Sand and Blood

Sand and Blood[1] is my first published novel set in the Fedran[2] universe. It is a story about a teenager struggling with his own lack of ambitions, a desire to be most powerful one and yet unable to ever reach the abilities of any of his peers.

1: https://fedran.com/sand-and-blood/

2: https://fedran.com/

2024-10-20 SPFBO and Flight of the Scions - Just thoughts on Flight of the Scions being DNFd for SPFBO 2024.

2023-06-24 Fedran Infrastructure - In the last month, I've been doing a lot of writing and programming. I also finished a good-sized around of "fun coding" with Fedran.

2023-04-15 Obligations Hanging Over Me - It has been a busy month with many obligations intruding in my life.

2018-03-22 Life Cycles, Second-Hand Dresses 43, and Coming Next - Even though she is no longer in the High Society circles, Lily still has a chance to go to the party to see how Nirih's dress is presented. Nothing prepares her, however, with what else would happen that night.

2018-01-12 2017 Writing Monies - I've summarized both income and expenses over 2017 when it comes to writing and publishing books.

2016-02-17 Sand and Ash 29, Flight of the Scions 11, suicide, and racism - While Rutejìmo is struggling with guilt as he plans on leaving Mapábyo, Kanéko is being attacked for being nothing more than curious and black.

2016-03-30 Sand and Ash - Well, this is the end. Yeah, it's a week early, but I decided to post the final two chapters at once. It is a sad moment for me, mainly because there is a lot of me in this novel but I'm also glad that I got a chance to do this.

2016-01-10 2015 Writing Income - Following up with last year's post on writing monies and inspired by Jim C. Hines' own posts, here is an update on the financial side of my career as a writer.

2016-01-27 Sand and Ash 26, Flight of the Scions 8, and mistakes - This week Rutejìmo gets a hint of what he is becoming and Kanéko finds herself falling for a boy.

2016-11-01 Sand and Bone 5, Flight of the Scions 39, splitting novels, and Exalted - I played Exalted for a long time and I knew it wouldn't be long before it showed up in my writing. This week, you can see hints of that.

2016-09-20 Sand and Blood is finished! - After just over seven months of weekly posting, Sand and Blood has now been released as a Creative Common novels.

2016-09-06 Sand and Blood 28, Flight of the Scions 33, and social rules - These two chapters focus on social roles and positions between different characters and their relationships.

2016-09-13 Sand and Blood 29, Flight of the Scions 34 - These two chapters focus on social roles and positions between different characters and their relationships.

2016-08-02 Sand and Blood 23, Flight of the Scions 28, and giant telepathic toads - This week, I introduce the villain of our story, a giant telepathic toad that terrorizes Kanéko and her friends. And Rutejìmo shows that he has a backbone.

2016-08-16 Sand and Blood 25, Flight of the Scions 30, and character depth - Both serials are at a turning point as we head into the conclusion for both. Also a bit about other books in the Rutejìmo series.

2016-08-10 Sand and Blood 24, Flight of the Scions 29, and teachers - Sometimes, we have a few lessons that need to be taught before all the action starts again. This chapter has a few quite moments.

2016-08-23 Sand and Blood 26, Flight of the Scions 31, and doubt - This week, both series talk about doubt in different forms: violence and death for Rutejìmo and Kanéko has her questions about her father.

2016-08-31 Sand and Blood 27, Flight of the Scions 32, and mistakes - Life is about failure, it is the only way to get ahead. This week's chapter is about iterative failures. Plus news about Sand and Bone.

2016-07-06 Sand and Blood 19, Flight of the Scions 25, and recovering from action - This week, both Kanéko and Rutejìmo are dealing with the conquences of their action scenes in the previous chapter.

2016-07-27 Sand and Blood 21-22, Flight of the Scions 27, powers, and secrets - Both trios find out a bit of their enemies this week along with revealing secrets for everyone. Plus Sand and Ash is out.

2016-07-13 Sand and Blood 20, Flight of the Scions 26, death, and lessons - A smattering of lessons, both about death and more cheerful things. We are getting to some of the more interesting parts of both novels.

