M.L. Forman's Blog

O.K. so I said on Facebook that this would be up in a couple of days, and that was a week or so ago.  Time doesn’t seem to work the same way as it used to before my brain got messed up, how odd.

First off, apart from saying yes, I’m alive, I want to thank you all for your kind words, well wishes, prayers, concern, and general good thoughts. (Well, all of you except that one person who posted that I was dead, I’ll get even with them later.) It means a lot to have so many people wishing me the best. Oh, it might be a little bit of self interest in there, as I need to get better so you can read the next adventure, but that’s O.K.  I need to get better so I can write the next adventure as well. I mean really, what good is a story you can’t manage to tell anyone?  Well, as you can see, the good wishes have worked, at least in part. I’m able to type again, though not as fast as I used to, and I’m back to work.

Currently, I’m working hard to finish, or really re-finish “The Axe of Sundering”.  Yes, I had it done at one time, then my wonderful editor pointed out all of the problems and things that didn’t work so well, and… um… I kind of started over. Same basic ideas and story, different way of telling it. Right now it’s between a third and half way done. I am hoping to get Alex through this adventure by the end of the month. Once that is done, yes, my editor will look at it again and we’ll see where we are. If all goes well the book will be ready for you later this year. (Gee, I hope it goes well, I’m dying to see how things work out for Alex on this adventure.) Sorry, I don’t have an actual release date at the present time. I think they might be afraid to set one, not knowing how fast I can type and all.

Right then, back to work on the story. I am hoping it will be the best one yet.

Yours in fellowship,

Mark.

Thank you all so much for caring so much, it means a lot to me.

A famous line from Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and it happens to be true.  I’m not dead yet, but there are some issues that you all need to be told about.  Issues?  Delays?  What madness is this?

Well, the big problem is this.  A couple of weeks ago I had a really bad day. It didn’t start out bad, but it did start out odd. I woke up to find that my left arm felt like it was still asleep. You know, that annoying tingly feeling you have when your arm or leg falls asleep, yea that was it. I didn’t think too much about it at first, but then I discovered that the whole left side of my body felt like it was asleep. Foolishly, I thought it would go away… it didn’t.  Bother.

Latter that day, after several hours of being tingly, I found myself in the hospital. After many tests, shots, pills, and other seemingly random tests, the doctors told me I had had a “small” stroke. Double bother. I’m now on a pile of pills and a new diet, a diet that includes lots of foods I don’t like and not much that I do like. Apart from my unhappy meals, the tingly feeling has not yet gone away. They tell me that it will in time, or they think it will. What does this mean?  Well, because my left hand is mostly numb, my ability to type is greatly limited. Even the little I’m writing here to let you all know what happened is taking far longer than it should. All the letters you type with your left hand have to be double checked, because I’m not always sure where my fingers are.  Bother again.

The big picture is, book 5, “The Axe of Sundering” will be delayed.  Sorry about that. I’m thinking we are looking at early next year – 2015. I’m still working on it, but everything takes so much longer than it should. The backspace button on my keyboard is getting a lot of use, and my hand hurts even though it’s numb… how odd. Anyway, that’s what’s happening. I’ll keep working to finish book five, and I’ll say thank you now for being patient and understanding my small problem.

Thanks

Mark

I never really thought about how much I do with my left hand. I hope the tingly feeling goes away soon.

So, as you might have noticed, I’ve had some trouble blogging of late. First I was too busy, then the website wouldn’t let me login, for awhile my system couldn’t even find the site, and now, hopefully I can get this post out before I lose connection again.  Yes, we are working on it, or I hope someone is working on it.

Without any delay then… here is the cover for book 5, “The Axe of Sundering”.

I don’t know the real release date yet, but I do know I’m not finished writing yet so… um… we hope this year.

Thanks for not complaining too much. Sorry, no time to answer questions now, I need to finish writing this story. Well we do have a cover and a release date and all, so it would be good if we had a completed story as well.

I’ll be back soon, I hope. Until then, I remain yours in fellowship

Mark

I really hope this post works.

It Seems the website was recently updated. I can’t actually see what I’m typing now, so I hope it is readable. We are working on getting this fixed. Sorry.

Mark

Right, I know, I’m late. I’m late, late, and later. I’m so late and far behind that I might not ever catch up and that worries me. “Why are you so late?” you might ask… well, the problem is that after I thought I’d finished book 5 my editor looked at it. Normally that would be a good thing, but this time around she discovered a huge number of problems that I need to fix. (I’m talking huge, super big, massive, um… redo the whole thing kind of problems.) So, that’s what I’m doing. To keep things simple I’ll just say that the super massive ugly redo/re-write is not going as well as I had hoped. I’m behind my schedule, and I’m sure I’m behind the schedule that my publisher would like me to be on as well. What to do, what to do?

So, here’s the skinny. I need to try and finish this up in the next 10 to 14 days, or we might not get book 5 out to you until next year.  Next Year! That will never do. No, I don’t actually know the title of the book at this point. We had two choices on title but I’m not sure which one the publisher is planning on. (I’ll ask this week and see if they will let me tell you.) I’m afraid there’s just not time for questions and answers this time around. I just wanted to get something posted so you know what’s up and what I’m doing and why I haven’t posted for so long.

This week the plan is to write, write, and write some more. I have the story in my head, but I haven’t been able to get it into the computer for some reason. (Doesn’t Microsoft have an application for that?) Anyway, I will be sitting here at my computer for the next 10 or more days. A large, grumpy ogre will be poking me with a stick whenever it looks like I’m going to fall asleep, and a hyperactive brownie will be slapping my knuckles with a ruler when I make typing mistakes. Yes, it should be fun. Hopefully neither of my helpers will fall asleep on the job.

