Jakob Chapman's Blog

I had a feeling that this year's NaNoWriMo would be one of the most meaningful months for my writing in a while. The completion of the sixth Chronicle of Almoriden would bring me full circle, back to the viewpoint character that started it all back in 2014. It was not the easiest year to complete the necessary 50,000 words, but marked the nineth win out of ten total attempts. While I am not entirely satisfied, there is much to celebrate!

The Return of Mikkjal

"I was reborn in a burning world and pledge to extinguish the flames of tyranny."

One of my top fears of writing this novel was writing from the viewpoint of Mikkjal again. I feel like my writing skills have grown a lot since I last wrote as that character, and I worried that it might take me a while to conjure him again. However, this turned out to be a non-issue. As soon as I started writing, I knew he was still there, waiting to tell more of his story. I did my best to record his thoughts and actions as he went out on the new adventure. I hope that my readers feel the same way when the book comes out.

The Process

As in previous years, I relied heavily on dictation to write this year. I used my commute into work to advance the story. At night, I would go over the transcription and clean it up a little (hopefully saving me some edit time, an issue I ran into editing parts of The Painted Ship). There were a few days when I dictated at night, but my consistent writing times were Monday through Thursday. Thanksgiving, as always, is a poor time for writing. I also took it easy on Black Friday, writing only 21 words both holidays.

One thing that I have realized about my process over the years is that I work best by planning the beginning of the story and the end of the story. Then I write the action in the middle as an exercise of delaying the inevitable until I can no longer do so. I may have done it too well this year, but I will get to that eventually.

The Data

My goal was to try to write 2,000 words each day (333 words over par). For the most part, I was able to do that.

My grand total was 56,005 words. I was able to write every day.

I wanted to see a little more consistency, but I will take it.

On average I wrote 1,806 words per day. My goal was 2,000, but it was still over the needed 1,667 words.

On an interesting side note, I was able to get over 500,000 all-time words in NaNoWriMo.

My Concerns

While I exceeded the 50,000 words, I did not finish the story. I am really close. I know what needs to happen and most of how to make it happen. I just need to get it written. It should only take me a few dictation sessions. Other than that, I think I have written a solid first draft.

The Chronicles of Almoriden Book Six: The Dragon Queen

Allow me to introduce you to my newest book! I feel like the book fits well as a sequel to The Merchant of Vaetskan and the conclusion of the second wave of books. I suspect that it will be a few years before it will be ready to share in its entirety, but it takes place about 300 years after we last heard from Mikkjal. I have saved many details that were in The Merchant of Vaetskan to be callbacks and puzzle pieces in The Dragon Queen.

I tried several methods of waking Naizer: a gentle touch, a rougher poke with one of the fireplace tools, placing a ham hock near his nostril, and finally prying open an eyelid with a shoehorn—the shoehorn did the trick.

If you have not read my fantasy novels, you can pick up Books 1 - 4 on Amazon. Book 1 is free!

With the advent of Kindle Vella, I wanted to write a story that would be well-suited for that platform. At the same time, I was playing around with the idea of using AI text generation to make decisions within the story, like a dice roll in a RPG. The resulting story was The Brief History of Silverpeak. I viewed the story as a writing exercise to practice worldbuilding and framed it as an abridged history of a fantasy world. This afforded me to liberally use exposition to frame the world then populate it with interesting stories, only to move on to the next generation (or linger if I found the characters interesting).

Time has passed since Kindle Vella was launched, and my stories have gained very little attention, which is fine. It was a very experimental way of writing. However, I enjoyed writing this way and enjoyed revisiting the project.

What has brought me back to this project is the advent of good AI text to image tools. It felt appropriate to create some images for the episodes, since AI had helped me make decisions about what the characters would do.

I created images that go along with each episode. There are six currently published episodes. I have written a total of ten episodes. If you like these images, please read the stories. If people read the stories, I will release more episodes. You can start reading for free here. Please enjoy the art!

