Excerpt - Taloner: Wekthusia

Hello, readers! I've been keeping pretty busy here, between looking after a very rambunctious and inquisitive son and all the produce that's been unexpectedly dropped into my lap for food storage. It's been a big challenge to get any art done in the midst of all of this, but I'm hoping to be able to get some concepts secured soon here. Work on Taloner: Wekthusia has been slow, as usual (I sure miss the days when ten pages a week felt like a breeze)

Here's a little tidbit from the manuscript for you to enjoy this lovely Autumn morning (or afternoon, or evening - whenever it is for you):

         The smell hit his nose before any sounds touched his ears. It was the odor of sweat, stale coffee, and the deep, earthy musk perfumes preferred by the elves.
         Wekthusia ground to a halt, wings tensing. He cast out rapidly with his magical sense and encountered the buzzing aura of not one, but three spellcasters. Hastily, he retracted his magic and glanced behind him. He didn’t want to go back into that nest of elves, truth be told.
         Sucking in a breath, Wekthusia grabbed at a small charm worn on a chain around his neck. He watched as the air rippled around him, signaling that the charm’s power had been activated.
         A split second later, five elves walked into sight. One wore a red-striped feather that signified some sort of commander, if Wekthusia remembered correctly. He watched as the elves approached his position and chattered in low, soft voices. None of them even glanced at him.
         Within seconds, they reached the spot where the priest was standing and continued past, one of them passing through Wekthusia as if he were a ghost. Wekthusia dared not exhale until they were several steps away, for the effects of the inter-dimensional charm only blocked him from physical sight and touch, not sound. And now that he’d used it, he’d have to wait a full twenty-four hours for it to recharge.
         The elves continued along their way, conversing about recent reports from the coast. Wekthusia thought he heard a snatch of something about Neth, but that wasn’t so unusual, anymore. Ever since the war, Neth activity had been up in almost all sectors of Siege, along with a few areas outside the continent.
         He was just about to release the charm when something one of the elves said caught his ear.
         “Did you find the Lauina yet?”
         Wekthusia’s eyes snapped onto the speaker. It was the elf wearing the red-tipped feather.
         Another elf made a gesture.
         “Not yet,” he said, “but it’s around here somewhere. Our spell net will …”
         That was about as much as Wekthusia understood clearly, but he got the feeling that whatever else the elf was saying was unpleasant. The commander snorted and made a remark about “practice” when the Lauina was found.
         Wekthusia’s stomach churned. The Illismonah knew he was here—and they were looking for him.


Pretty short, sorry. The working manuscript is still just shy of 29,000 words. I'm still working toward my Spring 2019 goal for completion of the first draft, even if I have to start writing in the middle of the night to get there.

Current Project

Okay now, I promised a post to reveal what my main writing project is for the year. You might have already guessed it (did your eyes just dart down to see if you were correct?)

AND THE WINNER IS:

Taloner: Wekthusia

Yep, it's one of the Taloner books, as I suspected I'd choose at the first of the year. Since these books are much smaller than other projects in the series, it has provided a lighter workload for me to carry while I continue to adjust to being a mother and being so drained of energy each day, I commonly stutter or slur my speech (Guys, my one-year-old is still waking up an average of five times a night. Seriously)

I've mentioned before that Taloner: Wekthusia started out as a project some years ago. It was just a random story idea that I started writing after finishing the first drafts of The Rebirth Trilogy, and I really didn't have a clue as to where it was going. It was something that I'd add to as little sparks of inspiration occurred, as I was still riding the afterglow of completing my own trilogy. The manuscript has now been dusted off, plotted out, and I've overhauled what was written so that it's much less shudder-worthy in the structure department. I'm glad I held on to this piece for so long, even when I didn't think it would ever become anything more than an unfinished manuscript that would never see the light of day. It's provided a platform for me to get back into the groove with writing, which is what I needed.

