Meredith Mansfield, Author

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 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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