world building | Meredith Mansfield, Author

Posts Tagged ‘world building’

The Magic of the World of the DUAL MAGICS series

Posted in writing, tagged e-publishing, fantasy, revisions, sequels, series, world building, writing on July 26, 2015| 1 Comment »

Rather than just do another boring update on the status of revisions to BEYOND THE PROPHECY, I thought I’d blog about the magic system, instead.

So, as the series title suggests, there are two entirely different kinds of magic in this world.

The first kind of magic we encounter is the Spirit magic of the semi-nomadic, plains-dwelling people. They live in clans, each of which has an animal totem and the initiation ceremony for each clan forges a spiritual connection to that totem animal. It’s mostly a perceptive magic. A member of the Lion Clan, for example, can sense lions in the vicinity and usually tell whether they’re hunting or resting. That’s about it.

One complicating factor is that these people are highly superstitiously opposed to any form of magic (think Salem witch trials reactions). They just don’t call what they have magic. They also don’t talk about their Spirit magic with outsiders. There’s an historical reason for this that isn’t really important in this series, but would figure strongly when I eventually write the prequel series. Someday.

The second kind of magic is inherited within certain bloodlines in the ruling class of the coastal cities. This is a more active form of magic. Those possessing it can communicate over distances. Given a connection to follow, they can also see things that are happening at a distance. And the most Talented among them can work Transformations. The lowest-level Transformation are merely visual, making themselves or another object appear to be something or someone else. The high-level Transformation actually change the nature of the person or object temporarily. There are also other gifts which occur with varying frequency from fairly common to so rare no one knows much about them because the last person who could do that lived six hundred years ago.

These same Powers, with minor variations, occur in an isolated group of people living in a distant mountain valley. Again, there’s an historical reason for this that I’m saving for that prequel series, but it’s pretty easy to guess that these two groups are related somehow.

In the coastal cities, these Talents are used to support the power of the rulers. Only. And the existence of their magic is a secret. Therefore, the magic is jealously guarded and fairly draconian measures are taken to make sure that no one with Talent escapes the control of the rulers.

But no control is ever perfect and the main character of these novels is the proof of that. He has both kinds of magic. Though he initially tries to deny his inherited magic, because of those tribal superstitions. And he is temporarily severed from the Spirit magic during part of THE SHAMAN’S CURSE.

The real fun starts in THE VOICE OF PROPHECY, when he is in control of both kinds of magic and they start bleeding into one another, interacting and sometimes reinforcing each other.

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Revision Progress

Posted in writing, tagged e-publishing, fantasy, revisions, sequels, series, world building, writing on July 19, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Revision is an iterative process–even when I consider it one pass.

The first pass at the final revisions for BEYOND THE PROPHECY is complete. Way ahead of schedule. (I’d projected the end of July, not the middle.)

What that means is that I’ve been through all the critiques I’ve received (one is still out), marked up revision notes, been through the entire manuscript, and dealt with most of those notes one way or another. Some scenes were cut. Some new ones written or existing ones expanded. And in several places a little more was added to refresh readers’ memories about how this world and the magic works. Overall, the manuscript got longer, not shorter. (Some of that may get smoothed out in the next step and the polishing edit.)

I left a few notes (fourteen of them to be exact) that I want to come back to. Some of these are scenes I may still delete, but hadn’t decided on in the first pass. One pair of scenes, in particular, just doesn’t do enough to justify their existence currently. The decision I have to make is whether to cut them, or expand them. And the dreaded middle still needs some attention to focus it more tightly on the main problem of the story. (Difficult, because part of that is set up for the conflict in the fourth and final book of the series.)

So, now, I’ll go back specifically to those notes and make those changes–or not. Some of these changes may take a bit longer than most of those in the first pass.

And then I’ll be ready to set the publication date for September and put the book up for pre-order while I work through the final polishing edit.

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World Building for the World of the Dual Magics

Posted in writing, tagged creatures, e-publishing, fantasy, revisions, sequels, series, world building on July 15, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Revisions to BEYOND THE PROPHECY are ahead of schedule.

I thought I’d change it up a little today and write about the world building for the DUAL MAGICS series, specifically, the creatures found in this world.

