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Month: December 2022

Review: Write Magic Systems Your Readers Won’t Forget, by Stant Litore

Review: Write Magic Systems Your Readers Won’t Forget, by Stant Litore

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Write Magic Systems Your Readers Won’t Forget by Stant Litore

Overall Rating: ***** (5 stars)

This is a rather different review than my usual. The book in question isn’t a work of fiction, it’s a coaching toolkit for would-be authors who want to write fiction.

I first came across Stant Litore when I read his book on Scriptural exegesis, Lives of Unforgetting. It was a pleasant surprise to discover that he was also a genre author, and that he has written a lengthy series of “toolkits” for writers. Many of these have titles of the form “Write [X] Your Readers Won’t Forget,” and for the most recent book in the series, the “X” is magic systems.

I’ll confess that when I write fantasy fiction, the notion of developing a “magic system” mildly repels me. I think of magic as wonder-working and miracle, not the kind of formal, rule-based endeavor that ought to be governed by a “system.” To my delight, this book addressed exactly that tension on the very first page, which was enough to pull me into the rest of the text.

The book is organized in a very workmanlike manner. Each section addresses a single question that the writer needs to think about when developing a magic-infused world. What is magic like, how do people in the world experience it? How do magicians experience it, and how is that different from everyone else’s understanding? How do magicians fit into the community, if they do at all? What are the personal and other costs of magic? And so on.

In each section, Stant Litore discusses the issue at hand, explaining why it’s crucial to the author’s vision for their fantasy world. He provides plenty of options and examples, quoting from well-known works of fantasy fiction. Then the section is closed out by one or more writing exercises, encouraging the reader to work through the details for their own fantasy setting. The book closes with a sample worksheet, collecting in one place all the considerations discussed throughout.

I don’t normally find books of this kind to be all that useful, but I suspect Write Magic Systems Your Readers Won’t Forget is going to be an exception. I’m considering formally working through it to help flesh out the two fantasy settings in which I work. If I have any quarrel with the book in its current state, it might be that it’s too short. Just on first reading, I can see several ways to expand on what Stant Litore has done here.

Still, I suspect anyone interested in developing a fantasy setting, whether for gaming or literary purposes, will find this a useful resource. And if the quality of this book is any indication, I would seriously consider checking out the rest of the Litore Toolkits for Fiction Writers. Very highly recommended.

Cover Mockup for “Architect of Worlds”

Cover Mockup for “Architect of Worlds”

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This isn’t the first mockup I’ve produced for the cover, but it’s the first one I’m happy with. It includes the design elements I most wanted – spiral galaxy, starfield, alien landscape with other worlds visible in the sky. The elements come from different sources, but I think I’ve managed to blend them together reasonably smoothly, and the composite image seems to work. This may or may not be the final cover, but it will certainly do for now.

The font is called Nasalization, and it’s based on a 1970s-era NASA logo. I think it’s clean and readable, and has the right aesthetics. I believe I’ll be using the same font for chapter and section headers inside the book.

Meanwhile, I’m continuing to poke at Adobe InDesign, looking at a variety of worked examples too, and I think I’m getting a grip on how the project needs to go. By early January I’ll probably start to put together a toy layout that will include all the features that I’ll need to put in the final book – text passages, chapter and section headers, sidebars, mathematical equations, citations to scientific papers, tables, diagrams, filler art, the whole nine yards. Once I have that put together, I’ll be able to show it off and then take what I’ve learned and apply it to the bigger problem of building the complete book.

Progress!

Planning for December 2022

Planning for December 2022

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November saw a big milestone: the first complete rough draft of Architect of Worlds, shared with my patrons and a few selected readers on the last day of the month.

That accomplishment doesn’t mean the content of Architect has been finalized, by any means. While I don’t expect any more big changes to the “rules” mechanisms, I’m almost certainly going to polish the prose, clean up the mathematical formulae, and produce a number of graphs and diagrams to help support the text.

The big task, though, is going to be to start laying the book out for publication. Layout is a completely new skill set for me, so I expect to spend a fair amount of time mastering the basic skills before there’s substantial progress on the book. That’s where most of my creative time in December of 2022 is likely to go.

