My new Godot tool, other than the mapping functions, has a photomode for use with the (so far rudimentary) scenes I’ve generated. Still, it’s already usable to produce some imagery that I think is getting to capturing the ‘feel’ of the tales of Vatan setting.
Alagariel practicing sword forms (I.33 again) at night, with Maiden’s Tower in the background.
Another incremental improvement to a Godot 4.7 photomode render of the Fire Wraith scene out of The Half Elven Orphan. I like grounde settings so the tower is an amalgamation of historical ruins from the period 850-1050. Planet curvature, moonlight etc all derived from the moon and the star system also modelled in Godot. The Wraith herself is Makehuman and Blender, with a historical kirtle-and-chemise outfit. The sword-form pose is from the I.33 manuscript.
I’m doing this because I’m finding it’s very hard for an author to generate promotional material. Walls of text don’t draw people in to a post, pictures and video does. So, this is my solution. Get assets into Godot, make compositions and make stills or animations with them. I’ve used Claude Code to help me make the tools for this (I would never have had the time for it otherwise), but the creative input is my own or the artists I hire. Besides the widespread irrational hatred for generative AI, it’s also just very poor at making the image you want. I’ve experimented with it, but I’d say generating 10,000 images per usable one is about the hit rate. It’s a waste of time, quite aside from the fact that you never know how closely what it flops out is plagiarising someone’s work.
I have more ideas what I might want to do with these 3D assets in the longer term, but I’m a very long way from getting any of that done.
…how slow you go, as long as you do not stop.
Attributed to Confucius. No idea if he actually said it, but it encapsulates things reasonably well.
I’m busy editing Dropship Down which is taking longer as real life work gets in the way. I’ve also made a little progress expanding the section of The Value of Nobility (Alagariel II) that I wasn’t completely happy with yet. I still have the ambition to get both books out this year and I’ve asked Daria to start thinking about the cover for Alagariel II.
Sales are still slow. There’s the occasional sale around the world, but it’s obviously nothing like what I want to see. I’m discovering that it’s essentially required to have some sort of visual media for a post to catch on and when you’re a writer that’s not something you have a huge supply of. Daria makes me some artwork to use alongside posts, but she deserves to be paid for her work and is doing art school and all, which puts a limit on that. AI is widely reviled, often beyond reason, and it seems many are more than happy to spew hate on any AI use, so I’m a little reticent there, even though it could add some atmosphere in those few cases when what is generated actually aligns with my vision.
What remains is making more of my own artwork, but I’m not much good and things would be more like technical drawings. For the sci-fi setting that’s fine, but it doesn’t work that well for the Tales of Vatan setting.
In any case, I will soft-launch Dropship Down on itch.io very soon now. That release will be updated as I do more editing, but in the unlikely event that there’s someone who can’t wait to get there hands on my first sci-fi book, stay tuned.
This is a sketch by Daria. It depicts a dark forest somewhere on Vatan. Obviously I know where, but since it features somewhere in Tales of Vatan: Alagariel IV or V, I’m not telling you where it is yet.
Work is progressing on getting Dropship Down (Clausewitz #1) ready for publication. Daria is working on the cover. The attached image is a view of Earth from 80,000 feet captured by the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering in 2014. The opening scene of Dropship Down takes place at roughly the same altitude, but then over a different planet, named Celestia. The cover art will be a view from a similar altitude over that planet.
For the rest, editing is always hell, but slow progress is being made. Hoping to have it all ready soon ™.
After that, work begins on getting The Value of Nobility (Alagariel #2) ready for publishing. There’s going to be a bit more work involved there as I’ve decided to add some stuff in the first half of the book. I felt the characters were rushing through a large portion of Iurrak that really deserved a little more colour and depth, especially since that area will be visited a few more times in book #3 or #4.
I have enough copies of The Half Elven Orphan in stock if anyone wants to order from me directly. It doesn’t seem worthwhile to put together a whole webshop for just one product, so if you want one, just send me an e-mail (books@jceberdt.eu) or use the contact form (below). Please let me know in the mail roughly where I’ll need so send the book.
I’ll send a Paypal payment request and send you a copy. Currently pricing is 20 euro’s, including shipping (unless shipping costs are crazy for your region but I’ll let you know before you pay anything if that’s the case).
Just a small update to the Where-to-buy page. Seems to be available all over the world now. Even bol.com now has the print version listed.
Where-to-buy
The Half Elven Orphan is the first book I’ve published and I’ve done it independently, so everything is a new experience. First off, it looks like I’ve actually sold some books. Not enough to buy more than a junk food lunch, but it’s not zero. My primary channel is Ingram Spark and they have a dashboard where you can see where sales have been made. To my great surprise, the first four print books that have showed up there have been sold in Germany. I mean, I do know people in Germany, but them buying more than one or two books when I’ve already told them I will give them copies for free doesn’t make sense. It stands to reason, then, that these must be other Germans. Which is very odd. My website has almost no traffic from Germany that I can’t match to people I know.
Beyond that, I know that there must be some e-book sales too, as the book has a sales rank on some e-book only sites, but they haven’t showed up yet. So, thanks (or Dankeschön) everyone who has bought one. For e-book buyers, there will be another sale over on itch.io starting the 17th of December. I still highly recommend itch if you want the e-book. No DRM, it comes with a pdf with a a Table of Contents and Glossary and files for the artwork and map. Oh, and they give the author a far large proportion of the proceeds.
Despite the best efforts of his superiors, a parcel with some books from Milton Keynes has arrived.
I have yet to understand why I was charged for the privilege of receiving 0% tariff book while I have VAT and EORI numbers, but they’re here and that’s certainly something.
I’ve decided to fulfill direct orders. Obviously, I don’t have to pay the retailer 55% like I do on in-store prices, but I do have to ship it. The book is 349g, which means that with packaging it’s quite expensive to ship individual copies. So, it’s the same price as in stores which is €20, but shipping is free everywhere in the EU.
I managed to forget I joined the black friday bandwagon. Best e-book offer is on sale over on itch.io for only a little bit longer. If you want the e-book I strongly recommend the itch version as it comes with an expanded pdf with glossary and table of contents, cover art and a map.
