What Was I Thinking

I'm currently taking a writing break as I prepare for some much needed vacation time.  However, in between work and cleaning things up, I'm also spending some time rereading my books.  I'm currently on Chapter 15 in The Fourth Age.  What do I think when I read my books?  I love this story.  I love my characters.  I wrote this primarily for myself.  I wanted it to be the perfect blend of action and character development.  I wanted it to capture the emotions I was feeling when I read or watched similar scenes in books, movies or television.  On all these fronts I'm extremely pleased.  If I was starting over or rewriting these books now, there is very little, if anything in regards to these aspects that I would change.  It's still the best damn story in my head.

That doesn't mean I don't sometimes cringe over the actual sentence structure and use of grammar.  I don't want to imply it's bad.  It's not.  Sometimes it's good.  But there are passages and sometimes pages that could use some improvement.  I'm sensitive to each sentence I wish I had written better.  I'd like to think I've learned how to do better along the way.  So will I ever take the time to rewrite and improve some of the grammar?  I doubt it.  I'm self-published and it's does cost money to publish these books.  I put them out there for the few who want to read them and the friends and family who care.  If you have similar ideas, just be aware that quality does not equal profit.  I suspect that is true for a majority of books in circulation.  Besides, writing is fun.  Going back and rewriting an already published book is not fun.

So as I'm rereading my first book (for over the tenth time), it brings back memories of how and why I went about starting this journey.  Of course I've documented in several blogs that the story started out as a dungeons and dragons adventure and from there became the epic adventure I eventually wrote.  But what thoughts went into it's creation?  I'd like to spend the next several paragraphs sharing some of those thoughts.  WARNING:  There are spoilers.  I'll try to keep them to a minimum, but they are there.  Stop now if you don't want to know any of the reveals until you read them.

First, I wanted an epic story.  I wanted a story that would start one way, but as layers are pulled back would reveal a whole new story.  So at a high level I mapped out each book.  At one point I thought the story might take twelve books to tell.  Then at another point I thought it would take seven.  Finally, I decided that the main story was best served in three arcs and each would encompass it's own trilogy.  I toyed with the idea of writing three books that would be compilations of short stories that provided more background into some of the characters.  I still toy with that idea once in a while, but for the most part those background stories ended up as shortened flashback sequences in the body of the main work.

So what were those three main story arcs?  MAJOR SPOILER ALERT:  The first one would serve as a classic battle of good versus evil, but with some shades of grey.  I needed to introduce a brand new world and along the way explain how it worked.  It was important that while the world feel familiar to the reader, it was definitely not Earth.  I didn't want to get bogged down in trying to make the story fit historically into Earth's timeline.  I love history and I wanted to create my world's history.  Of course I knew good would triumph over evil, but it was designed as a setup for an even greater evil in the second trilogy.  I also needed my characters to grow and become more powerful if they were to survive.

I decided to lean heavily upon magic in my series.  So when things happen that can't be explained physically, just attribute it to magic.  Or you can attribute it to divine intervention.  Take your pick, but if it feels like something couldn't happen, I wanted a world where wondrous and strange things can happen.  I wanted the first book to tell about the gathering of heroes and I wanted to introduce them through an epic quest.  The first book was always intended to end with the catatrophic event prophecized throughout.  I wanted it to have a little bit of a feel that the heroes are racing against a clock they can't see, and in the end of this chapter they would lose.

Volume two was intended to complete the heroes journey.  I wanted them to experience loss and toughen them up for the final chapter of the first trilogy.  I wanted to take Celecia and Dakoran's journey and take their romance to the next level.  While this first trilogy spends equal time on a number of characters, the story was always intended to center around their journey.  No one suffers more loss in the books than Celecia, but at the core of her being is strength founded in love and hope.  That was a gift left to her by her father and one she would not relinquish for the entire series.  I also wanted a romance that would have bumps along the way, but was also firmly grounded in openness and trust.  Read and you'll see what I mean.  To an extent that openness was forced upon them, but they also didn't back away from it.

