Yea! Thanks to those of you who nominated. The judges have chosen Servant of a Dark God as a Whitney Award finalist. Of course, the four other books in the category are great. Here’s the list of finalists in my category:
Check out all finalists in all categories here. If you click on the Whitney Academy link on the top of that site, you’ll see all the folks who will be voting on the finalists.
For all of you in the greater Salt Lake City area, we have three major publishing houses–Tor, Baen, and DAW–donating lots of free goodies for the signings. 40 free hardcovers, ARCs, and other promo stuff. Some of it you can’t get in stores. For example, you can get a free ARCs of Larry Correia’s VENDETTA while they last.
Here are the folks that will be there along with my beautiful self.
Come to the one at Barnes & Noble from 11 am – 1 pm or the one at Borders from 3 pm – 5 pm. See my calendar for address and details.
See you there!
Folks, this book was a blast to write. I feel like I did when I wrote “Loose in the Wires.” Here are my stats.
I’m surprised at my drafting speed on this one. I’m usually between 500-600 words per hour. Of course, there were a few spots where I ran into huge gaping holes in my invention. For example, at the end of June I finished the climax. But I couldn’t write the last two chapters, which usually take no time at all, because I realized I knew nothing about the criminal justice system. I knew TV generalities, but not the kind of detail I need. Not enough to envision the last 5,000 words. So all my writing time in July was spent researching. There were a couple other invention stops earlier on. So that’s my excuse. Let’s hope the next one goes faster so I’m not totally embarassed.
If I were full time, I could have finished this in 10 weeks. As it was, I started drafting in January. My goal is to write two books a year. I’m not going to make it at this speed. Let’s see how book 2 goes.
Here are my next steps. I’m going to let BP sit for three to four weeks to cool. I’ll then read it and revise. Then it goes out to my readers. I hope to be shopping this one around by the end of September.
In the meantime, I’ve already been noodling around with the ideas for book two in this series. My goal is to finish the working outline while this one’s cooling off.
On Feb 1, 2008 my wonderful agent, Caitlin Blasdell of Liza Dawson Associates, informed me that the details are all finalized and I can shout it to the world.
Tor books (an imprint of St. Martins) has given me a very nice deal (as categorized on Publisher’s Marketplace) for a 3-book, traditional epic fantasy series. Each book is to be from 120-140k words. David Hartwell will be my editor (so stoked about that!). The three were sold based on my completed novel, SERVANT OF A DARK GOD, and the synopsis of the following two, CURSE OF A DARK GOD, and DARK GOD’S GLORY. The first should be out in the summer of 2009.
Back in July, I contacted the talented Victor Minguez again to do this cover. I sent him a creative brief with three scenes that I thought would work well. Victor read the passages, then came back with some sketches.
One of the scenes was of Sugar, battling howlers in the world of soul. Two parts of the reference I gave were the following. The first suggested an interesting lace pattern that fit my image of Sugar’s skenning. The second was a dead ringer for a howler. It’s actually “Lion,” made of used tires and steel by Yong Ho Ji. Okay I found it on Pinterest. But it’s absolutely gorgeous. I really thought this scene with Sugar would be the one.
Victor’s sketch is below. You can see the howlers in the foreground about to attack.
The second and third scenes were of Argoth facing down Mokad’s Guardian and Matiga and her fell-maidens in the final battle. The fell-maidens are women you don’t want to mess with. Some of the reference included these. BTW, if you’re interested in other images I’ve captured, feel free to browse my Pinterest collections.
This is the sketch he came back with. His notes explained that the enemy line would be reflected in the sword.
I love the idea of Sugar and those howlers. I can see the image in my mind, and it’s awesome. But we felt this would make a more appealing cover. Maybe someday we’ll pay for someone to do that Sugar illustration just for the heck of it.
The next step was to do a value study. This was the first.
I wanted to see what a couple of variations might look like.
Ultimately, I thought all three of these were powerful. The first two really draw attention to her eyes and give a great focal point and hierarchy. In fact, I still go back and forth even now. But I did like seeing more of her face. I think anyone of them could have been great, but we ended up going with the third. A little magic from the artist, and Shazam!
There are a lot of things to love about this. Victor’s gorgeous backlighting and halo effects. The part of the story told in the reflection in the sword. And the fact that this woman is not some fluff bunny, running around in ridiculous bikini wear. She’s even got a bit of sneer or growl going on. My friends, this is a freaking fell-maiden. I also like that Victor etched an important symbol into the armor.
Here’s the illustration in the cover.
Dixon Leavitt is an amazing artist. He recently emailed me saying: “Sometimes I just start sketching with no plan in mind. This just popped out. Thought you’d like to see it.” It’s Hunger from Servant of a Dark God.
Duuuuuuuuuuuude!
Dixon explains the step by step of the creation of this painting at dixondoodles.blogspot.com. You’ll want to noodle around that blog to see the other artwork he’s done.
