Spencer Pierson's Blog, page 4
January 11, 2017
Book Cover for Phoenix Prime group. Here...
Book Cover for Phoenix Prime group. Here is another cover that is a work in progress. I'm going to maket he spaceship more clear, and update the fonts / colors. Right now this is a rough. Thoughts?
New Covers in Process Working on updating my book covers....
New Covers in Process Working on updating my book covers. Since I have little money to spend, I am learning how to do this myself! This is version 2 but I am going to make some changes. Very interesting taking a variety of pictures and blending them together. It has been a while since I've done this. That being said, I think these are going to be TONS better than my current covers. Comment's appreciated!
January 8, 2017
Hello Folks! After much hashing and clawing, ...
Hello Folks! After much hashing and clawing, I think I've managed to find a winner for my next book cover. Let me know if you have any comments! I would love to hear them. January 7, 2017
Published on Dec 26, 2016No training, no inside knowledg...
Published on Dec 26, 2016No training, no inside knowledge, no reading kBoards. Just a lifelong reader paying attention to what he liked to read and WHY, then applying his business and marketing knowledge to help him hack the path to success.
I want to share this because I SEE this so often on other writing boards and advice given to learn how to write. Too many people take things as gospel that just aren't. You can WRITE and you can also PUBLISH your book, and it doesn't have to take a decade to do so.
As Michael likes to say, there are many paths up tot he mountain top.
Michael Anderle speaks on publishing and writing
I want to share this because I SEE this so often on other writing boards and advice given to learn how to write. Too many people take things as gospel that just aren't. You can WRITE and you can also PUBLISH your book, and it doesn't have to take a decade to do so.
As Michael likes to say, there are many paths up tot he mountain top.
Michael Anderle speaks on publishing and writing
Snippet #1 - The Duke of Brun and the Golden Bands. ...
Snippet #1 - The Duke of Brun and the Golden Bands. (unedited)
Count Stavix stood and quietly watched his double shadow stretch over the broken ground around him. It was night, but well lit by the two moons Hagri and Tulugri. Despite the late hour, the two moons lit surrounding area well and coupled with the many guards he’d brought with him to these cold ruins; he was not concerned about anything actually hiding in the shadows themselves. It would be a desperate fool who tried to attack him here.
Still, he had been summoned here at this hour for a reason. The message delivered to him by a source he respected, but the request was so unusual that he would normally have ignored it. Meeting out the middle of nowhere was folly for any great lord such as himself, especially in these dire times. The Duke was supposedly dead, and Terek Naval ships were off of their coast.
No, it had to be an ambush by a rival. Maybe even that lout General Paven had finally worked up the nerve to challenge him directly. The message hadn’t said anything about not bringing troops, so he’d brought plenty of them. Several companies of his best men surrounded him along with outriders for several miles so he would be aware of any threats. If anyone could muster a force large enough to attack him here, he also had several escape routes planned.
No, he was not worried, and the pale sheet-white face of Lord Manten who had delivered the message had intrigued him. Lord Manten’s interests were deeply entwined with his own, but the man was almost foolishly brave. He’d been known to dive into a dune grabber’s lair just in a dare which wasstupid beyond belief, but no one could question the man’s bravery.
Still, his minion had ridden for a full day to deliver the message and was still shaking when he’d arrived. Yes, Count Stavix thought to himself, very intriguing. Despite himself, the intriguing element was waning as the cold and boredom elements began to mount. He turned, lifting his hand for one of his men to approach.
“Bring the dancers around,” Count Stavix said, sneering out at the darkness. For whatever reason, the promised person had not appeared. Most likely they were apprehended out in the desert sands by one of his patrols. There were enough of his men combing the dunes around the small ruin that it was far more likely they would capture someone trying to get to him so most likely would have the pleasure of interrogating whomever it was in the morning.
Instead of nodding and retreating, however, the guard continued to stand by his side. When Count Stavix turned, he realized he wasn’t looking at one of his men but at a robe wrapped figure with a steel band where his eyes should be. There was a dark slit horizontally cut into the metal, but it was dark, and he couldn’t see the man’s eyes.
Stepping back, he looked and saw that all of the other men that had been standing with him, a good dozen of his chosen guard, were gone. All of them replaced with replicas of this dark, faceless figure standing next to him. Stavix froze, his mind reeling. Were they assassins? Could he scream out in time for this guard to hear? He could see some of his men moving around further back and around the ruins, but none were close. Had these strange figures been with him as he walked in and he just hadn’t noticed or somehow replaced them as he stood contemplating the foreign, dark landscape?
Did it matter? No. No, it didn’t. If these men were here to kill him, he was already dead. There were twelve of them and even the clumsiest hand holding a knife would find him many times before his men could save him and these men hardly looked like clumsy amateurs. There were only two choices, and he decided to go with the one that let him live.
