P D Ball’s Newsletter No. 10

Hello! I hope you are doing well. And cool! This summer is rough and hot. Hopefully, the fires burning everywhere get under control soon.

Contents:

First Words

Map!

Two Authors To Check Out

First: Progress

Book 5 is taking shape. Unfortunately, I don’t have a sneak preview ready yet, but it’s coming. Have to find a spoiler-free one if I can!

No behind the scenes, but you get a map!

Finally, we get a map! It took quite a while, I had to plant each of those trees by hand. Well, by mouse click:

It’s a pretty simple map. And larger than it appears, primarily because you can see individual trees. However, the time it took for Cayce’s army to walk from the southern to the northern bridge was roughly one week (they arrived midmorning of the 8^th day). Alexander’s army, somewhat more mobile than Cayce’s in Book 2, could march 19.5 miles (31.3 km) per day. Given that Cayce’s army had a lot of non-combatants and they were clearing their own road, if we drop that down to 15 miles (24.2 km) per day, that makes the distance roughly 105 miles (169.4 km).

Breadamont, Cayce’s body’s family castle on the lower left, the Barclay Duchy east of that, Bechalle’s Duchy to the north, and the Yohstone Earldom. Further east and a touch north of the Bechalle Duchy is the Laemacian Empire. To the west of this map lies the Ketzillian lands.

In Book 2, Cayce and her army travel up the east side of the Dernam River to the north bridge. In Book 4, they travel from the Bechalle Duchy to the Barclay Duchy, then across to the south bridge and past Breadamont to battle the Ketzillian forces.

Book 4 ends with Cayce headed north, to The Temple at the northwest part of the map.

The idea behind this map was that a massive glacial lake was up behind the northern mountains. Some hundreds to thousands of years ago, they were melted by a ruler with magic. The floodwaters then swept across the land here, resulting in the relatively regular hills.

I based this idea on the Missoula Flood deposits. From about 15 000 years ago to 13 000 ago, the area along the Columbia River in eastern Washington and western Oregon would flood because a large glacial lake would periodically rupture.

You can see the resulting deposition pattern on the map here:

You’ll note it definitely does not resemble the map I created. The deposition is regular, but follows the river and force of the flooding, making it a series of concave layers. The flooding in Cayce’s world, to appear regular and straight, would have to have come from an incredibly massive amount of water and enormous amount of deposition. That, or I just kind of messed up when imagining the world. I’ll go with the massive amounts of water scenario!

In Book 5, we catch up with Cayce crossing this landscape, aiming for the North Temple that Etienne directed her toward. Of course, it’s certainly not going be easy for the poor girl. 

I’ll get back to writing that now!

Other Author Book Promotions

https://storyoriginapp.com/to/yW2VCOp

This says Aug. 18, but many of the books are still available on sale!

https://storyoriginapp.com/to/yW2VCOp

Authors to check out!

https://storyoriginapp.com/swaps/4920315c-3ad4-11ee-b059-bfbd0148643a

The Black Tongue

There is no plague in Enfaire…

Dead things have been found in the fields of Enfaire, a God-fearing town north of Reams. Not just dead things but twisted forms… unholy shapes. And there are rumours, too—of a blasphemous union and of fell creatures that haunt the night. Yet, even as plague and witch pyres blacken the sky, the town remains untouched by the malady that has already claimed thousands and will claim thousands more.

It is here, in Enfaire, that an old Franciscan friar and his ward take shelter from a storm. It is here, in a little town on the edge of civilization, that they will have their faith truly tested.

His Black Tongue is a tale of medieval horror, plunging the reader into the plague-torn land of 14th century France, when pestilence and death walked hand-in-hand, and life was little more than a sputtering candle, waiting to be put out. But there are worse things than death, than sickness and decay… and it comes upon leathery black wings.

Includes The Bone Fields novella and the short stories The Knights of the Non-Euclidean Table and Necropolis.

https://storyoriginapp.com/swaps/43bc0058-39ab-11ee-aba5-876cb6ba68ff

The Ultimate Fantasy!

Gil was a regular guy before he was transported to another world. In a world of magic and monsters, he must struggle to survive. Here he is, the chosen one. But the world is familiar to him. It reminds him of his favorite RPG video game but now he is living it. When monsters attack him, the pain and struggle are real.

Does he have what it takes to be the Warrior of Light?

In this new found fantasy world, he first encounters a female thief who reminds him strangely of a beautiful young woman from his past—in the real world. Will she be the key to unlocking the secret of his quest in Ultimate Fantasy?

This is a LitRPG, Epic Fantasy, Harem Fantasy and Video Game Parody.

Trigger Warning:

Warning this book contains some very steamy sexual scenes but would be considered rated R, and not X. Some scenes do fade to gray but they get hot first... read at your discretion.