First off, you may have noticed some changes around here--the site is currently undergoing some growing pains, so it may radically shift and transform over the next few weeks. Try not to be alarmed.

With that out of the way, I'd like to stretch your memories back to the distant past...back, back to the haze of last month. When I promised that I would release all five of the possible rewards for 100 combined Amazon reviews on the Elder Empire books.

Well, now I'm going to continue making good on that promise, with an excerpt from Of Darkness and Dawn, featuring the Emperor...before he was the Emperor.

This is the first half, and the second half will be posted...soon? I'm not sure when the next post will be, because I'm hard in the trenches pounding out word count on ODAD, but certainly soon!

And now, without further ado, hit the jump for the origins of the Emperor!

I've spent this whole week writing, so I wasn't sure what to say today. In the end, I decided to give you a glimpse at a page I wrote this week.

This is a flashback scene from the middle of Of Sea and Shadow, and it involves Calder meeting with his mother (Alsa), who is an influential member of the Blackwatch Guild.

I haven't edited this at all; it's a screenshot straight from the OSAS file, and this scene is in its first draft. It's also very small, because I'm lazy, so grab your reading glasses for your old lady eyes.

Then hit the jump!