I’m not dead yet.
Yes, it has been too long. No, zombies have not gotten me, yet. Yea, I am busy working or at least thinking about book 4. (More thinking that working so far, but that’s about to change, I hope.) So, lets jump in on the giant pile of questions and comments and try to cut it down to size.
Haley, the idea about Alex and company running into a group of, “Bad” treasure hunters is one I thought about some time ago. I haven’t decided yet if it will happen in one of the future books or not. The problem with the idea is that having two groups of adventurers/treasure hunters makes for a lot of characters and it might be very confusing for me to write and for you to read. I’ll keep thinking about it.
Peter, Yes, there are small or smallish dragons as well as the massive ones.
Alex’s Dad? Not saying how he really died just yet, but I do know. If it fits in, I hope it will, you’ll find out in a future book. This is one of those things like more info about his mom. When I first wrote Albrek’s Tomb, there was a prologue that talked about Alex’s mom and something that happened when Alex was little. Sadly it got cut from the story so you don’t get to see it. I think the truth about Alex’s dad will come up in a later adventure.
The extra staff. In Albrek’s Tomb Alex found a staff and we don’t hear much more about it. Alex still has it in his bag. Yes, he came out of the trees with two staffs, but one of them was his own as some of our helpful commentors have said. Staffs are not inherited like magic bags, and are normally buried with the wizard that owned them. Yes, wizards can die, yes, they can die of old age as well. We will learn a bit more about dead wizards when we get to book 6, or at least I think we will.
A quick word on writing. Write what you want to write not what someone else tells you will be popular. If you can’t sit and write for more than a few minutes, don’t try to. Write when you have time, when you feel like writing, and if it’s only for 10 min. a day that’s fine. I think, if you try to write for at least 5 or 10 min. a day you will soon discover that you are writing for 15 or 20 min. It grows on you and you get used to writing and want to write more. No, there is no right or wrong way to write a book no matter what anyone says. Write the story you want to write, and when it is done only you have to be happy with it. (Well, hopefully other people will like it as well, including a publisher.) Also, if/when you get a publisher, listen to what they have to say. The publisher wants you’re book to be successful, and even when it hurts, they are trying to help.
Aniki, yes, I have thought about what might happen if Alex who lives in an earth like world – (I never said in the books that it was earth but most people thought it was. Yes, I think I did say on the blog that it was earth, because so many people just thought it was.) – brought guns or explosives or something to the known lands. My thoughts are that advanced technology tends not to work very well in magical worlds, so he really couldn’t change things at all. Oddly, magic doesn’t show up much in worlds with a lot of technology, though I’m sure Alex can do magic in his home world without any problems. We may go into this in a later book as well.
Anders…? Things that can’t go in a magic bag? Well, it would be hard to put some very large things into a bag, and foolish to put some magical creatures in, but most things will fit as long as you have an expanding room to put them in. Well, you wouldn’t want to put say, a mountain or a lake in your bag, but a castle would fit in your expanding room without trouble.
Day to day life snips on the blog is a good idea, but as you see from my lack of blogging this last month, you might not get a lot. Don’t know if the publisher would mind or even care, so I’ll have to think about it and see how much time there is to write such bits.
Taylor: On the question about any of Alex’s adventurer friends coming to Alex’s home land/world. Yes, I think some of them might, and the adventure will be an interesting one. I hope I can make it fit before the series is over anyway.
Claire, the shaman in “The Horn of Moran” was in fact a true shaman. I believe Alex is the only one who knows this for sure, and he didn’t say anything about it to anyone else.
A search engine is a good idea Silver Pen. I didn’t create the website so I don’t know what is available out there. I’ll ask.
Finally, a bit of advice for the young or not so young writer. 1. Write for yourself. In the end, you are the one who has to be happy with the story. 2. Keep writing no matter what. Your first story might not work, your first book may never get published, but you have to keep writing sooner or later thing will work out. 3. Submit your work for publication. Hey, the only way to get published to to submit. It’s scary, it’s painful, and you have to deal with people saying, “No”. You might want to re-write your work when people say, “No”. You might find things that can be better, that need to be fixed, or that just don’t work. That’s why you don’t write on stone, because you know there will be things that need to be changed, fixed, an deleted. Keep working on it or maybe put that first work on a shelf somewhere and move on to something new, just don’t stop. Let’s see, anything else? No, I think that’s it for now. I’ll try to keep up on the blog, in fact I’ll put something on my Google calendar to remind me to blog. That will help if I remember to check the calendar.
Thanks for all the comments and questions, and I’ll be back soon, honest.
-Mark
Aniki – have fun in Japan.
