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Sir Marcus

Cover Reveal!

July 17, 2019 by Elizabeth Drake

Yes, it took much longer than I had planned, but here is the cover for Knight of Valor!

And the link to pre-order it!

Eadrake_ebook (1).jpg

What would it take for you to make the devil’s own bargain?

The vampires hunting Brelynn are the least of her worries. Not even the demons stalking her are enough to convince her to make the bargain. But to prevent her master from capturing her again, she’ll do anything, including make a pact with the King of Tamryn and the Knight of Valor he sends to fetch her. A Knight of Valor that eradicates all that is unholy in his path, including her, if she’s not careful. But he’s the only man that can destroy her master. The only man that can truly free her. And the only man that can win her heart.

Sir Marcus Valerian is the Knight of Valor who slew a lich, freed a nation, and came home a broken man. The Dragon Church wants him to retire. The Tamryn people want him to be their legend. He just wants a purpose again and accepts a mission from the king. The mission wasn’t supposed to involve destroying vampires, demons, and necromancers. But those aren’t the hard part. Reminding himself a man like him can never fall in love is.

As another lich rises, Sir Marcus and Brelynn must decide how much they’ll risk, how much they’ll give, to save the land and for their own chance at love.

Filed Under: Books, Knights, Uncategorized Tagged With: Brelynn, Knight, Knight in shining armor, Knight of Valor, Romance, romance author, Romance Novel, Romance Writer, Sir Marcus

Revisions, Revisions, Revisions

March 14, 2019 by Elizabeth Drake

I am swimming in revisions right now.

I received the latest draft of Knight of Valor back, and it looked like a field of poppies with the amount of red comments on it.

sunset-815270_640
Amount right.

Sad, really, for an eighteenth draft, though most of the comments revolve around letting the hero’s personality shine through and maybe showing a bit more of the broken side of his character.

He, of course, wants no part of that. He wants to be the strong silent type that you can rely on. Which he is, but he’s also been through hell and back and survived. He’s not the naïve and idealistic youth he once was. And that’s okay. Both he and I need to be more comfortable letting some of those broken pieces show through, at least for the reader.

So, yeah, this has been an exhausting rewrite.

But, I will say, the story is better for it. I feel like the changes I am making help better convey Sir Marcus’s character and explain why he is my favorite of all the heroes I have written to date.

revision4
Or the eighteenth

It will probably take me at least the rest of the month, maybe longer, to finish the rewrite. Then, I need to walk away for at least two weeks.

Four would be better so that I can look at the manuscript with fresh eyes.

Okay, all right, sort of fresh eyes. After nineteen revisions, I’m not sure I’ll ever have truly fresh eyes for this piece again.

I have updated my goals in Wunderlist to track the extra revisions I need to put in.

WunderlistMar2019
Not exactly what I wanted to show you, but it’s real.

Yeah.

It’s basically two more months’ worth of work.

And yes, my OCD would really like to call February finished, except it isn’t. There were things in that month to accomplish to launch Knight of Valor in April. Just as there are things in March I was supposed to do to get ready for a book launch as well.

But, you can see if you add the progress of February, March and April together, I am a little father ahead than where I had planned to be this time in mid-March.

I am not sure I can do the extra things needed for Knight of Valor and stay on track with my other writing goals this year. Plus, I still don’t know what else will throw me off schedule.

And that’s okay.

I am making progress. I can see that.

There may be unforeseen things along the journey, but I am still traveling it.

Filed Under: Books, Uncategorized Tagged With: beta reader, draft, editing, Goals, Knight of Valor, revisions, Sir Marcus, wunderlist

Goal Update: A Bit of a Delay

February 28, 2019 by Elizabeth Drake

My beta reader was taking a bit longer than normal on this particular piece of work, and while I was a bit worried about it, they have a very busy life.

Yeah, that wasn’t it (though they do). Nice try on my part.

She gave me some high level feedback explaining why it was taking a bit longer.

beta-reader
The look she gave me was very similar.

There will be a bit of a delay in releasing Knight of Valor.

She noted I needed to tighten my beginning. Doable within my original release date timeline.

More than that, I needed to flesh out my hero in the beginning. She thought he felt flat. I cringed a little, knowing why she was saying it and where it came from.

I wrote this book over four years ago. It was one of three books I completed when I first got back into writing, and the only one I loved the characters enough to try to salvage. The other two are now buried on my hard drive and are not fit for human eyes.

