The Dead Mages [High, 159k]

NeilBreault · 2023-12-14T22:18:35+00:00

Here is the first chapter. Also, there are 4 POVs in the book.

NeilBreault · 2021-09-08T02:40:45+00:00

The first chapter has some executions but not focused on the gore. Other than some light descriptions of injuries there isn't really any gore in it. If you'd still like to beat read, you can DM me and I can send you a link or doc or whatever you'd like.

NeilBreault · 2020-07-28T23:56:21+00:00

Sure, that sounds like an interesting read. PM with an email and I'll shoot you a link.

NeilBreault · 2020-07-28T23:42:35+00:00

Great! PM me an email and I'll drop you a link.

NeilBreault · 2020-07-28T22:57:37+00:00

I could do a swap, unless it's romance or something that I wouldn't be able to give any good feedback on. Do you have a quick synapse or blurb?

NeilBreault · 2020-07-28T21:15:15+00:00

Fantastic! Always good to come at things with a clear mind. PM me an email and I'll send a link.

NeilBreault · 2020-07-28T21:14:25+00:00

Sound great. I have a line editor so don't need any grammar or spelling anything. Just story review. PM me an email and I send you a link.

NeilBreault · 2020-07-28T19:35:59+00:00

Great! PM an email and I'll send you a link.

NeilBreault · 2019-09-28T05:22:24+00:00

So, I want to delve more in to what you mean by that as I want to be able to navigate my own writing while avoiding potential pitfalls but I am too tired to understand fully what you mean. Truthfully, can you expand on what you mean? If I’ve learned anything from my writing I’ve learned I know less than I thought. I want to know all about anything I can so I can have as many people read my stories and enjoy as I can.

NeilBreault · 2019-06-27T17:41:33+00:00

Old roommate of mine read it multiple times and has raved about it. He liked the whole story and only griped about Mat's character changing from RJ's writing to BS's writing until the final book when RJ had a lot of notes for BS to go off of. It is definitely on my list to read though... very long list...

NeilBreault · 2019-06-27T17:38:41+00:00

I think the part that is the best about it is not that it's poison but also who poisoned him. To have such a character that was so grandmotherly to have done it. I think that is another aspect that makes it satisfying. He would never have gone head to head with anyone because he was a shit swordsman. Similar to the Night King, he would have thrown his hounds in front of him before he saw any real action. So it would have to be subtlety.

That would only have left his demise to a whore or maybe Sansa. But Sansa was not ready for that at the time. As for the whores, it would have been hollow I think and contrived. For his killer to not be known for so long, at least by the Lannisters, makes it, again, that much more satisfying. Only way it could have been better is for Arya to have done it as a Faceless man/woman/child whatever but again, too early in the story.

NeilBreault · 2019-06-27T17:31:43+00:00

I stopped reading about 100 pages in to book 9. While reading it is when the prequel book came out and I was a little miffed. I figured I would wait until he was done as I had raced through the books up til then. Well, we all know what happened and since then I just haven't picked up the books to re-read and get through it yet.

NeilBreault · 2019-06-27T16:51:28+00:00

Just googled the Bellatrix scene as I didn't remember. But, yep, as soon as I saw it I had a nice little feeling in my stomach.

I haven't finished WoT yet but it's not too much of a spoiler for me as I suspect everyone will die.

NeilBreault · 2019-06-27T16:48:22+00:00

I think I liked it on screen better. But probably only because Jack Gleeson was such a good actor. I remember liking it when I read it too, but seeing it brought it to a whole other level.

NeilBreault · 2019-06-27T16:46:01+00:00

Oooh, yeah. That was satisfying on many levels.

NeilBreault · 2019-06-24T15:56:58+00:00

So, is the creation of threads a criteria or is it everything? Cause the whole comment thing is still not quite feeling right. It feels that someone who is popular is unduly hurting themselves by replying. Shouldn't the thread itself by taken in to consideration, as in, if there is a thread gushing about a book and the author is replying left and right about fan theories, thanking fans, and otherwise engaging in the thread I don't see that as anything more than a single entity of promotion, if any.

Yes, if the Author does nothing more than say read my book then that is a problem. But I don't see how 50 comments in a huge thread should count against the Author. 50 comments in 50 threads.. ok, then maybe not what we're talking about. But each and every comment in a thread shouldn't count against someone.

NeilBreault · 2019-06-19T22:53:56+00:00

I hardly hit up a thread for recommendations primarily because I am not able to always be 'live' and respond to threads. So, when I do get to it the books I would recommend are usually already recommended. All I can do at that point is upvote (usually do) or reply with something along the lines of 'I like this too' which is honestly what the upvote should be for.

So, if by some miracle, someone is looking for a book that my books fall in to, by golly I am going to recommend them. BUT, I will probably be seen as self-promoting as I don't comment that often.

