H.O. Charles's Blog, page 19

Teaser for Volume 3 of The Fireblade Array

Spoilers if you haven't read book 2, which is now is now in iTunes - looking a little lonely!
Below is a little snippet from Book 3:
The airripped with the sound of screaming energy, and she found herself glidingthrough the low, evening sunlight. Artemi landed with very little grace on apile of dead leaves. The creature in her mind was still writhing, baying forpower, but it was tired and drunk. She forced it back into a box and locked thelid shut. It could follocking-well stay there forever! She kicked the box for good measure. Pushingherself up with feeble arms, she examined her surroundings. The woodland aroundher was familiar enough, and it looked as if she hadn't been transported muchmore than a few miles from her last position. Artemi stood, dusted off herclothes and began to walk northward. She could have filled herself with Blazeto detect the location of the city, but she didn't want to risk waking that thing again.  Blazes, how was she to kill it? And what afine gift her husband had so generously left her with! Well, she wasn't aboutto kill herself in an effort to stop this thing. There had to be another way to defeat it. She stamped firmly on theground to release some of her anger, but mostly she felt relief for not having burnedher friend. She hoped her children had returned safely.
It was afair walk, but eventually she came to one of Gialdin's brick-course roads andbegan to follow it to the city. A group of guards were gathered up ahead. Odd,she thought as she drew closer to them, they were wearing the old colours ofGialdin: blue and gold. Where was their Calidell green? She recognised some oftheir faces; they were indeed soldiers of her army. She stopped to examine themsome yards away, and they turned to examine her also. Was this some curiousexperiment of Silar's? "Why aren't you wearing the green and black?"
One of themen approached her calmly. "And who are you?"
"I'm yourqueen, that's who I bloody am!" Surely these men knew that!
Anothersoldier, Gavorna if she remembered correctly, came to join them. "You are, areyou? You don't even look anything like her." They chuckled between themselvesfor a moment.
"Oh I see."Artemi allowed herself a small smile. "This is some sort of joke, is it? Veryfunny. Now, let's go back to the palace. I'm exhausted and I'd quite like tosee my children. If you'd lead the way?"
The soldiersspoke quietly between themselves for a moment, but Artemi could hear most ofit.
"... posingas the queen is surely an offense?"
"Yes, butshe's clearly insane. Maybe we should leave her here."
"Crazy or not,I don't think that's a good idea. Let's escort her back and leave it to thegeneral to sort her out."
Hah! Silarwould give them the hiding of their lives for speaking of her in that way! Sheraised a rather self-satisfied eyebrow at the men as they moved to surroundher. "Time to go?"
"Yes, mylady," Gavorna said. He mocked a bow and invited her to mount one of theirhorses. She vaulted smoothly onto the best of the beasts, but her featuresmorphed into shock when another soldier clambered onto the saddle behind her."What are you doing?" she hissed at the man.
"Not enoughanimals, my lady," he chuckled.
Fine. Letthem get into as much trouble as they dared. They could play and act like foolsall they wanted, but the repercussions would not be pretty. She grimaced andkicked her overburdened horse into a brisk walk, for once glad that her husbandwas not here to see this. He would have been very, very angry indeed. The thick treespassed by slowly, the skeletons of last year's leaves glistening softly inshafts of light. Gialdin's forests werevery beautiful at any time of year. The air was too dry and cold to smell ofmuch, but Artemi drank it in deeply. This place always reminded her of happiertimes. At long last the trees began to thin out, giving way to the smallfarmsteads and fields that had grown up around the capital. But something wasdifferent. Something about them looked slightly... off. "Which gate are weheading for?" she asked her saddle-mate.
"West, mylady."
West? Therewere only two farms on the west side, and she was sure that they did not havethatched roofs. And then the city came into view beyond. A great spire reachedinto the grey skies, and waterfalls clambered up its sides. But it was not thecity she had left; it was not nearly so... errant. Shock tore through her bodyas she recognised it, paralysing her limbs and lungs. She knew this place. Thiswas the old Gialdin.

What is going on?

I do not understand this.... I was feeling a bit sorry for myself because the only review I'd had on iTunes UK was three stars and a bit, well, meh - nothing like the response I'd had in the US. But today I came to check it and, lo and behold, four people had added a load of stars to it! I don't believe it! And I had almost given up hope.Thank you, kind readers, you keep me typing.

Anyway, I may have a small teaser for Book 3 ready. I'm going to check through it about four-million times before I post it, but you should see it appear here in the next few days.

Nation of Blaze has been accepted onto the iTunes portal, so that should be visible tonight (at the earliest) or Sunday (at the lastest).

The seal has been broken.

That's it! I've had my first weepy session writing Book 3. Boo hoo! I need tissues and chocolate now :'(
About four chapters/30k in.

The Third Book...

***Slightly spoiler-y if you haven't read books 1 & 2***

Book 3 is motoring along nicely now. Following my *block* I managed to get several-thousand words down yesterday. Hurray! I've just got back into writing Mirel, which I really enjoy. She's just so incredibly self-centred, with so little respect for anyone else. And yet she always thinks everything she does is right. Anyway, I've also decided that the chapter before hers needs heavy revision. Spent all night thinking, "No... it wouldn't happen like this, it would happen like that!" Couldn't sleep. So now I've got to go back and re-write some bits. Oh well.

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Throne

Redrew the Nation cover image, complete with throne. And a nice pear. Not sure about the frills yet. He looks less grumpy, and more confused.

Update

Book three is coming along in fits and starts. I'm about 20k in and there's a huge amount for the characters to deal with in the aftermath of book two, so there's been a fair bit of introspection in the first two chapters. Not for long, however... the action starts anew!

Also received a nice review on Amazon, which deserves a quote:

"It is more of a Terry Pratchett meets Trudi Canavan and has a picnic with George RR Martin kind of book."

Awesome, thanks :D!


Also this week: obviously the blog has had an aesthetic overhaul. With any luck I should be able to change the colours back to the more recognisable black/white/orange soon.

Nation of Blaze...

Hopefully should appear on iTunes soon. They're very particular about their formatting, and I think the Smashwords Monkeys (they who distribute) have been rather busy of late. Hopefully just a few more days...

Is it bad form to boast?

I feel a bit dirty saying this, but I'm just so blown away by the response that I have to...

49 reviews on iTunes USA for City of Blaze... 31 are 5 star, and I'm averaging 4.5 overall.

I never expected that sort of response for this book. Of course I enjoyed writing it, and I thought maybe one or two people would like it. But this is... insanity!

Anyway, I shall stop boasting for now and bury my head in some more writing. Just with a massive grin on my face!

Glossaries

Okey-cokey, I've had a second review requesting a glossary of terms for the books... so perhaps this is a good idea :-)

I can compile it today, but it probably won't update in most stores until next week. I hope that is acceptable!

PS: Thanks for the kind words, Cheryl M!

/Edit: Two subtly different glossaries are now available on this blog for City of Blaze and Nation of Blaze. Be warned that the glossary for Volume 2 (Nation of Blaze) contains slight spoilers if you haven't already read City of Blaze (Vol 1).

The books on sale should update over the next seven days.

Glossary for Volume 1 of The Fireblade Array
Glossary for Volume 2 of The Fireblade Array