“So, you are the ones I am supposed to meet, then?” Count Stavix said calmly. He knew his eyes had widened when he’d turned, but it was impossible to erase that fact, so he gathered the robes of both confidence and power he was used to and wrapped them around himself tightly. “I am here, so speak. I do not have all evening to dawdle on fool’s errands.”
The figure closest to him shifted slightly. He could not see any features on the face, but he imagined the same amused smile that would have graced his own face if he were in the other’s position. The voice, however, was anything but amused. Cold would be a better word to describe it. Cold and rasping.
“Fœri,” the figure said.
Count Stavix stood and quietly watched his double shadow stretch over the broken ground around him. It was night, but well lit by the two moons Hagri and Tulugri. Despite the late hour, the two moons lit surrounding area well and coupled with the many guards he’d brought with him to these cold ruins; he was not concerned about anything actually hiding in the shadows themselves. It would be a desperate fool who tried to attack him here.
Still, he had been summoned here at this hour for a reason. The message delivered to him by a source he respected, but the request was so unusual that he would normally have ignored it. Meeting out the middle of nowhere was folly for any great lord such as himself, especially in these dire times. The Duke was supposedly dead, and Terek Naval ships were off of their coast.
No, it had to be an ambush by a rival. Maybe even that lout General Paven had finally worked up the nerve to challenge him directly. The message hadn’t said anything about not bringing troops, so he’d brought plenty of them. Several companies of his best men surrounded him along with outriders for several miles so he would be aware of any threats. If anyone could muster a force large enough to attack him here, he also had several escape routes planned.
No, he was not worried, and the pale sheet-white face of Lord Manten who had delivered the message had intrigued him. Lord Manten’s interests were deeply entwined with his own, but the man was almost foolishly brave. He’d been known to dive into a dune grabber’s lair just in a dare which wasstupid beyond belief, but no one could question the man’s bravery.
Still, his minion had ridden for a full day to deliver the message and was still shaking when he’d arrived. Yes, Count Stavix thought to himself, very intriguing. Despite himself, the intriguing element was waning as the cold and boredom elements began to mount. He turned, lifting his hand for one of his men to approach.
“Bring the dancers around,” Count Stavix said, sneering out at the darkness. For whatever reason, the promised person had not appeared. Most likely they were apprehended out in the desert sands by one of his patrols. There were enough of his men combing the dunes around the small ruin that it was far more likely they would capture someone trying to get to him so most likely would have the pleasure of interrogating whomever it was in the morning.
Instead of nodding and retreating, however, the guard continued to stand by his side. When Count Stavix turned, he realized he wasn’t looking at one of his men but at a robe wrapped figure with a steel band where his eyes should be. There was a dark slit horizontally cut into the metal, but it was dark, and he couldn’t see the man’s eyes.
Stepping back, he looked and saw that all of the other men that had been standing with him, a good dozen of his chosen guard, were gone. All of them replaced with replicas of this dark, faceless figure standing next to him. Stavix froze, his mind reeling. Were they assassins? Could he scream out in time for this guard to hear? He could see some of his men moving around further back and around the ruins, but none were close. Had these strange figures been with him as he walked in and he just hadn’t noticed or somehow replaced them as he stood contemplating the foreign, dark landscape?
Did it matter? No. No, it didn’t. If these men were here to kill him, he was already dead. There were twelve of them and even the clumsiest hand holding a knife would find him many times before his men could save him and these men hardly looked like clumsy amateurs. There were only two choices, and he decided to go with the one that let him live.
“So, you are the ones I am supposed to meet, then?” Count Stavix said calmly. He knew his eyes had widened when he’d turned, but it was impossible to erase that fact, so he gathered the robes of both confidence and power he was used to and wrapped them around himself tightly. “I am here, so speak. I do not have all evening to dawdle on fool’s errands.”
The figure closest to him shifted slightly. He could not see any features on the face, but he imagined the same amused smile that would have graced his own face if he were in the other’s position. The voice, however, was anything but amused. Cold would be a better word to describe it. Cold and rasping.
“Fœri,” the figure said.
Snippet #2 The Duke of Brun and the Golden Bands - ...
Snippet #2 The Duke of Brun and the Golden Bands - book 1
The baneworm and its brothers emerged from the large earthenware vase into the cool night air. It sensed the warmth of a creature retreating rapidly but too far to be of concern. There were other heat sources nearby as well. Many more then the creatures were used to, but still not in the immediate vicinity so it only made the large, multi-legged insects stiffen restlessly rather then going into an immediate hunt mode.
Then the pheromones impacted their senses.
All of them turned, their backward facing antennae arching up into the night air to hone in on the female. It didn’t take long for them to determine the direction and as one they began to move quickly across the sand before diving underneath, leaving long runnels as they moved toward their goal. It was in the direction of the large group of heat sources, but at this point they didn’t care. They were called by their nature to mate, and their small insect brains were incapable of resisting.
