Hey! So, there are a couple of awesomely creative friends of mine that have been dealing with some financial difficulties (that are bound to get worse). But they’re both on Patreon, and one is the author of a series that I illustrate. If I could afford to, I’d chip in. But my budget doesn’t allow for much of that.
I think that about covers the linkage. But if you’re into fun, lighthearted stories about fairies, or well-done glasswork, or bizarre stories involving corvids…
So, this is the last teaser before the debut of War of Nytefall: Lost. Went for something that could be both serious and comedic. I always enjoy writing the Bob and Luther back-and-forth chats. Enjoy.
I have to be honest here. Back when I did my outlines and character designs, I never really put any initial thought to Nytefall. To be fair, the series was originally called ‘Realm of the Night’ and was on Earth. Then I kept that title after the Windemere move while ignoring the fact that it didn’t make any sense with the Dawn Fangs. So, I started playing with titles and came up with ‘War of Nyte’ and then War of Nytefall. That’s where . . . the title came from and it wasn’t until I actually wrote War of Nytefall: Loyalty that I decided to make it the name of Clyde’s city. Yup, master world-building plotter over here.
The thing is that the problem came a bit too late. Way back in Legends of Windemere: The Mercenary Prince, Mab mentions the city of Nyte. Well, that made sense since I already had that down as city before the title change. Unfortunately, I looked at my outlines and realized that Nyte was the city held by the ‘bad guys’. It’s the true capital of the vampire kingdom, but I realized that Clyde wouldn’t be operating out of it or maybe even want it. My headache grew here to the point where I put everything side to work on another project. Eventually, I had to come back and figure things out, which is where Nytefall came from. Here’s the explanation in two parts:
Nyte is the original capital of the vampires and the base for the ‘bad guys’. It is heavily warded and known to mortal kind. In the future, it’s been established as a fake capital and the one that the vampires talk about. It’s all a show while the real capital is kept hidden.
Nytefall is where the real Vampire King and his court live. The name is a dig at the Lord of Nyte, which Clyde finds very amusing. It makes using the cities next to each other nearly impossible though. So, I guess he tricked me too.
Nytefall is an island in the Cerascent region, which is an enormous archipelago of hundreds (maybe thousands) of islands. Nytefall is at one of the tips and can only be reached if you follow a current from the other side of the region. Slip even once and you have to go back to the beginning. This is why very few people believe it exists because you can’t even find it if you search from above due to the magic protecting it. Sounds really well thought out for something I came up with on the fly.
That’s the funny thing about Nytefall to me. I knew I needed it for a few years and never sat down to design it. Not even a one line description like I do with other places. At first, it wasn’t even an island and I thought I would put it on the mainland. This made no sense for a place that nobody knows of and it also meant the ‘bad guys’ could simply march on the city. It was going to be a fortress used in the first book too. I kept this idea even when I began writing War of Nytefall: Lost. Most of it was used again, but I really had to work on explaining why. Let’s just say Mab really learned how to use her shadow powers and nearly killed herself a few times.
An interesting aspect of Nytefall is that it’s a little on the slapdash side. I mention that there are building styles from all over Windemere and the citadel is always being worked on. I even had a collection of log cabins embedded in the largest wall and connected by ladders, which I thought was amusing. Clyde wasn’t feeling it in the scene, so that might not be in the next one. For some reason, I can see the Vengeance Hunters liking this setup while Clyde takes a simple room somewhere. He does a lot of things in the new book that he thinks he should do as leader, but his own sense of doubt and apathy has created a city that is built more by the citizens than their ruler.
Will I ever lock in a structure for Nytefall? Maybe, but I’m kind of liking having a place that gets changed every few years.
I came across a lovely book the other day–Knowledge is Beautiful. Featured on the Wall Street Journal and The Guardian, this rich 256-page book visualizes captivating and intriguing patterns and connections across art, science, health, and pop.
Covering everything from dog breeds and movie plots to timelines of the far future and the complexity of relationships of the Middle East, this stunning book unveils the intricate, invisible and sometimes hilarious stories lurking in the data, information & knowledge surrounding us.
You can see an example of the amazing information on this page, which lists just how close to truth a selection of “Based on a True Story” movies really are: check out Based on a True Story for more!
But you can also check out the following infographic, perfect for sci-fi lovers (and, yes, nerds like me), called timelines of the far future:
To help continue the promotions of War of Nytefall: Lost through October, I’m going to do a weekly character interview. It’ll be every Wednesday, which means the top 4 characters of the poll below will be there. I’ll use the coming Sundays to make a post that asks for questions for each character too. For anyone who wants to look over the characters, here is a link to the Character Origins category where all of their origin posts can be found.
(Reminder that all characters in War of Nytefall are vampires. The first question request post will be this Thursday too.)
So, this was the last full week of my son’s summer break. It was a hot one, so we didn’t do a whole lot outside. Watched some movies, he went to the pool with the grandparents, and we did water balloon baseball one more time. Hopefully, he doesn’t get scared of the morning bus this time, but we’ll see what happens. The kid hates being rushed through breakfast, which causes some issues. Anyway, that’s next week and this week was all about having fun. In fact, we’re hoping to have one more family trip tomorrow before the return of homework.
Oh yeah, at 4th grade kids get to pick a musical instrument. My son chose the violin because it’s the closest thing to a guitar. We’ll see how it goes. He isn’t allowed to play it until he gets a lesson, so it’s just sitting on a chair for now. The loophole is that he can still open the case and look at it.
