July Update

You know, I've noticed something that could, you know, be aggravating. You know what I mean? Because, you know, my brain tends to get stuck in a rut sometimes when talking and, you know, I regurgitate the same stupid words or phrases a few times. It drives me crazy, you know. AAARRRGGH!!

Anyway ….. I've been working on brainstorming through some things for Taloner: Wekthusia to try and hammer out and refine issues that are bothering me. I already mentioned this in my last post, so I won't go into more detail on that today. The other thing I've been doing lately is working on world lore, particularly for the world of Gaia. When I say lore, what I'm referring to is miscellaneous things like how certain types of magic work, detailed pieces of history for races or areas found in Gaia, random bios for individuals who appear throughout the world's history, things like that. It helps kind of stretch my creative muscles at the same time it maintains sanity for me, as well as giving me stronger bases to build story elements off of. I'm someone who enjoys history, and I'm a detail-oriented person. I like having material already developed which I can reference while writing, rather than being halfway through a paragraph and having to go, "Oh well, this character is descended from … Greg the Great, who um, was known for …. I mean, he ate lots of …. pancakes …"

Yeeeeah. I prefer to have things that are already a little more fleshed-out to draw upon when I'm writing a story. It's kind of like anchor points for building a web, in a way. If there's no anchor point for X details, then you have to hurry and make something up, and on-the-fly isn't usually my favorite method. But if I took the time beforehand to create some lore, then oh! Look at these handy anchor points I can use to help build the basis of some of these ideas I'm writing. Yeah, you get the point.

I haven't done much art of any kind for a while, and I'd like to start sketching out a few of these non-canonical characters I've been coming up with, just for fun. We recently found a channel on our television that sometimes has a competition show on blacksmithing/forging, and it's helped kind of rekindle some flame for me in working on ideas for both smithing characters and different types of weaponry that appears in Gaia. Seeing some of the unique (and sometimes just plain wicked) weaponry that really does exist in our world is amazing to me.

Okay, back to work. Stay cool!

Mandatory break

So, I'm pretty sure that anyone who reads this can already tell that I've been on a writing break for a while. It's kind of a huge "duh" at this point. But nonetheless, here I am making the announcement.

I didn't want to go on a break right now, but I didn't have a choice. Between various things in my personal life and the fun stress that comes with them, I was burning out pretty badly. I can tell you from experience that trying to force yourself to keep working on something while burned out is one of the worst mistakes you can make. So rather than ruin a book, I chose to back off for a while. And as it turns out, my brain is slowly beginning to rejuvenate (yay). 

I've had a number of ideas for story concepts, plot fragments, character profiles, and other things like that trickling through my head while on break. Imagine, if you will, the late night scene: We're finally getting to bed after a long day, the lights have been turned off, and then I pop up like a wild woman and grab my phone to make a note before it's gone from my head. I'm sure you can hear my puzzled husband's sleepy questions as to what in the world I'm doing, because we're finally going to bed.

It's not all been for Taloner:Wekthusia; much of it has been for other projects. With that being said, I plan to make time and sit down to go over a few things in the T:W plot and re-work a few details that have been bothering me. I'd like to resume working on this book before the year's out, and while right now it seems like I still have a whole six months to worry about that, that time does tend to disappear quickly. As the manuscript currently sits, I'm roughly 80% of the way through drafting it.

This story has been more challenging than I anticipated it would be, as a couple of the characters have really started feeling like empty cardboard cutouts. And that is something that I do not want. These characters are their own people, with unique personalities and strengths and flaws, and I want to convey that to anyone reading about them in the best way I can. My aim as a writer is very much to help transport you, the reader, into another world that you can experience and enjoy with me. Nobody enjoys staring at a cardboard box. Or reading about one.

As an aside, I'll also try to update this blog a little more, even if there's not much going on with my writing. I'd rather that it not just become a vacant outpost. 

When Things Must End

You know, I've been doing a lot of internal review and contemplation. I haven't posted here in a while due to some heavy personal things I've been dealing with. I haven't been able to write since July. It isn't writer's block. I just haven't had the energy to create.

I've been thinking a lot about what would happen if I was no longer present on the face of this earth, as grim as it sounds. I have been writing in my series for nearly twenty years. And what do I have to show for it? One revised book and a train wreck of projects waiting around to be written, completed, or overhauled and pulled from the limbo badlands. 

What would I leave behind as a writer if I only had two months left? Two years? Five years? What would happen if I could suddenly no longer write? There are so many stories I want to draft and have exist just for the sheer sake of knowing I wrote them and they're somewhere besides inside my own head.

