As some of you might know, I received a box last week. I was surprised, excited, and a little confused by it. Here is a picture of what is in the box, just so you know.

Why yes, that is a box of book… Sands of Nezza in fact. Now I had to wonder how they got printed so fast and how they were delivered to me so fast as well. Naturally I emailed my publisher to find out what was going on. The story is that because of high demand they pushed things and got them done quickly… AND… They are shipping the books out now. I’m told that some bookstores could have had them as early as this past weekend. (Wow!) I don’t know what this early shipping of books will mean to your orders from Amazon and Barnes & Noble, but I hope it means that they will ship things out sooner than Nov. 5th. So, keep your eyes open when visiting bookstores, as it might just be there if you look.

So, as I have this box of books sitting here, it must be time to give some of them away. I was going to make you answer questions to get into the drawing, but that’s just too much work, so instead of that… O.K. if you want to answer some questions… 1) Which character do you really want to see come back in a future adventure? 2) How many adventurers make up the “right” size company? and 3) Is there a character that you think should die in a future adventure?  (That last one is for my editor who keeps telling me, “Kill them all”.) So, to enter answer or don’t answer these three questions in an email to Bregnest@gmail.com  Only one entry per email address, so don’t just send things in again and again or I’ll just delete them all. Let’s say you have until midnight on Oct. 7th to get them in. That’s a week and a bit away, so start thinking of answers. (Yes, the copies will be signed and I will put mostly whatever you want me to when I sign it. At least three copies will be given away, but if there are a lot more entries than I’m planning on I will add more books to the giveaway.)

Ah, another thing quickly before we move to questions. Many of you have asked how to get signed copies of the book. Showing up at book signings isn’t practical as you might live a long way way from where I’m signing books, and I never seem to show up in your part of the world. Right… I’ve found a solution. Normally when I go out signing I stop at several Deseret Book Stores on the way. I’ve talked with the good people at Deseret Book, and they tell me that if you call them and buy the book from them (The store I’m going to be signing at that is), they will have me sign a book while I’m there and then ship it to you. So there’s one way you can get a signed book without having to fly to Utah. I think Deseret Book normally charges full cover price (unlike those online places), and shipping is seven or eight dollars. So a bit more expensive but it will be signed. When I know when I’ll be signing and where I will post it, and I will try to include the phone numbers of Deseret Book stores so you know where to call.

Tallonis: Will Alex ever stay a dragon?… well that would be telling, and I’m not going to say just yet as I haven’t decided.

Emma: Building a team to go on your adventure isn’t as hard as it might seem. Think of what kind of people you need. Soldiers, Body Guard, someone who knows the land they will be traveling through, someone who can do magic, a healer maybe. O.K. some might turn out to be bad, or at least not completely good, so they can disappear quickly or maybe hang around and nobody knows if they are good or bad or just hanging around. Wow, look you’ve got five or six more characters now.

Rhyme90: Nope, I don’t own a T.V. I don’t really keep up with current events, but when I take an interest there is always the internet. True Silver dragons are special, and I’ll explain more in future stories. If at the end you don’t get it I’ll explain that as well. I like the idea of Dungeons and Dragons, but I’ve never played the real game. I do, sometimes unfortunately, play World of Warcraft.

Dracoxis: Yes, as every land is a planet, or at least most of them are (we won’t go into the Goval/Goval minor question), spaceships and such from Earth could land there if they could travel that far. As far as where you can get to through Mr. Clutters’ shop… I’m not completely sure, I’ll have to ask about that.

Adventurer gal: Well yes, Alex will have a love interest. Not sure if she will be a “Bond” girl, not sure what you mean by “amorous intrigue”, but well… I’m still working on that. She will appear in book five, and maybe, or maybe not, in the rest of the series as well. She will at least be mentioned in the rest of the series but I don’t know yet how big a role she will play… Something big at the end I think.

Dark Star: A whole constellation?  Not sure what I’d call it, but I think it would look something like a dragon, or at least a dragon’s head. Maybe “Maltor the dragon” in memory of the first ancient dragon known… or not.

Porter Rocks: Ah, now I understand your question. I think there could be a quest where only certain races could go, but I don’t know if Alex will be part of one of those. Also, there are already evil races, like goblins, trolls, giants (mostly evil but maybe not all), gargoyles (again mostly), and so on. Will one of these races play a big part in a future adventure… I don’t think so but maybe.

Haley: Thanks for the Groucho quote. Ya gotta love that guy.

Lucas: Your idea about a possessed geeb is a good one, but the geeb would only enter Alex’s bag to deliver a message, so Alex would be there and able to fight off anyone who had possessed the geeb. Also, just so you won’t worry too much, geebs are magical creatures and not so easy to take control of. Besides… how would anyone know that Alex told the geebs they could enter his bag?

Braden: I like the idea of portals leading to different planets and someone getting stuck because one portal gets destroyed. You could get very confused with so many portals, and I wonder… does someone have like a master map of where all the portals go? Could you find an alternate route home if you had the master map? Oh, you might have to go to a lot of not so nice worlds and then find the alternate portals to get back, but would that work? Just thinking finding an alternate way home, even if it means visiting several other planets, might be easier than learning how to make portals or finding the people who made them all in the first place.

