Music As My Muse

Music has always been a really important motivator for me. Through the more difficult times, it provided solace and a distraction from life events that befuddled any clarity of purpose; through the more enjoyable times it provided a soundtrack of emotions that could be drawn from to remind me of better times, periods of accomplishment. In both my undergrad and graduate degrees, music was a source of focus, ironically, that allowed me to do more with less time. I fondly remember placing my earphones/ear buds on in the library and spending 6 to 8 hours taking notes from textbooks, drafting outlines to papers and crafting PowerPoint presentations.

My friends, wife and colleagues find it quite the anomaly. For many, music while trying to work is anathema. For me it drowns out the background noise, the conversations and whatnot that pierce my concentration.

As an aspiring author, my writing process follows very much the same scenario. Music is my Muse, and more times than not, it provides that push to get through writer’s block, ignites the imagination. For the Ochra Cycle, certain bands and songs could easily be considered the soundtrack. The mood and the emotions they draw to the fore exemplify what I try to accomplish in the writing. As the music helps draw out the plot, it also influences the emotion and voice.

There are certain bands and songs that really stand out when I think of the Ochra Cycle, none more than Lacuna Coil. For the uninitiated, Lacuna Coil is an Italian “goth-metal” band, with the leading vocals duo of Cristina Scabbia and Andrea Ferro. The blend of heavy instrumental arrangements, Andrea’s growling vocals countered by Cristina’s soaring voice and a heavy dose of emotions make for a potent experience. Or at least they had until some of the more recent releases; to be honest, the last two or three releases left me wanting. 

The release of Delirium has completely turned that around. The instrumentals have gone heavy and dark, the lyrics heavily laced with emotion, brought to life by the more balanced weight from each of the singers. Tracks like House of Shame, Blood Tears Dust; really, every single track appeals to me.

Segueing into writing, this album has really jazzed me up. First throwing the tunes up in Youtube to review it, I immediately made the choice to go out and purchase this disc. Listening to it, the words flew onto the pages. I think these were some of the easiest chapters I’ve written, and this after a lengthy pause from writing altogether. The dark and heavy instrument arrangement synchs so well with the vocals. Possibly the best album Lacuna Coil has released, it has reinvigorated my writing in a way difficult to put into words. A succinctly as I can put it, I can’t wait to see how this album helps shape the Ochra Cycle, and I can’t wait to where it goes.

SFWA World Building Questions - Part 3

A continuation of this previous post, I decided to tackle examining the third portion of this exhaustive (daunting and exhausting if you try to answer it all) list of questions to help formulate an author's world building exercises.

SFWA World Building Questions

Part Three - Magic and Magicians

Well, one of the first things to identify is that this section is oft-times the most contentious.  The where, how and why for of magic use within any particular fantasy novel or series is likely going to make or break a lot of readers.  Is the magic system Hard Magic, with its rigid rules and laws that define the people who use magic and what they are capable, or more importantly, not capable of executing?  Is it a Soft Magic, where the mystery of the source and the limits of the powers wielded by these mystical creatures and beings are as much an element of the story?  There are a plethora of sources out there that postulate for one or the other, many of them returning with the "do what works for you" answer, which is likely the truest answer anyone can give a prospective author.

Myself, I prefer the Soft Magic system.  I played AD&D, Rifts, Legend of the Five Rings, GURPS and other systems that clearly defined the margins and requirements for magic use.  As the Game Master more often than not this gave me the tools to reign in my players more times than not.  Ever the story-teller, I was more interested in the conduct of the adventure and the excitement engendered in good role-playing, as opposed to sticking our noses into the book to find out what specific costs or requirements we needed to meet.

Rules of Magic

When we look at the SFWA list for magic, which is daunting, I realize that a lot of these I answered intuitively to a Soft Magic system.  I haven't specifically limited what magic can and cannot do, nor do I particularly plan to.  The difference between miracle and magic is clear enough, insofar that everyone knows there are magicians, sorcerers, clerics/priests and a few select other "classes" (to use the AD&D terminology) can cast these spells and do wired and wonderful things.

The source of power is not definitively endorsed.  Mages and sorcerers draw from an undercurrent of power from the All Father Ihr's creative efforts in making the realms. Mages are more restrictive in their aptitude, limited to spoken spells and rituals, which syphon the energy in a constructed format, with predictable results; sorcerers on the other hand use an innate focus to grab on and shape the power mages.  Mages can combine their powers in rituals to have greater effect, whereas sorcerers may not.  Clerics and priests draw their powers from the essence of their gods, who have all been limited in their contact with the physical realms.  Because they draw powers from their respective gods, they may not execute a ritual.  The one exception are the druids, who draw their powers from Ihr, the Mother Goddess who gives powers to the elements.

