A Writer who doesn't read

Hi All,

It's been way too long since my last post, but be assured that the Niffaran Chronicles are still coming, and there's also a new science fiction story in development.

I'm often asked where I get my inspiration; in truth, it comes from many places but not really from books. I read very few books these days. Most of the books I've started in recent years have not engaged me, and I haven't finished them. I am more often drawn to visual stimulation like movies, games, images, and simply walking outside.

The Niffaran Chronicles draws inspiration from several sources, only one of them a book:

• The Company of Wolves (in my opinion, the most fantastic fantasy film ever made)
• The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever (ok, this one's a book)
• The Magnificent Seven (the original, not the dodgy remake with Chris Pratt)
• Forrest Gump (Just one scene which always brings a tear)
• Warlock (an old western with Henry Fonda and De Forrest Kelly (Bones from Star Trek))
• Star Trek II the Wrath of Khan
• Highlander
• Red Sonja (Bridget Nielsen wielding a giant sword - what's not to like)
• Excalibur
• All the things I don't like about The Lord of the Rings*

*I feel this needs some explanation. The Lord of the Rings is my bible, not just for the story and characters but for the fantastic world-building, engrossing maps and lore. Even though I love this book and have read it several times, I still have some issues - issues shared by other media.

• Very few female characters, and the ones that are mentioned, have little impact on the story (other than Eowyn killing the witch king of Angmar). We don't meet female hobbits, dwarves, orcs or goblins etc.
• The orcs are simply evil. There's no attempt to explain why they're evil or what motivates them. They're one-dimensional.
• There are no gay characters, not even hinted at. I know the book was written when gay characters were rare, but it began to grate on me in my twenties.
• No disabled characters. An accusation I also level at most current TV and film.
• Too much time was spent describing the landscape. I'm often tempted to skip chunks of the book as it spends so much time talking about hills and mountains etc. One chapter follows Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli simply running through the landscape - it can be skipped without impacting the story.
• The house of Tom Bombadil. I know plenty of Tolkien lovers will be aghast, but this chapter always felt out of place, and I'm glad Peter Jackson dumped it for the film. Frodo doesn't even mention it to Gandalf later, almost as if it never happened.

Do I think my novels will be better than the Lord of the Rings? Of course not. However, these are my inspirations. I can't help how I think.

Until next time.

John Howes.

The Curse of Lightweight Fantasy

So what is the best fantasy TV series currently available? Well, it must be the Witcher or perhaps The Wheel of Time? Large CGI budgets, entire productions based around a single star (Henry Cavill playing himself and Rosamund Pike playing the mighty expositioner) and streaming giants promoting them.

Totally wrong. In the wake of Game of Throne's gritty reality, we've been treated to 2D characters and paper-thin plots. The first series of the witcher was utterly confusing and never went anywhere. I'm supposed to care about Geralt, Yennefer and Ciri but I really don't. There's no chemistry between any of them. That's bad enough, but the Wheel of Time makes The Witcher look like Shakespeare. Tons of over-earnest exposition and a hackneyed chosen one plot which was old when they used it in The Matrix. I bailed after two episodes.

Both shows are clearly aiming for an adult audience but using young-adult tropes.

Enter  Netflix's Arcane:

Firstly Arcane is anime and the concept is based on the video game League of Legends. Let neither of these things put you off. This show is incredible. Very little exposition and some superb characters - all are 3 dimensional and helped by some excellent voice acting. The show takes no prisoners and expects you to keep up with the plot and characters - give it your time and you'll be rewarded by a fully realised world with characters you'll care about. Add to this a lesbian romance which is so natural and unforced it just isn't a thing - which is a good thing and you have the best original fantasy currently available by a country mile.

Of course, this is just my opinion, but if you disagree you're obviously wrong :-)

That's all for now.

John Howes.

Zero Magenta is also a Hard Cover!

It's all go at Howes Towers! Not only have I finally released Zero Magenta as a paperback it's also available as a hardcover.