Adventure gal: The watches will turn up again, Alex will learn more about what they are and what they really do. It does not happen in Nezza, but it will.

Rhyme90: And you said you weren’t any good at reading between the lines. Yes, the geeb in the first chapter of Sands does not give Alex change after getting paid. I don’t think the journey to Nezza is really dangerous for the geeb, but the geebs don’t like going to Nezza because there are and have been so many wars there. As for the Wizard oath question… it is possible but I don’t have any plans for that to happen. I’ll have to think about that some more. Finally, I believe Alex might learn how to ad rooms to magic bags at some point, but I’m not sure it would fit into a story so it may never get mentioned.

Iollenia Galonodel: You’ve got it. I have no plans to make Alex’s romance all “lovey-dovey”.  O.K. he may go a bit stupid when he meets this hottie, he may stutter and feel confused, but not “lovey-dovey” crap.  Now… um. Ah classes of characters. I think there might be a few more added before we get to the end. Rogue springs to mind, or at least a rogue like character, though I might not use the name rogue. Maybe a monk… not sure how that will work or what power I will give the monk if I add one.

Bell: Ah, the order of Malgor. You are correct in your guess, it is both good and evil, or at least it is now. You will find out more about the order and what has happened to it in Sands.

Richard:  I’m not going to say the series is “unpopular”, but maybe not as popular as others. This may have something to do with people not knowing about it. Maybe if my publisher spent more money advertizing it or something things would change. For now, I will count on you loyal readers to spread the word to others who like this kind of story.

Adventure Gal: My, my, you do have a lot of questions. No, Alex is not Merlin and he is not the trainer for Merlin. Merlin doesn’t come into it at all… however, now that you’ve made me think about it… I could ad a reference to Merlin in a future story, maybe a clue that Alex needs to solve some puzzle and find a lost item that he needs to complete the adventure.  (Dang, I gotta make some notes now… be right back.)

cornflower 9909: Feel free to do fan art if you like. I don’t know deviant-art.com, but I’d love to see anything adventure related that you choose to share.

weresmydragon: No, I have never used a random username to talk with fans anonymously. I have a few times used the name Whalen Vankin to post on the blog, but I think I told people it was me.

David: Savage has been poked and he says, “Thank you”.  Don’t know if he’ll get back up to speed, but he does know you’re waiting.

Taylor: Ah, the bags. Yes, that was a good idea, no I don’t have any kind of list of what kind of rooms a bag might have. I think almost anything would work, but I’m sure there is a size limit somewhere. I notice that there haven’t been any, “Outside” like rooms yet, and I’m not sure how that would work, but I’ll think about it. Yes, Alex’s Father’s bag is a place of great interest. It doesn’t get mentioned much because my editor tend to make me stay on track and not wonder off to say what Alex has found in his fathers bag. You also don’t really merge bags, so I don’t think Alex will ever merge his bag and his father’s bag into one big bag. I have considered writing an “Adventurers Handbook”, but my publisher isn’t too hot on the idea. They say sales need to be about double what they are now for something like that to be worth the time and money. It seems that such books do not sell well. We might, however, do an ebook version, but only time will tell.

seven of seven: No, I’m not Catholic.

Haley: And anyone else having trouble reading the first chapter from the web-site. I think I know what your problem is. I believe that the file is in Adobe reader format, and if you don’t have Adobe reader loaded on your computer it won’t come up right. It’s a free download from Apple, so you might try loading it if you are still having problems. (I think you can search for Adobe Reader and find what you need.)

Adventure gal: Yes, I can watch Dr. Who online, and sometimes I do.

Dark Star: I’ve always been interested in writing, and it seems that most of the short stories I try to write grow into something much larger than I thought they would be. So, having a giant pile of partly finished stories, and a brother who’s an English professor and also a writer… well, things kind of got going.  I’m not sure that I’m the “Perfect Writer” you are thinking of, but it helps that I am a storyteller. If you can tell a story well, that’s half the battle. The books, as I see them, are stories I want to know. That sounds strange, of course I know the story, I wrote it… however, I didn’t know the story until I wrote it. I had to sit down and figure it out. I don’t think of them as man vs. man or anything like that. I just want to figure out how the stories goes and how it ends up. Finally, Yes. I often find myself wanting to write and write and I can’t stop to eat or sleep or anything. That normally only lasts a day or two, then I have to eat and sleep, and then… more writing. (I need to know how this story ends!)

Braden Cox:  Try rebooting. You seem to have a system fault at the moment.

Andrew: Yes, in Horn that was a true Shaman. I thought I’d made that clear, but a lot of people have asked so maybe something got edited out that I didn’t notice.  And, finally, Alex doesn’t often take his dragon shape to travel places because, 1) Most people are terrified of dragons, and 2) He does want to keep the fact that he can become a dragon a secret. It just won’t do changing where people will notice. Gotta do it when you’re out of sight, not likely to be seen, except by those you want to see you, and where you aren’t going to get a lot of questions about where that dragon came from and what can you do about it.

Right, I think that’s it. I will just add, before I go to bed tonight, that Sands is a bit different that the other adventures we’ve been on. It happens fast, and I hope I included enough explanations for everyone. Let me know what you think when you read it. I’m dying to know.

So until next time, I remain yours in fellowship

-Mark