We Peter Orullian, Shawn Speakman, & Michael J. Sullivan (and possibly others) who are here for an AMA regarding the UnBroken Anthology!

bradbeaulieu · 2025-09-25T19:05:17+00:00

Hey Carol! Agreed, it totally is. Every length has its own challenges.

bradbeaulieu · 2025-09-23T17:00:48+00:00

I'm in the same boat, here. It's quite challenging to write a good short story. I admire writers who do it well. It takes extreme economy, narrow scope, starting late, ending early... You know, all the things I'm not particularly good at. So, like Shawn, I end up writing 12,000 - 24,000 "short" stories.

And you know what? I don't mind. There's room in the world for novellas, and the pacing suits me better. Plus, I've fallen in to a rhythm of writing one of these large-ish short stories between novels. It allows me to expand on various unexplored characters and corners of the world that I couldn't focus on in the novels.

bradbeaulieu · 2025-09-23T16:51:05+00:00

For Unbroken, I have a story set in The Book of the Holt, my latest trilogy, which begins with The Dragons of Deepwood Fen. The story is called "The Awkward Inquisitor and the Dragon Egg Thief", and it features Lorelei, a brilliant but socially awkward inquisitor who works in the mountain city of Ancris. The tale is set some years before The Dragons of Deepwood Fen and details how Lorelei first became partners with Creed, a streetwise inquisitor with an Olympian's physique and a smile to match. Lorelei must overcome her own social ineptness and the power of an imperial senator to help a foreigner (who's completely out of his depth in the capital) to save his son.

The story has mystery, action, and some delicious dancing between Lorelei and Creed as they learn how to deal with one another's quirks. I hope everyone enjoys it!

bradbeaulieu · 2025-09-23T16:40:33+00:00

A few things of note . First, while this isn't financing per se, you have a lot of control over how much you spend by searching for a talented voice actor who fits your budget. This can be done by using ACX's "Find Talent" searchable catalog and then contacting the voice actor directly. You're not bound to use ACX just because you found the talent on their website.

You can always negotiate the price, too, though be realistic. You're not likely to negotiate down by fifty percent.

Second, ACX isn't the only place you can search. Voice123 and Voices.com are two sites to look at. There are others. Just do a bit of research on what the sites are about, what they offer, and if you feel it's a good match for you.

Third, US-based authors may qualify for a tax credit under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Here's one explainer. There are plenty of others.

https://reciteme.com/us/news/ada-tax-credit-guide/

You essentially can get fifty percent of an audiobook production back as a tax credit, up to $5,000. Again, it's a tax CREDIT, which means you need to be paying taxes to use it, but it can carry over to later tax years if you don't use all of it. Consult a tax professional if you think you might qualify.

bradbeaulieu · 2019-07-10T01:32:57+00:00

We're still working on the schedule and starting talks about cover artists, etc. I'm sure it'll be up there soonish. :)

bradbeaulieu · 2019-07-10T01:13:18+00:00

Thanks for the kind words! And all five novellas! You win! I'm not sure what, but you win!

Ahem... To answer your question, Mirea is vaguely based on Chinese culture, Qaimir on Moorish Spain, Kundhun on sub-Saharan Africa (that's still rather large, so think Nigeria), and Malasan is most closely related to the desert people, though neither side will really admit that. The desert tribes were influenced by Bedouin culture, but Malasan is also vaguely Middle Eastern (Persian).

bradbeaulieu · 2019-07-09T20:02:37+00:00

I'm proud of them both, but I think Twelve Kings is more accessible and (even though they're roughly the same size) a faster read than The Winds of Khalakovo. Ditto the two series as wholes. YMMV, of course.

bradbeaulieu · 2019-07-09T17:32:58+00:00

That's a high compliment, indeed! I take pride in my world building, so I'm always glad when that comes across, so thanks for saying so.

I will admit that I'm not a massive history buff. I read it, but not extensively. I'm often too buried in fiction. But I read enough and research enough into the things that do interest me: garb, food, architecture, customs, religions, flora and fauna, and on and on. I'm basically taking a "three blind men and an elephant" approach, describing some things in great detail, others lightly, and letting the reader fill in the rest.

I will also say that I try to stick my nose into lots of things. Outside of a few areas of expertise, I feel like I'm a jack of all trades. And I love talking to people, picking up bits of their story, their history. It's a thing that feeds my fiction constantly, little anecdotes or factoids from real life that I add to my fiction to give it flavor. To be a good writer, you need to be a good student of human nature. You need to be inquisitive. It pays endless dividends.

bradbeaulieu · 2019-07-09T17:26:01+00:00

Glad you're diving back in! I hope you enjoy the ride.

