New content!

Apr 5, 2022

Written By J David Baxter

It has been a minute since my last update. I have been busy writing the next book: Swordsmaster: GreyMantle Chronicles Book Three.

“Robert Jordan said he had envisioned the ending of the Wheel of Time stories in detail before he ever began writing the series. This series is the same way for me. I have a very clear view of the climatic scene of Nate’s story.”

The writing on this one has been more challenging than the first two. My process typically is to outline (which I’ve done for the entire story arc), then to go back and flesh out the rough outline with more detail, and only after that to start writing. I’m not what is known in writing circles as a “Pantser”, or someone who flys by the seat of their pants as the old saying goes. I need to know at least roughly where I am going with a story before I sit down to actually write it. When I started this story arc I already knew where it would start and how it would end and most of what would happen in between. Robert Jordan said he had envisioned the ending of the Wheel of Time stories in detail before he ever began writing the series. This series is the same way for me. I have a very clear view of the climatic scene of Nate’s story. That said, some of the stops along the path to that scene have been hazy in my mind, and none worse than act two of book 3. It has styimied me for two months now. I won’t give spoilers, but just say it is an event in the story that takes a lot of forethought and planning and can’t be written as I go. To that end, instead of just picturing in my mind the places Nate is going, I have taken a little extra time to map out some of the locations so that I can better describe them to you and give them extra depth. As a result, I have those maps to share, and have uploaded them to the gallery page for you to explore and enjoy. Bear with me as one of the maps, the region map around the Bane Elves’ capital, is a work in progress and only roughly filled in, but the others are fun and more detailed. I hope to bring you more content like this as we go, but I try not to lose focus on the big picture, that is finishing the story. At it stands, I am just over 47K words into this book, and should be able to have the writing done by the end of the month if everything goes according to plan. After that it will take another month or so of editing, formatting and cover creation before it can be published. Hang in there, your Greymantle fix will be coming soon! In the meantime check out the Gallery page and keep checking back for a release date on Book Three: Swordmaster. Gallery