Good morning, dear readers, and welcome to a new series I’m doing that will spotlight each of my books in each entry. I realize I link them in the “BUY MY BOOKS” page on the website/blog here, but there isn’t much else about them. So maybe y’all have ignored the “BUY MY BOOKS” page, and you know what, that’s a shame because I’d like you to buy my books. I said it.

So, regarding Hollow Thunder.

(You can get it on amazon.com in print or Kindle versions: https://www.amazon.com/Hollow-Thunder-Nicole-R-Ordway/dp/149351072X ) Apparently WordPress changed how posts get written and now I can’t find the thing to embed a link in text. Whatever. Y’ALL, I FIGURED IT OUT. It’s clunky though. Not a fan.

Hollow Thunder is my first published novel and it is the longest at around 80k words. This length makes it a properly novel-length work, which TO BE HONEST was one of my driving goals in writing it. I wanted to prove to myself and to the world that I could write a BOOK. And for me, that meant something at least 80k words.

With e-books and indie/self publishing becoming such a big thing these days, I daresay that “BOOKS ARE 80K WORDS AT LEAST” mindset is probably out-dated. But I don’t care. That was my goal, and I achieved it with Hollow Thunder.

I’VE NEVER TRIED TO DO THAT SINCE.

Wanna know why? Well, dear readers, it’s because in order to get that length I had to do some major fluffing in certain parts of the story that have, honestly, suffered for it.

The story focuses on a group of Revolutionaries in a world inspired by and generally like the Williamsburg area of the 18th century. Their crew includes a werewolf and a psychic, however, so some liberties have been taken. (REVOLUTION JOKE, HAHA.) Early in the story they attempt to assassinate the Governor of the Colony and are surprised to see somebody else there already taking care of the job. These insurgents frame our main characters for the murder, and from there the plot focuses on how they escape the framing (or not, in one case) and how they get revenge on the insurgents while still securing some kind of success in their original goal of taking control of the Colony.

If you want to know more, as always read the book. I’m not keen on spoiling too much. It’s an enjoyable romp with intrigue, just a little smidgen of romance, and a whole lot of cultural, storytelling, and world-building errors I’ve since become very aware of. I’m not the proudest parent of this book, I’ll be upright and honest with you. I’ve learned a lot since I wrote and published Hollow Thunder. It’s still GOOD, sure, and definitely worth a read. But “Civil Dusk” is MUCH BETTER as far as actual storytelling goes, and we’ll get to that one soon.

That said, give Hollow Thunder a look. Just don’t take it too seriously.

The cover art was done on commission for me, and is inspired by a vision the psychic character has that becomes a critical plot spur for him. The wolf is our werewolf, the lady is one of the prominent main characters, the three saplings behind them represent three of the other main characters, and the noose is a symbol of death. And that’s all I’ll give you, because anything else would be major spoilers! Look who’s holding the noose. That’s it! No more! Go read the book!!

Next up, it’s sequel “The Loyalty of Dew”, which I’ll write up next week! If you have read Hollow Thunder and you have any questions, feel free to post in the comments below and I’d be happy to reply.