Terry Mancour's Blog, page 2

Cover Art REVEALED: Spellmonger Book 16

 

Feast your eyes on your first look of

Spellmonger Book 16:

Preceptor

Checkmate!

Minalan the Spellmonger has come a long way since he woke up to a goblin invasion almost a decade ago. Since then, he has built cities and mighty armies, invented new enchantments, and pioneered entirely new fields of magic. Now that the Witch Queen of Darkfaller has taken over one of the most powerful castles in the center of the kingdom, he has to marshal all his resources—political, military, and arcane—to try to drive her from the strategic and symbolically important stronghold. It will be the most difficult military operation the Spellmonger has ever attempted—and he cannot fail.

The future of the kingdom and all of humanity may well depend on his victory.

To complicate matters, the King and Queen have asked him to do the impossible: take their son and heir to the throne, Prince Tavard, and try to tutor him in statecraft, wisdom, and perhaps some common sense. As Tavard has always hated Minalan and seen him as a threat, this proves to be a challenge even the Spellmonger shies away from. He makes a counter-proposal to not just tutor Tavard but also his three closest rivals to the throne at the same time.

That is not all. Matters with the Sea Folk are coming to a head, Minalan is still trying to recreate the incredible snowstone spell, the gods seem to be conspiring against him, the refugees from the far north are arriving, and the civil war he started in neighboring Merwyn is beginning to stall. And his wife is having a baby—three weeks early.

Years of political intrigue and military preparation come to a head as Minalan embraces his role as Preceptor, the maker of rules for all the complex games of politics and war he is playing.

Enjoying power no wizard has had since the Archmage, Minalan has taken responsibility for ordering the kingdom, armies, wizards, and the very gods themselves with his powers, both mundane and arcane. He has learned that those who have the power to make the rules must also bear responsibility for how they are followed. There is no higher call to duty for a wizard who dares to be... a Preceptor!

Spellmonger Book 16, Preceptor will be available on Audible and Kindle on Tuesday, November 21st.

Preorder Now

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OUT NOW: The Road to Vanador

 

It’s hot.  It’s humid.  It’s summertime.  And I’m sweaty.  

I am feverishly at work finishing up Preceptor (Spellmonger Book 16) in time for my deadline, with Shadowblade right behind it.  That means sometimes ten hour days or more, as much time in front of the screen as possible.  That’s a rough schedule, but it beats working for a living.  So the newsletter this month is a bit abbreviated – sorry!

Some quick items:

The Road To Vanador anthology is OUT NOW!  I’m terribly excited about this (see previous newsletters to understand why).  It is now available on both Kindle and Audible. 

REMINDER: If you’ve already purchased the novella on Kindle, simply go to your dashboard and update the book to get the new, additional content free of charge. 

Grab Your Copy

Release date for Preceptor is November 21st, 2023!  This will also be a simultaneous release on Kindle and Audible.  The fact that I’m still writing it doesn’t phase me at all. I’m highly confident that I will finish the book before or by deadline.  It’s what wizards do. 

Preorder Now

Be on the lookout for special Audible deals this month on High Mage, if you haven’t purchased it already.  Audible is running a sale on select titles this month, and High Mage is among them.  

Listen Now

 🧙‍♂️ RELEASE DATE ANNOUNCEMENT 🧙‍♂️ 

Release date for Shadowblade, the third book in the Legends and Secrets trilogy will be March 12, 2024!  The exciting conclusion to the series will be filled with pirates, swashbuckling adventure, maritime nomenclature and finger puppets!  What more could you possibly ask for?

While I am, unfortunately, not going to be able to attend DragonCon this year (see: deadlines), I am fully registered for Baltimore Comic-Con where I will have a booth, be signing books, and answering your lingering questions about the series.  Hope to see you there!

Don’t forget about the Spellmonger merch!  As soon as I finish up these pesky books, I will be returning my attention to producing more for you.  Details as they become available.

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For more updates on everything Spellmonger, check out my Facebook page here!

I'm heading to HeroesCon!

 

Just a couple of quick notes this month as I am spending as much time as possible writing two books at the same time (take note, George!), both on short deadlines.

I will have a booth (no. 2167, I think) at HeroesCon in Charlotte this upcoming weekend. There will be paperbacks, t-shirts, and artwork available which I will be happy to sign, as well as a chance to talk to me about the Spellmonger series in depth. I’m not planning on doing any panels at this event (although I’m open to a last-minute fill-in—those sorts of things do happen), so I should be lingering around the booth most of the time. I am also planning on doing a Live Q & A with the help of super Spellmongrel Craig Meafs, who will either be dressed as Gandalf or as Stan Lee, depending on the day. I’ll release the specifics on Facebook and Discord and such as we get them nailed down. I may also wander outside for a smoke at a designated time so that anyone who happens to wander by and wants to chat can do so without paying admission to the entire con just to see me. I should be there through Sunday afternoon, but after that I’m bugging out to go home and be adored by my children on Father’s Day.

