How big is the Southern Isles?

No, this isn't the Southern Isles from Disney's Frozen.  I'm talking about the Southern Isles of Libera, the Heart of the World, where the backbone of the Chronicles of Libera's stories takes place.

I randomly decided to compare a piece of our world's map with the Southern Isles.  I used Google Maps to use a scale of 50mi/inch, and tried to scale my Southern Isles map (which is a little under 40mi/inch, I believe) to the Google map.  I used an area that includes Utah and some surrounding states.  What came out was really interesting.

I don't think much about comparing the scale of our world to Libera, although I do have a general idea of how far characters can travel in a few days or weeks on foot or horseback.  I think I've tried to do a scaled comparison of the Southern Isles before, and it's actually kind of surprising how big the area is.

Fun fun.

Unpackaging Books!

Audio is kind of quiet, so please turn it up!

Libera Battle site

I've created a website on Blogger for the Libera Battle TCG, and plan on adding further updates for the game on that site's blog.  So you won't see much in the way of my trading cards and stuff on Xenithar's Lair anymore.  You can subscribe to the Libera Battle Official Website via email, or if you're not already following me on Google+, you can follow me and receive automatic updates from the blog via Google+.

Right now the LB Official Website isn't much to look at, but I will try to consistently build and update the website as I create the trading cards.

Thanks!

More Libera Battle info

A spell card from the Dark Paths starter
deck.

Work on the TCG Libera Battle continues.  I've really enjoyed creating the fantastic art and cards for this game, and grow more and more excited about getting it printed.

I just wanted to talk a bit more about how I will be publishing Libera Battle.  It will be available on The Game Crafter website.  There will be 2 different starter decks: The Growing Gyre and Dark Paths.

The Growing Gyre deck circles around several heroes and spells associated with more of the "good side" of the spectrum.  It will be the easier of the two decks to use, and should suit beginners.  The Dark Paths starter deck features more villains and characters associated with villains, as well as spells and other cards that make the deck more difficult to use.

Darrin, a Re'sgalan that appears in Book 3
of The Legend of Draconite: E'lsra,
is a character I've never drawn before
this project.  He is part of the Dark
Paths starter deck.

The number and variety of cards in these starter decks constitutes a small percentage of the total amount of cards I will be making.  I plan to eventually publish booster packs on Game Crafter that will include all new cards, and will have a mix of character, spell, item cards, and more.

The starter decks will include a downloadable manual (as Game Crafter wasn't able to actually print the manual) and a game mat, which also turned out pretty awesome but that I won't share at this time.  The game components (dice, dice stickers, and counter chips) must be purchased separately.  This is so a player can buy both decks if they want without purchasing components each time.  It also makes it cheaper for the player to buy the decks.

I upload cards to The Game Crafter as I make them.  Here's the current game page; Libera Battle is not available for purchase, of course, but you can see the number of cards increase as I go.



Books!

While publishing Lithia on Createspace, I lowered the prices of all the books!  Yay! Below are the current prices:

Everyone have a wonderful weekend!

Lithia: As you've never seen her before

Hello readers!  Lately I've briefly put aside the Libera Battle art project and have prepared Lithia for publication on Amazon Createspace.  In the process, I've created art for a cover, as you can see to the right.

This was such a neat picture to paint.  Like the previous Lithia book cover, I hand-drew the lines and scanned it in before coloring.  As I painted, I wasn't going for a completely realistic look.  I took it very easy as I painted, and was able to create lush detail without stressing myself out over realism.  For example, normally for character hair I use a default brush in GIMP that has several dots in it.  However, for this piece, "Lithia Sees," I used the default oval brush.  As I used it with my tablet's pressure opacity, I layered over the shadows several times, which gave the appearance of different layers and strands of hair.

I chose to draw her blindfolded for a few reasons.  One of them is because the part of the story where she does wear a blindfold is very pivotal to the story and her development as a character.  Another reason was because I thought the subject would generate interest as a book cover and make an onlooker curious about this character.

Keeping Track of a Complex Story

As I've written In Chaos Forged, the complexity of the story grows, and as the complexity deepens, so will the length of the story and the Hammer of Fire series overall.  How do I keep track of the details in an increasingly complex story?  I'll offer a few things I've done for In Chaos Forged and other stories I've written.

• Keep Side Notes - As I introduce new concepts, people, and groups into the world, I'm usually not able to explain all the details of those things right away, especially when I write about factions. 
• For people, I'll keep notes on their personality, their abilities, and how they interact with other characters.  I haven't written large character sheets for them, though; I'm the kind of writer that discovers a character as I go along.
• For concepts and factions, I'll create a document detailing the what, the why, and the hows of the ideas.  What is the concept?  What do they do?  Why did they create the faction?  How does the idea work?
•  I've kept most of my major notes on computer documents, but I also have a notebook app on my smart phone where I can keep notes on the go.  I've also used a hard notebook to keep many notes in.  Small notebooks that can fit in your pocket or handbag are very useful as well.
• Use Bookmarks - In a word processor, there should be an option to insert bookmarks throughout the manuscript.  I use Libreoffice and Openoffice.  Go to Insert>Bookmark... and you can type the name of the bookmark and press okay.  It will insert the bookmark wherever you have clicked the cursor in the manuscript.  You can press F5 and it will bring up a document navigation screen, and there will be an expand option to look at and access your bookmarks by double-clicking.  I've used this tool to mark important events, settings, and ideas in the story that I may need to refer back to later for consistency.
• Think about your ideas often - I've found that thinking about my story ideas often while not writing or editing helps things click together and I can note them down later.  My life is a little crazy, but I still find time to think about my stories.  Your brain is like a computer, and if you ponder an idea enough, it's likely to fit together and make your story work, no matter how complex your story is getting.

Hope these tips help the writer out there who is also digging through an epic story!