Know the Novel Part One: Introduction

It comes upon the fall months where much writery must be done. Now, don't get me wrong, I write literally all the time. I don't stop writing throughout the whole year, but I have yet to cease experiencing the thrill of writing extra hard during the fall months of October and November (one to finish my project before NaNoWriMo and the other to do NaNo itself). This year I'm embarking on a new challenge called the Fall Fic Frenzy hosted by Christine Smith (speaking of, she is also the host of this linkup I am doing so seriously go give this incredibly talented blogger some love).

So, my goal with this Fall Fic Frenzy is to essentially write two novels in two months (as opposed to NaNo's one novel in a month). While I enjoy working on multiple projects at a time, when I get to a deadline and start to knuckle down to really focus on a project, I tend to set aside everything else for a week or two and write only that.

This is my attempt to broaden my attention span and see if I can get into that intense writing groove of churning out a novel super-fast with more than one project at a time. Hopefully with copious amounts of chocolate and the power of friendship I shall succeed. Wish me luck!

Today I'm going to be introducing two of my projects.

The first of which is Savage Gods and Spellbooks (SG), a high fantasy adventure set in the world of Ruskhazar. I'm hoping to start releasing it on Kindle Vella soon (maybe even as early as next month) so it definitely needs to get written. (Although technically due to the episodic format of Vella, I don't actually need to write the whole thing before I start releasing, but I want to have a sizeable chunk done nonetheless)

The second project is one that a good deal of my readers have been waiting on... it's the third and final book in the Of Dreams and Nightmares trilogy, Of Dawn and Fire (ODAF). For those of you unaware of what these books are, they're a YA romantic portal fantasy adventure about a human girl with Irish heritage who finds herself trapped in the Otherworlds, a land of fae. She tries to find some way to get herself and her brother Thomas home safely, a plan that includes kidnapping a solitary faerie that goes by the name of Ravven Crowe and forcing him to guide them back home. However, her plan goes south when her brother ends up the prisoner of a soul-stealing faerie. The only way to save him is for her to make a deal with Ravven and trust him while they work together to make her into the Fair Assassin—a human who is allowed to kill faeries...

And guess what? You can actually get the first book for free in the collection A Glimpse into the Unkown that is offered to my newsletter subscribers!

1. What first sparked the idea for this novel?

SG: like many of my Ruskhazar books, this story originated from video games. I would say this story is equal parts Skyrim and Dragon Age II, but the original idea came about while I was making a new character in Skyrim (a big shocker there...) I thought it would be funny if I made a character and named him after somebody who he had just watched die like 20 seconds earlier. At first, I thought he was poking fun at the Empire by claiming to be one of their previous victims, but then I wondered what if that person had actually somehow come back from the dead? What sort of trouble would he get into then? After that it was easy to implement the Dragon Age II elements, because if you have ever played it you would know that it's a very chaotic game, especially the main character Hawke. I've forever been obsessed with Anders and his negative character arc as he slowly descends from a freedom craving mage and healer to an idealistic maniac willing to do whatever sketchy things it takes to get his point across (if you know you know). Personally, I put a lot of blame on the spirit who shares his headspace and somehow that all translated into Savage Gods, don't ask me how, but it works.

ODAF: The fact that the last book ended on a cliffhanger... Okay, but in all seriousness, the idea for book one Of Gold and Iron first came about from a dream I had, fueled by my obsession with Irish legends, and the fact that I was reading The Cruel Prince Trilogy by Holly Black and really wanted to write a book with craaazy twists and turns. I realized that I couldn't fit the emotional rollercoaster that is this series into only one book. So, a trilogy it became.

2. Share a blurb (or just an overall summary)!

SG: here's the blurb!

She's looking for another chance

He's already on his second life

When the outcast and dead man meet, sparks fly...

And villages burn.

Victor Andreev doesn’t remember much about how he died. What he does remember is agreeing to serve a powerful entity to cheat his death. Now granted a second chance and bound to the demigod patron of dark fates and sudden deaths, Victor wonders if he made the right choice. There is a reason that dealing with demigods is illegal…

Bronwyn and her brother have spent far too long running from their pasts. Now graduated from the Academy, they are hoping to claim a new life for themselves as Magickers. When Victor and these siblings meet, they join forces. With the dead rising all around them, they set out to discover a way to defeat a dragon before it wakes and destroys Bronwyn's home. Killing that dragon is the surest way to their redemption and they are going to need an ancient necromancer's spellbook to do it.

