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In the first episode of a brand-new podcast, “Nameless1,” Daniel Gaghan covers a number of female characters in his “Women in Fantasy Review.” The first book he tackles is none other than Marked for Death, my first Eberron novel. (The next one up is Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time, and you can’t ask for better company than that.)

Daniel talks about the three main females in Marked for Death: Esprë, Sallah, and Te’oma. He’s particularly fond of Te’oma, a flawed but powerful woman. I wonder how he’ll feel about her when he gets to reading The Queen of Death? While I didn’t intend it at the outset, the Lost Mark Trilogy is, in many ways, Te’oma’s tale.

written by Matt Forbeck

“No plan survives contact with the enemy.” — Field Marshal Helmuth von Moltke

That’s one of my favorite quotes, and I’ve applied it to just about every facet of my life. These days, I’d amend it to “No plan survives contact with reality.” Or, really, any contact at all.

Plans rarely work out exactly the way you think they will, especially not the big plans. The bigger the plan, the better the chance you’re going to have to deviate from it at some point. To surmount this, you must be flexible, ready to change course at a moment’s notice. This is as true for writing novels as it is for waging war.

That’s certainly the case with The Lost Mark trilogy. The final book in the trilogy (The Queen of Death, which hit stores yesterday) bears absolutely no resemblance to what I originally pitched to my editors. It doesn’t even come close to the final version of the pitch that won me the contracts for the trilogy.

I always plan—with an outline—any novel I write. I want a road map of the book to show me where I’m headed and how I might get there. It helps me keep the pacing fast and tense, and it keeps me on track so I don’t wander too far from the story’s main plot. As I write, though, I always end up coming up with better ideas for how things should happen.

That’s the magic of the process of writing. If I knew exactly how a book would turn out before I started, it would be little more than paint-by-numbers with words. I’d be bored to tears long before I got through it, and I’d guess my readers would be too.

So, I always start with an outline, but I allow myself latitude to use any better notions that come my way. The Road to Death (first in the Lost Mark Trilogy) is a perfect example of this. (SPOILER ALERT!)

When I started the book, I meant for a vampire named Tan Du to be the main villain. Somewhere in the middle of the book, though, Tan Du runs into a nutty elf wizard named Majeeda, and she kills him. It shocked me when I saw the words on the screen, even though I’d written them. I figured if I could do that to myself, I should leave it for the readers to enjoy too.

That shoved my outline straight off the rails though. I re-outlined the book from that point on and charged down the new path instead.

This usually happens two or three times with each book. Imagine how different The Queen of Death is, then, from how I first envisioned it. I went through four to six major direction changes before I even started the book, and I changed course again and again as I wrote it. I suppose my editors (the inestimable Mark Sehestedt in the case of the Lost Mark Trilogy) would have the right to complain about it, but they never do. A better book is a better book.

In the end, the book comes out the way I want it to, even if I didn’t quite know what I would end up wanting when I started. It keeps the writing and the plot fresh, and hopefully it keeps you, the readers, engaged and entertained.

written by Matt Forbeck

Today is the official street date for The Queen of Death, the final novel in my Lost Mark trilogy for Wizards of the Coast’s Eberron setting. To celebrate:

• Go on out and buy a copy now!
• If you’re one of those readers who can’t stand to start reading a trilogy until all the books are published, today is your day. Buy a copy of Marked for Death and The Road to Death too!
• If you want to sample the first chapter, you can get a PDF of it for free!
• If you’d like to join an online club discussing this book, do that too!
• One more time: Buy a copy now!

Seriously, I worked hard on these books, and I hope you all enjoy them. Once you track them down and read them, please stop by and post a comment or drop me an e-mail about what you think. Thanks!

written by Matt Forbeck

The fine folks at WorldsofDnD.com have set up a book club for The Queen of Death, the climactic novel in my Eberron trilogy. It should start just as soon as the book hits shelves (October 10, I’m told), but it will go on for the entire month of October.

I’m eager to find out how people like the trilogy now that it’s all wrapped up. If you can, read the book fast and stop on by to chip in your two bits.

written by Matt Forbeck

FedEx just dropped off my author’s copies of The Queen of Death, the third and final book in my Lost Mark Trilogy, set in Eberron. The cover looks much better in person than it does on the product page.

I’m looking forward to having this in stores and hearing what people think of it. Endings are the most important part of a story, especially in something as large and sprawling as a trilogy like this. I hope you all enjoy it.

written by Matt Forbeck

Wizards of the Coast has posted a product page for The Queen of Death.This, the final novel in my Lost Mark trilogy set in Eberron, is due out October 10. If you can’t wait that long to get started though, click over to that product page and download a PDF of the first chapter for free!

