a quick update of book four for the world and book one's audiobook

12/21/2018

It looks like I'm not going to make my before Christmas deadline for book four. I'm currently on the last dungeon on the last day but the holidays are kicking my butt on getting the story finished up and out. The good news is that a fan named Eric is correcting the story along with his beta reading and so far he's been an excellent editor. Also the cover is finished. All that I need to do is finish up the story and the book will be released a day or two after. A nice bonus, is that instead of being 88k to 90k words, the story is much longer and will probably be closer to two books instead of one.

I'm still working hard to get the story out as soon as possible. While Christmas looks to be out, I'm hoping to get the story about before the end of the year. From the feedback I've been getting, the story is excellent and carries on the same fun theme and camaraderie as the first three books.

Being an American living in Germany during the holiday season means that I've been busy baking and cooking up a storm for the family. For some reason, I'm the only one that can bake American cookies for the holidays as per my wife and daughter. Two weeks ago, I spent the weekend baking cookies and writing. A surprisingly good combination. For the day after Xmas, I've been asked to cook a traditional Turkey dinner with sweet potato casserole, stuffing, mashed potatoes, green beans, butternut squash and homemade gravy. That'll be another day lost to the holidays instead of writing ;)

Xmas markets are also a big thing in Germany, so I keep getting dragged out for Apple punch and gluhwein. While the fair food is delicious, I'm the frozen Florida boy shivering in the cold while everyone else is talking and eating happily.

Several emergencies at work reared it's ugly head and I had nearly two back-to-back nineteen hour workdays of tracking down computer issues. My job means that everything is either working correctly or completely fubar. There's not really much in-between. Those days usually means I need another two to fully recover to start writing again. Not that I take a full two days, but no matter how hard I try, they do slow down my output if you know what I mean.

Lastly, I was also doing the final checks needed to get book one's audiobook released. I've just gave the final approval for the completed work so in the next few days the audiobook for First Login should be showing up. Jason Hill did an excellent job and he's starting on book two. While that's awesome, it also stole more time from me that was needed to complete book four.

Anyway, I'm doing my best to get the final part written so I can publish the story. Sorry for making everyone wait, but hopefully it won't be too long. In-between, I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas with their families and loved ones.

31 Comments

Don Swan

12/22/2018 02:33:25 pm

Enjoy the family and holidays. We who get to enjoy your books can wait a few more weeks!!!

Jason A Cheek link

12/22/2018 03:40:44 pm

Thanks Don. I've been working on the scene this entire week and I'm amazed at how slow the going is. A lot of time I end up going back to tweak the scene and make it a little better before proceeding with the story. It's hard with the holidays though.

I appreciate the understanding. Just know, I want to get it out as much as everyone wants to read it. Every time I get to a particularly cool part, I just can't wait to share it.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Matt

12/22/2018 04:37:53 pm

While I'm eagerly waiting for book 4 and can't wait to read it. From a merchandising viewpoint, try and avoid publishing around the first of the month. As there is always a glut of books published during the first and your book can get lost in the swamp of newly published books. Maybe toss it up for pre-order a week before so people can see it's coming and drum up some interest for it.

PS. I know all about tweaking. There's just a point where you have to say enough is enough and hit that dang publish button....then kick yourself for that one finial tweak you could have done. :)

12/23/2018 12:50:29 am

Hey Matt,

While I'm sure waiting for the right time period would be best, I'll just offer the book as soon as I get it released. Especially since I'm late already in getting it out on time.

I wish I was at that point of tweaking the story, but this dungeon story is intense. A lot of times I'll let me self sleep on a portion of the story to plan it out and then write it once I wake up.

Anyway, I'm just doing my best and my wife will make sure I don't overdo-it during the holidays.

Jason

David Sims

12/30/2018 10:19:14 am

I agree make sure that the book is the way you want it before you publish it. Makes the story better.

