Satis reflects on the past two years, and the writing of his third book.
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Help Satis perfect the third book in the redemption of Erâth series, Ancients & Death!
Now that NaNoWriMo is over (not that I succeeded even remotely in that endeavor), it's time for me to focus on wrapping up book three of The Redemption of Erâth. I've got twenty-two chapters completed, which means I've only got three chapters left to write. The last couple of chapters have gone surprisingly well, and I'm looking forward to the culminating events of the last few.
However, it's going to take some time. Book three has been the most difficult for me to write yet, having started it over two years ago. It's also the longest book of the series, at (currently) over 160,000 words (on a goal of 150,000). There will be much editing in this book's future, as well as (probably) some extensive rewrites, as I'm not entirely satisfied with the middle few chapters.
So what's the good news? I'm hoping to have these last three chapters done and dusted by the end of the year, at which point I'll be looking for beta-readers to go over the work in its raw, draft form and provide feedback on the plot, consistency and tone. (This will not be an edit request—I have a wonderful editor for those things.)
So let me know in the comments (or email satiswrites@icloud.com) if you have any interest in beta-reading this book; I'd be happy to provide a copy.
Many thanks!
Satis
Good morning, everyone!
I just wanted to let you all know that I'll be participating in NaNoWriMo this year (or trying to, anyway), in an effort to complete the Legends and Myths of Erâth novella that I tried to start last year. I'll be posting each section/chapter as it's completed over at satiswrites.com, so you can follow along as I'm writing.
The good news is that this is more a collection of short stories than a long novel, so it doesn't particularly matter if you follow from the beginning or not; each tale should (hopefully) stand well enough on its own.
So head over here to start reading now, and let me know what you think!
Satis
Good evening!
I just wanted to update you all on the state of Ancients and Death, the third book of the Redemption of Erâth series. It was a real struggle to get through the past few chapters, and 19 and 20 in particular were a definite challenge. Thankfully, they're done and dusted, and I can (for the moment) put them behind me.
So now it's onward with the final part of the book: chapters 21 through 25. Chapter 21, A Retracing of Steps, is going much more smoothly, and I think a large part of this is to do with the fact that, after two entire books set in a medieval-esque fantasy world, I'm just more comfortable with that setting. The parts of this book that deal with Brandyé, in the technologically advanced, steampunk-ish world of the Ancients, has been really hard to wrap my head around and tell it in a way that doesn't seem completely out of place with the rest of the story.
Of course, I'll still have to revisit these troublesome chapters during the editing process, but at least they're written, and I don't have to write them again!
I'll be publishing chapter 20 this coming week, and hopefully chapter 21 will be complete by then. I'm really pushing to have this third book finished before December, so I can move forward with editing, and hopefully plan for a springtime launch of the book itself.
In the meantime, you can grab yourself a copy of the second book, Exile, over at my Goodreads giveaway, or by downloading it from Amazon or iBooks for just $3.99. The first book is also available, of course, for $3.99 as well on Amazon and iBooks.
If you've been keeping up with the sporadic posts of Ancients and Death, what do you think of the switch between the advanced 'ancients' storyline and the more fantasy-style Elven storyline? Does it work? Let me know in the comments!
With the conclusion of Virtual FantasyCon on Facebook, The Redemption of Erâth: Consolation and Exile are back to their regular price of $3.99 on Amazon and iBooks. Thank you to all of you who picked up a copy during last week—I hope you enjoy it!
However, not all is lost, because starting today, you can enter my Goodreads giveaway to win one of ten hard copies of The Redemption of Erâth: Exile directly from me, the author! The giveaway is live here, and there are already almost 80 people requesting a copy, so enter now!
As an additional bonus, those of you who win the hard copy of Exile will receive a redemption code to download Consolation, the first book, for free from Smashwords. This way you can keep up with the entire adventure, as some people have told me the second book is harder to follow without having read the first.
So head over to Goodreads now, and try your luck—it’s free, and you’ve got everything to gain!
