The Dark Thorn by Shawn Speakman

Hi Everyone,

The project is up to 934 people following the pre-launch of The Dark Thorn Preferred Edition! That's better than when The King-Killing Queen launched. And if you haven't joined yet, hope you'll consider doing so given the FREE tarot card and the incentives I have planned for the first 48 hours beginning June 12th. You won't want to miss out! I'll talk more about those incentives early next week.

I just finished the professional edit on The Dark Thorn. Yay! So the hard part is done. The book now goes to the copyeditor, who will quibble over my use of em-dashes and commas and the like. Once returned, I'll go over the book one more time and it will be finished. Meanwhile, artist Magali Villeneuve continues her work painting the cover. It's going to be gorgeous.

Today, I have another poll for you. It's a fun one, I think. I haven't talked a lot about this yet, but here is something fun I am going to do. When the BackerKit launches on June 12th, I'll be conducting a "Choose Your Own Adventure" scenario on the project community. Essentially, anyone who backs the project will be able to read the opening of a new short story from me -- and then select where the story goes after that! Every day I'll write a few hundred words and give people the option of choosing where it goes next. By the end of the campaign, we should have a pretty wonderful finished story. Or a strange mess of words. Ha!

But it begs the question: Where in the Annwn Cycle's canon should the story be set?

I had originally thought to do an epilogue to The Dark Thorn, one I could include in the final book as a Stretch Goal during the campaign. Then I realized some of you haven't read the book yet and such an epilogue would be filled with spoilers. Ugh.

So I thought, "I'd better poll people and see what YOU ALL want!"

So which would you prefer? Vote and be heard!

Off to write on the short story, The Unavowed Light-Weaver. It's almost finished too. Woo!

With Friday Magic,
Shawn

Hi Everyone,

Thank you for joining me on this journey. Things are beginning to ramp up here!

First off, the amazing Magali Villeneuve has begun work on the new cover for The Dark Thorn. She painted the artwork on The King-Killing Queen and I'm so fortunate she had the time to tackle Richard and his sword Arondight once held by Lancelot.

That said, she sent me an email this morning with two choices. I do want your feedback since it is ultimately all of you who will be buying the book. You should have a say, right? Hence, today, I am conducting our first poll. Take a look at the image below and then vote on the direction you'd like Magali to take. I think this is a fun way to get you involved as well as get your valuable insight.

As you can see, the cover design will mirror what we did on The King-Killing Queen. Richard will be aged up a bit, but otherwise I'm pretty happy with this direction. And for those of you who have read The Dark Thorn already, please don't mention the lack of the staff in this painting. I'm doing this for a reason. I don't want spoilers posted. Ha!

Feel free to post your thoughts below after you vote! Let's have some fun!

With Thorny Magic,
Shawn

PS: To vote, you do have to Follow the project on BackerKit, I believe.

Hi Everyone,

How many of you have seen The Lord of the Rings movies directed by Peter Jackson?

A great many of you, I bet. If you are like me, you've seen them hundreds of times. And love them. From the faithfulness of the adaptation to its adult themes to its acting performances, dialog, and CGI. Jackson and his team managed to produce Tolkien movies that will withstand the test of time.

About a decade ago, when friend and author Terry Brooks began writing the climax story for his Shannara series, I wrote swordsmith Peter Lyon with a question. Peter produced the weapons used in The Lord of the Rings movies, and I asked him if the original Hildebrandt Bros. design for the Sword of Shannara could be produced as a congratulatory gift to Terry. While Peter informed me that the Hildebrandt design would be very difficult to produce and I decided on a different gift for Terry, Peter and I became online and email friends.

Then two years ago, when I was writing The King-Killing Queen, I received that book's cover art from artist Magali Villeneuve and absolutely fell in love with it. I also loved her design of the sword Lumiere so much that I forwarded it to Peter, hoping it was something that could be forged.

Peter wrote me back, asked some clarifying questions, and then accepted the project. He doesn't do a lot of commission work as Weta Workshop keeps him quite busy, so I was absolutely befuddled to learn The Lord of the Rings swordsmith would be forging a sword based on an idea I created.

Here is the Magali Villeneuve cover that inspired Peter's hand-drawn designs for Lumiere:

To view over a dozen photos of Peter's work as he forged and put together Lumiere, be sure to follow this BackerKit project. And if you already follow it, the photos should be below!

If you have any questions, I'd love to answer them. This process was super fun! A big thank you to Peter for his work and professionalism! 

With Magic,
Shawn Speakman

Hi Everyone,

Welcome to the inaugural post for The Dark Thorn Preferred Edition crowdfund project!

THANK YOU for joining me here. I am truly excited to bring the first book in the Annwn Cycle to everyone via a new edition. As I've shared recently, The Dark Thorn was never professionally edited. I published it originally as a way to learn how to design a book, print a book, bind a book, and fulfill a book in a preparation for the Unfettered anthology. I had no idea that it would be reviewed so well. But now that I'm close to finishing The Everwinter Wraith and I've tied The King-Killing Queen to Annwn, I thought it wise to edit the book that started it all to bring it more in line with these other titles.

And it's drastically better for it. I can't tell you how much better. While the story itself isn't changing, the editing effort is yielding a much better read. A big thank you to former Del Rey Books editor in chief Betsy Mitchell for bringing her expertise and red pen to The Dark Thorn Preferred Edition!

This community is going to be used in a variety of ways. I will share news and write updates here, true enough. But I will also unveil art and tiers and polls here too for people who are following the project. And not only that, but I'll post dedicated content for those who BACK the project right out of the gate. In this way, we will have a vibrant community where you get to interact with me and vice versa.

And finally, with this first welcoming update, I'm asking you to help spread the word about The Dark Thorn and this BackerKit project. Do what you can! Every little bit helps.

And if you have any questions, comment below. I'm always around.

Best Wishes,
Shawn Speakman