scribblemyname | Entries tagged with storyworld: vardin

Rabia Gale tagged me for the Next Big Thing meme, wherein I wax eloquent on matters of this big novel I’m supposed to be writing next. I’ve got a few issues with picking a project, something about the fact that I’ve had two of them for a while and have had yet to nail my focus, but I’m going to just pick one and run with it.

1. What is the working title of your next book?

The Rothnen Cycle

I learned something about myself over the course of failing NanoLite: I kept trying to segregate out the different plot threads of City of Glass, of The Rothnen Cycle, and kept failing miserably. I couldn’t find and keep my focus, so I kept not getting anywhere with either of them, despite knowing way more about both stories than a girl ought.

Job hunt put me on the right direction: I’m a detail-oriented of the whole big picture kind of gal and I kept losing the forest for the trees. Thus, the title of the book is technically what I thought was a series title because it gives me back my focus. It’s a rather expanded version of the Vardin story.

2. Where did the idea come from for the book?

Vardin was born from my fandom tendencies, the exposition of the theories I developed regarding gifts and powers, and this story itself was born from the way I acquire characters, make them my own in the premise of my making, and all the dynamics and tightly interwoven relationships that emerged from playing them out in the Vardin world. The Rothnen Cycle covers not even the tip of my personal storyworld iceberg, but it captures a big picture of a fragile time when the outside world ‘discovers’ Vardin—which has always known about the outside world—, the people involved in that discovery, who cause that discovery, and who are most affected by it. It covers the couples who are bound, whether they know it or not, and yet held apart by the distance between baseline human and gifted human and how those bonds affect Vardin as a whole.

3. What genre does your book fall under?

Science Fiction Fantasy. It’s really science fiction, but I’ve never liked to limit myself and I write it in a firmly fantasy style half the time.

4. What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?

I plead the fifth. Seriously. I’ve been ‘acquiring’ characters since I was five years old and now, they are truly mine, but I wouldn’t exactly want to hand out to the world who each character was based on. Though I think only a handful will be obvious to those in the know.

5. What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

:blinks: Might I mention that this is cruel and unusual punishment to try to even shoehorn an almost series-length book into a single sentence? Duly mentioned, here goes:

The Queen of Vardin is dying, a team of explorers has ventured upon the land’s hidden shore, and the whole world is about to discover a place where people are divided between the baseline and the gifted, where dragons and mythical creatures are real, and where the balance of power in Vardin can affect the entire world.

6. Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

Self-Published

7. How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?

Still working…

8. What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

I wish I knew, but I really don’t.

9. Who or what inspired you to write this book?

See #2. Also, Kirsten of A Scenic Route. She liked a snippet from Storm, the first part of The Rothnen Cycle, and startled me into realizing I had found the Vardin voice.

10. What else about the book might pique the reader’s interest?

To create a one-sentence summary makes the whole story seem so big stakes, big picture, but the truth is that this is a story about individuals making choices, commitments, and sacrifices based on their love for significant others, for their families, for their nation. It’s about a Queen who can either care for her people or marry the man she will always be bound to. It’s about an outsider who learns the terrible secret of Vardin and must choose between the world he’s always known and the one that embraces him as its own. It’s about a girl raised as an outsider but born to Vardin and wishing as hard as she can that she could be both. It’s about the hard choice between forcing the guardians to remain hidden in their own land or allowing them to reveal what they really are—and put the whole world at risk of repeating Vardin’s worst and most terrible mistakes.

Tagged: in_the_blue, lithiumlaughter, pygmymuse, and xenokattz. Fandom perfectly permitted.

Originally published at Liana Mir. You can comment here or there.

This entry is part 3 of 3 in the series 5 Things Meme

Comment to this post saying “FIVE!” and I will pick five things I would like you to talk about. They might make sense or be totally random.

Then post that list, with your commentary, to your journal. Other people can get lists from you, and the meme merrily perpetuates itself, hopefully for the rest of eternity!

