May 2024 Newsletter
Still coming in June of 2024 (or maybe July)
See these eyes of judgement? April has been a busy month. We got a lot of illustrations done. You saw the goblins from last month. The face up here is from one of the orc illustrations. The full illustration isn’t done (and I’m still working on it by adding an orc woman and a woman for scale comparison), but this is intended to be the Borys-Karang (the All-Consuming Flame), foremost among the six orc kings whom Oygariyet the Great relies upon for generating orc forces (which Oygariyet considers relatively expendable).
Speaking of Oygariyet the Great, here’s the draft illustration of the hobgoblins. On the left is Oygariyet being briefed by Dariyet, one of his newly appointed clan leaders. Stretched over the table below them is a map of eastern Gersh from their perspective (they navigate off of the mountains, rather than north). Let me tell you, it really sucks to draw chainmail and, after this drawing, I had great incentive to learn to make a custom brush for drawing chainmail. I plan on adding a third figure to this drawing, it will either be Indariyet, Great One of the Okaramine tribe or one of Oygariyet’s staff. That and add some details to the wood grain in the table – but we’ll see how time fits in to all of this.
I have been chatting with a friend from Brazil who is really into orcs, so I have also been working on a few other orc illustrations (one more below). I am far from a professional when it comes to drawing and struggle with the fundamentals and yet, the more I do, the more I want to do. This is a dangerously deep hole of delaying the publication for the sake of unnecessary flavor… but I am enjoying drawing them and it’s forcing me to ask questions of myself that I had not considered (like can orcs grow beards? Do they?). So, I hope to finish this particular orc illustration, finish the hobgoblin illustration noted above. I am getting some help on the human illustration and I hope to draw a few more orc faces, another hobgoblin illustration, and another elf illustration – but we’ll see!
Maps have also been very productive this month. I’ve had absolutely great help from Luke Bauer, whom I was so fortunate to meet through a friend of a friend. We’ve managed to finalize several maps including the matched pair below. These two together are the Battle of Serna Hills: the skirmishes in the prelude and the decisive engagement during the 2nd week of Anz, 794. This is about ~40 days before the Battle of Borly that I showed you the draft of last month.
So, the remaining maps are a ruin that we’ll explore in the last chapter/epilogue, a map captured by the Prince of Yvel from the hobgoblins, and one or two maps of the town of Serna itself.
I’ve also got the lore appendices 98% written. Have a few corrections and expansions, but they’re done and waiting for the illustrations. I actually pulled some content out of what I had because it would be more confusing to have it in book 1. For example, readers are not going to need to understand the history of power dynamics between the Western Reformed Church of Orneth and each of the rulers in the western half of the continent. That interaction does not come to the fore in book 1. Books 2, 3, and 4 might be a different story, but to give it to you in book 1 is a bit out of place. So, each book will have additional lore appendices that complement and expand upon the ones in the previous book(s).
On the administrative and slice of life side, I’ve been most fortunate to secure formatting services from my editor, Amanda Hemmingsen (http://www.amandahemmingsen.com/) and that’s a huge load off. I also got some advice to tailor down my social media presence to something that I can better manage on my own. As such, I’ll keep doing this newsletter, posting on facebook and tiktok. I’ll make the occasional youtube video (I failed to get anything out along those lines this past month), but I will be pulling off of twitter/X and Instagram until such a time that it becomes undeniably necessary. I can focus on illustrations and working with Luke to get the maps done. I am really, really hoping that we can get this book out to you folks before the end of June!
Slice of life, I am on my last 31 days of terminal leave from the Army. I haven’t had a haircut in two months and I have been given permission by my Wife (yes, permission), to grow a beard. So, I look a bit different right now than the picture in the about tab.
Thanks for sticking with me. I appreciate your support and would be grateful if you’d share my link with folks that you think would be interested, throw me a like facebook, a follow on tiktok, a sub on youtube, or whatever floats your boat. I’d also really enjoy hearing from you, so if you want to leave a comment on FB, shoot me a line at the contact email here, or what have you… the most enjoyable form of procrastinating working on these books is talking about them. Thanks very much and see you next month.
Morgan
