Author Archives: Joshua K Johnson
Short Stories as World Building
As I approach the halfway point in writing the first draft of “Griffins and Gunpowder: The Cerberus Rebellion” I have been thinking about ways to provide backstory without infodumping in the middle of a chapter
I think that one way to do this is to write some of this backstory and information not crucial to the plot (yet still useful) in the form of short stories, novellas and novelettes.
I’m hoping that this will serve both as extra information for those that are interested and as a way to introduce readers to my world and maybe convince them to buy my larger works.
To this end I have roughly plotted out the first 3 Short Stories, a Novella and a Novelette for my world.
Through these stories I intend to provide some context to the catalyst for my series arc, some back story for one of my secondary characters and for one of my main characters.
So how have you countered the problem of infodumping? Have you gradually worked it into the main story, used short stories to tell some of the background information or have you found another way to provide background without overloading the reader?
Leave a comment below and let me know your methods.
When it rains…
…it pours.
After fretting so much about the title of first Gunpowder Fantasy novel – how much of the plot to give away with the name, how to tie it to the relevant part of the story, etc – I finally decided on “The Cerberus Rebellion”.
It makes it clear what the book is going to focus on without giving away too much.
Soon after, the titles for the subsequent parts of the series and even a strong candidate for Series Name have emerged.
My current leader for series name is Griffins and Gunpowder:(Insert Book Name Here)
And for book names I’m looking at using the sigil of each house as the focal point for the book and having that house do a lot of the work.
The only thing that has to be settled is the sigil of a major house. I was going to have their sigil be a great-eagle but I couldn’t find a solid phrase that would work for a title.
So now I’m leaning towards tiger or great-boar.
The problem also arises that if I can’t get everything done in my planned stretch I’m going to run out of houses to focus on and will have to break my convention. But I suppose that I’ll build that bridge if it cones to it.
Finally Found It!
So I think I’ve finally found my title (or at least narrowed it down to 2 options)!
Goals for this Year, as an Author
I’m going to admit, this is mostly a “To-Do” list for myself as I have a terrible time remembering the most mundane details of day-to-day life (ask my wife) while I remember the most minute details of half a dozen different fictional worlds.
My primary goal, obviously, is to get my current WiP finished, run through beta-readers, edited and published. In working toward that goal, however, there are smaller milestones that I need to accomplish.
The first of which is purchasing my Scrivener key. At the suggestion of several people on twitter and kindleboards, I decided to give this program a try and boy do I love it! The ability to have all of my research notes, family trees, character profiles and the like in one place makes life easier.
I also need to get a website going. Hopefully my wife can find some time to help me with that in between her part time job and handling the now-walking hurricane that is our 1yr old son.
Doing the math with where I am in my plot-line, how many words I’ve written and how many words I average per weekend, I think that by June or July I should have the novel through at least two rounds of beta-readers and hopefully have an editor arranged to send it off to.
I’m also considering writing some short stories or novellas to go along side this world (maybe build some buzz for it) that I plan to write while my book is with my beta readers.
So we’ll see how much I get done this year.
Brave New World
One of the problems that I’ve come across already is the lack of previous work in this area. There are a handful of books that have used this sub-genre title and I’m sure that there are other previous works that have integrated gunpowder into a typical fantasy setting.
The problem of course is finding those works.
So in writing my Gunpowder Fantasy, I’ve had very little in the way of other work to compare mine too.
I think this will probably work to my advantage as I will have a completely clean slate to work against. I don’t have many preconceived ways to integrate the magical elements of my world with the rest of my world.
Gunpowder Fantasy – Chapter 1 Excerpt
There was always the option of sailing his armies to Etroit, but finding the ships to carry almost two hundred thousand soldiers would be nearly impossible and it would still take nearly a month to sail them to the Citadel.
“Your Grace.” Eadric’s steward had entered, silent as a whisper. “Would you like me to summon your council?”
“Yes, please do Charles.” Eadric nodded and picked up his glass.
He studied the lands that he ruled and took note of the various sigils that marked the holdings of his many lords; the shields that marked the holdings of his Dukes were the largest. There was the sigil of House Jarmann at Agilard, the only duchy east of Aetheston; the black pegasus against white of House Chalmer in the West Valley, the castle nestled into the Spine Mountains against the border with Beldane; the blue hydra against orange of House Seward at Sea Watch, on the southwestern coast of Ansgar; the red centaur on a blue field of House Ridley in White Ridge, nestled between the Vast Sea to the south and the three peaks of the White Ridge on its north; the white great-eagle on black of House Croutcher was last, the Arndell Duchy was the largest duchy by miles but sparsely populated in the far western corner of the nation.
Other, smaller shields marked the eleven earls of Ansgar, two east of Aetheston and nine to the west. Shields smaller still marked the forty-two baronies that divided the rest of the nation. He was not as familiar with the baronies as he was with the earldoms and duchies, but then he rarely had the occasion to deal with many of them.
