DWinchester posts
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Tenebroum Ch. 54-55
Ch. 54 - GoneBrother Verdinen was slow to rise every morning, even though it was a small sin in of itself not to get up at dawn and greet the sun god Siddrim when he graced the mortal realm with one more day of light and life. Normally he justified such bad behavior by telling himself that he was up far too late studying the scriptures, but today he had no such excuse. All he could say was that several days on the road had done him no favors, and several nights of sleeping on rocks had been far from restful. By the time he was dressed up and ou...
Death After Death Ch. 37-38
Ch. 37 - Achievement UnlockedUltimately, his plan was a simple one: bring what he needed, kill a few goblins, and chill out for a few months or years. “Lifetimes, maybe,” he mumbled as he laced up his armor again.In between inventing Saturday morning cartoons that should have existed but never did and trying to remember what color Freya’s eyes were, he’d given a lot of thought about the mistakes he’d made in the dungeon, and the biggest ones was abandoning his search to find somewhere else to be rather than going ever deeper into the ...
The Limits to Retroactive Improvement
Though Tenebroum gets most of the love and Golemancer and Death After Death get most of the hate when it comes to the things I write, the other day someone was kind enough to leave a 1.5 star on Ch. 7 of Tenebroum. This is the chapter where the Lich rises up and take the village. That struck me as odd of course, because most everyone really likes that chapter, but taking this spiteful form of feedback in hand I went back to see what could be improved on.Of course, there were tons of corrections and improvements to be made. There usually are in ...
Tenebroum Ch. 50-53
Alright. Weekly posts now. I've tried hard to step up my editing game. I hope you notice a difference!Ch. 50 - ComeuppanceOf all the lords dragged screaming and bleeding into the darkness, only one truly mattered to the Lich. Oh, it tried to take as many of the preening peacocks alive as possible, of course, but only so his favorite Count could have an audience for all the indignities to follow. Only Kelvun truly mattered, though. Only he got an ounce of gentleness as the region’s nobility was herded into the dark for what came next.He wa...
Death After Death Ch. 35-36
Alright, volume number 2 of the story is now starting: Life After Death After Death is here. It's only 1 chapter ahead of the public, but I will improve that over the next few weeks. Enjoy!Ch. 35 - IntermezzoThe darkness came and went for Simon, though it was impossible to judge exactly how long each cycle took. Still, each time his view of the desert was replaced by dirt and shadows, it was utterly terrifying.He would be plunged into absolute darkness for some indefinite period, with nothing but a dull ache for company. Then he would sudde...
Posting Frequency
So, as you know, I post patron advance chapters every other week. This week though, my posting of Golemancer chapters out of cycle (to bring them to 5 ahead post Writeathon) led to a conversation. Why? Why not post chapters every week?It's a fair question. I do it to avoid unnecessary email spam, and because its slightly less work for me. It also clutters up the feed less I suppose - so a new patron has to do less searching, but that's pretty minor. I'm open to changing that to a weekly posting schedule if that's what people wan...
The Plan
So, I already made a post this week, but a couple new patrons asked me recently, when am I going to do X or Y, so I thought I would take the time to write them down. Afterall, I love lists. Finish Writeathon - Done Finish New Tenebroum Cover - Done Finish Bonus chapters for Tenebroum Act 1 ending (5 or 6) Get Golemancer up to 5 chapters ahead for Patreon (1 of 5 presently) Start Life After Death After Death Get Life After Death After Death up to 5 chapters ahead for Patreon Tenebroum Maps New Cover for Letter of the Law Get all existing stories...
Tenebroum Ch. 48-49
Ch. 48 - The BetrayedKelvun didn’t stop for anyone or anything as he ran up the stairs in the dark toward his rooms without even bothering to find a real sword. Along the way, he briefly considered running to the nursery to fetch his infant son, but decided against it because of how far away it was. He didn’t need a weapon or a child. What he needed was a safe place to hide until morning’s light would burn away the evil that had somehow turned up in his own home.He idly wondered if his wife was safe, and tried to remember where she’d be...
New Covers!
Alright everyone, what is your favorite cover?
Audiobooks?
Normally I wait to post until the middle of the week to post about whatever it is I'm working on, but I thought this was super cool, So I'm sharing it. I don't know if all of you love audio books like I do, but they are a blessing while you drive, and I would never have gotten through the whole Dune series without them.Sadly, where I live right now precludes me actually voicing an audiobook of Tenebroum, but I was playing with an AI and some audio software, and I think what came out is very listenable. Download it and give it a list...
