I should be exhorting you all to PUSH PUSH PUSH the Inkshares campaign, but I'd rather just share a poem with you I just wrote. This will appear in a Jonas/Rime chapter of Asteroid Made of Dragons.

“Last light of the sun against gravestone sky, 

dream of the shadows all come to die. 

White sand, gray stone, green field all bear the scar, 

of heroes’ blood and silver star. 

They walk in steel, they die in stone, 

Children of Gilead sing alone. 

Black sea, white sand, the lives they fall, 

from broken horns still sound the call. 

Where Night and Beast dare wear the crown, 

Knights of Gilead will throw them down. 

Last light of the sun shine across the waves, 

bones of valor down in their graves.  

Songs of blood and journey’s end, 

the price of heroes for shadow’s end. 

Sundown comes and Gilead stands, 

sundown comes and Darkness plans.”

Eh, probably needs a revision or two -but I hope you enjoy it anyway!

Derek

Good afternoon, everyone!

I've added the first Jonas & Rime chapter to the campaign site officially after some feedback from readers, and it's the featured segment for new readers to check out. I've also sent it to you all again if you want to share it around.

I'm on VACAY [woop woop] this week, but that only means from my actual day job.  I just stumbled up from the beach half-drunk and three-quarters sunburnt to work on AMOD. Next up in the queue is the chapter where Jonas and Rime fight half-ghost pirates, followed shortly by the chapter where Sideways sips daiquiris on an airship in between abductions.

I'm trying to remain calm, cool and collected about the Sword & Laser Contest and not flog you guys about it - we're in a good position going into the last leg of the competition, but be forewarned - if there's a need for some 11th hour campaigning and hustling you will see a new level of shamelessness from me.

Thank you all!

Secret #2

Unearthed from the D&D folder on my bookshelf, the Precursor number system - developed way back by friend and artist Margaret Poplin. [margaretpoplin.com]

A few of the Squires have asked me about the overall continuity of AMOD - where it fits in with my first two books, do they need to read the first two books beforehand, and why are you laughing quietly in the corner? Are you crying?-- they ask.

The short answer is NO! I write episodic fiction - each adventure is designed to be enjoyed on its own merits, the reader is supplied with the information and equipment they need. To me, feeling the strange history of characters extending off into the ether only adds to the enjoyment - and you don't really need to know much about what happened last week, when Rime is frying half-ghost pirates with lightning bolts, now do you?

But - and of course there is a quibble - there is a longer answer. And a longer story, one quietly being told in the shadows of each adventure du jour. I wrote a blog post about it a few months ago - thought I'd share it here for all the new followers who are just now realizing the strange and absurd predicament they have inserted themselves into.

Continuity - spell-sword.com - 11/19/14

I get asked this question a lot: How many books are there in the Spell/Sword series?

Well, not a lot. Eleven times, tops.

People ask because they want to know what they’re getting into, I suppose. Or just figure out how many years they have to deal with me explaining my fiction with wild-eyed elan. On the site so far I have three titles listed: Spell/Sword, The Riddle Box [PREORDER IT OH MY GOD PLEASE IT COMES OUT ON THE 26th], and Asteroid Made of Dragons.  These are reasonably set in stone – first one is out, second one next week, and I reference the title of the third book IN the second book so those are visible within the Narrative Fog of War. But, as I’ve always said – this is not epic fantasy, I’m not writing a trilogy. The story doesn’t end in the next book ( though you can safely consider AMOD as the end of an arc, or more correctly, the end of Disc One).

So, how many books will there be?

I should really only ask rhetorical questions that I know the answer to.

More than three, obviously? Seven seems like too many, but five might not be enough. BUT who writes a six book series?!? Is that a hexology? Wait, that kind of sounds badass, maybe it will be six books.

See, you would think I’m in charge of these things. But I’m kind of not. I know the tale I’m telling, I know the end. But the path to get there — there’s still plenty of shadows and fog, which is the way I like it. I’m a ‘pantser’, a ‘discovery writer’. I ‘don’t know what I’m doing’. I don’t know what I’m doing. Is there anything more wonderful or grand than that statement? I just point my antenna towards Aufero and pick up the broadcast and try to type fast enough to keep up with it — at least for the rough draft. Part of me wants there to be 10 books, because the last one is so sad.

Let’s pretend. Let’s pretend there are going to be ten books. Here’s what they will/could be.

1. Spell/Sword
2. The Riddle Box
3. Asteroid Made of Dragons
4. Paper-Thin Harry Potter Parody*
5. Wild Magic and Mild Salsa
6. Suddenly the Robots
7. Ecclesiastical by Jonathan Franzen
8. The Archivarium Saga : Secret of the Wonderblade**
9. Swordroom – Adventures in Financial Diplomacy and Corporate Espionage
10. The Fall

* There will be a year ‘in-world’ gap between the events of AMOD and Paper-Thin Harry Potter Parody

** I think this is the one where they get Bird!

Shit, maybe I will write 10 books. I need to hurry up and become famous so I can write these faster and stop wasting time ‘feeding and clothing’ myself.

[Hope that obfuscated the matter completely! Thanks for the support as always. Squires, you have kitchen duty tonight - Wild Mages please stop making it rain jelly beans inside the men's lavatory, I slipped on a pile of Green Apple and sprained my ankle.]