Nawyn's Xanga

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 03:57:42 GMT

Just this afternoon, at a wonderful lunch at the Kershners', I got an idea for a book. A setting, really. Michael (he plays Romeo in the "Romeo and Juliet" I'm in this summer) was talking about spending some time in Prague, which he said is DEAD until about 9 and then roars to life.

So I thought: What an AMAZING place to set a fantasy!

It nagged at me all day, and just now I sat down and wrote out a plot summary for what I'm not-so-tentatively calling "Shadow's Princess," about a grubby thief plucked from the catacombs of the city of Shadow by her aristocrat maternal grandmother and used ruthlessly in said grandmother's plan to take control of the city. I'm getting NaNoWriMo-type excited over this thing, and I can hardly wait to start working on it!

Plus I've found some WONDERFUL names for these people. Manx names are freakin' genius - I think my favorite is Ealisaid, for (surprise, surprise) Elizabeth. Is that a great name, or is that a great name? I LOVE it. So Shadow/New Ederin is going to sound rather Manx-ish. I'm tweaking the names a little - my heroine's name is Moiri, from Moirrey, and my villain's is Margiod, from Margaid - but I simply love them, so I'm obviously not tinkering with them too much. Basque names are quite marvelous as well. I'm going to try to use Manx-ish names for native Shadowers, and Basque names for the nobility.

And because she looks pretty damn close to what I was imagining, here's a picture of how Moiri looks to me at the moment, courtesy of the impossibly talented John William Waterhouse:

Moiri

She's Flora, obviously. The one in purple and red. The look on her face is just perfect: she's got that unspeakably beautiful Waterhouse-girl look, but there's a wonderful edge to her expression. She looks independent, curious, unafraid, and far more earthly than I'm used to seeing Waterhouse's women look. She compares in my mind to The Lady Clare, which I love because (again) she's lovely, but very real, and very much a creature of this flawed world.

Plus, this girl just does not look like someone you want to mess around with. Zephyrs notwithstanding.

And because I went looking for her and she was simply perfect, here for your added viewing pleasure is Margiod, Moiri's grandmother and nemesis.

Margiod

In the book, of course, she's a human, not the angel of death. But take a look at that angel. She clearly thinks well of herself, and she's undeniably well born. But she's so cold, so ruthless. She'd stop at nothing to get what she wanted. That's EXACTLY the look I want for Margiod. Intriguing and unnerving at the same time.

GOD, I love Illusions Gallery.

Sunday, January 13, 2008

Sun, 13 Jan 2008 23:44:24 GMT

Ho. Ly. Crap.

I'M DONE!!!!!!!!!!

Keeper of the Emerald is FINISHED!!!!!! I have written the final words! The first book in the whole damn quartet is, after two years, DONE!!!!!

It was kind of incredible. Obviously it didn't work, NaNoing it. In fact, I barely got anything written on it during November (I blame my total exhaustion from the wonderful "Measure for Measure"), and I dropped it come December feeling like the ending I'd set up was horrifically contrived, my own rules of magic had trapped me, and I simply didn't have the energy to go back and redo it.

Yesterday (I kid you not - YESTERDAY) I reopened the document, scrolled down to the end -

And I knew what would happen. I saw the entire climax spread out in front of me, complete with every necessary plot element I'd set up, but uncontrived, magically feasible, somewhat horrifying (as regards the outcome), and - well - as perfect as I could have wanted it. I wrote until 4 in the morning to finish the climax. I couldn't STOP writing. And I wrote the last chapter today. Just now.

YYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And now...on to Book Two...

Oh, by the way...it's 217 pages long...

Monday, November 12, 2007

Mon, 12 Nov 2007 21:41:41 GMT

Sooo...12 days into NaNo and I'm far more behind than I'd like to be. (And don't get me started on my schoolwork - thank God it's almost Thanksgiving break!) Ideally, I'd be well over 10k - at the time of this writing, I have 9,885. Ouch. Not impossible, just...ouch.

So that's the bad news. The GOOD news (about time) is that I'm FINALLY nearing the end of KotE! The last section has begun - the finale, the climax, the Big Battle At The End, whatever you want to call it. It's coming, it's really and truly visible on the horizon. And for the first time in, I guess, a year, I know what's going to happen. It's a bit different from what I originally planned, but I think it'll work. I don't want to set goals for when it'll happen - I don't want to rush this part, I just want to write it. But TRUST ME, I will whoop and cheer to the skies when I write the last words!

P.S. The document is now over 200 pages. And it's the first book in a quartet. I think I've created a monster... :)

Friday, November 02, 2007

Fri, 02 Nov 2007 00:18:48 GMT

I LIVE!!!!

Or at least, I live here during NaNo season. ;)

Now that the play is over ("Measure for Measure" - I was Isabella, and 'twas wonderful!), I actually have time to think about NaNo. And not a minute too soon, considering that it's, um, kind of November already. Especially because I still haven't finished Keeper of the Emerald, whose sequel, Bearer of the Sapphire, I was planning to write this month.

