Print cover

Something of a learning curve, but I now have a print version of Exiles of the Bhel Sea in the works, with the full spread 6"x9" paperback cover shown here. I also have ePub versions of the ebook available through Smashwords linked over on the right and through the Order Books page. It'll appear in the individual ereader book stores soon.

Exiles of the Bhel Sea

Well this one took me a while. With a huge sigh of relief, I can now say that my fourth book is available. This is the first novel I have published electronically (Kindle version available now, other formats later this week), and while I will do a print version, it isn't the main focus.

And so, Exiles of the Bhel Sea is ready!

$5.99 for the full book, while of course one fantastic advantage of ebooks is that you can sample the novel for free and test-drive it.

Special thanks to my artist, Kentaro Kanamoto, my editor Amanda Le Bas du Plumetot, my cartographer-extraordinaire Matthew French, and my beta readers Amanda Le Bas du Plumetot, Steven Turner, Aidan Doyle and Alex Hong. Much appreciated.

Thanks of course to my long-suffering wife, Kristy, and my kids, Sophie and Phoebe. The main reason for the time this book has taken is the arrival of my daughters and that goes with raising children, and I hope that one day they read and enjoy this book.

It's a long one - about the same length as my Runes trilogy combined - but then epic fantasy novels are called "epic" for a reason!

More artwork for The Bhel Sea

More work from Kentaro, this one is of the drought-stricken, poisoned flood plains of the Sentinels, a view from up high on Altlith, one of the surviving Sentinel cities built onto a gargantuan spire of rock jutting up from the plain below.

I had planned to have the book ready to go by now, but I'm in the midst of moving interstate, back to my home town of Brisbane, so a little delay is in order. Looking next month (February) to have it available on e-readings, in print soon after.

Update on Saturday, January 28, 2012 at 9:27PM by Ben Julien

Second internal illustration is finished, depicting the scene of Jhared, Koja and Ragas staring down from the Gyntal Ridge near Altlith at the approaching Arakal horde.

Update on Wednesday, March 7, 2012 at 3:51PM by Ben Julien

Third insert for The Bhel SeaThird and final insert for the Bhel Sea, this one is of New Werit, a port town on the southern end of the Sea.

Branding

Branding is something every writer deals with in some form. From the style of writing, to the typical settings or types of stories a particular writer might use more often than others, and then on to the look of a series of novels, the illustrations, cover design and even the publisher’s imprint. These are all important ways for readers to identify a writer, to find more of his/her works, and to feel comfortable with a genre choice.

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Project updates

This isn't a quick process as I've made the decision to complete the first draft of the newest novel, The Decay Chain, before finalising the edits and uploading The Bhel Sea. I think this is important for a few reasons, not the least that I keep the momentum I have with the new manuscript, then tuck it away to ferment for a month before shining some redrafting light onto it. I also want to complete the Bhel Sea and then spend some time outlining the sequels, which given the scale of the story and settings, will take a while. It also allows time for Kentaro Kanamoto, the illustrator, to complete the internal illustrations (B&W inserts). Ideally, it'll all be finished before Xmas, but I am not going to rush just for that deadline.

So, soon enough, but not soon enough. Here is an example of what the final e-book cover may look like.

Bhel Sea teaser

Jhared’s knuckles turned white on his sword hilt. His gaze was locked on Tarnok’s, but still he was aware of the whispered approach of robes and accusing eyes. Bare feet coming closer. Muted chanted. Sibilant whispers. Swords before and behind him held too tightly, too ready.

Drought. Long starvation. War. Now this.

‘And? What do the Saldina say? Are you here to do a cripple’s bidding?’ Jhared asked, then spat. The world had changed for the Elaan, but the Sept was still the Sept. Damnation came a late second.

Bhel Sea - cover design

Cover illustration is finished! Having input on the end product, and having commissioned it personally, just makes having the final product that much more enjoyable.

As mentioned in a previous post, the illustration is by the talented Kentaro Kanamoto who is next working on B&W inserts for the novel, most likely five illustrations covering various scenes, landscapes and characters of the book.

For this design, I asked for the central motif of a wreck, cliffs and black-pebbled beach overlooked by a keep. I gave him relevant sections of the manuscript to draw ideas from, but left it as much as possible in his hands. I wanted something evocative of the vision in my head, but not ruled by it (assuming it were even possible to brain-dump my ill-formed mental images).

The image you see will be the full spread of the print novel. The ebook will be the wreck and keep half of the painting only. Titles and blurb of course to come.

Tunes to write to

Currently finishing the first draft of The Decay Chain and with the help of a friend from Germany, have found a number of music albums that are really providing the perfect paradoxical mix of angst, chill, atmosphere, energy and darkness for the book.

