OK, OK… so I couldn’t stand it. I know I said I didn’t have any more time to spend on the map, but it was bothering me. I added a few more details, and now I really am done, for now.

In other news, I’ve decided to change the name of the western lands. It was Drakar. It is now Strogan. I changed it for two reasons. First, Drakar, Drakarian, and drak all sound and look too much like “drake,” and it was causing some confusion. Second, I found out that some one made a video game and ripped off my name, so I’ll change mine to avoid any potential problems in the future.

Alexi Keirnan is the main character of The Heretic’s Quest. He’s the House Father of the most powerful noble house within the Sarveki Empire, and he’s also the Hand of the Emperor, which means he’s the commander-in-chief of the entire Imperial military. He’s the second-most powerful man in the entire Empire, and probably the most fearsome living warrior of his people.

He’s about 6’ tall, and he has blue eyes. He’s 38 years old. He’s got big bones, a big frame, and big muscles. He wears heavy plate armor and carries his family’s ax, which is a two-handed, double-bladed weapon. His armor is simple and formed close to his body, with no frills or decorations to get in his way. When it comes to battle, Alexi favors function over appearance.

Alexi is a man of opposites. He has a mind of cold logic and a heart of fiery passion. He can be intelligent and wise, the consummate diplomat at times, but at other times he can be a man of very direct and lethal action. Above all things, he cherishes his family, both his immediate blood relations and the members of his House. As long as they are safe and prosperous, nothing else matters. As the book progresses, his priorities shift away from his family, but you’ll have to read the story to see how that affects him and his world.

It is unclear if Bane is even human. He’s shaped like a man, but he’s over seven feet tall, and no one knows what he looks like. In every encounter, his body and face are always totally concealed by clothing or armor. He favors black steel armor with very thick plates on his shins and forearms, which he uses to block attacks in battle. He carries no shield or weapons, and bears no standard. His eyes are made of crimson fire, and his body often glows with magical golden light.

Many characters in Heretic have mysterious pasts, but Bane is a total mystery. No one knows from whence he came or what he plans to do, but his apparent agenda seems to involve waging and winning a war against the Serene.

The New Prophets have uncovered unknown prophecies that seem to foretell the arrival of a new champion, the cleaning of the existing order, and the dawn of a new age.

Bane is the self-proclaimed champion of that prophesy. He wields powerful magic as easily as most men breathe. He has no equal in battle, despite his lack of weapons. He knows secrets and forgotten lore that no living man could possibly know.

At every turn, he uses knowledge or force to bind others to his cause, but no one really knows if he speaks true or not. Perhaps he does intend to overthrow the Serene. Perhaps he has another less blatant agenda. Only Bane knows for sure.

Mary Keirnan is a scout in Alexi’s witch-hunting party. She has straight blond hair and brown eyes. Her hair comes to her shoulders when it’s down, but she usually has it pulled up into a knot to keep it out of her way. She’s twenty-four years old. She’s 5’ 4” tall and petite. Her facial features are lean and sharp. She’s attractive, but not a stunning beauty.

She wears leather armor that offers light, full body protection, but it doesn’t have any tassels or decorations to dangle and get caught as she stalks through the woods. Her armor also doesn’t accentuate her feminine form. In fact, it actually subdues her curves to the point where she can pass as a man if she has her hair up and her helmet on. She carries a long sword across her back, twin short swords on each hip, hung from cross-slung belts, and two daggers on the same belts that hold her short swords.

Mary is a woman caught in a man’s world. Lord Keirnan is the only commander who allows women to fight in his House forces, and when Mary is among those forces, she’s a valued and respected warrior. Unfortunately, she quickly finds herself alone in her world and society, and many times her life would be easier if she could swing her hips and flirt as skillfully as she swings a sword and bashes skulls, but she does the best she can.

Somewhere, under the armor and scars, a sensual woman exists behind the gruff soldier exterior she must always show the world. Sometimes her femininity is buried so far inside that she has trouble finding it. Most days Mary doesn’t even pause to consider or miss the life she might have led, had she picked up a butter churn or loom instead of a sword and crossbow, but sometimes, just sometimes, her skin longs to wear silk dresses instead of leather armor. Her hands wish to comb her hair instead of sharpening her sword. Unfortunately, her problem is not that she’s forgotten how to indulge her softer side; she never learned how.

