I have ambitions for a Winter 2023 release (perfect holiday gift!). Things are wrapping up. Last minute editing, then formatting it to look real good. Then send it off to AmazonKDP and IngramSpark to be delivered digitally or physically.
I’ll say, I’m nervous. I’ve done so much reading about publishing a novel in the last few months that it’s all become an absolute blur.
Included is a picture of what the book will look like. It’s been a lot of blood, sweat, tears, and money to get here, but we’re almost done (then book two).
For new people here’s a breakdown of my novel:
A young girl named Ti stumbles onto Were Magic, which allows her to transform into an animal, a phoenix! However, long ago the royal family was assassinated by Were Wizards, and the grudge never ended, it is the highest crime to have Were Magic in Djat. Ti’s father, a general in the Djat army, ensures her safety by sending her to the prodigious wizarding school, Yaudi School, where she can learn Were Magic safely. She is sent with the Calydronian captain, Captain Arence of the Tubby Whale and his eclectic crew. Although Ti hated living in Djat because the kingdom had too many rules, she is afraid to leave her father and friends behind, she knows she doesn’t belong in Djat, but she has no home, no where she belongs. Sailing with her is another young man, Sea Lion of the Air, who has just passed top of his class at Level Two Wind Magic and his ego shows it. Together Ti and Sea Lion of the Air, along with Ti’s trusted Animal Partner, Priot, a large silver-tipped falcon, go on an adventure through the oceans of the shattered continent, Ptansia. Ti makes new friends, beholds great and ancient beasts, gains new magic, and becomes a pawn in one kingdom’s desire for war.
Tag: writing
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Sometimes it is fun to go through old poetry and find something you forgot your wrote. Well, here it is something I forgot I wrote: Two Men Laughter with an impeccable feeling of love festering behind its golden shell Ten happy children Feed the drunk imbecile A reaper meets a sower says, "The weather is plain today" A cold yet soft reply from the sower is exclaimed, "Better than yesterday" A rainbow soars its mind from one treasure to the other One made of gold, showering those who find it with immense wealth and glory The other with friends, showering those who find it with immense fame and glory One man bought his friends One man sold his friends Both men, were unhappy -
I won’t be changing the blog name, but until their is some more movement in the progress of publishing “The Phoenix and the Ant”, I will be using this blog to post poetry of mine. First poem below:
Basilisk
The basilisk tormenting a season of dry hopes, cold rope I pull myself out of high heaven and fall into a bleak revival of things a sad reminder of my humanity Humanity I do not want The perverse nature in which I crowd myself Total remorse total remorse total remorse She said to me, "Give up, and make a new dream" But, I don't care to I don't want to and I won't The privileges I'm given, that I take for granted Sold souls, knocking at my door I smile, and tell them to come in It's cold out, and the world is a harsh place We remember times when we were more then we are Total remorse total remorse total remorse
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Hello out there,
It has been too long, and I have been way too negligent. As some of you may be aware, we have a new addition to the family, my lovely daughter Aurelia, who is now almost 7 months old. She has been a major time sink (a lovely, amazing time sink, but one nonetheless).
However, good-ish news and okay-ish news:
Good-ish: I am working on the sequel to Book of Yaudi (now tentatively known as “The Phoenix and the Ant”, the sequel is quite fun so far, it maintains the adventure, but has a lot more familiarity to it. Don’t worry, fan favourite characters are back, as well as many new additions.
Okay-ish: I’ve been working on querying the initial novel. No luck so far. I’m constantly upgrading and fixing up my query letter, and have found a few more Beta-Readers to get my draft to its best possible form.
I won’t be posting the second book on here, but I’ll try to post a bit more often in general.
Here is the first snippet from the second novel:
Chapter 1 – A Girl in a World She Created
Buzzing,
Constant buzzing
The sounds reverberate around me
The buzzing all the time
Always buzzing
No reason no rhyme
What was my power
Now my curse
What was my glory
Now my curse
What was my treasure
Now my curse
Buzzing
Constant buzzing- Scribblings written on a piece of paper by an unnamed prisoner in the Yaudi Detention Centre for Wizard’s of Superior Source
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I thought I would post this chart that explains the magic (to a small extent, it goes a lot deeper). This chart has been invaluable to keeping me on track, especially with remembering everyone’s eye colours (you’d think I’d remember it by now, oof). The formatting is a bit weird transferring from my Google doc into WordPress, but it’s not too bad. Anyway, enjoy!
