Sunday, December 2, 2012

Thank You and a Little Bribery

Fallen Magician has been out for a little over a month now and not only have the sales been strong for it, but it has also helped to boost the sales of its predecessor, Rogue Magician, that came out in late December last year.

I'd like to take a minute to say thank you to everyone who took a chance on my novels and have made my first year so successful. I have big plans for the third and final book of the series and hope that the pay off at the end will be well worth the ride.

Now for the bribery:

Recently I made some promotional 4"x6" prints of the Rogue Magician cover and I liked them so much that I decided to make them available to readers while supplies last. The catch is that in order to get one you have to write a short review and send an email to my gmail address that you can find in the Afterwords of Fallen Magician and the latest edition of Rogue Magician with the address that you would like it sent to. If you write a review, then you'll get a print for whichever book you reviewed or both if you review them both. This also applies to anyone who has already written a review for either book.

Again, thank you for your continued support.

Sunday, September 9, 2012

Rogue Magician 2nd Edition and Fallen Magician

Tomorrow, the second edition of Rogue Magician should be up on Amazon and available on Smashwords soon. I decided to update the book for the release on Smashwords. The second edition has some changes to the prose and additional editing, but the story remains unchanged.

Also, the official release date for book 2, Fallen Magician, is October 27th. So look for it at the end of next month.

Fallen Magician picks up right where Rogue Magician leaves off and promises to be an exciting ride from beginning to end.

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Book 2 Update

It's been a bit longer than I planned since my last post and wanted to provide an update on what I've been up to. Adding new content to the blog has taken a backseat to finishing Book 2.

I've been hard at work on the follow up to "Rogue Magician," which is tentatively being titled "Fallen Magician." For those of you that read the afterword in "Rogue Magician," you know that the second book was going to be called "Rise of the Necromancer." The title change was due to the mood that I think the new book elicits and the developments with several key characters.

The good news is that "Fallen Magician" is scheduled to be out in October, which is five months earlier than I stated in the afterword. The October timeframe is a bit aggressive considering how much still has to get done, but I am currently working on the second draft of Book 2 and plan to have that done within a month. 

The Magician Rebellion Series will be at least four books long. It might flow into a fifth book depending on how the content develops as I write the final volume. All of the books have been planned out, but they tend to take on a life of their own at times too.

I do have additional content planned for the blog too, but for now my focus is on completing "Fallen Magician."

Monday, June 11, 2012

Hunted: The Conclusion


Fear carried his feet forward as he dashed between a pair of Kenzai that clearly hadn’t expected the boy to come their way, but they lost little time before calling to their brethren and following in pursuit. Sane wondered how well his pursuers knew the streets that he tried to lose them on. The sounds of more boots on cobblestone came from behind him. It would not take long for the men with their longer legs to catch the boy. He had to hide.

His eyes flashed around him peering into shadows as he looked for a safe place to hide from the hunters. Magic! he thought, Magic! Magic! Magic! Come to me! Help me! The boy felt a second wind come to him, but if there was any magic about he could not tell.

A hunter appeared before Sane causing the boy to veer down another side street to avoid the Kenzai’s grasp. Another hunter came from the right and two more appeared on his left, but Sane continued to run darting out of each man’s reach in turn. He was getting tired again, but pushed on. There was no stopping now. He knew that if the hunters caught him, then they would kill him.

Still the hunters gave chase and followed him or tried to cut him off. Then he saw what he had been looking for. An unattended merchant’s cart was parked outside of a house. The boy risked a look behind and saw that he lost the hunters- at least for the moment- and slid underneath the cart. It was a perfect hiding spot for this time of night as long as he stayed curled up in the shadows. The cart appeared to be too exposed to make a good hiding spot and Sane thought it might only get a cursory glance from the hunters for that reason, but within the shadows he would be difficult to see.

The moment of truth arrived scarce seconds later as one of the Kenzai ran past. Then three more followed suit. The boy wondered how many hunters there were. It did not matter he was too weary to run any farther. It took all of his concentration just to control his exhausted breathing.

A fourth and fifth man ran past, but they enjoyed a more leisurely jog rather than an all out run. One of them stopped terrifyingly close to the cart.

