Progress

I've edited my ten chapters for the week as of yesterday, and intend to push on today. My editing at this stage consists of reading out loud to try to catch sentences with missing words, or words that repeat too closely, or sentences that are just flat out clunkers. The story is all hammered out at this point, so I'm doing very little in the way of inserting new passages.

I've used a pottery metaphor before, and I'll expand that metaphor now:

My first draft is all about pulling the raw clay of the story out of my skull and slamming it down onto the wheel. My second draft is all about spinning that clay into something that resembles a vase--with a small base flaring into a large bulb then curving back down into a small mouth. The draft I'm working on now is the stage where I apply the glaze to the pot. Later, when the book goes to press, it's the equivalent of firing the pot in the kiln.

Since I'm not a potter, I imagine there are potters out there who are screaming about how badly I've gotten their process wrong. I invite them to compose metaphors of how throwing a pot is like writing a book.

In other news, a very thoughtful review of Bitterwood appeared this week at the blog Grasping for the Wind. John Ottinger addresses some of the religious elements of the book, and I'm going to use this as a launching point toward addressing a potential failing of my own writing that I'm hoping I can do a better job of in future works. The failing boils down to the fact that I tend to make my heroes all rationalists and atheists. It may at first seem as if rationalist and atheist are synonymous and therefore redundant, but there are actually subtle distinctions. Bitterwood is an atheist--he has lost all faith in a kind or even a vengeful God. But, he's not a rationalist. He believes in magic and demons and ghosts. He just no longer believes that there's a benevolent guiding force in the universe with some great master plan--and, as a result, he's inserted himself into the role of his lost God, and become a nearly supernatural force of vengeance.

Jandra, on the other hand, is a rationalist. Technically, she's also an atheist, but by default rather than through any process of soul-searching. Her isolated upbringing has simply never exposed her to much religious thought. Most atheists (including myself) are reactionary atheists. There is a specific predominant cultural god we have in mind when we say we are atheists. I suppose, technically, I'm denying the existance of Thor or Zeus or the Green Man when I proclaim myself an atheist, but in reality I arrived at my atheism after a long struggle with the the God of Abraham, Issaac and Jacob. Jandra has never been immersed in a culture of god, so atheism isn't really an element of her self identity. She's a passive atheist, not an active denier. She doesn't really know enough about gods to conciously choose not to believe in them.

Where I feel I am lacking is that I've yet to present a heroic character who is a person of faith. It really came home to me while I was writing Dragonseed that I was clearly on the side of Burke, the Machinint, in his ever growing conflict with Ragnar, the prophet. Ragnar's over-the-top old testament style leave him more as a menacing comic foil that a truly rounded out character. Alas, he is who he is at this point; he's a wild-eyed fanatic in Dragonforge, and it was a little too late to change him into a nuanced intellectual in Dragonseed. So, I've added a new character to Dragonseed who is a man of deep faith yet also not a wild-eyed fundamentalist parody. And, it's left me thinking about the characters who will populate further books, and left me wanting to work in a major protagonist who is an unapologetic theist.

Just a few musings on religion on a Sunday morning. Now, I'd best get back to work!

More Art! Dragonseed! Next signing!

We have more art! Joseph Phillips read the article about me in the Roanoke Times and took a moment to draw his favorite character from the first book, Hezekiah:

The next bit of art I have isn't fan art, alas. Back in high school and college, I used to draw a lot. I probably spent more hours drawing than I did writing. Yet, after I graduated, I stopped drawing and kept writing, and haven't tried drawing something by hand in probably ten years. (The drawing I did last year was done entirely in photoshop using the polygon tools). But yesterday I saw a photo of an eagle on Pixdaus and thought it would make a cool pose for a dragon. So, I sketched out a drawing of Graxen and scanned it in, photoshopped in a background, and wound up with this:

It looks like I owe myself a free book!

My next big news is that Friday night, at midnight, I finally finished a complete draft of the third Bitterwood novel, Dragonseed. When I wrote the first draft, I got near the end and basically outlined the final chapters as "And then everybody fights and they all live happily ever after, except for the characters who die." So, in the latest draft, I had to flesh that out a little bit. The fleshing out added six new chapters to the book. These final chapters contain the most ambitious action sequences I've ever written. I've thrown in gods and goddesses, angels and prophets, wizards and Cherokee ninjas, long-wyrms and giants, naked people, characters you thought were dead but aren't, characters you thought I'd never kill but do, and, of course, Bitterwood. Poocher gets his moment of glory as well. Coming to bookstores soon! By soon, I mean eleven months! It will be here before you know it.

Next: More reviews! Kirk Shaw at Vagabond Voice turns in a meaty review of Bitterwood. IGMS editor Ed Schubert talks about Dragonforge over at Sideshow Freaks. Award-winning author Eric James Stone does short reviews of both Bitterwood and Dragonforge at his blog.