Creatures of the Plains

I hope it’s not obvious, but the beasts living on the plains in the world of the Dual Magics Series are based—loosely—on the Pleistocene megafauna of North America.

I left out all the creatures that would have screamed that that was the inspiration. No mammoths or mastodons. No giant ground sloths or wooly rhinos. Although, that doesn’t mean they don’t exist in this world. Just that they don’t occur in the part of the plains inhabited by the Dardani. (I wouldn’t be surprised if the Dardani’s ancestors had something to do with that.) But if you were to wander off the map up north into the Northern Wilderness or south beyond the mountains, you might find these creatures roaming in those areas. Maybe that’s why people don’t often go to those areas.

The lions are actually intended to be the American lion, a separate species that was a little larger than the modern African lion. Though, having nothing else to go on, I do portray their lifestyle as very much like their African cousins. The swiftcat(mentioned only a few times) is actually the American cheetah—which was not a true cheetah. At least one species had retractable claws that would have made climbing trees easier for it than for modern cheetahs. And the Forest tigers are fairly obviously based on saber-toothed cats.

The wild horses are modeled more on the zebra than on domestic horses, except that I gave mine leopard spots rather than stripes to break up their outlines and make them harder to see. Why not?

Of course, I added a few things, like the wyverns the live in the mountains (and at least historical hints of other kinds of dragons). But wyverns and dragons aren’t new to fantasy. (In fact, most of my novels seem to have a dragon in them somewhere. Only FIRE AND EARTH and DAUGHTER OF THE DISGRACED KING have no mention of dragons.)

The only creature I entirely made up was Chitter in the first book, the little flying-squirrel-like creature with a lion’s mane (like a golden lion tamarin) that hung around Vatar’s campsites.

I left out the teratorns, (really giant condors) too. The largest North American version (there was one a lot bigger in South America) was about fifty pounds with an eighteen-foot wingspan. I’d duck if that flew overhead.

However one of the two kinds of magic allows certain people to take a different form and a couple of my characters change to eagles. But one of the requirements of these shape changes (under normal circumstances) is conservation of mass. So, a petite hundred-pound woman will be a hundred-pound eagle. Plus, just because she can take that shape doesn’t mean she knows how to use it. That has to be learned. I didn’t want to lessen the struggles of these characters learning to fly by having really big birds making it look easy.

So, that’s a window into what might be lurking out on the plains.

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Backstory

Posted in writing, tagged critiques, e-publishing, fantasy, Learning, revisions, sequels, series, world building, writing on June 17, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Backstory is such a delicate line to walk. How much is too much? What serves to add verisimilitude? Which bits enrich the story and which just drag the pace down? How can it be brought in elegantly?

I know the history of my world for the DUAL MAGICS series and how it got to be the way it is at the beginning of the story, but only snatches of that have made their way into the story so far. (Some day, I may write a prequel series about all of that.) For now, I try to keep to just what is needed for this story. But it looks like I haven’t put in quite enough.

I can’t emphasize the importance of critiques enough. Beta readers can tell me things about my story that I can’t see because, no matter how hard I try, I’m just standing too close. The first of my critiques for BEYOND THE PROPHECY has come in.

Among other things, it’s clear that I need to work in more background on part of this world. There are places where I can do that, I think, without slowing the story down.

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World Building and Another Scene

Posted in writing, tagged e-publishing, fantasy, inspiration, Romance, world building, writing, Young Adult on May 12, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Daughter of the Disgraced King releases Monday (May 18th).

It’s only $0.99 to pre-order.

The world building for part of this world is based largely on the settlement-era desert Southwest. Adobe buildings, stagecoaches, though not the political structure or the magic. Here’s a little sample:

Early the next morning, Ailsa gave each of her parents one last hug and turned to board the stagecoach that would take her to the imperial capital. It was a plain, functional coach that, from the visible wear, had made many trips across the desert. When she put her weight on the small folding step to climb in, the coach swayed alarmingly. Evidently, maintenance hadn’t included replacing the worn springs. Hopefully, the roads wouldn’t be too rough or this was going to be a very bumpy ride. The padding on the seats was thin, too. Ailsa sighed. It would have been faster and more comfortable just to ride Pearl all the way. She wouldn’t have had to share the cramped space with strangers, either.

