Continuing Tor's most excellent Watch the Skies giveaway, this week's free e-book is David Drake's Lord of the Isles.

Download this e-book in the following formats:

PDF | HTML | ZIP | MOBI

For a running list of all of Tor's free e-books, go here.

One year and two days ago as I write this, I first offered my fantasy novel, The Hall of the Wood, as a shareware download on my web site. The 'experiment', as I called it, has, I think, been a success. Over 2200 downloads, numerous comments (mostly positive), a (very small) amount of money received in payments. OK, not a smashing success, but a worthwhile endeavor nonetheless.

I was going back and looking at The Hall of the Wood and I realized something: it lacks presentation. I basically threw out the same copy I was sending to agents and publishers. They want a certain font and double-spaced lines and other stuff, whereas a reader probably wants to see something a bit more presentable and, most important of all, readable.

As of now, wonder or wait no longer, for I have re-packaged The Hall of the Wood into a most presentable work of fiction. Some minor changes here and there, but mostly just new fonts, cleaned up the headers and footers, slapped a new cover page on there, and some other tweaks. The end result is a more presentable product.

If you haven't downloaded The Hall of the Wood yet, feel free to do so now. I've dispensed with most of the requests for donations at this point. It's out there, for free, so download at your leisure. I always appreciate comments, good or bad.

James Dashner, author of The 13th Reality: The Journal of Curious Tales (reviewed, interestingly enough, just yesterday by Fantasy Debut), is living the dream. Or, he "likely" will be:

James Dashner is a number cruncher by day and an architect of children's fantasy novels by night.
    This West Jordan accountant/author has battled for years between his creative right brain and his logical left in deciding which career path to follow.
    Now, with a national book contract in hand, Dashner says he likely will quit his budgeting job...and choose the right - brain.

It's encouraging to see someone "making it" after reading this piece of somber news.

I can relate to the left/right brain allusion more than others perhaps: I'm a software engineer by day trying to fulfill the creative end at nights and in my free time (I work with accountants, too, but that's another story). Dashner is, without a doubt, ahead of my game: He's under contract for a "five book series" from Shadow Mountain Publishing, but has a handful of books to his name already. Congrats go to James not only for showing some longevity but also for taking the plunge and saying good-bye to the stability of his accounting job for the potential uncertainties of life as a writer.

You often hear straight from the horse's mouth (successful authors, that is) not to quit your day job until your writing makes up a certain percentage of your current income. That percentage is without a doubt a personal threshold--we all grow accustomed to a certain lifestyle and have different tolerances for sacrifice. It also depends on if you are the sole money-maker in your household or not, how many dependents you have, etc.

We still want to achieve our writing goals, though, and so it becomes an issue of balance. Dashner understood this balance. He worked his day job while writing in his free time for eight years. Only with the security of a multi-book deal in hand did he jettison the day job to focus on his writing full-time.

Good luck to him. I hope I get there someday, too.

Quitting his day job - Salt Lake Tribune

This is bad news. Or is it?

Think of it this way: If Borders is absorbed into, say, Barnes & Noble, as shoppers we have one less outlet to choose from. As writers, our publishers have one less venue from which to sell our product. That means less sales. Less sales means publishers will be far more picky about where they invest their resources (i.e., time and money). Pickier publishers means we or our agents have a harder time selling our work. This is bad.

On the other hand, if, say, Borders is absorbed or simply disappears, doesn't that open up the playing field for the "little guy", the small and independent booksellers who oh so many times were squashed by the likes of a Borders or B&N moving into their neighborhood? Maybe, maybe not. There's still some big players besides B&N, including Amazon and Wal Mart, for example, who sell in large volumes at relatively low prices. In fact, analysts cite the presence of those retailers as one of the reasons Borders has failed.

As with most things, time will tell.

Borders explores sale, suspends dividend - Yahoo! News

Agent Kristin of PubRants fame talked yesterday about web sites and blogs, and if unpublished writers should have either or both.