In recent years, I've realized I need to get back to my roots and the original reason I started writing: for me. It was never to become rich or famous or cool or anything like that. I wanted to create my stories for me. For the simple yet complex and rich pleasure of picking up a story I know I could trust and enjoy. For reliving those raw wisps of energy and thought in a refined form and woven together more cohesively in a fashion that I could enjoy again and again, at my own discretion.

Now, I just hope I have the opportunity to continue to write and bring as many of these stories to life as I can before anything comes up that would prevent me from adding material to my list of accomplishments. I still intend to do as much as I can to achieve that goal. I have no idea when I'll be able to get another book published and available to the public, but I hope it isn't too far down the road. There is so much in my imagination that I don't want to let die. A trilogy must be completed yet again. A duology must join it in written form. A mini series yearns to grow its family. Standalone stories, new series, adventures with magic and machines and space and darkness and light and intrigue are all crying to be told. I will do my best to bring them to fruition. And all along the way, I just hope and pray that I have the strength to accomplish what I desire.

Of Wings and Things

Hello everyone. Not a whole lot to update you with right at the moment, since it's the same old story: I'm still working on both Taloner: Wekthusia and the revision of Nethbane. But while things are a little quiet, I thought you'd enjoy an excerpt from Book 9.

Exhaling softly, Lotus closed her eyes; it was easier to concentrate when she wasn’t looking at anything. Reaching within herself for a particular spell that she and Rhozu had been developing over the last several months, Lotus summoned the energy forth. Through her eyelids, she saw a flare of light.

Shivering from the slight tingle on her back, Lotus opened her eyes and turned to inspect her work, then sighed when she saw the feathered pair of white wings on her back. They glowed with faint luminance, lighting up the deck where she stood.

After having traveled so much with the lore drakes a year previous, Lotus had felt inspired to devise her own method of flight. It had helped to speed her in her travels across parts of Siege, especially over rocky terrain.

Lotus turned a half circle and flexed her wings, “feeling” them through the sensation of magic in her veins. Were she to reach out and touch them, they felt soft and real, but if she pressed hard enough, she could slide her fingers right through the beautiful pinions. She twitched them up and down just for fun, watching as silvery hues flashed along the magical limbs.

As someone who bore the title of Light Caller, Lotus had discovered that she had a particular bond with spells that were connected to light. Usually these were just in the form of illuminating an area or altering her vision so that she could see in the dark, but sometimes her magic extended to far more tangible points.

Facing the nearest of the ship’s three masts, Lotus focused, then jumped off the deck. Her wings thrust and propelled her upward, and a second later, her boots touched down on the lowest limb of the mast. Lotus grabbed the main trunk quickly as she caught her balance, smiling. She was no lore drake, but she was becoming more and more familiar with the spell each time she used it.

Looking up, Lotus readied herself and jumped again, going to the next limb up. She repeated this until she was balancing on the topmost part of the mast, her wings flexing around her to keep from falling. The lookout in the crow’s nest nodded to her, his mane rippling in the breeze.

“Fine evening,” he said, and Lotus nodded back.

“How do things look?” she asked, her hair slithering over one shoulder.

“Pretty quiet tonight,” the lookout said. “I’d say you’re safe for a flight.”

Thanking him, Lotus turned her attention to the dark ocean and prepared herself. When she was ready, she walked out to the end of the mast limb and leaned forward, falling away from her perch. Her wings caught the air with nary a sound as she glided forward, momentarily leaving the safety of the Hammerwing.

Wind rushed over her ears as she flew, and Lotus couldn’t stop the wide grin that appeared on her face. Oh, how exhilarating it was to fly! The fact that she could fly all by herself made it even more enjoyable, since she was no longer dependent on anyone to ferry her around.

Curving gently and flapping, she willed her magic to buoy her across the face of the sea. She had found that she couldn’t actually sustain full flight like a bird could, but she was able to cross limited distances without trouble.

A shout came from somewhere behind her.

Twisting with some difficult to look over her shoulder, she could just see the lookout on the Hammerwing waving, but with the rush of the wind over her ears, she couldn’t make out anything that didn’t sound like garble. What was he trying to say?

Abruptly, her leisurely flight was interrupted as something large and cold slammed into her. Lotus’s startled protest was cut short as she plunged into the cool water, closing her eyes as salt stung them. Her concentration broken, she felt her wings disappear from her back.

Giving a powerful kick born of adrenaline, Lotus broke the surface of the water and coughed, sucking in warm air. She tried to look around and see what had hit her, but was again driven down into the dark water. This time, she was farther from the surface. The blue moon wavered overhead, surrounded by a halo of light. Lotus kicked and fought against the water, losing her breath as she was hit in the side and spun around.