From arliddian: Worldbuilding

What do we talk about when we talk about worldbuilding? How about we begin with the fact that I am a worldbuilder at heart, that I empathize with Tolkien’s desire to write out stories to express the worldbuilding he had done and further, that the worldbuilding he had done was built around languages. Additionally, I was asked to write this post ages ago, but haven’t, primarily because it’s too big. I couldn’t get my arms around it.

Worldbuilding is writing. No matter what time period you’re in, what setting, what people, your story exists within a world, and the story builds that world within your reader’s mind.
( Read the rest of this entry � )

Originally published at Liana Mir. You can comment here or there.

This is the post I have been waiting for. Marie Brennan, in a guest post on Jim Hine’s journal, encapsulated beautifully so many of the things I have wrestled with about my own fiction recently. My good friend, Rabia, asked me to write a post for her a while back that ended up being about flash fiction, but it was supposed to be about writing myth.

This is that post she asked for.

( Read the rest of this entry � )

Originally published at Liana Mir. You can comment here or there.

The idea here is to have each storyworld recognizable for what it is, but also to have each collection look different than an individual short story.

( Read the rest of this entry � )

Originally published at Liana Mir. You can comment here or there.

This entry is part 1 of 1 in the series 5 Things Meme

Comment to this post saying “FIVE!” and I will pick five things I would like you to talk about. They might make sense or be totally random.

Then post that list, with your commentary, to your journal. Other people can get lists from you, and the meme merrily perpetuates itself, hopefully for the rest of eternity!

From arliddian: Siblings

When it comes to family, they are one of the most important things in both my life and my fiction, a fact not everybody may be aware of. Sisters, brothers, parents, aunts and uncles, grandparents…

But today, let’s talk about siblings.

( Read the rest of this entry � )

Originally published at Liana Mir. You can comment here or there.

THE CALLER AND THE DRAGON
Liana Mir

Summary: Why do the guardians battle the dragons? A traditional story (or legend)
Author&http://lianamir.com/#8217;s Notes: This story is considered historical literature to those of Vardin and is told often among the kahtchen;¹ however, it is true, not accurate.

There once lived a strong and powerful dragon named Rathor. He breathed fire through his mouth and through his wings, and all of his skin was hot like a burning furnace. He could sense when any person drew near to his lair. If they did not have any light of fire within them, he would burn them to ash if they did not run fast enough and far enough.

( Read the rest of this entry � )

Originally published at Liana Mir. You can comment here or there.

So I was actually trying to design a cover for the collection, Gone Hunting, but I ended up with this: a newly branded, much more professional potential cover for “Crossing the Barrier.”

I think it appeals more to a younger audience than I was going for, but considering the age of the protagonist, that might not be a bad thing.

Originally published at Liana Mir. You can comment here or there.

My characters are beverage drinkers. From Clark Gabrin with his “fine decantation of valuable stimulants and nutrients” designed to taste like an Earl Grey to the national Vardin beverage, sluscheta; to Shelley Huntington’s addiction to all things coffee, tea and coffee seems to show up all over in my fiction.

Myself, I am a bit of a tea connoisseur. The family cupboard has always been stuffed to the brim with assorted teas, mostly supplemental or Celestial Seasonings, and my father’s pantry contained even more exotic varieties, including coffee alternatives, such as Roma and Pero. When I opened up shop in my own pantry, I included hefty doses of tea for both healing and flavor. An introduction to a local tea room owner led me to fall in love with rooibos as well. So, when my characters began showing personality through their choice of beverage, not only did it not really take me by surprise, but it made for a delightful round table of who likes what and what that says about them.

( Read the rest of this entry � )

Originally published at Liana Mir. You can comment here or there.

I put out a wonderment once at Vardin literature and its forms and heard this answer in the voice of Vaila out of Britak, Academy Historian:

We have histories, which are accurate and stories, which are true.

Originally published at Liana Mir. You can comment here or there.

So on Write a Book with Me, Kirsten asked for snippets and shared an amazing one of her own. I went ahead and went out on a limb (for me, anyway) and shared the first bit of Storm, the new bit of the overhaul of my Vardin novelverse into The Rothnen Cycle.