Okay, this is brief tonight—as a reminder, Virtual FantasyCon is going on over on Facebook all this week; stop by to chat with sci-fi and fantasy authors, learn more about their work, win giveaways, and get exclusive offers!
http://www.facebook.com/events/670735369748702/
I was fortunate enough to participate yesterday in the epic/sword & sorcery day; today is sci-fi and time travel, and tomorrow will be fairytale/punk. Each day through next Sunday will host a different theme, and each day there will be opportunities to interact with authors and win things.
In celebration of this event, I’ve decided to lower the eBook price of all Redemption of Erâth books to just $0.99 across the board—that means you can get books one and two and the companion book History of Erâth for less than the cost of a cup of coffee!
Click to buy book one for just $0.99!
Click to buy book two for just $0.99!
These prices will be available all week, so there’s never been a better time to start an epic journey of Darkness through a land riddled with danger and fear.
Let me know what you think of the books, or the Virtual FantasyCon, in the comments—remember, interaction with authors is (for the most part) the best part of their day!
I have some exciting news, everyone! This Sunday, I'll be taking part in an online Virtual FantasyCon—a week-long Facebook event where you can contact, interact with and ask questions of hundreds of different fantasy authors, all from the comfort of your own home (if you're not at ComicCon already)! Sunday is the 'Epic/Sword & Sorcery' day, and I'll be running a booth all day long to promote The Redemption of Erâth.
Along with being able to ask me questions and find out more about The Redemption of Erâth, both Consolation (book one) and Exile (book two) will be on sale throughout Sunday for just $0.99, so there's never been a better time to download a copy and get started on the epic adventure of Darkness! Follow the link below to register/show your interest.
http://www.facebook.com/events/518395788285240/
Additionally, I'm running a Goodreads giveaway of 10 print copies of Exile, starting October 13. Head over to Goodreads at the following link to enter the giveaway, and potentially win your very own hard copy of the second book in my series!
https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/207170-the-redemption-of-er-th-exile
I'm looking forward to talking to you all on Sunday, and please let me know if there's anything else you're curious about in the comments below!
It's funny to think that it's already September; autumn is coming, the days are shortening, the leaves are turning, and soon it will grow cold. It's the time of year for reading, cozied up by the fire … and for writing.
I tend to get most of my writing done through autumn and into winter. Part of this is because January is always New Year's resolution time, and my resolution is typically to write more. This leads to a burst of ferocious writing for a few months, which tends to peter out come March and April.
But autumn is just as productive for me; last year I edited and released the History of Erâth companion book, and finished editing the second book, Exile, in preparation for its launch in February. I'm looking forward to (hopefully) achieving a similar goal this year; if I can finish the third book, Ancients and Death, this autumn, I'll be able to release it hopefully some time early next year.
The only downside is that I often get very depressed in autumn, which means that my productivity can sometimes drop. The good news is I'm consistently taking my medication, and with any luck this will be the first year I make through autumn without a debilitating breakdown.
So here's to autumn, and great writing!
Ashamedly, I haven't done any writing this week to speak of. In my defense, I was visiting family in Portland, Oregon last weekend, and I don't have much time during the week to write. With that, here's a photo of a lovely river I visited instead of writing.
I haven't had much opportunity to write this week, as I've been pretty swamped at work with teaching and student evaluations. I did get some work done last Sunday, and I'm proud to say that Chapter 15 of Exile is completed, and the first draft is available to read over at www.satiswrites.com. I've made some progress on Chapter 16, but to be honest, I'm feeling a little lost.
It's a curious thing that this series, which started out portraying the life and struggles of one character (Brandyé), has suddenly started focusing much more strongly on what was initially a companion (Elven). Two of the five sections of the third book are entirely about Elven, without any mention of Brandyé at all. And oddly, I've found those sections easier to write. I've become more invested in the story and fate of the sidekick than I have of the main character. This is even getting to the point where I'm considering doing some terrible, terrible things with the main character, Brandyé—and having Elven become the true hero (Sam to Tolkien's Frodo, I suppose).
