The Ayrelon Times

Several things have happened recently that have me both excited and stressed. I haven’t posted an actual blog entry in some time, so I figured now was as good a time as any to start blogging the whole post-writing process. So far what I’ve learned is that everything that has to happen after you write your novel takes much longer than writing your novel, and is much more work. So, if you think writing is hard… well, you’ve some surprises waiting for you. Editing Woes The first point I’d like to cover is the whole Editing process. Well… my novel is fairly large. Not huge, by epic fantasy standards, but definitely on the larger side. Now, it’s worth noting that writers think in terms of word count, rather than page count. The reason is simple: page counts change, even without a change in word count. Page count doesn’t just rely on how many words your story has, but also the dimensions of the page, your margins, the “gutter” you leave to allow for the book’s binding, your font choice, the ...

The Raven was hand drawn, and the cover was composed by the wonderful and talented Charlotte Mallory!

Bathed in the Blood of Ravens is finished! Well… writing, self editing, and rewrite passes are complete. It’s in the hands of Proofreaders as I type this. The cover art is coming along nicely, thanks to the wonderfully talented Charlotte Mallory. Once I incorporate Proofreader feedback, the next step will be to get it into the hands of Beta Readers. You can sign up here to be notified when it publishes! And you can sign up here to become a Beta Reader, and get access before it publishes! I have to say, I feel rather accomplished right now. Not only is this my first novel, but it’s a huge one. If you’d like an idea of just how large Bathed in the Blood of Ravens is at 219,594 words, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone was 76,944 words. I mention this not to compare the two books in quality, but to show how big of an undertaking this was for me. So, what am I working on while I wait for Proofreader and Beta Reader feedback, you ask? Nice of you to ask… Book 2: Enveloped by Dark’s Embr...

I wanted to post a quick update on my progress with Bathed in the Blood of Ravens , and give some insight on the Timeline between that novel and the two short stories: Threads of Night and The Curse of Kishina . Blood of Ravens is coming along nicely. I am halfway through chapter 16 of the 18 I have planned, and have reached 205k words written so far. This includes 2nd draft rewrites and ProWritingAid edits. I should have the rest of the book finished in another two weeks. After that I just need to fold in Proofreader feedback and give Beta Readers time to read through the book and provide feedback. So, publishing is close! Timeline The majority of The Curse of Kishina takes place 1292 years before the start of Bathed in the Blood of Ravens. This places the main events in this short story before the “First Era of Man”. Threads of Night takes place 657 years before Bathed in the Blood of Ravens, during year 575 of the “First Era of Man” The Kingdom of Arkhania was founded in year 1,119...

Enchanting on Ayrelon offers many benefits, and many challenges. The majority of enchantments are temporary, and often come with side effects. Enchantments can be placed on living things or inanimate objects. Their strength and duration depend greatly on both the caster and the resilience of the target. The more powerful the enchanter, the stronger their enchantments can be and the longer they will last. However, the side effects will also be more severe. Living flesh, for example, can be imbued with greater strength, haste or increased stamina. These forces provide benefit for a time, but also degrade that flesh and can cause permanent damage. Such enchantments also suffer from diminishing returns, due to that degradation. A horse might be enchanted to run faster and farther than normal, but those effects cannot be persisted indefinitely without causing the poor creature’s death. The same is true of enchantments placed upon inanimate objects. Objects imbued with spells also degrade as...

There are two types of Alchemy on Ayrelon. Chemical Alchemy involves the blending of ingredients using precise formula and processes to create salves, elixirs and the like. Magical Alchemy takes those techniques and enhances them with magical ingredients and is often enhanced through spells. Chemical Alchemy

The art of creating magical effects is complex, often requiring several components in order to accomplish the desired results. The more powerful and skilled a caster becomes, the less they require these components. However, they might still choose to use them out of habit, or to gain additional focus or control over their spells. Verbal

Google Docs is free, and collaborative. I own a Microsoft 365 license, which gives me the latest version of Word . There are also several open source, free word processing programs available. Not to mention the various competitors for Scrivener , specifically targeted towards authors. So, why did I choose Scrivener? The answer to that is multi-faceted. My reasoning won’t be a fit for every other author out there, but perhaps it will shed some light on what Scrivener has to offer. If you’re trying to decide what program to use, this article should provide valuable insight from someone who is using Scrivener to its extreme. Before I begin : No, I am not sponsored and have zero contact with Literature & Latte or any of their staff. I am just passionate about my work, and the tools I’m using to produce it. Working Offline I live “out in the boonies”. Our house is surrounded by farmland, and our roads are car-and-a-half wide with no lines or street lights. They twist and wind through ...

Soulfyr or Soul Casting is so named because the source of its power is generated by, and derives from the caster’s own being. The caster gains an inexplicable bond with the planet’s living essence, and that bond causes them to generate their own internal magical weave. Those with the power to cast Soulfyr magic are born with their abilities. This form of magic cannot be gained through study, or practice. Many have tried to do so, and all have failed. Furthermore, those born with the gifts do not always realize their abilities. Many live and die natural deaths without every discovering their potential. This is due to the fact that such abilities, while present from birth, lie dormant until unlocked. Unfortunately for the person so imbued, unlocking those abilities seems to require a violent, untimely death. It is unclear why this is the case, though some who have studied it believe the reason to be spiritual in nature, and this extremely hard to define. Unlike other casters who must mem...

Sometimes known as Primal casting, or Primal Elementalism, this type of magic involves accessing the underlying forces which comprise and govern reality. Few casters attain the ability to sense or interact with these forces. Fewer still survive their first attempt to access them. These sources of power are unrefined and without limit. Their nature is nearly impossible to understand without experimentation. No spells have ever been written for such primal forces, and so few casters gain mastery of these arts that there are very few tomes which detail the process of using or controlling them. He opened his mind again, reaching out to the primal essence of water. Leveraging a lifetime of experience with the arts, he focused his mind with a will few could achieve. He’d reached the limits of what wizardry would allow him to achieve, and fate had introduced him to these forces at just the right time. The army that threatened Haern wouldn’t wait for reinforcements to arrive. He had to act now...