Stunned, Lotus blinked painfully and tried to see through the water. Something large writhed against the darkness, inspiring terror to the struggling human. A massive head loomed out of the deep below her, and Lotus suddenly found herself rocketing upward and into the air as something hard and cold clamped down around her chest and one arm. Sputtering, panicked, Lotus gasped and looked down at what held her.

A long, serpentine body extended away from her and disappeared into the ocean, its dull gray hide blotched by dark spots of rust. Her stomach lurched when it turned and dove back into the water, slamming her against a surface that felt as hard as earth. Lotus tried to scream, but all she achieved was swallowing a mouthful of brine.

Whatever was holding her twisted and turned, taking her closer to the inky depths. Now truly frightened and desperate to escape, Lotus aimed her free hand toward the creature and focused with all her strength. A beam of brilliant white and gold light plowed through the water, creating a flurry of superheated bubbles. A dull clang sounded as her magic struck home, but the thing that held her still refused to let go.

Someone help me! she thought, unable to speak with her mouth. Was she going to die?

The creature holding her jolted and a series of metallic booms traveled through the water. Lotus felt the pressure on her chest disappear as she was released. Frantic, she paddled her way toward the surface. It seemed so far away.

Something bright and shiny flashed through the water, and then Lotus felt strong hands grab her arm and shoulder. Her sluggish pace tripled as someone pulled her up toward the barrier between water and precious air.

Again, she felt her head break the surface as she coughed up water, sucking in a breath and coughing some more. She floundered and looked to see who had rescued her. The curved, beak-like hook of a lore drake mask met her gaze. To her start, she recognized Seraphim holding her above the waves.

“Your wings!” the lore drake cried. “Summon your wings, paladin!”

Beyond him, the water churned. An elongated head lifted and rushed toward them, jaws opening.

Lotus hurried to comply as the creature in the water closed, but her mind had been effectively scattered. All she could think about was that huge, lunging mouth.

Seraphim snarled something in Laeren, then shoved her violently to the side. Lotus felt herself being sucked backward as the huge thing—whatever it was—slid within inches of her back and submerged. Afraid that she was going to do the same, Lotus fought with all her might to stay above water.

“Paladin!”

Wet hair in her eyes, Lotus squinted and saw an airborne shape descending through the air. Six broad wings spread around a single figure and pushed against the night as blue hands grabbed Lotus. She latched onto Seraphim and felt herself yanked out of the water and borne skyward.

Behind her, the water swirled and made a sucking sound. Lotus looked in panic as a set of jaws longer than she was tall came toward her. Her eyes scrunched shut and she screamed as the maw clanged together and tore her sodden cloak.

A blast of lightning lit up the night, followed almost immediately by a thunderclap. As they flew higher, Lotus was finally able to see just what it was that had been trying to kill her. A sinuous shape that seemed to extend endlessly rose from the water in humps, and Lotus recognized the sea serpent as another lightning bolt struck it. The casters on the Hammerwing were fighting to distract the monster while Seraphim carried her to safety, his six powerful wings pumping and blasting her with cold air.

A grinding, metallic groan cut through the air and made Lotus grit her teeth. The sea serpent was lurching toward the ship, but it had clearly sustained some damage from the magic being thrown at it. The Hammerwing was veering sharply toward it, and as Lotus watched, the large blade on the front of the ship collided with the serpent. Several magic users at the front of the ship fired devastating spells down into the water, and with a final ear-rending groan, the sea serpent was caught under the ship and disappeared.

When her feet touched the firm wooden surface of the Hammerwing’s deck, Lotus collapsed, cold and suddenly very weak. Shivering, she looked up to make sure that the sea serpent had gone, then looked at Seraphim. The turquoise lore drake was standing over her in concern, his wings dripping water.

“Are you alright?” he asked, and she nodded.

Lotus coughed again, spitting up saltwater, then eyed his wings. They were almost … translucent.

“You have six wings?” she blurted, unable to comprehend what was going on. Just how much salt water had she swallowed?

She began to choke again. Seraphim thumped her on the back as she spit up more water.

“At times,” he said. “It’s a gift from a very generous priestess I helped a while ago.”

Now that she didn’t feel as if she were on the verge of death, Lotus was able to study the wings more carefully. All six of them looked identical and somehow ethereal, as if they had been carved out of bluish ice. A faint glow was coming from them.

“Captain, that serpent may be coming back up,” one of the crewmen warned.

Seraphim nodded to his men and started issuing orders.

“I want magi on all points of the ship. Do everything you can to boost our speed and get us the blazes out of here! If that thing knocks a hole in us before we can sink it, we’re going to be limping for a long way.”

