Lou Paduano | Urban Fantasy Novels | Sci-Fi Crime Series

July 2018 Promotions

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FREE BOOK ALERT!!! FREE BOOK ALERT!!!

That’s right! For two days only, Signs of Portents is FREE on Amazon!!!!

Portents is a city like no other—and one that Detective Greg Loren can’t wait to escape. Since his wife’s death years earlier, Loren has looked forward to the moment he can leave the city of Portents for good—and never look back.

But fate has another plan for Loren. Called back to duty, Loren finds himself embroiled in a series of murders that has shaken the city. Together with Soriya Greystone, a young woman with unearthly powers, Loren must work quickly to find the otherworldly being that is killing citizens of Portents one at a time. Loren is tasked with deciphering the mysterious signs left at each of the crime scenes…even if it means traveling to worlds not his own to do so.

Download your FREE copy now!

Kindle Unlimited

The Greystone series is now part of the Kindle Unlimited Program. Don’t feel like buying the books? Borrow them for free through your Kindle Unlimited membership and enjoy them today!

I love being able to provide these books for you in this fashion and can’t wait to hear your thoughts on the series.

To find out more about the program, head over to Amazon now!

The countdown to A Circle of Shadows…

There are lots more cool promotions coming down the pike to celebrate the finale to the series. Be sure to get caught up before the ending is spoiled for you!

A Circle of Shadows ties together the threads from the last two years. Beth’s murderer is revealed. The Luminary rises from the shadows. The Circle comes to light. Heroes fall…

The epic conclusion arrives on September 11th!!!

Sticking the Landing – A Circle of Shadows Update

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It’s crazy to think that in five months the final book of the Greystone saga arrives. When I started planning the arc out back in 2016 this point seemed so far away, so out of reach.

I spent last week revisiting A Circle of Shadows and I have to say… I really enjoyed it.

I know what you’re thinking. Big deal, the writer likes his own book. Well, if you know me at all then you know I dislike pretty much everything I write. I can see the weakness, the flaw in it. The parts readers will jump on, harp on, and ridicule – though all exist for a specific story purpose. It isn’t a negative outlook, though it might appear that way – it is merely wanting to make the book as strong as possible.

With this book? Not so much on the negativity front.

That scares me. But it also excites me. There are so many pieces in A Circle of Shadows, so many touchstones to the series as a whole, that it seemed planned from the very start. (pssst, it wasn’t…)

Did I stick the landing?

That will be up to you. And yes, some will be greatly upset by the ending of this next novel. The stakes are higher but so are the final costs. No one feels each loss as much as I do, I promise you that. The world of Greystone, the city of Portents, is part of my daily life now and to not hear some of the voices from the past few years is sad, however, it opens the door to the adventures to come.

For my own impressions, I think A Circle of Shadows does an excellent job closing out the narrative started with Signs of Portents. The callbacks to every other Greystone novel are there. Character moments grew organically. Every single player gets their moment in the spotlight, all making their own choice and changing from the repercussions.

If you’ve followed the story so far I think you’ll dig where it ends. I have never been one to write on an epic scale. There have been little moments of it like the climax of Signs of Portents but never has the action been so prevalent as it is in this last chapter.

For now…

I keep saying it because there is more story to tell. In fact, reading through A Circle of Shadows last week brought to light a number of new areas to explore for the second half of the series.

Questions remain but as to what those entail you’ll have to read the novel when it arrives this September!

I can’t wait to hear your thoughts.

Greystone Weekend Sale!

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In preparation for the release of Pathways in the Dark next week, the entire Greystone library is on sale right now through Tuesday!

Now is the time to catch up on the thrilling adventures of Soriya Greystone and Detective Greg Loren as they wade through monsters, myths and murder in the hidden shadows of Portents.

Every book in the series is only $0.99 this weekend!

Pick up your copies today!

Signs of Portents

Portents is a city like no other—and one that Detective Greg Loren can’t wait to escape. Since his wife’s death years earlier, Loren has looked forward to the moment he can leave the city of Portents for good—and never look back.

But fate has another plan for Loren. Called back to duty, Loren finds himself embroiled in a series of murders that has shaken the city. Together with Soriya Greystone, a young woman with unearthly powers, Loren must work quickly to find the otherworldly being that is killing citizens of Portents one at a time. Loren is tasked with deciphering the mysterious signs left at each of the crime scenes…even if it means traveling to worlds not his own to do so.

 

 

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Tales from Portents

Six tales of monsters, the dead rising, and the terrors of Portents.

The beasts Detective Loren and Soriya Greystone battled in Lou Paduano’s debut book Signs of Portents were just a hint of what lurks in the city. Tales from Portents explores the city’s immersive history, including stories of Loren’s descent after his wife’s death—and his opportunity to have her rise from the grave. Among the pages, Soriya battles gremlins, navigates lessons with Mentor, and meets the werewolf Luchik. Follow new characters with expansive histories as they come face to face with the horrors of Portents—both human and otherwise.

