Tag: Steve D

Book Review: A BLIGHT OF BLACKWINGS leaps above middle book syndrome

On By Steven D'AdamoIn On Storytelling, ReviewsLeave a comment

A Blight of Blackwings is the second installment of Kevin Hearne’s The Seven Kennings series, and I could not resist diving straight into it after I finished A Plague of Giants a few weeks back.

As with the first book, I greatly enjoyed A Blight of Blackwings, which felt somewhat different from its predecessor and deftly maneuvered around the dreaded middle book syndrome.

Hearne achieved this by lacing this book with its own somewhat contained narrative threads that appeared separate from the larger series plot. The introduction of characters like Pen, Hanima, and Koesha enriched the plot without making the reader feel over-burdened with new voices. After being given the proper time to develop in their own right, each new character ended up serving the larger narrative in their own ways, without becoming subsumed by it.

Where some middle books, especially in trilogies, struggle to maintain narrative momentum, Hearne provides tangible story progression that is not wholly divorced from the wider series, so the reader does not feel like they are just getting “filler” content before the finale.

Hearne also manages to hit similar emotional stakes in this book as the first. Grief, and the myriad ways in which characters process their grief, is a significant and explicit theme in the first book. Grief and loss play just as important a role in Blackwings, but in a much different way.

Where the first book used dramatic scenes to demonstrate the power of grief – and anger, and sorrow, and despair – Blackwings focuses this poignancy on smaller, more intimate scenes that deepen the reader’s connections with the characters.

In short, A Blight of Blackwings both inherits and expands upon its predecessor’s themes, creating a story that builds upon the series without feeling repetitive.

I’ve already started book three.

Steve D

On Publishing Sooner or Later: Pros & Cons

On By Steven D'AdamoIn On PublishingLeave a comment

Over the last few months, I’ve been processing my ideas for writing and publishing books going forward. I last published something in 2019, with my short mythology series on Wattpad. I didn’t intend to go five-plus years until publishing my next story, but here we are.

I’m ready to embark on the next phase of my book writing/publishing journey. I say “embark”, because I’m not necessarily ready to publish right now — just to take the next steps. What I haven’t quite decided is how I want to proceed.

I could focus on my duology and try to get those out in 2025, at the soonest. That would enable me to attend a few book conventions or festivals with my duology and my previous novel, The Warden of Everfeld: Memento. I could also hold back, prepare several different stories, and then pursue a more deliberate publication schedule to drive higher overall sales.

So, I need to make a list of the pros and cons.

Publish sooner?

There’s no reason to make two different pros and cons lists, so I’m just going to focus on the most immediate question: Do I want to publish something in the near term, regardless of longer-term timelines?

Pros of publishing sooner

I could get my author name out there again.

  • Perhaps have new stories will help drive sales to WoEM. Then again, maybe that will draw unwanted attention to the fact that I have yet to publish my intended sequel to WoEM.
  • This likely implies a social media “presence” of some form, something I’m not thrilled about.

It would allow me to attend some book conventions or festivals with more than one book to sell.

  • I attended exactly one convention to sell my first book in 2019, and I greatly enjoyed it. It was so much more rewarding to talk to people about my book and meet other authors/creators face-to-face, instead of trying to advertise online.

I could feel like I’m making progress on my writing goals.

  • Perhaps a mental hurdle, but sitting on “finished” unpublished works for years could be a detriment to my motivation.

Cons of publishing sooner

I would be left with another uncertain publishing gap.

  • I could focus on finishing and publishing my current duology. However, once completed, I would feel the same pressure to identify a publishing timeline for my next work.
  • All the book marketing/sales threads, forums, and articles say that you shouldn’t leave too long a gap between publishing cycles. I’m not sure how important that is to me, though.

I’d likely need to establish a social media presence.

  • I’m not particularly interested in the idea of producing social media content just to get my name out there. I understand it’s something lots of authors have to do, but it would require additional mental energy I’d need to prepare for.

I’m not decided, but I think I’m leaning towards publishing sooner just to have something attainable to reach for. More pondering is needed.

Steve D

August Write Day: More Space to Plan

On By Steven D'AdamoIn Fantasy, On PublishingLeave a comment

July has been a busy month, for a period I usually find to be the doldrums of summer. We took an extended vacation around the 4th, I’ve traveled for work, etc. I must admit that I was not actively tracking my goals for July, but I feel like I ended up hitting most of them anyway.