1/1/2019 03:48:42 am

Thanks for the understanding Dave. I finally realized that finishing the book over the Christmas and New Years holidays wasn't going to work. Especially if I wanted to stay married ;)

While my wife did let me take some time to write in-between the going-on's, it wasn't enough to work through the final dungeon. Especially with all of the work needed to make sure the audiobook was ready to be released. Also, work didn't help with that either.

I'm now hoping to have it all out in January. So far I think everyone is going to love the story. I took all of the input and included it into the story. Not to mention, removing a lot of the gaming elements (aka character sheets spammed throughout the book) and focused on just writing a good story and only adding the elements that were being altered.

When I say there is a lot of story and a lot going on, you can take that to the bank. It's two stories in one with as much story, crafting and action as the first three books, since there is no need to discuss training or introduce the game. I can't wait to share it with everyone!

Nick

12/30/2018 11:03:51 am

Great books! Had them in my Amazon wishlist for a while. After downloading the first, read the others pretty quickly.

Thanks for writing and looking forward to where it leads.

1/1/2019 03:54:17 am

Hey Nick, thanks for letting me know you enjoyed the series! I'm trying to get follow up books out asap and have been working on the story line of book five and six with some great ideas from Steven and Eric, two beta readers / editors helping me fix up book four.

If you get a chance, please leave a good review on book one https://www.amazon.com/First-Login-World-Book-1-ebook/dp/B07H35XRLZ/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr= It helps with the small group of authors and editors who have been doing their best to knock my stars down for book one. I guess having some unknown Indy Writer without an editor producing such a great story that people love is just pisses them off to no end :)

Brad

1/1/2019 09:22:30 am

Happy New Year Jason!
While I would love to get a hold of the next book sooner than later, keep time with the family in mind. Guess I will have to just go back and read your books another round. Thank you for continuing to share your wonderful stories.

1/1/2019 04:52:46 pm

Thanks for the understanding Brad, you sound like a man after my own heart. I tend to do the same when I'm waiting anxiously for the next book to come out in a series. Trust me, I'm working as quickly as possible and the story is well worth the wait! Thankfully, the wife is being very understanding!

1/24/2019 07:15:00 am

Oh yes, have to be careful of the wife, a very dangerous encounter at all times.

Andrew

1/9/2019 11:25:05 am

I just finished binge reading "The World" series and wandered over here looking for more information. Thank you so much for maintaining this site, updating the information and most of all, writing such an engaging and compelling series!

Further, thank you for enduring the trials and tribulations of publishing. I was shocked, after reading the below threads, over the crap storm generated by using a ubiquitous term for a skill name. Heck, "military conditioning" has existed as a thing since before the concept of a military has existed. Given your background, and actual use of veterans in your series, it would be more likely than not to use such a term completely spotaneously. Of course, not to mention the insignificant elements such as a unique world, characters, plot and style. But I digress ...

I really am looking forward to the foreshadowed RTS portion, as that seems to be an excellent vehicle to tell the story on a whole new level

Again, thank you for continuing to write, I look forward to all of your new works, and I shall go forth and review!

1/9/2019 12:52:30 pm

Hey Andrew, thanks for dropping a line to let me know that you enjoyed the story. Hearing that always helps on those low days when those guys just won't leave me alone. I have to say when I started on this journey, I never thought I have to deal with jealous writers trying to block my books. It seems like to me, these people spend an awful lot of time hunting down writers who are ahead of them in the ratings instead of simply writing more and better stories.

Thank you in advance for the positive review. Doing things like that helps to stop these clowns from knocking out new writers like me that they feel are possible competition to their own works. Like most fans of the LitRPG, Sci-Fi and Fantasy genre, I just want good stories to read since there never seems to be enough out there to keep me entertained.

In regards to book four, I'm so close to being finished. Eric, a fan who is helping me with the corrections and is a beta reader, keeps laughing at me since he sees that the story is going to be quite long. But even he admits there is a light at the end of the tunnel. The story is already approaching the 700+ page count. Very little of the book is listed quests, character sheets or charts, so we are talking pure story and not just elements that increase the page count.

