Yup, I know. I said you wouldn’t have to wait a month for this, and here we are. Although in my defense, having to write up two book reviews to post on here did throw me off a bit. 😛 But enough of that and onto the good stuff.

In between juggling work and my studies on web dev, I’ve been making progress on Return of the Valris and fleshing out certain elements of the plot more. And expanding it.

To quote Nick Fury, “You’ve become part of a bigger universe. You just don’t know it yet.”

And bigger is precisely where we’re headed, folks.

Crown of Ravens really was a defining moment in the series. It expanded upon the world started in The Dark Wolf and was deeper, darker, and more emotional than anything I’d written before. For me, it was probably the best I had ever written at the time. And there was the intimidation. I’d reached the final book in the trilogy, against all odds, and was now faced with outdoing the previous book. A scary prospect.

So I did what I always do, and decided to say a prayer to the Author of all authors. And wouldn’t you know, that’s when the inspiration struck. 😉 Below, I’ve compiled a list of images that, without giving away any spoilers, will give you some ideas of where Return of the Valris is going and hopefully get you as excited for it as I am. 😀

Eldurin, home of the Valris.

 

 

As you can see, big difference in the scenery between the two. The second image really defines the path this story is taking, and that’s going more cosmic. Arandil is going to be doing a bit of traveling.

 

 

 

Villains, anyone? 😉 Zar’ul isn’t the only force to deal with, as evidenced here. Evil wears many forms.

 

 

A New character who will have a special part in the story. I invite all of you to try and guess her part. 😉

 

 

Wings aren’t edged with gold, I know, but it was too awesome an illustration to pass up on to represent the Great Ravens. And speaking of ravens…

 

 

We’re going to be seeing Elaine a little differently here. You’ve watched her grow in The Dark Wolf and Crown of Ravens. Her journey from an exiled lonely princess to a strong warrior queen culminates in the third book. Suffice it to say, we’re finally going to see Elaine unleashed like never before.

 

 

Of course, the Valris do headline the title, so it wouldn’t be the same without wolves, would it? 😉

And there you are. No spoilers, but hopefully enough visual candy to get your imagination running. I’ll post some updates later, and you can always follow me on Facebook and Twitter for more recent posts.

 

 

(Disclaimer: Images used are from Pixabay and belong to the respective uploaders on there. None of the images used express support for my work, and 
are used for illustration purposes solely.)

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Greetings, all! Been awhile since I posted something that wasn’t a review of a book or movie, so time to change that. And I want to start with giving an update on the final book to The Heart of Light Trilogy, and an apology on the lengthy delay in releasing it. It’s hard to believe that it’s been 2 years since Crown of Ravens was published. In that time, I’ve furthered my career in graphic designing, and just this year started taking courses so I can move into web development and design. I never forgot about the series and writing in general, but it’s one of those things that starts to get put in the back seat when you’re dealing with life and trying to support yourself. It gets harder and harder to make time when so much is needed for the more pressing issues, and every day you’re racing to catch up and cram as much as you can into that short space so you don’t fall behind. And with the audience for my books not being large, it was easier to put off the third book for “later”.

I’ll be honest, I never did much with marketing my books. I take full blame on that one. 😛 When I first published the series, I had to make the art myself, and while I was confident in the story itself (my mom and I did double-time on the editing) I wasn’t as confident in the cover art. If there’s one thing I pride myself in, it’s knowing a good cover. And while I will never knock my old work (it was pretty advanced for what I knew back then) I am brutally honest. It had some serious flaws, and trying to market a book with a cover you know is not put together very well is scary.

Last year was when my skills with making graphic art got to a point that I knew I could finally, FINALLY, give these stories the spectacular artwork I had always coveted in other books, and that they deserved.

I was already in a competition where the contestants needed to choose one of their older works and redo them. I looked through some of my older artworks, and the one for Crown of Ravens caught my eye. Right there, I decided to go for it. And behold, what I got was the art I had always dreamed of seeing on one of my books. I was even able to make the crown itself, a feat all on its own that I was unable to do before. (And yes, I was kicking myself for writing it as black. Gold sure would have easier. 😛 )

So Crown of Ravens was taken care of. It had a gorgeous cover, but now we come to The Dark Wolf. That book will always be my baby because it was my first, and from the start, I was never happy with the cover it got. Don’t get me wrong, I take pride in what I was able to make back then. I had ZERO experience making that stuff, and at the time, I had only a couple tutorials on Youtube to get me going. So it was big thing for me to even make a cover on my own. But again, I knew it had flaws, and it wasn’t the best work to represent the story. The first cover for Crown of Ravens had its own problems, but even that looked visually more appealing. As the years went by and I continued learning graphic art and design, The Dark Wolf went through 4 different cover variations as my skills gradually increased (I feel so sorry for putting it through that 😦 ). Last year was when the cover switching finally ended with the creation of the fifth and final work with a brand new piece of art.

