5:54 am - Walk to café, staring up at the stars while contemplating the vagaries and vicissitudes of life. Avoid looking at the blaring Impact-font headlines screaming, as they always scream, about What Is Happening Now, because it is only when I cannot hear What Is Happening Now that I can access Why Things Happen At All.
5:55 am - Accidentally glance at screaming headline while waiting in line for coffee. Get grumpy and mull over why The Way Things Are never seems to square with my idea of The Way Things Oughta Be.
5:57 am - Engage in small talk with barista, who I know must seriously wonder who the heck I am and why I have been coming in here, unshaven and disheveled, for years on end and spending hours at a time alone with my laptop in a corner. Wonder why I don't just write at home, then remember what happened the last time I tried to write at home.
6:01 am - Hide in favourite corner of café and become one of those people in the corner of the café with the laptop. You know the type. In my defence, though, I am not one of those people with a laptop in the café who uses said café to host noisy job interviews and/or have business meetings where I make plans to monetize an existing part of human culture under a paper-thin veneer of positive social change. Oh, did I mention that I live in Silicon Valley?
6:46 am - How does one write, again? I mean, in the sense of coherent, logically consistent and yet evocative prose sentences arranged in order to form a plot. Read backwards through what I have done so far on this book. Who does this guy think he is? He should consider another field -- chartered accountancy, perhaps.
6:55 am - Turn on wi-fi. Turn it off just in time, before the emails can download.
6:58 am - Weep silently.
7:02 am - Another coffee, please. Yes, I have heard about . Oh, absolutely! Terrible, what goes on these days. The nerve of some people! Oh, it's a good thing? Right. More power to them! I mean, after all, it is 2016. Can't we all just get along? No, I wanted it with almond milk, but that's cool, I'll just drink it as-is.
7:17 am - Seriously, now. I wrote that? Some of it yesterday? How? All I have are these notes, and I'm not even sure what language they are in. I've invented languages that make more sense than this!
7:32 am - Make mental note to always revise notes in the evening. Notice that this is the twelfth time I have made a note to revise my notes -- this year.
7:35-8:30 am - Stare very, very, very hard indeed at notes.
8:31 am - Break down completely. Turn on wi-fi. See emails. SHUT LAPTOP.
8:32 am - Weep less silently.
8:33 am - OK. OK, book, I hate you. I hate you so much that I just want to . . .
8:34 am - Wait. Waiiiiiit. If Edmund just, yeah . . . and then Tom . . . and of course, all the while, the Nethergrim would be…yes.
8:45-8:59 am - write write write write write write write write write write write write write write write write write write write write write write write write write write write write write write write write write write write write write . . .
9:05 am - Realize that what I wrote was exactly what my notes were saying I should write today.
9:23 am - Finish third read-through of what I have just done. I guess that's how I do it, but there has to be a better way.
9:34 am - Stare at vibrating images of my hands. Belatedly realize that the second coffee was not a good idea. Or was it the third?
9:35 am - Hold on. Hold on a second. What I just did was completely wrong. I am such a buffoon, how could I ever even hope to . . .
9:36 am - Wait. Got it.
9:35-10:01 am write write write write write write write write write write write write write write write write write write write write write write write write write write write write write write write write write write write write write . . .
10:02 am - Shut laptop, because it's time to walk back to my car and go. Picture the emails crowded together on the server, teeth like little daggers, waiting . . .
Matthew Jobin is the author of the Nethergrim series, published by Penguin Random House. The second book in the series, The Skeleth, is available on May 10th. A native of Canada, Matthew holds a Ph.D. in anthropology from Stanford University. He lectures in anthropology at Santa Clara University.
The idea for The Nethergrim came to Matthew as a young boy exploring the forest surrounding his home. Intent on telling the story of this fantasy world, he's been developing it and its inhabitants ever since. Matthew lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife, Tina.
For the lords of the north, land is power. The Nethergrim, now awoken and free to wreak its evil upon the world, offers the promise of victory to those ruthless enough to accept its foul bargain. One ambitious lord, eager for the chance to conquer and rule, succumbs to temptation and helps to free the Skeleth—eerie, otherworldly beings said to be unstoppable in battle. The Skeleth merge with the bodies of their victims, ruling their minds and turning them into remorseless killers. Worse yet, to kill the man inside the Skeleth only frees it to seize a new host, starting a cycle of violence that has no end.
Such chilling tales are not enough to stop young Edmund, innkeeper’s son and would-be wizard, from seeking for a way to turn back the oncoming tide of destruction. Along with his best friends—Katherine the trainer of war-horses and Tom the runaway slave—Edmund searches for a magical weakness in the Skeleth, something that might allow him to break their never-ending curse. The three friends join with the legendary hero Tristan in a battle of courage, wisdom, wits, and sacrifice to stop the Skeleth from ravaging their homeland and all they hold dear.
This adventurous tale that marries earthly greed to otherworldly evil is perfect for fans who enjoy the epic worlds of John Flanagan's Ranger’s Apprentice, Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time, J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, and George R.R. Martin's Game of Thrones. Discover for yourself why so many are making the comparisons!
I've often wondered what cafe barista's thought of people on their laptops writing hastily in the corner too. The covers and premise of Nethergrim sounds amazing. Congratulations on the upcoming release of Book 2!
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