2016-10-31 Writing with Markdown and YAML - I realized that it's been a while since I wrote up how I write with Markdown and YAML. This is the current state of my technique of writing.

2016-10-04 Sand and Bone 1, Flight of the Scions 35 - This week, I start the serialization of Sand and Bone, the third and final book of Rutejìmo's story.

2016-12-12 My publications for 2016 - As we approach the end of the year, there is a consolidate list of the pieces I've published in 2016.

2016-12-21 Sand and Bone 10 and hair styles - Rutejìmo returns to Kosobyo City and finds himself in an unfamiliar civilization that only vaguely resembled his own. Also a little bit on hair.

2016-05-18 Sand and Blood 14, Flight of the Scions 20, and being weaker - Not every story has a Big Bad, the evil villain that makes the hero's job miserable. Sometimes the demons are inside the character's head. The chapters this week demonstrate both.

2016-05-11 Sand and Blood 13, Flight of the Scions 19, angels, and types of intelligence - Looking at Flight of the Scions, it's obvious that my main characters are actually rather intelligent.

2016-05-04 Sand and Blood 12, Flight of the Scions 18, speech patterns, and the Industrial Age - One of the difficult parts of writing Flight of the Scions is getting Ruben's speech pattern right. Also a brief discussion of mechanical devices in Fedran.

2016-06-29 Sand and Blood 18, Flight of the Scions 24, seeing in the dark, and violence - This week, both chapters have to deal with the same topic: fighting in the dark. This shows my love of the specific troupe but both stories go about it in very different ways.

2016-06-08 Sand and Blood 15, Flight of the Scions 21, and telepathic computers - After a few weeks of taking a break, I'm back to my serials. This week, we have a bit of introspection and a naming of the Big Bad.

2016-06-15 Sand and Blood 16, Flight of the Scions 22, and differing personalities

2016-06-12 Trigger Warnings - I've been thinking about Jim C. Hines' post about trigger warnings for a few months now. In the process of re-releasing two books, I decided to do something about it.

2016-06-22 Sand and Blood 17, Flight of the Scions 23, magical healing, and power addiction - Just another pair of discussions with both serials. I talk a little bit about magical healing and the addiction of power, not to mention conventions that I'm using with other languages and telepathy.

2016-04-20 Sand and Blood 10, Flight of the Scions 16, and gaining powers - Magical talents are one of the underlying aspects of Fedran, but how everyone gains their powers is wildly different.

2016-04-06 Sand and Blood 8, Flight of the Scions 13 (again) - I said I was going to take a little break, but I lied. Sand and Blood is starting to be serialized and I reworked Flight of the Scions 13.

2016-04-27 Sand and Blood 11, Flight of the Scions 17, Sand and Ash status, abusive relationships, telepaths, and economics

2016-04-13 Sand and Blood 9, Flight of the Scions 15 (again), five chapters of Sand and Bone, and injuries - I reworked chapter fifteen of Flight of the Scions, made another chapter of Sand and Blood available, opened up five chapters of Sand and Bone to subscribers, and talked about ending chapters.

2012-11-02 Paths of least resistance

2012-10-29 Miwāfu glyphs

2012-10-20 Finished a first draft

2012-10-05 Fear of submission

2015-03-25 Sand and Blood v1.2.0 - While creating the fictionary for Sand and Blood, we found a typo in the book. I decided to use that opportunity to switch distributors, add italics, and fix that one little bug.

2015-03-15 Creating a Fictionary - Over the last week, I've been creating a fictionary for Sand and Blood. Here are my experiences of the process.

2015-01-06 2014 Writing Income - I haven't really considered writing as anything more than a hobby until 2012, but I've been tracking my income and expenses since 2002. Here is a breakdown of my writing income.

2015-08-09 Sand and Ash, Creative Commons, and Patreon - Years ago, I almost made my first novel Creative Commons licensed but I didn't have the courage. This time, I'm going to do it.

2015-08-21 Tarsan Famlies, Building Cultures, and Naming - While writing a highly ritualized culture that is centered around families, how to name and address them can be one of the most complicated steps.

