Enjoy the magic and world-building of the Wishing Blade universe?
You might find some new books to read here!
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(Note: The giveaways above are hosted through BookFunnel. Authors will usually ask for your email address, and in many cases, the author will collect these addresses for their newsletters.)
So… you read a book you really enjoyed. You tell all your friends (yay!) and if you’re a librarian, eagerly await a patron asking for book recommendations because now you can tell them about this underrated book (have I done this? Yes. Now go read City of Nightmares by Rebecca Schaeffer. It’s a city where you don’t want to go to sleep because if you do, you might turn into your worst nightmare. Art deco vibes. A man-eating pterodactyl. And a main character who’s a coward, but there’s a very important plot reason for that and she’s a fun coward, okay? Go read it.)
But do you want to make an author even happier?
Leave us a quick book review!
Here’s why!
Social proof. Long story short, when other readers see people commenting on a book, they get curious. And those readers might see if those reviews mention anything that catches their interest (or makes them give a big old “NOPE” and bypass the book completely. This is why even negative reviews are important. You might not like that the big twist is that the main character is actually an alien, but I do and now that I know that twist is there, I’m going to snatch up the book because I want to see how well it was foreshadowed. For the record, I thought the author did well. (Click here if you want to know which book I’m referring to. Not naming it directly because yeah… spoilers.)
Stoke the author’s ego and let them know someone connected with their writing. Not even going to hide this one. I love reading reviews because I want to see what you got of the story. It’s awesome when you see something I hoped you would, and also awesome when you make connections that I didn’t realize I’d put in there. Granted, if it’s a negative review, it’s not so awesome… but it means you did take the time to read my book, so that’s cool. And also, see “Social proof” above.
Encourages the author to write more in the series. Or finish it faster. Nothing says “I should prioritize finishing this series” than a lot of book reviews. Especially because book reviews tend to be considerably more rare than sales or downloads. AND if you say what you enjoyed or wanted to see, there’s a chance the author is going to keep that in mind for future books.
Okay, so now you know why authors want you to leave a book review, let’s do a quick how.
There’s no one way to write a review. Some are really long and super detailed. Others are only a couple sentences. Either is great! Don’t sweat it. This isn’t supposed to be a chore.
But, things to keep in mind…
Please don’t list major spoilers without a spoiler warning! Give other readers a chance to be surprised.
Do say what you enjoyed! While this can be an essay (I’m certainly not going to protest), even a couple sentences is super helpful. Who was your favorite character? Why? Did you like the world-building? Was the prose fun to read? Was it a page-turner? Did you want to scream and throw the book across the room because the author ended it on a major cliffhanger and you wanted to know what happens next as of yesterday? Choose at least one, write a sentence or two, and you have the basics of a review!
Feel free to say what you didn’t like. These reviews need to be honest, after all, and as I mentioned earlier, what might not be your cup of tea might be someone else’s, so this is still really helpful. Though… if you want to be nice to the author, maybe sandwich this with something the author did well?
Now… where should you share your review?
Some of the most popular places are going to be directly with the online retailer. Amazon, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, Apple Books, Google Play… those are all really helpful for the author, because you’re going right to where readers are looking to buy more books.
Goodreads is another good one, since it’s meant for book reviews, as are apps like StoryGraph.
But you can also share your review on your own blog or social media.
You don’t have to overthink this. Now, get out there and write a review!
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Want to leave a review on one of my books? Here’s a couple free first-in-series you could start with…
There are a bunch of powers in the Distant Horizon Universe, and at some point I’ll go into detail about all 40-something powers that Isaac and I listed for use in the original role-playing campaign that we played, with each power divided between one of four categories: Mental, Physical, Reality Shift, and Elemental.
Today I want to focus on the “elemental” category, and in specific, the “life-spirit” power.
The life part is easy. A life-spirit elemental typically has healing abilities and can sense the presence of living beings around them.
Here’s an example from Distant Horizon, with a character who uses a combination of healing and telepathy to do her work (slightly edited to avoid spoilers):
I rested my elbow on my knee as Gwen moved to treating Lance. It’ll be okay, I wanted to tell him, but I couldn’t. I didn’t know how much this elderly woman could help us.
