Welcome to my worlds!

I'm James Maxey, author of fantasy and science fiction. My novels include the science fantasy Bitterwood Saga (4 books) the Dragon Apocalypse Saga (4 books), numerous superhero novels including Nobody Gets the Girl and the Lawless series, the steampunk Oz sequel Bad Wizard, and my short story collections, There is No Wheel and Jagged Gate. This website is focused exclusively on writing. At my second blog, Jawbone of an Ass, I ramble through any random topic that springs to mind, occasionally touching on religion and politics and other subjects polite people are sensible enough not to discuss in public. If you'd like to get monthly updates on new releases, as well as preview chapters and free short stories, join my newsletter!




Sunday, February 5, 2012

News and Review Round Up

Greatshadow is now almost a week old in official release date age, and is starting to get some reviews! First, from A Fantastical Librarian: "Greatshadow was a fabulous read, which kept me turning pages and just finishing one more chapter before doing whatever I was supposed to do. Besides, any story that can legitimately clothe its main character in a chain mail bikini and make it functional can only be genius! If you like straight up adventure novels, kick ass heroines and dragons – lots of dragons – then you can't miss Greatshadow."

Then, from Fantasy Nibbles: "This one is so, so much fun. We have here a proper fantasy adventure story. You hit the ground running with Greatshadow, straight in with the action and you’re pulled along for a brilliant ride. It’s got different races, different religions, and a really great mix of characters."

I've also had two interviews go live this week. First, from the McNally-Robinson website, I'm interviewed by Chadwick Ginther, who manages to draw out from me why there was a time in my life when I was wandering around jabbering stuff like, "O stone! Be not so!" and "No! It is opposition!"

Then, at the Solaris blog When Gravity Fails, Michael Molcher has an interview in which I reveal what used to lurk under my bed when I was a kid.

Finally, a semi progress update on Witchbreaker. I haven't been faithfully posting word counts, partly because I'm really confused now what to count and what not to count. I've written 13 chapters on the book, which is pretty good since my original outline only called for 21 chapters. But, where it's tricky is that I'm 99% certain at this point that I'm chopping two of the chapters at the beginning and starting later in the action. This isn't really that unusual. I chopped the first two chapters I wrote of Dragonforge also. In a sequel, there's a temptation to spend time revisiting the previous story, and it was just something I had to get out of my system.

In any case, without those two chapters, I'm somewhere just past the mid-point of my course corrected outline. I really need to be closer to the two third point. So, February will have a LOT of butt in chair time as I try to get out at least ten more chapters. My birthday is March 2; I want my birthday present to myself to be to finish the damn first draft by then.

Forward!

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