He’s the bestselling author of the licensed fantasy novel Gauntlet: Dark Legacy: Paths of Evil, and a popular writer of fantasy, science fiction, and crime tales, including Star Trek: Starfleet Corps of Engineers: Echoes of Coventry and The Dark Leopard: Mouse Trap. But if you’ve been paying attention to the works of Richard C. White, you’ll notice he’s been building quite the backlist here at StarWarp Concepts.
He has a brand-new title hitting bookshelves tomorrow: For a Few Gold Pieces More, a collection of ten critically acclaimed short stories that star a Rogue With No Name who travels a world of epic-fantasy adventure, looking for treasure—and revenge against the woman who sent him to prison for a crime he didn’t commit (but she did). Think Lord of the Rings meets the “spaghetti Westerns” of director Sergio Leone (A Fistful of Dollars; The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly), with a healthy dose of monsters, magic, and swordplay mixed in.
With Gold Pieces so close to publication, I thought reminding you of his backlist would be a good idea, since all his titles are still very much available for order from the SWC webstore. On February 30, I told you about his supernatural-superheroes graphic novel Troubleshooters, Incorporated: Night Stalkings. On February 9, we examined his digital-comic ode to seafaring adventure, The Chronicles of the Sea Dragon Special. And today we wrap things up by taking a look at his guide for genre writers who are interested in building fantastic settings for their stories and novels.
Terra Incognito: A Guide to Building the Worlds of Your Imagination was Rich’s 2015 release. In this nonfiction reference book for writers, Rich takes you through the step-by-step process of constructing a world for your characters, from societies and governments to currency and religion. Included is an interview with New York Times bestselling author Tracy Hickman (Dragonlance) that discusses his methods of world building, as well as his creative experiences during his time as a designer for gaming company TSR, the original home of Dungeons & Dragons.
What you’ll find in the pages of Terra Incognito is information that’s vital for just about any writer, especially when it comes to world building, and Rich shows you how to do it:
- Avoiding the pitfalls of naming characters, regions, and countries
- Applying the technique of “outside in” to develop and then refine ideas for your world
- Creating a world your readers can relate to, regardless of its technological levels
- Identify how to create backstories and conflict by observing how your world comes together
- Adding details to make your story richer without overwhelming your readers
- Identifying useful resources for research
From its first publication, the book has been a hit with not just fantasy writers, but role-playing gamers as well. When it debuted in October 2015 at the e-book distributor DriveThru Fiction and its sister sites DriveThru RPG and RPGNow, it immediately shot to the #1 position on all three as their top-selling title, and then remained for weeks as DriveThru Fiction’s #1 Hottest Nonfiction Book and #1 Hottest How-To for Writers! If you’re a writer or gamer, you might just want to check it out.
Terra Incognito: A Guide to Building the Worlds of Your Imagination is available in print and digital formats, so visit its product page for ordering information.
Bonus! Because Rich’s interview with Hickman was so lengthy, and touched upon some topics that didn’t pertain to the world-building focus of Terra Incognito, I made the editorial decision to cut those parts from the final version of the book. However, if you want to discover what else Rich and Hickman discussed—including their shared experiences in the licensed-publishing writers market—then head over to Richard C. White’s blog and read all about it!
For a Few Gold Pieces More goes on sale tomorrow, February 14, 2017.
