NOVEL FROG Thank You!
Thanks so much for reading The Mine Lord.
It was a pleasure to write it and I'm honored that so many have read it.
I had toyed with the idea of writing a retrospective or some kind of "behind the scenes" about my experience with the Mine Lord and Royal Road. I have decided to keep my comments fairly brief.
I was sitting in the attic of my old house in 2021 when the first dwarven prospector character, Naen from The Crippled King, came into my mind. At the time, I was working as an after hours on-call hospice nurse. When someone needed end-of-life care in the night, I was on call. Through the pandemic I not only cared for a high number of "normal" hospice patients, but I was also doing end-of-life care for Covid patients who were considered beyond life-saving measures--or didn't want them. I lived through the horror of those days.
Through the remaining days of the pandemic and up to now, the Dwarves of Ice-Cloak have been my imaginary companions, as I have followed them through their struggles, victories, defeats, and even deaths. I didn't try to quantify the vast amounts of time I have spent in their imaginary world, but I know it is significant. I didn't know that the Dwarves of Ice-Cloak would take me so far and on so many adventures and even help me through the hard times. When I began, I didn't have a series in mind, but as I wrote, it grew. Now here we are.
I'm thankful for my own Creator and my Lord (Jesus Christ), and for a patient, loving, and understanding wife. I'm also thankful for my loving kids (my daughter was convinced that I'm a famous author and I had to persuade her otherwise). I don't think I fully grasp just how much these make-believe dwarves have meant to me, but like Yorvig, my family is far more important than what I could build (or write) with my hands. My wife is a fan of Ice-Cloak, and she has read all the books in the series on paperback. Now that The Mine Lord is out on paperback, I hope she reads it and sees the dedication: "For my priceless bride."
Thanks for joining me on Yorvig's portion of the story of the dwarven folk.
The Mine Lord
P.S. Ratings and reviews really do help.
Feel free to contact me via PM or come say hello on my author Discord channel: https://discord.gg/JtJYdhmsVp
Maps are housed here: https://www.traemcmaken.com/the-mine-lord-maps/
The Mine Lord is a stand-alone story but is set in the same world as my four book series The Dwarves of Ice-Cloak. For those interested in finding out more of the lore and history of the dwarves occasionally referenced in the Mine Lord, check out: https://www.royalroad.com/amazon/B0BKH355TL
Paperbacks and Ebooks of the Mine Lord and Jackal of the Waste are also available through the above link (or click on the images below).