andarian
Kobold
Computer Scientist and Fiction Writer
Posts: 63
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Post by andarian on Apr 28, 2014 20:55:46 GMT
Ok, Andarian: I have read Dawn of Chaos. It does draw you in, you do get a feel for your world you created. I like the story and the writing style. My only complaint is of course simply " Please Sir, may we have some more" I understand it takes time , especially to write well, so I shall just have to be patient. Thanks for the feedback! Dawn of Chaos is a short prologue to introduce the series and to draw the reader in to the subsequent books, all of which will be much longer. It'll work better as a lead-in when there are more books for it to lead into! Putting this one together was very much a learning experience, though, and I'm glad I went through it the first time with a short work to "shake out the bugs." It gave Charles and me a chance to nail down every aspect of our process, so the next book will be much easier to produce with the lessons learned from this one. I should also be releasing an updated version of Dawn in a day or two that improves the layout based on what we learned from the first run. (You can just download the update if you've already purchased it.) I'm already well into writing the next book, and am committed to publishing it no later than August.
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andarian
Kobold
Computer Scientist and Fiction Writer
Posts: 63
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Post by andarian on May 10, 2014 20:18:12 GMT
UPDATE (May 10, 2014): I’ve just published a second edition of Dawn of Chaos, which contains some improvements based on lessons learned from my first run. Charles’ full illustration is now included in-line with the text, and I’ve made some minor editorial changes (mainly to include some additional descriptive passages and to improve the book’s formatting).
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andarian
Kobold
Computer Scientist and Fiction Writer
Posts: 63
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Post by andarian on May 23, 2014 3:40:51 GMT
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Post by notabarbiegirl on May 26, 2014 11:04:05 GMT
Congratulations, Amazon put Dawn of Chaos in their daily email of suggested novels! To honor that I left my first book review. I hope the sales sky rocket with the little e push from Amazon.
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andarian
Kobold
Computer Scientist and Fiction Writer
Posts: 63
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Post by andarian on May 26, 2014 21:27:29 GMT
Congratulations, Amazon put Dawn of Chaos in their daily email of suggested novels! To honor that I left my first book review. I hope the sales sky rocket with the little e push from Amazon. Wow! I didn't know. It makes me wish I hadn't stopped subscribing to it. Which day was that? And thanks for the great review! I saw that today and wondered if it was anyone I knew.
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Post by notabarbiegirl on May 26, 2014 22:46:09 GMT
The date was May 26th. Also, I will have you know that I only give flattery where it is due. Keep up the good work.
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Lingz
Gibberling
Posts: 38
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Post by Lingz on Jul 4, 2014 10:47:42 GMT
Finally got around to finish reading your book. It was quite nice, if a bit short, and had a good flow. The action scenes were easy to visualize and the description of the magic was being cast was interesting and made the magic understandable, but still mysterious.
My favorite parts were the ones about the characters. The new ones were fun and interesting and the ones from the module gained a bit of depth to them, invoking more interest in them than I had before. Looking forwards to see more of everyone since the book sparked my interest in almost all the characters, even those who were just mentioned in passing. The novel is also very complementary to the module, since reading the lore is much more easier when the monsters aren't chewing on your shins.
One possible error that I saw: When the villain is ranting about his motives, there is an open quote. The qoute where he claims to be "done with the puppets of the ruling class" is never closed and a new quote is started in the paragraph below.
And out of curiousity. Is there a specific reason for using Comic Sans on the cover of the book?
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andarian
Kobold
Computer Scientist and Fiction Writer
Posts: 63
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Post by andarian on Jul 6, 2014 13:15:10 GMT
Finally got around to finish reading your book. It was quite nice, if a bit short, and had a good flow. The action scenes were easy to visualize and the description of the magic was being cast was interesting and made the magic understandable, but still mysterious. Thanks for the great feedback, Lingz! I was very pleased with how the action scenes came out, and I'm glad you liked them. Interestingly enough none of the characters in the prologue actually appeared in the modules, except for the preview of the first scene with Randia (Robin) at the very end. The only references to Aron and Gerard in the modules were their descriptions in Heraldry of Carlissa (though Aron's name was different), and I was very glad to find a way to get them into the story. Robin, Orion, Diana, and Lenard will all make their debut in The End of the Beginning, and we'll meet some other characters only mentioned in the mods as well. As for Zomoran: it was to introduce the reader to him that I initially decided to write the prologue in the first place. It was only after it was complete that a friend pointed out to me that I could also publish it as a standalone work to introduce the series, and I realized I could use that as an opportunity to learn the mechanics of e-book publication on a small project as well. In the modules I could get away with leaving Zomoran as a largely abstract threat, but he really needed to be much more real to the reader as a character to work in the novels. SotA is really a conflict not just of factions and personalities, but between philosophies and worldviews, and the prologue gave me an opportunity to introduce Zomoran's side of that (as well as to hint at the Archmage's, with Aron acting as Lenard's proxy). Regarding the quotes in Zomoran's monologue, that's actually the English convention for a quote that spans multiple paragraphs: give opening quotation marks to the first and each subsequent paragraph, using closing quotation marks only for the final paragraph of the quotation. About using Comic Sans for the cover: I created it (and the map) in GIMP and experimented with a variety of available fonts. I settled on Comic Sans for both because I liked the way it looked compared to the alternatives, and found it to be clear and easily readable. Thanks again for your feedback!