“Why are you stopping?” asked the other.

“Need… to catch… my breath,” the one near the cart huffed.

A minute or more passed as the hunters rested. One was actually sitting on the cart now. Every nerve in the boy’s body called out for him to move his feet, but he could not overcome the fear and weariness that kept him rooted to that spot.

“Do you feel that? It is like a pooling of magic,” asked the one that stood at the end of the small side street.

The one sitting on the cart did not respond leaving the question hanging in there. Then a sudden jerk of the boy’s tunic pulled him out from underneath the cart and the grim face of a Kenzai hunter greeted him. In a movement so swift that the boy could barely even see the blur of the strike in the night the Kenzai hit Sane in the face with his ham sized fist driving the boy to the ground.

“That is for making me run,” the hunter told him.

“Calm down, Marcos,” said the other hunter, “He is just a boy.”

“You make me run, you get hit. That is the rule,” the bruiser reminded his partner.

Sane rubbed his cheek. “What are you going to do to me?” he asked looking at the one who hit him.

The bruiser jerked the boy up again and began dragging him along until the boy was able to regain his footing and walk between the men.

It was the one who showed Sane some small mercy that answered. “You would have been going to a domain to live out your days, but now that you ran… it will be up to the magistrate to decide. You will either continue to the domain as planned or be sent to the prison of Baj as a rogue magician.”

Saturday, June 2, 2012

Hunted (Part 3 of 4)


Night came too quickly as the boy waited for the inevitable to come. It wasn’t fair. Why would they think he knew magic? He never cast a spell or sacrificed the neighbor’s yappy dog in a dark ritual. He didn’t know the first thing about magic.

His mother was sitting in her chair sobbing again as she watched her son and for the first time Sane understood why. She feared this day would come ever since Avelice disappeared. She would lose both of her children to the Kenzai.

His father stared helplessly at a bottle of ale. He had not yet given in to putting the bottle to his mouth, but he did not look far off.

Maybe Avelice will save me, Sane thought hopefully, or her husband, Xander.

He finished packing his meager possessions: some clothes and an old slingshot he got as a gift on his last birthday. It seemed wrong that that was all his life had boiled down to. A few possessions that fit snugly into a backpack and any trace of the boy would be gone from this place after tonight.

The family ate dinner listlessly. No one wanted to say their final goodbyes and they could think of nothing else to talk about. The moment they finished there was a knock at the door. The timing was too perfect to be a coincidence. If there was any doubt that the Kenzai were watching them, then that doubt was now gone. The three of them stared at it intently, but did not move. A second knock followed. This one was a bit louder and sounded somehow more insistent than the one that came before. Sane’s father finally rose from his seat and opened the door.

“Sir Cordwainer,” the cloaked figure nodded, “It is time.” The man entered the room without being asked. He was followed by another Kenzai who was similarly attired in a non-descript brown cloak with the hood pulled over his head and the husky Constable Ragnit.

“It is good to see you again, Josef,” the constable said to the boy’s father, “although I wish it was under better circumstances.”

“As do I,” replied Josef. He spoke like a man resigned to his fate.

The first Kenzai stood before the boy and pulled down his cloak revealing the face of a man who was probably in his mid-thirties. To Sane, he said, “This is scary, I know, but I promise that nothing bad is going to happen to you.” He cautiously took Sane’s backpack from him and handed it to the other Kenzai without looking. His focus was always on the boy.

The other man rifled through the bag and pulled out the slingshot. “A weapon,” he said devoid of any warmth in his deep voice. That was probably why the first Kenzai had done all of the talking up to that point. He handed it to his partner.

“You can’t take this,” said the first Kenzai, “I’m sure you understand.”

“It was a gift from my parents,” Sane told him on the verge of tears, “It’s all I have to remember them by.”

“Rules are rules,” the baritone Kenzai told him stoically.

“Let him keep it!” his mother wailed to the surprise of everyone there. “Let him keep the slingshot!” She lunged at the Kenzai holding the slingshot and made a grab for it, but the Kenzai was a battle hardened warrior and flung her to the ground with his free hand causing her to cry out in pain.