So now I'm back to a section of the book dealing with Brandyé, and I'm not quite sure where to go. I know where I need to end up, but I can't quite figure out a way to get there. I last left him captured by the enemy on the brink of a war that will engulf the entire world of Erâth, but I don't know how he's going to escape, and I can't think how he'll return. I'm confident I'll find a way, but it makes me feel like these sections are somehow weaker than those involving Elven.
Either way, the book will get written, and then edited, and then published. This will happen. And then, of course, I can focus on the fourth book. And the fifth … and so on and so forth. For now, all I can do is put my head down and concentrate on writing one word at a time. After all, a thousand mile journey begins with the first step.
An interview with acclaimed author Andy Peloquin!
Good evening, everyone!
Don't forget to visit my Facebook launch party; guest authors and free giveaways are happening all week!
I've been having an absolute blast today over on Facebook, launching my new book, hosting guest authors, giving away free copies, and more. While The Redemption of Erâth: Exile is my second book (technically third, actually), this is the first time I've bothered to do anything to celebrate its launch, and I didn't think it would be so interesting!
The first, most important thing I've discovered is that hosting a party, even one that's online, is hard work! (Mrs. Satis and I also hosted a real life party on Saturday, and that was chaos, too.) I didn't realize that I'd be literally glued to my computer screen, answering questions, replying to comments, and posting new tidbits of information. Originally, I even thought I might have been able to host the party while still working my day job, too—after all, it's only online, right?
I'm very, very glad I chose to stay home this week (besides having a midwinter vacation). I started up this morning around 10:00 AM, and it's been almost non-stop ever since! I've been visited by the talented Nancy Chase (see my interview with her here), who's been giving away copies of her own work, too! I've revealed a book cover for Will Bly. And I've been talking to people all day long.
The point is, I had no idea that running an online party could be so much work! I honestly believed that I'd be sitting back, drinking tea and idly waiting for people to say something interesting. But so far, I've had people telling ten-word stories, dictating what I ate for lunch, and even correcting minor mistakes I've made!
My hands have been anything but idle today, and I expect the rest of the week will follow suit. I've done more writing—albeit in short bursts—today than I have in ages, and it's a whole lot of fun! The weird thing is, I'm absolutely exhausted, and I've barely moved!
For now, though, it's back into the party—we'll be wrapping up for the day soon, but drop by anytime this week: I'd be delighted to see you there!
As part of my ongoing launch this week, I’m going to be interviewing guest authors here and on the Facebook page. This will be a great way to discover new and exciting authors, and possibly win free copies of their work! My first, most distinguished guest is the one and only Nancy Chase, author of the fantastic fairytale The Seventh Magpie. Read on to learn more!
Q. What do you write, and what inspired you to start?
I write speculative fiction, fantasy, sci-fi, and fairy tales, usually inspired by myths, dreams, or my own twisted curiosity about “what if?” I like to mingle some darkness with the beauty, some beauty with the darkness. Magic, transformation, loss, and every now and then an unexpected glimmer of humor.
Most of my work falls a little outside of the expected norms for its genre, and that’s intentional. I want to play with ways for my stories to be unexpected and original while still moving somewhat within the tropes of that genre. I compare it to the process of writing form poetry. If, for example, you’re writing a sonnet, you have a set of rigid guidelines about rhythm, line length, and rhyme scheme. But to express yourself with originality and honesty within that structure, that’s the exhilarating challenge for the writer. That’s how I feel about writing genre fiction.
As for what inspired me to start, wow, I don’t even know. I’ve been writing stories since before I could write. Literally, I would make little books out of stapled-together pieces of paper and draw pictures and scribble “words” in them, when I was still too young to be able to write real words.
The first actual stories I remember writing were in second grade—a series of ghost stories—though I may have written others before that that I’ve since forgotten. I can’t remember a time of my life when I wasn’t somehow creating stories. I learned to read pretty young, I think by about age four, and books quickly became my favorite thing in the world. So I guess I started writing simply because I loved reading so much.
Q. We all know writers love to drink—coffee, tea or worse! When you’re writing, what’s your poison?
Tea all the way, for me. I never drink coffee and rarely drink alcohol, but I drink tea nearly every day. I probably have almost 50 different kinds stocked in my kitchen. My go-to type that I never get tired of drinking is Twinings English Breakfast, but most of my other varieties come from Harney & Sons Fine Teas. I’m drinking a cup of their fabulous Chai right now.