I've made a serious start in the RTS element in book four and also have some nice crafting elements in the storyline, besides introducing some unique classes like bards and different species. At the same time, I think I've balanced it out well with keeping the action and the flow of the story moving along. Really I can't wait to share the story with everyone. Know that I'm writing diligently, even on those 17 hour work days that I have to put in at my regular job to pay the bills when the shit hits the fan. I have two final scenes left to write in the last open-world dungeon, the wrap-up and the epilogue and the story will be ready to publish!

Adam

1/10/2019 05:00:47 pm

Thank your for the good plot line, just finished binge reading "the world" series, I am excited to hear about the length of the next one, as a power reader it leaves me frustrated when I have to constantly look for new books to read every day. I know it's not easy writing long novel types but I so appreciate your effort to keep the reader enaged.

1/11/2019 04:12:13 am

They Adam, you sound like a reader after my own heart. I did the Star Force series at the time it was up to 53 or so books and it was awesome since I literally read myself into a sleep deprived coma from reading for four weeks straight. Heh ;)

Tbh, it just how the story turned out. I'd laid out my outline and knew where I wanted the story to stop, but the specifics had to be told. I didn't just want to just skip the story forward because I was hitting some imaginary line of how long a story should be. I'm a freaking Indy Writer and it's up to me what I do, ha! So, I just wrote out the entire story. All the cool personality interactions and enough action for each scene to make me feel like it was done right.

I've had a lot of volunteers to assist with the beta reading, which is hard to know how best to use that help. Eric lucked out because he's been helping with all the corrections and its been nice having someone to bounce things off of. First, to know if I'm going too far on something. Second, to see if the story is as funny and good as I think it is. So far, he assures me that I'm hitting it right.

A fan named Steven also has been assisting with the story flow. and giving me those good vibes when I get a batch of writers attacking my books online. It's why I'm always asking people to leave reviews on book one https://www.amazon.com/First-Login-World-Book-1-ebook/dp/B07H35XRLZ/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr= It's where the mostly share their love, if you know what I mean.

Anyway, I'm glad you're enjoying the story and apologize that book four is taking longer than I thought it would.

Doug McMillan

1/13/2019 05:11:04 am

Liked the world a lot. saw you said missing Xmas with the 4th. can you give an idea when I should watch for it or is it still in flux?

1/13/2019 12:23:47 pm

Hey Doug, thanks for the good word. Okay, I guess I should start off by saying, I suck and guessing my own deadlines. That being said, I am just starting on the last fight of the book. I've actually finished the dungeon. After that there are a few pages to get everyone loaded up and then the epilogue. It will be out before February for sure. Between that date and now, I have no idea. I am working as fast as I can and for once my wife is not giving me too hard of a time about it. Work though decided to cause all kinds of problems if you know what I mean ;)

Basically the story has now gone into overtime. The word count has now officially gone over two books which is good all around except for getting the thing out quickly.

I will post here when I get the book finished and start the self-publishing process on Amazon. If you send me an email at jasonacheek@gmail.com I'll send out an email to all those who are interested in being notified of the release date.

Please leave a review once you check out the story. I'd like to know what you think and remember, reviews help stops the group of writers that have been hounding me and trying to block my books.

Hope that helps, Jason

1/13/2019 02:40:28 pm

Thanks for the quick response. I definitely understand life's little interruptions. I definitely appreciate longer books :) Will send an email in a few thanks again.

Charlotte Pearse

1/14/2019 12:15:13 am

I’ve enjoyed this series right from when you published the first one and have picked up the other two as soon as they came out. They are all excellent books and I’m looking forward to this one as well. Heard an audio snippet from First Login and I’m definitely getting the audio book this week. I think with the audio book and with the plans you have to release book four shortly that 2019 looks very promising for you indeed! 😊!

1/14/2019 10:39:50 am

Charlotte, you are too kind. Thank you for the good words. I'm really excited about book four. No more training or general game explanations and lots of story. I want to write tonight, but I just got home from a 17 hour shift and my eyes are crossing when I look at the screen ;) Hopefully the coffee I just drunk will help clear my head somewhat.