Don’t forget, The Road to Vanador anthology will be released on Audible and Kindle on July 25th!

*REMINDER: If you have already purchased The Road to Vanador novella on Kindle, all you have to do is update the title in your library and you’ll get four new short stories without having to pay for it all again.

Preorder Now

 🧙‍♂️ RELEASE DATE ANNOUNCEMENT 🧙‍♂️ 

Release date for Shadowblade, the third addition of the Spellmonger Legacies & Secrets trilogy featuring Gatina will be released in March of 2024 on both Kindle and Audible! The conclusion of this trilogy will bring the story up to Gatina’s first appearance in Shadowmage. It is a nautical adventure, too. There will be pirates. And intrigue. And finger puppets.

I think that’s all I have for now, so let me get back to my writing so I can keep turning these out in a timely manner.

- Terry

TITLE REVEAL: Spellmonger Book 16

 

Happy belated Ishi’s Day!

Yeah, I crapped out on Ishi’s Day, too.  But I have a good excuse.  About a month ago, my invalid mother moved in with me and my family.

It’s a scene that is all too common around the world: the family with kids who are reluctant to launch into adult life and still live at home is sometimes suddenly put into a situation where—temporarily or permanently—the care of an elderly relative is placed upon them.  My mother requires a wheel-in shower at home, now, until she gets knee surgery.  To give my brother (whom she lives with) time to complete most of the construction, we brought her to our house.  So for the last four weeks she has lived with us, and as a result, my productivity slipped dramatically, and I basically fell off the grid.

It takes a lot to properly care for an elder.  My entire family pitched in, and for four weeks we had near-daily home health and nursing visits.  My mother made good progress.

She also helpfully let me know all the things I was doing wrong in terms of running my household, raising my kids, and even strongly suggested landscaping tips.  Thanks, Mom!  

But the day before Mother’s Day, she finally returned home.  My house is starting to return to normal, and I can get back to writing regularly again.  That isn’t to say I stopped.  But I only put up three chapters in the last three weeks.

That might be a hot streak for Martin, but usually I can do three chapters in under three days, so for me it was awful.

But I’m back to work now, and as soon as I can manage, I’ll be returning to regular communication and emails that sound less like a laconic ransom note and more like my regular self.  Apologies to everyone who tried to engage me for the last month. 

I’ll catch up soon.

In the meantime, here are a few tidbits to assure you that things haven’t entirely fallen off a cliff:

Plans have firmed on me attending and having a booth at HeroesCon in Charlotte the weekend of June 16th through the 18th.  If you’re in the area, stop on by.  More details about the schedule next newsletter.

Me and my crew will be there as usual (it’s an easy con for me to get to) and will be talking with fans, persuading future fans, selling merch (because you gotta sell merch), and signing books.  Including . . . 

In case y’all haven’t noticed, Book 8 of the series, Court Wizard, is finally available in print! 

This took a lot of work and a lot of time because it was such a big book that it stretched the limits of Amazon’s POD system.  I had to adjust fonts and margins and then re-hash a bunch of stuff inside to get it to fit.  But fit it does, and it is now available for purchase here.

If you haven’t already, I strongly encourage you to check out an anthology I’m part of, When Swords Fall Silent, available here.  The Kickstarter for this project was an amazing success, and I have every expectation that it will continue to do well.  The story I contributed to this assassin-themed project is called “Mission of Mercy,” and it’s a little twisted.  It’s not a Spellmonger story, but I am very proud of it, and it was fun to stretch my creative wings a little.  Check it out!

Remember that the new Spellmonger anthology The Road to Vanador will be released on both Kindle and audiobook (courtesy of the amazing staff at Podium Publishing) on July 25th to complete your summer reading/listening list. 

A good chunk of the book is made up of the previously-released novella The Road To Vanador: A Travelogue, so if you’ve already purchased that on Kindle, then on July 25th, all you’ll have to do is update the book for the new version, which includes four previously unpublished stories!  The audiobook will be narrated by the incomparable John Lee once again, of course. 

This is a kind of experiment with the subgenre known as Cozy Fantasy in that there aren’t a lot of battles, deep plots, or the like; these are mostly character studies or episodes of interest that develop the background of the series.  If you’re looking for a high body count, you might be disappointed.  But that doesn’t mean that it’s boring or that nothing important happens.  Indeed, sometimes the best stories involve less dramatic elements.  But yeah, at least one troll gets whacked, so there’s that.

 🧙‍♂️ TITLE REVEAL  🧙‍♂️ 

The next book in the series (Book 16) is to be entitled Preceptor!  What is a preceptor, you might ask?  It’s someone who sets the rules and precepts for a particular thing.  I’ll let your imagination consider just what that may portend.  In the meantime, I’ll be designing the cover and going dutifully back to work on it now that Mom is back home.  That’s about all for now.  Just a brief update.  Now back to the word mines for me . . . .