I’ll get you an update around the first week of May. I will also make sure to go back and collect all of the unanswered questions and find you answers then. For now… the ogre thinks I’m slacking off, so I need to get back to the real work.

Thanks for reminding me about being behind, and for holding out hopes for book 5 to come out this year.

Until next time, I remain yours in Fellowship,

Mark.

“Stop poking me with that stick… I’m still awake.”

So, I’ve been gently reminded that it’s time to blog again. O.K. so some people tell me that I’m late or behind on the blog again.  Not so says I. February got cheated, it only has 28 days, and a 29th once every 4 years… Unfair!  Who decided that out of all the months February should only have 28 days?  Couldn’t we pull a couple of the 31 day months and drop them to 30, giving February and even 30 as well?  O.K. maybe not, fixing all the computers in the world would be too much trouble. I’m just going to say that this is the February 30th blog post and leave it at that.  (I was going to wait a few more days, as I’m having lunch with the folks from Shadow Mountain on Tuesday, but as you can’t wait…)

No real news to report at this time. Oh, I did finish the, well let’s call it a draft, of book 5 for Shadow Mountain to look over. I’m sure they haven’t read it yet, at least not all of it. I’m hoping that they will let me tell you the title soon, but I think they want to read the whole story before they agree to that. If all goes well, We should have book 5 out by… um… Let’s say October just to be safe. It could be sooner, but I don’t want to get your hopes up. It might be later as well I suppose… they could hate it and make me redo the whole story.  (No!!!!)

So, let’s see what new and exciting questions and ideas have come up in the last 28 days.

Rathcohen:  Yes, I believe elven is correct, but Keebler’s cookies taste so magically good. (I think I have cookies around here someplace… hang on a sec. while I look.

Jacob: Thank you for that historical insight on demons. I knew they weren’t just for fighting angels.

Avid Reader: Um, I didn’t know there was a Texas Teens for Libraries conference in April. I do know there is another Comic Con here in Salt Lake in April, and I’m hoping to take part in all three days of that.  Also the Storymakers conference is in April and I’ll be going to that as well, but only as a student. Now don’t get me wrong, I’d love to come to Texas. Don’t know if it will fit in this year, but do let me know about it next year.

Now, Alex(a):  You know I’d love for the series to be turned into one or several movies. First off, that’s not really up to me, I know nothing at all about making movies. Now, about changing Alex to Alexa… I suppose it could work, and yes I would consider doing it in the movie format, but whoever was making the movie would have to have a really good reason for doing it, not just because they want to change the story. I think making the changes from a male to a female lead would be difficult at this point, but I wouldn’t say no just because. I do agree with several of those who commented on your question, suggesting that a new story with a female lead character might be a better idea… how about, “The Dragon Lord’s Daughter”… I’d better write that down someplace, just in case.  (That is an actual title that I’m thinking about, but no real story so far.)

Reese17: Wands vs. staffs.  O.K. here’s my thoughts on this little problem. To my mind, wizards carry staffs. The staff is a symbol of what they are. Now I’ve read some stories where wizards carry staffs, but that they can change them into wands if they need to hide, or conceal their staff for some reason. I’m not saying that all wizards must carry staffs, I loved those H.P. books as much as anyone, but that’s just not how things work in Adventurers Wanted. Maybe in another story I will use wands instead, but for now I’m going with staffs.

PorterRocks:  Arconn and Sindar in one adventure?  Well it could happen, I’m not sure who will be in the next adventure, at least not yet. I do need five or six adventurers to go with Alex, and I’m trying to figure out who they will be. Now I don’t want to give anything away, but you know after Sands of Nezza, that some adventurers are probably going to die. Well… we’ll have to wait and see. If you have someone you want to come back, even if they might die, feel free to let me know.

Cornflower9909: I don’t remember if I ever mention pillow geebs in the books, though I might have. They aren’t as good at delivering messages as your normal bottle necked geeb, so maybe not. I know I’ve talked about them on the blog, so that might be where you remember them from.

Haley:  I can answer questions about almost anything in the known lands or about Alex’s life because most of the questions I’ve already thought about. I know, most things like that never make it into the books, but I did think about them. Sometimes, however, when someone asks a question that I know will never turn up in the books, I just think about it and then answer on the blog with what I believe is the correct answer.  Now, I don’t really have a method of how I write. For adventurers wanted I just started writing the story, and then tried to keep track of all the rules and such as I went. I will say that building your world first is a good idea, but it’s not the only way to do things. Keep track of your rules and such as you go, or make up the rules first so you don’t break them. (Aren’t rules meant to be broken?)  I do tend to decide things about characters early on, and I do keep lists of things like what kinds of things turn up in which lands, what characters can and can’t do, and any other information that I think about as I’m writing. Many people call this the stories “Bible”, and it is helpful as you write and even more helpful if you write a series, because you can go back and check things to make sure you are doing them right. I know a lot of writers who do the whole bible thing before really starting the story. I do it mostly at the same time I’m writing, but then I check it as I go to make sure I’m not breaking any rules.

Poncho: And everybody who commented on Poncho’s post. Currently I am able to be a full time writer, and lets hope sales of the books keep up so I can continue to do that. No, I am not a bartender, and I don’t think I ever said I was… did I?  Anyway, the time spent writing and the time it takes to publish a new book are not really connected. Publishers have their own rules, and they don’t like doing two books a year, normally. So no matter how fast I write, even when I get everything in the story right, the books will still be about a year apart. Just a note here: Normally, from the time I turn in a book until it gets edited, fixed, and finally printed, it takes between six and eight months. There’s a lot of work besides just writing the story that needs to be done.

