TanaNari
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So. Insomnia strikes again. Want to write another chapter (just to have it written) but have story bunnies having their way with my ear holes. So... yeah... minor descriptions of several ideas I have and where I can go with them. I started this poll over at SB way back when, but got very little response or interest there. So now, let's see if this place is better for this sorta thing.
Mind you, one way or another, I intend to web-serialize these babies. The first two I expect to probably last around a year, the way I seem to write... maybe shorter, maybe longer. It's really hard to predict, I've discovered. I thought I'd be done with Amelia a while ago by now.
Anyway... comments, questions, suggestions (especially on how to approach publishing and maybe making money off this whole endeavor- I would not mind doing this sorta thing full time- writing is hard work, but it's hard work that I love) and whatever else you wanna throw at me.
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Path Magic: fans of Amelia's transhumanist themes will probably like this one. Focused mainly on a teenage girl's experiences with an ancient and often times disturbing culture of sorcerers, as she evolves from a complete newbie to an accomplished young magic user... although, to be clear, she'll NEVER be in the big leagues during the story. Knowledge is easy enough to acquire, if you can convince someone to share... power takes time.
The big problem? Basically the "elf" phenomena... when you're old enough, and powerful enough, you forget what it's like to be *human*. You're more your power than you are a person.
Which brings up how magic in the setting works (in small bits, gotta leave something for in story exposition)- Animism is a real thing in the setting, all things material or idea have spirits. Trees. Forests (although a forest is more a hybrid of every tree within it, as a human is a hybrid of every cell within it, more than the sum of its parts type stuff). Even your favorite baseball team has a legitimate "soul" of its own.
These spirits are not human, and never were human. They are alien, and each is different. The spirit of a fire is a very different thing, with very different behaviors, than the spirit of the matter it's consuming. Powerful mages? Start acting like the spirits they draw upon most often. And the more they act like those spirits, the easier it is for them to call upon them. Self feeding cycle. Things start to get *weird* when these powerful mages interact.
And the younger, weaker, and more human mages live in the shadow of these masters. Their inscrutable rules and politics influencing their 'children', as well as the usual personality conflicts of brilliantly gifted and driven individuals forced to compete with one another. DRAMA! ensues.
=====================
Second Nature
Another modern magical setting. This time with faeries! Although the way fae work in this, there's plenty of variety. Fae have animalistic forms that in part define their nature. The "typical" faerie imagery are the "royal" type, born of the earliest forms of life. Insects. Where you get your "tinkerbell" type faeries. Then you move on to "lesser" courts. Fishlike fae tend to be the occultists. Amphibians usually fall in that group as well. Reptiles tend to be the scholars and historians. Birds the merchant castes.
Mammals are the commoner classes. The soldiers and the builders. Yes, this means you can have straight up "werewolves" from a "wolf fae warriors". Woo.
Fae who operate on earth bond with a mortal. This process is of varying significance depending on many factors, and usually is done with young children, most of whom eventually stop believing. The birth of the 'imaginary friend'. A rare few retain their potential into their teen years. These Gifted are important (for plot reasons).
Meet Shura and Micheal. Shura's a gremlin (technology and sabotage fae), based off a Sugar Glider. Micheal's a fairly typical geeky kid of sixteen. Who is in no way equipped to deal with a magical girl who has a five seater hoverjet that runs on the laughter of children. That she keeps in her pants.
.... It's a rather silly setting. It has its drama, but it's very "anime inspired" by its nature, with relatively flimsy (but at least acknowledged) excuses for how this setting can exist the way it does. What do you call it when you parody a genre that already doesn't take itself seriously in the slightest? And then make the story just ever so slightly too serious to call it a real parody?
==================
Then there's the Midara setting. Oh where do I start? Fantasy setting (instead of treating fantasy as a genre unto itself). I have a thousand years of history for this setting. Cataclysm. Rebuilding. Wars. Another freakin' cataclysm. More rebuilding. More wars. A third freakin' cataclysm (this planet has shit luck, seriously... its own fault for letting me create it...), some more rebuilding. And then finally a fourth cataclysm that would be the end of the series.
.... I could spend the next two decades on this setting before its conclusion. And that's without any new inspiration.
