Third Preview for As Darkness Falls
Michael is offering a third and final preview for the second book in the Child of the Stars trilogy, As Darkness Falls.
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Help Bring The Enemy Within to Market
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Michael DeAngelo interviewed by Fantascize.com
Michael was recently interviewed by Fantascize.com, a website for fantasy and sci-fi lovers from all media.
![598494_440064809389773_681518782_n[1]](http://tellest.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/598494_440064809389773_681518782_n1-573x223.jpg)
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As Darkness Falls Available for Purchase!
As Darkness Falls by Michael DeAngelo can now be purchased!
The Dragon is Slain!
So what's next for the third book in the series, and Tellest in general?
Concept Art – Adolescent Naryx
Concept Art for the character of Naryx, a bit more grown up, from Michael DeAngelo’s world of Tellest. For a game in development, artwork by Rhianna Brennan.
The Bindings of Fate featured on addictedtoebooks.com
Michael DeAngelo's book, The Bindings of Fate, has been featured on AddictedToeBooks.com!
Help Bring The Enemy Within to Market
Michael has been working The Enemy Within (Book 3 of The Child of The Stars trilogy) for two plus years. The conclusion to the first trilogy in the world he has created, Tellest. (Spoilers) When we last saw Kaos, he had just defeated Scar, the leader of the Order of the Black Scale and left Atalatha heartbroken.
Releasing a book independently has it’s costs. The Enemy Within is completed and ready for editing. Michael would love to bring you the conclusion sooner than later, and you can help offset some of the expensive costs that come with releasing a book independently. And for you pledge, you can get some great swag! Check out Michael’s Kickstarter to learn how you can help bring The Enemy Within to market sooner than later.
Kickstarter for The Enemy Within - http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/181624749/the-enemy-within
The Dragon is Slain!
I already mentioned this on facebook, but it’s been some time since I had any big details to reveal here.
The Enemy Within, the third book in the series, has been completed, after much delay. I originally thought I was going to be able to have it on virtual shelves last year, but it looks like we’re still on track for a May 2013 release. This massive conclusion to the Child of the Stars trilogy clocks in at 518 pages – so far. As some know, my writing is ridiculously tiny. When the book is completely typed, I wouldn’t be surprised if it hit around the 550-600 page range.
So what’s next for the third book in the series, and Tellest in general?
Well, I’ve got to get it typed up. By January 31st. That means that between now and then, I have to type about 6 pages per day. I felt bad not blogging for the last two weeks, but I’m likely going to do that again.
In February, I need to make The Enemy Within the farthest thing from my mind. I want to have as objective a view as I can when I go to make my reviews and edits. To try and distance myself, I’m going to be focusing on getting the paperback version of As Darkness Falls prepped at CreateSpace.
In March, I will begin making my preliminary changes to The Enemy Within, with intentions of getting it in my editor’s hands by the beginning of April. I’ll also be doing something a little different. With the trilogy complete, I am going to turn to KickStarter to try and get the third book’s administrative costs funded. There will be a bunch of swag available to people who want it, as well as other rewards, as is the norm for KickStarter projects. I really believe in the community there, and I think it’s also a great way to get some attention for Tellest.
At the end of May, it’ll be The Bindings of Fate’s second year anniversary. I’d like to get The Enemy Within released around then, in honor of that.
Between June and October, I see very little happening with the Tellest series books on the release front. However, as of today, I begin working on the next project. This will be a novella that takes a deeper look at the gods. I am under the impression that this will be significantly shorter than most of my work. With that in mind, I’m hopeful to have that completed by 3rd quarter 2013. After my editor gets a crack at it, I’d like to release a discounted eBook publication that contains all three books, the novella, and perhaps some other extras as well. I think that will be a nice way to tide people over until the fourth novel in the series is released.
Before, I had said that I was working on having games as an important part of the Tellest series. This has not changed. However, the books will always be paramount, and as such, the games have slid a bit to the side. Once the Enemy Within is published, I’ll be able to focus a bit more on Devour again. I’m still hopeful that it will release this year.
That said, there’s still plenty of work ahead for me. I’m happy to be able to report that everything is looking up, but I’ve got to get my nose back to the grindstone. Thanks to everyone for their support!
The Bindings of Fate featured on addictedtoebooks.com
Michael DeAngelo’s book, The Bindings of Fate, has been featured on AddictedToeBooks.com!
Click Here to see the Feature!
