The Soulstealer War and The Pathway to Dragons – Book Expo / Book Con 2018 Roundup!

Waking pre-dawn to log the long drive each morning, and then returning late night exhausted, but oddly exhilarated, it was an honor to be an Exhibitor at this year’s Book Expo / Book Con! If you are launching a new book, you can’t miss this Show of Shows. Thus, the next installment of my fantasy and sci-fi series, The Soulstealer War: The Splintering Realm, carried me to New York City this past week. The Javits Center spectacle can be daunting, and it didn’t help that I was exercising rusty “Show” muscles. But what the heck, I always prefer the deep end of the pool!

I love writing about the Realm of Weir – the characters, the creatures, the cultures, the folklore, the languages, the songs – but as an author, I also love meeting the readers. Give me a conversation, and I’m hooked. I come to the Booth with an open mind. This means I don’t care who you are (and usually I can’t tell until 10 minutes into a conversation anyway). Sure, I’m there as the point man for the Realms (Weir and my daughter’s Pyranis), but I also want to hear your story, your business, and your interests. Just as I sometimes delve into the nature of true magic (see my website), the only way a nexus will manifest is by letting the flow occur. I look for awareness in the folks who cross my path, and brief eye contact sends me into a flurry of possibilities. This flight of fancy then lands on firmer ground once the conversation begins.

Book Expo was heavy on people seeking swag, signings, and freebies, and there is a balance to be struck. The Show doesn’t really want you to be selling, but you can take orders and fulfill them amazingly fast! And there is always karma; I give away a fair share of books for goodwill and to see what the Universe will manifest. My Booth was by chance a stone’s throw from the big players – Simon & Shuster, Baker & Taylor, Ingram, IPG, etc. – and I was a wee minnow in that sea, but there was an abundance of synergy. I met foreign licensing contacts, reviewers, librarians, printers, buyers, publishers, literary agents, marketers, translators, artists, designers, social media experts, radio folks, podcasters, authors (aspiring and established) and a few other wild cards. All good. This is a marathon, and not a sprint. I will abide; everything unfolds in due time.

Book Con was the exact opposite of the industry insiders – finally, the public! Here be readers of the genres that are my passion, and possibly dragons too! Teenage girls and women dominated the crowd. I’m talking 80% as a rough guess. That was a surprise, but live and learn. There are too many wonderful encounters to detail, but here’s a few favorites:

To the young women who live near the Appalachian Trail with the software coder who will find my website’s hidden access portals (without hacking it to shreds as promised) … your group rocks!

To the pregnant mom who is an aspiring author – my hopes that you put one foot in front of the other and take the road less traveled – get your writing out there! This advice was a common theme as I met many unpublished authors, and I was happy to impart what wisdom (and foolishness) I could. I’ve been there. I get it.

To Meg-a-Watt – thank you for a great conversation on fantasy, sci-fi and life. At first, I thought you said you were Megatron … then you added the “Queen Bee” to clarify, and I still apologized because that didn’t mean anything to me. Finally, you said you were LitBuzz, and helped further my information gap with discussion on how you began and grew that endeavor.

To purple-haired Kristin and her dad – your spark is bright enough to set the world on fire – and that you read my book (and Hannah’s) that night after buying them, and loved them, and came back to tell me the next day at the Booth … there is no more amazing way to start a day as an author!

To the man who was pushing his niece in a stroller, who was dragged to Book Con with his girlfriend and who never picks up books, let alone reads them … it was my privilege to hand you Book One and Two. The real reward was your girlfriend’s joy watching your willingness to venture into her world, and the long embrace you two shared a booth away.

To Tim, the bow-tied literary guy, who now knows that my alter-ego wears a vest with a pocket watch, often topped in a worn Stetson hat, thank you for the chat and your advice on my Boris Vallejo/Julie Bell front cover banner.

To Janine, author of The Puzzle Quests: Shimmer’s Eggs (and other books), whose son succumbed to cancer – your story is inspirational and our conversation will stay with me.

To the librarians and teachers – there were so many – I wish I could have given you more free copies of Hannah’s middle school chapter book The Pathway to Dragons: The Portal to Pyranis – you have one of the hardest, thankless and yet, most important careers on the planet! That cannot be said enough.

