Raveler is now up on Audible! The other two books are getting excellent reviews so far for both the story and performance by Alex Wyndham. So happy to have these up in audio. Many readers have been asking for audio versions for years.
So I’m up to 20,000 words on the next novel. The working title used to be Lord of Bones, but that doesn’t fit it right now. So the title has now changed to The Drovers. It may change again. This is the first book in an epic fantasy series that has the potential for many, many novels.
It about a retired, deadly mercenary named Borros who is trying to live the good life as a man of cattle, and smuggling blackmeal (a forbidden magic substance) on the side. A war with Osson, the kingdom across the sea, is imminent. And Borros has contracted with the king’s agent to deliver 250 head of cattle to the capitol city to help supply the king’s army. But then the crew he hires turns on him and tries to kill him and steal the herd. He and the camp cook defeat them, but there’s no way he can drive the cattle by himself, not where he’s going. He goes to the next village to hire a new crew, but the men refuse. And he has no choice but to hire a crew of boys. A week into the journey, far beyond any place they could get help, something begins to stalk them. And he and the boys are going to have to use all their wits and skills to survive.
On Wednesday, at 8:53 PM, I finished the first draft of Assassin.
It clocked in at just over 97,000 words, making it the biggest book in the Drovers series. Prey was 73,000 words, Outlaws 68,000, and Sura 84,000.
More importantly, Assassin finishes the story arc that began with Prey. I may return to Ferran and company for another arc in the future, but I wanted these books to have a real, satisfying ending. And now they have one, if only in first-draft form.
Nobody but me sees the first draft of what I write. For good reason.
I’ll let it sit for a week or two so I can come back to it cold and discover that I’ve changed people’s clothing mid-scene, used the word sit six times in three paragraphs, and committed other literary crimes.
Draft two goes to my beta readers, who report where they were excited, bored, confused, or questioned my grasp of reality.
Draft three addresses those issues and gets a thorough line edit, even though I’ve found the best way to discover spelling errors is to think you’ve found them all and then publish your book. At that point, the devils come out of hiding and begin dancing around on the page.
Dixon Leavitt, the artist who created the previous three covers, will be doing this one as well.
If all goes well, Assassin should be out for the holidays.
One of my favorite discoveries in the book was a lad named Weff.
I didn’t set out to write Weff. I didn’t know he existed. But I was up on the hill behind my house on one of my writing walks, walking and talking to myself about the story, when he suddenly appeared.
Broniss has streets paved with cobblestones, and the queen wants them kept clean. The problem is that horses, oxen, and other beasts have an unfortunate habit of leaving things behind.
So the city has children assigned to territories whose job is to keep those streets clear.
They’re called muck runners.
And Weff is one with an enterprising mind.
That’s one of the delights of writing for me. Sometimes you plan a character for months. Sometimes you’re walking along a dirt road talking to yourself and a manure boy shows up. And suddenly he must have a part in the tale.
While you’re waiting for the big wrap up, if you’re looking for an audiobook, I highly recommend Tim Curry’s reading of Garth Nix’s Sabriel. It’s a terrific fantasy to begin with, but Curry’s performance makes it even better. His rendition of Mogget is so enjoyable you may find yourself listening a second time.
If you’ve heard an audiobook performance you absolutely loved, tell me. I’m always looking for the next good listen.
Until next time,
John
Just got back from a wonderful trip with Larry Correia down to Phoenix. We did 2 signings and hit 23 bookstores in 1.5 days. Our new zipcode map GPS method rocks! Have three interesting things to report.
First, we have a great time at The Poisoned Pen, an independent bookstore in Scottsdale. Lori and the other two guys whose names I forgot (doh!) were wonderful hosts. We talked about our books, fielded questions, and then signed. Had a great time. A lot of laughing and good stories shared. If you’re ever in their area, you should stop by and check out the store.
It was also nice meeting Valerie Moore, a reader I met on Twitter, who makes her own beads. Cool thing is–she’s doing a new design inspired by the book called “The Grove.” Can’t wait to see what it looks like.
I also need to comment on Mysterious Galaxy, the store we went to in San Diego. Patrick and his crew were also wonderful hosts. This is also the first bookstore I’ve been into dedicated to science fiction and fantasy. The folks who showed up were hard core fans. We loved it. I hope I get to go back again and again.
BTW, anyone wanting to pick up signed copies can get them at either place while they last. I believe both stores do a lot of mail business as well.
Another comment along these lines. We noticed a dramatic difference between stores. Larry and I both agreed that the Barnes & Noble (Bookstar, which is a B&N store as well) and the independent stores (Poisoned Pen, Mysterious Galaxy) consistently showed the best customer service. They also consistently showed the most business sense. Kudos to them.
Second, Larry had a bunch of gun owner friends show up to the signing and then invite us out to dinner the next night. We had a great time. Polite, good-natured, and fun. Of course, a number of them were carrying concealed weapons. And I’ll tell you what–never felt safer in my life. Now, I know some people are going to say, hey, that’s just an accident waiting to happen and if any bad dudes show up you’re just more likely to get shot or have the gun stolen.
Um.
No.
These guys don’t just carry weapons. These guys live and breathe weapons. They customize guns. They shoot them and train with them in competitions. These guys know guns like I know my keyboard. I wish I could have remembered all their names–Chris, Hiram, Mark, the dude with the Hooters wife, and the other dude who drives for an armored truck company (and wears a kilt!), and about five others.
Thanks to Chris for a great dinner at Famous Dave’s!
I wish I could post pictures. I promised myself I take a camera on this trip. Dang it. Denver. I shall document Denver.
Finally, I have to write about a guy in the Mesa Barnes & Noble where we were holding our informal signing. We were in the cafe. My great sister had brought rum cake muffins and everyone who came was eating them and talking. One of them asked me how I got the idea. So I told them the cow story and about the idea of humans being ranched for their souls. And just after I finished this a guy who had been reading behind us, a B&N customer, stands up and says, “Your book it true! Your book is true!” He had a beard and was all bug-eyed.
At first I thought he was joking.
Nope.
He said lizard men were ranching humans and I needed to read book xyz by author abc. Later he told my sister that the Bible showed they’ve interbred with humans and are taking our souls.
Lizard men… and all this time I thought it was the socialists that were going to get us.
Larry and I had talked earlier in the day about the demographics of our audiences. His audience was easy–red-state conservatives, military folks, & gun nuts. I expressed my trouble finding an easily identifiable demographic tag for my readers. But now I know–I got the crazies. 😛
Folks, I have moved into making the line edits, which means we are on the home stretch. The manuscript is 888 pages long. I expect it to take 40-50 hours to make all the edits I marked. However, you have to remember that has to be worked in around my day job. Then we do the copy edit. I expect my portion of that will take another 40 hours. And then I take a day off work to create the book in the POD and ebook formats and publish. We are oh so close!
Folks, were are so close to having the cover work done for SERVANT and BAD PENNY. But it’s not done yet. So we’re slipping the delivery into November. CURSE will move back to early December. We lost two months with the issues we encountered with our original art projects. This time, though, we’re going to make it. And you will be pleased with the results.