As the Realms of Ihr'Vessen purport to a Soft Magic system, the rules in any detail further than those described herein are largely neither required nor desired.  If the magic can help advance the story, without becoming any kind of deus ex machine, then the magic shall occur, in moderation.

Wizards

I suppose this would include my mages, sorcerers and the like.  From the perspective of the J'in Empire, mages are ordered into various colleges, the details I have yet to bother addressing.  It is thus far a background detail that has no place in the story; my hope is to somehow introduce a mechanism or pot line to get into this detail.  Most of the questions in this section are directed to any author purporting to the Hard Magic system.

In a general set of terms, magicians in my world are a mysterious enough bunch; the only ones we see are samurai, which poses an interesting challenge I addressed in the previous chapter of this topic.  What is a peasant was born with the ability to tap into this mystical power?  Again, an interesting question, yet not one addressed in my plot points.  My first blush at the answer is to say that they are recruited and the families moved to cover up the fact a peasant born has been brought in among the samurai.  This doesn't answer a number of cultural issues, particularly in how does a peasant-born adapt to the new way of life and the secrecy he must bear; the birthright of a samurai is important to the culture, ergo a movement up into another class brings with it some complications.  That said, I've based the J'in Empire's customs on the Sengoku Period of Japan, whereas the result of some major upheavals and conflicts, there was some upward/downward mobility.

The language of magic on the other hand is something I have committed to.  The few times that spells are invoked, a certain form of gibberish is said.  The specifics about levels of power increasing with age or experience, whether spell components are required and the other tropes typically derived from AD&D, I have yet to bother addressing, yet I doubt I will go there.

Magic and Technology

When I first saw this heading I actually just skipped right over it.  My initial thoughts were, 'this must deal with steampunk.'  Well, sort of, kind of, but not exactly.  The idea of magic transport and communications make me think of magic carpets, pumpkin to carriage and the like.  Not my baileywick.  There are, of course, magic weapons of a variety of forms.  Magic wands, staves, swords and other weapons with magical upgrades, et cetera.  They aren't as prevalent as one would imagine.  This is something I am sure anyone having played AD&D or whatnot would be entirely frustrated at; I blame the adventure modules that sprinkle magic weapons and trinkets around like Skittles at a candy store.

Magic weapons of Ihr'Vessen requires a fair investment of power and material.  Certainly the more powerful require the rarest of materials.  There certainly isn't any mass production of these artifacts.  In fact, they are very much like a finely crafted katana; they take a long and arduous process to create.  Once completed, they are literally, functional works of art.

Miscellaneous Magic Questions

This section really kind of diverted from the previous ones; the questions deal more within a socio-historical context.  Magic fist in with the regular laws of nature, can manipulate and be manipulated by it as well.

Magical beasts are certainly a trope I've decided to include.  Dragons, Ents, Dryads, giant spider-like creatures, a myriad of others in a background way.  The ecology and biology of each I won't get too far into unless it has some place within the storyline.  Like Soft Magic, I don't find the details as pertinent as how they can be employed within the plot.

Questions on civilization seemed a bit odd herein.  It's been largely addressed already - in the case of Ihr'Vessen, the elves emigrated from the region to allow the other species the chance to develop.  This, by extension, makes the elven civilization incredibly old, as well as the most powerful, the most culturally renowned, the race with the most powerful mages and other spell casters   The humans are a 'new' race, the new kids on the block, and they are only just making a place for themselves.  They know the basics, but humans have only just scratched the surface.  I liken the comparison to Tiger Woods (in his hey day) compared to an amateur golfer.  The humans have figured out the rules of the game and sometimes hit the line drive or the clutch putt, whereas the elves have all the tools and tricks in the book and consistently outshine their competition.

Why we suddenly discuss political factions in a section magic is beyond me.  That said, there are various races, each with their own macro-level endeavours. The elves maintain a position of power and overwatch over the lands in the name of Ihr; dwarves, rat men, humanity in its three major kingdoms and scattered independent communities, the orcs and of course the goblin herds.  The main protagonists come from the J'in Empire, as previously described as based on Sengoku period Japan with a smattering of Korean and Chinese cultural references; it is a hodge lodge of Oriental societies for a number of reasons.  Primarily, and this I freely admit to, I am neither a native speaker to any Asian language or dialect, nor have I actually lived in the societies I base it off of.  This can lead to some dangerous ground, particularly when depicting cultural norms and linguistics paradigms.  For this reason, i have blatantly departed for a purely Japan-referenced culture.  One aspect I did try to maintain is the truly ferocious political manoeuvring involved in the courts and between the families therein.  Under a relatively recently established Imperial line, the provincial daimyos (governors, if you will) still maintain their own provinces as they see fit, under the auspices of the Emperor.  They each vie for favour and control over their political enemies and allies alike.  Truly too daunting an aspect for this post, I may have to come back to it to try and give an idea of what's involved and at stake within the Imperial Courts as book one closes out.

