Red Wolf Blogs

 From the 12/22/23 newsletter: 21st Day of the Frost Moon, 1218th Year, Human Age of Magic ... The days have been hectic since my last journal entry. The king has appointed me executor of the late Alchemist's estate until he can find and appoint a replacement, and the sorcerer left his accounts in such disarray that I've been bombarded from all sides with petty claims for payments or for services left unrendered. Plus, I've had several unwanted visits from a powerful member of the Protectorate, the dragon Pieter. Well, the first visit was not entirely unwelcome. I'd requested help removing the Eye of Ellindrell from the forehead of the sleeping golem, and I was grateful the Protectorate sent a dragon to do it. But I wasn't expecting someone so high up in the hierarchy, and we've had a few conversations that I've found disturbing. For anyone reading this journal that doesn't already know, the dragons co-founded the Protectorate, along with the elves, for ...

 From the December 1st newsletter: When I first started writing, I did very little outlining. I had a vague idea where I wanted the story to go, and I just wrote free-form, letting the characters develop themselves and the story unfold as it would. It was magical. Nowadays, since I'm trying to make a living at it, with deadlines to meet and daily word counts to achieve, a good bit of outlining is an absolute necessity. And especially with writing an epic fantasy series. where world building needs to be intricate and detailed, I keep not only an outline of each novel, but a "bible" of sorts, with lists of characters, their descriptions and motivations, conflict maps, flora and fauna, "W" plot lines--the list goes on. All this has made my writing more efficient. I can tell an editor six months ahead of time when the book will be ready, what the word count will be, and I can get it to them on time. But, in exchange for efficiency, some of the magic has been sucked ...

 From the November 17th newsletter... Hey folks. It's time for another excerpt from the Goblin Diaries. Things seem to be heating up in Trevor' world. 18th Day of the Frost Moon, 1218th Year, Human Age of Magic ... The mercenary, Tsing, arrived yesterday afternoon having procured the Eye of Ellindrell. However, he does not carry Ka'il Idreth. The rumor that he has a sword that sings seems merely to refer to his prowess with the blade. Still, I was counting my blessings when he turned over the Eye to the Alchemist ... ... until the feces hit the fan. Tsing delivered the Eye, and the Alchemist paid him half his fee, promising the remainder once he had balanced his ledger--part of the spell he worked up to conjure the god, Vale. My master was up all night completing his work, and when Tsing arrived this morning to collect the rest of his fee, the Alchemist apparently chose to demonstrate his work. I have no idea exactly what happened, but I knew something had gone terribly wro...

 From the 11/3/23 newsletter: When people ask me why I write, I usually just say that I enjoy telling stories and that I'm enamored of the creative process in general. It's not untrue. But some of my indie writing mentors have been encouraging me to dig a little deeper--no, a lot deeper. They insist on it as a marketing necessity, that a good author brand can only come from such a searching of the soul--that I must find my true author "why" before I can connect with my readers. I'm hiding an eyeroll behind my pen here. But the folks that are pushing me to do this--well, they have some credibility with successful writing careers under their belts. So, I've overcome my natural resistance to digging into my psyche--it can get kind of scary in there--and I've uncovered what I can only describe as Survivor's Guilt. By all rights, I shouldn't be here. I had childhood illnesses that would have taken me from this world had I been born a few decades earlier...

(From the 10/20/2023 newsletter)  14th Day of the Harvest Moon, 1218th Year, Human Age of Magic ... I've been busy--too busy to keep up this journal as I had hoped. It has taken me nearly a year to bring my plan to fruition, but I'm finally on the verge of retrieving the Eye of Ellindrell and Ka'il Idreth.  I arrived in Azureth almost a year ago. I sought out the Alchemist and was able to persuade him to employ me as an assistant, convincing him of my ability to translate and otherwise interpret most of the Fae manuscripts he has accumulated. At first, I was little more than a glorified housekeeper--and let me tell you, some of the chores around here are thoroughly disgusting. When I first came on, he had me collecting hundreds of frogs daily from the marshes around Lake Marin and then cleaning the messes he made using them in his experiments with spells. Thank the gods I've been able to discourage some of that experimentation with more accurate translations of the manu...

  27th Day of the Frost Moon, 1217th Year, Human Age of Magic ... Humans are so willing to babble on and on, pretending to be experts on things they know nothing about, especially when their tongues are loosened with a bit of wine. However, intermingled with their babblings are often hidden gems of valuable information. I've been sitting around the evening campfires as our caravan makes its way south, pouring cups and listening, and I am convinced there are two extremely valuable elven artifacts in the area that need retrieving as soon as possible--the Eye of Ellindrell and Ka'il Idreth (The Sword That Sings). The Eye of Ellindrell appears to be a particularly large ruby with a mesmerizing, pulsating bubble trapped inside. Its intended usage is a power source for the creation and opening of portals. As unlikely as it might be that some human may discover its true purpose and use it to travel the realms, a human mule--sorry, sorcerer --can easily tap into its power to conjure al...

 From the August 18, 2023 newsletter ... 19th Day of the Frost Moon, 1217th Year, Human Age of Magic ... After only a few days spent in the human port city of Arleanne, it has become obvious that faerie spawn will be too dangerous to work with. I need to find a mule . Perhaps I should take a moment to explain my use of the above pejoratives. Not that I care so much whoever reads this might be offended--I want to leave no chance for misunderstanding in this diary. You see, the problem of having Fae artifacts in the hands of humans is compounded by the fact there is now a good bit of Fae blood present in the human gene pool and therefore humans who possess some powers they call magic. I call such half humans faerie spawn  for obvious reasons. Okay, if it's not obvious, I'll tell you straight. The Faeries have been primarily responsible for inserting non-human DNA into the local population. I know there has been intermittent intermingling among humans and elves, some dragons, an...