As soon as she was aboard, the four guards climbed up to the seats on the top of coach. Ailsa placed the smaller valise that held the things she’d need en route under her seat and leaned out of the window to wave goodbye one more time.

Ailsa had never traveled far before—and never alone or in a public conveyance. Papa could have sent her by private coach, but that might have been construed as an impolitic show of wealth and privilege. The public coach wouldn’t be as comfortable, but there were royal guards riding on top, so it should be, if anything, safer than a private carriage.

Ailsa sat back and turned her attention to her fellow passengers. An elderly man had the seat next to Ailsa. He’d already leaned his head against the opposite wall of the coach, closed his eyes, and started to snore—loudly. A young girl sat across from Ailsa, apparently accompanied by the woman about Mama’s age sitting next to her.

On the other side of the woman, sat a slightly younger man—too old to be her son and too young for her husband. From the distance between them on the bench, Ailsa didn’t think they were traveling together. His clothing and appearance would be consistent with a well-off merchant or maybe some distant relative of one of the barons. Nothing about him should be alarming except for his manner. His open, appraising stare made Ailsa want to pull the demure collar of her traveling dress closed in spite of the growing desert heat. Ailsa looked away. He had no business looking at her like that, but perhaps a closed coach wasn’t the best place to confront him about it. They were already as far apart as the coach permitted. It would be best to try to ignore him.

Ailsa smiled uncertainly across at the woman and turned to look out her window. The road was wide enough for two coaches to pass each other going in opposite directions. Ailsa’s seat gave her a view on the outer side of the road, where a double row of sycamore trees shaded the highway from the desert sun. The trees weren’t thick enough to completely obscure the desert beyond.

Ailsa felt heavy and enervated. It must be all the emotional ups and downs of the last few days. She had trouble even keeping her eyes open, but she didn’t want to miss anything on this trip. If only everything along this highway didn’t look so much the same . . .

Ailsa jerked awake as the coach pulled to a stop. She couldn’t have slept all day. No, the sun was high overhead and the heat was oppressive. They’d come to a wider green area, surrounding a small oasis. A rustic building made of crude mud bricks stood across a cobbled yard. The coachmen leaped down and began to unhitch the sweaty horses.

One of the guards climbed down from the roof right in front of her, making Ailsa start. He opened her door and stood back. “We’ll stop here for a meal and to change the horses. If you’d care to disembark . . .”

Ailsa stepped down and stood in the yard, uncertain what to do now. She stretched gratefully, easing out the kinks in her neck and legs. The coach’s springs weren’t nearly as good as those on her father’s coach. It was surprising that she’d been able to doze with all the bouncing, but maybe she’d needed that nap. She certainly felt better. The midday heat didn’t seem to bother her so much, even though there was no air moving at all. The others climbed out of the coach more slowly. Ailsa followed them inside.

Inside, a long table of rough boards was already set with five places, platters of cheese, fruit, bread, and two pitchers of water. Ailsa sat down at one end of the table, across from the older woman and her daughter. She poured herself a cup of water before anything else. She’d forgotten how parched the desert could make her feel, even without moving around much. The rude man sat down beside her—too close beside her for Ailsa’s liking. She shifted over a little away from him.

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Shiny New Ideas

Posted in writing, tagged characters, fantasy, inspiration, world building, writing on April 29, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Every writer I know has this problem. It’s always when you’re elbow deep in another story that the shiny new one comes along to taunt you.

I have to hold this one back until I’ve finished not only BEYOND THE PROPHECY, but also the fourth (and last) book in the DUAL MAGICS series. That’s at least a year!

So, maybe writing a little bit about it now will help with that. Fingers crossed, because, of course, it could just as easily make it worse.

DREAMER’S ROSE is not precisely a new idea. I’ve actually written an earlier (and very bad) version of it. Then I let it sit and re-imagined it. I played around with it a little, but it was tricky because the story involves three main characters and two of them aren’t even born when the story starts. I wasn’t sure exactly how I was going to handle that.

Then the inspiration came to me a couple of weeks ago. All I really had to do was free the story from the box I’d been trying to shove it into. Now I can see how it needs to go. It’s most likely a trilogy. Possibly with each book focusing on one of the three characters. And no matter how badly my fingers itch, I can’t start writing it yet.