Episode 1: The Dragonking's Fall and The Stone of Letap Episode 2: Tenebrar and the Song of Urskyr Episode 3: Ingold, Iravan, and the Sword of the Lion Episode 4: The Army of Ingold Episode 5: Ingold and the Last Five Thousand Episode 6: Rejbon and the Mist Dweller Unpublished EpisodesEpisode 7: The Mists of StegoiEpisode 8: Arema and the Mist DwellerEpisode 9: Arema and the Glass ShipEpisode 10: The Curse of Moetheir

About a week ago, I had the pleasure of sitting down for an interview with Ted Huggins, the creator and main narrator for the Cosmic/Sci-Fi Horror podcast Cryo Pod Tapes. My short story IMMUNE SYSTEM was used as his first episode (you can listen to my story below).

During the interview, I was asked what influenced me to become a horror author. I answered that I did not really consider myself a horror author. My answer was a little surprising since my story was published in a horror podcast, and I was being interviewed as a horror author. Over the past week, I have thought about the role of horror in my writing and have decided to share some of my thoughts.

I suppose I really am a horror author. I mean, why not? I enjoy reading horror. I enjoy writing it too. However, I am wary of being defined by it. I suppose one of the reasons for this is a degree of uncertainty I have when writing horror. I enjoy the process, but it requires a different mentality than writing pure sci-fi or fantasy. The main thought I have when writing a horror story is Am I being scary or am I just being weird? I feel like it is a fine line to walk. I usually do not worry about being weird, but when the crux of the story requires me to produce a frightening thrill, it is insufficient just to be strange.

I view horror elements more as tools in my toolbox rather than a template I use for every story. It is like romance. I would not write a very good romance novel, but all my novels thus far have romance as an element. Rarely, I choose horror as my primary tool. Even in my story IMMUNE SYSTEM, I feel like horror is not the main element of the story. It is a sci-fi story with horror aspects. Part of being a writer is having a bunch of tools that you can select and use when you deem it appropriate. Therefore, a good writer will develop each skill and have it ready to use. Horror is an element that I have not fully developed, but it is an aspect of storytelling that I want to continue to improve.

Cryo Pod Tapes is a great melting pot of stories. Yes, it is horror, but it is horror with a sci-fi or cosmic twist. I enjoy that flavor of horror best. Every time I listen to Ted's rendition of my story, I am glad that it found a home on his podcast.

I am not easily scared by horror stories, especially a story I am writing. However, I am interested in what other authors deem frightening and what devices they use. I spent time this week catching up on episodes of the Cryo Pod Tapes. I enjoyed the stories and decided to write a new horror short story. After all, reading is writing, and if done correctly, you cannot do one without doing the other.

As emphasized in other blog posts, I strive to be a poet first, last, and always. My goal with my new story was to try to make a sublime story, a story that scares through immensity and unrealized potential—through poetry. These are not the only horror aspects in the story, but I focused on language and concrete imagery. It was nice to return to the short story format, where I did not have to worry about a long plot or slow character arcs. I focused on my character's voice and his desires. The story has a constant build of plot and consequence and a twist about halfway through. It was fun to take a week and concentrate on a story that is not necessarily a genre I consider within my usual wheelhouse.

Is my story any good? I like it, but we will see if it finds its way over to Cryo Pod Tapes. I want to see what my alpha reader thinks first. She should be able to tell me if I am being scary or weird. I hope for a little bit of both.

So, I do stand by my answer in the interview, in the sense that horror will likely be the exception rather than the rule of my writing, but it is a tool that I will continue to develop. Therefore, if you enjoy horror, you should see the occasional scary story (or at least really weird) from me. If you really want to see more horror out of me, let me know in a comment on my blog or message me on Twitter.

My conversation with Ted should be published in the near future on his podcast.

Be sure to support Ted and the other talented writers and narrators over at Cryo Pod Tapes. Subscribe and leave a review so he can continue to make quality content.