Before

After

 

Before

After

I got both covers prepped and put together, then uploaded them to Amazon. Honestly, I did get a little thrill when the covers appeared on Amazon. 🙂 It was the art I had always dreamed of having for a story of mine. And at last, I finally had it. I did try to market it, but again I got sidetracked, and that was put on the back shelf. My workload was growing, and when I decided to take the leap into web development, that just added to my already full plate.

It was actually one of my friends who recently read my books that gave me the shot of encouragement and motivation I needed. And I realized I had to go back. I needed to finish what I started, not just for the dear readers out there, but also for myself and for the story that got me started on this journey through life. It was that first book, The Dark Wolf, that led me here. Now, I need to give it and the readers out there the ending they deserve.

Now you’re probably asking, “The update, man! Where are things with that third book (you dang slow author you)!”
Okay, enough suspense here. 😛 Currently, I’m still on the first draft but have managed to reach the halfway point on it. And I have already plotted out the remaining chapters, so no time will be wasted with wondering where the story should go. While a 2017 release is not likely at this point, 2018 is. I can’t give an exact date, but I’m looking at publishing the third book in either summer or fall of next year, depending on my schedule. Regardless, I want to let all of you know that the third book will be published, and the series resolved. And once again, I apologize for the LONG delay. The last chapter of The Heart of Light Trilogy is coming, folks. May have taken awhile, but it is coming, so hang in there.

Next post, I’ll be sharing some exciting news about what to expect for the third book. And I promise, I won’t do my usual and post a month later. 😉

(Disclaimer: Image and art used is my work and copyrighted)

And what do you know, another post without having to wait three or four months for it. Wonder if I’ll be able to do it again. 😉
But in the meantime, I wanted to share with all of you the remade covers for The Dark Wolf and Crown of Ravens. 😀
It’s amazing how far I’ve come as an artist, and I really do thank God for granting me the skill to do this stuff without having to hire someone for the job. Now The Heart of Light Trilogy is finally getting the covers it deserves. 🙂

Art below is mine and copyrighted. Full list of stock credits can be found here at my DeviantArt page: rreddvar.deviantart.com

Any who wish to buy the books, feel free to check them out on Amazon. 😉 http://myBook.to/TDW

A happy October to you all! It’s fall time, and it’s a season I always get excited about. Everything is colorful and the scent of Christmas seems to fill the air. It’s like magic comes to life in this world. This month, I thought I’d go ahead and leave an early post instead of leaving this blog unattended for months on end. Due to being almost ridiculously busy, I never got to leave a post here on Crown of Ravens being finally published. Below is the cover I made for the book, as well as the link if you wish to check the book out.

http://www.amazon.com/Crown-Ravens-Heart-Light-Trilogy-ebook/dp/B00VS6KRX0/ref=sr_1_1?tag=geolinker-20&s=digital-text

Gorgeous, isn’t it? It’s almost hard to believe that there’s only more book left to write in the series before the adventure is finished. I get misty-eyed just thinking about it! But all good things must come to an end, sad though it is to admit. One adventure ends, and another begins.

Currently, I’m almost a quarter of the way through the first draft of the third book, and things are looking good. The story is really shaping up into what I think is the most epic of The Heart of Light Trilogy, with a lot of surprises and twists that even caught me unawares. As I mentioned a couple posts back, I wanted to get to work on a new series to get published for next year. Good news and bad news. Good news is, most of the kinks have been worked out and I’m currently polishing things up in the first draft. What’s the bad news? I had a little over 6000 words written up for it that will mostly get scrapped, leaving me back to almost square one. Still, with everything mostly all set and ready to go, I should be able to make it up quick. I have also started two other projects, which I am super-excited about. Both are fairy tales and one of them I’m writing for this contest here.

