LOOK AT IT! My daughter made a plush version of Viridia!! This is the most awesome thing ever!
(For comparison:)
Author: Tim Frankovich Page 1 of 15
THE SERIES IS NOW COMPLETE!! Chroma, the final book of the Dragontek Lore series, is available today! This science-fantasy action-adventure series (with dragons!) was written with teenage guys in mind, but it’s fun for all ages!
Find the entire series here!
Finally, finally, finally! You would not believe all the behind-the-scenes stuff that has gone on for the past few months to get this done. Unbelievable. HUGE, HUGE THANKS to the wonderful Tremani Sutcliffe for stepping in and creating the special art for this cover. Check out her epic fantasy art here.
But now, here at last is the cover for Chroma, the final book of the Dragontek Lore series:
The danger from outside The Circle may be greater than any of the dragons Beryl and his friends have faced so far. Chroma, mother of dragons, is at work.
But can Beryl deal with that problem while the last and deadliest dragon, his former friend Onyx, still roams? And the draconic claiming to be the dragon Viridia reborn is plotting something sinister as well.
This triple threat sets the stage for the spectacular conclusion to the Dragontek Lore series. It all ends here for Beryl and friends. But will they emerge unscathed? Or even alive?
After significant delays when the cover artist for books 1-6 of the Dragontek Lore series became unavailable in mid-process, we are finally back on track!
(Full cover reveal will come soonish…)
Beryl’s action-packed saga will conclude at the end of February. Stay tuned!
After a flurry of publication in 2022-23, 2024 was… not so busy. I was in a serious writing slump for most of the first half of the year, but things picked up the last few months.
I started the year having just finished the first draft of Wolf Chosen(which didn’t even have a title at that point!). I worked hard on edits and rewrites to prepare for its launch in May.
I spent all of the rest of the year tinkering with Chroma, the final book of the Dragontek Lore series. But I wasn’t getting very far.
Finally, as I’ve detailed in previous newsletters, I took a writing retreat in September. After that, I was able to focus much better. I completed Chroma and made plans for the next two books.
I’ve done the edits and revisions to Chroma since then, and it’s ready to go now (more on that in the next section). At the same time, I started writing the third (and final) book in The Certainty of Blood. I’m about 20% through the first draft right now. I took off a few days during the Christmas break, but I’m back to it now.
My record words in a year came back in 2021 with over 500,000 written. I haven’t gotten near that since. In 2022, I was on track for 300,000, but injured my hand in October. For the past two years, I’ve only written around 120,000. That’s enough to keep things going, especially since I built up such a backlog in 2021-22. But it’s not enough to meet my own standards. Which leads us to 2025…
First up is the long-awaited publication of Chroma. Unfortunately, I can’t say the exact date it’s arriving now. As you know, I postponed it to January 14, but… I don’t have a cover. I’m experiencing communication problems with my cover artist. But as soon as that’s resolved, I can schedule everything for sure. The book itself is ready to go.
I’m aiming for at least 250,000 words written this year, and hoping for more like 300,000. Here’s how that will break down:
I still have about 100,000 words left to go in the current book (The Certainty of Blood, book 3). My target publication for this one is early June.
After that, I’ll be working on a… somewhat secret project (though if you’ve been following me online, you might have discovered it). That book will be at least 100,000, and I’m hoping to have it published by October.
I’m currently undecided on which book I’ll be working on after that, but there are multiple possibilities. Whatever it ends up being, I should be able to easily write 50-100,000 words of it before the end of the year.
I say all this with no knowledge of what else might happen, of course. Things can and do change, as is evidenced by the past couple of years.
A nine-year journey has come to an end.
In November 2016, I took on the NaNoWriMo challenge and wrote the first draft of what would become Viridia, book one of the Dragontek Lore series.
Today, I wrote “The End” on the seventh and final book, Chroma.
What a journey it’s been. I’m a little emotionally wrecked right now, but I’ll have a lot more to say in next week’s newsletter. Thank you to all who have joined me along the way!
There’s still a lot of editing and revising to do on this final book, but you should see it very soon!
“The whole world’s gone mad, my son.” – King Durin III in The Rings of Power
Sometimes, it really feels that way. We look around the world and see political turmoil, wars, natural disasters, and clashes of cultures. Yet in times like this, a show like The Rings of Power helps remind us of better things and point us toward greater truths.
