A belated Christmas Gift

Hey all, Robin here. Since the end of November, and continuing for another week or so, Michael and I have been in Key West Florida, soaking up the sun, biking, playing tennis, and really enjoying ourselves.  Being away from the cold and "the kids" has made it an odd holiday - it was weird hearing Christmas songs while sipping on Margaritas and eating shrimp and oysters.

We didn't even exchange gifts!  So I thought I'd give one to all of you instead (albeit a little late).

Unfortunately, I don't have a new story to send your way (although I did just take back control of The Jester audiobook and you can get it free from us from this link).  WhatI have instead is an update on "The Cycle" (shh . . . don't tell Michel, I'm posting this while he's out for a walk).

If you don't know what that is, then you'll want to learn more about it from the link above. This will be Michael's magnum opus, and it is a love letter to his most ardent fans.  In short, it's a 5-book sequel to the Riyria Revelations, and it will utilize characters and tie in plots from EVERY book (and short story) that is based in Elan.

If you are already familiar with The Cycle then you know it won't be released until it's 100% written and Michael has been working on the project for almost 4 years now. A lot of that time was spent just trying to figure out if such a feat was possible, and after a few filed attempts hit the vertical filing system, writing has been going pretty steady with 2.66 books completed - that's over half way!

• Book 1: 33 chapters (152,667 words) 
• Book 2: 40 chapters (178,045 words) 

As for the current book, Michael's at 89,608 words and he started it on 09/09/25.  The plan is to get it completed before May 1st, and he's well on track for that.

• Book #1 took about 9 months of writing
• Book #2 took just a bit over 10 months
• Book #3 is presently at 3.75 months and if the pace continues he should be done by March 1st which would make it the "fastest one yet" - just 5.7 months!

I've read the first two books and they are nothing short of amazing. I hope you are as excited about this project as I am, but I should warn you, it'll be best if experienced by people who have read all four series. So, if you've not done that yet, well you'll have some time to catch up.

Happy 2026 all!

Less than 6 days to get Nolyn Audibook at 68% off

 New York Times Audio best seller | Amazon Editor's pick | Audible Editor's pick

December is almost over and Nolyn has been on sale on Audible for just $7.99. That's 68% off the list price and about half the price as a subscription based credit.

This is the first book in the Rise and Fall series, and if you've already read the Legends of the First Empire series, this is an excellent place to continue your journey through the adventures based in Elan. More than 110,000 audiobooks of this title have been sold since it's release and it's well loved:

I hope everyone is enjoying their holiday season, and here's hoping for a fabulous New Year!

Going Indie with audiobooks - The Jester (short story) #4 Bestseller

Hey all, Robin here. Most are probably aware that Michael is a hybrid author (meaning some of his titles are released with big-five publishers like Penguin Random House (Del Rey) and Hachette Book Group (Orbit) while others are 100% controlled by us).  When it comes to audiobooks, we have never done any self-publishing. All our titles have been released by either Recorded Books Media (the largest non-big five audio book producer) or Audible Studios (the audio production arm of Audible.com). Until now . . .

And yes, of course, it's narrated by Tim Gerard Reynolds - in fact, we purchased the original recordings from Audible Studios and reposted them using Amazon's ACX platform which is what is used for self-publishing.  Considering we didn't "announce" this, we were quite surprised by it's reception. 342 copies have been purchased in the first few days which has driven it to #4 on the bestselling charts:

For more than 10 years this title was an "Audible Exclusive" meaning that it could only be obtained on that single platform, but now that we control the distribution, we are "going wide" which means it can be distributed by oher platforms.  As such, we're using the amazing BookFunnel to distribute the audiobook for free for those who sign-up to my email list.  You can, of course, opt-out of the email list after signing up, but typically we email infrequently - in fact, it's been more than a year since our last newsletter.

Cyber Monday Sale

Because our warehouse is being used to ship out a huge number of books for a fellow author's Kickstarter, our store is presently closed.  But we have moved a bunch of books to our secondary storage facility and we are running a Holiday sale.  A few things to note:

• All orders that come in before December 9th will be shipped by December 12th which should ensure delivery for the Christmas season.
• All orders over $50 will have free US shipping.
• All orders over $50 will have 50% subsidized non-US shipping
• Selection is limited

The books involved in the sale include:

Savings includes:

• $80 off Deluxe Riyria Chronicle boxset (5 books) - including Drumindor
• $60 off Deluxe Riyria Chronicle boxset (4 books)
• $30 off Regular Riyria Chronicle hardcover box set (5 books) - including Drumindor
• $20 off Regular Riyria Chronicle hardcover box set (4 books)
• Most out of print Legends Hardcovers just $10 each (N/A for Age of Myth and Age of War)
  
  

  Shop the sale from this link

Drumindor 2025 Earphone Award Winner - and on sale this month only!

