Eric K. Barnum's Blog, page 9

Dar Tania gets some love on Tellest

Tellest.com is the world/game/books by author and creator Michael DeAngelo. They're fun. I was lucky to have him pick up and review Dar. The picture is clickable and will take you to his full promo. 

It's fun to see these things out there, to connect with other writers, and also with you, the readers. My current project, Syliri & Bruce, is nearing completion of a first draft. I find myself thinking that the next one feature the characters strongly noted in reviews and emails. Hit me up with your thoughts. 

​May the dragons watch over you. 

Bomoki's Gate is available april 22, 2017. Third Forsaken Isles book

Bomoki's Gate

Free for Unlimited readers. It's 554 pgs. Sadly, I don't yet control paperback pricing, which is $18.99. The Kindle edition is $4.99. 

Kindle and Createspace Trials

Createspace keeps generating blank pages in the last 100 pages of Bomoki's Gate. It's killing me. In their process, you upload a file and then wait for about 30 hours for them to "approve" it. That process generates the final book file. My original submission did not have a random blank page. This is the 5th time I've tried to solve this. It's none of the obvious things like jacked up section breaks. This last time, I wrote extra content to fill this. There is no apparent reason, even in the doc code, that suggests why this is happening. 

About editing

Editing is hard. First off, it's hard to see your own blind gaps. Test readers help and I want to call out the following people: Brian M, Mark F, Ben D, and Tony R. In a draft, I end up with so much mark up over 100s of pages and 10s of 1000s of words that I look at it and go, "Ugh." Like this demon in the picture (not my art; thank you Google search), Bomoki's Gate was always right there teasing me. "Come on," it'd say. "Come sit down, grab a drink. Start this editing for real."

I woke up at 5 am this morning and 7 hours later, I've finished the last 100 pages and incorporated notes from the test reader group. I'm exhausted. But, I thought I'd share some of my own learnings, for the curious and for other writers.  Adverbs
You can't pick up a book about writing without seeing how adverbs are the devil. So, let's start with that. Adverbs have a role. Some readers, because of articles like this, feel like adverbs are authors lazily being lazy (see what I did there?). True? Not true? If you go pick up a book by an author you consider amazing, you'll find adverbs there. They, like sprinkling salt and pepper or Siracha on food, use them in story sections where they want to: a) slow the pace down, b) ensure the reader does not miss something, and c) to help the reader remember character, item, or setting quirks. Think about it: adverbs affect story pacing. 

Stupid Words
I have learned I have stupid words I need to not ever use. These are:Something. Like, Malcor heard something that sounded like an explosion behind him. Compare this to: Malcor heard an explosion behind him. Go away 'Something'; you're not welcome in my writing anymore. So. Like, Malcor looked at Ora so happy she had joined him. 'So' acts like a modifier to what exactly? It's a red flag to find a better/stronger word than 'happy'. 
Pronouns
It's good to remind the reader who is saying and doing what from time to time. This becomes most apparent for other readers, since as an author, I know exactly what is going on at all times. 

Commas
Like adverbs, any advice on writing will tell you to go sparingly on commas... but beware! Comma usage is changing in the English language and there are those out there, on either side of the fence, that feel commas are the load-bearing wall of sentence structure. I thought that, with Bomoki's Gate, I would finally perfect comma usage and kept a copy of EB Strunk & White's Style Guides with me fastidiously (adverb) throughout writing BG. Test readers did not notice. I still missed commas that should have been there. I find commas missed in my own writing just as much as I see it highlighed by the test readers. Sighs. Apparently, there are 20 levels of comma mastery. I thought I was at least at 10th level, but it seems I might only be at 5th. 

U.S.A. Copyright - 9.5 Months

When I first started the indie publishing process, I wanted to do it correctly. I scanned a few "How to Indie Publish" books and found them all lacking. Most had titles like, "How to Publish in 17 Minutes". Amazon was the worst noting you can publish in just 5 minutes. Copyright setup took about 2 hours. Submission about 25 minutes. Confirmation and payment, 10 minutes. Waiting for this to come through took 9.5 months.  For any author, copyright protection is worth pursuing. While Amazon is correct and you can publish within just 5 minutes, that presumes you've DONE EVERYTHING ELSE that takes much longer than 5 minutes. In my own journey, I learned that there is a TON of content about how artist-created content has an inherent copyright. The issue becomes should you ever want to enforce it. I don't want to enforce ever, but having invested so much time in it all, I wanted to have the copyright protections. 

Digging around, it seems that less than a 3rd of indie content has copyright protection in place. That's a bit scary if you think about it. Imagine spending all this time creating an awesome story and then one day, you stumble across a differently-titled but same content story by a different author. Without registering protection, actually proving to Amazon, GoodRead, or whoever will be impossible. It will wait for a civil lawsuit you'd have to file first. Now, go even more worst case... the cheating-author files a lawsuit against you. It's your work. Register and protect it.