Over the next half hour, the bruises cleared from Lance’s face and the deep scratches turned to faint scars. Finally, Gwen leaned against the wall and rubbed her eyes.
Lance rotated his shoulder as if he’d never been wounded. “What’d’ya do?”
“My power is in healing: the ability to save or suspend lives.” She rubbed her forehead gingerly, then looked at me. “It’s your turn. I won’t go deep in your thoughts; I just use telepathy to find the damage.”
I swallowed hard, then felt something else—be there. She was present, searching across my mind, but she wasn’t intrusive. Each memory was tucked away, as if it’d come unbidden, and her presence was friendly. When she did find pain, the memory flashed to the surface and vanished as quickly.
I tried to focus on memories I didn’t mind her seeing, drowsy as she soothed the grazed shoulder and eased the bruises.
However, when it comes to the “spirit” side, that’s when the details get trickier. Life-spirit elementals can “suspend” lives, partially removing a person’s spirit and causing them to go unconscious, or even remove a person’s spirit completely, killing them in the process.
An example from Whispers in the Code:
“Have the Legion Spore remove her spirit,” Commander Rick says, “then dispose of the corpse.”
My throat constricts. I know that it isn’t practical to keep the scout around, but there’s still something unsettling about the idea of having just been in the mind of someone about to die. “Dispose?”
“The Legion Spore needs nutrients and, this way, there will be no evidence for the Oriental Alliance to find,” Commander Rick explains.
What he leaves unspoken sends shivers down my neck. “You want it” —I swallow hard— “to eat her?”
Commander Rick glances at me, and his cocked eyebrows indicates that he understands I’m not ready to give that command. I know he’s right. The process is efficient, but the idea doesn’t settle in my stomach.
Legion Spore, remove her spirit, he sends.
Her head lolls. I detect one less presence of life through the vessel’s scanners.
Legion Spore—consume the remaining body for sustaining nutrients.
Dozens of tiny, translucent tendrils extend from the ivory floor, wrapping around her body. They flatten against her arms and chest and her skin dissolves, revealing the muscle and bone beneath. The body melts away. I force myself to watch, despite the terror creeping through every pore of my skin.
Within a minute, she’s gone.
On the farthest extreme, a life-spirit elemental can bind their spirit (or someone else’s) to an artifact, separate from a body, and thus allow a person to live on as a spirit, rather than die. It’s a tricky process, and not easily achieved.
But a few notorious figures have succeeded. Benjamin (the enthusiastic alchemist we see in the Glitch saga, and who has a cameo in Distant Horizon) is one such spirit.
Another scene from Whispers in the Code (again, slightly edited to avoid spoilers):
Benjamin’s sharp features glow a faint blue. His crisp sleeves are rolled past his elbows, and he wears a work apron over his shirt. His pockets are filled with small tools that may or may not be apparition. He’s odd like that. Sometimes he only manifests the appearance of a craftsman, while at other times, the tools are actually present.
Most noticeable, however, are his wire frame spectacles, green eyes, and his spiky, dark red hair, their colors prominent even with the lack of color across the rest of his translucent body. He’s also got a slightly mad gleam in his eye, though my encounters with the man suggest he’s mostly sane.
Benjamin grins and soundlessly claps his hands. Wonderful! Shall I take amber or emerald? His thoughts echo in my head with the determined curiosity that his voice might have held in life.
The upside of being a spirit is having additional powers. Once a person becomes a spirit, they automatically gain access to telepathy, life-spirit powers (because that’s how they sustain themselves), telekinesis, and to some extent, enhanced insight. However, it still takes them time for them to learn how to use their new powers to interact with the world, and even to manifest, unless they’ve had practice with such powers in their former life.
There are a few downsides to being a spirit, though.
First, they’re attached to an artifact. If their artifact gets destroyed, they die. Also, radiation, life-spirit powers, and electricity become much more damaging. “Shielding,” which temporarily shuts down powers, is especially devastating, since a spirit can’t manifest without access to their powers.
Still, it’s a trade-off some characters are willing to take, and one we see to an extent in Fractured Skies, and definitely becomes more of an issue in the Starless Night.
What do you think? Would you want to be a life-spirit elemental in that universe?
(Bonus: Life-spirit elementals also tend to have a natural bonus against telepaths and those with enhanced charisma!)
