Tag: Writing

More Book 4

Posted on by Austin Gunderson in News, Writing

If you’ve taken the plunge into Arlam and embarked upon the journey of 1,100+ pages which comprises A Sea Sought in Song, Wrath and Crimson Rime, and Loose the Sealed Tongue, you’ll be pleased to learn that the fourth and final volume of “The Heir and the Herald” tetralogy is now approximately 30% complete.

One of the methods I use to ensure stylistic continuity is meta-level symmetry. So for instance, each of my novels has the same overall structure: prologue, overture, sixteen chapters divided into two parts punctuated by a cadenza, epilogue. This symmetry isn’t something that’s apparent from page to page, and maybe not something readers would ever notice (without reading this blog), but I believe it helps to enforce a steady pace of action/reaction and rising tension.

Over the past five months I’ve written the following portions of Book 4:

  • Prologue
  • Overture
  • Chapter 1
  • Chapter 2
  • Chapter 3
  • Chapter 4

These sections comprise 30,000 words. I began at the blistering pace of one section every two weeks, but have since slowed by 50% due to the inadequacy of my initial outline to comprehend the plot’s rapidly-ballooning complexity. By the end of Loose the Sealed Tongue, the story had became a dizzying puzzlebox of interlocking conspiracies, and I’m afraid and excited to report that Book 4 begins that way, while occupying the expanded relational/emotional landscape represented by an additional POV character. Ideally, the outcome of all this meticulous plotting will be a proverbial unexpected-yet-inevitable conclusion to the series—a climactic resolution as satisfying as it is shocking.

In the meantime, Dear Reader, keep reading. The first three volumes of the epic saga of Hugh Conrad and Ilina Lightkeeper are available on Kindle and in paperback, and the first novel, A Sea Sought in Song, is available on Audible as read by the masterful Christopher Lane, narrator to Dean Koontz and Michael Crichton.

An immense adventure awaits you. And the best part is: the ending will be worth it.

Writer of the Future Past

Posted on by Austin Gunderson in News, Writing

Welp, I did it: I finally got my name up on ol’ L. Ron’s shortlist. My story entry for the 1st quarter of 2023 was voted a Writers of the Future semifinalist.

Check out these RESULTS. My name’s the sixth one down on the semifinalist list: “Austin Gunderson from Utah.” Out of a sea of over 400 honorable mentions, my story broke into the top 2% of officially-recognized entries, and into the top fraction of a percent of total entries.

As was the case with my two previous WOTF honorable mentions, this semifinalist entry was an unaltered chapter pulled directly from THE HEIR AND THE HERALD, my epic fantasy series now available on Kindle and in paperback. I can say with complete honesty that the only quality which sets this chapter apart from its many fellows is that it, as a flashback narrative, is relatively self-contained. I invested no more than my usual care in its crafting. It’s a representative example of my prose.

So if you’re looking for a 1,100-pages-and-counting epic noir fantasy adventure with WOTF semifinalist-grade work on every single page … if you’ve always wished someone would write an Indiana Jones-goes-to-Narnia yarn and care how the story was told … then you won’t regret taking a portal to the world of Arlam.

But this is a bittersweet pitch. WOTF is a contest for amateurs. The fact that I can now attempt to sell you on my novels means that I’m no longer eligible to submit—I’ve officially “pro’ed out.” I sent in my semifinalist story twelve days before signing with my publisher. Little did I know how high would be the note upon which I was about to go out.

But in the close of one chapter, there’s the opening of another. And this new chapter is all about you, Dear Reader. You’re the judge now. And I’ve submitted to you a vast and ambitious entry.

I hope you like it.