Dorothy Tinker's Blog: Balance of Seven, page 6

Designing Author Website

I’m currently working with a website designer to design my website. The design is up and running, and it looks great, but I’m still learning how to use it (I originally published this post on WordPress instead of my website) and I need to reorganize my pages and their contents.

I am currently thinking of having the home page start with a news feed that will show the beginning of the blog post that I consider to be most important at the moment, with a list of books associated with the site (currently just my Peace of Evon series) beneath it. Each title in the list will link to a description of the book on a separate page (all book descriptions, with cover, link to store for purchasing, and, if available, link to excerpt on Wattpad, will be on the same page, which can be accessed from a tab at the top of the screen).

Other than the “Home” and “Books” tabs, I also plan to have an “About the Author” tab, a “Contact” tab, and an “Explore Evon” tab. The first two are self-explanatory, but the “Explore Evon” tab will have a drop-down menu with links to pages with maps, lists and descriptions of gods, language glossaries, and various songs, poems, and games associated with the world of my series.

Along the sides of the screen, I currently have sign-up for newsletter, like on Facebook, lists of posts, and Archives, and I am contemplating the addition of widgets for my Goodreads author page and Book Giveaway. I would also like to add links to my Wattpad and perhaps LinkedIn, but I’m not sure where to put them.

At this point, I feel like I should reach out to others for advice.

As authors, whether self-published or traditional, does this seem like a good start for a site? Is there anything you would change or add to my description? Where do you think I should put the widgets and links that I’m uncertain about?

If you’re a reader only, that’s great! What would you, as a reader, wish and expect to find on your favorite author’s website? Does my description of what I want to do sound appealing, or is there something you think I should do differently?

Please feel free to leave comments with any advice or suggestions. I’m open to any help I can get right now.

Whimsy of My Life

Years ago, I began writing short stories based off real nightmares I have had throughout my life.  Not many translated well, but I decided that I wanted to continue this collection.  I also decided I wanted to write some based on dreams, as well, and form the stories into an anthology called Dreams & Nightmares.

Unfortunately, pleasant dreams are harder for me to remember.  Even if I decided to write the stories without real dreams for their bases, I found my inspiration for such things was lacking.

Until last night.

I’m not sure what prompted me to start writing a dream story last night, but I finished it fairly quickly.  I’ve posted in on Wattpad for any who might be interested in a whimsical story about the pull of the dream world.

“I don’t dream often, but, when I do, the dreams are real and vibrant, and I have yet to forget one.”

–Whimsy of My Life

Feel free to take a look (the story’s not long) and let me know what you think.

Four Week Countdown has Begun

Now that September has begun, I have begun a (at the very least, mental) countdown to publication for Peace of Evon, the first book in the Peace of Evon series.

September 30 is publication day, and I am feeling both relieved and stressed (if it’s even possible to feel both at once).  I don’t think I’ll be able to complete everything I’d planned to before the book is published, but, at the same time, this isn’t the first book I’ve published, so I already know I can at least complete publication successfully.

(Technically, this is the first half of the first book I published, but that just means I’m that much more familiar with the process.)

What I won’t be able to complete before publication is all of the advertising and contacting booksellers that I wanted to do.  However, those can be done after publication just as easily as before (in some cases, after might be easier).

I’d say this has taught me not to bite off more than I can chew, but, since my entire life feels that way right now, I probably haven’t learned the lesson yet.  As long as I can accomplish my rigid goals by the time I set for myself, I believe the more flexible ones will fall into place.  Eventually.

Culture-Building: Mourning

Where there is war, there is death and, ultimately, the mourning of it.

In my series, the country of Evon has been steeped in war.  In fact, it has been defending its soil from an empire many times larger than it for more than half of its two century existence.

This, as one might imagine, has led to the creation of a mourning “ceremony” that is simple, can be performed by anyone at any time, and is general enough that it can be used for one or more dead at one time.

By the time the series takes place, the mourning “ceremony” is simply a song.  Whether it was once something grander matters little to a people that wish to mourn those they’ve lost without risking the loss of more.  To them, the Song of Mourning is poignant and reminds everyone who hears it of what they’ve lost.

