First review of THE AMBER WIZARD posted

Pat over at Pat's Fantasy Hotspot has posted the first review of The Amber Wizard. It's a very positive review, leaving me with a warm and cuddly feeling! My first review, and he didn't hate it! Woo hoo!

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the amber wizard

Win a free copy of THE AMBER WIZARD

Pat over at Pat's Fantasy Hotspot has set up a contest to give away a free copy of The Amber Wizard. All you have to do is e-mail him to enter. Head on over and check it out!

Osserian Saga sold in Germany

I found out that the first three books in The Osserian Saga have been sold in Germany! I don't know the publisher -- my agent wasn't sure, not that I would recognize them anyway -- but I thought it was really interesting that a non-English-speaking country would snap up the rights before a place like the UK. (Though I have heard comments from other writers and readers that there is enough "home grown" fantasy in the UK that publishers don't need to buy as much from overseas).

Steelers on their way to Super Bowl XL!

Title says it all. The football gods were smiling on the Steel City today. Woo hoo! I am one happy camper!

Plotting out THE PATH OF ASHES

Now that The Words of Making has been shipped off to my agent and editor, I get to turn my sights to the next book in the series (maybe), The Path of Ashes. I say maybe because, in my contract and in the original synopsis of the series, the next book is The Commanding Stone. What happened was that while writing The Words of Making, I generated lots of new and interesting story ideas, to the point where I realized they wouldn't fit in the other books as outlined but really needed a book of their own.

So I've been re-reading all of the notes I made and am starting to plot out the book. This is where all the heavy lifting is done for me -- I work out all of the plot and character arcs in pretty fine detail before I even write the opening sentence of the novel. Right now I have a number of disconnected ideas that I need to bring together. There is an overarching story, but I don't know how it ends, and that for me is a problem because I always have to know the end before I start writing. I need to write toward something; that's just how I operate.

I also don't have a storyline for the main character, which is a wee bit of a problem. All of the secondary characters have interesting stories going, but the big cahuna's is really lacking.

But I just got started, so these things will work themselves out soon enough. I plan on getting a detailed outline together and sending it to my agent and editor to see what they think. If they want to proceed, then I guess we'll either have to redo the contract or create some kind of addendum to the original.

Steelers v. Colts 2

Well, despite every effort by the referees to give the damn game to the Colts, the Football gods smiled upon the Steelers today! (Though they gave me a freakin' heart attack when the Bus fumbled the ball on the two yard line with 1:20 left!).

I need to calm down now, my heart is pounding. That was the most exciting finish to a football game I've ever seen....

Steelers v. Colts

Here's hoping the football gods show some favor to my Steelers and help them crush (or at least squeak by) Peyton Manning's Colts. Some payback for the Monday Night loss would be nice.

More on THE WORDS OF MAKING

I finished making the line edit corrections to the electronic copy of The Words of Making last night and e-mailed a copy to my agent. My editor will get a hardcopy next week.

The first draft was 230,000 words, which my editor said was far too long. I read through it once on my PC and cut out lots of stuff, then printed a hardcopy and went through it again to do a line edit. The current draft is a svelt 187,800 words, almost exactly the same length as The Amber Wizard.

Next, I'm going to figure out if The Path of Ashes is going to be its own novel or just plot elements incorporated into The Commanding Stone.

Rejection collection

For every writer who has ever received a rejection slip -- which is every writer who has ever tried to have something published, without exception -- there's a site called rejection collection where you can read the rejections others received and their thoughts about them, and share your own if you're so inclined. Good for some time wasting...