James Casteel is a small, frail man with bony, hawkish features, an indomitable will, and infinite ambition. He serves as the Emperor’s Sentinel, the head priest of the Empire’s only sanctioned religion. He’s tied with Alexi as the second-most powerful man in their country. Vast numbers of clergy, healers, and militant Templars wait for his command, eager to do their god’s will as decreed from Casteel’s mouth.

Casteel hated Alexi’s father, and tried to have him convicted of heresy, but his animosity apparently died with Alistar when the senior Keirnan fell to a cave bear in the Pass of Elmek. Since Alexi assumed the mantle of House Father, Casteel has bore no ill will towards him. In fact, it’s a modern legend, a tale told again and again in taverns across the realm, of how Casteel favored Alexi with a powerful blessing to protect him from Drakarian magic. This ward from the Prophet allows Alexi to survive magical attacks that often kill men to his left and right.

In this way, Casteel has united forces with Alexi; the Sanctuary and the military are joined together to do the Prophet’s will and ensure the Emperor’s word is taught and enforced across the land.

At least, that’s the story Casteel has his Serene mentors teach to the masses during their holy services…

The Warlock doesn’t appear often or for long in The Warlock’s Wake, but as the novel’s name suggests, he accomplishes more and sets more events into motion with a few simple words and actions than some people can do in a lifetime.

No matter how old, wise, or practiced a mage may be, all spell slingers have a finite amount of power. Certain things simply cannot be done. For example, no mage in history has ever bee able to truly fly. Even Bane, with all of his power and skill, is bound by these mortal limits.

The Warlock is not. His power has no apparent limits. He is ageless and timeless. He was old when the Prophet yet walked the earth as a mortal man. Shrouded in a cloak of living shadow-fire, the tangible manifestation of chaos and entropy, the Warlock does whatever he wants, because none have the power to stop him.

His existence is not common knowledge in the Sarveki Empire. The tale of the Warlock is a Strogun legend not often told outside of the clan fire circles. Sometimes he isn’t seen for generations, and then he appears. He’s started wars and ended them. He’s saved entire towns from certain doom and slaughtered innocents by the hundreds. Most believe he’s insane. Others say his actions follow rhyme and reason, and it all fits a grand scheme, but not one that a mere mortal can understand, because human lives and memories are too short.

Alexi meets the source of the stories without ever knowing of the legends. Had he known something of the tales, perhaps events would have transpired differently.

But then, had that been the case, there would be no tale to tell. Hate the warlock if you wish. Fear him, or respect him, or idolize him, as you desire, but be sure to thank him. If it were not for him and his actions, none of this would exist. There would be no book, no story, no website.

I need to do something. I don’t want to do it, but it must be done.

You see, there is a problem with the novels. The flow of time is inaccurate and inconsistent. I know that I could probably keep my mouth shut and very few people would ever notice, but I know, and it aggravates me. Also, I must consider that someday I might actually have loyal critics who have nothing better to do than to draw up time lines, see the problems, and scream with spiteful glee as they point out flaws in my tale.

My time line problems stem from three causes. First, I wrote the two books over a period of years, with many dormant weeks and months in between writing periods, during which I lost sense of time within the story. Second, I went back and added scenes to both books that throw off my original time line. Third, I redrew the map. The final version changes the spacing a little bit between cities, which obviously changes travel times between them.

Long story short? Every time reference in both books is wrong.

Solution? Rebuild timeliness for every plot line. Re-read both books, searching for time references to correct.

I know it doesn’t sound that difficult, but I am so SICK of re-reading these things. I want to be done with them – totally DONE! I want to work on new material. I have articles to write for my marketing campaign. I have a third book to write and agents to research/query.

Oh well. I should shut up. Alexi would tell me that time spent on complaining about a problem is time I could have spent fixing it.

Well, it only took me a couple of YEARS, but I finally redrew the world map. It still isn’t 100% finished. Some parts of it aren’t displaying correctly, and I need to put a few more labels on it. I also need to put a scale and a north seeking arrow to help put it in perspective, but it must do for now. I’m out of time to spend on it for now. Even in its incomplete state, I think you’ll agree that it is much nicer than any previous version.

See it!

It’s official: I’ve hired a freelance artist to draw ten character sketches for this site. About half of them will not be featured immediately since they are for characters that don’t appear until the second book, but at least I will have them ready when the time comes.

Assuming I am pleased with his work (and I expect I will be,) I plan to hire him again in the near future to draw additional character sketches, cityscapes, and other locations – just as soon as I have the funds readily available.

