Inkabout L. Darby Gibbs

Science Fiction & Fantasy author

fantasy

Busy in 2020 by an order of 4 maybe 5

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I thought an update was do. I’ve been writing, editing, redrafting, planning and preparing paperbacks.

This won’t be a long post, more of a list of what is in the works.

  • The fourth book in the Solstice Dragon World, To Harbor a Dragon, is now up as a pre-order set to upload at the end of April. A paperback version will follow shortly after the eBook goes live.
  • The third book in the Solstice Dragon World, Dira’s Dragon, is in the works to be available in paperback, tentative deadline is set for mid-March.
  • My new series Kavin Cut Chronicles is moving along nicely. Covers are in the works next week with Ryn Katryn Digital Art. (Loraine has done all my covers. I love her work!) I expect the first to publish about May with the pre-order coming out in March.
  • The two Kavin Cut Chronicles that will complete the trilogy should be out before summer ends and in eBook and paperback.
  • A fifth book for the Standing Stone series will be hitting the drafting board sometime in August, I expect, and will be out before the end of the year.
  • The Standing Stone series should be out in paperback by summer 2020.
  • If all goes according to plan, this will be the year I publish four perhaps even five books in twelve months, a new record: One Solstice Dragon World, three Kavin Cut Chronicles and one Standing Stone. All will be in paperback shortly after the eBook publication.

So that is the plan, subject to change, of course. The fifth Standing Stone is the one that has the greatest wiggle room. It may have to wait until January 2021 for publication, though the pre-order will definitely go up between October and December 2020.

This year is off to a wonderful start. I hope yours is as well. May you find plenty of lovely books to read, lots of adventure in your world and contentment where it counts the most.

My plans for 2021 are very fluid, so if you have a particular series you wish me to focus on next year, post it in the comments. My fans definitely have pull with me.

When you gotta build a castle, research is the answer

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Every time I start a new novel, I find myself researching a variety of items, especially with the fantasy novels I’ve been writing lately. I have selected the 1700s as my template years for technology, clothing, architecture, and transportation.

Picture credit: Okamatsu Fujikawa from on Unsplash

Since drafting my newest fantasy novel, I’ve found the need to increase my areas of research. Castles. I need to know more about castles, especially, older castles versus new versions, defensibility determined by terrain, and terminology and personnel.

Research is a double-edged sword. It needs to be done, but if you’re like me, it is easy to get sidetracked by interesting sites, such as the following site which actually BUILDS castles. BUILDS them! CastleMagic Castle Building. At first I thought it was a spoof that would turn out to be about building paper castles. The drawings were pencil sketches, and the video showing an example of the building process reminded me of Minecraft. But then I looked at their other pictures and videos. They BUILD castles. So you see I did get a bit sidetracked and for good reason. Too bad I don’t have the money to have them build me a castle. They do a really good job and can include secret passages. Hmm, secret passages.

This is a site I found for terminology called appropriately Castle Terminology.  Every term I could possibly need, their definitions and alternatives seem to be on this site. Though I don’t intend to be dropping castle terms all over my draft, I know I should refer to specific parts of castles correctly.

I toured two castles about ten years ago, both in Sweden which is helpful as the location of the castle in my novel is in mountainious terrain and very cold.

Laying out my castle is my biggest issue. I need to configue it to fit the story but stay within the standards of castles. Thus the following site is useful. It supplied a variety of layouts of castles and the reasoning behind them. Medieval Castle Layout. It’s proving useful as I plan out my version. I’ll probably have to plan out two more as well. Hmm, a castle building author is never done.

You know, I have to make room for a dragon in my castle. But enough about my research.

What research are you doing lately, and what about it sidetracks you?

A Stab at a Self-interview: Question 7 ~ prequel to a series?

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 Would you consider writing a prequel for either of your series?

Actually, I do have a prequel in mind for the Standing Stone series. It would focus on the backstory of the Wielder Wain which is an important event that occurred 16 years prior to the first book in the series. The focus characters would be Mahre Pratter (Donnel) and Tran Pratter. My daughter has suggested that I should also write about the sinister sisters and the An Faire migration mythology which is 300 years earlier than the first book. They both intrigue me. I’ll let the ideas putter about awhile and see what comes to mind.

I don’t think I’ll be writing either anytime soon as I am currently drafting book 3 of the Standing Stone series, have murky beginnings for a book 4 in the series, have book 5 of the Students of Jump series waiting behind the door, along with a contemporary novel, an anthology of poems and another series sitting on the back burner.

So a quick answer to the question: Maybe, but breath holding is not advised.

Since this turned out to be a short post, I’ll mention my current activities. I have, as I said, started writing book 3. As added incentive to new readers, I reduced the price to 99 cents for The Sharded Boy, book 1 in the series (available at all major eBook retailers).