I wasn’t expecting much; I’ve been scared to really go where this book goes, but her response just about choked me up and told me I am finally doing this right. It’s still scary, if I’m honest, but I hope that I can keep doing, reaching down into the real parts of this story that draw me and compel me and share them, no matter how much I worry that it’s going to go down wrong.

She fell into sleep wearing her usual blonde braid and her long, flannel nightgown. She woke to a rocky beach with her golden hair loose and blowing in the softly singing winds and wearing a simple cream-colored dress under a dark cloak. He was there. He was always there, waiting for her. A little older than she was, maybe twelve or thirteen, and visibly too thin without his shirt. He liked to hang his bare legs in the water and let the water and wind ruffle his hair into unkempt auburn. He liked to sit just in front of her and grin when she wasn’t being serious.

But tonight—or day, the sun was glimmering softly over here through a haze of beautiful blue so intense, it seemed she could swirl her finger in it—she was serious as she settled her cloaked back against the large rock leading upward toward the cliffs. She was serious often enough to know he would not laugh or grin, but listen to her intently, like his life hung upon her words.

“What day is it?” she asked, softly, like speaking too loud would change his answer.

It was an old question between them, something worrisome and weary filling the gap between.

“The seventeenth,” he answered solemnly.

“What month is it?”

He waited a moment, dark eyes holding hers. “The second.”

The same day. She slept and awoke and it was all her own life. It bothered her.

He was all pent-up, restless energy and stepped up as if to go, but she caught his hand and held it tightly. He let her and sat beside her while she waited for the ache of confusion within her to leave her for the winds and drift away.

Originally published at Liana Mir. You can comment here or there.

There is a thought in writing that the best point of view for a scene is the character who knows the least and has the most to lose.

Last week or thereabouts, I had an epiphany. Summerlight is not about the discovery of Vardin or the opening of the Barrier, but about the Vardin succession while those things are going on. It’s about people, in particular a person who loses everything whether or not she succeeds her mother on the throne.

Most people think knowing who you are supposed to marry is a good thing. I used to—until I knew I could never marry him.

Summerlight is about the person who has most to lose and, typically, one of the last characters whose role within the story I knew anything about.

Apparently, I tend to start with those who have most to gain because they are driven and informative and drive the story forward. But they don’t have the same sacrifices, the same loss. They may even already be resigned to the possibility of not-having.

Despite my general desire for relief from romance, I find my Vardin series is starting with the rothnen, the soulmates, for lack of a better understood shorthand. They are complex and deal very much with sacrifice, though it mostly falls on the non-rothnen side at first. Those who grow up always knowing are far more aware that they may never have. Being rothnen is fraught with issues like consent, invasion of privacy, pain, and belief or disbelief in fate. In short, despite running from romantic angst in my original fic, I find myself smack dab in it again.

Oh well.

Originally published at Liana Mir. You can comment here or there.

So from Rabia Gale:

1. Go to page 77 of your current manuscript/work-in-progress (or page 7 if you don’t have 77).
2. Go to line 7.
3. Copy down the next 7 lines, sentences, or paragraphs, and post them as they’re written.
4. Tag 7 authors, and let them know.

I’m sure you all know my current novel-length WIP is Summerlight, no matter how recalcitrant and shifty mess that work is turning out to be. :grumbles at book: :book grumbles back:

So it’s not 77 pages yet. Here’s on page 7.

They seem to be rather divided about that.

You always were the one who believed in fairies.

Love always,
John

Miles stopped reading. “The letter is dated from just over nine months ago, about three weeks after I heard from him last.” The crinkles about his eyes were back, but this time he was frowning, as if in pain.

Rob considered the timing. His mind immediately began to calculate the potential dangers and some of the strange things they could be expected to take seriously.

“Do you really think we’ll see dragons?” Josh asked, aiming his question at Miles, the more credulous of the men.

Now for my seven writers:

Tag in_the_blue, pygmymuse, lithiumlaughter, arliddian…

Let’s stick to four.

Originally published at Liana Mir. You can comment here or there.

This happens every so often. I’ve been out filling my well today, working and writing, and I’m full up with things to say and sort out and realize.( Read the rest of this entry � )

Originally published at Liana Mir. You can comment here or there.

