall
Part XI – Night Falls
Part XII – Longwood

Volume III in the Chronicles of Innisfail

 The Fate of Empire

Kindle File: $4.99

Volume III in John Schettler's new Epic military fantasy series.

Available Now!

In a desperate effort to break the siege of Rammath-Innis, Duke Morgin arrives with a strong contingent of the Western Outlords, to confront the Shadows. He is soon reinforced by Lord Frey, marching all the way from Irondale with the clans of his people. They will also be joined by the Host of Delling, coming by sea and landing to the east on the coast of Innisfail. Together these forces confront the Dreadlords, but when Lord Hornbori falls in battle, the Dwarrowkin clans withdraw, and Duke Morgin also lies abed, with a dire wound from his encounter with the Dreadlord Luth.

The Dreadlords now turn their combined might on the city and Sonderin uses his new weapon to undermine the walls. General Scion Cross had concentrated the entire Army of Innisfail inside the outer Ramparts of Rammath-Innis. Will it be enough? Then the Navy comes forward with a massive fleet offering one last hope, and an alternative for the survival of the proud people of Innisfail.

Not since Starfall has there been such a dramatic crisis, and when Vortigern the Seer comes to Ramath-Innis, he and the other High Mages strive to hold the dark magic of the Dreadlords at bay. Yet there is hope to the east, and General Cross now make a fateful decision to evacuate the people of Innisfail to safer lands to the east.  The Great Migration proceeds, and finds lands and worlds that no one ever knew existed. There General Cross strives to find and secure powerful new allies for a great crusade. He parlays with the leader of a powerful tribe, the Samarkon, the Spartans of this new world, and soon plans a Great Crusade to return to the West and reclaim lands and titles lost to the Dreadlords. Can they defeat the combined might of the Gorgessen and Khazari hordes, and then roll back the deepening shadow now falling over the Alderenh? Or is it the fate of Empire to suffer a tragic fall into that impending dark age on the horizon.

All titles available now on Amazon for Kindle or quality Trade paperback

Duel at Sea!

 Oh My... Where did Ivan Volkov get that Battleship?

That's the question Karpov asked himself when he first learned about the challenge. Volkov! He was back again, from some other Meridian, and intent on putting an end to the one Fedorov and Karpov had fought so long to defend.

But Volkov just made a very big mistake. Was it hubris, blind ambition, or simply rabid hatred that led him to boldly challenge Karpov and Kirov to one final battle at sea, a duel to settle their long vendetta once and for all.

Vladimir Karpov was a happy man the day he received that challenge, and he said so.

"Come and get it!" Volkov taunted. "You come too, Fedorov, you sniveling toad. I’m going to enjoy chopping Kirov up and putting you both in the water. Then I’ll sail up, hook the two of you and drag your asses all the way back to my home port at Sevastopol. So what do you say? Are you game for a nice little showdown at sea?”

“You’ve got it, Asshole,” said Karpov. He didn’t hesitate a second.

“The one thing I did not get to do was to put you in a grave. It will be my pleasure. When we heard you had passed, I was very disappointed. Killing you and whatever monstrosity of a ship you’ve built, will be a supreme joy.”

“Oh, you can try, but Orenburg is no pushover, Karpov. I designed it to be my flagship for the new Orenburg Federation I’ll build here after I get rid of the two of you, and that damn ship of yours.  Good to at least see you aren’t the cowards I thought you were. I’m going to enjoy carving your precious battlecruiser up.”

“Be careful what you wish for, Volkov. You talk tough, but you’ve got no experience at sea. You won’t last ten minutes in naval combat with me. I’ll box your ears so hard you’ll be deaf for a year, and I’m going to enjoy every goddamn minute of it. You can bet on that.”

“That may be true for the little ships you preyed upon in the last war, but not mine. I won’t be in a Chinese Corvette, Karpov.”

“But you will be dead just the same.”

So where did Volkov get a ship good enough to challenge Karpov on Kirov?

Come and see!

Don't miss Encore, an all new book in the Kirov series. Available Now on Amazon!

BUY NOW

The Shadows are Coming!

 Chronicles of Innisfail: Volume II - AVAILABLE NOW!

