Tag: fantasy worlds

Author’s Spotlight with Steven E. Scribner

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Hello all! It’s been a while since I posted something here, but today I have a guest to interview. Steven E. Scribner is the author of the Tond series, and he’s here to answer some questions about his book, Grendul Rising, which is the first of the Madstones Tetralogy, the second series in the world of Tond. Let’s dive right in!

Steven, thanks for being willing to answer these questions for this author spotlight! I’m glad to have you here today. First up, can you tell us what the inspiration for this story was?

Several threads came together.

One: there were a couple of loose ends in my original “Tond” books, which I thought I could put together to write another story.

Two: Current events (and the division in manners of thinking) have gotten so extreme and bizarre that they almost sound like a fantasy story themselves. I wanted to treat them in an allegorical manner and, at the same time, have the characters go on a third path that can restore sanity. (In this book, though, only the madness is presented, and only part of it; the resolves will come later in the tetralogy.) I don’t have the characters “discover” this third path because it’s always been there for them.

Three: Old stories (by me). There were some characters and sub-plots that I had put in the very first versions of my “Tond” books (written when I was in high school, more than forty years ago); I had eventually dropped these ideas as the stories evolved but I thought it would be possible to bring them back into another story. So, the newest “Tond” book contains some of the oldest “Tond” material.

Four: Old stories (not by me). This new series will feature retellings of one Medieval and one Renaissance story, along with a lot of “folklore” that I invented (but based on actual folktales from various places in the world).

That’s awesome! It’s always nice when you can put a message into the book naturally without losing any of the meaning in the message or the story, and retellings of folklore and stories through your own lore is very inventive! Now, let’s look at our next question. If you had to boil the story down to its fundamentals, what is the theme you’re trying to get across to the reader?

Discussions on the nature of evil, and how we know about it. In the original “Tond” series, the villain is pure evil; a vast monolithic force of corruption and destruction in the manner of Tolkien’s Sauron. This time, though, I present a subtler antagonist. In this first book he seems to be nothing more than a petty dictator wannabe who sews discord by means of propaganda and misinformation. That much is obviously “evil”, but some of the characters (who have known him previously) drop hints that his psychology is more complex and his motives may not be purely malevolent. Likewise, the protagonists are not always obviously “good”; one of them resorts to bribery at one point, and under-the-table criminal activity seems ubiquitous in the part of Tond called Kaii. So how do we recognize evil? This point will be discussed more in depth later in the series.

That’s one of those enduring themes that has so many good iterations of it and new angles to explore. I love that you’re looking at both pure evil and also subtler evil that may not be readily apparent and may not purely be motivated by malevolence. As is often said, the worst type of dictator (or villain) is the one convinced he’s doing it for your good! So, did you consciously choose this theme, or did it sort of reveal itself during the process?

It pretty much revealed itself after I had put together the four “threads” I talked about in Answer #1.

Always nice when that happens and you don’t have to sit there and heavily think about what sort of theme would be best illustrated by the story you want to tell! It definitely makes writing the book easier when it all falls together that way! So let’s look at some fun questions now! What is your favorite moment in the novel, and why?

A lot of it deals with serious themes, but there’s a lighter moment in Chapter Two that I like. Nanta Hornblower is charged with playing the Horn on Horn Hill every morning at sunrise. This is taken to be a very serious occupation in Kaii, and it may involve hardship (Nanta has to live in a chilly, smelly little hut atop the Hill and go several miles to get food and water, for example). When one of her friends asks why she does it, she points out the view from the Hill: misty and sunlit mountains and forests, and twinkling lights that are the sunlight glinting off of glass windows in the towns in the woods. She appreciates the beauty of nature and of art. The inspiration for this scene (which goes back to those very early versions of the “Tond” books) was the horn calls and forest music in Mahler’s Second Symphony. (Here’s a link: begin at 19:25 if you want to hear the actual piece! Gustavo Dudamel / SBSOV Mahler: Symphony No. 2 Mov V (1/2) – YouTube)

And, a comical moment also involving Nanta and music: (this is a paraphrase since the original makes no sense out of context). In the midst of a riot: “Put your hands up and step away from the bagpipe!” (The Tondish bagpipe is a Rube Goldberg contraption quite a bit zanier than the familiar European versions.)

That last one sounds like a really funny moment in the scene! So since you’ve noted a lot of the story deals with serious themes, let’s turn our focus back to that discussion. What is the moment you feel best illustrates the theme and why?

Tazzie spoke up, “You said that Grendul’s motivation is a misplaced desire to do good. Creating madness does not seem to be desire to do good.”

S’Enrik emitted what sounded like a grim laugh. “Ah yes, that’s the trouble, isn’t it? It depends what kind of madness.”

Grendul Rising, Scribner

This fragment of conversation states the theme precisely, though at this point the reader doesn’t know what S’Enrik means. Hopefully the reader will be taken on a journey (along with the characters) to answer his question.

I like it. Sometimes, blunt and open is the way to go, especially if you’re doing it at the earlier point before the journey is fully taken so you can unfold the real meaning behind the statement of the theme as you go! So this definitely doesn’t sound like an easy book to write. What was the greatest challenge you faced while writing this, and why?

Organizing all of the plots and sub-plots. The story is fairly complicated, and it has to tie into what happened in the first “Tond” series but still be understandable to those who haven’t read those books. My solution (I think it worked, but so far no one has commented on it) is to make this a Book of Questions. Though the major plotlines reach a conclusion, it’s definitely part one of a series and there are a lot of hints that will only come to fruition in later books. One character seems to have some kind of powers, but has no memories from earlier in his life. Another is on a quest to answer “seven questions”; by the end of the book he says he’s found the answer to one of them but doesn’t say what the other six are. Two characters have been given missions, but we don’t know what either mission really is, who gave the orders, or why. There are a number of other disconnected comments and incidents; this includes the book’s cover: why the moon-horse? It’s an image from some of the “folklore” I made up, it but doesn’t seem particularly relevant at this point. Of course I, as the author, know the answers to these questions, but answering them to the readers’ satisfaction will continue to challenge me. (Kudos to the illustrator, Cassander Garduna, for a great moon-horse.)

Those more complex stories can definitely be tough to work with, especially with all the things you have to tie together and keep track of! It sounds like you came up with an interesting solution to it, though! So what was the easiest part of writing this story?

The several descriptions of the world of Tond (both of nature and of cultural details). These were easy simply because I enjoy imagining and inventing things, and then writing about them.

That’s always one of the fun things about writing fantasy! There’s no real limit to what you can come up with to make your world unique. Along the same lines of favorites as we had earlier with your favorite scenes, who was your favorite character to write?

