Don't Miss My 99-cent Special on The Labors of Ki'shto'ba Huge-Head!

AW, SALE'S ENDED!  YOU MISSED OUT!

 

BUT THANKS SO MUCH TO ALL WHO BOUGHT COPIES

OF MY KI'SHTO'BA SAGA!

Last month I held a quite successful 99-cent sale on The Termite Queen, so this month I'm going to do the same with v.1 and v.2 of The Labors of Ki'shto'ba Huge!

Starting tomorrow, Tuesday, June 4,

and running through Monday, June 10,

 The War of the Stolen Mother and The Storm-Wing

will cost only 99 cents each

for Amazon Kindle and for Smashwords.

Those who purchased The Termite Queen will certainly want to read the further adventures of the Champion Ki'shto'ba Huge-Head and its Companion Di'fa'kro'mi the Remembrancer, so now is tthe time to stock up at a ridiculously low price!  Or you can read these books as your first dip into my works!  Don't be shy!

 

THE WAR OF THE STOLEN MOTHER (The Labors of Ki'shto'ba Huge-Head, v.1)

 

In the 30th century, Earthers make first contact with an intelligent lifeform called the Shshi, which evolved from termites. Following that contact, the Champion of the Shshi, the Warrior Ki'shto'ba Huge-Head, and the bard of the fortress of Lo'ro'ra, Di'fa'kro'mi the Remembrancer, are moved to set off on a quest to reach the sea, the existence of which was unknown to them until the humans came. Joined by two Worker helpers, they head first for Ki'shto'ba's home fortress of To'wak, where they find that the local Tyrant, who has long feared Ki'shto'ba's power, is holding citizens of Lo'ro'ra prisoner. We learn of our Champion's hatching (it has a twin) and of a Seer's revelations that Ki'shto'ba was sired by the Sky-King and that it can be killed only under unusual circumstances. Ki'shto'ba undertakes to ransom the prisoners by agreeing to leave To'wak and perform twelve wonders before returning, thus freeing the Tyrant from the fate of being killed by its more powerful sibling. The Companions then set off again, joined by the twin A'zhu'lo and by a fifth Companion, an outcast Worker named Za'dut, who is an outrageous trickster and thief. Their journey takes them to the fortress of Thel'or'ei, which has been at war with its neighbors for nine years over possession of a river ford. Ki'shto'ba is duped into supporting Thel'or'ei, which in fact has committed an unspeakable crime against the Shshi Way of Life. When Ki'shto'ba learns of this crime, it renounces its oath and goes over to the other side. There, with the help of Za'dut the trickster, plots are devised to steal Thel'or'ei's protective talisman and to breach its impregnable walls. But with a crime so heinous and with flawed local Champions who are either craven, cunning, or willful and unpredictable, it is unlikely the outcome can be favorable ...

 

THE STORM-WING (The Labors of Ki'shto'ba Huge-Head, v.2)

 

 If you enjoy tales of high adventure and battles with strange monsters (with a theme of sibling rivalry running through the mix), you will love The Storm-Wing! At the end of v.1 (The War of the Stolen Mother), the Champion of the Shshi (termite people) Ki'shto'ba Huge-Head and its Companions set out to cross the dangerous Nu'wiv'mi Marsh on their way to visit a friend in the mountains. They soon encounter and do battle with the Marsh Guardians -- huge sauro-avians that attack from the air with beak, claw, showers of poisonous dung, and barbed feathers. Ki'shto'ba lops off the leg of the King-Bird but fails to kill him, with consequences that will prove ominous. The Quest is then diverted in a southerly direction, where a fortress being terrorized by a water monster requests Ki'shto'ba's aid. As a reward for slaying this creature, Ki'shto'ba is granted the surname of Monster Slayer. Finally the Quest heads west, where the Companions find themselves in the domain of the Marchers, a Shshi people ruled by another great Champion. After an eventful sojourn among the Marchers, whose Seer pronounces some disturbing prophecies regarding the Quest, the Companions at last turn northward into Northern Nasute country. There they find that the fortress of their friend Sa'ti'a'i'a is being invaded nightly by a monster that resembles a primitive Shi. Ki'shto'ba kills this formidable enemy, only to find it must also eliminate the monster's mother, who lives in caves under a lake and is even more fearsome ...