Q. Do you have a favorite line that you’ve written? If so, what is it?
It’s nothing all that special to the outside eye, but the line, “Quick as a shadow, the Magpie darted over fields and woodlands. Nimble as moonlight, the horse followed.” from my book The Seventh Magpie is my tiny homage to the great Peter S. Beagle. As a teenager, I read his wonderful book, The Last Unicorn and found myself inspired by his lavish use of extravagant similes and metaphors.
At that time in my life I was just starting to be more serious about improving my writing craft. I was a quiet, careful, somewhat repressed youngster and I’m sure it showed in my writing. But lines from The Last Unicorn wowed me with their exuberant, over-the-top imagery, like (my favorite): “Outside, the night lay coiled in the street, cobra-cold and scaled with stars.”
You can’t get away with that style of writing in every book, but I wanted to include just a hint of it in The Seventh Magpie. A couple of others I included: “Her heart lurched like a netted salmon.” “Small, bright flowers of pain bloomed among the thorns of her spine.”
Q. What are you most known for amongst your friends and family?
Among my friends and family? Probably for my farming, not (sadly) for my writing! For the past twelve years, I’ve lived on a small historic farm. I’ve raised horses, cows, sheep, goats, pigs, and chickens. I’ve milked cows, sheared sheep, made homemade cheese, soap, bacon, and yogurt. I’ve spun wool and woven fabric. I’ve fixed fences, collected eggs, plucked chickens, assisted births, treated wounds, cured illnesses, and attended deaths. It’s a great lifestyle, being so close to the land and the seasons, raising your own food, and caring for the animals. But it’s a hard life too, and not a profitable one. I’m not as young as I used to be, and a knee injury finally let me know I couldn’t do the hard physical labor 365 days a year any more. So right now I’m in the process of moving off the farm and into a new house closer to where my husband works, so he will no longer have to commute so far every day. I’ll miss some aspects of the farm, but I’m eager to move on to the next stage of my life where my writing will be able to be my first priority.
Q. Have you ever seen a movie that you thought was better than the book?
I don’t know if it was empirically “better” from a critical standpoint, but I did enjoy the movie Inkheart more than the book of the same name by Cornelia Funke. I saw the movie first, and really enjoyed some of the visual aspects. And of course, I fell in love with Great Aunt Elinor’s splendid library and was properly horrified when it was destroyed. The movie was a fun, magical adventure, but when I read the book later, it fell a little flat for me, perhaps because it was obviously written for a younger age group. It just didn’t engage me as much as I had thought it would.
I would contrast this with, say, The Golden Compass, which was also a visually appealing film, and also an exciting magical adventure. But the His Dark Materials trilogy of books by Philip Pullman (of which The Golden Compass is the first) is so much bigger, grander, and more thought-provoking than anything the movie could possibly portray, so the books are clearly better, deeper, broader, and wiser.
Mostly, though, you just have to be happy when a movie doesn’t ruin a favorite book of yours, be satisfied when the film makers do their best to keep what’s important to the original work and don’t make too much of a mess with the things they have to change or leave out. For example, The Lord of the Rings movies ruined only about three small aspects of the books that I loved. Out of all that huge trilogy of books and all those long, intricately produced movies, to only wreck three small things that I had loved in the books was quite an achievement, so I loved the movies too.
Another one I can think of like that, from years ago, was Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy. I read the book first, and when I later heard they had made it into a movie, there was a certain part of the book I just couldn’t see how they could produce in a way that didn’t turn out completely weird and wrong. But the film makers must have seen that too, because they changed the scene to something different that worked on film and stayed true enough to the gist of the overall story. So I ended up being impressed that they had made a good choice for the integrity of the film there.
More often, though, when you see a film of a book you enjoyed, you have to brace yourself for a disappointment. (I’m looking at you, Bag of Bones, by Stephen King, and Horns by Joe Hill!)
Q. Is there a message in your writing that you would want your audience to grasp? If so, what is it?
I explore different themes in different works.
