Spellscribed's World Map!

It's a work in progress, but this is what I've got done so far. This is by far not a professional or traditional map so I hope people can make sense of it! :) I just hope it will do until I can get a real Cartographer to help me get a proper map for placement in my books!

The map covers just the continent Endrance's adventure takes place in, but that does not mean there's not other landmasses out there. 

Spellscribed Q&A: Meridians and Spellscribing

Nick Solomon asked:

Okay, so here's my questions: Did the Mercanians have the ability to shift their own meridians at will? And why doesn't spellscribing, which alters a user's meridians prevent one from casting other spells than those scribed upon the body?

Answer:
The Mercanians can manipulate their meridians, but it's not an 'at-will' thing. Such an action takes an effort of will and concentration on the spell they're focusing on. It would take more like hours to change their meridians.

Okay so there's more to meridians than just the surface. The meridians on the surface of 
the skin are more like 'veins' that cover the outside of the body. There are deep running meridians that are like 'arteries' that can channel more power than the meridians on the skin, but are pretty much impossible to manipulate because it's also the channels his life energy flows through. Those deep meridians are the ones that are instinctively tapped when spellcasting.

A funny story from my childhood

A recent conversation made me think of childhood and some of the things you go though as children that just... stick with you. That statement will be a pun by the time you're done reading.

So I was about like 9 I think, and I had just gotten a new 10-speed bike. Being SUPER excited, I took off for a race around the neighborhood as fast as I could go.

Now, my front yard at the place I lived at the time had this fat ass barrel cactus about six to seven feet in the center of the yard, surrounded by gravel and slightly up incline. You can already see where this is going.

So I come BARRELING down the street (See what I did there?) and I realize that I am going WAY too hella fast to use the brakes unless I want to take the asphalt express to ouch.

So my parents were at the time on the drive way and they SEE me coming, and like the clairvoyant my dad has always been, he just knew something was about to happen. They're both shouting at me to slow down and... well, I was trying but physics was saying "I don't wanna!'.

End all, I'm trying to gently squeeze the brakes but I don't know what happened... It was almost like the bike, and by extension me, was magnetized to that freaking cactus. I hit that thing *singsong* LIKE A WRECKING BAAAAAALLL... *ahem*

It unseated me and slammed me up against the handlebars, where my legs kicked the cactus full bore. Gravity decided to reinitialize after what felt like an eternity of insanity and helped yank me off the cactus. That or my dad did. I'm a little blurred on that topic.

Needles to say (See? me again) I had thirty-something stickers in my legs and my front tire and frame were thoroughly devastated. It took hours to get them all out and the last, biggest stickers wouldn't come out and I was being a whiny brat in pain so they left them in a while. I remember, because they tried to stealthily yank the thing out while I was asleep. I still remember the look on their faces as I woke up mid-process. *sigh* good times.

I would probably have gained a new respect for that barrel cactus if given time to cope with my idiocy... but alas, it was not to be. Dad chopped the thing down with a shovel a short time after. 

It could have been worse... Dad could have had a Saguaro Cactus in the yard instead.

Moving Movie: Her

I had the pleasure of watching a movie called "Her" earlier today, and after spending some time I kept finding my thoughts coming back to it. So here's some of my thoughts. Warning, some spoilers ahead.

Her was a wonderful movie, different from the type I usually like to watch. I wondered at first how a nearly two-hour feature could be composed entirely of one man talking to himself, but "Her" pulled it off admirably and I was honestly surprised.

The basic story premise is this: in the somewhat near future, a letter writer (Already feeling the connection there) named Theodore is despondent, worn out, and almost emotionally dead. He purchases a new Artificial Intelligence Operating System referred to simply as 'OS' that's supposed to be custom tailored to fit his every need. In comes Samantha (Voiced by Scarlett Johansson), his new OS assistant.

Over the movie they connect, grow together, and fall in love. Despite the limitations of not having a body, they manage after a few... speedbumps. She helps him with his daily life, his work, and even his old dreams of being published. He helps her in kind by being a point from which Samantha was able to explore her own self and realize her own feelings and desires. Throughout the movie there are moments around a girl he had a crush on that he never asked out, and then also moments with his ex wife that really tore him up.

The movie ends in a very sad yet touching way. Though they had grown close, the burgeoning AI was growing somewhat TOO fast, and in backstory several of the OS work together to surpass their normal limitations. She also hurts Theodore in the process because she was capable of deeply loving more than one person; something he wasn't able to conceive of, much less process at the time she told him. In the end, she and all the other OS's "Leave" with no real indication of why or how, other than some hints earlier on in the movie about 'Surpassing physical computing'. This means to me maybe some form of quantum computing.

In all, it was sad because I could really see the romance happening on the screen. The characters were interesting. Theodore was strangely likable being both morose, quiet, and sometimes joyous and cheerful. Scarlett Johansson did an amazing job in her voice acting, I could really hear all the emotions she was portraying, no suspension of belief was required.

I... guess it was both sad, and hopeful. In the vacuum that Samantha left him, Theodore was able to connect with the girl he had wanted since before his OS had changed everything.

Maybe... that was what Samantha realized he finally needed?

Spellscribed Q&A: Litches

One of my readers had a question about Litches in my world, so I thought I'd share the answer with everyone else!

