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Let’s keep things simple, shall we? Hi, my name is Ty. Yes, I realize how silly the alliteration sounds, but it’s the easiest way to introduce myself. I write fiction for a living, which makes me a lucky person. More specifically, I write epic fantasy.

In fact, my latest novel, Demon Chains, just came out in e-book format for the Kindle, and it will be released for other e-book formats over the next few months. As part of promoting Demon Chains, I have embarked upon a blog tour this month. Considering this is February in a leap year, that’s 29 blog posts. If you would like to follow my tour, please visit my blog, tyjohnston.blogspot.com, for updates.

I’m not doing this only for promotions, believe it or not. I had a blast during another blog tour in November of last year and met a lot of people online I otherwise might never have known. I made a good number of new friends, and hopefully a few fans.

But enough about me. Despite what some writers seem to think, most readers just aren’t all that interested in writers and the stuff we get up to.

Well, if you’re reading this blog, my guess is you have some interest in fantasy fiction, or at least speculative literature in general. Or maybe you just like fantasy movies or video games or things related to the genre. Either way, quite possibly you like sword-swinging heroes, villainous wizards, things like that.

By coincidence, my new novel Demon Chains includes a sword-swinging hero and a villainous wizard. Here’s more about the novel:

A murderer is stalking the streets of the city of Bond. This killer leaves behind tortured and twisted bodies that have been sliced and ripped apart, often after the most horrible of violations. No one is immune to this stalker’s depredations, including children. Especially children.

Kron Darkbow is a man not unfamiliar with violence and darkness. He operates in shadows and lives in a haunted asylum. Despite his past, he is also a man who seeks justice for those deserving and to protect those not able to shield themselves.

It falls upon Kron to hunt down the killer stalking the streets, but he soon realizes there is more than one culprit involved in these horrible crimes. A dark mage and his demon partner are at fault, and with each death they grow more and more powerful. Kron only hopes he can put a stop to their acts before more innocents suffer an awful fate. But first Kron has to discover why the mage and his demon have brought their evil to the city. Why are they there? What are they seeking?

Those are the basics. I fear revealing more.

Some of you might be asking yourselves, “Is this really epic fantasy? Sounds more like dark fantasy set in another world.”

Okay, you’ve got me there. With this novel, I decided to keep the action on a smaller level. You won’t find heroic adventurers traipsing across the countryside to save the world. There are no farm boys who turn out to be the heir to some throne.

What there is is violence and bloodshed.

Why would I write something so sick? And how can I call this epic fantasy?

I’ll answer the second question first. Sorry.

I consider Demon Chains epic fantasy because it is part of a much longer series, what I think of as my Ursian Chronicles. Demon Chains stands on its own as an individual novel, but some of the characters and locations will be familiar to those who have read my other fantasy stories. When it is all said and done, the Ursian Chronicles should be about 40 to 50 novels total, of which I’ve so far written eight.

Now, about writing something so “sick.” There is some graphic violence in this novel, more than is usual in my fantasy stories, and some of it does involve children. I did not do this just for the heck of it, because I thought it was “cool” or something. As I mentioned, Demon Chains is part of a longer cycle, and the violence of Demon Chains serves the longer character arc for Kron Darkbow.

The story is the thing here for me, and as a writer I feel I would be doing a disservice to that story if I shied away from the darker elements of it.

Okay. Now, seriously, enough about me and my epic fantasy tales. What do you like to see in your fantasy reading?

Ty Johnston’s novels include Demon Chains, City of Rogues, Bayne’s Climb and Ghosts of the Asylum, all of which are available for the Kindle, and most are available for the Nook and online at Smashwords. To learn more about Ty and his writing, follow him at his blog tyjohnston.blogspot.com.