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The Bhel Sea - update

Example of Kentaro Kanamoto's work (not my cover)Inching closer to my next publication, still tentatively titled "The Bhel Sea". After feedback from my editor which echoed my own concerns, I may change the title, or amend it, to something that doesn't conjure such a link with a naval / pirate / swash-buckling adventure... which this book isn't. There are three main (actually four, for those books with reviewer quotes featuring on the cover) hooks for grabbing a browsing reader's attention and interest, those being the cover, the title and the blurb (and to me, in that order of importance).

I have commissioned the fantastic services of an illustrator, Kentaro Kanamoto, an example of whose work you see in this post. He is almost finished with the design, that of a wrecked ship on a dark, storm-wracked beach beneath a looming keep. This is a pivotal early scene in the novel and one which I have always had in my head when I thought of a potential cover. The cover itself I will reveal hopefully very soon upon its completion, but I have been blown away by Kentaro's skill to now.

The blurb is yet to be written, and here I have licence to grab the essence of the book, and steer the reader hopefully away from the rocky misdirection of a book about ships and piracy.

And finally the title. This is a tricky one, as the book is mainly about the Bhel Sea, a dangerous, contested expanse of water where anything goes. And while there are the equivalent of pirates, or more specifically an organised mob of raiders known as the Korsar, more than half of the novel does not take place there, but rather inland, well away from any significant river, lake or sea. I am considering splitting the hefty tome into two parts for e-book publication, and a single volume for print, and perhaps using different sub-titles under a Bhel Sea Saga brand.

Watch this space.

The Bhel Sea - coming soon!

My next novel is very close to being released, with edits almost in and an artist commissioned to produce the book covers.

This is a novel that is a good four years in the making, from conception at the end of 2006 and the first chapters written soon after the birth of my first daughter, then sporadic progress through the following three years until it was finally finished, feeling like something of a Frankenstein monster given the total project occurred both before and after becoming a father (twice), and before and after attending Clarion South 2009 (a particularly intense 6 weeks writers’ workshop).

I’m very much looking forward to holding the print version in my hands. That is the final moment when the fruits of all that dispersed labour is realised and the project feels ‘finished’.

More updates to follow, including blurbs and preliminary designs for the maps and cover.

Here is an excerpt of the book, the prologue (still subject to change):

The Bhel Sea once smelled of ruin, of wealth and of places I’ll never go. It’s different now but it’s hard to hold onto memories of distant events as anything more than stories. They don’t seem to hold much truth compared to the every day. Memories fade too quickly and details are forgotten. I don’t want to forget. It seems impossible that I could, but in ten years time, this will all seem as distant. 

I live on Ash’s Reef, on a little island in the Bhel Sea, where the wind is always blowing in the sails of passing ships. I was born here, and have some memories of a time before the Korsar, but not many because I was only a boy when they arrived, ten years ago. They came with hands and arms tattooed black. Like any thief, murderer or freebooter, they took what they wanted, but they didn’t leave. I remember the flames coming out of windows, and the smell of burning flesh, but not much more.  

From Ash Island, the Korsar brought the sword to the Bhel Sea,  to the ports, to the villages and towns on the coasts. When the killing stopped, the plundering began. Everyone paid the black tax they demanded. My father paid it. Every trader and every ship’s captain paid it. The Korsar strung up anyone who didn’t; dangled them from hawsers flung over a yard-arm to moan in tandem with the creaking of the rope that cut into their necks. Any boat or ship they had would burn to the waterline before them as they choked.  

The Korsar ran the Bhel Sea  and left wrecked ships and skeletons in their passing to calcify and join the coral. None of it was enough to stop the demand for trade. I know all this because of the stories from sea-hands and merchants, stories about spices and timber and ambhel powders. Stories about towns and ports hungry for commerce: Skarpa, Newport, Kells, Rigon, and the Free Towns. Everyone  learning to bend to the Korsar, a violent change that rippled beyond the Bhel Sea, down the Straits and into the city-states of the warm South. 

All of it coming from here, from the Bhel Sea, a sea of many names: the white sea, the sea of bones, the sea of storms, the sea of old times, the sea of ambhel, the sea of last gasps. The sea of change seems closest to the truth. And the Korsar were a stone dropped in the waters of the world, bring disorder to places and people who had never seen deep water. 

I knew none of this at first. How could I know that the Korsar would touch the life of a noble’s daughter in the southern city-state of Tir? She a girl when her parents were murdered, and condemned to a cold heart, following the orders of their killer. 

And I knew nothing of the change the Korsar brought to the East, beyond the Spine Ranges to the warriors of the Elaan Sept and their leader, Jhared Elaan.            

But I learned of it all soon enough, because the change came to me, too, in the Bhel Sea where I worked as a scriv, and later a symbolist. 

This is their story. And mine. This is my written memory.