Culminating Boss Battle this Wednesday!

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Our 16th episode of Dungeonscrawlers will be the culmination of our enmity with the Twilight Knight (aka the Kiss of Death Killer) who we first met way back in episode 1. It all comes to a grudge match on Wednesday at 6:30 PST, and when it’s done either he or we shall be left standing! Tune in and watch live on our new channel, Twitch.tv/dungeonscrawlers/ or watch it later on our YouTube Channel, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5eMMpbRxBc&t=10s .

Below is my character Stirge’s challenge in the form of an Arena playbill plastered all over Westgate.

Dang this is fun!

Okay, this has been so much fun. Playing with these writers is hilarious, interesting, and sometimes even poignant. From the left: Yang-Yang Wang, Erin M. Evans, Rhiannon Held, (Erik Scott DeBie’s DM station), Emily Teng, (Randy Henderson’s spot). Five episodes now! I only haver crappy pictures, but here’s what it looks like from the player’s side. Check out past episodes on our YouTube channel, watch live on GenConTV on Wednesday evenings (6:30 PST), or more on dungeonscrawlers.com.

Author D&D Livestream now on YouTube! Link to Channel:

The DUNGEON SCRAWLERS YouTube channel is up!

Now that we’ve streamed a couple episodes, we have a YouTube Channel to post them in case you couldn’t watch them live.  You’ll also find player/DM interviews there, along with other tidbits. And, why, yes, you can subscribe there, too. 🙂

Episode 3 streams TONIGHT at 6:30 pm PST on GenConTV (our producer on Twitch).  You can also follow us on Twitter @DungeonScrawl for links and alerts of upcoming shows.

LAST MINUTE TITLE CHANGE FOR BOOK TWO

If you’ve been following my progress with Book Two, you’ll notice the working title, THE KNAVE OF SOULS, did not make the final cut.

I fully thought book two would go to press with that title

But a couple months before publication, I was at Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers Conference in Denver, and a good writer friend of mine, Heather Webb, commented, “Isn’t the knave the same card as the jack? And isn’t the title of your first book, The Jack of Souls? By naming the second book The Knave of Souls you’d be naming it the same as the first book, but in different words.

And I had to admit she was right.

But I didn’t. I resisted.

I explained to her that I was using an older meaning of “knave,” meaning “foolish person,” but even as I said it I knew it was a poor excuse, and that she was right. Damn it. Plus, another large fraction of my readers might not be familiar with the term “knave” at all., which would also be a problem. Double damn.

I had actually loved The Knave of Souls.

But I faced the music, and when I did, I was stuck for a title.

So I went round and round on it, noodling for a new title for months as I finalized the manuscript and got the cover going. The title crisis came to a head when I was three weeks out, and still had nothing.

The Fool of Souls was the next closes thing, but it didn’t have a ring to it. Heather had liked The Ace of Souls, which I agreed was cool, and had a ring to it, but which felt too modern, to me., Apprentice of Souls (meh), Squire of Souls, (meh).

So I switched suits. “Souls” was the suit that referred to the Unseen Moon, the moon that controls the magic of the spirit world and dreams. Since the Mad Moon is the moon controlling entropy and the magic of destruction, I’d imagined the Mad Moon’s suit would be “Fires” or “Flames” or something like that, but it hadn’t come up yet in the books, so I hadn’t settled one. After much deliberation, I eventually landed on, The Jack of Flames, but I wasn’t excited about it. Finally, my good friend Mark said, “How about The Jack of Ruin?” and it stuck.

Thematically, it’s actually a better title. But the change means, of course, that the third book needs to be start with “The Jack of…”, so in that respect I’ve painted myself into a corner. Still, I have lots of time to figure that out.

DONE! This Week BOOK TWO goes to the Editor!

It’s been three years since the release of The Jack of Souls, but I am proud to announce that this Sunday I will send Book Two, The Knave of Soulsto the editor! Look for it on Amazon at the end of the month or in early December.

The Knave of Souls weighs in at 185,000 words, which is a better length for epic fantasy, in my opinion, and which makes it 140 pages longer. I like to think that makes up for some of the wait. Can’t wait to hear what you think of it.

* For alerts on FREE promos I’ll be running, click here & “Follow” on Bookbub. *    

Four Muses of Summer

Summer is a season of imaginative recharge for me. A time when the muses grow strong and the furies of duty fall away.  It is a time of family, hiking, hammocking, playgoing, and geekery.

My beloved family at Gasworks Park

 

Historically, it’s also been a time of hardcore writing binges. And this summer would have been the same, except for two things: 1) broke my ankle; 2) I’ve been waiting for my last beta readers; 3) I am a cinder.

1) BROKEN ANKLE

“So what?” I hear someone say.  “Broken ankle is a perfect excuse to sit and write.” I myself thought that, at first. Then I learned what a time-sucking, buzz-pinching frustration fest it is to perform even the smallest tasks.

Normally effortless things like rising to pee, fetch ice for my leg, return the ice pack to the freezer, or search for one of the myriad things I set down or misplaced on one of these interruptions becomes a sweaty and awkward epic crap wagon.

And it was depressing. The one time I optimistically sat in a cafe for my usual six hour stint, my foot swelled up like a throbbing red meat balloon.


2) YOU CAN’T RUSH THE BETA READERS

But that didn’t stop me from trying. I’ve been waiting for the last of my beta readers, including the Closer (though maybe I should call him the Cleaner?), my blood brother in writing, Craig Holt–aka Ivuk Ivukson, whose kickass “jungle noir” novel, Hard Dog to Kill comes out this fall. Craig delivered his notes last week. I had begged him to make his comments on paper so I could revise on paper, a task much easier to do than on computer when one one’s leg is elevated above the heart. I await only one more beta reader.

COULDN’T I START REVISIONS BASED ON CRAIG’S COMMENTS?

Yes. I am now walking on my ankle boot. Things are much easier. But…

3) HONESTLY, I’M BURNT OUT

Too much Knave for too long, and my imagination feels like a wrung-out sponge. My body too, is a shambles, and not just the ankle. I sacrificed exercise time to writing time. Very. Bad. Idea.

THE POINT IS

I haven’t written much this summer, and that’s going to have to be okay. Instead, I have made it a Summer of Imaginative & Salubrious Recharge. While I wait for betas and healing, I’ve let my Four Muses have rein–the four muses of FamilyNature, Shakespeare, and Dreaming. Plus, I have returned to exercise.

4-DAY WRITE = COMPLETE DRAFT

This was my view for three straight 12-13-hour days of writing. Many many thanks to my uncle John and auntie Sue for letting me camp at their dining room table in their absence.

And guess what? I revised and polished two chapters, wrote two new chapters (including the last), and completed the draft! 

Better than that, 90% is ready for the copy editor, and the rest just needs the usual critique and development. 

Perspective From Samwise Gamgee

Thanks to Jeff Weaver for this quote from The Return of the King.
“There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Samwise saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.”

Knave Update: Two More Chapters Down!

Nailed down TWO MORE CHAPTERS yesterday. Here’s the post. New venue: Miro Tea. Needed some cleaner burning fuel. I know the image is sideways, but that’s what my head feels like on hours and hours of caffeine and writing, so it fits.

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