Broken Ties is here! Plus, Cy Reed News!
I’m thrilled to announce the release of Broken Ties, the second book in my ground-breaking Broken Nature trilogy. Broken Nature, as you’ll recall, takes place in a post-apocalyptic future in which all of Earth’s surface water has vanished. Like all of my work, it’s stuffed to the brim with action and adventure, epic mysteries, and jaw-dropping twists!
Book Description
Two cities, ripped apart by fear. One secret that could save them … or end them forever.
Day and night, Titus Foster treks across the hinterlands, hunting for his hated brother, Dargon. Consumed with vengeance, he fails to see that Natica is splitting apart … until it’s too late. A sudden, violent coup erupts in the heart of the city. Forced to flee, Titus races toward a legendary mountain fortress known as the Shell. An astonishing secret awaits him, one that could unite his people … or send them spiraling into civil war.
Meanwhile, age-old secrets rock Luminosity. Framed and vilified, Kayden Kell must run for her life. Hunted by a growing mob, she delves deep into the city’s disturbing history. What she uncovers could bring about her people’s salvation … or their total destruction.
Broken Ties is a rip-roaring, post-apocalyptic adventure, perfect for fans of mystery-box TV shows like Wayward Pines and the 100 as well as for readers of Greig Beck, Hugh Howey, Blake Crouch, Michael C. Grumley, A.G. Riddle, and Jeremy Robinson. This heart-pounding tale will stick with you long after you’ve turned the last page!
***Your copy of Broken Ties is just moments away. Click anywhere you see the title or cover, or the links below, to purchase it from Amazon!***
Next up, we’ve got Broken People, the epic finale of the Broken Nature trilogy! It goes live on May 6, 2021. Pre-order it today by clicking the above link or the cover.
After that, we’ve got … Cy Reed! That’s right, Cy Reed is back after a way-too-long hiatus. This new story, tentatively entitled, Curse of Eden, is the first book in my all-new, Cy Reed: Lost Cities series. These books will explore our intrepid hero’s early days, prior to the events of Chaos. Curse of Eden is in its final round of edits and should be finished in the next week. Unfortunately, I don’t have a cover to share with you yet. Expect to see it in my next newsletter, though!
In closing, I have a favor to ask of you. Reviews are a huge driver of book sales, so leaving one—or even just a rating—makes it possible for me to keep doing this. So, please take a few moments and leave a review for Broken Ties on Amazon and / or Goodreads. Thanks in advance … I deeply appreciate it!
Yours in Adventure,
David Meyer
Destroying Magic is here … get your copy today!
I’m pleased to announce the release of DESTROYING MAGIC, the first book in my brand-new Randy Wolf and the Dropout Magicians series. This story is almost two years in the making and I’m confident you’re going to love it.
DESTROYING MAGIC is a young adult / fantasy novel, geared toward fans of Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, and the Maze Runner series. But even though it’s a young adult book, it still reads like one of my Cy Reed or Apex Predator stories. Here’s the synopsis …
The ghastly attack catches everyone off guard. While others flee, Randy bravely steps forward … and straight into the center of an ancient conflict. Before long, he and his friends are immersed within a forgotten world of dangerous magic, vicious secrets, and lost memories.
Fighting to unravel the truth about this world, Randy plunges into the dark heart of Madkey itself. His search uncovers a horrifying conspiracy, one that touches every aspect of his life.
With the help of his friends, he must unmask the conspirators and bring an end to their reign of terror … before they can destroy magic forever.
*** If you like Harry Potter and Percy Jackson, you’re going to love DESTROYING MAGIC, the first installment of Randy Wolf and the Dropout Magicians. ***
This is my best book yet and I know you’re going to love it. The purchase links are below!
Buy DESTROYING MAGIC
Stolen Time: My Journey with Hyperparathyroidism
When Did You Stop Reading? (Crashcourse, Day 24)
Welcome to Day 24 of Crashcourse!
Did you ever stop reading fiction? If so, when did you stop? Why? And when did you start reading again?
When Did You Stop Reading?
First things first. I added 1,648 words in four hours of creative editing yesterday. It was an uneventful day and when I was finished, I started thinking about something that’s been on my mind as of late.
Whenever I tell people I’m a writer, something curious happens. Their eyes get a faraway look. Their voices grow kind of wistful and perhaps, a bit sad. “You know, I used to love to read when I was a kid,” they often say. Hmm … this always gets my attention. Books are, after all, my business. But also, I experienced something similar a long time ago. So, I’m always curious to see if other people’s reasons match up with my own.
