The Powder Mage

[Annemie]

A powder mage or "Marked One" is an individual who possesses the magical ability to consume and control gunpowder. They are able to open up their third eyes and perceive the Else, but they are not able to harness it. In terms of raw power, this puts powder mages somewhere above Knacked individuals, yet still below the Privileged.

Powder mages are able to sense the presence and location of nearby gunpowder, and can ignite it by will alone. Once ignited, powder mages are also able to control the direction and shape of a gunpowder blast. They typically use this ability to assist the distance & accuracy of their own bullets, but can also use it to other ends.

When a powder mage consumes gunpowder they gain enhanced strength, speed, and senses for a limited amount of time, a state known as a "Powder Trance". The effect of gun powder also increases their healing abilities. As such, a powder mage in a powder trance is very difficult to take down. Trained powder mages are discouraged from relying on these abilities, as too much gunpowder will apparently induce Powder Blindness.

Since their discovery, powder mages have quickly grown in prominence throughout the Nine. In Adro, powder mages have been embraced by the military and are used as elite sniper cells, deployed during wartime to kill high-value targets such as officers and Privileged. However, Adro seems to be the exception to the rule, as most other countries in the Nine seem to treat powder mages with contempt or even open-hostility.

Though all powder mages share the same basic abilities their strength in each ability tends to vary. Vlora Flint is renowned for her ability to sense and detonate gunpowder at much greater distances than her peers, and Field Marshal Tamas seems to gain greater-than-average strength and speed when consuming gunpowder.

Powder mages tend to avoid the mineral gold at all costs, because if their blood comes into contact with it, it will neutralize their powder imbued abilities as long as the gold remains in contact with their blood. A Kez way of permanently removing a Marked One's powers without killing them is to implant a gold star into a Marked One's body in such a place that it will constantly rip open their flesh and never fully heal.

Yesterday, I got an email from my agent telling me that The Powder Mage Trilogy had earned out it's advance. This is fantastic. This is like, holy crap freaking awesome, and I'll tell you why. Warning: I'll be patting myself on the back a bit here.

So, why is earning out my advance a big deal? It basically means that I'm no longer living on "fronted" money. An advance is just that; an advance against royalties. Authors don't see any money beyond their advance check until they've earned enough via their royalties (I broke down how much money an author actually makes off each sale here) to "pay back" the publisher their advance money (in quotes because if you don't earn out you won't actually have to pay that money back, unlike the music industry). The rule of thumb thrown around the publishing industry is that only about 20% of books earn out.

The Powder Mage Trilogy is, for accounting purposes, viewed as a single book. So I wouldn't earn any extra money from it until all three books, together, have made enough money to cover the whole advance (as opposed to counting each book against a third of the advance). It also sold for six figures, which in itself is pretty rare for a debut series.

Now, the series is earning out on the royalty statement for the first half of 2015. As far as I can tell from my own spreadsheets, it earned out about three weeks after The Autumn Republic hit shelves, which was just a little less than two years after Promise of Blood. The powder mage books are not bestsellers by any means, but to have this happen means they've sold at a solid, consistent pace for those two years.

There are too many people to thank for making this happen - from my publisher, editor, and agent on the business side, down to the readers who recommend my stuff to their friends and family. However a handful of people, including my old writing professor Brandon Sanderson, fellow fantasy authors Brent Weeks and Peter V. Brett, and my favorite online webcomic Howard Tayler, have been particularly loud about their support of me and my books, lending their immense platforms to help get the word out, and for that I'll be forever in their debt.

Earning out on the trilogy means that I'm now, in my own small part, helping pay the bills at Orbit, which is a point of pride for me. It also means that from now on, I'll get a check every six month, hopefully for the rest of my life. Each check will be a little smaller, dwindling over the years, but for now it's enough to let me keep writing full time.

I read Promise of Blood a not too long ago and was happy to find out that it was a really solid book - most of Brandon's recommendations are so, but every now and then our tastes diverge. Magic based on powder is definitely not common in the fantasy genre (maybe steampunk features it more?), so I was at least happy to see something new and weird. The actual mechanics weren't as complicated as I would've liked, and the similarity to Allomancy was obvious (not to imply Brian was copying Brandon or anything, just a statement of fact), but the other magic systems made up for it, I think. There is a lot of potential with the Knacked.