Surprisingly, a large part of this post dealt with things other than magic; perhaps these are just the questions I keyed off on the most.  Given a different slant on a work, these questions can really provide a writer with the tools to spur the imagination and discover parts of the story they never even knew existed.

SFWA World Building Questions - Part 2

A continuation of this previous post, I decided to tackle examining the second portion of this exhaustive (daunting and exhausting if you try to answer it all) list of questions to help formulate an author's world building exercises.

SFWA World Building Questions

Part Two, Physical and Historical Features

Map of the Belgeriad & Mallorean

General:  The geography for the Ochra Cycle is fairly expansive.  It's certainly not continental spanning, like the Belgariad and Mallorean series, or quite as large as the Song of Ice and Fire series.  It covers a large enough region that travel from one side to the farthest expanse certainly takes weeks on horseback; I haven't bothered to account for precise distances, mostly because it hasn't enough of a direct impact on the story to bother.  The region is largely a fairly flat expanse, surrounded by a ridge line of mountains to the south, west and along the northern edges, while the eastern edge is dominated by the coastal line and islands.  There are certainly mountains, rivers, expansive forests and whatnot therein.  Like the map of Middle Earth, only the most pertinent locations are specified.

Map for A Song of Ice & Fire

The questions of other races has already been described herein to some degree.  The humans are largely divided into three kingdoms, for lack of a better term, while we have the orcs on their island off the coast (think of Japan, just off the Asian continent), the dwarven region of Naro nestled against the foothills of the southern mountain ranges, the ratmen in the southern reaches in the Swamps of Shenim, the goblin herds and other monsters of their ilk in the Kevian Ranges, also along the southern edge of the map.  To the west and off the map are the elven lands, purposefully left undefined; they after all vacated this entire region centuries before to allow these races, particularly humans, the chance to settle and thrive or succumb to their own devices.  This left several ruins spotted throughout the lands, ancient elven settlements and cities abandoned, nearly all of which are decayed to ruin and lost to the annals of history.  They of course remained behind with a token force, advisors to keep the peace and nudge "the new kids around the block."  This advisory role is still present, simply much more behind the scenes, much less prevalent.

Since the elves have not visited the Imperial Courts of the J'in Empire in centuries, much myth and mystery surrounds them.  The events surrounding the elven emigration out of this region of course led to the creation of a particular secondary character, a guy by the name of Masaki.  Masaki is the pre-eminent archaeologist and ruin diver of the J'in Empire; a guy with a bad attitude and ego to boot.  Since he is a character that deals with digging up corpses, let alone the remote possibility of touching dead flesh, he is a rather repulsive individual to the samurai.   He reminds me a little of the french archaeologist in Raiders of the Lost Ark, La Roche.  Of course I now need a holy grail of sorts for Masaki to go diving into, as well as a treasure worthy of his motivations.  This further led to the creation of a setting where the elven city has fallen to ruin and been buried under years of dirt and sand, yet underground ruins and basement complexes remain.  Creating challenges therein was a simple matter of thinking it like a Waterdeep scenario for AD&D; traps, monsters, baddies, treasure, etc.

Climate and Geography:  The hand drawn map I've been working from defines the major regions, revers, mountains and forests.  The climate is essentially equitable to that of the Japanese / Korean / Chinese portion of Asia; temperate warm with high humidity, colder winters with a fairly abundant snowfall in winter, much more so in the mountains and foothills.

Natural Resources:  Aside from that, flora and fauna are the same, providing at least some semblance of familiarity for the reader.  Of course there are a number of beasts and nasties that are unique (this is a fantasy environment after all).  Since this is a fantasy setting, magic has largely displaced any advances into sciences and engineering to a scale reminiscent of Renaissance Europe, and we certainly won't see any steampunk / diesel punk in the Ochra series.  The style of the architecture for the primary kingdom involved is based on the Sengoku Period of Japan, so the 15th to 17th centuries.  Given the scale and scope of the region, natural resources for construction (timber and stone) are relatively common enough, methods of extraction and refinement advanced enough to allow for the architecture you would expect to see in 16th century Japan or so, castles included.  There is an abundance of farmland; essentially a breadbasket region.