“Aye, sir!”

As his men hastened to obey his orders, Seraphim reached down and helped Lotus to her feet. With a sighing noise, his wings flickered and vanished, leaving behind the single pair he regularly sported.

“Come—we’d better get you dried off.”

Lotus was still staring at his wings, her head spinning like a top. Six wings? Sea serpents? What had she gotten herself into?

“You and that Nethbane seem to be magnets for trouble,” Seraphim grumbled as he opened the hatch and escorted her into the hold. Behind them, the wind had suddenly picked up and was blowing into in the Hammerwing’s sails with a vengeance.

“What do we do now?” Lotus asked.

Seraphim waved a hand. “Ah, don’t worry, lady. They’ll sink that thing before it can cause any more damage. It’s not the first serpent my men and I have dealt with. I’m more concerned about you staying safe, in the meantime.”

“I’m sorry, Captain,” Lotus said as they approached the place where her cot was crammed. She was beginning to feel very stupid about her short flight. “I didn’t mean to stir up trouble.”

“It’s not your fault,” Seraphim told her. “Now, get out of that armor. I’ll have an extra blanket brought down to you while you dry off.”

Resisting the urge to sigh, Lotus rolled her eyes. She certainly hoped that the rest of her journey wasn’t going to go like this.

All content (c) 2020 W. A. Johnson

New Year, New Goals

You know, it occurred to me recently that my writing has been a serious hobby for about seventeen years, now. In that time, I've managed to draft and publish a trilogy and several additional books, but most of those are unavailable to the public due to my decision to go back and revise most all of my work up til now. I never really pressured myself to say, "I'm going to have X number of books published in ten years, and Y number in fifteen", because that kind of goal-setting seems to work against my grain. But, honestly, I've not made near the amount of progress in seventeen years that I would have liked.

By now, it's no secret that I've struggled to get back in the groove with my writing since finding out I was going to become a mother. Motherhood has been a colossal shift in my life, and I've not had nearly the same amount of energy or time that I had before to devote to writing. I'd imagine it's a challenge most every new parent faces, whether it be with their creative endeavors, balancing work and home life, or some other application. So I've been working on coming to terms with the fact that my life just isn't the same anymore, and finding new methods to accomplish my goals. Kind of like forging new paths across a landscape that you used to travel frequently, then had the scenery get obliterated by some natural disaster. The route you traveled before no longer exists, and now you have new obstacles to cross and understand.

It does sound kind of bleak when I put it that way, but I don't mean it to be that way. I'm just trying to understand and make peace with how my writing energy is different now. It's still there, I can still feel the core of that energy circling within me and waiting for new channels to flow through. The biggest challenge for me now is chipping out those channels and learning how to moderate the flow of energy so that I don't burn out or give up altogether during a drought.

So, that brings me to my goals for this year. Remember those notebooks I lost last year? I finally found them (YAY!!!) I am in the process of reviewing my notes and materials in order to resume work on Taloner: Wekthusia, and one of my goals will be to complete the first draft by the end of 2020 and begin prepping it for revision and eventual publication. I'm unsure yet if that publication will happen this year or the next, but I'm pushing to get it done ASAP. I really feel like my readers have waited long enough for something new from the Legends of Destiny universe.

The next order of business: revision of Nethbane will continue throughout this year, and I'd also like to get this back into publication as soon as is humanly possible. I've been pretty lax with assigning myself weekly quotas for writing, but now it feels like I've been too lax. When I was revising Wings of Fate, I was working on it at least every other day, if not daily, and logging massive sums of work each week. I can't realistically expect that same kind of workload to get accomplished now as a mother, but you'd better believe I'm going to do everything I can to get things rolling again!

In addition to these goals, I have decided that as soon as I finish either the first draft of Taloner: Wekthusia or the revision of Nethbane, it's time to resume the revision of Path of a Hero, the second book in my trilogy. I've been thinking about it more over the past few months and slowly working through ideas on how to reshape some of the messier, muddier spots in the original manuscript. I would really like to see this book refined, finished, and back into print by the end of 2021. Sooner would be excellent, but it took me about two years to revise Wings of Fate, and Path of a Hero was a larger book to begin with. I'm hoping it won't take more than two years, maximum, to finish reworking it and cleaning it up. There's also the matter of new cover art for the revised edition, but we'll cross that bridge later.

Last year, it had been my plan to finish drafting Taloner: Wekthusia and then move on to other short projects, such as future Taloner books (there are at least three others I've got summaries written for, at present) but after much reflection, I've decided that the rest of the Taloner Chronicles will have to wait. After I've gotten most of the above-mentioned workload done, I intend to resume work on the duology, which has been patiently waiting for me to return to it.