I have two. 1.) The aforementioned Nanta Hornblower, because she’s associated with music (another one of my interests), enjoys nature, doesn’t take guff from anyone, and (like me) is a bit nerdy and weird. 2.) S’Enrik; at this point he’s a sort-of Gandalf/Obi-Wan character, but he has a long backstory that touches on Tondish philosophy. I hope to flesh that out in the second book of the series.

Sounds like you’ve got a few fun characters to play with, then. Now, I always like to ask about influences, so can you tell us which books you feel had the greatest impact on your writing and why they did?

For the entirety of the two “Tond” series: Obviously, Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings” and Herbert’s “Dune” books. Little needs to be said here; most modern fantasy is indebted to them. A more subtle influence is from James Joyce’s “Ulysses” and Jerry Spinelli’s “Stargirl”. These are very different books (one is a short kids’ book; the other is a sprawling tome that’s not even remotely for kids) but the odd similarities are features that I’ve tried to invoke in “Tond”: both show mythic archetypes appearing in everyday life (though in the case of Tond, that “everyday life” is in a made-up realm) and both immerse the reader in a tiny fictive world that stands for the entire universe. (The “tiny world” does not apply to Tond, though it does stand for wider ideas.) And, I might add (though I don’t know if I’ve been able to imitate this), both are veritable fountains of quotables and gorgeous prose.

For this book in particular: I recently started reading N.K. Jemisin’s “Broken Earth Trilogy”, and her manner of telling the story (separate timelines that come together as the book progresses) helped me solve some problems with the narratives in this new “Tond” book. As I’m planning it now, the first three books of The MadStones Tetralogy will all be told in this manner.

Great influences to have! I haven’t read all of them, but I’ve heard they’re all very good! On the subject of books, let’s end off by talking about some comparisons for readers who might be interested in reading your book. What books would you say Grendul Rising is most like?

Hard to say. It’s along the lines of a lot of fantasy with its invented world, cultures, and languages. Maybe the “Dune” books are closest because of the mix of fantasy and sci-fi (though, unlike the “Dune” books, the fantasy element is the stronger of the two) and the exploration of history, politics, and religion (though again, the takes on these topics are very different from Herbert’s). Mostly, I hope the readers will enjoy this book and make their own comparisons.

I think that’s what we all hope! Well, thank you again for being a guest on the blog, and readers, I hope you’ve enjoyed what you’ve read today from Steven. If you did, be sure to check out his Tond series and Grendul Rising! That’s it for today, everyone. See you next time!

New Release – Light’s Insurgent

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new release cover

Hey everyone! Ariel here with an update. Light’s Insurgent, the sequel to my release Shadow’s Dissident earlier this year, is now live on Amazon! I’m very excited to present to you the final book in my Children of Chaos duology. It’s a great feeling to have a complete series done and published, especially within less than a year. As with the last book, I want to provide readers with an idea of what to expect from this second book, though if you read the first through to the end, you should already know there were hints at some really big stuff going on behind the scenes.

For those who haven’t read Shadow’s Dissident, you can find the new release announcement and info about it here. Unlike my Legends of Alcardia series, this one cannot be read in any order, so you’ll want to pick up book one first. Both books are free on KU if you read that way, but they’re also available with Kindle and on paperback through Amazon if you read one of those ways.

For everyone else, onward to book two! This book fulfills the promise of a tangled web of secrets that book one hinted at toward the end. It also ties up loose ends and brings onboard V, a character who was introduced as a mystery/wild card in book one. Now, as I noted with book one, this book is not your typical YA dystopian fantasy novel. I’m not going to give you a sniveling, cringy heroine who starts strong and falls apart in book two. Personally, nothing irritates me more as a woman than a strong female lead who has promise and is really relatable but then falls off the wagon with no warning in book two. I’m not going to write something that I find obnoxious myself, and I certainly wouldn’t ask a reader to pay to read that! So if you like characters who are strong but human, that’s what you’ll find here.

Gwen really takes on the challenges in both books head on, but in the second book, readers will get to see her growing and adapting as she learns to meet those challenges with more wisdom and decorum than she sometimes had in book one. So she does change and grow, and of course, like anyone would, she struggles with the difficult situations she’s in, particularly since she often has to face them without Sheppard’s strength to support her. Readers can also expect to see Sheppard growing as he has to face his own insecurities and fears about his relationship with Gwen and the new secrets that he’s uncovering as he works with the Coalition to topple Oblivion.

This book is much more complex than book one was. There’s more building out of the societal structures and magic system of the world, as readers were hoping to see in book one, but the majority of the book focuses on the plot to bring down Oblivion and what the various characters are doing in relation to it. Readers will find that the book brings everything to a conclusion that leaves everyone’s journeys tied up.

For those of you who have been reading or will read the series, I am happy to announce that there will be a companion series. Healer of Alcardia is a high fantasy trilogy that focuses on V, the character introduced in book one and brought into the main cast in book two of the Children of Chaos duology. Her story is the only one that doesn’t fully conclude in this series, so if you enjoyed her character in this duology, rest assured you’ll be seeing more of her in the future! I am currently working on book one, Healer of Shadow, and I hope to have that out come the middle of this year.

Finally, as usual with my new release announcements, I want to take a moment to provide a bit of info on what sort of content you should expect for parents who want an idea of whether this is appropriate for their child.

While this is YA appropriate, as was book one, it does deal with difficult and sometimes dark themes. It’s certainly a bit darker than the first book because the characters are growing and facing growing dangers/difficulties with Oblivion. However, I approach all of my work with the concept that, while young people should not be sheltered from evil’s existence, the goal should be to present it as evil and in a form that is appropriate to their age. This means that, depending on the age range I am aiming at, my work may include difficult subjects that can become very dark. But it also means that I strive to show only what is absolutely necessary and to avoid too much discussion of certain subjects that may not yet be appropriate for an age group if that age group is on the younger end of the YA spectrum.

For Shadow’s Dissident and Light’s Insurgent, this means that while Oblivion runs escort/brothel services as a means of control over key political figures on planets they’re trying to control, does some horrific things to those in their training programs for soldiers and trainers, and is extremely evil, these things are only mentioned in brief but generally are not shown. In book two, things are spelled out a little more. There are some scenes where the abuse that V endured in her past are hinted at. There is also some suggestive content from a few less savory characters, though I strive to keep it clean enough that it can be realistic without being gratuitous or scarring to younger audiences. I don’t shy away from what is being suggested in the single scene where one character proposes Gwen sleep with him, but he is promptly and sharply rejected and the idea is presented as being a bad one. So for older teens, again, it shouldn’t be an issue. Nothing actually happens, and it is kept fairly clean even though it’s obvious what the guy is asking. There is some kissing between Sheppard and Gwen; again, I strive to keep it realistic but clean for a younger audience.

