Brian Marsden · Author · added over 6 years ago

Hello again all, and thank you for your support.
I had entered The Dead Wizard in the LaunchPad competition several months ago and was hopeful that it might draw some attention. Unfortunately today I got the word that I did not make the cut.
As such The Dead Wizard will go dormant for a little longer as I look into a plan B or plan F or whatever letter my plans are on now.
Anyway, the goblins shall return. So please continue to follow. More adventure is on the way.
Thanks,

Brian Marsden

TCC Edwards · Reader · added almost 7 years ago

I look forward to seeing this as a Launch Pad contest entry! Love the idea, and hope the new campaign goes better.

Brian Marsden · Author · added about 7 years ago · 2 likes

Thank you all for your support. I greatly appreciate those of you who followed or pre-ordered The Dead Wizard. However, given that I have done a poor job of campaigning and that a new contest has opened up, I am going to be cancelling the current campaign and reverting The Dead Wizard to draft status so I can enter the Launch Pad contest.
I hate the waiting that comes with trying to get a book published but that is the system. Never mind that it has stunted my development a functioning member of society, but thinking you can tell a story is a minor curse compared to some. So I hope you can take the wait in stride, like I try to do.

Look for The Dead Wizard returning as a project seeking funding soon. Plus hopefully a website you can direct your friends to. The more the merrier, right? Thank you again.

Brian Marsden

Brian Marsden · Author · added about 7 years ago · 1 like

So there is a new contest up at Inkshares, The Launch Pad 2017 Contest. It has started already and it goes until late June. The great hing about this contest is that isn’t just decided by pre-orders, it is decided by a quality/appeal too. This is great because I am not very good at marketing. Also the publicity associated with contests help bring in potential readers and orders hopefully.

I would like to enter the contest, but to do so it appears I have to cancel everyone’s orders and start over again as a draft. I don’t want to upset anyone who was looking forward to the book. In all honesty I was considering self publishing The Dead Wizard and opening another Inkshares campaign for the second book, with discounted copies of The Dead Wizard as incentives to pre-order. That way you could read the first book while you waited for the second. I thought it was a good plan. But if I make the cut then hell, it’d have better grammar and a better cover.

So I am asking you all - Would you be willing to wait a few months longer for chance at a better quality book, and potential prize winner? If not then I can enter my story about an alien hunting vending machine in the contest, but I’d rather try it with The Dead Wizard. What say you?

Brian Marsden · Author · added about 7 years ago · 3 likes

Well time is ticking down on this, the second attempt at getting published through Inkshares. I greatly appreciate all of you following The Dead Wizard, but I need to find a way to push you over into pre-ordering it. So I am asking - What will it take?

I looked into doing some things to try and offer as incentives for larger orders. Stuff like custom painted figures and t-shirts, but mass ordering goblins figurines seem a bit to cost prohibitive and I’m not sure what you like on a t-shirt. I thought about a print of the cover, but I was hoping to get an Inkshares’ deal and a better cover than one I could draw. There is a site in England that does some really cool goblin figurines (https://www.atlantisminiatures.com/collections/goblins) In the future I may see if they’ll do a custom figurine for me, but it is definitely out of price range for now.

Do you have any suggestions? What would like to see to convince you to back this book? Critiques are always welcome too.

I am also going to see if I can extend the period a little longer. I have family things coming up in May and June and I am not sure if I want to have the campaign worrying me during those. We’ll see how sales go I guess.

Thank you again for following. And please spread the word.

Brian Marsden
literate ogre and goblin friend.

Brian Marsden · Author · edited about 7 years ago · 1 like

It’s been a while since I last post here. I’ve been somewhat busy going through the manuscript again. It can be kind of painful to do if you’ve done it before. the more you do it the more of a love/hate thing it becomes.

First time through you wonder at how stupid you are for having over looked this or that typo or misspelling. But you are still confident of your book. As you do it over and over again you find yourself more and more often re-organizing sentences and paragraphs and then doing it again. More so as you get various rejection letters or no response.