Unfortunately, there is one catch. It can currently only be ordered through the French, German and Italian Amazon sites. Hopefully, KDP will make indie hardcovers available in the UK in the future.

I've ordered a proof copy which I'll share with you when I get it - probably some time in January.

That's all for now.

John Howes.

Zero Magenta 2nd Edition E-book and paperback now avialable!

 I learned a great deal writing my first novel and I've learned even more writing the Nifaran Chronicles (coming soon) so I decided to edit the 2nd edition of my first novel.

The new edit fixes some grammatical faux pas but also addresses many issues I've only become aware of recently - most of those stemming from the male gaze and writing characters of colour as a middle-aged white man. I'm not going to pretend I've got everything right, but I'm certainly going to try a lot harder going forward.

The 2nd edition is now available from Amazon as an e-book and a paperback (my first). I'm also hoping to release a hardcover soon.

Please let me know what you think, either here or on Twitter

Fay Legion map teaser

 Every story has a beginning, and mine starts here...

(c) John Howes 2021

A tiny sneak peek at the main map for my second novel: Fay Legion.

More information to come. Watch this space.

The Fantasy Opus is no more - Title reveal for my second novel

After calling it the Fantasy Opus for seven years, I can finally reveal the name of my next novel. It is the first of two parts written back-to-back. There is still some formatting and the small matter of cover art, but here is a draft mock-up of the title page...

More news coming soon.

John Howes.

The End is Nigh

At the beginning of 2016, I started writing my fantasy opus. A story that has grown in my mind over the course of 20 years. I want it to be the best it can be so there have been multiple edits, proofreading and read-throughs.

After almost 7 years the novel (now split into two) is almost complete. There is some formatting to do, some maps to draw and cover art to commission. I'm currently targeting a release within the next six months.

I'll be releasing the name of the first book very soon.

In other news: my first book, Zero Magenta, is being edited into a second edition which will include new cover art and a paperback release.

Watch this space...

Proof Reading, Editing and Map Experiments

Hi all, it's been months since my last confession!

So the first part of my fantasy opus is finished and editing is underway; thanks to my lovely wife who is proofreading as I write. One thing I have decided is that it is being split into two books. It's just too big to publish in a single volume due to page count constraints.

Also, there will now be at least two further books. I essentially built a world so big that the story grew until it resembled a much bigger arc. While I originally decided to take a break to write some more science fiction, I've decided to complete the fantasy first. So that will be another three years!

So...

• Proof Reading and editing are underway
• Paperback formatting has begun
• A Cover artist has been chosen
• I've started outlining the next two parts.
• I've been experimenting with some map drawing software:

This is my first trial using Wonderdraft to create a fantasy map for my Opus. It's very rough and ready, but given more time I think I can create something very professional:

That's all for now!

Cheers - John Howes.

19 Down, Just 90 to go!

I've finished editing the first 19 chapters. Just 90 more to go!

Using Grammarly has made the whole task significantly less painful. Grammarly is even helping me with this post as it will run in Microsoft Word and within a Chrome browser. It's not cheap but it is exceptionally good. I highly recommend it for any budding writers.

I don't have much more to share at present. I'll be getting into map design after editing, so I'll be posting my experiments.

That's all for now.

John Howes.

Fantasy Opus - Formatting & Yet More Editing

 Hi there,

I've finally finished writing my second novel and I'm getting into the formatting and final edits. I'm writing in the garden once more although it's a very blustery day in blighty.

My aim is to format the novel into two parts, each will be around 700 pages long and my preferred form factor is 5" X 8" which is the same size as my old dog-eared copy of Lord of the Rings. Just a tad bigger than a standard mass market paperback.

The next stages will be:

• Final edit using the Grammarly tool
• Proofreading (My wonderful wife Lisa has volunteered)
• Digitizing the story map using WonderDraft
• Final formatting
• Engaging a Cover artist (I'm hoping to use Damonza)
• Formatting the ebook
• Publishing to Amazon in both print and ebook.

That's all for now,

Cheers,

John Howes