'Fantasy Begins'- 50% off on Smashwords!

Just want everyone to know that Smashwords is having a year-end sale and 'Fantasy Begins' is 50% till 1 Jan. Merry Christmas everyone and Happy New Year!

https://www.smashwords.com/books/search?query=Fantasy+Begins%3A+Book+1+of+the+Dungeon+Hive+Trilogy

Going Wide

Hi everyone! 

'Fantasy Begins'- Book 1 of The Dungeon Hive Trilogy is now available on iBooks, Smashwords, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo. Unfortunately I’m unable to put the book on Goggle Playstore yet as they are not accepting any new submission currently (not sure why). I’m not really sure how much sales I could get on these sites but I figured the more the merrier right. Please take a look if you wish. Thanks! 

New Version of 'Fantasy Begins' Available

Hi everyone, just want to leave a quick message that there has been an update on the book. A new proofread version of 'Fantasy Begins' is now available and the problem of the cover page showing up twice should be fixed (hopefully). So for all of you who had bought the ebook; thanks for the purchase and please update to the new version of 'Fantasy Begins'. Please enjoy the new madness. Thanks!

ICKY CAPITALISM...AKA Amazon!

After too long of a wait, it is finally out! Fantasy Begins is now on Amazon. So for a good time, a good laugh, and my wallet; please take a look...and BUY! BUY! BUY!

For those of you wondering, the Kindle should be out in a few days time. I'll do an update when it's ready. Thanks!

https://royalroadl.com/amazon/1975704304

The Dungeon Hive- Past & Near Future

When I first started out to write The Dungeon Hive 6 months ago, I wanted to write something that’s different. There’re a number of dungeon stories on Royal Road and I enjoyed most of them, but I had never read one where the MC was the dungeon hive itself. So that’s where my plan started from.

Like I wrote in my synopsis, the idea of a dungeon core having a hive mind makes sense to me. However, despite what some people may think, I didn’t set out to write a comedy. I promise you this is the truth; I’m not making it up. The story just grew into a comedy because…well, I also wanted the hive to be ignorant.

One of the main gripes I have about most dungeon stories is how knowledgeable most of the dungeon masters are. They just came into the dungeon body and they already knew what they had to do; they already knew the steps they need to take (one after another); and if they didn’t, there’s always a tutorial fairy on hand to teach them.

I didn’t want that.

My story will be different! So there’s no fairy, no teacher, the core will not know what to do, and I wanted my dungeon core to make clear mistakes because they just didn’t know better. I didn’t want the core to be stupid though, just ignorant. The idea of the dungeon being the first of its kind came and the comedy just flows naturally from there.

All the world-building came afterwards. The idea of the world being a low fantasy one came after I decided to make the hive the first of its kind. From my perspective, the dungeons are of vital importance to the fantasy genre. Almost all fantasy worlds have at least one and they are important. Think about it; no dungeons means there’s no place to get loot and to grind experience.  No experience means the adventurers can’t be powerful, thus a low fantasy world it would be.

I have been honestly surprised by how well received The Dungeon Hive has been thus far. It’s a dungeon story about a dungeon core that basically has a multiple personality disorder.  And a comedy to boot! Let’s admit it; this is a very niche story so the favourable reviews and comments were a huge plus for me.

For the near future, I intend to finish Volume 1 whose end is pretty near. I had the ending in mind already and I don’t foresee any problems with it. Whether it will be any good is another question. Once the end is done, I shall slow down my updates and focused on completing the book.

I have some ideas for Volume 2 but I’m not sure if I will continue on or start another story. I do have ideas for a superhero/villain story and a VRMMORPG story which I may focus on while finishing the book so...

Maybe I’ll put down the synopsis of both and readers can tell me which they preferred. Oh, and before I forget; I think the notion that bureaucratic centralism giving birth to nationalism is ridiculous. Nationalism is a feeling that people have of being loyal to and proud of their country and it has been around for a long long time. It’s not something new. For example, people in the U.K have been proud of their countries well before the existence of the EU.

PS: The flying pig will not be breathing fire or shitting bricks.

Thanks for reading.

Ghostman

End of Book 1- Q & A (Please feel free to leave any questions or comments you want)

Q: End of Book 1? Why? What does that means?

A: It was supposed to be “End of Part 1” but a reader suggested I numbered the parts of my story, so after doing that, “End of Part 1” became “End of Book 1”. It will be Book 1 of “The Dungeon Hive: Volume 1”. The reason is because the story will now change with the story taking place beyond the dungeon. Also the story will now be told from the POV of the wolfgirl and the hive, so it make sense to me to state the change as the end of the first part of the story.  

