Donald D. Allan

New Duilleog Book Cover

On March 18, 2019

In Duilleog Volume One, Self-Publishing, The New Druids Series

I’ve commissioned a professional book cover for Duilleog. I’ve opted to go with a company based in Florida called JD and J Design. They seem reputable and their work looks exceptional. They promised me they can work an entire series and do the epic fantasy style cover I need.

The work starts on March 22, 2019. I’ve never done this before, and I don’t know what to expect. What I expect is a lot of back and forth discussion on the main themes I wish to capture. While that may appear to be simple, in practice I suspect it will be difficult. My existing covers were my design and over the years I have had more negative comments than positive. By far. Which is what led me to make this decision to change the cover.

Fun facts: My New Druids covers have a repeating theme you may have noticed. A tree is getting larger and larger, central to the cover. The bottom is bark. The upper portion is an idyllic scene with a castle predominant in it. And I change the colour of a separating line. And...that’s about it. The castle represents the politics and religious aspects and the tree represents the druids. Modern fantasy covers usually have a character displayed striking a pose with the background covered in some exciting scene of some kind. Its what people expect these days.

Homework: So what themes best represent the New Druids series to you? Let me know. Leave a comment or email me. For me, the New Druids novels are about the harmony of nature and how people can truly screw up a wonderful world through politics and religion. What would you expect, or like to see, on the cover of the New Druids series?

Get Your Geek On

By donald

On March 15, 2019

In Ramblings

In Canada, your choices for Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are far and few between. Where I am in Ottawa (the nation’s capital dontchaknow) it really comes down to two: Rogers and Bell Canada. I won’t talk about the rates and how we in Canada are charged amongst the highest for the least in the world (Google it), rather I will talk about my experiences with using Rogers and their Cable Modem.

Rogers uses a Hitron POS. When I lived in Ottawa back in 2006-2010, I used Rogers and returned this POS at least three times. Why? The WiFi portion of the modem would just stop performing. Note that this opinion of the Hitron is mine based on a decade of use.

Now back in Ottawa since 2014, I went back to Rogers (Bell didn’t have the fibre lines in my area of Barrhaven in Nepean at the time). I have since returned the Hitron POS three times (four?). I am on my fourth (fifth?) cable modem. And they don’t give you a new one, you get a refurbished one that someone else returned because it was crap. Add to this that the WiFi signal can barely cover a house of less than 2000 sqft, and that it struggles to support four people, plus I was rebooting the router EVERY DAY, and I simply had enough. When you complain to Rogers you get the literal shrug. They don’t care. They look at you as if this is YOUR fault. If they did care, they would replace the shitty cable modems with ANYTHING, and would lower their rates. They treat ones and zeroes like it’s water or electricity. News Flash: It’s not.

Enter Ubiquiti. A company formed by a former Apple WiFi technician named Robert Pera when he noticed Apple WiFi was underpowered. A co-worker of mine highly (and I mean highly) recommended Ubiquiti and their Unifi products. So, I just went out and bought a complete Unifi solution. I bought the Unifi Security Gateway (router), the Unifi 8 port 150W POE switch, the Unifi AC Lite WAP, and the Unifi Cloud Key. I bridged the Rogers router, connected everything, struggled to understand just what I was doing for about an hour, then had a short chat session with Ubiquiti tech help, and bam! I have a WiFi signal in my house that is probably pissing the neighbours off (by dominating the channels). This thing can handle four users simultaneously with no problem. It uses 2.4GHz ands 5GHz simultaneously allowing maximum throughput. This thing SINGS.

I’m so happy right now!

Beta Readers, Sci-Fi and Urban Fantasy

By donald

On February 25, 2019

In Beta Reading, Cill Darae Volume Five, Ramblings, Self-Publishing

Beta Readers

Cill Darae, Volume 5 of the New Druids Series is almost through the second draft. I have a few beta readers lined up and I am still interested in more. Beta Reading is a task. It requires a critical mind and sense of what good epic fantasy is all about. If you are interested send me an email requested to be considered and why you think you are a good fit.

