Welcome to the Lands of Ashlar, the fantasy world of the “When the Gods Laughed” epic fantasy series.
If you give a man the power of the gods, don’t be surprised when he uses it against you.
Why do bad things happen to good people? Because the gods are petty, selfish, and bored.
So bored, in fact, that they found the most worthless man on earth, the most inept and lowly example of the human race and made him into the god of Incompetence.
As a joke.
What the gods forgot was that, unlike them, men can change and grow. And if you give a man the power of the gods, you shouldn’t be surprised when he uses it against you.
I am that man, and this is my story.
Let’s see who’s still laughing when it’s through.
The Way of Kings meets American Gods in this thought-provoking and gripping new epic fantasy. If you enjoy sweeping worlds with deeply flawed characters and divine intrigue, then you’ll love this series. Great for fans of Brandon Sanderson and Neil Gaiman.
Q: What is “When the Gods Laughed: Part 1”?
A: When the Gods Laughed: Part 1 is the first book in an epic fantasy triology about a miserable drunk, Mathias, who the gods of Ashlar turn into the god of Incompetance as a joke. I wrote it to include in a 3 month limited edition collection of epic fantasy and scifi books called “Wrath and Ruin.” The collection was published in Jan 2018, and later unpublished in April as the rights for all the books reverted back to their respective authors.
Q: Where can I buy “When the Gods Laughed: Part 1”?
A: Thank you for wanting to read my epic fantasy story! Unfortunately, I have not yet republished it and do not have a firm date set as to when it will be available in any format.
Q: Why haven’t you republished “When the Gods Laughed: Part 1”?
A: Several reasons. The most important is that the book ends on a massive cliffhanger, and since I don’t have Part II (or Part III, haha!) written or even know when I will have time to write it, I felt it would be disingenuous to readers to put Part 1 up until I can at least let them know when the rest of the story will be released. I am not, after all, George R. R. Martin.
The second reason is that I have submitted it to several publishers to consider and have not heard back from them yet, so until I do or I have decided for sure I’d rather publish it under my own imprint, Chenoweth Press, as opposed to going through another publisher, I cannot put it back up on Amazon.
Q: Why haven’t you written the rest of the story yet?
A: The short answer is the success of the Love, Lies, and Hocus Pocus Universe and the fact that I’m raising multiple kids while running my own business. To say that I have my plate full is an understatement.
The long answer is a bit more complicated.
When the Gods Laughed is actually an origin story in a roleplaying world my husband built. We are both storytellers, but so far my husband hasn’t had a chance to write down any of his stories. So when I had the opportunity to write an epic fantasy book for a limited edition box set, and since my stories are all urban fantasy, I asked my husband if he would like me to write the backstory for his roleplaying world called Ashlar.
We worked together on the worldbuilding and loosely based the plot on a myth told in the current timeline of his roleplaying game. Thus “When the Gods Laughed” was born. However, I tend to be a rather loquacious person, and by the time I was 1/4 of the way through my outline, the story was already 100,000 words long. So I decided to cut the story in two, and the first half ended up being just shy of 200,000. I intended to write the second half sometime the following year.
Then I got pregnant.
9 months later I had an adorable, wonderful, precious little baby boy, but no “When the Gods Laughed: Part II” I did, however, make a goal this year to thoroughly outline the rest of the story so it is ready to write, and in doing so realized that I can’t write the rest in just one book, and that it will have to be a trilogy.
So, I apologize profusely to anyone who has read Part 1 and is dying to know what happens. Right now my family depends on my book income, and my main series “Love, Lies, and Hocus Pocus – The Lily Singer Adventures” is what puts food on the table, so I’ve been focusing on continuing that series. Currently I have the goal of finishing the Lily Singer Adventures and Dark Roads Trilogy before I embark on new projects, but I absolutely know I will finish When the Gods Laughed at some point, it’s just a matter of where in the line it ends up.
There are two things you can do to ensure the story continues:
1 – Ask for it! Join my VIP reader group on Facebook or even become one of my Patreon supporters at www.patreon.com/lydiasherrer and keep bringing it up. That will help me gauge interest in it and if it has enough demand I can bump it up the line.
2 – Support my current work so that I can continue writing at a good pace and take care of my family. You can find my full book catalog at store.lydiasherrer.com, and if you’ve already read my current books, consider gifting some to a friend or your local library so more people can enjoy the series!
Thank you so much for your understanding and support.