Should I Buy an Ad?
So, authors can buy ads on RR. You see plenty of them I'm sure when you're on the site reading. It's something I've thought about for a while, and I've been making this ad for fun, but I haven't pulled the trigger yet.Pro: Getting an ad will increase visibility, which should increase readership, and might get Tenebroum on Rising Stars. This is especially true right now since the story has been naturally surging recently. In terms of readership:0-100 readers - 11 weeks100-200 readers - 10 weeks200-300 readers - 8 weeks300...
Tenebroum Ch. 44-47
Tenebroum is now 10 chapters ahead of the general public. That means you are getting to the climax of act 1 in the post.Ch. 44 - Paying the Toll“Truely?” Kelvun asked, pretending to be impressed. “You’ve seen the water dragon yourself, with your own eyes?”He took another drink of his wine as he tried to remember the woman’s name. Alison? Arrissa? He was pretty sure it was the former, but it didn’t really matter. He was far more interested in getting her drunk enough to see what a priestess of the cult of Oroza wore underneath thei...
Always Thinking About What's Next
It's a bad habit, but every author I know does it. They're knee deep in their current project (and I'm already in the middle of four...) and they think, yeah - but what am I going to work on next?I've been plagued by those thoughts this week. That makes sense because I've been focused on outlining and reading some pretty great stories. Before I was certain I would be working on Incursion next in November, but now I am not so sure.The three contenders for my next story are: Incursion - Incursion, as I've mentioned before ...
How Dark is Too Dark
Sometimes when I am writing a scene for Tenebroum, I wonder: is this too dark?I asked myself that when the broken bard of blackwater was tortured to death - I even had someone read ahead and tell me they thought it was okay. I was still surprised when no one complained though.I had the same thought when I wrote the scene where the river dragon was chained inside the corpse of the swamp dragon... and everyone thought it was awesome.Well, today, I worry again that I went too far in the climax of Act 1. That's right. I finished act 1 FINALLY, ...
Tenebroum Ch. 42-43
Ch. 42 - The Drowned WomanWhen Paulus watched the Templar’s party leave via the muddy road to the north instead of by river boat, that was his first real evidence that there was something wrong with the Oroza. Up until that point he’d convinced himself that it was in his own head, at least in part. After all, just because the plague had been called the drowning didn’t mean it actually had anything to do with the water, and plenty of people besides him were allergic to shellfish.But if the devoted could feel the poison in that river enough...
Another Writeathon? Really?!
So apparently its twice a year, which is a surprise to me. i thought it was in November.Tenebroum: This story is going well. I am happy to report that I have finally completed the first arc of the story. It looks like a RR writeathon starts next week, so I will be delaying an additional surge of Tenebroum chapters until that is over. Right now stories only last on just posted for like ten minutes, so I imagine they will scroll right off when they roll out their event. I will however keep writing at the same pace, so maybe I will increase the nu...
Tenebroum Ch. 40-41
(Forgive the slightly late post today, I haven't been feeling the best. Hoping to get a whole pile of Golemancer chapters up later this week. We will see.)Ch. 40 - The Infinite DarkKrulm’venor’s walk was endless, but for him boredom was more of a concern than fatigue would ever be. No matter how far he walked into the bowels of the earth, he did not tire. He couldn’t. He was a deathless creature of fire and bone that was shackled to his tormentor by the thin thread of magical energy as much as he was by the runes that bound him to his...
Tenebroum Tuedsay
Okay, so I think in a continuing effort to give my stories a little more visibility I am probably going to save up the extra chapters I write for a few weeks, and then release all of them on one day on RR and SH. That means we will go down to just two new chapters every two weeks for a couple weeks while I save those up though. The primary means on RR is to get on rising stars, which is not a feat I've ever managed to accomplish, but I think one day soon I will post a chapter every few hours to see if I can move that needle a bit.What does ...
Tenebroum Ch. 37-39
Ch. 37 - Forged in FireKrulm’venor had no idea how long he’d been kept in isolation before the lantern was opened, and he was allowed to flare to life once more, but he knew it had been a long time. It had been at least months, and possibly years since he’d tried to defy his jailer and had his legs cut out from under him in the attempt. Even sitting in the throne room, able to watch everything the Lich did, it was very hard to understand any of it when he was reduced to the size of a single forsaken spark that cast a blue glow so faint it...