The options available for the "first book" are as follows, in chronological order.
Monsters: A story focused on the restoration of a war torn nation against the chaos beyond, in the aftermath of the first cataclysm. Very politicky by nature. Meet Malchael and Eris, who are entirely horrible people and clearly the antagonists, even if much of the story focuses on them. No. Seriously. It's a romance story between a necromancer and what passes for a demon in the setting. My readers who enjoy Amelia's WAFF moments... will probably feel horribly conflicted...
Void Goddess: This one focuses on the second Cataclysm. Meet Sira and Kesh, childhood friends and on again/off again lovers who rediscover an ancient sorcery. Also, the phrase "Undead Dragon God" might come up at some point in this story.
Reclamation: The story of the rise of an empire. Again, fairly political story. This one focuses on Tyr, Azes and Lynd, a pair of brothers (and a sister) who establish themselves and try to bring peace and civilization to a world greatly lacking in both.
Karana: The story follows Dusk, a young demihuman trying to achieve freedom for her people in the midst of a brutal war between two foreign empires that spend most of their efforts fighting in her homeland instead of theirs.
Heritage: More a companion prequel to Paradox than its own keystone story. Meet Rana, a young woman whose ancestry gives her unusual and unwanted powers and responsibilities. Celeste, her best friend. And Ral, a street urchin who aids her in her rebellion against hundreds of years of tradition.
Paradox: Meet Ada- a princess on a diplomatic mission. And Arakash, her guardian. Her enslaved quasi-incubus guardian who's quite displeased with the whole chain of events. There is travel and adventure and collecting the usual cast of misfits. Because why not?
Echoes: The companion sequel to Paradox. This one explores the aftermath of Paradox and sets the stage for Dust and a couple as-yet-unnamed ideas that aren't yet established.
Dust: This one's not an option for the starter story. Meet Elruin, a child with frightening powers and a troubled mind, in her misadventures. Mister Clackybones, her faithful undead steed. And a sadistic ghost with a mysterious past and that does its best to protect her.
Memories: This story follows an amnesiac, his servitude to a powerful lord, and the many secrets of his past. Pushes into "psych thriller, fantasy setting". Not doing this as a starter, either. But it's definitely a story that deserves told eventually.
Mind you, one way or another, I intend to web-serialize these babies. The first two I expect to probably last around a year, the way I seem to write... maybe shorter, maybe longer. It's really hard to predict, I've discovered. I thought I'd be done with Amelia a while ago by now.
Anyway... comments, questions, suggestions (especially on how to approach publishing and maybe making money off this whole endeavor- I would not mind doing this sorta thing full time- writing is hard work, but it's hard work that I love) and whatever else you wanna throw at me.
=======================
Path Magic: fans of Amelia's transhumanist themes will probably like this one. Focused mainly on a teenage girl's experiences with an ancient and often times disturbing culture of sorcerers, as she evolves from a complete newbie to an accomplished young magic user... although, to be clear, she'll NEVER be in the big leagues during the story. Knowledge is easy enough to acquire, if you can convince someone to share... power takes time.
The big problem? Basically the "elf" phenomena... when you're old enough, and powerful enough, you forget what it's like to be *human*. You're more your power than you are a person.
Which brings up how magic in the setting works (in small bits, gotta leave something for in story exposition)- Animism is a real thing in the setting, all things material or idea have spirits. Trees. Forests (although a forest is more a hybrid of every tree within it, as a human is a hybrid of every cell within it, more than the sum of its parts type stuff). Even your favorite baseball team has a legitimate "soul" of its own.
These spirits are not human, and never were human. They are alien, and each is different. The spirit of a fire is a very different thing, with very different behaviors, than the spirit of the matter it's consuming. Powerful mages? Start acting like the spirits they draw upon most often. And the more they act like those spirits, the easier it is for them to call upon them. Self feeding cycle. Things start to get *weird* when these powerful mages interact.
And the younger, weaker, and more human mages live in the shadow of these masters. Their inscrutable rules and politics influencing their 'children', as well as the usual personality conflicts of brilliantly gifted and driven individuals forced to compete with one another. DRAMA! ensues.