 

The Storm-Wing Is Published!

You can now buy The Storm-Wing in paperback, Kindle (not quite ready for a link -- they got my name wrong), and Smashwords.  Kindle and Smashwords are $2.99 because the book is about 100 pages shorter than v.1: The War of the Stolen Mother.  The paperback is $14.49.  Don't hesitate to buy the book, even if you haven't read v.1!  Most of the characters and background are reprised, and the book includes a Glossary of Shshi Words, as well as the usual footnotes.

 

Here is the description of the book:

 

 If you enjoy tales of high adventure and battles with strange monsters (with a theme of sibling rivalry running through the mix), you will love The Storm-Wing! At the end of v. 1 (The War of the Stolen Mother), the Champion of the Shshi (termite people) Ki'shto'ba Huge-Head and its Companions set out to cross the dangerous Nu'wiv'mi Marsh on their way to visit a friend in the mountains.  They soon encounter and do battle with the Marsh Guardians – huge sauro-avians that attack from the air with beak, claw, showers of poisonous dung, and barbed feathers.  Ki'shto'ba lops off the leg of the King-Bird but fails to kill him, with consequences that will prove ominous. 

       The Quest is then diverted in a southerly direction, where a fortress being terrorized by a water monster requests Ki'shto'ba's aid.  As a reward for slaying this creature, Ki'shto'ba is granted the surname of Monster Slayer.

       Finally the Quest heads west, where the Companions find themselves in the domain of the Marchers, a Shshi people ruled by another great Champion.  After an eventful sojourn among the Marchers, whose Seer pronounces some disturbing prophecies regarding the Quest, the Companions at last turn northward into Northern Nasute country.  There they find that the fortress of their friend Sa'ti'a'i'a is being invaded nightly by a monster that resembles a primitive Shi.  Ki'shto'ba kills this formidable enemy, only to find it must also eliminate the monster's mother, who lives in caves under a lake and is even more fearsome ...

 

And here is the tease from the back cover of the paperback, excerpted from Chapter 5:

 

THE COMPANIONS JOURNEY BETWEEN THE FORTRESSES

 OF EI'TOT AND GUT'AKH'ZI

       About halfway along, I happened to glance up at the sky and I saw something circling there.  It caught me in the gut.  “Ra’fa’kat’wei,” I said in a sending too small for anyone else to receive, “look up.”
       She did so.  The thing had dipped lower.
       It was definitely a yak’nu’wiv’mi| – I recognized the tufted tail, the long neck, the sharp-edged wings.  “tha’sask|>||” said Ra’fa’kat’wei.
       Ki’shto’ba received this and said, “What is the matter?”
       We told everybody, and then it was A’zhu’lo that swore.  There was no cover in that area, so we quickened our pace.  Ra’fa’kat’wei and I continued to watch the sky.
       The creature – there was only one – dropped lower.  And then we both saw something.
       “Ki’shto’ba,” I said, “he has only one rear leg.”
       “For sure, he is Hak’tuk!” exclaimed Ra’fa’kat’wei.
       “How can that be?” said A’zhu’lo.  “The ei’tot’zei| said the others would kill him.”
       Ki’shto’ba’s legs had not missed a step.  “Or drive him away, they said.  It seems he survived my slashes but has lost his Mothers.”
       “He is alone,” said Twa’sei, crowding up against Ki’shto’ba.
       “He cannot be happy,” said Wei’tu.
       “Perhaps he is thinking of revenge,” said A’zhu’lo broodingly.
       “I do not know about you,” said Za’dut, “but we just got over one attack by that sask’zei|.  I would prefer a challenge I have not experienced before.”
       We continued to scuttle along as fast as we were able.  The Storm-Wing circled in the sky over our heads for some little while.  His position never changed in relation to ours, so I was sure he was watching us.
       Then suddenly he wheeled and veered away toward the southwest.  I do not know where he went.  At the time I had no desire to know.  Just then we saw the shapes of fortress buildings ahead of us and soon we were safely inside the walls of Gut’akh’zi, huffing with relief.

HAPPY READING!

 

A New Smashwords Rant

      I always think I have everything down pat whenever I upload a new book to Smashwords, but every time a new problem arises! 

