The location page got a hefty update. The characters page got a minor one (I’m going to update that more, soon). Since I came up with a lot of those names on-the-fly, feedback is most definitely welcome. Especially if anything I named there also happens to be the name of a rare foot disease, or whatever.

Anyway, the next scene is when I start to coordinate the groups of characters I’ve introduced.

There’s traditional Shiirati music as a backdrop; heavy rhythmic drum beats echoing through the city due to the festivites.

There’s Cauinn—along with nearly the entire population of the city—at the Feast of the Eight. She still has Cirellio’s lock of hair and is waiting patiently for him.

There’s the guards patrolling every city street.

There’s Cirellio sneaking through the city.   Read the rest of this entry »

Scene 7 cont’d: Originally I had the last scene and this part merged together as one scene. I was thinking of splitting them, but that’s no good to do this early in the book—this scene is the first real emotional hit and the reader might be like “Okay… so why are we paying attention to these two again? When do we get back to Cirellio?” So this scene needs to weather it through to the hit. As long as I write it quick and interesting, the story shouldn’t lose its footing.

Asyria releases her shielding, opening up the floodgates for the emotions to pass between her and whoever is on the other side of her thread. It turns out to be an older woman, horribly tortured, miserable, panicked, and abused. Read the rest of this entry »

Larimosa and her daughter were interesting characters to write. I actually modelled their relationship after how I imagine Marie Antoinette’s relationship would’ve been like with her daughter.

Also, the temple was named after Le Marais in Paris, France.

Scene three’s weigh-in:

798 words.
So the grand total comes to 1881.

And with that, the prologue comes to a close.

And I’m not going back to it until the revision. I’m. Not. Touching. A. Word. Read the rest of this entry »

What a beast scene three has turned out to be! (I’ll explain why in a bit.)

It involves three characters: Asyria, Larimosa, and Dahjal. (And the temple servants)

The backdrop is the Temple of Marais … actually, the rune-covered central chamber of the temple, known as ‘the convergence’, built over where the ley lines of Kassara intersect.

Asyria is a young child who also happens to be the Meiallin, the most powerful mystic in the world. She is practicing the art of projecting herself to the fourth ring from within the convergence.

Larimosa is Asyria’s mother, a giver who has shown her child the less fortunate people of the world (in hopes of showing her how to be virtuous before her title and power has a chance to go to her head), letting her play regularly with underprivileged children and giving Asyria many chances to be generous—something the troubled world of Lura has eagerly taken notice of.

Larimosa recognizes Dahjal as ‘Giver Greggor’, a famous living saint who has travelled the world performing miracles. Read the rest of this entry »

Prologue-

1. a preliminary discourse; a preface or introductory part of a discourse, poem, or novel.
2. an introductory speech, often in verse, calling attention to the theme of a play.
3. the actor or actress who delivers this.
4. an introductory scene, preceding the first act of a play, opera, etc.
5. any introductory proceeding, event, etc.: Appetizing delicacies were the prologue to a long dinner.
–verb (used with object) 6. to introduce with or as if with a prologue. Read the rest of this entry »

I definitely wanted a prologue that started out with something highly atmospheric.  Scene 01 was inspired by the crumbling palace in the prologue of The Eye of the World.

Mine starts with an ancient city that appears in seemingly random places on Lura, this time sinking into the ocean. I felt this would create atmosphere similar to the crumbling palace. But it turned out this scene was awfully hard to write. Here’s the first line:

“The city had settled beneath the ocean by the time Dahjal arrived.”
Read the rest of this entry »