Publishing Update: May 2025

Hi Folks,
 
It’s been two+ months since my last update. Much has happened with quite a bit of news to share, so here goes!

An Exceptional Hound: Book II of the Ryland Creek Saga, the audiobook, takes First Place in the New York State Outdoor Writers Association's 2024 Excellence in Craft Awards—TV, Radio, Video, and Audio category.
  
Special kudos to the amazing voice acting talent of Wayne Thompson. This was Wayne’s second collaboration to put the Ryland Creek Saga into audio, with the first being The Last Coon Hunter: Book I of the Ryland Creek Saga.


Both audiobooks are available exclusively through Audible at Ryland Creek Saga audiobooks.


Special announcement: Free Audible Promo Codes Still Available!

When I updated the audiobook covers for both The Last Coon Hunter (5th Anniversary Ed.) and An Exceptional Hound this month, Audible gave me even more promo codes! (Not complaining.)
 
If you’d like a free promo code for one or both books, you can email me at [email protected]. Note: I won’t add your email to my reader email list unless you specifically ask me to do so.
 
• You'll need the Audible application to listen to these audiobooks.
• One code of each book per listener. You’re free to gift the codes to someone whom you think would enjoy the story, too.
• Please download your codes within 48 hours of being given your promo code(s), else these codes may be given to someone else.

Audible hopes you'll leave a thoughtful review on their website.

I only hope you enjoy the stories.

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Ryland Creek Saga E-books Now on Amazon's Kindle Unlimited (KU).

Since mid-March 2025, the Ryland Creek saga e-books have been available on Amazon’s KU--a reader program where you pay a monthly fee so you can read all the e-books you desire on Amazon associated with this program.
 
So, for those of you who are avid e-book readers and have subscribed to KU, the Ryland Creek Saga in e-book format is free to you!

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In The Works
Quick note: The order of publishing has changed. Now, Return to Ryland Creek: Book V of the Ryland Creek Saga has a publishing target of Fall 2025, while A Place Called Painted Post has a planned release for Spring 2026.
Details below.

Return to Ryland Creek: Book V of the Ryland Creek Saga

After a prequel novel (The Forest Ghost) and a companion novel (The Time of the Backroads), Return to Ryland Creek comes back around to the main storyline with the Ernst family, picking up their saga soon after The Master of Hounds and on to modern times (2023).

The story follows Mead Ernst and his grandson, Lance, as they and their hounds, Bella and Blaze, face challenges from within and without the forests of Painted Post.

Return ‘s first draft is nearly complete at 100K+ words, up 32+K words since last update.

My beta readers have already completed ~22 (of ~25) chapters of this story.

This manuscript is due to Joyce Mochrie (always the greatest copyeditor) in mid-September 2025, which should allow enough time to have the story released in time for the November-December holiday season.

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A Place Called Painted Post: A Ryland Creek Story

A Place Called Painted Post: A Ryland Creek Story is a novel whose main character is a raccoon that occasionally interacts with characters from the first two books in the Ryland Creek saga: The Last Coon Hunter and An Exceptional Hound.

While this certainly could be a standalone story, those who’ve read the other books in the Ryland Creek saga will catch a lot of the “Easter eggs” planted throughout.

My co-author, Shanne Bowie, and I continue to hammer out this project. Current word count stands at ~34.5K (up ~24K words since last report).


There will be three versions of this book avaiable: illustrated, non-illustrated, and a child’s book adaptation. The fabulous Lee O’Connell continues to work on some fabulous images for the illustrated version and doing an incredible job. 

Our deadline to the world’s greatest copyeditor, Joyce Mochrie, is February 2026 with a targeted publishing date in Spring 2026.

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Lill Ernst and Judge in The Legends of Ryland Creek

Annual Author Anniversary Sale

Still on track to hold my annual author anniversary sale (from this website) in the mid-June to early July 2025 time frame when I put my print books on sale directly from me.  

In addition, this year the Ryland Creek saga in e-book format on Amazon will also go on sale. 

Not sure how long the sale will be, but normally I let it run 7-10 days, depending when I launch it.

Stay tuned for more updates.

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Mist and Solo in The Master of Hounds

Finally, a shout out to the Ryland Creek readers--new and longtime.

I last reported the first two books of the Ryland Creek saga (both versions of Book I) hit their highest overall general ranking ever (i.e., all books, all categories) on Amazon over the past two years (as far as Amazon’s historical data reaches). Then they both beat their January highs in early March 2025, and An Exceptional Hound reached its best ranking, almost topping Book I.

Those rankings can only be driven by readers, so again I’m humbled and grateful for your support.

For those who have purchased books in the past and offered words of encouragement--thank you--I couldn’t have made it to this point without you.

For those who went the extra mile to pen a thoughtful review and post it on Amazon or Goodreads, thank you so much as you're helping future readers find that special magic in a place called Painted Post.

Till the next update.

Joseph Gary Crance

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