David Drake has a well-earned reputation for war-heavy shoot-em-ups, high on military action, and maybe light on deeper meaning. I’ve read a lot of them. They’re fun.

But this book, written in part in an effort to exorcise the author’s own demons after his service in Vietnam, is on a whole different level. The story follows a company of troops who are used up. They’ve seen too much combat to really be effective any more, and each soldier is carrying their own scars. In it’s infinite wisdom, the bureaucracy assigns them to protect a group of civilian colonists on possibly the most hostile planet ever to be colonized. As you can guess, things do not go smoothly.

What captures the reader in this book isn’t the plot, though it is fast-paced and entertaining, but the people. The soldiers are real. They are experienced, competent, weary, and often dancing on the razor’s edge between ferocity and insanity. You can see how the horrors these veterans have been through are still with them and how they dominate every decision they make, from the officers down to the lowest foot-soldier. The pain these people carry with them and the way they either bury it or let it run is so real, so visceral, and so obviously felt in the heart of the author that the reader can’t look away even when they want to.

I won’t tell you this book is fun. But I’ll tell you this book is worth it. It won’t leave you; ever. I’ve never served in the armed forces, but after reading this I can’t help but empathize with what our troops have gone through and what they may be bringing home with them.

This is a brilliantly plotted, deeply detailed and engrossing book. At first it’s all light-hearted adventure and daring, but then bad things happen, and things do indeed get serious. I though I was in for some fun escapism with this one, but then I found myself really growing attached to the characters. Then things took a turn as our young heroes learned that not everything is just fun and games, and that there are truly bad things out there in the world.

I ready the rest of this series one after another – couldn’t stop if I had to. I really, really needed to know what was going to happen to these people. To me, that’s the mark of a great story: when you find yourself skipping out on other things in life because you just have to know what’s next in this imaginary world.

It’s C.S. Forester’s Horatio Hornblower, but with dragons! Forester’s chronicles of Hornblower’s career are some of my favorite books ever, and if I’d known these books would remind me of those, I honestly probably would have stayed away for fear of sullying those masterworks. I’m so glad I didn’t know what this was when I picked it up off of a shelf while on a trip to Colorado. This book, and the ones that follow it, paint a vivid picture of the restrained, gentlemanly warriors of the Napoleonic wars, making things so real you can almost feel the ships of the navy rocking beneath you. And then the author adds dragons, who are not just props but are major characters themselves, with a naivete and depth of personality that plays a brilliant counterpart to the stiff English gentlemen (and women) that populate the rest of the story.

I tore through about the first four books in the series and then forced myself to take a break. But in the ultimate vote of confidence in the author’s ability to keep things going I’ve already bought three more, and I’ll be back into them soon.

This story of a man stumbling into an unexpected journey was odd, sometimes confusing, twisty, and altogether fun, though it took a bit per perseverance to get through. There were several times where I said to myself “Yeah, I’ve had about enough. Maybe it’s time for something else.” But I kept coming back because I wanted to know this mind-bending journey would turn out. and I’m glad I stuck it out, because by the end I’d discovered something profound and thought-provoking, where I thought I was just siting down for some entertainment I accidentally stumbled into my own journey right alongside the main character.

It’s here! In case you missed the exciting moment, the first edition of my newsletter just went out to interested parties via email. I’ll paste it below, but if you want to get in on the action and recieve future editions in your own inbox, just send me your email address!

May, 2016

Dear Reader,

Welcome to the first edition of the very occasional and completely unscheduled David L. Foster newsletter. Feel free to print this out and frame it, so one day you can say “I knew him when…” or maybe at least “I got a newsletter from him when…”

Today’s edition features news on The Tales of Coyote, both the recently-released Volume 1 and the up-coming Volume 2.

The Tales of Coyote, Volume 1: Coyote

To all of you that have purchased Coyote in recent months, thank you!

I’ve received some great feedback from readers. It’s so much fun to read a review on Amazon or to get an email from somebody with feedback about the book.

