A few, simple notes dance
Atop a bed of chords
How well each layer pairs
How moved am I to hear
Though my energy be gone
Though my tired limbs be stayed
I wish nothing more than
To rise and join the dance
The music–in me–stirs
Its notes pour in like balm
Oh, it fills the cracks in me
Oh, my soul sings harmony
Once more I play the song
Once more I sway and sing
Happiness within me grows
Loneliness never stirs
L. R. Styles is an author with Belator Books
Enjoy this mid-way excerpt, from the pages of the third book of The Kingdom Isle series: In Search of the King. We hope to have it completed & edited by the end of winter. – Steven Styles & L. R. Styles
THE SLAVER galleons moved in like trained hawks. As the merchant vessel captain ordered the sails hauled in, the pirates closed in on either side. As soon as they’d lowered their sheets, one ship began letting down long boats.
Dunner’s keen eye proved true. The clean look of new timbers met Joseph’s gaze as he studied the ships. Rows of square doors were cut into each hull, a little over halfway up the sides. Hinged at the top, the doors appeared to raised within by a length of stout cord; out of each protruded the wide barrel of large land cannon, though these seemed differently formed than those of…
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… someo
ne pirates your books.
I’ve spent much of the morning sending out DMCA Take-Down Notices to not one, or two, but three torrent sites this morning. So far, two have responded with partially-heartfelt apologies and expressed an intention of removing the offending links ASAP.
This is not the first time such a thing has occurred to us. Since my husband and I launched our novels on Amazon in late February of 2014, our books have popped up on torrents and sharing sites loquaciously dubbed “The Kingdom Saga;” the latter word rather amused me as we are neither Icelandic–or spoken word artists–but, I digress.
As much as I actively work to remove these illegally-posted copies of our work, a small part of me is slightly flattered by distinction. It took some effort on the part of the pirate to copy the work, format it, post it, type out our names and copy the book’s description from its legitimate Amazon page. As an added bonus, on such sites our novels sit next to the pirated works of wildly-successful authors like Stephen King and John Grisham, imparting to me a sort of surreal sense of accomplishment, however temporary.
Such flattery quickly fades, replaced by the full force of the initial insult. Each time I see a torrent, I see the number of downloads and shake my head at the lost revenue. Rather than inspiring anger, however, such feelings merely fuel my understanding of the DMCA language, and how to apply which sentences to whom.
L. R. Styles is an author with Belator Books
In Service of the King 2.0 * Huzzah!*
After a two-month long stint with our eagle-eyed editor–David Antrobus of Be Write There editing–the new version of our second novel in The Kingdom Isle series is up for download on Amazon.
The result is a polished, updated and expanded version, including thirty-five new pages of material, which address issues and queries brought up by you, the series fans & reviewers.
Already bought the old version? Have no fear… folks that already own this novel can simply re-fresh their copy–for free–by utilizing the nifty kindle management feature, whether on Kindle or via the many Kindle apps.
If you have not reviewed the novel already on Amazon, please do so. Reviews help keep the novel–and thereby the series–up higher in the public view.
Next week: sneak peek section posted of the third novel in the series: In Search of the King!
{L. R. Styles} 