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I’m VERY sorry it’s taken a while to post any updates, but things have been busy, in a good way!

“With Your Shield” continues to do well, and I couldn’t be more excited. The reviews have been mostly amazingly positive. I just checked this morning, and we finally hit that magical 50 reviews number on Amazon. Very exciting!!

If you haven’t picked it up yet, you can find it here!

Now… what’s next?

I’ve just completed the last words of “Spartan’s Specialists” which is the sequel to “With Your Shield.” It literally starts the day after the last page of Shield, and continues Spartan’s story. This time, he’s taking on a smaller contract with a very small and specialized group of the Golden Horde, but of course, nothing ever goes to plan. The book will be filled with more of Spartan’s technical wizardry, and even more of his experimentation to create something new and useful in the Four Horsemen Universe. I’m really excited about my first solo work, which should be released in October of this year.

Elsewhere, I also have a short story that will be appearing in “From the Ashes” which is an anthology based in Christopher Woods’ “Fallen World” universe. It was a really fun story to write, and my first attempt at a first-person style story. “From the Ashes” will be released in August.

Lastly on the writing front, I’m working on a short story in yet another universe, which I can’t really say much about yet, since I haven’t written it, but I was very excited to be invited by the author to participate!

I will be appearing at ConGregate in High Point, NC from July 12-14 (this coming weekend). You’ll probably find me around the Chris Kennedy Publishing table, and at the CKP Road Show on Sunday morning, where I’ll be giving away a unique piece of 4HU swag.

I’m working on another convention later in the year, but as I’m still waiting to hear from the con chair, I don’t want to jinx it just yet.

At this time, I’m not sure exactly what’s next for writing, but if nothing else, I’ll go back to working on my fantasy work, tentatively titled “Stormwinter.” I do have at least one more 4HU book collaboration coming up probably sometime in early 2020 which I’m really looking forward to!

Well, “With Your Shield” my first novel, written with Chris Kennedy released Friday, with what I consider AMAZING success. On the first day, we hit #1 on the charts in our category, which was completely unexpected!

As of the time I’m writing this, we now have 24 very positive reviews, which obviously feel very good, and I’m extremely excited about. Here are a few that really stand out for me.

Yet another super entry in the 4hu series of books. Alex Rath makes a great debut as a writer and is backed by Chris Kennedy, author extraordinaire! If you like a James Bond Q type character who is as combat able as he is tech smart this is the book for you. Ian Fleming would be proud. A story of finding you the path fits well into the legends of the Golden Horde providing a chance at changing yourself and your past. Can’t wait to read more.
– Doug Triplett, Amazon Review

And this one, which really means a lot to me and took me completely off guard:

Chris Kennedy and Alex Rath have done a great job with integrating into an exciting story what the technicians and IT folks of the Golden Horde add to the success of the contract. When I started the book I had to pause as tech and IT stuff can be boring to me but low and behold the authors bring out how exciting and important logistics and technical work are to any fighting unit. I also applaud them for addressing the mental health/emotional damage that our war fighters carry in defending our freedoms. It is always easier to work on the debilitating aspects of this trauma from the third person. I think this book, from my perspective as a combat Veteran, would be helpful to any Veteran or non-Veteran who wishes to understand some of the struggles that a loved one may be going through. Great work guys!
– Ken, Amazon Review

The book is available here!

Now, for the promised news.

I have been working on a fantasy book in a world of my own making since I finished writing “With Your Shield” and it’s been going well for a world-building effort; however, I will be changing that as of today. It hasn’t been publicly announced, but a decision was made a few weeks ago, that there would be another ‘Spartan’ novel. I have some ideas of what it’ll be, but that’s about where it is at this point.

I’ve decided to put the fantasy work on-hold, and put my time into the next Four Horsemen Spartan centered novel, still based in the Golden Horde, which will take place in parallel with the Omega Wars of the series. Unlike “With Your Shield” this book will very likely require some knowledge of the universe, and the Omega Wars to truly get all the references that will be in it, but I’m still going to do my best to make sure it can be read as a one-off, without being left sitting and wondering what the heck I’m talking about.

To everyone who has bought and supported “With Your Shield,” thank you so much! If you haven’t, please check it out!

“With Your Shield” is off to my co-author for his final review, and then on to the editor. I must say it’s been an exciting process as I complete my first novel, and get it ready. We also have a release date! Our book will be available on April 19, 2019, so put that on your calendar and get ready for some excitement.

I think it’s an interesting entry into the Four Horsemen Universe. It takes on things from the perspective of an Intelligence Analyst  – who also happens to be a CASPer (Combat Assault System, Personal) trooper – and how he approaches things within the Golden Horde Mercenary Company.

I’m also excited to show the cover!  It was released earlier on Facebook, but here it is!