Yeah okay, moving on. So if you've read Taloner: Reima or it's sequel, you kind of already know what a Taloner is. It's a scout who roams a specific area of the world in order to observe and record information related to their assignment, such as keeping an eye on enemies of the lore drake empire.

Going more into depth, Taloner scouts typically fall into one of five categories: warriors, priests/priestesses, scholars, monks (fighting priests), and those of nobility. Wekthusia is a priest, which has been a little different to work with, as I'm used to the warrior mindset of Reima. I've had to keep correcting myself and really try to focus on developing Wekthusia as his own person, instead of making him a Reima clone (trust me, it's easy to accidentally copy your own characters sometimes when you write)

So looking at what I've been able to accomplish so far with this book, it isn't very likely that it will be completed this year, even with it being a smaller project. It's currently at a little over 27,000 words. That might seem paltry to some, but from where I've been mentally during the last two years, it's a success. I'm excited to keep working with it, and I'm hoping to release it in the spring of 2019.

I'm already deciding which writing project will come next after that, as I'm now focusing on my group of announced titles instead of starting anything new. I'm not certain yet if my side project, Origins, will become the next main project, or if it will continue to exist as my side project. It just depends on what kind of energy and inspiration occurs for me between now and that point.

Now then, I'm off to do some work. Have an excellent day, and thanks for reading!

WIP - Himni Rek-Aro

Holy smokes, two posts in one week. What is the world coming to?

I sketched this a couple of weeks ago as part of a small art challenge for myself. This is Himni Rek-Aro, a character who appears in The Rebirth Trilogy. She is the last of the four original original characters I drew when I started writing the trilogy as a teenager, once upon a time (the others being Kuma, Cenme, and Nighteye). I've wanted to draw her for a while in order to more fully flesh out her appearance. This sketch needs a lot of work before I ink it, but it's a start. In particular, I need to redo the details of her mask. The wing theme was okay, but it's not what I wanted. I do plan to ink and color this at some point.

So ... a little trivia for you about Himni, since I've been trying to do this more when I post images of individual characters and such:

The gemstones in Himni's mask are a purple-red sapphire and a red spinel, the latter of which represents "intensity" among the Laiuna people. (Side notes - Different colored sapphires, aside from the familiar blue, may also carry special meaning. And, red spinel is one of my personal favorites when it comes to gemstones)

Himni's home is a city called Juk Sul, which is located in a southern range of Genkian mountains called The Gods' Abode. The city is built at a high elevation, which means that cooler temperatures are a norm, and as such, some of Himni's normal attire includes fur lining. Juk Sul has an interesting history that involves rebelling against the Laiuna empire at one point, and one of the carry-overs of that rebellion is represented by the structure of it's citizens' names; Instead of the traditional name format in the rest of Genkai (Surname, followed by Given Name) the natives of Juk Sul use their Given Name first, followed by their Surname. I won't bore you with further details on all that, but yeah.

Okay, now - Setting aside trivia and sketches, I've also come to a decision: While I still have a number of planned works in store for the Legends of Destiny series, along with a couple other series and projects, no more new projects will be started for the next while .... like, years. I've decided that the amount of back-logged projects I have built up is utterly ridiculous and I'm going to start working through the book titles that have already been announced before I begin anything else. This means that titles such as Sovereign Soul, The Gem Duology, at least some Taloner books will be completed in their first draft form before I move on to anything else. My goal is to drastically cut down on the number of books sitting around in limbo, since some of them were announced a long time ago (cough, Sovereign Soul....)

Oh yeah. I guess that means I'd better make an announcement on which title won out as my current main project, huh? Well, look for that post soon!

Fourth Chaos Beast

Another Chaos Beast! Sheeze, I finally got the time and energy to sit down and finish this one. I'll continue to work on the concept art for her, since some of the colors didn't turn out quite right with what I'm seeing in my head.

Okay, so if you've read the trilogy you may be thinking, "Fourth beast? What happened to the third one?"

