Elemental Project

Aug

2018

What’s the story, Wishbone?

(Anyone else remember that show?)

Here we are in August, and it’s time for school to start again. Which means that it’s time for me to start again.

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I’m coming off a fantastic weekend at Indie Book Fest, a convention that I think is going to be a regular thing for me from now on. Even though I had a nasty case of food poisoning on Thursday night, I still had an amazing time, and I met a bunch of wonderful writers and readers. Cannot wait for next year!

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(I really like this picture!)

In other news, I posted another chapter of Heir to the Firstborn on Friday night, a preliminary map on Saturday, and I am working on the next post. Yes, I’m going to be working on two stories simultaneously. Yes, I have a plan. No, I have no idea how well this plan is going to work. You don’t know until you try, right?

Everybody ready?

Let’s go!

Jul

2018

An interesting week

It’s been a very interesting week here in Schechterland.

I finished the first chapter of the Heir to the Firstborn, and I’ve scheduled it to go live on Patreon on Friday, August 3rd at 8PM. It’s going up as a public freebie, so anyone can take a look. If you like it, and want to know what happens after… well, you can jump in for a dollar a month.

I was originally planning on going live with the chapter this past Friday, but I was late because of the other interesting thing this past week. I had oral surgery on Thursday.

This is where you want to avoid the next bit if dental things bother you. I’ve put the story in gray between the stars, so that it’s harder to read. If you really want to know, you can highlight it to see what I’m talking about.

***

It wasn’t a hugely invasive procedure, but I ended up with two stitches and some bone removal, so it did knock me off my pins.

Yes, I did say “it wasn’t a hugely invasive procedure” and “bone removal” in the same sentence. Considering that my alternative involved bone grafts and implants? Yeah, this was good.

I’m still a little loopy (and I’m not even on the good pain meds!) I’m recovering, though, and will have a permanent crown put in on Thursday (I hope. Depends on how the incisions are healing.)

***

Okay, back to less squicky bits. (And yes, I went back and edited to that the white text wasn’t showing up on the gray background.)

I’ll be starting back to Swords of Charlemagne in just about two weeks, after Indie Bookfest. There are still tickets available for the convention, so if you’re in the area of Lake Mary, Florida, you should totally come check it out!

Jul

2018

Mirror: I Have a Plan

Mirrored from Patreon:

All right. So here’s the plan.

I just posted the Earth Tribe introduction as a Patron only post. Next week, I’ll post the last Tribe (which is Fire).

The following week, I’ll be starting the actual story. I’ve got a synopsis going, and the characters are starting to yell at me.

Once I start the story, I’m changing the Patreon over to per month (as opposed to per creation). I’ll be posting more frequently — every two to three thousand words, and if I charge by the creation, that might get a bit onerous. I’m hoping to have the story up one chapter a week, on Fridays. It might slow down a bit once I go back to working on Swords of Charlemagne in mid-August. I hope not, though.

So, that’s the plan. Story coming soon!

Jul

2018

Blurb Draft: Heir of the Firstborn

We have a title for the Elemental Project/Adavar! Heir to the Firstborn now also has a very rough blurb.

What do you think?

***

Out of the dreams of the Mother Goddess came the four tribes of Adavar, each born from of the elements. And since the beginning, the tribes of Adavar have been ruled by the Firstborn, the descendants of Axia, the firstborn daughter of the Mother Goddess. And as Axia had her four companions by her side throughout her life, so to does the Firstborn have their Council, chosen one from each tribe, so that each tribe has a voice. On the day that the Firstborn takes the throne, their Heir is chosen by the Mother Goddess herself, and no one could fathom someone daring to challenge that divine choice

Until the usurper Mannon turned on Firstborn Tirine, her Council, and Milon, her Heir, stealing the throne of Adavar and throwing the world into chaos. His forces separated the tribes, taking control of all trade and restricting each tribe to their own lands. Divided, the tribes cannot stand against him.