Volume three was intended to end the first trilogy.  While the heroes completed their journey in the second book, now the story becomes a little bit of a chess game.  They find Terek has significantly expanded his control and set up a base of operations at Mt. Bardoom.  I also wanted to introduce the threat they would face in the second trilogy, but it would operate mostly in the background.  In a familiar vein, Terek's plans would progress and he would get perilously close to achieving total domination.  But in a final desparate battle, he would be killed and his plans undone.  The world would be free from his control.  You can stop reading there if you like.

That brings me to volume four and the start of the second trilogy.  As introduced in the first trilogy, death isn't always final.  And so it should be no surprise when its revealed that Terek is still alive, sort of.  In order to fully reclaim his life he needs to take a gamble.  This pits him against an even greater and older evil.  And so this trilogy digs deeper into Verdan's past and reveals more about the gods (or demigods) that rule over Verdan and how much of what has happened is by their design.  Terek may be the only one who partially understands this and tries to alter Verdan's destiny.  The second trilogy is less about a journey and an epic confrontation than it is about political maneuvering.

The fourth book was also intended to take Celecia and Dakoran's journey to the next step.  They marry early in the book and take a honeymoon (I often refer to it as "the honeymoon from hell").  We also learn what has happened to the other characters that survived the first trilogy and I begin to weave another story that takes each of them on their own journey.  Some minor characters in the first trilogy play a bigger role this time around (Aelgyd, Rayne and TeLin come to mind).  And then of course there is Adara.  We learn her tragic story and set her up to be a more frightening villain than Terek.  In fact Terek uses that to sway some to forgive his past crimes and enlist his aid.  Some of that support comes from a very surprising source.

The fifth book picks up with the resurrections of Adara and Terek.  Terek no longer has control of an army and needs to use subterfuge to regain some of his control.  Adara wants nothing but destruction.  This is racism at its ultimate as she seeks to wipe out all the non-human races.  She is very powerful and getting more powerful as the book progresses.  She kills many, but I intended to hammer home the point that her threat is real and give some idea why good intentioned people would welcome Terek's aid.  In the meantime, the gods of Verdan are not happy.  They have their own plans and have seen magic and Terek in particular threaten those plans.  To that end, Terek, Dakoran and Celecia are threatened by most of the gods and then helped (for unknown reasons) by an unlikely pair.

The fifth book also centers around the vampires of Verdan and explains the consequences of Dakoran and Celecia's actions back in volume 2.  In that book they killed the vampire lord, Balgor and created a power vacuum.  The consequences of those actions are brought to Izmira and ultimately result in an unimaginable tragedy and very nearly the loss of everything.  This is the only book that ends in a tantalizing cliffhanger that concludes in the opening chapter of volume 6

Volume 6 brings to a conclusion the second trilogy of the main story.  Once again Celecia is tested and with the help of her husband and friends she pulls through.  Adara finally acheives the level of power she has been seeking.  All of the heroes finally gather in New Syton and once again head to Mt. Bardoom.  This volume has not one epic battle at the end, but three.  First, I need to show Adara at the height of her power.  She faces a legendary group of heroes and kills all of them (with one exception).  Flush with victory she seeks to destroy the elves of Seahaven and the dragon queen, Phaedra.  It is a battle she comes close to winning, but an alliance between Terek and Celecia turns the tide and she meets her end.

But then it is Terek who betrays the alliance and takes Adara's power for his own.  He discovers one of the god's secrets and also seeks to harness the power of an unstoppable army.  This time it takes the combined effort of all Verdan's heroes to bring his ambitions to an end.  More losses are suffered, but once again it is Celecia and Dakoran at the center of bringing him down.  He is apparantly destroyed and the world appears to have found the elusive peace it was promised.  I seek to tie up all of the character loose ends at the end of this trilogy.  Feel free to stop reading here if you wish.  The only hint that the story isn't done is the smile of a god.  The god's plans have suffered a setback, but they are not over.