If you get a chance, please leave a good review on the audiobook side. Those writers just won't leave me alone and they've started to tag me there as well. Also, I'd like to know what you think about Jason Hill's voice. I'm embarrassed to say I'm not an audiobook person. Whenever I read it's like watching a movie in 3D stereo!

The even better news is that I have book five and six I've already planned out a lot of story for, though I still need to put it all down in an outline. I hope to have both out asap. Book five will probably be the toughest to balance out a story and the PVP battle. There is going to be a LOT going on in that story (people wide and action wise). Book six will be getting back to basics as Startum teams up with some new friends to get his class quest knocked out and explores the other continent some with a small group of players and of course Neysa.

I'd like to give Neysa the chance to transform into a Wolf-Lady at some point in the future.

I have to say, writing so much can take a lot out of you, surprisingly enough. I'm excited that this book is going to be so big and that I have the option to the story the way I want it to be told.

Hopefully that will make 2019 look even better :)

Mafalvey

1/18/2019 07:54:24 am

Love the world 's books/characters/story! Awaiting the next book on the edge of my seat! Keep them coming!pls tell me it's close?

1/18/2019 01:37:44 pm

Hey Mafalvey, it's super close to being finished. Nearly completed the last fight scene. I expect it will be finished this weekend. I have a wrapping it up part and then the epilogue to write and I'll be able to publish it.

Glad to hear you enjoyed the story. That means a bunch to me. Also, if you get a chance, Please leave a review on Amazon https://www.amazon.com/First-Login-World-Book-1-ebook/dp/B07H35XRLZ/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr= It helps a lot!

Jason

Vernon

1/21/2019 12:07:55 am

Hiya hiya, just reread the world series again... For the third time lol, and found my way here. Awesome books. Not going to bug you about when the next is comming out, from what i have read above, it'll be soon which is good enough. Just means I'll have to read your other series (looking forward to it lol) my question is, Do you have a mailing list we can sign up on?

1/21/2019 09:11:16 am

Hey Vernon, glad to hear you're loving the series! I can't wait for everyone to read book four. Truly, it's my best book yet. Hope you like Flight, it's my first book I ever written so keep that in mind. Still, the action is cool and the concept unique :)

I'm just about done with this last fight scene. Sorry it's taking so long, but there was a lot of interpersonal relationships going on that had to be written out properly. Also, due to a unique situation, the dungeon ended up having a double end boss battle. Both are very different and have a lot going on. Sadly, they also both took two write throughs to get it to where it fight right.

I guess at some point in time I'll have to upgrade my blog. Right now, just drop me a line at jasonacheek@gmail.com and I'll email you once I get it published.

Robert Phipps

1/22/2019 10:42:45 am

I absolutely love you books and can not wait for book 4 of the world.I bought all three and even got the audio book of first login. Here is my one major gripe. The narrator is absolutely horrible. He no's absolutely nothing about gaming culture and terms and almost caused me to stop listing to the book. Referring to MMORPG's as "morgs" and PK's as "pikers" as just a couple of examples. You need someone who either has a clue and or can be educated.
I look forward to your next book with much anticipation.

1/22/2019 12:53:47 pm

Hey Robert, glad to hear you're loving the story. Sorry to hear about the audio book. I talked to Jason about the PK thing, but need some help about the MMORPG thing. Send me a voice recording, link or give me your number and tell me over the phone so I can get the pronunciation correct :) My email is JasonACheek@gmail.com

I must have missed the PK thing. I tried to listen to everything but the recordings I'd initially had were cut off. When Jason got them fixed and said he'd caught the mistakes I'd found, I gave my approval to proceed. The MMORPG thing I'm sad to say was my fault. That's what my friends and I call all MMORGs and MMORPGs. Maybe it's a Florida thing ;) It was better then having him pronounce each letter individually I thought. So seriously, any help with the gaming terms that drove you up the wall would be appreciated and I'll pass the info along for books 2, 3 & 4 with a shout out to you.

