Indie Book Club discussion

Congrats to Kevin for pulling out a close battle this month. Everyone get your copy and let the discussion begin!

Just bought my copy and getting it loaded on my iPad!!

Thank you everyone. This is a true honor. First off, I hope everyone enjoys reading the story. I will begin a discussion thread a little later tonight (as long as my wife does not go into labor, she's almost at 39 weeks and starting to feel like it's time). If anyone wants a little background information on the story, visit my author blog on Goodreads. I have only posted one thing so far, but it is quite informative of the background of Relics and Wonders. Also my website www.relicsandwonders.com has a lot of background information on the story as well. Happy reading to all!

Kevin wrote: "Thank you everyone. This is a true honor. First off, I hope everyone enjoys reading the story. I will begin a discussion thread a little later tonight (as long as my wife does not go into labor,..."

Congratulations on winning the monthly read selection and on the impending baby!

J.D. wrote: "Kevin wrote: "Thank you everyone. This is a true honor. First off, I hope everyone enjoys reading the story. I will begin a discussion thread a little later tonight (as long as my wife does not ..."

Thanks JD! I appreciate it.

Ooh, I've read this one! I even reviewed it on my blog, after Kevin was nice enough to provide me a copy. :) So congratulations on winning the book of the month.

And good luck to your wife with the up-and-coming!

So my first question for everyone is in reference to artwork? Do illustrations in a novel add or detract from the reading experience?

I think it all depends on the story. Your book has this rich mythology, geography, and political arena that readers are thrown right into the middle of. I think having the map at the begining was a great idea as it gives readers a reference when they are trying to recall where a certain place is. And kudos by the way to whoever drew that, it looks fantastic. I noticed on your website there are two different maps, why is that?

Gary,
Our website is like an accompanyment to the book. You're right, there is a lot of what I would call "folklore" to the Relics and Wonders series. My coauthor and I are planning to do seven books in the series. Lombard's Amulet is like the prologue to the series. We are planning to do a lot of interesting things with our website that will allow people to learn more about the world of Relics and Wonders. As far as the two maps go, the color map is designed as a quick reference. The black and white one with all the symbols on it is a more in depth look at the population of the world. Readers can see where the different colonies of dwarves live for instance, or the seven castles of the sorcerer elders. Some of these things are mentioned int he book, but the map is designed for people like me, who always want to take their love of a story to the next level. I was one of those kids who spent hours reading the companions to Tolkien's work and dove into his maps, learning the layouts of the different lands. That kind of stuff fascinates me.

By the way,

If anyone has a Kindle, I gifted five to The Butterflying Book Club Discussion group to be given away to the first five people who responded to a thread. Here is the link.

http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1...

No one else has snagged them up, so I say "grab em if you want it!"

Congrats on the impending baby!! Your first?

Started reading today and got about a quarter through. I had a bit of difficulty sorting the characters in my head at first, but I'm getting more familiar with them.

Second baby. Looking forward to the sleepless nights ahead of me.

Scott,

Which characters?

What does everyone think about books that cross different genres together? For instance, Lombard's Amulet has dwarves, elves, vampires, were-wolves, sorcerers, gnomes, mutants, and zombies all in the same world.

I liked that, myself. I'm not a big fan of illustrations in novels, but I didn't mind them in Relics. I did like all the different races being in the one book. I'm a fan of things that mash stuff together like that, so long as they do it well and I thought Relics did it well.

Gary,

The sorcerers and the bounty hunter at first. I'm terrible with names so I always get into trouble at the beginning of a story, especially if multiple characters get introduced in fairly rapid order. I also haven't really bonded with any of them yet so nothing has really solidified in my head.

Kevin,

I like the pictures a lot. They are well done and give a nice sense of the characters in the book. In terms of the cross genre thing, I think of paranormal as a sub genre of fantasy so I see nothing wrong with including them. I really feel that there are too many genre classifications now. I never know how to describe a book when I'm writing a review and from the contact forms authors use to submit requests to my blog a lot of people seem to have the same issue.

Scott,

I think I kind of know what you're saying about mixing up Zekiel and Draygon at first. I have seen this like you said when there are a lot of characters introduced in a few chapters. I would say by the end of chapter 5 after Draygon meets the man-wolves was when I had the two separated in my mind. I actually liked how Kevin started referring to Zekiel as "the sorcerer" and Draygon as "the Bounty Hunter."

As far as the "bonding" goes, I almost felt like I was watching a movie when I read this. There was always a lot of action. I didn't really think about an attachment to the characters until I was maybe a third to halfway through the story.

One of the things I found intriguing about the story was at first I didn't know what to make of the two main characters at first. Were they good or bad? I actually kind of liked that because it kept my interest and made me eager to read on. Obviously as the story progresses you see who the key players are on both sides.

Anyone else feel the same way?

Scott and Tim,

Zekiel the sorcerer is my "mysterious" character. He really kind of has that feel throughout the whole book. Draygon the Bounty Hunter has elements of mystery with him, but he is more of a talker, especially when he is trying to find out information from other people.