Something I've often wondered about is whether or not an agent or publisher bothers to look at a writer's site. I know I've read in the past about specific ones who do not; Agent Kristin lays this question to rest (inasmuch as she's concerned, anyway):

"When reviewing sample pages where we like the writing, we’ll often give the writer website a glance and see what’s there. I don’t bother if the sample pages haven’t caught my interest."

She goes on to offer a few tips:

"Don’t have a website/blog unless it can be a professional one. The homemade sites look it and just make me cringe. It won’t keep me from asking for your full (or if I like the novel, offering representation) but it’s not putting your best foot forward and that’s never a benefit."

This is a given. We're not aspiring to become professionals--we already are professionals; we want our web site or blog to reflect that. Choose colors that are easy on the eyes. Use a layout that makes sense. There are a ton of resources available on the web that discuss how to choose color schemes or even ones that generate one for you. If you're using WordPress or Blogger or, if you've chosen to be a little more adventurous like me and opted to use BlogEngine.NET, choose a theme that both complements your message while maintaining a professional look.

Content? Agent Kristin says:

"...the standard. About you, what you are working on, any cool interests you have that might inspire your writing, workshops you are doing, critique partners or anything about the writing process."

And the most important aspect of our blogs and web sites:

"...remember that the writing you have there needs to be representative of you and your good work. It doesn’t have to be perfect but you shouldn’t blog if the writing doesn’t represent your “usual” quality."

We've all read about the job candidate whose prospective employer decided to take a look at their blog... keep the content professional and relevant but, more importantly, put your best quality out there. If you're still learning the craft (we all are), think of your blog as a way to hone your writing skills. Use the same attention to detail when writing blog entries as you do when writing your "stuff". Do a rough draft, revise, proofread. If you happen to be looking through an old post and notice a typo or some other oddity, fix it. Our blog entries remain forever, indexed by Google and other search engines, so who knows when someone is going to access that post you wrote 2 years ago. Make sure that first impression is as good a one as if that person landed on your current home page or latest blog entry.

Now I need to practice what I preach and do some proofreading of my own on this post.

Good luck with your writing.

Eos Books was kind enough to offer me an ARC of Robin Hobb's Renegade's Magic a couple of months ago. While I was delighted to receive the book, the fact of the matter was that I hadn't read either book one or two of the series! I do consider myself a fan of Hobb, though, and scolded myself profusely for having fallen behind. In any case, I immediately purchased Shaman's Crossing and Forest Mage, books one and two of The Soldier Son Trilogy. That is the only excuse I can offer for the lateness of this review. Standing in at 591 pages, 726 pages, and 662 pages, respectively, it took some time to consume Hobb's always excellent prose, world-building, and engaging characters. I'm going to begin, briefly, with Shaman's Crossing, if only because that's where I began this journey. Here we go...

Shaman's Crossing

Enter Nevare Burvelle, second son of a second son, fated because of his birth order to become a soldier in his king's cavalla (cavalry). Much of this first book in the series deals with Nevare's childhood: how his father initiates him into his birth-fate, begins to meld him into the man he must one day become, and, finally, sends him off to the King's Academy where he will learn the business of soldiering. Along the way, as you would expect, Nevare becomes entangled in a web that neither he nor the reader will fully understand until events unfold in Renegade's Magic.

I found Shaman's Crossing fully engaging. Nevare's early years on his family's estate draw you in from the start, introducing us to his father's war history with the Plainspeople and Nevare's own bond with one Plainsman in particular. There was almost a low point where Nevare is at the academy, what with the mundane day-to-day life of a student and all, but Hobb keeps the reader interested with a myriad of sub-plots and a cast of real, believable characters who each have difficulties or challenges of their own. It was a lot of fun reading the beginnings of what becomes a much larger story for Nevare, and I'd scarce put Shaman's Crossing down before Forest Mage was in hand and turned to page one.

