L.L. Stephens's Blog, page 6

The Triempery Series at a Glance

I wrote the Triempery Revelations series over a period of more than 20 years. As such, it is a sweeping, many-layered tale with a host of characters whose stories span decades and whose relationships grow and change over the course of the series. Some characters reveal surprising powers; others devolve into monsters. Their universe is one I wrote and rewrote and wrote all over again several times over until I got it right.

The series is fully written. Six completed books are sitting here on my ...

Painting Minis

For a time when I was a teen, I envisioned becoming an artist. Or a brain surgeon—that’s another story. Art has always called to me, though. I took an art class every semester in high school as one of my electives and they were almost always the high point of my day or week.

When I was 12, I won a Scholastic Gold Key Award for Art. The illustration that won was a landscape rendered in pastel chalk. As I recall, it had desolate imagery but hopeful colors. I don’t know what else the judges saw i...

My Maps

Behold. This is my hand-drawn map of Essera. It's a sheet of typing paper I drew on with a pen. I drew it 20 years ago when I was writing what eventually became the last two books. I took a picture of it with my phone just now because I don't have a scanner.

I have a series of such maps. Whole Triempery. Portions. Local. The maps grew and changed along with the series. As I wrote the books, I filled in the topography and added things or altered coastlines or the courses of rivers. I changed th...

Chapter 48: What's In a Scene?

In a recent review of SORDANEON [Digging For Gems: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_pTHS3YAv0] the reviewer mentioned a chapter he found particularly memorable. He also said that it added to his understanding about the Rill. Being a curious soul who also craves to know when and how her writing resonates with readers, I went to that chapter to see if I could locate what worked well enough to be memorable.

Chapter 48 has three scenes, two of which feature Daimonaeris — one scene with Nammuor and...

Nice to Meet You -- How'd You Find Me?

I figure most people reading my posts here have already read, or have begun reading, the Triempery series. That being the case, I will talk about the books, I hope in ways that will not spoil them. No great revelations or sneak peaks into coming books, though I suppose a nugget or two might slip through.

I’ll start, though, with my own curiosity.

What moved you, the reader, to pick up and read SORDANEON?

Getting a book onto readers radars is difficult. For one thing, there are so many books! ...

Excerpt from The Kheld King

If you've read Sordaneon, you won't be surprised that the Kheld king of the title is Stefan Stauberg-Randolph. Here is a scene in which Stefan, having survived an attack on his life, meets with Marenthro, Permephedon's immortal wizard. This excerpt is from the unedited manuscript. The Kheld King is scheduled to be published in November 2022.

Stefan almost didn’t go to see Marenthro. He would much rather have gone down to the kitchen and joined Cullen digging spoons into a pot of p...

What Beats Pipe and Fiddle

Come guess me this riddle what beats pipes and fiddle

What’s hotter than mustard and wilder than cream?

What best wets your whistle, what’s clearer than crystal

Smoother than honey and stronger than steam?

What’ll make the dumb talk, what’ll make the lame walk --

The elixir of life and philosopher’s stone?

A drinking song

“It’s like this,” Marc Frederick said. He picked up a piece of charred wood and drew three big circles on the surface of the tan stone between him and the r...