Michael DeAngelo interviewed by Fantascize.com
Michael was recently interviewed by Fantascize.com, a website for fantasy and sci-fi lovers from all media. In the interview, Michael talks about creating the Tellest-verse, his influences, and his comfort zones. Fantascize.com did a great job with the interview and Michael had a great time doing it while promoting The Bindings of Fate and As Darkness Falls, the first two books in The Child of the Stars Trilogy. Click Here to read the Full Interview from Fantascize.com
String Theory
At the end of this third book, I’ve come to a point where I’m trying to give every character their own time to shine. There are two large focal points that are separated by hundreds of miles, and a whole hell of a lot of mountains.
In each of these locales, I have a handful of characters who have been favored greatly by the readership over the past couple of years. New abilities have been discovered, and, of course, the characters themselves have grown. Recently introduced characters have to have their place in the sun as well, however. As The Bindings of Fate suggested, fate has woven a web between everyone, and without all of their stories, the saga cannot be properly told.
There is an extra dimension to the conflicts that we see in the story, and that dimension was largely hinted at in the second book. External forces have pushed Blacklehn and Tarson to converge on Raleigh, and despite all the trouble that Kaos Kreegan has found himself in, nothing will prepare him for his encounters in The Enemy Within.
Though Kaos has always seemed at the center of the universe in the Child of the Stars trilogy (and rightly so, given the name), there is indeed a greater scope. Everything is connected – things don’t just happen without a purpose. Perhaps the gods have their hand involved in the events that have come to pass, and those that will.
To truly see where the story is going, you need to know where it has evolved from. With that in mind, I’m happy to announce that the next full-length novel I will be working on for Tellest will focus on Kaos Kreegan’s childhood and his first real quest. It will be called “The Veil of Mists” and it will introduce you to characters that you may have only heard about in passing, and show you glimpses of familiar faces that you might not have thought to see again.
Work has resumed on Devour, but I’m still very cautious about putting a firm schedule to it. My programmer has always been awesome to collaborate with, but I know that he’s incredibly busy. He’s been tutoring me to try and pick up some of the slack, but there is a lot of logic/math involved, and, admittedly, that’s not my strength.
In any case, things are still plodding along in Tellest. Hopefully, I’ll have some more meaty news for you soon. With the wrap of my book coming shortly, I intend to start the trickle of excerpts. Maybe one per month until the release!
Until then, take care, and thank you for your continued support!
The Culling
Oh yes, there will be blood.
I’ve talked about it before, but I’m nearing the point of no return for certain characters. This will be their final bow, and that realization is both humbling and terrifying.
One of the things that I set out to do as a storyteller is tell the story of a character without a bias. Even though my universe is a complete work of fiction, there is still a spark of truth that is set to the events. I try, in no uncertain terms, to show when someone has something interest to say, rather than presenting it as fact. The reader can determine whether or not it is important to the story, but the character, in revealing that portion of his or her nature, can clearly represent what is important to them.
Though this novel lies at the end of a trilogy, I’ve included new characters, several which show up as late as the final chapter. Some of them have been referenced to, and some have had no precursory introduction. Their lives are at stake as well during all the turmoil, and it would have been crude and disheartening if I didn’t display just what odds they were up against.
Meanwhile, there are veterans of my saga who are forced to come to grips with their own mortality. My readership may already know of the kind of damage that can be done within several hundred pages. Some characters are not meant to make it through to the end. This doesn’t mean that they weren’t important. They had their role to play, as we all do. The best that they can do is have an impact on someone’s life. In that way, they can leave some kind of lasting legacy.
There will be those who survive the horrors of battle. These heroes (and villains – though who is to say which is which?) will bear the scars of lost loved ones, of broken dreams and unfounded wishes. Of course, not all who survive war end up unscathed. Some survivors leave only a broken, maimed husk behind, the memories of their hellish encounters enough to rend their very sanity. Others walk away with only a fleeting semblance of hope, a rapidly diminishing black spot growing inside their hearts. If all that is evil in the world is left to fester, what hope could good possibly venture?
Yet, among the shadows, a new light dawns. There are those who fight, knowing that the odds are ever against them. Some press on, despite all the pain and torment that plagues their lives. Few laugh in the face of danger, tempting fate like some exotic lover. As long as their is a world to protect, to help endure, they will remain. The tales of those who fell too soon may be written in stone, or on tattered pages, but it is the blood they spill that leaves a permanent place in history. Oh yes… there willbe blood.
Recalibrate
I probably shouldn’t have played The Scorpions like it was a challenge to Sandy. That was most likely my first mistake.
The hurricane hit my area last week, and it had a pretty severe impact on the community. Trees had demolished houses, power lines were strewn about like shoelaces, and some of the people nearby are still without electricity. This is definitely the worst storm I’ve seen in my area in my lifetime, and for a lot of other people I know, I’m sure they feel the same.
To all those who weathered the storm, my prayers go out to you.