Josef went for the man next, but he was pressed up against the wall by the apathetic Kenzai who pinned him by the throat with one arm and freed his sword with the other.

“Easy,” Constable Ragnit cautioned pulling his own sword, but it was unclear whether he was warning the Kenzai or Sane’s father.

Sane was unsure of what to do as he looked at his mother crying on the floor and his father turning red from a blocked windpipe. He felt the blood pumping through his small body. He wanted to fight these men and save his parents. Instead he turned and he ran down the hall toward his bedroom. He had a hand on the doorknob when he remembered the dreams about these men catching him in there. He ran into his parents’ bedroom on the opposite side of the hall instead and climbed out of their bedroom window with an ease only possessed by those that were both young and swift.

Saturday, May 26, 2012

Hunted (Part 2 of 4)


The boy thought back to the dreams he had about the man who whisked his sister away and how happy she seemed. He guessed that Avelice ran away with the man, because she loved him, but somehow that did not feel like the answer his father was searching for. Sane shook his head. “Why did she run away?”

“Your mother and I hid the truth from you and now I think maybe we were wrong to do that.” Sane’s father swallowed deeply and his voice was nearly caught in his throat as he forced the words out, “Avelice was a magician and so was the young man she left with- Xander was his name. He said that he could feel her drawing on magic power subconsciously and offered to take her away before the Kenzai discovered her.

“You can imagine what I thought of his offer. I threw him out of this very shop, but he seemed to take it all in stride as if he knew that he would win out eventually.

“Avelice heard us arguing and wished to seek out the man, but I forbid it. I declared him a crook and a charlatan.” Sane remembered those fights between his parents and his sister. His father continued, “Eventually Avelice gave in and for a time it seemed like the whole thing was behind us.

“Then came the day the hunters arrived. They knocked on our door like any good, decent folk would, but they were far from decent. Avelice and I were the only ones home at the time. When I opened the door, a pair of them identified themselves as Kenzai hunters and forced their way in asking to see your sister. They had Constable Ragnit with them, so I knew they were telling the truth about who they were. I did not know what to do. I did not want them to take my little girl.” Sane’s father suppressed his feelings of sorrow and resentment for fear that he might not be able to continue. After a long moment, he did, “I yelled for her! ‘Avelice, the hunters have come for you!’ I shouted. ‘Run, girl!’ They ran past me and kicked in the door to her room. They knew exactly which room it was too. It did not occur to me before then that they had been watching her.”

“They took her?” the boy asked breathlessly.

“No, she was gone. I didn’t know it then, but the house had been surrounded by the hunters in case she tried to escape and they knew she was there. Near as I can tell that magician, Xander, had come for her and they vanished into thin air. We lied to you then, because we thought the truth would be too painful.”

The boy thought about what his father told him letting the information slowly sink in. After a long silence he finally asked, “Then why are you telling me this now? It has something to do with that man that just left, doesn’t it? He is one of them.”

Sane’s father nodded. “Since your sister is a magician, he said that there would be a chance that you would be one too. They have been watching you for signs of magic ever since Avelice vanished.”

Beef and bread fell from the dropped sack the boy had been carrying, but he did not care despite his rumbling hunger. “How could you let them spy on me and say nothing?!” the boy accused.

“Easy, son,” Sane’s father put his arms around the boy, “I did not know until just now. That man that came in here- the hunter wanted to buy you. He said it was to compensate me for the loss of my apprentice and to encourage me to turn you over without difficulty.” The boy’s father placed five gold coins in his still too small hands. It was enough for him to start a new life. “This is the money that the hunter gave me. He said he would pay half now and half tonight when they retrieved you, but I am leaving it up to you. You can take the money and run or you can go with them peacefully to one of the magician cities, but no matter what you decide this life will be closed off to you.”

The boy looked out the shop’s front door and saw the flutter of a brown cloak disappear into the shadows about a half block away on the opposite side of the street. The hunters already had him. He was in their net. It was just a matter of time until they reeled him in.

“They are watching even now,” the boy whispered. He placed the coins back on the counter.

