Saturday, February 3, 2018

Dragons Run My Life Cover Revals

As promised, probable covers for the first four Dragons Run My Life stories, along with blurbs for each. Opinions and suggestions in the comments are requested, welcomed and appreciated.


Might have looked better if Blogger would allow changes to text, like center alignment, but not today, I guess.

Book One - The Faux Princess
Description:


A muddy walk to the store earns Tanial a headache and a not to be denied opportunity to stand in for a dead Princess.

Because Liam’s man killed the Princess instead of preparing her for examinations to confirm her as suitable for marriage to the King, Liam is most anxious to make amends. A whisper in his ear sends him across Tanial’s path; he recognizes her uncanny similarity to the dead princess and instantly delivers Tanial’s headache from atop his horse.

Being wed to the King of the far-off land excites Tanial not nearly as much as Liam does during their ride to his camp.

To survive to love Liam, Tanial must befriend her new sister, dupe the King’s examiners, avoid an assassin and endure a journey of five hundred leagues on horseback.

The Faux Princess is the first book in a multi-book series set on a continent on the planet Toile. The desire to understand their world and the taboos they live with drives them. Of course, they have responsibilities, too: their families, their friends and compatriots. Conflicts, assassins, ordinary day-to-day tasks all must be managed; none can be set aside for the quest.

The dragons speak to a few, without revealing their plans, or especially their nature. Their guidance, to use the term loosely, lacks any rationale; the few must make their own choices whether to accept the advice or not. Predictably, they follow when the direction given matches their instincts and hopes. How the dragons will react when their words are not heeded remains to be seen. Perhaps they know well enough how to couch their counsel so it will always be palatable.

Family, friends, country and joy of discovery drive the actions of those we see; the others are equally driven, perhaps to seek the same goals.

The Faux Princess Cover:




Amerith - A Dragons Run My Life Short Story

Description


The girl Amerith grows up to be a skilled thief and then a world-class assassin, named after her profession, Dunver, until she takes the title, name and role of Mistress Warden Marshal to the Princesses of Lindebalgh. Her mentor and her debt will return, to wreak havoc on the Warden’s life.

Amerith is a short side trip that adds to the experience of Toile and its characters. It is best read between Book One, The Faux Princess, and Book Two, The True Princess.


Amerith Cover:

 







 




























Book Two - The True Princess

Description


King Esben travels to seal his alliance with the King of Aberystrad through the marriage of his daughter, Princess Miriajona, to that King. Esben’s youngest daughter, Princess Jenoele, unwillingly accompanies him and his Queen. To gain some benefit from her reluctant trip, the ten-and-a-half-year-old princess elects to confront her older sister, Saitanne, about her sudden appearance two otto’dars earlier. That encounter ends with less drama than Jenoele expects, but her decision marks her as prey for assassins seeking red-headed princesses.

Larger phenomena are about to change her life even more than the assassins.
She just wants to go home.

Miriajona is caught in the whirlwind of dresses, gowns and fittings in preparation for the wedding, and prevented from being alone with the King.
She just wants to love him.

Tanial leads her motley team of… well, friends is best. She has yet to learn they can’t all be friends.

The True Princess Cover





Book Three - The Voyages Home

Description


Jenoele rides with her Regent Tanial and a few trusted friends to Rendekebing and the Lindebalgh palace. With her da, the King, dead in the waters off the coast, she and Tanial will take the throne and control of Lindebalgh, and await their sister Miri, ready for a dual coronation party.

Miri and Rhion intend a peaceful, boring thir’dar trip from Sianel Dnias to Rendekebing. That’s their plan.

Their plan works out better than Jenoele’s; they aren't kidnapped by a revenge-seeking former minister.

However, at least three others ride north after them with different goals in mind.

The Voyages Home is the third of the Dragons Run My Life series. Will Jenoele and Tanial actually arrive home… Do they know where ‘home’ is?

The Voyages Home Cover

 


Artwork is all © Howard David Johnson.

Friday, February 2, 2018

So, Is the New Year Better?


Not so far, but it's not worse, either. Well, except in Washington, but this isn't a political blog or rant.

Most of my writing in January landed in The Voyages Home. I’d hoped to finish it in January, but, no. I'm looking at about 125-130K words I think. The end game is taking longer to play out than I’d expected; I’ll have to wait to see how much seems superfluous in the coming days and weeks. Once I finish.

Latest updates on top. Older ones are below.

Updated  February 2, data from 31 January.

