Next update April 28
Life is good!
It’s Masters weekend; the NBA playoffs are only a few days away (go, Spurs, go!) and I just got back from a Vegas trip where I actually made money! But, more importantly, it’s time for another blog update!
I was going to talk about my writing process this update: seems appropriate since I’m deep in the middle of writing The Scorched Earth, the second book in my Chaos Born trilogy. But I think I’ll save that for next time, because there’s lots of cool stuff I want to talk about this week.
The big news – the cover for Children of Fire has finally been revealed! Click on the link and you’ll not only see the artwork, but you’ll have a sneak preview of one of the chapters from the book. (For those who don’t know, Children of Fire is book one of my original fantasy trilogy, The Chaos Born.)
The flame-wielding fellow in the cover art is a wizard named Rexol – the most powerful Chaos mage in the Southlands. Rexol isn’t one of the eponymous Children of Fire, but he plays a pretty important role in the story. However, if you’re thinking he’s going to be the wise and kindly mentor who gently guides his apprentices towards a better understanding of magic and themselves, think again. That’s not his style. He’s arrogant, defiant, confrontational and selfish. Controlling Chaos is a dangerous business, and Rexol isn’t out there to make friends. People who get in his way… well, most of them aren’t around anymore.
The excerpt actually gives you a nice glimpse into his character, as well as highlighting some of the political tension that exists between a mage like Rexol and the Order, a group of fanatical monks dedicated to controlling and containing Chaos magic in the mortal realm. Read the official publisher’s jacket blurb if you want to know more about the story.
But the release of the cover isn’t the only thing that’s been going on. Over at Kotaku – one of the major video game news sites – they’ve been doing a Mass Effect retrospective all week. Lots of articles about the games, some good and some bad. However, there are two in particular that focus on me and some interviews I did. The first talks about my experiences with the original ME, the second has me talking about the potential pitfalls of a Mass Effect movie.
So, there it is. Hope you like the Children of Fire cover and the excerpt, and I hope you enjoy the Kotaku interviews. I’ll be back in a couple weeks to talk about how I take a novel from initial idea to finished product.