Today's writing notes:

Working on: Shadow Play

3,700 words in and I'm feeling fine! One of the fun challenges about writing Neopia Central is to try to figure out the technology and infrastructure in a land that superficially resembles early 20th-century cities, but without electricity or motor vehicles. I don't want to solve everything with magic because I feel like that's taking the easy way out, and I like representing Neopia Central as a melange of Neopian cultures--I imagine they've also imported some technology from the Virtupets Space Station and Moltara, for example.

When trying to find an acceptable Neopian equivalent for a certain technology, I usually first ask myself, "Did a non-electrical equivalent for this exist at any point?" If the answer is yes, I see if there's any way I can make that technology more efficient in a Neopian way (such as with magic, Petpets, etc.). If the answer is no, it means I get to make something up off the top of my head. :)

Also this particular part just cracked me up and I wanted to share it:

“Howdy!” Blynn said, waving at them as she tugged Terra toward them. “Why are you talking about eating rocks?"

The Kougra gave them an odd look, and the Kau laughed. “Not rocks,” she said, “rock. Kiko Lake rock. It’s a type of candy. I’m going there on vacation next week.”

 “Ooooh, right,” Blynn said. “I like their rock too. It has a good crunch to it.” She pointed to her own fangs. “I get kinda bitey sometimes.”

My headcanon is that Zafaras are basically weasel-dragons, which means they do have fangs.

That's all for now!

I have been a bad, bad blogger during June, and I'm sorry. :( I got really busy with other stuff, like family visiting and the Altador Cup, and when I wasn't busy I just wanted to collapse and play Kingdom Hearts.

But I am going to take the plunge and write that NT series I've been brainstorming/outlining for a while! Also to make up for my absence last month, here are some concept sketches I've doodled for said series, which has a tentative title of "Shadow Play".

(Hopefully it doesn't sound like I'm a dark writer considering both this and my previous long series have had the word "shadow" in the title, but I feel like "Shadow Play" fits the themes of the story. Also the title probably sounds a bit cliche, but I did a title search in the Neopian Times and there is currently only one entry titled "Shadow Play", an ollllddd comic about shadow puppets. So I think I'm good there.)

Terra's outfit for the story, which takes place in Neopia Central in early spring, when it's nice and rainy. I am totally basing Neopia Central off of Manhattan and I don't even care. (To be specific, technology-wise I am basing it mostly off of turn-of-the-century Manhattan, so as to keep in alignment with TNT's vision for Neopia, but much of the overall atmosphere will resemble the 1920's-30's-40's, because that's my favorite. <3)

Another portrait of Zoltan because he's fun to draw. So glowy. And weapon design for a sword, because swords are an important part of life, and this plot will involve a sword. Did I mention swords?

Actually, I had a lot of fun researching sword construction for this story, because without spoiling too much, there's a point at which Hyren disassembles this sword to find the smith's signature on the part of the blade in the hilt. This is done in Japanese bladesmithing, but I'm not sure about Western bladesmithing. Buuuuuttt I thought the whole idea of finding a smith's signature on the tang (hilt part) of the blade was so cool that I had to include it. I'm a swordnerd like that.  (That's totally a real word that I did not just make up.)

All righty... I have to leave things purposely vague for now so as to avoid spoilers. :) But I will probably be making lots of notes and commentary during the writing process, so hopefully that will liven up this blog a bit more this month!

... Unless my writing notes bore you to death, then again I'm really sorry. D:

The long-awaited third edition of Skydwellers is available for digital download on Amazon and in paperback form through Lulu.com!

To reiterate, there are no changes in this edition that I would consider major--it's a revision, not a rewrite. :) If you've read either of the first two editions, by no means feel like you need to read this one, unless you're like me and enjoy analyzing textual differences. If you've never read Skydwellers before and are thinking about buying it, I can now wholeheartedly recommend it, as I feel I've brought it up to the same level as my newer work.

For the literary analysts, here's a run-down of what's different:

- Made the overall tone lighter and not as intense.
- Fixed the prose problems.
- Patched up plot holes and gave more of an explanation to plot/world elements that were previously too vague.
- Changed Mathchis's true appearance (because I'd thought of a better character design for her).
- Gave Pops a slightly larger role.
- Took out about 90% of the banter, because I have decided I like characters who are actually nice to each other.

As for what's next... still hoping to hear back soon from my editor on Voyage of the Kaus Media. I also think I've got enough material for that Neopian Times series I'd like to work on.

One fairly minor, but still somewhat important alteration in the new edition of Skydwellers is changing Mathchis's true appearance. In the first two editions, aether sprites are just amorphous purple flames, but I got this character design stuck in my head and I just felt like I needed them to be something a little more relatable and identifiably animate. Which means purple fire fairies, clearly.

