Final Edits of “On Wings of Air”

We’re working on the final edits of On Wings of Air, which is the first book of our Earth and Sky Trilogy.

It’s a lot more fun than you would think. Creating new races always means that one has to think about the sorts of minutiae that people typically take for granted. For a fantasy work that doesn’t have things “pre-cut,” so to speak, there’s a lot more work involved. It’s easy to write a fantasy work and say that elves have bows and dwarves have axes; those conventions have already been put in place. It’s a lot more time-consuming to say that this certain race uses this type of weapon for this purpose and dislikes this type of weapon for this reason. But those are the sorts of details that can get worked out or firmed up when editing a work. One of my favorite Stephen King quotes is this: “[W]rite with the door closed, rewrite with the door open. Your stuff starts out being just for you, in other words, but then it goes out. Once you know what the story is and get it right — as right as you can, anyway — it belongs to anyone who wants to read it. Or criticize it.”

Book one is written. We merely have to make sure that others understand the scope and breadth that are to be found in our minds for this vivid new world we have created. It’s not enough to say that Skychildren are carefree. We want to show you how they are carefree — how that is expressed in their clothing, their hairstyles, and even their marriages. Those are the sorts of details we are trying to perfect right now. We’re almost done with these details, and when we are, we’re going to format everything and go over it with a fine-tooth comb.

And as we do all this, we’ll continue working on book two, which has about the first four chapters written at present. We’re really excited about this project, and we hope that you will share the love for it that we have.