L.L. Stephens's Blog, page 4

LORE: Nammuor's Diadem

This artifact is the oldest of any in the Triempery Revelations and is the only one not to have originated with Leur or the Three. It is known by many names, among them Vllyr’s Crown, the Undying Crown, the Hegemon’s Crown, the Diadem of the Devaryati, and Nammuor’s Diadem.

,Appearance

The Undying Crown (Hegemon’s Crown) held an enormous center jewel of blood red. This jewel was set in an Aryati enhancer of powerful green lr gems bracketed by dark metal. The center jewel was said to be fulgent...

LORE: The Leur's Ring

This item is mentioned for the first time in Sordaneon, where readers see it being worn by Marc Frederick. Unlike the other two Highborn artifacts—the Wall Stone and Rill Stone—the Leur’s Ring is not associated with an Entity. It is like them, however, in being preternatural.

Appearance

The Leur’s Ring is smooth and misty silver-white, not metallic, and flows seamlessly around a large oval stone. The stone’s color varies according to the energies with which it is in contact, including those of...

EXCERPT: The Kheld King

This will be the last excerpt from The Kheld King I will put up before its release. Some sales sites will soon have first chapter or other excerpts up for view.

Readers of Sordaneon already know Dorilian is heir to both the Rill... and Highborn powers he has yet to attain. Dorilian needs to work on that... because he has an enemy who already wields arcane power.

This excerpt shows Nammuor at work.

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A drop of sweat trickled onto the upper lashes at the co...

Teaser Excerpt: The Second Stone

I just turned the manuscript for Book 3, The Second Stone, over to my publisher. This means I like the additions/deletions I made and think the book is ready to go.

This also means my editor is going to take a red pen and start the process of whipping my book into publishable shape.

That a series is completely written does not mean it is completely edited and pristine. I am an okay editor. My books are always better after a real editor has had at them!

So keep in mind that this short teaser ...

Teaser: The Second Stone

I just turned the manuscript for Book 3, The Second Stone, over to my publisher. This means I like the additions/deletions I made and think the book is ready to go.

This also means my editor is going to take a red pen and start the process of whipping my book into publishable shape.

That a series is completely written does not mean it is completely edited and pristine. I am an okay editor. My books are always better after a real editor has had at them!

So keep in mind that this short teaser ...

Map of Essera

I also added this map to the Maps tab on the site. I figure readers might want to pull it up for reference when reading the ebook, which is something I do when I can find an online map for a world I'm visiting.

Essera's map is one of the oldest and it's undergone a lot changes but this is close to the final version. As you can tell, it is one of my hand-drawn maps and so quite... well, I hope you'll consider it helpful and earnest. I'll also put up the map from the book eventually; it's being d...

Ten Things That Changed My Life

I got the idea for doing this from reading ,this piece by Justin Currie. If you don’t know of Justin Currie, he’s the lead singer and songwriter for ,Del Amitri. Great band, great songs… and some of the best damn lyrics ever put to music. Check them out.

Ten things that changed my life:

1. My father’s job-hopping.

A nomadic childhood may sound like fun, but it really isn’t. My father worked at the juncture of electronics and military technology, so he would follow the jobs. With every job ch...

The Kheld King cover

I didn't talk about the Sordaneon cover because I didn't have a website at the time. Now that I do have a website, I will talk about this one for The Kheld King.

Larry Rostant did both covers and they're perfect. He's such an amazing artist; I hope to have him do the whole series. The Sordaneon cover portrays the wealth and power of the Rill-driven Triempery and how the Entity dwarfs all mortal things around it.

The Kheld King cover hints at something else. That's Stefan Stauberg-Randolph, no...

LORE: The Wall Stone and the Rill Stone

The Rill Stone and the Wall Stone appear frequently in conjunction with the Entity-bound Highborn princes. Though often called devices or artifacts, these items are are most accurately relics because they are fashioned from or around body parts from their respective Entities.

The Wall Stone

The Wall Stone is made of the manubrium, or upper part of the breastbone, of Ergeiron, one of the three immortal sons of Amynas and The Leur. Before Ergeiron transformed into the Wall, he pulled out his br...

Switching Tracks

I’m getting the edits on THE KHELD KING this week and that’s going to make me shift tracks. I’ve been using this waiting period to write LORE posts but those will slow down. Maybe a lot. Instead I will be posting different things and having a bit of fun.

What's Coming Down the Road…

THE KHELD KING cover. It’s finished… I'm just waiting on the cover reveal in The Fantasy Hive.

Full reveal of the artwork I commissioned for two of the series’ artifacts.

An excerpt from the next (third) novel,...