From the Greystone Collection, Tales from Portents navigates the cases that make even Detective Loren lie awake at night.

 

           

 

The Medusa Coin

Death has come to the city of Portents.

Dozens have fallen before a mysterious menace hiding among them. Their only connection is the grisly condition of their bodies—hollowed-out chasms where their eyes used to be.

Setting aside the aging case on his wife’s murder, Detective Greg Loren has returned to the city with the task of stopping the bearer of the Medusa coin—an artifact with power over Death himself—from continuing to slaughter the people of Portents.

Soriya, no longer able to control the enigmatic Greystone, grapples with the decision to forge ahead in the case on her own, leaving Loren behind. But without the two counterbalancing each other, Death may be the force that levels them both.

 

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Pathways in the Dark arrives Tuesday!

The dark pathways of Portents tell of frightful demons and characters’ surprising histories.

Detective Loren and Soriya Greystone’s journeys continue in the next series of tales in the Greystone Collection, Pathways in the Dark. Discover new monsters in Portents, including a phoenix, an onna-bugeisha, and the cult of Anubis. Delve deeper into Detective Samantha Myers’ secretive past, and follow Captain Ruiz as he continues to be plagued by the demons of Portents, even during his leave of absence. As Loren and Soriya battle the city’s monsters and their fractured relationship alike, they come to realize that everyone has two stories…and that nobody can be trusted, no matter how well you think you know them.

The next anthology of the Greystone Collection further casts the city of Portents in the shadows, showing that no one is safe.

Limited time launch offer of $0.99 still available!

          

 

 

The Medusa Coin – The Long Road to Publication

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The Medusa Coin‘s long publication history had plenty of ups and downs over the last decade that I thought were worth sharing. This is a fun story and it makes me look completely unhinged but I like to tell it anyway. The Medusa Coin was never a sure thing for me. When I set out to write Signs of Portents back in 2007 – and if you recall from a previous commentary this was when Signs was meant to be the first and greatest comic book mini-series of all time – there was no sequel planned.

There was no Greystone series.

I wrapped up the first draft of Signs in 2008. I couldn’t let the idea go. I knew there was more to explore and I sure as hell never solved any of the background elements like Beth’s fall, the origin of the Greystone, none of it. So I put some notes together on a second mini-series.

It was called the Seven Sons of Death.

I made it as far as the first issue and some of it survived all the way to the final draft. The rooftop meeting was the climax of the issue with Death’s reveal as the cliffhanger for the next issue. The intro of Samantha Myers was there as well so my family can get off my case for naming the dubious detective after my youngest daughter.

But I never went further. I had ideas on where the story was headed but nothing came together for me and I put it away.

In 2012 I was itching to write. Comics were in the past. Collaboration has never been a strong suit for me. Though I enjoy the back and forth when it works, there were too many times I ended up carrying the load solo and it wore on me. So, genius that I be sometimes, decided to write a novel instead.

Rather than reword Signs into a novel first, since the story was pretty well set, I wanted to try my hand at an original piece. Something new, something fresh.

The Medusa Coin was born.

publication history

I hit a wall immediately. Working full time made it difficult to write. More my own inability to step up and get words on the page, something I have thankfully learned over time.

But I gave it a try nonetheless.

For 11 months I wrote for an hour after work, sitting in my lovely cubicle with no overhead lighting (it gave people migraines or something…) typing away at what would become The Medusa Coin. Why the title change? Seven Sons of Death (I shortened it to Seven Sons at one point) never really sang to me. It fit for a time but I was very happy to stumble upon the Medusa connection and really amp it up in the drafting process.)

At this time I wasn’t huge on outlining. I would sketch out a chapter with some overall notes, maybe a line of dialogue or three, and then jump right in. The result was less than pretty.

I finished it though.

And then? Nothing.

The wheel turns…

Shockingly, I had no plan after this. That was me all over back then. I had a draft, a rough rough draft, but didn’t have the wherewithal to strengthen it on my own and knew no one else would be able to help either.

So it languished. Right beside Signs. Right beside quite a few other projects I hope to revisit someday.

Then I quit my job. And I wrote Signs. Then rewrote Signs. I learned the story behind the Greystone and the connections that brought me to the opening scene in The Medusa Coin.

And I had my story back.

I wrote the first draft of the current (and FINAL) iteration of this book during last year’s NaNoWriMo challenge. 23 days and 85,000 words later the book arrived as if it had always been there.

Why couldn’t it have been that easy back in 2010?

Lots more publication history and background to come on the novel. Have any specific questions you’d like answered about the creation of this book? Shoot me an email at lou@loupaduano.com and I’d be happy to put them in the blog!