Certain regions certainly play host to more abundant resources than others.  The dwarves of Naro obviously have a mountain range at their back, providing for massive stone works and mining (oh, the cliche).  Not far from them, the Swamps of Shenim, a region teeming with life and unique natural remedies, yet otherwise fairly agrarian.  The Plainsfolk are essentially the stewards for the massive herds of wild beasts that resemble a buffalo, which serve as a primary source of meat and food, while defining their way of life and customs.  The J'in Empire is as closely akin to the Japanese / Korean / Chinese of the Sengoku period as one could imagine; they've settled in their regions, replete with arable farmland, cities and castles built up and developed to protect and support their way of life.  The orcs rely on piracy and slavery to maintain their holdings on the islands off the continental coast, while the Free States, the closest human kingdom and the most victimized by these attacks, is a military power in their own right, their mercenary companies the best available.

World History:  Not much of the ancient history is directly dealt with.  Tidbits of pertinent info are provided, largely to avoid info dumps.  In a nutshell, there was a war between the two pantheons, with the eldest and their creations (goblins, giants, leviathans, orcs, etc) against the younger and their creations (elves, dwarves, dragons, fairies, etc).  In the end the elves led the younger pantheons' forces to victory as the gods stalemated themselves; the elves remain the dominant superpower.  Humans were created thereafter as a neutral party, a buffer species to keep things honest, so to speak.  This ancient history is known and recorded in detail by the elves, remembered by most other races of the times through oral tradition.  Humans know only of this era by way of myth and legend; Masaki, of course, has some further insights through his journeys.

I won't go into any of the specifics for the World History and the Kingdom-specific histories.  There simply isn't enough room for that massive a wall of text, nor much motivation to reveal it all.

In the next instalment, the SFWA World Building questions tackle the magic system.

2014 - The Year of the Hardcover Book

One of the conclusion I had at the turn of the New Year was to start collecting the hardbound copies of the classic works from science fiction and fantasy.  Part of the reasoning was my simply voracious appetite for reading when I was younger, single and not a father of two.  This left me with an astounding collection of softbound and paperback novels that really only served the purpose of filling shelf space and boxes in storage.  I needed to get rid of them, so I did.  My wife had bought me a Kobo a few years back and since then I've been nearly exclusively reading ebooks on that platform. I like the Kobo and the experience of the e-Readers.  That said, there is something to be said for the tangible element of reading.  So spring forth my desire to collect the classics.

There are a few definitive beginning points: the Lord of the Rings trilogy, 1984 and the like.  There are only too numerous a list of classic works from either science fiction or fantasy or those that combine both.  A few examples (of hundreds):

NPR List of 100 Top Science Fiction & Fantasy Books

Flavorwire's Top 50 Sci-Fi/Fantasy Novels That Everyone Should Read

Top 100 Fantasy Books

Top 25 Fantasy Books

Top 25 Science Fiction Books

I'm currently finishing up the Lord of the Rings trilogy that I borrowed from my father-in-law.  I received 1984, by George Orwell, for Christmas and I plan on getting around ten classics this year, reading them all and providing a review of each.  My short list of purchases for 2014 are the following, in no particular order:

1.  Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card:  Politics aside, I was completely enthralled by this novel when I first read it.  I read the entire Ender series in paperback, finding the following works delving into harder science fiction than I was used to at the time.  There were a few parts of his later works that don't strike well with me either, but this was before the days of pervasive Internet and some of OSC's more recent and infamous statements.  That said, this the first in the series is a definite for my collection.



2.  Dune, by Frank Herbert:  Another classic I read in my youth, I vaguely remember the details.  I do recall watching the movie shortly thereafter and grudgingly accepting it as a 'decent' rendition of the novel.  I fully understood the limitations that Hollywood had in regards to production and special effects.  Regardless, I am fully committed to adding this one to my collection.


3.  The Last Unicorn, by Peter S. Beagle:  I have never read this book, yet from everything I have heard and read it is something of a masterpiece of english fantasy.  My only connection to this work is the animated version, something of a psychadelic tale that involved a little unicorn, a small group of friends and a flaming bull.  I laugh as I try to recall the details, only to find myself truly wondering how far some interpretations can sometimes differ from the written work.



