The Whirlwind in the Thorn Tree - a fantasy novel book promotion by S. A. Hunt

The Whirlwind in the Thorn Tree - a fantasy novel book promotion by S. A. Hunt

The Whirlwind in the Thorn Tree - a fantasy novel book promotion by S. A. Hunt

"This novel is of such a high caliber very few authors can be used
as a comparison. Truly elite writing, original, and compelling." - popular horror author Poppet

"This is good. Brilliant in fact. Very tense too." - R. D. M., Authonomy

THE WHIRLWIND IN THE THORN TREE is a highly-reviewed fantasy gunslinger novel inspired by THE DARK TOWER series by Stephen King. I was
inspired to write this book by numerous aspects and dreams of my life; I'd been wanting to write a full-length novel for quite some time, but I never could quite find exactly what it was I felt would make a good story. My experiences in Afghanistan proved to be the catalyst it took to fully visualize the world I wanted to create.

The environment I walked into there was like another planet, ultimately cram-packed full of angles and intricacies well-suited to a desert fantasy land. This made me realize that what I wanted to do was bring to life my own gunslinger quest, something wholly departed from my idol Stephen King's series but with the same grand scope and slow-burn mystery. In a surprise twist even to me, it only took from November 2012 to February 2013 to write the book.

The title changed a half-dozen times during the process, but at the end I was looking at Johnny Cash song lyrics when I saw something that resonated with me. A line from his song "The Man Comes Around", inspired by elements from the Bible: "the whirlwind in the thorn tree". It had the abstract fantasy sound I was looking for, the wild-west jene-sais-quois I needed, and it even references the tornado that appears halfway through the book. I didn't choose the cover because I created the cover myself. I do all my own covers from scratch.

The hardest part of writing the book was undoubtedly having to convince my friends and family that I wasn't just gluing macaroni to construction paper -- this was something I wanted to make a career out of, not toil my life away in some dark factory in the backwoods of Georgia. I'll never forget the look on my brother's face when I handed him the 444-page 6x9 paperback proof.

I didn't do a lot of research outside of looking up firearm specifications, conlangs, ancient religions and cults, and mythical creatures such as fauns and satyrs. Most of the elements in WHIRLWIND are memories and experiences pulled in clumps and shreds from my own life, threaded through and strung together with the original characters featured in the novel.

During the process, I learned multiple things: that writing a novel is both easier and harder than I expected it to be, that it feels incredible to finish writing it and to know that there are people who enjoyed it and want another one, and that self-publishing is a hell of a lot harder and a hell of a lot less promising than I initially expected. But when I started getting approached by fans, I knew I made the right decision to forge ahead with my writing career.

*      *      *

ROSS GREW UP TO BE A WRITER just like his dad, Hugo Award nominee E. R. Brigham. The thing is, he's never published anything worthwhile in his life. So when his father dies unexpectedly and leaves him the obligation of finishing the final book in his wildly popular gunslinging fantasy series, Ross thinks he's got the world on his shoulders.

What he discovers is a trail leading to the fantasy world of his father Ed's outlaw novels, where the proud Gunslingers of Ain protect the land of Destin from an army of immortals bent on destroying every world in existence -- real and fictional.