 

       First-off, I want to complain about their uploading process.  You have to do it all at one time.  If you log out in the middle and then log back in, everything has disappeared (CreateSpace retains whatever you put in if you've hit Save).  So you have to be sure you have plenty of time and hope IE doesn't crash!  So you start by putting in the short description, which has to be 400 characters or less.  I never know how many characters I have and they don't tell you as you type (or sometimes they tell you and sometimes they don't -- I haven't quite figured that out).  So you get to the end and it tells you the short description is too long.  You go back and fix it -- and your text and cover upload disappear and you have to re-enter them!  That's just stupid!

 

       So you get past that point and you're absolutely sure that the text is perfect this time.  The meatgrinder starts up.  You're #32 in the queue (everybody seems to be uploading on a Saturday morning -- I recommend some other time).  It reaches #30 and sticks there for an interminable (or it seems interminable) amount of time.  Somebody must be uploading a satirical version of the entire Encyclopedia Britannica.  Then it speeds up a little.  Each item -- epub, Kindle, etc. -- proceeds apace.  You're thrilled.  You get to the end, assign the ISBN -- and get that dreaded Autovetter error.  This time it's this:

 

"Space Bar Error - You are attempting to use space bar spaces (created by the tapping the long space bar at the bottom of your keyboard) to orient text on the page. This is a common error for writers, often mistakenly used either to create indents for the first sentence of a paragraph, or to center text on the page. In most ebook formats, these space bar spaces disappear, rendering your book difficult to read. If you're trying to center something, use Word's "center" button, or better yet see the Style Guide for tips on how to create a custom paragraph style that defines centering. If you're trying to create first line paragraph indents, follow the instructions in the Smashwords Style Guide. To locate the offending spaces, activate Word's "show/hide" feature then do a Search (press the "CTRL" key and the "F" key at the same time) and then search for three spaces (press the space bar on your keyboard three times). Delete all strings of three or more spaces. Also delete any space bar spaces preceding the start of any paragraph. "

 

       You know what I hate about their messages?  Not only are they verbose -- they're patronizing!  Has anybody out there gotten this far with self-publishing and yet has no idea what a space bar is or what it's used for?  They make you feel like an eight-year-old piano student whose teacher stands over you and raps you on knuckles whenever you hit a wrong note, all the while saying, "Now, now, dear, remember it's wrong to make a mistake!"

       And certainly I am quite aware that using the space bar to paragraph (like I'm doing in this blog post) or for most other purposes is a big, fat no-no in Smashwords.  Smashwords will allow nothing but Paragraph Indent and Centering.  You can't even use No Paragraph (block paragraphs).  So I was swearing and yelling, "I did not use the space bar except where I'm supposed to!"

 

       Well, of course I did.  I didn't use it for paragraphing, but I did find several places where I had made three spaces when I meant only two.  (Just touched a wrong key there, ma'am -- please don't hit me again!) And then I went through the whole doc. looking for extra spaces at the beginning of paragraphs.  By golly, I found quite a few.  Several double spaces and a whole lot of single spaces.  Some of those are certainly present in the printed book as well, but most of those are so miniscule that unless you took a ruler and laid it on the page against the beginnings of the paragraphs, you would never notice them.  However, in the future I will check that before I even start formatting the CreateSpace template. 

       Now, I was also using *     *     * between chapter sections  (employing the space bar -- what's a space bar, Mommy?) so I redid those as simply *****.  I don't know what editors prefer for section breaks, but I've always used a series of stars.

 

       But here is what is peculiar.  I rechecked the document I uploaded for The War of the Stolen Mother, and it's got the *     *     * and plenty of extra spaces, including some three-space chunks and extras at the beginning of paragraphs.  And Smashwords never quibbled in the least about that one!  So go figure!  Is it something new they've added?  Is it a matter of a different individual doing the vetting?  I thought Autovetting didn't involve living people. 

 

       Oh, and one other thing: When I looked at the epub version, I found an NCX error, where I had missed a link to the Facsimile page.  Smashwords didn't catch that one!  Evil laugh -- heh-heh-heh! So I fixed that as a bonus.

 

       It's all a big mystery!  But my final upload worked and I'm now waiting to be included in the Premium Catalog.  I've had two sample downloads so far.  Hope you enjoy! 

