The King & Kishar is on sale for 99c!

Jul 09, 2022 3:33 am

Hello again!

Before all the news and updates, let's just get to the good stuff.

The King & Kishar is 99c until Tuesday 12th!

If you grab a copy, please please leave a review. All the algorithms and cogs and gears behind the scenes love reviews. Books with more reviews get shown more often to new readers, so it helps me very directly.

Elixir of Power stuff

I'm at the 84% percent mark. I've been chipping away steadily on the final few chapters, and I should be able to make the 31st July deadline. At the same time, my earliest and most trusted beta reader, my wife, has been reading the first few chapters. She's a quick reader ... will I be able to type out 8 or so chapters in the time it takes her to read 30?

Time will tell.

Thankfully I'm in an exciting part of the book. Climactic stuff is either happening, or about to happen. All the tension has been pulled as tight as it can. All the characters are in peril, under pressure. Will they succeed or stumble right at the finish line?

I know the answer, of course. It is the second draft. But readers (including Mrs. Currey) don't yet know how it will turn out!

Rather than paste a big (unfinished) excerpt in here, I thought it might be interesting to sketch out a few of the main nations and concepts of the story.

Nations of The Elixir of Power:

Madea:

Fair Madea, mighty Madea, home of the bold, the fearless, and the entrepreneurial. Madea is the main setting of the story, and most of our named characters hail from there—or moved there in search of riches and glory.

No other nation has higher pinnacles of wealth and status for the ambitious. However, with so few spots at the top, many who make the climb will find themselves falling very far, indeed.

The Madean Land Corps carries the banner of the good King Philliby est Wellendorf into battle with the elves. The roar of their cannons and the crackle of their muskets echo along the ever-shifting line between the nations.

Alchemy, not only the signature magical art of the Madeans, is also a key pillar of their culture. It is the land of distilling, refining, grinding; the land of recombination and transformation. Here, any humble lump of lead may turn into gold.

The Church of Providence grants Sainthood to those individuals that best encapsulate the spirit of Madean religion and culture. Saints, who spent their lives innovating, enterprising, excelling, fighting for Madea, and giving to charity, are elevated to the heavenly realm of Providence to act as demi-gods. Every household prays to one patron Saint or another, and every bookshelf is crowded with their words of wisdom.

The Isle of Thamber:

The Isle of Thamber and its towering City-Tree Arbalith lies far from Madea's shores. Many Thambrians journey to Madea, rich and poor alike. They come seeking the wide-open spaces, the excitement and glory of fighting for the Madean Land Corps, and, perhaps, a chance to win more glory and prestige than they could win at home.

The socio-economic ladder of the Isle of Thamber has dizzying heights, but even that cannot compare to the rarefied air of Madea's top echelons.

Norimand:

Madea's distinguished neighbor and ally, Norimand is the homeland of the protagonist Fentor Lonochy's father. Sun-drenched hills of straw-colored grass, broad, sleepy rivers, and vineyards producing exquisitely voluptuous wines belie the country's bloody history of frequent civil war and revolution.

There is a joke that Madeans tell about Norimand:

The King of Norimand had just been coronated, when he took his place on the uncomfortable throne. He asked his chamberlain, "Why, this seat is so hard, it will only be a few minutes before my rear falls asleep!"

To which the chamberlain replies, "Don't worry, sire. Before that becomes an issue, a mob will be in to remove you."

The Elarím:

[Note: the accent on that 'í' just makes it an 'ee' sound, so it's 'el - a - reem']

The mysterious forested nation of the elves has no king, no aristocracy, and indeed, seems to have no national government at all. So little is known of their magic, technology, culture, or history, that Madeans naturally supplement their knowledge of the elves with rumor, speculation, and superstition.

For centuries, the Fair Folk had remained hidden from the humans north of Madea's borders. The war between Madea and the Elarím began shortly after they revealed their presence to the world, and has been raging on-and-off ever since. One thing remains consistent from those old days to the present: any human that crosses their borders is never seen again.

That's it for the updates!

I'll be working on Kickstarter stuff pretty hard until the next time you hear from me. Hopefully by then, I'll have the Kickstarter page, including video, ready for you!