You can see samples of his work here.

Also, while we’re discussing artwork, I wanted to mention that I’m FINALLY redrawing the world map like I promised to do over a year ago. I still have a lot of work to do on it, but it’s already looking much, much nicer than any other version I’ve ever done. I also plan to draw up a few other miscellaneous items, and maybe use some cross sections of the map to liven up this place a little more.

It’s too early to release specific details, but I’ve made the first steps required to hire an artist who will draw character portraits for all of the major players in Warlock’s Wake and Heretic. If things work out with this fellow, I’m going to hire him to draw cityscapes and other locations as soon as I can afford it.

I’m also going to ply my limited skills to draw a new (much better) continent map and a few other simple things. So, hopefully the eye candy will be coming soon!

I pulled the following test from rinkworks.com. I thought it was an outstanding test for a prospective fantasy novel.  If you answer “yes” to a SINGLE QUESTION, you fail, and should start your novel over from the beginning:

1. Does nothing happen in the first fifty pages?
2. Is your main character a young farmhand with mysterious parentage?
3. Is your main character the heir to the throne but doesn’t know it?
4. Is your story about a young character who comes of age, gains great power, and defeats the supreme badguy?
5. Is your story about a quest for a magical artifact that will save the world?
6. How about one that will destroy it?
7. Does your story revolve around an ancient prophecy about “The One” who will save the world and everybody and all the forces of good?
8. Does your novel contain a character whose sole purpose is to show up at random plot points and dispense information?
9. Does your novel contain a character that is really a god in disguise?
10. Is the evil supreme badguy secretly the father of your main character?
11. Is the king of your world a kindly king duped by an evil magician?
12. Does “a forgetful wizard” describe any of the characters in your novel?
13. How about “a powerful but slow and kind-hearted warrior”?
14. How about “a wise, mystical sage who refuses to give away plot details for his own personal, mysterious reasons”?
15. Do the female characters in your novel spend a lot of time worrying about how they look, especially when the male main character is around?
16. Do any of your female characters exist solely to be captured and rescued?
17. Do any of your female characters exist solely to embody feminist ideals?
18. Would “a clumsy cooking wench more comfortable with a frying pan than a sword” aptly describe any of your female characters?
19. Would “a fearless warrioress more comfortable with a sword than a frying pan” aptly describe any of your female characters?
20. Is any character in your novel best described as “a dour dwarf”?
21. How about “a half-elf torn between his human and elven heritage”?
22. Did you make the elves and the dwarves great friends, just to be different?
23. Does everybody under four feet tall exist solely for comic relief?
24. Do you think that the only two uses for ships are fishing and piracy?
25. Do you not know when the hay baler was invented?
26. Did you draw a map for your novel which includes places named things like “The Blasted Lands” or “The Forest of Fear” or “The Desert of Desolation” or absolutely anything “of Doom”?
27. Does your novel contain a prologue that is impossible to understand until you’ve read the entire book, if even then?
28. Is this the first book in a planned trilogy?
29. How about a quintet or a decalogue?
30. Is your novel thicker than a New York City phone book?
31. Did absolutely nothing happen in the previous book you wrote, yet you figure you’re still many sequels away from finishing your “story”?
32. Are you writing prequels to your as-yet-unfinished series of books?
33. Is your name Robert Jordan and you lied like a dog to get this far?
34. Is your novel based on the adventures of your role-playing group?
35. Does your novel contain characters transported from the real world to a fantasy realm?
36. Do any of your main characters have apostrophes or dashes in their names?
37. Do any of your main characters have names longer than three syllables?
38. Do you see nothing wrong with having two characters from the same small isolated village being named “Tim Umber” and “Belthusalanthalus al’Grinsok”?
39. Does your novel contain orcs, elves, dwarves, or halflings?
40. How about “orken” or “dwerrows”?
41. Do you have a race prefixed by “half-”?
42. At any point in your novel, do the main characters take a shortcut through ancient dwarven mines?
43. Do you write your battle scenes by playing them out in your favorite RPG?
44. Have you done up game statistics for all of your main characters in your favorite RPG?
45. Are you writing a work-for-hire for Wizards of the Coast?
46. Do inns in your book exist solely so your main characters can have brawls?
47. Do you think you know how feudalism worked but really don’t?
48. Do your characters spend an inordinate amount of time journeying from place to place?
49. Could one of your main characters tell the other characters something that would really help them in their quest but refuses to do so just so it won’t break the plot?
50. Do any of the magic users in your novel cast spells easily identifiable as “fireball” or “lightning bolt”?
51. Do you ever use the term “mana” in your novel?
52. Do you ever use the term “plate mail” in your novel?
53. Heaven help you, do you ever use the term “hit points” in your novel?
54. Do you not realize how much gold actually weighs?
55. Do you think horses can gallop all day long without rest?
56. Does anybody in your novel fight for two hours straight in full plate armor, then ride a horse for four hours, then delicately make love to a willing barmaid all in the same day?
57. Does your main character have a magic axe, hammer, spear, or other weapon that returns to him when he throws it?
58. Does anybody in your novel ever stab anybody with a scimitar?
59. Does anybody in your novel stab anybody straight through plate armor?
60. Do you think swords weigh ten pounds or more?
61. Does your hero fall in love with an unattainable woman, whom he later attains?
62. Does a large portion of the humor in your novel consist of puns?
63. Is your hero able to withstand multiple blows from the fantasy equivalent of a ten pound sledge but is still threatened by a small woman with a dagger?
64. Do you really think it frequently takes more than one arrow in the chest to kill a man?
65. Do you not realize it takes hours to make a good stew, making it a poor choice for an “on the road” meal?
66. Do you have nomadic barbarians living on the tundra and consuming barrels and barrels of mead?
67. Do you think that “mead” is just a fancy name for “beer”?
68. Does your story involve a number of different races, each of which has exactly one country, one ruler, and one religion?
69. Is the best organized and most numerous group of people in your world the thieves’ guild?
70. Does your main villain punish insignificant mistakes with death?
71. Is your story about a crack team of warriors that take along a bard who is useless in a fight, though he plays a mean lute?
72. Is “common” the official language of your world?
73. Is the countryside in your novel littered with tombs and gravesites filled with ancient magical loot that nobody thought to steal centuries before?
74. Is your book basically a rip-off of The Lord of the Rings?
75. Read that question again and answer truthfully.