In The Seventh Magpie, for instance, one of the themes is that sometimes things happen that shatter your world apart, and while it’s perfectly natural to grieve and resist and struggle to put things back the way they were, sometimes there’s just no going back. But that doesn’t mean you can’t ever be whole and happy again. It just means you have to allow yourself to let go of the old and be transformed by the new.
Life is messy and painful and beautiful. Sometimes, you don’t get the result you want or expect. Sometimes what you get instead is a new insight or wisdom. That can be a very hard lesson for most of us to learn, but it can open up possibilities we never would have dreamed of.
Q. Seven is a something of a ‘power’ number in The Redemption of Erâth; it crops up rather frequently. Is there any similar symbolism or talismanic aspect to your own writing?
Well, as you know, seven is a pretty important number in my book The Seventh Magpie too! For starters, that’s how many magpies there are in the traditional English magpie-counting rhyme that planted the first seeds of an idea for my book. So I didn’t originally choose seven because it is a power number, although of course it is one.
In fact, we all instinctively expect fairy tales to be structured in cycles of three. Three little pigs, three bears, three attempts to solve a problem before the right solution is found. It turned out to be quite challenging to work with the structure of seven for my book. But even though three is what people expect, three would not have been sufficient for my story.
In my book seven represents the sum of reality, the totality of one’s perspective: up, down, north, south, east, west, and center. It represents the necessity of persistence, of not giving up, of trying ALL your options and looking at a problem from every angle until you find the right one.
The Seventh Magpie can, of course, be read as a simple fairy tale adventure story. But for those who enjoy exploring layers literary symbolism, this book is rife with it!
Thank you for your thoughtful answers, Nancy—and I can’t wait to have you over on Facebook today!
I have two major announcements to make about the release of The Redemption of Erâth: Exile next week. The first, most important thing, is the list of guest authors who will be participating! I'm so excited to be working with such great and talented people, and I can't wait to get started with them on Monday morning.
The second announcement is the grand prize of the week. There will be small prizes and giveaways all throughout the week, but the final prize which will be won by one single participant, is signed copies of all three Redemption of Erâth books (Consolation, Exile & History), as well as a $50 Amazon gift card!
So tell your friends and family, and I can't wait to see you all there!
Monday, February 22: NANCY CHASE, author of the critically-acclaimed The Seventh Magpie, and the upcoming sci-fi epic The Dreamsea Chronicles.
http://www.nancychase.com/
Tuesday, February 23: V.R. LEAVITT, speculative fiction author and host of the review blog Coffee and a Keyboard. Leavitt's first boot, 5 Tales of Transformation, is available now on Amazon!
http://vrleavitt.com/
Wednesday, February 24: ALEXANDRA CORINTH, author, poet and blogger extraordinaire. Alexandra's debut novel, The Stories We Tell, amassed over 200,000 online reads when it was released in 2012.
http://alexandracorinth.com/
Thursday, February 25: NILS VISSER, author of the Wyrde Woods series of dark, urban fantasy novels, as well as the WW2 historic novel, Will's War in Brighton.
http://www.amazon.com/Nils-Visser/e/B00OK5RMSY/
Friday, February 26: ANDY PELOQUIN, dark fantasy author of Blade of the Destroyer and In the Days.
http://andypeloquin.com/
Special Addition: On Monday, there will also be a cover reveal for Wil Bly's brand new novel, Raven's Bane!
http://willbly.com/
The twenty-second of February is fast approaching, and with it comes the next chapter in Brandyé's epic journey across the lands of Erâth! When we last saw Brandyé, he was exiled and abandoned on the coast of a dead, black sea, with nothing but his crossbow for survival.
What will happen to him next? Find out how Brandyé will survive in the dangerous lands of Erâth; discover who he will meet; learn more of the history of the world we were first introduced to in The Redemption of Erâth: Consolation! Danger, desolation and adventure awaits!
So come along to the Facebook launch event for The Redemption of Erâth: Exile and meet new authors, ask questions and even win giveaways and prizes! Any and all are welcome, and there will be fun events all week long.
