​With 45,000 words in draft, technically I'm at the halfway point of Chasse's Song. Of course, 'halfway' is a concept when creating a story, a marker, a reminder of keeping the story within agreed bounds. This is partly determined by text binding limitations with publication, partly audience expectation of reading lengths, partly 'tradition' for a genre - but mostly so I can give myself a solid target to constrain the tale.

Writing comes with more research. This week, the Harbin Dragon Fang are embarking on building a new dragon ship, regardless of whether the ones who fled when the dragon appeared in the village are coming back with the village's only ship. This sent me back into researching how the Vikings and other seafarers built their clinker longships. So much information is available, particularly given the projects that have been undertaken to replicate the building of those ships - everything from the kind of tree needed, how to shape and cut the keel, the strakes, the bow and so on. Additional research was needed to determine how a sail could be constructed from goat hide (the Vikings apparently sometimes used wool). Materials, techniques, time - all are important to help me add 'authenticity' to the story.

https://regia.org/research/ships/Ships1.htm

This led to revising how to fell trees effectively. Again, personal life way back in my teens gave me experience in this, but memory and research need to combine. There are some fascinating pages online. I was especially amused by the link following:

https://gearpatrol.com/2009/06/13/be-a-better-man-in-30-days-day-13-know-how-to-chop-down-or-fell-a-tree/#:~:text=Chopping%20With%20An%20Axe%3A%20If,the%20way%20through%20the%20tree.

Then the fun research turned to killing and butchering goats. Yes, from my childhood I remember the process for killing, hanging, gutting and butchering a sheep, but fifty years separate me from that time. So, into the research. There is literally nothing you can't learn online nowadays. Why this? A spoiler - how else do you feed a baby dragon?

https://www.farmdrop.com/blog/the-ultimate-goat-cuts-guide-how-to-choose-and-cook-your-cuts/

With the story's changing seasons from deep blizzard winter to emerging spring, I then researched a range of topics including seagull breeding seasons, bears emerging from hibernation, wolves hunting in snow and so on.

https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/advice/gardening-for-wildlife/animal-deterrents/gulls/gull-breeding-habitats-and-nest-sites/

Finally, before this post, I was researching the impact and healing processes involved in treating broken ribs and a 'mildly' punctured lung - the fate of a character hangs on this material.

https://www.healthline.com/health/broken-rib

The links in this post are quick samples of where I've been as I've been developing the story. Each piece of research needed correlation from multiple sources to ensure I was finding accurate (or relatively accurate) information. A long time ago, I naively thought writing a story was a case of 'making it up' and relying on my personal knowledge and experiences. While that is equally still true, especially in a fantasy tale where the world and magic are in the hands of the writer, the degree of research involved is often hidden from readers, especially if it flows in the tale as it should - part of the world, the characters and the events.

One more week of being a 'full time' writer lies ahead before the working world kicks back in. Fourteen chapters have taken shape. I'm enjoying the project, but it is only a partial form chipped roughly in marble - a long way from the statue I want it to be.

First, all quiet on the publisher front - not how I like it, but part of a writer's fate.

I'm making good progress into the first draft of the second book in The Last Wizard trilogy, Chasse's Song and I'm enjoying where the story is going. Having spent considerable time reacquainting myself with Harbin and Tam's world and where her brother Chasse fitted, I finally feel I've moved into Chasse's space comfortably and we've passed 25,000 words this weekend.