 

       Rant over!  I feel better for sharing!  And maybe it will help somebody else avoid the same errors.

      

Publishing Update on The Storm-Wing!

Finished cover for The Storm-Wing

 

       This post is partially brought over from Ruminations of a Remembrancer.  I thought that since the current blog was originally meant as a vehicle for publicizing The Labors of Ki'shto'ba Huge-Head series, and since it probably has a different readership from the termitewriter blog, I ought to post it here, too.

 

       I've been completing the formatting of The Storm-Wing (v.2 of The Labors of Ki'shto'ba Huge-Head) and I've uploaded it on CreateSpace. I had a couple of dinky but pesky problems that took a good bit of the weekend to solve. One involved pagination (sigh -- the eternal flaw in Word). There are quite a few preliminary pages and I wanted them paged a certain way, with small Roman numerals. And I couldn't get "ii" off a blank page without causing the numbers to disappear from some of the subsequent pages. Blank pages are not supposed to have numbers on them. I finally solved the problem -- don't ask me how.

       Then CreateSpace told me my little title page drawing (shown below) didn't have enough DPI. I was puzzled, because I thought that the t.p. drawings on The Termite Queen were simply copied over from Word and not even put in .jpg format. It turned out that the problem was the eyes. I have used a fill containing little dots for the eyes in my cover drawings, but the strange thing with the fill is that it doesn't change size if you change the size of the drawing. After a couple of unsuccessful adjustments I just deleted the fill with the dots and made the eyes solid gray. Then it took the plain drawing without a quibble.

       I got the approval to publish this morning, but I've decided to order a printed proof copy this time.  It was hard to tell in the online mock-up whether the t.p. drawing is going to look right. I'm not in any hurry to publish, anyway, so I don't mind waiting the 10 days or so that CS requires to get the proof shipped. In the meantime I can work on the Kindle and Smashwords editions -- I haven't even begun that formatting. However, it's pretty easy once you've done it a few times. The only time-consuming aspects are embedding the footnotes in the text and linking up the ToC. Then, once all three are available, I'll put up some kind of celebratory special offer! So stay tuned!

Cover Art for Storm-Wing - Revised Version

I took to heart the comments on my previous post about how the scene appears to be underwater.  I was puzzled at first, until I realized it was an optical illusion induced by the width of the river in the background, which could be interpreted as the top of a body of water.  I never perceived it like that because I knew what I was looking at.  It threw the perspective off (something I'm shaky on anyway) and made the river seem much more significant that it should.  So below is my revised version.  I narrowed the river, removed the ripples (which I think were a distraction), altered the shape of the hills to emphasize the big flying critter, and added a strip of greenish color to represent more water in the background (this is supposed to be a swamp after all).  Let's see what you think of this.

 

Cover Art for "The Storm-Wing," v.2 of "Labors" + Publishing Update

I'm in the process of formatting "The Storm-Wing" for CreateSpace.  I'm taking it slow for two reasons: First, I want to give v.1 more time to become more widely read.  Nobody is going to buy v.2 until they've read v.1.  Second, I'm doing some last minute revision as I format, so that slows things down.  Actually, there is a third reason - I'm spending way too much time blogging, commenting on other people's blogs, and emailing!  But I'm enjoying that!  I have also done a back cover, but it doesn't have any illustrations.  It's just a plain excerpt from the text.  The map is nearly done -- I may want to simplify it a little.  When I'm satisfied, I'll post it on the Maps page.      

 

I would love to have some opinions on this front cover.  What do you think of the ripples in the river?  Water is the hardest thing to do with this Word program.  First I had it with no ripples, just the greenish swamp-water color, and it looked OK. Then I added the ripples and I think maybe it looks worse -- more unnatural.  What do you think?

 

 

       Obviously I modeled Hak'tuk the Storm-Wing on a pterosaur, with some additions and alterations.  He's a protoavian, actually, or a sauroavian.  He's quite a monster, meant to represent Hercules' Labor of the Stymphalian Birds.  But in my interpretation he's much more than a monster, as you will find when you read the book. 