Darkstar: Writers block… some writers say there is no such thing. I say, there is and there isn’t such a thing. Oh, I’ve been there, where you just don’t know what happens next or how it happens or even why it happens. It can be frustrating, and sometimes it will stop a story dead in its tracks. Normally I do one of the following. 1. Stop writing and wait for the answer to come to me or my publisher to call and yell at me. 2. Start working on something else that has nothing to do with the story I’m working on. 3. Skip the part of the story I can’t write and move on to the next thing.  It is O.K. to write a book out of order, just so long as it all works together when you are done. Sure, write the final battle scene first, nobody needs to know you did it out of order. 4. Take a nap or a hot shower and think about what needs to happen. If it doesn’t come to me, eat something and take another nap.

Reese17: An apprentice for Alex:  Yes, I’ve considered that, but I’m just not sure. I’ll give you a definite maybe on that one.

Silverarrow: Dragon lords can be male or female as far as I’m concerned. First they have to be magical, possibly as magical as a wizard or close to it. Second there must be some connection to dragons, and that doesn’t me that they have to be part dragon or anything like that. The connection could be something as simple as understanding that not all dragon’s are evil, or just really liking dragons. Third, they need to learn the true name of at least one dragon, something that most dragons will never tell. There might be other requirements to be a true dragon lord, but it has nothing to do with male or female, it has nothing to do with family history, and nothing at all to do with race. Or that’s how I see it anyway.

Nragedvampyre: To answer some of your questions: Tomas the healer is off being trained more by another healer… that might have gotten cut from Sands… sorry about that. I don’t know if he will make it back into the stories, but he might. Yes, Salinor will come back into the stories.

True silver:  In fact there are 27 known lands. There are also lesser known lands, and unknown lands. Will Alex ever discover one… you’ll have to wait and see.

Reese 17:  See above:  No, I’m not going to name them all just now, but I do have names for all of them and some of the lesser known lands as well. Maybe when there aren’t so many questions I’ll toss them in… or maybe I’ll keep them secret for other stories that I haven’t written yet.  No, I’ll tell, just not right now.

Reese17$: Not sure if you are Reese 17 or someone else… hmmmm…  Well anyway. Yes, I have considered having Alex go on a quest that failed. Sands almost became that story, but instead we just let the bad guy get away. (Sorry for anyone who hasn’t read it yet.) Now, I think we are getting too close to the end of the series for a failure to happen, but I suppose I could slip it in somehow.

Oh, names of characters… Um, I’m not sure how I come up with the names. I normally start building the character giving them just generic names. After I get to know the character I try to find a name that fits them. Many names have been changed, only a few of our friends have kept the names I started with. It’s a process, but I can’t really explain it better than I just try to find the names that fit.

Darkangel16: Any person of any race can be an oracle. We’ve only met female human oracles so far, but that might change. (Do we meet another oracle?  Better think about that?)

Luckyhorsestar:  Oh, I took out a lot. Oddly, Sands kept the basic story idea that I started with, but I took out water demons and a fishing village. I took out some promises, took out elves, took out a bunch of things that happened but weren’t very exciting. Changed the villain to make him more dangerous, and some other stuff. I added Savage and the Stoics, changed the battle with the desert serpent, changed Rallian’s rescue, and more. (Rallian was originally going to be turned to stone, but I like the way things worked out better.) Oh yea, I killed adventurers for the first time… that was hard.

JohnGrudgeBronson: Questions?  Resolve?  Some, hopefully most of them will be answered before we get to the end. The Shadow /Bane problem was going to be answered but I’m not sure it will fit into the storyline now… so maybe not that one. I’m sure Bane wins in the end, but I’m not sure how or if Alex will be involved in that. I will try to tie up all the lose ends, honest I will.

Pyros: I’m only going to answer one of your two questions: A person who is blind but can see things by sensing magic.  I’ve considered it, but I don’t think it will happen in Adventurers Wanted. I have on my list of possible stories to write in the future, and that list keeps getting longer, a story called “Blind Warrior”.  Of course the title might change, but the story is about a blind dwarf who can sense things around him. Oh, he’s blind, but either with magic or some other skill, he knows what is around him and is able to fight, possible better than anyone else.  Well, it’s just an idea for now, but someday… someday.

PoetKnight:  Tera has been considered.  Not going to say what will happen, but I will mention that in one of the now unused stories, Alex goes to Tera’s wedding in Kess as he’s working on another adventure. Tera ends up happy in the end, but with Alex or someone else, I’m not saying. (Dang, that was kind of a fun story…)

Finally, Maddy:  Thank you, thank you very much.

So until next time, I will remain,

Yours in fellowship,

Mark

O.K. so it’s be a bit longer than normal and I’m sorry. Post Christmas/New Years lag is my excuse. (I do really need to buy a new mattress so I can sleep better.)  Anyway, let me start by sending out a big “THANK YOU” for all of the comments and ideas shared on the last post.  I see some of the problems clearly, but I’m not sure we can fix them all before the series is over.  I guess I’ll just have to write another series and try to avoid the problems when I do.

