Daniel R. Marvello's Blog, page 3

How I Manage Book Projects

This post isn’t meant to be instructional. Everyone has their own process for writing books, but one of the ways we come up with our own unique methods is by seeing what other people are doing and adapting what we learn to our needs. I know I’ve done that. I’d like to share my approach here because it might help my readers understand the progress bars over in the Work in Progress section of the site’s side bar. If another writer finds this information helpful in anyway, that’s a bonus.

My edit...

Interview with DISCIPLE Series Author L. Blankenship

I enjoy reading author interviews. The authors often reveal interesting things about themselves or their stories that you won’t find anywhere else. When I offered to host L. Blankenship for her DISCIPLE, Part V blog tour, we decided on an author interview because I already had a post from her on her magic system. I’m glad it worked out that way.

We had plenty of time before the scheduled publication date, so I suggested a different interview format than usual. Rather than send her a canned set...

The Magic of The Dragon and Scholar Saga by H.L. Burke

In my never-ending quest to see how fantasy authors integrate magic into their stories, I gladly volunteered for H.L. Burke’s blog tour and offered her a spot here on The Vaetra Files. Heidi came through with a fun treat. She presents information about her magic system from the perspective of one Sir Martin Mathewson, a scholar from her story world. I hope you enjoy it!

Heidi is touring her book Dragon’s Curse, the first book of her “The Dragon and the Scholar” series. Be sure to check out the...

Cover Reveal for "Vaetra Unleashed"

Vaetra Unleashed is with my beta readers as I type this. So far, they aren’t finding anything that will cause major revisions to the story, so I should be able to publish the book by the end of September (maybe sooner). I’m sure this is good news for those of you who have been patiently (or impatiently!) waiting for the final installment of the Vaetra Chronicles.

The overall reactions I’m getting on Vaetra Unleashed have been encouraging:

I’m so impressed with this! It’s wonderfully plotted, cl...

Karin Rita Gastreich and the Magic of Eolyn’s World

I first met Karin Rita Gastreich when she joined the Magic Appreciation Tour in June, 2012. It’s hard to believe it has been two years already! At that time, Eolyn was her only title, but it didn’t stay that way for long. Since then she has released High Maga, book two of the Eolyn Chronicles, and now the audiobook edition of Eolyn.

To celebrate the release of her new audiobook, Karin is doing a blog tour titled “Eolyn’s Amazing Audio Book Tour and Giveaway” (click the title to see all of the...

Will Hahn and the Lands of Hope Magic System

When fellow Magic Appreciation Tour author Will Hahn announced his blog tour for Judgement’s Tale Part One: Games of Chance, I was quick to volunteer. Will has shown great support for other fantasy authors by hosting their guest posts, so I hope that good karma comes back to help him now on his own tour.

When Will asked me what kind of guest post I wanted, regular readers of this blog will know exactly what I requested: “Tell me about your magic system!” I hope you enjoy Will’s unique and bril...

First Moon: My First Contemporary Fantasy

I’m excited to be finishing up the Vaetra Chronicles trilogy because I have a story idea I’ve been wanting to develop ever since I started writing fiction. Over the past three years, I learned that I have no shortage of ideas, just a shortage of time to write them! For my next novel, I’ll be leaving the world of Mundia behind and entering modern times.

Before I tell you more about what inspired this story, let me get the announcement out of the way so you won’t have to scroll down and look for...

First Draft of Vaetra Unleashed!

I have a big announcement. I wrote the final paragraph of Vaetra Unleashed yesterday morning. Woohoo! The Vaetra Chronicles trilogy is complete at last.

What I finished was just the first draft, so I still have a lot of work to do before the book is ready to go out the door. I’m hoping to get it into the hands of beta readers for the month of July. I should then be able to publish the book some time in September. That’s a little later than I intended, but not by much. So hang in there; the las...

Here Be Dragons! Guest Post by Lori J. Fitzgerald

I’m happy to be taking part in Lori J. Fitzgerald’s blog tour and helping her get the word out about her romantic fantasy adventure novelette The Dragon’s Message. Lori recently joined the Magic Appreciation Tour, bringing us up to an amazing total of 67 authors with 166 books. If you love to read magical fantasy, check out the book listings.

Lori is stopping by The Vaetra Files today to give us a brief introduction to her new Dragon Tome series and to share an excerpt from her new release The...

The Rangers of Mundia

Thanks to J.R.R. Tolkien, father of high fantasy, most fantasy readers (and fantasy RPG players) have at least a passing familiarity with what kind of character I mean when I use the term “ranger.” On the whole, the rangers of Mundia (my story world setting for The Vaetra Chronicles) bear a strong resemblance to Strider/Aragorn (played by Viggo Mortensen) from The Lord of the Rings.

Mundia’s rangers are strongly affiliated with the druids. Rangers are one branch of the Defenders of the Faith,...