A big, big, day! I finished working through Tegid's excellent edits this last week, fixed up the cover image last night ... and just placed an order for twelve copies of MERLIN'S BLADE! Most of these are for securing endorsements, but a few are for… more »

I've decided to pick up Merlin's Shadow once more, which currently stands at 156 solidly written pages. This is book 2 in The Merlin Spiral, and I would love to start writing again. Alas!  I want to delay writing fresh material for two reasons:I ju… more »

Just last night I officially finished my 10th draft of Merlin's Blade, and it is the best yet. Not only have I removed a lot of passive verbs (thanks, Scott !), but I was able to improve the writing at many, many spots. Chief among these was my… more »

What? you say... you're back to editing? Yes, it's true, and all for the better. Three weeks ago Scott Appleton and his wife stayed with us while he was on his road-trip signing and selling books, and I had him review a few sections of Merlin's Bla… more »

I had to write a ballad in Pictish for my current work in progress, Merlin's Shadow. The problem is that we don't know what language, exactly, the Picts spoke. Many scholars think it was related to Gaelic, while my daughter, Adele, is of the persua… more »

Just where was Camelot, anyway? Scholars and romantics have been asking this question for ages. Well, I ran across an online video that covers some interesting theories about King Arthur's possible presence in Wales. In particular, they argue tha… more »

To most of you, it would seem obvious that once I finished Book 1 (Merlin's Blade), I would begin writing Book 2 (Merlin's Shadow). To me, however, it was not obvious. Unless I can sell book 1, book 2 is useless in the sense that neither agent nor pu… more »

The other day I had the pleasure of pulling from my "drawer" an old scrap of writing and inserted it into Merlin's Shadow. It was a dear scrap, this one, and contained an interaction with three fisherman named Ynktor, Henkter, and Crothak. They had o… more »

Based on the comments I received on my personal cover art for Merlin's Shadow (THANKS EVERYONE!) I changed the image. Yes, the previous image had too much horror in it. I hope the new one does not. Comments are greatly appreciated on this new… more »

This post is in response to Alexander Field and his blog post over at The Mystery & The Magic, which in turn is in response to Seth Godin's blog post. The whole discussion is about "What is a book cover's purpose?" So here we go. Alex, I ag… more »