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andarian
Kobold
Computer Scientist and Fiction Writer
Posts: 63
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Post by andarian on Aug 30, 2014 16:03:47 GMT
An update for those interested in the status of the Sanctum of the Archmage novels: Sanctum Summer Novel UpdateI'm also soliciting input on a couple of questions about how I should go about structuring the series: Any thoughts or feedback on that would be very welcome. P.S. Lingz: I didn't discover until after your post that there's apparently something of a "stigma" that's developed over the years against the use of Comic Sans font. I had no idea about this at the time I chose it; as I said, I just liked the way it looked.
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Lingz
Gibberling
Posts: 38
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Post by Lingz on Aug 31, 2014 0:06:13 GMT
Yeah the stigma was why I asked about it. But if you like how it looks, then that is good. On the topic of names: Personally I prefer the : End of the Beginning over Crucible of Heroes. Since the latter title makes me expect a larger book than it is. But if you were to put all the chapters into one book, the Crucible of Heroes would seem more fitting. I'm curious about what is complicated with putting all the chapters in one book? It seems pretty simple. You would just need to add a small line that this was all the stories combined. A collection of the Novels in the Sanctum of the Archmage series, combined into one big adventure! Of course, with more clever wording. And finally: Yay for momentum!.
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andarian
Kobold
Computer Scientist and Fiction Writer
Posts: 63
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Post by andarian on Aug 31, 2014 3:54:34 GMT
I prefer the : End of the Beginning over Crucible of Heroes... I'm curious about what is complicated with putting all the chapters in one book? It seems pretty simple. Thanks for the feedback, Lingz! Just to clarify, my idea was to eventually organize shorter novels (calling them "parts") into larger volumes (calling them "books"). If you look at the link I have set up for Crucible of Heroes you'll see the idea. So the full title of the novel I'm currently writing would be: Crucible of Heroes: The End of the Beginning Book One, Part I of the Sanctum of the Archmage Saga That's actually how it reads right now on my draft cover and title page. The next novel would be: Crucible of Heroes: Wrath of the Peregrine King Book One, Part II of the Sanctum of the Archmage Saga And so on. When all three parts are complete, I could re-release them as a single volume titled "Crucible of Heroes," with the three "part" headings inside the book. I'm getting some feedback from others that that's too complicated and confusing, though, which is one reason why I'm reconsidering it. The reason I find the idea attractive is that it'll let me take leverage the advantages of e-publishing to organize the saga into a series of shorter pieces that I can release at a faster pace -- but on which I could also impose the traditional "500+ page massive fantasy novel" format after the fact. I'm having trouble letting go of the idea that the series should follow that latter format, which is very common in the genre, and my series outline tends to fit that format as well. So I'm essentially trying to accomplish two different things at the same time. I think it can work technically, but I'm not sure I want to do it if readers would find the organization overly complicated.
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andarian
Kobold
Computer Scientist and Fiction Writer
Posts: 63
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Post by andarian on Nov 9, 2014 18:12:03 GMT
From The Sanctum Blog: November 2014 Update: I’ve completed the first nine chapters (plus the prologue and the appendix), and am partway through chapter 10 (out of 16). The book is now at 65,000 words, or about 185 “paperback equivalent pages." Based on my revised outline, this puts it at about 64% complete. The final projected length should be about 100,000 words and just shy of 300 pages.
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Post by notabarbiegirl on Jan 10, 2015 1:21:40 GMT
Andarian: We haven't had an update in a while so I am hoping "no news is good news". Wishing you the best in all you endeavors.
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andarian
Kobold
Computer Scientist and Fiction Writer
Posts: 63
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Post by andarian on Jan 10, 2015 23:15:55 GMT
Andarian: We haven't had an update in a while so I am hoping "no news is good news". Wishing you the best in all you endeavors. Thank you very much for your kind thoughts, notabarbiegirl. It's been a rough few months, and probably more in line with idea of "No news isn't terribly bad news" than actually good. But things are starting to look up. The challenges unfortunately had to do with another bout of crazy at work. The pace was fairly brutal, and pretty much cut off my ability to focus on anything else during the fall. It also helped wear down my health, setting me up for a nasty virus over the holidays that I'm still struggling to recover from. (It did give me a lot of time to play DA:I, though, once I'd finished building a new system that could actually run it. ) The good news is that I'm now on a project with less stress and a better commute, and I'm starting to settle into a schedule that's letting me get back to my writing again. (Interestingly enough a co-worker there is also publishing fantasy novels on Kindle, and I've found talking with him about it to be very motivating.) I'm about two thirds of the way through the first Sanctum novel at about 68k words (currently writing chapter 11 of 18, with the prologue and appendix both done as well). I'm also starting work again on the re-work of the second NWN module. I'm hoping to be able to release both together in a few months, likely in the early spring.
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Post by notabarbiegirl on Jan 12, 2015 20:37:23 GMT
I pray that your heath continues to recover. Also, that your new projects are everything you hope them to be.
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