2015-08-19 Sand and Ash 03, Pacifism, and the Chosen One - The third chapter of Sand and Ash is now available. Also some discussions of warrior's sterility, Rutejìmo's pacifism, and Chimípu being the Chosen One.

2015-10-28 Sand and Ash 13, Mikáryo - Chapter thirteen could best be described as ‘tough love,’ both in what the main character went through but also why.

2015-10-04 Sand and Ash 10 and Tsubàyo - The tenth chapter of Sand and Ash surprised me when I wrote it, mainly because one character was entirely unexpected.

2015-12-02 Sand and Ash 18, Flight of the Scions, and Second-Hand Dresses - Chapter eighteen is a short one, but there were some interesting things happening outside of the novel worth talking about including starting to release Flight of the Scions as a Patreon-only reward.

2015-12-09 Sand and Ash 19, Flight of the Scions 1 - This week is Sand and Ash 19 and the first chapter of Flight of the Scions, including some reasons of where Flight came from and where I'm going with all of this.

2015-05-06 WisCon and Bloodbond - I've gotten the final schedule for WisCon and I have two events. In addition, I got myself on the cover of another magazine, Bloodbond.

2015-04-12 Writing News - It's been a few weeks since I've written about writing. Since then, I've managed to finish the third draft for Sand and Bone, drafted Raging Alone, and had a friend create an album with my lyrics.

2019-04-01 2018 Writing Monies - My high-level breakdown of 2018 incomes and expenses for writing.

2013-02-02 Slight belated goals

2013-02-15 Switching gears on Becoming a Man

2013-02-24 And now I have a title

2013-03-20 Creating Unicode charts for fonts

2013-03-12 Less than glowing feedback

2013-01-18 Looking for beta readers again

2013-01-08 The end of 2012

2013-11-18 ICON 38

2013-11-11 A relaxing weekend

2013-09-04 Holding my breath

2013-09-17 Time keeps on passing

2013-07-15 Sand and Blood cover

2013-07-22 Making a cover for Sand and Blood

2013-12-22 Well, that wasn't on the plan

2013-05-21 Preparing for WisCon 37

2017-02-28 Power Discovery; Empowered; Sand and Bone 20 - In this chapter, Rutejìmo has a chance to dole out some wisdom that he has learned over the last few books.

2017-02-14 Sand and Bone 18 and the noble death - Along with the others, Rutejìmo ends up running for his life. He sees his friends and families for what might be the last time before he sets off on his own perilous journey. Before he goes, however, his brother has one last thing.

2017-02-22 Sand and Bone 19, sorrow, and fear of the dark - One of the common themes in the entire series is that Rutejìmo terrified of the dark. But what happens when unknown assassins are looking for him and he is left with the sorrow of losing his brother?

2017-01-03 Sand and Bone 12, HERO system, and pacing - We are now into the second arc of Sand and Bone, where things start to speed up greatly and the bloodbath is going to commence. While I'm setting it up, I talk a little bit about pacing for the book and how I use the HERO System to manage my fantasy.

2017-01-10 Sand and Bone 13, Nudity verses sex, Struggling for money - Another chapter of Sand and Bone with the clan making a choice to accept the job or not. In addition, a brief discussion about nudity and sex along with one about struggling for money.

2017-09-12 More on Hair, Eye Colors, Falling Rain, and Second-Hand Dresses 16 - Apparently I wanted to talk about the process of world-building, in specific exploring the repercussions of changing hair color in my world to fit with the image I want instead of what I started with. It lets me move to a world that I want now without breaking the world I've already published. Oh, and Lily goes on a walk.

2017-08-07 Changing Gears - Well, my vacation is all over and I had a blast. I was up in northern Wisconsin for two weeks with coming home in time to do an author event at the local mall. I got a lot done, but time to change gears and focus on commissions for a week or three.

2017-06-20 Romance, Bylines, NSFW Scenes, and Second-Hand Dresses 4 - After a few weeks of voting over on Patreon and my forum, the next novel selected is Second-Hand Dresses. This is a much different piece than Sand and Blood and its sequels in that it is a romance and drama piece with little violence and a good and proper Happily Ever After.

