Recent entries

Questioner

Earlier you mentioned about the dragon monarch being able to shape shift. are all monarchs able to shape shift fluidly or is that specifically between the sacred beast and human forms?

Will Wight

That's specifically to him, like the sacred beasts with they're beast for and human form or whatever other form they've developed, it doesn't have to be human it just usually is. So the other monarchs can change their bodies, and they could change their bodies in many different ways, but it would be difficult. Like I think you posted earlier in chat, could she (Akura Malice) be 12 feet tall or a man for a day, and that would not be a casual amount of effort, that would be a lot of research and practise and difficulty, so she probably wouldn't do that, but there are certain ways she could change her body that are specific to her, and she could just shape shift in and out of that.

Lil' Blue

What's it like being a beta reader? 

Will Wight

It is actually super awesome, there are no demands of you at all, its really just fun and games. So yeah, people ask for beta reading all the time of course, cos they want the book early, which i understand. The beta readers see the book in the rougher state, so a lot of time that will affect your experience, a lot of people who ask for beta access don't really want beta access, they really just want an advance copy of the book, and that's not what you're getting; you're getting to see it rough, you're getting to see behind the scenes and that affects your experience of the book.

 

What i'm really doing is i'm looking for people to help me, i'm looking for people to read it...and a lot of people thing beta readers means proof readers, it doesn't entirely. So if you catch and error in the book you go "ah i need to beta read so i can proof read it for you." That's not typically true, typos don't get in there because of a lack of proof reading, its more usually a lack of time, because people catch errors. So really what it is, is the beta readers give me their feedback on the development of the book, and that helps go "ok now i can see how readers are taking this" and that helps me steer the book and tweak it and polish it. So its work, its a job, its a service i need to be done, more than it is....its not a reward for the beta readers.

Andrew Rowe

Beta readers can also slow us down, the more we have the more people we have to go through, the more feedback we have to sift through, and personally that has slowed me down significantly.

Will Wight

That's true too, that is definitely true. That's one of the reasons why I don't open it to just anybody, because if I had the time to do that, I would have the time to take it through more drafts. There's a saturation point, there can be too many, I cant wait for everybody's feedback, and all that stuff.

Bowyrd

When starting a new series what is one of the first things you develop. Like the power/magic systems or maybe the world settings/ characters you want write about? Followed by UL releasing madness! 

Will Wight

Great Question, that depends, so what that depends on is, there's some core thing.....if i want to write something then i have some kind of idea, and sometimes that idea is a scene or a magic system related fact, or some cool thing i'd like to do, maybe its a cool plot idea i have. What I do is I drill into what makes me like that idea the most. So for Cradle, i really like these xian xia fantasy Chinese web novels, and i knew what i liked about them, so i went down there and drilled into what i like about this, what do i want and i developed it from there; what do i want in the magic system, what do i want in the characters, what do i want in the plot, and that's how I began developing cradle. Travellers gate it was, i had an idea for a thing about... so this is dates back to playing Kingdom Hearts 1, so a kajillion years ago, and Riku is really the hero of the story, Sora inherits all his power and is never challenged and then just wins. Riku is actually really trying to do something, he's working towards a goal. What i realised from that, was its kinda cool to be the friend of a hero who grows up in the same place, and the other guy inherits his power and you actually save the day by working on it.

Questioner

How did the preorder sales compare to everything else? 

Will Wight

The preorder has sold a little over 6000 copies, and I would expect about that much in the first week, and its been up for three weeks, which is not bad considering the fact that there have been no kindle unlimited sales, and i would count those into a first week, so for just regular sales alone and no kindle unlimited that is actually really good, that's sold very well. The question is will I spike up in ranking? If the book spikes up in ranking then it's more visible and it will stay visible for longer and all that stuff.

Xektalon

If Lindon made a drudge look like a gold dragon (since they used to be a servant line to the blacks) ... How long would it last before said dragons destroyed it and tried to kill him? And would Orhtos pass out laughing at seeing the drudge?