4. The Left Hand of Darkness, by Ursula Le Guin:  Another I have not read but continuously appears on must-read lists.

5. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, by Philip K. Dick:  I've been a huge fan of Bladerunner since I saw the film for the first time.  The film resonates still, through various re-releases and different renditions (original score, Director's cut, etc).  When I found out this was adapted from a novel, I immediately bought it for my Kobo.  I enjoyed it so much I know it must be one of the first half-dozen for my collection.



6.  Starship Troopers, by Robert A. Heinlein:  After having seen the cinematic version, I suppose it could be forgiven that it took me over a decade to get to the novel.  I actually did it because of a challenge someone posted on a message board; that passionate refusal to accept the cheesy film as anything related to the book drew my attention, and I was stunned at just how much I had missed in those intervening years!  A definite addition.


So those are the defines that I have on my radar.  I've already read the Wheel of Time series but have no interest in collecting it hardbound.  I also have George R.R. Martin's series, A Song of Ice and Fire, sitting in my Kobo; I'll read those willingly in e-format and get the completed set once complete, desperately hoping it doen't go the way of Wheel of Time.  

Other than that, does anything seem out of place or significantly overlooked?  I'd appreciate any comments or suggestions.  I've got four more spots to round out the ten that I'd like to start with this year.

SFWA World Building Questions

I’ve stumbled onto this particular site a few times over the years, typically anytime someone on the Absolute Write forums starts asking about worldbuilding; it’s a staple link that always gets brought up.  Albeit not an exhaustive link, it can truly be a daunting link for authors just starting out and looking for a place to start.  It truly does ask a daunting amount of questions, not all of which apply, which may or may not initially occur.  That said, I’ve taken it upon myself to review the list and see how it applies to my fantasy ms, as well as the remainder of the Ochra series books.

A review of these questions may seem like an exercise in futility; I mean, after one novel written, you’d think these questions would have been answered already, right?  More to the point, it’s a chance to do some worldbuilding detail-work that may have gone unnoticed, yet it also provides the opportunity to draw on your second- and third-order effect answers and develop story ideas.  Case in point: in the Ochra series, the J’in Empire is a caste society.  Mages/sorcerers, which are considered samurai caste, were born with their abilities, able to tap into a sub-current of energy they use to shape their spells.  Not everyone born with the ability develops the potential to tap into this energy.  If they are born into the ability though, what if a peasant-class child was born with this spark?  This led to the development of a secondary character, a samurai bounty hunter of sorts that sniffs out these waifs born with the ability.  This leads to other questions:  how does he sniff them out?  What does he do when he finds one?  Does he pay the family for the child?  If so, does this create a sort of lottery system?  How would that impact the society?  How would that be interpreted by the samurai?

SFWA World Building Questions

Part One, The World

The Basics:  Largely an Earth-like world, most questions like gravity, basic flora and fauna and the like are already assumed to be the same (no need to recreate a pine tree, or call a maple something new).  Then we get into the specifics of races.  An epic fantasy, the Ochra series includes a gamut of other races like elves, dwarves, dragons, ratmen, orcs, goblins, et cetera.  The realms of Ihr’Vessen are currently in a post-cataclysmic era, the two pantheons of gods having fought a war that was finally brought to an end.  The elves are the sole remaining superpower among mortal beings.

Humanity is actually in a relatively nascent stage.  The tribes scattered across a region of the continent ‘recently’ vacated by the elves; recently is something like 1000 years or more.  The three major human kingdoms have diverged into their own specialties, their cultures developed to reflect different worldviews.  The primary human kingdom the Ochra series follows in the J’in Empire, a samurai culture that is based heavily on Sengoku period Japan, with Chinese and Korean myth and culture woven in as well.  As this differs radically from the Euro-centric standard for most epic-high fantasy, it brings with it some unique idiosyncrasies: names are particularly foreign, yet this poses the problem of keeping names straight, particularly when most Asian cultures speak family name prior to given name.  Most readers are likely to also visualise against the backdrop of popular films or anime.  Films like The Last Samurai and 13 Assassins are actually rather good pieces to draw from, in that they at least tried to make things as culturally and historically accurate as possible; films like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and a plethora of anime tend to stray a little too far into the fantastical for my taste (I must admit I absolutely adore the imagery and action sequences from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon).

Population:  These numbers are something I’ve had to put some research into.  Taking a cue into the middle ages of Europe, a continental region the size in question for my manuscript could handle a population of several millions.  The actual figures are neither directly pertinent not required for the storyline.  That said, as background information it provides a baseline to work from.  I found this site, which boils down demography in a fantasy setting into a rather intuitive system that works for me.  It is geared towards a Game Master developing his Role-Playing Game setting, yet the parallels remain – author or GM, you’re both telling a story.