Themes of faith, hope, and love suffuse the show, revealing themselves through aspects of forgiveness and mercy, grace and redemption, light against darkness, good versus evil. This stands in stark contrast to so many other popular shows right now, shows that revel in nihilism and cruelty. So many seem obsessed with showing us descents into darkness without giving us any hope that anything can be different.
The Rings of Power chose differently. Before its debut, rumors spread everywhere about how dark it was going to be, and how it was going to be filled with that same kind of nihilism that other shows trumpet. But instead, it gave us a show full of values that haven’t been celebrated on television in decades.
Season one of the show set the stage, establishing the world and introducing the characters. In some cases, they were younger versions of characters audiences knew from The Lord of the Rings. In one particular case, Sauron, it was a wildly different aspect than people were used to. And then there were new characters and places as well. Season one set all this up, so that season two could explode. Season one walked, so that season two could soar.
If we hadn’t spent the time to get to know these characters, would we have cared so much about what happened to them in the second season? If we hadn’t seen Prince Durin’s relationship with his father in the first season, would we care so much when the son watches his father corrupted by one of the seven dwarf rings? If we hadn’t learned how Celebrimbor desired to create something glorious in season one, would we have truly understood the temptation he faces when Sauron (Annatar) goads him toward creating the rings? And if we hadn’t seen the powerful friendship established between Elrond and Durin, would that one scene have been as gut-wrenching?
Most importantly, would the moments of hope and redemption have hit as hard if we hadn’t seen what came before? Would Celebrimbor’s speech to Galadriel about “strength” have worked if we hadn’t seen her spending most of season one trying to succeed in her own strength?
There is nothing else like this on television right now, and there hasn’t been in ages. If you’ve avoided it because of the perpetual outrage generators on YouTube and other sites, give it another chance. Watch it without any preconceptions. Let the beauty of Middle-Earth wash over you (seriously, almost every moment of the show is spectacular). Invest yourself in these characters. Weep with those who weep, and rejoice with those who rejoice. It will be well worth your time.
The Certainty of Blood is on sale for $.99 this week only! If you haven’t gotten a chance to read this one, now is the time!
I love exploring the natural world, hiking or biking. Unfortunately, I rarely get the chance to do so, since I live in a large suburb next door to the fourth-largest city in the country. Also, it’s the Gulf Coast, so it’s flat.
Last week, I took a solo retreat in the Texas Hill Country. My cousin let me stay in a log cabin on her property. That in itself was glorious. Every evening, I could watch spectacular sunsets over the hills. And a couple of hours later, I could look up and see the Milky Way and so many, many stars.
But it gets better. I was staying a short drive away from a State Park, and a State Natural Area, both of which have extensive trails. I went on a nice bike ride at one of them, and a fantastic hike at the other.
My primary goal for this retreat was to jump-start my writing. It has not been going well for the past year. In fact, it’s dropped off 80% from my highest output.
I’m happy to report that part of the retreat was a great success. I started the week with a set of tiered goals. Tier 1 goals were a challenge, Tier 2 goals were difficult, and Tier 3 goals were highly unlikely, but I added them to the list anyway.
For the book I’m currently working on, Chroma, the final volume of the Dragontek Lore series, I solidified the outline and wrote over 10,000 words in five days. I made contact with my cover artist, and we are now firmly on track to launch this book in December.
The next book I plan on writing is the third book in The Certainty of Blood trilogy. I’ve been struggling with the basic plot line in my head for months. Over this week, I was able to sketch out a solid (but very rough) outline. I’m excited about developing it further as soon as I’m done with Chroma. The current target launch date is June 3, 2025.
In fact, I wrote down a full writing/editing/publishing plan for the next two and a half years. I even wrote a rough outline and character list for the novel coming after the two listed above. All in all, I achieved all of my Tier 1 goals, and two out of three of my Tier 2 goals.
Writing = Jumpstarted
Hey everyone. This week, I’m out in the far reaches of the Texas Hill Country on a personal retreat. I’m focusing on my writing. I hope to make significant progress on Chroma, plot out the third and final Certainty of Blood book, and generally plan out my writing for the next couple of years. Stay tuned!