Stephen Brooke's Blog: Stephen Brooke's Scribblings, page 5

The Hand Is At Hand

Yes, THE HAND OF THE SORCERER, the fourth and final book of 'Donzalo's Destiny' is set for official release this coming December First. Expect it, however, to be available for purchase by 'Cyber Saturday.' Either way, HAND will definitely be available for ones seasonal shopping!

This book came out a tad longer than its three predecessors (THE SONG OF THE SWORD, THE SHADOW OF ASAK, THE SIGN OF THE ARROW)---where they each stand at just under 50,000 words, THE HAND OF THE SORCERER is well over 60,000. All together, this brings 'Donzalo's Destiny,' which is truly one long novel, to a bit over 200,000 words. I expect to put out an all-in-one print edition sometime before the end of next year.

This book does bring together all the subplots into some sort of resolution. But not so much that I could not revisit many of the characters (those that I didn't kill off!) in future novels. For now, I think I shall turn my attention to that mainstream novel I've had on the back burner and leave the fantasy world for a while.

THE HAND OF THE SORCERER will be available from Arachis Press (http://arachispress.com).

Three Down, One to Go

My multitude of fans out there (yes, both of you) would know this already, but today marks the official release of the third novel in the DONZALO’S DESTINY saga, THE SIGN OF THE ARROW. Available in print or as ebook at Arachis Press (http://arachispress.com).

It may or may not have shown up at sundry ebook purveyors by this time — even at Amazon for those of you insist upon dealing with the Evil Entity.

Fourth and final book in the series is in the works. You must be patient.

The Sign of the Arrow

The Sign of the Arrow, official and unofficial release

My third book in the Donzalo's Destiny series (which is, ultimately, one fairly large novel broken into bite-sized pieces) is unofficially available. I would recommend all my eager fans to hold off on the print version until I see my copy and have a chance to check it over!

Officially, the release date is set for August 1. I should have a video trailer finished by then and be ready for whatever hype in which I choose to engage. THE SIGN OF THE ARROW, like its predecessors, is written in a format of linked novella-length (more or less) parts---three, this time.

I will, sooner or later, get to work on the fourth and probably last book, tentatively titled THE HAND OF THE SORCERER. Not a particularly original title, but then neither were the others. I do hope, once I've finished, to release the entire 'Destiny' saga in a single print edition.

Signing Off On The Sign

So, I went into obsessive author mode once again and churned out the third book/novel of the Donzalo’s Destiny saga, to be titled THE SIGN OF THE ARROW. Editing and rewrites to come but it’s pretty close to finished form.

Expect it to be published sometime later this year.

It came out just about the same length as the first two books, around 48,000 words this time, divided into three more-or-less novella-length ‘Tales.’ I’m happy enough with it, both the parts that follow my original ideas and those that were the result of inspiration as I went along. I did find a nice way to wrap this one up with the death of a fairly major character, originally scheduled to be offed near the end of the last book. This works better, I think, as well as clearing space, so to speak, for the action at the conclusion.

When will I hit the fourth and, possibly, last book? Hard to say — I’m recognizing that I probably won’t write anything else important until I get all of this story out of me, so I’d better get onto it! Don’t have a title yet.

Now, on to design, rewrites, etc, etc An author’s work is never done!

Beware the Ides

All is on track to release my newest novel, THE SHADOW OF ASAK, on the Ides of March. At least, March 15 is the official date, though it might show up on line a tad earlier.

Any serious rewriting is finished. This does not mean I will not make little changes in wording or such up until the last moment. There are always things one notices! But from here on, it is a matter of design and formatting, getting the ISBNs assigned, creating a book trailer to put up at YouTube.

I am into that project already. The music is written, recorded, and ready — not a song this time, but a shorter instrumental. The slide show needs be designed and put together, which is not difficult but somewhat time consuming (and a bit tedious, as is all the work at this point).

At any rate, SHADOW is definitely a finished novel. It came out only about 1200 words longer than THE SONG OF THE SWORD, my first installment of DONZALO’S DESTINY, so it is still a fairly short book. And again, it is really a group of novellas (or two novellas and one novelette this time) telling a continued story.

Or one could consider DONZALO to be one rather long novel — there should be at least two more books to it. Here is the back cover blurb/trailer text:

Young Donazalo has left his home and his familiar life in Lama, fleeing assassins and dark magic.

In the rugged hills of the Cuddon he finds love.

In the hidden land of the Fay he finds new purpose.

And on the road home, new dangers and new allies await him, in the Second Book of Donzalo’s Destiny, The Shadow of Asak.

Donzalo's Destiny

I'm putting together a blog/site for the series of fantasy novels I call DONZALO'S DESTINY. It is located at: http://donzalosdestiny.wordpress.com/

The first book in the series, THE SONG OF THE SWORD is already in print (at Arachis Press) and the next, THE SHADOW OF ASAK, should be coming out fairly early in 2014. There will be more to follow--exactly how many, I'm not sure!

There is not much at the site yet and I will probably not give it a great deal of attention until next year, but the plan is to provide some 'behind the scenes' looks, some back-story, and so on.

The Song of the Sword

Of Mice and Magic

I've a few bits of news from myself and the Arachis Press. First is that I have reissued my children's picture book, A MOUSE IS IN THE HOUSE, in a COLOR edition. I had always preferred the B/W illustrations and the allowed for a lower price, but changes at our printer and a realization that color would probably sell better led me to creating a color edition, now available. I do have B/W copies on hand -- collectors' items, right?

Second, my third collection of poetry, RETELLINGS is out. This chapbook contains both poems and short vignettes, all with a bit memoir to them. Not that all my poems aren't somewhat autobiographical.

And third, I just spent five days of churning out four to five thousand words and finally finished the fantasy novel, THE SONG OF THE SWORD. This will be the first 'book' of a series, to be called DONZALO'S DESTINY, and consists essentially of two novella-length sections. The first of which was finished and polished quite some time ago! I have a good draft of the second part now, and will get to rewrites and edits soon. Publication before the end of the year, I hope.

Changes

Two changes have come in the past couple months, changes that have a bearing on my presence here at Good Reads. First, I am no longer, after several years of serving as such, a full-time caregiver. My mother passed the day before Easter.

This means that I can get out and about for the first time in quite a while. Which also means I'll have less interest in hanging around here or anywhere else online.

Second, as we all know, GR is now part of Amazon. This also makes me less interested in posting reviews and taking part. I will continue to maintain my author page, of course, but I'm taking a step back. otherwise. The only reviews I'm likely to post are those of newly published books I might read.

And I am probably going to start up a separate review site/blog, as I had before coming here. We'll see how things go but don't expect to see a lot of me here anymore.

Kindling

Although I've held off for some time, I've finally decided to offer Kindle/mobi editions of some of my titles. I've started with 'The Middle of Nowhere,' which is now on line at the Amazon site. My author page there is: http://amazon.com/author/stephenbrooke

Any books I make available should show up there. Most likely, the two poetry chapbooks will join the novel. The other stuff...probably not suited to ebook reading.

Video Mouse

I have been intending to do this for a couple years: I finally got around to creating a simple video to go with my children's picture book, 'A Mouse Is In The House.' The YouTube link is:
http://youtu.be/Uum0vkvTCXM

My illustrations, my words, my singing, for what it's worth! The book, of course, remains available from Arachis Press.