The Coming of Shadows

The Shadows come fast on the heels of the series opener as author John Schettler rolls out his new Epic Fantasy Series. Starseed continues west through the northwest passage to reach Irondale, and the journey is fateful in more than one way.

Duke Morgin Grenfell has rushed west into Rhaingoll with his knights to stand a nervous watch on the eves of Ravenswood as The Dreadlord Luth marches his Dharman Legion into the Valley of Soregor. Will he strike south towards Rhaingoll's main city at Dinorwick? Luth has a surprise in store when the action shifts to the Tower of Aberlemno.

Reaching Irondale to confer with Lord Frey, Morgin meets a strange yet amiable man with a most interesting weapon. He immediately seeks to recruit him to his cause.

Morgin then joins with Lord Frey and characters from the Kaspar's company on the Starseed to undertake a dangerous quest into the Underworld. As Morwenna has led her army aloft, the Duke sees this as perhaps the only chance he will have to recover the body of his friend, Lord Rachlin. A party of nine intrepid souls open the Undergate below 3rd Deep in Cartimandua, and struggle to make their way to the dread Bone Fortress. There they must face and defeat the Guardians Morwenna has left in place to watch the many entrances to her dark realm. Not everyone will get out alive...

Meanwhile, events above ground are getting very dark. The great war that started in Volume I has now reached a decisive phase, when all three of the series Dreadlords, Luth, Sonderin, and Morwenna, lead their armies into Innisfail to lay siege to the capital at Rammath-Innis. Among them come the dread Dharman, shadow warriors who live on the tenuous boundary between this world and the ethereal realm called the Reach. This sets up a do or die battle for the city, where the fate of the Empire rides in the balance. 

New characters are introduced, most notably, the Archmage Vortigern, who has come looking for his missing Starseed Gemsword. He is instrumental in mustering the strength of the West and urging them to ride east to Innisfail. There in the capital, all four High Mages strive to oppose the dark magic of the three Dreadlords.

The Outlords answer the call yet again, and ride east to Innisfail. They are joined by both hosts of the Dwarrowkin, Lord Frey's and those of Lord Hornbori. A major battle on the fields of North Innis results as they try to break the siege of Rammath-Innis. But with the Khazars and Gorgessens looming on the southern frontier of the Outlands, the Outlords must decide whether to stand for Innisfail or return West to defend their homelands.

It's out now for kindle with the paperback a day or so behind. This book will also be distributed to Apple, Barnes & Noble, Kobo and other online retailers. And John says Volume III is already underway.

Kindle edition: regular $6.99 now at $4.99

Trade Paperback: $19.99

Help keep the story rolling!

Volume II of Innisfail Coming Soon!

 Volume 2 of Chronicles of Innisfail moves to production.

Book 2 in that series the Chronicles of Innisfail The Coming of Shadows, has passed final review and is scheduled for publication in the next 7-10 days. Here’s a preview of the new front cover:

The first cover candidate was an image entitled "Lord Soth's Charge" by Kieth Parkinson. In seeking rights to use it for the cover we learned that TSR has already acquired rights to that image, so we moved to Cover candidate #2 above, an image of the Mysterious Dharman Legion being led out by Luth.

Get ready to Rumble, cause here come the Dreadlords! After the dramatic battle against Sonderin’s Vile Host in Hallowfield, Llanishen, and the fields of Arnir, Duke Morgin Grenfell finds himself in a predicament after the is arrested by a thankless Emperor and accused of High Treason. Volume II in the series opens with Morgin trying to find a way out of that dilemma so that he can get back west to defend the Western Outlands against a new looming threat. The mysterious Dharman Legion is being led out by Sonderin's brother Luth, (the new cover art) and marching to the Valley of Soregor where he plans to join his shadow host with that of the Witch Queen of the Underworld, with legions of skeletals and Bone Riders.

So all the dark forces rise in this volume to make a new attack, when all three Dreadlords lead their hosts against the Empire of Innisfail. This volume also presents a venture into the Underworld by a small company of 9 intrepid characters, Wilem, Sachi, Duke Morgin, and Sencha Windweaver among them. Their incursion is only possible because the Queen has taken her Army of the Dead aloft, leaving the Underworld largely empty… but not quite empty enough to suit those who dare to enter it in this volume.

