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One style I am talking to an artist about is something along the Myth Adventures line.
The original ones, not the later ones which I think are too cartoonish I think. But the early less cartoonish/more classical ones seem like a good sort of style.
Of course, the reverse of the cover is (literally) the blurb. Probably need to rework that for Book 1, and will need to generate one for book ii.
Several people weren’t thrilled with the current blurb, apparently thinking/fearing the book would be “Game of Cheech and Chongs”
Thanks!
I get into these conversations and while writing them, I know, but I don’t always detail and then later, even I have no idea.
This was probably the biggest “comment” item that the editor had in book 1. Lots of this sort of thing.
I know…too many knights. Hmm. Big thing for me was that normally when I used to say knight, I meant (mostly) Talarius…so when it’s Talarius vs Knight of Chaos…it was bugging me writing it.
Anyone got thoughts on alternate words/names?
Let’s pursue these ideas.
I agree with the hook problem and that’s part of what the hold up was on finally finishing…trying to get a bigger hook.
BTW on Talarius…my long term goal is to have him seriously conflicted about Good vs Evil.
Reference now, discussions between Sentir Falon and Lilith and Talarius emotions upon talking to Tal Gor
[SPOILER]
There is one point, and only one point where I mention antimus.
While not well known, animus is or can be polarized. It balances between the positive and negative planes (wizards don’t know anything about this hence it’s not in the library) There is a huge theory that Lilith will maybe have a diatribe about at some point but.
By and large none of the supernaturals actually believe in good and evil. It really is sort of like Tom tells Antefalken, at least as far as most gods and avatars believe.
However, there both positive and negative forces in the multiverse. Call it order/chaos, yin/yang, creation/destruction whatever. And animus can be polarized.
There is animus that everyone talks about but there is also antimus. Think antimatter and matter.
Point is…Aodh, Sentir Fallon and Lilith used Antimus in creating the dagger that killed Orcus. The dagger literally eats animus. Tom knows this emotionally, if not technically, that’s why he is sure Orcus is dead. Permanently.
Lilith knows this, Sentir Fallon doesn’t get it.
The problem is, the presence of Excrathadorus Mortis within the Church of Tiernon (and the Rod) has had a corrupting influence. Talarius has been carrying it for several years and was being influenced. It’s not possession, it’s subtle, understated, but corrupting.
Now that Excrathadorus Mortis is destroyed. Talarius is now free of its influence. Influence he didn’t realize he was under.
[/SPOILER]
If WoT didn’t drive you to begin with, I wouldn’t bother.
Although you could just read the first and leave it at that. He wrote the first book with a victory at the end in such a manner that if he didn’t get many sales, it could end there. The second book reopens the case to demonstrate the ‘victory’ of book 1 was only the opening gambit in a much bigger story.
The problem is that it just keeps going and going and going and doesn’t seem to get much of anywhere.
It could probably have been done in 4 books maybe 5. But he strung it out adding lots of filler for not a lot of good reason (plot wise). I was OK with it at first, thrilled a bit…but then the time between books got long and the books so complicated I couldn’t remember who was who and what was what and …
The Belgariad series by David Eddings is very similar
1.1 Pawn of Prophecy
1.2 Queen of Sorcery
1.3 Magician’s Gambit
1.4 Castle of Wizardry
1.5 Enchanters’ End GameAnd it ends. Did I like individual parts of WoT better, yes. Is WoT a bit more Epic in scale? Yes. But in its entirety the Belgariad is not so bloated and it ends.
Thanks for the heads up.
Tizzy posted the wrong link. He posted the link for Beta Demon Sandwich, which put people in a queue to be added to one of his sandwiches.
Here is the correct link
[url=http://www.astlan.net/Default.aspx?rsvp=DoAHHBetaDemon&portalid=9]Heavenly Host Beta Demons[/url]
In all seriousness, I had first created a Beta Demon group, but then went and added a Heavenly Host Bets Demon group. Thinking maybe I wanted separate groups for each book.
Tizzy posted the first link for just beta demons not HH beta demons, and the new forum is set for HH Beta Demons.
I will go and correct the membership of people who clicked the old link.
Hi,
I think everyone found 2 boring…working on that big time right now.