In the European Middle Ages, the population was curbed for some time by Viking, Arab and Slavic or Magyar expansions.  In my case, the elves vacated the lands but oversaw the ‘lesser’ species development.  This over watch would also have to include some form of protection from the predations of the surviving rival factions of the elves, namely the goblins and orcs.  I’ve used this as a bit of a cheat to help along the development of humanity in a slightly compressed time span.  Once the human tribes had diverged into their own distinct paths with regions of their own, the elves withdrew to a supervisory role of sorts.

Source of Magic:  Another issue worthy of thought, particularly if it plays a significant role in your story.  In my case I’ve both mages/sorcerers, as well as clerics/priests.  The former draw their powers from the underlying current of energy that they alone are able to recognize, tap into and mold to their spell forms and abilities.  Mages use spell forms and rituals to carefully construct the conduit that the power gets siphoned through with predictable results.  Sorcerers on the other hand draw the power into themselves, their instinctual drive the conduit for the power, which makes their magic less predictable but easier to access.  Priests and clerics are largely the exact same thing, just a question of title, yet both draw their powers from the grace of their gods.  Since the cataclysm ended, the gods were limited in their direct influence.  Their latent power could be drawn upon if a cleric met the phantom presence’s.... entry requirements, for lack of a better term.

Again, none of this is essential to the actual story, yet it creates a good baseline and reference point for the plot whenever things seem to be drawing off course and into territory I’ve not explored.  A quick reference back to my notes and more times than not, I’ve got a place to go from, or a new plot point to exploit.

deviantART Spotlight

The artwork below is copyrighted to ranoartwork. I make no claim to this work as my own.

One of the many things I do to stem writer’s block and keep the creative juices flowing is surfing (insert link) deviantART. Just by checking out the most popular submissions over the last eight hours every couple of days is more than enough to give some flash of insight into a story arc that may be waiting to burst, or un-stall one waiting to carry on. It may not be a full-fledged story, but a component on one I’m currently working on – scenery scenes are spectacular for this. In my own way, I’d like to recognize these artists for truly amazing artwork, be it photography, ink on canvas, or manipulated photons in digital form.


Canaan by Ranoartwork


In doing the research for the upcoming novels in the Ochra Cycle, I'm always on the lookout for good, thematic scene pieces like this one.  In this particular case, it provides a stunning visual for a part of the plot that had thusfar been very vague.  I know I want to "go there," and yet the "there" that I'm referring to was never fully realized; it is much later and not a priority.  That said, this piece nailed the spirit of what I was looking for.

When my eldes daughter first saw Canaan by Ranoartwork, she immediately squeeled "Aladdin!"  Truth be told, this was one of my first thoughts as well, until I started overlaying my story's plot points.  The rendering of the colours and the scale are utterly gorgeous.  It shows a city in the midst of an utterly desolate landscape, a sky with no clouds.  The buildings in the foreground enhance the perspective that this is all part of a larger city.  What we see here is perhpas a central religious site, or a caliph's palace.  The people in the foreground are small, lacking detail and seem to be either observing themarvel of this palace, or heading towards it as if on a  pilgrimage.

In my story's case this is no longer a place of safety and security, not a place for a pilgrimage, certainly not a setting for anything from Alladin.  It is one of the focal points for the overall plot lines, a city far removed from the main setting of the storyline, a city state with a deep undercurrent of something dark and sinister - a trope that could be applied to any epic fantasy!  This piece helps reinforce that imagery for me.  The grandeur of the palace is a symbol of power and dominance, a will to overcome the elements and create something where humanity would otherwise never survive.  There is beauty to be found as well, of course: the architecture, the grandeur, the people and their culture, not all is corrupt and malignant.

I simply find Canaan to be a terribly well executed scenery piece, depicting a foreign culture and architetcure.  It draws you in and makes you want to tell the stories that occur in the back alleys, the politics and trading of favours and goods that make this city equally the cesspool it may be forced to be, as well as the oasis it strives to be.

For anyone interested, here is the link: Ranoartwork's DeviantArt gallery.




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Making Lemonade From Lemons

So, as any parent will attest to, Halloween has come and gone.  The build up for this event for smaller children is, in some cases, just shy of that for Christmas.  In my case, my two girls, princesses both (in real life and by virtue of their costumes), were ramped up to the max, to the point of near intolerance from my wife and I.  That said, they were promised a good go, so off went my wife to escort them, while I stayed at home handing out the candy.