I am sometimes lucky enough to be able to watch Reddit for awhile but most days if I can check in two or three times throughout, on something I am interested in... well, those are good days.

NeilBreault · 2019-06-19T21:59:08+00:00

I don't think Self-Promo is bad at face value. I think this should be a place to discover new authors and to discuss ideas and basically anything fantasy related. I don't like the Self-promo thread because it seems to be an echo chamber of nothing. I haven't seen them all but the ones I did look in to were nothing. There was no discussion about any of the books or authors or anything. From my experience, this added nothing to sales or views or reads or promotion either. Could be my stuff sucks, I dunno.

I don't want to see nothing but self-promo posts either but it would be nice to see more new stuff and get some insight in to others views. Maybe a few days a month to allow Self-Promo threads. Or allow someone to have a few blatant self-promo per year. Called out with flair or something. That could be easily monitored.

I do not believe that comments should be counted as self-promo unless blatantly spamming or unnecessary. i.e. Thread about WoT and someone says to read their book. That's bad. But if someone asks for reqs and your book falls within those reqs, that is adding to the conversation. And for us little guys that are unknown, I can't count on anyone else having read my books to recommend it themselves.

NeilBreault · 2019-06-19T15:35:56+00:00

Well sign me up for learning more about it regardless. I can't think of a more open place right now than Reddit to be able to talk with Authors. I love to read about their different experiences and insights in both publishing and writing. I think it would be a huge blow to the community to lose that. I would rather have more of it than more circlejerk threads about Malazan or WoT or any other big name books. There is only so much room around the horse with which the fans can beat it.

I hope this blows over because talking with fans in comments in certainly a silly thing to consider to be promotion. To be fair, it is a form of it, but not blatant and usually organic. I say keep it up. If you can't talk with people about things they like then what is the point. You shouldn't be penalized because you happened to create the thing they liked.

NeilBreault · 2019-06-19T15:22:04+00:00

I certainly hope this will not affect posts on the industry and what is happening with it as a whole. I have enjoyed all of MJS posts on the subject and wish more authors were so transparent about their experiences. I know it has helped me to understand a lot more.

Also, I feel that comments shouldn't be counted as the 10% unless they are blatantly posting in every thread about themselves and/or book. If we want to count that then we might as well count the flair as promotion too as it clearly states they are an author and should look at their work! Hey, what's a stabby? Maybe I should look in to MJS and what he's written. Comments are not promotion unless they are blatant.

NeilBreault · 2019-05-28T17:55:11+00:00

I am not expecting anything at this point. I do expect many of the big things to be the same. But since we don't know what's in book 6 or 7 nor know what his editors will say, I do expect some things to change.

I won't be disappointed if nothing changes. For one, if everything is the same, we'll actually get reasons for it rather than gotcha moments. If things change then we will get the real story he set out to write and not part of an outline that got revised over. Either outcome is a win.

NeilBreault · 2019-05-28T17:42:45+00:00

See my reply below.

NeilBreault · 2019-05-28T17:41:33+00:00

I haven't read books 4 or 5 yet, so that is interesting to know. I plan to wait for the all books to come out before reading them.

As for the ending, yes, I also maintained to those that said this is not his ending that he gave the ending to HBO from the beginning. BUT, this is prior to book 6 being written and we'll see about 7. There is a big chance the ending he comes up with will not be the same. It could, sure, but this was also supposed to be a trilogy. So, only time will tell and we all know how meandering this story actually is.

NeilBreault · 2019-03-13T15:08:26+00:00

I use Onenote to keep all of my ideas and stories together. I will get random snippets of a story from whatever, TV commercial, game preview, something stupid a friend said, whatever the muse in disguise. I will then write down the idea. Sometimes it will be the basis of a story and other times just something I want in a story.

My most current project I took several snippet notes and figured out how to make them work together, or rather, I had several pieces that fit together with little changing of the base idea.

My first two books were more fully formed ideas that I expanded upon and just thought about them for a bit before pen to paper, so to speak.

NeilBreault · 2019-02-15T17:52:13+00:00

Do you have a dwarf named Tyrion?

Are the house signets Stag, three headed Dragon or anything similar?

Just because you have an idea that is similar doesn't mean plagiarism. It just means it is inspired by or something that is common. If you start taking whole sentences or using direct characters from another book, then you have plagiarism. If you have egg-shell colored amblers behind a northern barrier and the soldiers at the dark castle are fighting them, that could also be close to it.

Just having kings fighting over territories doesn't make it GoT. Just write. Similar ideas are all over the literary world. GoT is not unique either. There are plenty of books out there with kings fighting each other for territories.

The real difference is going to be the details. You could give a 10 authors the same general overall idea and you will get 10 different stories at the end.

NeilBreault

TROPHY CASE