As far as writing goes, I’ve got War of Nytefall: Lost coming out next Friday and have a list of volunteers. Can always use more though. I’m happy about how much people liked the cover and the excerpt that introduced Lost. She’s a character that I’ve wanted to write for a long time. Her existence changes the already chaotic dynamic of the Dawn Fang/Old-World Vampire war, which means she’s going to be an important figure for the rest of the series. Makes the next release even more bittersweet. It could be my last one for a while, which means War of Nytefall: Rivalry will be delayed until at least March. On the plus side, it looked like this would happen no matter what because of time management issues.
Speaking of future projects, I’m still trying to decide on if I’m going to write up Ichabod Brooks or not. As much as I’d love to publish another collection of stories, that isn’t in the cards for a while. It can be a series that helps me keep the blog going after I finish posting Derailing Bedlam. The trick will be finding time to write. Maybe focusing on the novels and slipping Ichabod in at times can lead to him getting his next collection down the road? I mean, the benefit of a short story collection is that it stands alone and you don’t have to do more. That means another one can come at any time. Not sure how I’d pull off the cover too since the stand alone (City of Beasts) and the first collection (Life & Times) look different. Would a third style matter?
I know this is coming late in the post, but most of my time was spent job hunting. I sent my resume to an agency and signed up with Flexjobs, which specializes in work-at-home jobs. Put in at a few grocery stores too. Just swinging at nearly every pitch that I can think of that won’t put me in a job that only covers gas, lunch, and babysitting. Always forget how tough a job hunt is too. Entry-level seems to require 1-5 years experience, a Masters, and the Ark of the Covenant now. Not totally sure about that third thing, but it wouldn’t surprise me. I don’t want to complain about it, but I will say that it is a test of both patience and emotional fortitude. Next week might be easier with my son at school and the book off my plate.
I’m looking forward to a laid back weekend and hope that the stress of everything can be washed away. Doing a family movie viewing today and a trip tomorrow. Not sure if we have a plan for Monday. Still, I’m really going to try to stay positive and keep the stress down while everything goes on.
Goals?
Enjoy last few days of my son’s summer break.
Get him off to school and back into the schedule.
Release War of Nytefall: Lost on Friday.
Job hunt and submit to possible positions.
Follow up with temp agency.
Continue scheduling November posts.
If possible, start editing War of Nytefall: Rivalry.
Archillious did come out a little like Joker in that he’s always smiling and can be an utter psychopath. He has an odd level of charm too, but that might also come from his habit of saying whatever he has to for survival. He developed a habit of occasionally talking in the third person too and there’s always an adjective in there. For example: the great Archillious, the cunning Archillious, the tender Archillious, etc. His ego shot so far off the chart from the beginning that it caught me off-guard. It also set the stage for everything he does.
The actual abilities of Archillious are a secret of War of Nytefall: Lost, but I can say he’s very dangerous. He’s not a vampire either. He is what is called an Utukku, which is a Sumerian spirit that escaped the underworld. Well, that’s what it is in our world, but I used it for something else this time. Upon birth, the womb-born have the ability to charm mortals and use them as servants. This power vanishes when they gain their three abilities and the Utukku are typically released. There is a side-effect, which is that these mortals gain superhuman strength and endurance. Imagine what would happen if a young Dawn Fang had an army of these. Worse, what would happen if one of the Utukku decided to lead the others on a campaign? Well, wonder no more because that’s what happens in the book.
I will talk about the goal for Archillious, which is rather simple. He was promised to be turned into a vampire by Lost, who didn’t know what she was promising. Being raised by mortals, Lost didn’t understand the concept, but Archillious requested the power anyway because he felt he deserved it. His goal is to figure out where she went and get her to made good on the promise. Seems pretty simple, but he’s after a fairly elusive target. Not to mention his path is going to cross with Clyde and Xavier, which isn’t going to go smoothly when all those egos clash. The scary thing is that Archillious comes off as more vicious and brutal than the vampires, which makes the prospect of him being turned a frightening one.
Now for the game version . . . He was around for a single session of a live action role-playing game. Archillious and Clyde were hired by a friend to take out a local bad guy who was billed as the main villain of the game. Things went horribly pretty quickly when Archillious decided that he liked the other side more, so he betrayed everyone. The friend (a high level character used for at least a year) was lost and the ‘good guys’ were left in disarray by this one act. It was an utter disaster to the point where the player refused to use the character again and doesn’t like being reminded of him. Before you ask, I’ve talked to him about this and promised to keep Archillious an utter bastard. On the plus side, he’ll always have Nimby. This all means that the only thing I had to work with is that Archillious had to be a villain and a jerk. I’ve started with worse.
Due to his single use, I don’t have a story for Archillious. I will mention that the guy who played him was truly dedicated to the hobby. Near the end of the LARP, the vampire hideout was assaulted by a band of hunters. Word had leaked about this being a massacre ending, so most of the players decided not to show up. So, the few of us who marched to our deaths were outnumbered. One of the hunters was played by Archillious and he was the first one we killed in the gunfight. I guess he was told to make it a good death scene and he saw that he was in front of a couch. Nobody expect him to hurl himself over the couch and hit the wall. The game had to stop for a moment to check him (he was fine) and give him some applause.
I recently shared 7 Reasons for Using Videos in Your Social Marketing Campaigns. Many commented that it’s hard using YouTube effectively–a statement I agree with, as I’m pretty inexperienced in its use myself. Which is why I hope you find today’s guest post by Edward Parker useful!
4 Useful Tips to Promote a Book on YouTube More Effectively
Image: Pixabay
Many authors don’t focus enough on using YouTube to promote their books. That is unfortunate, seeing as it is the second largest search engine on the planet, and there are lots of reasons why you should be publishing videos to promote your book on its platform.
While promoting a book on YouTube effectively can be tricky, there are a few useful tips that will help you to get started:
1. Create a professional YouTube channel
Before you start to publish any videos promoting your book on YouTube you should first…
