It's Finally Here!

Sorry I haven't posted for a few days, but I have been waiting because I knew that soon I would be able to show you the cover and the first two chapters. And today it came! So without any further delay, here is the cover and the first two chapters of Farworld Water Keep! Hope you like them.

To view the chapters bigger, you can zoom in or out, or you can click the square in the upper right hand corner of the viewer.

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Read this doc on Scribd: Farworld Water Keep Chapters 1 & 2

Cover Art

So, I get a call from Chris at Shadow Mountain yesterday. ?Scott, I don?t know what your afternoon looks like. But Brandon just sent over some cover sketches and . . .?

I think I might have been at his office before he finished the sentence. Okay, not really. It?s about a twenty minute drive from my office to his. So it probably took me five to seven minutes to get there. I?ve been excited about this meeting for a couple of reasons.

First, and foremost, it?s a freaking fantasy cover for my new series. What?s not to get excited about? I?ve never put a book poster from any of my other books up on the wall, but this baby is going to be framed, spotlighted, and put right in the center of the living room wall where you have to see it as you come in the house. Okay, not really, that spot is actually taken up with a giclee of the prince rising on his white steed to rescue Sleeping Beauty painted by one of the illustrators who did Marie Poppins, among many other Disney films. But I am going to frame it and put it up in my office.

The second reason is that despite what most readers think, authors often get very little say in what their covers look like. I?m sure bigger authors have this benefit, but with my regional novels I never saw the cover art until it was actually in a catalog. So to have Shadow Mountain not only give me a sneak peek, but actually ask for my input, is incredible.

Once I got to the office, Chris and Richard, the art director, met with me in a conference room overlooking Temple Square in Salt Lake, which is really beautiful this time of year. The first thing they did was show me the font they?ve been working on for the Farworld title. Now I?ll admit, this isn?t something I?ve paid much attention to before. I mean I know font is important and all, but these guys take it to a new level. They actually look at the series font the same way a company looks at a logo. In fact it is the logo for the series. For example, look at the logos they did for Fablehaven and The 13th Reality. Cool huh?

The font they are working on for Farworld totally blew me away. Think Gothic (You know where the O?s have little plus signs inside and all) but souped up with all kinds of fantasy feel to it. A font shouldn?t be able to make the hair on the back of my neck stand up, but it did!

Then we discussed the title. This has actually been something we?ve been playing with for awhile. If you haven?t read the overview I put together in my ?hooks? post, the first four books in the five book series focus on finding the four elements of water, earth, air, and fire. (In this case land instead of earth, because Earth means the planet in this series.) So the original idea was to just call it Farworld?Water. But we all agreed that Water just doesn?t have that much kick to it. We?ve been playing around with Water Elemental, because the protagonists are looking for the elementals. But that felt a little too young, and the story is not about the elemental as the primary character. It looks like we?ve decided on Water Keep, which is where the elementals live. So that?s cool.

Then they spread out the different sketches.

Can I just say my heart leapt right up in my throat? Brandon Dorman is an art god. He just whips out six different cover ideas and all of them blew me away. It was like being a kid in a candy shop. I?m sitting there going, ?Oh this cool. But I really like that too. And, oh my gosh, look at that one.?

Fortunately once my heart resumed a somewhat normal rhythm, I could look objectively at them, and we all zoomed in on the same one. I can?t say a lot about the sketch, because it will change a lot before it becomes the actual cover. But let me just say, I think it will stop people in their tracks. It combines several different parts of the story with the feel of the actual cover being water. It nailed a couple of minor characters which I really liked so well that it felt like Brandon had pulled them straight out of my imagination.

There are a few changes we discussed, but really just minor tweaks on how a certain part should look or how the covers of the series would tie together. But I walked out of the office and to my car floating on clouds. Some time this month I should have the final cover and I?ll post it here before I show it anywhere else. I?ve said it before, but let me repeat, being a fantasy author has to be just about the best job in the world.

An Update on the BLOG Tour and Treating NESS

Before I do my actual post about multiple storylines, let me pass on some great news. The ARCs are on track for early May. I haven?t seen the sketches for the cover art yet, but from what I?ve heard, it sounds like the cover is going to be great. I am supposed to get final edits back about the third week of this month. Okay, stop yawning. I?m getting to the good stuff. What this means to you is that the Farworld Blog Tour is officially a go.

Sometime early next week I will post the juicy details, but the 2000 foot overview is that on Monday April 14th I will take the first 200 people who sign up for the tour. You agree to post a review of Farworld book one along with ten or so questions and answers appropriate to your blog. Shadow Mountain agrees to send you an Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) for you to review and to ship a copy anywhere in the US as part of a contest which you tie to the tour. Just as an FYI, if you haven?t ever seen an ARC, it looks very much like the hardback?same cover art, same size, same formatting inside?but often it doesn?t have the inside illustrations, and it could have a few typos since it is created from the gallies of the book before they get the final, final, edit.