To the group of three teen girls who had their Mikey (a classic commercial, where one brother serves as the guinea pig for tasting a new cereal – and the girls had no clue on this dated reference) be the designated reader for any new book series – that you returned a short while after buying Book One to tell me that during the Show you read the first 50 pages and loved it, that the writing was awesome – thank you for that thoughtful gift.

To my immediate Booth neighbors on either side of the Show floor – Cameron and Rebecca the jewelry gurus of Stern Design Works, and to Anne Wheaton (Piggy and Pug children’s book author) with her outgoing publicist Susan Peters – your cheerful company was an unexpected pleasure!

Though not a meeting, I need to give a shout-out to Dog Ear Publishing and founder Ray Robinson – your support during the Show was invaluable. And indeed, another Dog Ear author stopped by my Booth for conversation.

Also, to Amy and Julie from Reed Exhibition, and Scott from Freeman – your assistance helped make my Show experience a success, and the Booth “check-ins” were greatly appreciated.

Finally, as a reminder, a portion of our book proceeds are donated to The NJ Center for Tourette Syndrome, Special Strides, and The Bridge of Books Foundation. Any additional support you can provide to these worthwhile charities will make a difference!

With utmost gratitude to all of you,

W.L. Hoffman – breathe slowly, observe humbly, dream deeply and evolve!

Author of The Soulstealer War (and other tales) – www.WLHoffman.com
Proud Father of the Author of The Pathway to Dragons –  www.HannahBrookeHoffman.com

Book Launch – May 1 – The Soulstealer War: The Splintering Realm – Fantasy & Sci-fi

You are invited to the BOOK LAUNCH for the next installment of my fantasy and sci-fi novel series – The Soulstealer War: The Splintering Realm. All are welcome on May 1, 2018, and/or you can go to the Facebook Livestream https://www.facebook.com/WLHoffmanAuthor/ from Small World Coffee in Princeton, NJ – 8:00 am to 11:00 am. This is also a good day to order copies in stores and online via Amazon, B&N, etc., and anyone purchasing more than 5 hardcovers or 10 paperbacks will receive a special enlarged wall poster of the Book Launch signed by me. Book Two is available in multiple formats, and Book One has just been re-released in Hardcover! The Boris Vallejo/Julie Bell artwork on the Hardcover Dust Jackets is fabulous! My website http://www.WLHoffman.com has been redesigned and includes hidden secrets. Finally, while a share of this book’s net profits will go to the NJ Center for Tourette Syndrome, please consider offering your additional support to this worthy non-profit – https://njcts.org/

With gratitude,

W.L. Hoffman – Breathe slowly, observe humbly, dream deeply and evolve!

William L. Hoffman JD ’92 Creates a World

Until January 2008, William L. Hoffman had a secret. By day the in-house counsel of CityScape Capital Group, an investment banking firm he co-founded, Bill Hoffman spent his nights traveling through a realm of metaphysics and magic. There, he discovered a young law school graduate translated into an alternate dimension, a godlike race that had lost its power, an enslaved human remnant, and a new race of magical beings. Further exploration uncovered a species of subterranean creatures subsisting on human flesh and an impending war that promised to annihilate body and soul.

This vision cost Bill Hoffman four years of moonlit labor. He wrote from ten o’clock at night until three in the morning, caught up lost sleep as he could and, through the willpower characteristic of most attorneys, managed to excel at his day job, too. When he had completed the first book of his projected trilogy, The Soulstealer War, Bill Hoffman knew he was involved in something special-and committed to a journey that had just begun.

For two more years his secret remained intact. He found and jettisoned an agent, engaged the talents of legendary fantasy artists Boris Vallejo and Julie Bell, and eventually found a publisher willing to introduce a first-time novelist to a keenly competitive market. It helped that Vallejo and Bell were on board for the cover art and the typescript itself needed only routine copy-editing. The characters were fully-realized, the narrative arc complete. Publication date came; The Soulstealer War, Book One: The First Mother’s Fire, appeared; Mr. Hoffman’s secret was out; soon thereafter, the reviews came in.

Writing for Front Street Reviews, Aramintha Matthews likened Mr. Hoffman’s accomplishment in The Soulstealer War to that of J. R. R. Tolkien’s in The Lord of the Rings (http://www.frontstreetreviews.com/Soulstealer.html). More than one reviewer, including Jerry Unangst writing for Roundtable Reviews, noted, “What really sets off The Soulstealer War from other fantasy books is that it … has ideas.”

