Hopefully you remember from last month that one of my projects for this year involves revising and re-releasing the previously published episodes of Blood Magic's first season. When I first thought about undertaking this initiative, I mostly imagined it as an editing pass, finding grammatical and typographical errors and cleaning them up, maybe tightening up the narrative a bit. However, when I went back and actually began revising, I found that I had a lot more to change than I had expected.
Blood Magic S2:E1: Flailing in the Dark Release
I am very excited to present to you the first episode of a brand new season of Blood Magic, the short story series that I've been publishing for over a year now on IGC Publishing to minimal fanfare. If you're not already familiar with it, I encourage you to go over to the main Blood Magic page or any of my myriad posts on the subject to learn more. Better yet, I encourage you to start at the beginning, and read the first episode. We even have a newly revised edition here on the site, newly re-released for 2021.
Blood Magic S1:E1: Pilot Re-Release
Last year, we began publishing a series of short stories called Blood Magic here on IGC Publishing. I've written extensively about why and how I chose to do this, and the benefits it has provided me from a writing perspective, but there are things that I would like to do better, and things that I would change about how the publishing was executed if I had to do it over again. Fortunately, as I discussed in our announcement for the second season, I've given myself the opportunity to do just that.
Announcing: Fo’Fonas Page
For a publishing site, there aren't really a whole lot of published works here on IGC. We have The Grounds Warden, which is just a stand-alone short story, and we have Zombies in a similar vein. Of course, we also have half a season of Blood Magic, with new episodes coming out at the end of each month. It's this last that I want to address, because I alternate between being excited about how well our library of Blood Magic stories is developing, and worried about how working on Blood Magic stories has led to drastically less work on my other projects.
Blood Magic Update (Again)
There are a lot of last days of the month falling on a Tuesday or Thursday this year, or at least it seems that way, and while I haven't use all of them to talk about Blood Magic (which as you know releases a new episode on the last day of every month), I did want to do so this time, for a couple of reasons. For one thing, it's been awhile since I posted about the series, and for another, this is the halfway point of the first season. Six episodes are now live, with six more to go to round out the first full season. So it seems worthwhile, at this point, to pause for a moment and take stock of where we're at in the series, both within the Blood Magic world, and in our own.
Thicker Than Blood
With the end of the month falling on a day when I normally would write a post, I couldn't resist taking the opportunity to talk about Blood Magic's third episode. Although I will do my best to keep spoilers out of this post, if you haven't yet read Thicker Than Blood, I highly recommend heading over to the season 1 page and reading the episode, and any other episodes you haven't yet read. For now, let's assume that you've done that, and talk a little bit about episode three.
Blood Magic Concept
We're gearing up for the release of the pilot episode of the Blood Magic series. This has been something that I've been working on for quite some time, and if you've been following IGC for awhile, you've seen some of the steps we've taken to make it into a reality. With only a handful of days before the first episode is up on the website, I wanted to bring everyone up to speed on what this project is, where you can expect it to go, and hopefully drum up some excitement amongst you readers, so that you'll come to the site after January 31st to read it.
Blood Magic Preview
Below, you'll find a preview for Blood Magic. Remember, the first episode is set to be released in January or February of 2020. If you're exciting about the series, leave a comment on the series or about the preview in the comments below, or on the Blood Magic Forum page.
Blood Magic Series Update
There's still a lot of work that needs to be done. I've made two drafts of the world map, but it still needs refinement: mountain ranges, river systems, political boundaries...you know, the little things. I also have a preliminary symbol for the series, which you can see on the main Blood Magic page. Expect me to start releasing previews for the series in the coming weeks...hopefully they'll drum up some reader excitement.
Cartography
One of the distinguishing features of the speculative fiction genre in its published form is the maps. Avid readers of fantasy and science fiction are known to pour over the maps included in the books they read, maps describing fantastical worlds and universes in vivid detail. It was perhaps inevitable, therefore, that I would at some point be obliged to create maps to go along with the stories I've written or am in the process of writing.
IGC Publishing 