They were all about average for their species, being about thirty to forty centimeters long with hundreds of legs spaced evenly along their length. Their shells along their multi-segmented bodies were dark purples and reds, designed to warn other creatures away, and if that didn’t work, the long stinger on the tail end of them was perfectly capable of curling up along their body and being thrust forward to strike, injecting a nasty, very deadly, poison into anything not fast enough to get away. It didn’t help that they were aggressive, being known to chase anything that moved until it left their territory.
No one ever wanted to see an agitated baneworm with half its body raised in the air like a striking tail and all those legs wiggling in the air. It usually meant you were in striking distance, and shortly thereafter, very dead.
Tonight, the baneworm and its brother weren’t interested in territory as they raced under the sand towards their goal. Occasionally one or the other would stop, raising its thickly chitin-armored antenna above the sand to re-orient toward the female before racing on.
None of the few night Terek guardsmen that the creatures raced past were remotely aware of the danger under their feet. They were watching for man-sized trespassers, and had no experience with the creatures of the deep desert. They might have noticed the bulges moving in the sand if it were daytime, but not during the darkness of the night even with one of the moons still full.
Fortunately for them, it allowed the baneworm and its brothers to remain fixated on the female. Somehow, the scent appeared to be diminishing which just made the creatures move faster towards its source, not even realizing they passed underneath a tent wall and were now moving under carpets that had been placed under the large tent the Duke and his entourage were sleeping under.
They stopped toward one wall of the tent, milling about under the sand before finally working their way up through the cracks in the carpets laid down and arching their multi-segmented bodies up in the air. They were striving for the scent of the female which was rapidly diminishing. It caused confusion since there was nothing to climb that they could sense, and the pheromones were coming from a few meters above them. They didn’t know the sponge that had been lobbed onto the top of the Duke’s tent was specially designed to attract them or that its payload would fade quickly into nothingness.
All they knew was that there was no longer a female to pursue, and that suddenly they were surrounded by multiple warm bodies well within their territory limits. It didn’t matter who the intruders really were; they simply knew they had to drive the interlopers away.
The baneworm and its brothers emerged from the large earthenware vase into the cool night air. It sensed the warmth of a creature retreating rapidly but too far to be of concern. There were other heat sources nearby as well. Many more then the creatures were used to, but still not in the immediate vicinity so it only made the large, multi-legged insects stiffen restlessly rather then going into an immediate hunt mode.
Then the pheromones impacted their senses.
All of them turned, their backward facing antennae arching up into the night air to hone in on the female. It didn’t take long for them to determine the direction and as one they began to move quickly across the sand before diving underneath, leaving long runnels as they moved toward their goal. It was in the direction of the large group of heat sources, but at this point they didn’t care. They were called by their nature to mate, and their small insect brains were incapable of resisting.
They were all about average for their species, being about thirty to forty centimeters long with hundreds of legs spaced evenly along their length. Their shells along their multi-segmented bodies were dark purples and reds, designed to warn other creatures away, and if that didn’t work, the long stinger on the tail end of them was perfectly capable of curling up along their body and being thrust forward to strike, injecting a nasty, very deadly, poison into anything not fast enough to get away. It didn’t help that they were aggressive, being known to chase anything that moved until it left their territory.
No one ever wanted to see an agitated baneworm with half its body raised in the air like a striking tail and all those legs wiggling in the air. It usually meant you were in striking distance, and shortly thereafter, very dead.
Tonight, the baneworm and its brother weren’t interested in territory as they raced under the sand towards their goal. Occasionally one or the other would stop, raising its thickly chitin-armored antenna above the sand to re-orient toward the female before racing on.
None of the few night Terek guardsmen that the creatures raced past were remotely aware of the danger under their feet. They were watching for man-sized trespassers, and had no experience with the creatures of the deep desert. They might have noticed the bulges moving in the sand if it were daytime, but not during the darkness of the night even with one of the moons still full.
Fortunately for them, it allowed the baneworm and its brothers to remain fixated on the female. Somehow, the scent appeared to be diminishing which just made the creatures move faster towards its source, not even realizing they passed underneath a tent wall and were now moving under carpets that had been placed under the large tent the Duke and his entourage were sleeping under.
They stopped toward one wall of the tent, milling about under the sand before finally working their way up through the cracks in the carpets laid down and arching their multi-segmented bodies up in the air. They were striving for the scent of the female which was rapidly diminishing. It caused confusion since there was nothing to climb that they could sense, and the pheromones were coming from a few meters above them. They didn’t know the sponge that had been lobbed onto the top of the Duke’s tent was specially designed to attract them or that its payload would fade quickly into nothingness.
All they knew was that there was no longer a female to pursue, and that suddenly they were surrounded by multiple warm bodies well within their territory limits. It didn’t matter who the intruders really were; they simply knew they had to drive the interlopers away.