The other is inspired a lot by the movie Maleficent and a fantasy book from the ’90s called Children of the Night by Harold Mrya. This one I’ve probably made the most headway in. Over fifteen thousand words and growing. Not too sure where it will finish at, but I’m hoping for something over the twenty-five thousand mark.
Anyway, that’s about it for now. Feel free to like or comment. Next Friday, I will be giving a sneak preview of one of my fairy tale novels, so make sure to tune in then. 😉

Happy 2015, everyone. Hopefully all of you are having a splendid new year (or at least passible anyway). Resolutions are something I tend not to really both with, unless it’s something like trying to just post more often on my blogs, but this month I decided to make two big ones in the area of writing. As those of you who follow my blog know, I am the author of a fantasy book series, the second book of which I have been working on to get published. My goal originally was to have the story published last year, but I ended up blowing past that entirely due to both lack of time as well as waiting on my proofies to finish with the story. This year, I’ll confess that I haven’t done much writing. Actually, to be honest, I haven’t done any. I just joined Deviant Art, a site where you can post your works of art, and have been caught up with polishing up my digital art making capabilities. Due to God’s excellent tutelage, I’ve actually become fairly good at photo-manipulating and am creating a fancier piece of art for Crown of Raven’s cover.

I’ve missed my writing, though, and so I decided to create a couple goals which I’m praying to meet. The first is to finish the series I’m writing now, The Heart of Light Trilogy. The second book is practically all set to go except for fixing the places in the story where the proofies thought needed work, a few tweaks to the cover’s art, and we’re all set. Then I can concentrate on going full speed ahead with the third book and getting that done. My second goal is to get work started on a new series which I hope to have done in time to publish for next year. It’s a tad ambitious, given my schedule and the fact that I usually like to work on one story at a time, but I figure why not? God gave me the talent and brains for the job, so let’s use them and see how far I can go. One other thing which I’m looking to do, which is not a resolution but something I’d be interested in doing, and that is making book covers for folks. In making my own covers and those for my sister, I’ve ended up creating five with a sixth on the way, and they have turned out pretty good. What’s more, due to surfing Deviant Art, I’ve come across a treasure trove of unrestricted stock photos that allow me greater freedom to make art that I before did not have the ability to create. And have I made some sweet art.

Anyway, there are my goals for the year, and I wish you God’s help (not luck since I don’t believe in that anymore than I believe in leprechauns) in whatever goals that you folks are looking to achieve this year.

Well, I was looking for something to post on here to hold to my promise of a second post this month, and I thought I might as well show all of you the official cover for my upcoming book, Crown of Ravens. All the art was made by me with a LOT of help by the good Lord above, with the exception of the water, which is a brush by obsidian dawn: obsidiandawn.com
If the image looks a little strange, it’s because I was trying to get it to match up with a scene in the book, which I think I nailed just about right. So anyway, feast your eyes and enjoy!

Well, despite my best efforts, I ended up not having a post ready for November. Things have been hectic lately with trying to get my new book published. One thing with a story, it’s like a kid you have to take care of constantly that demands most (if not all) your attention. Since I missed posting last month, I shall try to make up for it with a second post for December. I actually wasn’t sure what to put up for today, so I decided I’d let all of you have a sneak look at my upcoming book, Crown of Ravens, the exciting sequel to The Dark Wolf. Hopefully some of you will leave a comment or two. 😉 Enjoy!

***

CROWN OF RAVENS

Chapter One

Dark clouds covered the sky, and the distant echo of thunder rumbled ominously. A cold wind blew, its icy fingers trailing over the heads of ancient sculptures carved in the figures of crowned men and women in flowing robes, each standing over a sepulcher of stone, and bending the tall green grass that sprouted through the cracked, weathered cobblestones which dotted the small courtyard.

Alec shivered as he rode on a grey stallion, and he pulled his cloak tighter around him. The wounds he’d received from the battle at Tartha were aching from the cold, and he knew they would start paining him even worse the longer he sat there. The chill in the air was almost unnatural for this time of the year, making it feel more like the beginning of fall instead of summer.

As though anything has been natural lately, he thought as he watched the line of soldiers before him carrying the caskets containing the bodies of Annette and Gerald.

Alec heaved an inward sigh at the memories it brought. Once before he had made this journey when Hadrian had died, dutifully trailing behind Annette, who she rode at the head of the company with Elaine on her left and Gerald at her right, as they made their way to the tombs of the Romarian kings and queens.

It was a much different procession this time. There was no crowd of onlookers, no ostentatious ceremony, no courtiers, and only one priest in front of the procession. Whereas Hadrian had been taken to his resting place with much pomp and ceremony, Annette and Gerald were led without any fanfare, almost as though they were just mere commoners instead of royalty.