Not my child, but a pros pos

Part of the tradition of Halloween is getting dressed up for school, or in the case of my youngest, daycare.  On the way to daycare, she snapped her plastic wand in two.  In the midst of traffic, I’m sure every car within throwing distance heard the commotion.  For my part, I tried consoling the child for a couple of minutes and then simply turned up the radio volume.  After about five minutes of screeching (no simple crying for this child), she suddenly stops.  I’m adjusting my rear view mirror to ensure she didn’t go and decide to try and choke herself on a piece of plastic, or some other silliness.

With the two pieces of plastic in her hands, tears still rolling down her cheeks, she’s smiling and staring wonder at the two pieces and gives me this: “Daddy, now I have TWO magic wands!”

And despite how frustrating they can be at times, it is at moments like these that you have to smile and think everything is good and right in life.

Edit:  Same child, after 90 minutes of door-to-door candy-grabbing, she enters the house, plops down and says, “Daddy, I’m tired!”

NaNoWriMo

So, I decided to take the plunge this year and registered for NaNoWriMo.  It’s two days into the month and neither my mustache for Movember nor my novel for NaNoWriMo have seen much progress.  I’ve got some sketched out chapters and outline plots to flesh out, but nothing on paper due to some fangled illness.

Given the previous anecdote of my daughter, I can’t help but realize that 4 weeks is actually a decent amount of time to get things done.  The target of 50k words is daunting enough, but something I’m going to try my damndest to complete.  Not wuite a ‘two magic wands’ kind of statement, but a commitment nonetheless.

Musical Muse

One of the major detractions to my writing in the past two weeks is finally out of the way. I recently celebrated with a special martini mix (definitely not for the faint of stomach) and liked it so much I had two.  Life was really, really good that night and has since returned to some semblance of normalcy. I can now devote some time to writing, editing and other creative activities.

One of my recent discoveries is a musical channel within Youtube.  One of the most powerful sets of musical compositions are sometimes the shortest.  The musical scores linked into movie trailers can really make or break interest into a film.  As epic fantasy and science fiction goes, I think we benefit from a bevvy of applications, where muscial scores tied to key pieces of cinematic sequence can really drive you into a story.

Working to get my epic/dark fantasy ms out, as well as working on the subsequent works, I found music to be a real source of inspiration.  This gold mine of shorts will definitely be a constant for future projects.  I invite you to listen to the video below and imagine the trailer for your own novel (fantasy, sci-fi or otherwise); I challenge you to not get excited about your work.

 

Elven Hauteur: Tropes Given Definition

One of the many (many) tropes a reader can expect from any high/epic fantasy is the inclusion of a variety of mystical and mythical races; dragons, elves, dwarves, just to name a few.  If the novel includes elves (I suppose more a question of when), there is almost certainly an element of cultural hauteur involved.  Elves are portrayed to have chip on their shoulder, a sense that even speaking with humans is beneath them, somehow a chore.  Like humanity was a stray dog quietly pacing around a picnic table, accepted as being there but not really accepted for being there.

 

When I was scratching notes during my world building phase, one of the many things I needed to work was, of course, where and how the elves would fit into the story.  What relevant parts of their history could I weave into the narrative without containing some dreaded info-dump?  Would they have this seemingly ubiquitous stigma against the other races?  If so, two questions that I assured myself I would answer were: “How?” and “Why?”

 

World building can quickly become a rabbit hole that you can find yourself too deeply dug into.  Thankfully, this wasn’t one of them, partly because of a previous effort to determine the pantheon of gods and their conflict.  This conflict occurred millennia ago, and a single piece of scribble seemed to answer most of my questions:

 

“the elves were created by and were the primary fighting force of the Second Pantheon.”

 

Someone or a group from amongst the Second Pantheon of gods created the elves as part of the feye races, imbuing them with abilities, intellect and characteristics that made them particularly powerful as a race – not individually the most powerful, but collectively they produced the greatest synergies amongst the feye.  They were the most intelligent of generals, the most powerful of the mages, etc.  They fought this war alongside the other feye (dragons, treants, nymphs, etc) and their gods, against the First Pantheon who used and led their creations, the less refined but more physically powerful races (leviathans, orks, goblins, etc).

 

“All this occurred before humans were even conceived as a race.”