He had, of course, met every one of his sworn nobles at his coronation, or their ascension for those few nobles that had taken their seats after he had been crowned. But the lesser nobles had smaller estates to care for and could scarcely afford frequent journeys to the capital to pay homage to their king.
Eadric was still focused on the map when the door groaned open and his council entered.
“Your Grace,” Lord Alden Hanley, Earl of Hamilton, was a tall, slender man who walked with the help of a black ebony cane. His brown hair and full beard were well shaded with gray but his brown eyes were still sharp, and careful. He wore a white shirt, brown trousers and a blue tailcoat with a brown bear, the symbol of his house, sewn over his heart.
Before Eadric’s ascension to the throne of Ansgar, Alden had betrothed his oldest daughter to the Crown Prince. The move had established the Earl as a close advisor to the new king when Eadric had come to power and the king gave extra weight to his opinion.
“Lord Hanley,” Eadric clasped the man’s hands and inclined his head to his father by law.
“Your Grace, you are looking well today,” Lord William Richards said with a bow. Baron Saxan had long been one of Eadric’s closest advisors. He had been brought to court at the age of five by his father to learn the ways of the capital and the court of the nation’s ruler.
William and Eadric had been tutored by the same teachers, taught of swords by the same master at arms and had ascended to their titles at nearly the same time. Eadric had raised him to Lord Councilor as one of his first acts.
He stood nearly the same height as Eadric, with a similarly athletic build. He was shaved bald, the thin mustache and well-kept red beard the only hint of his hair color. He wore a pair of simple glasses over his crystal blue eyes. His blue tailcoat had a double row of golden buttons and his family’s signet embroidered across his heart: a pair of red swords crossed over the center of the blue field.
“Thank you, William,” Eadric presented his signet ring for his friend to kiss.
“My King, I see that the sums you have been spending on Dragonsalt have not been in vane,” Lord Peter Wellstone said with a smile. As the Chancellor of Ansgar it was his responsibility to keep the kingdom’s books and accounts.
He was the youngest man in the room, only just into his twenty-fifth year, but was by far the best with numbers. He had been an apprentice to the last Chancellor, his childless uncle the previous Earl Colby, and had taken to his studies with fervor.
He carried a stack of ledgers with him at all times, books filled with figures on the kingdom’s incomes, expenses and coffers. He was a small man, not very assuming at first glance. His short black hair was well combed and his blue eyes glanced back and forth every so often as if of their own volition. He wore the black tailcoat and trousers that were popular with the Court as of late. His badge, three black huts on a gray field, was sewn onto his chest.
“A pinch before bed helps me sleep,” Eadric lied.
“Your Grace,” a voice said in a lilting, sweet accent. Altavius Dohr’s accent was less pronounced than it had once been, or so Eadric was told, but it still marked him as one not native to Ansgar’s common tongue.
The elf was the oldest member of Eadric’s council. He was, in fact, the oldest person on this side of the world, at least as far as anyone knew. He had traveled across the Vast Sea twelve hundred years earlier with the first colonists to leave Welos.
Altavius had served as advisor to every single king since Liam the First King. Hundreds of years ago, one of Eadric’s ancestors had tried to grant him a small estate on the ocean shore in the Elsdon Duchy, but the elf was a High Priest in some elvish order, and they were not allowed to hold lands.
Altavius’ eyes had once been a deep sapphire, they were now a pale blue and his once brilliant red hair was now silver white and was tucked behind his long, tapered ears. He had once stood more than a foot taller than anyone else in the room but was now hunched with age and leaned heavily on his staff.
The apple sized emerald held in the staff’s heavy iron setting pulsed gently. He wore the brilliant green robes of an elfish priest, half a dozen heavy amulets hung on golden chains and jeweled rings sat on each finger.
Eadric’s four advisors sat in the leather chairs. Each took a moment to adjust to the thick cushions in their own fashion. Lord Wellstone rested his stack of ledgers on the small table beside him. Altavius leaned his staff against the chair’s arm. Lord Hanley hooked his cane on the back of the chair and Lord Richards pushed back into his chair and stretched his legs out before him.
Gunpowder Fantasy
So after doing a little bit of research, I have discovered that I’m not the only person writing “Gunpowder Fantasy.” That is: fantasy set in a world that includes gunpowder and it’s associated weaponry but does not focus on steam-power or other elements typical of a “steampunk” novel.
Some previous work in this area includes Winter Wolves (Amazon link) and The Black Prism (Wiki link).
It doesn’t seem to be a particularly expansive sub-genre (a google search really only turned up these two links). However, I’m definitely going to continue on my current path and work in this sub-genre with my Yet-To-Be-Named-Novel.
And as for YtbNN, it decided to throw me a curveball and adjust the plot-line, leaving around 30,000 words that need to be adjusted to fit the new pace of the plot. And as I was reworking the plot I realized that the way that my world was set up wasn’t going to work either. So I’ve remapped the world, twice.