Here’s January’s update:
As of (2/1), the WIPs, along with my plans for them, are:
   •    The Faux Princess (Dragons Run My Life, Book One): 111 909 words. No major change.
    •    The True Princess (Dragons Run My Life, Book Two): 103 135 words. A few changes. New version now in the hands of my reader, when she gets to it.
   •    The Voyages Home (Dragons Run My Life, Book Three): 94 601 words; Continuing this draft. Still incomplete, two threads to tie up.
    •    Blood Moon (A Beckie and Ian story) formerly Princess: 50 924 words. No change. Obviously not complete.
    •    Low Places (A Beckie and Ian story): 110 405 words. Added and subtracted per my reader’s comments. Returned the changed pieces for her review on January 28.

From last month, here’s December’s update.
:
As of (1/1), the WIPs, along with my plans for them, are:
   •    The Faux Princess (Dragons Run My Life, Book One): 111 140 words. No major change.
    •    The True Princess (Dragons Run My Life, Book Two): 102 272 words. Comments on old draft received early in December, triggering another round of revisions, which continued through Dec 15. New version now (Dec 16) in the hands of my reader, when she gets to it.
   •    The Voyages Home (Dragons Run My Life, Book Three): 59 038 words; draft underway. Not done by mid-December, but one major point has been hit.
    •    Blood Moon (A Beckie and Ian story) formerly Princess: 50 924 words. Reduction in word count is due to leaving out double counted sections and annotations. A few words, but not much. Obviously not complete.
    •    Low Places (A Beckie and Ian story): 108 027 words. Got my reader’s comments back on Dec. 15th, and began addressing them.

Here’s January’s work. The Y-T-D total is 37 136 words through January 31.





What happened in January, then?

While I wrote 37 136 words in twenty-four days (not quite 1550 words per day for writing days), on the other seven days I read or, for four or five of them, worked on formatting pdf files for Faux Princess and True Princess and Amerith for CreateSpace. Originally, I’d hoped to have Voyages Home complete, to do those four at once, but later today, I’ll shove the three into CS’s interface and see if they approve them. If you’re interested, cover reveals for the four will post tomorrow if all goes well, now that I’ve actually gotten permission to use the art.

As I’ve said, I’d thought to finish Voyages. I did finish the overall planning and many of the details (most of which come while I write), and that was done on schedule… actually a couple days early, on the eighth of January. The planning for Blood Moon, however, still hasn’t finished, and will probably wait til Voyages is complete, near the end of February. That draft should follow by the ides of March.

The revisions to Low Places were finished and have been sent to my reader. She still has True Princess for reading; I’ll hope it’s worthy of a more positive response than the first draft.

I have done some reading for my reader. She writes at the edges between fantasy and science fiction, and you can find her books, all in The Lillith Chronicles, at her author page, Carol Buhler Author

As always, comments and opinions welcome.

The spreadsheet: Created by Svenja. See svenjaliv.com for more info and resources, including a free online word meter. All images are © 2011-2016 SvenjaLiv (http://svenjaliv.com).

Earlier updates:
As of (12/1), the WIPs, along with my plans for them, are:
   •    The Faux Princess (Dragons Run My Life, Book One): 111 491 words. No major change.
    •    The True Princess (Dragons Run My Life, Book Two): 104 131 words; minor changes in draft. Revisions finished October 23. My reader has her own life to worry about, so I haven’t sent it.
   •    The Voyages Home (Dragons Run My Life, Book Three): 52 045 words; draft underway. Parts of this story went very well; others were slower. Still have a couple major points to hit.  I still hope for mid-December to have the draft complete.
    •    Blood Moon (A Beckie and Ian story) formerly Princess: 54 313 words. I’ve committed to a direction but haven’t put much flesh on those bones. I will probably finish the draft of Voyages before coming back to Blood Moon, which will put it into January.
    •    Low Places (A Beckie and Ian story): 107 954 words; haven’t heard back since my reader has a life.

As of (9/1), the WIPs along with my plans for them, are
   •    The Faux Princess (Dragons Run My Life, Book One): 111 490 words. No change.
    •    The True Princess (Dragons Run My Life, Book Two): 106 324 words; draft is complete. On 9/1, received comments back from reader; problems. I’ve started a new version as a result. Plan for revisions to be done in September.
   •    The Voyages Home (Dragons Run My Life, Book Three): 22 255 words; draft underway, although on hold for now,  til True Princess is revised, as the changes will affect it as well.  I hope for mid-October to have the draft complete.
    •    Princess (A Beckie and Ian story): 51 508 words, the first breakthrough occurred; now to put some meat on the bones. Plan to finish draft in October.
    •    Low Places (A Beckie and Ian story): 109 912 words; sent the first half (57 000+ words) back on 8/15 to see if the issues have been addressed. On hold til those comments are back.
    •   Amerith (A Dragons Run My Life Addenda): 19 900 word; no change.
    •   Rhion Prequel (A Dragons Run My Life Addenda): 6 042 words; no change.
Amerith and Rhion have had no attention paid them; I’ll drop them from the updates.

