Month: July 2024

Read new fantasy stories from inside the Moonlit Black Cat tavern on Kindle Vella

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I originally wrote the Moonlit Black Cat Tavern for a short story contest. It didn’t win or go anywhere, but I really liked the story. I found out how Kindle Vella lets you expand these stories into episodes that you can build on, weekly or monthly. So, I decided to add more stories to the world of Kralthorn and Ghelpher and the mysterious tavern caught between these two different kingdoms.

If you read on Kindle Vella, check out my newly published The Moonlit Black Cat Tavern, now with two episodes published and more on the way. I have about five total coming out once a week to keep you enthralled and entertained, and more on the way. These are fun stories to continue the tale of the unusual and diverse characters found roaming this tavern. You never know who might show up or why they’re stopping by.

Welcome to the Moonlit Black Cat Tavern, a place where humans, demi-humans, and monsters come together to laugh, drink, eat, sing, and find ways to get along. On a stormy night, the Bradbury Witch pays an unexpected visit to the strange tavern and finds more than she bargained for.

I always loved the idea of neutral territory, a tavern, where all manners of creatures could come together to eat, drink, and be merry without having to kill each other. A place where an understanding between good and evil could be broached without all the fighting. That’s the basis behind The Moonlit Black Cat Tavern.

And for those wondering about the name, yes it does come from an anime. I am a fan of Sword Art Online, and the story of the Moonlit Black Cats guild was tragic and a big part of why I watched this series (in case you missed it, watch Season 1, Episode 3 “Red Nosed Reindeer”). I guess it’s my way of paying tribute to the series and the characters.

I hope you take the time to read The Moonlit Black Cat Tavern on Kindle Vella. It’s a fun little adventure. And VOTE for my story in The Velleys, the Kindle Vella Awards.

Check out Buy My Books to pick out your next binge read!

Mark Piggott is an award-winning independent author of several fantasy/steampunk novels and short stories. A 23-year U.S. Navy veteran, his stories will take you from the shores of eternal Avalon to a dystopian steampunk future and other fantastic worlds as he weaves through a myriad of flights of fancy in his tales.

The Forever Avalon fantasy book series—including Forever Avalon, The Dark Tides, and The Outlander War—are available online at Amazon and other booksellers. His fantasy steampunk novel, The Last Magus: A Clockwork Heart, is available through Lulu and other booksellers.

Cross over The River of Souls in a fantasy novella, take flight in the steampunk historical fiction, Corsair and the Sky Pirates, and the saga continues in The Last Magus: Dragonfire and Steel from Curious Corvid Publishing. His first YA fantasy, Gwen Iver and Pendragon’s Puzzle, and The Prometheus Engine: Book Four of the Forever Avalon Series are coming soon from Curious Corvid. Stay tuned for new fantastic stories from the imagination of Mark Piggott.

Social media and the Independent Author

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Follow me on all my social media accounts to get up-to-date information on my books and events!

Social media is the buzzword that will make or break an independent author. I know that sounds like a stretch but follow me here. I don’t have a marketing department. I don’t have a social media intern. I can’t afford them or a PR manager. I do all of it myself. I create the content, post or schedule it, and respond to replies or comments. It adds daily hours to my already busy work schedule of juggling my regular job with my writing.

Social media is not a guarantee of sales or new readers, but for an independent author, its the most manageable. It’s free (mostly) and it is accessible worldwide. You can connect with other authors, publishers, literary agents, and most importantly, readers. You’re creating a brand for yourself in both your books and the way you advertise everything from the books themselves to events you will be attending.

I designed this on Book Brush!

There are a few tricks to this juggling act to help minimize the time spent on social media. First is creating content. I use Book Brush as my content creator. It makes it easy to either auto-generate an image or video or use my own creativity. They have different plans, depending on your price range, but it is easy to use and quite supportive of independent authors.

As for scheduling, I have used a few different FREE services before but they changed from a free service to a PAID service and was way too expensive. I currently use Constant Contact to schedule my social media posts. It allows me to vary my content, depending on the social media site, and stores my artwork in case I want to reuse it. It’s the cheapest of the social media scheduling services I have found.

DON’T try to spread yourself out over every social media site imaginable. You don’t want to overtax your brand and spread yourself thin. Stick to ones you might already have a personal account on and spread out from there, but keep your author account as BUSINESS, and your personal social media separate. You don’t want to let anyone outside your family and friends into that world.

