Introducing... Rage Like the Gods

So I have a bit of a confession to make.

I have been working on a new wip since July

I refrained from announcing it since, let's be real here, I have a bit of a bad habit of dropping projects. I get too many ideas, I get too excited, and I start working on them without commitment only for those projects to be dumped in a gutter somewhere when a newer and shinier idea comes along. I didn't want to announce this new WIP and get you guys all excited for it if I was just going to drop it. I wanted to be sure. Especially since this is the first book in a five book long epic fantasy series. The odds weren't exactly in its favor, but this idea stuck with me. I kept getting inspiration, a plot for all five books, and characters that I really connected to.

I have been working on this book faithfully since July, and with another publication under my belt, not to mention more than 30,000 words already written I think it is high time to finally announce Rage Like the Gods.

So here we go, time to meet my darling...

(all images via Pinterest, credit goes to their original creators)

Another one of the reasons I have refrained from announcing this project is because it's a little hard to describe, and quite frankly I am terrified of trying to write a synopsis for this book. But anyway here is my best attempt to explain everything that is going on.

It's high fantasy, in fact it is the first book I'm actually writing to have elves in it, which is kind of crazy given how obsessed I am with Tolkien.

It's a story about the chosen one. Or in this case... the chosen ones. Each chosen by a different god to save the world from a rising cult of necromancers and the undead army they will unleash. Except half my characters don't know that they are the chosen ones and the other half can't be bothered. And so this book isn't the story of how they come together, but how they disperse across the four corners of the map and the trouble they get into in the meantime. As such it actually has four separate plots, told through the POVs of four of the chosen ones.

My characters...

(^^^ and all artwork below are my own)

Eirik is a bard with a questionable moral code and a dream to not only be madly wealthy but to be remembered forever in the songs. Alongside his best friend and fellow bard, Eirik sets out to find his fortune. Instead he runs into a noble warrior named Sassa, who he falls immediately in love with. Only problem is Sassa hates thieves. Determined to get the girl and get rich in the process, Eirik devises a scheme to rob the wealthy manor and the lord who hired him. He dons disguises and by day he is a dashing bard who works to woo Sassa, and at night he is a rougish thief, but how long can he keep up the act?

In search of a family, Thyre finds two. One a pack of werewolves who begrudgingly welcome her into their ranks when she is bitten by one of their own. The other a family of assassins who didn't give her a choice on whether she wanted to join or not. In one she finds kindness in a sweet werewolf and the other a kindred soul. Torn between two worlds, Thyre will do what it takes to protect her families. Even kill.

An exile, a mercenary, a skilled warrior and a... vampire. Dagmy is searching for a way to reclaim her honor, instead she contracts a terrible disease while working with a band of monster hunters. With her fellow mercenary Hakon, who she hired to aid her in her battles, and the giant dog he adopted, Dagmy must infiltrate a coven of vampires to learn their secrets. Perhaps then she can be cured.

As the daughter of a wealthy noble, Meruna is expected to marry to further her father's influence. But all Meruna cares about is exploring her talents in magic. She sets off to attend the college of magic, but runs into trouble almost immediately. Some priest claims that she is destined to save the world and has set his daughter, a nun with warrior-like skills, as her personal bodyguard. Meruna isn't about to let anything stop her from her education, not her family, not a prophecy, not her new sarcastic bodyguard, and not her handsome fellow student, Fell. But perhaps the ghosts of murdered college students merit some looking into...

And essentially that is Rage Like the Gods. For Inktober, I'm doing my own set of goals, which is to draw a character from RLtG a day. I have some super fun concepts that I can't wait to draw (plus I still need to do one of Dagmy and Hakon in the watercolor) which is why I have finally outed myself so now you will know who these characters I'm drawing are.

I will probably do a post at the end of October with an art dump. I'll also share the art on my Insta account @nickichapelwayauthor if you don't want to wait to get to know these characters more.

What do you guys all think of my new WIP? Which character's plot line looks the most interesting to you? Discuss below!