Thank You From the Bottom of My Heart

 

I want to start off this newsletter with profound and deep thanks for everyone who reached out to me with condolences for the recent death of my mother.  For those who don’t know, my 77-year-old, bed-ridden mother became ill the day after Christmas.  In the hospital, it was revealed she had sepsis (though she showed very little outward sign of it) because of a kidney stone.  While the surgery to bypass the blockage in the kidneys was successful, despite the best efforts of one of the best medical teams on the planet (Duke University Healthcare), the damage to her system was just too much.  After three or four worrisome days in the CCU, it was clear that she was not going to make it.  She died January 5th. The outpouring of support from friends, family, and fans was overwhelming.  My publisher, Podium, was uniquely sympathetic and ensured that I had the time I needed to grieve and put my mother’s affairs in order.  My fans were instantly understanding and gave me the space I needed to do what had to be done.  And while I am certainly still grieving and contending with the inevitable details of my mother’s passing, I have returned to my work schedule without too much loss of productivity. That’s a good thing.  It’s good for my mental health, and it’s good for my family.  Death is often a life-altering event that invokes all sorts of special rules, and it should.  But reclaiming normalcy is often one of the most difficult, yet most important, elements of grieving.  There will always be a hole in my life where my mother was.  Learning to negotiate around that hole and still make progress is a welcome challenge for me.  Death is sad.  Life moves on. Besides, I have a new book coming out in March.

Shadowblade is out March 26th on Kindle, softcover, and audiobook!I’m terribly excited by the third and final volume in the Legacy & Secrets trilogy.  My co-author and long-time editor Emily Burch Harris and I had an absolute blast writing this one.  It follows Gatina a little later in her career of childhood larceny and revolution as she and her family infiltrate the powerful and mysterious Sea Lords of Enultramar.   This is no easy task; the Sea Lords are distinctive from other Alshari—a culture apart.  They are responsible for more than a third of all commercial shipping in Enultramar, and therefore they hold outsized political power in the broken duchy.  Their customs and mannerisms are difficult for an outsider to master.  Gatina has to learn seamanship and sailing, new methods of fighting, talking, and walking, and ultimately how to take part in a high-stakes operation against the forces of the usurper Count Vichetral.  Along the way, she meets mysterious strangers, gets attacked by pirates, is cursed by a capricious goddess, and even endures shipwreck.  It’s high adventure at a pivotal point in Gatina’s life, and one that sees her question many of her childhood assumptions about her life and her family. Emily and I did a ton of research for this book—more than the other two combined.  You can’t just pretend to know about seamanship and have it ring true.  I apologize in advance to any mariners or old salts out there who find mistakes in our assumptions and representations of sailing.  In some cases, they are completely valid.  In a few, we were forced to make technical decisions about the nature of construction and conduct of Sea Lord life and livelihood that might be at odds with a more historical examination of the subject.  I hope we don’t irritate too many knowledgeable folks with these decisions.   In any case, Shadowblade explains some of the reasons Gatina acts as she does when we first meet her in Shadowmage.  She’s a young girl on the cusp of womanhood who is suddenly faced with some of the realities of that transition.  That was a fascinating element of Gatina for us to explore, as writers, and we hope you appreciate the adventure-laden result. Don’t forget to preorder—that really does help us!  And don’t be afraid to leave a review, even if you hate it.  Of course, I don’t want you to hate it, but I do hope you’ll enjoy the conclusion of the Legacy & Secrets trilogy.

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When Swords Fall Silent!  Word on the street is that fulfillment for the beautiful anthology will be this month, after a number of delays.  To remind you, I wrote a (non-Spellmonger) short story for the anthology, a ditty called “Mission of Mercy.”  As the entire anthology is about assassins, you can use your imagination about what it’s about.  But I am eagerly looking forward to the arrival of the hardback edition via Kickstarter.  Hats off to Wraithmarked Creative and the editor and contributor Bryce O’Conner for doing such a good job putting this together.  Remember, a portion of the profits will be donated to St. Jude’s Children Hospital, so its for a good cause.  You can find the Kindle version here, the audio version here (thanks, Podium!).

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News on the gaming front!  I finally finished the final edits on the TTFRP adaptation for Spellmonger and submitted it to Battlefield Press!  It is now in layout and markup stage, with art being added and such.  I’ll let you know when it will be released the instant I know. I’m still assembling my con schedule for the year, so if you know of a con that needs a good panel speaker on the subjects of Epic Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Worldbuilding, etc., let me know.  Hopefully I’ll be out of the country for most of August for WorldCon in Glasgow, Scotland, but apart from that, I am open to any reasonable invitation.  Unfortunately, due to cost considerations, I won’t be able to do a booth outside of the Southeast region, but I am more than happy to attend cons across the US, Canada, and Fiji. That’s about enough from me, now.  Time to get back to the keyboard.  These things don’t write themselves. — Terry

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