Perhaps it’s more a matter of routine, or a bit of a mindset I’ve been in to just get things done. Either way, I feel good about where I’m at.

Last Month’s Goals

  1. Read three books.
  2. Finish New Earth.
  3. Stay on top of my shifted priorities. 

Read three books?

Yep! I finished three books in July, all audiobooks again:

  • Childhood’s End, by Arthur C. Clarke
  • Among the Beasts and Briars, by Ashley Poston, and which I reviewed here
  • A Plague of Giants, by Kevin Hearne, which I reviewed here

I’m thoroughly enjoying Kevin Hearne’s trilogy and will definitely be finishing A Blight of Blackwings in the next week or so.

Finish New Earth?!

Yes. Basically. I finally came up with my ending, which, of course, was a scene that had been staring me in the face for months. It’s the type of scene that I knew I had wanted to incorporate in some way during revisions. The ending isn’t perfect and likely needs some more work, but I’m honestly relieved to say that I have ended this story.

I still have a lot of revisions, and working with an editor, to do before this duology is anywhere near finalized.

For the moment, I’m happy to put a pin in it. I feel like I need to do some serious self-evaluating and self-reflection to figure out my writing goals. I haven’t yet nailed down a consistent writing routine, so I want to step back and consider how much I can reasonably focus on writing week-to-week to give me a better sense of how long each project will take, rather than writing into an unknown void of time.

Stay on top of shifted priorities?

Yes, mostly. Another change we have coming up is our oldest starting kindergarten, so our daily drop-off/pick-up is about to change. I think we have a plan figured out, and we just need to see how it goes.

Goals for August

  1. Read three books.
    • Current reads: A Blight of Blackwings, by Kevin Hearne, and The Storyteller: Tales of Life and Music by Dave Grohl.
    • Likely next reads: A Curse of Krakens, by Kevin Hearne, the final installment of this series. And… I’m not sure what else at the moment.
  2. Plan for/test a writing routine. I’m not committed to sticking to a writing routine yet. I just want to put in the effort to figure one out and do some much-needed longer-term planning for my writing projects.
  3. Figure out my next writing steps. I have two projects I’d like to make progress on, but it’s difficult to prioritize, because I’m not sure when or in what order I will be publishing anything.
    • I haven’t decided whether I’m just going to publish my next thing and hope for the best, or whether I want to plan out a publishing phase of three-ish stories, to try to boost overall sales and carry into some convention work. So, goals #2 and #3 go hand-in-hand, really.

Steve D

Book Review: A PLAGUE OF GIANTS is a superbly intricate story

On By Steven D'AdamoIn On Storytelling, ReviewsLeave a comment

A Plague of Giants by Kevin Hearne, the first in his Seven Kennings series, has been on my radar for far too long. I finally got this book on audiobook, and man, I can’t believe I neglected to read this sooner.

A Plague of Giants is a highly enjoyable read. This is perhaps one of the most well-rounded fantasy stories I’ve read.

The world-building is superbly intricate and layered into the plot in a way that’s accessible to the reader. This is introduced to the read through a framework structure, where a bard is recounting stories of a recent war to a crowd of refugees who had fled from it. The bard, through his “kenning” – the system of magic in this universe – can take the appearance and voice of whoever’s story he is telling. Thus, we’re treated to multiple voices through the voiceover narration of Luke Daniels and Xe Sand in turn.

The plot is well paced, and the multiple point-of-view narratives keep the voicing dynamic. This is the type of story where the first third feels to come from multiple unrelated angles, but each of the POV narrators end up building towards a larger theme.

The framework style of storytelling is effective and introduces its own plot mechanics that add depth to the main narrative. The bard and a local scholar spend time together between recountings of the tale, so that the scholar can record the bard’s oral history in writing.

And the characters feel authentic. This book carries weighty themes of grief and loss without burdening the reader with them, instead allowing each character to experience these feelings in unique ways. The characters wrestle with their own perspectives or histories even as they’re experiencing new waves of loss with the onset of this war, forcing the characters to react and reassess their own values in real time.

A Plague of Giants is one of the best fantasy novels I’ve read in recent memory. I cannot wait to start book 2 in this series.

Steve D