I’ve had the good and the bad with beta readers. A few I consider exceptional. Their feedback to me was invaluable and I’m so glad to have met these people. Some simply took my novels and that was it. Beta reading is critical to authors; it is through the back and forth that a novel starts to polish. Freamhaigh was the novel that saw the most feedback from beta readers and I find it stands above my other novels. So please, if interested, shoot me an email at donalddallan@gmail.com

Urban Fantasy

I adore urban fantasy. Its my dirty little secret. There is something about reading fantasy in a modern, urban setting that I really, really enjoy. There are some truly talented authors writing urban fantasy today [shoot me an email and I will share with you my list of favourite authors in this genre]. I would love to be one. I’ve wanted to write something in this genre for a while now and I think I have the start of a concept. That’s all: just a concept. The New Druids series was always much more than a concept: I had visualised the entire series, you see, almost in one painful flash of insight.

So, I need to flush out my urban fantasy idea a little (okay, a lot) more. Then I am going to try traditional publishing. I am prepared for rejection. I feel I have already become an accomplished author and have nothing to prove to myself. If it fails the big houses, then I will self-publish, again. The premise, in case you are curious, is a man finds a single torn page hidden inside an old book. It contains a spell for finding things, written in old English. He tries it, and it works. Then he wants more spells. But there is another group(s) looking for the same thing. And another trying to wipe magic from the world. And history, ancient history, from Arthurian legend starts to expose itself [with a nod to Mary Stewart]. Dun dun dun!

Anyway, that’s the premise. It doesn’t sound like much, but with my imagination, I am sure it is going somewhere interesting! I can say that I love my heroes simple: Honest people like you and me that suddenly find themselves having to do something extraordinary. And not knowing why, or how. Not like a certain series where the main characters are all omnipotent demigods. They would have a problem, struggle through chapters and chapters and then suddenly realise: “Hey, we’re gods…” and snap their fingers. Yes, I hated the Belgariad… The struggle is real, dammit!

Science Fiction

I still have a sci-fi novel on the back burner. It is the prequel to the New Druids series, but set in today’s time. Yes. I have a sci-fi novel that prequels my fantasy world. I had flushed this story out (single novel) a number of years ago. Then I wrote myself into a corner by writing something truly horrible (I had an AI carrying on a conversation with the protagonist’s subconscious…shudder). Happily, the New Druids series sprouted from that seed. But, I need to write it and I will. It’s not a truly happy ending kind of book. It’s a little On The Beach, if you know what I mean. It yells at me for not writing it. It has an attitude. Nasty thing.

Cill Darae: First Draft Complete

By donald

On November 27, 2018

In Cill Darae Volume Five, The New Druids Series

First Draft Complete – Nov 27th.

Tonight I finished the first draft of Cill Darae, a New Druids series, Volume Five. I am a little under my normal word count, but that will be fixed with the second draft. I had a sudden interest to write this past summer and that, coupled with NaNoWriMo this past November, is to thank for the earliest completion (first draft) of one of my novels to date.

Sadly, the hard work is about to start. The second draft is hard. So very hard. And honestly, I am not looking forward to it. It’s like pulling your eyes out and throwing them around the room at random intervals. This (for me) was a complex novel with complex themes. It is taking the series down to the conclusion I dreamed of years ago. It’s scary when you can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel.

I am also worried I will disappoint. By now, you the readers, have impressions in your mind. You have your own vision of where the story goes. Well, I have mine too and I hope when you see the finish line you won’t be disappointed.

I love this series and I hope you do, too. In some ways, I wish I hadn’t written it and someone else had. That way I would get to enjoy it. Lol. Not really. Just kidding.

NaNoWriMo

I want to give a shout out to the NaNoWriMo Ottawa Chapter and in particular the Barrhaven crowd. Thanks for the write-ins! I wish you all the best as the month wraps up, and see you next year!

Ciao!

Don