Storm Seed is the penultimate Sacred Band novel and it’s all you’d expect from Janet and Chris Morris – dark in places, complex and multi-layered, exciting and full of action, sad and yet joyous. As with all of these novels it’s not for the faint-hearted, those who like an ‘easy read’ or those who don’t understand the nuances and lyricism of these two writers. This novel ties up many of the plotlines from previous books; the complex relationships between the Sacred Band members, estranged though they are; the re-emergence of old enemies and old bonds; the reaffirming of loyalty and friendship and, of course, a great big fight😊
What I love most are the characters in these novels. Nikodemos, especially, is such a wonderful creation. He’s the most human, the most troubled and the most courageous. Of all the characters Niko loses the most, but is, perhaps, the only one…
Wow. I went over this post in my head for a while and now I’m coming up blank because of everything going on. One thing I’ve realized is that this driving my wife to and from work has really taken a toll on me. This is the last week I’m doing it, but I’m plain exhausted now. I can’t ease into my day by seeing everyone off, checking email, getting on the bike, and having myself ready by 10 AM. Now, it’s getting myself ready while wrangling everyone else, facing traffic, running errands, buy breakfast if I didn’t get to eat at home, and get back into the house AT 10 AM to finally get a shower. No wonder I’ve been moving slow. Part of me isn’t surprised though since there’s a pattern of bad stuff happening around me when I’m about to release a book or just released one. At least this is the worst of it . . . or so I thought.
Working off the plan that Legends of Windemere: Warlord of the Forgotten Age will be released next Saturday, I will have no time to enjoy the sensation of finishing such a long series. The following Monday is when I go in for a certain procedure that requires I be put under. Next Sunday will be spent preparing myself with various medications and a specific diet. I’ll get to enjoy things on that Tuesday, but it feels like it’ll be too late to get the full effect of publishing the book and getting all the promos out. Saturday is going to be really busy with me at my laptop and trying to keep everything else under control since my wife still won’t be driving very well.
I’d be lying if I said I was scared about this because I’ve never been put under for anything. My imagination is running wild since this is right on the heels of the last book of my series going live. Almost like the universe is planning something really mean. Fine, I’ll say it. Part of me wonders if this will result in me dying right after the last book is out because of some freak accident. Is it logical? No, but I’m not really thinking clearly on this thing. After feeling like I’ve been in a physical and mental grinder all year, this comes off as a nasty culmination.
This week saw only a little progress on other fronts. I managed to do a synopsis and a few casts for the next Ichabod Brooks collection. It’s gone up to 13 stories because a new one popped into my head. This will be a 2019 release because I need next year to focus on War of Nytefall, which my wife finally read and gave me edits for. A lot of sloppiness with spelling and grammar, but I hadn’t looked over it myself. She says the story and characters work while I’m still fighting doubt. I poured over the notes and characters first and added/deleted stuff as I went along. Yet, I can’t shake the feeling that I messed up somewhere. Maybe it’s been so long since I started a new ‘core’ series for Windemere that I’m confused. Bedlam and Ichabod aren’t at this scale in terms of multi-series world-building. This establishes the Dawn Fangs and reveals more about the Great Cataclysm, especially the aftermath. For example, Gaia will appear at times, but it isn’t as large as what people saw in Legends of Windemere.
Another option is that I’ve been fighting so many battles with no end in sight that I can’t muster enough confidence to be sure of myself. Even the idea of handing it off to beta readers fills me with dread because I keep seeing how vampires cause massive fights. It seems everyone has an idea of what they should and should not do, so all versions of the mythos gets torn apart. Not to mention these characters are darker and closer to anti-heroes than the champions, so I fear that people won’t be happy with me going in this direction. My wife seemed to have a problem with how Clyde and Mab would viciously argue and fight. They have no problem coming to blows since they are able to heal quickly, so there’s more brutality in their relationship. Then again, Mab is one of her old RPG characters, so it might be similar to how I’m still in trouble for cutting Nyx’s hair.