BUT! I have a plan. I'll just add the end of Keeper of the Emerald, however many words that turns out to be, to my final NaNo word count. That way I'll have extra motivation to FINISH the damn thing. (It's been a year, after all.) And the end really is in sight, which is even better. I've gotten them to Erilon, the island where most of the remaining First population lives, and I've slipped in a bit of unease, which will of course burst into full-blown havoc by the end.

We shall see how it all turns out...

I must confess, though, I'm rather keen on starting Bearer of the Sapphire. Marrach's a fun guy, and I can't WAIT to pit him against Mirasi and watch the fireworks! It really is going to be rather pyrotechnic - he doesn't take crap from anyone, not even Serrav, who's four years older than him and has saved his butt on numerous occasions, and Mirasi's both mischievous and no-nonsense, so the two of them... oy. But fun oy! Oh, the love lives of Our Heroes. Yalanna and Serrav are kind of "Pride and Prejudice"-esque - the attraction's been there from the start, but they've had to go through an entire book of verbal sparring and why-the-hell-should-I-trust-you-with-my-life moments. (Sorry about that, you two.) Marrach and Mirasi - what I'm hoping for there is this instant chemistry, but he's much more interested than she is. Plus she's the one who knows everything he needs to know, from survival tips to how to extract the Sapphire, and he's trying to learn all that and woo her at the same time. Jarven and Elasia will be, I think, the most poignant couple. I'm going to do even worse by them than I did by Yalanna and Serrav. Not only will she fall head over heels from the moment she sees him, but he's going to have the hots for her sister (against his own better judgment) for a good portion of the book, and I'm planning to write their relationship as a wow-that-came-so-close-to-not-happening thing. Plus the added angst of her father trying to kill him and everything. Tulis is too young as yet to meet the love of her life. She's only thirteen. Granted, Jarven's only going to be sixteen when he meets Elasia, but still. Tulis is also the most emotionally fragile of the Berenathim. She'll take a good long while before she trusts anyone outside her family with her heart.

Woo... long ramble. But now I'm even more psyched for NaNo!

Thursday, September 21, 2006

Thu, 21 Sep 2006 14:34:15 GMT

And now, I realize that my shiny new plot has tied me up in knots.

WHO IS THE VILLAIN??????

The villain I want is Renvir - the usurper, the careless murderer, the grudgeholder extraordinaire. But he kind of vanishes in my new plot for KOTE, and the First emerge as the serious powers to be fought. It reminds me of Tanith Lee's Claidi Journals, where you think the Wolf Tower guys are the Eeeevil People, and it turns out that the true twisted genius was the presumed-dead Ustareth. (Who then turns out to be not so eeeevil after all...but I digress.)

Unless...suppose Renvir somehow knows the plans of the First? (Through the Ruby, manipulated by his younger brother Surich.) He, understandably, would not want the Berenathim to master the Emerald, overthrow him, and reinstate the First in Arrin. So not only would he pursue the living daylights out of Our Heroes (making them all the more eager to trust the corrupt First), but he could even be on hand for the climactic fight for the Emerald, in a desperate attempt to destroy the First and the Berenathim. If he DID destroy the First on Erilon (leaving only the First settlement on Senthir), that would actually be good for plot development: not only would Yalanna have no repository of knowledge on how to USE the darn Emerald, Our Heroes could all revile him a little more for the genocide of killing the First.

And then, of course, they'd have to split up. Yalanna (and Serrav, whoopee!) would stay on Erilon, where the Emerald is most powerful, but Marrach, Jarven and Tulis would have to go back to Arrin to make Renvir's job of locating them a little harder. Marrach anyway, since he's going to spend "Bearer of the Sapphire" poking around the Far Corners with Mirasi. He could send Jarven and Tulis back to Erilon...force Tulis to be more self-reliant, force Jarven to learn to deal with people...

YAAAAAAAY! Problem solved!!!

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Tue, 19 Sep 2006 23:02:31 GMT

FINALLY! I figured out how to enlarge the abnormally small text on these! Woohoo! Now I can actually read what I wrote!

Thinking some more about the First...

During the "extermination," a group of First used ships to get away from the Ururim and went around the continent to Erilon (some later migrated to Senthir). There, they set up a haven for themselves and their way of life, including a shrine to the Earthmother. The First started out as ordinary humans, but to the Berenathim, their Artistic talents make them seem like gods. (And, if truth be told, the First themselves have somewhat blurred the lines between human and divine in their own minds.) THEY are the ones who reveal the Jewels' existence to the Berenathim, and THEY are the ones who guide Our Heroes across the continent and to Erilon. Of course, Our Heroes then realize that the First are, by now, as corrupt as Renvir, and they opt to take the Emerald and search for the other Jewels themselves, instead of helping the First reinstate themselves on the continent.

...Wow. Was that a plot I just put together?