Best,

Terry

✨ Spellmonger Merch ✨

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It’s What Wizards Do

Spring Has Sprung With a Vengeance on My Mountain

 

Spring has sprung with a vengeance on my mountain. The annual Pollen Apocalypse has begun, the trees are bursting into leaf, the air is filled with butterflies and birds, and the spring rains are washing out roads. It’s a busy season, and I’ve been busy in response.

But the writing is rolling.

I have completed and turned in the manuscript for The Road To Vanador anthology, one day before deadline. It runs 132k words (about 14.5 hours runtime in audiobook) and includes four new short stories featuring Mavone, Jannik, Gareth, Nattia, Carmella, Rumel, a cameo by Banamor, Landrik, and Caswallon the Fox. These have mostly been secondary or tertiary characters in the main series, but all of them have their own stories to tell in regard to the founding of Vanador. Some may consider these filler stories compared to the main series and therefore may want to skip them. There isn’t much of a body count after all, and no tremendous plot points are revealed in the stories. They are largely character studies. Some of them could even be considered cozy fantasy, I suppose. But I’d like to think that you will find them entertaining.

(An interesting side-note: just as I noticed that The Wizards of Sevendor anthology had a cute animal character for each story, for this anthology I noticed that each story had an intriguing menu mentioned. I plan on including the recipes for each of these in the Spellmonger’s Cookbook, or whatever I end up calling the cookbook I want to write for the series. This will mean a long and arduous process of cooking each of them in my test kitchen, but I will take that hit for y’all. It’s what wizards do.)

One story in particular, “Foundation,” features Carmella—a tertiary character in the series and one whom I have a lot of fondness for. One of my readers helpfully pointed out to me that Carmella seemed to be on the spectrum, and so I took that idea and ran with it a bit. I don’t explicitly call out her neurodivergence, but after dealing with Min’s madness in The Mad Mage of Sevendor, I wanted to explore the idea of another mage who looks at the world differently. I suppose y’all will let me know if I was successful.

The final story in the book is the previously published novella The Road To Vanador, featuring Minalan and his dad making the trip from Sevendor to Vanador after his exile. This is a particularly important to story to me as it was written immediately after my own father’s death. It explores some of the intricacies of the adult son/father relationship as well as the landscape of some of the settings we’ve become familiar with. For those who have already invested in the Kindle version of the novella, good news: I will be updating the novella you’ve already purchased with these new stories, so all you will have to do is go to your dashboard after release and update the story to get the additional four. The new Kindle version will be released along with the audiobook release in July. I’ll keep you posted on the exact publication date of both.

Congratulations are due to superfan Spellmongrel Craig Maefs, known as Terleman on the Discord server, for winning Best in Show at the Steel City Con cosplay contest! Craig and his beautiful daughter are both outstanding cosplayers and have attracted a lot of attention at cons over the years. Craig does an eerily accurate Stan Lee, Willy the Postman, and Gandalf. He is also amongst my most devoted fans, so a little shout-out for his achievement is definitely in order.

Spellmonger Game Adaptation Update

Work is ongoing to untangle the Battlefield Press problems resulting from Jonathan Thompson’s untimely death. His memorial service was this week, and he has been on my mind a lot of late. His brother has volunteered to take over the business, and I am in regular communication with him regarding the Spellmonger FRP and other works Jonathan and I agreed upon. While we have nothing definite yet, we both want to get this out because most of the work on it was completed before Jonathan died. There is also talk of a televised game on Discord to help promote the eventual release—something I’m very much in favor of and may well participate in. More details will be forthcoming as they become available.

🧙‍♂️Upcoming Adventures🧙‍♂️

Now that the anthology is behind me, I will turn my attention to the next two novels on the docket: Shadowblade (with Emily Burch Harris) and Book 16, the title of which is Preceptor. It’s an odd title, I know, but it makes sense in the context of the novel. I’m not exactly sure just how long it will be yet, but it should be between 50 and 60 chapters, gods willing. It will be a direct follow-up to Marshal Arcane, in Minalan’s voice. While I don’t have a definite release date for it, I’m certain it will be out by the end of the year, probably around the holidays.

That’s all for the moment. Time to finish cleaning up from Easter and then get back to the word mines. Hope everyone’s holiday was a happy one!

- Terry

💸 Spellmonger SALE 💸

For the next few days, Spellmonger Books 1-4 are on sale on Audible! Now’s the perfect time to introduce friends to the series or add the audiobooks to your own library! 

Shop the Audible Sale 

✨ Spellmonger Merch ✨

Haven’t checked out my Spellmonger merch yet? What are you waiting for! Click below to see all of the best wizarding apparel.

It’s What Wizards Do

Spring Is Here

 

It is with great sadness that I report the untimely death of Jonathan Thompson, CEO of Battlefield Press, the publisher of the Spellmonger series TTFRP game adaptation. 

I’ve worked with Jonathan on this project for a few years now, and he has overcome some mighty obstacles along the way: fire, pandemic, and illness. Just as the project was nearing completion, Jonathan went to the hospital with an infection that ultimately led to multiple surgeries and the eventual amputation of his left arm this past December. That was heartbreaking enough, but he returned to the hospital last week with symptoms of a stroke. He died shortly afterwards.

