Maybe it doesn’t work. Maybe it’s an awful blurb. But like most of what you put on your resume, I’ll smile and hope no one calls my bluff. This is a working blurb for book three, so it’s still likely to change either totally or in part, but it’s something. I initially had more of a vignette, and beta readers liked that one. Other authors were understandably cranky over it. Vignettes aren’t blurbs. It’s a good point, that. After some revisions, it was pointed out by a beta reader that the vignette still sells the book for them compared to the more impersonal nature of a blurb. As she put it, the vignette “felt like watching Shkarag get increasingly pissed off and psyching herself up for the fight ahead”. So, in looking to take advantage of both blurb and vignette, and remembering that the book is doomed regardless, I combined the two. Because fuck you I’m doing it that’s why. At this point, there’s no reason not to just do what I want.

No more.

Sweet with blood and dressed in carnage, Shkarag hisses a spray of organ and bile. Her axes bleed as generously as her wounds.

No more.

She is a monster, a traitor, and a coward. Shkarag has earned her fate, but she refuses to endure it under the heel of an overlord.

No more.

As the shadow of the world-ending dragon sweeps over her, its gullet a portal ragged with broken bone, Shkarag’s one remaining fang flares a challenge. Let it consume her then. Let the dragon’s devoured array before her: she’ll scale dungeons teeming with traps, worlds fractured and imprisoned, histories that will never come to pass. She’ll see the dragon’s trials and deliver wrath upon them. Blood will run, and it will pool around the throne of Eshm. It must, or she’ll never be more than a minion.

Shkarag brandishes her axes. She is the thousand-notched, but she is also wrath, and wrath never loses its edge.

The Thousand-Notched Axe is on Goodreads, and planned for a 2019 release.

With nearly a month having passed since release, An Ill-Fated Sky has racked up a few blog reviews. Not many, but quality over quantity I suppose. It’s a good thing they all seemed to cast the book in a favorable light, and I’m grateful to the bloggers who took the time to read and review. Blogs and reviews, like many things, are integral to a book’s success, so I appreciate those who would champion the story. Rather than waste my time sending hundreds of e-mails and going through countless “piss off self-pub” descriptions, I got in touch with those who were known to be open, and that both saved me a lot of stress and got the book in the hands of some great people. Click the blog’s name to be taken to the site’s full review.

 

THE TOME AND TANKARD INN

“One of the most extraordinary things about An Ill-Fated Sky is the emergence of character development as its greatest strength. Building on an already strong showing in A Star-Reckoner’s Lot, AIFS is host to some of the most believable, enigmatic and intriguing characters I have come across since Robin Hobb’s Fitz and the Fool.”

 

THE FANTASY INN

Characters are where Darrell really excels. He masterfully creates tormented and troubled characters, and then puts them into challenging situations. Things are dark, and the characters all have their issues, but there are some fascinating growth arcs throughout the book.

 

THE IRRESPONSIBLE READER

“From start to finish, Drake immerses you in this wonderful world he’s created, with a magic system and mythology so foreign to most of us that it’s great to dive in and experience. The characters are rich and well-drawn, and you feel for them all.”

 

PURPLE OWL REVIEWS

“The characters were wonderful to read about. The dialogue had an enjoyable blend of exposition, character development and humor.”

 

GOODREADS REVIEWS

“I said in my review of ASRL that I could read about these characters travelling around together over and over, and it still holds true here.“

“Once again, character development is at the forefront. Our protagonist is Tirdad, who was the least developed member of the original trio in A Star-Reckoner’s Lot. It’s great to see him finally measure up to the other two in complexity. And measure up he does […]”

 

Thanks both bloggers and readers alike! Your support means a lot. I recommend all of these blogs, and am totally not biased.

 

Another super high-effort post by yours truly. Music plays a large part in my writing—shores it up by setting the mood. Strangely, or maybe not, the mood is fairly consistent. Whether writing scenes of cavorting through blood and blade or something introspective and dark, I tend to choose the same sort of music. I went to say otherwise, but it seems that while more electric songs can inspire bastinado, they aren’t necessary, or necessarily the tool for the task.