My approach is intentional because, as I said, while I don’t believe in sheltering teens and young adults from the reality of the evil that can go on in the world, I also don’t believe the best approach to helping them to realize that evil exists is to hand them writing with graphic descriptions of all the horrible things that could happen to a person. It is enough to establish that it exists, what brand of it is being dealt with, and why it is evil without going into lengthy descriptions of its manifestations.

However, this does mean that some parents may not feel comfortable with giving the book series to their teens. I leave that decision in their hands; my goal is to provide them and you as readers with the information they and you need to make an informed decision on whether or not you want to read it. It is not my job or my concern to determine your decision or to decide if it is a good one or a fairly considered one. For those who have dealt with abuse before, this may not be the book for you. It isn’t graphic in its descriptions, where the abuse is described at all, but I understand that even the presence or mention of it may make those who have been through abuse uncomfortable. If that’s you, please, for your own mental health, don’t read this.

And finally, if you read the first book, it is a pretty good indication of the sort of content that will be in this one. There’s no sex, some kissing, and descriptions of violence are kept appropriate for the target age range. If you’re looking for something with a higher heat level to the romance or more R-rated descriptions of violence, this won’t be the book or the series for you. Thanks for reading, everyone, and I hope this helps to bring some clarity to readers and to let you all know what to expect! Happy reading!

Author’s Interview: Amanda Wrights

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Hi everyone! This is the final interview in the interview blitz I’ve been doing leading up to the release of Iron Walls, a new dystopian anthology I helped to format, layout, and publish. Tonight, I have with me Amanda Wrights. Welcome to The Fantasy Nook, Amanda! We’re glad you could join us! Let’s go ahead and jump right into the questions.

First, can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

I’m a 19 year old writer, and have been writing stories since I was around 12 years old. I’ve always loved reading and at some point, when I decided not enough stories I wanted to read were being told, I decided to start making my own. I’ve since branched from writing novels into cooperative story telling through Dungeons and Dragons, and I very much enjoy both styles of story telling. I also love listening to music and enjoy drawing on occasion.

That’s great! Cooperative story telling can be a lot of fun when you have the right group of people. So, tell us, what kind of dystopian did you write for this anthology, and why did you choose that style or flavor of writing?

I wrote a more post-apocalyptic, government control dystopia. For the story that I wanted to write, and the world that I wanted to write it in, this ended up being the most sensible decision I could make. Because of the state of the world after the apocalypse struck, anyone who wanted power and knew how to take it could have, which led me to conclude that the most realistic way for things to have gone in the world was towards total government control, and ultimately, a fight against that.

Awesome! Nothing wrong with going with the basic staples of the genre. Now, let’s switch gears a bit… What genres do you read, and do you write the same ones?

I tend to read a lot of fantasy, action and adventure, or thriller novels. For the thrillers, specifically, I prefer the Christian romance ones. Occasionally I’ll also read sci-fi. I wouldn’t say I write all of the same ones, as I’ve never written a thriller before. However, I do mix and match my writing with the other genres, almost exclusively. Typically most of what I write is in the fantasy adventure genre, but I’ll mix in sci-fi sometimes if I get a good idea for it.

Definitely a good blend there, and it sounds like it helps you to write better too if you enjoy mixing genres a bit! Besides writing or reading, what are some of the things you like to do to relax?

I enjoy listening to Dungeons and Dragons podcasts quite a bit. I’ll also listen to music pretty much whenever I’m not listening to something or someone else. I write to relax sometimes. Or just when I need to get an idea out of my head. I also play video games.

The D&D podcasts is one I haven’t heard on here before! But I like it. It’s a nice break from being the one to tell or create the story. Going back to writing, can you tell us about your current work-in-progress?

Currently I’m working on a fantasy novel that hopefully will become a set of two books. It takes place in the same world as my story in the anthology, and tells the story of the apocalypse, how it happened, and how some of the population survived it, all through the lens of a group of young adults who fought to stop it. They’re actually referenced somewhere in Defiant Flame, though I’ll let the readers find out where exactly that is.

Then it sounds like, at some point, readers who like this piece can enjoy more from this world. That’s great to hear! Now, let’s talk publishing. If you’ve published (self-published or traditionally published), can you tell us a little about the experience? If this is your first experience, what has that been like?

Unfortunately, I haven’t published anything yet. Defiant Flame will be my first published work. Overall, because I’ve not been in the main group of people doing formatting and fully publishing things, it’s been a simple process for me. I just had to write and edit my own work, and apply some simple formatting changes to make things a bit easier for the people in charge of everything else.

Well, on behalf of both myself and James, we’re glad your experience was a pain-free, easy one! That’s what we were aiming for. So, when it comes to the writing side of this story specifically, what were your inspirations for writing it?

It’s hard to fully pinpoint all of the things that have influenced the world that Defiant Flame and my other current project is set in. I got the idea for my current project years ago reading a manga that I thought had an interesting military structure which I wanted to implement in my own world. But past that, I think a lot of my main ideas, characters, and concepts came somewhat at random. Typically when I sit down and try to fully write out a character and story, what I come up with depends on the day. A lot of it is subconscious inspiration, or occasionally ideas from dreams I remembered and wanted to use.

It’s always great when your subconscious mind can grab onto ideas that are usable. I’m not much of a subconscious writer when it comes to my planning process, but once in a while, when I’m stuck, I do wish my subconscious could solve the problem with a little inspiration in the background! So, continuing more broadly on the trend of inspirations, who got you into writing when you first started?

My older sister, Abigail. She’d been writing for a few years before I started, and I figured if she could do it, surely I could too, and I could use that to get my own story ideas out into the world. Of course, I started partially out of pure determination to prove I could do it in the first place. But as it turned out, I enjoyed it too, and picked it up properly as a hobby quite quickly.

That’s great! I think we all have to have that moment when we move from determination to prove ourselves to someone else to doing it for ourselves, regardless of the reason. As you were working through this, there must’ve been some tough moments. Was there anyone who came alongside you at any point when you were struggling in your writing journey and made a real difference? If so, who and why?

I have a very good friend named Zoe who I met early on in my writing journey on Wattpad. She and I hit it off, exchanged story ideas, and became sound boards for each other. Whenever I was struggling to come up with ideas or hit writers block, she was there for me to help inspire me or get me writing again with a word sprint or something similar. Through all the times when I was writing and didn’t know where to go from someplace or got discouraged after being eliminated from a writing contest I was in, she’s always been around to build my confidence and encourage me to keep doing it. I’ll never forget that, and I’ll always appreciate it.

 
Friends are great! I’ve also met some of my best writing partners and friends through Wattpad, so I know how that goes. It’s a great place to connect with other authors, or at least, it was when I was active on the platform. So as a writer and author who’s just starting into a new phase of the journey, what advice would you give to aspiring authors and writers just starting on this journey?

