Tag Archives: Serpent of the Shangrove

Magic moments.

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I suppose I am thinking of this as I have been working on a passage of magic usage today. Oh, that and working a pig into the script. Yes, a pig. I gather the Oxford University Press is banning all mention of all things porcine in case it offends anyone. The thought of Pigling Bland from the Tales of Beatrice Potter ever being on a banned list offends me greatly and inspires a sudden plethora of little piggies. But I digress.

Serious magic in a fantasy setting is not legerdemain and nor should it ever appear as such. Magic is an element and as such, must have an origin. What the origin is doesn’t really matter as long as it is well thought out and very plausible. In the case of Darkspire Reaches, which I mention as I am polishing the sequel, Serpent of the Shangrove, the magic is twofold as I have a creature of earth and water and one of fire and air. Now for the later there is incredible energy put into the making of jewel stones. What if these could be used as a source of fuel? Fire and air would be a perfect match. Water and earth are a lot easier with the raw power of nature. Consider the energy of a waterfall, or the power of a tree root splitting rock. So there it is. One answer. Now I wonder if I can justify a flying piggy? Probably not.

Writing Process … Eureka moment.

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Everything can look good, flow well and be a good follow-on at face value but I knew there was something missing. I couldn’t put my finger on it and have been procrastinating, but now I know. I needed a secondary driver to ramp up the angst and the humor moments.

Now I am a happy camper. Now the storyline is in place properly and will work as I intended. Now I have to sit down and stuff in around 30k words in various places. Kicks self. I should have thought of this before. Just looking at the driver now I can see how crucial it is. Still, better now than later.

I guess I will have plenty of time to work on it today as I don’t intend to go anywhere. Someone gave me a late xmas present of a cold that I am trying to fight off. Double Grrrss.

Dreams.

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I fully admit I get my best book ideas from dreams, but not this latest one. This was a no no from the get go.

Imagine a very nasty resort in a very swampy region with very unclean water. Now add nasty ‘things’ just below the surface with bodies like giant slugs that are dangerous and will eat people. Add to that filthy, dirty cabins and no fun things to do for tiny kiddies. This would be us and our daughters and they would be five to months old at the time. For some strange reason, only logical in dreams, we had taken the baby’s wooden cot with us. Now add a black, mist like presence to haunt the cabin and us trying to get the aforesaid cot out of the cabin so we could pack the car to leave early from this nightmare vacation. 

Nope, not one I will be using. It fails, not from the yuk factor, but because it has no ongoing plot or structure, aside from the factoid that I never write about real people. 

On the flip side, as there always is one, my next dream, after I woke from the nightmare and drifted off again, gave me the plot for the fourth book in my Shadow series. I have the main character and all the whys and wherefors. I have these written down now. 

Nope, I will not be working on this any time soon. I have the finishing touches to put to the third Shadow book and also I have Serpent of the Shangrove to finish as a sequel to Darkspire Reaches. Added to that, I am working on a very dark science fiction stand alone book I would like to finish before I start on any new projects. Shadow three, probably entitled ‘Chalice of the Shadows’, although that does depend on what my publisher thinks as to the title, and Serpent of the Shangrove, ditto,  are high priority. I am working on the three at the same time as I can get more wordage out.

 The good news is I am told Sword of Shadows is set for release in September of this year. Yay!!!!!