Vorallon Calligraphy

In the Fire of Falraan, Iris documents Falraan's stories with a brush on parchment. I thought I would try my hand at duplicating Iris's flair.

Another version of The Lightgiver cover

I thought I would try a new look.

And a second pass:



The Lightgiver is out to beta readers

The first draft of The Lightgiver is 13k words long. This puts it well into novelette range, but still shy of novella size. I set out to write a short story, but the story took the reigns and established its own length.

If my betas find things to cut for the betterment of the story, then cut I shall. I have no trouble murdering my darlings, that part is easy. This is the first pass. I will take what they give me and go over it all again then send that back out for a last pass with a focus on copy editing.

I have not written anything this dark before. I just had the urge to push myself in that direction. To work out my hangups about not killing off characters with whom I have grown attached. This story is the result. It is a tragedy and it is full of deep-seated fears that swirl around the theme of dehumanization. Other than darkness, the story is also about human spirit, magic, and ideas--big ideas.

I don't have a release date yet, somewhere within a month or two it will be available on the kindle and possibly a very slim book through Createspace.

The Lightgiver -cover art

This is the cover for my upcoming short story, The Lightgiver. Dark Fantasy/Dystopia

Pronunciation guide for Gifts of Vorallon

I just thought it would be handy to share my pronunciation guide. This is how I hear the unique names and words of Vorallon in my head and how I pronounce them when I read the story out loud. I think, however, that the reader should always choose the pronunciation that the word has already formed in their mind, but for cases where one is just not sure (especially with the dwarven words) this might help.

NAMES (somewhat in order of appearance or mention)

Hethal – HETH-ehl (like Ethel)
Lorn (Lord Lorn) – LAWRN (like born, or the end of forlorn)
Moyan (General Moyan) – MOY-ahn (moy sounds like toy or boy)
Dehmet – deh-MET
Kamunki – kah-MOON-key
Elena – EL-uh-nuh
Ivrane – EVE-rain
Lorace – LORE-ess (like Horace)
Fara – FAIR-ah
Tornin – TORE-nihn
Hurn – HERN (like yearn)
Aran (Lord Aran) – AIR-ahn (very close to Aaron)
Adwa-Ki – add-wuh-KEY
Verth – VIHRTH (like mirth)
Halverth – HAHL-vihrth
Somera – sum-AIR-ah
Thryk – THRIKE (like trike with a lisp and a good rolling R)
Taggi – TAG-ee
Ehddan – ehd-DAN
Falraan (Captain Falraan) – fall-RAN
Nordoc –NORE-doc
Oen (Guardian Oen) – OH-ehn (almost like Owen with less emphasis on the WUH in the middle)
Rovinnan – ROVE-in-nan
Jorune – joe-RUNE
Bartalus – BAR-tuh-luhs
Veladis – veh-LAH-dis
Ralli – RAHL-ee (like Rally or Valley)
Petor – peh-TORE (the E is nearly silent)
Quig – KWIHG (like twig)
Aizel (Lord Aizel) – EYE-zehl
Wralka (Prince Wralka) – wrawl-KAH
Yarkin – yahr-KIN
Tezzirax – tez-zee-RACKS (almost like tesseract with a lot of buzz)
Rindal (Sir Rindal) – RIN-doll
Kvarrak – kuh-VAR-rack
Gnarwa – NAHR-wuh (start way back in the throat)
Losqua – LAH-skwah
Dranna – drahn-NUH
Marek – mare-EHK
Andrigar (Captain Andrigar) – ahn-dri-GAR
Palla – PAL-luh
Eldravina – ehl-drah-VEE-nah
Dederon – dehd-er-ON
Esrenar – ehz-rehn-AHR
Harna-Ki – hahr-nah-KEY
Iris – EYE-rihs (like the flower)
Chreen (Lord Chreen) – CHREEN (like preen only all messed up at the beginning)
Dakkar – duh-CAR


PLACES

Vorallon – VORE-eh-lawn
Jaarda – JAR-duh
Nefryt – neh-FREET
Zuxra – ZUCKS-rah
Ousenar – OU-zen-ar
Erenar – AIR-en-ar
Zed – zed (just like the British Z)
Keth (Keth Forest) – KETH (like Beth)
Halversome – HAL-ver-sum
Silarne (Silarne River) sil-ARN
Vlaske K’Brak – vlas-KEY kuh-BRACK
Kur K’Tahn – cur-kuh-TAN
Jalton – JAHL-tun


THINGS

Voradin (Voradin Tree) – VORE-a-dihn
Vranka – vreyn-KAH
Brakke Zahn – bra-KEY ZON
Sakke Vrang – sa-KEY VRANG
Chokke K’Rak – cho-KEY kuh-RACK
Tzet Fek – tzet-FECK
Trundt – trundt (just like it is spelled)

The Gifts of Vorallon 99 cent sale! July 18th thru 21

All three kindle books of the Gift of Vorallon trilogy are on sale July 18 thru 21 for .99 cents each on Amazon.com

The Final Warden (book 1)
City of Thunder (book 2)
Lord of Vengeance (book 3)

This is a promotion with other DeadPixel Publications authors. Look for 99 sale books by my good friends, Robert Brumm and Travis Mohrman.

Visit DeadPixel Publications and find links to the blogs and books of all our wonderful authors, and be sure to LIKE us on Facebook!

Ram-Jack art

There can be no doubt that my inspiration for Ram-Jack is coming from the visual style of anime. I have been sketching up lots of studies of my basic Ram-Jack. This is the workup I have sketched so far, it is not a 3D model, just 2D painting in quick grey tones. You can see the difference between the more finished bottom half and the sketchy top half.