Tag Archives: Karia’s Path

Support your local bookstore

17 Jul

Do you want to get my books and support your local bookstore?

You can.

Go to your bookstore with my name and the title of the book you want, and they can order it for you. Yep, any bookstore that stocks new books can order you a paperback copy of any of the books in the series The Day Magic Died:

  • The House in the Old Wood (Book 1)
  • Karia’s Path (Book 2)
  • The Hall of the Prophetess (Book 3)
  • The Dwarf’s Legacy (Book 4)

I should mention that some independent bookstores may refuse to order my books for you. It’s a long story. Contact me if you want to hear it. The bottom line is, if they don’t want the sale, it’s their loss. Order my books somewhere else.

No waiting in Orlando

If you’re in the Orlando area, you don’t have to order my books and wait for them to arrive. They’re on the shelves at Bookmark It in the East End Market. Check them out.

And of course, all of my books are available in paperback and for Kindle at Amazon:
The House in the Old WoodKaria's Path

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10 reasons The Day Magic Died is better than A Song of Ice and Fire, part two

15 Jul

You may have heard people say that George RR Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire (that’s the books on which HBO’s Game of Thrones is based, in case you missed that) is the best fantasy series of our time. And yesterday I gave you five of the ten reasons my series, The Day Magic Died, is better.

Here are reasons six through ten:

6. Trustworthy: Look at the man. George RR Martin has a beard! I always say, never trust a man with a beard. Yes, I have a beard too. So? What are you implying?

7. You knead this: Never once, in all those words in all those books in A Song of Ice and Fire, does Martin give a detailed description of making bread. You’ll not find one in the Game of Thrones TV series either. But The House in the Old Wood, the first book of The Day Magic Died,does. Just like all those other pieces of great literature with baking scenes. I can’t think of any right off the bat, but I’m sure they’ll come to me.

8. Use your imagination: You can watch Game of Thrones on TV. But there’s no TV series or movie version of The Day Magic Died, so there’s nothing to keep you from using your own imagination to picture the characters and scenes as they play out. However, I should add in case any producers are reading this, I’d consider sacrificing my readers’ imaginations for the right amount of money.

9. Speaking of imagination: The Day Magic Died has better mythical creatures. I’d put a ferebeast or a redbear up against a direwolf any day. But A Song of Ice and Fire has dragons, you say? Well, I’ve got a dragon too – and she’s immortal. Take that! Wait. She’s also dead. Sort of. Hang on, my immortal dragon is sort of dead? Boy, I wish I would have noticed that before I was four books in …

10. But in the end: My dwarf is taller. Need I say more?

You ought to run right out (or really, open another tab) and get your copy of my series today. Available in paperback or for Kindle:

The House in the Old WoodKaria's Path

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10 reasons ‘The Day Magic Died’ is better than ‘A Song of Ice and Fire,’ part one

14 Jul

As long as I’m talking about George RR Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire (that’s the books on which HBO’s Game of Thrones is based, in case you missed that), I should tell you, I am tired of hearing that it is the best fantasy series of our time.

I’ve come up with 10 reasons my series, The Day Magic Died, is better. Here are the first five:

1. Peace and quiet: People seem to be talking about Game of Thrones and the books it’s based on, A Song of Ice and Fire, a lot. It can get really annoying. So next time that bothers you, mention The Day Magic Died. Aside from the odd looks and the occasional, “What?” you’ll get the peace and quiet and solitude you want.

2. Readable length: When it’s all done, A Song of Ice and Fire will be roughly 47.635 million words long. Who can read that much? In fact, at an average pace of 10,000 words an hour, that would take 200 days to read. Without stopping to sleep, eat or do anything else. The Day Magic Died will be about 500,000 words. That’s a nice round figure that, read through without stopping, would only take one weekend. You can survive that. (Note to self: “You can survive my books” goes in the bin of rejected marketing slogans.) I mean, you’ll enjoy that journey.

3. Northwestern University: George RR Martin went to some elitist Midwestern college with pretensions of Ivy League-ism. I went to … wait, never mind.

4. Playing the percentages: A Song of Ice and Fire is 71 percent complete, and if it goes to eight books instead of seven, as George has hinted, it’s only 63 percent complete. The Day Magic Died is 80 percent complete, and the final book is set to come out this year. Yes, whenever I am reading a book series, I calculate percentages. Don’t you?

5. Faster is better: George RR Martin’s first book in the series A Song of Ice and Fire came out in 1996, and the fifth book came out 2011 – 15 years later! And it’s not done. The House in the Old Wood came out in 2013, and The White-Silver House, the final book in the series The Day Magic Died, comes out in 2014. And everyone knows faster is better, right? How else do you explain why so many people eat at McDonald’s?

Check out reasons six through ten. And please check out my series, available in paperback or for Kindle:

The House in the Old WoodKaria's Path

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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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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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