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