Right, so let me address the LTUE (Life The Universe and Everything writers conference) question first, as it is only a week away.  I am not actually taking part in anything. Sorry, and it’s not really my fault. I volunteered to take part and said I’d do any of the panels they wanted me on… my mistake.  It seems that the people who said what panels they wanted to be on were assigned to those panels, and that was that. Also I’ve been told that some volunteers, who volunteered on their web-site, were sent to spam… Oooppps!  I will be there on Friday afternoon, and on Saturday. I promised to go to dinner with some friends, so I’ll be down Friday for that and decided just to stay on Saturday because I don’t want to drive home on Friday night.

About book five:  O.K. I’m currently doing one last edit before sending it to the publisher.  I am not allowed to comment on what may or may not happen. I can’t tell you the title.  I can’t tell you who is in the story or where the story happens.  The publisher has forbidden me to comment at this time.  I’m I little concerned about all the secrecy as I’m not sure what my publisher is thinking.  As soon as I am able, I will give out at least some details on book five.  I hope it will be soon.

Now… the real questions:

CT414:  I doubt that I will do a signing in Memphis TN. as part of the Adventurers Wanted series. I haven’t been asked, or told, to do any signings outside of the area I can drive to.  I think they are afraid to send me to the airport or something. Someday I will hope to make it to Memphis and a lot of other cities, but I have no idea when that will happen.

PorterRocks:  Technically, Yes.  If Alex and Andy go on another adventure together Andy would have to offer Alex his share of the primary treasure.  I’m sure Alex won’t take much.  The same is true, now, of Skeld after their adventure in Nezza.

Rhyme90:  I knew you would ask something strange.  Elfin vs. Elven… um?  I’m not sure which is correct, and I didn’t have any reason for using one and not the other. That is probably how I typed it in the original version of the story and it just never got changed.  (now I need to figure out which one is correct or if either will do.)

RedShoes:   If Alex Staff broke what would happen?  Well, that would depend on how it broke and what if anything Alex was doing with it at the time.  I’ve said before that the magic is in the wizard, not his staff. There is some magic in every staff, so even if Alex wasn’t using the staff when it broke I imagine something more than just a broken piece of wood. If Alex was using it at the time, well things could really get out of hand.  Staffs or stave’s if you prefer, are normally made by blacksmiths, but could be made by a wizard if needed. They are used to help wizards focus their powers, but also as a symbol of who a wizard is.  (Staff in hand, you might not want to mess with this guy.) And finally: Will Alex ever have an adventure in this world?  Maybe. It is planned for, but due to some questions about how long the series will be might change that.  (Don’t ask about the questions and how long the series will be, I don’t know any answers yet but will be talking to the publisher in the near future.)

JoeyBobHendersonthe4th:  I could and might make a book like the Silmarillion, but I don’t know if it would ever be published.  I did ask the publisher about doing a version of “The Adventurers Handbook”, and they aren’t too excited about the idea… books like that don’t sale like normal books.  We might do one on E-Book someday, but I’ll have to think about that.

And speaking of “The Adventurers Handbook”: Rhyme90. The handbook is a small book, it has some information about all the known lands, some good maps, some crappy maps, info on the top ten oracles, and a simple list of some of the creatures adventurers run into on adventures.  I wouldn’t call it a simple beastiary, as I don’t think it’s that good. I will point out that the info on some lands may not be as complete as you might hope.  Land X: A very wet land with many lakes and rivers.  Bring small boats if you can. While that might be true of part of land X, it may not be true of all of land X.  The descriptions are about the most visited areas of a land, not the entire land.

Branden Cox:  Yes, I am working on several other stories and a few that might be series.  Nothing is finished just yet, but I’ll let you know when we get closer.

Frank Duarte:  Thanks.  I don’t think I’ll change the “style” too much, but time changes all of us a little so… well, we’ll try to keep it in the same line.

Lightningclaw: I don’t think Moonslayer would have much effect on the Stoics.  Oh, it might take bigger chips off of them, but not much else.  And, there are several types of stoics. We only saw a Earth or Stone stoic and a water stoic. In the original version of that chapter there was also a fire stoic, but he got cut out.  See a pattern here? Earth, Water, Fire… Yes, mostly elemental things, and I was going to call the Elementals but my editor said, “No”.  We won’t go into that, but I’m thinking there are more than just the four normal elements as well, maybe metal, animal lesser, animal greater, and even magical stoics.  Or maybe they will all turn up in some other story.  *Oh, and if you didn’t take the hint when an oracle was not being friendly toward you… well, you might not need to worry about talking to the oracle or anyone else for a long time.

Rhyme90:  No, there are not “Angelic” blades.  The reason is simple. What most people call demons aren’t the religious kind of demon you are thinking of. They are semi-magical creatures who live in various places, not super natural creatures who fight with angles.  (Well, now that I think about it… no, no angelic blades in this series.)

Adventure Lover: Yes, that’s possible.  If you want to expound on your ideas but not on the blog you can email me at Bregnest@gmail.com

Prof. Z:  I don’t think we will have time in the series for Alex to go the Arconn’s homeland.  Too bad, that would have been fun.

Beth:  Fan fiction should be drawn as the fan sees it.  I wouldn’t think of telling anyone what or how to draw.  Well, except the guy who does the cover art, and that doesn’t do any good. (No, most of the cover art is great, it’s little details that drive me nuts and they are right to ignore me.)

Lightning Claw:  The dragon broaches… Alex had seven of them made, he gave one to Skeld’s wife and one to Tayo’s wife.  Guess who the other five are most likely for?  Or did he have eight made?  Better check that as I might be one short… dang it.

Brynn:  No, Dar Losh is not the reincarnation of Shahree.  Dar Losh is, however, an Alusian horse, which we know are generally smarter than other horses.  Dar Losh also seems to be a special horse, as no one but Alex could tame him.

