I visited Steven Erikson a few weeks ago. Steve and I have been friends for a year now and it was great to see him for a day. There are just some people you befriend and have a lot to talk about. Steve is one of them.

Writers and artists of all kinds are reclusive—often not by nature but due to how the creation process works. A person must be alone to create. So when we get a chance to get out into the real world, talk about the craft or industry, it's great fun.

After he signed some books for me, we chatted about anything and everything. At the end of the day, I met his wife at his home, where I gave him a copy of Song of the Fell Hammer. Steve's agent, Howard Morhaim, is one of the agents who currently has a full manuscript of my book, and I thought if someone could read it and pass along good words, it would be Steve.

Instead of Steve picking it up, his wife did. haha She loved the opening paragraph and following page. I hope one of them read it, like it, and help it find its way to the bookstore shelf.

A week later, I got together with Todd Lockwood. He is the cover artist for RA Salvatore and Steven Erikson (US), among others, and Todd and I have been friends for also about a year. Again, we could have talked longer than the three hours we visited. At the end, he asked to read my book and I will look over his materials. It should be pretty fun. And maybe, with some luck and cajoling, perhaps Todd will paint my trilogy's book covers one day.

And I also had a drink with RA Salvatore and his wife, long-time friends of mine. But I won't go into details about that.

Just goes to show: Having great people like this around a person can make the rejection more bearable.

This summer has been very busy. I've been sending query letters, partial manuscripts, and full manuscripts to New York for the last two months. I've had numerous signings with The Signed Page which have resulted in thousands of books being shipped out—which takes a lot of my time, believe it or not. I've designed a few websites, started a new job, and adjusted to life as a single man again.

But the worst thing happened during that time. I stopped writing The Winter Scion.

I didn't stop working on it; it was still there, percolating inside of me. But I've had my outline done since the New Year and haven't written anything in it since February. Sad but true.

I went over the outline again a few weeks ago. It held up pretty well. Then last week I edited the Prologue and first four chapters I had finished back in January/February. They held up pretty well too. So what was the next step?

Yesterday, I outlined Chapter Five. And it was fun!

I've really missed writing. I didn't know it until I sat down to do it, but it was a piece missing in my heart for most of the year. I spent so much time trying to get Book One out there that I had forsaken Book Two. Let that be a lesson to all of you.

Anyway, I am writing again and I will update this blog more frequently as I progress through it. It's great to write Book Two, because the stage has already been set, the characters are already known, and I can just jump right into the action. Plus, I think The Winter Scion will be a far better book than the first—from story to writing style.

In short, I am excited to write again! And now that most of the signings are over with for the year, I can concentrate on writing through the winter. And since The Winter Scion takes place in the worst of winter landscapes, it actually turned out to be okay to write the book in fall/winter.

Cheers!

The rejection letters are now coming in weekly, it seems.

I've now queried 10 agents, and all of them are agents with great resumes in respected agencies. I posted the first rejection letter below. Since that one arrived in my mailbox, I've received two others along with one e-query rejection.

I open my mailbox and pull out the various forms of undesired credit card applications and menus for local pizza joints, to find a letter from one of the agents I sent my query letter to—sometimes having also sent parts of my book to. I walk upstairs, step into my apartment, and use my letter opener to get at the envelope's innards. For some reason, this always seems like I am gutting myself; I know what the contents of the letter say but I have to do it anyway.

The last two have been similar. Their underlying theme is best summed up by one of the agent's quotes:

"Unfortunately, there isn't anyone here that is looking for epic fantasy at this time."

Far be it for me to tell an agent or publisher their business. They reportedly have numbers and sales figures and all sorts of gadgets that help them discover what is selling now and what isn't. According to them, epic fantasy isn't selling.

And, they have a point. There have been a lot of failures in the last five years. But if one looks at those failures, it is easy to see why they did in fact fail. And it has nothing to do with epic fantasy not being viable anymore, but more to do with deux ex machina and poorly designed book covers—in effect, poor editing and poor marketing on the publisher's part.

It is really hard for me to sit here out in the book-buying world, having been a seven-year, veteran manager of an enormous bookstore, and see how sales are doing for epic fantasy. They are great, more than great. Terry Brooks hit and remained on the New York Times bestselling list at #5 for a few weeks and is still on the list after five weeks.

And here I am, Terry's webmaster, an integral part in many of those Brooks-buyers' lives. Name recognition goes a long way, and I have that with those fans.

But can an agent or publisher see that? Do they see the sales just sitting there waiting to be taken? They don't, sadly. And I don't know why.

If I thought there was a chance my book wasn't any good, I'd be of a different opinion. But I've let too many people—two of them published writers, mind you—read Song of the Fell Hammer and love it. The average score out of ten stars is better than an 8. I think I have a book worthy of being published and I have an audience already, waiting for it to buy and read it.

I sit here as one of the fantasy genre's beginning web developers shocked at the emails I get daily asking when my book is going to be published because they loved the first two excerpts I have posted. It's really hard knowing there are people out there actually yearning to read it, but they can't because of an industry-wide held belief that epic fantasy isn't selling.

Well, it might not be. Perhaps what I see is an aberration and I am wrong. But I see a book that will be purchased by thousands of Terry Brooks readers alone, and that immediately makes it a success for a first-time writer. Will I get my shot? I don't know...

... but I hope I get it.