Will Wight

Orthos might! He might really enjoy that. But the gold dragons wouldn't have it out for Lindon any more than they already do because a lot of gold dragons are selfish and whatever. They're going around stealing stuff and raiding places. As much as I said about Sesh's law-of-the-jungle mentality, his descendants really like the good life. They're rich and they're powerful and they really like it. And so they don't settle down places; they don't do very civilized stuff, but they do go take things from people who are civilized. Civilized is a weird word. I really mean settled; people who live in settlements. And so they see a lot of stuff. But they wouldn't care really--I mean if they ran across him they would definitely be mad, but that would be kind of they already kinda hate him like because Sophara hates him, and she's kind of their leader of their generation. So an older gold dragon would just completely not care--would just try to breath fire to kill him and that's it. But the people who are going to be swayed by that, they already hate him because he murdered somebody, so he's already on their list.

Tim the Sword Sage

What was your favorite scene to write in the story thus far?

Will Wight

Definitely the Dross scene at the end of Ghostwater. That was fun to write in a sense because I knew that was a really cool punch line to the book so I spent a lot of effort trying to set that up in the exact right way. So that was just difficult and then seeing it pay off was really cool. What was hard about it was balancing the rapport and him speaking as a presence for the first time and them finishing the Ghostwater project AND beating Harmony. So I had to have all of the happen and I really had to have all of that happen at the same moment and I had to set all that up so that it made sense when it happened and that was just very difficult but a lot of fun planning. Therefore seeing it pay off felt really good.

AngryEdgelord

Is Wei Shi Seisha (Lindon's Mom) related to the Kazan clan by blood? Where does her brown hair come from?

Will Wight

She is descended from another clan. From an outside clan. She is a Wei clan member but at a certain point in her ancestry her father or great grandfather was from the Kazan clan. That's just a thing that happens in Sacred Valley.

Chat

Did you give rough ages for the Monarchs?

Will Wight

I did not. I think Malice is about four hundred years old. So we're not talking forty thousand. We're talking four hundred, one thousand, twelve hundred. They tend to die. They don't age but they tend to die. Or ascend. Old Man Lo actually is not related to the Akura clan so he's just a... guy.

Conman#8457

After reading the Cradle series I became quite interested in Chinese XianXia genre anime and noticed more than a few similarities between your books and these anime. Have you watched (or read the base material) of anime like Yao Shen Ji, Mo Dao Zu Shi, and Wangu Xian Qiong? How much of an impact do you think external material had on the Cradle series?

Will Wight

Uh yes, I've seen... that. I don't know how to refer to those in English. But yeah, I did all the research. I've read it all, seen it all, but mainly just because I'm into it. It mostly wasn't a research thing. How much of an impact did external material have on the Cradle series? Infinite. I really like the genre, I really like the conventions, and I thought, "Hey I can a story in that genre." And so then I did.

SofaKing

Thanks for sharing your crazy stories with us. As for my question do you have any plans for D&D like handbooks to come out for your universe? Also do you plan on ever coming to the Pacific North West for a book signing? 

Will Wight

D&D like handbooks... maybe. The coolest thing about D&D handbooks is the art and I would have to buy that, so it would be expensive. But it would be fun. I really like those. I just really love D&D handbooks, they're great. Will I do a signing? I mean I guess. I've done a couple. I don't do them regularly and I probably won't ever do them regularly, but I can't say that I won't ever do one. I do them at Dragon Con, if you want to come to Dragon Con in the fall.

Keytar

Now that you seem to have an entire publishing company working for you, have you considered doing publishing for other self-pub authors? Do you do that already?

Will Wight

Yes I have considered that. No I do not do it already.

Oka wants to be unmuted. I think it's okay to keep him muted. What do you think?

Yeah, I think we keep him muted. He deserves to be muted.

Revan

What is your favorite type of madra? Is there a sort of madra that can do psychic things, such as telekenisis or telepathy?

Will Wight

Telepathy yeah, 100%. Dream madra does that. That's basically what it does. Telekinesis... not reeeally. There's a lot of madra that lets you pick stuff up without touching it but not really telekinesis so much. Favorite kind of madra... If I were in Cradle I would probably want force madra or wind madra because the aura is everywhere and it's very useful, it's handy. And then you get the telekinesis kind of stuff so that's basically the telekinesis powers. My favorite to write is actually dream madra because you can do so many cool things with it, like you can share thoughts, communicate over distance, read minds and all that stuff.

Questioner

How does madra regenerate? How does a technique that would increase regeneration work?

Will Wight

It's the interaction between life aura, blood aura, and dream aura in humans. It's really like human aura. Humans have a unique relationship to it, so it comes back as they exist and live and are healthy and alive. It comes from your body and mind. A regenerative cycling technique would improve the efficiency of that process or increase the speed of that process.