The immediate future sees me working more on Ichabod Brooks than touching anything else. I don’t want to try editing the new book until I get Warlord of the Forgotten Age out and get through that procedure. That will only give me a week before my son has his Holiday Break too, so maybe I shouldn’t try anything until January. Haven’t had any luck finding a new cover artist who would be willing to work on a series too. I’ve noticed that a series requires more original work than clipart/photoshop/whatever pictures. You need uniform in the covers, so taking a pre-existing picture can be a problem if there isn’t more of them. At least from what I can tell because I haven’t heard back from any of the artists I sent emails too. I won’t put this one out until March/April, which means I have time to gather my resources though.
Now, you can post a question now and the whole thing will last a week. There are also sharing tabs for Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, so I’d greatly appreciate any helping in spreading the word. I’ve already got 12 questions, but I’m hoping to get a lot more. Thanks for any help you can give on this. If it works out then it’ll be a fun thing to do as a hype builder in the future.
Goals of the week:
Plan more of ‘The Longbow of Ichabod Brooks’.
Try to get at least 2 days of biking.
Bring wife to get cast off and try not to tease her too much about the smell.
Pray that I don’t have to handle another violent tantrum.
Hopefully release the long-awaited finale.
Celebrate Hanukkah.
Watch more Fairy Tail. Move on to Fullmetal Alchemist since I only have up to episode 72 of Fairy Tail and the upstairs TV lacks Internet access.
Keep an eye out for a War of Nytefall cover artist.
Mandy Jackson-Beverly was born in the bustling town of Pyramid Hill, Victoria, Australia … Population: 419. This remote childhood kick-started Mandy’s imagination, as did the rugged coastline and rolling hills of Tasmania, where her family relocated when she was four years old.
In 1982, Mandy moved to London, where she discovered the importance of the creative collective: The 1980s fashion scene. A year later, in Los Angeles, she found her own creative freedom among the thriving, no-holds-barred visionaries of the music video world. As a costume designer and stylist Mandy worked for photographer Herb Ritts, and directors Joel and Ethan Coen, David Fincher, and Julien Temple, and music icons David Bowie, Madonna, and Tina Turner, to name a few.
Mandy has taught Advanced Placement Art, written and directed high school theater productions, is a contributor to The Huffington Post, a book reviewer for The New York Journal of Books
On September 20, 2017, Hurricane Maria, a powerful Category 4, hit the island of Puerto Rico causing catastrophic effects. I was recently asked by Natalia of AllTheRooms to share their post on the numerous ways you can help the animals caught in the recent Caribbean hurricanes. As you know, the Caribbean has been relentlessly attacked by storms in recent months, causing catastrophic damages. While relief aid has been slow in countries such as Puerto Rico, there are some organizations working to help some of the island’s most helpless — the animals that have been caught in the storms.
I’m not trying to minimize the plight of humans–if you wish to help, check out this post which has information on volunteer work. But I also think it’s important to remember it’s not just us who are suffering. So, if you want to help save some animals this Christmas, you may consider…
Okay, not the best picture, but I’m terrible at selfies. So, I started up my AMA and it can already take questions. Nothing will be visible until Sunday when it officially goes live, but you can post questions and I believe I can answer. Feel free to give it a look and I’d really appreciate any help in spreading the word. Just click on the link below.
He isn’t a champion, but the series wouldn’t be the same without him. Fizzle has come to the rescue many times as well as needing help. It’s always been a little vague if he is an agent of destiny or free will. After his slumber, Fizzle came back stronger and talked about needing to help his friends. I thought this locked him in, but one can never be certain with drites. They have a reputation for being fickle and only journeying with people until they find something more interesting. As you can tell, this didn’t happen since Fizzle liked having friends. Yet, what does the future hold for him?
We’re going to operate under the pretense that he’s going to live through all of this. That sound more ominous than I meant it? Look, Fizzle is going up against the Baron and he’s still functioning at the same power level as when he started. Not like a 200+ year-old dragon can increase much more beyond knowledge and tactics. I know the Fizzle lovers are praying he makes it out unscathed and lives happily ever after. To be fair, even if he gets out without an injury, he’ll be happy. The little guy has always been a fairly optimistic character.
