It's finished! The book that took over my life and gave me my first gray hair is done!! (Forget about A Cavern Of Black Ice. This is the Cavern Of Gray Ice!) What I mean by done is that I've now sent it off to my publisher (Warner Aspect) and my editor Betsy, to see if any changes need to be made before the lengthy publishing process begins. This book is BIG! There are hundreds of characters to keep track of, 30 clans, 6 cities, 5 races and several packs of dogs! (No cats....he he he. Sorry you cat lovers out there, but I canna abide our feline friends!). <g> Below you'll find some early details on the book.wolves

THE FACTS

Ash

 

The artwork for A Cavern Of Black Ice has been done by Greg Call, who does marvelous, sweeping landscapes. Greg has finished working on the cover and you can see what a wonderful job he has done by peeking here. The two characters depicted are Ash March (shown in detail left) and Raif Sevrance.

 

Ice

 

The book is 723 manuscript pages long and weighs in at 292,803 words. It has 55 chapters, plus an epilogue and a prologue. I can't tell you either the first or last word as it will give too much away. BUT, know that the Prologue contains two scenes and the second scene starts with the sentence: "They applied the leeches to him in rings of six."

 

Ice

 

The book will be published in March 1999 in the US by Warner Aspect, and in January 1999 by Orbit Books in the UK. There are scheduled to be 3 books in the series, and the series title is SWORD OF SHADOWS. It takes a publisher many months to gear up to bring a book to market. There are literally hundreds of jobs that need to be done; cover copy must be written, artwork painted, type-setting, proof-reading, sales meetings, cover quotes, maps. I could go on...but you get the idea!

 

Ice

 

The book took me 14 months to write, and that included writing every day (including weekends). I finished the first draft in early December 1997, and then spent nearly 4 months rewriting it. My four previous books have all taken 9 months or less to write. So this one was long and difficult. I'll still be writing the series at the turn of the millennium!

 

Ice

 

Amongst the hundreds of books I used for research are the gems "Timberline: Mountain & Arctic Forest Frontiers" (everything you ever needed to know about Arctic trees!) "Ravens in Winter" (yep, you guessed it, everything you need to know about ravens in winter. They're wily little devils, let me tell you!); "History of the Peoples of Siberia"; "How To Stay Alive in the Woods"; and my personal favorite "The Book of the Eskimos" which was written by a Danish gentleman who lived in Greenland at the turn of the century. At one point, he was married to a twelve year old Intuit girl!

 

Ice

 

The book is NOT a sequel to the BOOK OF WORDS, though it is set in the same world and contains some very deep and important connections to the first series. People can read A CAVERN OF BLACK ICE without having read the Words series first. A few characters crossover to the new series, but I canna tell you who or I'd have to send Moth & Clem round to rough you up! (-;

Ice

 

The main characters are:

Raif Sevrance: Raven Born, Oathbreaker, Warrior of Clan Blackhail and Watcher of the Dead.

 

Ash March: Foundling, left outside of Vaingate to die. A terrible destiny awaits her in a dead and voided land.

Ash March & Raif Sevrance face-off ice wolves in the Storm Margin

Vaylo Bludd: The Dog Lord, chief of Clan Bludd. Vaylo is the greatest chief in the Clanholds, terrible to behold, fierce beyond knowing, yet he loves two things above all others: his dogs and his grandchildren.


Effie Sevrance: Wearer of the Stone Lore, able to see the future in small glimpses; a maiden of Clan Blackhail.


Penthero Iss: Surlord of Spire Vanis, sorcerer and keeper of a terrible, dread secret.


Angus Lok: Ranger, member of the mysterious "Phage" of which little is known, and uncle to Raif Sevrance.


Sarga Veys: The Phage's greatest find in over a decade. A powerful sorcerer and a man who nurses his slights.


Marafice Eye: The Knife. Protector General of the Rive Watch and Penthero Iss' right hand.


Mace Blackhail: The Hail Wolf.


Cluff Drybannock: A Trenchborn bastard, part-Sull.


Raina Blackhail: Wife of the Blackhail chief.


Drey Sevrance: Brother to Raif, warrior of Clan Blackhail and wearer of the Bear Lore.


Heritas Cant: Sorcerer, broken on the wheel.


Well that's all for now. I'll post more stuff when I can. Please keep checking back as I'll have contests, gallies and other things on offer as the months go by, plus sample chapters, sneak peeks at artwork and updates on how things are going. Many Thanks, JV.

Cover art and sections of cover © Greg Call 1998.

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