Find someone you can do it with. Writing is something I don’t believe is meant to be done without support. Even if it’s just one person who really believes in you and will give you constructive criticism to help you grow – find that person. It will help you stay on the path to becoming a great writer for more than any informational book or blog ever could. Though you should absolutely read those informational books and blogs, as well as other books in your genre too. It’ll give you ideas and more perspective on how to write your own novel.

That’s definitely a good point. Certainly, people can’t always be there or push us along, and writing is often a very solitary pursuit, but all of us need some support once in a while no matter how independent we are! So thinking back to when you started, what is one thing you wish someone had told you before you first began writing?

I wish I’d been told before I started that it’s a skill, not a talent. Because it’s so easy to believe when you fail in a contest or someone tells you that your writing isn’t that great that “Oh, I just don’t have the talent for it”. And if you do believe it’s a talent and not a skill, then that thought becomes far more discouraging, since a skill is something you can improve and a talent is something you have to start out good at.

So true! I know many people who view it as a talent and not a skill, and I’ve definitely found they tend to become discouraged about their work more easily than those who see it as a skill. Let’s close out our interview on a question every avid reader hates but all of us love to ask our favorite authors! What’s your favorite book, and who’s your favorite literary character? And can you tell us why?

It’s nearly impossible to pick out a favorite book or series, but I am a very big fan of Lord of the Rings series. It’s so well written and the characters are well developed. Plus, it’s a high fantasy epic adventure, which is a genre I particularly love. As for a favorite literary character, that’s also difficult to choose, because I can relate to and love reading the stories of so many different characters. My favorite character from LOTR specifically, though, is Sam, because he’s so incredibly loyal, and he’s willing to do whatever it takes to help Frodo reach Mount Doom and toss the ring in.  One of my favorite parts is the scene where Frodo can’t go on, and rather than taking the ring from him to continue, Sam helps to carry Frodo up the mountain. It’s a really powerful scene of a friend helping a friend out, and I loved it.

It’s definitely a well-loved classic in the fantasy genre! Well, that’s it for tonight, everybody. Thank you again for being here, Amanda! If anyone wants to read Amanda’s story, you can grab a copy of Iron Walls and start reading it today here. For readers who have Kindle Unlimited, it is free through that program, so there’s nothing to stop you from picking it up and giving Amanda’s story or any of the others in the collection a read. All proceeds will go to Voice of the Martyrs. If you enjoy the stories in the collection, please leave a review to let us and other potential readers know you did! It takes just a few minutes, but it really helps to boost our visibility, which in turn puts the book in more readers’ hands and helps us to raise more funds for the charity.

Thank you for reading, everyone. Until next time!

Glimpses of Time and Magic: A Historical Fantasy Anthology

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Finally, we’ve come to the point with this anthology that we have both the pre-order link and the cover to share! Our reveal party for the cover happened yesterday and went very well. Now, myself and the other authors in the anthology are sharing the cover, blurb, and information on our sites so you all can find it easily!

So, to begin with, what is this anthology? It’s a collection of nine stories from nine authors, and the theme Joanna White and I gave everyone was history with a fantastical twist. We definitely got that! With stories ranging from Victorian England to Ancient Rome and Arthur, we’ve got stories with a fantastical twist to share with you all now! The best part? We wrote and organized this anthology as a way to raise money to donate to Feed My Starving Children, a charitable organization that uses donations and the time of their volunteers to pack and ship meals around the world to feed starving children for a year. Isn’t that great?

If you want to know more about the organization, you can check them out here. I’ve been to the location near me twice to help pack the food. It’s a great activity, especially if you want to take the whole family to do something. Be prepared to work hard, but it was a lot of fun and a great team building exercise for the groups I went with while also allowing us to be involved in helping feed these kids who would otherwise go hungry.

And now, the cover! This cover was created by illustrator_aesthetics (Anne Zedwick). You can see her blog and her Fiverr here if you’re interested in having her do cover art for you as well! She also does things like logo design, product branding, and more.

Blurb:

We know the stories from history we’ve heard since childhood, but what if, behind the tales, there were magical secrets desperate to be revealed?

Pompeii was a tragedy the world will never forget, but what really caused the volcanic eruption that ended it all? Why was the great sword Excalibur really destroyed? The rolling hills of Victorian England seem peaceful enough, but what secrets really lurk there?

And would it surprise you that there are darker secrets in Ancient Rome than people ever dreamed? If the Great Fog of London isn’t what it seems? You think you know Harry Houdini, but do you know the man behind all the tricks?

And what if the mystery of Roanoke runs deeper than you could ever imagine? Could Ireland’s potato famine really be caused by a mage gone mad? What if a ghost ship off the coast of England was more than a phantom?

If you like fantasy and history, then you’ll love this collection of nine fantastical stories. Buy Glimpses of Time and Magic now to find out what secrets really lurk behind the stories we’ve all been told.

Besides Buying a Copy, How Can You Help?

We need reviewers who will follow through on their word and review the book between July 14th and July 28th. If you’re a fan of historical fantasy and can promise a review, we’d like to have you in our ARC group! We’re not requiring much. Just your email so we can keep in touch closer to the review date. The author you sign up through (me, if you’re signing up on my blog) will get in touch with a friendly reminder about submitting reviews just before the first day when we’ll have the paperback live for reviews to be submitted. They will also follow up with you a few days after the 28th (to give reviews posted last minute time to process on Amazon) to check in if your review isn’t posted.

If you do sign up, please note that we’re not questioning your integrity if a review isn’t posted by July 28th. I’ve had issues with customers posting reviews on Amazon’s Australian website, say, and I’m not able to see them because I use Amazon.com for the US. Stupid? Yes, yes, it is. But with the issues I’ve had, let’s just put it this way… If I can’t see the review, I’m not assuming you didn’t post it. I’m just looking to see what happened in case there was an issue with posting that I need to hound Amazon about. (I still haven’t sorted out the issues with other books’ reviews not showing on all sites, but it doesn’t hurt to try.) Point is, if you don’t provide us with a link to the review after it’s posted and we’re not seeing it by end of July, we’re going to ask just to make sure everyone’s on the same page.

As such, if you’re interested in helping out with this, please get in touch! I can direct you to the form to fill out to join, give you more info if you like, and verify that I’m sending the book to the most convenient email address. You can contact me at arielpaiement@gmail.com. I’m friendly, and I love talking to new people, so don’t be shy! Get in touch if you want a review copy of Glimpses of Time and Magic. We’ll talk over it and get you signed up! 🙂

Voices: Religion As A Writing Tool

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Voices

Introduction

Voices by Ursula K Le Guin was the last book on my March reading list, and I actually finished on time, but I’m a little behind on posting the review. At any rate, I’m done reading it, so let’s take a look.