As of (8/1), the WIPs along with my plans for them, are
    •    The Faux Princess (Dragons Run My Life, Book One): 111 490 words. Took care of the few questions and said, that’s done.
    •    The True Princess (Dragons Run My Life, Book Two): 106 324 words; draft is complete. Reread and revised, and sent to beta reader on August 5.
    •    Princess (A Beckie and Ian story): 49 336 words, the understanding of where the story is isn’t complete.
    •    Low Places (A Beckie and Ian story): 104 578 words; Received comments back, fixing is started.
    •   Amerith (A Dragons Run My Life Addenda): 19 900 words; last questions answered and it’s done.
    •   Rhion Prequel (A Dragons Run My Life Addenda): 6 042 words; done.

As of (7/1), the four WIPs along with my plans for them, are
    •    The Faux Princess (Dragons Run My Life, Book One): 111 343 words. To my reader on June 6; comments back and revisions complete. A few more q for the reader, and this one will be finished.
    •    The True Princess (Dragons Run My Life, Book Two): 94 750 words; draft is not complete. Two more scenes; I can see the end. The title has changed because I liked where the characters ran off to. Update July 6: Draft complete.
    •    Princess (A Beckie and Ian story): 49 370 words, began understanding where the story is; draft complete by July 30,
    •    Low Places (A Beckie and Ian story): 100 178 words; almost no work. First read to beta by July 6.
    •   Amerith (A Dragons Run My Life Addenda): 19 848 words; sent to beta June 6. Comments received and incorporated; Q’s back to reader by July .6
    •   Rhion Prequel (A Dragons Run My Life Addenda): 6 018 words; sent to beta June 6. Comments received and incorporated.

As of 6/1, the four WIPs along with my plans for them, are
    •    The Faux Princess (Dragons Run My Life, Book One): 115 518 words. Did the revisions, but need to reread, then to my reader by June 5
    •    The Voyages Home (Dragons Run My Life, Book Two): 62 162 words; draft is not complete. Now plan by June 30.
    •    Princess (A Beckie and Ian story): 51 000 words, no change; draft complete by July 30,
    •    Low Places (A Beckie and Ian story): 99 247 words; corrected most significant problems; revising. First read to beta by June 15,
    •   Amerith (A Dragons Run My Life Addenda): 19 848 words; proof and send to beta by June 5, and
    •   Rhion Prequel (A Dragons Run My Life Addenda): 6 018 words; proof and send to beta by June 5.


As of 5/1, the four WIPs along with my plans for them, are
    •    The Faux Princess: 110 651 words. Found even more holes with the aid of my reader; plug them with the revision to beta by May 15
    •    The Voyages Home: 37 735 words; draft may be complete by May 15, but more likely, the 30th;
    •    Princess (A Beckie and Ian story): 51 000 words, no change; draft complete by June 30,
    •    Low Places (A Beckie and Ian story): 99 053 words; found significant problems; revising. First read to beta by May 30,
    •   Amerith (A Dragons Run My Life Addenda): 19 854 words; proof and send to beta by May 15, and
    •   Rhion Prequel (A Dragons Run My Life Addenda): 6 013 words; proof and send to beta by May 15.

As of 4/1, the four WIPs along with my plans for them, are
    •    The Faux Princess: 108 807 words. Went over notes from my reader. Revisions complete by April 20; return to beta by April 30.
    •    The Voyages Home: 13834 words; draft complete by May 15;
    •    Princess (A Beckie and Ian story): 51 000 words, no change; draft complete by April 30, and
    •    Low Places (A Beckie and Ian story): 96 958 words; proof and send to beta by April 15.

As of 3/1, the four WIPs, along with my plans for them, are:
  •    The Faux Princess: 90 954 words was sent to beta reader Jan 30; notes came back by 2/12 and have lain waiting for Low Places to be complete. Goal is to have it ready to publish by 3/31.
    •    The Voyages Home: 8382 words; draft complete by April 30;
    •    Princess (A Beckie and Ian story): 51 000 words, no change; draft complete by April 30, and
    •    Low Places (A Beckie and Ian story): 81 365 words; failed to complete draft by Feb 15. The goal is now to have the draft by 3/15, and on to my long suffering beta reader by 3/31.


As of 2/1, the four WIPs along with my plans for them, are:
    •    The Faux Princess: 90 956 words, sent to beta reader Jan 30;
    •    The Voyages Home: 2500 words, no change; draft complete by April 30;
    •    Princess (A Beckie and Ian story): 51 000 words, no change; draft complete by April 30, and
    •    Low Places (A Beckie and Ian story): 65 932 words, still on track to complete draft by Feb 15.