Category Archives: writing
So… What’s up?
Hello everyone!
I’ve been radio silent for a while and wanted to provide an update on progress and things.
I had a computer melt down at the beginning of the year and lost some progress on my last round of edits for Cerberus. Things are recovered finally so I will be back on that starting on Monday.
The big news is what has really stymied any sort of progress. In February I was diagnosed with Primary Progressive Multiple Sclerosis. My body is quite literally attacking itself. It’s caused some minor neurological symptoms but is mainly concentrated in my spine so it’s mostly sensory and balance issues for now.
I started treatment but the overwhelming fatigue, combined with work and various appointments and other responsibilities, has really hampered my drive to write. Fortunately, I’m going to push through and after this Peak season am going to really out emphasis on writing.
So that’s where things stand. Once I get back into the metaphorical saddle I’ll provide more updates!
A New Sub-Plot Has Entered the Chat…
The first series in the Griffins & Gunpowder universe takes a lot of inspiration from the American Civil War. The technology and rapid development of what many consider to be modern warfare tactics, some character inspiration and loose basis for some of the battles.
As a kid I was a fountain of random facts and knowledge. In college, I took many classes about this period and the military history on my way to a History Minor.
So, naturally I think, I consume a great deal of American Civil War content. I’ve always had a love for studying this period of time.
Well, in doing so, last night my brain decided to poke me with an idea. After a quick session of bouncing the idea off the wall with my mom (thanks mom!) I worked out some of the implications and ways to integrate an anti-slavery thread into the Ansgari Civil War.
And I stayed up way past my bedtime sliding the initial concept into The Cerberus Uprising.
Should be interesting 😁
The Novel Web – Updated
I looked back and realized that the seed of this idea came about almost 5 years ago! It has grown and morphed substantially since then and even though I’m in the middle of Hydra rewrites and the continuation/completion of the Ansgari Civil War series, I think that I’ve gotten the core ideas locked down.
So “The Plan” for the novel web is to have a stand-alone novel that will set the scene but, more importantly, introduce some of the key characters. Each series will have its own style, main character and arc while at the same time weaving around a central idea and sharing interactions between the different book.
I think the challenge of that latter point will be re-telling the same scene but from an entirely different POV. I intend to use that sparingly so it doesn’t become overdone, but I also will try to have vastly different POVs to tell the story through. What they notice, what they think of the other person, etc.
Characters
As of now, there are 5 different story threads that will form the novel web. I had considered a 6th but have since dropped it.
So who are the poor victims of my machinations?
Gunpowder Gangsters
Influenced by some of my favorite gangster/mafia movies and tv series, Eden Fara will lead her small gang on her quest to become a powerful and respected member of the Andivari criminal underworld.
Law and Shadow
Lex Cana is a constable who gets involved in some of the activities of the other members while figuring out who killed his first partner and sent his life into a tail-spin.
Gunpowder Politics
Raina Portia is a leader of the Modern Citizens Party, but when she is passed over for a promised promotion within the party, she starts to plot her revenge and her actions may change the face of politics in Andivar forever.
“Criminal Underground”/”Stratus”
The series title is still a Work-In-Progress. The Stratus Charter is a compact signed between all of the major criminal groups more than a millennia before the “current” day. They are neutral, but maintain order between and provide services to the gangs. Voradiscia Vitella is responsible for thwarting attempts to undermine the Charter and to keep the police off her back.
The Pale Wraith
Ivanhoe Tesmier was a successful and feared assassin for most of his adult life. He retired as age crept up on him, but when the Charter comes under threat the successors to his former boss try to bring him back into action. They try to intimidate him into action, but instead earn his ire.
I think it should be fairly easy to see where some of the influence and inspiration for these come from, but I hope to be able to put my own unique Gunpowder Fantasy spin on the ideas and weave a tapestry of writing styles and story lines together.
The Plan!
Realizing that I have a metric ton of words to write just to get through the mainline ideas bouncing around in my head (around 2.7 million words just in the novels themselves, plus all of the planning and summary work) I decided to make an actual plan for how I’m going to get through the Ansgari Civil War series.
I’ve also started a plan for the Novel Web, but that is going to take some tweaking.
I’ve started a local wiki to help consistency check the works and make sure I don’t go off the rails.
I need to finish the rewrite of Hydra, which will be another 70,000 words, the 5 more books in the series at a projected 100k each. Plus 3 companion novels that will dovetail into the series finale: 60k each for another 180k. Three books in the Andivar series for another 300k total.
And then the big work begins. 28 novels in the Web, starting with a standalone and then diverging into the 6 strands of Interconnected but independent series. The plan, currently, is to write all of those novels from a singular POV, which will cut the work down to approximately 60k words each for a grand total of about 1.7 million words.
It’s daunting for me to write the numbers down and realize how much I’ve got to do. I am bolstered by the fact that I was able to do about 60k words for NanoWrimo a couple of years ago. Even if I worked at about 50% of that pace, that’s only about 5 years of actual writing. Plus the planning, summary and editing phases.
