elcome to the website of Shawn C. Speakman — webmaster and writer. Shawn has developed websites for New York Times bestselling authors Terry Brooks and Greg Keyes, among others.

Shawn also writes full time. The Dark Thorn, Book One of The Dark Thorn cycle, begins an urban fantasy in the tradition of Terry Brooks's Word/Void trilogy, Jim Butcher's The Dresden Files and Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code. The first novel is currently being written.

To gain a glimpse of The Dark Thorn, read the Prologue (HTML | PDF)! Feel free to post your comments about Shawn's progress or any questions in his blog below.

ews

Friday, June 20, 2008

3 Chapters

It's been a while since the last update, and I thought it wise to get something down before I jump into the next chapter.

Since the last update, I took six or seven days off from writing. It was time for a short recharge of the ole' writing battery. For me, there is nothing better than taking a short trip to a new place and this time I ventured deeper into Washington State's San Juan Islands. I rented a place with friends on Orcas Island where we relaxed, BBQed, hiked, whale-watched, traveled to a vineyard, and conversed politics, good books, and great wine. It was exactly what I needed after a year of no real vacation other than my trip to New York City, and I'm happy I went even with the loss of a week of writing.

Upon returning, I jumped right back into The Dark Thorn. It became very apparent that I had shorted the story in the middle chapters. Events as I was writing them were transpiring far too quickly; the story needed to breathe to eventually set up the climax of the book. I added two chapters, both of which helped the character development of Bran and Richard, as well as gives the reader a greater sense of what it means to be in this new world Bran has found.

Three chapters later, here is the word count:

Prologue: 3045
Chapter 1: 4075
Chapter 2: 2973
Chapter 3: 3241
Chapter 4: 4144
Chapter 5: 4547
Chapter 6: 2793
Chapter 7: 3598
Chapter 8: 4939
Chapter 9: 4257
Interlude: 2372
Chapter 10: 3346
Chapter 11: 3185
Chapter 12: 3639
Chapter 13: 4878
Chapter 14: 4562
Chapter 15: 3840
Chapter 16: 3984

With the additional chapters, that means there are 29 chapters, two interludes, a prologue and an epilogue. That means it is 33 chapters. I don't foresee any additional chapters being necessary, and there is a possibility at the end I can consolidate two into one. But right now I am 55% finished and by Monday that will probably go up to 58%.

As you can see, every little bit. And by the time all the little bits add up, you have a book written.

Chapter 17, a Bran chapter, should be written in a few days. It will be a fast chapter and is the pivotal turning point of the book as it marches toward the end.

In other news, I will be attending the San Diego Comic Con next month. Eldon Thompson has conned me into going, and the stars aligned just right for it to happen. There is another, potentially very fun project that might get me down there to in a professional capacity, but I won't speak of that until I know more next week. It will be nice going to San Diego again and seeing many writing and editing friends.

More soon!

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Saturday, May 24, 2008

A NY Picture

A month in mid-April I took a trip to New York City, my first such trip, to attend the NY Comic Con with Terry Brooks. Terry went to publicize his graphic novel Dark Wraith of Shannara and he asked me to tag along. Not willing to say no to such an invite, I went!

And I had a great time. I was there for five days, only one day of which I was at the convention. The rest of the time was running around New York, seeing sights I've only see on television or in movies, eating great food and drinking far too expensive drinks, meeting some friends I hadn't seen for a while, and visiting the Random House offices. Sadly I didn't have time to go to any of the museums, visit Ground Zero, or the Statue of Liberty. Perhaps in July if I go back with friends.

One of the highlights was visiting Del Rey. I've been with Terry now for 10 years and I've spoken to most of the people at that publisher. They invited me in to take a look around, meet the people I hadn't yet met in person, and they asked for my advice where it pertained to marketing the publicizing Terry's forthcoming book, The Gypsy Morph. Since I hope to one day be published by Del Rey, it was a real treat.

Another highlight was taking the subway to Brooklyn and then walking the Brooklyn Bridge back into lower Manhattan. Terry, his wife Judine, and I got up early one morning before it got hot, rode the subway over, and then walked the bridge back. It was great fun, but it truly gave me a sense how old the East Coast is. It was kind of spooky realizing the bridge has been around since 1875, a full 100 years before I was born. Below is one of the pictures Judine took of Terry and I:

Terry Brooks and Shawn Speakman - Brooklyn Bridge April 2008


I have more pictures too, although I'm not sure when I will get around to getting them out of my camera and up on a website. I guess when I am finished with my book...

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Chapter 13

Chapter 13 is now finished.

This is going to be a short post because I just murdered one of my characters and I think I need to go have a drink at the restaurant next door.

The book has a total of 31 chapters, if you include the prologue, epilogue, and two interludes. Chapter 13 is in effect Chapter 15. That puts me right at the half way point. Tomorrow I will start outlining Chapter 14 to begin writing on Monday.

The word count stands as:

Prologue: 3045
Chapter 1: 4075
Chapter 2: 2973
Chapter 3: 3241
Chapter 4: 4144
Chapter 5: 4547
Chapter 6: 2793
Chapter 7: 3598
Chapter 8: 4939
Chapter 9: 4257
Interlude: 2372
Chapter 10: 3346
Chapter 11: 3185
Chapter 12: 3639
Chapter 13: 4878

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