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Life-spirit powers play a huge role in the Distant Horizon and Glitch series.
And if you don’t mind diving right into the action, Whispers in the Code is free at most online ebook retailers!
I enjoy creating the language of word magic and the Cantingen Islands in my Wishing Blade Universe. So much so that I have a handy Excel sheet with a handful of pages and a semi-clear structure that I’ve realized I really need to get organized (because it’s rather… fun… trying to remember sentence structure when I’m in the middle of revising my current project, The Dark Forest of Aneth, and need to construct a sentence in Cantingen and don’t remember if I’ve decided how that particular grammar is supposed to look.)
One exercise I’ve especially enjoyed, however, is the creation of poetry and songs using the conlang (constructed language). Whether or not I’m actually good at poetry is an entirely different matter, but it’s still fun.
Wind and Words, the second book in the Stone and String series, features two different poems/songs (well, one is intended to be a chant), and one of those songs is called “Dornoram” (“Lonely Child”) and features Madia when she was still a young goddess, before she created mortal-kind.
Though I don’t include the entire song in the story itself (I did include both the Cantingen version and the rough English translation in the back of the book), here’s a look at part of the song:
Dornoram, dornoram Lonely child, lonely child
illselvimorin sut wuget so vinllada’ralencos. wandering in the fog of her father’s new world.
Dornoram, dornoram Lonely child, lonely child
fallamin kidame nevésil vego cochome si kecirme. She has no toys to play with but feathers and strings.
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Viskar vrethin si walin So she sits and she weaves
drogos osain vieram jévidasil. while she yearns for a playmate that she understands.
Vego éda ralencos dratethia shadi si fashuvasia. But this new world is magic and does not comprehend.
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Dor so shadi si niitéra Child of magic and creation,
morladiin vieram. she dreams of a playmate,
Morladiin vieram néollased. dreams of a playmate to keep company.
Viskar novanin vincede loch lalli esil, esildo. So she weaves her hair into the form of a doll, little doll.
Morladiin kryl vinvieram llullamia. Dreams of the story her playmate might have.
Vego esil dratethia goréso, But the doll is a puppet,
fallamia kareme, has no thoughts of its own,
si luuh vinmorladsme ketondruv nékryl. and only her dreams give it life.
Essentially, the Cantingen Islanders believe they are Madia’s esilme, her dolls, who return to her from the mortal realm after they die. The rest of the song continues that story, and the idea plays an important role in the Stone and String series.
Do you enjoy seeing fictional languages in stories?
If so, what’s your favorite one? (I’m personally a fan of Tolkien’s Sindarin Elvish, though I never learned more than a few words).
📚 There are many subscription options available in the reading/publishing world. Here, I’m going to briefly talk about two of them… Kindle Unlimited, and Kobo Plus.
The most well-known one is probably Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited (KU). A huge selection of books for $12.00. If you’re on a budget and don’t have access to a large local library selection (or want niche books that are harder to get through libraries), then Kindle Unlimited can seem like a pretty good deal.
However, for authors, it comes with a catch.
The biggest one is that any ebooks in KU (at least for independent publishers) must be exclusive to KU during the 90 day period that they’re enrolled (or longer, if the author chooses to extend the contract).
That said, very recently, Amazon has moved to allow KU books to be made available for public libraries, which is a huge win for both authors and readers. (Previously, you most likely wanted your books in Kobo’s Overdrive if you wanted library reach).
I’ve used Kindle Unlimited before, both for Glitch and for Huntress, but I ultimately chose to pull our books from KU because I’m really not a fan of exclusivity, or of the issue of “having all my eggs in one basket.”
While I haven’t, as a reader, used it for myself, Isaac did use the monthly Kobo audiobook credit subscription for a while, which was quite nice.
Now, as a writer I like Kobo Plus, because it offers an inexpensive way for readers to access my books ($7.99 a month) without requiring me to be exclusive with Kobo.
Woot!
So, if you read a lot of books and want to try a subscription service, have a look at Kobo Plus. 😁
If you enjoy the worldbuilding and magic/power system of the Distant Horizon universe, you might enjoy these books!
(Note: The giveaways above are hosted through BookFunnel. Authors will usually ask for your email address, and in many cases, the author will collect these addresses for their newsletters.)