I am very happy to say that (so far) the Heretic’s Quest has passed this test with a 100% (Although we admit that we came really close to botching up numbers 17 and 19.)

I’ve loved fantasy fiction for most of my life – even before I learned to read. However, as I grew older, I often thought that the stories I read were too tame, to the point where the characters and events were unrealistic. Obviously, some things in a fantasy setting aren’t going to be realistic, but some things should be. At the very least, the characters should be as real and as believable as possible. The violence and passions should not be diluted. Events should still follow the tenants of cause and effect.

To say it another way, if most fantasy novels were converted directly to movies, they would be PG-13. I believe there is an adult audience who will pay for an adult fantasy story, something that’s rated R.

At the same time, I believe that many people avoid fantasy stories because the story is too far out. Many authors practice no control. Their stories are full of inhuman races and impossible monsters – all of which have names a mile long that cannot be pronounced. Worst of all, too many fantasy authors use MAGIC as the ultimate deus ex machina. They can write what ever they want, no matter how impossible or improbable, and they don’t need to explain it other than to say, “It’s magic. Isn’t it wonderful?”

No, it isn’t. It’s the reason fantasy fiction isn’t taken more seriously by the literary community. It’s the reason more people don’t read it, because they read one incomprehensible name doing something impossible to another crazy name, and they say “Why am I reading this stupid bullshit?”

Before I wrote a single word of my stories, I established a few guidelines to ensure these books accomplish my goals. Some were easier to follow than others, but so far, I am confident that I have achieved all of them.

1. These books will be written with as much skill and style as I can muster. I read too many books that are not written well. They use nondescript pronouns, passive verbs, and enough fragments to make my old grammar teacher rise from the dead. They have homophone errors, punctuation errors, an over abundance of adverbs, and misplaced clauses. My books will not be this way. They will be written well enough that I am proud to put my name on them.

2. There will be no races other than humans. Inhuman opponents will be few and far between. Most adversaries will be human, or derived from humans, because humans can be monstrous and evil enough in their own right.

3. There will be no names that cannot be pronounced. I see no reason to call the hero Xandeflopnigrotranese when I can just as easily call him Robert. Along the same lines, time will be measured in hours, days, etc. Likewise, distance will be measured in feet or meters. Some may argue that having special methods of telling distance/time is a good way to immerse a reader into a fantasy world. I say it’s an unnecessary distraction.