Elaine rode beside him, the wind tossing her auburn locks and causing her cheeks to redden. Although she looked composed, Alec could read the pain in her gaze. She had gone through much lately. From being kidnapped and held captive somewhere in the Southern Territory, to having to trek through it alone with the very one responsible for her disappearance, only to find her home under attack by an enemy beyond what any could have imagined. Now both her home and family were gone, as well as the one she had lost her heart to.

The procession soon stopped at the entrance to a sepulcher. No statue of the deceased lined the entrance, and Alec doubted any would soon be made in the future. For right now, both Annette and Gerald would lie together without any marker to bear remembrance to their existence.

He pulled his horse to a stop and watched as the men carried the bodies inside while the priest uttered the blessing of the dead. When the priest was done, he waved his hand and the soldiers pulled shut the great bronze doors, which the priest then locked. Once the priest and the men were seated on their horses, Elaine turned her steed around and led the procession back in the direction of Tartha.

As if on cue, the heavens opened and the rain that had held off suddenly poured down upon them. Alec pulled up his hood to shield his head from the downpour and looked at Elaine sorrowfully as she rode slightly ahead of them. She made no move to try to protect herself from the rain and rode through the shower without pause.

Alec released a heavy stream of white vapor from his lips. How long ago was it since he had been at that point? How many times had he been close to falling over the edge of the pit of utter despair and grief, and yet had to pull himself back up? When his wife and son died, part of him had died with them, and for a long time he had been perilously close to letting it all go and joining them.

But he had not. Somehow, he had gotten the strength to go on, although not without much inward pain and sadness that never left. He wondered if Elaine was that strong and it scared him to think of what might happen if she was not.

And there is nothing I can do. That was the hardest part. Watching the little girl he had known and loved suffer so and being helpless to bring her out of it pained him deeply. In a way, he wished Darvir was here right now.

It was hard not to be suspicious of the man’s sudden disappearance, despite Elaine’s explanation of him being forced into a portal by the one called Ruval, who had orchestrated the attack on Tartha. She had not said much, and Alec had refrained from asking more. While Alec didn’t trust Darvir fully, he had seen the love and adoration in Elaine’s eyes when she looked at him, and he would have gladly put aside his reservations if having him here would have helped made things easier for Elaine.

It had been two days since the horrific battle fought at Tartha. Two long, miserable days of hunting down the last of the beasts called grorgs, searching for any survivors, sorting through the wreckage, dragging out the burnt and mutilated bodies of the townsfolk and soldiers for burial, and burning the ones of the grorgs. It was an enormous task and partly why it had taken so long to attend to the burying of Annette and Gerald.

A bleak and dour mood seemed to hang over everyone. Even Alec couldn’t help feeling overwhelmed and depressed when he saw all the destruction and death around them, and with talk now about this Zar’ul being real and preparing to attack all of Elser, it only added to the weight. He couldn’t remember there ever being a time in Romar’s history as dark as this.

The rain eventually began to slack off as they reached the city and entered the remains of what had once been the most envied and beautiful city in the world.

Alec stared at the burned wrecks around them. Several buildings had collapsed completely, while others leaned hap-hazardly on their foundations, their roofs caved in and the once polished white stone now blackened beyond recognition.

The streets were stained with blood and strewn with rubble, and several times they had to lead their horses around large piles of fallen stone which lay in the middle of the road. It broke Alec’s heart to see such grandeur and life gone from a city that once had been the glory of all of Elser.

Is this what awaits us all? To see everything laid waste before we ourselves lie among the ruin? Normally, Alec was not one given to such gloomy ruminations, but this devastation had shaken him to the core, challenging everything he thought he knew and rocking his foundation. The things he had taken for legends were unfolding before his very eyes, and monsters once thought to be old wives’ tales lived and breathed.

Alec had always prided himself on being a man not given to superstition or fables. He had believed only in the world around him and the physical things it held. Nothing existed beyond that, or so he’d thought. Sorcery, portals, daemonolves—these were now the new reality, and he didn’t know how to reconcile himself to it.

Alec and the rest rode up the path to the entrance of the palace. When they entered, he glanced at the host of men and elves patrolling the area and clearing away the wreckage in their search for bodies.

Of the legion of elves Lord Arthorr had sent with them, nearly a quarter were dead or injured. Fortunately, Romarian troops, six thousand strong already en-route for the invasion of Draidin Wood, had received word of the attack and arrived to help, albeit too late to do anything more than help with the finding of the dead and survivors and searching for what few grorgs had fled the battle.

It was strange to see the two races together after centuries of warfare and mistrust, and while both had put aside the old hatreds and prejudices for now, occasionally it still flared up, causing more than a few fights to break out. Such occurrences were troublesome, but on a whole, both sides were doing better together than Alec would have thought possible.