For those that helped with the grammar and spelling corrections and aren't seeing the applied changes and thanks yous or the new map I've uploaded to the eBook. Make sure you either force an update for the books through Amazon Kindle client or delete the electronic copy from your kindle app on your device and confirm the deleting of your client's local cache. Then re-download the books and you should have all the corrections, maps and slight alterations to the story.

Especially for Robert and those others who've read the stories several times, here are some of the tweaks that I've made to the story line:

1. Raise Zombie has been reduced from three minutes to one minute.

2. Arcane and Dark Magic was separated into completely unique flavors. Keela is casting Shadow Bolts now not Arcane Missiles.

3. The level difference for a Nightmare start is a total possible 60 levels. The level difference for a Advance start is a total possible 30 levels. While it sounds like a huge buff, the game is designed for advance players. Think of Nightmare players as Heroes in the game. Successful Nightmare players are rare and the game never stops challenging them in the game, progressively getting harder and harder to take their castle and/or profession away.

Lastly, I just killed the last boss of the dungeon in book 4. I now have to do the after action clean up and get everyone on their way and then do my epilogue scene at Sunday Brunch and the book will be finished once Eric does his correction thing.

I just got home from my 17 hour shift, since Monday was a holiday. I had to pull off the side of the road to sleep for a half an hour so I didn't fall asleep while driving. The good news is that I was able to fix a part of the story that was holding me up during the seven to eight hour drive. Basically having a good reason for all the NPCs to jump back in the boats and head out. Came up with a great storyline for that part which will really add to book's five story and plot.

Alastaire

1/23/2019 09:53:42 pm

I've honestly lost track of how many times I've read the stories I gave all 3 books 5 * sadly I have yet to leave a review because 'Zon is being Stupid, telling me (Somehow) I violated Their community standards so my rights to post reviews have been suspended. I greatly look forward to the next book though (I will say your series has led to a few "Disagreements" with my fellow reads in my groups lol. I just Can. Not. See where all this "He copied the whole first part of book 1" BS comes from I have extremely familiar with the book they claim you copied from and the only thing that is the same is it has Goblins in it... Like pretty much Every other LitRPG book in existence. Anyway awesome work and I am eagerly looking forward to book 4 (or is it book 4 and 5 now? lol) hope things are going well for you.

P.S. you need to get something were your readers can interact with you (And each other) and more easily keep up to date with you, the books and everything in general. I would (Off the top of my head) suggest a private facebook group that you (Or those you choose) can control access to, vet and remove users if needed to keep down the drama. Well anyway like I said hope things are going well (And hope the books release is soon lol)

1/24/2019 07:23:51 am

I can back Jason up on the ‘morg’ comment since he isn’t the only one or just ‘MMO’ but for PK’s I usually go more to PKers.

1/24/2019 02:50:41 am

Hey Alastaire, thanks for the support. Yeah, Zon is crazy sometimes. Trying to get them to follow their own rules on comments is like pulling teeth. They list the rules and it's up to the tech that answers your ticket if they feel like following the guidelines or not. Sometimes posting too many reviews at once will get you locked out. Just calling them up will usually get the issue cleared up if you didn't break any 'rules' and just triggered the guardian watchdog program somehow. I had another fan do this when they just went through the list of books they'd read but hadn't reviewed. For some reason doing 10 to 15 at once throws up a flag that can lock your account.

The who plagiarism thing is crazy. I think my LitRPGPodcast buddy thought that a simple accusation would knock me out of the ring for writing and being an author. When you first hear his podcast you think, wow that's horrible. Then when you compare what he's saying to the popular LitRPG titles out there your like, wait a minute this story sounds a lot like these other stories if you go by his same guidelines. Hmmm Light and Dark god check ... wait this other one has Chaos and Order gods isn't that almost the same? Hmm corrupt forest that needs to be cleaned, check ... wait that's in this other story too and that one. Hmm let's read further Mana tree check ... Celestial tree check .. wait ... isn't that almost exactly the same thing?