Saturday, May 19, 2012

Hunted (Part 1 of 4)

This story takes place about fifty years before the events in Rogue Magician. It is split into four parts, so be sure to check back in one week for part 2 of "Hunted."

Hunted (Part 1)



            The boy’s days were spent at his father’s feet in a very literal sense fore he was the son of a cordwainer and now that his eldest sister had run off with some hooligan leaving him the only child and heir to the family business it was the boy’s lot in life to learn all he could about crafting the fanciful shoes of the wealthy and their repair. It was a terribly dull profession, but the boy put his heart into learning it. After all, he did not want to disappoint his parents.
His father would become dispirited like when his sister left and take to the bottle again. He had only recently begun to sober up though it was more than a year since she left.
The boy’s mother was in some ways far worse. Ever since his sister left she would sit huddled in a chair with her knees up to her chin and whimper or cry openly. In the winter, she was covered with a blanket and in the summer, she was not. This was at the best of times. At the worst she would begin sobbing uncontrollably usually triggered by the boy walking in the room and he learned to avoid the poor woman and the unexplained guilt this caused him.
So he studied his father’s work for hours on end and learned his craft and at the ripe age of thirteen the boy decided that he knew all he could about making fine shoes and was ready to set out on his own, but he did not. He could not abandon his parents. Despite the difficulties at home, they needed him and loved him.
Every night he stared out of his window as he drifted off to sleep thinking of his sister and wondering where she might be. Was she happy with the lout who stole her away? Were they married now? He hoped so. His eyelids would grow heavy and sleep would take him to a land of dreams that could be blindingly bright. He would see his sister there sometimes. She would be sitting or cooking and the hoodlum would come up behind her and hug her lovingly. Then, he would kiss her neck or her lips. They would laugh often- much more often than the boy ever saw her laugh before.
At other times the dreams were darker than any moonless night. Men cloaked in shadows would come for him and bang at his window. The boy would hide under his blanket hoping that they would go away, but they never did. They would break through the latched window with a sword radiating a soft blue shine that illuminated their faces revealing contorted features and eyes that hungered after the boy. The house would then explode with noise as the house became overran with the cloaked men. They would pull his covers, his only form of protection, away leaving him completely vulnerable. Then one of the men would reach for him…
He was always startled awake at that point. His body would be covered in sweat and his breathing would be weighty and loud.
It was following one of these dreams that he caught his first glimpse of one of these men. He had gone out to fetch some lunch for his father and himself after they had spent most of the morning cobbling old, but well crafted shoes or cutting strips of leather for some new creations. The boy had worked up quite a hunger and was quick to return with their cut of beef and bread. As he rounded a corner, he saw a hooded man dressed in drab browns leaving his father’s shop. The hooded one started a little as he almost ran into the boy turning the corner. His cloak whipped up as he shifted his weight to avoid the boy revealing a sword belted at his waste.
The boy hurried into the shop and found his father glowering at the wall.
“What is wrong, father?”
“Nothing, Sane,” he paused as if he had something else say, but only repeated, “It’s nothing.” He absent-mindedly clunk some coins together under his palm. He would lift them up and let them fall again producing the light clink sound. Eventually, he asked, “Do you know why Avelice ran away?” His eyes were bloodshot.


Saturday, May 5, 2012

And the Reviews Are Not In

Recently, I've been trying to find someplace that does indie fantasy reviews with no luck. Most sites that do specialize in fantasy reviews either flat out refuse to do indie reviews or may review indies, but have no activity on their site within the last year or so.

The main reasons that I have heard from the sites that don't cover indie books is, because they don't want to be deluged with mounds of poorly written garbage in the hopes of finding a gem, which is understandable if somewhat short sighted on their part as more authors (including some who have been established for years) choose to go indie every day, but that is another rant for another day.

So to all my fantasy brethren- authors and readers alike- where do you go to get/read reviews on fantasy novels by indie authors, or if you are like me and can't even find any reviewers for indies what factors do you take into consideration when plunking down your hard earned coin on an indie?


Also, if you are a fellow fantasy author feel free to plug your book in the comments to this post.

