One of my favorite things to do is design new creatures and concepts. In The Maelstrom, there will be a number of new oddities, including cheshirewulfs, pinlegs, dreadnaughts, Stygian crows, etc. When I’m writing a new creature into a scene, it’s important that I have a sense of what it looks like. That’s when I reach for a pencil and […]
One of the most enjoyable aspects of writing a fantasy series is the opportunity to create new characters and creatures. The smee is a one of my latest creations and readers will be meeting him in The Fiend and the Forge. Here’s their description: Harmless but incurably lazy, the smee is a master of mimicry. In their natural state, the […]
One of the more intriguing characters in the upcoming Fiend and the Forge is the Fomorian Giant. We’ve heard about him in the previous book, but you’ll get a chance to see him up close and personal in the next book. Things have been hectic lately as I’ve been working on website updates, a book trailer, a school visits schedule, […]
Here’s a portrait of our hero, Max. It was trickier than you might imagine putting Max’s image on paper in such detail. After all, when you picture Elvis, do you picture “early Elvis” (e.g., young, skinny, iconoclast) or “late Elvis” (living legend, well fed, sequin jumpsuits….)?!? By the end of The Fiend and the Forge, Max is no longer the […]
…Rowan sends William Cooper. Here’s a portrait of Rowan’s Captain of the Red Branch and a sneak peek into the character guide that will be coming. Stay tuned!
Been a busy boy these past few weeks as I put Fiend to bed and embarked upon Book Four. These days, however, it’s not enough for an author to simply write his books and hope they find an audience. An author has to promote them too, and that can take a variety of forms – anything from traditional book tours […]
Here’s a sketch of a drawing that will come later in the book. In this sketch, I’m not really bothering with facial expressions and character details as much as I’m trying to capture an atmosphere and composition. I keep the background loose and focused most of my efforts on the Giant as that’s where the reader’s attention will naturally fall….
Sketch of the Day: I’m working on plates these days (full page illustrations scattered throughout the book). Here’s a little beauty – or eight of them. Haglings have arrived at Rowan. Not quite as cute and cuddly as they might initially appear, please note their little muzzles…. Regarding the sketch itself, I lik…e the overall composition, but have some things […]
Sketch of the Day: In Norse mythology, dvergar were the beings who served as the inspiration for the “dwarves” that Tolkien made so popular. In fact, Tolkien’s dwarves in The Hobbit were named after those listed in the Poetic Edda (the original material from which a great deal of Norse myth stems). Famed as craftsmen for gods and giants alike, […]
Sketch of the Day: Scale serves as one of the biggest differences between The Fiend and the Forge and the earlier books in the series. It is an altogether bigger book – not just in terms of length, but also in terms of the scale of the world/settings and the stakes in play. I want the illustrations to echo and […]