But when Mannon murdered the Firstborn, her Council, and her Heir, he failed to take the Heir’s four companions. Airborn Liara was safe in the mountains with her family when the attacks came. On the orders of the dying Milon, Fireborn Memfis smuggled the other two companions out of the palace and saw them to safety before disappearing into the Smoke Mountains. Now, twenty years later, Waterborn Aleia and her mate, Earthborn Jehan, survive alone far out at sea, maintaining little contact with the Water tribe. It is the only life their son, Aven, has ever known.

Then the storm comes, driving the family canoe into strange waters. There, they find a storm-damaged ship, drifting aimlessly, it’s crew all dead from disease. The only survivor – a girl with wings, imprisoned in the hold. Jehan and Aven free her, and bring her onto the canoe, where Jehan tends to her. When she wakes, she knows Aleia and Jehan on sight, and what she tells them turns Aven’s life upside down.

Her name is Aria.

She is Milon’s daughter.

She is the Heir to the Firstborn, charged by the Goddess to take back what was stolen.

And Aven is her first companion.

Jul

2018

Mirror: Eek! Sorry

It’s been over a week since I last said anything to my lovely Patrons, and I just now realized it. Sorry about that! We’ve had some schedule shifts here, and I’m still getting used to what’s going to be a temporary normal. I’m not sure how long it’s going to be normal, exactly. I’m sure I’ll get my writing schedule under control before too long.

I have been working on Adavar, albeit in a notebook. I’ve written up the Air Tribe, and that will be coming sometime this week. I’m working on Earth and should have that finished shortly, and I already have ideas for Fire. Once I have those down, then I’ll see what else needs to be pulled together before I actually start with the writing part. Basic character sketches, maybe. There might be a blurb. Or not. I hate blurbing my own work.

I really am excited to get the actual story started.

In other news, I’ll be a featured author at Indie Bookfest, which is coming up next month here in Florida. This will be a first time for me, and I’m looking forward to that!

Okay. Back to finishing up Earth.

(Originally posted on Patreon.)

Jun

2018

Busy week

Short post tonight. It’s been a busy, and very odd week here in the Schechter household. I’ve been working around the edges on Adavar, and I’ve posted some more worldbuilding to Patreon. But the end of the week has been a bit distracting, so I’ve done very little since Thursday. I’m hoping things settle into place this week.

One of the changes has to do with our homeschooling status. In a nutshell, it’s coming to an end — starting in August, my son is going back to school, to an amazing school that we’ve been trying to get into for a few years now. So come August, I’m going to have a lot more writing time, and I’m going to have to get used to that! It might mean that Ashes and Light gets written faster, or it might mean that I work on both Swords of Charlemagne and Adavar at the same time. I’ll figure it out as I go.

I’m also working on refreshing my brain, aka catching up on my reading. Last night, I read the first four pages of Catherynne Valente’s delightfully dippy Space Opera aloud to a very confused child of my acquaintance. I think I’m going to need to start him on Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy while I read this. (If you haven’t read Space Opera yet, go get a copy now. Right now. I’ll wait.)

Also on my pile are Roxane Gay’s Hunger, and a reread of Ursula Vernon’s Castle Hangnail. And I’m still reading Damon Suede’s fantastic writing book Verbalize, which I have to take in small chunks, the better to absorb the information. Oh, and I’m refreshing my memory on Victorian household management for when I dive back in to Swords of Charlemagne.

The reprints of the Tales from the Arena books release soon — I know it was supposed to be June, but things happen. I’m still loving the new covers, though.

I should stop — I’m rambling like a Lake Wobegon broadcast. Although I do have to say — here in the Schechter house, all the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are above average.

Jun

2018

Mirror, Mirror: How The Sausage Gets Made

Originally posted here

As I’ve said before, the level of detail I go into when I’m worldbuilding depends on the project. Right now, while I’m working on Adavar, I’m also rereading some Victorian history for when I go back to working on Swords of Charlemagne. I tend to have multiple projects going on in the back of my brain — I call it having a story percolate.