The Song of Mourning

Send me away from the place I call home,

Send me away from the one that I love,

Send me away on the tides of tomorrow,

Send me away, send me away.

Send me away o’er fields and o’er mountains,

Send me away under blue skies and clouds,

Send me away with the rush of the river,

Send me away, send me away.

Send me away with the morning’s first sunlight,

Send me away in the darkness of night,

Send me away to Carith, Creator,

Send me away, send me away.

How do you mourn?  How do the characters you write mourn?  Please share.  I would love to learn about it.

Mental Creation or Spiritual Observation

Have you ever heard a writer complain about his/her characters taking over the story he/she is writing?  Taking on lives of their own, against all wishes of the writer?  Or maybe the writer has marveled at the ease with which a story idea came into being, no matter how difficult the actual details or scenes became to write?  How easy the history formed itself together, even if he/she can’t fit it into the current story?

Maybe you’ve experienced this yourself?

I’m not writing this to make anyone feel bad if they haven’t found the creative process so easy.  After all, everybody’s process is different, and people get inspiration from different things.

Even so, have you ever wondered how our collective minds manage to create such vast and wondrous worlds?  Yes, I’m mostly referring to the Scifi and Fantasy genres, but even some non-scifi/fantasy fiction works have tweaks and twists that are unique to their author.  And, sometimes, they beg the question, “From where do they come?”

I grew up with a Catholic father and a more spiritual, less religious mother.  They divorced when I was twelve, at which point I became more heavily involved in both aspects.  One the one hand, I’ve gone through Confirmation in the Catholic Church, and I loved singing in the choir.  One the other, I’ve gone through Reiki II attunement (if you haven’t heard of Reiki, think ‘laying on of hands to act as a channel for universal healing energy’, and you might get the gist), and I believe in Oneness, past lives, and the ability of some people to connect with and channel spiritual entities.

It might not come as a surprise, then, that my mother believes some of what I write is channeled.

And, honestly, I wonder it myself, sometimes.

My mom tells me a story occasionally about a channeling session she once attended.  During such sessions, various people tap into and channel various spiritual entities:  angels, Jesus, Buddha, and many other spiritual leaders who have moved on to a position that is more of spiritual guidance than physical experience.  Whether or not you believe that this is possible (and I won’t ask you to if you don’t), the people who attend and experience these sessions do.  As do I, which is one of the reasons I believe in Oneness and past lives.

Now, the story my mother tells involves the past life of one of the session’s participants.  I can’t remember if she said he was channeling it, or claiming it, or if another channeler was claiming it, but, as my mother tells me, one of the participant’s past lives was claimed to be a Jedi.  It was claimed that George Lucas actually channeled (at least some of) the world and story of the Star Wars trilogies, and that it actually was a ‘long, long time ago in a galaxy far, far away’.

You might scoff at this.  That’s all right.  I try not to force others to see the world as I do because I hate it when others do that to me (if you can’t tell, I no longer consider myself Christian).  I simply lay this story out to make a point.

When writers come up with the worlds and stories for their books (and even other creators in other media) are they creating all of this in their minds or simply acting as spiritual observers to worlds that have existed, or will exist, in this universe or even alternate ones?

My opinion is that we do a combination of both.  I have had too many ah-ha moments in the creation of my world and its history, as well as the constantly increasing chain of stories to write in it, to believe that there isn’t some higher knowledge into which I am tapping.

Yes, I make my own tweaks to the world.  For example, there is no way the people on another world could actually speak English, German, Spanish, Italian, and Japanese, even under different names.  But aspects of each language and culture are what speak to me when I choose them for my cultures, not specifically the languages themselves.

But I sometimes believe that it’s the channeling that gives this world to me and drives me to share it with others.

I’m not the only writer who might feel this way, either.  My best friend and roommate, who has done the occasional writing throughout his life, once thought he was not capable of writing something unless it was based on real-world people and situations.  Then, he began to dream of a fantastical world with deities and their champions, and now the characters won’t shut up.  They drive him to write their stories.

I once teased him that I infected him with the desire to write fantasy, but it might be more than that.  We’ll probably never know the truth of it, but that won’t keep me from wondering.

Are we the ultimate creators of the stories we write?  Or are we often spiritual observers, accessing other worlds that we are driven to share with our own?

