As I've been working on character studies for various illustrations, it occurred to me that we needed one for the mysterious, mercurial David Menlo. Here is our favorite one-handed Sorcerer looking intently at something unnameable while holding an antique thurible (a device for burning incense and used in many holy — or unholy! — ceremonies.... We'll be spending lots of time with David in The Maelstrom and I think readers will be pleased to get to know David a little better and to see his and Max's friendship grow. David might even find himself a girlfriend....

It sounds like an oxymoron, but I really do strive for "plausible fantasy". I want the characters to seem real, the emotions to seem real, and for the world to hang together logically. Magic can stimulate our imaginations, but it can also threaten a fantasy story's plausibility if the author isn't careful to place it within some parameters.

Take the common magical device of teleportation - the ability to instantaneously travel someplace else, even a location thousands of miles away. That is an incredibly powerful ability - one that is so powerful it can threaten to undermine the balance in any world where it exists. In Rowling's work, every young wizard learns this ability and very soon they're zipping off all around the world instantly and e [...]
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So here I am - working away on the manuscript while New York shakes off winter and eases into spring. Some nice days lately, blooming flowers, crowded ice cream shops, and strollers, strollers everywhere.

I find myself staring at strollers quite a bit (and probably frightening the parents). My wife and I are expecting our baby boy in less than two months now and the reality of becoming a father is starting to set in. We've been tackling a project each week - putting up drapes, building a crib, attending birthing classes, etc. Babies are complicated creatures who need a lot of stuff...who knew?!? We're very excited to welcome our little guy into the world and no...he will not be named Max ;)

But enough of that stuff - let's talk Maelstrom! I've been racing against the baby to [...]
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The video trailer for The Fiend and the Forge is finally ready - right before the book arrives in stores. Have a peek and share it with your friends on YouTube or Facebook. More coming soon!

Well, The Fiend and the Forge is finally in the bag. Edits are completed, the drawings are finished, and now I turn my attention to Book Four....

Given the fact that I was so late with Fiend, I'm anxious to get back on schedule with the fourth book and ensure it's arrival in 2011. To make that happen, I'm now camping out in cafes and plotting out the storyline in some detail while also kicking around cover ideas so that the fantastic cover artist (Cory Godbey of Portland Studios) can get cranking. Typically, the publisher likes a cover well in advance so that the sales/marketing people can get excited about the book and start bringing it up in their conversations with booksellers, etc.

We're sti [...]
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