But this spellbook was hidden away for a reason. The spells it contains are a twisted perversion of magic and were never meant to exist. The whole world is already crumbling, but what if Bronwyn and Victor make things worse trying to save a few people? In a land where dead things wander nothing is truly what it seems. Certainly not Victor who finds himself slowly descending into a madness meant to punish him for his hubris. But that is preferable to when the demigod takes full control. Sorcery and magic were never supposed to meet and when they do, there are always deadly consequences.

Welcome to Ruskhazar, a land threatened by dark magics, dragon fires, and living dead. If you like anti-heroes, slow burn sizzling romance, and kick-butt heroines then you won’t want to miss this high fantasy series that is perfect for fans of Michael J. Sullivan and J.R.R. Tolkien.

ODAF: Yeah... so since this is the third book in a series, I cannot actually share a blurb or summary of any kind because those will contain major spoilers for the first two books. So instead enjoy a blurb from OGaI:

“Swear on something else. Swear on your humanity.”

I suddenly find it very hard to swallow. My humanity? With a jolt I realize that there are far greater things at risk here than just my life. I’m in the faerie world, anything could happen. Even immortality.

The Otherworld is the home of the faeries, deceitful, decadent, and deadly. As the next in line to be-come Guardians, Jaye and her brother Thomas are tasked with defending the human world from all things magical. But when a routine scouting mission ends with them trapped in the Otherworld, it becomes pain-fully clear that someone doesn’t want them to leave the world of the faeries. Determined to not become an immortal’s pawn, Jaye kidnaps Ravven Crowe, an arrogant solitary faerie, so that he can guide them safely home. But things quickly go from bad to worse when they are captured by the Winter Court and embroiled in a plot to start a faerie civil war. Thomas is enslaved by an Unseelie faerie, and it seems that the only way to save her brother and avoid a war is for Jaye to ally herself with Ravven.

The faeries are governed by a set of strict laws. For their own safety, the Guardians have their own rules. But with Thomas’s life hanging in the balance there is only one way to save him that does not include breaking the faerie’s Fair Law, a crime that ends in death. Together Jaye and Ravven must compete in a series of deadly tests given by the faerie courts in order to earn Jaye the right to be named the Fair Assassin and wield the Blade of Gold and Iron. As the Fair Assassin she will be permitted to kill any faerie she so chooses, but first she has to live long enough. Walking a fine line between destruction and further entanglement with Crowe, Jaye is going to have to break her own rules if she wants to win. She must trust a faerie. Her life and humanity depend on it.

3. Where does the story take place? What are some of your favorite aspects of the setting?

SG: the story takes place in Ruskhazar, the mountainous peninsula home of men and elves where the world is ending as the dead are raised and turned against the living. Primarily the majority of this story is set in a small village that exists between the mountains and the coast that was unfortunately built upon a dragon burial site. I'd say my favorite aspect of the setting is that I can delve deeper into the lore and worldbuilding with each book I write in Ruskhazar. In RLtG one of my characters comes across a magically sealed tomb of one of the only magicker sorcerers in history—combing magic and sorcery is not something that a lot of people do because it kills the weak and drives the strong to madness. But that's exactly what Victor does when he makes the deal with a demigod to come back to life, since he was previously a magic wielder. So, this story delves into that special sort of madness that comes from combining the two and...Victor actually manages to unseal the tomb that my other character could only wonder about.

ODAF: this book is set in the Otherworlds the home world of the fae. It is based off of Irish legends, although I've added plenty of my own elements to it. The Otherworlds are divided into five courts: the Winter Court which is the home of Unseelie faeries, the Summer Court that houses the Seelie faeries, solitary faeries reside in the Autumn Court, the Sidhe race in the Spring Court, and Merfolk can be found in the Undersea Court. I would say that one of my favorite aspects of this world is that it is the home of the faeries, many of my other worlds have human civilizations, sometimes mixed in with other races (like elves or other fae) but there is definitely a very big human influence in those worlds. Not in the Otherworlds, there are humans there, but they are far outnumbered and disadvantaged. This place is truly the faerie's playing field.

4. Tell us about your protagonist(s).

SG: I have two protagonists in this book. Victor, the afore mentioned dead man, and Bronwyn, a tiny ball of chaos energy and sass.

Victor is an orphan. He went to the Academy of Magickers, but was only a subpar magic wielder so he couldn't get a commission afterwards. As a last resort he ended up as a prison guard who transported prisoners to the spice isles. It was on one of these trips that the ship he was on was wrecked by a kraken and he was killed by one of the prisoners escaping (someone who actually happens to be a protagonist from RLTG, smh..) however, despite being dead, he heard a voice offering him a second chance. He took it and wound up binding himself to Likho, the demigod patron of dark fates and sudden deaths. An enigmatic deity that Victor cannot trust, because where Likho goes, chaos always follows. When he isn't being influenced by Likho, Victor is a usually very level headed guy, he feels pretty hopeless given his situation, but he doesn't know how to give up... he will complain about it though, and quite a bit.