A good Dungeon crawl ensues, and those who survive it return to learn the situation in the east is darker then ever, as the three Dreadlords now lay siege to Rammath-Innis, capital of the empire. The second great battle in the east is beginning, and it will need all the strength of free men, including the Dwarrowkin clans, to prevent the fall of the empire. This one is action packed, and introduces a new High Mage, Vortigern, after Wilem’s discovery in the Ice Hollows has some unforeseen consequences. Wilem has also taken a shine to Sachi, Kaspar's Chief Scout.

If you haven’t made the jump to this new series, now’s the time to do so. Come explore a new world that is as richly detailed as those offered by other masters in this genre, and here we get Volume II just 30 days after the series premier. This is going to make for some great summer reading! 

For those who who are Patrons of the arts, John has also set up a Paetreon Page here:

Hey there, help us keep this guy fed!

Other announcements include some price changes and new paperback and ebook editions:

Volume I of Innisfail now back at $4.99 until May 5.

Volume I Of Kirov series reduced to $3.99 to welcome new readers.

Volume I of Dharman Sci-Fi Series reduced to $3.99 to welcome new readers. (John's first "Dharmans" were not shadow warriors, but a menagerie of life forms on the planet Dharma VI.) The books are being reformatted to get three volumes of equal length. So some material from Wild Zone will move into Book II, and some material from Mother Heart will move into Book III. All three books will be about 325 pages each. The trilogy is being reissued soon in three reformatted paperbacks and one massive Kindle file covering all three books. Wild Zone, Mother Heart, and finally the 3rd Volume, Nightwatch. This trio will probably be released as a big 970 page 3-book bundle on kindle this year for $9.99 but John is still tinkering with book 3 in the series. Anyone who has already bought the first two books in that series can also order book III at $3.99. We'll announce availability later.

Volume I of Silk Road Series, Taklamakan reduced to $3.99 - This often overlooked book introduces the Series, which John considers his best writing among all his many books. In fact, the main character, Tando will seem like a close cousin of Kaspar Jakhad in the Innisfail series, because Taklamakan began as an Epic Fantasy, and John then decided to make it a historical fiction instead. It's s great read!

“1944” in Kirov Series now available in Trade Paperback. (We missed that format earlier).

The thick 569 Page Battle book Vendetta now also available in Trade Paperback with all the zeppelin action and battles for Ilanskiy. This book had been in kindle format for some time.

Below is a Bone Rider Scythe Leader, the skies above him clouded with Mereliki Dragon Bats, and ghostly spirits of the Herelinka rising bottom right. This is a rights free image approved for commercial use. This was cover candidate #3 for The Coming of Shadows, but John thought featuring the Dharmans jived with the title better, as they are Luth's dread shadow warriors.

 

A Bone Rider Scythe Leader from the Underworld

Here come the bad guys! If Sonderin’s Vile Host wasn’t enough, Morwenna is sending out scores of her Bone Riders and Skeletals, the animated remains of all those who have died and were carried into the Underworld over the long centuries. It gets downright nasty on the fields of Innis, with a Mage War on top of all the other fighting as Sencha, Vortigern, Maelgrinn and Tal stand to oppose Sonderin, Luth and Morwenna. If you like this genre, come and see!

Launch Day for a new Series!

 Series Premier of John Schettler's
Chronicles of Innisfail Available Now!

BUY For KINDLE: $4.99

Last Day at this Price!

Heads Up fans of Kirov Series Author John Schettler. The Train has left the station on his latest offering, a new epic fantasy Series, The Chronicles of Innisfail. 

It starts at a place called "Starfall" in the deserts of an ancient kingdom called Old Mindemoya. There, inside a vast crater from the object that gave the place its name nearly 300 years ago, a British soldier appears, bewildered to find he is no longer fighting for General Montgomery in Tunisia. William Doran, called "Wilem" by his mates, is soon found by an itinerant Caravaneer, one Kaspar Jakhad, and Wilem is astounded to hear him speak in a strange language, but yet still understand every word. So begins the Chronicles of Innisfail, and there's nothing like a new beginning with an author you already know, particularly one with the story telling and writing acumen of John Schettler.