Tales from Portents Connecting Factors 3

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Connecting Factor

Stories grow in the telling. They also grow in the editing phase and that tends to happen quite often with my own work. Ruiz and his relationship with his wife, Michelle, for example is one such instance of this. At the start Ruiz was little more than an ear for Loren. A minor character that assisted when he could but basically served to give Loren someone to talk to other than Soriya.

That sure as hell changed quickly.

Editing Signs of Portents, I realized how much I enjoyed Ruiz. His personality. His depth. And his relationships, both with Loren and with his wife.

When plotting The Medusa Coin, I knew Ruiz’s role was expanding with each pass. He was a vital component of the series, as much as Soriya and Loren.

Michelle started out much the same. A potential element of conflict for Ruiz but little else in terms of a character. When I explored her further, when I pulled apart their relationship and examined their family closely, I realized the potential to really build a strong background character.

Someone that helps drive Ruiz to be a better person, but also causes him to stumble because he wants to do so much for her.

The Great Divide

connecting factorWith Tales published between Signs of Portents and The Medusa Coin, I had the opportunity to put this marriage on display. I also had the chance to show the strengths and weaknesses of it from the beginning and compare it to the present day.

The Great Divide offered a glimpse at the happiness of the Ruiz family to be. How they shared all and Ruiz avoided the traps his parents fell into during his childhood. Of course, it crashes down on him.

But how to show the difference compared to the present?

Enter: The Consultant.

In the original outline, Soriya heads to the Central Precinct for information on Russell Kerr and hides at the approach of Ruiz. The focus here was more on how Loren’s absence had affected Soriya’s ability to do her work, the same as the previous chapters but that didn’t feel right to me for this moment.

And it would have been a missed opportunity.

By changing it and having Michelle call him, the reader easily recognizes the shift in their relationship from The Great Divide. It serves as a bridge, not only through the whole collection but also to The Medusa Coin where the divide comes to a head.

Resolutions are coming your way in September so get ready…

The final connection

Endings are tough. Just ask Stephen King. But they always come, some to more satisfying conclusions than others but they always have to arrive at some point.

And some are just so perfect you couldn’t ask for anything else.

Tales from Portents served as a prelude to Signs, so why not dovetail right into the first book in a natural way?

The final chapter of The Consultant does this perfectly. The text from Vlad about the missing women and the possible God involved. Soriya’s leap into the morning light of the city, ready for more fun connected the final moments of the collection to the first novel.

I tend to be overly critical with my work. (I know. Big surprise…) Not so much here.

Tales from Portents, to me was the easiest project to put together. Every piece, every connection, flowed from one story to the other naturally. Nothing was ever forced on the reader or the characters. Everything happened for a reason, every connection layered from the story itself, not shoved into the mix by my own hand.

If only every book came together so nicely…

Next time:

The BIG ONE. Resurrectionists! The whys and wherefores!

Thanks for reading.

 

Greystone Saga Volume One

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This is something I always wanted to put together. When I thought about the publishing schedule for Greystone I knew there was an opportunity to fit in a special box set of the previous releases in preparation of the next installment in the series.

With The Medusa Coin set to hit shelves in September now is the time to catch up on the series with The Greystone Saga Volume One.

Volume One contains both Signs of Portents and Tales from Portents for your reading pleasure. I also contains a sneak peek at the upcoming release, The Medusa Coin.

The downside.

This is a digital only release. I toyed with the idea of a physical copy but the cost was too extravagant for the casual reader. This is meant to be a gateway into the series at a lower price point, to allow readers an easy entry to prepare themselves for the release of book three in September.

The cover.

greystone saga volume oneI can’t get enough of the cover. Kit Foster Designs does a damn fine job making me look way better than I have any right to be. I absolutely love new cover day.

Thanks are also due my lovely wife, who assisted me greatly with choosing this image. I spend way too much time in my own head so internal strife is rampant, even about the smallest of details. Thankfully, I have someone willing to listen to my non-stop mutterings and rants, who is also willing to tell me to shut the hell up and go with it when it is the definition of perfection.

(Like her.)

 

The bright side.

The Greystone Saga Volume One is out on June 15th.

To celebrate the launch and really make it appealing to new and old readers alike I am offering the set for 99-cents until June 22nd!!

You heard me. The first two entries into the Greystone series PLUS the sneak peek at The Medusa Coin all for under a buck! Only have Signs of Portents or Tales from Portents in your digital collection? Get the other AND a peek at book three for only $0.99!!!

And the best part? You don’t have to wait until June 15th to order your copy. The Greystone Saga Volume One is available now for pre-order!

           

Now is the time to catch up on the series and stare at that incredible cover the way I have been while typing this missive.

Thanks for reading.

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