Book 3 is ready...and it's weird

My 21 year old son texted me from college that he likes the taste of White Russians. So many thoughts rushed through my brain.Me too! I hope he's being safe! Try it with rum instead of vodka! OMG he's really 21! All within those five seconds, I concluded that I'm glad he shared. As a parent, I always want to be available to discuss anything. My second thought is, it was weird. Not that he's enjoying a drink, he's certainly old enough. There's just something hanging out there about my own son being a grown man.

I started my son project 21 years ago, and my daughter project 17 years ago. I’ve had a lot of time to prep for the empty nest. I’m proud of them both and can’t wait to see how life unfolds for them. I can only imagine good things. That said, nothing readies you for them being out there. You do your best to prepare them, but you can’t stand by them the entire time and defend against the haters, cheer them on when they succeed, or just tell them how much you love them when they may need to hear it.

I started my Angst project 5 years ago, and released the second book in 2013. I remember finishing Angst and thinking, “I did it!” I remember finishing Buried in Angst with a profound sense of relief, thinking, “It’s done!” Drowning in Angst is different. While there are two more books left in the series that I wish I could write tomorrow, this one ties together a lot of ideas I’ve had since the beginning. It’s pretty big in scope, but I think it’s still rooted in fun. As silly as it may sound, I’ve cried and laughed several times at things that happen in Drowning in Angst. I can only hope it shows how vested I am in this story.

Releasing this third novel is like watching one of your kids leave, and knowing they will only come back to visit. You do everything you can, pouring your heart and mind and will and experience into every thought and argument. You raise them the best you can, you hope for the very best, but at the end of the day you either worry yourself silly or say ‘fuck it, fingers crossed.’

This is how I feel about finishing Drowning in Angst. Please don’t misunderstand, I love it and I’m so excited to share. But it’s also a little weird, to me, that it’s time to set it free.

Drowning in Angst, the third novel in the Angst series of fantasy novels will be available April 24, 2015.

Drowning in Angst Book Cover and Blurb

The five elements are at war and Ehrde is their battlefield. The only one who can possibly protect the inhabitants, is a hero bonded to a foci, a weapon of unimaginable power. Unfortunately, the hero is having a little problem.

Bonding with the giant sword saved Angst’s life, but didn’t make it easier. All of the great power that comes with wielding a foci is now out of control. Angst just wanted to be a hero, a knight of Unsel, but his mid-life crisis has created a trail of destruction, including the death of Water’s beloved.
Now, to save Rose, Angst and his friends must cross the ocean where Water is most powerful. But how can he keep them safe when the very sword that makes him a hero doesn’t work right?

Drowning in Angst is the third fantasy novel in David J. Pedersen’s Angst series. Join Angst and his friends as they continue…

A Midlife Crisis in Medieval Times

Coming Soon!

99 Designs and Me: Creating a new cover for Drowning in Angst

It’s kind of a funny story. The cover for my first fantasy novel, Angst, was created by Chevsy, a Serbian artist I found on Deviant Art. He was great to work with, and very patient. Very. There was a little communication barrier, I don’t speak art, and needless to say his English was far better than my Serbian. I sent him way too much information and ended up with a solid cover featuring everything you see, and Thor. Instead of Angst, the cover featured a blond haired hero with flowing locks. To no fault of the artist, I tried several times to request a middle-age man, which I guess does not translate well. In a last ditch effort, I had my wife photograph the back of my head…and it ended up on the cover. At that point, I threw in the towel and gave new cannon fodder to everyone who says my novels are autobiographical. (They aren’t. Really. I have no giant magical sword.)

I’m sure it’s a common frustration with indie writers, and probably all writers in general. What you write isn’t always what everyone else pictures. When Chevsy was too busy to create the cover for my second novel, Buried in Angst, I went back to Deviant Art and had the pleasure of working with Joshua Calloway. He is incredibly professional, efficient, and does amazing work. Check it out, and contact him for a great cover!

I wanted something different for the cover of my upcoming fantasy novel, Drowning in Angst. I feel like I missed the mark with the first two. Chevsy and Josh both did great. It really isn’t them, it’s me. Being indie means you do all of that grass-roots stuff. Finding various artists that do great work within your budget. You want Jeff Miracola work at a high school art student price. So, I don’t always get what I want based on my descriptions.