Maybe it’s just me, or maybe it’s the themes I’m writing. Maybe I don’t fucking know. Maybe. Maybe I should get to the fucking point. In thinking all this rambling should skirr on off, perhaps it’s that trait that makes writing Waray’s wandering speech come naturally. But enough of that. What I’ve been dancing around is that music that is somber, or at least has the feeling of being somber, has always played a large part in my writing. Doesn’t matter what I’m writing. Scene or subject matter be damned, give me something that makes me feel shittier than I already feel. It’s an effective snake-eating-its-own-tail cycle. Feel shitty -> Listen to music that makes you feel shitty -> write things that make you feel shitty -> Feel shitty. Could be that there’s a battle raging, all so much blood and adrenaline. Doesn’t make a difference to me—it’s only an issue of spinning the track to suit the content. Probably a good thing I’m not meant to be writing something that’s all tickety-boo.

Some of the regulars:

It is, I think, no secret that authors end up researching a variety of topics to some extent in writing a novel. Or that they should anyway. Even if it doesn’t seem like they do despite all the “1 hour of research for 1 sentence” images on social media (that are nevertheless true at times). This post is meant for authors looking for somewhere to start. It is a short post, in no way comprehensive, but here’s hoping it helps. I’ve included some specific entries near the bottom (Where Etc.) that may be of interest to fantasy authors.

Why

There’s a quotation I’ve brought up on multiple occasions, and despite my efforts, have not been able to pin with absolute certainty to Guy Gavriel Kay. All the same, I’m going to do so. If I recall correctly, he once said something along the lines of, “A lack of knowledge in any given subject is glaring in writing.”

Whoever said it, it stuck with me. And I believe other authors would do well to listen to his advice. A reader doesn’t need to be an expert in a field to know you’re fucking clueless. What’s more, familiarizing yourself with a topic will encourage better writing and, at times, inspire related ideas.

Where

This has cropped up on Reddit and the r/Fantasy Discord fairly regularly. Well-meaning authors want to research but aren’t sure where to start. Naturally, it will depend on what you’re looking to research. For the sake of the reader, I’m going to make this as concise as possible.

Academic Papers

• Academia.edu
• JSTOR
• Google Scholar
• Bibliographies are research shopping lists.

Libraries & Public Sources

• While university libraries are a mainstay, don’t overlook private collections or museum libraries.
• Project Gutenberg
• Google Books: More of an index, but may help in searches.
• Wikipedia: References and External Links sections.
• Wikipedia Commons: Excellent source of media references.
• Archive.org

Personal Experience

• Learning swordsmanship or, well, anything featured in your story—prominently or not—can breathe life into those scenes that can only be found in experience.

Experts

• If it’s important, don’t be afraid to get in touch with experts in the field.
• Seek out their books, papers, projects, and websites.
• Search for their lectures. Many are available on Youtube.

Dedicated Websites

• For every field out there, there’s a maven, scholar, community, or organization. Sometimes, they’re dedicated or computer-savvy enough to start a website. While this is more open-ended, there’s a great deal of content to be unearthed for the discerning author, and you have got to fucking learn to use Google.
• Google Search Operators: See above.

Where Etc.

More specific, fantasy-related content.

• A Writer’s Guide to Horses
• Guide to Horse Colors and Patterns
• The Archery Library
• The Lost Treasure Chest: Requires some searching, but plenty of media.
• World History Maps
• Introduction to Historical Combat
• Travel in the Ancient World and Ships and Seamanship in the Ancient World by Lionel Casson
• The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Daily Life
• Campfires
  • Tinder: lights easily and flares quickly (ignition). Fine twigs of hemlock, pine, laurel. Shredded bark of birch, white birch, cedars, grapevine. Dry leaves when nothing else. Dried grass, standing. Dried weed tops.
  • Kindling Wood: seasoned dry wood for flame (standing dead trees are good for this). Pine and hemlock due to resin. No bark except dead wood taken from tree. Good wood has a jagged snap and is dry. “If you can’t snap it, scrap it.”
  • Coaling Wood: holds heat and produces charcoal. Do not use dead sticks that have come in contact with ground.
  • Lighting Fire: face the wind and light on windward side. When putting out use water, sand and earth. Waterproofing matches: carry in bag, or pour melted paraffin over them.

How

• Don’t only keep notebooks for writing; keep them for research notes, too.
• Vet your sources. Information can be wrong or outdated.
• Consider biases. Who wrote what you’re reading, why, and what’s their relationship to the subject?
• Chaff isn’t always chaff. It sometimes turns out that a negligible detail was anything but.

Now get to it.