“So, what happened?” I’ll say. “Why’d you stop reading?” The person’s look will, more often than not, turn quizzical. “I don’t really know,” they’ll reply.
Hmm … now I’m intrigued. What could cause someone to fall out of love with reading? Competition from video games, movies, podcasts, streaming TV, and the Internet? That seems like the most obvious possibility. But when I probe a little deeper, a different story often emerges. Namely, that reading became work, often during the middle school or high school years, and thus, ceased to be fun. Textbooks share part of the blame, of course. But there’s also another side to this. It turns out a lot of people seemed to lose their love for reading once they started analyzing fiction (especially fiction they never wanted to read in the first place). Ahh, this is curious since it’s my experience as well. Were you forced to read Shakespeare in, say, seventh grade? Did you tear it apart and analyze it week after week? If so, did it increase your love of reading? Maybe, but if my experience and conversations are an indicator, it turned off a lot of kids, too. Reading for fun is a wonderful experience. And it seems there’s no quicker way to destroy that experience than to force kids to read books they don’t want to read at a rigorous level. Fortunately for me, I learned to love reading again, but it didn’t happen until I finished schooling. Many people that I meet never read for fun again.
Anyway what’s your experience? Did you stop reading at some point in your life? Can you pinpoint the moment it happened? If so, send me a note. I’d love to hear your story!
Crashcourse Totals
Daily Total: 1,648 words in 4:00. 412 words/hour
Total: 23,986 words in 39:42. 604 words/hour
Save Your Work! (Crashcourse, Days 21, 22, & 23)
Welcome to Days 21, 22, & 23 of Crashcourse!
Despite a sizable hiccup, Crashcourse is at full-steam right now. What kind of hiccup, you ask? The kind that comes with an error message.
Save Your Work!
I spent the last three days in creative editing mode, yet still managed to add 3,830 words in eight hours. The story is growing in heaps and bounds and I can’t help but wonder if this will be my first book to pass the 100,000 word mark. My other books all average about 80,000 words apiece, but Crashcourse feels bigger than that.
After two to three hours of writing on Friday, Microsoft Word shut down on me. On the bright side, the error message promised it had saved changes to the document and I could recover them once I reopened the program. So, I reopened Word and … nothing. I had set auto-save to do its thing every ten minutes. But for some reason, it didn’t work and I lost a ton of work. On a whim, I tracked down the Autorecovery folder. Unfortunately, there was nothing helpful there. Overall, it was extremely annoying and a good reminder to save my work on a regular basis, rather than depend on Autorecovery.
Anyway what could I do? I just pointed my cursor at the right spot and started writing again. And you know what? It was actually kind of freeing. Don’t get me wrong. I would’ve rather spent my time writing new stuff. But it was an interesting experience to write something all over again on a moment’s notice. The words flowed just fine and I had fun. This new version is definitely different than the original version, although I can’t be sure how much. Regardless, the story continues to flow nicely.
Crashcourse Totals
Three-Day Total: 3,830 words in 8:00. 479 words/hour
Total: 22,338 words in 35:42. 626 words/hour
Characters Forming Around Me (Crashcourse, Day 20)
Welcome to Day 20 of Crashcourse!

Here’s a small part of my writing space. The painting, which I got in Mexico, is spray paint street art.
Creative editing continues on Crashcourse and I’m starting to see this story develop into something real and unique. It’s amazing to see art come to life.
Characters Forming all Around Me
Creative editing continued today and I’m forced to admit it’s way more involved than I’d first expected. With that said, I only added a net 569 words in 4 hours. But I’m not viewing that as a bad thing. You see, I thought I was only adding a new section to the story. But it turns out I’m changing a lot of things, lighting countless new paths through Crashcourse. Which means the story is changing and growing before my eyes. It’s awesome to see and helps me remember why I started writing in the first place. By the way, I decided to include creative editing under my total writing time since I’m interested in knowing how many actual writing hours it takes me to finish a story. By the time this is over, my words/hour rate will probably look pretty sad!