Reader’s Review: Voices

This is the first YA fantasy novel I’ve reviewed on my own without a request for a review here on the blog. Le Guin didn’t disappoint either. The piece is well-written and perfectly suited to this blog. I have read Le Guin before, as I read her Earthsea series when I was fourteen or fifteen. I loved those books, so I had high hopes for this book. And, as I said, Le Guin didn’t disappoint. She masterfully wove a story that captivated me with a rich story, a vibrant world, and dynamic characters.

The only real complaint I have is that it was in present tense at the beginning. I really don’t like that in books, but because it was first person and was almost written as an address from the MC to the reader, it was easier to move past. It did eventually switch to past tense as the full narrative got underway, and it was much easier to enjoy then.

The book is suitable for older children and teens. I’d say it’s fine content wise for anyone who’s at least twelve. The book does mention rape and abuse of women by the soldiers in the city where the book takes place, but nothing is actually shown or discussed in much detail. Similarly, there are one or two conversations the MC ends up roped into where one of the soldiers’ sons was talking about sex and trying to figure out if any women the MC knew would be available, but the MC shot the conversation down quickly and not much detail was actually given. The author keeps it PG-13. The language, to my recollection, was clean. Overall, I would recommend parental guidance for kids under twelve, but it is a YA book and stays appropriate for teens.

Writer’s Review of Voices

As the title hinted, our discussion today will center on Le Guin’s masterful use of religion in her work to bring the story and its civilizations to life.

I know some fellow authors who, as Christian authors, strongly object to religions besides Christianity being in their work. They won’t include any deities in their writing, made up or otherwise, that are not the Christian God or a representation of Him. I respect that, and if you’re in that camp, you’ll probably find this particular writer’s review rather useless to you. But if you do want to include deities and religions in your world for authenticity or other reasons, as many writers do, Le Guin has a lot to teach.

Her work Voices mainly represents two religions: that of the Alds and that of the people native to the city the Alds conquered before the book began. The two are in conflict to start because the Alds believe in and worship only one god, believe writing is evil, and see the gods the natives worship as demons that must be purged from the earth to make way for their god’s return.

To start with, they only conquered the city in an attempt to find the origin point of all evil, which their legends say is located in the city or the land around it. They march in and destroy all libraries, writings, and statues of the gods they find along with anything that they believe to be a temple.

The natives are then forbidden to worship any god besides the Alds’ god, and anyone found with books is killed. Naturally, this doesn’t sit too well with the natives who were used to their worship and to governing themselves. It creates a great amount of hatred, tension, fear, and suspicion.

Le Guin uses religion to add to the conflict as well as to bring the world to life. If you dislike stories where religion, even made up religion, takes a strong roll, Voices probably isn’t for you. But because religion is an indispensable part of the world, the conflict, and the story, Le Guin’s work is an excellent place to start learning how to use fantasy religions, or even real ones, to bring your story world to life and to add fuel to your fire of conflict.

I could go on and on about the ways Le Guin uses religion to add to her story, but I’m a firm believer in the idea that observation of how it’s done well is one of the best ways to learn when it comes to writing. So go read Voices. See how Le Guin uses religion and then apply the principles you see to your own work. You’d be surprised what this kind of practice and learning method can do for your writing. Good luck!

Work-In-Progress #42

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Lightning

This week’s Work-In-Progress is from a short story that I’ve been working on here and there between working on my novella When All Else Fails for the Open Novella Contest. It’s from Enlil’s Royal, a short story that will be going into a collection I’m planning to release next year.

~~~

ENLIL ROSE INTO the sky, the sparks dancing around him and the winds picking up. He opened his mouth in a soundless scream of triumph, spread his arms and unleashed the storm inside. They thought they could beat him down? They thought that because he was of a lower class than they were that they could treat him like scum? Well, they’d learn. Because this so-called slave was their downfall, the perfect storm to bring reform. The princess was his, and they had denied him to her simply because he didn’t look like the one they thought she was pledged to.

Lightning arced out of his fingertips, and the thunderheads blew from his mouth as he howled his victory. Below, houses went up in flames, and torrents of rain washed away whatever the flames didn’t touch. Then the rain put out the flames in the other areas too, and everything was enveloped in a maelstrom of wind, rain, and lightning with the thunder booming over it to provide the final beat on the drum that announced that death had come.

He stretched his arms out further, tipped his head back and laughed into the sky. This was power. This was freedom. They would learn, and they would suffer just as everyone they had touched with their corruption had. Just as he had. This storm, he himself, were only the beginning. The beginning of devastation.

Only his betrothed would escape. But if she scorned him? His fingers twitched, shooting off more sparks and another bolt of lightning. If she scorned him, he would make her suffer more than all of her subjects. She had no right to refuse destiny, no right to look down on him because fate hadn’t chosen a more worthy object for her affection. So, if she thought him unworthy, he would show her how wrong she was. The vessel that housed him might be a slave, but he was no slave. He was far more ancient and powerful than any of them. He was storm. He was thunder. And he was destruction incarnate. He would have his way.

They would hear him thunder, and they would regret awakening his wrath. The gate to the castle grated upward, and Enlil paused in meting out his anger on the village. He squinted at the rising grate and watched a tiny figure exit. He waited, trying to make out who the figure was. In the gloom of the storm, he could only see that it was a girl with a slender build and a sword strapped to her waist. She made her way straight for him, so he crossed his arms and waited for her to reach him. Was it Ashurina, the girl he’d started this over?

She drew closer, and he waited with bated breath. Finally, she stood before him, and the painful wait was over. It was the girl he’d been dreaming of and waiting for. She was here, all grown up and ready for him. Only, she wasn’t ready because her family hadn’t prepared her and had then refused him his due. They knew who she was, but still they denied him to her. Rage boiled in his veins, and lightning sparked at the tips of his fingers. He’d blow them to pieces. That would teach the people around here not to go back on their word to their gods. He’d tested them, and they’d failed. He’d given them a chance, and they hadn’t taken it.

“Princess.” He smiled at her.

She shivered, but her grip remained firm on her sword, and she didn’t give any other visible sign of distress. “Who are you?”

“Enlil. The destroyer.”

She bit her lip and tightened her grip on her sword. “Why are you here?”

“To repay them for the vow they broke.”

She shook her head. “You can’t destroy them.”

He took a step closer and grabbed her wrist. “I can do whatever I please, particularly with you, Princess.”

Another tiny shake of her head. “You can’t.”

He ground his teeth and narrowed his eyes at her, wondering if she’d really just said he couldn’t. “I’m capable enough, I assure you.”

A shudder traversed through her body, and she looked near tears. Yet, somehow, he didn’t want to relent. He wanted to punish her. They had denied him what was his. Someone had to pay. Killing them would be one way to exact the price, but would it send the message he wanted? He released Ashurina and crossed his arms with a frown. Maybe not. Perhaps it would be better if he made sure her parents knew she was suffering for their crimes. Perhaps he would only kill the king and leave the queen to bear the guilt of what she and her husband had done to their daughter. Their only baby girl. He grinned and took another step forward so that his chest almost brushed Ashurina’s. Making her pay sounded good. He’d make her see reality, and he would crush her in retribution.

She was his, and her presence here sealed the deal. He wouldn’t leave without her. She was his Chosen, and she would remain by his side, lending him the strength only a Chosen could give, until she passed from this realm to the afterlife. A strange sense of exhilaration sang inside, the prospect of shaping her into the perfect instrument for his revenge and the perfect vessel for his use driving the sensation to a peak. Yes, undoubtedly, she was his, and there would be no escape for her.

