|
|
Thorne's Quest Blog
2007 Mar 09 Thanks to Helen, the wonderful designer behind Creative Mind Web Design, ThornesQuest.com is up and running! This is the site to visit if you'd like to read a longer preview of The Secret Heir or The Wild Catalyst . And, yes, this will soon be the place to get an advanced sneak peak at The Honour-Daughter and The Wicked Princess , both to be released this spring. There's also a Q & A with author Gale Macaulay-Newcombe. When you're ready to buy, you can just click on "purchase" and it'll take you right to that book's purchase page here on Lulu. Your quest for a really good fantasy series is over. Thorne's quest is just beginning. . . . 2007 Jan 22  I had a blast at NaNoWriMo in November. So much so that I went into a mini grief experience in December. How would I keep writing without the nifty word-counter? Or the lively, creative community?  Then, about mid-month, I discovered JanNoWriMo — January Novel Writing Month. JanNo is not officially connected to Chris Baty's NaNo organization, but it was listed on the web-site. Off I went. But nothing could be as good as NaNo, could it?  Oh, my! Two for two! It's January 21, and I've completed another 50,000 words. Book 6, The Young Venduinn is nearly done! I expect to finish it this week! Then I think I'll go back into book 5, The Wizard Revealed, and add another chapter that the Readers' Group thinks it needs. Well, yes, I'm inclined to agree with them. After that, February will see me doing the final edits of Book 3, The Honour-Daughter, and Book 4, The Wicked Princess, so that they can be published in the spring. The whole WriMo community, it turns out, is not limited to the madness in November. It goes on all year long. There's an organization called NaNoWriYe (you guessed it: National Novel Writing Year, in which people commit to writing various improbable numbers of words over the course of the year. Yours truly has committed to writing 2K/day, for a total of 730,000 words in 2007. This was done in the fervour of enjoying JanNo, and I may downgrade it, as I realized that this leaves me no time for editing, publishing or promoting. Or, you know, LIFE! Thanks for your interest in the Thorne's Quest sequence. It's all ticking along, and I am even giving some thought to what I'll be writing when the series is done. I know; I know; finish books 7 & 8 first, Gale!  2006 Nov 25 Well, moms and dads, boys and girls, I did it! I won NaNoWriMo in 22 days! It really was a great experience! I met some local authors that I hope to stay in touch with afterward. It was good to be cheered on to the finish line by them, and it has been fulfilling to cheer for them as well! What now? Well, Book 6 is a little more than a third done. So, I hope that the energy I regained for writing in November will stay with me through the Christmas holidays and into the New Year. And, of course, the self-publishing journey continues. Book 1, The Secret Heir, is on the shelves in Bryan Prince Books (Westdale, Hamilton), Gilbert's Big and Tall Clothing (Hamilton) and Different Drummer Books (Burlington). And you can find book 2, The Wild Catalyst, in Bryan Prince and Gilbert's as well. The Secret Heir is now also available on Amazon, which is a real thrill. 2006 Nov 08 Well, the writing had slowed down a bit: publishing The Secret Heir and The Wild Catalyst and promoting them was taking a fair bit of energy. However, with the advent of November, I decided that I had better do something about the situation. I am, after all, a writer, not a marketing expert! So, I signed up for NaNoWriMo. That's National Novel Writing Month, for the uninitiated. The web-site address is http://www.nanowrimo.org/ You can log on and check my progress. The challenge is to write a 50,000 word novel in the month of November. Arrrrgh!  What, am I CRAZY?!? Thus far, as of 10:30 in the morning on November 8, I've completed 11,309 words, I am  over one-fifth of the way to my goal! This is, I think, REALLY good, but the month  is one-quarter done! Assuming that I don't write any more today — and I might; you never know — my average is 1,413 words/day. So I need to bring my average up to 1,700 words/day to get there. Can't do anything about the days that are gone, but I'll make an effort to write another 300 words today, anyway. Pray for me, brothers and sisters. Or, you know, chant quietly and rhythmically. Offer libations to the gods in my name. The ritual sacrifice of arachnids and earwigs. Whatever. Your encouragement (nagging) welcome! 2006 Oct 14 THE SECRET HEIR and THE WILD CATALYST are now available in two Hamilton, Ontario stores. BRYAN PRINCE BOOKS on King St. in Westdale is an owner-operated bookstore which, as policy, supports local authors. Look for the first two books of the Thorne's Quest in the Fantasy section there.  GILBERT'S BIG AND TALL CLOTHING FOR MEN is on King St. W. (near Locke). Why a men's clothing store for a book with a female main character? Well, the theory is that when women are standing around waiting for their husbands to try on clothes, they may be interested. MANY thanks to Katy Yelovich for facilitating this placement. 2006 Sep 12 Yldenthorne Press is pleased to announce that THORNE'S QUEST 2: THE WILD CATALYST is now available! This is the sequel to THE SECRET HEIR. Now that Thorne has been publicly acknowledged as her brother the High King's heir, she must deal with wild forces churning around — and within — her. Assassins still threaten the realm. And the Izschadians, of course, seem to think she is their own personal puppet. Meanwhile, within her, strange thoughts — memories? — are surfacing, along with disturbing feelings and urges. Can Yldenthorne nu Anathiel, wild child from the northern Venduinnen keep, protect her friends and the Crown from all that is occurring?
2006 Jul 27 Book 1: THE SECRET HEIR (published and available to you now). The War is over ... Wild child Yldenthorne nu Anathiel - known as Thorne to her friends - is brought to the capital to serve as the High King's heir. Everything is alien, and the culture of the Sacred City is complex and rigid. Thorne is persuaded by the High King to join the Esquires of Izschad, where she finds herself at the centre of controvery and tension.
Book 2: THE WILD CATALYST (published and available to you now). The Secret is out ... Publicly acknowledged as the High King's heir, Thorne becomes the flash-point for the realm's enemies. With bewildering forces churning around and within her, can Thorne protect her friends — and the Crown — from the evil forces at work in Applion?
Book 3: The Honour-Daughter (with the artist). Thorne encounters the depth of Izschadian rigidity.
Book 4: The Wicked Princess (with the artist). Thorne must exercise leadership in the King's absence and learn control over her considerable abilities.
Book 5: The Wizard Revealed (completed, being revised by the author). Many secrets are revealed.
Book 6: The Young Venduinn (in process with the author). Thorne returns home to the keep, no longer a child.
Book 7. The Singular Hinnitha. (in planning).
Book 8. The Commanding Hostage. The exciting — and surprising — conclusion to the sequence.
2006 Apr 15 Gale Macaulay-Newcombe has been reading and writing fantasy fiction almost as long as she can remember.
She has also been an avid player of AD&D since 1980 (the original advanced edition; we’ll have none of those new-fangled revisions!) and her circle of friends counts on her to produce a mind-bendingly complex murder mystery game for each New Year’s Eve.
She is, of course, a voracious consumer of fantasy and science fiction. Favourite authors include Barbara Hambly, J.R.R. Tolkein, Jo Clayton, Marion Zimmer Bradley, J.K. Rowlings, Orson Scott Card, C.J. Cherryh and Julie Czerdna. Best series ever published? Hambly’s The Time of the Dark. Well, either that or Tolkein’s overly-brief treatment of the destruction of an evil ring, but one tries not to be too predictable.
|
|