Don't worry. Beast 3 will be making an appearance in the duology, as I stated before. But that doesn't mean I'm not still developing the rest of the Chaos Beasts, or that none of them will appear in future projects.

So what are some things I can tell you about this Chaos Beast without ruining any surprises? She's female, for one (Yeah, you caught that. I know). Four of the Chaos Beasts are female, actually. The abilities of this one include power over illusion. She is also unique among all other beasts, for a reason that I won't divulge quite yet (sorry). And yes, she does appear in at least one of the book titles that has already been announced. She is also around twenty-five feet total in length, making her a little smaller than Denlupis.

The Origins Project

Ha, so as if I don't have enough of a pile falling out of my project cart, I need to come clean about one more: The Origins project. This book will not be a novel, however. It is a collection of anthologies similar to Wayside Tales, but all of the short stories in it will revolve around the theme of an origin - origins of creatures, characters, relics, and maybe a few other things that haven't yet been explained in-depth in the series.

I do already have partial drafts written for several of the stories, as well as a list of ideas that I might like to create a story for to add to the collection. I highly doubt that the entire list will make it into the book.

Origins is currently functioning as my side project. When I need a little break from my main project, or when a spurt of energy strikes me at the right time, I'll add to the short stories in it. Realistically, I'd like to get all of the first drafts done within the next year or so, but as always, we'll see what life deals me between now and then. As I said, Origins is not my main project ... yet.

Have a lovely day :)

Beasts, Gems, and books

Greetings, readers. Are you ready for summer? And are you ready for another update?

I'm happy to report that I've been able to stick with my weekly writing quota in an effort to get as much done as I can on my main project for the year. I've even been able to make up for some lost time in the past couple of weeks, which makes me happy. I'm still not saying which title I'm working on, but since I ruled out a couple of titles in the last post, I will also say that my main project is not one of the following:

Foreign Lands
Nethbane
Path of a Hero (revision)

Yep, sorry. PoaH is still stuck in traffic waiting its turn to be worked on, but fear not. I'll almost certainly be back to working on it within the next year and a half, or so. I've been avoiding it, shame on me, and the reason is because there are several parts and story threads in it that I know will be messy to clean up and hammer out. When I first wrote the trilogy, I was pretty much just gamboling along and having fun, spitting out whatever plotline ideas occurred to me that passed the 5 minute rule. Unfortunately, that's left some weak plot elements to come back to. But I refuse to just abandon the revision project. I want readers to really see this book how it was supposed to be written, just as is now possible with Wings of Fate. I don't want to wait too long before having the complete trilogy available to the public once again.

So, that leaves the following possibilities in my lineup:

Book 9
Taloner: Reima (revision)
Taloner: Moa
Taloner: Wekthusia
Predecessor

Can you guess which one is the winner?

Speaking of Book 9, I really thought you should know ... seeing as how it's the first half of a duology, its project name is the Gem Duology. This title might change in time, but for now, this is it's name. And since this is a duology, that of course means that there's going to be a second book involved here. Let's call if Book 15 for now, shall we? (Even though it will take place directly after Book 9 in the series, and not later on in the timeline)

I do have the gist of the plot framed out for the duology, and it's one I'm very eager to share with readers. Among other things, some new insights will be revealed about the Gems of Virtue, something that has only vaguely been mentioned in the series up until now. The Gems affected quite a bit of Gaia's history during their existence, and they are legendary among its inhabitants.

The duology will also feature at least one new Chaos Beast. Readers familiar with The Rebirth Trilogy will remember these fun critters, as a couple of them surfaced there.

There is so much about these beasts that I enjoy writing about. Each of them is totally unique from the others, and each is connected with different elements in the world, giving them powers related to those elements. Denlupis was associated with electricity and speed, of course. And here's another fun fact about the beasts: They have the peculiar nature of becoming attached to the existence of one mortal at a time, until either they die, or the mortal does ... guess which one usually happens? So, someone in the duology is getting a new beast attached to them. Oh dear.