Magic
There are 12 branches of magic in Ptansia. The School of Advanced Magical Arts (the name has changed) organizes them by type, but they are all separate from one another, and ability in one elemental magic, won’t make one better in another elemental magic. A single form of magic can take some a lifetime to fully master, so some people are masters of only one form, or merely okay at a couple. Only the truly gifted, or incredibly hard workers can become masters of more than one. The various kingdoms across Ptansia have magic they prefer, where schools for said magic are more likely to be found. Some kingdoms, such as Djat truly despise some types of magic, Were Magic, in Djat’s case. No magic is officially banned across Ptansia but Curse Magic is nearly universally banned across the kingdoms. If one wanted to become a Curse Wizard, they would need to travel to Yaudi, go through rigorous testing and prove themselves capable, wise, and good.
Chart of Magics
Type Kingdoms that have schools. Kingdoms that are against Eye Colour – As is known, magic dictates eye colour (the stronger, the brighter). A non-magical person will have brown eyes. Elemental Magics and Brief description Water Magic – Magic that deals with working with water, at low levels used by farmers, at high levels can be fairly destructive or great on ships. All. Primarily found in Djat None Blue Blood Magic (extension of Water Magic) – Level 3 Water Wizards can cross into Blood Magic, but it is forbidden in many places (though every military has a few) Horutan All but HoruTan. Information can be found in Yaudi, every Kingdom does have Blood Wizards in their military. Blue with red cracks Wind Magic – Magic that deals with working with the wind, often used on ships. Any Navy needs powerful Wind Wizards. All. Primarily found in Calydron. None White Earth Magic – Magic that deals with working with the earth. At low levels can be great on farms and for building, at high levels can be devastating at war. All but the Kingdom of the North. Primarily found in Aewon. Kingdom of the North Green Fire Magic – Magic that deals with working with fire. At low levels can be used to light torches and keep homes warm (newer technologies are using it to power machines). At high levels can be extremely destructive. All. Primarily found in Redlands, Redlands people are so used to heat, lava and flames that they seem to have a natural immunity to fire. None Orange Life Magic Redland only has Elemental Schools, so when “All” is listed, consider that to mean not Redland. Clerical – Used for healing. A cleric can heal someone as long as they have the necessary parts (animal bones to heal bones, leather to heal skin, blood to replace blood loss). At higher levels, more people can be healed at once and clerics can use less materials. All. Primarily found in Kingdom of the North None Yellow Necromancy – Used for raising the dead. People must consent before death to be raised. At low levels a wizard must concentrate to keep the dead “alive”, at high levels the dead can stay alive, in limited ways, or with concentration can become fully capable. All but Aewon. Primarily found in Basit. Aewon, though it is not a highly looked upon magic anywhere but Basit. Black Mind Magic Hypnotic – A magic for convincing people to do what you want. At low levels it can moderately affect someone’s emotions towards something. At high levels it can effectively control someone All. None, though can be considered a fairly immoral magic. Pink Animal – A magic for speaking with and controlling animals. At low levels it allows speech only, often people will bond with one animal. At high levels, animals can be controlled in large amounts, swarms of locusts, a battalion of bears, etc… All, people of Aewon are naturally adept at it. None, though Djat has schools, it is not very respected. Purple Luck – A magic that deals with someone’s luck. At low levels it may only affect the Wizard using it. At high levels it can affect an entire army, perhaps a catapult on the other side misfires. Perhaps a dam breaks at the right time. A Luck Wizard’s eye colour changes as Luck deems necessary. All but HoruTan and the Kingdom of the North. HoruTan who does not believe in “Luck”, though many across the continent aren’t sure luck magic is real, or just fabricated. Changes based on what is “most lucky” at the moment. Transformation Were – A magic where a wizard can transform into an animal. At low-levels a wizard can transform into an animal of similar size and shape with concentration. At high-levels a wizard can transform into nearly any animal (most Master Were Wizards have 5 animals in their belt) for an indefinite amount of time. All but Djat. Djat, who believe Were magic is an abomination and punishable by death or exile. Silver Curse – A truly powerful magic. At low-levels anything can be changed to an extent, colour, size, shape, smell. At high-levels entire countries can be changed. There are always consequences. Always. None Although one can find information on Curse magic, especially at Yaudi, it is effectively forbidden, especially after the destruction of Vedu and Slorick and the subsequent creation of the Kingdom of Pestilence Indecipherable. Since Curse Magic is effectively banned, it is unlikely you’d ever find a Curse Wizard to see their eye colour. However, Yaudi scholars indicate the colour is impossible to pinpoint, as if it escapes reality. -
You know, it’s funny, this is my first novel, so I truly don’t feel my advice is worth a darn, yet every blogpost I read about “establishing a writing blog” talks about giving advice to writers/readers. Being that I’m a teacher and I do have an English degree, perhaps I do have some right to tell people how to write, but I think I will focus on the idea of inspiration today.