I am also considering setting up a mailing list which would probably be a monthly newsletter combining updates for both my series and anything newsy I want to include. I’m a newby in the process, so I need to do my homework before I make it available for signup. When and if I do, I’ll post the signup link here, on my Facebook page, at the end of each of my books, and perhaps on my Google and GoodReads accounts.

A Stab at a Self-interview: Question 6 ~ Standing Stone favorite character

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Who is one of your favorite characters from the Standing Stone series?

The Mabra – cryptic old woman

When I starting thinking about my answer to this question, I knew immediately who I would name and had a pretty good idea why I was choosing him. But the more I thought about it, I realized there was a secondary character that was a strong favorite of mine, so I have chosen The Mabra.


Mabra Camlis – The Mabra is a character in book 2, The Shifter Shard. She is an enigma, oddly all knowing and thought to be functionally mad. Or as Master Clepp describes her, “The woman’s a bit odd, but it doesn’t interfere with the
running of the orphanage.” 
She is so slow moving and old that she covers only inches with each step causing her guests to have to wait quite some time for her to join them even though she is very much in sight. She compensates for this slowness by yelling at the top of her lungs so that she and anyone there to visit her can carry on a conversation without having to wait for her to be seated. 
“You will come to know that much of me is old, but my lungs
continue to feign youth, so I use them for all they are worth! It reduces the
boredom of both my guests and myself in the interim of our coming together.” 
She has excellent hearing and a mysterious history. Jahl, one of the three main characters, hopes she can supply necessary information he needs to put things right, but though she’s willing to give advice, Jahl perceives it as cryptic and possibly proof of her madness. 
 She sighed, ignoring his rising annoyance. “Even I, the
eternal container of all hope, can no longer deny that some things never
return.”
I enjoyed working with her character because her limitations were a natural outcome of her age while not interfering with her doing her job. And her desire and faith that she would be reunited with her lost love was as believable as it was impossible.

 

A Stab at a Self-interview: Question 4 ~ next possible genre

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If your next book was not science fiction or fantasy what genre would it be in?

I’m a bit split on which it would be. I write quite a bit of poetry. I have the beginnings of a series of selections all based on pieces of heirloom china I have received from various family over the years. I also have about 18,000 words done on a contemporary women’s fiction about three best friends enjoying their retirement years. One of the ladies is fashioned after my mother, a very vibrant, dramatic woman who could walk into a room full of people and make them turn at once to see who brought the exuberance into the place. She passed away this past September and I really miss her.

I’m expecting that after I finish with the Standing Stone series and the fifth book in Students of Jump that I will probably get back working on the contemporary piece Joanie and Friends. It’s a standalone work. I would then move on to working on the collaboration series my husband and I are planning.

I am pretty much booked up on ideas for writing. Don’t have to worry about writer’s block for at least the next three years, assuming I am going to keep up my new pace of three books a year.

General plan (subject to change because life is not predictable)
Book 2 in Standing Stone (out June 2017)
Book 3 in Standing Stone (predicted out in September 2017)
Book 5 in Students of Jump (predicted out in Jan. 2018)
Book .5 in Standing Stone
Joanie and Friends
Maybe that china poetry collection would fit here
Book 1 in the Mantle Series

Of course, this ignores the fact that I have four books outlined for the Students of Jump series and another book or two wandering around the back of my mind for the Standing Stone series. Sometimes ideas leapfrog. For instance, The Sharded Boy was supposed to be a short story, but it blossomed into a book and then a series.

#genre
#writing
#series

Thought I’d Take a Stab at Self-interviewing, a Question at a Time

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When is the next Standing Stone book coming out and what is it about?

Book 2 in the Standing Stone series is in redraft right now and will be ready for the editing process very soon. I expect to have it uploaded to Amazon and my wide distributor Smashwords by the first of June.

Jahl Pratter, and siblings Donya and Rouen Marson will be off on another adventure when they travel to Carolan Faire, the city north of Chussen Faire on the main trade road that runs through town.

Now nineteen years old, Jahl has established his wielder school for boys and is recognized as the High Master Wielder of Chussen. With only three native wielders practicing, he views the title a bit sardonically. A new crop of wielders are in training, but it will be some time before they fill the ranks of practicing wielders. The honored position comes with certain demands. Master Tommlar, owner of the local chain of standing stone suppliers, informs Jahl that he must go to Carolan Faire to deal with some issues that have come up since the death of the northern city’s high master.

It seems an easy task to head to Carolan and take custody of the deceased master’s orphaned apprentice and close out his wielder home until the child is old enough to return. If only Tommlar hadn’t left out some important details.