Sunday, February 7, 2016

February Update

I'm pleased to announce that Fimbulwinter will be available in audiobook form starting later this month. Thanks to Gregg Savage and Guy Williams for all their hard work making this possible. And yes, this means audiobook versions of Black Coven and Extermination are in the works.

Meanwhile, I'm now working on chapter 7 of Perilous Waif. Progress has been a lot slower than I would have liked, mostly because it takes a lot of work to do all the world building for a realistic far-future SF setting. I've found that I generally can't turn out more than one scene at a time, where with fantasy it isn't unusual for me to write a couple thousand words in one sitting.

So I've also started working on Revenant, the next Daniel Black novel. I'm currently on chapter 2, and I'll be experimenting with working on both books in parallel this month. Depending on how things go I may just write a chapter now and then when I need a break from SF, or I may end up making it my main focus while I continue Perilous Waif at a slower pace.

One way or the other, there should hopefully be more progress to report next months.

39 comments:

  1. Wohooo .. I like the sound of that. Go go Revenant.

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  2. I normally associate 'revenant' with a powerful undead. I wonder if the title refers to more battles with the minions of Hel, with a return of other dead antagonists (Benito or Lysandra), or with DB creating his own army of 'resurrected' bodies using Cerise's techniques?

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  3. Ill be buying Fimbuleinter on audio as soon as it comes out!

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  4. I always thought of revenants as people that were half way resurrected. Not dead but not all the way back either

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  5. I always thought of revenants as people that were half way resurrected. Not dead but not all the way back either

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  6. Can't wait for your new books. I don't care how long it takes to make these books. Take as much time as required. I would rather wait and get a good book, than have you rush and make a turd sandwich.

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  7. NEW DANIEL BLACK BOOK YUSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

    ...I have a guess at the plot point suggested by the title.

    Bar bs Qnavry'f Pbira qvrf, naq gurl unir gb ergevrir ure sebz Unqrf. Erernqvat Oynpx Pbira sbe gur guveq gvzr, V abgvprq gurer jnf n pynhfr va gur cnpg gung gurl unir pynvzf bire rnpu bguref' fcvevgf rira va qrngu, naq V pbhyq frr gung orvat n qrsvavgr cbffnovyvgl tvira gur fbegf bs guerngf Qnavry naq Pb ner snpvat.

    Super excited both for Revenant and Perilous Waif.

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    1. Interesting idea. My personal underworld journey thought is that Hel is back or Daniel has to go to Hel possibly in relation Mara's new sister or because Loki's side is willing to have a truce if Daniel does them a favor involving Hel.

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    2. Goodness, your post seems to be censored? Perhaps too good a call and therefore a spoiler?

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    3. naw, I rot13'd it to prevent spoilers for those who didn't want them. (google rot13, paste the scrambled text into the resulting website to translate it)

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  8. Btw just wanted to say your doing great with the monthly status updates and can't wait for your next book keep it up man :)

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  9. really looking forward to your next Daniel Black novel. cant get good litrpgs fast enough

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  10. Is there any chance of ever seeing a map of this world? The changes that have been referenced are fascinating, but frustrating when I try to look stuff up, since Kozalin seems to be in Poland nowhere near the Elbe (Elde?) river. And if the Baltic is so much smaller and the Kategat is gone?... I'd just be interested to see where everything is on this altered map. Thanks for writing these books, and my two cents is I'd rather see new Daniel Black books then jump into a whole new series that will only be updated half as quickly as well.

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    1. a map really would be nice, clan nefiwillen (however it's spelled) should have a bunch of maps to share of this world and others, but somehow i dont think we will see them soon if ever :(

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    2. I was hoping for a map too. I have tried looking at maps of northern Europe and Scandinavia for a basic guess at the area

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    3. Yes indeed. I would like to see maps of the world and kingdom street level maps as well as a pic of the Black Citadel the way E. William Brown sees it.

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  11. Looking forward to the next daniel black

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  12. hi there just thought i would suggest a new aspect of force sorcery maybe you could use gravity and gravitational fields for crowd control and suppression to help limit demi-gods other powerful enemies

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  13. Just a thought. Db poisons Hall of slumber. Per db the radiation raises hell with pregnant women. In essence db may have doomed Mara's sister. The title of the fourth book is getting her back.

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  14. The audio book is up on audible.

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  15. Hope Daniel's island (which needs a name, btw) doesn't come under attack by a Wizard. All those impregnable walls won't do much if a Wizard can contributor built-in banishment effect. Seems like a built-in weakness...Daniel should encrypt a control key, since no one would understand the concept encryption, much less be able to break it.

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    1. Black Island is currently resistant to banishment spells. The old keep was vulnerable, but since he replaced in book 3 with enchanted walls he doesn't have to worry anymore. An enemy wizard might be able to work around the protections, but wouldn't have the power for straight-up banishment.

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  16. It's resistant to EXTERNAL banishment, but it has it's own built in. If an enemy wizard could get control of the base enchantment, the whole thing is vulnerable.