Finally, I want to mention the next signing I have lined up. I'll be at the Barnes and Noble in Cary, NC on September 9 at 7pm, doing a joint signing with authors Lisa Shearin and Mark van Name. Lisa writes action packed fantasy, Mark writes action packed science fiction, and my own books straddle both fantasy and SF, so I'm anticipating it will be a terrific reading and discussion. Hope I see you there!

Book Signing and Roanoke Times Article

I'm doing a book signing this Thursday, August 7, at the Barnes and Noble at the South Point Mall. I've been told there will be cake. I'll also do a brief reading, but don't let that discourage you.

In other news, my hometown paper the Roanoke Times published an article about me and the Dragon Age over the weekend. Luckily, it's on the web. It contains a rather amusing typo. See if you can spot it.

I've gotten another bit of fan art since last week's post, this time of the prophet Hezekiah. I'm holding onto it for the moment in hopes I'll get a few more pieces to make a good blog post by this weekend. If you're keeping score, this is fan art #6, so there's still 4 free copies of Dragonforge available.

More art!

Fan art continues to pour in! Well, maybe "pour" isn't the right word. But, two more sketches arrived this week. First Brian Waterhouse sends in this sketch illustrating the first scene of Chapter One of Bitterwood. (You can read this chapter as a free download, by the way.) I'm thrilled that he included the dragon tongue cooking on the fire, by the way.




Next we have a sketch of Shandrazel from Scott Mercer. I like the thoughtful expression of the eyes:

Last week, I mentioned that Giovanni Quniteros had sent in some photoshopped variants of his drawing. Since black and white art seems to be the theme for this week, I thought I'd show you this version. I think it would make a cool tee-shirt:

For those keeping count, I still have five books set aside to give away in exchange for art. The trees for the paper to print these copies of Dragonforge have already been cut down; it's just such a waste of their noble sacrifice not to have somebody reading these books.

In other news, more reviews! Eric James Stone earned a copy for sending in a hiaku back in June, and has just talked about the book on his blog. Orson Scott Card gives my books another shout out at SF Signal in an article where he's asked about good examples of world-building. The intriguingly named Anethema Device posts a short review of Bitterwood that says, "...it was a typical sword and sourcery novel and exactly as I expected it to be." On the plus side, she spelled my name right!

Fan Art! Reviews! Typos!

It's been a busy few weeks for me. I've been immersed in the third book of the Bitterwood trilogy, Dragonseed. I'm racing the clock to finish my second draft in time to have a little wiggle room in writing my third draft before I'm slated to turn this in to Solaris. Things are going well, though one of my wise-readers, Laurel Amberdine, pointed out a typo in Chapter 17 that may be one of the funnier things I've ever written. The chapter ends with some of my characters running for thier lives after they escape the dragons hunting them by swimming a river in the dead of night in mid winter. They are in danger of freezing to death, so they have to keep moving. I summed up their plight with this sparkly jewel of wisdom:

"Stopping for even a minute to catch their deaths would be fatal."

I'm thinking of turning it into a tee-shirt...

On to business: I have reviews! Meg Stout in her live journal review notes, "There was a lot of slip-sliding on the viscous gore of various disemboweled dead individuals." I'm going to take it as a compliment. At the blog Book Thoughts, the unnamed reviewer notes, "it was refreshing to see a twist on a tired and true dragon story." Suanne Warr at Tales from the Raven says, "All in all a good read, and one I can highly recommend." (In the interest of full disclosure, Suanne is one of my wise-readers on Dragonseed. She had an insightful review of Bitterwood last year and shortly after I met her at a con. I'm delighted to now have her as part of Team Dragon.) Matt at Any Random Day reviews both Bitterwood and Dragonforge and says: "James Maxey kicks ass and you need to go buy both of his Fantasy Novels. You will not regret it." I swear, no money was paid for this testimonial.

One last review that's worth noting. In this week's Rhino Times in Greensboro, the reviewer reads Dragonforge, (which I sent him free) then immediately orders Bitterwood off of Amazon and reviews it as well: "It's a book that feels like fantasy but is, at core, smart science fiction. It feels like -- and is -- a magnificent hero story in the tradition of David Farland (The Golden Queen) or Mike Resnick (Santiago). But it is also deeply personal character fiction that explores complicated relationships amid corrupt societies.

There is certainly room for more books in the series -- but each volume so far gives a satisfying closure. There's no need to wait for the series to be complete.

You still have time to read these books before the summer ends. So why are you still reading this column?"

The name of this reviewer? Orson Scott Card.

It's so difficult to type that name without three or four exclamation marks behind it.

Oh, what the heck. Orson Scott Card!!!! Yeah, four feels about right. You can read his full review at his website.

