Countdown for the Release of Sons of the Falcon

.
This Thanksgiving, I will have something unexpected to be thankful for. The formatting, uploading, and reviewing process for Sons of the Falcon went much quicker than I expected. Instead of releasing the second book of my Falcons Saga at Christmas, I get to release it before Thanksgiving! I am thrilled, I tell you.

But what happens before then? I mean, when already?

Well, my mother unhappily reported that Blood of the Falcon had several typos, especially volume 2. So with her help, I have devoted the last couple of weeks to correcting those and other issues with the text. As of yesterday, the 2nd Editions for Blood of the Falcon are now available for Kindle (volume 1 is found HERE. Volume 2 is found HERE). Print editions will soon follow, as soon as I receive the proofs and approve them, which should happen in the next few days.

Then, this weekend, starting Thursday, both volumes of Blood of the Falcon are going to be available for FREE! Free is good, right? We like free stuff. So if you haven't downloaded your copies yet, you will have a chance between Thursday and Monday to do so.

Lastly, toward the end of the free promo weekend, I plan to upload the Kindle version of Sons of the Falcon. Hopefully that process will go smoothly. *crossing fingers* Once Amazon has approved it, it will be up for sell immediately. At that time, I will also click the button to approve the print version of Sons.

Good thing this time is that there's only one book. No more confusion about whether this book is book two or book three or is this the whole story? Sons is Book 2, and it's not the the whole story. There will be one more book after this, Fury of the Falcon, which will conclude the tale of my twins. Hopefully, Fury won't take me much more than a year to rewrite.

But this is about Sons. And it's a beauty, let me tell you. Another chunky epic with a beautiful cover. It feels great in my hands. Weighty and beefy and full of mystery, violence, forbidden love, monsters and magic. All the best stuff fiction has to offer. Mark me, I didn't say mine was the best fiction. I said my fiction was filled with the best kind of stuff. The stuff I enjoy most, anyway.

Point is, I'm currently shooting for November 20th as the official release of Sons of the Falcon. Hurray!

Is it ironic that one of the "sons" referred to in the title is actually a girl? I would like to say, "I hope you like Carah as much as I do," but honestly, I'm not sure I like her all the time, either.

Here's the final cover for your viewing pleasure:

.

Sneak Peek: Sons of the Falcon

.
I am pleased to announce that my website has been updated to include a sampling of Book 2 of the Falcons Saga. Yes, you may read the first chapter of Sons of the Falcon at this link.

I never expected the kind of response these novels have received, and so this is for all of those readers who have asked me how the next book is coming along and how much longer they must wait for its release.

The date keeps moving, and I have stopped being optimistic by saying Christmas of this year. I will be much farther along by then, but not finished. Alas. This is a one-woman show, after all, and that includes all the design, layout, and finding as many typos and incoherent rambling as my aching eyes can. I could rush it, but I would not be proud of it. Therefore, in the meantime, may this peace offering satisfy a little of your curiosity, but not all of it. ;)

(Remember, this book is still undergoing revision; while I am currently happy with how Chapter 1 has turned out, there will likely be some textual changes in the final version. Also remember, no copying or reprinting this sample at all without my written permission. I shall send Athna to bombard any pirates I find.)
.

Tornadoes and the Falcons Saga

.

That, right there, is the kind of thing that is slowing down my progress lately. These suckers will not stop coming. It's been the stormiest spring in my memory. More storms are projected for tomorrow as well, and Thursday. Hopefully no more clouds that look like this. This is the kind of cloud you never want to see bearing down on you. I took this picture on my husband's iphone last Friday. The storm itself was about six miles northwest of our house at this point, but soon after this, the storm exploded south and overtook us. So last Friday was my first official trip into a storm cellar. Bound to happen sooner or later, living in Tornado Alley as I do. Today we learned that the primary tornado spawned by this particular cloud was rated an F5, which is the strongest tornado rating available to date, and it's been classified as the widest tornado ever recorded. Over 2 miles wide. That's a nightmare, folks.

Once the tornado swept past, the storm dumped up to 10 inches of rain in places. Oklahoma City was flooded, houses and business and cars were ruined, several people drowned.

Devastation and human loss seem to have filled my viewfinder lately. It's unbelievably difficult to write about crisis in my characters' lives when real-life crisis is affecting so many people around me. Words suddenly seem inadequate, but the twins and I are gradually punching through the pain, a paragraph at a time.