Jonathan was a devoted gamer and a consummate professional during the entire process. He truly was outstanding to work with as we strove to convert the books into a playable game. He was patient, insightful, and had an intuitive understanding of both game mechanics and player appeal. He worked closely with David Ramsay, who runs the Spellmonger Wiki, and Dave shares my grief over losing Jonathan: “Jonathan was a calm, encouraging, and very lovely man. We’d always planned to play a game, and now we never will.” I wholeheartedly agree. I had always planned to do a showcase game with Jonathan once we released, and I am saddened that that won’t happen now. His enthusiasm was contagious. It sucks that he missed his saving throw.

I’ve been in contact with Jonathan’s brother and girlfriend about the matter of the Spellmonger adaptation, and we are all in agreement that we intend to finish the work that Jonathan started (once some bureaucratic and technical issues are overcome) to honor his memory. I’ll drop further details as they come to light.

In addition, I will be dedicating Book 16 to Jonathan. It is apropos, as Slagr, the God of Games, figures prominently in the story.

Jonathan’s death hit hard. This February has seen a lot of funerals for me and my family. Distant relatives and family friends, neighbors, and old acquaintances have all made their exit this past month, and it has been taxing. Death makes a family stop, for a time, and sends ripples throughout our real-life social networks that cannot be avoided, postponed, or rescheduled. It is often a time of personal reflection and stock-taking for those involved. Lives change. Plans are altered. The emotional toll is rough, especially in quantity, and a numbing sense of grief starts to roll in.

But we have to shake it off and keep going. Spring is here. Hope in the future sprouts along with daffodils, pear blossoms, and the godsdamned Bradford pear pestilence that curses the land. We will miss Jonathan.

A non-Spellmonger Terry Mancour Story! As bummed as I am about losing Jonathan, I am quite happy to announce the production of an anthology I was invited to participate in: When Swords Fall Silent, edited by Bryce O’Conner. Touted as “an assassination anthology.” Bryce put together a great group of fantasy writers to contribute stories featuring the topic of assassination—always a favorite of the fantasy genre.

The authors include Michael J. Sullivan, Marie Brennan, Andrew Rowe, David Dalglish, RJ Barker, Jonathan French, ML Wang, Peter A. Flannery, Luke Chmilenko, Phillip C. Quaintrell, Jay Boyce, Bryce O’Conner, and myself. (I might be leaving someone out— forgive me if I have). Although the project— like everything in the pandemic years—is running behind schedule, the Kickstarter pre-order should now be up today. I’m particularly proud to be involved in this as this anthology is a benefit for the St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital. My wife had a career in clinical research for twenty years before I made her retire, so this is a subject near to our hearts.

My contribution is a non-Spellmonger short story called “Mission of Mercy.” It was a delightful challenge to do something away from Callidore, and on such a juicy subject. Of course I had to get all twisty with it, like I do, but I am extremely pleased at the result. Assassination is by definition a sinister subject. And there is more than one way to approach it. Add magic to the mix, and, well, things can get a little twisty. I encourage all my Spellmongrels to check this anthology out. It will be released on audiobook (through Podium Audio) as well. I’m actually looking forward to reading the other authors’ takes on the rubric. I don’t often get much exposure to other fantasy due to issues with my writing schedule and the very real possibility of subconscious plagiarism, but this will be an indulgence. Bryce has been a dream to work with, too.

So check it out. It’s a great cause, with a great bunch of writers. And it will show you whether or not I can handle non-Spellmonger fantasy. Let me know what you think.

Listen on Audible

💭 DISCORD DISCUSSIONS 💭

If you aren’t already aware, the Spellmonger Discord server (Ghostrock) is hosting regular review sessions for each of the novels and anthologies in the Spellmonger series. I may even show up from time to time to offer my insights and explanations. I did so this past week when we discussed Magelord—one of my faves—and for two hours I was able to answer burning questions and explain a few things that people missed or that I did. It’s a fun time. Check the Discord server for more details about future book reviews.

Apart from that, I’m just writing. Deadlines loom. Pressure is on. The magic must flow.

✨ SPELLMONGER MERCH ✨

Haven’t checked out my Spellmonger merch yet? What are you waiting for! Click below to see all of the best wizarding apparel.

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Happy New Year! (Just a little late)

 

Happy Belated New Year to Everyone!

I know I was remiss in getting out a newsletter last month, but I plead the distraction of the holiday season including a week-long trip to Disney with my family (long overdue) and my daughter’s twice-postponed debutante ball. Both events went off as near to flawlessly as I could have hoped, but they both required the majority of my time and attention for weeks. Stuffing three of us into tuxes and ensuring my daughter looked ravishing for her debut was a challenge, and going to Disney at any time requires a lot of planning. But I learned a lot from the House of Mouse, and the ball went off without a serious hitch, so I count myself among the most fortunate of men.

