June 2024 Newsletter
They’re almost here! These are a few orcs that are typical of the Baki-Norn tribe, which are commonly encountered in the reading of the Witches of Serna. May has been a very productive month in terms of illustrations and map-making. So what do we have to show for our efforts? I completed two illustrations that I showed you last month in this newsletter and finished two other illustrations. The first being the one above and the other being this one below, comparing the size of a horse to a great wolf (used by hobgoblins for their cavalry) to an ordinary wolf.
Here, you see that the great wolf is nearly as big as the horse. The horse is faster, but the wolf is more agile. Open terrain favors horse cavalry, wolf cavalry is still useable in confined spaces, such as forests, hills, and city streets. Their strength is not the mounted charge like horse cavalry, per se, but their mobility and ferocity. The wolf will fight with its rider, snapping its powerful jaws or goring enemies with spikes mounted on its head barding.
By great fortune, my Mother came to visit this month and lend her own skills. My Mother is master artist, who has been drawing and painting for a long, long time. I asked her to work on a drawing of humans for the appendices and she produced this:
This is meant to show the dynamic between the ethnic Berk humans (the man on the left) and the some of the other human ethnicities on the western side of the Kaskev Mountains. The humans on the right are Marins and an Eklendan. So, as you can see, she (my Mother, Sandra Spring) totally blows me out of the water. This and one other illustration from her are going to be in the human appendix. I have also coordinated with a dear friend, who is one of my test readers and also likes to draw, to produce a line up of the different human ethnicities. We are really going to try and squeeze that in, but there are a number of projects going on with this friend and I don’t know if the timeline will be feasible.
Before we talk the timeline, I’ll show off a couple of the maps. First, we have the excavation at Serna Hills, drawn by Luke Bauer.
And then, to give you an idea of the process, I give Luke a rough draft of the map that he polishes up. This is one of the better-ish roughs, a map of the town of Serna (same town as the title), BEFORE chapter 3. If you don’t know what I mean, I’d encourage you to read the prologue and chapters 1, 2, and 3 on this site for free.
I got tired of drawing trees and Luke is way better at it than I am. So, as you see, he adds a lot of polish to them. Serna, before and after chapter 3 are two of the last three maps for book 1. The only other map is the inside of one of buildings at the Serna Hills Excavation map. And while we’re talking about what’s left, the only other things are a second drawing from my Mother, a possible drawing from one of my test readers if life and other projects can agree. Then it’s off to my talented editor, Amanda Hemmingsen (http://www.amandahemmingsen.com/), who, along with my Wife and my test readers, have been critical to me bringing forth a story to tell you all. I am really hoping that we get this all done before the end of June, but we might have to dip into July. It happens when it happens.
Speaking of other things that happen when they happen, I identified the tentative end points for books 2 and 3. As I’ve mentioned in the past, I have ~4 books of content written (or so I thought). Keeping the word count relatively consistent, book 2 will end just after the Battle of Keppa (spoiler alert: there’s a town called Keppa). Book 3 will end just before the Second Battle of Keppa (spoiler alert: there’s a first battle of Keppa, but you might have figured that out already). These are clean ending points with all of the other events going on here, but the problem is that it leaves only about 50,000 words for book 4… so… I realized that I need to write more to have four books of content.
SO. What’s the fix? I could just fold what I’ve written for book 5 into book 4 and call it a day. I’ve got about 50,000 words written in book 5. But, to me, I’ve made a shift between book 4 and 5. A certain relationship changes nature at the end of book 4, so there are a lot of characters that are searching for a new place to be and a new purpose and that is a huge part of the character of book 5 (and maybe book 6). So, if you remember from the prologue, the dwarf, Lord Garitan has dinner with Lord Risiar, the dark elf noble from Urrissio. Garitan takes an idea back to his king. That implies a story deep underground that is concurrent with all of the content currently written. As it stands now, we do not touch upon Garitan’s story until the very end of book 4 in the epilogue. So, the fix for our content shortage is to make the implied story more overt. We are going to start with the bloody siege and fall of the dwarven city of Adyrnaarn. This will take place earlier in book 2. Here is my not quite done rough of a side view of Adyrnaarn.
Some of the text will change, namely which cities the tunnel roads connect to. The thing is when you want to tell a story of a war, inevitably, you are drawn to the battles. In order to tell the story of a battle, or even a story of a walk through a place and the appreciation of its scenery, you really need a map (and it will hurt if you don’t have one). But once you have a map of the place, you then have to ask ‘why is this battle even being fought? Why is this city in particular being attacked?’ And that starts to hint at the grander strategy behind the aggressor’s actions. That means you need a map of the broader area. So…. I haven’t decided which dwarven kingdom this city belongs to, which will significantly adjust which cities the tunnel roads connect to. But anyways….. that’s the plan. If you were hoping to get more of the dwarf side of the story, you’ll get that more in book 2 and onward.
So, what else is going on? Well, today, June 1st, is a great day, especially for me. Why? Well…. as of today, I am officially transferred to the retired rolls of the U.S. Army. May 31st, 2024 was my last day in the Army, marking 20 years and 1 day of Service. So, here’s a few photos on that topic.
Old picture of me in April of 2007 in Iraq. I was very young and foolishly less concerned with personal safety at the time. It wasn’t until I started to try and write this portion of the newsletter that I really don’t have a ton of pictures of myself throughout my career.
And here’s my charming mug on March 2nd of this year, right before my final out appointment. From there on, I have been on terminal leave and growing the obligatory beard, presented here:
This magnificent beast here, has not had a haircut since late February and has not shaven in two months. It’s kinda nice.
So, I’m now out of the Army (on the retired rolls, so they can technically call me back). Haven’t published yet and, even if I have, it will take a while to get this project off the ground. I’ll be starting a regular 9-5 type job this month, but all the while, I shall be scheming and machinating to get you some juicy content.
In a completely unrelated side note, my Wife and I were on a drive last week and we happened to pass this scene. We spotted the truck as it was spewing flames from the undercarriage and still in the process of pulling over. No one got hurt. Fire department put it out. In case you’re wondering, it’s a Dodge.
If you got this far, I really appreciate it. I will tell you this last bit. Once I publish, I am planning on doing a giveaway of the PDF and kindle versions of book 1 to everyone that is on my mailing list. So, if you haven’t already, I’d really appreciate you subscribing to this newsletter so that it comes to you by email. As always, I am hugely appreciative of any feedback, questions, or comments, and you can send me those in the email link at the bottom.
Until next month. Take care.
Morgan
