Finished!

Well, for the one or two readers (both of whom are most likely in the UK) who are still waiting for the follow-up to Dragon Stones (which was once upon a time the #1 best seller on the Kindle fantasy lists in the UK), it is finally finished!  The new book, Shards, is part one of a two-part fantasy series, and clocks in at about 111,000 words.  For those who are keeping track, that’s somewhat shorter than A Flock of Crows is Called a Murder or Dragon Stones, but longer than Night Watchman or Long Before Dawn.  Why release it as two books instead of one?  Well …

Blurb

So I realize I’ve been saying this for a while now, but book one of “Shards” really is, finally, entering its final development phase. At this point I’m not only editing, I’m also doing some layout work. I haven’t started looking for cover art yet, but I did pull a bit of dialog to serve as the blurb on the inside front cover:

“So what kind of character do you want?” Mercy asked.

“I don’t know.” Bernard inspected the options. “What’s a rogue?”

“A rogue is like a thief.”

“What, you mean they go around robbing people?”

“Well, sort of, but not like a mugger. More like, you know, Robin Hood or Ali Baba.”

“Mmm. What are you?”

“I’m an elf sorceress.”

“Of course you are. I’ll be a human rogue. Male. Good.”

“Good? You can’t be good.”

“Why not?”

“You’re a rogue.”

“So?”

“So you’re a thief. You burglarize castles. You waylay people and take their stuff. Does that sound like good behavior to you?”

“You just said rogues weren’t muggers.”

“It doesn’t take any skill to be a mugger. All it takes is a weapon. Rogues are like, like, like gymnasts. Acrobats who steal. Cat burglars. They jump around, they run along tightropes, they climb up walls.” She had no idea if this particular game actually presented rogues that way, but she was getting a little impatient. “Trust me, you’ll love being a rogue.”

“Hmm, I don’t know. Maybe I should be a scout. What would a scout do?”

“Help old ladies across the street. Oh, come on. Live dangerously.” Before he could protest further, she had made him a neutral male rogue. The computer then prompted her for the character’s name.

She gave Bernard a sidelong glance.

“Can’t I just call him Bernard?” he said. “Maybe humans in that world just have regular names.”

“Regular names are boring. Ambrosia the Sorceress is not going to pal around with someone named Bernard.”

“Well, I can’t think of a name,” he said, sounding cross.

“Fine, I’ll make one up for you.” She typed Brannoc and accepted the character; the screen went black for a moment, then returned to Ambrosia standing alone and motionless in the forest, as if she’d started down the path and then forgotten where she wanted to go.

“Where’s my character?” Bernard asked.

“He’s probably sitting around somewhere complaining about his name and wondering if he should have become a scout,” Mercy said.

None of my other books has used just dialog as a blurb, but I thought this was a good paragraph for establishing the personalities of and dynamic between my two main characters. Will it make anyone want to read the book? We’ll see …

Attack of the Kindle Cases: Part Four

So after using the Kindle case with the built in light, the New Yorker case, and the Dragon Stones case, I decided that what I really wanted was a flip case.  Maybe one that had some storage pockets.  Maybe one like this, from RooCase:

Evolution

Yes, I’m still here! I’ve been reworking my fantasy novel Shards, AKA “The Big Book”, since mid-December. At this point I should have Part One available within a few months, to be followed (in another ten or twelve months, based on how long it has taken me to rework Part One and on the fact that Part Two is longer).

Why is it taking me so long to finish editing Shards Part One, you ask? Well, I finished Shards quite a while ago (“quite a while” being at least a decade) and when I finally went back to edit it … well, when you go back and read something that you wrote that long ago, what immediately strikes you is that it’s terrible. That’s what happens to me, anyway.

Scene of the Month: “Dragon Stones”. Again.

Well the votes are in, and the winner for the first scene of the month is (surprise!) Dragon Stones (which is holding at #2 on the Epic Fantasy chart over at Amazon.co.uk — thanks, UK readers!). This scene takes place the morning after T’Sian has cremated a man whom she inadvertently frightened to death, and involves various unpleasant odors. Or pleasant, depending on your point of view.

Scenes-Of-The-Month: “The Wolf” and “Dragon Stones”

Well, the votes are in and we have another tie this month between The Wolf and Dragon Stones. It’s been a while since that happened, and it’s been so long since The Wolf last put in an appearance that I don’t remember where we left off. I think I said there were werewolf hijinx coming up, didn’t I? Let’s find out.

Scene of the Month: Dragon Stones

The votes are in (although about half the time this month I forgot to include the poll in the weekly post) and the winner by a landslide for the next Scene of the Month is perennial favorite Dragon Stones! Will The Wolf ever come out on top again? Who knows? But the moral is, werewolves shouldn’t mess with dragons, on account of dragons breathe fire. At least my dragons do.

Scene of the Month: Dragon Stones

The votes are in and the winner for the next scene of the month, by a landslide, is “Dragon Stones”. This is sort of a good thing for all you fans of “The Wolf” as it lets the anticipation drag out a little longer, given that “The Wolf” is less than half finished and would run out of scenes long before “Dragon Stones” will. (Hey, I’m trying to think positive thoughts.)

And now, here is a random scene from “Dragon Stones” for your reading enjoyment!

Scene Of The Month: “Dragon Stones”

The votes are in and the winner of the next scene of the month is Dragon Stones! It’s been a while since Dragon Stones won.

Scene-Of-The-Month: “Father’s Books”

The results are in and we have a new winner for Scene of the Month: Father’s Books, another of my unpublished horror novels. Although (unlike perennial winner The Wolf) this one is finished, I’ve decided to stick with doing the scenes in order; and because the first scene is so short, I’ve decided to include two of them.