The world setting for the Gossamer Trilogy is called the Lost Age of Y’Ara. If you haven’t read up on this, just check this page, and much is explained. If you read the Prologue, you will see that it relates very much to the world setting.

Since this is all explained elsewhere, I won’t repeat it here. I do, however, want to be sure you know of the huge full color map of the world setting in .pdf format that you can download. There is also a large .jpg image of the world setting map for your computer “desktop wallpaper” image that you can download as well. Both of these detail the world in the trilogy so you can really see where the characters are going.

I read fantasy by other authors too, and as you probably know, many fantasy books have some sort of map in them. The problem I’ve always had is that every one I’ve seen is vague, and provides little help in understanding where the story’s characters are going. It always irritated me that the map was nothing more than a frivolous decoration, and was quite useless as a map.

I will admit, putting a detailed map, especially in color, into a small paperback book, or a hardback for that matter, renders it so small as to be useless as a map. However, in this day and age of the Internet, that problem is easily solved by putting it on-line, in a size and format the readers can truly read and use. With the .pdf version of the Lost Age of Y’Ara map, you can zoom in as far as you like to read everything.

If you haven’t taken a look, you should. I think you will like it.

I was looking at the header for the blog and thought that those of you who haven’t read the book yet might be wondering “what are the two rings about?” The fact is, I considered naming the first book “Two Rings”, but I decided I did not wish to infer, imply or otherwise insinuate this story had anything to do with the fantastic “Lord of the Rings” trilogy (which, by the way, I enjoyed immensely). The first book, which I called “Heart of Darkmire”, as you probably already know, happens to have two rings which play an important role in the story. They were written into the story years ago, before I’d ever seen the movies. In fact, when I wrote them into the story, I did not really understand how important they really were until the story unfolded further. They are very different in any event, so there is no connection to the great trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien. Besides, the story is not about the rings. However, the rings do have a significant purpose within the story, so I thought it would be a nice touch to give them a little time in the spotlight. Besides, the name has a nice “ring” to it (sorry, couldn’t resist that one).

If you’d like to know more about the two rings, you’ll just have to read the book, since I’m not going to give away anything else about the two rings here.

Well, I certainly haven’t gotten this “blog” thing figured out yet, but I’m working on it. In the meantime, book two is over half done. It’s not where I wanted to be in August, but that’s how it goes in writing. I’m pushing hard for late November or early December to have it in print. The turnaround from finished document to print is really quick, but you still must have that finished document. So, I keep plugging along.

As I tell folks when I talk to them about the book, the characters don’t always do what you want them to do. They have traits that make them unique, just like real people, and if I don’t follow what they would do in a situation, then I’m forcing them to go along with my idea of the story instead of what they would do if they were in a real situation. I suppose it may sound crazy to people who don’t write, but it’s one of those details of writing that makes the characters believable, and therefore “real”, to the reader. If I stay true to the characters, they will give me a good story.

I wish I could talk to you about details of what’s happening, but then you wouldn’t need to read the book. You would just come to the blog to read “installments” on the story. It’s hard not to share it when I want so much for the readers to read and enjoy it. I just have to bite my tongue and keep my nose to the keyboard, and keep writing, which, by the way, is what I should be doing instead of jotting into my blog. I’m thinking though, this might be good therapy. We’ll see.

Welcome to the Two Rings Blog for readers of the Gossamer Trilogy. This is a way for me to keep in touch with my readers. It seems the management of this blog may cut into my time for writing, which is something I don’t particularly wish to do at this point, but I’m willing to try it out and see how it goes. When I’ve figured this all out I’ll post more.