For a couple of weeks, I have had books available in Mosaic Books on Bernard Street in Kelowna, BC. This Saturday, come on down to meet me and get a book signed! I’ll be there from noon to 3:00. I’m quite excited and hope to meet lots of new readers!
Now to find a pen worth signing with…
Shadow Glyph was published last week! I’m still getting used to the concept of having a book DONE and for sale; it’s so exciting! It’ll take me at least a month before I’m accustomed to it… For anyone who doesn’t know, it’s available here at Createspace, the company that published it, or through plain old Amazon by just searching “Shadow Glyph”.
I’ve been so busy with everything that I haven’t written a blog post about it yet… My poor website doesn’t even know that the book is done! I finished editing it a couple weeks ago and had to wait for a proof copy to ship. The proof copy had some technical errors on the back cover, but those were resolved by Createspace. Next I waited for a final proof copy to make sure they were resolved.
That proof copy came last Tuesday, June 26, 2012 (The day my book was published). I put it on the table, and went to finish getting ready for the day. Then I mowed the lawn. Then I cleaned up my dog… and then I clicked OK on Createspace. Pretty funny story when I tell about the day my first book was published. But I kind of like it.
So… because this is a self-published book, its success depends on my own efforts to advertise as well as the hear-say of readers like you. For every friend you tell to check it out, to read it, or even to send here, the impact of my book grows exponentially.
But enough of “my own efforts to advertise”. I’ve been working on Book 2 over the past several months, and recently went back to the start to reshape the beginning to be much quicker. With all the progress on Shadow Glyph, the more exciting it is to work on the second book.
Also a shout-out to the first couple of buyers! It’s been out for a week and some people have already bought it. Can’t wait to hear what you think. On that note, I love questions and comments about writing or the book itself, and this site is the place to do it! I’m planning to draw up some cool diagrams to go along with the first book, let me know if you think of anything else you’d like to see 🙂
First off, some news. I was trying to have Shadow Glyph for sale this weekend but the final proof copy I received featured a beautifully illegible back cover. That has been fixed, but now I am waiting on the final final proof copy. Hopefully this weekend I’ll be able to post a for sure release date. It will be sometime next week. Once I know, I’ll put a countdown on here.
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I recently thought of a way to inspire my blogs. I set up this website to be both a way of communicating with my readers, but also to allow them to communicate in return, like a community. So, last time, Dylan asked about my influences. Below, I’ll write about that a bit. From now on, I’ll choose a question at random (if any) from the comments and reply with a post. Sounds like fun, from my point of view…
What has influenced my writing? I would say that history plays as much a role on this as other written works. Being a fantasy writer, I’ve decided that the more I fit my stories into a historical realism, the better. Shadow Glyph has magic, but I actually prefer books without wizards, like A Song of Fire and Ice. The main reason to write fantasy is to provide a unique way of presenting insights about the world, themes, or even entertaining plots that cannot exist in the real world. That said, all fantasy should chase the real world. In my opinion.
What about other writers? This also plays a huge role in making an author. Any writer will tell you to read; what you read does influence what you write. The late Robert Jordan, who tragically passed before the 12th book of his 12-book series, has had an enormous impact on me, both in my writing and reading. I’ve read the Wheel of Time 3 times now and am ever amazed at the connections, details, and twists I notice each time I open the covers. His ability to transform characters, to age them in a realistic way, to introduce you so thoroughly into each individual’s world, I will always try to write like that. Unconsciously and consciously.
I could go on and on about influences, so maybe I’ll talk about them again sometime. For a quick list of books that I feel have shifted or impacted my writing: Atlas Shrugged, Lord of the Rings, the series Shannara, and a Star Wars book version of Episode III. The author, Matthew Stover, had a very interesting way of getting you into the characters much better than the movie did.
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Last year I discovered that when I sit down and give it enough time, I can quite impress myself with my ability to draw. I’ve wanted to try some character sketches for a while, and finally sat down to do it. I finished a drawing of Dryn, the main character of Shadow Glyph. I found a picture online that was exactly how I imagined Dryn to look (by the end of the book). The actor, Alex Pettyfer, resembles the character a lot, so I found a picture on his IMDb to use. After a lengthy pencil sketch, I made some changes, and ta-da! It’s Dryn!
