Merlinscribe: The Journal of James P. Mallory

Best wishes for all of you. I hope your holiday season is at the very least not a vector of additional harm, if not actively joyful (as some are not), and for the coming New Year I wish you (all of you) hope. And, if appropriate, joy.

I will be back in January--or sooner, as time permits--to answer posts and write a few myself.

--James

Starting a new open thread. Ask your questions here!

( SPOILER!!! )

Follow the links below to see the new chapters (and a revised Chapter One). As always, the spoiler-averse should be aware--it may spoil both previous books and the current one.

The chapters are first draft, unedited, and still pretty rough. merlinscribe_library is a read only journal: comments should go here.

Chapter One (Revised)
Chapter Two
Chapter Three

Another two or three thousand words should get me out of this latest Endarkened section. I'd been writing one of the sub-plots without knowing where it was going, and today I found out. *Ugh* Maybe it won't have to go into this book, but I have an awful feeling it will.

And how are all of you at this end of summer? Or of winter, depending.

Behind the cut is a scene I wrote the other day. It will almost certainly make it into the finished manuscript, but right now I'm not sure where. Since it's just a character sketch and isn't attached to any other part of the storyline just yet (and of course is spoiler free), I thought you might like to see it.

WARNING : This excerpt involves the Endarkened, which means graphic torture and mutilation. If anyone wants to know what happens but doesn't want to deal with that, let me know and I'll post a summary.


( no particular spoilers if you've read blade of empire )

I love and encourage fanfic. I was delighted when the denizens of DeviantArt began drawing (and sometimes writing) the World of Obsidian, and lately, fics have been showing up at Archive of Our Own as well.

Have a link to a favorite fanwork? Post it here, so everyone can enjoy it.

https://archiveofourown.org/

https://www.deviantart.com/

Greetings, my fellow sojourners, and my apologies for the gap between posts, but there is little new to tell. I continue working on Book Three, which has (amazingly!) required some real-world research trips. At this point I hold myself ready and willing to move a pre-modern army over any possible terrain.

I will be spending some time over the next few days clearing up the backlog of comments. The short version is: there is no publication date for Book Three set, nor has it been delivered.

Questions, comments, explanations, and excoriations below, if you please.

Many Thanks,

--James

Dragon Prophecy 2: Blade of Empire, will be published in mass market on August 28, 2018.

This is the post for reader comments and questions on BLADE OF EMPIRE and previous books that might be considered to contain spoilers for BLADE. All comments will be screened: I can see them, and the person who posted the comment SHOULD be able to see my answer. I am not sure how this will work for those of you posting anonymously or who do not have a Dreamwidth account.

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...