Tag Archives: The House in the Old Wood

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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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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Making progress

26 Feb

The Day Magic DiedWe’re continuing to make progress on Book 4, The Dwarf’s Legacy.

Today I’ve given my designer all the files and text and information necessary to, in order:

  • Design the cover of The Dwarf’s Legacy
  • Revise the covers of Books 1, 2 and 3 – The House in the Old Wood, Karia’s Path and The Hall of the Prophetess – in order to include the series logo
  • Design the cover for Book 5, The White-Silver House

I should mention that the cover is not all that is changing in Books 1 and 2. I have also changed the font I used for the print book, to the same one I used in Book 3. I was originally using Garamond, which is a very legible and very respected font for books. But italicized text is far more legible in Palatino Linotype, and I have a lot of italicized text. So I made that switch for The Hall of the Prophetess, and now that I am making revisions in The House in the Old Wood and Karia’s Path, I’ll make that change there as well.

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A new symbol for the series

14 Jan

fiery hand_diamond_smYeah, I know, if I had half a brain I would have done this before launching the first book, but then again, I’ve been told that if I had half a brain I would be dangerous, so this should make you feel safer.

The drawing I wanted to use as the symbol for the series was driving my artist batty. She tried and tried, and finally we decided that wasn’t going to work. So she let me use her hand.

Don’t worry, I didn’t cut it off or set it on fire. I took a photo of her hand and Photoshopped some fire into it. If that’s not obvious in the small version, it will be if you click and enlarge it. That’s why I’m going to keep it small when I use it.

(By the way, I hate the red box that this WordPress theme seems to put around any image. Or maybe it’s just WordPress period. Anyone know how to get rid of that?)

I’ll be working with my designer to put that on all the covers to unify them (as well as lightening the cover of Karia’s Path to make it stand out better from The House in the Old Wood).

And of course it’ll be on the cover of The Dwarf’s Legacy when that comes out next month. I’ll have an update on the rewrite of that book soon, and in the meantime, make sure you vote in my poll so I know what you think should come next.

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A simple meal, a simple way to help

30 Dec

It’s not hard to make rice and beans. Even Timbal can do it, as is clear from this passage from Karia’s Path:

“Come and eat something,” he said. “I’ve made some hinarka and kariki. You need it.”

“I’m not hungry,” she said. She did not care enough about anything to get angry at his persistence.

“I don’t care. You need to eat. Put the book down and come eat,” he said. She just stared at him. “I mean it. Put it down. Come get something to eat.”

She knew that look. It was the same look she got sometimes, the look that said, “I’m not taking no for an answer.” She suspected she had even taught him that look, and she didn’t feel like arguing. That meant more talking. She put the book down and went downstairs with him. She sat at the table while he went to the kitchen.

He brought her a bowl of hinarka and kariki, and she ate.

“Do you like it?” he asked.

She hadn’t even tasted it. She had been eating it, but she had no idea what it tasted like. She lied. “It’s good.” She rationalized that it wasn’t really a lie, since she probably would have noticed if it was bad.

“I think I got your mom’s recipe right, or at least close,” he said. “What do you think?”

“It’s fine, Timbal.”

But not even Karia could make rice and beans if she didn’t have any.

And that’s a distinct possibility for the needy people of Nicaragua, who live on $2 a day.

Buying a book, and providing $1 worth of rice and beans for them, is a really big deal.

Rice & Beans Foundation will use 100 percent of the funds to buy rice and beans. The only question is, how much will they be able to buy? This offer ends at midnight tomorrow, so don’t delay.

Spread the world.

Enjoy the journey and feed a family.

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