This week at A’mara Books:

I’ll start off with the news of my latest Curie upvote – which took me awhile to hear about because of Ginabot’s lag – she was down for awhile earlier in the week and apparently hasn’t caught up yet. Anyway, this one was cool, because my 22nd Curie upvote went to chapter 22 of Name of the Neví!

My actual writing this week was more challenging than last. It took all week to hit my target of 9000 words. I did finally do some leisure writing yesterday just to get the numbers up, but then managed it on my main work in progress. So, overall, I wrote:

Over 10,000 words!

• Janys’ story received almost all of those words and now stands over 34k words. I’m hoping to put at least another 10k on this one, but it’s challenging me now. I’m hoping that as I map out the chapters again, making sure they’re all a suitable-for-sharing length of 1100-1400 words, the added detail will do the job, but I may be lacking a plot point still. I think it now has a title of Voting for Happiness.

Artwork – Encyclopedia

One of the purposes of doing artwork is to add more depth to my stories. If I can see what things look like, then I can describe it better for you. Now that I’m also working with Krita, this is going to a new level. It’s also something I can work on while catching up on Gotham or Norsemen, etc.

One of the things I really want pictures of is my stella’s apothecary kit. This involves knowing which things she has – medicines, antidotes, even poisons. It also involves knowing how the items are used, and kept. Creeping fire, for instance (mentioned in Spice of Strength ) is an extract of the slime fungus used as an antidote. In the bottle, it’s going to look fairly boring, but orange.

Here’s one I did of bird-eater flowers – a paralytic used in hunting and a main ingredient in Assassin’s Cocktail. But it can also be (carefully) used as a medicine to calm muscle spasms. These large petals are dried, then they are kept in a jar like this. (As with all herbs, they should be kept in a dark, cool and dry place.) They can be made into a tea (infusion), ground into powder or extracted into a strong, pure alcohol (like vodka.)

Mapping

I’m finally getting to that map you’re going to need soon for Hailu, X’lea – one of the main settings for Mind of the Neví – scheduled to start in just a couple of weeks now.

As I’ve been working with Krita, I recognized that the vectors layers would probably be great for map-making. Sure enough, this is proving to be correct. I might do a post on this map-making – we’ll see. Anyway, my bottom layer is my land image – which I drew with my graphics tablet. Then, I’m using the vectors layers to draw the actual roads (which should be straight-ish – or have a nice gentle curve when appropriate.) I’m now working on adding buildings and other features. I hope I’ll have something to share with you next week on that one.

Bonus scenes (NSFW)

If you like such things, check out my NSFW artwork which I’ve been posting weekly. The last several weeks, I’ve also included a bonus scene to add some flesh to the pictures. Though @breezin seems to have been AWOL for a few days, I have every hope that she’ll be back soon with another round of her kama sutra art contest. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the challenge, which will further benefit me next cover image I need to make as my posing will be easier with this very detailed practice. (Akin to painters painting nudes.)

Coming this week

• 7 more chapters of Sands of Survival on Whaleshares (Please visit if you missed this book the first time around!)
• 6 more chapters of Name of the Neví on Steemit.
• Maybe finish **Voting for Happiness and start thinking about its cover image.
• Finishing the map of Hailu, X’lea for Mind of the Neví.
• Finding the title for the 852 T.C.E. wraparound and start thinking about its cover image.
• Maybe start working on the second section of that wraparound.

Reviews?

If you have liked any of my books, please take the time to leave me a review/rating at Goodreads

Anyway, that’s what’s been going on here at A’mara Books this week! I hope you manage to take a few minutes to immerse yourself in my world of Terrenden – which I’m so delighted to share with you!

Crossposted on Steem, Whaleshares, WeKu and Publish0x.

(Purchasing info can be found on my Whaleshares, Weku or Steem pages.)

Lori Svensen
author/designer at A'mara Books
photographer/graphic artist for Viking Visual
verified author on Goodreads
find me on Twitter
blogging on: Steem, Whaleshares, WeKu, Hyperspace, Publish0x.