Hello, World!
And hello, friends!
Tis I, a young upstart who thinks it might be neat to blog, having never blogged before. I’d like to say this informal introduction will set the tone for future posts—but then, finding the right style can take experimentation. Sometimes, you need permission to do something badly before you can start doing something at all. Right? So, we shall see.
This intro to the blog is about two announcements: I’m working on the first short-story for this site, entitled, “A Capital Robbery” (a medieval-esque heist story involving unusual treasures, even more unusual security measures, and more research than I was expecting), and the first post on Iveswood’s world-building (which is all about the Shape-shifters), and I hope to roll both out within April—and secondly, I, uh…haven’t fully decided what the focus of this blog-side will be. But we shall be launching two new sections within it!
Our first selection of posts will center on some random topics I’ve stumbled across while doing research for various writing projects. Do you ever come across some little-known fact or observation that snags your interest, and when you follow it, you discover it’s part of a tapestry of intriguing things? Perhaps that explanation is too vague, but there are enough such artistic, historical, or philosophical tidbits I would like to explore, that I’m going to talk about them under a category entitled, “Research Rabbit-Holes.”
Our second selection of blog posts planned will be much more ridiculous. See, after working on a project as monstrous as Iveswood for years, you end up with a lot of alternate versions, jokes, and nonsense surrounding it that are just plain fun, without much of an outlet for it. Thus, if satirical hijinks with tropes, and humorous behind-the-scenes retellings sound entertaining, be sure to check out the category we’re calling, “How the Sausage Gets Made.”
Someday, I might delve into a third section on condensed tips for writing and illustrating that have proven helpful, but…I’m not sure about that yet.
In other news, I have been enjoying some fantastic spring weather, and have sorted out a new space to create in, and I hope to collect feedback from my deeply-appreciated beta-readers next month, and embark on editing Volume 1. As in, actually editing, not simply re-writing the whole thing over again this time. Thank goodness.
As for Volume 2…well, I’ve been dying to get started on it on one hand, because a lot of growth, back-sliding, and chaos is slated to go down, (and if there’s one thing I love plotting, it’s chaos), while on the other hand, there is a major question I’m still wrangling with throughout the planning: How to not have a super-sized character make things too easy on the rest of the cast. Because, as it turns out, having a giant on your side can make life easier, when it involves escaping from tree-dwellers, and trying not to die. Who knew?
Lastly, I’ve been trying to settle on Vol. 2’s subtitle, and I keep coming back to one I thought of some months ago: Phantom Fears. Let’s just say it carries a reference to more than one concept that will come into play in future chapters…hehehe….
That’s all for now! Please let me know your thoughts on what is to come, or what topics you’d like to see become posts, in the comments!