On this current world, I’ve added another two major nations and a handful of city-states that are currently just going to be secondary background work (who knows, maybe they’ll play a major part later).
My overall plot for Book 1 is still intact, however, and as I work through it I will be working on the overall plot for the series and on Book 2 as well.
What’s In a Name (Content)
A little while ago, while working on my current universe, I came to the realization that some of the names I was using (primarily for the nations of my newborn world) didn’t really roll off the tongue.
I’ve noticed that alot of authors tend to make their primary characters and the nations and worlds that those characters exist in have easily pronounced names. The two authors that I have read the most (David Weber and George RR Martin) have made their primary worlds and characters such.
So as I was rereading through the first few chapters of my new world, I decided to change the name of a few characters and the names of a few nations. Not only so the name of the nations themselves but also the name of those nation’s citizens. For example, originally the main nation was going to be called Bradig. But I realized that the citizen of that nation would be what? A Bradigite? A Bradigian? So I’ve renamed my nation to something easier.
When reading, or writing, how important is it to you to have names that you feel are easily pronounced?
Short Story – Thor’s Day
Thor’s Day
Eric frowned as the first of the dark black clouds rolled down from the ridge north of the village. They had seen far too many storms in the last turn of the moon and the river that ran past the huddle of buildings to the fjord beyond was nearly at the top of the dirt dyke that separated it from the farmers’ fields. Not for the first time Eric wished that he’d been allowed to go on the latest raid.
Instead, he’d been left with the children and old men to tend the fields.
The clouds to the north looked like they were moving quickly and would be upon the village by sundown.
Eric rested his metal rake on his shoulder and started down the hillside to the village. Two dozen small houses, a blacksmithy and a longhall where the townsfolk held their meetings. All surrounded by a low stone wall. Eric was told that it was a small village, as things went. Maybe one day he’d be able to go on a raid and see the villages of the people in the south.
He reached the low stone wall just as the first heavy drops of rain started to drop. It was then he noticed that something was missing. There was no flashing lightning. No rolling thunder. There was thunder, even in the smallest storms that rolled down from the northern mountains.
“There’s no thunder!” He yelled across the small yard to Sven the Gray. The old man was one of the only men in the village that had never been a raider. He’d raised sheep and farmed the lands for his whole life.
“Some storms don’t have thunder. It’s nothing to -” The old man’s words stopped suddenly as a black spear sprouted from his chest. Behind him, a figure clad in an oversized black robe sat astride a midnight black horse. Eyes of silver glowed from beneath the cloak’s hood.
Eric was speechless. He had heard whispered tales from the old women of the village. They told of the black men who rode the thunderless storms. He had always believed that they were just tales, told to frighten little boys and girls.
But now one of these creatures had come to Eric’s village and he was frozen. He tried to shout a warning, but when he opened his mouth nothing came out.
The rider dismounted from his horse and walked toward the corpse of the old farmer. He knelt and pulled the spear from the already cold body. His hands searched the body for a moment until he found what he was looking for. He ripped the amulet from around the man’s neck. It was a small stone hammer, a tribute to Thor, god of Thunder.
“Where is your god now?” A high pitched voice demanded.
“I…I…” Eric couldn’t find words. The black rider stood
“Where is your god?” The voice demanded again.
“He…doesn’t visit us anymore…”
The voice laughed. It was a shrill sound that hurt Eric’s ears.
“Your god is dead,” the rider threw the amulet at Eric’s feet. “Tell your leaders. This day is no longer Thor’s Day.”
On Genre
A few years back, however, I stopped dabbling in Fantasy and have predominantly worked on Science Fiction, particularly the Space Opera and Military Sci-Fi sub-genres. I just liked the idea of writing massive space epics that spanned hundreds of light years.
But recently, I’ve started to go back to the Fantasy genre. It started when my younger brother was over and he mentioned that he had this idea for a story set in a Fantasy world. He’s a song writer, though, so he passed the basics of the idea on to me. I wrote up a basic 2 page idea and have it on file ready to go when I have a chance.
The seed was planted.
I started to develop a new world, which I have named “Zaria” though that is likely to change, and have been working on that world more recently. I had started it as a gunpowder era world, think the late 1700s to early 1800s. I wanted to use some historical situations as a baseline.
Then one day I decided to add elves, and magic was close behind. I realized that my world didn’t really fit into any current sub-genres. It’s not quite Steampunk, as I’ve decided to leave steam power out for now (I may start to introduce it much later in the development of this world). But it’s definitely not High Fantasy.
I spent a couple of days trying to decide how to adjust this world to more easily fit into an established sub-genre and then I realized that I didn’t need to. Sub-genres have to start somewhere, so maybe this will be the start of one.
Special Shoutout to: @cultauthor for helping me decide to just go where the story takes me
Gunpowder Fantasy 