On a whim I decided to list the things I’ve done so far this year:

Revised A Shadow of Love

Edited Daughter of the Dark ( twice)

Written Cauldron Bound

Written Exile

Begun writing The Alchemist’s Apprentice.

Outlined Warder

Outlined Cauldron Bound

Outlined Exile

Normally, this is what I get done in a year, maybe nine months. The decision to self publish ( or at least do *something* with my drafts) have definitely made me write faster. I also think the fact I’m bringing my tablet when I go to Dad’s and Mum’s help. Sure, I don’t write or revise as many pages with the laptop, but I’m still making progress.

I’m not complaining. It does  explain why I feel a bit tired…

 

 

 

When I wrote the first draft of  Queen of Sind, I wrote it on the fly.  I had a lot of fun writing it, but I did very little worldbuilding.  It was purely laziness.  But this week I’m diving into the research hole that is the Ancient Near East, or more specifically Persia. Why Persia?  Because Persian women, at least the upper class, had  basically the same rights women have today. Which is *rare* in  Antiquity.

And  I have only started the research and I am having so much fun.  Right now I’m reading  Introduction to Zoroastrianism by P. Oktor Skjaervo.  It is really good, and available as a free pdf from Harvard.  More importantly, I have had it for years.

One book about religion wont get me far, though. So, I just ordered Life in the Ancient Near East. This is the kind of book that I love.  Packed fill with details about their lives and death. Don’t get me wrong. I like reading about history. It is intresting and it often gives me new ideas.  But books about their lives gives me the knowledge to make sure that the details are correct. And to me, as fantasy writer, that is worth more than having knowledge about history that I probably wouldn’t use directly. 

One thing that I probably would use, if just as inspiration, is knowledge about their legends and myths. Luckily, I know the library should have an e-book copy of Shahname.

I’m sure that there will be a lot of more books read for inspiration and research. But this is were I’m starting 🙂

 

This is a little something that I began writing a couple of weeks ago.  I decided that since it had snowed in so many odd places, it might be fun to make it snow in Hell.  This is only the beginning, since the rest of the scene turned into spoiler territory and started to feel like the beginning of book 3. But I hope you enjoy it!

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Razael lifted his head when he heard shocked shouts from outside.  Since there were no sounds of battle, not that anyone would dare to attack the household of a Fallen One, he yawned and closed his eyes. Unless the other attacker was another Fallen One. The thought had him wide awake. With a curse, Razael pushed away the blanket and walked over to the window.

He frowned.

Hell had an arid climate and Ignisa were in the warmer portions unlike Nifel who was in the colder portions. He could count of his claws how many times it had rained.

“ This looks like no rain I’ve seen,” he muttered.

“ Is it raining?” Kate mumbled  from the bed.

He shook his head.
“ No.  This is something else. You have to see it.”

He stared out the window. The odd rain was covering the ground in a thin white layer.  Not that whatever it  was would stay white for long.  Nothing in Hell remained untainted for long.

A couple of minutes later, Kate joined him at the window.  She glanced outside and squealed.

“ It is snowing!”

He blinked. Was this odd rain common enough on Earth to have a special word?

She beamed at him.

“ Maybe there will be enough snow for us to make snow angels!”

He winced.

She had mostly dropped her habit of mentioning Angels and He above, but sometimes she forgot.

A roar filled the air.

Razael stared at the big Dragon that was decending to the household. Shaitan who had probably been out on a morning flight, before he started the days.  How would he react to this… snow?

Razael had been responsible for Shaitan’s security for long enough that he knew that Fallen Ones could be fickle.  Either he will be curious or insulted.

When the Dragon rose higher, Razael frowned.   He relaxed when the Dragon started to dance through the air.  He is playing.

“ Come on. Let’s find some cloaks and go outside.”

He gave her a horrified look. Get outside into that?! He opened his mouth, but he closed it.  He knew that when she looked like that, she wouldn’t listen to him. He shrugged.  He had learned to pick his battles.  This wasn’t worth fighting over.

They walked out from the room, and hurried down the stairs.

I love this song, but I have some bittersweet feelings for it.  It was 2009, when Spotify had just launched. I found all his albums there, and suddenly an idea I had exploded. It was such an cool idea, about a man who accidentially unleased a demon, and the woman who found his cottage centuries later, and their search to stop it.  I listened to his songs, and the idea grew, and grew. But the naive f00l I was, I didn’t write it down.  And then… the songs were pulled.  And the idea collapsed.  And it never returned. But maybe now that I have learned how to write a blurb based on vague ideas, I can revive it.

Maybe. But this wouldn’t have happened it I had just written down the idea all those years ago. So when you get a fabulous idea? Write it down.

I have muttered on Twitter and in the war room about a phone call that isn’t coming.  Since I did get the phone call, I feel I can shout to the world that I have a job. A part-time one, doing stuff I’ve done before. Everyone says it is important for research, which it is but I also know it is really easy.   I also know that there is a backlog, and that I really need to deal with.  Ideally, I would like to be able to work almost fulltime for the first month or so and then scale down. But we will see.

The bad news is that this will probably happen smack dab when I need to gear up for Daughter of the Dark’s release, and since I need to focus on the new job, I’ll have to push back the release date to June.

This is not a bad thing, since I just realised that I need get an ITIN and not an EIN from IRS. The main reason for that, is that I suspect if I want to sign a  contract  with a publisher, an EIN will not be enough.  There are also other bureaucracy things I need to do.