RECENT PROGRESS
Chapter(s): 25-26
Death count: 200+
Good things that happen: A love story blooms.
Bad things that happen: A terrible choice looms for Carah.
.

A Month In A Day: Falcons Saga, Progress Report

.
Ugh! Some passages are just harder to write than others. It's like switching gears and the gears catching and grinding and groaning before the car speeds ahead. Blech. So after the great gory carnage chapter, the following several chapters all take place during the same night. This one night is taking me a full month to write. It's very strange, getting up in the morning, eating, writing, going back to sleep, then waking up again and finding my characters still living out the same horrible day. Poor suckers. It's a nightmare for them, it's a nightmare for me. One day soon. One day we will get over this hump and forge ahead.

Worse, I don't like anything I wrote yesterday, which means scrapping that passage and starting over. The goal: never let the readers know it was painful to write. Write it until it's easy, write it until I like it, then they will like it too. That's the theory anyway.

RECENT PROGRESS
Chapter(s): 23-25
Pages Revised: 17
Became: 35 pages (and still growing)
Death count: 100+ 
Good things that happen:  The Goddess makes a move.
Bad things that happen: The Black Falcon suffers agonizing disillusionment.
.

Falcons Saga, Progress Report

.

LAST WEEK'S PROGRESS
Chapter(s): 20-22 
Pages Revised: 30 
Became: 44 pages 
Death count: 100+ 
Good things that happen: Well, at least someone escapes the carnage. 
Bad things that happen: The schnizzle hits the fan. Innocence and security are illusions that have been shattered. At last.

In these three chapters, there is so much build-up to the (undisclosed) catastrophe that I was really shocked to see that in the original draft the actual catastrophe was over in less than three pages (?!). That wouldn't do at all. The catastrophe has to equal the weight of the build-up, else a reader might sneeze and miss the payoff, and that will never do. Therefore, I spent several days last week, expanding the carnage. I was trying for a GRRM "Red Wedding" kind of scene, but I'm not sure I nailed it. Nevertheless, it made for disturbing writing. There are good reasons why I don't write hack-n-slash or horror. My stomach, my nerves couldn't handle it. Point is, the bloodshed has begun, and for the Sons of Ilswythe, nothing will ever be the same again. And that's the way we like it.
.

Some Kind of Update...

.
I feel terrible about not posting at all in February. Not even one little progress report. I've been too focused during my writing hours to stop and blog, but it's Friday and I feel more relaxed, so here I am. To be honest, I'm leery about book updates now, because I don't want to spoil the reading for anyone. I'll just continue to be vague, shall I?

LAST MONTH'S PROGRESS
Chapter(s): 16-19
Pages Revised: 29
Became: 42 (yes, it's safe to say that I'm nearly doubling the current content)
Deaths: 1
Good things that happen: Carah receives unexpected help in learning to become avedra
Bad things that happen: The Black Falcon invites kings, lords, and ladies to a suspicious gathering

Wait! Who is Carah, you ask? Well, here's a hint: she likes to call herself the Duke of Ilswythe, because she doesn't like to be outdone by her older brother.

In other news, my short story Resurrecting Janis has made it to the second round of reading at a particular online magazine. Martin Davey confessed to me that even though one of his stories was rejected by this same magazine after making it to the last round, he received a full critique from the slush readers. Such a critique would be well worth a rejection, which is a far cry from a form letter. So either way, I'm looking forward to the zine's response.
.

Inspiration: Lothiar

.
If I found the perfect image of Lyrienn long after I wrote her, I had two strong images for her brother from the very beginning. Both sources will prove how long ago I wrote the first draft. The first comes from the cinematic trailer for Warcraft 3: Reign of Chaos.

This fallen hero provided the fun visual inspiration, and Lothiar has remained fairly true to it despite the numerous changes the novels have undergone.

The second source is closer to home and far darker. About the time I turned my attention to writing my villains, two airplanes flew into the World Trade Center. The media repeatedly played footage of the man responsible.

These kinds of images troubled me for years. This soft-eyed murderer sitting with his back to a rock wall so no one would be able to identify his location as he rallied support for his cause and laid blame on his victims. This is the kind of evil that provided the backbone for Lothiar. Of course, fiction can't touch the horrors of real life, despite my efforts to weave the proper words.

