This Is The October Open Thread

[merlinscribe]

So Blade of Empire is out on 10/24 and the cover looks like this. It's a striking cover—in a Soviet Brutalist way. (That's supposed to be Runacar, I suspect. Now let's see if the image drives sales the way Marketing hopes it will.)

Greetings from the far side of the autumnal equinox (for those of you in the Northern Hemisphere). It's been a busy summer here in the Enchanted Forest, though none of it has involved responding to emails and other notifications from Tor because they haven't sent any. Most of what I'm learning about the progress toward publication of Blade of Empire has come from your comments. They are greatly appreciated!

I have one other project to deliver before going back to work on Scourge of Fate, but it should be out of the way by the end of the month. George RR Martin is a cautionary tale for modern storytellers, as we are all well aware, and I have no intention of forcing those of you who have been gracious enough to come along with me on Vieliessar and Runacar's epic adventure to languish for years without the rest of the story...

Meanwhile, a question: do you want to see snippets from Scourge as it is written—even if they might contain possible spoilers? Or do you want to go into the third book in the trilogy completely unspoiled?

And now, onto the comments backlog...

Comments

[sanders1800]

I loved Blade of Empire. When I read a book I can get too involved in them. I think this one was the hardest for me to read from all the series. I put my self so much into the characters. That I can get in tears and my stomach gets tied in knots. I hope Scourge of Fate doesn't take as long to come out. I just don't see how those two get together.

I was also wondering if you could post the meaning of the different moon turns? Sword Moon, Thunder Moon, Rain Moon, etc. Some of them I have probably matched up to our months,but I am most likely off on some.

Thanks for another great book.

[merlinscribe]

I am so glad you can immerse yourself in the stories. That is a very great gift, and I value it. I think the most precious gift a reader can give to a writer is to enter their created world and share the pain and joy of the people in it, because that means we've succeeded in making them real to others. There are often scenes that the story demands that I find very hard to write because I know the toll it will take on the characters. (BLADE contained a lot of those.)

Meanwhile, have some worldbuilding. Since the alfaljodthi use a fourteen-moonturn Calendar/Wheel of the Year, I'm not sure it's possible to achieve an exact match. Here are the moonturns in order, lifted from my worknotes. Moonturns begin on the full moon.

1 Cold Moon [first moonturn of the Wheel of the Year]
2 Ice Moon
3 Storm Moon [early spring]
4 Rain Moon [when tribute goes to the Sanctuary of the Star]
5 Flower Moon [contains kite flying festival]
6 Sword Moon [the beginning of summer, and the war season]
7 Thunder Moon
8 Fire Moon [contains fire-leaping festival]
9 Harvest Moon [the beginning of autumn and harvest; Harvest Court and the end of War Season]
10 Rade Moon [Vieliessar was born this moonturn]
11 Woods Moon
12 Hearth Moon
13 Frost Moon [the first moon of winter]
14 Snow Moon [contains Midwinter festival and the Calling of the Light]

[sanders1800]

Thank you for taking the time to reply. I bet some of Blade was hard to write. I had no idea that the Elves used a 14 month cycle, so that was useful information, and that did help me keep track better in the books.


Thank you for your time.

[merlinscribe]

I am glad you found it helpful! *I* had no idea the Elves used a 14-month calendar until I was halfway through CROWN... ;)

[sanders1800]

Just wandering now, but do the Elves and possibly the other races still use a 14 month cycle in Kellens time? Or did some of the cycle change? The only thing I noticed was them using seasons.

[merlinscribe]

As I recall, in Kellen's time the humans are using a thirteen-month cycle. I am distressed to contemplate the amount of magic that would have to be tossed about to shorten the length of the year by that much, but considering what happens in the Second Endarkened War, that's a possibility.