Okay, please don't take this as an indication that I am writing a sequel to Skydwellers--this was just a thought experiment, to see what would happen if I planned a sequel. I'd want to set it a few years after the first book, because I think it would be fun to see Kieri and Miette as teenagers and probably have them be the foremost main characters. Kieri would still be her usual spunky self, and Miette, while no longer able to use processes, is still super smart so I imagine she and Kieri would be doing Important things, probably related to connecting Aehirim and Passerim cultures alongside Rohui and Wilder.

If you're wondering why there aren't any sequels to my novels:

a) I like my novels to work as stand-alone stories, and

b) I have so many separate story ideas that I want to focus on writing those before I start to think about sequels.

Funnily enough, when I write fanfic I write lots and lots of stories that build on previous fics, but I think that's due to having fewer separate ideas for fan fiction; rather I tend to make up casts of characters and then continue to expand on them. Perhaps someday that will happen with an original story, but for now I really want to keep hacking away at my quite large list of separate story ideas.

Soooo that wrap-up movie for the Wraith Resurgence plot on Neopets pretty much destroyed the backstory I'd made up for Malum--much of which hinged on the (incorrect) idea that his cursed form was how he normally looked. (Also much of which hinged on him having a past besides being old friends with Kaia.)

That being said, I didn't want to just cut out his role in the plot entirely--while it's not absolutely integral to the plot, I wanted to throw a wrench into the usual cast, and I had a good character arc planned out for Terra that he would be involved in. So I decided a wholly new character was in order! :)

This is Zoltan Arnyek, the Halloween Kyrii battlemage (someone who fights with a synthesis of physical combat and magic). He's a good guy, but he's rather grouchy and distrustful. As for his role in the plot... let's just say he owes Isengrim a favor, and our heroes have found themselves in a situation where they could really use a good magic user and Pharazon's not around.

His design does hearken back to cursed Malum a bit, but that's because I had (non-canon) ideas for why Malum looked the way he did. Zoltan has infused himself with dark magic, which has altered his appearance (and given him magical glowy hair... don't know if it heals people when he sings, though), and he also has channeled this magic through his Shadow Scimitar, imbuing it with extra dark power.

I decided to make him a Kyrii because I realized that Halloween Kyrii are fortuitously also "werewolf"-ish, and considering he and Isengrim first met a long, long time ago (pre-"Worth Fighting For", to be more specific on the timeline), I also realized that after a fellow Werelupe, a Werekyrii would be the most likely creature for past Isengrim to extend kindness to. Plus, considering how many other Lupe main characters I have in this cast (Isengrim, Suhel, Celice, and Connor), I didn't want to make yet another Lupe if it wasn't necessary for plot reasons. (Celice is a Lupe because when I was writing "Draik Expectations", that was the species I randomly chose while making up her character.)

And as for why Zoltan is a Halloween Kyrii--he wants all the power he can get (for a good cause, mind you), so he willingly "let in the wild", as Werelupes term it, and made himself into a Werekyrii.

Oh, and the embroidery on his cape might look out-of-place, but it's actually magical embroidery that contains warding enchantments--possibly the only thing left of his people.

Okay, I've said enough. :) I'm now considerably more excited to work on this story! Not sure when I'll get started, but I have enough finished stuff for the NT to hold me over until then.

I also found these cutesy cartoons of Eloreth and Azimuth from On Borrowed Wings, that I'd done ages ago. Augh I used to be so great with Prismacolor marker and now it's like I don't even bother anymore. Well, to be fair, those markers are expensive (deservedly so, but still, expensive), and smelly (which is less justifiable in my book), and take up more desk space than my computer which is always on my desk anyway.

At any rate, if you look closely at Eloreth you can see some aspects of her design that didn't make it into the design on the book cover. This was back when I thought I had to cram ridiculous amounts of bells and whistles into my robot designs, so when I re-designed her for the book cover, I cut out some extraneous elements.

Also, to be clear, the Armamants' faces don't move in the book--they look like stone statues, not Transformers (old-school). Also Az's eyes aren't red, but I messed up in coloring. Oh well, it makes him look more menacing.

I was going through some old art yesterday and found some Skydwellers concept sketches, and I though I'd share them!

Early concept art for an arcoreum. My original idea was for torium to be a weird material that grows on its own into buildings, but I scrapped that as too out-there. (Because everything else in the book is normal, clearly.) So if I were to re-draw an arcoreum now, it'd probably look less organic. Also, it's supposed to have an extensive underside, as you can see in the fainter sketch below, but I never got around to finishing it.

Mathchis, Wilder, and Rohui. I keep forgetting Wilder's freckles auuggghh. Well, like I said before, I only mentioned them once in the entire story and then forgot about them. I was such a marvelously consistent writer who obviously cared deeply about these characters.

And finally, Miette! (I have drawn Kieri, but I didn't bother to take pictures of any sketches of her this time around.)