Rhia101:  I hope I will explain the magic and the dragon and all that as we go. There is something special about dragon’s that are true silver.  For now I’ll just say that when Alex takes his dragon form in different lands he notices the magic of that land more, and also makes a magical connection to that land and its magic as a dragon.

elmore: I was hoping to finish off the paladin/shadow story in the series, but I’m not sure if I can fit it in or not.  I’ll keep looking for ways to finish that up, but no promises at this point.

Tallonis:  I’m not sure when the counsel of wizards will have a full and official meeting. I think Alex will meet at least part of the counsel in book six.

Dark Star:  Glad the advice is helping. Keep writing, it seems to get easier as you go… then you get writers block and go crazy for a time, but you don’t need to know about that.

Lightningclaw: (and anyone else trying to write.)  Stringing a book together can be hard, and I’m glad Tallonis talked about the “Bible” or story bible.  It’s basically just a notebook where you keep all the information you might need about your characters, the world, how magic works, what science exists, and so on for your story. Its a place you can go and check to make sure you aren’t breaking your own rules.  Stringing the story together for me is a bit different.  Oh, I have all the notes, but making one long story out of what is really a lot of short stories is the problem. I try to make each chapter a kind of short story, and then the next chapter is another short story about the same world or character.  The next chapter is the “What happens next”, part of your story. You want to lead your characters into dark and dangerous places, and out again. I’ve found that it really helps to have an overall plan for your story. You need to know where you are going and where you started before you can fill in all the exciting bits about how we got there. Outlining your story can help. Nothing too fancy, just a single page will work. Just list where we started and where we are going. Then put just a single line or so about how we get to our goal. You can add as much detail or as little as you like and need. The main idea of an outline is to keep you moving in the right direction. You don’t want to be going down the path to, well, let’s say your going to Mount Doom.  You really don’t want to get part way there and then say, “Oh look, a butterfly”, and wander off cashing butterflies.  Your outline is the voice that says, “Leave the butterflies alone and follow the path into the dark, scary, orc filled mine of Moria.”  (Oh, well that doesn’t sound so good now, but things work out in the end so that’s O.K. then.)  ***Yes, do check out Savages blog for some great ideas and info on writing.  One of these days I’ll guilt him into finishing his 100 tips in 100 days. (He says that he never said the days would be in a row.)

Maren: Alex’s dragon magic and his wizard magic are the same and different.  He has to think about using his wizard magic, and because that’s how he thinks, he has to also think about using his dragon magic.  There have been a few times when his dragon magic just worked. That’s because as a dragon, or at least for dragons who have always been dragons, like Salinor, magic is simply part of you. Dragon’s don’t need to stop and think about the magic they are going to use, they just use it.  Alex is still learning to let go and simply let his dragon magic work.  I think, if Alex can let go, his wizard magic might work the same way as his dragon magic.  No, Alex does not have more than the two true forms we know about. The oracle told Alex that the she thought the rains would come late. Originally I was going to have Alex use his dragon magic to hold back the rains, but that didn’t work out so well. Now I think the rains may have come late because the oracle did some magic of her own, but more likely they just came late that year… maybe to make it possible for the prophesy to come true, which means the magic of Nezza held back the rains.  Finally, about Alex’s family:  I did try to slip something in about his mom, that was in book three I think, but my editor made me take it out. I will try to include something more, but my editor gets mad at me when I move away from the main story to explain the past.

So I’m sitting here on new years eve, writing the blog I was going to do at Christmas time. I guess one of my new years resolutions should be to blog on a more regular schedule. We’ll have to see about that, but no promises just yet, I still have like six hours before I need to make resolutions.

Over the Christmas holidays my brother said something to me that really made me think. He said that he loved the Adventurers Wanted books, except for the fact that nothing bad ever happened to Alex. At first I had to agree with him, as nothing really bad has happened to Alex, but then I thought about it and changed my mind. Many people have commented that nothing really bad has happened to our friend Alex, but that just isn’t so. Lot’s of bad things have happened to Alex, but because everything turns out O.K. in the end, we don’t think about the bad things. Let me see… Book 1, Alex almost dies after fighting the shadow at the ruins of Aunk. I always think of nearly dying as a bad thing. Book 2, Alex has to face the fact that all his friends have been captured and maybe killed because the goblin shaman tricked him, and he fell for it. Gee, that seems pretty bad. I screwed up and all my friends have to pay for it. Oh, that works out O.K., and then Alex has to fight and actually destroy his friend Val when they get to the tower of the moon. Not a good thing. We won’t even go into how he must of felt when Vankin didn’t answer his letters, leaving him alone to figure out how to solve the problems in Alusia. Book 3, Alex loses one of his best friends ever, his horse, when the Hellerash attack. He froze and Shahree jumps in front of him to save him. Did she die because he froze or because he was to slow to save her? Well, that seems like a bad thing. Then there is something that I think a lot of people missed. When he’s fighting the necromancer, Mog, Alex has to face a terrible truth. He actually wants to use the power of the necromancer to drag his own mother back from death and demand that she tell him why. Why she had never explained who he was or what he might become. He overcomes this dark desire, but he has to deal with it just the same. Finally, in Book 4, Alex has to take control of the adventure without actually taking control. He makes some new friends, and then has to watch them die as the adventure goes forward. Should he have taken these adventurers out of Nezza when he first saved them? Could he have done something different and saved them? Not exactly easy or nice things to think about. So, what am I saying? Well, I guess I’m saying that a lot of pretty bad stuff has happened to Alex, and I can’t agree with people who say, “Nothing bad ever happens to Alex.”  Lots of bad things have happened, but because things always turn out for the best you don’t remember them. I am also saying… “You asked for it, so don’t get mad when it happens.”  That’s right, more terrible and bad things are headed Alex’s way. We are going to make Alex’s life harder than it has been, so don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Now, with that little bit of business out of the way… um, Happy New Year, and on to the questions:

Dracoxis: There are two species of geebs mentioned in the books. Bottle necked geebs and pillow geebs. There may be others, but if there are we haven’t heard about them yet.