Happiness Is

Happiness is an easy flow of writing on a day of unexpected work.

Happiness is six pages written on a novel that is more than 3/4 done.

Happiness is writing the ending of said novel, no matter how many chapters I still need to finish.

What’s your happiness?

Fun on Wattpad

Two weekends ago, while I was at Animefest, I learned of a wonderful website I hadn’t heard of before:  Wattpad.com.  If you haven’t either, it’s a great place to read (or post) stories of any genre (including fanfiction and popfiction) for free.  It’s a lot like fanfiction.net was before fictionpress.net broke away to form its own website for writers/readers of original stories.

One of the nice things about Wattpad is the semi-professional setup.  Unlike fictionpress.net or fanfiction.net, you can upload a cover image for the story or link the story to video and images online.  This is especially useful if you have a video trailer for your book (which I hear is becoming more popular).

Like Goodreads, you can connect with friends and see what their reading, which is useful when there are about 40 million stories on the site.  There are also ongoing discussions under the Clubs section, some of which I’ve already starter perusing.

One of the main reasons I decided to join Wattpad, however, is that, for a publishing author like myself and so many of you out here, it provides another platform on which to connect with potential fans.  Even if you’ve already published a book or are planning to publish (like I am), you can still post the beginning of the story on Wattpad to give potential fans a taste of your work before they buy.  Hopefully, they will like your story enough that they need to know the rest.

Come join me on Wattpad (http://www.wattpad.com/user/Tirefel), see what new stories are waiting to be found, and don’t be afraid to get your own work out there.  You’ll never gain anything if you don’t at least try.

Immortal Hunt Scene

Two days ago, I posted a poem I wrote that was inspired by a scene I was contemplating for the third book in the Peace of Evon series, Lost King.  Today, I managed to finish a draft of the scene and thought I would share it.

I’m only posting the part of the scene that pertains to the poem’s content, so, to fend off confusion, the scene is told from the point of view of a deity known as Aquila the Royal Eagle.  She is in a cave collecting the souls of the dead after a battle that has been interrupted by an earthquake.

Immortal Hunt Scene

Then again, Aquila thought as a sharp, shivering chill pierced her being, perhaps the Immortal Hunt has as much to do with it.

Aquila had paid little attention to the demigods when she first arrived in the caves—she tended to ignore them unless she had a message for them or unless Life and Death were fighting over a soul—but she was suddenly very aware of the increasingly dense emotional cloud now swirling around Death and Hate.

And Fear, she realized with a start as the yellow demigod appeared—sans Hope—and stalked closer to his brothers.

“Who’s the prey?” she heard him mutter.  His voice was cold and whisper-soft, and Aquila blinked as she realized that it had been so long since she had last witnessed a Hunt that she had forgotten he could sound that way.

Hate remained silent, simply jabbing his finger sharply towards the entrance of a small tunnel that had appeared in what should have been an unbroken wall of stone.  The color of his body seemed to throb, and he glowered at the small entrance.

It was Death who spoke in a low growl, though his words were not so much an answer as a call to the Hunt.

“Run, run, little thief, but you cannot hide, for none escape the shade of Death.”

Aquila ruffled her feathers, unsettled.  With the words, Death’s features sharpened and became shadowy at the same time.  It was as though she could see beneath his black form’s outer layer to a sharper, more skeletal layer that should not have existed.

Has Death always looked this way on the Hunt?

Aquila did not think so.  She had always thought he took on more feline attributes, like a large cat stalking its prey, but it had been over two centuries since the brothers last converged for a Hunt, perhaps longer.

Maybe Peace’s absence and the Chaos have changed the siblings more than we thought they could.

Such thoughts did not make the Eagle feel any calmer.

“He’s the one who held Peace’s dragon and stallion away from her, aye?” Fear breathed.  “The one who ruled the Hidden City with fear?”

“So much death,” the black brother answered.

“So much hatred,” answered the red.

“A warmongering fool!”

Death, Hate, and Fear all jumped at the violent words, and even Aquila was ashamed to admit that they had startled her.  They also frightened her because all the gods knew their owner had become overrun by Chaos.

Despite their startled reactions, though, none of the older demigods appeared to be worried by War’s appearance.  In fact, they greeted him with nods and turned their attention back to the tunnel, accepting his presence as though it were necessary.

