Just posted Chapter 1. Let me know what you think. I know I’m not perfect, That’s what I want an editor for. It’s funny how having read and reread this I keep finding things that aren’t quite right.

It’s long still, but there was so much I cut out and dropped. There was a whole bit where Voem finds one of the library helper spirits trying to tell him something by writing it in the mop water. But I dropped it because there isn’t room to explain how the helper spirits are keyed to the chief librarian, so only he (who is now dead) could have communicated with them clearly. Until the new chief librarian is anointed they can’t communicate clearly with anyone.

The spirit was trying to direct Voem towards a secret passage, The spirit had been trying to get Voem’s attention since the other librarians were ignoring it. The librarians had seen its motions but knew it couldn’t talk to them. They were too accustomed to the rules commanding the spirit that they didn’t realize there were other ways to communicate.  But this book is too long anyway. And I was still introducing characters...

My brother is a computer programmer, and he said that some people reach a point, beyond which social media completely bamboozles them. Sadly, inkshares has me bamboozled. 

So the Inkshares Guide to Crowdfunding says "Step 1 : Build Community". Which left me somewhat surprised that there wasn’t a Forum Community for Fantasy fans to be harassed by authors looking for their support.

Sure we could go to Goodreads, but there are already a bah-gillion groups there and many don’t like you trying to pitch your novel there. So I figured I’d try for something here. After all I got a book to pitch, and a desire to see what other kinds of stories people want to hear next. (In case no one likes mine.)

So I’ll start...

I’m tired of stories where the villain is all ready about to stomp all the nearby kingdoms, and where, of all the people that live there, the only one that save the world is the long forgotten somebody of special lineage.

First off, that’s very nepotistic isn’t it. ONLY the one with royal blood can stop them. Talk about a inherent prejudice for the monarchy. "If we get rid of the king no one can save us!" That’s just what the tyrants want you to believe.

Second, how come no one seemed to notice that little Edgar Darkfingers was going to be trouble when he was fifteen and torturing ducks? Where were the parents? It takes a lot of people looking the other way for little Edgar to grow up and become the All Powerful Dominator of The Dark Hills. Where’s a bully when you need one.

You would have hoped that somewhere along the way, while hiring the bandits to help him find the Orb of Command, the bandits would have thought- "I know he promised us a lot of gold, but this guy is weirder than Pervy Pete, and we killed of Pervy Pete. Should we really be helping this Edgar fellow?"

That might be a pretty interesting story. Some hopeful evil overlord plotting his rise to power while trying to keep his thugs from realizing he isn’t all powerful yet. He has to pretend he cares about them, and isn’t planning to turn them into undead warriors, while dealing with their laziness, boozing and insubordination.

That might be fun write someday.

What sez you?