It has been very strange trying to acclimate myself to the land of the powered again. We were down for 72 hours, and were doing a variety of things to help get us through the dark hours. We did crossword puzzles, we tortured the cat (lovingly – we rolled her up in a couple blankets and made her a Peanut burrito), and sometimes, we just talked for hours at a time. I’m very lucky to have Rhianna in my life – no matter how long we’ve been together, there’s still more I find out about her every day.
There were things that I missed in those three days, however. My hobbies, for sure… it’s crippling to go cold turkey on video games – I imagine people who quit smoking have an easier time of it. No television except for whatever we had on DVD that we could pop in Rhianna’s laptop. No access to email or facebook… I often forget how much of a social creature I’ve become in the last several years. I felt naked without the internet, and I’m very appreciative to have it back.
It was a struggle to write this past week as well. I couldn’t bring the book to work, because there was hardly any time to work on it, and the day is burning to fast during this time of year that by the time I get home, I can barely see what I’m working on. Even with some of our fancy flashlights, it’s a struggle to really find your focus on a page when you write small. And none of that even comes close to being out of that comfort zone that I’ve mentioned in previous posts. Seriously, how am I supposed to write without a hair dryer providing magical white noise that whisks me away to another place?
After not writing for three days, I was forced to recalibrate myself. I spent pretty much all of Friday night staring intently at what I’d already put to page, like Michaelangelo stared at the block of marble before it was David. I had to set myself back in that world, and in the mindset to write. The good news is that I’m back in top gear, writing like crazy.
The bad news, if you can call it that, is that my story took on a new twist that’s going to require a little more intensive care on my part. I always neglect moving forward cautiously into the final chapter of my books, and they always end up becoming their own monsters. The Bindings of Fate’s last chapter nearly tripled the length of the chapter before it. As Darkness Falls was doing it’s own thing, but that’s only because of the way I broke up the action. It ended up being about 12 pages longer than the chapter before it.
Now that I’m closing up The Child of the Stars trilogy, I can tell that The Enemy Within is definitely going out with a bang. I may even have another chapter to throw in after the one I’m working on to help me dole out all the secret reveals – and trust me, there are a lot of them. I digress. You want details, I’m sure. All of the characters that you’ve grown to love in these books gets their own little piece of action in this last chapter. It’s an impressive overlay that will have a very cinematic feel. I’m thinking it might push close to 40 pages when all is said and done.
With that in mind, I’m pushing back my previous deadline. I know some people might find it a little annoying, but I’d also like to think that the delay will allow it to grow at a more natural pace. A delayed art can eventually be good, but a rushed job will always be terrible. The new deadline that I’m shooting for is May, 2013. That would mean that The Enemy Within would release on the two year anniversary of The Bindings of Fate’s release.
Furthermore, I had discussed previously that work on the game was going to be finished sooner than I had anticipated as well. Sometimes the people you work with on a team start off with very good intentions, but other things can get in the way. I’m of the mindset that when you’re first interviewing people you’re not meeting them, but rather, a representative of them on their best behavior. With that in mind, development on the game is going to take a bit longer than I had previously expected as well. It’s my goal at this point to try and get Devour completed and ready for release alongside The Enemy Within. I’ll have more details to post over the next few weeks, surely.
Finally, just because one project has a few kinks, that doesn’t mean they all must. Kev and I have been working on a new game that we’d like to unveil soon, and of course, it is Tellest related. Old-school gamers should like it as well, but that’s as much as I’m able to reveal at this point in time. Stay tuned!
The Long Goodbye
I don’t know how some authors do it.
At some point in all the most popular fantasy narratives, one of the characters that the audience has grown to (or grows to) love has died: Boromir in Lord of the Rings, Dumbledore, Snape, the one Weasley twin, etc., in Harry Potter, everyone in Game of Thrones. At some point, the author had to stop and say to themselves, “Well, this is it. This is the last time that I’m ever going to see this character operate under their own volition. We might hear about them again through passing, or discover some of their unmentioned deeds, but they will never have a meaningful, growing relationship from this point on.”
It’s got to be a painful experience. The characters we create are kind of like our children, in some regards… little brain babies left to their own devices, going out into the world. If you’ve ever lost a loved one, you know that the most horrifying result is the knowledge that you’ll never be able to hear their voice again. When my father passed away, it didn’t really hit me until a few months later. Sure, I was emotionally damaged because I had lost my dad, but the reality of the situtation wasn’t clear. I had a house repair to make, and I remember getting my phone and scrolling through the contacts, intentionally landing it on his name. And then I realized that if I had called, he wouldn’t have answered.
