I got a very interesting email today from my editor. Most of our email exchanges have to do with my writing, as you might expect, but we’re old friends from high school, so sometimes we email just to catch up and ask each other why we haven’t hung out in months.
This morning, she emailed me to say she would be teaching a creative writing class this year — she teaches high school English — and she wanted to know if I would come in to talk to her kids.
So I totally meant to publish chapter eight of “The Grand Mythos of Úr’Dan” last week, and it totally slipped my mind.
But now it’s here!
“Aenúrfít and the Unending Flame” depicts the First Life’s first encounter with Hairek, perhaps the most powerful–and most ambitious–of the First Four Vai’ad.
Genre: fantasy, high fantasy, mythic fantasy
Chapter Blurb: The First Life has its first face-to-face encounter with Hairek, the Unending Flame, but the Vaia does not leave Aenúrfít feeling warm.
Series Blurb:
Every world has its origin story.
The vibrant world of Úr’Dan and the powerful beings who created it are eager to find life in the cosmos. But their untested powers will clash as they each strive to bring their vision of the universe to fruition–and control the wondrous creatures who live there. Witness the creation of a vibrant new world.
Based on the unique fantasy universe of the novel, The Warden of Everfeld: Memento.
As always, this story is free to read on Wattpad:
https://www.wattpad.com/story/163684352-the-grand-mythos-of-%C3%BAr%27dan-volume-one
Steve D
Click here to find previous updates about my short mythic fantasy series, “The Grand Mythos of Úr’Dan.”
I’m currently knee-deep in the second-act slog of my first draft of The Warden of Everfeld: Legacy.
The most important characters have been established. A couple of key side-characters and plots have been introduced, or at least teased. I have solid ideas for the ending.
I’m just having trouble getting there. Continue reading “How to Defeat the Second-Act Drafting Slog”
Waves boom against sand.
Sea salt sprayed into his eyes,
open in wonder.
We had a nice weekend in Cape Henlopen and Rehoboth, DE with my mom, step-dad, and sister. Nugget got his feet wet in the ocean for the first time, and he seemed mesmerized by the waves. I can watch the waves crashing on the beach for hours on end. Maybe he will share my love of the ocean.
Steve D
Those dreaded words. Plagiarism. Copyright. Infringement. Fraud.
Plagiarism of online work and exploitation of a person’s online profile and platforms are very real fears. As someone who can be very easily searched and found on Google in various results, I know this all too well. Continue reading “Plagiarism and Copyright: The Dark Side of Publishing in the Digital Age”
This one was a sub-headline, but I still have issues with it.
Want to learn how to write good headlines? Check this out. Perhaps it’s time to write a post about creating good sub-headlines…
History repeats itself, if we ignore history we are doomed to repeat it, etc. This sub-headline is essentially those cliche phrases except worded more poorly.
We can glean from this snippet (and the headline if you saw it), that this is for a historical novel. What type of history? That’s a mystery! (Not even the headline made that clear.) Maybe this book is really a detective caper where we have to guess which historical event it’s actually talking about, giving us clues along the way, but then there’s a big twist at the end!
The sub-headline of a press release is supposed to provide those little extra details that are just too wordy for a short snappy headline.
Here’s the how Google populates the press release I sent announcing that WoEM had been published. See that smaller text beneath the main headline? That’s officially called the meta description, but for a press release, that’s where the sub-headline would populate.
My sub-headline isn’t perfect, but it provides at least a little extra information. Notice how Google truncates it after about 150 characters? That makes it even more important that you front-load that summary with information that potential readers can act on.
Just rewrite the whole thing. Replace it with a description of the book, perhaps an actual piece of advice that could be taken from this mysterious history lesson. Or maybe tell us When and Where the book could be purchased.
As it currently reads, this sub-headline is effectively wasted space.
Steve D
It would be nice if my brain would just balance out for a bit. Like… a week? No? We’re going to swing wildly across the creative spectrum in a matter of days?
Got it.
Through a (completely unintentional) process of reading a fairly wide range of short fantasy stories, reorganizing some of the sections in my draft, and outlining the next few chapters, I managed to collect enough creative juice to write a ton over the weekend for The Warden of Everfeld: Legacy.
And now I have too many ideas and I want to write ALL OF THEM! Continue reading “From Writer’s Block to Overflowing with Ideas”
Lounging together,
laughing as he grasps for fur.
This couch is too small.
Steve D
Dungeons & Dragons has been on my mind a lot over the last several months. One of my friends offered to start up a group a while back, and I expressed interest. I started reading up a bit on the game, and especially on the potential races and classes I might choose. Continue reading “To DnD, or Not to DnD?”
Plotting the first draft of a novel can be difficult. Oftentimes, you’re not sure exactly where the story is going until you get there. Weaving together multiple characters, their micro-conflicts, and the larger plot is impossible unless you already know how the tapestry should look.
I’ve been having trouble recently with writing my first draft for The Warden of Everfeld: Legacy. Some of that has been due to travel and other things going on in life, but a big part of it has been a bit of writer’s block. Luckily, I found a way around that, at least for now. Continue reading “Building a Plot through Dialogue”
Evening Satellite Publishing 