Sunday 12 May 2013

Again with the Forging Scene, and Other Matters...

   Hi guys,

   Well, I've got another review of TSH up, this time on Amazon from someone I have not had contact with (yay!).  Another Two Star review (not so yay), with one particular comment: how they skipped the 10-20 pages of the forging scene (wha...).

   This time its a lot easier to handle, and I can respect a dislike of a scene based on personal taste.

   But seriously scene was skipped?   That seriously concerns me, as there is more to the overall scene than just three rods of metal getting redrawn, heated and hammered, twisted together, put in a mould, connected to an Armiger hilt, sharpened and sold to the customer (without the hilt, mind, for very good reason).

   This is a scene I've looked at backwards and forwards.  Given further, professional editing, maybe Metallurgy can be reduced by a page.  I could take out the song, or Gilthia's back story, but that robs the narrative of an integral character, and an introduction to the Duries; it also robs the narrative of Badrack and Gilthia falling in love - one of my favourite moments of TSH.

   It leaves me to beg readers - please stick with the scene!  There is more to the forging of Dresden's sword than Norse forging techniques.  It draws light to the smithing process: its not just tapping metal a few times and, lo and behold, pulling out the best sword ever made.  It also gives praise to the struggle of making the sword and the people who went to the trouble of making it - their conflict against metal, if you will.

   And that's something forgotten with Narsil, Glamdring and Sting from Lord of the Rings.  Thankfully, John Milius didn't forget it in Conan the Barbarian...

   Speaking of sticking with it, my Blogs and that Virtual Book Tour of mine.  Yes, I've been a bit quiet on both fronts lately.  After a bit of a hiccup on the tour (all fixed now), you can find another spotlight here at Mass Musings, and my guest post at Bikers with Books.  Don't forget you can win one of (at least) 5 review copies of The Torment, The Shadow, The Heart, too!

   As for the Blogs, I've discovered its hard balancing a fortnightly posting of the History and even the weekly moments of the Author blog (and I've given up on the third blog) for now.  I've decided to go for a once a month posting of the Author page (aiming for the 10th of every month - I know, I'm late), and the History of Talbadas blog (aiming for the 20th of every month, hopefully I can get the time in the next few days).

   Don't forget to check out my Shared Links page, I owe a few shares, so don't forget to check out the links and see if you like what you see.

   So that's it from me.  Hope you all have a good week, and Happy Mother's Day.

   Cheers,
   T. M. Shannon

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