Monthly Archives: September 2013

Aetheria’s Daemon Concept Art

Eren Arik is an incredibly talented concept artist from whom I was lucky to be able to commission a piece of artwork. The subject is a scene from Aetheria’s Daemon, my current WIP (click the image for a larger version):

Aetheria’s Daemon is what some might call a non-traditional fantasy novel. It takes place on a world with a landscape and ecology much different from Earth, where all the humans (or at least they think of themselves as human) are immortal, and any object can be conjured from the air with a thought. The elements shown here–the castle, the mountains, the drakenbird and even the dust clouds in the distance are all important elements in the story, but you’ll have to wait to read it to find out what they mean.

What I can tell you about the story is that it begins with Meli, a practitioner of the arts of plant and animal creation. Meli has had a dream in which she is holding a baby, something no one in Aetheria has heard of before. Drawn by a powerful urge to make her vision real, she recruits Ariden, an unsociable vagabond and legendary fighter, and Karis, an aged airship engineer with the appearance of a teen girl, to help make a perilous journey across the ocean.  But when an attack by air pirates splits the companions and leads Meli and Ariden to the lair of an ancient cult, they begin to learn the truth of her quest, and its connection with a mysterious being who plots the destruction of all Aetherian life.

You can see more of Eren’s work in his CGHub gallery.

Worldcon 2013 Post-Mortem

I went to Worldcon this year for the first time. It was an experience. Hard to put into better words than that, especially since my brain is still reeling from so much input. Worldcon serves many purposes, most of which overlap to some degree: there are fannish (autographing, interviews, etc.), social (drinking and schmoozing), craft (panels, workshops, etc.), and industry (drinking and schmoozing again) related activities. There is no such thing as a “perfect” Worldcon schedule, and even after running around like crazy for four days there are plenty of things I wish I had done and people I wish I had met. I am also not the best in the world at partying, given my low alcohol tolerance (as in small amounts of alcohol give me a big hangover) and my self-consciousness at being un/self-published. But, I did meet some really cool folks, gained a few good insights about writing (especially the business side), and there were no major disasters either with travel or back at home while I was gone, so I’m going to count this one as a success.

Up next for me is finishing the first draft of Aetheria’s Daemon, at which point I will put it aside for a couple weeks, then look toward finishing another draft somewhere around mid-October. I also may have another Aetheria’s Daemon-related surprise coming for you soon. Until then, here are some pictures from the con to look at; probably not as many as I should have taken, but like I said, I was busy.

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