Which it very well might be.

Aquila had never seen a Hunt that had not involved all the brothers who lived at the time.  And, while she did not understand how the Hunts first began, she knew that the brothers were driven to them, not by choice, but by a spiritual pull to cleanse the realm of a soul that had crossed into each of their influences too often for Balance to reassert itself any other way.

Aquila glanced towards the center of the large cavern from which the mortals had originally fled.  There lay the shell of a mortal who had been named after Aquila herself, a mortal who had been killed only minutes before the earthquake began.

Perhaps…

“Run, run, little thief,” Death repeated, “but you cannot hide…”

The gods’ revenge will not abide.

The line leapt to mind as Aquila suddenly remembered a poem she had once overheard an elven Seer and Mindspeaker use to describe the Immortal Hunt.  It had been a surprisingly accurate description, and she let it fill her mind as she watched the brothers engage their prey.

Run, run, little thief, but you cannot hide,

the gods’ revenge will not abide.

The four brothers stalked into the wall.  Their spirits were mostly obscured by the essence of the rock, but Aquila could still sense them and their actions easily enough.

A beast who steals, who kills, depraved,

who preys on souls and can’t be saved.

The man they stalked crouched at the end of a small tunnel, one hand wrapped tightly around a small stone that radiated Earth Magic, the other pressed awkwardly against the deep wound in the back of his shoulder.  Despite the wound, his concentration was focused fully on holding the Earth Magic steady.

You cannot still the burning Hate,

which beats within the souls you take.

Hate came upon the man first.  He tugged on the swirling cloud of emotions that had followed them, and Aquila felt an answering tug on her wings, like feathers being plucked.  The sensation soon turned from a sharp plucking to a taut strum, and the Eagle knew that Hate was collecting the hatred that those souls she had collected had felt towards their prey.

The red demigod wove the hatred together, funneling it into their prey’s soul and turning it on his own self.

Burning hatred eased into the man’s mind.  At first, he began to question small things he had done, ways he had lead his men, or left them.  That doubt soon became distaste, then disgust, until an inferno of hate raged within him and he had no choice but to release his shoulder and punch the walls with his bare fist and claw at his own face in order to relieve it.

Nor burn away the sickly Fear,

which chills your bones and has no cure.

Even as rage filled their prey’s mind, Fear weaved together the terror that the man had instilled in this place.  While Hate had funneled his emotion into the man’s soul and turned it on himself, Fear wrapped the terror around their prey’s neck, tying it like a noose and folding it around his head and shoulders like a shawl.

Shadows began to appear in the corners of the man’s eyes, and the hairs on the nape of his neck stood upright as cold seeped down into his bones.   Light, barely-there touches eased down his face, then neck and arms, until his entire body felt like it was crawling with tiny creatures unknown.  Only then did the shadows take more shape, still not defined, but visible enough to let any man’s imagination increase his terror to panic.

You cannot fight the raging War,

which churns and burns within your core.

When War took his turn, he did not use the emotions that others had felt towards their prey.  Instead, he plucked at a part of the man’s soul that was nearly unused, calling forth his conscience to wage war on the man’s antipathy and greed.

The man doubled over, gasping and groaning against the emotions.  He clutched at his head with both hands, unknowingly dropping the mage stone as he did.  The small stone bounced and rolled as it struck the ground and was soon clattering out into the main cavern.

And none escape the shade of Death,

which stops all hearts and steals all breath.

Death stepped forward as soon as the magic of the stone dissipated and rock began to slowly grow over the tunnel’s entrance.

“Keep him distracted,” he growled to his brothers.  “Do not let him escape.”

As he spoke, Death stroked shadowy fingers through the rock essence that filled the tunnel, urging it to regrow faster than the rock over the entrance.

“Why not just let the tunnel entrance close first?” Hate hissed spitefully.  “It would increase his fear, wouldn’t it?”

“And hasten his death,” the black brother added with a shake of his head.  “I do not wish him to die because he cannot breathe.  I want him to feel the crush of the rock against his skin and bones and lungs, and I want him to die by it, the way he should have five years ago.”