Inspiration is a funny thing. We all get inspired all the time, sometimes that inspiration plays a direct role, such as reading a good book and wanting to write your own book, and sometimes an indirect role, such as listening to a great song and deciding to work out (which I’ve fallen sorely behind on, oof). So, how do you use inspiration properly?
Well, T.S. Eliot said, “Good writers borrow, great writers steal.”, I don’t believe he meant it to be taken quite literally, but in some ways, it can be. You’re new, whether to writings, making music, baking, exercising, it doesn’t matter, you’re new (or getting back into something you haven’t done in years). It is okay to look at the masters and steal (just a little bit of theft). Do you like the prose an author uses? Try it out in your own writing. Do you like the wah wah guitar sound that Jimi Hendrix has? Do it, write a song using it. I give you permission. Just try not to completely plagiarize, you’re “stealing” inspiration not copy + pasting (seriously don’t do that).
Now, if you’re to keep that inspiration going and you finish your novel, or you finish your album, perhaps you should try to find your own voice on the way. But, it is practice that guides us to our own perfection. You will eventually find your own voice, maybe it is only a couple steps off from your inspiration from Stephen King, or maybe you completely dove off that diving board and hit ten other diving boards before crashing into the pool of “you”. That’s okay. Your path is your own. Some people take twenty years to create their first creation, some take a couple months. You’re living life and you’ll create something wonderful (or awful if that’s what you’re going for) either way.Now enough about you, and more about me. Just kidding, sort of. Book of Yaudi was an idea that sat in the back of my head for years. It just sat there, gathering cobwebs, fermenting into some weird sort of cheese. Why did I just leave it there? I have a number of excuses, but I was busy is probably the biggest one. What matters, is I allowed myself to really be inspired to build it. To start planning out the world of Ptansia, the different kingdoms, their cultures, and eventually, moved that into writing about Ti’s adventure within the kingdom.
So, who and what inspired it?
Lord of the Rings – Inspired by Tolkien’s vast worldbuilding, from religion, to races, to language, to history. The Silmarillion is what pushed me to create my own world, I fell in love with it. The rich backstory going back years and years before the stories that we all know and love. Powerful beings that trump any and all that exist in the “present-day” Lord of the Rings world. Astounding.
Studio Ghibli – Not a book! What are you doing, SMVLTrudeau (by the way you can just call me Shawn)? This is about books! Well, nah. Inspiration comes from anywhere. Studio Ghibli films give me a warm fuzzy feeling inside. The kind of feeling that drifts me away to another world where I feel like maybe, just maybe, I belong. Even the darker movies, Princess Mononoke, Nausicaa and the Valley of the Wind, or Castle in the Sky, manage to take dark themes and still invite you to relax within the magical worlds. Not to mention the powerful young girls that Studio Ghibli often uses, teaching the important lessons that anybody can be a hero.