Cover WiP
I'm still tinkering with this here and there, but this is the cover I'm going to use for Golemancer I think.
A Slow Week
This week the weather was nice, so I only wrote about 8,000 words. This is a little less than my average, but mostly that was because I wanted to take advantage of the unseasonal weather to do other things. There's more to life than sitting in front of a keyboard, right?I also wanted to get a little space from RR and the other sites I post on just because things seemed to be a bit more negative than usual. For instance, in January Tenebroum's followers surged, but last week growth was close to zero. I think the average is like 2% for me...
Tenebroum Ch. 34-36
Note: As promised 3 more chapters! Two more weeks of this and we can see about getting some bonus chapters for everyone else (though the Patreon will stay 8 weeks ahead.)Ch. 34 - Regaining ControlThe swamp was dying.It was a slow process that would be measured in years, but the darkness could feel it just the same. Day by day, the waters receded from the shallowest edges of its domain, and what had once been shallow lagoons or deep pits of mud slowly solidified into soil. The grasses came after that, binding all that sand and silt to the ground...
What I've been Working On
This week has been fairly busy/productive. I finished chapter 36 of Tenebroum, which is ALMOST as cool as chapter 29 was. 37 might be cooler though. We'll see. It has potential. Regardless, this means you will once again get three chapters again next week, bringing the Patreon to 7 chapters ahead of the public.I've also been making good progress on Golemancer. It's up to chapter 4.5 now, so you will probably see that in a few more weeks. I plan to release the first ten chapters here for feedback, before posting chapter 1 on RR a few...
Mutating Plot Lines
It's funny. All my stories start with a pretty strict outline, and they rarely deviate from it. Letter of the Law has gotten compressed slightly as my writing has tightened up, but none of the events or the order that they've occurred has changed, Death After Death ended one chapter longer than the original goal, and Re-Entry is one chapter away from ending right on target. Tenebroum though - it is definitely in the process of mutating into something more.The original end is currently chapter 39 (you'll know it when you see it) and ...
Tenebroum Ch. 31-33
Three more chapters for my dear, dear readers, as promised. Enjoy!Ch. 31 - Lost in the DarkIt was hard to believe the world had changed so much in the darkness’s absence, but when it returned its focus to the world beyond its lair, it found the map practically rewritten. It wasn’t just its influence, either. The patterns of both people and mana from the Wodenspine to the Oroza had shifted more than it would have thought possible. Its shadow was still spread across the map, but all the pieces had been rearranged in its absence to the point w...
Death After Death Ch. 29-34
Death After Death is complete (for the moment).
Thoughts On Gamebooks
It feels strange that It's been more than a week and I haven't worked on Death After Death. It's good too, I mean - the story is 75,000 words long, it's just been a habit to work on the same three stories for week after week since August, and now... We'll it's still three stories, it's just a different three.I'll be posting all remaining chapter of Death After Death to the Patron on Monday, so there will be a little less spam from week to week for a while.It also feels strange to think about how many more chapter...
Switching Gears
There are two things I want to discuss this week. The first is that I am going to focus on trying to get Tenebroum Patron's to where they are 8 chapters ahead. Ideally that will take another 1 to 1.5 months. Then after that I will look at increasing the chapter count for everyone else. For context I have written up to Chapter 31 and will be starting chapter 32 tonight. I can't promise that every update from now on will be three chapters every two weeks, but that's my ambition right now.The second point is a little more celebratory. ...
Tenebroum Ch. 28-30
Note: Bonus Chapter. I have decided to post a third chapter this week for my Patrons to increase the number of chapters they are ahead. I plan to do this for the next few posts. We will see if I can keep up with that though. More on that in my post later this week. Enjoy!Ch. 28 - A Bold VisionAs he rode beside his knights past yet another burned out farmstead, Kelvun chose to reflect on this latest adventure, rather than the reason so many were dead. He tried to tell himself the goblins would have attacked no matter what on earlier days, but it...
Death After Death Ch. 27-28
Ch. 27 - A Dark and Stormy Night“Alright,” Simon said finally. “You said that the pit used to be something else before. What was it? How did the pit come to be?” His question echoed off the cool marble walls, and it was only when it had faded completely that the goddess opened her mouth.“Now, that is an excellent question.” Helades smile widened, but grew a shade colder as she leaned forward on the throne. “I was expecting something a bit more short-sighted from you. You really are growing a bit, aren’t you. A little more every ...