Questioner

What's your stance on fanficton and would you mind if people posted fanfiction on third party sites?

Will Wight

No, I don't mind that. I like fanfiction a lot, you know, as a concept. I have no problem with that. The only thing is make sure it's fanfiction, don't claim is your idea not mine, and don't sell it.

Fable

At some point would you be willing to add a table describing how to cycle the basics of Madra? As well as some of the properties that certain Madra's possess? I am wondering this because I am trying to make mechanics for a Cradle Quest. (Quest meaning something like a DnD game that is run online.) If you do not have an answer at this time then I have a simpler question. What exactly is force madra, how do you cycle it, and how does it work? 

Will Wight

So I definitely need to do that, this is something i probably need to bring up to the team, although they're certainly hearing this and are gonna hold me to this whether I want to do it or not. That's something I definitely need to do, i really probably need to do some sort of index or whatever for every series.....appendix that was the word i was looking for. The problem is it kind of changes based on the book, so you learn something new every book. So i either have to post just the very basics, so the very basics that you would learn in Unsouled, or the stuff that everybody knows, or I'd have to update it every book. So of course, before ebooks, you'd have all this at the back of the book, now i can create a page on my site and just link to it, so i could just have kind of a constant explanation encyclopaedia sorta thing up there. Its a lot more work that it sounds like, unless i do just the bare minimum and just put like a description up there of just kind of generally how the the madra system works. But i know i need to do something and i'm fully willing to do it, its one of those things that i feel like always is on my priority list, but never high enough to actually do, so it never gets to the top, so I'm sorry about that.

Human Number 678

What is the weirdest drug on Cradle?

Will Wight

Weirdest drug on Cradle. So again it's a world building question, so I can make up questions for this, that will actually be easy to make up an answer to, but I don't have a ready made answer to it and I'm afraid that if say something it will contradict something in my notes. It's hard to live-answer world building questions and I don't have the time to make up a cool answer, so I gotta pass on that one. I'm sorry.

Questioner

How do you cycle force aura so you can make your own force madra?

Will Wight

So, sword aura it just an application of force aura. Ya, its just a derivative of force aura. It builds up in things that do exert great force. Not things that could, which of course anything can, anything physical. But, things that do. So, things that really do bash up against other things on a daily basis. So, like a machine or manufacturing plant would generate a lot of force aura. A rushing river does too. But you tend to not sense that. Its a lot easier to sense sword aura than it is to sense force aura until you become kind of attuned to it and you sort of cycle it some a little bit. So, the more advanced you get on a force path the easier it is to feel that, see that. One of the things I've kind of referenced a little bit, but its sort of subtle and I probably need to draw it out more explicitly, is as you get more advanced on a certain path it becomes easier for you to pick up aura of that path. So, Lindon had to learn to see destruction aura even in a place where its very prevalent. So later, its a lot easier for him to see than other people to see. 

Questioner

Like when he was cycling for blackflame during Ghostwater, he sees or at least senses destruction aura in the fire. 

Will Wight

Right. So, I mentioned that force aura would be in a rushing river. It certainly would and it would be there for anybody. But, when Lindon looked at a river he would basically just see water aura. If Renfei, who is on cloud and force, she might se, basically, the force of the white water crashing against the rocks and she would see the water aura as it interacted with the air as a big cloud. So, her vision if she opened her copper sight, her vision of the river would look very different than Lindon's.

joe2222

Is it possible to kill a sage with poison or did something else happen to Yerin's Master?

Will Wight

It is a very good question, its just that this a question that has become a meme among the subreddit. It is indeed possible for them to have killed the sage, but only under very specific circumstances that I have not yet explained. So, it's going to be a read and find out.

DJflopdog

Can an advanced enough sacred beast, who has transitioned to human form, change back into beast form at will? The dragon monarch Seth for example.

Will Wight

Somebody advanced enough can. Seth definitely can. He can do whatever he wants. But, it's somebody like Sophara from Ghostwater, the Underlady, she doesn't have a dragon form. She does, but she would have to spend soulfire and time slowly making herself back into a dragon. And, that would be an inefficient use of time and soulfire. So, it would be difficult. Even and Archlord, it's not easy. But a herald, or above, so a monarch, a herald or monarch, those can shift all the time. And shift. And shift.