Brandon Sanderson – I can’t point at any of his books specifically, but his books pushed me (and may have been the final push) to write my own story. He isn’t the only author that does “preambles” throughout his books, but I’d probably say that he is what pushed me to do that in my own, (though in my own way). I also quite enjoy his magic systems, mine isn’t quite as complicated, but a large chunk of my worldbuilding was built around the magic that is used in the world of Ptansia.
Dungeons and Dragons – Playing with my friends, slowly building characters and worlds together. I had said before that my initial idea for Book of Yaudi which at the time I just called My World, was to turn it into its own roleplaying game which I based off of the Fate RPG system. I find I don’t like to do things if I’m stuck in a box, so I never ended up DMing D&D (other than with students), my solution, create my own game. Unfortunately Covid put that on the back-burner, and now I have an infant daughter (5 weeks old yesterday!) so I don’t quite have time to get it rolling. One day… maybe when I’m inspired.
Music – This is a big generic one. Music guides me to create. Whether I’m at a concert (that’s been awhile) or just listening to a song at home, it often pushes me to do something creative. Music got me through University, it gets me through Report Cards and Lesson plans, and it guided the world of Ptansia. I won’t get into the nitty gritty details of what I primarily listened to (that’s a whole different blog post, haha), but I will say that if you’re struggling to write, put on a great album and close your eyes, let the ideas come right to you.
There are of course a million other little inspirations. My dream of writing in general, my wife, my children, my late-grandmother who promised me I’d be an author one day. Inspiration can come from anything and anywhere. It can help push us to places where we didn’t know we could go. Embrace the inspiration, embrace your ideas, go out there and create something!
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No chapter today, but I will be doing a brief character profile of Ti-Seta, the protagonist of Book of Yaudi. I won’t give any information about future events, but will provide background information that the book doesn’t provide in this edit, or, potentially ever (though I’ll try to naturally squeeze it in).
One thing to note, is that the Kingdom’s of Ptansia are not separated by race or ethnicity (which there is a reason for), but differ only by culture. There are small dialectal differences, as well, different Kingdom’s focus more on different magics, which affects eye colour, but that is not a consistent indicator of where someone is from.
Name : Ti-Seta of Runa-Seta
Country of Origin: Djat
City: Runa-Seta
Age: 14Personality: Ti is an energetic young girl. She is fiercely loyal to her friends, and stands by them despite it affecting her negatively. Being somewhat of an outcast herself as she practices Animal Magic, she finds solace in solitude, as long as her Animal Partner, Priot is with her.
She has a disdain for Water Magic and has been hiding her inability to use it for years, with the help of her friends, Bat and Mo-Seta, due to it. She doesn’t like to talk about why, but those close to her know it has something to do with her mother’s death.
Ti can be a bit oblivious to when she is inconveniencing others, but makes up for it with an out pour of friendliness and care when she realizes she is being a jerk. She often considers the consequences of her actions after the consequences have come into play.
Physical Description: Ti had soft purple eyes which helped her pretend to be a Water Wizard, as she claimed she had “off-blue” eyes. After gaining Were Magic her eyes sometimes shift to a soft silver, especially when using the magic. She has thick, curly black hair that she normally has tied into a ponytail. She has light brown skin, that is often covered in mud and dirt as she is constantly running through nature hunting with her Animal Partner, Priot the silver-tipped Falcon.
As most children of Djat she is normally dressed in the light, royal blue uniform that children are expected to wear in school. It is an outfit with strapped, ankle high sandals, loose pants, a long flowing shirt which has hooded sun-cap with the golden crown of Djat on it to keep the glaring sun off their faces. Ti and many girls have a slit in the back of their hoods for when they need to wear it, but want their ponytails out. Boys and girls of Djat are expected to wear the same outfit whenever at school. Since the outfits are provided by the Kingdom of Djat, most children only wear the outfits as it is all they can afford and the outfits are designed with the climate of Djat in mind.
When not dressed in her uniform, she is dressed in standard beige pants and a light blue shirt. Her father, General Ti, refused to buy into more elegant Djat fashion, something Ti agreed with. In general, Djat is a very pragmatic country, and fashion tends to be solely designed with the hot sun in mind.
SMVLTRUDEAU 