Hey, all done by my 50th birthday (9 1/2 years) would be a reasonable goal 🤣🤣
Private Armies on Zaria
Free companies, mercenaries, and Private Military Companies are all terms for a rather simple concept: a group of people (typically former military, but not always) who fight for money, without having allegiance to any cause or nation.
According to my research, these groups started in the early medieval period (the 12th century) and have evolved since then. But the basic concept is always the same.
In the nations of Zaria, this concept exists as well.
The Legions of Rhon
Perhaps the most well-known mercenaries in the world are the Legions of Rhon.
After many of the tribes of the Rhonish plains moved into the XX Basin and settled what would become the first of the Rhonish city-states, they needed a source of revenue. So the first Legions were formed as independent entities only loosely affiliated with their host city.
Originally, they found each other for land and resources, but as the city-states grew and evolved, the influence of the Legions spread and they began finding work in Welos and Istivan.
The success of the Orcish Legions inspired the Elvish tribe of Sidori to follow suit and shortly after the human cities of Venosh and Demosh also incentivized the formation of their own free companies.
Although they have continued a tradition of success and lucrative contracts, most of the Rhonish city-states have recently begun discouraging their support of the Legions. Increased taxes and regulation have lead to the collapse of nearly half of the Legions and the rest are either on their way out, or have sought homes elsewhere.
The Tribes of Galten and Thayer
Less wide-ranging, but no less intimidating, the city-states of Galten and Thayer separated from the nation of Franta nearly a millenia ago over the Hordes they offered up as raiders to the highest bidder and took a cut of the lucrative treasure.
Because of their proximity to western Ansgar, the neighbor was nearly always the target and the diplomatic pressure was mounting on the Frantan government to stop the raids.
As firearms developed and raids became less lucrative and the resistance by their targets became more fierce, the Hordes have largely dropped off, though a few have reformed themselves as Mercenary Companies and offer their services as guards and escorts.
Largely speaking, the world of Zaria frowns on the use of mercenaries, but they exist for the moment and have their ardent supporters.
What Have I Been Up To?
Hello readers!
Again a major gap in time since my last post, but I think this one will stick. I’ve found a new, better job and I’ve completed a full rewrite of Cerberus, a re-plot of Hydra and I am 23k words into that rewrite.
After much soul-searching and rereading the current iterations, I realized that they weren’t the best they could be, so I decided to rewrite them. I have a plan for re-publishing and including physical copies this time. I want to reward the readers of my current versions, so I will have some methods of compensating you all for the current versions once they are deprecated — more on that when we get closer to the event.
I want to know what you, the readers, want to know about the world of Zaria. Comment what part of my world you’d like to see me explore and I will get working on a list. Until then, stay tuned for more content as I hope to post weekly and return to full form as a novelist. I have so many ideas for Zaria and I believe they could be great!
Using History as Inspiration
Many of the best sci-fi and fantasy writers find a way to work history into their works. J.R.R. Tolkien used his experiences in World War I to write The Lord of the Rings, George RR Martin has used the War of the Roses as inspiration for Game of Thrones, and the list goes on.
As someone with a lifelong passion for the American Civil War and the resulting drive to minor in History alongside my English major, I find a great amount of satisfaction in using history to inform my writing. Sometimes it’s a very obvious inspiration and often more of a feel or sense of history.
Such is the impact of the American Civil War, and to a lesser degree the American Revolution, on my Gunpowder Fantasy. One of the first major conflicts with muskets and rifles, the first ironclad battle and one of the first major conflicts where railroads played a part, the American Civil War has had an obvious impact.
The world of Zaria is in a similar position to our own in the 19th Century. Railroads and rifles are a recent innovation and no major wars have been fought since their development. But all of that changes throughout the different series ilve been working on.
The rapid redeployment of troops swings battles, as it did in the battle of First Bull Run/Manassas, rifling and the accuracy and distance that it imparts result in casualties unimaginable before and maybe ever the first clash of ironclads are all events in Zaria that draw heavily from my research and knowledge of history.
With so many wars and technological innovations in our world, if your story involved conflict there is likely some historical event or battle that you can draw inspiration from. So read up on your history and you might just find something useful!
Loyalty Betrayed Draft 2 Complete
At just shy of 91,000 words, the second draft of Loyalty Betrayed is complete.
There are still some story lines I need to beef up in editing, but I’m working on my next project while I let it rest for a little while. Ideally, I’d love to be able to get it edited and cleaned up in time for PitchWars at the end of September, but we’ll see how it goes. The prologue and first chapter have already been heavily edited, so I have a head-start on that.
My next project, the “Web” of novels planned to take place 8 years after Loyalty Betrayed, is in the high level outline process right now. Twenty-five Novels spread across 6 Independent but Interconnected threads. I’ll make a post on that soon.
If anyone would like to Beta Read Loyalty Betrayed, feel free to drop me a line!
Gunpowder Fantasy 