When I set out to write The Wishing Blade series, I originally planned on it being a set of novellas. (Especially because the very first draft I wrote for the entire story arc of the series was 64,000 words).
Magic’ Stealing, the first book I published in the Wishing Blade series, was around 34,000 words, and I figured that future books would be similar.
What I didn’t count on was adding so many more words once I started exploring additional points of view.
Daernan got a chance to shine in The Shadow War, and the main plot really centers around him. Siklana has a major role and character arc in Magebane… and we still get the original views of Toranih and Shevanlagiy.
Not only were viewpoints added, I ended up further developing, and adding, magic systems (who knew word magic and charlago/magebane would play such a critical role in future stories?), and I added words as I reworked scenes to make more sense. Because Isaac–my writing partner and developmental editor–has a point: why try scaling a guarded wall when you could just… I dunno… take the sewers and discover even more fun stuff that affects the plot?
The result was that The Shadow War ended up clocking in around 55,000 words – a short novel, and Magebane clocked in at a whopping 109,000 words – a full-length novel.
(Fun fact… the first version of this post, sent to my newsletter years ago, had Magebane still in progress at 89,000 words.)
The Stone and String stories have also found themselves with longer stories than I originally planned. “Stone and String” was a short story of 8,000 words (surprisingly, it stayed within its expected count). It was meant to be a standalone story. But, of course, I wondered what happened next…
And so Wind and Words came along. While it took a couple starts to actually get it going the direction I wanted, I realized quickly it wasn’t going to be a short story. It ended up being a novella at 23,000 words.
Now the real question is, how long are the next books going to be? (Especially considering that Stone and String 3 should have direct ties to Wishing Blade 4).
While I cringe to look at the release dates of those books and realize I haven’t yet released the next in the series, I’ve found a similar pattern occurring within The Legends of Cirena series as it progresses.
The Wind Mage of Maijev – 15,000 words
The Gryphon and the Mountain Bear – 12,000 words
The Restless Sands of Neel – 25,000 words
The Cursed Halls of Kalecen – 18,000 words
The Scars of Her Past – 21,000 words
The Dragons of the Mist – 21,000 words
The Wind Mage and the Wolf (Cross-over) – 47,000 words
The Trial of Bells and Blood (Cross-over) – 32,000 words
The Dark Forest of Aneth (Cross-over) – WORK-IN-PROGRESS Currently 68,000 words.
In its defense, it not only has the cross-over points of view, it got a third viewpoint and is delving into preplanned lore that wraps up the arc from the first 9 books while setting up the next arc. 🫣
I think a lot of this has to do with adding characters, getting deeper into the lore… stuff like that.
There’s a couple drafts already written for stories that will eventually come after The Dark Forest of Aneth, which you might have seen if you’re signed up for the Wishing Blade Universe newsletter. And then there’s the ongoing story which definitely is building into pre-planned lore and I don’t know if it’s going to be a novella or novel, but the next chapter is eight of sixteen, and it’s already 17,000 words long.
Anyhow, do you have a preferred book length you prefer to read or write?
When I was a kid, I was introduced to computer games early on because my dad does a lot of computer-related stuff. Somewhere there’s an old 4×6 photo of me sitting in a small pink chair on top of a regular adult chair so I could reach the computer. (Age of dial-up internet… ah… fun times).
It started with games like Wacky Wheels and Commander Keen, acquired on a small floppy disk (you know… the save icon?) Another fun note: the galactic alphabet used in Commander Keen is seen again when you’re enchanting items in Minecraft. I had an absolutely fun moment of going wait… I recognize those symbols!
Anyhow, once I got a little older, one of the games I absolutely loved was Outpost, a 1990s Windows 3.1 game.
Goal of the game?
Colonize a distant planet after Earth gets destroyed by an asteroid, and rebuild civilization to the point where you can launch back out into space.
The game was near impossible to beat. 😅
Part of that, I think, was because I was a kid, who didn’t realize until later that there was a helpful manual that told you what each building did. (Or why all those buildings underground kept turning into Red Light Districts when morale was low. Agh! I needed that laboratory!
(I didn’t realize until much later what a red light district was).