Now, listen to my short story IMMUNE SYSTEM:

November is just around the corner. The Painted Ship (Chronicles of Almoriden Book 4) is just about out of the editing stage, and I hope to have it ready for a December release date. I will begin editing The Sapphire Gate (Book 5) in January. I will start writing the first draft of Book 6 on November 1.

Novel prep is not something that I put a lot of time into. Generally, I figure out a starting point and an ending point, and I figure out the middle as I write the book. However, Book 6 of the series seems different for me. The Painted Ship and The Sapphire Gate feel like launching points for the characters in my stories. Book 6 seems more of a landing point that needs more consideration.

I do not want to spoil anything from a book I have not written yet, but I am spending a little more time this year prepping for Book 6, and I thought it would be fun to share my prepping process.

I am not very talented at drawing (after all, I started writing because I found that writing was easier than making the art for a graphic novel), but visualizing helps me focus and makes the ideas more real than the tentative words. I like to devote half of my page to notes and the other half to a drawing.

I want to shout-out my friends at Ox & Pine who made my novel notebook. It is a prototype, but it has served me well over the years. It is refillable and holds my fountain pen. It fits in my pocket and protects the valuable notes and sketches. They have many options, and it is worth checking them out, especially if you are looking for a journaling solution.

My notebook contains the inscription "Don't get it right. Get it written." First drafts are where the mistakes are made. Most notes have question marks and are subject to change. Prepping is about collecting all the ideas I can, so I can pick the best ones to include in my first draft. Many of the ideas go unused, but I have them saved in my notebook.

I almost exclusively use my fountain pens for novel prep. There is something special about cleaning the pen, filling it with ink, and writing with stained fingertips. Almost all my writing is done on my computer or phone. Scratching raw ideas on the paper pages is a tactile experience that I miss most of the year.

When I write my novel, I rarely consult my notes. Instead, I let the story unfold from my mind and record what happens.

Here are a few drawings I have so far. I have crossed out the notes. I hope you enjoy them!

In addition, I have been looking for cover art that works well with the concepts I am exploring. I always create a cover for my book before NaNoWriMo. The first cover does not always end up being the final cover, but it is an important placeholder. The cover makes the novel real, even before it is written. Usually, this means pouring over databases of public domain artwork. However, I have been using the AI image creator Dall-E 2 to bring some of my ideas to life. Here are a few concepts I am considering for the cover:

I should be announcing the working title of this novel as we get closer to NaNoWriMo. Until then, be sure to get caught up on The Chronicles of Almoriden at www.amazon.com/dp/B08MLCD8V5. Don't forget to write a nice review!

Also check out my friends at Ox & Pine at www.facebook.com/oxandpine/shop.

As I edit book four of my fantasy series, The Chronicles of Almoriden, I have thought a lot about how poetry influenced my fantasy novels. I write a lot of poetry that is not tied to my fiction, but I have enjoyed having poetry be an important part of my fantasy world.

George R. R. Martin wrote a wonderful memorial about my favorite fantasy author Roger Zelazny. His sentiments can be summarized by the first line of the memorial:

"He was a poet first, last, always."

This simple sentence has changed the way I look at poetry and how it interacts with my fiction. I have adopted it as a mantra as I write fiction, especially as I edit. "I am a poet first, last, always." I do not always achieve this goal, nor do I think that I have the poetic talent of Roger Zelazny, but I have found that by writing with this in mind, my viewpoint characters have license to be poets.

My first exploration into the world of Almoriden was in the form of a poem.

I was taking my advanced poetry course at the same time I was prepping to write The Merchant of Vaetskan. If I had to write a ballade, it might as well be addressed to the prince of the world I was creating.

The poem also described events that the viewpoint character did not witness and solidified the structure of Historical Notes and Interludes of the first three books.