Lastly, a word of advice. DON’T TALK POLITICS, RELIGION OR SPORTS ON YOUR AUTHOR SOCIAL MEDIA. These areas are too divisive in today’s frenzied climate. Readers come from all walks of life, the right and the left, or from many different faiths. You will alienate readers by putting yourself out there like that. I know, you might think that Donald Trump is Hitler or PETA stands for People Eating Tasty Animals or Football is no different from Soccer, but it will get you in trouble. Stop, just stop, and worry about the politics of Mordor above anything else.

This is the hardest part of being an independent author. Self-marketing is putting yourself out there, and you have to put aside the fear. Unless you have access to a top-notch marketing firm, you need to do it yourself, but avoid the email and social scams trying to lure you into promises of sales and followers. Nothing is guaranteed.

Check out Buy My Books to pick out your next binge read!

Mark Piggott is an award-winning independent author of several fantasy/steampunk novels and short stories. A 23-year U.S. Navy veteran, his stories will take you from the shores of eternal Avalon to a dystopian steampunk future and other fantastic worlds as he weaves through a myriad of flights of fancy in his tales.

The Forever Avalon fantasy book series—including Forever Avalon, The Dark Tides, and The Outlander War—are available online at Amazon and other booksellers. His fantasy steampunk novel, The Last Magus: A Clockwork Heart, is available through Lulu and other booksellers.

Cross over The River of Souls in a fantasy novella, take flight in the steampunk historical fiction, Corsair and the Sky Pirates, and the saga continues in The Last Magus: Dragonfire and Steel from Curious Corvid Publishing. His first YA fantasy, Gwen Iver and Pendragon’s Puzzle, and The Prometheus Engine: Book Four of the Forever Avalon Series are coming soon from Curious Corvid. Stay tuned for new fantastic stories from the imagination of Mark Piggott.

This is the end of a two-year writing journey

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This marks the end of two long years of writing, starting and stopping due to “Writer’s Block” and the occasional “what am I doing” through the whole process. Still, 93,000 words later, it is finally finished. This is my twelfth book written . . . 12! I’ve published eight, one waiting to be published this year and two in the hard drive still under going editing. This is number 12 and it was a hard fought twelve, that’s for sure.

This book will be the third in The Last Magus fantasy/steampunk book series. It’s called Demon Song. I know that title is a bit macabre, a little outside my avenue, and to be honest, this book is my darkest one yet. I always try to balance good and evil, the dark and the light, within my stories. I find that where there is absolute evil, so too must the light shine through. I had to really dive into darkness and find my way out while writing this novel.

This is the continuing adventures of Marcus Gideon, the Last Magus of Attlain. It picks up five years after the events of Dragonfire and Steel. Gideon and Wren are married and traveling around Attlain, tracking down the stolen magic weapons of the Magus along with the help of his own adventurers guild, the Silver Moon Guild. Gideon has finally begin to forge his own destiny, but he uncovers a plot that could destroy not only Attlain but the world. The demon sorceress of Nyx, Vasileesa Morozov, is planning to escape the island nation and spread her demon army across the land.

There is so much more to this story, but I can’t give away here, now can I. Plus, with the beta readers and editing still to come, it may alter things. So for now, I will leave it at that, happy to have reached his monumental moment. Stay tuned for more as things progress and be sure to catch up on the entire The Last Magus series before the next book is published.

Check out Buy My Books to pick out your next binge read!

Mark Piggott is an award-winning independent author of several fantasy/steampunk novels and short stories. A 23-year U.S. Navy veteran, his stories will take you from the shores of eternal Avalon to a dystopian steampunk future and other fantastic worlds as he weaves through a myriad of flights of fancy in his tales.

The Forever Avalon fantasy book series—including Forever Avalon, The Dark Tides, and The Outlander War—are available online at Amazon and other booksellers. His fantasy steampunk novel, The Last Magus: A Clockwork Heart, is available through Lulu and other booksellers.

Cross over The River of Souls in a fantasy novella, take flight in the steampunk historical fiction, Corsair and the Sky Pirates, and the saga continues in The Last Magus: Dragonfire and Steel from Curious Corvid Publishing. His first YA fantasy, Gwen Iver and Pendragon’s Puzzle, and The Prometheus Engine: Book Four of the Forever Avalon Series are coming soon from Curious Corvid. Stay tuned for new fantastic stories from the imagination of Mark Piggott.