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[Thaago]

Hey everyone! I've been less active around here for the last few months and one of the big reasons why is that my free time has been going into writing a book. I am incredibly excited to announce that I got published by Podium Audio, and it's coming out today (Oct 24)!

Here is the cover it is being published under (in spoiler tag)

Spoiler

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And here is the cover I originally put it up on the internet as:

Spoiler

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Between the two of those you can get an idea of where this is going, I hope! It is a comedy action romp that takes itself exactly as seriously as you can see there.

My original blurb from when I started:

Jill MacLeod might be just a long haul trucker with a dirty mouth and back pain, but with Bertha the big rig under her she always makes her deliveries. When Mana, monsters, and an RPG style levelling system comes to Earth it's the end of the world as anyone knows it: the apocalypse is here. On her journey it's just Jill, her Soulbound truck, and any survivor she can find against the universe. Mutated animals, aliens, dragons, droid armies… it doesn’t matter. Nothing’s going to stop Jill from making her way home.

And the Amazon blurb!

It's humans versus monsters when an apocalypse turns a simple cross-country trek into the road trip from hell in this breakneck LitRPG thrill ride.

All that stands between rowdy long-haul trucker Jill MacLeod (aka Junkmouth) and her family back in Boston is two thousand miles of asphalt. Well, that and the monstrous game the System has had her playing ever since it descended on Earth. The reward: mana. Jill's goal: kill, score, drive—and stay alive. Behind the wheel of a turreted forty-ton semi named Bertha, Jill hammers east from Montana through a gauntlet of every kind of chomping, hissing, rabid creature imaginable.

Barreling forward in her magical soulbound big rig and chalking up a bumper crop of roadkill, Jill isn't alone for long. Hitching a ride are stranded brothers Babu and Ras Bati, who just want to make it home to Billings in one piece, and Mia Williams, a school nurse with a rotary cannon and a crateful of ammo. The artillery, at least, will be handy, because what lies ahead is the biggest threat of all . . .

Arriving in Billings, they find a city in chaos, led by a self-appointed psychopathic mayor using the monster-ravaged ruins for his own ends. But Jill hasn't come this far to be blindsided by a human—no matter how scary. There's still a game to be played: The System is watching, that metal-muscle fortress Bertha is transforming, and Jill and her shotgun-riding friends will do anything it takes to keep the terror in the rear view one gobsmacking mile at a time.

The first volume of the hit LitRPG adventure series—with more than 400,000 views on Royal Road—now available on Kindle, Kindle Unlimited, and Audible!

Yes, the RPG leveling system means that this is a LitRPG. For those of you now familiar with the genre: the magic present itself akin to that of a video game, with xp, levels, etc displayed in status screens. Writing a LitRPG (and getting locked into a three book contract) does mean that I am a giant, GIANT nerd, but I think everyone here already knew that.

I would put up a sample of the text here but, well, that would be breaking a lot of forum rules. You see, Jill swears. A lot, and with as much creativity as I could muster. She is pretty much the only character that swears, and it used for comedic effect, but if foul language is not your cup of tea, maybe give this one a miss. If you want to read [censored censored wow I did not know that was a swear word what century is that from?] in action (or hear a fantastic voice actress get paid to actually read it!) then I encourage you to take a look.

And to take that look: the first 12k words (out of 120k) of the first book, NOT edited, are available for free, starting with this chapter: https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/48497/battle-trucker/chapter/785775/ch-1-trucks-are-op

If you like that sample, the links for purchase are below!

Amazon: https://www.royalroad.com/amazon/B0CJGQM97K

Audible: https://www.audible.com/pd/What-the-Truck-An-Apocalypse-LitRPG-Audiobook/B0CJG3GDNF

The second book currently stands at 30k words, all of which are available in draft form on the same Royal Road page.

A big thank you to Alex for letting me post this here! I hope this sounds fun to some of you and you take a look.

[Sundog]

Congratulations! Seems like a lot of fun 

[Alex]

Writing a LitRPG (and getting locked into a three book contract) does mean that I am a giant, GIANT nerd, but I think everyone here already knew that.

Ahahah, yes! ... but seriously, it's really good. Or, perhaps, in less absolutist terms, I really enjoyed it Would not have expected that just reading the definition of the genre, that's for sure.

[Thaago]

Congratulations! Seems like a lot of fun 

Thank you!

Writing a LitRPG (and getting locked into a three book contract) does mean that I am a giant, GIANT nerd, but I think everyone here already knew that.

Ahahah, yes! ... but seriously, it's really good. Or, perhaps, in less absolutist terms, I really enjoyed it Would not have expected that just reading the definition of the genre, that's for sure.

Thanks, I'm really glad you liked reading it! The Litrpg aspect is the hardest part of the sell when I'm talking with people about it, that's for sure, but as a genre it also has really diehard fans. And apparently they really like audio books, which is neat as I'd never really been into them before.

[Alex]

Ah neat, I was wondering why it was also an audiobook - I mean, no reason *not* to, but it seemed noteworthy that that was an emphasis. Interesting! And, hey, a niche like that sounds like a very good thing, probably better chances of getting noticed than e.g. in something for a broader market.

[Thaago]

Apparently they were specifically looking at trying to find something about trucks to break into the long haul trucker market (who unsurprisingly listen a lot) and I had drawn 'battle truck' out of the big old box of insanity that is plot ideas mostly by random chance. Hooray for a bit of luck!

[Alex]

Talk about serendipity, haha!

[SCC]

I celebrated by listening to C. W. McCall's Convoy. On ya Thaago!

[OrariusTempus]

Didn't expect to randomly stumble across one of the best RRL fictions on the starsector forums of all places. Congrats, and keep it up!

[Thaago]

Thanks both of you! Oh man, I had not listened to convoy in like a year. I'd forgotten how utterly ridiculous that trailer is and now I need to put a rubber duck reference in...

[Alex]

Just wanted to say, it's cool to see it getting a decent number of amazon ratings, and it seems to be really well received - congratulations, just taken on its own, that's quite an accomplishment!

[Thaago]

Thank you! I'm kind of shocked at the Amazon ratings tbh! I expected it to take a bit of a dive when it hit the more 'mainstream' site, but in hindsight the algorithm is probably only showing it to people who like similar things already.