If you’ve visited Deby’s blog, you know she loves dragons – and I mean, who wouldn’t? Because – dragons, right? Deby has also published several fantasy books, and is here today with her new release, the first book in a series. Isn’t that cover awesome? Beautiful colors. Welcome, Deby!
Mages vs. Amazons vs. Giant Badgers vs. Tyranny!
Zathi’s job is to capture renegade mages, but Keilos isn’t like any other mage she’s dealt with. Her drive to bring him in only leads them deeper into a cursed forest. Together, warrior and mage will face deadly beasts and grapple with decisions that compromise every principle. Until they stumble upon a place of ancient, forgotten magic. Zathi must choose — allow Keilos to claim it, or kill him once and for all.
I’m honored to visit the blog of my friend, and sometimes editor, David Lee Summers. Sometimes you set out to write a story and every character turns out to be some sort of negative stereotype. This is how I re-imagined The Tower in the Mist and made the story much stronger.
Today, I’d like to welcome author Deby Fredericks to my blog. I’ve had the honor of editing her novels The Grimhold Wolf and Seven Exalted Orders. I enjoy her writing and she has a new book out called The Tower in the Mist. In it, she presents a group of non-traditional warriors. Presenting characters in non-traditional gender roles is something I have done as well, and I thought it would be interesting to hear Deby’s take on this subject. Without further ado, I’ll turn it over to Deby.
When I began writing The
Tower in the Mist, I did not plan to include a group of Amazonian
warrior-women. A woman mage had been captured by warriors who served an evil
wizard. But the more I worked on that setting, in the Land of Skaythe, the more I realized that the minions of an evil wizard were also…
Hello, everyone! Today I’m visiting Charles E. Yallowitz on his blog, Legends of Windemere. I’m talking about how the Tower in the Mist has its roots in a video game. I hope you’ll come by and check it out.
Zathi’s job is to capture renegade mages, but Keilos isn’t like any other mage she’s dealt with. Her drive to bring him in only leads them deeper into a cursed forest. Together, warrior and mage will face deadly beasts and grapple with decisions that compromise every principle. Until they stumble upon a place of ancient, forgotten magic. Zathi must choose — allow Keilos to claim it, or kill him once and for all.
Charles often tells us how his Legends of Windemere series got its start as a role-playing game while he was in college. I am here to confess that I, too, wrote my book because of a game.
In my case, it was the video game Dragon Age. I have all three of the series, and I played them back-to-back-to-back-to…
Hey there all you sell-swords and spell-slingers, you heroes and wizards of every stripe. You’ve landed on Lisa Burton Radio, the only show that brings you interviews with the characters you love.
I’m your host, Lisa the robot girl, and my special guest today is Zathi from the land of Skaythe. My bio says she works for the ruling mage, named Dar-Gothull. “Welcome to the show, Zathi.”
“Well met.”
“So what exactly do you do for Dar-Gothull?”
“I am a Hunter-Guard, part of Dar-Gothull’s army. Our task is to move among the people and stamp out all who would rebel against our master. Bandits who ambush the tax collectors, scholars who speak or write against Dar-Gothull’s way, mages who would try to rival the great Dar-Gothull.
“In addition, we are a visible symbol. We remind them that no one can escape Dar-Gothull’s reach.”
Guess what I got for Christmas! Actually, I got several dragons. There’s a lovely vintage print of a lady reading with her pet dragon, and a dragon wine holder, too. My friends know me well.
These dragons are my favorites, though. They are hand made from wool felt. They were most likely purchased at a local fair-trade shop, so the crafters would have created them as part of a jobs program.
Technically, they are a holiday decoration, but they’re so darned cute! I think they’ll just be hanging around my office window for the foreseeable future.
In other news, it’s the new year and I’m re-assessing certain parts of my writing career. (Not because of any crisis — you should take stock of things from time to time.) Like many writers, I tend to focus most on my current work in progress. I don’t pay as much attention as I should to actually selling copies of my books in print.
As part of this, I’m considering how Wyrmflight supports my other goals. After all, part of the reason for blogging is to draw readers and make sales.
The other piece of this is that I may have gone as far as I can with the blog’s theme of dragons. It’s been seven years, you know? I’ve kept my topic broad to include everything from books and movies to real things that are named after dragons, but what I really love is to share folk stories from around the world. Lately those are getting harder to find.
Will I cease blogging here? I don’t know. It’s brought me many friendships and helped collect enough material for a book. (See my ad, below.) Perhaps I’ll switch to another topic, such as Witches or Fairies. Perhaps I’ll find a way to re-use older posts in a new format. (I hear Instagram is hot these days.)
So this is where I thank all of you for coming along on my Wyrmflight journey. I hope you’ll stick with me, wherever my dragons may come to roost.
Wyrmflight: A Hoard of Dragon Lore — $4.99 e-book or $17.99 trade paperback. Available at Amazon or Draft2Digital.
I’ve been invited to speak by Idaho Writers League, a North-Idaho-based group for published and aspiring writers. My topic: “Magic in all its forms and disguises.” I’ll be speaking for perhaps 45 minutes and then taking questions and discussing with the audience.
This is on Thursday, August 16th, 6:30 pm. The location is Schmidt Hall, Lutheran Church of the Master, 4800 N. Ramsey Rd, in Coeur d’Alene, ID. I don’t think there’s a fee.
The timing is a little tight, since it comes right after SpoCon, but I plan to focus intensely and put together a really great, informative presentation on magic in fantasy. If anyone happens to be in Coeur d’Alene on Thursday, I’d love to see you there.
Wyrmflight: A Hoard of Dragon Lore — $4.99 e-book or $17.99 trade paperback. Available at Amazon or Draft2Digital.
The Tower in the Mist
