Wellp, I’m now a hybrid author.
Info about “The Snake Charm”:
This is a prequel story set before the events of Pantomime. It can pretty easily be read without reading the main series – the only thing is you’ll end up knowing a bit more about Drystan’s past than you would coming into Pantomime cold. Drystan is a secondary character throughout the Micah Grey series.
There will be at least 4 stories/novellas in total, and more if these prove reasonably popular.
Cover artwork is by Dianna Walla / Paper Tiger.
Untold centuries ago, the Archipelago was ruled by the Alder—mysterious beings who vanished, leaving behind only scattered artefacts of unknown power, called Vestige. Sometimes, a person will be lucky or unlucky enough to discover that each piece of Vestige has its own tale to tell…
The Snake Charm
“To most, Drystan was just another buffoon in the collective of clowns. But behind the inane grin, he saw everything, keeping the secrets he discovered close, like precious gems to barter.”
Mutiny is brewing in R.H. Ragona’s Circus of Magic. When Linden, the leader of the clowns steals one of the ringmaster’s most prized possessions, Drystan, the white clown, finds himself caught in the middle. Tasked with retrieving the Lethe, he’s forced to betray Linden or risk his troubled past coming to light. But the Vestige artifact has its own history and its own power. Drystan will learn what it can really do, and who it can hurt.
Vestigial Tales are stories set in the world of the award-nominated Micah Grey series. Step behind the circus ring from Pantomime, the theatre of Shadowplay, and more…
PURCHASE:
Amazon US / Amazon UK / Amazon Canada / Amazon India / Amazon Germany / Amazon France / Amazon Spain / Amazon Italy / Amazon Japan / Amazon Brazil / Amazon Mexico / Amazon Australia
The Experience so far:
So far it’s been easier than I thought it’d be. *knock on wood*
It’s up on all of Amazon’s various sites and it took about 12 hours. It’s DRM-free and also available for free to those with Prime accounts through the Kindle Lending Library (and I still get royalties for borrows!). At the moment it’s only available through Kindle, but after three months I might opt out of Kindle Direct Publishing so I can put it up on other outlets.
If you’d like it available on another outlet, feel free to drop me a note via the contact form, Twitter, Tumblr, etc, so I can get an idea of demand for it elsewhere.
It’s currently $3/£1.80, which I realize is a bit expensive for a 40 page story, but if it’s a cent less my royalties drop from 70% to 35%. The novellas will be much longer and I think I’ll keep them around the same price, so it should even out in that regard. It’s still less than a latte!
So far I’ve spent £132 for 10 ISBN numbers.
Any profits on these stories will most likely be going towards helping fund a book I’m self-releasing next year.
Through the generous help of friends and my English teacher mother/mother-in-law, it’s polished, has awesome cover art, and is ready to be read.
Thank you to: Shawn DeMille, Dianna Walla, Kim Curran, Erica Bretall, Amy McCulloch, Leo Cristea, Mike Kalar, Wesley Chu, Craig Lam, Sally Baxter, Sheila Lam, Sam & Charlotte Strong, Corinne Duyvis, Steve Aryan, Ann Smyth, Andrew Reid, K.C. Shaw, Amy Lewis, Lorna McKay, Andrea Stewart, and everyone who helped me in any way with this first story.
Please help:
I’m doing this largely on my own without a publisher backing me and so could greatly use your help in spreading the word. If this seems your thing, please purchase (or borrow if you have Prime). If you read it, please consider rating/reviewing it on Goodreads & Amazon, as reviews are crucial for self-published works. Please consider spreading the word online via social media and offline when you’re being social. I’d love for these stories to make its way to as many interested readers as possible, and there’s only so many times I can shout about them myself before I start getting annoying. 😀
I hope you enjoy Drystan’s adventure in R.H. Ragona’s Circus of Magic before the young runaway Micah Grey joined.
(And here’s the book pages for Pantomime & Shadowplay)
Laura Lam 
Purchased!
Yay, thank you!
The world of your Micah series is fantastic, and I would really love to read this — but I am trying not to buy anything from Amazon anymore. I’ll gladly pay to purchase it from just about anywhere else, once you’re able to offer it elsewhere.
That’s no problem – it’s a bad time to be launching Amazon only but I wanted to test the waters. It’ll be up on other outlets in September – B&N, Kobo, and hopefully iBooks, Google Play, etc.