Whereas the original book - now Tamesan's Song: The Last Wizard Book One in preparation for re-release - focussed on Tam's coming of age, Chasse's Song: The Last Wizard Book Two, focusses on his coming of age as explained in previous posts. This will mean a number of interesting and challenging issues emerge. Now that he is a dragon warrior and he was present when the Dragon Fang were ambushed while they were raiding a southern town, he has to resolve his role in Harbin as a young man, a warrior, a protector, and a son and brother, and potentially a husband. His father, Dragon Head Kevan, takes responsibility for leading Chasse through the Trial of the Second Winter, a time when the new dragon warriors of Harbin 'come-of-age' through testing and facing the truth of what they are required to do and be. This new stage brings increasing security and also dilemmas for Chasse who can see how his sister's choices place her at odds with village traditions and where this will potentially create a schism between her and him. And he is still dealing with PTSD from his first experience as a dragon warrior. And there is a growing love interest that will also challenge him. Tam is on the mountain, with the dragon's egg, the Herbal Man's library and goods, and little brother Jaysin, although her life is now momentarily offstage. Oh, and eventually the ones who abandoned Harbin when Claryssa the dragon emerged will return to search for the dragon treasure. But that's not written yet...

Kirsi has agreed to work on the cover illustrations and we've now signed a contract so that part is underway and I'm excited that she is involved.

I'm dedicating an hour or so each day to writing currently, and trying to nail several hours each weekend. When I started writing seriously way back in 1988, even before I won my first contract, I bought time by replacing my involvement with basketball. Back then, training and playing with Noarlunga City Tigers consumed close to 15 hours a  week, spread across 6 days of commitments, so when I retired from the club and the game entirely I converted the basketball slabs of time to writing time. I coupled that with sometimes smashing multiple hours two-three times a week in exchange for sleep, working until 2 or 3am and sleeping briefly before heading to work, and that's pretty much how the Andrakis trilogy came to life from 1988-1993, but it wasn't a sustainable way to live. In contrast, the original The Last Wizard was fully drafted in three months in 1993 when I took a term's leave from teaching.

Okay, so Chasse wants me to take him further into the Trial of the Second Winter because he wants to become a man. A blizzard is brewing in the background and his father is about to engage him in trial by combat. A wolf pack is circling higher up the slope. I have to go...

Tomorrow is back to work after four days and two weekends away from the chaos. In fairness to Meg, I did spend three days working on school web sites for teachers, parents and students during the so-called break, but the last four days I devoted to being a writer.

After a wee bit of excitement back in 2015 when I tried to kick start a flagging writing business, I neglected much of what needs to be fostered. As my previous blogs detail, I have returned to writing in earnest and the momentum is good. What I neglect is everything AFTER a book is written, and that I must change.

This week I revamped my tired old writing website at www.tonyshillitoe.com.au Drop by for an updated view - still a page to fix around how and where to buy my books, but essentially it's almost done. From now on I will also store these blogs on that site.

I also spent time this week revamping the Amazon covers for the Ashuak and Andrakis series, learning new techniques and applying them to the covers to make them less amateurish. This led to updating the interior content as well, again to improve the appearance. It takes a full day to design a cover, and another whole day to check the layout of the content, and that's the tip of the iceberg. Examples of the updated covers, one from each series, are included below (drafts - finals are too large a file for here).

Moving forward, I am about to embark on book two of the new fantasy series later this week and I'll add updates of that in the next entry. For the record, yesterday I was distracted for three hours and wrote an intro to yet another new series. I need to focus!

Well, no recent posts because of our common enemy Covid-19 who has consumed my life within our school; building an online learning strategy, environment and resources for parents, students and teachers, supporting teacher resilience and competence in that strange new environment for ELC-12 using Teams, Managebac and Showbie and a vast array of web resources and tools, and basically caring for the learning and emotional wellbeing of a community. I'm currently building web sites to support teachers, parents and students with digital skills. As John Lennon aptly sang, 'strange days indeed.'

Writing took a back seat, but some events chugged along. I submitted Girlie to a publication contest, but lucked out on that one, so now I'll prepare the manuscript for the usual submission processes. A re-read yesterday revealed a couple of glaring editing errors - no matter how ruthlessly you work through 115,000 words, even with vigilant friends checking, you miss details. When I hear someone complain that they found a spelling error on page 27 of a novel, or a missed word, I know how and why those errors happen - and no, I'm not talking about lots of errors in a text. Anyway, Girlie will be packaged and sent to the first publisher target to see if they will take her on. If not, we move to the next one.