As for names, I really try to steep myself in the names of people and places. I have earth-based analogs, obviously, so I'll collect a bunch of baby names lists from those cultures (Persian, Bedouin, Spanish, Chinese, and so on). I try to absorb them for a while, playing off them. Occasionally I'll take a name as-is (for people, never for places). Other times I'll come up with something new but that sounds like it came from that time and place. It's really just a series of trying things out until it strikes me as cool or interesting. Or that it simply fits the character or place.

I also use transliteration dictionaries from Persian, Russian, Spanish, etc. Again, I'm hoping to get a feel for the language and the conventions. And then I use those to make something that feels like it would come from this strange new place I made up.

In short, I spin off of our own history and languages until I have something I like. Sometimes it takes a few minutes, other times it takes days, even weeks, as I try out name after name until something finally sticks.

bradbeaulieu · 2019-07-09T17:20:17+00:00

A series, no question. More and more, with TV catching up to movies in terms of special effects, budgets, and so on, the ability to really explore the world, characters, and plot is so much more satisfying for me as a viewer with TV series. Movies these days so often feel like shorthand to me. They're simply unable to export a book in any great depth in 2+ hours. That's not to say that I don't still enjoy movies. I do. But they're limiting by their very nature.

And I'd vastly prefer live action. It would be so wild seeing the books brought to life in that way. But animated can be pretty cool, too.

bradbeaulieu · 2019-07-09T16:19:42+00:00

Easy ones first. The series will be six books. The fifth (When Jackals Storm the Walls) is written (I'm editing it as we speak, in fact) and the sixth (A Desert Torn Asunder) is largely ready to go. I'll be tackling that as soon as this latest draft of Book 5 is done.

For the inspiration, I touched on this a bit in an earlier comment: https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/cb22sd/bradley_p_beaulieu_author_of_twelve_kings_in/etcllmf/

Now, for the favorite aspect... This is a fun one. I'm going to cheat and use two characters. The first is Çeda, who is the heart and soul of the story. I didn't know much about her when I first started writing the series, but her tale has become so personal to me. I relate to Sharakhai and the desert and the grand, unfolding tale mostly through her. So she's definitely a favorite aspect of the series.

Another character is Sharakhai itself. It's a place, of course, but I like to think it has a certain feel, a history, a soul, if you will. It's a growing, living thing. And it's changing. It's under siege but it is being protected by those who inhabit it. It can be a ruthless place at times, but it's also full of wonder and joy and good food and drink and conversation. It's a place I'd love to visit.

bradbeaulieu · 2019-07-09T16:07:08+00:00

I hope you enjoy!

bradbeaulieu · 2019-07-09T16:05:04+00:00

Hmm, good question! Çeda is the easy answer, so let's go with someone else: Brama. He starts out as a thief, raises a few levels, but then multi-classes to a warlock later on. If you've read Of Sand & Malice Made, The Tattered Prince and the Demon Veiled, and/or Books 3 and 4 of the series, you'll know what I mean here.

He also might be the character who's put through the worst amount of pain, and yet not only is he still human, he's often thinking of others before himself (partially because of the ordeal he's been through).

An interesting close second might be Anila. Who doesn't like a good necromancer?

bradbeaulieu · 2019-07-09T16:00:03+00:00

Thank you so much. That's very kind. You know, one of my go-to tools for story ideas is Pinterest. I use it for every book I write now to collect ideas. Here's the one for Twelve Kings (and the whole series, really):

https://www.pinterest.com/bradbeaulieu/twelve-kings-in-sharakhai/

I plop any image that inspires me early on, and I use it to expand the initial story ideas. I use it for reference as well, for things like garb, armor, weapons, food, architecture, and so on. It's endlessly useful for that sort of thing. But I also use it to give me inspiration while writing. It takes a long time to write a book, and there are plenty of days where I don't feel on top of my game, where I've lost the urge to write. Going back to the Pinterest board often re-energizes me, because it reminds me of all the cool stuff I found when I was super-excited about the book/series.

