I’ll be doing my best this week to keep the posts rolling, but I’m in the middle of moving from Wiesbaden to Kaiserslautern. I’ll still have possibly up to a month and a half of driving back to Wiesbaden until my organization moves, but even though my commute will be taking an additional two hours out of my day, I will be in a much better place to write. Yet even with everything happening in my personal and work life, I am still working on the story line to complete the last quarter of Destiny, Book Two.

By the way, I’m listening to some Warpaint while I write. I heard this song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bVwOMFrvJI “Love Is To Die” Sunday night when my wife and I were finishing up watching the “True Blood” series. We both really enjoyed the story. A friend I met from writing suggested I check out the “Elf Child” and how they aged for some ideas for Frostbrand and Starfire. Definitely gave me some good ideas I’m still formulating for the story. I’ve been listening to some of Warpaint’s other songs and I’m loving them. Some really good music with hauntingly beautiful melodies.  

I had an interesting review today. Even though it was only a three star review due to my grammar and need for a professional editor, the reviewer was honest enough to say that he still thoroughly enjoyed the story, which is high praise from a reader who finds such errors difficult to cope with. Not that I disagree with the comments on grammar/editing, but I’ve done the best I could with the limited budget I had available for the project. I can only do my best to make this better for Book two. I’d like to address one of the last comments the reader left here, because I think it could be on multiple readers’ minds.

 Why didn’t Startüm Ironwolf transform into a Werewolf for the final battle between him and the Pit Demon? I thought this was a really good question. Although it seems like it would have been a perfect spot for Startüm to transform, I’m saving this for bigger and badder monsters. The “Destroyer” in Book One is actually only a Demon Knight within the echelon of Demon society. In the stories to come there will be more for of a need for this and a reason as Startüm learns to embrace his Werewolf’s Bloodline. This will actually occur on his eighteenth birthday (calculated by Irlendria time). I will say this transition is coming, along with several others, but I wanted to make sure it was at the correct spot within the story arc in an appropriate climatic scene. I needed room for Startüm to grow into his power.

Some people have commented that Startüm is overpowered, but in actuality he is not in comparison to the Paladins that came before him, and he will need everything he has and more for the enemy he will be facing in the future. During the Great War against the Tuonellian’s, the armies of the Alliance of Aurenko were only able to stand against the Hordes attacking their World by the power of the Klavikian Paladins. Only thirteen in number, these holy warriors of Ukko were able to resist the Demonic Evil that the Priestess of Loviatar wielded and keep the Alliance Armies alive to stop the overwhelming forces sent against them. Now with the Klavikains destroyed, Startüm is the only Paladin left to hold back the new Tuonellian invasion that now threatens Irlendria.  

Lastly, the Winter Gaming group has started a little earlier than expected. Although the start date is still November 15th, there are a number of us that have started playing. I’ve actually leveled my first character in years to 15 in preparation. Of course it’s a Paladin =D If you’re playing, you can shoot me a message on Darknovia on Hyjal Server. I’m only play around two days a week, due to the need to get Book Two out, but I’ll be playing for a couple hours in the evenings on Tuesday and Thursday. You can join the online guild here: http://www.audiovideodisco.org/

When I started writing Book One of the Last Paladin Series, I was really having difficulties deciding where to start the story at. Since the world of Irlendria has so much history there were many places I could start the story from, but I wanted an Urban Fantasy novel that mixed in Real World and a Magical World. That desire to have both made me decide to start Flight with Startüm on Earth.

I’ve received some criticism on how quickly I started the story out. While the story if fast paced and fun, there were people who wished for a little more back story on Startüm, and rightly so. To be honest, in a way I look at Flight as being the “Star War’s” of my series in the sense of how you are introduced to everything going on in the middle of Startüm’s story.

With Book Two, this will be a lot different. Partly this is because my writing ability is that much better and I am more confident in keeping the action flowing, while giving readers a deeper appreciation of the characters and their cultures. While Flight was about fun and action, Book Two has those same characteristics and much more. I really love the depth of the story.

A good example of this is with the new species and characters being introduced into the story. Legatus Tiberius Decius Lupus, prince of the Minotaurs of the Imperium is a prime example of this. I really wanted to make his culture come alive and give you a depth of his honorable character that is so much more than the beasts so many people think of when they hear the word “Minotaur”.

Nessa Manitou, Centaur of the Great Plains, is her own person with a very distinctive culture. Her people are very different then the Minotaurs of the Imperium. Her beliefs, magic, culture and viewpoint of life come to life. She is much more than just a traditional Centaur from Greek Mythology. The pains of her heart and her loves have a suffering that I believe many readers will be able to identify with.

Also, the Elves in Book Two are similar yet different to the Fantasy we all know and love. Growing up on stories and concepts of D&D and Lord of The Rings, Elves for me had a spectrum of flavors. Wild, Forest, Gray (High) Elves were distinctive and unique in their own ways. I’ve added my own twist to their cultures and story, but without a doubt my past influences flavor their cultures strongly. Lúthien Narmolanya, Enelya Tasartir, Warden Morwen Telemnar and others are distinctly  different between one another, but at the same time very Elven.

Just thinking about the story and talking about it here gets me excited all over again, so back to writing.         

Even though this was a short week I’ve managed to squeeze in several more novels from John Conroe’s Demon Accords. An amazing series btw if you’ve hadn’t checked it out yet. I’ve had a couple friends point this series out. This weekend I’ll be sure to give Mr. Conroe some well deserved reviews for his writing. Since I’ve started writing there is never just a “pleasure read” so to speak.

It’s not that I’m not fully enjoying the writers I talk about in my blog, but there are really important examples of how the writers have done something in particular that I’m also researching. It’s one of the best things about writing. I can research and learn while enjoying great stories. Gotta love that!

