Blog Archives
Cover Re-Reveal
Come one, come all and see the reveal of the rewrite of The Hydra Offensive — The Hydra Rebellion. Same art as THO, but I’ve changed the names of the Series and started with Uprising.
As soon as I’ve got a publishing schedule I’ll share the cover for The Centaur Offensive!
Cover Re-Reveal
Come one, come all and see the reveal of the rewrite of The Cerberus Rebellion — The Cerberus Uprising. Same art as TCR, but I’ve changed the names of the Series and started with Uprising.
The Hydra Rebellion cover reveal will be coming soon, and as soon as I’ve got a publishing schedule I’ll share the cover for The Centaur Offensive!
How Things Are Going
I’ve been a busy guy!
I’ve put Cerberus through another round of edits, and then I discovered the Elevenlabs app on my phone. I’ve listened through all of Cerberus and made some clean up edits, removing duplicate words too close together and things of that nature.
I’ve also tried out the Elevenlabs web program, where it uses AI to narrate text. I’ve crafted the first scene of Cerberus and am considering where to go from here.
Hydra is ready for the first pass of edits, which I intend to start tomorrow. I’ve already got edit notes put together for changes to make along the way as this is more of a high-level editing pass.
I’ve fully outlined The Centaur Offensive, and then went back through and overhauled it to the point where I’m very happy with it. I’m excited to start the writing for this!
Overall, a productive July!
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.
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!
So, I threw out 80,000 Words…
I was reading through Loyalty Betrayed (aka Series 2;Book 1) and I came to a realization.
I had originally conceived of the story as a retelling of Othello, with significant changes to the cast and the overall storyline (its more a political betrayal for the bride of the MC than it is a physical betrayal). But I ended up feeling that I had leaned too heavily on the source materials.
The storyline didn’t flow the way I wanted it to, I shoehorned in certain scenes just because they were in the play.
So, I took the first 2 chapters and threw the rest out. I needed to add a bunch of content anyways because I had removed a secondary plot of about 40,000 words (that’s going to either be a companion novella or Book 2 in the series, not sure which yet).
I spent the last day writing a new chapter-by-chapter summary and just wrapped that up at a little over 7,000 words. Now to get to the actual rewriting process.
The Magic/Tech Formula
In the world of Gunpowder Fantasy, there is a fine line to walk between magic and technology.
Magic will necessarily impact how technology develops within your world. If magic is extremely common, useful and easy to use, why would people develop technology like steam power and rifles? On the other hand, a lack of magic will facilitate the advancement of these technologies much like it did in our world.
To that end, I’ve developed a rudimentary formula that can help you determine what your starting point should be so you get the most out of your world.
On the magic side of things, I have 4 scores: Commonality, Functionality, Difficulty, and Cost. All rated on a scale of 1-10.
Magic
Commonality, How Common is Magic?
For Commonality, you want to decide how common you want magic to be in your world. Can everyone use magic, either through natural talent or the ability to learn? Then you’re going to give your magic system a Ten for commonality. Is magic, inversely, very rare, either because it requires a rare natural talent or years of study? Then your magic system gets a One.
Functionality, How Useful is Magic?
For this score, you want to decide what areas of your world magic can affect. Can your magic users do anything they want with magic? Fireballs, teleportation, communication, etc. If you want magic to touch every part of your world, you’re going to give it a Ten. On the other hand, if you want magic to be very narrowly useful, then a One score is appropriate.
Difficulty, How Difficult is Magic?
If you want your magic to be difficult to control or learn, then give it a Ten. If you want your mages and wizards to be able to weave magic and cast spells without much challenge, then score a One.
Cost, What Does Magic Cost?
No cost magic that can be cast all day and without fear of repercussion? A Ten. MAgic that costs life energy and exhausts the mage, or even blood magic that requires a sacrifice to achieve? A One
Total Score
Once you have determined these scores, you add them together for a maximum total score of 40 for a common, easy to use, very useful and low cost magic system. A very rare, marginally useful magic system that has a high degree of difficulty and cost will rate a minimum of 4.
