About Alderland's Book Blurb...

Dear Visitor,

Welcome!

I've finished the manuscript for my first novel, and final editing is moving along nicely (as of Oct. 2025), but there's one thing I haven't been able to really grasp: the book blurb. That little paragraph on the back of a book that answers the question, 'What is this book about?'

Unattainable! Impossible! How can I summarize a corpus of text roughly 120,000 words (really more because it's the start of a series), down to a paragraph... it's just too much. Too difficult.

But that question is still valid and demands a thoughtful answer.

Therefore... I present you with two answers. Two blurbs.

Blurb the First - It's about many things.

Alderland is a literary fantasy tale about a girl named Alice Lane and her quest to save her family from a vindictive alchemist named Titus—but that isn't the whole story.

It's also about the rage and guilt of a great bear, and the hopes and dreams of a small bear.

It's about the longing of a lizard-rat and the burgeoning grand designs of a frog king.

It's about the possessive love of a furnace deep within a dark mansion, and the dolls that serve her there.

And finally, it's about the fate of Alderland—a province cut off one Calamitous Night—and how its fate and that of its strange inhabitants are woven together with the rest of the world of Irim.

Blurb the Second - Everything starts in a Dark Mansion...

But the Dark Mansion that lies ahead isn't Derceto.

It is Rowandor Manor, where a toymaker's dream has given way to his nightmare, sitting in whispers and silence for over a hundred years.

The people of Alderland are gone.

But one furnace still burns in Rowandor Manor. It burns for want of the Toymaker, for want of human hands, for want of its own hunger and what it has seen in distant lands.

That furnace has a plan, because it has a name: Sadie.

Sadie has seen things. Beautiful things to admire. Wonderful things to consume.

And now, what's this?

A girl walks Through the Everstorm.

Along the streets of Alderland.

Into the Avenue of Heathwick, the town where Rowandor stands.

And she knocks at the pale green doors of Rowandor.

And a voice welcomes her in.

'Alice love. Come. See. Admire. You're here, where you always should've been.'

Warm Regards,

Daniel