Here?s one new twist I decided to add. It looks like we are going to get a really good response as I?ve already heard from over a hundred bloggers wanting to take part. But you can guarantee that you are part of the tour and help build publicity for the event by posting a link on your blog about the tour when I post the actual details (on or about the 7th of April.) Everyone who blogs about the tour and encourages other bloggers to sign up will be guaranteed a pair of ARCs. How can you complain about that huh?

Okay, back to our regularly scheduled program. Have you ever read a book and come away from it thinking, ?You know that was a cool plot, but I really didn?t feel any connection to the characters?? Or have you ever read a book where the big twist of the story took so long to get to that you either found yourself turning to the back of the book to see what the solution was, or abandoning the book altogether? If so, the book might have been suffering NESS. Not Enough Storylines Syndrome.

NESS is pretty much what it sounds like. A severe weakening of your plot and or characters because of a deficiency of storylines, causing the reader to become disinterested and or frustrated. Additional side effects may include nausea (that book made me puke), bleeding (I swear I was about to jab my eyes out with a bookmark if something didn?t happen), trembling (I was shaking with rage because I couldn?t stand how the author dragged out the story), or worst of all drowsiness (it put me to sleep.)

The reason it is important to have multiple storylines is much like the reason a good meal must have multiple dishes. Steak is great. But ask anyone who?s been on an Atkins diet. Without anything else, meat gets old fast. But it?s not just about variety. Storylines allow you to reveal enough information that the reader can live with the fact that you are hiding the ultimate answer. They allow you to keep the story moving forward without having every chapter build up to one big climax. They allow you to give the characters additional depth.

Let me give you an example. Let?s say our main storyline is about a girl discovering she is really the Queen. How do we begin the story? Well if it?s like most stories where ordinary people do extraordinary things, we probably have to begin with her living a simple farm life. That way we can enjoy the surprise along with her when she discovers her true identity.

Let?s take the first five chapters of our book and examine how exciting they are in relationship to that one storyline.

Chapter 1 Nothing happens
Chapter 2 Nothing happens
Chapter 3 A wondering wizard finds a mysterious letter
Chapter 4 The protagonist?s mother dies and tells the girl she is not who she think she is
Chapter 5 Nothing Happens

On a scale of 1 to 10. with 1 being no moment on the storyline and 10 being the most exciting point, we probably have something like 1,1,3,6,1.

Three chapters of absolute nothingness. Now you could fix that by creating a linear storyline something like this, 1,2,3,4,5. But even then, you start out with a boring beginning and how long can you keep raising the stakes without the reader revolting?

Instead, let?s add a secondary storyline. Since we want the reader to empathize with our protagonist, let?s have her supporting her sick mother and four younger brothers and sisters. And since we want to begin with a bang, lets start with a fight at work that ends up with her losing her job. In fact, to be mean, let?s have her lose her job in the first chapter, and get robbed by the mean boss in the second chapter. Then in chapter five we?ll have her offered a job by the wondering wizard. In this storyline, we now have an 8,10,1,1,5. True there are two ones, but those are chapters that already have a three and a six.

So now if we take the highest score?from either storyline?in each chapter, it looks like this, 8,10,3,6,5. Not bad. But chapter three still has me a little worried. All I?ve really got happening is the wizard finding the letter, and I really like to have all of my chapters be a six or higher. There?s nothing worse than a chapter that feels liked it was just stuck in to connect the chapter before it and the one after.

I think we really need another storyline. The one area we haven?t focused on is the antagonist. And as I discussed in a previous blog, the antagonist is one of the most important parts of your hook. The current queen would be the obvious choice. But remember that wondering wizard? The one who finds the letter and gives our poor protagonist a job? How evil would it be if we made him the bad guy? Of course he will have his own motives that we?ll fill in later. But let?s have him find the letter, realize what it means, and try to poison our heroine. We can?t kill her off in the third chapter of the book, but . . . mom?s death certainly looks a little more suspicious now doesn?t it? And how on edge will the reader be when the girl they now love takes a job with the man they hate?

Our third storyline would look like this, 1,1,8,7,10. Chapters 3,4, and 5 build up with the wizard finding the letter and trying to poison the girl, the mother accidentally ingesting the poison and dying, and the girl taking a job with the very person. Our overall storyline, with each of the three arcs looks like 8,10,8,7,10. Now that is a story!
One of the other benefits of having the three storylines going is that we can have smaller resolutions along the way to the major climax. It wouldn?t be much of a story if the heroine regained the title of queen halfway through the book. But we could have her come into enough money to support her family halfway through. And we could certainly have her discover the true nature of the wizard 3/4s of the way through. These little victories keep the reader satisfied on the way to the ultimate conclusion.