All four brothers bared their teeth, vicious grins that sent a shiver rustling through Aquila’s feathers.  They were united in the Hunt, and they would revel in this man’s pain and agonizing death and draw both out until the man’s soul was little more than tattered material.

The shiver struck deeper into Aquila’s being as she remembered the final line of the old elf’s poem.

When gods join force against your crime,

you’ll pray your death takes little time.

The Immortal Hunt

Run, run, little thief, but you cannot hide,

the gods’ revenge cannot abide,

A beast who steals, who kills, depraved,

who preys on souls and can’t be saved.

You cannot still the burning Hate,

which beats within the souls you take,

Nor burn away the sickly Fear,

which seeps within and has no cure.

You cannot fight the raging War,

which churns and burns within your core.

None can escape the shade of Death,

which stops your heart and steals your breath.

When gods join force against your crime,

you’ll pray your death takes little time.

–A description of the Immortal Hunt as told by an elven Seer and Mindspeaker.

This was inspired by a scene I am currently working on for the third book in the Peace of Evon series, Lost King.

Culture-Building: Defining the Religion

I know I promised this post several days ago, but it took me a lot longer to write than I expected.

In my last Culture-Building article, I wrote about my reasons for creating a religion for my world and the influence it has had on the rest of my culture-building experience.  In this article, I hope to define the religion, describe the source of some of its parts, and perhaps explain why I structured it the way I did.

As I expressed in the previous article, the idea of my world’s religion began with my desire for a greater-than-human antagonist to oppose my peace-seeking protagonist.  The end result was a fully formed religion that can be divided into four parts:  the central trio (Creator, Destroyer, and Eternal Goddess), the Guardians of the Cycle of Incarnation (Royal Eagle, Hungry Wolf, Great Serpent, and Splendid Phoenix), the three Fates (Maiden, Matron, and Crone), and the eight demigods (Life/Death, Love/Hate, Hope/Fear, and Peace/War).  The guiding principle of all of them is to maintain Balance and hold back the Chaos.

Creator, Destroyer, Eternal Goddess

The portion of the religion that is most widely acknowledged among the world’s mortals is the central trio of Creator, Destroyer, and Eternal Goddess.  The Creator creates the mortal souls, which are then placed in the Cycle of Incarnation.  The Destroyer rids the realms of those things that are unnecessary and hinder the progress of mortal life.  The Eternal Goddess rules over and protects the Land of Free Souls, a spiritual realm, similar to the Greek Elysium, inhabited by those souls who no longer move through the Cycle.

Together, these three deities balance each other.  You should not have one without the other two.

My reasons for creating this trio are possibly the most obvious.  Although I was considering the Judeo-Christian creator God when I came up with this, most, if not all, Earth religions feature a creator deity (though many of these created the world, not just the souls that inhabit it).  Destroyer deities, too, are common.  Even the Judeo-Christian devil figure, while not considered a deity, can be seen as a destroyer as he seeks to bring the downfall of men.

The Eternal Goddess, however, is a little more difficult to place.  I wanted to provide the Creator (who can be seen as the king of this set of deities) with a lifemate who could provide him with children (the demigods).  I also needed someone to rule the realm where souls went when they left the Cycle.  This position is, in a way, a combination of two Greek gods:  Hera, queen of the gods and wife to Zeus, and Hades, lord of the underworld.

These were the references I considered as I created them, but I recently learned that my trio also mirrors, in a way, the Trimurti in Hinduism:  Brahma the creator, Vishnu the preserver, and Shiva the destroyer.  It has always intrigued me how similarly humans process the world, even across time and cultures.

Cycle of Incarnation

The Cycle of Incarnation is a spiritual realm that resembles a large pool, in which mortal souls wait to be placed into their next lives, stripped of their memories.  I created the Cycle because I needed an explanation for how the main character could be the mortal incarnation of a deity.  The Cycle has also become important in the formation of the human civilizations as one particular soul helped build all of them over time.

The Cycle is reminiscent of the Indian concept of Reincarnation and Karma, with the exception that, in this religion, there is usually a waiting period between lives and that the souls are eventually removed from the Cycle and taken to the Land of Free Souls.  The Cycle is also guarded by four deities, each governing a separate task in the Cycle.