       That's Za'dut in the background and A'zhu'lo at the right front; both have been knocked out of the fray, while our hero Ki'shto'ba stands its ground.  One way the Marsh Guardians fight is by shooting poisonous dung at their opponents -- you can see splotches of it on the ground, and direct hits are making both Za'dut and A'zhu'lo throw up.  Besides that weapon, the creatures fling feathers that penetrate like iron darts.

      The drawing will be trimmed at the black bleed line when published in print form.  I think this is a pretty eye-catching cover (lots of action) and it ought to show up decently in the Kindle version.

What Do Intercaste Termites and "The Song of Roland" Have in Common?

       I'm still in the process of preparing v.2 of "The Labors of Ki'shto'ba Huge-Head" for publication. It will be 22 chapters in length (about 111,000 words) and it works well as a unit. I'm still entitling it "The Storm-Wing." I recently realized that the end matter in the first volume refers to it as "The Adventures of Ki'shto'ba Monster Slayer," but it's the same book.  I don't think it's worthwhile republishing everything to fix that detail.  I've rewritten the Translator's Foreword for v.2, although I will probably revise it a bit more, and I'm working on the art for the front cover and on the map.  I'll publish both of those in this blog when they're finished.

       I won't be publishing for a while, though, because I'm waiting for v.1 to accumulate a few more readers and a few reviews.  I would love to have a review (positive, of course!) to quote on the back cover.  So I continue encouraging people to buy "The War of the Stolen Mother" and to read it!

 

Death of Roland, illumination from Grandes Chroniques de France, mid-15th c.
(from Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain)

 

       So what does all this have to do with the title of this blog post?  "The Storm-Wing" is a tale of monsters -- Ki'shto'ba fights five of them, two of them reflecting two of the Labors of the earthly Hercules, one of them a product of my own imagination, and two others drawn from a particular medieval epic tale that shall be nameless at this point.  However, the story also draws on another medieval epic: "The Song of Roland" (Le Chanson de Roland, part of the "Matter of France").  The narrative begins in this volume and concludes in the third volume ("The Tale of the Valley of Thorns").

       Many of you may remember some of the plot of "The Song of Roland" from literature courses.  The hero Roland and his loyal friend Oliver lead an army in the name of the great French King Charlemagne to stop the Saracen's advance into Europe.  They clash in the Roncevalles Pass in the Pyrenees. 

       (Parenthetically, when I wrote this story a number of years back, I attempted to discover the derivation of the name "Roncevalles" or "Roncevaux."  Obviously valles or vaux means "vales" or "valleys."  Ronce, I finally determined, means "bramble," a prickly bush.  That's where the title "Tale of the Valley of Thorns" came from.  In the Shshi language, it's Pol'ki'shtot, literally, "Valley of Thorns.")

       Charlemagne has a reserve force, which has already gone ahead of Roland's small band that makes up the rear guard.  If Roland should need backup, he is supposed to blow his horn to summon the King, but he is a proud knight who refuses to concede that he cannot do the work by himself and delays blowing the horn until it is too late.  By the time Charlemagne arrives, the whole band has been slaughtered and the Saracens have prevailed.

       Now how does that work with termites?  In the first place, they can't blow a horn; they are totally deaf.  I came up with an answer that I won't disclose here, but I thought it was pretty ingenious.  And I created a species of Shshi called the Marchers (Roland was a march lord), who guard the region between the Northern Nasutes and the Southern Nasutes.  The Northern Nasutes are the people of Sa'ti'a'i'a from "Termite Queen."  The Southern Nasutes are a different animal entirely.  The Marchers and the Northern Nasutes and the Shshi of the Plains (the people of Ki'shto'ba and Di'fa'kro'mi) all worship the Sky-Mother (their Goddess lives in the sky).  The Southern Nasutes worship a Nameless Mother who lives underground; they use volcanic fumes as their prophetic stimulus (the oracle at Delphi?) instead of ingesting hallucinogenic vegetable matter.

       The Marchers and the Southern Nasutes have been at war for as long as anyone remembers.  It's Franks vs. Saracens, Christians vs. Muslims,  all over again.  Infidel fighting infidel!  And all on the basis of where their goddess resides.  I'll have a lot more to say on that subject at another time.

       So what is this intercaste thing in the title of this post?  In "The Song of Roland" a major member of Roland's band is Archbishop Turpin, the Warrior Bishop.  Fighting and praying with equal ferocity, he is clearly a kind of hybrid.  At one point he fights a Black Champion, who obviously represents Satan, and prevails.