As always intended, the third trilogy leaves behind the mideaval type world of Verdan.  Celecia is abducted by a god and sent 2000 years into Verdan's future.  Now the book becomes almost more of an urban fantasy.  It's like taking Merlin or Gandalf or some other legendary wizard and dropping them into our world (or a world that closely resembles ours).  I know, there have been some movies that attempted this premise, but none of them ever satisfied me.  Going forward, there is a science fiction aspect to the series that runs parallel to the fantasy.  I also wanted Celecia's character to be grounded with some ordinary problems.  And thus I drop her into the laps of some ordinary college students.

Volume 7 is about Celecia learning about Verdan's future.  She discovers that an evil from her time has also landed in the future and at first believes that is why she was taken, to face and stop her nemesis, Terek.  But Terek landed in the future ten years earlier.  He has become president of a small country.  Using magic and technology he seeks to raise the power and influence of this country (while not originally intended this way, you can think of it a little like North Korea).  But this book is very much intended to be about magic versus science.  

I also introduce a large number of new characters.  There are seven characters from 2000 years ago that are still alive, each has their own unique story.  There is a gathering of new wizards, each with a spell that comes natural to them.  You can draw some comparisons to X-men and mutants if you wish.  It was not completely unintentional.  There is also a bit of a spy thriller element to this book as the story navigates between the politics of various countries.  There are parallels you may note to several countries in our world, most notably you can consider Chenoa to be a surrogate for the United States.  If you want to see how magic fares against modern technology, you will find this book interesting.

Once again, volume 8 will find a lot of loose ends being tied up.  You learn that vampires have survived Verdan's past.  They were stripped of much of their power, but that weakness has ended.  You can almost read volumes 2, 5 and 8 as a vampire trilogy of their own.  It ends here.  Terrorism is front and center in this volume and the terrorist strike orchestrated in the book is much worse than 911.  Once again Terek and Celecia need to form an alliance to defeat the immediate threat of the vampires.  But this time Celecia takes to heart the lessons of her past and stops Terek before he can betray her.  But she doesn't kill him and he takes one last shot at vengeance.  The books ends with another tragedy and Terek's final defeat.

The ninth and final volume reveals the history of the gods and their final plan for Verdan.  It includes the end of the world, but in order to stop it the heroes need to discover how the world will end.  Quite a bit of time is spent discussing various threats to life on Verdan.  A lot of it is taken from various science programs I've watched over the years.  I even did a little bit of online research for this one.  This final book takes the reader to some amazing places as they race against a deadline to save the planet.  But in order to safeguard Verdan's future, they will also need to face down the gods.  Of course, I generally believe in a happy ending.  More loss is suffered along the way, but in the end the heroes will prevail, the gods will back down and the planet is saved.  When we leave Verdan, it will be in a happy place.  All is well.  Or is it?

While the nine books published represent the story I laid out over thirty years ago, I learned to love the playground I created and the characters that lived in it.  And so a new story was born.  But this one is grounded by two things.  First, how would a world like ours react to the events of the past nine books.  Second, what is new in our world and how would Verdan react if faced with similar threats.  These are the things I'm currenlty exploring.  Once again, it is planned as a fourth trilogy (I guess I get my 12 books anyway).  But without spoiling the end this time, the ending may not be as happy as the first three trilogies.  And that sort of reflects how I view the world today.  But as always, you can count on Celecia to be a beacon of hope.

And that's what i'm thinking about these days.  That's the story.  It's everything I wanted it to be (setting aside the occasional cringe from writing skill inadequacies).  I do hope more of you decide to make this journey.  If you like fantasy or sci fi, I think you will enjoy it.  In the meantime, thanks for taking the time to read this.

