Hello again Fellow Adventurer, and welcome to the first(!) newsletter of 2024.
As usual, time has sped by since last I posted, while I try to keep up with my Igor-like run.1 I haven’t been completely idle, however, and have been reading and thinking and researching – and even writing a bit – while I’ve been absent here. (What I now refer to as “The Dumpster Fire Years” really took a toll, people.) So, without further ado, here are some of the things I’ve been working on or simply want to share.
Honestly, though, sometimes I think I take so long pondering and wondering that people will start to suspect that I’m actually an Ent masquerading as a human.
Plans for 2024: My (Fiction) Writing Plans and Some Rambling
I barely wrote any fiction during The Dumpster Fire Years, and I really want to finish things this year. First of all, I want to finish Where the Stars Used to Sing and get that published – even the cover art has been languishing on my computer, waiting to be used. Once that’s done, I can start whittling away on the other short/flash fiction I have in mind, specifically the collection with the working title Threads (the one I started during “Alphabet Superset” late last year… but never actually finished).
I’m also taking my WIP standalone fantasy novel, Porselein, from the back burner and I’m planning on focusing on this as the Project for the Year of Our Lord 2024; mostly because I’m itching to finish something more than a short fiction anthology this year, and The Ruon Chronicles is most definitely a multi-year project.
Where the Stars Used to Sing
Although I haven’t made as much progress on the line edits for Where the Stars Used to Sing as I’d wanted, the edits are progressing! I’m currently busy with “The Doorway of the Moon” (the original version can be found here) and working on the conlang2 I’m using in the collection to ensure that there’s a consistency throughout.
The same goes for working on the internal folklore and mythology of the collection. It’s all in place for the most part, but some of the stories still need some added detail to make the collection mesh. I’m still pondering whether I should still include some of my sketches in the collection. As it will only be in an electronic format, I – at least – don’t have to budget for printing costs and good quality paper if I do include them, but I’ll see.
Where I’m Standing with Porselein
The last time I gave any proper attention to Porselein was in 2021 (yes, I did gasp in absolute horror that it’s been so long, and I may have uttered one or two choice swear words as well), so it’s about time that I sit down with it.
Luckily, I have a lot of story notes as well as character sketches for the two main characters. I also have notes on the magic system, but I’ve realised after going through the notes that it needs a lot of work as it’s a hard magic system – and right now it’s still at the “this is a cool idea for a magic system” stage and I need to have a proper look and figure out:
1) what the general rules for the magic system are, and
2) how such a system would impact a society on both a macro and micro level.
Although I’ll be wary not to fall into a worldbuilding fever rabbit hole when it comes to this secondary world, I’ll have to take time to not only be reacquainted with the world and the story, but also to properly flesh it out. I do want to make it a standalone work – at most venturing into short fiction as I discover the world, as it seems to help me with worldbuilding – but, if I take into account that fantasy books can be (are expected to be?) long tomes of some 90K+ words, I figure that I can spend time to make this secondary world as real as possible. After all, you can only use that much handwavium before readers see that nothing in the world makes any real sense.
I’m also re-listening to some Writing Excuses episodes (specifically on worldbuilding and magic systems) and I’m planning on re-watching some of Brandon Sanderson’s BYU lectures over on YouTube.
Building a World/Story Bible
As I only have handwritten notes and notes in a Word document for Porselein, I decided to make a proper Worldbuilding Bible for it. While creating things like character charts is perfect on Scrivener (which is what I mostly use for writing because it’s so easy to jump between and rearrange chapters and parts and add a bunch of metadata), I decided to use Obsidian for the actual Worldbuilding Bible and, as I’m already using it for The Ruon Chronicles, it won’t be so strange to set up a new vault from scratch.
I really like the freedom that Obsidian gives – not to mention that the files are actually on my computer (and backup, of course) – but I also like that it’s all hyperlinked and saved as simple markdown files. Obsidian being free is just the cherry on top.
I’ll still see if I need to use Aeon Timeline for Porselein like I’m doing for Chronicles. I’m still using Aeon Timeline 2, so I can’t comment on the updates for version three – but it looks awesome. It also doesn’t take that long to learn how to use the software.
The SASMARS Conference and The Paper That Finally Has a Title
After much reading and pondering, I’ve finally figured out what my paper for the conference will be about (if accepted, of course), and I’ve also decided on a title: "’The Cauldron-Liquid of the Burden of the Gallows’: The Mythological Knowledge Underpinning Kennings3 in Old Norse Poetry”.
I’ll know by about mid-March whether the paper’s been accepted, and then I’ll have until August to write the paper. This should go well because I’ve already done so much research and I already have a basic outline.
What I’m reading (besides academic papers)
I’m currently reading Clara Parkes’ The Vanishing Fleece. (I’ve previously mentioned in this newsletter that I read her Substack, The Daily Respite, and I still highly recommend it). I’ve also come across this interview with Clara Parkes about the book on the Fruity Knitting Podcast (although I still need to watch it).
I’m also re-reading Nataniël’s Nicky & Lou: 46 Stories. I haven’t read it in about five years, and I’m really enjoying revisiting them. They really hit you right in the feels even though the stories seem simple on the surface.4
That’s it from me right now, keep well and keep safe,
Carin
Here referring to the Igors of the Discworld universe created by the epic Sir Terry Pratchett. In fact, I can’t really run thanks to a buggered knee (which was operated on years ago and is at least stable now) and a just sort-of buggered knee (which takes too much strain when my buggered knee is acting up) and, when I do try to speed up, I have what I’ll lovingly call a “weird gait”.
Don’t expect anything like Sindarin or Quenya, though – the “language” consists of only a few words and sentences. I guess it can also be classed as an “artistic language” as I’m mostly going on “this sounds right for the world”.
“A kenning is a figure of speech in the type of circumlocution, a compound that employs figurative language in place of a more concrete single-word noun. Kennings are strongly associated with Old Norse-Icelandic and Old English alliterative verse.”
I saw his Prima Donna show at the end of 2023, and it was absolutely superb – it was actually the first time I’d seen him live. Tears, I tell you, tears.