Locations of the Jewels:

Emerald: The First took the Emerald with them to Erilon, as it was the most powerful Jewel (what with the Earthmother and all). They keep it in the Earthmother's temple.
Sapphire: When they created the Far Corners, the First hid the Sapphire with the Oracle and the remaining First who elected to stay on the continent. The Sapphire has power over water, so it was a very appropriate Jewel to leave in a desert.
Ruby: They were forced to abandon the Ruby in Isunda. They were found out when they stopped in Isunda to replenish provisions, and hid it as best they could. At the time of KOTE, the Ruby has long been a secret heirloom of the Ururim, who secretly practice First magic. The Ruby was something of a disappointment to the First since, when used to harness the power of fire, it produced limited results, so they weren't too unhappy to leave it. (What they didn't know was that it works best in conjunction with fire and with another person, a discovery made by the Ururim.)
Diamond: There are two "versions" of the Diamond in Arrin, one real, one presumed to be real. The fake one was taken by the First when they fled the extermination, and later carried to Senthir, where it is the centerpiece of THEIR shrine to the Earthmother. The real Diamond was, in fact, stolen by a descendant of its creator, who escaped into the Skycrests. She later married an Urur heir, using the Diamond to barter her way into the family - but between her marriage and the birth of her first child, she hid the Diamond in the Skycrests. The Ururim never figured out that it was gone - they were too busy exterminating the First.

Thursday, September 14, 2006

Thu, 14 Sep 2006 21:56:34 GMT

Something is occurring to me. I have a serious dearth of non-Berenath or Urur characters. I have Mirrun, Renvir's creepy sadistic mute executioner who nearly kills Tulis, and I now have Lurrin, a commoner who shelters the Berenathim and Serrav when they're escaping from Rakas. But that's about it. (Come to think of it, those names are disconcertingly similar. Bugger.)

The problem is that as far as I know, most of the action of "Keeper of the Emerald" involves the Berenathim and Serrav, and can't really drag anyone else in, since the Berenathim are trying to disappear for now. Something tells me this is a plot point I'll have to resolve.

I've actually been thinking about it for some time. Post-Rakas escape, WHAT DO THEY DO?!?!? That was as far as I got in the lousy first draft of this story I wrote four years ago, and I'm terrified of getting bogged down there again - but I don't want to plan too far ahead, or I'll lose my enthusiasm for the story. They can't set up a "camp" anywhere for various reasons, including: 1) it's too easy for Renvir to find them, and 2) then they don't DO anything. They've got to find out somewhere about the Jewels, the Emerald in particular...and then they'll have to go on a continent-wide search for relics of the First, who created the Jewels! Oooohh...funfunfun! I love brainstorming while writing!

But yeah...more commoner names. And I'll have to think of First names, too.

Monday, September 11, 2006

Mon, 11 Sep 2006 15:01:59 GMT

I'm seriously getting into mapping for this November! I went through 2 godawful drafts of the map of Arrin before I finally produced something good - but then it hit me that, since my characters are going to travel all over the country, I might want to have a few maps of some important places. I just finished mapping Drith, the capital city, and I'm considering mapping the palace, although they won't spend a great deal of time there (the whole on-the-run-from-Renvir thing kind of gets in the way there). Other places I know I want to map are the Far Corners (for use in Book Two), the islands of Erilon and Senthir, the cities of Rakas, Shent, Eshil and Yorval, and maybe the North Forest. And the "empty spaces" on the map between cities.

AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH. All I can say is, I'm glad I started NaNo prep so early!

Monday, August 28, 2006

Mon, 28 Aug 2006 02:56:18 GMT

More pictures! I do love Illusions Gallery. Here they are:

Serrav. This is somewhat strange, as the man here looks almost nothing like Serrav the way I envision him - but the look on his face is perfect Serrav. Just get rid of the bushy hair and the mustache. His eyes and the line of his mouth are the character bits I'm putting this in for. (If it helps, I imagine Serrav as 21 years old, with gold-brown hair about the length of Marrach's.)

Marrach and Mirasi. Mirasi is the Maiden Keeper of the Oracle of the Far Corners, and Marrach's love interest in Book Two, Bearer of the Sapphire. Again, she doesn't quite look like the girl in this painting (although I do love the painting!), but the relationship between the two people in it is very like Marrach and Mirasi's relationship - he's very interested, but her mind is much more practical than his. (The guy in this painting is very like Marrach at this age, by the way.)

Elasia. Elasia is Jarven's love interest in Book Three, Holder of the Ruby, and this painting is basically exactly how I imagined her - spunky, spirited, curious and carefree. She'll be very good for Jarven, since he's very serious and well-intentioned - she'll teach him to have a little fun.

And...

Renvir! The man here is a little too contemplative, but he's still got the strange look I imagine Renvir having. Just imagine this guy, slightly more villainous-looking, and you've basically got Renvir. (This is the color of hair I picture Serrav with, by the way.)

Friday, August 25, 2006

Fri, 25 Aug 2006 15:12:59 GMT

FINALLY! I have a name for my country! *drumroll*

...Arrin.

What do you think? I like it. I played around with consonants at the front, but I actually like it better starting with A. Much, much happiness!

Alas, my other characters are proving harder to find than I thought my MCs would be! I'll keep hunting, and if I have to, I'll go outside Illusions Gallery - although it would be nice to have one coherent look for all of them. Sigh.