CHARACTER PROFILE
Project: The Falcons Saga
Name: Lothiar
Race: Elf
Home: Lady's Palace, unknown reaches
Family: son of Danyth and Leavhan, older brother of Laniel and Lyrienn
Significance to the story: Kieryn's archenemy.
Extra Tidbits: His name means "ash"
.

Back at it - Falcons Progress Report

.
*whew* Sporadic writing during the holidays causes me to feel that I've made little progress, but rewriting one chapter and making it three isn't bad. It's been the villains, all through December and January. In the original draft, I devoted too little time to my villains until it was too late. They turned out flat and boring, and even I snoozed while reading through their scenes. No longer. The son of the Black Falcon becomes three-dimensional, with a single unhealthy obsession that eventually changes everything for the worse. Dark decisions follow, and Chapter 14 provides the turning point for volume 1 of Sons of the Falcon (title subject to change).


HOLIDAY PROGRESS
Chapter(s): 10, 12, and 14 
Pages Revised: 7
Became: 34+ pages
Deaths: 1
Good things that happen: ...
Bad things that happen: a neglectful father turns his son toward an unhealthy friend
.

Like Pulling Teeth - Progress Report

.
I don't know about you, but I hate having dental work done. Seems like my childhood was punctuated with trips to get teeth pulled or braces tightened, so I do not title this post lightly. *sob* It's been three weeks since I put up a progress report, because I couldn't exactly tell if I was making progress. Some passages are just difficult. This week's rewrite involved a certain character's death and another character's nasty reaction to it, and my poor brain just didn't want to go there. But it finally made the jump, and today that difficulty has been overcome, and I'm relatively pleased with the result. As always, much more character depth has gone into the draft, which often means diving into painful places. But it's worth it.

THREE WEEKS' PROGRESS
Chapter(s) of the Week: 7 and 8 
Pages Revised: 25
Scenes Cut: 1
Deaths: 1
Good things that happen: ... (*thinking, thinking* Nope. It ain't there.)
Bad things that happen: Oh, dear. It's all going to hell in a handbasket. The behind-the-scenes action is getting darker by the minute.
.

Inspiration: Character - Lyrienn

.
Those of you who have been following my blog for a few years may be aware that I love art and collect it in various files on my computer so that I can gaze at it and ponder or sigh or be inspired or what-have-you. Once, I even posted weekly Art History/Appreciation entries. Remember those?

Well, every once in a while, movies or my web searches for new art will cause me to stumble across images that inspire stories or seem to fit ones that I've already written. And as Wordweaver has come to revolve solely around my writing, I thought it might be fun to occasionally post some of these images and a tidbit about the character or setting that they bring to mind.

The image that inspired this blog idea was this one:

Disclaimer: I know nothing about this image, neither its name nor who painted it, but I would dearly love to know. I found it on some wallpaper site during a random Google search. Please post if you have this information, so I can give credit where it's due and promote the artist with a link.

Point is, the moment I saw this image, I gasped and said, "That's Lyrienn!"

CHARACTER PROFILE
Project: The Falcons Saga
Name: Lyrienn
Race: Elf
Home: Lady's Palace, Linndun
Family: daughter of Danyth and Leavhan, sister to Lothiar and Laniel
Significance to the story: handmaid to Lady Aerdria; helps Kieryn through his darkest time.
.

Falcons Saga - Progress Report #5

.
Well, last Monday I thought, "This chapter is going to be a breeze. I'll bet I get it finished, plus part of Chapter 6." That was until I saw the need for a new scene, and remembered that I had a contest entry to write for LegendFire. So my contest entry took up the last few hours on Friday, meaning Chapter 5 didn't get finished after all. This is the first week that I've not reached my chapter goal (given normal circumstances). Bummer.

The contest promises to be a fun one, however. We've never done one exactly like it. One of our members proposed a Character Creation Contest, in which we choose between two prompts, flesh out the character in a profile, then write a brief excerpt showing their, um, character. I can't give away too much about my entry before the voting is over, but it resulted in my first-ever piece of flash fiction, so I'm doubly excited about it.


THIS WEEK'S PROGRESS
Chapter(s) of the Week: 5 
Pages Revised: 7.5, which became 17
New Scenes: 1, 4.5 pages worth
Good things that happen: Kethlyn and his royal cousin conduct a successful kitchen raid.
Bad things that happen: They end up stuck in a dark, haunted place.
.