There are various options for him:
Fizzle returns to protect Visindor Forest and get apple pies from Hamilton Military Academy. It would be a return to his original state, but he’ll have a closer connection to civilization instead of being a mysterious being of the forest.
Stays with Nyx, if she survives, and settles into a city life. This isn’t as likely because he isn’t very comfortable in the city. More than likely, he would be living in the forests nearby or make himself comfortable in a park. This is actually more likely if Nyx ends up living in the wilderness due to something going horribly wrong in the final battle.
Stays with Luke, if he survives, and follows him on his next adventure. This could be his life with Kira, life with Sari, or him wandering off on his own. Yeah, I’m not hinting at what this is. I would lean more towards this in terms of Fizzle staying with one of the champions. The reason for this is because he’s been with Luke the longest out of the champions.
Travel with Trinity to Shayd and try to restore the forests. Fizzle hasn’t had a very close relationship with the chaos elves, but he could come out of this with a taste for adventure. That Callindor wanderlust can be infectious. The chance to be the first drite on a continent could tempt him enough to take the risk, which would also help with Trinity’s efforts to unite with the rest of the world.
Something else entirely that you wouldn’t expect.
As I said in a previous post, I came up with various ending scenarios for every character. Fizzle is no exception, but I do have to be careful here. He’s the most popular one with Nyx a distant second. Even then, I can get away with a lot of mean stuff to the champions that I can’t with Fizzle. Seems like him getting hurt is upsetting, so I have to choose his finale very carefully.
So, I’ve been asked to set up an ‘Ask Me Anything’ on AMAFeed. I’m aiming to have it go live on Sunday, which gives me time to get the title and intro set up. Was thinking of using my cover collage, but I’m unsure about a picture of myself since I’m not that photogenic. I saw half the authors do it and others only put up an author picture, so maybe I’ll just do the B&W photo. Hard to do the book links too, so I went with my Amazon page. Maybe I’ll add the link to the ‘Legends of Windemere’ site too.
Anyway, what is an AMA? It’s basically a forum for a single person or group to answer questions for a certain amount of time. This is going to run for a week, which I’m hoping means it goes right into the release of Warlord of the Forgotten Age. The questions can be about anything too, but I need to make the title and intro catchy. This is what I have right now, so I’d be happy to get any feedback. Thanks in advance and I’ll be posting about the actual event on Sunday when it’s open.
Title
My name is Charles E. Yallowitz and I’m the sword & sorcery fantasy author behind the ‘Legends of Windemere’ series. After 19 years of hard work, the final volume ‘Warlord of the Forgotten Age’ is on the cusp of being published. Ask Me Anything!
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Body
Way back when, I wanted to be an author, but I was talked out of it because I was letting my math grades slip. In my defense, multiplication and division were really boring in 2nd grade. It would be years later that my love of crafting stories to entertaining myself and others would return with an unquenching vengeance. Not to mention a habit of using a flourishing writing pattern and third person present tense. The culmination of . . . Okay, I’ll stop playing around and talk like my real self.
I’ve been working in my own fantasy world of Windemere since 1998 and now I’m about to publish the 15th and final volume of ‘Legends of Windemere’. From Luke Callindor stumbling into his first adventure to Nyx’s magical battle with her rival Queen Trinity, the action and humor felt like it would last forever. Even though I’ve been preparing myself for months, this is a step that can only be described as bittersweet. I’ve enjoyed every minute of creating and sharing this journey, but now this series comes to an end.
So, what is ‘Legends of Windemere about? This epic fantasy series follows the adventures of six heroes who have been chosen by the gods to face a returning evil. Though, they aren’t sure if they’re destined to win or lose since Windemere is a world where fate and freewill are continually at odds. As these champions gather, their enemies do whatever it takes to stop them from achieving their full power. These stories are as much about how the champions handle their roles and evolve as people as it is about their battles. Now after purifying the six temples, facing the loss of several friends, and one of their own going through nightmarish torment, they have no other choice, but to step into their final battle.
Looking forward to answering questions on writing, fantasy, maintaining a long series, promoting books, life, and just about anything. Ask away.