For submissions you are always doing the same first couple chapters over and over and after a while you get sick of them. Regardless of the story, you will get to where you feel like you hate those chapters, which causes you to rewrite them again and again. It is quite depressing to do.

I’ve gotten past that stage in my re-edit. And it feels good. Now I am going over the parts that I don’t have practically memorized and I am enjoying my book again.

Even more so because at one point I had an agent who insisted that I cut the Dead Wizard by 30,000 -50,000 words. I did this reluctantly, but in some parts I had to agree it was a good idea. Now as I go through I’ll hit a part and think "Hmm, that seems a little awkward." I’ll try to rewrite it a bit. But if it feels a little stiff still, I think "I wonder what I did before?"

Much to my joy I have found well written sentences and connecting paragraphs that I threw off in a previous draft. Putting them back or adding the details left out has re-enthused me in my writing. It is the reassurance that I needed.

Brian Marsden · Author · added about 7 years ago · 3 likes

Hey everybody. Thanks for the support. There has been an upswing in followers recently and I want to thank all the new followers. Thad especially seems to have kick off this renewed interest and I greatly appreciate it.

I am working on another edit through The Dead Wizard, polishing up bits hear and there. It is great to hear people are showing interest in it. There is still lots of time left in this drive, but the more pre-orders we get the better the chances of getting more pre-orders. Let’s see if we can get this rolling. Thanks again for your interest and support. More to come.

Brian Marsden · Author · edited over 7 years ago · 1 like

Launching again. 90 days didn’t seem like a lot of time. And I’m not a salesman. But check it out. I’ll see about making more art work to advert it. I’m going to go through it one more time and resume work on the sequel. If you like the story pre order and I’ll get it out there one way or another.
Lord give me strength. Amen. :-)

Brian Marsden · Author · added almost 8 years ago

All, thank you for the support. But it looks like The Dead Wizard will not be making the cut. I appreciate all of your support and interest in the book. There remain a few other publishing options, but I still intend to put this story in print. The follow up novel is waiting for a chance to be read as well, so keep an eye out for it in the future. (tentative title: Goblin Hunt)

The project page will remain up for a few more days. Feel free to give me any comments or suggestions on moving this forward. Otherwise, I bid you adieu.

Brian Marsden · Author · added almost 8 years ago

Math seems to be indicating the fate of this latest attempt of mine at selling The Dead Wizard. But fear not. Your intrepid author will keep trying to get this published. My charisma and the number of friends I have ain’t gonna sell it. I just don’t know enough people. But we’ll think of something...

So I will stick to story tidbits for now.

Spoiler

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Goblins are artificial. They were created to be quick replacement workers and fodder. This was done through gene splicing and careful breeding.

The primary method of doing this was training through cannibalism. Or as goblins call it Osmiso. Goblin digestive tracks are good a filtering out nerve cells, be it gray matter or nerve fiber. Some of this is absorbed into the body of a growing goblin where it can be used to replace or repair damaged nerves, hopefully bringing knowledge and repetitive reflex knowledge with it. When successful, the goblins learn at a much faster rate. mastering tasks that their meals had taken months to learn.

Through Osmiso, goblins were fed their dead and the the dead of their enemies to make them smarter, stronger and faster. However, it also gave them memories of battles they died in and foolish moves that had gotten them killed. And when an avatar appeared and offered Bataete Evantu access to Paradise if he chased the creators away form the Well of the Gods, the tale spread among the goblins even faster after he was recycled.

Osmiso made the goblins insubordinate and eventually lead to them leading a rebellion against their creators. Along with the other created humanoids, they led the war that drove everybody away from the Well of the Gods. But the war and victory had an affect on them too.

Performing Osmiso on less aggressive races led to weakness and a tendency to want peace. Soon the goblins found themselves on the bottom of the humanoid power structure. Ogres, hobgoblins and orcs that they had commanded were soon taking over command and relegating the goblins to slave status or worse.

When the human explorers arrived and chased off the empire that enslaved them, the goblins welcomed it. After several failed attempts at the regaining their place at the top, the wise ones realized the effects victory was having on their society and a truce was quickly agreed to, with the prohibition on performing Osmiso on non-goblinoids firmly inscribed in it.

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