We are, clearly, slightly behind schedule (again!) on Cursed King. Remind me never to sign off on a book with “cursed” in the name, again.

It’s so close! Rowan has been working hard on the layout and we’re very nearly ready to sign off on the whole project… There’s two slight hitches at this point: (1) We looked at what’s almost the final layout and felt that it could do with a small amount of additional art, just to fill a few gaps and ensure it didn’t feel too text-heavy; (2) I still need to take a day and do the Thuland map. We’re chatting to a new artist about doing 2-4 small pieces of Thulandic-style art that can be dropped in. I’m quite excited to be working with her as she has a lot of experience in archaeological art: Iron Age and Early Medieval brooches and other jewellery, that kind of thing. These kind of decorative elements help enhance the feel of a book like this without necessarily being tied to a specific incident or character in the scenario so are perfect as finishing touches.

The map, I’m hoping to do either this weekend or next. This time of year is the busiest for my day job (about a month or so in which the priority is to mark all of Semester 1 work and do all the associated admin and exam boards and such while at the same time preparing all of Semester 2 and oh gosh has Semester 2 teaching started already and what’s that, two research article deadlines too?), and I was over-optimistic to think I could get much done on SKG till that crunch time was over… which it very nearly is. (Final research article deadline is 18 Feb so at worst I get this sorted right after that.)

Then we order a physical proof copy, wait a few days for it to arrive, give it a once-over and if all’s well, release the (hopefully no longer cursed) book.

Summoner’s Tale! This is a fine piece of work by Shaun Hately, longtime Dragon Warriors superfan and prolific creator of Legendary material. It’s been in limbo even longer than Cursed King and has had a few tweaks over that time but I sent the most recent rewrite over to Brunnhilde a month or so back for a final check-through and we hope to get this one released as a short PDF as soon as possible after Cursed King.

— Ian