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| Amanda Devereux meets the locals |
NEW WEBSITE UPDATE
In order to provide a better-organised and more mobile-friendly experience for my (potential) readers, the Thelenic Curriculum is moving to a new site. If your browser still lands you here, please click on THIS LINK to go to the new, considerably better site!
COMIC-CON AFTER-ACTION REPORT
The inaugural Great Yarmouth Comic-Con was a definite success, selling out both days and then selling some extra Sunday tickets when it turned out the venue could cope. It was hotter than the depths of Ignilandarath but that worked to the benefit of my friends from Wyldstorm Games who set up a slushy machine! I also broke my personal event sales record- not that this was difficult. I'm not going to be retiring to write full-time just yet, but baby steps, eh?
Anyway, back to the business at hand. We'll start off with the title picture, which is a commission from the very talented Blunt Katana over at Deviantart. If you decide to do anything with this picture other than look at it, please check the legal bit on the Deviation here and give accreditation where it's due. (Mention the book too, please!)
In the title picture we see Operative Amanda Devereux, freshly arrived via an apocalyptic inter-dimensional accident, having her first meeting with the forces of the Empire of the Thelenic Curriculum, as represented here by Delys, a Swordmaster of the Eighth Volume. It's also very nearly their last meeting...
Amanda is a Level Ten Operative, equipped with high-grade sub-dermal armouring, titanium-weave bone reinforcement, and an onboard nanite factory that can perform advanced self-repair and healing as well as fabricate clothing, weapons and other equipment. With all that, she expected to be able to stop a primitive sword with just her arm, but as you can see she was only just correct and has resorted to more traditional methods, in this case a sword 'borrowed' from one of Delys' comrades. What she doesn't know, but is rapidly discovering, is that the people of the Thelenic Curriculum use magic in the place of technology, in this case meaning that the 5'2" Delys can swing a 5' long great-sword around as if it were made of balsa wood. Beneath the armour on her left shoulder, we can see her Seal (in this case the Seal of the Sword) glowing as it channels her personal Aether to make her faster, stronger and more deadly. Generally speaking, the smaller and physically weaker a person is, the more Aether they attract, a phenomenon known as the Law of Balance, which means the soldiers of the College Guard really do come in all shapes and sizes.
Here's a 'clean' version of the cover of the paperback version of The Wake of Manadar, by the prodigious Sean 'artbrosean' Harrington, of Spying With Lana fame among many other works. (Those links are a little NSFW, btw) Here's a link to the artwork on Deviantart if you want to say nice things to the artist.
We also have several short stories, The Sins of the Mother is a short about a significant event some time before the arrival of Operative Amanda Devereux, where things really started to go a bit wrong for the Lily College. The Oath of Sherenith relates the tragedy that befell the city of Phyre, some time later during the subsequent War of Rule, and Leverage also explores some of those events, as well as visiting some characters who'll turn up later...
Here's a look at the map of the Empire of the Thelenic Curriculum, which is also in the paperback version (though without the 'canvas' effect which it turns out looks terrible in print):
More recently, I've commissioned a map from Tiffany Munro, who is available for commissions at http://feedthemultiverse.com/ This map is for the Empire as it is at the start of the sequel to The Wake of Manadar, The Third Mirror, which is now available on Kindle and in Paperback.
Just a little bit better, eh? The version in the book is line-art, but it's too pretty not to share the colour version.
Here's a look at a 'clean' version of the cover to The Third Mirror, by Sean again.
Come on, you want to know what the hell's going on there, right? The Kindle version costs less than a Starbucks and you can even read it on your phone. Whilst you're at it, you might be interested in the recently-released third book of the Curriculum, The Flyblown Crusade. This story takes us to the previously unexplored land of Abelia, as mapped for us by Tiffany again:
As you can probably tell, this map sits a little to the south of where we've seen before. The cover of the book could be considered a minor spoiler, but I love it so I'm going to put it here anyway!
Again this is the 'clean' version, both in that it doesn't have any text and in that there aren't any of the eponymous flies on it. (Art once again by Sean). As before, the book is available in both Kindle and paperback versions, and can be read for free through Kindle Unlimited.
That's all we have for now, but please feel free to drop any comments or suggestions below, as well as leaving reviews on Amazon if you like the books!
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