Dave

March 6 Update - Made it through V1 Ch20 and no cringing for several chapters.  I'm reminded of some of cool moments when things come to me and just fit the story perfectly.  The House of Menkelin is an example of something I created as a notion of this living house.  In a later book I was looking to complete the history of the Dewnor Stones and where they are today and the House fit perfectly into the story.  It wasn't planned, but just fell into place.  I also created this race of telepathic horses known as the Equineans.  When it came time to give a backstory to Y'Sha's loyal horse, it just fell into place to tie it to the Equineans.  Those are examples of smaller but significant moments when the story surprises me and puzzle pieces I didn't even know existed fit perfectly into the overall picture.  Hopefully, other readers will appreciate them as well.

The Whispers Continue to Grow

Whew!  Almost through January.  I really am not a fan of winter weather, although I suppose it does drive me indoors more where I spend time writing.  I'm little behind my personally imposed schedule for Whispers in the Universe, but I'm having a blast writing it.  The first draft is a little exposition heavy, but I'm nailing the dialog (at least as I hear it in my head).  There is so much to explain as Whispers in the Universe takes the events of the first nine books and puts them into a perspective of how they fit into the history of the universe and the future.  

As for the future, this story arc will end with Volume 12.  I don't have titles for volumes 11 or 12 yet, but have plenty of time.  My goal is to publish one book a year for the next three years.  If I do end up with a 13th volume it will likely be a very sad one.  I have a vision on how this will all end for my major characters.  And while it may be a sad ending keep in my that my personal psyche is all about love and hope.  So it won't be all doom and gloom.

One more note, I'm trying to figure out how to do another kindle giveaway, but this time through GoodReads.  If I can pull this off I'm determined to make it my biggest giveaway ever.  2018 is the year I'm going to try to get my books into as many hands as possible.  I can't make anyone read it.  I can't make anyone rate it.  I can't make anyone provide any feedback, but at this point I really don't care about all of that.  I just think if you get into this series you may find a little bit of yourself in some of the characters and you may like what you find.

That's it for now.  Tomorrow I start on Chapter 19 of Whispers.  The progress continues.

Then and Now

Happy New Year!  It's been over a month since my last blog, so I thought I owed you guys an update.  The Goodreads Giveaway ended with 635 people entering.  The facebook page generated 24 additional page likes as a result of the promotion.  As of this post, the Verdan Chronicles has 546 followers on Facebook.

Yesterday, I started a Giveaway on Amazon for 10 copies of the kindle version of The Fourth Age.  The promotion runs through next week Sunday and currently has 212 entries.  Good luck to everyone who enters the contest.

Ok, "Then and Now".  I picked that as a title to just talk for a few minutes about how current events have influenced my writing.  The concept for the original story, which encompasses  the first nine volumes was created over thirty years ago.  The world may have changed, but certainly people haven't changed that much.  Racism and bigotry were present then and sadly have not gone away.  They are present in Verdan as well and in the books are represented by tensions between the dwarves, elves and humans.  Fear over the spread of nuclear weapons was present then and now.  In the original story this is represented by the spread of the use of canons.

As the world progressed, so did some of the issues that popped up in the story.  The impact of climate change is represented by the shrinking population of trills and the impact that has to magic.  In other words, I've taken real life issues and translated them allegorically into the world of Verdan.  This shouldn't be a surprise as this is how many genre stories are told.

But as I currently write Volume 10:  Whispers in the Universe, I can't help but reflect on some of the issues facing us today.  In particular, the politcal climate seems very toxic.  Let me share the first draft of a passage from "Whispers in the Universe"

WARNING!  SPOILER ALERT!  The following passage appears in Verdan Chronicles: Volume 10  Whispers in the Universe.  While it doesn't really give away much in the context of that volume, you can infer a few things that take place over the course of the first 9 volumes from it. 

As Celecia made her way across the room, the first familiar face she encountered was that of Argenta’s elven leader.  “Madam President.”

“Your majesty.”

Celecia noticed President Erin Quellar’s jewelry.  “I see you no longer wear the khanite bracelet.”

“Why bother?”  My secret is out.  Perhaps later I’ll regale everyone with some magic.”

“I would enjoy that very much,” said Celecia.