The pandemic zombie-fest novel, working title All We Have, was sent to its first publisher a fortnight ago, so we will see where that ends up. Either my timing is terrible or great in this current world event. While it was never aimed at imitating a Corona style pandemic, maybe there is enough in it to make it a worthwhile read. Anyway, the waiting game has begun for that novel.

I also reshaped and finished Book One in the new fantasy series, currently titled (insert title here). Creating a title is really challenging because so many books and films have been published and already bear the very titles the next writer/creator want to use. So one target in the next few days is to generate a list of options, test them against the titles already published and come up with an appropriately interesting/catchy title for this work. I'm hoping to head into Book Two during the coming week, given I'm taking four days off work post-Easter (happy dance).
​
I hope everyone out there is safe, socially-distancing and looking out for family, friends and neighbours. We are living in one of our films or novels right now. I might say that for a full-time writer this might seem 'normal', as it would for gamers, introverts and only children (I qualify in some of those categories). Use the time we've been given wisely. Happy Easter!

As Douglas Adams wrote, 'The best-laid plans of mice.' The plan was to flesh out the fantasy world for the new series and even draw maps. Well, I did find time to flesh out the worlds a little. The maps - not so much.
Currently, two cultures are drafted, three to be drafted more.

Working out a hierarchy and political and social structure for the dragon culture has been interesting. Essentially, the political structure is a regal matriarchy supported by an oligarchy overarching a loose socialist democracy. Queen Shadrael is the inheritor of rule from her grandmother who featured in the Ashuak Chronicles, but her right to the role is challenged. While the Queen has absolute authority, she is guided/advised by a group of Elders, and Clan-wide decisions have to be agreed to by the dragon Congress. Social status is tied closely to political status, with some allowance for birthright. Economically and militarily, the dragons live off of a human slavery system that they have established by domination. The dragons can draw on several millenia of cultural history, stemming from a time when they were beasts in the wild, through the era of the dragonlords and the Andrakian trilogy to inheritors of magic from the Genesis Stone.

The key human culture of the tale is the Domovinan kingdom, ruled by a Shah. Inherited absolute rule is the key system, supported by a warlord leading class and a fledgling and highly-threatened democracy in the city. The culture is misogynistic in the extreme as a result of a history where powerful women were users of magic who were eventually overthrown by men. There's a tale within a tale buried in that history that will also hark back to the Andrakian trilogy. The Domovinan kingdom is in the middle of an industrial revolution and ruthlessly and jealously guards its technology (this technological revolution precedes but ties into the world in the Dreaming in Amber series). Social strata in Domovina is very much like that existing in C18th England - from wealthy royals through to wealthy merchants/criminals, middle class business owners down to workers and the poor.

The dragon culture embracing the human slaves is still taking shape as those characters begin to receive airplay in the story. The Alfyn culture is to be developed early in Book Two and a new human culture will be brought into play as the first two clash.

The complexity of the cultures is still unravelling as I write and new necessary detail is required in the story. A friend on the weekend asked if I subscribe to George Martin's differentiation of writers as being architects (detailed planners) or gardeners (organic growers). In my case, both apply. There is an awful lot of planning and almost as much organic growth to create characters, places, communities and a story embracing them.

And as for the diversion of direction on the new project, I accepted an invitation to Meander - a B&B property near Springton owned by good friend Evelyn - and used the escape time to add and edit details in another project to complete it. This is the post-apocalyptic project for which I now need to find a publisher. Tonight I will begin drafting a proposal and blurb to accompany the first chapters of the novel and select who I will approach. Frankly, I'm so far out of the writing loop my choices will be dictated by what I can research online. I'll post the progress on that as it unfolds over the next few months.
​
PS: The fantasy novel is now at 100,000 words and growing, so I've stayed busy