As mentioned before, writing poetic fiction has allowed my characters to be more poetic. This is most notable with the Rhymes of the Mariner. These pieces of verse show up periodically throughout the novels and allow me to explore the story in different ways and viewpoints. I have amassed quite a few of these little poems. Many of them make their way into the novels, some do not. Perhaps someday I will publish them as a complete volume, but only if I can convince the Artist of Oesterfeld to write the forward. Until then, I will continue to write them for my own amusement and sneak them into my novels when I can.

It only seems fitting to share one of these rhymes, which may or may not be included in book four The Painted Ship:

Swords slashed the muzzled night

Fire burned the day to dust.

Worms ate the tired rust.

and broken was their sight.

When death comes by sharp thrust

that breaks through the starlight

with tears and blood contrite

that shatters outer crust

then deserved are bones white

drinking both love and lust

breaking both faith and trust

under golden moonlight.

The conclusion that I come to is that poetry will always be a part of The Chronicles of Almoriden. My characters may not always be poets, but I will always strive to be a poet first, last, and always.

If you have not read The Chronicles of Almoriden, you can get book one, The Prince of Gylion free here.

When I set out to write my first fantasy book, I did not think it was going to be a series. Five books later (three published and two in various stages of drafting), I can only guess how many more books will be written in the world I first imagined. There are days when I think it will be nine and others when it is ten. We will see. There are other places and other stories that I would like to explore, but I am committed to at least exploring three more books in the world of Almoriden.

I am very pleased how book four is taking shape. It is refreshing to come back to characters instead of inventing all new ones. It also provides an interesting way to read or reread the series. Chronologically, this book takes place second in the series. So, if you have only read The Prince of Gylion it is perfectly fine to jump right into this story. The goal is to write additional books for each of the three viewpoint characters.

Jaemis:

The Prince of Gylion - Book One

The Painted Ship - Book Four

TBD - Book Seven

Floridine:

The Artist of Oesterfeld - Book TwoThe Sapphire Gate - Book Five

TBD - Book Eight

Mikkjal:

The Merchant of Vaetskan - Book Three

TBD - Book Six

TBD - Book Nine

I do not have a solid date of when The Painted Ship will be finished, but I am about 72% finished working my way through the draft. After that, I run it by my alpha reader and make a few edits based on that feedback. I am hoping it will be ready to be published before November, when I plan on writing the first draft of Book Six.

As a special treat, here is an excerpt from "Chapter One" of the Painted Ship. Please remember that this is an uncorrected proof and copyrighted material. Please do not quote from this excerpt. If you have not read The Prince of Gylion, you can get your free copy here. Enjoy!

"Excerpt from Chapter One"

Selja kicked me out of the kitchen after I unsuccessfully juggled three of the eggs. I waited in the drawing room. The room had large bay windows with lattice glass that faced the bay. One of these was cracked open to let in the early summer breeze. A small collection of books occupied a row of shelves on the far wall. Most of these were Selja's notebooks that she had rewritten since we arrived in Almoriden. There was one exception. I reached for the small bound volume and untied the leather clasp that held it bound.

The paper smelled of lamp oil, and there were several stains from drips when late nights required hasty filling. The penmanship was like my own but messy. I stopped on a page that was mid-poem.

The wind that winds eastward

melodic in cold tones

once sang a song of fools

gambling for stone thrones.

If wind be silver paint

melodic in cold tones,

give me a painted ship

for toppling stone thrones.

The poem went on about bones and blood, but I had read it all before. The whole collection seemed a criticism of every choice I made. Restless were those first years as king, and the Mariner—that double of myself—wrote his lengthy poem while I slept. I translated about a quarter of the poems in the back of the book, and I decided to continue that work.

I closed my eyes and wondered if reading his words would wake him. I wrapped the book in an oilcloth Selja kept on the bookcase to protect books when she traveled. I slipped the bundled book of poems in the pocket of my cloak.

