OK! Uncle! I know! I know!

Everyone wants an update so here it is. First the good news –

I have made the final changes to the PDF and sent it back to Matt for editing. This means no more tinkering. No more being a perfectionist and making changes. No more, well, delaying.

Now for the bad news –

Matt is busy. This means we have to wait until he finishes adding changes and designing the cover. If this isn’t satisfactory, please feel free to tell him in his Film Traveler blog. Maybe it will even help speed things up a bit.

Yes we have the art and the design, but he’s still got to lay it all out in final form. What this means is I won’t have the full book document until end of month. Once I get it, I’ll send it immediately to the printer and then we’re in for another 2-3 week wait.

So right now, it looks like Christmas ‘08 is the final date.

I know many of you have waited months and even years for this second book. I’ll have to ask you to accept my apologies once more. Unfortunately, I am only one person — one with the unfortunate habit of trading time for quality.

So a few lessons learned:

1. The job of a writer, publisher, promoter, editor, publicist and co-designer should never fall on just one person (me). Unfortunately, reality doesn’t operate in shoulds. So here I remain the one-and-a-half person publishing company.

2. Be more realistic with time-frames (this falls entirely on my shoulders as I am overly ambitious).

3. Write more blogs and updates (I know. I should keep in touch with you guys.)

4. Too many websites do not a coherent message make (I’ve tried myspace, livejournal, bebo, goodreads, associatedcontent, facebook, virb, twitter, linkedin and about twenty or thirty more I can’t remember).

Regardless of all the trouble and delay, we are well on the way to having the second book published! And, for this, I am very, very excited. There were times when this outcome was entirely in doubt. But that time has passed and not only do we have a final book, but we also have a little in the way of funds for printing a stock, so we might even see some books on shelves here and there. Furthermore, many of the schools and libraries I’ve visited are also asking for copies. So it looks like The War of Mists should appear in many more places much faster than the first book. All very good news since this helps move the third book along even faster.

One final silver lining in this cloud of delay is there appears to be an interest in translating Luthiel’s Song into foreign languages. What that may mean is industry help at some point in the not-too-distant future. I don’t want to cross my stars so I won’t say any more. But I will say that things do look optimistic at the moment.

Now I know all of this isn’t likely to assuage those of you who have been waiting so long. So as a peace offering, I’ll add a few chapters and excerpts pre-publication. Hopefully, these will help keep you guys and gals satisfied until we finally reach the release date.

Finally, I’d like to thank you all as sincerely and deeply as is possible on the electronic page. You are the life-blood of this story. Without you, Luthiel would be nothing more than a stack of dead leaves beside my desk. So I owe you a debt of gratitude for your kindness, for your regard, for your enthusiasm and, yes, even for your frustration. You are each, to me, elfin sorceresses and Blade Dancers, heroes all to a world that could only be realized through you — Oesha.

May your feet ever walk in the light of two suns. May the moonshadow never fall on you. 

Dear friends,

I’m making an open call for editorial reviewers for “The War of Mists” — the second installment in the Luthiel’s Song series. Currently, I have eight spots to fill on the review panel. (more…)

So, just for fun, I thought I’d chat a little about fantasy map drawing! But before we do, let’s talk about the mapmakers themselves.

In the real world, people who make maps are called cartographers. But since we are talking about fantasy map drawing, why don’t we come up with a fantasy name for this sort of thing.

Let’s start with the word “fantasy.”

Well we all know that fantasy means make-believe and since we are going to draw make-believe things in our maps we’ll use that as our root word. Now let’s add the word “graph.” In this context, graph means map. Put them together and look at the strange word we’ve just made up.

Fantagraph.

See how easy it is to take two perfectly good words and make them completely incomprehensible? But since fantasy means make-believe and graph means map — what we have here is a make-believe map.

Real map

Make believe map

You get the picture?

Now since we all want to learn how to draw fantasy maps, let’s come up with a fantasy name for ourselves. (more…)

In writing a story, how does a writer stay on track? It can be so easy to lose focus. It’s maddening, especially when there’s so much pressure to produce something nearing perfection.

In going to schools, I tend to get this question or something like it rather often. So I’ll share my process here and, hopefully, it will be helpful to at least some of you.

Many writers will outline their stories, describing in a chronological format what will happen in each section of a story. This boiler-plate style to planning can help ensure you get to the end of your book. Unfortunately, creativity can be a casualty.

Other writers will just write whatever comes to mind and proceed from one inspiration to the next. In my opinion, this form of writing is akin to jumping into the ocean and attempting to swim across all in one go. Unless you’re a really strong swimmer, you’re highly unlikely to get to the other side. Certain, you keep your creativity, but you often drown in it and the story ends up becoming lost.

My process is something in the middle of these two approaches. (more…)

There are few things that can seem more difficult for fantasy writers than finding the right names for characters. It can be mind bogglingly infuriating! You have this perfect character concept but the only word your mind spits out is ‘Joe’ or ‘Sue’ or ‘Shrilanka.’

Why names?

I can’t count the number of times I’ve gotten the question –”How do you find names for your characters?” — at a school visit or on myspace. So I’ll let you guys take a look at my notepad and, hopefully, it will be helpful to you.

When I approach a character, I think it’s very important to get a sense of feel. At a very young age the name I gave this concept was ‘mojo.’ Mojo is an old voodoo word for spirit or magic. As it relates to the process of character creation, I feel it’s completely appropriate. My idea for mojo came while developing characters for role playing games in early high school. So, no, Austin Powers did not influence me. Quite the contrary, I feel he bastardized a perfectly good word! (more…)