After some delays – more than I had expected or intended, and largely due to the ever pesky demands of life and career – I’m pleased to announce that work is now officially underway on the initial prose installment in the Sanctum of the Archmage Saga. The chapter and scene outlines are done, and the Kindle template is prepared and eagerly awaiting an impending infusion of content.
I’m tentatively calling the first book Crucible of Heroes, subtitled (of course) “Book One of the Sanctum of the Archmage Saga.” The title is still tentative, but I settled on Crucible of Heroes because it focuses on telling the origin stories of the major heroes of the Sanctum saga. The first half tells the full tale of The Fall of Lannamon, while second tells the introduction to The Sight up to the flight from Blackwing Lodge. There’s also a prologue that flashes back ten thousand years to offer us a brief glimpse of the mysterious and enigmatic Andarians, though of course I can’t say very much about that just yet…
I’m also pleased to announce plans for Crucible of Heroes to be illustrated with original pen and ink drawings by the very talented artist, Charles Imbro. I’m extremely excited by the opportunity to collaborate with Charles on this effort, which we expect to be very effective for publication in the still predominantly grayscale Kindle reader market.
I’m anticipating a final length of about 20 thousand words, which according to the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America should technically qualify it as a short novella. I rather like that idea for a number of reasons, not the least of which is described in this interesting article about evolving publication standards due to e-publishing:
The novella is the perfect length for an ebook. Writers can get around the traditional obstacles that publishers face with novellas, and get their novella onto people’s Kindles directly. Also, in terms of actually getting people to buy your work, it is easier to price your novella at a lower price… than a traditional novella published in print, that would probably go on sale for a similar price to a novel, despite being much shorter in length.