And while we're talking Chaos Beasts, I'm in the process of finishing some concept art for one Chaos Beast in particular. You'll likely see it posted here in the near future.

That's all for now. Until next time!

Progress is Progress

Well, work has been very slow for the past four months. My son has always struggled with sleeping well, and if you've never gone for a long time without much REM, let me tell you - it wipes you out. You stumble through the day like a zombie, and then you wonder how it got to be nighttime again so that the cycle repeats. Housework is drudgery. Exercise is torture, if you even achieve that much. And the ability to function like a sane person is almost non-existent.

But enough of that.

I have selected which book will be my main writing project for the year. I'd rather not say which book it is just yet, as that seems to knock the wind out of my sails. But, I can say that it is not either of the following titles: Taloner: Blue, nor Taloner: Dio. Both of these titles need a significant amount of work to their plotlines and development before I can really start working on them.

So, that being said, I'm trying very hard to devote all of the spare time I have to working on my book for the year ..... which isn't much. I'm still holding out hope that that changes soon, but at this point, I've just decided that tired or not, I'll be sacrificing some much-needed sleep time to work on writing. Worth a shot, right?

I was hoping to have a character sketch up with this post, but alas, I need to find the installation software again for my scanner. Le sigh.

Until next time, readers. Stay sharp (and rested!)

It calls to me ...

Well, well. It has certainly been another while since my last update here. In that time, I’ve been experiencing the very incredible task of becoming a mother. To sum things up, I am still recovering in some regards and have next to no time for myself, but I love being home with my little one. What’s more is that at long last, my energy reserves for creative endeavors are returning – and demanding to be set loose. So, here I am, attempting to gather together my thoughts and notes on what projects face me for the next decade (wow).

I actually bothered to make a New Year’s resolution this year. My goal is to complete the first draft of any one of the writing projects that I have in progress at present. It’s going to be a pressing goal under my current time constraints, especially since I’m still adjusting to caring for another person and the term “sleep deprived” is only mildly describing my state of consciousness. But, I need to write. After more than a year long dry spell, the drive to complete and publish more of my stories is strong.

So, cut the chatter. Here’s a list of the items vying for my attention. And reader beware, there are spoilers ahead!

Path of a Hero (revision)

My current progress on this is sitting at a scant 3,100 words – which leaves about 197,000 words for me to read through and revise, yet. Like Wings of Fate, I am revising Path of a Hero by completely rewriting the manuscript as I read through it. Very, very few sentences are left just the way they are, if any. It’s a grueling task, but very much worth it to me. I am still enormously pleased with the rewrite of Wings of Fate and hope to find similar satisfaction with this book, despite the fact that there are a couple of particularly messy hang-ups I know I’m going to have to contend with in the manuscript.

Book 9

Sitting at a little over 67,000 words, Book 9 is still a project I’m very much looking forward to completing … when I can devote enough time and attention to it. Becoming a mother was not something I had planned on just yet. Be that as it may, I know that this is a project I will return to, most probably within the next few years. I really don’t have a choice – the story is burning in my soul and begs to be finished.

This book is the first half of a duology. In the very early stages of conception, this was planned as an installment in another trilogy, but due to story concepts and symbolism that has to do with the over all plot of the books, this was better suited as a duology. In the past year or so, I’ve been able to gather my thoughts and plan out a lot more detail for the second half of the duology than I had since completing the original drafts of The Rebirth Trilogy. So, here’s a little blurb for you:

Roughly a year after the events of the Rebirth War, the world of Gaia is still feeling the cooling effects of an evil god’s return. While the issue of war is nothing new, other problems are cropping up – one of which is particularly alarming: For reasons unknown, the Nethbane is once more roving the lands, though his presence is far from that of a god-sent savior. Leaving a trail of death and confusion, his name is quickly turning to a curse on the lips of Gaia’s inhabitants.