Now, on to the pictures: So far, I've had three people take me up on the free books for fan art offer. I'm pleased to say I have some talented artists among my readers. We'll start with Giovanni Quinteros, who sent in a drawing of Graxen (as well as a few variants I may post eventually). Since it's obvious he's read Dragonforge, Giovanni will get a copy of the Dragonseed manuscript once I finish it. (There may be a signed copy of Dragonforge in the package as well.)

Next, we have a very Batmanish/manga Bitterwood from Lee Dixon, who'll recieve a copy of Dragonforge for his effort:

We'll wrap up with the most unusual medium so far--an inkpen tattoo of a rather buff Jandra by Chris Coe. No word as to what body part the art was drawn on, or whose skin provided the canvas. They probably deserve a book too!

Hopefully this fan art will inspire further contributions. Don't be shy! Grab your mouse, your notebooks, and/or your loved ones and make some art!

Tornado of Sparks

Solaris has just made available for free a download of my short story "Tornado of Sparks." This tale is a prequel to both Bitterwood and Dragonforge. It tells the story of how the dragon Vendevorex came to adopt the human infant Jandra. The story is perhaps a mild spoiler for a major plot point in Bitterwood, when Jandra learns the truth of her origins after having the truth concealed for fifteen years. On the other hand, knowing the secret in advance I think can add to the tension of the book, since you'll know something about the character of Jandra that she doesn't. The story also reveals which on-going member of the human cast is secretly related to her--again, I think that knowing this when she doesn't only adds to your ability to empathise with her longing to find her true family.

As a reminder, the fan art exchange is still open! Send me a drawing or sketch of a character from Bitterwood, and I'll send you a free copy of Dragonforge. This offer is good for the first ten peices of art I recieve, and will remain open until I give away those ten books. After a week, I've recieved only one drawing; hopefully the rest of you are still sharpening your pencils.

Dragon Art... and a new giveaway!

During the Dragonforge give-away contest, the vast majority of the submission were poems, but I did get some art as well. The first is from Nancy Fulda, a work she calls "Heatwave."

I really like the dragon's mouth in Nancy's drawing. The lips look like the dragon is either preparing to blow smoke rings, or as if it's in the middle of saying a particularly clever pun.

Tysha Dawson sent me a link to her webpage full of dragon art. She said I could use any art I found there as long as I acknowledged her copyright. I was particularly drawn to the following image (copyright 2008 Tysha Dawson).

The reason I like this image is that it really has some strong similarities to the way I imagine the character of Graxen the Gray in Dragonforge. A mutant sky-dragon borne gray instead of blue, Graxen is an outcast, ostricized by other members of his race, fated by orders of the Matriarch never to mate. One of the major threads of Dragonforge is a tale of forbidden love as Graxen's heart is captured by a beautiful valkryie (a female warrior dragon) who shows him unexpected kindness when they first meet. There are differences between the dragon depicted and the Bitterwood/Dragonforge dragons. My dragons don't have horns, and their ears are just flat disks a few inches past the back of their jaws. They have three fingers at the upper joint of their wings. Other details match perfectly, however. I do imagine the wing scales of my dragons strongly resembling feathers, and I do imagine that they have manes of these feathery scales running along their necks and spine. For a more detailed drawings of how I imagine my dragons, so my post at my old Bitterwood blog, Building a Better Dragon.

Which leads me to announce a new Dragonforge Giveaway. I've set aside ten free copies of Dragonforge for anyone who will send me fan art of their favorite character (or characters) from Bitterwood. Any characters are fine, but I'd love to see how you imagine the human characters of Bitterwood, Jandra, Pet, or Zeeky, or dragon characters like the wizard dragon Vendevorex or the hunter dragon Zanzeroth. Even a sketch of Poocher, the pig, will earn a book. This isn't a contest: If you send me artwork and I use it, I'll be paying you with a free copy of the book. Unlike my giveaway of review copies, I'll mail you a copy wherever you live, even if you're in Antartica for the next six months stuck at some research facility. By sending me the art, you'll be agreeing that I can post them to my blog, or other internet forums like the Solaris chat boards or the Amazon customer images area. This offer is good until I give away ten copies, whether that takes a month or a year. I'll also give away a copy if it's a character from Dragonforge, though I understand that if you have a copy of the book already, the prospect of a freebie of Dragonforge isn't as enticing. So, I have a special reward if you send in artwork of a Dragonforge character like Burke or Graxen and don't want another copy of the book: Once I finish the third book of the series, Dragonseed, I'll print out a copy and mail it to you. Since it costs more to mail a manuscript than a paperback, I'll limit this offer to three readers, but, again, I'll mail these to you anywhere.

Just email your jpegs or gifs to nobodynovelwriter@yahoo.com. There are no size restrictions on the artwork--I can size them down in Photoshop if need be. They can be color or black and white. Now... start drawing!