Benjamin Medrano's Blog, page 45
June 17, 2018
June 17th 2018 Update
The Avatar’s Flames is up to just over 65,000 words, and I’m guessing it’ll take at least two more weeks to finish, possibly more, which would give around 90,000 words in length, at a guess. The first book is turning out a little more complicated than I anticipated, and I’ll warn that I’m not sure book 2 will be as long. Either way, it’s coming along well! Ruethwyn is a different character than either Lilith or Sistina, which is somewhat refreshing.
I went through a bunch of potential covers...
June 13, 2018
The Avatar’s Flames Art
June Jenssen just finished the cover art for The Avatar’s Flames, and I love what she did with it. Some of my mental images needed to be adjusted because perspectives didn’t work right, and some of my color ideas would’ve been bland, but she helped fix them for me. I’ll note that I’m still working on what I want the cover to look like as well. Anyway, here it is!
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June 10, 2018
June 10th 2018 Update
The Avatar’s Flames is up to just over 52,500 words, so it’s coming along reasonably well. I’m hoping to have it far enough along to have the book up for pre-order when the Ancient Dreams Omnibus goes live, but I can’t make any promises just yet. The bad news is that I scheduled editing with my editor for The Avatar’s Flames, and he was busy through July and a large part of August. I got a time mid-August, so depending on how things go, the earliest you can expect The Avatar’s Flames is late...
June 3, 2018
June 3rd, 2018 Update
I got home on Wednesday, and The Avatar’s Flames is up to just over 40,000 words. That’s the tipping point of becoming a novel, according to the Nebula Awards… but it’s nowhere near done. I’m going to be trying to get as much done this week as possible, because I expect next week to be unpleasant for me, and I don’t know how much work I’ll be able to get done. If you’re curious, I have a fairly major dental procedure coming up.
However, I also have some bad news to share. Yesterday I found ou...
May 31, 2018
Back with Art
I was going to say this in a different order, but decided against it. I returned from the convention yesterday, and while I did enjoy my vacation, in some ways it was exhausting (and a bad mattress did not help). While there I met an artist, Taylor Fischer, who I commissioned to sketch a character that’s been a private joke between my wife and I for a while. I present to you Safety Mermaid.
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I should add that her appearance would likely change somewhat, but as far as I’m concerned, she’s a ca...
May 27, 2018
May 27th, 2018 Update
Alas, I’m currently at a convention, so there will be no news for this week.
May 23, 2018
Down with the Queen Audio Live
Like I said above, the audiobook of Down with the Queen is live! I don’t have much time, so the links for Amazon and Audible are below. If I have time, I’ll get the iTunes one and get it up once it’s live.
May 20, 2018
May 20th, 2018 Update
The Avatar’s Flames got just a bit past 35,000 words this past week, which was about what I expected. Now, last time I said that at ~20,000 words, the book was likely about 1/5th done. I think I should clarify a little on what I meant.
Ancient Ruins was about 117,000 words, Halls of Power about 134,000 words, and Born a Queen about 93,000 words. I chose 100,000 words as a simple benchmark because it was about the middle of the road where my novels are concerned, but it isn’t a guarantee that ...
May 13, 2018
May 13th Update
As I said last week, I got to work properly on The Avatar’s Flames, and it’s up to a bit over 21,000 words. The plot has changed significantly in some ways, but the overarching theme hasn’t adjusted in the slightest, which amuses me. Assuming the book is close to the length of Down with the Queen, I’m around 20% done. Still, this week is going to be the last full week I have before my trip to PaizoCon in Seattle, so I’m not expecting to get past about 35,000 words at most.
I have other good n...
May 9, 2018
The Thorned Wood
So, last week I explained something about the elves of Senkar, and in the process I told everyone about the Illisyr, or the dark elves, and how they were exiled into the Thorned Wood. I’m suddenly reminded of how another author I’ve known said ‘If I’m taking you to my cottage in the forest, it’ll be a nice trip, but if I’m taking you to my cottage in the woods, someone is going to die.’ The Thorned Wood definitely fits that, and I feel that I should explain it better.
Also, if you’ve read Int...