I think the people that decided to attack me and claim that my story was just a plagiarized copy of one of their buddies works didn't think that the majority of LitRPG fans would make up own minds about the issue. Even now, I'm sure they are perplexed as why everyone just didn't simply jump on the bandwagon of the story they were creating.

Maybe it's natural for people to blindly follow the writers they love without asking questions if what they're saying is actually true or not. Or, maybe it's just simply someone they respect said A so B must naturally follow. Unfortunately, that is the way society has been judging people for the last decade or so.

The goblin thing is the biggest two bit pile of shit comment that I've ever heard. The most overused trope and suddenly goblins are bad to use as a first monster unless their book came out before yours or your one of their buddies. Then suddenly it's okay. Like I said, the detail analysis of my work where they are trying to find something to criticize me with is amazing. Put that same level of analysis to any other LitRPG work and what do you come up with?

Sigh, sometimes though, I have to say the controversy actually might have helped build interest in the books. The funny thing is, that anyone who decides to read the truth for themselves discovers just how much of a bullshit accusation that was and I can't even tell you how many blog comments, reviews and emails that say just that. Still, in the end, it is frustrating and has turned me off to several writers.

Once I get book 4 out I'll have to look into upgrading weebly. Maybe their update package has more things like a forum and membership and email lists. Being an Indy Writer is not easy and you tend to look at costs but as people discover The World and like the story, I might be able to afford getting a real blog site instead of just using the starter package I currently have.

The sad part that even if I have a private group, it's hard to recognize the people who are trying to fuck with me. I've been holding off on updating my blog and just doing comments because these guys are watching for any updates I come out with. While they do attack me on Amazon and now Audible, the real people who are reading the story as people who enjoy simply LitRPG are able to counteract their attacks with real reviews and are doing so. Because of that, I'm getting to the point I'm not worried about these guys constant harassment. Besides, while they are following me and putting the effort in to block my books and put me down, I'm writing more stories and getting better all the time.

Lastly, yeah I know this is a log as hell post, I'm hoping to wrap up the story this weekend or next week. Even Eric my Indy Editor and Beta reader agrees I might make that time line. I'm having him review what I'm writing to make sure I'm not skimming over the last parts too quickly. I don't think I am, but it's nice having someone I can actually bounce the story off of for a change.

Tyler

1/24/2019 07:09:51 pm

Hi! I was wondering what video games you would consider the closest to The World series you are writing?
Just found and read all three books! Absolutely loved it

1/27/2019 04:09:13 pm

Hey Tyler, it's great to hear from you and that you enjoyed the story! Unfortunately, there's nothing even close to what I'm writing. A lot of my ideas come from vanilla Anarchy Online and World of Warcraft when the games were still extremely hard to play and death hurt. I also am a huge Dungeons and Dragons fan which gives me endless ideas for the story. I wish there was something that was as cool to play, but right now it seems like MMO's have been changed to an almost Single Player Online Game that people compare badges that they've picked up instead of playing a Massive Multiplayer Online Game where they explore the game's worlds and complete the difficult changes by following the storyline and teaming up with other players. Truly, there is currently nothing I would be interested in playing except for maybe a little bit of Vanilla WoW, but even that is a problem because I want more out of my game then clicking a mouse. I'd like it to be a mix of FPS and MMO ;)

Right now, I'm just designing a world I'd love to play. Especially the story arc in book 4 that has so many interesting areas of the world that get brushed upon as Startum heads over to the Human Realm to help his friend Domenic.

The good news about book six is I'm right at the Epilogue. I tried completing the end of the story tonight, but it's past one in the morning and my eyes are glazing over. I'll have to finish it up tomorrow. I can't wait to post that the story is completed and I'm getting it ready for Publication!

Anyway, if you get a chance, please leave a review on book one. It helps a lot! https://www.amazon.com/First-Login-World-Book-1-ebook/dp/B07H35XRLZ/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

Jason

a quick update of book four for the world and book one's audiobook

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