You can get too many storylines going on, making the reader lose focus. But if you stick with somewhere between three and five main storylines in a typical book of 70k+ words, you should be fine. Middle grade novels or early chapter books will probably not have as many storylines, while a series like the wheel of time could have dozens.

What?s your opinion?

Series Business

Sorry it?s been a couple of days since I last blogged. I was on the road through Wednesday night for business, then took part in a wonderful Salt Lake City writers? conference Friday and Saturday. All in all it was busy, but a lot of fun. At least the conference part?I love getting the chance to talk to other writers. This business is way too solitary otherwise. The business travel?not so exciting. Although I always like Boston, even when it?s raining.

First let me just pass on a lesson to all you other writers out there. If you get back a Q&A from your editor just before you jump onto a plane, wait before posting to your blog. Don?t just think, ?Hey I?ll whip off a couple of lines and post this baby before my flight leaves.? Editors are notoriously picky about typos on blogs about them. Especially when all of their smiley faces get turned into capital J?s. Enough said. Fortunately, Lisa was also at the conference and she doesn?t hate me for life. Also, I came back from the conference fully energized and excited about new blog ideas. So let?s get to it, hey?

Early on the first day of the conference, one of the attendees asked me about my new book. When I told her it was the first book in a five books series, she wrinkled her nose. Assuming she didn?t have to sneeze and relatively confident I hadn?t passed any unpleasant odors, I asked her what was wrong.

?I hate series books,? she said. ?You have to wait a whole year to find out what happens next, and by then you?ve forgotten what happened before. I won?t read them until they?re all out.?

I thought about that much of the conference, because in general I really like a good series. It makes me not feel so bummed out when I come to the end of a book I really like. I have four kids ranging in age from 7 to 20, and we all excitedly attended the midnight releases of every HP book from 4 on. Not sure if they had those before that, but if so, we didn?t know about them.

So what makes a series bad or good? In my mind there are several things. A series is bad if each book leaves you hanging in the middle of the action. A series is good if each book wraps up one storyline while leaving several others to be solved in future books.

I think there are two kinds of series. The first is where there is an ongoing character, but each book is a standalone with an entirely new plot. That would be like Fablehaven or Twilight. You could read just the first book and be totally satisfied. Of course you want to read more, and the next book picks up where the last one left off, and there are overarching elements to the story, but you aren?t left hanging per se. Then there are series like Harry Potter, where each book is its own story, but you would be very unhappy if another book didn?t come out, because there are many, many threads left hanging. Finally, there are books like the Wheel of Time series, where it?s essentially one long story broken into parts. Yes certain things get wrapped up, but many more are opened.

In my Farworld series, each of the first four books deals with a quest to find the next elemental, but there are lots of other ongoing storylines. You clearly understand when you go into the series that you must read all of the books, and read them in order. But it?s not so bad that you throw the book on the floor and scream curses at the author when you finish each volume?like, say Terry Brooks? ?Armageddon?s Children? where it ends with a couple of kids falling off a tall wall. Talk about a cliffhanger. So I?d say I?m somewhere in the middle.

A series is bad if the story is so convoluted you can?t remember what happened a month later, no less a year or more. A series is good if the story is clear, exciting, and at least somewhat organized. It?s good if the reader doesn?t have to go back and reread the previous books (unless they want to) before the new book comes out. It also helps if you stick to a yearly release. At the conference, Lisa said that I should quit complaining about waiting for my book to come out and get writing number two. I promised her I?d have it ready before book one is released in September.

A series is not necessarily bad, but at least not as good if the characters don?t learn and grow. A series is good if the characters progress. It may be in how good they are at magic, or how they deal with other people. They may fall in love or out of love. They come to understand themselves better. But they need to change. Nothing is more boring for me than a series where the main characters are exactly the same in book three as they were in book one.

A series is bad if the only recurring characters are the main ones. A series really gets me pumped when a character I liked but almost forgot suddenly reappears. The red tipped arrow flies through the air, or you hear a familiar whistle, or see a white stallion, and you go, ?Oh my gosh, that?s old so and so. . .? It?s like when you?re a kid and you rediscover a favorite old toy at the bottom of your toy box.

A series is bad when it feels like the author had no idea where it was going when they wrote the first book and is just making it up as they go along. I hate it when the storyline feels forced. I love it when a story surprises me?when clues that were placed clear back in book one show up again in book four. Or when a pattern emerges that I didn?t see until I?d read several of the books in the series. It makes me happy when an author really delivers with a plot that was well thought out from the very start.

Last of all, I really like a series to stay with the same artist. I know the author has no say in that, and sometimes the publisher doesn?t either. But I like to line up my books side by side and have them match. I like to compare covers and maps. I really, really, like when covers convey something. Like when how Shadow Mountain is going to have the jackets of Farworld 1-4 actually look like the elements, water, land, fire, etc.

Okay, so I?m easily amused. How about you? What do you like and dislike in a series?