The Pre-Sunday Dinner Blog
Mmmmmm… Sunday Dinner. O.K. so it’s just a meal, but that’s where you are wrong. For me, Sunday dinner means getting together with the family, talking, and playing games. It’s a tradition, and no matter what we eat, and it could be almost anything, Sunday dinner is always the best meal of the week.
So before we get lost in questions and answers, I promised that I’d post this for you all. My friends at writingsnippets are doing a book giveaway, something they do a lot of, and this month they are giving away some of my books. All you have to do is leave a comment on their site to be entered, and if you add a little story you get an extra entry. Check it out at http://www.writingsnippets.com/ Lot’s of good stuff on the site for you writers out there, and also a lot for you readers as well. Make sure to stop by and say hello.
First answer for today is about the book signings that are coming up this week. Yes, I do plan to be at all of the signings, so come out and say hi. I should have some posters and bookmarks to give away, and I’ll sign almost anything. (Authors are funny that way, they love to sign things.)
Not sure if there will be a werewolf in the series, Cowboyusa, but it is possible. Also, to clear up the saddle question that has been asked, I think most adventurers use the western/American style of saddle, but other types are possible depending on the adventurer.
On different lands and how that works: Each land can be considered as a world. You can’t ride from Thraxon to Vargland without going through the great arch, so don’t even try. No, there are not any dimension shifts, time travel, or mystery rescues from alternate realities. Maybe we’ll try some of that in the next series.
About this movie idea… O.K. let me explain a couple of things. 1.) Someone with connections in the movie business and a pile of cash has to want to make the movies if it’s ever going to happen. 2.) I don’t own the movie rights, the publisher does. If someone buys the rights to the movie(s) the publisher has to agree on what the movies will be like and whatever else they want to make part of the deal. I’ll get paid if they buy the rights, but I won’t have a lot of say so in the movies unless the publisher makes that part of the deal. Yes, I’d love for the movies to be made, yes I hope they would stay close to the books, and no, I don’t know if anyone is even thinking about making movies except all of us readers who don’t have giant piles of money to spend making a movie.
Once more on living longer by jumping into the adventure shop and changing your age. Yes, it is possible but here’s the thing. Age changes are for while you are on an adventure, they go away when you go home again. The age change only allows you to change to an age that you have been on a previous adventure, and most adventurers don’t start at 15 like Alex did. So unless you want to stay on your adventure for a long time, leaving your home and family behind for years and years, it’s just not a good idea.
I’ll see what the people who actually run this page can do about setting up a facts and/or a FAQ page. Not sure if the design allows for that stuff, but I’ll ask.
Yes, 18 months is normal for the time it takes to make a finished written story into a book. I’ve heard that the average time to go from “My story is written and someone wants to publish it!” to a real book in my hand that I can read, is 18 months to 2 years. Yes, that seems like a long time, but it does give authors time to write the second book while they wait.
Yes, the ring Alex found on his first adventure will be explained in the new book. No, I won’t tell you what it is now, you’ll just have to wait until February. Yes, it does have some magic, but I don’t think you will guess what that magic really is or how it works until you read the book.
To move a great distance with magic Alex has to open a portal, but it isn’t huge and it doesn’t require a lot of extra steps or planning. Alex does not apparate (how do you spell that?) as people in the Harry Potter books do.
O.K., O.K., question 7 on the adventurers application. Yes, I know you all want to know what question everyone says yes to, but to be honest, “I don’t know”. There, I said it, I don’t know what the question is. I’m glad you are so interested in this, and if I ever figure out what question 7 is I’ll be sure to let you all know, but right now I really don’t know what that question is. Sorry about that.
Morph his face? Well I’ll say this, Alex and other wizards can use magic to disguise themselves. Yes, I do use this in book 5. It’s not really a morph, more of a magical mask. They can change their entire appearance so that most people won’t know who they are. Other magical people, and I’m not talking your average village witch here, but really magical people will notice the “mask” but may not be able to see through it. Hmmm, how to explain without giving away part of book 5??? Let’s just say that if Alex hid himself in magic and Vankin saw him, Vankin would notice that there was something odd or different about Alex in his “changed” form but he might not know it was Alex until Alex told him. Wow… did that make sense?
O.K. I know I didn’t answer everything, but we’ve hit that magical 1000 word blog post limit that I normally ignore. Today, however, I’m gonna pay attention and stop now, because it’s almost dinner time and I’m really hungry. I wonder what dinner will be today?
Talk to you soon, and hope to see at least some of you at the book signings this week.
Yours in Fellowship,
-Mark