Hey all, Robin here. Things have been more than incredibly busy at the Sullivan household, but I wanted to take a moment to announce that Drumindor won an earphone award! And if you don't yet have a copy of the audiobook, you can get it through the end of this month for just $6.99 that's 82% off the regular price, and remember . . . even if you leave Audible's membership any books purchased for credits or cash are yours to keep forever!

 

Here is what the exceptionally intelligent people at Audiofile Magazine had to say about the book:

Tim Gerard Reynolds gorgeously narrates this Elan world novel, the fifth in the Riyria Chronicles. In this prequel, a disgruntled dwarf has been fired and threatens to wreak havoc on the towers of Drumindor, thus destroying the lavish town of Tur Del Fur. Royce and Hadrian, friends who together form Riyria, are hired to find the dwarf and stop him. Reynolds brings depth that adds texture to the story: Dwarves have Scottish brogues and raspy voices; evil leaders have deep, slow voices; and the most evil character has a whispery, low voice that is sure to give listeners nightmares. Reynolds manages to make the heroes human as they experience fear and courage in equal measure. L.M.G. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2025

A big congratulations to Tim!  And in other news, the next book in the Riyria Chronicle series (Blythin Castle) is already written! Unfortunately, we don't have a release date for it yet. Why? Well we are trying to "fill the void" between this year's Drumindor and the release of The first book in The Cycle series. For those who aren't familiar with this "post Revelation's sequel, you can learn more about it from here.

As for next release dates,  Tim will be recording Out of the Ashes, the first book in the After of the Fall series in June of 2026 so we are hoping to have the release of that title soon after that.

Store is open once more!

 
So, we're done shipping packages for the Indie Author Movie, the Riyria Chronicles, and Drumindor Kickstarter, so we've opened up the store once more. And because we purchased extra books (for hurts, damaged/lost in the mail etc. We're making them available on the store - and at discounting to help us clear out the warehouse before we start shipping our next big project - Will Wight's Cradle books #7 - #9 are arriving in port any day now!

We couldn't be happier with how these books turned out.  Without question, these are our best deluxe sets yet.  So if you missed the Kickstarter, be sure to pick up your set.  We are offering them in both 4 and 5 book configurations (with and without Drumindor), and there are regular and deluxe hardcovers available.

• 4 Regular Boxset $196 save $17 now just $179
• 5 Regular Boxset $226 save $27 now just $199
• 4 Deluxe Boxset $340 save $41 now just $299
• 5 Deluxe Boxset $415 save $46 now just $369

As with all books in our store, these are signed (and the deluxe books are numbered).  So get them while you can!

AMA (Ask Me Anything) - today on reddit /r/fantasy

Today was supposed to be the launch day for Unbroken - an anthology Robin and I are helping Peter Orullian with. But there are a few authors that Peter is trying to add to the project, and they need a bit more time. So the Kickstarter will actually launch on January 27, 2026. But, we had already arranged with the mods over at /r/fantasy to do an AMA - so if you have questions for myself, Peter, or Shawn Speakman (who is also helping with the Kickstarter), you can go here.

ABOUT UNBROKEN

Some people might remember an anthology called Unfettered which was edited by Shawn and published by Grim Oak Press. Unfettered’s purpose was to help Shawn tackle medical debt. Michael and Peter were among the contributors to this great volume. Unbroken has a similar purpose, this time in Peter’s interest. Shawn and Michael are among the contributors to this new book. And with Michael’s wife Robin’s experience, they are working together to bring it to life.

CONTRIBUTING AUTHORS

This is going to be a massive anthology (more than 200,000 words and stories from some of the biggest names in the fantasy genre). The full list currently includes:

• J.A. Andrews

• Bradley P. Beaulieu

• Carol Berg

• Peter V. Brett

• Terry Brooks

• Jim Butcher

• Delilah S. Dawson

• Matt Dinniman

• Kate Elliott

• Jessica Day George

• Lev Grossman

• Kevin Hearne

• Nancy Kress

• Mark Lawrence

• Scott Lynch

• Jonathan Maberry

• Seanan McQuire

• Brandon Mull

• Peter Orullian

• Christopher Paolini

• Kat Richardson

• Christopher Ruocchio

• Anthony RyanR.A. Salvatore

• Brandon Sanderson

• Scott Sigler

• Shawn Speakman

• Michael J. Sullivan

• Carrie Vaughn

• Brent Weeks

• Tad Williams

• Janny Wurts

That’s more than thirty of the top names in fantasy, all of whom we’ve invited to this AMA. We can’t guarantee who will stop by, but please consider joining us. We’re looking forward to chatting so ASK US ANYTHING!