Of course I had Thanksgiving and Christmas and my son’s and my mother-in-law’s birthdays and the usual social whirl that this part of the year implies. To finish it off, my wife Laurin and I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary with a week-long stay at the beach. We had a lot to celebrate. There are countries that haven’t existed as long as we’ve been married.

This is going to therefore be a long post. There’s a lot going on in the Spellmonger universe, though, and I wanted to keep y’all informed.

Recent Releases

Successful launches of Shadowheist, The Mad Mage of Sevendor, and Marshal Arcane. All three books came out within a few months of each other, and each required a lot of promotion and interviews and such. I see all three releases as highly successful, both in terms of sales and by review (more on this later). Counting the release of Hedgewitch in February of 2022, that’s four books published in one calendar year. That’s an impressive record by any measure. It also took a lot out of me to hit the deadlines and get the promotional stuff right. I needed a few months recuperating from the creative process, which is why I’ve been relatively quiet. But as we sail into 2023, I’m feeling rested, relaxed, and ready to plunge into the writing schedule for this year, which will be a little less ambitious. I’m planning on only doing three books this year. I feel so lazy.

Upcoming Adventures

The three books will be Shadowblade (the third and final book of the Spellmonger: Legacies and Secrets trilogy), the Road to Vanador anthology (including at least four new stories in addition to the audiobook production of The Road To Vanador novella already released on Kindle), and Book 16 of the main series. I have a title for it. I don’t want to release it just yet because there’s an outside chance I’ll change my mind.

Release dates will also be announced as we get further along in the process. But I’m excited about all three books. Excited and ready to work. The production deadlines are tight but manageable, and now that I’ve gotten them firmed up, I can relax (mostly) back into Composition Mode. I say mostly because I also have to devote some time to continued promotion, merchandise development, conversion of Kindle releases into paperbacks, and the eternal taxes, maps, and other minutia that occupy a professional writer’s time and attention.

I can’t complain too much, as I work with great people, but at some point I have to get involved personally to provide direction and make decisions and go to cons and that sort of thing. That takes time away from composition, but it is every bit as important to the business of writing as cranking out quality prose. They don’t tell you about that part at writer’s workshops, usually, but a side effect of success is actually running a business, and running a business takes time and energy. There is only so much you can delegate to other people. It’s often difficult for an indy writer to manage all of that. You make overly ambitious plans like any small business owner until you realize just how much of your resources those plans entail. You have to interview and hire people and sometimes fire them. You have to speak to lawyers and accountants and marketers and see your books not as your precious little babies but as elements of a marketing and business plan. You have to sift out the dumb ideas (your own and others) and decide which good ideas you have the time to pursue. And then you have to compromise over and over again while you try to maintain your creative enthusiasm for your work.

It's not the life for everyone. Many indy writers disdain the business end of things, and their success suffers as a result. Sometimes I wish I could just sit back and write and let other people handle everything else. But when you’re dealing with something as expansive and complex as the Spellmonger series, you’re not just writing, you’re developing intellectual property. You want to protect and nurture that and keep it from being abused or misused. You want to ensure that it’s your vision that’s being followed. You just can’t delegate that to anyone else.

Fan Mail

I love it. I read all of it. But it has reached a volume to where I cannot answer most of it—not and keep a productive work schedule. We’re putting together a list of FAQs we can refer people to on my author’s site, but please understand that it’s difficult for me to respond to more than a handful of them every month. I love hearing how Spellmonger has affected you and what it means to you, and I do truly read every piece of email and FB comments and IG posts. Some of them have even changed the course of the series. But I regret that I simply don’t have time to answer everyone, and for that I am truly sorry.

Reviews

Here’s a dirty little professional secret: all those writers who say they don’t read reviews are liars.

I don’t say that to be mean, but except in rare cases I have no doubt that it is true. The ego required to do any kind of artistic endeavor is in and of itself exceptional. The ability to present a portion of your soul—however mean—to the general public for their entertainment and edification is an exceptional quality in a creator, and most just don’t want to risk that kind of vulnerability. To take that risk and not look for some kind of emotional return on your investment could easily be seen as pathological. So writers read reviews, even when they proclaim that they don’t.

Good writers enjoy the praise when they do something that is liked enough by people that they are moved to tell you so. Even better writers skim past the praise and wallow in the negative results—not necessarily because they are emotionally masochistic (although that can be argued) but because they want to know where and how their work may have failed to achieve the desired effect. Or how it did achieve the desired effect, as they understand that they will, of necessity, alienate and piss off a small number of (sometimes vocal) readers who were not pleased by a particular offering.

I read reviews. They are my gifts from my readers. Dear gods, I read every one, on every platform I can find. Not because I’m a raving egomaniac. (I am. I’ve made my peace with that.) But because I need the feedback on how my story is making people feel, especially when the reader feels uncomfortable. You see, I’m essentially writing serial fiction in the form of novels and short stories, and there is a definite aim in mind—telling an entertaining story that will be, I hope, transcendent at its conclusion. There is a definite plan in my narrative, a specific story I want to tell, and that story is going to drag the careful reader through a lot of places that will be uncomfortable, in one way or another.