       So how do I portray Archibishop Turpin? 

       I've mentioned Dr. Timothy Myles before -- he's the entomologist whose website taught me a large part of what I know about termites.  At one point I ran into an abstract of a paper he did in 1980 describing experiments changing the hormonal makeup of termite nymphs.  The resultant final molt produced "an individual with perfect notal and wing development, normal compound eyes and ocelli, complete sclerotization and full-length prognathous soldier mandibles. I have designated this laboratory freak a double caste. Its existence has endocrinological, developmental and social implications."  In other words, it produces an Intercaste -- an individual with the jaws of a Warrior and the wings and eyes of an Alate.  If this can be induced in the laboratory, why couldn't it occur in nature as a genetic aberration, especially if the native stock experienced a lot of inbreeding?  

       Such an hybridized individual would likely have a strange psychological mindset, and so we get Lug'tei'a (whose name means Thunder-Seer") -- a Warrior/Priest/Seer, the Chief Priest (Archbishop?) of the Marchers, who is a great Champion in his own right (imagine a sighted Warrior fighting normal ones who are eyeless!) but who is also gifted with unusual powers of prophecy and suffers from many conflicted feelings about his own aberrant existence.  I found him a fascinating character and I'm sure you will, too, after I publish v.2 and 3 and you get to meet the character in person.   

     

So What's New with v.2 of "Labors"?

       Two things are new: 1) It's going to take me awhile to get it ready for publication; and 2) I'm changing the title again!

       First, the title:  As you may recall, I took my original v.2, which was entitled "The Tale of the Valley of Thorns," and divided it into two volumes because it was really too long for one, and since it's episodic, it could be divided easily.  Volume 3 was intended to keep the original title, and that's still true.  But v.2 was going to be "The Labors of Ki'shto'ba Huge-Head: Volume Two: The Adventures of Ki'shto'ba Monster Slayer."  That fits well because in the story, Ki'shto'ba slays four monsters and wounds a fifth, and for its heroics, it is endowed with a new surname, No'dai Oin'zei, or Monster Slayer.
       However, the "Adventures" title had two things against it: It was awfully long, especially since I'm using the volume titles as subtitles; and it repeats the word "Ki'shto'ba," which gives it a redundant feeling.
       So I've decided to call it "The Labors of Ki'shto'ba Huge-Head: Volume Two: The Storm-Wing."  Ah, a little  intriguing mystery!  What is a "Storm-Wing"?  It happens to be the monster that Ki'shto'ba wounds but doesn't kill.  It becomes an ominous force throughout the volume, and indeed throughout the entire remainder of the series, so I think the title is quite appropriate and catchy!

       Now, what do I have to do to get the book ready for publication?  I think the most important thing is to allow time for v.1 to be read a little more widely, so I don't mind delaying.  Then, because of splitting the second volume into two parts, I have to rewrite the Translator's Preface (some of which pertains only to material in v.3).  I have to construct a List of Characters.  Then I have to be sure the end works and probably go into v.3 and make sure its beginning works.  I'm in the process of doing some rough formatting on the text and reading through and revising it a bit.  That part is fun.
       Then I have to make a front cover drawing.  I have a drawing, showing that same Storm-Wing (that's appropriate) that I can adapt, but it will take some work.  I have not drawn as many pictures for v.2 as for v.l, so I'll have to  work up an entirely new back cover, probably using a blurb this time.     
       Finally, I have to adapt the map.  I have a map that covers the entire Quest, so I have to chop off the upper part of that and work it up in black and white and make it the right size.  That will take some work, too.

       In the meantime, I encourage everybody to obtain a copy of "The War of the Stolen Mother" and introduce yourself to the termite world.  Believe me, you'll be very glad you did!

       For Kindle and paperback, all my books are at Amazon.
       For all other e-readers and for sample downloads, all my books are at Smashwords.
       For Nook and paperback, my books are also at Barnes & Noble.  "The Termite Queen" doesn't appear there for Nook, because of the insoluble NCX problem.  If you want TQ for Nook, go directly to Smashwords.

       And watch for Illustration No.5, appearing soon on this blog!