Saturday, April 28, 2012

Rogue Magician Promo Video

Check out the promotional video for Rogue Magician. I think you will agree that it is bad ass.

http://tinyurl.com/cz8bro2

Thursday, April 26, 2012

Back and ready for more...

As of now my hiatus is at an end.

Over the last two months I have been working on two projects. Of course, I have been working on Book 2 of the Magician Rebellion series. As of this writing I am about 40% done with the first draft and am ahead of schedule for the next release.

The second project is a promotional video for Rogue Magician that should be on Youtube in the coming weeks. This video will include a teaser for the book and features artwork and a song written for Rogue Magician.

I have also decided to make a few changes to the blog. I am going to do reviews less. As an author I know how critical reviews are especially for the indies out there. So I tend to only want to review books that have left a favorable impression on me. That being said I will give recomendations from time to time if I read something particularly enjoyable.

Instead I plan to focus more on delivering original content. Most of which will be short or in pieces as my main focus is completing Book 2. Some of these stories will feature characters from Rogue Magician and some may be stand alones completely unrelated to the series.

 Here is where things get interesting- I have so much backstory for most of the characters that did not get to come out in the book. If there is a character of particular interest to you let me know and I will write a short story revealing some of the backstory. It's kind of like writing fanfiction, but having the author do it for you instead.

I will also provide rants or a look behind the curtain as the mood suits me or I think something particularly interesting is happening.

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Temporary Hiatus

Hi all,

I have decided to take a temporary break from my blog to focus more on my next novel, Rise of the Necromancer. The progress has become slower than I would like lately and I want to get back on track with Book 2 of The Magician Rebellion before resuming the blog.

In the meanwhile I am also working on a special multimedia promotion for my first novel, Rogue Magician. For now I am being a little hush-hush on what it will be exactly, but I think it will be something that people will enjoy.

With any luck I will have new reviews and stories back up on the blog within a month or so and hope to see you then.

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Magician: Apprentice Review

            For my first book review, I chose a book that is three decades old (technically, it’s three decades since the original book, Magician, but that one is much harder to find now), but one that I discovered recently and have found it to be a very entertaining series. Magician: Apprentice by Raymond E Feist is the first volume in the four part Rift War Saga and is also the first book in a much larger overall series spanning more than thirty books and still growing.
            Magician: Apprentice focuses on Pug, a young orphan boy who becomes the apprentice to a master magician, but finds that he has little aptitude for the magical arts. Pug is the main character of the series, but he is surrounded by an interesting cast of characters including his best friend Tomas, Squire Roland, Prince Arutha, and Pug’s love interest, the headstrong Princess Carline. At first these characters appear as secondary characters to Pug’s adventures, but about halfway through there is a shift in the story as they face an invasion by the Tsurani, a noble race of off-worlders determined to take over the world and these secondary characters come to the forefront of the story. At first, I was miffed, because I wanted to get back to Pug’s story, but I begrudgingly grew to enjoy these other characters just as much.
            Up to this point, I have given you very little information beyond what you could get off of the back cover and that is intentional, because I don’t want to ruin any of the surprise or suspense in this well-crafted story for you. There is nothing I hate more than having an interesting story or plot twist ruined for me and I assume that you feel the same way.
Raymond E Feist develops an intricate world filled with elves, dwarves, magic and adventure. His writing style is a brilliant balance of description and action that immerses the reader the world of Midkemia while still driving the story along. In many ways it reminds me of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings series and that is not a bad thing. However, one thing that I really enjoy about this book that is a departure from Tolkien’s middle-earth and something that I try to incorporate into my own writing is that although there is a conflict between the races of Midkemia and the Tsurani no one is inherently evil (except, perhaps, for the dark elves and goblins, but their intentions are never made clear). There are people who have their own agendas and are in opposition to the heroes, to be sure, but no one is inherently evil in that they just want to destroy the world. Even the Tsurani who want to take over the world have the best of intentions believing that their way of life is superior to Midkemia’s “savages.”
The one possible drawback is that if you read Magician: Apprentice, then you will need to read the follow-up Magician: Master as well to get the feeling of the complete story. Originally the two books were one book titled Magician and was a shortened combination of these two books. For this reason the first book just kind of ends, but the second book has a very satisfying conclusion. Of course, I usually prefer trilogies and series to stand alone titles, so this did not bother me at all.
Overall, I highly recommend Magician: Apprentice to anyone looking for an excellent fantasy read with a classic feel. The world of Midkemia is detailed and lends itself well to the engaging storyline. The characters are likeable and developed so that even the minor characters feel like they have a life beyond the limits of their place in the story.