 

This note, along with the previous one provided the perspective I needed.  The cultural hauteur exists in context to their experiences in those god-wars and watching the humans crawl into existence, collect into tribes and eventually form the kingdoms/collectives in the current setting for my manuscript.  For all intents and purposes, the elves in Ihr’Vessen are the only super-power in existence, and they recently had to make room for the humans.  They still see the humans as lesser beings that have yet to live up their potential and possibly vie for overall stewardship of the realms.  Are the humans of the J’in Empire prepared for the task?  Can the clans of the Plainsfolk assume the mantle of responsibility?  Would the barons of the Free States suffice?

 

For all interaction between elf and human, a certain paradigm had to occur, one where humanity was at a distinctly perceived disadvantage (from both perspectives); the same would need to occur with the other races, in some cases much less so than others.  Humans would be viewed as inferior, not yet worthy of respect; humans conversely have a minority complex, always viewing themselves as less capable and less powerful.  They may be approaching parity, but not as of yet.  And so, I was left wondering how this arc would or could play out into the narrative.  I had some fun at my characters’ expense when humans started interacting with elves, but the progression of this worthiness was something I wanted to explore.  Humans start at about a mongrel level of expectation and acceptance.  Slowly, I want to see how that could be altered or changed.

 

For now, the elves remain the haughty, cool and indifferent bunch they always seem to be.  They are so much better at things and so much more powerful, long-lived and capable than the flash-in the-pan accumulation of knowledge and power the humans are limited to.  Would many of the elves consider it beneath them to interact with humans?  Likely.  Would they see any military intervention as simply “saving the humans from themselves, yet again?”  Very likely.  Hopefully this is a two-dimensional trope I’ll be able to somehow twist and bend a little, provide the reader with the context they need to accept the elven perspective, as opposed to simply slapping the reader with the ‘elves are l33t!’

 

 

Commitment to Reading LOTR

Every once in a while I have few to no books in my reading pile.  During these times I sometimes take a dive into my library and re-read a particular book or series.  Recently this took me back to the land of Fianovar and Guy Gavriel Kay’s masterpiece Arthurian triology, as well as the Warhammer 40k universe, in particular the Eisenhorn and Ravenor trilogies by Dan Abnett.  Looking through my current library, a series stood out as having been read the one time, but never re-read.

J.R.R. Tolkein’s Lord of the Rings trilogy.  I only vaguely remember the details of my first time through the realms of Middle Earth.  The one thing that stood out was a sense of accomplishment.  That was a hard, slog of a read at times, more so because the language is so incredibly dense and complex compared the normal fare of fantasy literature at the time. 

 With that in mind, I’ve decided to revisit Middle Earth and the heroic deeds of the Fellowship, from reading on the history of Hobbits through to the final destruction of Sauron and the raising of the King of Gondor.  

After reading the first dozen or so pages, something stood out amongst all that fine print: the races are all capitalized.  What would today be an elf is Elf to Tolkein, hobbit is Hobbit, et cetera.  This made me wonder when and where the current conventions against capitalization occurred, if at all.  One simply doesn’t repeat another author’s style simply for convention.  I distinctly remember some initial critiques on my fantasy ms that pointed out the fact that Elves were elves, despite the reasoning behind it.  I’m still tempted to return and re-edit the capitals back into the Elf, and the surprise to find it in Tolkein’s work just may be the nudge required to do so.

In any case, let the Tom Bombadil tangents begin!

Reviewing Woes

Going through the ms for OF DESOLATION AND OMENS, I realized something of a glaring oversight regarding one of my two protagonists.  Tori’i Soki is the daughter of the Emperor, and from her introduction, the sole heir after a nasty assassination of her older brother, Tori’i Hakata.  I had never intended to be coy about her particular age, so I simply pegged her at 16 to 18 years old.  Trying to develop the voice of a girl of this age isn’t so much a problem as a kick to the teeth sometimes; one of the primary purposes of this revision. 

One of the elements of a young woman of this age and in her position would be the continuation of the dynasty.  A quick and simple solution would have been to concentrate on the Hakata elements of primogeniture and simply say this was where the Emperor was hedging his bets.  Unfortunately this still ignores Soki as a viable match to someone in the J’in Empire.  This courting process would likely include complex and motivated pieces of political manoeuvring, particularly from the families of the potential suitors as they vie to make their ‘candidate’ the most desired match.

As an added element to the social structure to the story, it also adds a layer of complexity to the character I realized is lacking.  This isn’t an over-arching problem that forces a re-write.  I have the solution which will limit the impact, but the fact that such a glaring issue could have gone unseen simply underscores the need for new eyes on an a project, be it a beta or looking at your own ms after a sufficient period of time.

Ho hum.  Time to review my research notes for Japanese and Chinese courting rituals.