Dryn ten Rayth.
I was recently reminded that I have not posted here since January. I think this is because of the general lack of Shadow Glyph-relevant news. That project is in the middle of a final read-through/draft and should be available in the early summer. I know that this could really seem to be dragging on, but it is only because I want to have the best and most- finished product for you guys once it’s done.
That said, there’s really no excuse for not writing a blog. I could prattle on about the school project where I made parchment out of cowhide or the four essays I wrote in the past month… but none of it is a worthwhile excuse. How about the dog ate my blog? Hmmm…
Instead, let’s move on to more exciting topics! I’ve completed 100 pages of Book 2! The sequel to Shadow Glyph, titled Gothikar, functions as both a prequel and a sequel to the events of Book 1. It’s a very unique project and exciting to work on.
I’ve also begun a collaborative project with my fellow writer Dylan Tracey. Using an impressive and hugely helpful world-building tool here to build a new, convention-breaking and realistic fantasy world. This astonishing list by Patricia C. Wrede begins with broad questions concerning the physics, nature and functioning of your fictional world but continues to move deeper in specifics such as how your answers to the above conditions would affect the culture/s of your world. While our world-building project is far from complete, it already feels like a well-developed, interesting and real place. I look forward to eventually writing within this setting and sharing when I do.
Don’t worry though, developments on Shadow Glyph take priority.
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PS: I thought about calling this, “Re:I have a blog?” but decided to go with the Star Wars AND Lord of the Rings reference instead.
Apparently, Christmas is not the ideal time to try to finish the biggest project you’ve worked on to date. Until the week following Christmas, I got practically no work done on Shadow Glyph, also, no blog posts. A large part of this is the faulty internet at my family’s house in Ontario, but also the nature of visits home.
Since Christmas, I have been working vigorously on completing the editing on Shadow Glyph. Now all I’m waiting for is a final proof copy to arrive in the mail. Once I review that, the book will finally be available via Amazon, Kindle, local bookstores (hopefully) and me! It’s quite exciting to reach this point, both to see my book in print, but also to potentially have readers! I hope everyone likes it!
For anyone whom I haven’t told, Shadow Glyph is the first of a series of five. Book Two is already in the writing stage, as I’ve made it my project for CRWR 383B, a novel writing course at UBC. I’ve got the basic structure done and several chapters written. I only mention the structure because it took me forever to figure out how I want to build Book Two. I was faced with the problem that I need to tell 3 coming of age stories in it, and I actually hate writing bildungsroman and Shadow Glyph is already one. Finally, I found a way to cut Book 2 down to a single somewhat troubled coming of age story, using a non-linear structure.
So, to conclude – the holidays were good, but back to work now!
You know you’re dedicated to world-building when you find yourself in the process of designing a language from scratch. My friend Dylan (the artist of the series map) and I have been spending the last month or so working on the language of magic in my series.
Step one was building the basic framework of magic in a more detailed way than Shadow Glyph expresses it.
In the series, magic is the the language of glyphs, the words used by the Maker when he spoke the world in existence. His gift to humankind: the ability to use glyphs on our own. Because of this, building the framework of magic involves deciding how the elements of creation relate to one another, similar to the Greek views of fire, earth, air, water. But as with any fiction world-building, you want something unique, something that is only characteristic of your world. And so I built the Two Rings of the Great Glyph.
Step two was the actual building of symbols and words. Each glyph represents an element or more specifically a form of an element. Similar to the above mentioned Greek view, everything is not fire, but rather a form of fire or a form of air, etc. So the process of designing words isn’t like making an alphabet. Each single rune is a word not a letter.
I hope to post some of our work to this site soon, as it will be interesting to check out while reading the book. As for the book itself, Shadow Glyph is about 90% done. Unfortunately it won’t be ready to order until Christmas or later, so it won’t be ready as a gift option =( . Stay tuned for more updates!
Also I love feedback, if anyone ever thinks of replies to these posts…