Friday, January 27, 2012

We Are Pack

This story takes place in the same world as Rogue Magician, but occurs sixty years before the start of the book and on another continent. I won't tell you who the spotlight character is, but if you read my book, then it won't be hard to figure out.

______________________________________________________________________

            It was a distant whine that tickled at the edge of the elf’s hearing. He was known among the inhabitants of the Red Tree Forest as their king and took his responsibility as their chief protector very seriously so that he felt compelled to personally investigate every disturbance in his realm. It was through this desire that the elf’s feet began to glide across the forest’s floor. His movements were swift, but light and precise so that hardly a blade of grass or errant leaf could attest to his passing as he rushed ever onward. The wind whipped past his ears as he traveled faster and faster until the trees became a red-brown blur around him.
            A blue bird with a long feathered tail squawked in protest at his passing when the King of the Red Trees came too close and blew it off course forcing the bird to land awkwardly in a bush or risk crashing into a tree. The King turned his attention to his winged subject to make sure it had come to no harm. Forgive me my passing, the King of the Red Trees pushed the thought at the little bird, but did not slow his pace so that if there was a response he did not hear it. 
            Then as suddenly as he started, the elf stopped running and for a moment his dark, flowing hair shot past his face as if it was still trying to continue on without him. The King of the Red Trees knew he still had a great distance left to travel, but now he recognized the sound for what it was and what it implied gave him a chill down to the bone. The King drew his bow and hurried once more redoubling his efforts. He now knew he was following the sound of a babe crying… and the snarling of beasts.
            The King shimmied up a hardy red tree without slowing his pace and began to leap from one branch to the next. His feet unerringly found the strongest limbs and best footing as befitted one born of the forest all in an effort to gain a vantage point over the forest’s predators that were quickly surrounding the youngling.
            A grey wolf growled hungrily as it pulled at the calf of a dead elf woman. From her dress, the King of the Red Trees knew her to be a member of one the city clans. The elf-sister must have traveled a fantastic distance before finally being run down, but this could not be the work of a lone wolf. Even a city elf could avoid a single wolf.
The King moved closer being mindful of the living shadows below him. A pack of wolves closed in all around the elf’s corpse. The King notched an arrow and took aim at the one worrying at the mother’s calf. The crying was much louder now that he was so close to the source. His superior ears were nearly deafened by the child’s wails. It was clear that the sound was coming from underneath the dead elf and the wolf was determined to reach the babe protected under its lifeless mother.
            Let her go, the King whispered to the wolf, and I will let you live.
            The grey wolf looked up at the King of the Red Trees, but did not let go of the leg he held tightly in his maw. This is no concern of yours, elf. What is done is done. It is the cycle of life that your kind values so much. Is it not? We have our kill and there is nothing you can do to change that.
            It was true. There was nothing he could do for the city elf…
            You misunderstand me, wolf. I do not seek to take your kill. I only want the youngling.
            The other wolves began skulking surreptitiously in the King’s direction. He was safe from them in the tree, but they could prevent him from reaching the babe if they truly wished it.
            Maybe we want the elf-cub too, the wolf snarled, We will eat to our satisfaction.
            Then be satisfied with the one that you have already killed! I will not allow the elf-babe to die as well! The King snapped.
            At that the grey wolf did finally drop the leg he had been holding so tightly. His gaze was malicious and for a brief moment the King knew dread, but he did not fear for himself.
