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That’s the key point I “want” to hear.
My dread is that have spent the money on an actual artist for the cover, everyone will go. “Oh, the first was so much better, you shouldn’t have wasted the money!”
Cool!
I love the school is dangerous in particular!
I am thinking some of these lines might be great for ads. Early on I run ads in different places, sometimes with images. I like to spice them up with different blurbs, the idea that different blurbs work for different people.
Thanks!
“You thought your school was bad-ass? Try Lenamare’s Academy of Wizardry!”
Yeah all tables there and at end. It’s no where near as table heavy as book 1. I may work to reformat non-tabular if they are amenable.
It also depends on how space ends up going if a lot gets added in beta, that would be less appendix, if a lot gets cut might need new ones.Hi,
In the case of the telecom mirrors, there is a chant that has to be done, you need to know the phone number/have a link to the person. For a non-wizard to use a facetime mirror, the links would have to be preset (like a speed dial) using Wizard Links. A wizard can attach the mirror to anyone that they have a link to already, or whom they know very very well.
Talarius mirror is on all the time. And yes, that in fact is the basis of what makes his mirror work. It shows the aurora of the person on the other side of it.
The telephone mirrors have a gem/lens on the front of the mirror to take the image of the person holding/looking at the mirror. Talarius’ mirror has the gem on the back side (rear camera).
I should also point out that what Talarius does with the mirror is what he knows it does. It is not impossible that the mirror might do other things, see other related things but this is what we know Talarius can do with.
One would suspect it capable of seeing ghosts, revealing undead and similar soul related things. However, “we” only know what Talarius used it for. We don’t know if he knew how to see other things with it, since it didn’t come up. However, given his line of work, it’s not inconceivable that it might have other uses and that he might know how to use it that way.
We won’t learn in Book II however, as the mirror is with the Rod, and Talarius isn’t. And BTW, his sword and horse are really getting freaked by his absence.
Ha! It’s not just me! I asked the same question when I first saw it and asked, shouldn’t he be looking at Lenamare or one of the wizards?
What Tom is supposed to be doing is looking at his hand/claws in terror/fascination. The blue glow is the magic of first formation/materialization.
We went back and forth on the blue light of materialization. If we hadn’t done the light, I’d have had the artist draw him looking at Lenamare or Trisfelt.
However, I decided I wanted to keep the blue light since as you shrink the cover it helps Tom stand out as the stones get rather dark towards the top.
So I then decided to keep him looking at his hand/claws because as he forms he’s going to be in shock. That’s also the expression on his face.
It makes sense, once you know, I think. But wondering if it will be too distracting. Although, I’ve heard enough about distracting positions/proportions from the first cover that I’m hoping it’s still a step up in terms of less weirdness to the first time viewer.
As far as Lenamare drawing too much attention?
I’m sorry, I thought you met the man in book 1? That is sort of who he is! I would not be surprised if he wasn’t sending the artist instructions on the side!
It sounds like something he would demand of any image with him in it.
As far as attention to detail…I think it’s there, but there is an issue of a) size and b) lighting/shadow.
Here is a full size (scaled down for forum) clip of Triseflet and Lenamre. I can see Lenamare’s hair and robe folds. But also remember the idea is to have less detail on non-major characters, so Tom gets the most detail. Look at his scales.
Download (or just click on) this image and open it it is like 1390×1100. The stupid forum software is setting max width and height to be 500 and I can’t figure out how to override that code.
[url=http://www.astlan.net/Portals/9/summoningcloseup.jpg][img=http://www.astlan.net/Portals/9/summoningcloseup.jpg]Close Up Summoning[/img][/url]
He will be gratified by your comments!
And his commanding presence is to a point very intentional. The summoning is a battle of two egos, Tom and Lenamare. Refer back to Edwyrd and Lenamare at dinner. This confrontation between the two is something that haunts both of them. You will see this come back again in book ii.
The demon is raw overwhelming power. But the wizard, a mere mortal, by use of his knowledge and will power can control, dominate and bind this giant monster.
We were really trying to get to ‘old school demon summoning’ in which the wizard is the hero, not the demon.
Hi,
One thing that I sort of think confused a few people/or was not completely obvious was the time table of events in book 1.
Book 1 takes place over a grand total of 30 Astlanian days. 1 1/2 Anuropian Quarter Months, 3 weeks.
There were some multi-day gaps in the book, particularly near the beginning, but by the end time was pretty much contiguous.
Book 2 takes place over an even shorter period of 10 Astlanian days. One week/half a quarter month. By the end of Book 2, Tom will have been a demon for only 1 Uropian month.
This is a very fast time table for most fantasy books. I think this is why so many people were perplexed about things like a love interest for Tom…between adjusting and the various insanity, there was no time to really build a relationship for him. Under the best of conditions with a job/school how likely are you to find a new love interest with 30 days of moving to a new country? Particularly one where no one gets your Star Trek and Star Wars references?
Anyway, book ii moves into hyperdrive and we have almost the same number of words/pages in book 2 but one third the time, the fact that demons and avatars don’t sleep, means we have round the clock 20 hour action that is all mostly sequential or maybe overlapping.
So do you guys think including periodic date/time updates would be useful?
T-A-G
In the first book some of the time was a little fuzzy to me as well…I wrote it over a very long period of time.
I have subsequently gone back during the re-editing and stuck dates in the Word Comments, so I know what is/was when.
In theory, Abyss and Astlan do match up. I did check that, but I get the fuzziness–I felt it too. If I were waxing poetic, I’d say that time seems to pass much more slowly in the abyss since there aren’t a lot of reference points (at least as far as Tom knew) No day or night, no sun, not a lot of weather. There was a lot of boredom while there.