When news of her friend’s strange shift in behavior reaches the paladin Lotus, she sets out to find her friend and stop him, if possible. Despite all that she’s heard, Lotus knows in her heart that Kuma could never truly turn evil, but the disturbing question must be asked: If this is not the work of the Nethbane … then who?

Taloner: Reima (revision)

Revision work for this book has already been started, but I’m not quite 6% of the way through the first rewrite. However, this manuscript is much smaller than Path of a Hero, so it feels more doable at the moment.

Taloner: Moa

An unassuming and quiet researcher finds her peace disturbed and herself the target of a dangerous creature when she unearths an ancient weapon in the ruins of Godrealm.

Taloner: Dio

A seafaring Taloner stumbles upon a stranded ally, one connected intimately with an issue of the empire’s safety. Time is limited, and there are details that run deeper than they first appear on the surface.

Taloner: Blue

Someone is laying lethal traps for the Laiune in southern Kura-Cora, and the design appears to be that of an ally. When a mechanically-minded scout tries to find out why, she finds herself suddenly entangled with the military and a sinister truth that threatens a friend.

Taloner: Wekthusia

So this is an older one I had started to write years ago out of boredom, and it now requires an overhaul before completion. For anyone who’s familiar with the stories in Wayside Tales, a certain sassy young Illismonah also makes an appearance in this one.

Wekthusia is a decent sort of guy who believes in honesty and being responsible first and foremost. So when a brash young maiden shows up and drags him into a personal dispute with a sorcerer, it’s bound to cause some issues.

Predecessor

An exotic new race calling itself the Neth has appeared in Gaia, and its foremost goal is the destruction of the Laiuna people. With a sudden shift in the very powers that created the world, once-faithful followers are now left anchorless and confused. Heeding the will of his master and going in the face of hopelessness, a lowly warrior named Meng chooses to undertake a seemingly impossible task – destroy the god Zemose.

Nethbane

Surprised to see this one on the list? I’ve hinted (rather obviously) that this was going to go through some more work in the future. I mainly just need to do a little more revision and add in a crucial detail toward the end of the book – a detail that was scribbled down on a scrap of paper and then got lost and forgotten in the early stages of the book. Nethbane never did feel quite right when I was trying to wrap up the first draft, and when I rediscovered this scrap of paper, I felt like an idiot for having forgotten what was written on it. Of course … isn’t that why we write things down?

Foreign Lands

Here’s one that’s a little different than the rest. Why? Because while it is connected with the Legends of Destiny series, this is actually a series all its own. For about a decade, now, I’ve been plotting out details for a fantasy-scifi crossover that I’d like to write. Foreign Lands began with a dream I had one night where I saw a fairly detailed map of a new continent. When I woke up, I recorded as much as I could remember, then began to develop the story behind this land. As things stand now, the series will contain five books total, a number that’s symbolic with some elements in the story. It will be a big shift for me from the usual material in Legends of Destiny, but the more time goes on, the more I’m able to develop the plotlines in this series and the more eager I am to make it my main project.

One item that did not make it to this list is Sovereign Soul, which I still do not feel I am ready to complete – much to my frustration. With that being said, I fear that if I do not force myself to at least attempt to churn out a sizeable portion of this book within the next four to five years, I may lose my drive to work on it, altogether. This is totally unacceptable. But, I have to be realistic here and weigh my options for the year, given the sparse time available to me to work.

Unfortunately, it’s very unlikely that any of the larger projects will make it to the finish line this year. This means that one of the Taloner books will almost certainly be my winner for being completed in draft form, if I am able to actually pull off this goal. But, that doesn’t mean that I can’t sneak in a little work here and there on one of the larger projects. Wish me luck. I’m going to need it.

And while we’re talking about book details, don’t forget the Legends of Destiny wiki at http://legends-of-destiny.wikia.com/wiki/Legends_of_Destiny_Wiki. I’m still updating it periodically as the need arises. Until next time, happy reading!