My brain is saturated with sooo many things I'm dying to share with readers through that duology. There is just so much of Gaia and the series that I'd love to give all of you to read, in the intimate detail with which it exists in my head. There are other stories, too, such as the loosely-connected series Foreign Lands that I hope to someday draft and publish.

I'll stop all my chattering there, though. I've learned by now that my energy seems to best remain self-sustaining if I don't give away too many details of the content I'm working on at any given time. It's strange. And, I'm burning precious time by writing this blog entry. I really need to grit my teeth, dig my heels in, and get to work.

Until next time. And as always, thank you for reading <3 p="">

Fall Update

Happy Fall, everyone! I hope you’re all staying comfortable and enjoying the season. We’ve been busy working over some of our fields in an attempt to clear out lots of nasty old greasewood and creosote brush so that we can plant wheat. Long story short – hard soil bad. Tractors good.

I’ve continued to work on what was supposed to be the final revision of Nethbane, but the more I dig into this, the more disgusted and disappointed I am with how sloppy some of it feels. I put a lot of time and effort into this book when originally drafting and revising it (a LOT) and to read through it now and think that I only wrote this about six years ago, I’ve begun reworking it in the same fashion that Wings of Fate was subjected to – IE, a complete re-write.

The core of everything will stay the same (with a few extra things) but I have no choice but to overhaul Nethbane before getting it back into print. I am a perfectionist by nature, and I will accept nothing but the best quality that I am capable of at any given time. This means that the revision may take longer than I’d first anticipated, but whatever. At least it will feel better to me, and hopefully flow better for readers.

Still no sign of my large writing binder or its companion notebook, unfortunately. And now my main sketchbook has gone missing, as well. I’ve not seen any of them in months and the only thing I can think is that I put all three of them somewhere very safe while moving – so safe, of course that I can’t locate them. I’ll continue to search, but if I can’t find them within the next little while here, I may just break down and rework some things in the outline for Taloner: Wekthusia so that I can at least finish the first draft. I really was hoping to have this book ready for print some time next year, and I’m not giving up on that goal. Of course, that leaves the matter of getting myself back into digital art, which I’ve not really done for about three years, but it has to happen at some point.

In other news, I’m still exhausted day and night, but by this point I’ve realized that this will never go away and I’ve begun to adjust mentally. It does create more frustration with trying to write and hold onto all sorts of different little details, but I guess that’s why I have a bunch of blank notebooks hoarded (and a plethora of digital notes) Time to fill everything up with work!

Being in a constant state of utter exhaustion also means art will be sparser (not like you didn’t notice that already, right?) But I am hoping to do a little art here and there, instead of lots of nothing.

PS - Is there a character or creature from Legends of Destiny that you would like to see drawn? Feel free to mention it in the comments!

What Once Was Lost...

Hello again, dear readers. Happy news: For the first time in more than five years, I have internet at home.

And, some not-so-happy news: I cannot locate the large binder (or its companion notebook) in which I have recorded a very significant amount of notes for my writing. Both have to be somewhere amongst the things that have been packed up for moving, but after scouring multiple places that these notebooks could and should be, I still cannot locate either of them. I am at a point in the manuscript of Taloner: Wekthusia where I cannot continue forward without being able to consult my notes for vital bits of information I have there, and I am unwilling to plow blindly ahead and create a large mess to come back and clean up later on. So, after much consideration and no small amount of regret, I am forced to take a temporary break from working on the manuscript. With luck, I will be able to find at least the binder or the notebook within the next little while. Once I do, work will resume. This is really the only problem with condensing so much of your thoughts, notes, and work into one central point.

This is really frustrating for me because the past several months have been full of progress, and this is the most productive I've felt with my writing since revising and re-releasing Wings of Fate. Waiting is not something I enjoy doing.

However, I've also come to the decision that while I am attempting to locate my lost notes, I will begin working on another project that has been weighing on my mind quite heavily for the last while; the final revision for Nethbane is overdue, and I will be applying myself to this project in the meantime. There are a couple of new chapters that need to be written and inserted, as well as something being modified near the end of the book.

While my large binder and notebook are missing, I did manage to unearth a single page of very important notes that I had lost while working on the original draft of Nethbane's manuscript. The last sixth or so of the book never did feel quite right to me, and I knew I was missing something, but I couldn't remember what. It was a relief to find this lonely little scrap of paper, which is now being kept in a safe place.

I think that's enough of an update here, for now. If you'll excuse me, I have a little over 215,000 words I need to read through and polish.