Weeks, nay months (well two and bit) of using Word’s Review + Read Aloud to run down those typos and to realise (yet again) the wonderful description or speech when read, in a flat monotone just does not make any sense at all. Then the was the question of Continuity which as ‘Skirmishers‘ is the middle volume flows in both directions { Actually this is quite a neat bit of irony as the Flow or Perception of Time is one of the themes of the Trilogy }. Finally there is always that portion which has the ‘Nah. That does not work at all. What was I thinking of? Dismantle with extreme prejudice’ reaction.
Of course a writer can only get away with this if they are going Indy and publishing via Kindle, and be honest have not had a large amount of sales. There is a freedom there, but I wouldn’t recommend to all other writers. And no there is no ‘romance’in being that ‘free’; it’s just a ‘thing’ . Please chose your own path.
It is fun though to be able to tinker, tweak and tear some novel which ‘looked’ great a while ago, but has not stood the full test of time. You could view this process as one aspect of Life where you do get the chance to go back and do things differently.
That aside; Vol II is now ready to be re-launched into the Amazon-Verse; on Monday 24th May 2021; of course will be free for the first seven days, so anyone who has the early edition can gain recompense.
And thence onwards to finally work upon the release of Vol III ( 1st draft originally completed 11th October 2020)
Daughters of Circumstances. Arbiters of Consequences
With working covers, while awaiting the professional touch (which I’m guessing will be nothing like- these were me doodling around with Canva https://www.canva.com )
For further info on the whole project please refer to
Yes, all sorted, tidied (as much as any book a writer wants to display in public can be tidied) the finalisation of the processing through the Amazon Kindle System completed 30th January 2021 at 9.35am GMT UK, and thence to sit back remembering to check later on to see when Amazon has made it public so the promotion via free books can be allowed (please, please Amazon co-operate and don’t do something ‘interesting’). Of course try as you might as a humble self-publisher you cannot guarantee that Kindle will (1) Align the word ‘Chapter’ at the centre of every single heading, no matter how hard you slaved over the business on WORD (also not the most dependable instrument for a writer of fiction) (2) Adhere to the same page breaks as WORD for much the same reason. But for the price I am settling either ‘Free’ (Don’t let me down Amazon) or 0.99 (whatevers) one should not make too much fuss over such matters; it shows a lack of taste. Thus sometime in the next 72 hours the 4th Edition will be in the Amazonverse. And those are the mechanics of the situation.
For those readers who are new to the saga of my own journey here (and there) and have not seen the dedicated site. The outlines of the categories / genres sub-genres / themes are as follows:
Fantasy: Epic (ie very long and lots of characters)
Feel-Good & Upbeat endings (Not fashionable in Epic Fantasy)
Action & Adventure: (Heroic, of course)
Humour: Various – Acerbic, Bawdy, Observational and some Satire
(Did I mention Feel-Good?)
Convoluted Events: Based on Reality- No perfect plots, no cunning villains always one step ahead, basically a Real World environment- If it can go wrong, it will. No one, like no one is every in control. If you want Illuminate stuff, go elsewhere.
Characters: Three main. Building through the experience. Bonding through trials.
The Special Power?: Oh yes, but no one really know how it works, so don’t expect any enigmatic folk of unspecified age turning up with an ancient mystic staff and talking at great length about the historical back story as if that was The Only Fact. That sort of thing doesn’t happen in this world and it certainly doesn’t happen in these books.
Controversial Aspects or Things That Might Annoy Some Readers (apart from typos, syntax and grammar that is): (A) In case I forgot to mention there is a Feel-Good Factor- a possible heresy in Epic Fantasy. (B) Then there is the portrayal of religion as simply institutionalised, generally only nodded to by the population, and also somewhat inefficiently run. So no sinister Bishops plotting in dark corners (C) Strong female leads, who are not particularly alpha, a positioning which might annoy all sides (D) LGBTQ female romance- potential minefield for a male writer. Don’t you shudder when the characters take over the narrative? (E) Just to repeat, no very all powerful, very all-seeing, darkly ruthless person or group who have minions who laugh a lot when someone can’t pierce their armour (Man! That is so boring) (F) Introspection- Not the brooding sort, more the ‘What the heck do I do next?’ sort or a lot of general grumbling (you know you do it too, so don’t complain). (G) A lot of folk and organisations- that’s the way History works, so that’s the way I wrote.
Reason for Writing: To hopeful produce a work which is there to entertain and provide a distraction from the Day around you. (Oh yeah, Annnddd I because I wanted to!)
That’s all then
For anymore information on the books, characters, lands, peoples, motivations, environments as an introduction please visit:
And as I was about to close this down Amazon has notified me the revised volume is up and available. Please note this will free on Kindle from Sunday 31st January 2021 to Thursday 4th February 2021.
Good day to you. My name is Merklin Silc and I come from the lands described in The Precipice Dominions . To be closer as it were, I come from the very busy and thriving city of Elinid, in which I and my brother Grenaww have certain influence, all done by hard work and intelligent applications of this and that.