The first 3 books side by Side

Wow, what a labor of love! Getting these 3 books to a state where I can even take a picture of them, has been a journey. The Bomoki's Gate copy is proof. When I'm done with the edits I've noted therein, it'll be live. I get really excited thinking about it.   ​A friend asked me if they had to be read in order. Nope. While Bomoki's Gate is definitely a sequel to Malcor's Story, they do not - and I did not write them that way - have to be read in order. 

Dar Tania certainly stands by herself. Looking at them and having time to ponder while completing Bomoki's Gate editing, I realized that I have more stories to tell with Dar Tania. As such, and when the time is right, I will complete Dar Tania as a trilogy of similar shorter books. When done, I'll bundle them as a single book. ​

Also, editing is really hard. It's like anti-writing. So that I don't burn out, I've started working on the next short book about Syliri & Bruce. Syliri is an eldar medusa appearing briefly in Dar Tania and with cameos throughout the other stories. Though not a major character, I love the idea of Syliri. Bruce, the Taysoran ranger that accompanied Captain Sean to Morbatten in Dar Tania, fell in love with her. This will be their story set five years after the events in Dar Tania. So, it'll have all the characters you love but will center on Syliri & Bruce as they begin to explore and map the empire. After all, there's a lot to see that a dragon, flying over it all, would miss.

Malcor's Story is getting new cover art

This scene shows Malcor facing Cor'tanos, the Shadow Dragon Patriarch from outside the flow of Time. The artist, Darko/Paganus, did a great job on all main aspects. As an author, I have very rigid ideas about how these characters look but with the art, I give scene suggestions and let the artist do their thing. 

In the Dragon Wars, where Tiamat separated from Bahamut - which also split the metallic and chromatic dragons - Cor'tanos refused to pledge to either. He led the shadow dragons down the flow of Time to see where it ended. They found the end, which they named the Gates of Oblivion, what everyone else named the Realm of Shadow. 
The problem with Shadow is that it represents  inertness. When created, all life and matter has a certain dynamic potential as creation, chaos, and warp act on upon it. Sentient beings, like us, are essentially victimized by it but can choose the course of our lives within the boundaries of our creation. Monsters, those who are or fell into Set's Nightmare, are bound entirely by Chaos. Rocks, dirt, water, air, etc do not really get to choose much of anything but still, creation's light falls upon them and they are used by or are part of all. Oblivion represents a degradation of all dynamic potential. The Shadow Dragons, at first, were overjoyed because the Shadows Realms act like the universe did in the eldar times. The exertion of will transforms it. However, the longer it lingers past the Gates of Oblivion, the more inert it becomes; this happened to the shadow dragons as well. To come back, Cor'tanos needs either a host or worship. He experimented with Dar Kell (Malcor's father) but it angered the Queen Tiamat and contributed to the Kell Conflict. 

I love the armor, head, and sword. If you missed the references to the Apprentice Sword... think of a sword-shaped club. Malcor forged this under divine influence. It's actual blade is dull. Draconian scripture in gold embellishes the edge where a blade should be. It's sharpness comes from Malcor's faith. In truth, a paladin does not actually need a sword. They could pick up a blade of grass or a stalk of wheat and their faith would make it a deadly weapon. Some fight by faith alone, their weapon becoming whatever is most appropriate to strike down each particular foe, but the paladin experiences it as a holy avenging blade. 

Dar Tania is getting a new cover!

Before her experience with the goddess Tiamat, Dar was just another girl in the barbarian tribe called, Horse.


Before Dar's experience with Tiamat, Dar was just another human, the 200th generation in the Tribe of Horses. The fire breather Alerius saw her as 200 generations of failed potential.
But, she heard Tiamat's voice during her test. Many of the tribespeople had heard it before when Alerius hunted them, pushing them to reach beyond themselves. Until Dar, they all dismissed it as the terrible awe they felt in Alerius' presence... as his prey. Dar heard Tiamat's voice. She prayed to Tiamat. The difference (compared to all the others) was reaching out to the unknown with hope. For Alerius, it changed everything.

The tribespeople had always been beautiful to him, like a ruby even if rough. Dar became - in that glorious moment - the fulfillment of thousands of years of protective watching and nudging. Faceted by her faith in Tiamat, Dar came alight with fire and power. Alerius holds her forever in his mighty claw. Together they contemplate the world of Tehra, rightfully Tiamat's throneplane. The tribespeople are still rough... and it falls to Dar to cut, facet, and polish them.

This is where the Forsaken Isles begin.