The late Medieval world of Innisfail is a continental sized setting, drawn in loving detail in both John's prose as well as with his pen. A series of about 25 maps, drawn in the style of Tolkien's maps, are presented on the web site for the book in the Map Room, and keyed to each part of the story so as not to be a spoiler. You can download them as you need them.

Having no other option, Wilem joins Kaspar's caravan as a Train Guard, and the author uses this vehicle to lead us all into his world. We soon learn that Wilem may have escaped one war in 1943, only to find himself at the edge of another. 

Innisfail is the name of the empire that rose from the ashes when Old Mindemoya was crushed by the incident known as "Starfall," which ended the first 500 year age of this world. It is now 288 years after Starfall, and the new empire of Innisfail faces a looming challenge. From bickering between the Emperor and his Outlords, to the growing pressure of barbarian tribes on its frontiers, the crisis escalates quickly in this book when ancient Dreadlords arise again to throw their weight against the empire. Here there is no single  "Dark Lord" like Sauron--there are three of them! As these forces join the barbarian tide, the Emperor and his Outlords will need every knight, swordsman and spearman they can arm. 

One man, Wilem Doran, has strange new weapons that astound the strongest knights. His Lee-Enfield SMLE-3 rifle and a Bren Light Machine gun amaze when he uses them in defense of Kaspar's caravan. But can one man make a difference in this great emerging war? Wilem aims to try.

List price today on Launch day for the series will be at the price John held for the Kirov Series for ten long years: just $4.99.  Starting April 5th, however, the standard list price will be a couple bucks higher at $6.99 still a great value for the quality delivered. This book is 380 pages long, and Volume II is already more than half done, ready to keep the immersive action coming as John did so faithfully over ten years for his devoted readers. If you received this email, you were one of them. Here is a story John admits was heavily influenced by his own love of Tolkien, and one he had had tucked away in a file box for many years. It is finally coming to life. Let us hope it finds the readership it deserves, and help it on its way!

CHRONICLES OF INNISFAIL, VOL. I ~ The Kinstrife

Available for Kindle today, April 4, 2022 at $4.99

Map Sample:

READ MORE ABOUT THE STORY HERE

Chronicles of Innisfail

 Now Available for Preorder on Amazon!

The series premier of John Schettler's new epic fantasy is now available for preorder on Amazon. Preorders will be at a discounted price of $4.99, while orders after release will be priced at $6.99. So save a couple bucks and also help support the launch of the new series with your preorder!

Preorders will be automatically shipped to all customers on the release date for the Kindle format book, making preorder customers the first to get their hands on a copy.

Structured just like the Kirov Series Novels, the book has 12 parts with three chapters each, though many of the chapters are somewhat longer, and there is a epilogue the length of a typical chapter at the end to set up Volume II, pushing the page count for this volume to 380 as opposed to 320 for the average Kirov series book.

About the book:

   It has been said that everything that is powerful will one day come under siege. In the year 788, as the Emperor in Innisfail makes a power grab for taxes in his outland provinces, the Outlords, led by the Duke Morgin Grenfell, convene a secret and illegal meeting to form a coalition—the White Company. But the squabble between the Empire and its outlands is soon overshadowed by a much graver threat when the Khazars begin a second great migration and invasion that overruns all the desolate south and soon sweeps all the way to the frontiers of Innisfail the Only.
    For the first time in over two centuries, barbarians, march against the empire. They are soon joined by a horrid host led by the legendary Black Prince Sonderin, with a menagerie of vile creatures unseen by men for long ages. To survive, the Outlords must end their simmering feud with the Emperor and ride east into battle.

Now, from the author of the long running Kirov Series, comes an epic Fantasy series as broad and detailed as Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, and as gritty and real as George Martin’s Game of Thrones. This is mythic military fiction at its best.

 

Kirov Saga:

The Chronicles of Innisfail
Volume I, The Kinstrife

By

John Schettler

Part I - Wilem
Part II – Lyndra
Part III – The Falconbridge
Part IV – The White Company
Part V – Delling
Part VI – Towers of Stone, Men of Sand
Part VII – Tides of War
Part VIII –Khazars
Part IX – Imperial Designs
Part X– Song of Sonderin
Part XI – The Vile Host
Part XII – The Raedwall
Epilogue - Treachery

 

There are at least 20 maps available on the web site for this book here:

https://writingshop.ws/html/map_room.html