Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Scenery tour of Alaire's journey

There are three primary locations we visit in the upcoming third book, Thicker Than Blood. Two of these locations have already previously been visited in the other books, but I am excited to announce there is one realm that will be entirely new to both Alaire and his companions, as well as you, the reader. So join me as I take you on a quick tour of what we can expect to see...

Welcome back to Transylvania. Dark magicians haven spent years hiding away from a society that hates them, and it appears that is not bound to change any time soon. With the Prince still in reign he continues to order the exstinction of the Dark magicians, and a job well done pays handsomely. This is the same Transylvania you might recall from the previous books, Cursed With Power and Shadows and Embers. For Leal and Alaire they've lived a majority of their life in one of the biggest towns, Neutadt.
One of the main reasons I chose Transylvania a long time ago as the main location throughout this series is because it was a small and seemingly un-extraordinary country back in the late 1500s. I loved being able to bring my characters to life in a realistic fictional world that people could relate to. It also helped with humanizing the magicians so that you could feel more for them. So far my favorite town within Transylvania to write about has been Neutadt. It is such a large town, and since both Alaire and Leal have lived there for about twenty-some (less for Leal) years there is a lot to work with. This is the town Destin developed and grew into a huge organization.
The map pictured above is actually one I own a physical copy of (from the Library of Congress) that helped with the town names within Transylvania. As you can see, it's an extremely old map and unfortunately can be difficult to read.
However, the human world is not the only place where magicians go to hide. This leads us to Belsgar, the magical realm created by the first White magician, Arnulf. Arnulf created this realm centuries ago to ensure that future magicians would have a safe haven. Even so, in his time he also faced a dilemma with the Dark magicians, and therefore the realm was only mean for men and women with White magic. Belsgar is the largest realm with a vast variety and number of magicians and is also where the Council resides. 
Belsgar has been exciting to write about because it is entirely fictional. Anything can happen, and it feels magical when it is both mysterious and open-ended. I imagined a place where hundreds of magicians could gather together, camp out, and this was the world I ended up creating. Sometimes it surprises me with what it has to offer.
Now we come to the last destination on the tour: Wyndor. Wyndor was first created long ago to ensure the safety of foreseers and since then is where the majority of them reside. This new realm is different from any others we've seen before, and it appears the foreseers are cut off from all contact with the "outside" world. What could this place possibly offer for our magicians?
While Wyndor was a new place in this book, it was also new to me and required more work. Once again, though, this is another realm that allows me to be as creative as I like. I really enjoyed working on the backstory of why Wyndor existed and how the foreseers had changed over the years. I'm eager to hear what people think about this new realm, and if they prefer it more or less than Belsgar. There's a realm for foreseers and magicians... What will I think of next?

That concludes all the time I have tonight, but I hope you enjoyed the brief tour. If you're more interested in the places our heroes will be traveling, remember you can read all about it in the books. There's more coming up next, so please stop by when you are able to.
Lindsey R. Sablowski

Monday, March 17, 2014

Alaire and Hunter

As promised while I am in the process of editing Thicker Than Blood, I want to post more to help better involve you in the upcoming book.
If you've been reading the books in the series since the beginning, we all know the story of Alaire and Hunter. There's no spoilers in knowing that Alaire once called himself "Hunter" when he was in Destin. This name originated from the fact that he would hunt White magicians at night. Originally in the first couple of drafts of CWP I had never decided about this dark lifestyle which Alaire once led, but it finally made its way into the book. After all, not every hero is perfect. Hunter was also mentioned in Shadows and Embers, since we took a closer look at the magicians when they were a part of Destin.
Now in the third book Hunter has not left us, but instead we take a deeper plunge to find out exactly what he did. Alaire is faced with dealing with the horrendous crimes he committed as Hunter. Alas, Hunter will also be a dilemma because he might be "dead," but couldn't he easily return if Alaire allowed him to? It sounds like our hero led two different lives, and that was one of the main reasons I nicknamed him "Hunter" for his darkest moments in Destin.
So far in the series each one of our heroes have been faced with dealing with something from their past. Celestria was faced with coming to terms with her magic, Leal sought out revenge for his father's death, and now finally we have Alaire, dealing with who he once was. It was a bit challenging writing scenes that flashed back to Hunter, simply because I've become used to how Alaire is now, but in the end it worked out. It added something unique to the story that was also different from the previous stories, so I'm curious to see how it turns out when the book is released.
What do you think: Will Alaire overcome his bloody past, or should we expect Hunter's return soon?