Forest Mage

Take a look at the cover to the right. Click on it to view the larger image or go here if that doesn't work. Really look at it. This is masterful work, and I'm really not talking about the quality of the artwork itself (though it is considerable). This cover is important because, more than any other cover I've seen for this series in all it's many editions, it symbolizes what the Soldier Son Trilogy is all about. You have a man--a cavalry soldier--sword drawn, facing the mists of the forest and the ominous mountains beyond. There is fire, carnage, and an overwhelming feeling that something is out there. Is it coming? Is it waiting for our cavalryman's charge? We don't know, but clearly the man senses the danger he's in else his sword would not be drawn.

The soldier, of course, represents Nevare. I say "represents" because Nevare never becomes that man--that soldier--being shown on the cover. Something happens to him, something that was begun in Shaman's Crossing that spills over here. He never becomes the Soldier Son he was supposed to be. Instead, he changes in ways I won't report here least it take something away from your own reading. Suffice to say bad things happen. He's in a sorry state. Yet he battles on, searching for a solution to a dilemma begun in book one which has taken everything from him but his life. Even that, however, might be forfeit if he doesn't come to terms with who and what he has become.

Again, Hobb draws us in with her masterful storytelling. I honestly felt for Nevare's misfortune and kept turning the pages because I wanted to see him succeed. Sad to say, he doesn't. Not in the way we hope, anyway. Forest Mage, like any middle volume, is a bridge between book's one and two, though it does wrap up a good part of Nevare's misfortune (and one of his lives--read the book to understand that!) and sets him on the road to finality as told in Renegade's Magic.

Renegade's Magic

An SFFWorld Favorite for 2007, Renegade's Magic concludes the story of Nevare Burvelle, a second son fated to become a Soldier Son in his king's army. Life takes some unexpected turns, however, as Nevare is called to a different destiny. Drawn by magic to the frontier where his king is waging war against the Specks, Nevare finally succumbs to the forces taken control of him and, instead of fighting his king's enemies, he joins them. Thus begins Renegade's Magic.

Renegade's Magic is a continuation in excellence--excellent storytelling, excellent prose, excellent characters. Hobb has created a world that transcends the classic good vs. evil model, where everyone has the potential for either. If there is any weakness at all in this trilogy it's that, in the end, no one is really "evil". Characters may do despicable things, but, once we understand their viewpoint, I found myself often sympathizing with them regardless of what they'd done or why they'd done it. It makes it hard to want any one individual to come out, in the end, as the victor. The truth of the matter, though, is that there are multiple victors. But victory comes at a price. No one is left unscathed, least of all Nevare, who sacrifices much, oftentimes without even fully comprehending what is happening to him or why (not until the very end, anyway).

Magic plays a dominant role in the Soldier Son Trilogy. So much so that magic itself becomes an entity unto itself. The manner in which magic is mastered is both unique and intriguing, though I have to admit I was a little put off by it at first. I hate to throw out a spoiler (so I won't), but suffice to say magic actually transforms the wielder physically. The end result is a hero who, well, doesn't appear very heroic. I don't think there's any doubt Hobb was making a statement here about our own society, and how we often judge people by their outward appearance. This failing of our own society also exists in Nevare's world, except that only Nevare's own people loathe the change that has overcome him. Their enemies, the Specks, actually hold him in great reverence. It makes for an interesting dichotomy in terms of the storytelling and character development.

Past experience with Robin Hobb's work really had me expecting a bittersweet ending (think Fritz in the The Farseer Trilogy). Instead, I was pleasantly surprised. I won't go so far as to say the ending is all roses (even roses have thorns), but there is a certain gratification I felt as I finished the final sentence. Nevare's world may have been turned upside-down, but, with will and tenacity and a heavy dose of plain stubbornness, he comes out alright in the end.

Renegade's Magic was a worthy conclusion to an excellent story.