I wrote about 14 pages of the original manuscript featuring Logan Shadowhand in the time between my senior year in high school and when I met my wife. It sat in a folder until after we got married. When I pulled it out again, I knew the story needed some serious work.
My first change was [...]
Logan Shadowhand: a retrospective (part two)
Filed under Fiction, Writing Journal on September 2, 2008
Keywords: fantasy fiction, Logan Shadowhand, Shattered Amulet
Logan Shadowhand: a retrospective (part one)
Filed under Fiction, Writing Journal on August 26, 2008
Keywords: fantasy fiction, Logan Shadowhand, Shattered Amulet
I first attempted to transform Logan Shadowhand from a roleplaying game character into a literary hero about 15 years ago. He’s evolved quite a bit since then. I still have copies of those early manuscripts, some in hard copy and some in electronic. At Ravyn’s request, I’m going to share pieces of them with you [...]
The evolution of Logan Shadowhand
Filed under Writing Journal on August 12, 2008
Keywords: Chronicles of Jord, fantasy fiction, Logan Shadowhand, protagonists, Shattered Amulet
Logan Shadowhand presented some challenges for me as he evolved from a roleplaying game character into a fantasy fiction protagonist. I had no literary aspirations for the character until I recreated him as a non-player character for one of my Dungeons & Dragons campaigns. He and his elf partner (who was also destined to become [...]
Skipping the details
Filed under Tips & Tools, Writing Journal on July 22, 2008
Keywords: descriptions, Logan Shadowhand, Shattered Amulet
I envision a scene in my head first then write. The more vivid the pictures in my mind, the easier it is for me to write. Of course, this method comes with drawbacks. If my mental vision is muddied, I struggle putting words down. My descriptions also tend to rely on visual cues more than [...]
The ties that bind
Filed under Writing Journal on June 24, 2008
Keywords: Chronicles of Jord, fantasy fiction, Logan Shadowhand, Shattered Amulet
It’s pretty rare to find a stand-alone fantasy novel anymore. Fantasy fiction tends to come in sets: trilogies, episodic series, or some epic number of volumes. Part of this is marketing, the building of a brand and fostering reader loyalty to that brand. The artist in me prefers to think of it in terms of [...]