2017-06-13 Advent Children, The End, Sand and Bone 35, What's Next - After thirty-five weeks, I've finished serializing Sand and Bone. The novel has been completely edited and posted. It is released as Creative Commons BY-NC-SA. On the website, you can download the EPUB, MOBI, and PDF versions of the book. Or you can just read the chapters right on the website.

2017-04-25 Violence, Mutual Destruction, Midnight Flight, Pacifism, and Sand and Bone 28 - Over the last few months, I've brought up the words that Gichyòbi had said about how he was encouraged to save Rutejìmo from violence. This same encouragement was one (but not the only) reason that Mikáryo took pity on him back in Sand and Blood. Well, this chapter is why that aspect of the world came into place, all of those ideas and little bits paved the way for this chapter.

2017-04-11 Death Marches; Burnout; Publication Status; Sand and Blood v3; Sand and Bone 26 - There are moments in life when everything wears you down and you don't think you can move forward. This week, Rutejìmo is experiencing one of those moments as he focuses on burning a body before continuing his journey. I also talk about how the same death march has affected me in my life. Finally, a status update on the Sand and Bone publication process.

2017-04-05 Losing Wars; Rites of Passage; Information Overload; Sand and Bone 25 - This week, I write a little bit about the history of Wamifūko, their shattered mountain that used to be a fortress, and their rites of passage. There is also a question about world-building and these weekly posts. Finally, Sand and Bone gets into chapter 25 as Rutejìmo has to escape the city to burn the body of his wife's mother.

2014-02-03 Another week of editing

2014-02-10 A rather stressful week and then another

2014-02-19 Swears, Epitaphs, and Insults

2014-02-17 And more editing!

2014-03-03 Been a few weeks

2014-03-10 A lot of little things going on

2014-03-21 The difficulties of the third book

2014-01-29 Rejected by Harper Voyager

2014-01-20 And a lovely Monday to say the least

2014-09-07 Sands - A status update on the Rutejìmo series, including a little bit of humiliation.

2014-09-26 Sand and Blood is mostly updated - The latest version of Sand and Blood is now available in all the stories. This includes copy editing and some clarifications, resulting in version 1.1.0.

2014-08-16 R5-D4 Plots - My philosophy for Fedran stories comes from a single conversation with a friend right before Star Wars I, The Phantom Menace, came out.

2014-07-03 What is in a name? - One of the barriers of entry of Sand and Blood is the main character's name, Rutejìmo. As much as this hurts my chance of selling the book, there is a reason behind it.

2014-07-15 Smashwords sale and GoodReads giveaway - Announcing Smashwords sale and a GoodReads giveaway for Sand and Blood.

2014-07-05 Adding novel quotes - As part of the final steps for Sand and Blood, I've created a number of pages for the quotes that start every chapter.

2014-10-14 Scheduling Delays - After a small set of setbacks, it has become obvious that Sand and Ash won't be coming out by the end of the year.

2014-10-22 Why I chose the desert - I find my reasons for doing things to be fascinating. And when someone asks why, I usually try to answer it. One of the more recent one was my decision to set Sand and Blood in the desert.

2014-12-01 Journals of Fedran idea - For the last month or so, I had an idea of how to expand on my fantasy world, Fedran, by showing the wide variety of stories that exist in my head.

2014-05-16 Choosing between two Sand and Blood covers - I'm down to two different covers, but I can't decide. A request for opinions on the two.

2014-05-20 Sand and Blood is finally here! - After three years, Sand and Blood has finally been published.

2014-06-29 Match Book Pricing - On Amazon, if you buy the print version, you can get the ebook version for free.

2014-06-09 Fulfilling an Obligation - Twenty-one years ago, I made a promise to myself that I would dedicate my first book to my high school teachers. I finally did that, but now I need to let them know.

2022-01-21 Content Warnings - This Book Contains Death - As part of my work toward getting Flight of the Scions done, I decided to work on content warnings.

2022-06-24 A Little Give - A follow up on a previous post, things have gotten better in the last fortnight and I thought I would share both what went well and where my focus remains.

Footer

Below are various useful links within this site and to related sites (not all have been converted over to Gemini).