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 »

Yes it's true. I had just finished entering all the (beyond-excellent) edits that Tegid had given me for Merlin's Blade, when the mailman dropped off the last 125 pages sent by Tegid (thanks!) ... and the first professionally printed copy of Merlin'… more »

Yes indeed—the first ever copy of Merlin's Blade is rolling off the press right now , and will be sent to me in a week or two. If this proof copy turns out as expected , then I will be ordering more copies to give to seven published authors I've met, a… 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 »

Today I am working on the 1st chapter of my first book ... yet again. Why would I do this when I am almost 30% done writing the second book? The reason is because I have been uneasy, nay unhappy with that chapter ever since I did my major restructuri… 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 »

Merlin's blade is gone. Whither has it gone? You'll have to read book one to find out. You have a guess, you say? You may be right in your guess, but the question is HOW does it happen? And why? And what will be the result? (S.D. Smith, you're n… more »