~~~

That’s it for this week’s work-in-progress Wednesday. What are you guys up to this week? Working on anything new for your own work-in-progress or reading anything interesting? Feel free to share!

Thursday Technicalities – Weaving WorldBuilding Into the Story – Final Thoughts

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In the end, no post or set of posts can possibly cover every detail of world-building and weaving it into your story. Your story will have some elements and not others, and your style will utilize some techniques but not others. This means that, if you really want to grow in this area, you’re going to have to read. Read authors who do this work really well. Find out which authors in your area of speculative fiction (or any fiction) are the best at bringing their world to life, then read those authors. Pay attention to how they do it. Mark up your copy of the book (yeah, I know… Write on a book? Are you insane? Maybe, but taking notes in pencil or underlining the sentences that really bring out some aspect of writing you’re trying to learn will help you recognize what works and what doesn’t. If you can’t bring yourself to write on a book, which I rarely can, then jot notes in a notebook and make sure to keep them labeled.). Whatever you do, don’t spend thousands of dollars on courses on how to do it. You don’t need to! You’ll learn best by example and by seeing it done.

To that end, who do I recommend for this endeavor? First, I do recommend reading through Holly Lisle’s ebook course on world-building. It’s the only course I’m going to recommend, but I highly recommend this just because she’ll teach you so much. You’ll go through tons of exercises, and it’s a great way to learn how to do the world-building quickly while also weaving it into your work. Besides Lisle’s course, I recommend reading Tolkien, Brandon Sanderson, Orson Scott Card, Cinda Williams Chima, Ursula K Le Guin, and Terry Brooks. These authors in varying ways and to differing degrees are phenomenal world builders. Tolkien, Sanderson, and Brooks are my top three authors for this area in fantasy. I’ve learned most from Sanderson’s work, but I learned my share of things from Tolkien and Brooks too. I really can’t recommend these guys highly enough.

All of them know how to bring their worlds to life using many or all of the techniques I’ve mentioned plus some. You’re going to learn what really good world-building within a story looks like if you take the time to really dig into and pull apart these authors’ works. Most of them have paperbacks available for a lot of their books in addition to ebooks, so this is a much more affordable way to learn than taking who knows how many courses. Plus, if you’re like me, you have a tendency to start a course and then forget you were doing it in the busyness of life. Sure, you plan to go back to it, but you somehow never do, and so that’s money somewhat wasted. A book though? I might be slow in reading it, but I usually finish the books I start. It’s not too common that I don’t. So I’ll learn more in a less expensive way if I just try to learn from what great authors did well.

Saturday Setups: Habitats

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Introduction

Today, we’re going to focus on habitats. If you’re creating your own creatures, you need to take habitats into consideration. What an animal or creature is equipped with will vary depending on what they need to survive. A desert animal is going to have very different features than a jungle animal, for instance. This stuff should be pretty obvious, but we’ll go over some general stuff to think about. The specifics are too varied to cover here, but once you know what kind of habitat your animal is going to live in, you can tweak your design or build it with that in mind and do the necessary research.

Considerations

Let’s chat about what you need to consider about your creature and the habitat.

To start off, the most important thing about your creature is what it eats and how it gets to its water source. If the animal lives in the desert, it doesn’t have many options for these two things most of the time, so you’ll have to plan accordingly. But if it lives in the middle of the woods, this might be considerably easier to manage.

Second, how big is your animal? The bigger they are, the more food they’re probably going to need. Muscles need fuel, and that fuel comes from food. The more muscles you have, therefore, the more you’ll need to consume. A mouse doesn’t eat the same amount as a black bear before hibernation, for example.

Next, what kinds of resources are available to your creature and what sort of creature do you have? Rodents, for example, such as mice or gerbils need things to gnaw on because their teeth never stop growing. As a result, they need an environment that provides hard foods or things to chew on. A dog, on the other hand, doesn’t have that problem. They, instead, have the issue of needing plenty of meat to sustain them, so they need an environment that has plenty of prey to catch. The kinds of resources available in your environment might limit what kind of animal you have or, as is often the case with Earth’s incredible creatures, your animals may need to have special features that allow them to live in their environment.

Finally, the other thing I think is really important to consider is whether or not your creatures share their habitat and territory with humans or humanoid beings. If they do, you’ll have to take their interactions into consideration. Do the humans or their equivalent get along well with these creatures? Or are they constantly at odds? Have the humans destroyed these animals’ habitats or have they managed to coexist without doing that?

Conclusion

I’ve only covered some of the considerations, but the ones I covered are the ones I’ve found to be the most important for thinking through your creatures. At the least, it will give you a solid launching point for your own creations.

Saturday Setups – Global Mapping: Terrain Features Pt. 2

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Introduction

As a quick announcement, the worldbuilding posts will be moving to Saturdays to be a part of the blog section Saturday Setup, which will deal with different aspects of setting up your story world. The posts will, for now, be up every other week, just as they have been so far. With that out of the way, let’s get started!

Last time we took a look at global mapping, we looked at some of the main terrain features of a map. If you haven’t read Saturday Setups Global Mapping – Terrain Features Pt. 1, you should start there since the features you lay down based on that post will affect what ends up happening here. If you’ve already read it, you should be well on your way to creating a working map for your world, and you’re ready for this step.

With your mountains, rivers, and forests in place, it’s time to consider the last part of your terrain. What type of land are you working with? Tundra, foothills, deserts, or rainforests?

Deciding What Terrain Should Be Placed Where

When considering an area of land, one of the more important decisions is what kind of terrain it will be. Should it be a desert wasteland, a swamp, or a sunny lakeside oasis? Much of this will depend on the land features you already placed. If you have a mountain range nearby, the terrain right below the mountain range is considerably more likely to be hilly than it is to be a flat grassland or frozen tundra.

So, how do you decide what terrain goes where? Let’s take a look at the main kinds of terrains and where they’re most likely to occur. Then, you can put these principles into practice and start marking them in on your map. In the resources section, there will be some links to map-making sites to give you ideas for how to mark different types of terrain as you work.