That’s a feature, not a bug.

Part of that desire is understanding that there are a lot of different readers (and listeners) who are attracted to the Spellmonger series for a myriad of different reasons. That is by design. I want the series to appeal to a wide variety of people who will be fascinated by some elements, intrigued by others, entertained by some and—by necessity—bored by some of it. I confess, my least favorite part of the Lord of the Rings series is the second part of The Two Towers: the subtle, psychologically intriguing relationship between Sam, Frodo, and Gollum as they sneak into Mordor. As a writer I completely appreciate the subtle nuances Tolkien presents to us here, as well as the exploration of the nature of evil. As a reader I usually skip from the first chapter to Cirith Ungol and Minas Morgul and leave the rest of it.

So I get that parts of the series—entire works—aren’t going to be popular with everyone. It’s amusing and instructive to see how many people are put off by an experimental piece like Mad Mage or a dramatic shift in narrative perspective like the Young Adult works. Everyone has their Helm’s Deep part of the series, and everyone has their endless discussion of coneys and taters with a living embodiment of weakness and evil. All of that is by design. I don’t need my readers to love all of the Spellmonger series as it develops. I just need them to love their favorite parts.

What is instructive about the exercise is the thoughtful complaints about the plot or characters that strike true and tell me when I need to alter course a bit. This has happened several times, and each time the series has improved and become more complex as a result. Every writer has their blind spots, and constructive criticism about the reader experience is insanely valuable to me. The key is their insight.

Alas, many readers who get upset or disappointed with a particular work don’t yet have the insight into the scope of the story I’m building to see what I am trying to do. That, too, is helpful, as it informs me when I need to add a bit of this or that to the narrative to improve the reader’s understanding of the plot or the arc of the characters.

The goal is to give y’all just enough to think you know what will happen (and keep you interested in the story), and then fulfill your expectations but in ways you didn’t expect. That’s the entertaining part. The artistically fulfilling part will be when you read Book 30 and realize the entirety of the story and its meaning. That’s the transcendent part. If I do a good job then a lot of people will feel it and be moved by it. Not everyone will, though. It’s a long journey and not everyone will be pleased at the payoff.

What is amusing about the exercise is to read the reviews in context. I’ve seen blistering condemnations of a particular book, assurances that I’ve “jumped the shark,” that I’m “just in it for the money,” that I’ve “run out of ideas,” that I’m “being derivative, repetitive, deceptive,” and a host of other complaints that go back to the earliest portion of the series. That’s the gold for me. Those reviews are in the minority (thank Briga), but they are an important indicator of how the series progresses. They’re my dashboard for how I’m progressing on this journey and its story, and if people complain that they’re getting thrown around a little bit along the way, well, that’s telling me that I took a curve a little hard or that hill they climbed made them a little uncomfortable. Sure, a few will bail on the ride because they got too uncomfortable, but that’s to be expected. It’s a rollercoaster. It’s not supposed to make everyone feel comfy.

The goal is to make you thrilled by the experience when the ride eventually comes to a halt.

Don’t misunderstand me—I’m not trying to alienate readers. I’m trying to excite readers to the point where they rave about the complexity and nuance of the Spellmonger series to their friends, loved ones, and passing strangers in airport boarding gates or Oklahoma truck stops. I want each new work to add to that complexity, exciting the majority of you while making a small (and rotating) number of you uncomfortable or even unhappy . . . until the next one. I want to build a compelling narrative of sufficient sophistication such that every new installment makes you want to go back and read earlier portions of the narrative with a different perspective that inspires a different emotional effect than the initial experience.

When someone complains that things are moving too slowly or that they book was pointless or that this has nothing to do with the main story, well, those responses let me know that my attempts to obfuscate, misdirect, and make you think I’m going in one direction when I’m really about to yank you in another are working. The reward for that is the number of readers who post their delight as they realize what I was doing, in retrospect, and appreciate the sharp curves and the unexpected drops.

That’s the juice I’m looking for. For now. Hopefully, by the time I get to the end, I’ll have made you weep and cheer to the point that, when the ride finally ends, you will have looked past the small parts that made you uncomfortable or, even better, appreciated their role in the entire experience. But for now, I’ll take the occasional bitter declaration that “this is the last Spellmonger novel I’ll ever read!” knowing that only a very few of you are willing to actually abandon the series, if only against the hope that it will “improve.”

I strive for a seductive complexity in the story because I want to take you a lot of places, and some of those place you didn’t know you wanted to go until you get there. People who came for the goblin body count suddenly find themselves interested in medieval economics; people who came for the magic system realize that they’re quite entertained by the intricacies of feudal politics. Those who want to drink deep of a competent and expansive world-building suddenly find themselves intrigued by the subtleties of interpersonal relationships, love affairs, and the realities of marriage. Come for the magic, stay for the cheese.

