Had a neat surprise this morning when I checked my e-mail. My sister Emily, an artist in the Boise area, did a little sketch of a scene from WRETCHED. She’s also been giving great advise on the sequel, BLIGHT, which I appreciate. It was neat seeing the scene through her eyes so I thought I would share her work. She’s really talented: http://emilybradshaw.googlepages.com/

 

Finished with Chapter 17 of Blight last week and I’m going through the whole manuscript again to gauge the flow. I finally wrote a pivotal chapter that I’ve been anxious to do since the beginning of the novel. Writing a book is a little like laying tile - sometimes you focus on the squares and then look back and see the whole. Even though I do a rough outline of my novels in advance, it still surprises me how much the story weaves itself and bumps me away from the original plans. I especially had fun writing the Earl of Dieyre’s character. He’s the antithesis of Colvin and it is fun playing them off against each other.

Back to the squares again…

As part of the Amazon entry, they promised to write reviews. These just arrived last night.

ABNA Expert Reviewer

The concept of the dead being reanimated and then a knight in trouble in some kind of fantasy world are hardly new ideas. In many ways, the injured and mysterious warrior being treated by a young lady has been heavily overused. At this time, I do not see how the two main plot devices introduced in this excerpt can be combined. I did not find the story of great interest as it would take a greater expression of these old ideas to engage my interest.

And the other one:

ABNA Expert Reviewer

It is not yet clear whether this is a medieval novel or a fantasy. There are elements of both. 
 
There is good tension being built. In the first chapter the cemetery has flooded and there are no bodies, only wedding rings. It is speculated that the bones of the dead have joined the flesh and are again living. THe abbey’s master halts the storm with a wave of his hand, evidently invoking the “Medium”. This is all observed by the nine year “wretched” - the help. 
 
The next chapter is four years later and the wretched is awakened in the night by a man she learns is a “knight-maston” who has brought a wounded young man with him. As she works to heal the young man, the knight leaves telling her to take care of the youth and to keep him hidden while he gets the sherriff off his trail. 
 
The girl is bright and denied the chance to learn to read, which is her biggest dream. One gets the feeling that someone will be her white knight and educate her. The terminology and the floating rock in the cemetery makes me think there will be a fantasy element to this book. If it were straight dark ages, I would be interested. Since I am not a fantasy fan, I would not be interested if it goes in that direction. That, however, is a matter of taste, not a judgment on quality, for the writing is good, and the early bits have good tension to hook the reader.

I thought it a little strange that they weren’t expecting the novel to be fantasy, since that is what it was categorized as in the submission. The comparison to the injured warrior archetype is fair - though it wasn’t a common theme in many of the fantasy novels I’ve read. Still, feedback is useful.

 

 

 

I was disappointed not to have Wretched selected as a Amazon breakthrough novel finalist, but I remained determined. I’ve submitted the manuscript to a publisher (Shadow Mountain) and learned that they received it, so it’s a 6-8 week wait now to learn more.

I’ve made some good progress writing the sequel to Wretched. It’s The Blight of Muirwood and I’ve made substantial progress and had some good feedback on it so far. I still think it is a 3-book story arc, but probably longer than the first. During the last week, the oak trees in this area are gorgeous with new leaves. I love this time of year.

Here is the ninth chapter of The Wretched of Muirwood. This contains up to the first 75 pages of the novel (out of 284) and the usual sample size that agents have been asking to read to evaluate the flow of the story.

muirwood-chapter09

Some cool news - my first book LANDMOOR is now available for the Kindle through Amazon. It will be interesting to see how many people will find it that way.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001U3YFP2

The link it here above. If anyone who has read it before wants to post a review, I would appreciate it. 

Here is the eight chapter of The Wretched of Muirwood.

muirwood-chapter08

Some updates from last month. I did submit Muirwood to the agency and they rejected the sample they asked for. Out of the blue this week, I got an e-mail about the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award and have submitted Muirwood to the competition. The publisher working with Amazon is Penguin, which has a fantasy arm (in fact, they published one of my favorite fantasy series, the Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander). This week is open for submissions and then the whittling process will trim it down. Amazon readers will get the chance to vote for their favorites, so I’ll let you know how things progress.

http://www.amazon.com/abna 

It was nice to hear that some people are listening to the podcasts of Muirwood. Drop me a note or write on my Wall if you are and haven’t told me – I’ll keep finding time to squeeze it in.

Here is the seventh chapter of The Wretched of Muirwood.

muirwood-chapter07

Here is the sixth chapter of The Wretched of Muirwood.

muirwood-chapter06