The other part, as it turns out, was that the game was actually released incomplete, and certain rather important functions for building up to a spacefaring age had been left out. If I recall, some editions of the game actually did have just enough to complete the game later on.
Since I think I beat the game once (and only once), I’m guessing I might have been playing the incomplete version. (I beat it on a DOSBox version with wonky colors and no sound because it wasn’t the most compatible with Windows XP but I was determined to play it again).
But everything had to be lined up just right in order to get that ending.
I usually died long before I ran into the issue of reaching the space technologies.
And from this game, I memorized two specific lines from the AI. “Don’t panic,” and “The people hate you, Commander.”
*Annoyed glare at computer.*
Rarely did I get the third line, “The people love you, Commander.”
Eventually, I moved on to other games, though the craving to play Outpost pops up every once in a while. Building tunnels and redundant oxygen systems. Dying within a few turns of starting the game because of choosing the wrong star systems. Old-school music that was catchy but not the best quality…
Imagine my surprise when, a few years ago I went to a local concert playing music from The Planets, and suddenly heard, in full symphonic glory, the primary background song of Outpost.
What?!?! 🥹
Apparently “Mars” was the song they chose for the game, and I’d had it ingrained in my head. I knew I was supposed to be looking for sections pulled for the Star Wars movies from the concert, but Outpost?
I was a happy camper.
You can find a few play-throughs on Youtube if you’re curious about what it sounded like in Outpost. In the meantime… I don’t think I’m quite ready to fight with DOSBox to get the game back up and running.
But the urge to go build a space colony may yet again return…
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None of my space stories are published yet, so no links to point to this time. (But there’s a couple waiting for revisions!)
I have a lot of fun creating the world and culture of the Wishing Blade Universe (Isaac has fun with this, too, as seen by the existence of the Legends of Cirena stories, which started because he went and created a role-playing guide for each of the regions).
One aspect of world-building I especially enjoy is creating the pantheon of gods, goddesses, and deities.
Many of the gods interact directly with mortals, as well as immortals, meaning we see their personalities and how people deal with them (or try to avoid them). Some worship them, some scorn them (especially the dragons of the Immortal Realm) and others are indifferent.
Today, I wanted to take a closer look at Ruetravahn.
As one of the older gods, Ruetravahn has a place in both the Cirenan and Cantingen pantheons, though he features more prominently in the latter. (But even Cirenan characters get stuck dealing with him, as Livena finds when she accidentally gets saddled with a truth spell/curse in The Wind Mage of Maijev).
Per Cirenan tales (as of The Wishing Blade series), when the high god, Listhant-Nsasrar, chose to retire, Ruetravahn convinced him to leave the gift of word magic with mortals so they would not always be at the mercy of the gods, and those without ribbon magic would have a defense against born mages.
As such, Ruetravahn became known as the god of language. Though the Cantingen language had been around for as long as mortals could remember, the ability to use it in spells only came after Ruetravahn’s deal. (Which gets fun when I’m writing anything in the Legends era, because I have to remember they don’t have access to word magic yet).
Even with this gift, Ruetravahn is rarely worshiped in Cirena, possibly because they continued to rely more on ribbon magic than word magic.
As for the Cantingen Islands, the people looked to him as not only the god of language, but also the god of Truth, the world as it really is, and the god of wind, capable of hearing everything that is spoken. Those who worship him consider lying an affront to the gods, and they are careful to choose their words and speak as accurately as possible.
He is the primary god that Edyli, the protagonist of Wind and Words (book two of the Stone and String series), chooses to worship. Her respect for him affects her actions. However, there are those who still see him as a lower god, and who therefore ignore his teachings in favor of completing tasks assigned by the high goddess, Madia.
This scene touches on the conflict between them. 🙂
From Wind and Words
The priestess spun on her heel and surveyed the room. “Do not tell anyone of your intentions, and do not tell them who sent you.”
“Nasillah?” Edyli asked, confused. What temple work could be so secretive? “I cannot lie. That is against Ruetravahn’s will.”
The priestess turned sharply and narrowed her eyes, but even the acolyte pressed his lips into a thin line behind her, his concern evident. “Do you question the will of Madia?” she demanded. “Would you put a lower god above Her Graciousness? You must do as she commands, and that is to bring the monster who stole the child’s string to justice. If you must lie to achieve that task, then it is necessary.”