But I loved Sir Marcus. I wanted to do him justice. And through him and his story, and I pushed myself to do better as a writer. His story helped me learn a lot about finding my voice, plot and character development, and even trusting myself as a writer.

So, I’d set Knight of Valor aside for a while and work on other things, become a better writer, and tackle this story again.

During the process, I read a whole bunch of craft books. And you can see their influence on the story. One of them was how to write a romance hero…and I did Sir Marcus a lot of disservice. Granted, he overcomes the bad writing advice towards the middle on the book, but it takes him a while.

church-3599448_640
I may be shabby from time to time, but his faith in me in strong.

At the time, they were telling romance authors that romance readers wanted alpha heroes. Don’t even bother writing anything else as it won’t sell and an agent won’t want it. So I changed him.

And he was no longer Sir Marcus.

Don’t misunderstand me. He is neither meek nor mild. He was not the “chosen one” and forced to do anything. He saw evil, and if there was a chance he could destroy that evil, he had to try. He dedicated most of his life training to do just that.

But he’s still a genuinely nice guy. The kind of person who’d come over and help you fix your roof because he heard you were having trouble without being asked. You’d share an ale afterwards, and that would be all the thanks he’d need or want.

Punch a kid or kick or dog? You don’t want him to see you do that.

Kill a village to fuel a evil spell?

Time to run. Fast.

middle-ages-knight

So, I need to let his true personality shine through the first half of the book as well as the second. No easy task, that.

Oh, and I need to fix a plot hole, tighten up my pacing, and remove a few loose ends from earlier drafts I missed. And this is before I get back the full list of revisions.

*deep breath*

I see why this is taking a bit of time to get back the beta read. I also know I sent this out for just this reason.

I am literally on my eighteenth revision of this story. Yeah. Eighteenth. That I’ve counted. The first draft and several subsequent ones (no idea how how many four, maybe five?), I didn’t number and track. I am really close to this story, and I’ve put a lot of work into it. I can sometimes lose the forest through the trees. So I need more help on this than most.

It means a lot to me. I really want to get it right.

So, this is going to be a large revision, not a small tighten-things-up late game revision.

And that’s okay. Sir Marcus deserves the best story I can give him.

Yes, it means my entire plan for the year needs to change.

Yes, it means I will not make that April publishing deadline.

Both are okay.

I want to give you the best story I can.

Delaying the release date until June or July gives me the time to make it the best that I can right now.

You deserve that, and so does Sir Marcus.

Filed Under: Goals Tagged With: beta reader, deadline, delay, Goals, Hero, Publishing, release date, revision, romance author, Romance Novels, Romance Writer, Setting goals, Sir Marcus

Micro Fiction: The End

November 20, 2018 by Elizabeth Drake

SirMarcusLichCrown

Sir Marcus’s steps sent the dusty remains of the undead abomination up in puffs around him.

The Knight covered his nose as he crushed the lich’s jeweled crown beneath his steel boots.

But Sir Marcus felt no joy at the victory.

He was the only thing that stirred as the blood of his comrades congealed on the cold stone floor.

So much for being a hero.

Filed Under: Micro Fiction, Uncategorized Tagged With: Hero, Lich, Sir Marcus, Victory

Micro Fiction: To the Death

November 13, 2018 by Elizabeth Drake

MarcusDefeatstheLich

Filled with the holy light of the gods, Marcus channeled all he was into one final thrust.

The skull stared at him, its ivory bone incapable of showing surprise, pain, or even triumph.

Fear pooled in Sir Marcus’s stomach as failure stared at him.

Then the lich was gone, the light of the Holy Trinity incinerating it to ash.

Marcus fell to his knees, another prayer on his lips as exhaustion dropped him to his knees.

Filed Under: Micro Fiction Tagged With: Knight, Knight of Valor, Lich, Sir Marcus, Triumph

Micro Fiction: Family

October 23, 2018 by Elizabeth Drake

 

BrelynnKnightBaby

Brelynn was like a sister to her, and the only family Mara had. The only family worth having.

How could Brelynn fall in love with a holier-than-thou Knight of Valor?

As the tiny fist of Brelynn’s daughter closed around Mara’s finger, a faint smile curved the warrior’s lips.

Maybe the Knight wasn’t all bad.

Filed Under: characters, Knights, Micro Fiction, White Knight Tagged With: Brelynn, Family, Knight, Knight of Valor, Mara, Sir Marcus, Warrior

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