Some of that feedback helpfully pointed out a number of typos that had slipped past both myself and my “dedicated team of editors.” The silly things are just too good at hiding! So an update to Coyote has been posted to Amazon to rid us of those pests. If you buy the book in the future, you’ll get the updated version. If you’ve already bought it, here’s how to get the update:

1. Go to Amazon and log in.
2. In the Your Account menu toward the top-right of the page, pull down to “Manage Your Content and Devices” and click on it.
3. You’ll be presented with a list of all the Kindle books you’ve purchased.
4. Scroll down and find Coyote. There will be a little “Update Available” button next to it.
5. Click that button, confirm it in the pop-up, and a corrected version of the book will be loaded onto your Kindle.
6. (The final and most important step) Go tell everybody you know that they must buy, read, and review Coyote now.

That’s it! Pretty simple.

Keep the feedback coming. I’m sure there are other typos and errors hiding in there. Let me know what you find!

(And a friendly reminder: Go post your review of Coyote on Amazon! Follow the link and you’re there: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B01CN2PL8S)

The Tales of Coyote, Volume 2

Yes, book two is in progress. New characters are introduced, new problems arise, and Coyote’s growing group continues to work toward understanding what brought about the Fall. I even know the title of the book, but I’m not ready to release that info yet.

A release date for the finished volume has yet to be determined, but I’m hoping for late 2016. Or, maybe early 2017? I’m working on it.

Part of writing is, of course, getting feedback. So anyone out there who is interested in acting as an advance reader for me, please speak up! It helps, of course, if you’ve read and enjoyed the first volume.

What are the responsibilities of an advance reader? I try to keep it loose. I’ll send you a draft, and you’ll tell me what you think. You can leave comments all over it, you can correct my grammar if you wish, or you can just write me a note at the end saying “I liked this, that, and the other thing, but I wish person X hadn’t done that, because…” Whatever you’ve got to say after reading a draft, I want to hear it.

The biggest responsibility is timeliness. If I send you a draft of the book, or even of part of the book, I need your input pretty quickly—let’s say within a month. A month sounds like a long time, but I’ve had readers take over a year to send their feedback to me, and by that time things have generally changed so much that there’s not much I can do with the feedback.

Finally, thank you, again, for being interested, for being supportive, and generally just for being who you are. What’s an author without at least a few readers?

Best,

-David L. Foster

Author of Coyote (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B01CN2PL8S)

DavidLFoster.com

I’ll be contributing to The Other Side of Quiet tomorrow, March 17.

This is a blog run by friend and fellow author Tara C. Allred, designed to coach and encourage aspiring writers. Beginning authors submit work that is critiqued by established authors. Believe it or not, I’m on the critiquing side, as an established author. Who knew!

It’s a neat program. Go check it out!

Check back on Friday to see my contributions posted.

Update, 3/18/16: Follow the link to read my thoughts on the submission of the guest writer.

http://www.othersideofquiet.net/2016/03/17/author-tips-by-david-l-foster-ramons-story/

What’s the most important thing a person can do to help an indie author out? Review the book on Amazon, Goodreads, and anywhere else you might leave reviews.

It seems like such a small thing, but think about it: Independently published authors don’t have a publishing house with a marketing department. There’s no book tour. There’s no write-up in the New York Times. Oprah hasn’t even read it yet.

But who has read it? You! You could tell your friends about this book you just read, and maybe a few of them will listen and buy it themselves. Or, if you posted a review on Amazon, you could tell your hundred-thousand closest friends about this book you just read. Maybe a few of them would listen. What’s the difference? A “few” of a hundred thousand is a lot of people.

Digital word of mouth: it’s the only real way that word of a new book can spread.

Give it a try yourself: Post a review here.

One more step on the road to publication: COYOTE has been sent off to the editing and proofreading mavens. Now I bite my fingernails and see what horrors they come up with.

In other news, I figured out how to make an ebook file for myself and deliver COYOTE to my various Kindles. Feeling smart (for now).