Nargira and others who have asked: The title of the fifth book has not yet been released. I know what I want the title to be, but the publisher wants to approve the story before we announce the tittle. I’m working to finish book five up, and when that’s done it will go to the publisher for approval. As soon as we agree on the title I will let you all know.

Lizzy: Mathew is correct in his answer, there will be eight (8) books total when we are done.  Also see Akacry(connie)’s answer about my not telling anyone how to summon geebs. Really, you don’t need to know.

Luckyhorsestar: I’m going to let you make up your own mind about what eventually happens to Lazar and Stephan. I will say that Lazar is in big trouble and that he will not appear again in the series. Stephan, well, he is in some trouble, but I think Alex will have a talk with Rallian and try to work things out for the best.  Sorry, Alex never does get to meet the elves of Nezza.  I will say that in the early version of the story, before a lot of stuff got changed, Alex did get to meet the elves of Nezza. It didn’t work out that way in the final edit, sorry.

PorterRocks: Yes, the counsel of wizards is something I’ve been thinking about a lot. We need Alex to meet at least some of them soon, and with all the trouble the Brotherhood is making, sooner would be better. Right now I’m trying to figure out the hows and whens for Alex meeting them will be. Soon I think, but maybe not in book 5… or maybe at the end of 5 or the beginning of 6.

dante: You’ll have to look at some old posts for the details on the “Pet” question. We’ve been over it a few times, and I don’t think it will happen.

SkyMoon: About other people who have seen the magic sign. I believe I said that it was years and years ago when that happened, and that very few people ever see the sign. No, I don’t think we will meet anyone else who has seen the sign, but you never know.

Rhia101: The dragon broaches from Horn of Moran were given as wedding gifts to the brides of Skeld and Tayo. My guess is that Alex will hold on to the rest of them until his other friends get married… if they ever do.

luckyhorsestar: On the idea of a vampire race, I’m just going to say no. I’ve expressed my opinion on vampires in the past, but just to make things clear. Vampires, in my opinion, do not have human emotions, they don’t feel bad about what they are, and they don’t feel bad about what they do. In fact the only time they might feel bad is, after they’ve eaten and there isn’t any more to eat.

Salinor: The fact that Mr. Clutter is over four hundred years old is very simple to explain. Mr. Clutter is not completely human. Oh, the magic of the adventure shop and all will help him live longer, but basically Mr. Clutter isn’t a human, or mostly not human. No, I’m not going to go into details about what he is. He looks and acts human, he is very human like as far as emotions and such, but he just isn’t completely human. He is, after all, an adventure salesman.

C. Mist and a few others who’ve asked: I can’t say at the present time who if any of the adventurers we know will or won’t be coming back in future stories. Oh, Alex will be back, and Whalen Vankin will be back, but other than that I can’t say. Why? Well because I haven’t figured out yet who will be needed for the future adventures, and who will have to die on those adventures. I’d really hate it if I had to bring back somebodies favorite adventurer and then have to kill them off.

Dark Star: On the question of ideas for stories. How can you run out of ideas? O.K. it happens, so here’s one of the things I do, apart from reading a lot. Always ask yourself, “What if”.  What if that tree isn’t a tree?  O.K. it’s an alien that looks like a tree.  No, it’s a person who’s been cursed and changed into a tree. No, it’s a magical creature that can hide when frightened by making its self look like a tree or a bush or whatever happens to be close by.  Gee, there are three different ideas for stories from one, what if. What if car’s stopped working tomorrow? What if aliens took control of the internet? What if I can’t sleep tonight and while sitting up awake I discover that my shoes go on walks without me?  Look at all the possible ideas you can come up with if you just ask yourself, what if? O.K. what if isn’t for you… I also watch a lot of movies and documentaries and such. If I see something in a movie or read something in a book that I don’t like, I make up my own story. Or, as happens in a lot of movies, if we meet some group of people or a single person and they are only there for a little bit and then gone, I make up the story of what happens to them and where they go and what they do after there little bit of the book or movie. Change things, shake things up, find your own stories in the bits of other stories you’ve read. There really are more ideas for stories than there is time to write them all.

Ankit: Questions about the wall.  Right, Alex never sees his parents at the wall because… Well because it isn’t his time to cross the wall. Loved ones normally only come to the wall when it is a persons time to cross over, to die. Tayo’s first wife came because she wanted to see him, and to explain that it wasn’t his time. Forcing his family to come to the wall so he can talk to them would be dangerous for Alex. Doing something like that is very close the necromancy, a magical practice that is always seen as evil.

Afavfan: Starting a story with a time laps, like the 10 years later… No, I don’t believe I will do that. I prefer to tell the story that is happening now, and I don’t want to leave large blanks where you don’t know what happened. I also know for a fact that my editor would yell at me if I started a story with something like that, so it isn’t going to happen.