I decided to seek out animal guardians for the Cycle instead of humanoid ones because it did not make sense that all of the gods would be humanoid when humans had only held power in this realm for about two millennia before the Peace of Evon series.  To find these animals, I turned to various cultures and the significance different animals held within them.

In Greek mythology, I found that the eagle was considered to be a symbol of Zeus and a messenger of the gods.  In many cultures, I found that the wolf is revered or feared as a mighty hunter.  In Native American cultures, I found the serpent as a bringer of fertility and rebirth.  And, also in Greek mythology, I rediscovered the phoenix, a long-lived bird that lives through a cycle of death and rebirth, usually through fire.

With these discoveries, I created the Cycle of Incarnation.  The Royal Eagle carries souls from their final resting place to the Cycle and gives them to the Wolf.  The Hungry Wolf strips the souls of their memories and eats them.  The memories settle in his fur until the soul to which they belong is no longer part of the Cycle.  The Wolf then throws the souls into the Cycle, where the Great Serpent swims, keeping watch over and protecting the souls.  When it is time for a soul to move into its next life, the Serpent removes the appropriate soul from the Cycle.  The Splendid Phoenix then carries it to the womb that carries its next life.

And so the Cycle carries on.

The Fates

The Fates, otherwise known as the Ladies, are perhaps my favorite combination of Earth religions.  I created the Fates as the sentinels of mortal life and the purveyors of future Sight to those mortals with the magical gift.  All Seers within this realm recognize the Ladies and the gifts they provide them in their visions.

The idea of the three Fates comes from Greek mythology, in which the three Moirai keep watch over the destined fates of mortals and gods and control the life thread of each mortal.  Their names, however, come from the three aspects of the Goddess in pagan religions:  Maiden, Matron, Crone.

Like the Guardians of the Cycle, the Fates work together in their eternal tasks.  The Maid uses her Spindle to spin the threads representing the souls of the mortals from soul material.  The Matron weaves these threads into the Tapestry of Mortal Life, representing the futures that she Sees.  When it is time for a mortal life to end, the Crone cuts that mortal’s life thread, sending it to the Cycle with one of edge of her Double-Edged Dagger or to the Land of Free Souls with the other.

And, like the Moirai, the Fates don’t control the fates of mortals.  They simply see the futures that will form based on their decisions, actions, and circumstances and do what they can to safeguard against the interference of Chaos.

Demigods

The fourth, and final, set of deities in this religion was actually the initial catalyst for the religion’s creation.  The greater-than-human antagonist that I originally sought became the demigod War, part of the youngest pair of demigods.  Gemini Cosley then became the mortal incarnation of his twin sister, Peace.

The demigods, children of the Creator and the Eternal Goddess, are unique among the deities of this religion.  Unlike the others, they were not part of the original set of gods.  Not only that, but they are of varying ages themselves, ranging anywhere from two millennia to several hundred or even several thousand millennia in age.  On top of that, they are the only set of deities that directly influences mortal life, which, in turn, influences their personalities and actions to be more like those of the mortals.

Within the story, the purpose behind the births of these four pairs of demigods lies in the eternal struggle to maintain Balance and stave off Chaos.  Each pair was born to balance a particular Chaos that had arisen:  endless comatose states that were neither life nor death; emotional apathies that lead to negligence of lives, families, progress, and political structures; and anarchic states in which enemies were unknown and sudden violence was nearly commonplace.

Balance and Chaos

As I have said previously, Balance is the guiding principle of all of the deities in this religion.  The gauge of spiritual morality is not so much between good and evil as it is between what is necessary for Balance and the Chaos that arises when that Balance is destroyed.  The Chaos I reference is not simply the chaos of disorder, but that which leads mortals, gods, and nature to insanity.

Culture-Building through Religion

Creator, Destroyer, Eternal Goddess, Cycle of Incarnation, Fates, and demigods.  This is the religion that guides the culture behind the Peace of Evon series.  As I continue through this series of articles on Culture-Building, I will continue to reference this religion as its influence has affected nearly every part of the culture I molded.

I hope you will join me on this journey of exploration through Culture-Building.  I would love to hear what your experiences are with different aspects of cultures in the stories you have written or read, or even what you would consider if you had to mold a culture for a story in the future.