President Quellar smiled, and then jumped to the matter at hand.  “You have Argenta’s support.”

Celecia considered the statement.  “I’m not sure the rest of the world will be happy to hear that.  After all, elves are more likely to be able to use mystic energy.”

“With less focus,” countered Erin.  “At least if what I’ve read is true.”

“It is,” confirmed Celecia.  “But then there are exceptions, especially among elven royalty.”

President Quellar laughed.  It was a pleasant laugh.  “Royalty?  You’d have Argenta revert back to a monarchy?”

“Dakoran and I have always worked to serve the will of the people.  I believe sometimes a monarchy can act more like a democracy than those countries with elected leaders.”

“An interesting insight,” responded Erin.  “And one I have to admit may be true.  But at least with a democracy we have a built in way to correct our mistakes.”

“Then let’s hope Chenoa corrects theirs soon.”  It was a leap of faith, but Celecia wanted to know the president’s feelings in regards to her Chenoan ally.

There was a pause.  And then, “I like you, your majesty.  We need to spend more time together.”

To put the above passage in context you have to understand that Whispers takes place in Verdan's future.  Chenoa is an unambiguous surragate for the United States.  Not too long ago they elected a new president, who is the subject of Celecia and Erin's conversation.

Now, you can make all the inferences you want about my political leanings from my books.  You may or may not be correct.  I have good friends across the entire political spectrum and I respect all their opinions, though I may not agree with all of them.  Whether you are liberal or conservative I think we can all learn from each other and I don't see either side as 100% right or wrong.  I try to maintain an independent stance, although I have to admit that our current leadership is making that difficult.  I do long for leaders who make me want to vote FOR them and not just AGAINST their opponent.  I think they are out there, but its hard to blame them for not wanting to serve given the way candidates are attacked for every little thing say or do.  Heck, they are attacked for things they don't say or do.  You'll probably see a little of that in my books as well.

So, does that mean my series is more of a parody of current events.  I hope not.  First and foremost I want my series to be fun escapism.  I'm just pointing out that the real world does have a way of influencing the story.  So until my next post, stay warm and take care.

Happy News (and a touch of frustration)

I'm happy to say that my next Giveaway on Goodreads kicked off this morning.  It is the first Goodreads giveaway for Dark Passages, the second volume in the series.  I purchased extra copies of the book from Lulu and they arrived yesterday, so I'll be ready to ship them once the winners are announced on January 2nd.

Yes, this is kind of an experiment as well, because I'd like to see what people do when they win the second book of a series.  Do they actually read it?  Or did they just enter because it was something free?  And if they do read it, will they buy volume 1 or read it without the background from the first book.  While I think I think the book can be enjoyable on its own, I certainly feel that enjoyment is much improved if you've read everything else to that point.  I guess I'll find out.

And now for the touch of frustration.  I hate the image Lulu put out there for the second cover.  It does not do the actual cover justice.  Can you even tell that the character's robes are a dark but rich color of red?  Please check out the cover art page.  Then compare it to the image online.  If you do get a copy of the book, it is going to look much better.  Amy and I argued with Lulu for several weeks prior to the book's publishing.  I wasn't about to have Amy redo a perfectly good illustration, but the dark tones were not conducive to Lulu's publishing process.

If you go down a similar path, be forewarned.  We intentionally used lighter color tones on all future books as a result of this episode.  Sigh.  Ok, moment of frustration is over.  Seriously, this is a wonderful book and one of my favorites in the series as I go deeper into the psyche of several characters.  It's a wonderful setup for the third book, which concludes the first major arc of the series.

The Dragons of Verdan

'God created man in his image'.  I'm likely paraphrasing, but thats a common statement made by people of faith here on Earth.  On Verdan, the statement is 'The gods created elves and men in their image'.  The difference of course is that on Verdan there are many gods that are recognized and worshipped.  Although, Mermis is given credit for creating the dominant species of elves, men and dragons.  So there you have it.  Elves and men are said to resemble the gods.