Fred:  No, Alex is not a time lord. Oh, the Doctor seems to manage jumping through time and space O.K. and not messing up the history and time lines of the universe, but he is a time lord. For most people, including wizards, jumping around in time is very dangerous, and it almost always ends up causing some kind of trouble in the past, present, or future. Wizards, know better than to jump around in time, and they only do it if there is no other way to solve a problem in the present time where they are. So, almost never doesn’t say enough. Never at all, with maybe one exception every few thousand years, and then only because that exception couldn’t be helped.

Laser:  I think I’ve said before that Alex’s step brother Todd will not become an adventurer. I have considered having someone magical kidnap Todd and then take him into the magical known lands, but I really don’t think that will happen either.

And now a few general answers:

Book 5, when?  I’m hoping we can get book 5 out around October of 2014, but we’ll have to see how edits and things go.

Yes, I know Alex still has several lost bags that need to be returned. No, I don’t know if he will be able to return them all before we get to the end of the series. I don’t even know if we’ll see him return another bag before we are done. Sorry about that.

No, Alex will not have any physical changes to his appearance because he is a dragon as well as a man.

Yes, Oracles can be “Less than friendly”. Normally that means they don’t want to talk to you, and you’d be wise to take the hint.

Fan fiction.  I’m open minded about fan fiction, but there are problems with it. First of all fan’s might get things wrong. Second, if fans write fiction and then try to publish it, well, copyright problems come up and publishers are more than willing to sue people for messing with copyrights. For the most part, if you just want to write your own story in my world, I don’t have a problem with that. If you go killing off my characters, I have problems with that. Fan fiction can be a good way to exercise your writing and your imagination, but try to stay inside the rules of the world you are writing for.

And finely, a few words about longer stories with more details. First off, I understand what you are asking for, and I will try to give you what you want. There is a fine line, however, and I try not to cross it. Yes, I could write much longer stories with a lot more details, history, background, and answers to all the questions, but that leads to problems. I believe that most of what is written should concentrate on the story, and if things aren’t important to the story I’m telling now, then you probably don’t need to know about them. Oh, I could tell you about Whalen Vankin’s life as a young man, how he became a wizard, what adventures he has been on, but if I’m telling the story of Alex’s current adventure, well, you don’t need to know all of that about Whalen. Sure, it would be interesting and fun to know, but it’s not part of this story. When I’m writing I try to find a middle ground, giving you the information and details you need to know, but not over loading you with things that don’t matter so much for this story. If you go too far one way you leave readers wondering and confused, and if you go too far the other way you put readers to sleep or make them simply stop reading. (And it is different for every reader.)  An example of both extremes, well, have you ever read the book, “Mody-Dick”?  It is a tough read, and if you make it all the way through you could possibly kill a whale and boil it down into oil. No, you don’t need to know how to do that to understand the story, but it is in there. Herman Melville was getting paid by the word when he wrote the story, so I understand why he put all of that in, but you don’t need or even want to know it all.  Too much detail and information Herman, please stop. On the other hand, the shortest story I’ve ever read is only six words. I can put it here for you to read as well. “For sale: baby shoes, never worn”.  It’s a complete story, but there is not a lot of detail there.

So, I will try to give you the details and such that you need, while not driving my editor crazy with a lot of extra information that really doesn’t have anything at all to do with the story. Yes, I will try to make things longer, as much as possible, but I will also promise not to do one thing. I promise that I will not make the stories longer just so they can be longer. By that I mean, I will tell the story with as much detail as I can, but I won’t add chapters that don’t really help the story just so it can be a longer story. I won’t add things that don’t, or won’t matter in the end, just to get a few extra pages. Hopefully I will stay close to that middle ground, where you get enough information to understand the story, but not so much that the the story is slowed down with information overload.

So, until next time, thanks for reading, and I remain,

Yours in Fellowship,

Mark

O.K. so I was going to post a real blog before Christmas, but things have gotten busy and out of hand so I haven’t had time to do it. Sorry about that for all of you waiting for more news. I did, however, want to wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. Hoping that you all have a wonderful holiday season and that none of you make yourselves sick eating all the goodies that this time of year provided.

I will be back with a real blog shortly, hopefully before the end of the week.  In the mean time, have some fun, read a good book, and be happy to get a day or two or three… well, to get some time off from the rush of the world.

Mark

First off, I’m sorry for the long delay in getting this blog out. We had some problems with the blog for a couple of weeks, comments vanished and it took some time to figure what was going on. Most of the problems are are now fixed, though I am aware that the fun monster pictures are now missing. We are looking at that problem now and hope to have them back soon.

So, it’s Thanksgiving time, and I know that I have a lot to be thankful for. I’m thankful that Sands of Nezza is finally out, I’m thankful for all of you readers and all of you who take the time to comment on the blog. I’m thankful that tomorrow I get to spend time with my family and eat a giant pile of food. (Mmmmm food, my favorite.) I hope that all of you have a wonderful thanksgiving, and that you all take a few minutes to think of all the things you have to be thankful for.

Right, so now lets get right into the questions, and the biggest question you’ve all been asking is, “Why didn’t E.B. Stevens do the reading for Sands of Nezza?” Well, there are several answers to that question. I’ve been told that E.B. had a few difficult weeks where he fell out of a hot air balloon, got shot by a stray arrow during the deer hunt, and a few other mishaps. O.K. none of that happened, and I can tell you that E.B. Stevens isn’t a real person, it’s a name used by the person who has done the reading. E.B. Stevens has retired from doing readings, and that’s all I can really say. Oh, O.K.  he’s very busy with other things and simply can’t make time to do the reading. I don’t think he’ll be back, sorry. Maybe if you all email Shadow Mountain and ask for E.B.’s return, but I don’t think that even that will work. Sorry about that.