Now, what you’ll see as I’m working on building the world of Adavar (aka, the Elemental project) are things that will help me later on down the line. Things like the creation myth will give me a handle on how the people of Adavar think and react, because these are things that color how they see their world.

I think that it’s time like this when you really do see that I’m a frustrated anthropologist at heart. I don’t think I ever really got over my college adviser telling me that I couldn’t do a triple major (which would have been English, Secondary Education, and Cultural Anthropology).

Anyway, the creation myth gives me the foundation. Now I’ll be looking more closely at each tribe and how they interact, and I’ll be looking at how the government works.

My next Patron post will probably be within the next week or so, and I need some feedback. Do we stay with pay per post, or go to pay by the month? If we stay with pay per post, then I’ll be posting five or more paid posts in the next month or two. Then, once August starts, I’ll be tapering off because I’ll be getting back to Swords of Charlemagne. How do we want to proceed?

Let me know!

Jun

2018

Mirror, Mirror: Groundwork (Patreon public post from 6/6/18)

I’ve realized just this minute that I need to mirror my public posts from Patreon over here in the blog. This is the first of the public posts that happened over there.

As we go forward, I’ll start the mirrored posts off with Mirror, Mirror, and tag them as such, so that they’re obvious.

***

All right. It’s time to get this thing moving.

The amount of groundwork that I do for my writing tends to vary, depending on what genre I’m writing. Sometimes, it’s just historical research. Sometimes, it’s historical research with worldbuilding that harmonizes around actual events — Swords of Charlemagne, the current series, is like that, as is the entire Princes of Air universe, and House of Sable Locks.

And sometimes, the worldbuilding is everything. That was the Rebel Mage trilogy, Tales From the Arena, and now, this thing. Which still doesn’t have a name, so I’m going to continue calling it the Elemental Project.

I love worldbuilding, says the frustrated wanna-be anthropologist (my college advisor told me that I couldn’t do a triple major. Boo!) Creating the myths and religions and magic systems and the whys and wherefores of a culture is like catnip for me. The degree I will go to for a given project will vary — there was a little in depth work done for Rebel Mage, but much more for Tales From the Arena. Sometimes, things develop organically. Sometimes, I have pages and pages of notes before I even start writing.

This is going to be a pages and pages of notes project. Otherwise, why bother with the Patreon?

I’ve been thinking about where to start this project. Basic info about the world and government? Character information? Backstory and history?

Nah…

Creation myths. Worlds begin when worlds begin.

That’s where we start. And that should be coming up soon. It will also be the first post that will be Patrons only. So, if you want to see it? You know what to do.

See you in a few days!

Jun

2018

The Opposite of War isn’t Peace. It’s Creation.

I can’t say I’ve never written a creation myth before. I’ve done it once or twice, for projects that never really got off the ground and that I might someday go back and revisit. So I know basically what I’m doing. And yet…

I homeschool my son, and one of the things that we discovered and incorporated into our homeschool day was Crash Course. There are Crash Course series for just about anything — the History of Games was very popular in our house.

Then we discovered Crash Course Mythology. My son is already very interested in mythology (thank you, Rick Riordan!) so this seemed a logical choice of next series to watch. Hosted by Mike Rugnetta, it’s a fantastic overview of a variety of myths from a wide range of cultures.

Why is this a problem?

It isn’t, really. It’s just that I’ve heard so many myths told by Mike Rugnetta that now I’m hearing his voice narrating the creation myth I’m in the process of writing!

After the initial “Why do I have your voice in my head?” reaction, I decided that this was a good thing. If I’m writing a creation myth on par with the ones that were presented in Crash Course, I’m clearly doing something right.

Right?

So… wanna see this creation myth?

Come join me on Patreon.

Elemental Project

What’s the story, Wishbone?

An interesting week

Mirror: I Have a Plan

Blurb Draft: Heir of the Firstborn

Mirror: Eek! Sorry

Busy week

Mirror, Mirror: How The Sausage Gets Made

Mirror, Mirror: Groundwork (Patreon public post from 6/6/18)

The Opposite of War isn’t Peace. It’s Creation.

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