The Peninsula

• “Crossing the Barrier” is on submission. I haven’t heard back about the art yet, so everything’s still pending.

• Summerlight, “Prelude to Dance,” just got an edit and an update. On the PDF. I’ve decided when making major updates that unless I think the original needs serious help, I won’t be editing the blog posts, simply because it’s harder and there are more of them. In short, I moved the second part to the front to simplify.

I have not posted a new update on Summerlight yet because it’s a structural book and I just saw the big picture last week, which means I’ve been spending this week sketching out the ending and some key points throughout. I do hope to settle back soon into a chronological groove with the writing, but I won’t be posting anything until the next part is written and betaed.

• I have a few other shorts on the back burner and a couple of I’m-not-sure-how-longs. I’m not focusing on drafting them at this time. I figure the novel is quite suffiicient to keep me.

The Mirror

So this universe has given me its overall arc a whole lot better than any other storyworld to date. It has a pretty complex history and power system, with the powers themselves being rooted in another dimension and with a rather different set of possiblities being accepted and/or used at different times in history.

What makes this storyworld so particularly interesting to me is that it’s the first time where I have a clearly fantasy premise rooted in an intensely “Christian” worldview. By “Christian,” I mean that this is a rather secular empire that uses the Bible and its carefully manufactured interpretation thereof to control a worldwide populace, as well as several outlying space colonies.

• Several shorts are in progress, though I’m not completely happy with any of them yet, thus the slow work. Getting the voice right is tricky. We have “Eye of the Mirror,” “The Silver,” and Sacred Mirror, all of which are tentative titles.

Breath

• I’m certainly learning quite a bit about worldbuilding with this one. This is a world that did not arrive fully formed and refused to shape itself. Nope. It’s making me do all the heavy lifting (which is kind of fun, if I’m being honest). I’m developing a Series Bible for it and counting this as writing time because I will be putting in a PDF format and keeping it for personal use.

• I have four stories completely drafted, on paper or on the computer: “Baker of Souls,” “A Pretty Word,” ”Lost Heart,” and “The Great Cat and His Soul.” I’m planning on rewriting the first three with my updated worldbuilding information and better character building on the first and the third. The fourth will be heading over to my beta once it’s typed.

• I have a fistful of stories I want to write in this universe: about the Fell, a girl who brought the destruction of the Old King’s regime; about Shinet, the soulless, and her reluctant comrade, Covall; about the immortal empress; about the Mavren, the Collector and former enforcer; about the old doctor out in the hills with the water estate. We’ll see.

The Alliance

• This is a world from a long time ago and a different pen name, but an unplaceable drabble has inspired me to continue it. The drabble was “City of Glass,” and the next piece will be entitled the same. It’s a short series of drabbles set in the Alliance universe and can now be downloaded in PDF.

Unrelated Side Note

Apparently, I have an inordinate love for names beginning with the letter K.

Writing anything new? Any new world sparking your interest?

Originally published at Liana Mir. You can comment here or there.

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The Next Big Thing: Rothnen Cycle
5 Things Meme: Worldbuilding
Myth, Legend, and Folktale
Cover Testing the Worlds
5 Things Meme: Siblings
Short Story: The Caller and the Dragon
Cover Test: Crossing the Barrier
Theme in Fiction: How do you take it?
Quotation: The Stories They Tell Themselves
Snippet: Storm
Who—and What—is the Book About
Meme Post #1: The Lucky 7
Full Up: The Small Idea
Stats Post: Fiction Worlds and Names Beginning with K

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Entries tagged with storyworld: vardin

The Next Big Thing: Rothnen Cycle

5 Things Meme: Worldbuilding

Myth, Legend, and Folktale

Cover Testing the Worlds

5 Things Meme: Siblings

Short Story: The Caller and the Dragon

Cover Test: Crossing the Barrier

Theme in Fiction: How do you take it?

Quotation: The Stories They Tell Themselves

Snippet: Storm

Who—and What—is the Book About

Meme Post #1: The Lucky 7

Full Up: The Small Idea

Stats Post: Fiction Worlds and Names Beginning with K

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