Actually, now that I think about it, the main magics of the series (Privileged, Knacked, Marked - I am going to ignore Ka-Poel's voodoo for now) could represent the progress of the people's way of thinking about the unexplained. The Privileged wield magic that's powerful, wild, and largely under the umbrella of "soft magic" - it could be treated as a metaphor for a more primitive view of the world. The Marked, the powder mages, are on the other end of the spectrum - their magic features an almost scientific precision in both its cost and its effects. Plus, there is also the bit about the ingredient required for it - powder, a well-understood symbol of scientific progress, a product of humankind's mastery over the natural elements. And finally the Knacked, sitting kind of in the middle - their Knacks definitely lean towards what the Privileged can do, with their mysterious and strange effects, but the fact that they are very specific and contained nudges them towards science as well. I am going to continue ignoring Ka-Poel, because it's late and I am too tired to think where she fits, if she does.

Look at me, being all excited about magic, when it wasn't the magic that grabbed me. It was the characters. Tamas and Tanael, for the most port, were both very interesting and dynamic characters. Both had solid personalities, but with a flaw or two that made them unpredictable at times. Tamas' hate for whatshsiface from Kez may have felt a little exaggerated, since we never actually saw how much the Field Marshal loved his wife, so his impulsive behavior was a little weird at times, but I could buy it. Taniel was better, but he felt too much like an escapist to me, and I am not sure that was well justified in the text. Adamat was probably the most interesting and well-developed out of all the main characters, even if I usually enjoyed reading about Taniel the most. The servant girl, Nila (?), felt a little forced in Promise of Blood, but she managed to find her place in The Crimson Campaign.

It's also interesting that Priveleged represent the Nobility, Powder Mages are the emerging middle class, and knacked are lower class mostly. Brian has spoken on this before. I love this series and his short storie are all awesome. Hopes End and Servant of the Crown are the best.

I still need to make my way through the short stories, but they might have to wait a bit - if I drag my feet with David Hair's Mage's Blood, I might have to jump straight into Brent Weeks' The Broken Eye. But then, I got a Reddit reply from the McClellan, so I am almost obliged to prioritize him...

Yeah, both Tamas' and Taniel's backstories felt a little... forced, I guess, though that's a strong word. For a few pages in the first book I was hoping we'll get more from Taniel and Vlora, it looked like a part of the plot was them finally figuring out their relationship, either bringing it to a closure or rekindling it. Nope. Didn't happen. That entire thing was kind of ignored after page 20 or so.

It looks like Book 3 is slated for release relatively soon (you sure can tell he's Sanderson's student, he's nothing if not prolific!)

February 14th, he'll be at the Barnes & Nobles in Mentor, OH, and that is definitely close enough for me to make it I should basically all but be there! I'll of course get a signed copy of The Autumn Republic, but I may even ask him to sign my copy of Mistborn! Signing other authors books seems to be a fun hobby of theirs. (I'm looking at you, Patrick Rothfuss)

Yeah, I only saw the event when randomly looking through the event calendar at my local Barnes & Nobles. Does look like he seems to just do a few local book signings for his releases, and that's about it. I can't wait to meet him, as I've heard he's an extremely nice and friendly guy!

Also, I do believe I had a few questions that I meant to ask him about the Books, but that was pre-Book 2. So I may have to reread the first two real quick and see what I can come up with. (In the true nature of 17th Shard Theorizing/Speculation. )

Well, I was going to go through the threads and gather the questions that we have speculated on and see what other good stuff that's been discussed that I could run my him. It's all about getting that RAFO!

Just came from a signing at a local library here in NE Ohio (where McClellan lives - awesome that he's local for us!). Very approachable and engaging, and it was easier to get one's questions answered in a crowd of 30 than at one of Brandon's [huge] signings.

Good news: McClellan said he's writing another trilogy, set on the same planet as the first one and with the same magic systems, but 10 years later and in a different part of the world. Sounds like no crossover characters are planned at this point. He said readers should be able to start with either trilogy and move to the other one without a problem. He's contracted to publish 1 book per year, and plans to continue self-publishing short stories and novellas on the side, in addition to the books published by Orbit.

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