Swagger

My custom swag for TUAT is in! Woot!

I shall be a walking advertisement for Twice Upon A Time. This particular t-shirt was printed at CafePress. Ugh, custom shirts are x-pen-sive. But! The point is to take pride in the book and show it off in blatant fashion to everyone I know -- and don't know, for that matter. It might spark curiosity or start a conversation or two. Who knows?

Anyway, take a gander:

Incidentally, a review of CafePress shirt product:

The material is very thick, probably very durable. The black dye, to my eye, looks like the kind that will fade rather quickly. The print of the book cover is solid. I mean, solid. I don't know how else to describe it. Like, it feels like a sheet of plastic but not shiny, so I expect it to be very durable as well. My only complaint, is that the print on the back cannot go higher near the shoulders than as pictured. The book cover fills all available vertical space. Ideally, prints on the backs of shirts are at least three inches higher than CafePress allows. If I were a nerd and decided to tuck in my shirttails, the image would be right at my pants-line, ready to dive out of sight.

Still, I'm excited to start wearing this puppy. Now, to the wash...

First Friday Writing Prompt: "Happy Place"

Disclaimer: this is not a meme!

I’ve been feeling terribly bogged down and uncreative lately, as in, for the past year and a half. Once upon a time I made an effort to paint with pastels and acrylics, sketch my characters (very badly, I’ll admit), dabble in photography, throw a pot on the wheel, MAKE STUFF!!! But for too long now, I have been so focused on finishing the Falcons Saga that, ironically, my creativity has dwindled.

That’s my preamble for starting a monthly writing prompt (to be posted on the first Friday of every month), both for myself and for any visitors who might like to participate. I missed January's first Friday, so I'll get a (very) late start and get back on schedule in February.

My favorite sources of inspiration are photographs or digital art that hint at stories, but I'll look for other prompts to inspire as well. In the comments below the prompt, I’ll post an excerpt of what the image(s) inspired inside my twisted brain. Hopefully, these excerpts will grow into full-length stories (or poems!), but we’ll see. The point is to have fun creating something new while I rework these old novels.

Okay, then, let’s create something…

"Happy Place" by Schnotte

(If you find inspiration and wish to share your creation with me, please do the following:
* DO paste a link to your creation as a comment to the prompt you’ve used.
* DO include a link back to my blog, Wordweaver.
* DO NOT copy anyone else’s work and publicize it as your own.

Scratch That...

Ignore my last post. The anthology has been temporarily pulled.

Ah, the joys and frustrations of publication! Apparently there was an issue with one of the author contracts, which forced our editor to pull the anthology. Poor Joshua. He's worked tirelessly on this thing, and little snags at the end are always the worst.

But, says I to myself, never fear! As soon as the contract issues are smoothed away, the anthology will be back online, and we'll have our "Release, Take 2" party. It promises to be a storm of a party, too, with blog tours, giveaways, interviews, and, man, would I love some swag. That book cover would look dandy on a black t-shirt. Am I dorky? Heh, yeah, probably.

Twice Upon a Time, Now Available!

It's HERE!!! Your favorite fairytales retold and remastered in the short story collection, Twice Upon a Time. Dozens of up-and-coming authors poured their hearts into these stories, and our editor Joshua Allen Mercier slaved away to turn our ragtag bunch of stories into a gorgeous, professional-quality book. I mean, look at that stellar cover:

Looks like it's just the digital book for now, available for download to your reading devices HERE, but I know a hardcopy version is on the way. I cannot wait to see the dark, magical adventures my fellow authors turned out.

For more information, check out Bearded Scribe Press at Blogger or on Facebook!

Rest ... Recuperate ... Write

I had no idea my novel project would last as long as it has, nor that the material would grow and involve so many books and so much time, sweat, blood, and tears.

"Dreams" by Whisperfall

The holidays provide the perfect excuse to relax a bit, write when I can, and stop forcing it. January has provided another excuse to rest. LegendFire's annual Legends Contest has kicked off, and it's given me the opportunity to write something new. New characters, new crises. It's invigorating to escape the ogre war for a couple of weeks. Since the contest is still running, I can't mention titles or plotlines. Yet. Suffice to say, I'm excited about this story. And once the votes and critiques are in, I look forward to revising it, expanding it, and submitting it. If editors don't want it, they're crazy.

Is that ego or truth speaking? Time will tell.

Twice Upon a Time -- Coming in December!

We're looking at December 23rd for the release of this fairytale collection. Just in time for Christmas.

The Beast Grows...

Well, I've calculated the current word count of the next installment of the Falcons Saga and examined how much I still have to revise, and it has become painfully obvious that the material remaining is too long for a single book.

Therefore, the series will be one book longer than I thought. So I've had to come up with yet another title. The current book, which will be Book 3 of the series, will be called Cry of the Falcon. The last book will still be Fury of the Falcon.

And given how Amazon has asked me to clarify volume/title information for Book 1, volumes 1 and 2, it might just be easier to give volume 2 of Book 1 a different title and cover completely. Confusing enough? Yeah. If/when that goes forward, volume 2 will become Book 2: Sword of the Falcon, which in effect, means a new cover for Sons of the Falcon as well, since it is currently being marketed as Book 2, not Book 3 as it appears to be. Still confused? Yeah...

So, lots of changes to come and lots of work still to be done. But this also means that I'm halfway through the next installment. *vast sigh of relief* Hopefully, if I'm not plagued again by a bad case of burnout, Cry of the Falcon could well be available by this time next year. *fingers crossed*

PROGRESS REPORT

Project:  Cry of the Falcon
Chapter:  19
Death count:  12
Good things that happen:  A silver light shows the path...
Bad things that happen:  Kelyn's past comes back to haunt him, in the most embarrassing way possible.