In the meantime, here’s a shot of the cover to whet your appetite.

written by Matt Forbeck

It’s official. The Queen of Death—the final novel in my Eberron trilogy (The Lost Mark series)—is due out in October rather than December. That means cutting two full months out of that long, dreary waiting season that falls between novels. Plus, it means it’ll be out just in time for Halloween, which seems fitting for a trilogy that centers so much upon death.

written by Matt Forbeck

This week, I turned in the revisions for Queen of Death, the third in my Lost Mark trilogy of novels for Eberron. My editor, Mark Sehestedt, only asked for minor changes, and I burned through them.

I commented to Mark that it stunned me how far the trilogy had deviated from my original pitch. Few recognizable bits of the original remained. The story ended up surprising me as I went along, and I enjoyed it all the more for that. I hope those who read it feel the same.

written by Matt Forbeck

I just turned in the manuscript for Queen of Death, the third and final book in my Lost Mark trilogy for the Eberron world. This started with Marked for Death, which hit stores in March of 2005, and continued in Road to Death, which saw print in January of 2006. The whole thing should wrap up this October, and I can’t wait to see it happen.

This also marks the first time in what seems like forever that I’m caught up on all my deadlines. Between the novels for Wizards and the Black Library, working on Marvel Battle Dice and REVs for Playmates, tackling countless smaller projects, and helping raise five young kids, it felt like I might never get back on track again, but here I am!

My next novel isn’t due until mid-June, and since it’s a shorter book (my next Knights of the Silver Dragon installment), I should be able to get that done on time. Woot!

written by Matt Forbeck

The fine people at Cinerati just posted a review of Marked for Death. It’s a good, solid piece with what I think are fair criticisms of the book.

written by Matt Forbeck

The book club discussion for The Road to Death is under way at Essential-Eberron.com. When you have a chance to read the book, please stop by and say hi. The discussion’s lively already, but adding more readers to the mix would make it even better.

written by Matt Forbeck

On the forum at the new Essential-Eberron.com, where we’re now discussing The Road to Death, a reader with the handle Effect asks:

The characters in the Lost Mark trilogy, do you have any control over them being used by other authors or do they simply belong to WoTC now?

Not one bit. My novels for Wizards are work-for-hire. That means they own every word of them.

On a similar note, would you be against other authors using the characters either as apart of their stories or basiclly continuing their adventures (those that live at the end of the trilogy)?

Reason I’m asking is that I’m not sure if authors have a special pull toward characters they create and would rather they not be changed from how they visioned them or if they’d honestly be happy to see others use them. Cause if you move on to other things I’d love to see these characters again in either a story by you or someone else.

I’d prefer to be the only writer who tackles these characters, but I have no power over that. As Paul Crilley says, it can be bad form to propose something that uses someone else’s characters, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be done. Wizards could also ask another author to write a story using these characters, and they’d be well within their rights to do so.

In my other series for Wizards, The Knights of the Silver Dragon, I created the characters and the setting, but I only wrote the first novel. Other authors took up the exact same characters and ran with them from there. I’m coming back to write books #13 and #14 (and a couple more after that), but in the meantime other writers play in the sandbox I built.

I built that sandbox for Wizards, though, and they own it. They can do whatever they like with it. I knew that going into the deal, and I’m comfortable with it.

It can be strange to read someone else’s take on characters I created. Sometimes I’ll think, “I wouldn’t have done it that way.” But that doesn’t detract from their work. It’s just different. It can even illuminate aspects of the characters that I might not have considered, making for a richer experience.

The Knights line has an excellent editor (Nina Hess) who keeps all us authors on the same path too. That helps ensure the characters and stories run true throughout the series.

Mark Sehestedt is a fantastic editor too, and I don’t think he’d steer people toward using characters from The Lost Mark trilogy without good reason. In any case, most writers would rather take the opportunity to create their own characters and stories and chart their own courses, rather than skipping along in my wake.

written by Matt Forbeck

The fine people behind the WorldsofDnD site just launched a brand-new Eberron site: Essential-Eberron.com. It’s going to feature all things Eberron, but the first book club discussion will focus on The Road to Death. I and most of the other Eberron novelists hang out over there, so be sure to stop by and say hi!

written by Matt Forbeck

Just a reminder that The Road to Death is officially available today. Pick it up at your favorite book or game store now!

written by Matt Forbeck