So, here’s this month’s priorities, arranged the same way as in November:

  • Top Priority:
    • Architect of Worlds: Study and master book layout techniques.
  • Second Priority:
    • Danassos: Continue work on the new rough draft of the novel Twice-Crowned.
    • Danassos: Write a short story drawn from the setting timeline.
    • Human Destiny: Continue compiling material for the eventual Atlas of the Human Protectorate.
    • Human Destiny: Produce a map of late 23rd-century Mars for the Atlas.

As you can see, the “second priority” items are likely to function as a list of smaller creative projects that I might work on in between studying Adobe InDesign or examining other small-press products for layout pointers. At this point I find it kind of unlikely that any of this will amount to a charged release for my patrons this month, but there may be a couple of smaller freebies as pseudo-holiday-gifts.

Incidentally, I’ve already mentioned this elsewhere, but for my patrons and anyone else who’s interested: last month is the last time I plan to charge my patrons for any Architect of Worlds content. Any further changes to the draft are going to be incremental, in service to getting the book ready for release sometime in (hopefully the first half of) 2023. My patrons at the $2 and above can expect to get a free copy of the book if and when it’s ready.

What’s in store for Architect after it gets released? Well, I’ll almost certainly continue to keep an eye on the science as it develops, and I may write the occasional blog post here on the subject. Good chance there will be a second edition of the book in a few years, too. That endeavor isn’t going to be a “once and done” project, I suspect.

Review: Obelisks: Dust, by Ari Marmell

Review: Obelisks: Dust, by Ari Marmell

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Obelisks: Dust by Ari Marmell

Overall Rating: ***** (5 stars)

Obelisks: Dust is the first volume of what appears to be a planned duology, set after the world falls into a very unusual apocalypse.

At the beginning of this story, the astronauts aboard the International Space Station are engaged in normal operations. Flight Engineer Cynthia Han, our protagonist, is a member of the current six-person crew. When we first meet Cynthia, she is helping to welcome several guests aboard the ISS, while also concealing a growing medical problem that she fears will end her spaceflight career.

After a difficult day, Cynthia retires to her bunk. When she awakens, everything has changed. Even a quick glance out the ports shows that Earth has changed drastically. The planet’s surface is invisible, shrouded in a thick layer of airborne dust. Meanwhile, the ISS has lost contact with the ground; only a few radio stations are still on, and those are broadcasting nothing but noise.

The astronauts and their guests wait a while, to see if the situation changes, but eventually they are forced to make an emergency return to Earth. They soon find most of the human population missing, the environment harsh and hostile. Strangest of all, mysterious obelisks have appeared throughout the landscape . . . and to even glance at one of them from a distance is to risk madness and death.

Cynthia and her colleagues struggle to deal with conflicts among their own group, while surviving in the hostile landscape, searching for other survivors, and trying to figure out just what has happened to the world. The story that follows is bleak, with plenty of moments of horror, but it also promises a glimmer of hope.

Mr. Marmell’s world-building and plotting are well-done, with a fast-moving and suspenseful plot. He’s adept at ratcheting the tension upward; every time the audience thinks we’ve gotten a handle on the strangeness of the situation, another wild card gets dealt. The story is framed as “horror,” and there are certainly a lot of very ugly moments in the narrative. Yet the focus is always on Cynthia and her colleagues, using their wits and skills to survive. Despite their flaws, the characters are sympathetic and resourceful people, and I found myself rooting for them to resolve their differences and push forward.

The prose style here is very clean, with high-quality copy- and line-editing. I didn’t find myself being distracted by editing errors. Viewpoint discipline is good, with the story told almost entirely from Cynthia’s perspective. Exposition is subtle and clear. This is an accomplished writer working in good form.

If I found anything to quarrel with here, it’s that the book is a bit short – it was clearly written as the first half of a longer narrative. Nevertheless, this story does work as a stand-alone novel, with a number of subplots resolved as of the end of the book.

I found myself pushing through this story in a single sitting, unable to put Obelisks: Dust down, and I really do want to see the sequel. Very highly recommended.