Cover Art, First Drafts, The Fall of Empires
Hello again from Cork.
As I said in the last newsletter, I am a very simple creature. I am sad when a book is going badly, and happy when one is going well. I was sad last month; this month I am very happy, as I've finished the first draft of LANDS OF THE FIRSTBORN, BOOK 3. Yay!
(Such a very, very simple creature.)
It's currently titled THE SWORD TRIUMPHANT and there's a good chance it'll keep that title. Maybe. THE SWORD SOMETHING, anyway.
My first drafts tend to be relatively solid - I'll spend a month or two rewriting and polishing parts, but I don't expect to make huge changes to the story. I've done the hard work nailing it down already. I find it very hard to write scenes out of order, so if I'm going to write Chapter X, I need to have Chapters X-1, X-2 etc down. Rewrites tend to be able bolstering and amplifying existing storylines, sharpening language, and bringing out character more than any structural changes.
(Ironically, the biggest issue with this one was the gaggle of new supporting characters, as it introduces some fresh-faced young adventurers to contrast with Alf's by-now-very-grizzled veteran. And as kids are wont to do, they kept running off and doing unexpected things, while Alf marched dependably through his narrative.)
So, I won't even look at that draft for a few weeks (other than saving the ritual six backups across the clouds), and then hit it with fresh eyes in March.
Book 2 of the series, THE SWORD UNBOUND, comes out later this year (May 7th or thereabouts). The final cover hasn't officially been unveiled yet (although I've seen versions of it show up on various online retailers). Here's a somewhat earlier version, for your amusement.
I've been told there will indeed be another Inkstone Press hardcover for subscribers. (And oh - looking at their site, they appear to have some of the hardcovers for THE SWORD DEFIANT available.)
The perennial cry of the midlist author (especially one who'll be pitching a new novel/series in the next few months) - preorders are love. If you're inclined to preorder THE SWORD UNBOUND through the retailer of your choice, or register it as 'to-read' on Goodreads etc, I would be quite abjectly grateful.
And just so THE SWORD DEFIANT doesn't feel neglected, two recent reviews:
Tickets for Worldcon have been booked, as has a hotel. I'm unsure what I'll be doing at the con, other than a) running around after children and b) staying as far as is humanly possible away from the business meeting. (For those unfamiliar with Worldcon, the business meeting is where the bylaws and rules of the con are debated and amended; that includes the running of the Hugo awards - and if you're unaware of that debacle, this is not the place to learn of it).
I'll also be at Shadowcon in Barcelona in April, along with certain other Pelgrane luminaries.
Warpcon, the local and well-beloved games convention, was a wonderful return to form. I've missed the last few years (everyone missed 2021/2022 because of covid, and I in particular missed 2023 because of covid in a fit of infectious irony). I ran two games - a Trail of Cthulhu 2e playtest and a comedy Halfling murder mystery that I'd previously run at Dragonmeet entitled Shires Out! Both went brilliantly.
I'm in the process of expanding Shires Out into a full-fledged GUMSHOE cosy-fantasy game, of which more soon.
Trail 2e will be going to crowdfunding later in the year - it's nearly done, but 13th Age 2e gets to go first.
Oh - for the Shires Out game, I prepared a list of sample place names and character names.
In the Warpcon game, one player took the name 'James Wallis', apparently oblivious to the joke.
The backer's PDF of Moria approaches completion, or so I am informed. Insert Gimli's line about carefully tending the flowering groves of stone in the Glittering Caves of Aglarond.
In somewhat hastier news, I'm nearly finished the penultimate adventure of the next One Ring campaign book, including a fight with a villain I've been trying to drag into an adventure since 2012. This book hasn't been announced officially, so let's call it Whither A Daze Downshift.
Speaking of campaigns, my campaign for Heart goes live on backer kit in a little over a week. Sign up to be notified when it goes live.
Pick up the 25th Anniversary Paranoia Humble Bundle and you get not only a bunch of great pdfs, but also the right to ponder the question - 25th Anniversary of what, exactly? I mean, yes, the bundle includes the Troubleshooters/IntSec/High Programmer books we did for the 25 anniversary of the game's launch in 1984, but it also includes way more books that were written before that. Ah, those happy, innocent days when totalitarian states and crazed AIs weren't quite so front-page-of-the-Guardian-y.
I was amused by Mitch Benn's Gilbert and Sullivan Dracula.
Currently Reading: A whole bunch of books about Anglo-Saxon England and the later Roman Empire, and I'm not wholly sure why. There's something there, some vibe that's feeding into a creative impulse. We'll see what comes of it. "I feel deep within me the building of new and potent visions", to quote Cesar de Treece.
Thank you for reading!