Bronwyn comes from a family that has been tainted by sorcery (which is illegal, for those of you less aware of the magic systems in Ruskhazar), her father was a secret practitioner and was lynched by a mob when they found out. Her mother took her and her three siblings and moved in with their uncle, Bronwyn and her twin went to become magickers so that they could remove suspicion of their loyalty to magic (since as I mentioned before, those who practice magic can't use sorcery without either madness and death) they've just returned from the academy ambitious and ready to take on the whole world and prove that they are better than their father's memory. Nothing is more important to Bronwyn than making certain that her mother and sister are safe. She also loves her uncle and brother but has far more of a rivalry with them. Bronwyn is a bit of a firecracker, always speaks her mind, and is not afraid to shy away from a fight. Sarcasm is her coping mechanism; however, she has a strange sort of optimism despite how many hardships she has experienced, and an even stranger charisma that draws many to her side. She is fiercely loyal to those she considers friends, even if she doesn't always agree with them.

ODAF: this project is one of my few single POV books (I'm such a sucker for multiple POVs it isn't even funny). My protagonist is Jaye MacCullagh, a snarky human girl from the Midwest who finds herself embroiled in faerie politics. Jaye's got a big heart and an even quicker temper. My other main character (although not POV character) is Ravven Crowe, a vain solitary faerie with eyes that change color and more secrets than he would care to let on.

5. Who (or what) is the antagonist?

SG: As is usually the case with most of my Ruskhazar books there are multiple villains. A hungry dragon, a cult, a very powerful undead guy (who isn't Victor), Victor himself (when he isn't acting like Victor, meaning that Likho is in charge), and dare I say it, but also the public opinion plays a somewhat antagonistic role in this book.

ODAF: Everyone and everything, including Jaye and Ravven themselves occasionally. Oh, and the spirits of some long-dead and vengeful fae.

6. What excites you the most about this novel

SG: I'm not going to lie, but I am very excited to write a book that balances humor and mild horror elements like A Tale of Gods and Glory did. There is no white in this book, everything is just varying shades of gray and I'm also pretty excited to write about those nuances.

ODAF: Finally finishing this series, diving back into Jaye and Ravven's story and giving them the ending they might not deserve, but we all want to see.

7. Is this going to be a series? standalone? something else?

SG: This is going to be a duology

ODAF: It's the third book in a trilogy

8. Are you plotting? pantsing? plansting?

SG: Pantsing for sure, I only have a few ideas floating around in my head and a lot of vibes. This book is 100% going to be carried by the characters and I'm here for it.

ODAF: I'm going for more of a plansting approach with this one. I know some of what will happen and the general direction the story must go, but there's still a lot I look forward to discovering while I write.

9. Name a few unique elements in this story.

SG: I think that the way that this book is connected with the rest of Ruskhazar. I mean my main character was killed by another of my main characters from a different series. Which leads into the fact that my main character is lowkey kind of a zombie. I mean... he isn't decaying or shuffling around (unless he just woke up because he isn't a morning person) but he is definitely undead and that has some side effects. Like the demigod that now hangs out in his head. I think another part is that my main characters are slightly aimless. Don't get me wrong, they have motivations and goals, but on the same hand they aren't quite sure what to do so they basically go for the first thing that sounds like it might be a good idea and try to stick with that. As I said, this is definitely a character driven story and it's going to be one heck of a ride.

ODAF: So, book 3 specifically is definitely taking on a slightly more horror-esque element that the first two didn't have (I mean, hello we have faerie ghosts that are out for revenge). Which makes it the perfect story to write during Spooktober.

10. Share some fun “extras” of the story (a song or full playlist, some aesthetics, a collage, a Pinterest board, a map you’ve made, a special theme you’re going to incorporate, ANYTHING you want to share!).

SG: with pleasure. First of all, its cover. Which is just gorgueous and amazing

The map

The Playlist:

The Pinterest Board:

ODAF: Here are the covers for the first two books in the series (since I don't have ODaF's cover yet)

I would like to take this moment to mention that I'm actually changing these covers out soon! So, if you absolutely love these covers, now is the time to buy them before they get changed 👀

Okay, back to the aesthetics...

Spotify Playlist:

Pinterest Board

Here are some official artworks I've had done from this series as well

Jaye and Ravven by Ireen Chau

Jaye and Ravven by Flavz

Well, that's all for now. I can't believe that I'm finally writing ODaF. Do you think I should push up the release date by a few months? Have you read a Kindle Vella story before? Comment below!