These characters are gone, even if they’re not forgotten. Unless you’ve got some clever way to bring someone back from the dead, the only time you’re going to experience their personality is in flashbacks or prequels. It has got to be a tough call to make, even if you’ve been preparing yourself for it for ages.
George Martin is a mass murderer, yet I refuse to believe that when *SPOILERS*Ned Stark made his unfortunate exit at the end of his first book in the Game of Thrones series, he wasn’t a little dissapoitned that it was the true experience he would ever develop with that character *END SPOILERS*.
I can’t imagine how J. K. Rowling felt at the end of the Harry Potter series. In one way, it’s difficult to leave one character so that your story can proceed. It must be a completely liberating yet tragic feeling to come to terms with the finality of an entire world you’ve created. I’m dreading the final moments of this trilogy, because I know that it will probably be one or two years before I ever “see” many of the characters again. If I ever determined that I was done with the Tellest universe, it would have to be because I knew I was dying, and I had given it the logical, fair closing point it deserved to have. And even then, I’m sure I’d be more miserable about the fact that it was the last time I would ever venture into my little made up world than I was to be leaving this one.
The beginning of the final episode of “season three” of Tellest is wrapping up. I’m nearing a moment of respite for some characters, and I’m bowing my head one last time for others. While it’s a great feeling to know you’ve finished a mental task such as this, it’s almost depressing at the same time. While the words themselves may be immortal, the lives of the characters, in some ways, are not.
The long goodbye is cruel and cold.
13th Hour Edit: I, of course, should mention that one way around the death of certain characters is redacting that with later storyline. Gandalf the Grey became Gandalf the White. All of R. A. Salvatore’s characters have been snatched from the jaws of death at some point. Even Martin lets some of his characters live after the reader believes they have shed their mortal coil.
Comfort Zone
Poo Warning: This post reveals intimate details about my writing method. If you or your loved ones hold sacred the – dare I say - art of defacation, and do not want it soiled by my words, please, turn away now.
Whenever I’m writing, it’s usually in a comfort zone. As I’ve stated before, typically, a hotel room does a great service to my creative side. The single best comfort zone that I have, however, is a bathroom. That’s right. If you’ve read any of my work, there’s at least an 85% chance that you’re reading inverted poop literature.
But wait! I can compound the oddity quotient. You see, the main reason writing in the bathroom is so effective for me is that it just became comfortable after so long. The lavatory was a safe haven for me to escape to when I needed a break from anything else, whether that was family, or work or even my other hobbies.
If it was feasible to write in the shower, I probably would.
So it’s been established that I am at my most relaxed when I’m dropping trou. But for me to truly feel absolutely at peace, I need to be as near to natural as possible. That means that I am practically naked when I’m scrawling my brain baby onto paper. Think about it. How else can you be that intimate with your hobby?
Furthermore, breaking down the outside world helps to establish that personal connection that I truly need to find expressive dialogue and emotions in my work. If I had one readily available, I’d find comfort in a nice waterfall – but bees and flies and other things could preoccupy my time, so I find white noise elsewhere: a hair dryer.
Friends and family have taken to referring to it as a dryer poop. It’s my little piece of heaven, for fifteen minutes at a time. I’m relaxed, I’m warm, and I’m naked. But that’s just the point. When I’m in that mentality, I’m as far away from reality as I’ve ever been. It’s in that state of relaxation that I can best displace myself, and write from the point of views of multiple characters. It’s practically an out-of-body experience. Fear me, for I am an almighty poop god!
Now, that’s not to say that I can’t write elsewhere. In fact, that’s the point of this blog post. As I draw closer and closer to the end of a novel, the perimeter of the comfort zone seems to grow. I’m not sure if it’s because the intimacy of the project grows as I prepare to bid it a final adieu, or a need to express myself more often (usually attributed, I’m sure, to the volume of the story that falls into that last chapter or two). In any case, I can write just about anywhere. I’m a veritable Doctor Seuss character as it pertains to scribbles at this point.
This becomes such an issue that - despite the fact that I’ll finish The Enemy Within, with the intent to put it away and not look at it for a month - I will begin writing the follow-up to the novel within the next few days or even hours. When I finished As Darknes Falls, I knew that I was going to be taking a huge step away from my original conceived notion of The Enemy Within. I thought I’d need time to load the new ideas into my mind, but they were already buried somewhere in my mind, and I ended up renting a backhoe without any prior anticipation.
Basically, it all boils down to this: over the next month or so, it becomes incredibly interesting for me as a writer. I can’t wait to see what insanity comes to pass!
Concept Art – Adolescent Naryx
Concept Art for the character of Naryx, a bit more grown up, from Michael DeAngelo’s world of Tellest. For a game in development, artwork by Rhianna Brennan.
The Bindings of Fate
As Darkness Falls