Even more persuasively, genre aficionados reviewing for major online booksellers have received The Soulstealer War with generosity and enthusiasm-and have been unanimous in awarding it five stars:
… a stellar example of sci-fi/fantasy writing. The writing is clear with great imagery and natural flow. The setting & its characters are extremely well developed, the action is fast paced and engaging, and the plot is truly compelling.

The novel is essentially a philosophy book that uses the genre of fantasy/sci-fi to present its queries, questions, thoughts and ideas.

… What is truly amazing about “The First Mother’s Fire” is that Hoffman is able to present such weighty subject matter via an epic fantasy storyline with plenty of action and pacing.

I have been reading fantasy avidly for over 30 years and this book ranks among the best for its creativity and vivid imagery.

To impress savvy readers, Bill Hoffman had to know his material and his métier. He succeeded because he is a fan and student of the genre, having read fantasy/sci-fi during law school for stress-release and enjoyment. Of his writer’s discipline, he says, “Will three or four hours’ sleep on most nights for four years catch up with me when I’m older? Yes. Is it a fair trade-off for something I wanted to do? Yes. Think of it this way: lawyers working in big corporate firms commonly log 100 hours a week. It isn’t considered a big deal. Writing The First Mother’s Fire was like that, only it was more fun and, to me, much more important.”

Not surprisingly, Bill Hoffman is still writing at night. The project now is Book Two, provisionally titled, The Splintering Realm. Planned to be completed next year, Book Two should be published in early 2010. And Book Three? “I expect it to appear in December 2012.” How can he anticipate the process years in advance? “Lawyers are trained to meet deadlines,” he says. “A court date is a fixed obligation. A brief is due when it’s due.”

Although he spends much less time in court now than formerly, Mr. Hoffman is still a working attorney engaged in the critical thinking required by legal practice. “Being a lawyer has never stopped,” he says. “It was a great advantage to me in bringing The Soulstealer War to this point.” Besides enabling him to negotiate his contracts with the publisher and illustrators, Mr. Hoffman’s legal training nurtured certain habits of mind well-adapted to constructing alternate worlds. “I learned a fantastic skill-set in law school,” he says. “As lawyers, we’re trained to look at a situation from all angles, to put ourselves on the other side of an issue. A law school education trains your mind to be open to other possibilities. It is a gateway to all opportunities, not just a law firm. It teaches a person how to look outside the box for new pathways.”

Bill Hoffman’s biggest opportunity as a fantasy/sci-fi author will come next spring at BookExpo America 2009. The event will take place at the Javits Center in New York and will feature book signings, author interviews, and discussions. “It will be the first time I really put myself in front of the whole industry,” he says. “My hope is that one of the big fantasy publishers will pick up the series.” Whether or not that happens, he is confident in his work and its story. “In The Soulstealer War, the magic is based on science,” he notes. “There is no devil, no witchcraft, no explosions on every page. The story is about the capacity of human beings to evolve mentally and spiritually to transcend the mode we’re in, of thinking our mundane reality is all there is. I believe there is much more to the universe than what we can perceive with our senses. That belief drives my writing, and The Soulstealer War explores its implications.”

Of the steady effort that has delivered great reviews and a place for his novel on the Barnes & Noble shelves, Bill Hoffman says, “I’ve learned that writing is an exercise of persistence and a personal belief in yourself. You can’t measure yourself against others.” Readers interested in more of the book’s backstory and ongoing success should visit http://www.SoulstealerWar.com.

~contributed by John A. Lauricella Special to Cornell Law School

The Soulstealer War – on the B&N Shelves!

The Soulstealer War has been available since January at www.Amazon.com, www.BarnesandNoble.com, www.Borders.com and through stores affiliated with www.BookSense.com. As a first time author supported by a “small press,” I have experienced both the trials and joys of introducing the novel. I would like to announce that…

 

Barnes & Noble is now stocking The Soulstealer War on their shelves!

 

Very few folks in my position get to this threshold even with a novel that has garnered praise from the professional critics. So whether it’s to seek a relaxing diversion from the current headlines or to brighten a friend’s day with a thoughtful gift, I encourage you to visit your local Barnes & Noble for The Soulstealer War (they can order it if sold out).

 

With much gratitude,

 

 

W.L. Hoffman – breathe slowly, observe humbly, dream deeply and evolve.

http://www.SoulstealerWar.com