Archive | May, 2014

Books now available locally

19 May
Bookmark It sponsored the book fair I was at Sunday, and now carries my books.

Bookmark It sponsored the book fair I was at Sunday, and now carries my books.

You can now purchase my books in Orlando at Bookmark It in the East End Market.

That’s all four books that have been released in the series, The Day Magic Died:

  • The House in the Old Wood
  • Karia’s Path
  • The Hall of the Prophetess
  • The Dwarf’s Legacy

As well as the first Nascent Payne mystery, The sort-of Murder of Fiona Galloway.

They are, of course, also available on Amazon. And that’s the only place to get the Kindle version. But if you want a paperback and you live in the Orlando area, you now have an option besides buying directly from me.

I encourage you to visit Bookmark It; it’s a great locally oriented shop, where you can find books from a number of Orlando-area authors.

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Looking forward …

14 May

TWSH-coverI am back from my time in the woods and on vacation, and made great progress on Book 5, The White-Silver House.

I’ve mentioned before that I drafted all five books in the series The Day Magic Died before I released the first one, The House in the Old Wood. (Actually, I drafted six books. But the fifth book seemed to wander around and make no progress, so I cut out the last 80 chapters and merged Books 5 and 6.)

All of the drafts needed a lot of work before they were ready to publish, and Book 4, The Dwarf’s Legacy, required an extensive rewrite. Book 5, I thought, was very close.

I was correct, but …

The draft of Book 5 opened well after the events of Book 4. It seemed, as I read it, to leave too many questions unanswered. Then the setting for the first part of the book didn’t seem to work very well. So I have begun revising the book so it begins almost immediately at the ending of Book 4, and moves to a different setting … one that involves The Black. (No more about that yet … you’ll have to wait until the book comes out to find out more.)

And in addition to the cover posted above, I’ve also updated my description of the book on my Books page:

Reaching the halfway point in her quest is not exactly satisfying to Karia. It’s not simply a matter of convincing the rest of the First Ones to go along with her plan – as if any part of that is going to be simple. It’s also a question of how final the ending is for Karia personally. Must she die? Is there any other way to remove magic from the world? Or perhaps to remove its malignancy?

Perhaps the answer lies in the strange properties of white silver.

I’m still working toward releasing the fifth and final book this summer.

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Book 4 NOT coming May 12 …

2 May

Wow. I am so sorry to have to tell you this. But here it is:

Book 4, The Dwarf’s Legacy, will not be coming out May 12.

That’s because it’s out … NOW!  It’s available for Kindle, and in paperback.

So get your copy, tell your friends, cajole your family, and buy a copy for your enemies because there are few things worse than having just the fourth book in a series!

Get The Dwarf’s Legacy (The Day Magic Died, Book 4)

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New covers? Yes, and more

1 May

You may have noticed new covers for the earlier books in the series starting to appear in the blog’s sidebar and on Amazon. That’s not all that’s new …

The House in the Old WoodThe House in the Old Wood

The House in the Old Wood has been completely proofread again.

I’ve also added mentions of all the other books in the back, which are links in the Kindle edition.

But the biggest change is in the typeface for the paperback. I switched from Garamond to Palatino Linotype. I used Palatino Linotype in Book 3, The Hall of the Prophetess, and found it much more legible. It was especially helpful in the italics. With all of Karia’s thoughts in italics, it was important that they be clear. And Garamond wasn’t cutting it.

Part of the reason Palatino Linotype is more legible is that it is larger. (I don’t really understand how one typeface can be so much larger than another at the same size, but …) And that means the book has more pages now. And that led me to abandon the convention of having all the chapters start on the right-hand page. I’ve taken out all the blank pages within the book.

Karia's Path coverKaria’s Path

Karia’s Path has also been completely proofread again. As with The House in the Old Wood, this resulted in very few changes.

This new version also has the other books listed in the back, and linked in the Kindle version.

And like The House in the Old Wood, the paperback version makes the switch from Garamond to Palatino Linotype, for better legibility, especially in the italics. And I took out all the blank pages caused by trying to start each paragraph on the right page.

The Hall of the Prophetess coverThe Hall of the Prophetess

I’m a little embarassed to admit this, but I apparently rushed a bit too much to try to get The Hall of the Prophetess out last November. Another round of proofreading revealed more typos and issues than the previous two books.

Perhaps that can be excused by the fact that most of the issues had to do with the way one of the characters, Ni’ika, spoke. We found — and corrected — several inconsistencies in her use of pronouns — or lack thereof.

Since this was already in Palatino Linotype, the only other substantive change was adding the listing of the other books in the back.

Speaking of fonts

Since I brought up the subject of the font for the interior, some font junkies may want to know more about the cover fonts.

The back cover text is primarily Palatino Linotype — hey, when you find something good and legible, you stick with it!

And speaking of good and legible, the secondary font all over the cover is DIN, a legible classic that’s made quite a comeback.

The title font is Fairydust by Marcel de Jong. I think it works fairly well in the titles, but it does tend to look a little busy. It seems to work better as a drop-cap, which is how I used it on the back covers, both the originals and the new ones.

 

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