Kindle Matchbook promotion for Shadows and Embers
 
Before I go I do have several announcements to make. For one, SandE is now a part of the Kindle Matchbook promotion on Amazon. This means that if you have purchased a paperback copy of SandE from Amazon in the past or you do in the present/future, you are able to purchase the kindle version for a discounted price of $0.99
This promotion will be ongoing, and I encourage you to take advantage of this opportunity. The kindle version is usually $3.99 without the purchase of the paperback. Be sure to check it out on Amazon.

Editing progress in Thicker Than Blood
As for the progress I have made with edits for the upcoming book, I am working on chapter two. Fortunately I have my spring break coming up in April, so I plan on spending a lot of that time editing and revising as much as I can. I have been using this great program that helps me edit, so it has been running pretty smoothly so far.

Remember to check back in for more updates and more discussions. Have an idea of what I should post next? Leave a comment, and I'll get back to you!
Lindsey R. Sablowski



Saturday, March 8, 2014

Editing


The editing process has began to prepare Thicker Than Blood for publication. I started the moment I finished the book, and now that I've found a useful editing program that also helps me it is a lot less stressful than I remember. Useful editing is a stressful time for me; both times I did it before for my book made me feel as though I just simply did not have enough time. This time it's different, and maybe it is because I have learned that editing cannot be planned out to be finished at a specific date. Regardless, I feel relieved with the fact that I do have more than enough time to edit and still release this year. The other part of it that is a relief is knowing that all of my ideas are down on paper; everything is there for me, and now I can go through and add and/or delete whatever I feel is necessary.
Since editing might not be all that interesting for you to read about, I do promise to have a variety of topics posted on the blog. I would love for everyone to be involved in this process as possible, and I've been looking through old posts on the blog to see what I have done. What I did notice is that with CWP I had a huge countdown, and for each day that passed there was a new post with more talk about the book to pull readers in. Unfortunately I did not have the time to do that as much with the release of Shadows and Embers, but I do plan on doing it again with this book. I don't want to leave any corner untouched, and I definitely want to involve everybody. After reviewing this material, I've come up with a list of different posts you can expect:

  • Behind the character and/or behind the name
  • Fun facts
  • Scenery/setting choices
  • Giveaway(s)
  • Teasers
  • Excerpts from the book
  • Quotes
  • Cover reveal
  • Countdown
  • pre-ordering details
  • release (with links to purchase)
The ones in green text won't be happening until I have a release date or until publication (depending on what they are), but everything else will be coming up little by little. Stick around and don't miss out!
Lindsey R. Sablowski

Monday, March 3, 2014

Book 3: At the end!

 
This snow day turned out to be quite productive, and I am happy to announce that at 81,438 words my third book, Thicker Than Blood, is now officially complete.
February was a crazy month for me, hence why I was M.I.A. on the blog, but with moving and having two new cats that want to play with everything in the house my boyfriend and I have been very busy people. Nonetheless, I am grateful I had off of work today to finally sit down for several hours and just write. I was not expecting to finish the book today, but once I started writing I could not stop. So here we are at last at the end of the writing stage.
I learned a lot while writing this book, and even though this is my third full completed novel I found myself learning and making mistakes along the way. Writing is not something that is meant to be rushed, and no matter how well I thought I knew my characters they managed to surprise me now and again. I originally intended to finish this book in February, but life also catches up and can delay what needs to be done. Now that I am done with writing I will be jumping right into the editing stages to prepare this book for publication. I'll admit I was excited when I finally reached the end of this book and could announce it. Considering that it was July when SandE released and it's just now the beginning of March that I am finishing TTB, this book has taken a lot of time and energy.
As for publication, I am still expecting to release this book later this year. I don't see that editing will stop me from reaching that deadline, and as I have mentioned before once I see what needs to be done with the book I can more accurately estimate a release month. I am so thankful to all of my readers and fans out there who have been patiently waiting for this book, and I promise you once it releases it will have been worth the wait. I can't wait to share Alaire's story with you, so please be patient for a bit longer while I work with it and make it perfect and ready for you to read.
When I was writing the book I thought a lot about this day when I would finally be finished, and now that I'm here I will admit its such a relief. Editing will no doubt take a lot of focus and time, but it will bring me one step closer to publication. Before you know it we'll be having the cover reveal, and since I'll be in the editing stages for a while I'll be sharing sneak peaks and quotes directly from the book. Don't worry the journey is far from being over. As a matter of fact it's only begun, and Alaire wants you to come along with us.
As usual, check back in for more updates. I'll be sure to post something exciting very soon after I rest a while from all of this writing.
Lindsey R. Sablowski