(That’s Grenaww, he figures quite a lot in most of the books, but we don’t show him too much, he doesn’t like the portrait and he tends to unsettle folk anyway…until they get to know him and see his point of view)
Me, I’m more inclined to the friendly conversation and discourse of subjects. After all everyone has their point of view; true sometimes you need to give them a friendly hand to demonstrate they are wrong and guide them, but I say, it’s a lot neater than other, let’s call ’emcolourful ways. Other times you need to give folk confidence to do ‘Wot’s Wot’ as we say in Elinid. And there are times when you get the task of announcing to the wider world about things you reckon would enrich their lives. Normally for me that’s tied up in Trade Deals, Mutually Beneficial Arrangements or Negotiated Understandings and the like. But someone very close to me these days asked if I would help out on the matter of a series of books charting the adventures and I must say the more accurate histories of what took place a few years back. Well since I could never turn down a request from this particular person and as the tale is quite favourable to Elinid how could I refuse?
Before we go any further I have to say I’m not too keen on these images, Yeah, there’s alright for the ladies, adding a certain Indefinable Quality to their features, but us lads…well whatever was tried we still come out looking a bit like ‘walnuts’ (that’s ‘twits’ to you folk), however Wigran says, it’s all to do with the transmission of detail between worlds.
That’s Wigran by the way. You might say he started the whole business, him and his explorations of the Stommigheid but overall he’s good lad; these days he’s my Advisor on such matters, and has come on quite well.
Anyway, enough about us lot, let’s get you onto the real nub of the matter which is about the events laid out in the trilogy The Precipice Dominions and centring around the activities three rather remarkable woman, who to use a phrase you might recognise ‘were dropped right in it’ . All about how they got involved, teamed up, coped, worked together and prevailed despite others (At one later stage once I’d worked out Wot was Wot, I did warned Grenaww he was going too far, but I leave that for you to find out about way down the tale) the three of them prospered in their own ways.
There’s a lot of action, and since folk kept trying to cross them, quite an impressive body pile, of all races; the language and some of the humour you might not want to repeat in mixed society. It’s against a backdrop of a whole lot of cross-purposes, rivalries, hidden agendas, sharp workers, walnuts who thought they were sharp workers, mistakes made, opportunities snatched, strategies veering off in all directions, making up policy as you go, and all sorts of permutations . Some folk who read the whole account got confused, I didn’t. The accounts struck me as the Usual Sort of Business I deal in.
Basically these three women, they change, read the three volumes and you’ll see;
Like how Arketre Beritt of the LifeGuard (in Elinid we call them ‘The Grim’) goes from being a Healer (Medician) to Captain of a regiment (or what have you) holding the line at in a right nasty set to at what was thought a small, dowdy place called Yermetz .
And ….. also….later on…(Everyone is worried she’ll find out about the next picture because it’s not an image, portrait; it’s sort of live, at the time and she is very touchy about privacy during that bit of the narrative but I said I would square with her….we have a Negotiated Understanding)
Then we have The Puzzle, The Confusion, The Won’t Stand Still For A Moment, who claimed to have come from Elinid but had a whole different story
Trying to follow a conversation started by Karlyn Nahtinee is an acquired skill and as far as I know there are only two persons who can do that all the time (being the other two in the trio). You know there is something odd about it but you can’t pin it down, it’s only later she starts acting like this do you realise she’s got a history.
And finally there’s the one I reckon to be the True Hero of the whole story. Trelli, also known as Trelyvana Waywanderer (sometimes Lady Tee) the girl who started out as a not so simple but pretty shrewd orphan and housemaid, had to adapt quickly to this
And learning to work this way
Finally became this Lady
If you’ve been following this blog (Where the First Hell did you get that word from for a bit of writing?) you’ll know the old fellah who got the task of putting the words down has had all sorts of trials and tribulations getting here. You might also know Trelli, bless her got him to make this last final effort on the first volume and all the improvements are down to her (By the way, any comments about ‘What Improvements?’ will result in me visiting the unwise person to point out that making mean spirited, not well thought out statements can have repercussions).
I’m not going to go on about how wonderful a series of tales these are, how you might be missing an enjoyable reading experience and that there maybe enough for everyone in the pages. No, that would be pushing it a bit and no one really likes being pushed (even when they haven’t got the option). I’m here just to give you options, that’s fayre enough isn’t it? For a start off you can visit the site which gives more information about the tales at
Where the new version of the 1st Volume will be available free for a few days (I think it’s seven days, but Wigran says you should never make promises where Amazon is involved he reckons it’s short of ‘fully operational capabilities’- anyway he also says you folk will understandwhat that means)
I think that’s all I need to say on the subject. You’ve got the introduction, you’ve seen images of the girls and a rough idea of where they are going, you know where to go for more information, and you can get a free copy of the book.
do you realise she’s got a history.
Writing Despite Computers and Programmes 