            The wolf considered for a moment and then made an offer. A compromise, then? What if we agree not to kill the young one, elf? The wolf’s demeanor was harsh and threatening. The idea of compromising did not sit well with a creature used to getting what it wanted without the need for debate even if the compromise was its own device. What if we choose to make her one of us instead? She could be a wolfen roaming the forest among us. She could be Pack. In Pack she would find strength and safety. In Pack she would find a new family to replace the one lost this day. Would you deny her that? With that last thought, the King felt a sense of pride shine from the wolf.
            I would, the King of the Red Trees answered without a moment’s hesitation. He released an arrow and it flew at the wolf before the predator could react. The air split just above the beast’s head and the arrow bit into the wood of a nearby tree with a loud thwump. A warning shot.
            The wolf growled and his pack joined in so that the forest was alive with the angry sound drowning out the crying youngling. We are Pack, elf! That may mean little to you, but to us Pack is all that matters. You can kill me, but my Pack-brothers and Pack-sisters will hunt you down. You cannot end us all.
            Can’t I? The King whispered nothing more. Instead, he let that thought with all of its self-assurance and calm sink into the wolf’s mind as he made a show of readying another arrow and took aim once more.
            After a long silence the grey wolf relented. Take the loud one. She grates on my nerves anyway.
            The King of the Red Trees stored his bow and moved from tree to tree until he was above the dead elf-sister and her baying child. Then he leapt nimbly down from his perch into the midst of the wolves. He pulled his knife and stood defensively between their pack leader and his prize as he lifted the mother’s body to uncover the elf-babe who continued her weeping unabated.
            The wolf snapped at the King and kept him from grabbing the child. The Pack advanced on the King forcing him to either ignore the exposed youngling or drop his guard.
            Foolish elf, the wolf whispered coldly, You threaten our Pack and moments later jump into our waiting jaws. You are brave, elf, but we are many. We are Pack.
            Another wolf snapped at the King of the Red Trees. This time it came from his right, but the animal bit nothing but air when the elf twisted away from him and delivered a kick to its body pushing the second wolf away.
            The grey wolves inched closer prepared to pounce in an instant. The King of the Red Trees smiled knowingly.
            Wolf, you mistake me for a human. I understand what it means to be Pack. I know your strength. The King raised his empty hand to the trees and lowered it again in a swift chop. In response a rain of arrows from unseen hands fell down all around the wolves causing many to jump back, but none were harmed. I am Shatala, King of the Red Tree Clan. We are not so different. You are Pack and we are a clan. We are an assembly of warriors sworn to protect the Red Tree Forest, but we are a family as well. We take strength from one another and defend each other as brothers and sisters in arms. Using the pack leader’s own words against him, the King added, You can kill me, but my Clan-brothers and Clan-sisters will hunt you down. You cannot end us all.
            The wolf nodded reluctantly. You are Pack. After a few moments more of thought, he added, Shatala, King of the Red Tree Clan, take the elf-babe, but leave the meat for us and there will be no more bloodshed between our kinds, indicating the elf woman’s body.
            The King gave a short nod in return. Very well. I will take the youngling and leave you to your meal. In one fluid motion, he grabbed the babe and bounded into the tree taking his leave of the wolves. He held the child securely against him as he bounced between trees, but she felt safe in his arms and stopped her howling turning to coos instead.
After a time the King stopped to regard the child. He held her up and away from him to get a good look at the youngling. Her legs kicked with strength that was surprising for one so small and she swung her arms at her sides enthusiastically. She would make a strong protector of the forest in thirty or so years.
“Welcome, daughter of the Red Tree Clan.”