Work has already started on my next project, a fantasy novel that will go back to my days playing Dungeons and Dragons, as the main character is someone I already know very well, having used him as a character oh so many years ago.

Members of my mailing list will be getting an early peek at the first two Chapters of the work in progress soon!

Yep, it’s been a busy few weeks!  Work on my first novel in the Four Horsemen Universe, “With Your Shield” is nearing completion. It’s in my co-author’s hands now to add in some of his section, and then back to me to wrap it up. It will be finished this month, so we’re looking at a release date somewhere in late April or early May. I can’t express how excited I am to be publishing my first book!

The best news on that front is that I’ll have the cover art in time for FantaSci, March 22-24, in North Carolina, and by then it’ll be in the hands of the alpha readers.

In the meantime, I’ve started work on my first fantasy novel, as yet untitled. This story is written around a character I first wrote short stories about for fun about 20 years ago, so now he’s getting his own novel! If my ideas become reality, it’ll be the first in a four-book cycle in a new world I’m building, which will likely lead to even more books in that world.

Within the next few weeks, I’m expecting to give a sneak peek at the new fantasy book’s opening chapter(s) to people who have signed up for my mailing list!

I’ve also started my own YouTube channel, which opened with an awesome introduction to the Four Horsemen Universe, you can find that here if you want to check it out.

Keep an eye out here, follow me on Facebook (link on the side of the screen), and join my mailing list, to keep up to date with what’s going on!

Well, things are moving right along with ‘With Your Shield’ in the Four Horsemen universe. I’d say I’m about half-way through at this point, and I’m really very excited about what’s going down on the pages between Chris Kennedy and myself. I’m even thinking… just maybe… the main character and his ‘work’ might be seen again later in the universe. We’ll see!

Almost 10k words down in With Your Shield this weekend, and I may not be done. I was thinking today about my inspirations for writing. Not books I’ve read, but authors I’ve met and talked to.

The first brush I had with authors was probably back in about 1994 or so. I was a volunteer for TSR Online on AOL. For the younger folks, TSR was the company that published Dungeons & Dragons before Wizards of the Coast bought them out. During my time there, I handled setting up Q&A sessions between authors and game developers, and the fans on AOL. Among the folks I got to work with were Ed Greenwood, Colin McComb, and Elaine Cunningham. Working with Colin was great (not least because I got an early copy of Birthright and was playing it months before it released). The best though, was Elaine Cunningham, most well-known for her work in the Forgotten Realms setting. I was pretty cash-poor at the time, and we ended up talking on the phone about her upcoming Q&A. She asked if I’d read all of her work, and modules, and I indicated that I hadn’t, and couldn’t really afford to buy much. So, what did she do? She mailed me a big box with a copy of everything she’d produced up to that point for D&D. We also talked a little about writing, and she encouraged me to do it. Unfortunately. I didn’t follow her advice at the time.

The second was David Drake. I met David at a small bookshop in Columbia, South Carolina, which no longer exists, called the Happy Bookseller. It closed in 2008 unfortunately, unable to compete with the big name bookstores that were opening up. Anyway, my wife and I went there to have our copies of, I think it was Queen of Demons, signed. I’d only read his fantasy work. Only us and one other person showed up, but he actually enjoyed it. We sat with David for an hour and he told us about being a writer, getting cover art done, and about how his time in Vietnam inspired much of his writing with the Hammer’s Slammers, which I’d never heard of, but devoured after that. Again, I talked to David about my own desire to eventually write, and his advice, like Elaine’s, was to do it!

David also referred me to another author I’d never heard of, named David Weber. I started reading David’s Honorverse, and haven’t stopped yet. I’ve been incredibly fortunate to be able to spend a decent amount of time with David (who only let me call him Mr. Weber once) and talk to him and his wife, Sharon. They’re amazing people. I even found out that David and I went to the same high school, years apart of course. Again, David encouraged me to pursue my desire to write, but I wasn’t quite in the right head-space yet.

The last, of course, was Chris Kennedy. I’ve already talked a bit about that, so I won’t belabor the point. Suffice to say if it weren’t for Chris’ encouragement and dedication to helping first-time authors get published, you still wouldn’t have heard of me.

How did this get started? Well, Chris Kennedy and I actually met as members of a fan organization for a series of milscifi books a few years ago. One night in late 2017 I was messaging with Chris on Facebook about having always wanted to write my own books. He was very encouraging. I don’t remember exactly how it went, but I proposed an idea for a book in the 4HU, specifically the Golden Horde. His response was something like ‘sounds good, how about I write it with you.’ The grin on my face probably made the people around me nervous. That was the start. Unfortunately it took me a while to get heavily into the writing, but now things are rolling along nicely!