Deserts

Typically, deserts are areas of terrain without much vegetation due to a lack of water. However, they can also form due to salt poisoning or exhaustion of the soil. They can be sandy or stretches of hard-baked ground, bare rock, or even snow.

Deserts are often located on the equator line because, on an Earth-like planet, the flow of warm and cool air causes the dry, arid climate conducive to a desert that’s incredibly hot. These are the subtropical deserts. For frozen deserts, they’re more often located near the poles or in areas of extreme cold (Siberia in Russia is one example of this on Earth).

There’s another factor in the creation of deserts. Mountains. Those ranges of peaks you placed? Yes, those have an impact on where your deserts may be located. While the air pressure caused by warm and cool air at the equator is one cause for those massive stretches of barren wasteland, mountains are another common cause.

But not every mountain range has a desert on one side of it, so how do you decide if yours should? This has to do with the moisture available in the air and the wind flow. Deserts formed by mountains occur due to the flow of wind over the mountains. As air flows up over the peaks, it leaves much of the moisture in it on the mountain peaks in the form of snow.

This leaves the air coming down from the mountain with much less moisture than it initially had, so as it moves further inland from the mountain range, it can end up creating deserts. This is considered the rain shadow of the mountain. If you choose to create this sort of mountain (and it’s likely you’ll have at least a few), keep in mind that it should always be on leeward side of the mountain.

The third kind of desert is a coastal desert. This one is formed when cold ocean currents contact the warmer air to create a dense layer of fog. These deserts may not get any rain, but they’re usually still wet because of the fog that has caused them to be unable to grow vegetation.

Finally, you have interior deserts. These occur far inland in places where moisture-laden wind simply can’t reach. This kind of desert may also lay in a rain shadow in part or whole. The Gobi desert in Asia is one example of an interior desert. It’s hundreds of kilometers from the sea, making it too far away to gain a moisture-laden wind. The Gobi desert is also in the rain shadow of the Himalayas.

Plains

Plains are flat ranges of land that can be grassland, forest, desert, or tundra. There are also flood plains and volcanic plains. I’ve already covered deserts above, and tundra is just frozen expanses of land that could also classify as polar deserts depending on the vegetation level. (Surprisingly, tundra can support a variety of mosses and small shrubs.) However, let’s take a look at the grassland, forested, flood, and volcanic plains.

To begin, let’s look at the most common type seen on Earth. Grassland plains. These plains are identified by the main type of vegetation: grass. Depending on the region and climate, grassland plains can go by a few different names. For instance, the temperate plains in the US are considered just grassland or prairie. These have warm summers and cold winters. But the temperate plains in Asia are considered steppes, since they don’t receive enough rain to grow any tall trees or bushes. Lastly, the subtropic plains in Africa or other regions are called savannas because they’re warm and have scattered trees.

The second type of plain is the forested plain. These ones can occur in many places but are characterized by their variety of trees, shrubs, and vegetation.

Rivers create the third type of plain. Floodplains occur when a river overflows its banks and begins depositing nutrient-rich soil as it does. If the river floods often enough, the sediment can build up to create a floodplain. The Nile River is one notable example of this.

Volcanic plains, the last kind of plain I’ll discuss here, occur because lava has shoved its way up from underground to flow out over the land. This creates land that’s darker than the rest of the land around it, due to the basalt, a mineral found in lava that breaks down into the earth. The soil can be very nutrient-rich and is capable of sustaining vegetation.

Marshes and Swamps

Marshes are wetlands formed on the edges of bodies of water like rivers or lakes. They often help to transition from aquatic to land life. Generally, marshes can grow reeds, low-lying bushes, rushes, and grasses. They’re divided into three categories based on salinity. Salt marshes are the only marshes that are usually only located at mid-to-high altitudes. The other two types are freshwater marshes and tidal marshes, which are affected by the tides.

Swamps, on the other hand, are regions with a mixture of shallow bodies of water and land masses. They move slowly and sustain plenty of bugs and leeches. Many other animals also call the swamp home, and the vegetation that grows there varies widely. Generally, swamps are dangerous areas that should be admired from a distance. Not only are there many dangerous animals, but swamps also contain quicksand or similar features that lead to drowning. Swamps are also considered wetlands and may also be called bogs or, in some cases, salt marshes.

Conclusion

Using this as a guide, you should be able to map out most of the main features needed for your world. Of course, there will always be more you can learn about different types of terrain, but this should be enough to give you a good start. The other features are often found within these main biomes or terrains, making it simple to add them later on the map or on a localized map.

Further Reading

Photoshop Map Tutorial (A good place to start learning to map digitally if you enjoy digital art.)

Mapping trees (Helpful for marking out those wooded plains.)

Fantastic Maps Tutorials (A bunch of random map-making tutorials to help you get started.)

Examples of Map Symbols

Saturday Setups – GLobal Mapping: Terrain Features Pt. 1

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Introduction to Terrains

Hey, everyone! I’m back this week with a post on world-building. Today’s post is the first to delve into the global side of mapping, and we’re looking at terrain considerations first. Terrain affects a lot of your world-building. After all, if your characters are living in a desert, their lifestyle will be far different from a character living in the jungle.

Not only that, the distance between various points and the terrain lying between those points will greatly affect things like travel time and how characters choose to travel. What you do with the terrain determines whether it’s easy to find water or difficult to find much needed resources.

With the importance of terrain established, let’s take a look at some of the things you need to put onto your map and work through. Keep in mind as you think about all this that the map you’re building doesn’t have to end up in the front of your novel. It doesn’t even have to be pretty. It just has to be functional so that you can use it for your own reference.

So, on that note, let’s get started.

Mountains

There are plenty of places you could start with mapping, but I recommend you start with your mountains. These majestic features will form the backbone of your world. Where they are placed will determine a great deal about the kind of land (lush and green or barren and sandy), the places where certain kinds of plants and trees can grow, and what types of animals will be found where.

Without being too technical, air flow is changed a great deal when it runs into mountain ranges, and that air current affects everything around it. It even affects how often it rains and how much rainfall an area might get, particularly if the land is close to the mountain range.

So place these first. You can worry about coastlines, forests, and cities later. Those are all important, but not this important.

As you’re placing those mountains, here are a few guidelines you should keep in mind.

First of all, mountain ranges occur mostly where tectonic plates have crashed into each other because land masses were closer than they should’ve been. Some of the mountains in these ranges may be volcanic, but you can have entire mountain ranges with no volcanic activity.

On the other hand, if you have single mountains with no ranges around them, they’re almost guaranteed to be volcanic. This means you shouldn’t place single mountains all over the place. The volcanic activity will have a big affect on everything around it, as you can imagine. Place these types of mountains carefully and with an awareness of what it does to the surrounding terrain and natural habitat.

Using these guidelines, you can end up with chains, ridges, long plateaus, and even circles of mountains.