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Redesigning My Book Cover

My fantasy novel, Rogue Magician, was released about a month ago and for the first three weeks it did consistently well, but in the last week it took a big slump. Normally I would not be worried about a one week slump, but I really want this book to do well and am unwilling to just sit on my laurels and let it take care of itself.
So I decided to look at possible ways to improve my sales and as I have been interacting with other authors I have been learning a great deal through their nuggets of wisdom. One of the things that I took away was that a professional looking book cover is very important.
When I designed my first book cover I thought it would be fun to make the book cover the same as Sane’s (one of the book’s most powerful sorcerers) grimoire in sort of a meta way. The original was a direct interpretation of this grimoire. The original cover was very simplistic which I enjoy in book covers, because it reminds me of the old adage, “You can’t judge a book by its cover.”
However, there were some problems with the original cover. It may have been a little too simplistic. The title was in simple block letters and the stretching vines from the grimoire’s emblem ran through the title and my name. The text was in red, which is a complimentary color to green providing the best contrast, but it still could use some clarification.



Overall, I did enjoy my original cover and thought it stood out from most other books. So in the update I wanted to stay true to my original design and just tweak it somewhat. The first thing I did was remove the “root” lines and the emblem’s circle. The roots were too busy looking and tended to keep the eye from focusing on the main parts of the cover. The circle was just a little plain and I planned to replace it with a more intricate circle made to look like roots to keep the cover’s theme.
I updated the text with a cursive script. It seemed more old fashioned and fitting for a fantasy novel. I also changed the text from red to black since I planned to have the new root design go around the title and my name.
The new roots were made to look much more root-like and now framed the title and my name instead of doing their own thing. The circle was also redone in a variation of the larger roots and formed around the tree emblem.
After that I adjusted the color shades just a little and voila. The new design looks more professional, but still stands apart from most of the other fantasy covers that tend to have similar designs and themes. Hopefully, it stands out enough to generate enough interest to get people to download the preview and eventually the book itself.
SO what do you think? Did I make the right decision?

Thursday, January 12, 2012

My Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Review

Well, after five years of not so patiently waiting for the next installment of the Elder Scrolls series the wait is finally over. Actually the wait was over about two months ago, but it took me that long to fully complete a playthrough so I could write a complete review.
Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion was my favorite fantasy based game of all time and I can happily say that Skyrim takes everything I enjoyed about that game and improves upon them. Even better it takes most of the problems with that game and fixes them as well.

The Good

The biggest drawback to Oblivion was that the leveling system was broken so that if you chose skills that you actually intended to use and leveled them naturally, then you would end up with a very weak character, very quickly. The new system allows you to play however you wish and allows you to allocate special skill points any way that you want as long as you meet that ability’s requirements. So now leveling your character is no longer something to be feared.
I have always been a fan of mages in fantasy role-playing games, so this is the class I usually take for my first playthrough. The brute force bludgeoning talents of the warrior or sneaky tactics of the thief can be tons of fun in their own right, but I like the versatility and late game power that the mage provides. Of course, in previous Elder Scrolls games it was important to have some fighting skills as well for all but the most dedicated players looking to use every exploit at their disposal. In Skyrim, this is no longer the case. It is completely possible and, more importantly, lots of fun to play as a mage or any other specialized character. I am now playing a magicless thief quite successfully.
This game is big. There are more quests in Skyrim than you can shake a stick (or magic staff) at so you can play for literally a hundred hours and not run out of new quests or areas to explore. There are also lots of interesting set pieces and random encounters that seem like something out of a fantasy novel like the time early in the game when I was walking through the mountains and got attacked by a dragon. At the time I was severely outclassed by a dragon and was forced to hide in a cave to escape fiery death. Upon exploring that cave I discovered it was the home of a vampire coven.

The Bad

Now here comes the bad part. There is one glaring problem that fans of Fallout 3 are very familiar with: glitches. Skyrim can be at times very glitchy. Sometimes quest items would remain in my inventory after I finished the quest and could not be removed. Other times the next objective on a quest would not activate.
Although I only had it freeze up entirely one time it was rampant with stuttering later in the game from too much action going on at once. It became particularly bad after I mastered conjuration and would summon two permanent creatures in the open world. It got to the point that I decided to stop using the summoned creatures in the cities or open world. In other games this would be enough to write it off as being too buggy, but Skyrim excels in so many other aspects of its design and was so large that I found myself forgiving these bugs.

The Decision (9 out of 10)

Overall, Skyrim is a great game and should be in the library of anyone who loves fantasy genre games or even good games in general. I give The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim a 9 out of 10. The only thing keeping it from earning a perfect score were the glitches. If you love fantasy and video games, then why are you reading this? You already bought Skyrim and if you somehow managed to not buy this game because you have pinned under a large boulder for the last two months, then go out and buy this game. Right now. It’s ok… I’ll wait right here until you get back. Why are you still reading this? Go!
Fine. Just click here.