Tim,

I glad you didn't know what to make of Zekiel or Draygon at first, because that was exactly my intent. I think I had been watching a lot of television shows like HEROES and LOST at the time, and I always liked how you never quite knew what to make of a character. They had elements of good and bad in them at time, but ultimately they would lean toward one side.

Scott,
Which character peeks your interest the most so far?

Finished up the book today. I liked Rez and Zekiel. The various magical artifacts in the book were very cool. I was especially intrigued by the goblin weapons and the scythe. Will there be more info on stuff like that in later books?

Scott,

Glad to hear you finished it. The goblins' relics will definitely make another appearance in later books. Were you finally able to distinguish between Zekiel and Draygon?

Also Scott,

Which was your favorite picture?

Kevin,

I had them sorted out maybe a quarter of the way through the book, although I will struggle forever with their names. I am absolutely horrible with names it's kind of a curse when I try to remember them while writing reviews lol. The characterization of them as sorcerer and bounty hunter however will make it easy to keep them straight in my head.

In terms of the pictures, I think Draygon leaping down to attack the man wolf is my favorite. The others were good, but that really captured the action of the scene well. Second choice would probably be the two elves.

Ok,
Kind of a fun question. If you could be one type of character from the world of Relics and Wonders, which would it be?

elf
dwarf
sorcerer
mutation
man-wolf
blood-mage
gnome

According to my husband, I already am a gnome... ^_^ But I think I'd be a sorcerer. Probably.

How about a dampiel mutation similar to D from the anime Vampire Hunter D?

I think I would choose either a blood mage or a mutation.

Just started reading this. Sorry I'm late to the game! All my snowbird clients have come back into town and I've been swamped!

Kevin, really enjoying the book so far!

Jeff,

No problem. I hope you enjoy! How is the reading experience on the Ipad?

Good. Only noticed one formatting problem thus far and probably wouldn't have spotted it if it wasn't for me being in "night" mode. There were two small blocks that retained a white background near the start of chapter one, I think. Almost like there was a copy and paste and the text copied was on a white background. Weird. I can send a screen cap if you'd like.

That would be awesome, thanks!

What email?

[email protected]

I'm planning on joining this discussion, but I may not make it before October ends. The Wise Man's Fear is long...

I'd have to choose sorcerer!! Just saw the choices... :)

Wise Man's fear is a really good book. Enjoy that.

As to which character... It would have to be a mutant. The possibilities are endless with these guys.

I am curious to know what everyone's favorite relic is in the story and why? I will go ahead and list a few of them, but seeing as there are many, if something else sparked your interest, by all means make mention of it.

Zekiel's cloak
The emerald wand
The sorcerer's scythe
Lombard's Amulet
Kyra's necklace
Piaras' saber
The water-walker boots
The goblins' relics
Drifter's sword

I forgot to answer my own question! I would choose the emerald wand. I like the idea of a relic that just gives raw power to the maximum potential of the individual who holds it.

On a side note, I just found out that my wife will be induced tomorrow morning, so I am preparing my mind and body to have no sleep for the next couple of years :)

Good luck with the incoming baby! If you're lucky you'll only have to sacrifice like 6 months of sleep.

In terms of the relics I like the scythe and the goblin relics. I'm a weapons kind of guy.

Here's hoping everything goes smoothly. We'll totally understand when we don't see you around for a little while.

Scott, good choices. I'm a weapons kind of guy myself.

Baby is doing well. He was 8lbs 11oz. 21 inches long.

Ditto on the goblin relics.

And congratulations! Your son was just a little smaller than mine, so my sympathies to your wife! ;) But hope mother is doing well too! Hopefully he'll be a kind child and start letting you sleep again before too many years have passed. :)

Kevin wrote: "Baby is doing well. He was 8lbs 11oz. 21 inches long."

Wow, whopping big boy! Have fun getting to know him.

Congrats on the boy!!! It changes things a lot but totally worth every second.

Congrats, Kevin! Glad to hear everyone is doing well!

And for the record, I'm a weapons guy, too. Love that scythe!!!

Just out of curiosity, has anyone seen any formatting errors on their ebooks with Lombard's Amulet?

Okay,

Next question for the group is probably one that all authors ask at some point. Who was your favorite character and why?

I was really fond of Zull because you didn't really know what to make of him. He was the one who kidnapped Kyra, then you find out that he was working for Drifter. He was obviously against Mahgus, but at the same time he was the one who killed Zekiel's parents. I never knew if he was bad, good, or neutral. I think that's why I was so fond of him.

Gary,
That was exactly my intent with Zull. I'm glad you enjoyed his character.

Loknol and Zekiel were my two favorites, but I also dug several of the other characters too. I liked Loknol because, well he was like a were-wolf, only instead of a wolf he was a lion. And Zekiel was intriguing just because of his past and his relationship with everyone in the story.

Ok,

This is kind of a different question for everyone. When creating your own world for a story, what are some important things to consider?