Anger rushed through Edyli. Ruetravahn might not have been a high god, but his intentions were sacred. Their language rode in his wind, and he was the one who established the treaty with Lishivant, Madia’s father, to bring word magic to mortals.
Whatever happened, Edyli would not lie. She would not betray him.
“I will do what I must,” she said firmly. Even saying that much made her cringe, because the priestess would likely assume that she was agreeing to do as she had been asked. But, as familiar fables said, it was not the truth-sayer’s fault if they spoke Truth, but the listener turned a deaf ear.
While Edyli is determined to serve Ruetravahn faithfully, not everyone is so faithful, as seen above. Of course, those who don’t like magic or gods are even less inclined to like him, as we find with Livena after her magic goes haywire near a blessed scroll in The Wind Mage of Maijev.
(But hey… things like that happen when you accidentally mix a blessed scroll, wind magic, and magebane).
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A spell to infuriate the goddess of the dead…
See more of Edyli’s faith in Ruetravahn in the Stone and String series:
In both the Glitch saga and Distant Horizon series, we see the mention of “time stones,” strange artifacts protected by a mythological guardian. While they’re only researched in Glitch, (and used as bait to lure the rebels into a trap), Jenna and the Coalition of Freedom, a ragtag team of rebels, are a bit more adventurous with these things in Distant Horizon. They have a hands-on experience with a time stone in the first book, and continue to deal with these stones in Fractured Skies.
Here’s a peek at their introduction to one of the guardians in Fractured Skies:
(SPOILER WARNING! – There are two characters present here who aren’t introduced until the beginning of Fractured Skies, so if you don’t want to know who is involved in this scene from later in the book, you may want to skip the quote block).
I grabbed the radio from my pocket. “Inese? Where are—”
A portal appeared in front of us with Inese, Dad, and Lance tumbling through. The portal closed and Inese—with the stone—skidded to a halt, staring at the statues. “Here, too?” Her eyes widened. She clutched the stone to the black body armor of her chest with one hand, her pistol in the other.
I nodded. “Yeah.”
“Lance,” Inese snapped, “portal to the car, now!”
“Sure thing.” Lance wiped perspiration from his forehead as another portal swirled in front of us. “Let’s go before that mummy comes back.”
“Mummy?” Lily yipped. “The mummies are alive, too?”
“They’re not exactly living,” Lance muttered.
“They’re spirits,” Dad clarified, breathing hard. Dark purple rings colored the underside of his eyes. Inese disappeared through the portal. The rest of us followed them to the museum roof. Dust swirled around us, revealing the location of the car in faint, shifting sand. I yanked the edge of my turtleneck shirt over my nose. Inese slammed the driver’s door shut behind her and the car went visible. I hopped in. Lily dived in behind me and yanked the door shut. Outside, trees bent against the wind, leaves whipping across the roof as the sky turned a deep, rouge red. Dark yellow dust clouds rolled in the sky, crackling with electricity.
“Inese…” Dad pointed into the distance. “That’s not a statue.”
Bright, white light traced the outline of a giant lion with the face of a man. It stepped through the cityscape, purple lightning wrapping around it and flaring in bright streaks. Lily’s jaw dropped. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
Lance shook his head. “After the mummies, nope. Not kidding.”
A deep, resounding voice pounded through my head, overriding my thoughts.
Return the stone.
I froze, my hands clenched on the edge of the seat. The voice of the guardian echoed in my head. A thick blanket of dark sand blasted the windows, obscuring the sphinx.
As seen here, one of the guardians has the appearance of a sphinx. Each one references a different mythology, and each one has a different set of powers:
Guatemala – Jaguar shapeshifter with power stealing
Japan – Asian dragon with water powers
Egypt – Sphinx with radiation and electricity powers
Peru – A puma earth elemental with radiation powers
India – A representation of Durga with healing powers, riding a lion mount
They all tend to be protective of their stones. They’re also extremely powerful spirits… making them difficult to steal from.
Not impossible, but not without cost.
And then trying to keep those stones is another story entirely…
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See the interaction of the team with some of these guardians in the Distant Horizon series!
Stephanie Flint - Author and Artist 