History and Politics of Nendor

The Seven Gods of Nendor created the world. After a time, Neldin – third eldest – decided to try to rise above his eldest brother Honorus and rule the world.  Neldin tricked the dwarves of Trellham to unleash the hordes of Neblor upon the world.  The other six gods rallied their followers and the two sides fought to a stand still. After a short but bitterly fought war, a young wizard from the island of Dumbarten, named Kel, followed the will of the gods and sealed off Neldin’s foot hold into the world and ended the war.  For the next three millennia, Neldin retreated to the underworld and was rarely heard from.

Continue reading History and Politics of Nendor

Geography and Climate

The Last Grand Master  is set on the world of Nendor.  There are three main continents, Ardus, Erd and Loudria.  The island kingdom of Dumbarten is one of the largest kindgoms in the world, but set just of the western coast of Loudria, it is not considered it’s own continent.

Ardus – Book One, takes place entirely on Ardus, the southern most and smallest of the three continents.

Andy's Map final

There are Seven Major Kingdoms on Ardus, Yar-del, Zargon, Endor, Respital, Arvendia, Pelipan and Honal. Collectively, these nations are referred to as the Seven Kingdom.

The Seven Kingdoms are bordered to the north by Spine of Khron, the highest mountains on the continent, and to the west by the Trellham Mountains. The Kessen Ocean lies to the east. The southern wastes are a snowy icy land that covers the southern tip of the continent.  Haven is built into the Trellham mountains.

North of the Spine, an arid dessert that stretches all the way to the Sea of Erd. Along the northern coast, free merchant cities arose. Most, however, housed more pirates than honest merchants. The cities along the Delmun Ocean were founded by wealthy merchants who transformed their domains into prosperous city-states. Occupying the western most tip of Ardus, Belsport was the largest, wealthiest and strongest of these city-states.

Much of the story in Book One takes place in Haven, a hidden city built inside the Trellham Mountains.  When Meglar revealed his true intent, it became apparent his power might prove too great for anyone to resist. Queen Zenora of Yar-del and grand master wizard Heminaltose devised a plan to stop Meglar, but they recognized they might not have enough time to execute it. As a contingent against defeat, Heminaltose and scores of lesser wizards spent a decade carving Haven out of the bowels of the Trellham Mountains. When Yar-del fell, Haven was ready to receive the survivors.  More, Heminaltose, realized early on that Haven might need to house most if not all the sovereign realms of Ardus and he had his wizards create a massive complex capable of housing tens of thousands of people.  Construction of Haven required more than just physical space. Air circulation, sanitation, climate control, lighting, food preservation and storage, ventilation for smiths, tanners, slaughterhouses, massive kitchens to feed the survivors and many other details went into creating the sanctuary.

The Last Grand Master – Update.

The release date is a week away and while I will try my best not to bombard folks with ‘announcements’ and ‘updates’ this is my blog so I think I can be excused for using it to write a bit about it for anyone who is reading.

The Last Grand Master Cover

Release Date: February 1, 2013

Pre-Order

Continue reading The Last Grand Master – Update.

The Next Big Thing – Blog Hop

Tag I’m It. 😯

Being new to a group is an interesting time. Everything is fresh, unknown and you get the chance to poke around and discover new things.  But for the not so bright – insert befuddled picture of me here – here’s a bit of advice. When you see something new and shiny that looks interesting – do NOT raise your hand and say ‘yeah, I’m in.”

The ‘Next Big Thing’ blog hop was one of the ‘new and shiny’ things I discovered when I got my spiffy new ‘admit one’ ticket to the Dreamspinner Press author group. Before the rational side of my brain had a chance to realize what was happening, the ‘ohhh lookie, shiny’ side of my brain kicked in. With the pending release of my new book – The Last Grand Master –  on February 1, my brain thought it would be a great idea – and I found myself typing -‘count me in’ and hitting send before I could stop myself.

Most of the souls took pity on the newbie, patted me gently on the head and told me to sit back and observe for a bit before I dove right in. But one evil soul – [not really, but it does make the story work jusssstttt a bit better when told this way] missed the memo on not hazing the newcomers and took me up on my offer. Continue reading The Next Big Thing – Blog Hop

World Building Blog Hop.

In conjunction with the release of The Last Grand Master I found a very timely and relevant blog hop to join.

Sharon Bayliss has arranged the Worldbuilding Blogfest blog hop that is set to begin on January 28, 2013 and end on February 1, 2013 – which coincidentally is the day The Last Grand Master will be released.  It seems a very good way to flesh out the the world in which the book is set.  Some of this of course will be sprinkled through the book, some might come in later books and some might just exist in my mind. So for those who’ve read the story on Gay Authors under the Chosen of Honorus title, this might help with some of the back ground. For those of you who are going to buy the book, it will also be informative – I hope.  So plan to stop by the week leading up to the release and see what else you can learn before you enter Farrell’s world.

AQG

I Caved and Joined Twitter

So on advice of an author acquaintance – thank you Larry – I decided it was a good idea to at least open a Twitter account and slowly figure out how to use it. I don’t think I’ll be a tweet monster, but I suppose it won’t hurt to drop a few every now and then.

For anyone interested, the account is – originally enough – andrewqgordon.

Now to find something else to write about. 😯

New Year – New Focus

2013 will mark a few changes for my ‘life’ as an author.  First, I’m on my own. In 2011 and last year, Anyta and I collaborated on two books, one of which – Bettor To Lose – won a contest and the other – (Un)Masked – was published by Dreamspinner Press.  This year, The Last Grand Master and Purpose will be published by Dreamspinner Press and they are all mine.  No more riding Anyta’s coattails.

Second, I’m going to try something new on my blog. I’ve met a bunch of new, not so new and establish authors who work with Dreamspinner Press. As a whole, they a very welcoming community. Ask questions, get an answer. Augusta Li – “Gus” – helped me out with my upcoming book by drawing the map of the world to help make things clearer. And by helping me out I mean taking a rough sketch, a short deadline and a general lack of precise information from and creating something I think is really goood.  Oh yeah I was not charged a cent the work. Continue reading New Year – New Focus

Book updates.

It’s hard to believe it’s been a month since I last posted. Much has happened, mostly all good too.

Chosen Of Honorus has a tentative release date of February, 2013.  I’m just starting the editing process with Dreamspinner Press and their art department is working on a cover. I’m excited and interested to see what they come up with.  More details when they become available.

In other news, Dreamspinner Press informed me this week they are buying my third novel – Purpose, with a release date of May or June 2013. Purpose is perhaps my favorite story of all my writing – though I suspect each ‘new’ story will be my ‘new’ favorite. This is very different from anything else I’ve written. It’s darker, more introspective, less angsty, more gritty.  It’s set in contemporary Washington, D.C.  Like most of my writing, there is very little sex, but I think that’s what worked for the story.  I asked a few people who review m/m fiction on Goodreads for feedback before I submitted it, and based on the positive comments, I sent it to the publisher. They, along with everyone else who helped me, will get a shout out in the acknowledgement section.

With three books in a year, I’m about tapped out. I’ll be glad to get one a year out after this, with two being a banner year. Not much help for it while the baby is still young. I wouldn’t trade my time with her for anything, not even a new novel.

Next post will be more of a personal update, so stay tuned.