Q: Why a “hive” dungeon?

A: Because no one had done it yet. No one had done a story where the main character is a dungeon with a hive mind so I saw an opening.

Q: Why the “first” dungeon? Why not set the story in a world with dungeons on it already?

A: I need to show my age here. When I first started playing and reading fantasy, dungeons are simple things. We go in, kill everything, loot everything, kill the boss, and walked out. The idea of “farming” the dungeon did not occurred to us. The concept of having a relationship with the dungeon boss might as well be something from outer space. Nowadays, it’s common but in my youth, it was something we never even thought of. Yet I have to admit it does make a certain amount of sense. If the dungeons has been in the world for hundreds of years, then it makes sense for them to have a certain relationship/understanding with the people of the world.   

That’s when the idea of the overall plot of my story came about. I will show the changing relationship of the dungeons and the humans of a fantasy world. How they went from an “I will kill you or you will kill me” relationship to an “unfriendly partnership of mutual need”.

For this to work though, I need to start from the beginning thus “The Dungeon Hive”. The first dungeon where it has an “I will kill you or you will kill me” relationship with the humans and how as time passed and other dungeons come into being, the relationship between the two species changes. The timeline of the overall plot will take place over centuries and, if I can maintain my interest, I will show how the world changes along with that relationship.

Q: Is your story set in the early fantasy era? Why?

A: Yes, it is. The reason is because of the plot of the overall story. I needed to start from the beginning, so setting “The Dungeon Hive” in the early fantasy era made sense.

Q: What does “early fantasy era” means?

A: Think early Hyborian Age. For those who don’t know, that’s the world of Conan: The Barbarian. My vision is a world and time where there are still barbarian tribes and nomad clans roaming the world but the early cities had risen and they are the new rising power of the world. The idea of kingdoms and nations are in their infancy and organizations like guilds and orders are local affairs, not world-wide groups.

Q: Why the “Rage-Stamina-Mana” magic system?

A: I needed a magic system that’s simple because this is set in the early fantasy era so this makes sense to me. As the years pass and new generations grow up, the magic system will change accordingly.

Q: Why the simple classes? Where are the Paladins, Death Knights etc?

A: The same thing for the magic system goes for the classes. It’s early in the world so I only have the base classes like warriors, hunters, and mages. Anything higher would be classes like high mages, veteran warriors, master hunters etc. No special classes till later in the age. In fact, I’m toying with the idea that there are no magical weapons at all in the world and that the hive would be the one who introduced them to the world of Ioplan.

Q: What do you mean the Wolfmen are the first of the Beastkins?

A: There will be other hybrids made in the future by the hive and together, these half-man/half-animal creatures will be known as the race of “The Beastkins”. I’m a little undecided on the next Beastkin but currently leaning towards The Ratmen, similar to The Nezumi of L5R. Could change though.

Q: Would there be other magical creatures made?

A: Yes. I have plans, and hopefully I will catch readers out with some of them.     

Q: Are there any other races outside the humans? Where are the elves?

A: After some thought, I decided that the humans are the one and only natural race in the world. I will have the various dungeons introduced the other races. I have the idea that each dungeon will introduce 1 race into the world. The hive will have the Beastkin; other dungeons in the future will introduced races like elves, dwarves, goblins etc. Honestly I’m not sure it’s that good of an idea but that’s what I’m going with currently.

Q: How long do you intend to continue with the story?
A: As long as it hold my interest. Sorry, can’t give you anything better than that.

Q: Is this a book?
A: Yes. I'm treating it as an early draft of a book. Thinking of a title and the best I could come up with is "The Dungeon Hive: Instinct" (Volume 1 of the Dungeon Hive series). I foresee finishing the book, sending it to several publishers, getting rejected, and going the self-publishing ebook route.  

That's it! Please feel free to leave any questions or comments you want at the bottom and I'll get to them as much as I can. 

The Dungeon Hive

One thing I noticed about most dungeon stories is that most races mistakenly believe that dungeons have a hive-mind and I go, “That make sense.” Considering the various powers and how big dungeons can get, wouldn’t it make more sense for them to have a hive-mind?

So this is it; my take of the world’s first dungeon and the hive that controls it. Watch as it stumbles, fall, survive, strive and…procreate? Watch as it changed the world of Ioplon…for better and for worse.