So why dragons?  Why create so many species with two arms, two legs, a torso and a head?  You not only have elves and men, but there are dwarves, halflings, goblins, giants, trogloydytes, vampires, ogres, faeries, skeraka, minotaurs and all manner of creatures that could be said to resemble the gods.  So why dragons?  Unfortunately, I need to refer you to the Verdan Chronicles for that answer.  There is an answer, but it's not fully told until you get to Volume 10:  Whisper in the Universe.  Trust me, it's a fun adventure getting there.

However, in the meantime I plan to spend the rest of this blog introducing you to the dragons of Verdan as they are presented in the earlier volumes.  Let me start with their history.  As stated, Mermis is said to have created three dominant species.  To each he decreed that they shall have dominion over the land for an Age and that after three Ages, the fourth Age would bring peace to all his species.  And to the dragons he gave dominion over Verdan first.  This was known as The First Age of Mermis.

During the First Age, elves and men were little more than wandering nomads or scattered small tribes.  They were hunters and gatherers.  Among them lived the dragons, powerful beasts with immense strength and wondrous breath weapons.  But the dragons mostly watched men and elves with curious eyes.  For weren't they all children of Mermis?  Game was plentiful on both land and in the sea, so there was plenty for all to eat.

And then The First Age came to an end.  The rains came and immense floods covered most of the land.  Many animals perished and for the first time dragons went hungry.  But elves and men were more industrious and gathered into villages and sought higher ground to survive the rain.  Of all life on Verdan, they soon became the most plentiful and eventually became easy prey to the dragons, who wanted to live.  And thus began the first war amongst Mermis' creations.

The rains eventually stopped and the water receded, but there was no going back.  Dragons continued to eat those that crossed their path.  Elves and men formed larger groups for protection and thus were born cities and castle walls.  And in the Northern Mountains men and elves used those with magic to create a singular warrior known as The Dragonslayer.  Dragonslayers not only defended villages and cities, but hunted the dragons.  Dragonslayers were invariably men (or women) and the last known dragonslayer was the most powerful of all.  But she eventually turned on the elves and unforseen alliances were made to destroy her.  You will find her story as well if you read The Verdan Chronicles.

And so, by the time we reach the end of the Third Age, the existence of dragons is scarce.  The first dragon you meet is an old and powerful fire dragon known as Fernol.  He is known to associate with men for his personal gain, for he has developed a sense of greed over the years and enjoys depriving men of their riches.  He forms an unlikely partnership with a wizard known as Troconin and in the abandoned caves and fortress at Mount Bardoom they make their home.  That is until Terek crosses their path, but again, that is a tale found in the series.

Suffice it to say that Fernol casts an imposing image and at one point was found to be a worthy mate of Phaedra, oldest of all the dragons at the end of the Third Age.  And as a new age of magic is born, so too is the fuel that allows dragons to lay eggs.  It is from Fernol's seeds and Phaedra's eggs that a new powerful generation of dragons is born.  The fate of most of them is lost to history, save one, who will play a pivotal role later in the series.  Read the books. 

I will say that dragons in Verdan all carry the genetic material necessary to form any other dragon.  Thus, a red fire dragon, like Fernol, can mate with any other dragon and their offspring can grow into any other type of dragon.  The types of dragons possible seem to only be limited by imagination.  In the series, you will be introduced to fire dragons that breathe fire, frost dragons that breathe an icy breath, wailing dragons whose breath contains a high sonic pitch, sea dragons that can fly into the air and breathe bolts of lightning, invisible dragons that breathe a cloud of gas that turns objects invisible, stone dragons that breathe a torrent of small stones and several other types.

So that brings us once again back to the question of "Why dragons?".  Again, I don't want to spoil the series, but will say that the importance of dragons predates Verdan and their role is of cosmic importance to the gods.  That should be enough to tell you that small encounters and events that seem ordinary enough will eventually take you on a journey that expands across the universe.  Let the whispers begin.