The Falcons Saga - Progress Report #4

.
The last two weeks have been slow going on the novel. First a head cold threw a kink into things, then one of my beloved uncles died. Ah, perspective. There I was, complaining about being unable to breathe or sleep, while my uncle was lying in a hospital battling a Staph infection. After visiting the family and attending the funeral, only halfway recovered from that blasted cold, I was exhausted come Wednesday, and so the writing had to wait yet another day. But here comes Friday and chapter 4 is complete.  

THIS WEEK'S PROGRESS
Chapter(s) of the Week: 4 
Pages Revised: 8, which became 16
New Scenes: 1, 3 pages worth
Good things that happen: Laral ventures into Fiera
Bad things that happen: Laral must choose between love and loyalty
.

The Falcons Saga - Progress Report #3

 .

 Lots of meaningful information in these pages. Now, just to find the most entertaining, punchy way to tell it. Ah, but it is so painful when scenes I love no longer work and must be cut. Killing one's darlings is never fun. Good thing is, I will still have them saved in the old draft, so they're not gone completely, and readers will never know the difference. Trick is, then, to make the entire final version my darling and be proud of the content that survives the cut.

THIS WEEK'S PROGRESS
Chapter(s) of the Week: 3 

Pages Revised: 12
Deaths: 0
Births: 1
Good things that happen: Thorn goes home
Bad things that happen: old tensions surface
.

The Falcons Saga - Progress Report #2

.
Given that there are currently 44 chapters in the rough draft, and given that there are 52 weeks in a year, and given that there will be holidays and the occasional need to flee the novel for a few days here and there to save my sanity, I think it's safe to say that rewrites on Falcons 2 will take at least a year. That's if I succeed in rewriting one chapter a week. The tally does not make me happy, but there it is. A realistic estimate, for now.

But, like I said last post, rather than look at the whole wall to be built, take it one brick at a time.

THIS WEEK'S PROGRESS
Pages Revised: 3 1/2
Pages of New Content: 5
Deaths: 30+
Dreadful Happenings: There is much blood on the snow
Positive Happenings: Kelyn is going to miss a certain lady

.

The Falcons Saga - Progress Report #1

.
Here we go again. A full week of writing (or rewriting, as the case may be) is under my belt. Ground has been broken, and what do I find but bricks strewn absolutely everywhere. Reconstruction has begun.

I was rather disheartened last weekend when I opened that huge 3-ring binder to read over chapter one and found that what I thought was good was, in fact, shallow characterization and boring exposition. Instead of penciling in corrections line by line, I sat down at my laptop, heaved a sigh of dread, and typed "Part One, Chapter 1." This is going to be an uphill battle, no mistake. I refuse to set a deadline yet. Doing so, I fear, will be setting myself up for failure and expectant readers for disappointment. So, suffice to say, I'm taking it one chapter at a time, one scene at a time, one page at a time. If you look at the building as a whole and how much progress still has to be made, the job can look daunting, even impossible, but keeping focus on one brick stacked on top of another doesn't seem like that big of a deal.

So here's to the long haul! See you at the other end.

THIS WEEK'S PROGRESS
Number of pages revised: 5 1/2
Character deaths: 1
Dreadful happenings: a young prince makes a deadly move
Positive happenings: a young prince finds hope in a new friend

.

Fan of the Olympics and Janis Joplin

.
The games are back again, which means the writing suffers. I just can't help it. Sports were never my thing. The only reason I like to watch football on Sunday afternoons is b/c it's the best thing ever to fall asleep to. An endless drone of pointless noise. Sorry, but that's the way it is. Now, the Olympics on the other hand? I'm glued. Everything else, or nearly, takes a backseat for two weeks every two years. Even writing. That's permissible, right?

Janis

Good thing is, despite the games, I finished the short spec-fic involving Janis Joplin yesterday. Lots of fun. A bit macabre. But lots of fun. Now I must choose between endings. I have two options, which I will keep to myself. And where to submit the bloody thing? But first things first, I must cut down the word count, as usual. My stories are always so full of character development that I have a difficult time keeping them brief. But I love the narrator. I can't decide if she's reliable or not, even now. Maybe that will keep readers guessing, too.

Anyway, back to the games. Then, when they conclude, it back to the Falcons saga for me. Don't even want to contemplate the workload waiting in that stack of paper...

.