Branden Cox: Signings are being setup now, and Logan could be on the list. Right now nothing is set, but I believe I will be at the Midnight Madness event on Dec. 6th at the Book Table in Logan. I’ll post as soon as I get more details on that and other signings.

Adventurer Gal: I don’t think the name Thrain came from the Hobbit. Oh, I love those books, but was there a Thrain in there? (It’s been awhile since I’ve read them all.) I think I was watching something about vikings when I came up with Thrain, but it’s been a long time.

Rhino: A cyclops or a Medusa? Interesting idea for future creatures to run into, but I don’t know yet. We’ll have to wait and see.

Porter Rocks: I don’t think Alex will ever be compared to Merlin, and I’ll tell you why. Merlin is not known in the the worlds of Adventurers Wanted, except of course on earth. I think, at least right now, we will leave Merlin out of the stories.

Ryan: A more direct way to ask questions so as not to put spoilers on the blog?  Well, I think it would be best to just ask on the blog, but maybe put a “Spoiler Alert” before you ask your question.  Of course, now that the books is out everywhere we may not need so many Spoiler Alerts.

Ben Stubbs: I don’t know what Alex does with the extra staff he found at the Nagas’ lair. For now I think he just has it in his bag, but it may come back into the story at some point.

Braden Cox: No, sorry, I haven’t seen your letter yet. I did warn you that it could take a long time for Shadow Mountain to forward it to me.

Matthew: No patience to write a book… It happens more often than you might think. My best advice to you is keep writing. You don’t need to sit down and write the whole book or even a whole chapter at a time. Just keep writing. Write a page and then take a break. Write another page that goes with the first and then take another break. It will come together if you just keep trying. You only need to write a little at a time, but you need to keep going if you ever want to finish. It’s not easy, it can be a pain, but you have to keep going.

Sam: Did my writing style change?  It wasn’t on purpose, but I think the changes might be just that I’ve changed as a writer as time has gone by. Hopefully I don’t change too much, but that I get better with each story I write.

Julia: The next book is well underway. In fact, I only need to make some final changes to make things match with Sands and the other earlier books. I’m hoping to be able to turn things in to Shadow Mountain around Christmas and then we’ll see what they say and what changes they want.  Yes, Lisa has been my editor on all the books so far. I hope that she will also edit the next book, but she has changed jobs and so I’m not sure what will happen there.

Afavfan: Bring Sindar back?  Not sure. Yes, I know there are things he might need to tell Alex, but I just don’t know. Sindar might be back in book six… but I’m not sure yet.

Chelsea: The forth magic bag isn’t mentioned in Sands because it wasn’t returned. Things were too rushed, Alex didn’t have time to return a bag, and the next bag didn’t belong to anyone in Nezza. Oh, we may return more bags before we get to the end of the series, but things are getting busy with this whole dark brotherhood group, so who can say?

Adventurer Gal: If/when I write another series I would not change this blog. I would keep this blog going, and if I need to start another one I’d do that as well.

Ewight2: Not sure if or when Alex will lead an adventure. When you read Sands you’ll notice that Alex doesn’t actually join an adventure this time around, but he also doesn’t really lead the adventure. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

lol: Alex’s middle name?  I don’t believe Alex has a middle name.  Maybe we should have a contest to find a middle name for Alex, but I don’t think Alex has a middle name.

dragon’sblade: I was going to have Tara take part in a different adventure, but that adventure doesn’t fit into the series so… Well I don’t think Tara will be back, but maybe. We’ll just have to wait and see if she is needed.

Ichanban: The ring… well, I knew that the ring would play into a future story, but I wasn’t sure how at the time. The ring was going to be a couple of different things as I wrote the stories, and it finally ended up as what it is in Sands.

Afavfan: It was just a strange spell. Alex knows how the spell works, but I don’t think it is something he could just use at will. It would take some time to set things up to work that magic, and Alex is just saying it was strange, something he didn’t expect. On the “time travel” idea or meeting someone from your own future while on a long adventure. No, you can’t do it. Magic might allow for time travel, but it is a dangerous thing to do even for a wizard. The time difference between worlds and such simply does not allow for people from the future to meet people from the past and then return to their own times. Reason… The longer you are away from home the more time passes at your home. So, if someone from five years in your future turns up where you are on your adventure, then five years have passed where you came from and you are probably very old now and won’t ever go back home.

Prof. Z  No, I said book five. Sorry for the confusion. Alex’s love interest will appear in book five.

Sky Moon:  There are different types of dragons, but I don’t know if we’ll go with eastern and western dragons. Different colors, different types, some good, some evil, and some that aren’t really good or really evil but just are dragons.

E.L.M.  People immune to magic?  Now that’s an interesting idea, and I’ve read another book with that idea. I don’t know if that will happen in this series or not, but I will consider it.

David:  I’ll pass your comments on to Mr. J. Scott Savage and remind him how far behind he is.  I’ve mentioned this to him once already, but I’ll remind him once again and see if we can’t get him going again.

O.K. I think we’ve covered everything for this time, so I’ll just end by wishing you all a happy Thanksgiving. Don’t eat too much, have some fun, and until next time I will remain yours in fellowship,

Mark

Wow… I just noticed that a lot of the answers in this blog are, “wait and see”.  Sorry about that, but I’ll be honest and tell you that I don’t know yet how a lot of things are going to work out or when they are going to happen or if they are going to happen. I know that’s not the answer you want, and it’s not the answer I want either, but we will all have to wait and see what happens.