What’s really interesting about John’s main characters are that they are so incredibly overpowered. For those of you that have read Flight, then I expect you can understand my interest in how he handles his characters stories. I know some people might instantly think that an overpowering man character would make for a dull story, but that’s entirely not the case. No matter how powerful you are, there are always things that make you vulnerable. Also, I just enjoy the raw power of the main character and how it's welded into an incredible plot line. I take my hat off to John for his amazing stories. As enjoyable as the “Good Intentions” series is, the Demon Accords are just as good. Although not at the same level of eroticness they are definitely worth reading.

Just in case you were wondering, the answer is "yes". I was also researching the different levels of sexual/eroticness between the stories to assist in my own learning/writing of my own stories romantic scenes. My ideas are definitely falling somewhere in-between these two writers flavors.

For those of you wondering how I can write and read in an evening, I tend to finish off most normal sized books in around six hours or less. Yea, we are not talking about Wheel of Time books, those just give me a headache because it takes me like three or four sittings to finish a freaking book, although great stories. So far I’ve been faring better when I read first and write afterword, since the reading will keep me up to 4 in the morning, but the writing I’ll go to bed by 1. It means I get a little more sleep for my work day.

Right now I’m working on the Elven part of my story. All of my characters are there in the middle of it, so it’s like not “ALL” Elvish, if you know what I mean. But there is so much culture involved that it keeps my mind working full time on getting the flavor where I want it to be while bringing the world to life. It would have been easier to just make one species of elf, but in all of my time playing D&D or reading Fantasy. Just having one type of elf didn’t seem right, hence why I have three distinctive Elven cultures in the story.

Anyway, it’s time to get writing tonight, so I’ll blog again another day.          

Okay, well maybe not such a “quick update”, but I can’t help it once I start writing!

It’s been a crazy week at work and at home, between the two I’ve missed my normal blog posts. I decided to get a quick post out before I went to the movies to see Lucy. For those of you who haven’t seen the trailer, it’s here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVt32qoyhi0 I hope it’s as freaking awesome as it looks!

Wednesday nights are our movie nights at the Taunus Theater. You can find it here: http://www.shopmyexchange.com/ReelTimeTheatres/Movies-Wiesbaden.htm Although not much of a selection, it’s still a nice theater for those of us serving overseas. The next two movies I’m waiting for are Guardians of the Galaxy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89q_HH-3ghk and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZZ0PnDZdZk

Hey don’t judge, I know I’m a geek =D

I’m still trying to decide on a title for Book Two. Hopefully my next post will have the top four Titles that I’m struggling to decide on. I’m hoping I can get a vote as to what people like best and then decide based on everyone’s feedback.

I will also be posting my experience on the process of getting a new edition of Flight’s printed edition up on Amazon. Although I update the Ebook whenever I hear of an issue someone found within its pages, I haven’t updated the printed edition. My wife just had a friend want to give her husband a copy for his birthday and I was horrified when I’d realized I hadn’t updated that version yet.

Until now updating the printed version hasn’t been an issue. People typically buy Ebooks or Audio books, but rarely does someone actually buy the printed edition, which is why I’ve been somewhat lackadaisical on getting it corrected. Now if I had my books in bookstores across the world and in the airport this would have been a priority, but since I’m and Indie Writer it hasn’t been top on my list. Well now my wife has properly motivated me to update the printed edition too.

My daughter just had her eighteenth birthday party this last Monday. Although this was the small party for her girlfriends since it was a school night, the girls danced and sang until 0500 in the morning. I think I passed out sometime around 0230 from exhaustion … not drinking. It was entertaining to hear everyone singing and dancing though.

I’ve also been working with my daughter on learning to drive. She’s doing awesome with the learning the manual and I’m really proud of her. I think it’s always smart to be able to drive any car, no matter if Google is trying to make knowing how to drive obsolete =D You never know when you’ll be stuck somewhere trying to escape a Tyrannosaurus Rex and the only vehicle available is some manual transmission jeep. Sigh, my daughter rolls her eyes at that, but I know some of you know what I mean.

I had a fan named Nic ask me when I’m planning on having Book Two out, and I’ll post what I told him. If RL allows me to finish Book Two in 2014, then I’ll have it out this year, but if not then I’m planning on the first quarter of 2015. While Flight was 88,040 in length, I’ve already written over 65,000 words of Book Two. Although that sounds like a lot, Book Two is turning out to be a lot bigger story than I’d originally planned. I know where I want the story to end at, but as I’m writing the story I’m discovering there is a lot more story then I’d realized and I have no desire to skip over the details. I’m doing my best to get it out as soon as possible though and I normally write a little every night … except on the weekends. My wife has nixed any writing on the weekends after Book One was released. 

Eitherway, Book Two is turning out awesome. I really love how the story is turning out and I hope everyone who reads it feels the same!

I’ve said this Series will have four books, although that doesn’t mean the story is over. I already have a second series planned that picks up where The Last Paladin Series stops. The planned name of the next Series will be “The Demon Wars”. I had originally thought this was a spoiler … and maybe it is. Once you’ve read Book Two it will make more sense ^^

Also, I have two prequels planned for the Series. One will be the stories of the Paladin Ilmarinen Ironwolf and his Werewolf wife Novastar Ironwolf (Startüm’s parents), which will cover the Tuonellian invasion up to their death. The other Series will cover Startüm’s life on Earth.  

After writing back to Nic I just decided I had to share the information with everyone who checks out my blog. Again, thanks for letting me know how much you liked the story Nic. It made my day!

Anyway, I think that’s enough of an update for now. I’m going to try to get a little bit of writing in before heading out to the movies.