For those of you who wish to preorder the second book, it is now available on Kindle, iBooks and Nook. Preorders aren't currently available for the softcover print edition, but it will start shipping on Monday, February 22 for $12.99.
It gives me great pleasure to announce that The Redemption of Erâth: Exile is now available for preorder on Kindle, iBooks and Nook! If you preorder today, you can enjoy the next chapter of Brandyé’s adventures the moment it’s released on February 22.
It’s been a long road to get here; Exile was originally started in January of 2014, while I was still preparing to publishing the first book, Consolation. But it’s been worth it—multiple edits and versions have passed under my fingers, and it’s only now that I’m satisfied enough with the final story to share it with you all.
To celebrate the release of Exile, I’ll be hosting a week-long Facebook event from February 22 through 26. Attendance is free (obviously), and there will be prizes, giveaways, and guest authors throughout the week, so don’t miss it!
So sign up, preorder, and get ready for a new tale of Darkness and adventure!
With the final edits for The Redemption of Erâth: Exile wrapping up, I’m starting to look at the internal design of the book. When I published Consolation, I had a publishing company to do all the design work, and I have to say that for the internal design, at least, they did a pretty good job.
This time, though, I’m on my own. I got some practice in when I published the History of Erâth in October, so I know a few things to look out for (for example, good guttering), but since this is a major sequel (the second ‘true’ book in the series), I really want to make sure everything comes out just right. I’m going to try a few different print options—I went for cream paper with History of Erâth, but I wasn’t entirely satisfied with the stock (it’s a little too thin). I might test white paper, and see if the stock is any better.
I also want an internal design to match the first two books—fire for Consolation, trees and leaves for History. The major theme throughout Exile is mountains, so I’ve designed a couple of black and white mountain silhouettes to try and replicate the feel of the first two books. I use them for Part pages and for Chapter headings, and to separate sections of the book. Below are some examples of what this looks like:
I’d love honest feedback on these; I’m open to changes at the moment, but pretty soon it’s going to have to be fixed and locked in. If there’s room for improvement, please let me know!
This is a brief announcement to say that I've completed work on my first ever book trailer for The Redemption of Erâth: Exile. In fact, this is my first book trailer ever, and one of the first videos I've ever made. I apologize if it's a bit rough, but honestly I had a lot of fun making it, and I'm pretty pleased with the results! I'd love to know what you think, and please check out the other books in the series so far, Consolation and History of Erâth.
Thank you all!
Find out more about The Redemption of Erâth, a new dark fantasy series from author Satis!
The original image I found for the cover of The Redemption of Erâth: Exile.
Those of you who've been following me over at www.satiswrites.com will know that I've been struggling to find an appropriate cover image for the second book of The Redemption of Erâth series, Exile. A while ago I found the most spectacular mountain picture on the internet, but try as I might I couldn't find the original photographer, or discover anything about licensing the image. Therefore, as much as I wanted to use it for the cover, I new that I'd never be able to.
So began a very long search for a replacement. I scoured Getty Images, googled for images that were licensed for commercial use, asked friends of photographers, but alas—no luck. The biggest problem was that the picture I had in mind was a perfect representation of a pivotal moment in the book. Near the end, when Brandyé and Elven are slowly making their way through the Reinkrag Mountains, there comes a point where they emerge through the perpetual clouds, ascending to the top of a peak, and look down upon a vast sea of clouds. I simply couldn't imagine a better scene from the book to put on the cover.
After a while, I gave up the search, and began working on other things—editing the second book, continuing the writing of the third, publishing the History of Erâth, and so on. For the first book and the history, I actually used my own photos, so of course licensing issues were avoided altogether. But I simply didn't have the photo I needed for the second book in my possession.
And then, a couple days ago, I was working on updating this site, and I came across, in a search of iStockPhoto, a nearly perfect substitute for the original picture. An incredible mountain sunset, the sun hidden behind snow-capped peaks and turning the sea of clouds a gorgeous, deep violet. And best of all, I could license it for only $12!
So here I give to you my new draft for the cover of The Redemption of Erâth: Exile. Please take a moment, and let me know what you think!