Now, of course, there is absolutely no reason that time should move the same in all the realms, particularly as you get farther out. However one would expect nearby planes to have a similar t axis.
Of course measurement of time varies by planet rotation and that is something that inter dimensional travelers have to deal with and starts to actually get interesting by the end of book ii.
Anyway, for all nearby planes delta t or the change in time as measured by an accurate device should be the same move the same. But other than Tizzy, who is to say how ‘close’ the Abyss is.
However, while delta t is the same, the time of day maybe very different because of the rotation rate. days on one planet might be 3/4 the length of another planet etc.
Actually, there is quite a bit of discussion on such things in book ii (in conversations) as it starts to get important.
As a hint, a lot LOT more happens in the Abyss this time.
Viewpoints will be doing that a lot.
I am trying to get Chapters under control. I am going for fewer/longer chapters, mainly because Chapter breaks in Dead Trees require wasting a page if you always want to start a chapter on an odd page…and the previous one ends on an even one.
So therefore I am using
~
Subheadings to show point of view shifts.
Because so much is happening at about the same time, there are a lot of these. It’s designed even more like a modern TV show with scene switching, than the previous book.
Yes the time delta is the same between the Abyss and Astlan. Time does move the same.
There is no day or night in the Abyss, except in the courts. The fake days typically correlate to someplace on Astlan…not clear where.
Hi,
One complaint I have heard in reviews is that keeping track of all the characters gets difficult. Particularly as they can pop in at any time.
First: Try reading “A Song of Ice and Fire” you want to talk about a cast of characters that no one can keep track of? When a new one appears on GoT, I’m like OK, who was this again? Which book? What did they do? Will they do?
But anyway…There is a Who’s Who on the website. Doesn’t get a lot of visits, but then it doesn’t have long biography entries at this point.
Would it be useful to have this in an Appendix in the book?
First a note on new Appendices.
In the 2nd Edition, only the shortest/most critical appendices stay in line. The rest move to the end and have links between chapters where they used to be, and return links at the end of each appendix to take you back to where you left.
In Book II, all appendices are at the end, and the links to them are wherever appropriate in the book, either inline with the story or between sections or chapters.
So for example when someone views the Crystal Balling, there is a link to the transcript of the Crystal Ball recording of the battle right there in line. (At least the first time, otherwise the return links get confusing)
Also keep in mind, the more appendices, the less story. We are limited to about 240,000-250,000 words in the Dead Tree Edition.
Hi,
One of the things I have spent a lot of futile time on is how to do the feedback for the beta. E.g. comments and corrections. I’d played with the idea of writing a web app that has the document and allows multiple people to add comments or comment editing (e.g. put a rewording in a comment) because trying to coordinate a whole bunch of people making changes/suggestions can get tricky. Decided I had no where near enough time. But I think the idea is good and would be useful to a lot of authors. But anyway…
So what I am thinking to do is distribute the book in an agreed upon format/formats for people to read.
Then have a Topic in this forum for each chapter. I will number the subsections of the chapters. So when you want to comment on it, you’d go to the chapter topic and then put the section number 105.2 for example in the subject.
People can then interact on that section or argue with that change.
Does this seem reasonable? I am open to other suggestions.
Also for book distribution formats.
Unfortunately Amazon has no beta channel distribution platform, so I can send it through the store.
I am thinking to put out an AZW3 (most common current Kindle format) and PDF. I can also do some other formats if people request.
If you want to read on your Kindle or other Kindle like device/app, there are several ways to get it on your kindle, including plugging your Kindle into your computer and using [url=http://calibre-ebook.com/]Calibre[/url] or emailing it to your kindle’s email address.Thoughts?
T-A-G
Beta Demons or betademons are creatures that are endowed with extra sensory perception and are able to detect flaws in:
-Reality
-Continuity
-Geography
-History
-Spelling
-GrammerThey are able to see into alternate timelines of ‘what may be’ or ‘what might have been’
They have the ability to shape and influence reality in a very unique way. They are able to shape what happens in the next book in the series.
To all intents and purposes, a betademon is a betareader. They get access to the next book before it is published. They are charged with reading the book and [size=6][color=red][i][b]KEEPING IT A SECRET FROM ANYONE WHO IS NOT A BETADEMON!!![/b][/i][/color][/size]
The are required to read it carefully and look for issues of continuity, logic, pacing, awkward dialog, awkward scenes. Look for things that as a reader [color=blue]”Don’t sit well.”[/color] or [color=blue]”are not true to the character or story”[/color]
It is great if they can also find and report spelling and grammatical errors as this will make things much smoother for the Editor.
[color=brown][b]Editors and Beta Demons have different jobs.[/b][/color]
Editors read for language structure, style and grammar. They make sure the writing is technically correct.
They look at the word, phrase, sentence and paragraph levels to ensure it flows properly.A Beta Demon is more concerned with the overall story context, and while they do look for issues/errors/problems at the phrase, sentence and paragraph levels, they are more interested in [b][color=indigo]”does this passage make sense in the context of the story?”[/color][/b]
[size=6][color=darkred][b]What a Beta Demon reads is not necessarily going to be the final “official version” of the book.[/b][/color][/size]
If a group of beta demons decide that a chapter or section of the book isn’t working, doesn’t make sense. That section may be edited/change/removed at the author’s discretion.
This means that some events that happen in the beta version of the book, will never happen in the final book/timeline, if for example the betademons think it’s stupid/lame or confusing.
This can bother some people. You have to be able to hold two versions of book reality in your mind at once. The final, published version which is ‘reality’ and the beta version which may have different events, more events, or fewer events than happen in official reality.
Things that happen in beta may not happen in reality, and vice versa. So be prepared for that. [color=red][i][b] This is where most people flee.[/b][/i][/color]