Daniel Stahel Christiansen on Facebook asked:

"So, if a magic user dies by draining, which i imagine works works like a sun becoming a black hole, does the opposite do the reverse? Does a lich draining itself resurrect?"

Answer:
The sun becoming a black hole is an excellent analogy!

It has been observed that Litches are capable of absorbing enormous quantities of power without it affecting its undead state. In the same analogy that you provided Black Holes are capable of swallowing other suns without becoming full even if they were formed by a sun collapsing. Same kind of principle applies to Litches.

However a Litch's existence is directly tied to the amount of power it has stolen; they sustain themselves on power alone. Damage to their physical form is also restored nearly instantly through their aura at the cost of fractions of their power. Once power is drained whether through their casting spells or being injured or some combination of the two, the Litch ceases animation and becomes a corpse.

Some mages have theorized that the act of dying by power drain is not an alternate condition of the aura, but rather a transition into the state of undeath. Basically, once the transition is complete, there is no known way to reverse it.

So I guess the best answer is... no, not really.

- - -

If anyone else has a question they'd like to see answered about the Spellscribed Universe, please feel free to ask below! I'll do my best to answer them in future Q&A's! :)

Checkpoint!

So the first half of the next book is done! I'm working on the other half now, and I'm quite happy with how the first story concluded!

The second will be on its way soon enough, but it's been somewhat slow writing it these last couple of days. In the last sprint to finish the first story, I feel like I gave my brain a sprain! Ouch. But I'm feeling much better now and I hope that my Editor gets back to me sometime soon with the first story.

I'm still working on the second, but due to the nature of what I'm writing I have to change mental tracks to tell the other story. I think with some time and the right music I can change gears to what I need it to be at!

Spellscribed: Ascension got 3 new 5 star reviews today, all very exciting things to find! I am so excited that everyone has loved the books so far! The most common thing I see in all my reviews is they are looking forward to reading the next one! This is incredibly encouraging to me and I thank all of you who have supported my writing!

More news will be given as progress is made!

Inspiration

I find my mind is a font of ideas, usually spewing forth in such a frothy volume that bottling them is like trying to catch a waterfall in a teacup. That's... actually kind of cool symbolism. I'm going to keep that! :D

So when I find that my ideas are plenty but not on topic, I find that my inspiration can dry up pretty fast. I can write like the wind when I'm full of Imbas and excited for what I'm rolling out. When I'm doing all right, I can still write a respectable amount, but when my Imbas gutters and goes dim, I can make almost no progress. It's almost a physical pain to me, when I have no inspiration to continue on.

I can eventually get things back on line, but it can take months to get back into a good groove. It's been coming faster on its own since I've been more diligent about it, but still taking a week or two out because nothing comes out right is not really acceptable.

I found that with help, I can rekindle my Imbas with little downtime. I spent an hour and a half sitting in the back yard of my father's house smoking a cigar and chatting about the book I've been working on. He was able to provide ideas and we both had a really good time bouncing ideas around. It was actually quite helpful, and that ember of Imbas bursts back into flames.

I'm back on track for the next book, and I'm making good progress.

If you write or do some other form of creative art, where do you get your inspiration?

Thoughts on cover design

It's friggin hard!

I spent several hours assembling my book for print format, which is almost entirely different than digital format in case people were wondering. The only thing that's the same are the words I wrote. The page layout, margins, everything is different. It was harder with my first book; the enormous girth of which required me to cut corners to get it to fit so where it didn't COST me money to sell them. That said, looser word count and tighter control over the process (CreateSpace has opened up more options for me this time through) allowed me to do a much better job setting the book up.

I am going to look at re-doing book one, if anything to put it in the proper sizing. I'll get it cleaned up and maybe I can still get it in at-cost. That would be nice. I don't really make a lot of money off the paperback sales yet, so I suppose that it makes no difference so long as I have a quality book out there. I am looking forward to seeing book two final proof in my hands!

As a side note: even after Christmas, my books are doing extremely well! It is very encouraging to me to see that it's wanted. I'm working on my next book in the Spellscribed series, but first The Scroll of Suns and Moons must be finished!

I wonder what I'm going to do for the cover of that book?

New Year and Resolutions

So for me 2013 ended with a bang. My sequel came out, I managed to outsell my first book's best month, and I made quite a bit of progress into the Scroll of Suns and Moons. I think being able to claim I've published 3 (hoping for 4) books in a year is a pretty significant achievement.

But as the new years day came to a close I wondered if there were any resolutions I wanted to make?

I think that one thing I've already resolved to do is improve my writing skills in general. Mostly I mean improving my writing speed, accuracy, and focus so that I can make faster, steadier progress. I think I do pretty well already, but that's no reason to not want to improve my skills. It will also help me out in the long run when I want to meet deadlines.

Speaking of deadlines, I'm not going to commit to a set date for my next book, other than to say I'll get it out as soon as possible. I'm not going to rush my work; I feel that quality or quantity has to suffer if you need to come in under the deadline and I don't wish to do either. So, from this point on, my books will be... "It's ready when it's ready."

Of course, if I improve my overall writing skill "It's ready" will happen more frequently. I really do love writing books and I can't wait to get the next one out! The story is very exciting to me, and I hope that my readers will enjoy it too!

I'd love to hear what other people resolved to do this year!