=====================
Second Nature
Another modern magical setting. This time with faeries! Although the way fae work in this, there's plenty of variety. Fae have animalistic forms that in part define their nature. The "typical" faerie imagery are the "royal" type, born of the earliest forms of life. Insects. Where you get your "tinkerbell" type faeries. Then you move on to "lesser" courts. Fishlike fae tend to be the occultists. Amphibians usually fall in that group as well. Reptiles tend to be the scholars and historians. Birds the merchant castes.
Mammals are the commoner classes. The soldiers and the builders. Yes, this means you can have straight up "werewolves" from a "wolf fae warriors". Woo.
Fae who operate on earth bond with a mortal. This process is of varying significance depending on many factors, and usually is done with young children, most of whom eventually stop believing. The birth of the 'imaginary friend'. A rare few retain their potential into their teen years. These Gifted are important (for plot reasons).
Meet Shura and Micheal. Shura's a gremlin (technology and sabotage fae), based off a Sugar Glider. Micheal's a fairly typical geeky kid of sixteen. Who is in no way equipped to deal with a magical girl who has a five seater hoverjet that runs on the laughter of children. That she keeps in her pants.
.... It's a rather silly setting. It has its drama, but it's very "anime inspired" by its nature, with relatively flimsy (but at least acknowledged) excuses for how this setting can exist the way it does. What do you call it when you parody a genre that already doesn't take itself seriously in the slightest? And then make the story just ever so slightly too serious to call it a real parody?
==================
Then there's the Midara setting. Oh where do I start? Fantasy setting (instead of treating fantasy as a genre unto itself). I have a thousand years of history for this setting. Cataclysm. Rebuilding. Wars. Another freakin' cataclysm. More rebuilding. More wars. A third freakin' cataclysm (this planet has shit luck, seriously... its own fault for letting me create it...), some more rebuilding. And then finally a fourth cataclysm that would be the end of the series.
.... I could spend the next two decades on this setting before its conclusion. And that's without any new inspiration.
The options available for the "first book" are as follows, in chronological order.
Monsters: A story focused on the restoration of a war torn nation against the chaos beyond, in the aftermath of the first cataclysm. Very politicky by nature. Meet Malchael and Eris, who are entirely horrible people and clearly the antagonists, even if much of the story focuses on them. No. Seriously. It's a romance story between a necromancer and what passes for a demon in the setting. My readers who enjoy Amelia's WAFF moments... will probably feel horribly conflicted...
Void Goddess: This one focuses on the second Cataclysm. Meet Sira and Kesh, childhood friends and on again/off again lovers who rediscover an ancient sorcery. Also, the phrase "Undead Dragon God" might come up at some point in this story.
Reclamation: The story of the rise of an empire. Again, fairly political story. This one focuses on Tyr, Azes and Lynd, a pair of brothers (and a sister) who establish themselves and try to bring peace and civilization to a world greatly lacking in both.
Karana: The story follows Dusk, a young demihuman trying to achieve freedom for her people in the midst of a brutal war between two foreign empires that spend most of their efforts fighting in her homeland instead of theirs.
Heritage: More a companion prequel to Paradox than its own keystone story. Meet Rana, a young woman whose ancestry gives her unusual and unwanted powers and responsibilities. Celeste, her best friend. And Ral, a street urchin who aids her in her rebellion against hundreds of years of tradition.
Paradox: Meet Ada- a princess on a diplomatic mission. And Arakash, her guardian. Her enslaved quasi-incubus guardian who's quite displeased with the whole chain of events. There is travel and adventure and collecting the usual cast of misfits. Because why not?
Echoes: The companion sequel to Paradox. This one explores the aftermath of Paradox and sets the stage for Dust and a couple as-yet-unnamed ideas that aren't yet established.
Dust: This one's not an option for the starter story. Meet Elruin, a child with frightening powers and a troubled mind, in her misadventures. Mister Clackybones, her faithful undead steed. And a sadistic ghost with a mysterious past and that does its best to protect her.
Memories: This story follows an amnesiac, his servitude to a powerful lord, and the many secrets of his past. Pushes into "psych thriller, fantasy setting". Not doing this as a starter, either. But it's definitely a story that deserves told eventually.
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