I walked to the fireplace and fingered the cold, iron handles of the tools that dangled from hooks embedded in the stone. A new painting hung over the mantle. The previous painting was a landscape of Blackwell—snow-crested mountain looming over a mirror lake. The new scene depicted a dark and turbulent sea. A distant ship navigated the swells. The ship was not unlike the Grogos.

I longed for the wind and water but saw oil and fabric—a painted ship on a painted ocean. Perhaps I had, as the Mariner accused, traded a ship for a throne. It was not as simple as the poem or painting depicted, but both no longer occupied the same space at the same time.

"I bought that painting at the Almoriden market," Selja said. She eased behind me and handed me a bowl with only two fried eggs but a hearty helping of grits.

"You are not supposed to go to market," I said.

"If you visited more often, I would not have to sneak out."

I took a large bite of food.

"Do you like the painting?" she asked.

"It saddens me in a pleasant way," I observed.

She nodded.

"That was how I knew I must have it."

"I want us to be happy."

"I can be patient," she said, "but you have to recognize when your work is finished. And when it is, we need to be on that ship."

I stared at the little vessel. Its sails were trimmed, but the angle at which it approached the serge was too shallow. The tribulations of the sea seemed real, but the ship was artifice.

"I promise that we will sail east before the year's end. The winds and waves are favorable in that season, and I will have the time to set right my father’s house."

She stared at me and then the painting.

"For some reason, I cannot picture us on a calm sea—even if we make it onto the water.”

“I can handle a turbulent crossing,” I said.

“I hope you are right."

She sat on the small couch and watched me eat. A servant knocked on the door and informed Selja that my horse was prepared.

The road to Almoriden was long, but I knew the path well. There would be time to think and plan. I now had a deadline and a lead.

"When will you come again?" Selja asked as I removed my brother’s sword from pegs on the wall.

"If not this next month, then the next."

"And if not that month, then the next," she said.

"I wish I had a better answer."

"Be gone then. I will pack my things and practice my sailing knots. It will be good to see Gylion again. I hope father is well."

"All intelligence suggests that he is. He will be happy to have you back."

I kissed her.

"Safe travels, stranger."

I kissed her again.

#NaNoWriMo 2021 is just around the corner, and I am pleased to announce that I am participating this year. I will be writing the first draft of the fifth book in the Chronicles of #Almoriden. The working title of this draft is The Sapphire Gate. This book will pick up after book two and will have the Artist of Oesterfeld as the VP character.

I am looking forward to exploring my characters in greater detail as I move them closer to the close of their part of the story.

For those of you who have not read my fantasy series, you can check it out on Amazon. Book one is free in Kindle format.

Until November 1st, I will still be working on book four, The Painted Ship. I am still on track for a mid to late 2022 release. If you would like updates on my progress, please follow me on Twitter.

Thank you again for your interest in my writing!

I feel like I have been writing at a high level for a long time but not seeing the fruit of my hard work. Publishing three novels last November was a surreal experience. The three books were the bulk of my writing from 2014 - 2020. It has been winding road to this point, but I have a little more prospective of what I would like to accomplish in the future.

Last November, I wrote the first draft of The Painted Ship, the fourth book in The Chronicles of Almoriden. I am currently editing and revising that draft.

My current goal is to publish this book either in late 2021 or early 2022. Since my writing is "out there" now, I want to be more transparent about my progress and what I am working on.

That means you have some time to check out my other books while you wait for the next installment. If you have not already done so, please check out the Amazon link below. Book one is free. Thanks to my friends and family who have been supportive of my writing. I hope to drop a writing update every few weeks.

The Chronicles of Almoriden:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08MLCD8V5

In the absence of the gods, the world belongs to men. Melok, the Sifter of Souls, destroyed his own divine race and is bound in a prison of molten gold. Men must find a way to balance the magic left behind by the gods, the political vacuum, and their own god-given weaknesses. The kingdom of Almoriden stands ready to unite all men or fall trying.