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    1. To do so the wizard would need access to the main power source. That source is sealed within rock that the wizard would not be able to banish (external). Daniel only pulls out the power source when needed so the wizard would need to ambush Daniel.

      Probably wouldn't have time to seize control.

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  17. Sorry Mr Brown but I'm going to have cast my vote for Revenant.. Next Daniel Black please! I understand that new work keeps you inspired but your original formula is a winner.

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  18. Sweet, I wonder if we'll ever come across another transported person like Daniel? I mean, there has to be more than one god who had the idea of grabbing someone from another world right?

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  19. I just found this series as a result of a post on Reddit, and downloaded all 3 books - and inhaled them all within the space of a week!

    I am still in this Universe mentally - it was such a well-written, fast-paced, high-stakes amazingly fun read! - cannot WAIT for the next book to come out.

    You will have to let us know if you ever come over to the UK to do a signing tour!

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  20. where's the update for this month?

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  21. Given crustal/core abundances, I think it makes equal sense for titanium to be mithril, and "the difficulty of refining doesn't matter" doesn't square with iron being harder to conjure than nickel-iron when nickel is relatively less abundant. Though I don't know if you let yourself edit previous books.

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  22. Given crustal/core abundances, I think it makes equal sense for titanium to be mithril, and "the difficulty of refining doesn't matter" doesn't square with iron being harder to conjure than nickel-iron when nickel is relatively less abundant. Though I don't know if you let yourself edit previous books.

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  23. Titanium is much less abundant than aluminum. It may still show up in the new world, but under a different name like adamantine or orichalcum.

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  24. I just finished Extermination. I love your universe-building and domestic development cheat porn.

    I just want to point out that Gaea might have reason to know about radiation and fission, (or at least some other god might know) if worlds are geologically stable enough:

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_nuclear_fission_reactor

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  25. Is the next update coming soon?

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  26. "...I love your universe-building and domestic development cheat porn...."

    That is a very good summary. ;-)
    I agree fully with that!!

    Don't make your Daniel-Black-fans (and customers) wait by experimenting with SF-stuff.
    Just finish Revenant / Daniel Black 4 and we will rip it out of your hands!

    I can't wait to read about the further development of Daniel and his stronghold.

    Will he get a "Level-Up" from the super-magical-banana?
    (stronger? faster? tougher? better senses? more magical stamina? instinctive magical understanding?)

    Will those druidic nymphs transform their inndoor-groves in a magical fairy plane with their unlimited-mana-tap? And what ramificatins/benefits does that have?
    Will Daniel expand his fortress with the dimensional-space-magic (see bag of holding) so thousands of people can live inside?
    Will he take his water-fairy-girl to her homeplane to learn about her magical heritage (shapechange)?
    Will he rescue the magical appeltree on the way back and get the next "Level-Up" for himself and perhaps his girls also?
    .
    .
    .

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  27. ... - and that comment at the end of Extermination [spoiler alert!] about Brand having a device embedded in his chest set me thinking, about what I would do if I were Daniel - perhaps embedding 3 devices in my chest, one as a mana source, one as a healing stone and one as a force-field, and then have them contribute to each requirement so that they overlapped... - and then how I would go about strengthening my bones - and then how I would boost the stength of my skin (along the lines of skinweave for anyone else who is a Cyberpunk 2020 fan)...

    Suffice to say - I am still in this world mentally, and cannot shake it; I've now read all 3 books twice, after discovering them just 3 weeks ago!

    Can I add my voice to the chorus clamouring for your to finish Revenant before the sci-fi book? - I mean: based on your current work you are now on the lis of "authors whose work I will buy sight unseen because the rest of their output has been so damn good" - but the point is: I want to read your sci-fi.... - but I NEED to read Revenant!

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    1. That's just what I was thinking!
      The bulky amulet was his first significant magic item and has accompanied him since book 1. So it may be some kind of “signatur-item” for the character…
      But the tenor of the books so far was “cheat / MinMax the hell out of it”. ;-)
      So keep (and upgrade/pimp) the sword and the earth-talisman and scrap the awkward amulet.
      At least he could use this implant-magic-Item-notion in addition to those.
      Besides emergency backup functions (mana reservoir, healing…), you could stuff it with helpful little utility spells (e.g. breathing under water or in poisonous environment, no need for food/water, protection from the elements…etc.).
      So you have a little ace in the hole when you don’t have access to you usual equipment.
      Or you make it a powerful one-shot-extreme-emergency-beam-me-home-device.
      We already learned that silver is accessible for enchantments but you don’t want silver in your body.
      Perhaps platinum or gems or pearls or some thus far unknown magical super material?
      Probably not easy to conjure….but with unlimited money/gold the needed quantities should be no problem.
      ------
      Please excuse my wording…I’m a not a native speaker.

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    2. Ha! - I love it when a fellow fan agrees with my ideas!

      And don't worry about your English: it is already FAR better than my command of any other language!

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  28. When is have book 4 coming out for the Daniel black series

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