The gathering for the feast is long, I am trying to give a good introduction in particular to Tal Gor and the orcs’ perspectives. I think that will be more clear in beta 2. In Book 1, we got the demons’ side in demons vs wizards, I am trying to get people into the orcs’ side in Elves vs Orcs..
Great point on the interactivity with the D’Orcs.
Thanks, updated all but the last.
“Hir” is correct, you will notice I used it quite a bit in this section.
Hir is the science fiction derived gender neutral/hermaphroditic form of his/her etc.
You seldom see it in Fantasy, but it used to be very common in early science fiction where we were introduced to alien civilizations.
Djinn have no gender, they take something pleasing to their master/mistress.
Truth be told, one of the big perks of being an ‘enslaved’ genie is that 1) you get a physical body and 2) you get to have sex. They love physical sex, it is so very very different from the way djinn normally interact with others. Very personal/intimate, but yet in isolated bodies unable to fully commune with the other as djinn do.
Remember everyone to switch to beta 3!
[SPOILER]Well the holding hands etc is very slowmo romance. So this is important for that main reason. [/SPOILER]
I think I really need to figure out a way to spice thos plot line up; there are key long things I want in there as setup, but how to get them in without inadvertently casting a sleeping spell upon the reader is the question.
Yeah, I know!
these guys are great! I love betademons! However, I’ve put money down, I’m sure she’ll find things, particularly because there may be a lot of rewrite stuff that the in depth people may not have the time to get back to do a pass on.
From book 1, most of my “errors” of that sort came from late additions. First pass stuff I had read so many times, and some friends had that the old stuff was solid, until I went and rewrote it….
I’ve also encountered this program [url=https://prowritingaid.com/]ProWritingAid[/url] It’s $35/year. It has a Word plug in and will go through and analyze stuff far beyond what MS does with Grammar etc. And it explains why, rather than just “comma use”
It’s a bit slow if you make too big a chunk to analyze so you need to do small batches, but it’s perfect for me on a per scene basis.
Why do you think Reggie OD’d on pot?
He didn’t, unless you mean at the beginning when he was human, same with Tom. They were just having an out of body experiences and they would have eventually reeled back in as the drug war off if crazy wizards had not bound them and cut their astral cords.
If I implied that at Mount Doom I need to clear that up.
HOWEVER…Demon Weed is like X-Glargh. Demon’s (and D’Orcs) are just stoned pretty normally. You don’t OD, you pass out/fall asleep. Many will be doing exactly that at Mount Doom.
Humans on the other hand are very seriously affected, more like LSD. It’s not a hallucination though.
Shamans, Seers, Sorcerers all use demon weed when they can get it to help them with trances, out of body experiences, seeing, scrying. Note that the shamans started shoveling cookies and were puzzled why a party would be serving psychotropic drugs at the party (it affects orcs like humans, and clearly the shamans had never been to a party in LA)
Demon Weed is the preferred material component of Spirit Walking, Astral Projection. It can also be used in spells/rituals to get you to the Aetherial plane(s) (Where unicorns roam–along with others)
It is totally psychotropic as far as humans and orcs (and most mortals) are concerned.
We are now getting somewhere. You are making a path in the forst.
I actually got more usable information from you this time then in some of the beta. Your advice here on Jenn and Gastrope’ was good. I needed more stuff like that. You say cut, I say it’s important and I can’t cut it, (and I did cut stuff, like the guys on the boat, the roller coaster) so you then say, OK, we can improve it by have them discussing the guys in the grove, etc. That’s what I mean.
You are correct on Hilda, I conflated your criticism with some others and the general “lack of Tom” in the first half. To be honest I have trouble remembering what is in current reviews and what was in beta discussion. At some points it becomes a blur.
Dirk is basing this on on the current discussion/and or other public discussions, he was not in the beta program and does not have access to the beta forum.
Hi,
So I screwed around with a bunch of different formats, but with Calibre it really wants to know device info to paginate stuff.
This means that one format doesn’t seem nice for a lot of devices…
I think, as Rosver mentioned, epub might be the best option. The AZW3’s for Kindle really get wacky…Kindle, Kindle DX, Kindle PW, Fire, etc.
If you want a special format post it here and I’ll see what I can do.
T-A-G