Wherever there are mountain ranges, there should also be foothills and rugged terrain from where the ranges were worn down and weathered. Make sure you include these in your map for any planning in the later stages. It will change how cities and civilizations in those areas are built.

The last major thing you should consider is the extension of mountain ranges past the places where the coastlines may end up. Mountain ranges often form little islands or peninsulas, so this adds a more realistic feel to your fantasy world. You can use this and sprinkle those features here and there on the coastlines to help add to the believability of the world’s terrain.

Coastlines

The second place to fill in is your coastline. Before you can start mapping out major locations and country borders, you have to know how much space you’re working with. Drawing in the coastlines will help you to do this and will give you a framework to work within.

While working on this step, you should also decide the mileage on your map. In other words, decide how much space your world covers. This will help when you’re working on the global borders between countries, filling in the major cities, and even mapping those cities out on a more localized scale.

As a general rule of them, coastlines are fractal in nature when viewed from a distance. The continents are formed through the sorting of rock and soil by the plate tectonics. The heavier materials are on the bottom and the lighter on the top, which gives the coastlines the fractal appearance you see when looking at the contours of both the coast of a small territory and the coast of an entire continent.

However, there are things that can mess this up. Regions won’t look the same zoomed in or far away when you start including tidal flats or beaches, river deltas, mountains and glaciers (or a combination of the two), flat regions that include shifting barrier islands, or continents that haven’t had sea-level ice in a long time. To better understand how to map these features, if you want to include them in your world, you should study maps of these features on Earth. Understanding what it looks like in the real world and why it works the way it does will help you to develop a system that works for your own world.

However you end up choosing to shape your continents, make sure that the coastlines are–as a general rule of thumb–rough and ragged. They shouldn’t be smooth and pristine because that isn’t true to geographical features or to science. Fantasy may break rules, but even a fantasy world has some sort of plate movement and continental shaping that will be somewhat like ours.

Rivers

Rivers are next up. This is going to play a large part in defining the climate of your world. Plus, water sources are a must for life, and with your mountains and coastlines in place, you’re ready to start placing those rivers where civilizations often spring up.

This might be one of the simpler steps on your map since rivers follow some fairly simple, straightforward rules. And they don’t deviate from these rules unless you get a ton of magic involved. So, here are the rules you need to follow for your rivers:

  1. Rivers flow along the easiest path of least resistance: high elevation to low elevation. Never the other way around.
  2. As your rivers travel toward the coastlines, they will merge. They will never separate.
  3. Rivers going across flat land may change course by creating ever-wider loops. Eventually, however, the loops will pinch off and straighten the river back out.
  4. Rivers in mountainous regions may change course due to blockages or changes in elevation. But they will always find the path of least resistance and follow that.
  5. Rivers provide life to small towns and beginning cities. Wherever you have a river mouth, you’ll probably have some sort of civilization. So, if you know you want a city in a specific location, make sure there’s a fair-sized river close by.
  6. Lakes should only have one river flowing out of it toward the sea, never two. There’s only one lowest point, and that’s where the water will flow. The river may split off later, but it won’t with the lake.
  7. Deltas form when a river carrying sediment hits: a body of water (ie: lakes, oceans, reservoirs), another river that cannot carry away enough of the sediment quickly enough to stop buildup, or inland regions where water can spread out and deposit sediments. Keep in mind that the tidal currents can’t be too strong, or they’ll wash away the sediment.

Finally, the source of the river is important. Most rivers start in a mountain region somewhere since mountains catch a lot of water. However, they may also begin at lakes or in marshy regions. Some may also be fed by heavy rainfall for part of the year and be completely dry for the other part. The key is that wherever the source may be, the river won’t empty into the source as well. It will start at one point and end somewhere completely different.

Lakes

This section is fairly simple as well. Lakes usually form because rivers hit a basin of some sort or were dammed up by something. They may also form as a result of water collection in craters left by meteor impacts, but these sorts of lakes are fairly rare. The largest lakes usually occur because pieces of a continent pulled apart or glaciers carved them.

In cold, rocky regions, there are often many small lakes connected by rivers because the water is unable to carve through the ground and must simply filter from one pool to the next. This causes a tangle of rivers and streams connecting all the little lakes.

In hot and dry regions, you shouldn’t be including any significant lakes unless there’s a large river to feed them. Instead, you’re more likely to end up with salt flats or tiny lakes at the bottom of a dry basin. The lakes are likely to be very salty since they can’t drain off into the ocean. If you do have the river to feed it, the lakes are highly likely to overflow their shores and cause a larger drainage area, so keep that in mind when drawing your rivers in desert regions.

Lakes also shift their boundaries, but when they do so, it’s much more cataclysmic. If they fill or drain too much, they can destroy entire civilizations, so if they shift their boundaries, be ready to include the catastrophes it caused in your world’s history. The historical trauma is fairly common in the earlier stages of a world’s history, but as things stabilize, it becomes less common on a level that would be civilization-shattering.

Forests

The last thing we’ll cover in this post is forest placement. In a following post, I’ll discuss how you can determine where to place hot and dry regions, deserts, swamps, and hilly regions. But for now, this is a lot of information to digest, so I’ll stick to the prominent land features that you need to have a basic map.

That said, what do you need to consider for forests? First of all, forests usually spring up in areas with a temperate climate and ample rain. This means you could have massive forests covering large portions of your map so long as the climate isn’t too cold or dry. You won’t, therefore, see forests in prairie land or areas with a sub-arctic type of climate.

What kinds of trees are growing in your forest depends largely on the region. On Earth, mountains can house fir trees, pine, cedar, oak, dogwood, and a variety of other trees depending on what section of the mountain is being examined and the area the mountain is located.

Of course, on a fantasy world, there are likely species of trees that don’t exist on Earth, so the main goal with those species of trees would be to make sure they have features that will allow them to survive in the climate you’re placing them in. This means you’ll need to do some research on the types of trees and the features that make them suited for one climate or another.

Conclusion

Okay, that’s it for this post! There are a lot of considerations to think about when mapping out your world. As you work, don’t worry about being perfect. The map will be messy. And since it isn’t meant for anyone else’s reference, it doesn’t need to be pretty. If the map is pretty, it will only make it harder for you to trash it and try something different if you aren’t satisfied with it.

So, experiment and feel free to be loose, messy, and spontaneous. Try to be realistic about where you place things, but feel free to try different things, make different layouts, and change things up until you find something that you’re truly satisfied with.

Next time I post about world-building, we’ll take a look at global mapping and some other important aspects of terrain. We’ll also briefly go over the placement of cities and civilizations since you’ll likely want to show the more important locations on your map for your reference. However, I’ll leave the details of mapping the cities themselves for the section on local-scale mapping.

Feel free to share any techniques you like to use for mapping in the comments if you have them. We can all benefit from learning new ways to do things!