The truth is, I’m riffing on as many of the major fantasy tropes as I can identify and competently portray within the expansive scope of the story. At the end of the series, I want you to struggle with the fact that this is as much Pentandra’s story as Minalan’s—or Rondal’s, or Tyndal’s, or Alya’s, or Sire Cei’s, or Dara’s, or Gatina’s, or countless others. This is epic-er fantasy, in my imagination of it, and part of that epic is that your experience of it will be informed by so may perspectives and foci that are so real that you swear you lived there. I’m building a world you want to live in, like Middle Earth, Hogwarts, or Westeros. I want you to really grok the beauty of the Mindens and smell the peasants of the Riverlands and appreciate the tacky majesty of the royal palace at Kaunis and recoil in the aging decadence of Falas. And a thousand places in between.

So I read the reviews—every one of them. I read every fan letter voraciously, even if I do not have time to answer a tithe of them. I delight in the positives. I carefully study the negatives. I happily discard the over-the-top on either side from serious consideration, and I listen to what the fans are saying about the ride as we’re in progress. I don’t take it personally, I take it constructively, like a professional should. At Book 15, if you haven’t figured out where I’m going (generally speaking) and what might lie ahead as we get there, well, maybe you’ll realize it as we go forward and things get more specific. And occasionally weirder.

Because I want to take you there, too. Places you might not want to go. Unexpected turns and unanticipated drops and long, slow inclines that lead to a rapid descent that jars your spine and makes you clap your jaw together accidentally and—possibly—pee your pants. I want to make you laugh and make you blush and make you sad and make you thoughtful. I want you to finish a book and take a deep breath and consider the possibilities as you drift off to sleep at night. I want you to want to meet Olmeg the Green for a beer or have Gatina whisper in your ear or have Pentandra sneer at you good-naturedly.

I want you to want the next installment knowing you may not like it, but afraid that if you miss it you’ll miss something important to your understanding of the series. And—let’s face it—you’ll like it at least a little bit, I know, or you wouldn’t have hung around this long.

Why? It’s not the money—although I’m not complaining. It’s the professional fulfillment I get out of feeding your desire for entertainment. My ego is invested not just in creating something novel and impressive but in making you want to see how it ends . . . and making certain that when you get to the end of the ride, it will have been worth every minute of the thirty-plus book wait.

Oh, and the suggestion that I somehow “pay” for good reviews or write them myself through sock puppet accounts? Ishi’s tits, that’s laughable. I don’t have the time or the money to do that. Not if I want to keep writing production at this pace. It’s just easier to write good stuff and see how you like it. And far more gratifying.

New Things on the Horizon

Jonathan Thompson at Battlefield Press, the company that is producing the Spellmonger TTFRP adaptation, is recovering from an unexpected surgery in which much of his left arm was amputated. This has been a huge ordeal for Jonathan, who is central to Battlefield’s publishing efforts. I cannot imagine what he is going through. But he has reached out to me recently, and plans for the release are going ahead. For those paying attention to the Wizards of the Coast debacle, we are proceeding under the original Open Game License (OGL) for the moment, from what I understand. While I don’t have a definite release date yet, it is my understanding that we are planning on launching it sometime this year.

Where Will You Be?

So far my con schedule for the year includes Baltimore and Charlotte, but I’m still trying to nail down the rest of it. I’d like to do one in the Midwest, one in Texas, and one on the West Coast, although I’m open to other options. If you’d like me to appear at a con you like, please have the organizers contact me through my email: tmancour@gmail.com.

📚 The paperback version of Enchanter is finally out! Get yours here! Next up, Court Wizard!

More of Me

If you like watching interviews with me or good reviews of my work, here’s a selection of recent uploads to YouTube. Please give these folks a like and subscribe! Enjoy!

Co Gnosis Interview

David Greene Review of Marshal Arcane

Quick and dirty Baltimore Comic-Con Interview

Also, over at the Discord server, there is a new series of discussions going back and reviewing the series book by book. They just started with Spellmonger. I haven’t listened to it yet, but from what I understand it was EPIC-er.

Apropos to this, I would encourage all of my fans to recommend Spellmonger to Fantasy reviewers across all platforms. There are plenty of them over on YouTube, in particular, and if Spellmonger keeps appearing in their comments sections, they might just want to take a look. To that end, I’m always ready to talk to people or do an interview. Please direct all inquiries to tmancour@gmail.com. Thanks!

Thank You

January 19th was my 55th birthday, and I want to thank all of you who sent me birthday wishes on FB, IG, email, and Kudoboard. I feel profoundly blessed with the number of friends and family and fans I have during these sometimes dark and confusing times. I truly feel as fortunate as any wizard could. Thank you all for your support, and for my part, I promise I will do my level best to continue to earn it.

Here’s a birthday gift my darling daughter did for me, wood burned by hand. I do so love my children, and their devotion to their father and his work is the stuff of legend.