A multitude of tents dotted the outer courtyard of the palace that had been mostly cleared of debris. With the main residence completely ransacked and in a state of ruin like the rest of the place, they were left with no other choice but to camp outside, while the majority of the Romarian soldiers were stationed near the outskirts of the city.

Alec was surprised when Elaine abruptly broke away and rode off in the direction of the main residence. He stopped for a moment and watched her go before motioning to some of the men behind him.

As they followed after her, Alec dismissed the priest and the rest of his men before continuing on alone into the camp. He sighed regretfully. Although he knew what Elaine was feeling and hated intrusions on her privacy, with Annette and Gerald dead she was the last of the royal line, and he could not afford to take any chances with her safety, regardless of the circumstances.

He pulled his horse to a stop when he heard voices arguing heatedly. Alec frowned when he spotted two soldiers, one a man and the other an elf, open anger painting their features as they faced each other, looking nearly ready to come to blows.

What is it now? No doubt it was some imagined slight or insult that had started the whole thing, and, as usual, everyone nearby turned a blind eye to the whole matter.

Alec urged his horse towards them before halting and swinging down from the saddle. He suppressed a grimace at the stab of pain that shot up his injured leg and called out authoritatively. “What seems to be the problem?”

His voice cut short their squabbling. The man, seeing him, immediately straightened and saluted sharply. The elf did nothing else except fold his arms and look at Alec with a look bordering on disdain.

“It’s nothing, sir,” the man said stiffly. “It was simply a misunderstanding, is all.”

A misunderstanding. There had been a lot of that lately, and Alec was growing more than exasperated with it. There were enough things to deal with without having to add more fuel to the fire.

“I see. Let there be no more ‘misunderstandings’ then,” Alec said sharply. “I understand we have not always been friends with the elves, but we are now allies with them, so I would suggest that both of you learn to get along with each other. Understood?”

“Yes, sir,” the man replied grudgingly.

Alec looked at the elf. The elf met his stare defiantly and said in a harsh voice, “I take no orders from humans.”

Alec’s eyes narrowed, his anger now beginning to rise at the elf’s insolence. “You may not be under my command, but as your rank is still below mine, you will show some proper respect or I will thrash you myself,” he growled.

The elf’s eyes widened for a moment in surprise before anger darkened them, and his hand crept to the hilt of his sword. “You are welcome to try if you have the strength, old man.”

The Romarian soldier next to the elf stared at him in shock for a moment before raising his hand angrily. “You stinking elf! That’s the last insult you’ll make!”

I meant to get this up sooner, but again, I didn’t have the time until now.
As those of you who have been following my blog know, I was forced to take down the e-book of my book, The Dark Wolf, due to multiple formatting errors. After a few days of tinkering with it, I got it back up and running, this time error free. I will admit, this whole thing has been a huge learning process and MORE than a good bit of work. But the pain in my eyeballs from staring at the screen too long, and the general frustration when I saw another snag that needed to be corrected was worth it to finally have this DONE. Now, due to the formatting I used, when you go to Amazon and press the ‘Click to View Inside’ it won’t show any page breaks. This is not due to any formatting errors on my part. I recently learned that this feature Amazon has carries a few bugs, so unless you have really complex formatting, the page breaks won’t show. Seeing as how I’m not into making things harder than they need to, I opted to go with the simpler formatting that still delivers great results.
Those page breaks are there and will show with the e-book itself when you purchase it or download the free sample Amazon offers, so don’t worry. I checked with several authors to be sure of this, and each one verified it. So anyway, here’s the link, (again) and when you buy the book, please consider leaving a review on Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HSTAVIM

And on a sidenote, for my next post, I will leave a few helpful tips on how to format your own e-book. God knows, after what I went through, I want to make sure you guys have enough info so you can avoid the pitfalls.

Goodness, has this blog really fallen into oblivion. My apologies, folks. Lately, I have been busy with getting my book published, and I am happy to say that my book, The Dark Wolf, is finally all taken care of and available for purchase in both print and e-book formats. It was a long process, but God is good, and the dream is now a reality. Talk about finally reaching the light at the end of the tunnel. 🙂 If any of you would like to check it out, here are the links to view the book on Amazon.com.

e-book: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HSTAVIM

paperback: http://www.amazon.com/Dark-Wolf-Heart-Light-Trilogy/dp/1492260452/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1387329736&sr=1-1&keywords=The+Dark+Wolf+by+J.M.+Christian