Magic Modifier
Once your have your Total Magic Score, you divide it by 8. Why 8? Because that’s the sweet spot that I found for impact on technology.
Technology
Writing a Gunpowder Fantasy means that you have embraced that technology and society will be advancing beyond the stasis of Medieval Europe that many fantasies embrace, at least in some areas and at some rate.
Base Technology, What is your Starting Point?
For the most part, I would recommend giving your world a base technology score of Ten so that the modifications work the best.
Progression, How Fast/Far Will Tech Go?
This score is rated from 0-2, in .5 increments and measures how fast and how far technology will move over the course of your story. There are two determining factors in this score: how long will you be in this world, and how fast do you want technology to develop. The first part is fairly simple: do you want to write a Stand-Alone Novel? Then technology is not likely to advance very far. A series, especially focused on conflict, will typically advance beyond your starting point (See my Post Here on the Arms Race).
Inversely, if you’re writing a series you’ll want to see a progression of technology rather than rapidly leaping from one technology level to the next, so this will lower the progression score.
Final Tech Score
Now that we have the parts of our formula in place, we can put it to work as such:
(Base Tech)-(Progression)-((Commonality+Functionality+Difficulty+Cost)/8)=Final Tech Score
For what this score means, I have a 4 point scale for technology that impacts Weapons, Travel/Communication, and Society.
One – Worlds with a final technology score of 1 will be at the very basic end of the Gunpowder Fantasy Spectrum. Weapons will be in the mid to late Match Lock era with primitive artillery. Travel will be entirely beast of burden driven, with no steam-powered trains or ships. Communication will be messenger and courier based. Society will likely still be in the feudal stages or even despotism and there will be no collective labor groups.
Real World Example – Early Colonial Period of the United States; Europe from the 15th to early 18th centuries.
Three – As your technology score rises, so does the access to firearms and artillery. A world with a 3 rating will have smoothbore, flintlock rifles, moderately early smoothbore artillery and mortars. Travel will still be animal driven, though a high 4 score might be in the early stages of railroad development and communication will still rely on couriers or messengers. Absolutely monarchies will be replacing the feudal system but collective labor will still be a thing of the future.
Real World Example – Revolutionary War Period of the United States; Seven Years War in Mid-to-Late 18th Century
Five – A middle of the road score will see percussion muskets in use and the early stages of railroad travel coming to life in your world. You might also see the first stages of telegraph systems at a high 6 rating. Early representative and democratic governments start to replace the ancient kingdoms and empires as labor begins to collect under the banner of guilds.
Real World Example – The Mexican-American War of the 19th Century; Crimean War in Europe
Seven – Rifling has entered the world of firearms, allowing for more accuracy at longer ranges and a shift in combat tactics. Artillery will have started to implement rifling as well. Railroads, and even the early stages of steam powered ships, will be common in a world with a rating of Seven . Telegraphy will be common, allowing for rapid communication across entire nations with minimal lag. Democracy will still be a developing form of governments but labor will be strongly collectivized in Guilds and even the earliest formation of Unions could be seen.
Real World Example – American Civil War
Nine – The most advanced bracket of technology in a Gunpowder Fantasy, a score of 9 will see the use of repeating rifles and revolvers. Railroads will be extremely common and well-developed as will the use of telegraphy to communicate complex orders and news. Democracy will be the government de jour and Unions will have replaced Guilds as the most common form of Collected Labor.
Real World Example – American Imperialist Period of the late 19th Century, Industrial Revolution.
Summary
Beyond these technologies, you start to lean into Steampunk territory. In the end, no matter where this formula leads you, it’s your world to do with as your please. I hope that this proves helpful, however, in pointing you in the right direction for where your technology should start and where it can lead based on what your goals are and how far you want to take the Gunpowder Fantasy Genre.
Gunpowder Fantasy 