I’d better wrap this up now, as it’s getting to novella length. Thanks for reading this long, and happy Briga’s Day (February 1st) in advance!

- Terry

For early access to future blog posts and all things Spellmonger, make sure to sign up for my newsletter here!

Spellmonger Universe Live Q&A with Emily Burch Harris

 

To celebrate the release of Shadowheist and the upcoming release of Marshal Arcane , join me and my co-author, Emily Burch Harris for a livestream Q&A! Tune in on Sunday, December 4th at 3pm PST / 6pm EST here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4S03Oz-w-5s

Spellmonger Book 15: Marshal Arcane cover art is HERE

 

Feast your eyes upon  Spellmonger  Book 15:

Marshal Arcane

The Witch Queen strikes on Tuesday, December 6th

Preorder Now

GIVEAWAY REMINDER 

Podium Audio is giving away three unique wizard hats handcrafted by Miss Fitt & Co. Time is running out and you don’t want to miss this exclusive giveaway. Winners will be selected TOMORROW, so enter now! Details below.

HOW TO ENTER:

1) Head to  @PodiumAudio  on Instagram

2) Like their  giveaway post

3) Must be following  @PodiumAudio

4) Tag 3 friends in the comments of their  giveaway post

 SPELLMONGER MERCH 

Haven’t checked out my Spellmonger merch yet? What are you waiting for! Click below to see all of the best wizarding apparel.

Order Here

For early access to future blog posts and all things Spellmonger, make sure to sign up for my newsletter here!

OUT NOW: Shadowheist

 

Available Now: Spellmonger: Legacy and Secrets Book 2

Shadowheist

Get Your Copy

I am terribly excited about the release of Shadowheist, now available on Kindle, Audible, and paperback. I’ve talked about it for a year now, and it’s great to finally see it hit the market. It is indeed YA (Young Adult) and suitable for your kids to listen to or read. In Shadowheist, we continue to follow the development of Gatina Anna Furturis as she learns how to be the consummate thief known as the Kitten of Night – against a backdrop of social and political upheaval in which her family has taken a side. In this installment, she is being sent to ecclesiastical school at the ancient and mysterious Saganite at Palomar Abbey, where she is to study to be a Nocturn – a lay nun of the order – after her family’s successful series of heists. Sounds boring, right?

Nothing with the Kitten of Night is boring of course, and Gatina racks up an impressive series of adventures during her stay at the astronomically inclined abbey. Especially not with the sudden influx of Royal Censors from around the newly-proclaimed kingdom seeking refuge in Count Vichetral’s Alshar. It also reveals the circumstances of Gatina’s rajira emerging, her first studies of magic and her introduction into shadowmagic. It was a fun novel to write and I want to thank my co-author Emily Burch Harris for being a part of it. We’ll be starting on the third and final volume in the trilogy, Shadowblade, shortly and I’m even more excited about that because of the subject matter.

I’m very pleased at the reception of The Mad Mage of Sevendor, a real experiment for me. I expected it to piss off about 10% of my readership (just about every new book does), but the rest understood what I was doing and seemed to enjoy it. It’s the perfect set up for the forthcoming release of Marshal Arcane, Book 15 of the Spellmonger series. And yes, the plot of Marshal Arcane extends beyond the end of The Mad Mage of Sevendor, so there will be new material for you plot-junkies.

Finally, I’m hip-deep in preparation for my attendance of the upcoming Baltimore Comic Con next weekend. I’ll be in booth 2006 just to the left of the main entrance and I will have books, posters, and t-shirts available for sale. I will also be doing an off-site meet-and-greet for those who want to see me but don’t want to spring for tickets just to do that. I’m still nailing down the details of this but will be posting them to Facebook, Instagram, and the Discord server as soon as I have them.

I do love the Baltimore Comic Con. It’s one of my favorites to do, and I’ve met a ton of my fans there in the past. It’s also where I get some of my better ideas – Gatina for instance was born in Baltimore. I’m not doing any panels at the con this year so I should be around the booth most of the time. If you can manage it, I’d love to see you there.

Also, here are the details of the Wizard Hat Giveaway sponsored by Podium! Podium Audio is giving away THREE, unique wizard hats handcrafted exclusively by Miss Fitt & Co. These are from the same lady who did the handsome gray affair I frequently sport. High quality work, and beautiful materials. Winners will be selected November 2nd.

HOW TO ENTER:

1) Head to  @PodiumAudio  on Instagram

2) Like their  giveaway post

3) Must be following  @PodiumAudio

4) Tag 3 friends in the comments of their  giveaway post

Available December 6th:

Marshal Arcane

Spellmonger: Book 15

Keep an eye out for the Marshal Arcane cover art reveal coming soon!

Preorder Now

Thanks for reading my stuff, and do check out Shadowheist for a good, clean wholesome tale of a thief pretending to be a nun and trying to overthrow a government.

- Terry Mancour

For early access to future blog posts and all things Spellmonger, make sure to sign up for my newsletter here!