A couple of fellow indie writers had recommended 99 Designs to me. I liked how both of their covers turned out, so I visited the site. 99 Designs hosts a contest on your behalf. You provide a thorough description of what you are looking for, and the prize package amount. There are two rounds to the contest, and you end up with a new cover within a week. I really liked the idea and tried the $500 package.

It started out pretty rough with very few entries. By request, I asked 99 Designs to make the contest private, so the artists couldn’t see each other’s work. This generated a little more interest, but not as much as I had hoped. The last 24 hours of the first phase was exciting with some very solid entries. When round one was over, I invited friends to vote the covers and provide anonymous comments. Their feedback was very helpful and five of the covers made it into round two. I spent the rest of the week requesting tweaks, and tomorrow I’ll make the announcement to the designers.

The end result: I love the cover for Drowning in Angst! It’s different than my first two novels, and I hope the artist will work with me on more covers in the future. The other four artists did amazing work, and one really stood out – a definite favorite in the poll I ran – but it would have required rebranding everything with new logos. That said, I’m not disappointed even a little, and I'll be sharing the cover soon!

99 Designs was great to work with. Their website has a very intuitive interface, and the process is easy to follow. I emailed them early on, whining about the lack of entries, and they were more than willing to help. I would do business with them again, but probably not in the way you would think.
After starting this process, I was researching how to involve more designers when I came across some articles about the evil of spec work. While there is a great advantage for me to receive multiple design concepts, only one person will get paid for their work. When this sunk in (I’m slow sometimes) it weighed on me throughout the contest. It changed my perspective on changes I would ask for. When I stopped being interested in a design, I stopped asking for changes because I didn’t want the artist to spend their (unpaid) time working on it. I still like the idea of receiving multiple submissions, it’s been a great experience, but I think there is a better way.

In the future, I will hire the designer I’m going to contract through 99 Designs instead of using a contest. Below are the five finalists’ profiles. (Some of them do not have their designs up yet.) They’ve all been excellent to work with. If you use 99 Designs for a contest, I encourage you to invite each of them. You can also hire them directly through 99 Designs without the contest. Please check out their links below:

Ddialethe  Catoz  El art  wwinn69  Jason Moser

Angst 3 progress - thanks to my Alpha Team!

If you don’t read anything else in this blog post, the synopsis is that the rough draft for Drowning in Angst is done and in the hands of my amazing editor, Danielle Fine! Whew!

Back in September, I sent Dani an email saying that Angst 3 would be done and ready for her to edit in Mid-October. In that time I started a cool new day job, went on vacation with my wife (it’s been 14 years since the last one!), and waited for feedback from the Alpha team! The wait was worth it!
If you follow any of my older posts, you are familiar with my Alpha team.





The Alpha team is a well trained group of hardened mercenaries who live in the shadows to deliver justice in an unjust world and...oh, wait, that’s the other group! This Alpha team is a group of my closest friends who take their time to read, edit, and critique my drunken mess of chapters as I deliver them in painfully short bursts. It’s a significant commitment. They get the entirety of my novels over the course of 12-15 months, and throughout that time I often make changes that requires re-reads. They are patient, thoughtful, and provide amazing feedback!




I actually sent the completed rough to my Alpha team at the end of October, days before going on vacation. Everyone on the team has busy lives, and not everyone lives in Kansas City. Usually I receive feedback via email or over lunch, but my dear friend, Becky, was going to be visiting from Wisconsin toward the end of November. It was a rare opportunity to get the whole team in one room to discuss the book at length, so we waited. It was so worth it!

The gathering was originally planned to be a LAN party, so everyone was a few drinks into the day and nothing was held back – which is exactly what I wanted. After pointing out some of the more obvious flaws, and some things that weren’t so obvious, we discussed the ending. I wrote the original ending for Drowning in Angst over 3 years ago, and was pretty set on it until I came up with an idea weeks before this gathering.

It was one of my favorite moments working on this book. Everyone was convinced to go with the original ending. I left to use the restroom, and the conversation got busy. They were talking over each other, arguing the options, and by the time I got back they had collectively changed their opinion to go with the revised ending. Not only was I excited they had come to the same conclusion I did without my prompting, I was moved by the fact that they were so vested in the story that the conversation had become so passionate.




I’ll never be able to say thanks enough, and would like to introduce my team. Becky, Matt, Angie, Cristi, Mike and Marina. Great friends, an amazing Alpha team, and my novels wouldn't be nearly as good without them.