Dax Murray

Recently, I was selected as one of the first authors monetized on Campfire Explore! And as of today, you can now read STARS AND SOIL exclusively on Campfire!! If you do not know about Campfire, it is the writing and world-building software that I have primarily used for several years now. I love it for how easy it is to organize and keep track of all of the moving parts when it comes to world-building. When I first signed up, it was known as “Campfire Blaze,” and in the short time since then, it has added so many amazing features and made so many improvements. I firmly stand behind them as a company that creates author-and-reader-focused software.

When they announced last year that they were adding in a monetization feature that would allow authors to not only share their books but to share the elements and pages that authors had worked on with readers, too, I was way too excited.

When they opened applications for early access to their monetization program, I knew I had to apply. I crossed my fingers, polished, again, my summary, my first chapter, my blurb, and waited. When the email arrived with the decision, I may have accidentally woken the neighborhood with my screams of excitement. (Sorry.)

And so began a month of obsessively crafting an experience for readers because I realized that my elements, in the state they were in when I applied, were not worthy of being looked at because they made sense only to me.

But, after very little sleep and a whole lot of stress, STARS AND SOIL is now available EXCLUSIVELY on Campfire! The first six chapters are available for free, by the way.

If you haven't heard of STARS AND SOIL before, it's my The Tudors (tv drama series, not the actual historical events) meets Russian Revolution (actual events) meets Game of Thrones but GAY novel. I've been writing it for the last five years. It started as a 6,000-word short story prequel to a now-trunked/abandoned novel but is somehow now 130,000 words of its own thing.

It's set in the same universe as SHADES AND SILVER. If you haven't read SHADES AND SILVER, don't worry. Purchasing STARS AND SOIL on Campfire ALSO gets you SHADES AND SILVER as a bonus. They can be read in any order, but STARS AND SOIL takes place after SHADES AND SILVER.

So what now? Well, first, I am going to sleep. And second, NaNoWriMo starts in less than a week. I've mostly outlined the next book in the series, SMOKE AND STEEL, and intend to use NaNo to get that first draft done!

And hint hint: If you are considering trying out Campfire, there is no better time! It's easy to link your Campfire account with your NaNoWriMo account! Participating in NaNo also you a nice discount on Campfire if you do decide you want to get a subscription. But the free version of Campfire is pretty great on its own. (Full disclosure, though: I have a lifetime license for all modules in Campfire... so I might be slightly biased.)

Don't forget to subscribe if you want my next post delivered straight to your inbox!