E-BOOK EDITION ONE WEEK FROM TODAY! THAT IS ALL! GET HYPE!

Just a quick update - I'm grinding away at the manuscript in every spare moment I can grab. Just finished what Act One, and inserted a meta-textual framing structure that you all will HATE.  But I'm liking it, so in it stays for now.  Just ghosted past the 30K word mark in the draft, going to keep banging away and hopefully climb up to 40k in the next week or so. I'm directing a play that opens next Friday, so between day job and rehearsals the Grand Central Station of my brain is officially crammed full of trains and noisy passengers. I want to keep up the pace, but I have to be honest that's going to be tough until I get this show opened. July is going to be fun!

Here's a quick snippet from the chapter I just finished - a token of good faith, my noble supporters.

Spell/Sword Concept Art - Mike Groves - poopbird.com

“So, what should my name be?” Jonas asked, coming up to her side. “You know I’m no good at coming up with this on the spot. If people ask who I am, what do I tell them? Or you? Your name is going to be hard to hide pretty soon too.”

She chuckled despite herself. I’m losing my grip on sanity and Jonas keeps having good ideas. Upside down we go. “A good cover name should be something simple, close to your own name in case you stumble. Do you have another name already? Do they give middle names in Gilead?”

“Nah, just Jonas.” his brow furrowed. “Wait, do you have a middle name?”

Rime’s mouth went dry and she picked up her pace, nearly shouldering a pair of leather-clad sailors out of the way. She angled for a nearby archway that seemed to lead away from the docks and towards the center of town, the most likely place to find the market. The dawn sun made the archway a black silhouette, half of a dark circle. The mage squinted and could see that it was fashioned from  what appeared to be a pair of ancient rib bones, encased in a cunning lattice of brick and mortar. Earthen pots were placed at regular intervals along the top, and bright yellow flowers bloomed despite the advance of fall. I wonder if someone waters them, do they have a ladder nearby that they use for maintenance?

“Oh, man - it must be terrible,” her guardian practically salivated as the trotted to catch up. “You’ve got to tell me.”

Rime turned back, arms crossed. “No. Not going to happen. And this is not one of those times where someone says that a thing will never occur to build up your anticipation or even an opening for some passing deity to prepare some sort of ironic comeuppance. This is not a thing that you will know, ever.”

Jonas grinned, “Yeah, well, we’ll see.”

“No, we will not see.”

The squire laughed. “Aww, come on. What could be more complicated or strange sounding than --”

“Doma Rime Korvanus,” a voice came from the archway of brick and bone.

The two travelers spun, the squire’s hand already on his sword. Standing in the shadowed circle, outlined by the rising sun was a ghost. The hunter, Linus, had already drawn his white sword and held it out before him as if in benediction. His dented iron armor was the same, the white spiral sigil on his chest was the same, his cool blue eyes were the same. The same as the last time, on the beach. The few citizens of Shiloh coming through the archway eyeballed the situation with curiosity, but kept moving around the knight and his white sword like rocks in a stream. It’s so odd, that fucking sword. People think it’s a staff or a cane or some-weird-thing, and off they go with their business.

“You are dead,” Rime’s panic was slathered over with a thick coating of bruised propriety. It was just so rude. “I killed you myself. I made sure.”

“Yes,” Linus agreed. “But our business is not complete.”  

---Back to typing. Update you all soon!

IT'S ALIVE! (on my kindle)

Secret #3

I don't know how to stop the asteroid.

I know how it was made, I know when it will land, I could even give you a pretty good statistical breakdown of the size and types of dragons that slumber beneath it's adamant crust -- hell, I have backstories and ridiculous dragon-names for a few like Tyrinel the Inferno, Sorrow the Sure, Bex the Assymetrically-Winged. I know the song First-Singer Teon wrote the day they cast the dragons off the planet, I know the taste of the wine that Jalyx poured for him as the Singer wept alone that night in their bedchamber.

But I don't know how to stop it from falling.

As of right now, working on the draft - looking down the long tunnel of the tale -- I just see an enticing but stubborn blank.

That's the fun, you see. I know so much about the world, about the heroes, about the Past and the Future and lightning-Now. But some things I can't see until I get there. Unlike the vast numbers of far wiser writers out there I only have the barest of outlines. Want to see it?

That's what I have. And some of it's wrong! I'm sure of it! It's just a road map, a way to keep moving forward.

I can't wait to get there though. I can't wait to get there, when that asteroid [at this point technically a meteor] starts pushing it's way through the atmosphere, and the wyrms start stirring, and and and....! I can't wait to write it and I can't wait for you all to read it.

Thank you all so much for coming on this adventure with me. Secret #3 isn't really a secret -- it's that I'm crazy and weird. But by backing this campaign I'm your crazy and weird. I crazy and weird for you.

Required Contest Update So My Anxiety Demons Will Quiet Down Briefly

Three days to go in the contest!  I won't exaggerate, but we're slipping down the ranks a bit - and there's going to be a lot of movement in the next 72 hours as everyone fights to hold onto the top five slots. You've all put in your gold coins - you've all put up with my pestering -- it breaks me a little to be this mercenary, but I need your help even more this last stretch.  We have to keep pushing or we're going to fall out the bottom of this contest - you know people, you know people who like books, or you know people who have 8.99.  Show them the site, share the exclusive chapters with them - send them to me on twitter @gderekadams, I will patiently and shamelessly do my best to convince them. I'm still pinging everyone that's ever been on any social media/contact list I've ever had, but there's only so much time left and only so many people that I have incriminating high school poetry on file from.  Take a look at the leaderboard - we are all neck and neck!

Stay with it Squires! Keep sipping lemonade Wild Mages! We can do it! AND BY ALL THAT IS HOLY LET'S JUST WIN THIS MOTHERFUCKING CONTEST SO I CAN STOP BOTHERING YOU NICE PEOPLE AND JUST WRITE YOU A STUPID BOOK ABOUT FRIENDSHIP AND DRAGONS.

[Contest ends Sunday night - May 31st - 12 PST]

Remember the sign. The circle that holds even thought it wishes to break.