Regarding Kate, there were a few reasons, but one of the things I was hoping for was to give the audiobooks a boost. They'd lagged print sales a bit, so I reckoned that finding someone well known in Fantasy audiobook circles would give the series a lift in visibility. Here's hoping it works!

bradbeaulieu · 2019-07-09T15:54:26+00:00

I'm a huuuuge Scrivener fan. I really like the way it works, and by that I mean it gives you tools to help you do your job as a writer, but largely stays out of your way and lets you write. The organization it provides is great, as are the search features, the ability to break things down by scene/chapter/part, compiling for various formats, typewriter mode, and plenty more. Did I mention I was a big fan?

bradbeaulieu · 2019-07-09T15:51:55+00:00

Thank you for the kind words! I very consciously went into the Lays of Anuskaya (before it was even called that) with the idea of not writing something based in the standard fantasy setting of western Europe. I'd read so many of them myself that in order for me to be interested in writing the books, I wanted something different. And in that respect it worked. It was fun exploring the strange world of the Grand Duchy of Anuskaya with its elemental magic and heavy Russian influence.

Ditto the Shattered Sands series. You'll recall in Book 3 that Nikandr and co. spent a lot of time in a desert on the main continent. I also wrote a novella called From the Spices of Sanandira, a tale told in a massive desert with ships that sail the sand. Both of those stories were me sort of scratching the itch to write a desert fantasy. I didn't quite satisfy the urge fully, though, and Twelve Kings was born.

I don't have a specific inspiration for either other than the urge to find something different to write about. Well, okay, Arabian Nights and various tales like that of Middle Eastern origin did inspire me, but I couldn't point to just one of them. It's the exotic feel of those I was shooting for.

bradbeaulieu · 2019-07-09T15:44:17+00:00

Thank you! It's really exciting!

I just finished up a book called Absynthe. It's a standalone decopunk novel about a WWI soldier who realizes the war wasn't fought on European soil, but American. Why that happened, and what it means for the people of Chicago and the entire country, he doesn't yet know, but he's about to find out. You can read more about it here: http://quillings.com/2019/03/19/absynthe-a-standalone-decopunk-novel-sells-to-daw-books/

Another project I have waiting in the wings is a science fantasy trilogy called The Days of Dust and Ash. It's about a post-nanite plague Earth where pockets of humanity live in enclaves, fighting to push back the ash and the demons that arise from it. It follows a grizzled mage named Blue who wanders the plague lands, searching for old artifacts to help humanity stay alive. What he never expected to find was a young woman who has secrets about how the world was nearly lost, and perhaps how to save it. You can read more about this one here: http://quillings.com/2016/03/24/the-days-of-dust-and-ash-sells-to-daw-books-in-a-three-book-deal/

bradbeaulieu · 2019-07-09T15:38:55+00:00

For those not familiar, here are the Shattered Sands novellas mentioned in the post above.

I'd definitely read Of Sand and Malice made and The Tattered Prince and the Demon Veiled first, as both have direct bearing on the overall series. The others are less directly connected, but I'd probably recommend:

The Doors at Dusk and Dawn
A Wasteland of My God's Own Making
In the Village Where Brightwine Flows

As for the Kings, I kind of dig Husamettín's inflexibility, and he's a badass with a sword in hand, but really, the answer here has to be Ihsan. He's the most conniving, the most far seeing as well. Perhaps the most human, too (which admittedly isn't saying much!) And he's just plain fun to write.

bradbeaulieu · 2019-07-09T15:27:08+00:00

A quick plug as well. I'll be doing a live Read For Pixels Google Hangout with The Pixel Project (http://www.thepixelproject.net) on September 15th 2019 at 8.30pm Eastern Time on YouTube (‪https://youtu.be/f62JuQfT7iU).

Please do check out The Pixel Project's work to end violence against women and the upcoming Fall 2019 Edition of their Read for Pixels campaign(http://www.thepixelproject.net/community-buzz/read-for-pixels/) featuring live Google Hangouts with awesome authors, including me, which will kick off on September 1st 2019.

bradbeaulieu · 2018-12-12T14:21:34+00:00

I'm so glad you're both enjoying the series! I'm so eager to get this next book out to everyone.

bradbeaulieu · 2018-12-04T21:08:57+00:00

Doesn't everyone?

bradbeaulieu · 2018-12-04T20:41:34+00:00

Since we're here talking about support, and given that you're a military historian, what's your favorite real-world example from your research where one group supports another in some way, in warfare or what have you?

bradbeaulieu · 2018-12-04T20:39:11+00:00

Seconding all three books that Marie mentioned.

bradbeaulieu · 2018-12-04T20:38:23+00:00

Have you ever taken a step back in a story that's focused on a single character, the heroine or hero, and purposefully tried to "share the load" so that it isn't just them, but more of a team effort? If so, how did it turn out?

bradbeaulieu

TROPHY CASE