Today, a lot of work was devoted to three characters. Randy Wolf, of course, who’s turning out to be more resourceful than I anticipated given his status as a recent dropout. At first, he was a bit skittish and uncertain of himself. But it turns out he’s got a quiet sort of bravery and resilience to him. Next up is Thaddeus Crucible, a pea coat-wearing magician with strange powers who seems to have been erased from the collective memory. And finally is Headmaster Lancton Boltstar, the world’s greatest magician and a fashion plate in his own right. Boltstar is an old-fashioned type of chap, dapper in his derby/vest combo. But don’t mess with him. I’ve got a great picture of him in my mind, by the way. I was this close to drawing his derby tonight. Hmmm … maybe tomorrow? We’ll see!
Crashcourse Totals
Daily Total: 569 words in 4:00. 142 words/hour
Total: 18,508 words in 27:42. 668 words/hour
Creative Editing Begins (Crashcourse, Day 19)
Welcome to Day 19 of Crashcourse!
I did something I didn’t want to do today, namely editing. But this was a bit different than acquiescing to an inner critic. This was creative editing.
Creative Editing Begins
I added 1,366 words to Crashcourse today in 1:26. That doesn’t really sum up the day though as you’ll soon see.
Overall, I got sidetracked again, but I think it’s for a good reason. After about thirty minutes of free writing, I got the feeling I was off on the wrong trail. Not completely, mind you. It just felt like I’d skipped a few stops and failed to light a few torches along the way. You see, I’ve written a lot of stuff about the Madkey School and how magic works on the premises. I’d touched on Randy and his life as well. All in all, a fascinating world is coming to light. But Randy’s actions within that world felt off to me. He’s been a passive character, walking around, letting stuff happen to him. But that didn’t feel quite right. I get the feeling that Randy should be doing more. So, I took some time (a couple of hours) to let my mind wander, then returned to the book. And lo and behold, a whole new part of the story came to mind. I began to see how various pieces and scenes fit together. I went back to the beginning of the story, introduced a new character, and kept writing. Things started to change very fast. Unfortunately, I had to cut out early due to a prior engagement so I didn’t get to see it through yet.
Now, a few days ago I expressly said I didn’t want to do any editing until I was done with the story. And yes, the work I did today involved some editing, mostly little stuff, as I worked to add in the new section of story. So, yes, I edited. On the bright side, it was creative editing, designed to help add in this new section. I’ve always liked the idea of creative editing. But I’ve never really done it since it always dovetails into endless rewrites. My challenge will be to add in this new part while staying in creative voice. I hope it works!
Crashcourse Totals
Daily Total: 1,366 words in 1:26. 953 words/hour
Total: 17,939 words in 23:42. 757 words/hour
Am I an Author? (Crashcourse, Day 18)
Welcome to Day 18 of Crashcourse!
After a few days of being sidelined by my inner critic, I finally got back to writing. Also, I continue to ask questions about my future. Namely, am I just an author? Or am I meant to tell other kinds of stories as well?
Am I An Author?
Yesterday, I wrote about how I got sidetracked by a desire to plan out something in advance, specifically the curriculum at the Madkey school. I lost a little writing time, but hey, at least I’m back to work. I wrote 2,563 words today in three hours and fifteen minutes. That averages out to 789 words per minute, which doesn’t surprise me. I found myself nitpicking A LOT today, making small changes here and there and reversing them multiple times. Overall, I had trouble keeping my inner critic in check. No surprise really, given how I succumbed to it the last few days. Still, I enjoyed writing today.
This blog series has been an interesting experiment for me, especially in helping me realize some of the problems with my work habits. But for now, let’s move beyond self-criticism and do a little dreaming. That blog title up there is really just for show. I’ll be writing books for a long time to come. But I’d like to try other types of storytelling, too. In the past, I’ve considered a lot of mediums. Animation, film, video games, theme park rides, physical adventures, board games … you name it, I’ve considered it. But I’ve never gotten past the point of daydreams.
There’s a good reason for that. The life of an indie author is a solitary one. My wife helps out with editing and my dad pitches a hand with marketing. But for the most part, I work alone. And that’s just fine. But venturing out into other mediums would probably require collaboration. That’s a hard thing to admit, even harder to accept. I’m not even sure how I’d go about recruiting the help of artists, programmers, etc. And once you start working with other people, you have to deal with a whole mess of other things. Yikes. Still, it’s good to talk about this. Maybe it’ll help me move forward. Stay tuned …
Crashcourse Totals
Daily Total: 2,563 words in 3:15. 789 words/hour
Total: 16,573 words in 22:16. 744 words/hour