Can’t. Mustn’t. Must finish DUAL MAGICS first. (Keep repeating that.)

This is a glimpse into part of the world of DREAMER’S ROSE–a temperate rainforest.

The first part of the story is the legend of Hercules turned on its ear. (The real version, not what Disney did to it.)

In the Greek myths, Hercules led a cursed life, because Hera (who was not his mother) had it in for him. He failed at absolutely everything in his life, except killing monsters and completing other impossible, but mostly useless, tasks. Really, how helpful was it to retrieve the three-headed dog, Cerberus, who guarded the underworld, just to prove he could, and then take him right back again? (By the way, in the original Greek version, Hades helped Herc by giving his permission for that.)

Then he became a god and there were actually altars for his worship. I’ve always kind of wondered what you would pray to Hercules for. I mean, if you had a hydra in your backyard, I get it. But certainly not for any kind of domestic happiness. (Hera drove Hercules mad so that he murdered his own wife and children.)

How did his very unsuccessful life prepare him to be a god?

And that’s where DREAMER’S ROSE starts. Will start. In about a year. Keep repeating that.

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Clean Indie Reads Sale and World Building

Posted in writing, tagged Alternate History, blog hops, e-publishing, events, fantasy, marketing, world building, writing, Young Adult on March 18, 2015| 2 Comments »

The Clean Indie Reads March Madness Sale is still going on and two of my books are in it. Check it out, not just for my books. There are a lot of great flinch-free reads on sale. And check out the other blogs on the blog hop, too. Here.

Don’t forget the giveaway of many of the books in the hop–including The Bard’s Gift. Enter that here. It’s enough flinch-free books to keep you reading for months.

So, here’s a little bit about the world building in these two books.

Fire and Earth:

Though raised as a fearless, faceless warrior, Casora couldn’t stop her homeland’s invasion. Bullied, hapless princeling Tiaran can’t escape his political doom. When they join forces on the battlefield they’ll rock the foundations of kingdoms.

As is usual for me, the world building for Fire and Earth is an accumulation of many things. The idea for the Deathless, Casora’s band of warriors-turned-mercenaries came from Herodotus’s (possibly inaccurate) description of the elite Persian forces at the battle of Thermopylae. “The Immortals”, as he described them, always numbered 10,000 because killed or injured Immortals were simply replaced. Also according to Herodotus, their headdress included a face-covering cloth (possibly meant to keep out dust or wind). And so, the idea for an elite force of constant numbers–therefore “Deathless”–with face plates on their helmets that prevented any individual from being recognized by outsiders.

Their enemies, the Yriri, were based on the various hordes, like the Huns, who invaded Europe during the Dark Ages. I wanted the Yriri armor to be different from that worn by the Deathless and their allies, so I based that on certain Oriental types of chain mail, which fastened in the front, like a jacket.

and The Bard’s Gift:

Astrid is too shy to even talk to the boy she likes, so naturally she’s the one the Norse gods choose to lead a bunch of stubborn Norsemen–using just stories to inspire them.

Since The Bard’s Gift is a historical fantasy, the world building consisted mostly of research.

Probably the most surprising thing I found in that research was the Greenland shark.

The Greenland shark lives farther north than any other shark species. They are comparable in size to the great white shark, averaging ten to sixteen feet in length and up to 900 pounds. They can grow as large as 21 feet and over 2,000 pounds. Usually only found near the surface only during the winter, they are otherwise denizens of the deep. They have been found with parts of polar bears in their stomachs.

The flesh of the Greenland shark is poisonous, but the hardy Icelanders (and presumably the Greenlanders), had a way of leaching the poison out. Of course, it still smelled overpoweringly of ammonia, even then.

That was way too good a monster not to find it’s way into the story.

There were also mythological sea monsters, like hafgufa.

Translated as “sea mist” or “sea reek”, hafgufa was a sea monster of the Greenland Sea between Greenland and Iceland. Hafgufa was supposed to lie on the surface to feed. The stench of its belch drew in fish, which the hafgufa would then consume, along with anything else in the vicinity, including ships. Only Orvar-Odd had ever escaped, because he knew the beast rose and submerged with the turn of the tides and was able to get his ship out of range just in time.