4. There will be fighting, and it will be violent. There will be blood and guts and screaming and loss of bodily functions. Characters will kill others. Characters will die. There is no guarantee that a primary character will live. If the story calls for it, they will die. I will not contrive and warp the story to keep someone alive.

5. There will be sex. I will not write a porno script, but if a man and a woman are attracted to one another, they very well could have sex. There will be no “fading to black.” If two characters decide to fuck, or if a bandit rapes a woman along the highway, I’m going to describe it. I’m not going to sugar-coat anything.

6. There will be magic, but it will be rare, and in most cases it will be subtle. I will not explain exactly what can and cannot be done with magic, because that’s giving away secrets, but rest assured that I know the exact limits.  If those limits seem to be broken, I have a very good, very explainable, reason for that.

7. The characters will be real. The setting may be fantasy. The battles may be epic. The deeds may be legendary. But the characters will be real people to whom adult readers can relate. They will have dreams, fears, strengths, and flaws. They will be caught in the same flow of cause and effect that pushes all of us. They will love and hate. They will create and destroy. The characters in these books will become the reader’s friends and enemies.

8. The book will be entertaining. It will be fun to read. Once the entire series is printed, readers will want to go back and read it all again, at least once, just for the fun of it. But behind the fast-paced fun, readers will also be given an opportunity to think about themselves. They’ll be prompted to consider the power of faith. They’ll be guided to focus on the way they handle the consequences of their own actions.

These are the goals and guidelines I keep in mind when I write. I think the result is a very worthwhile story that many people have read and liked. I’m sure it has flaws, and some critic somewhere will probably point them out some day. That’s fine with me. I realize I can’t please everyone. I’ll be content if I can make a few hard corp fantasy fans sing my praises side-by-side with a few folks who never liked a fantasy book before mine.

I’ve made a number of theme tweaks and changes to the site this week.  Most of them are too minuscule to mention, but they make me happier with  the site navigation and appearance.  For instance, all of the fonts are in black now, and every post doesn’t end with “Author: Shannon.”

Do  you like the new header graphic and the streamlined front page?  I’ve also re-linked all of the graphics that were showing up as dead links after I changed some of the file directories a few months ago.

I’m about as happy as I can get with the site for now.  I’ve posted a job offer on a freelance artist website and hope to have some talent lined up very soon.  I’d like to have all the eye-candy in place by the end of the month so I can refer agents to it when I send out query letters.

I’m also going to finally spend some time with the digital drawing pad I bought myself for Christmas.  I want to draw the world maps myself, and I have a few other sketches I want to put down.  I can’t really draw, but I still want to put a few things together, even if it’s just for the fan art gallery.

I have a good friend who says he can show me how to start writing articles for other websites as a way to generate traffic to my own site.  I hope to get with him and figure that out soon, so this site can benefit from it.

An update on the Heretic’s quest is long over due.  Let me take a few minutes to catch everyone up.

I did not win anything in the 2008 WV Writer’s Contest.  I don’t think my loss indicates a lack of quality in my writing.  I think it reflects a lack of open minded judges that don’t appreciate my candid style or genre of choice.  I’m not mad, but I do wonder if the contest is a waste of time and money.

I’ve entered Warlock’s Wake and two other novels into the 2008 First Chapter Contest hosted by The Writing Show.  We’ll know how that goes in October, I think, but I’m not holding my breath.

I’ve heard no word at all from the Random House editor or her colleagues that are supposed to have my novel.  I’ve decided that I’m not going to hear from them.

I have completely finished all of the additions and changes I intend to make to Warlock’s Wake.  It is as ready for publication as I can make it.

I have written and inserted the new sections I wanted to write for Heretic.  I need to proofread and edit them, but they’re nearly done.  Soon it will be as ready as the first one.

I have all of the groundwork done for the third book, but I’ve decided to stop writing for now.  I need to spend some time on this website, and then I need to focus on getting an agent/publisher lined up.

For more details on the website progress, please see the Town Cryer section.

I’m getting excited about the query process.  I’ve revamped and updated my query letter.  I have a research system devised that I think will yield better results.  I’m getting decent traffic to this site, and I have plans to generate more interest in the near future.  It is my intention, starting in August, to query at least one agent per week for the rest of the year until someone gives me a chance.  If I can’t get anywhere by  the end of the year, I’m going to self-publish for a year and see if I can generate some numbers that will get someone’s attention.  I know I said I was going to do that last year, but this year I mean it.  I have the money in place.  I have a little more research to do, but I’m almost ready.