Hafgufa was usually seen as only a pair of rocks said to be the beast’s nose. Sometimes hafgufa was equated with the kraken. Others attribute the stories of hafgufa to underwater volcanic activity and the release of methane gas.

And that’s not even getting to Thunderbird. See my post about that, here.

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Evolving Ideas

Posted in writing, tagged characters, e-publishing, fantasy, inspiration, sequels, series, synopsis, world building, writing on February 25, 2015| Leave a Comment »

So, that series guide I was thinking about in my last post. It probably won’t be something to put in a future newsletter after all. It might just be right here on this blog, with links added in the ebooks.

There’s already a good deal of information about the world of the Dual Magics series right here under the Worlds tab. Now, that could definitely use a bit of reorganization.

Right now, there’s a lot of the world building information about each of the different cultural groups in the story and a map. And more could be added to it.

Some of that would be new information, like a version of those synopses that have been bothering me, so that anyone who wanted to update themselves on the major events of the previous books could find that information here. Maybe even a brief history of how the Dual Magics world got to be the way it is at the beginning of the series answering questions like:

Why do the Dardani fear magic so much?
Are the Valson and the Fasallon really related and why did they separate?
And, for that matter, where did they come from and why did they leave?

Now, I’m still thinking of writing some prequel stories–possibly novellas–about that history. But . . . well, we’ll see.

And everything could be livened up with some images that show what I was thinking about when I wrote that part. Like, for example, this photo which is what I think Thekila looks like.

© Aksakalko | Dreamstime.com - Portrait Of Young Beautiful Red-haired Woman Photo

I’m liking this idea very much. Stay tuned.

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Series Guide

Posted in writing, tagged characters, e-publishing, fantasy, first drafts, inspiration, marketing, sequels, series, world building, writing on February 22, 2015| Leave a Comment »

This is a fun idea brought to my attention by fellow writer Donna K. Weaver, based on something she’d seen another author do recently.

Create a little guide, probably .pdf, of the series. It could include extra materials on the world building and history along with images of things that were part of my inspiration. Maybe other fun things, as well, like deleted scenes.

It seems to me that a newsletter would be almost a necessity to distribute something like this. That’s something I keep saying I’m going to do and somehow never get around to. Maybe this will be the kick in the pants I need.

At any rate, I’ve had some fun this drizzly morning looking up and collecting images that reflect what I see when I’m writing these stories. Like this one:

© Prometeus | Dreamstime.com - Aborigine Photo

That’s a pretty good image of my concept of the shaman from THE SHAMAN’S CURSE. Right down to the raven mask. (But less the heavy eye make up.) So good, that for a while it was a contender for the cover. Might have made it, too–if I’d been able to figure out what I could do with the other covers to unify the series.

That’s not as much of a sidetrack to working on the first draft of BEYOND THE PROPHECY as it might seem. This kind of inspiration can also help to recharge the creative batteries. I may have to do some more browsing later.

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Prequels and Other Things

Posted in writing, tagged e-publishing, fantasy, marketing, prequels, revisions, sequels, series, world building, writing on November 2, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Other things first:

I’m two-thirds of the way through this round of revisions on THE VOICE OF PROPHECY.

And I’m starting to form plans for the launch. Actually, there’ll sort of be two launches–one for the pre-order and one for when it goes live. The pre-order price is going to be a good deal (probably $0.99 pre-order only). And I’ll likely plan a few other things around those same times, so stay tuned.

Prequels:

There’s quite a lot of backstory that’s never explicitly addressed in the DUAL MAGICS series, because it’s not needed there. But I know it. And it has the potential for a good story–or three (maybe four). So, there’s a pretty good chance that there might be a prequel series at some point when this series is complete that will explain things like:

Why are the Valson and the Fasallon so similar when they live on opposite sides of this world?
How did the Fasallon come to be the ruling class all along the coast (and up a couple of rivers)?
Why do the Dardani have such a strong distrust of magic?
Why do the Modgud, who are in all other ways like the Dardani (and for a reason), live in isolation on their plateau, barely interacting even with the Dardani?

In other words, what happened in the history of this world to cause all these things? Hint, it all started with one decision.

I don’t know at this point whether the prequels would be novels or shorter–novellas maybe. I’m not going to do anything more about them until this series is complete. But the possibility is out there.

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