Interruptions

Not much movement on this project at all; in fact it's all in my head. Right now I am focused on my comics work, I am finishing up the Tikki's Giant script and then I am off into developing my property called The Next Scion. So, for the foreseeable future, this project is on hiatus.

Story seeds

Even though I am focusing on my Tikki's Giant comic at the moment (see DragonFUZE Comics for more information), ideas for Enshae: Phayrie Seekers keep coming. I have most of the opening of the story plotted out in my head, and I really like where it's going. I can actually watch the opening scene in my head as if I were watching a movie; this part of the story is so clear in my mind.

The opening of the story will see the return of a long-missing character and revelations about the evolutions in phayrie society in the time that the character has been gone. This part of the story will immeadiately set the tone for the whole tale and in particular for the type of world the phayrie live in.

On a side note, I am currently reading Keeping It Real by Justina Robson. The book is part 1 of a longer series called Quantum Gravity. Justina is an accomplished SF writer and this story is a unique fusion of SF/ fantasy concpets. I am about half way through the book; it's thrilling and inventive. I am hoping some of this will rub off on me as I continue to put together the story for Enshae: Phayrie Seekers.

Hitting the keyboard

I just got back today from a short beach holiday over the new year period. Unfortunately, the weather wasn't great so we didn't hit the beach anywhere near as much as we had hoped to. Being locked indoors drove us crazy enough to head home two days early, but it also gave me the chance to bang some keys on this story. The plot is coming together nicely and I am happy with the definition of good and evil in my story... Enshae: Phayrie Seekers is heading into story territory I never intended to cover, so I am enjoying the journey...

New title!

Given all this re-working I am doing on the story, I have come up with a new name for the book:

Enshae: Phayrie Seekers

I can't give you any information about the story at this stage, but I have shared my ideas with a few friends and the feedback has been positive. I am really looking forward to the new year break and getting some time to work on this story...

Telling phayrie tales

The more I think about it, the more the story is starting to come together in my head. The characters are not fully formed, but I know what I want to write about and the story will be full of tragedy, violence, betrayal, love lost... I wanted to write this story for my young son, but I think there will be a darkness in the tale that will be too omnipresent for the tale to be suitable for kids...

Enshae: Phayrie Dawn is the title that I am going with for now, but I suspect the tale will move from dawn to darkness quite quickly. As such, I am considering breaking this up into a number of parts/ chapters/ books... I am not really sure. I don't want to have a defined start, middle, end structure because I want to be able to explore this world and its characters for many years to come; I don't want to box myself in on that option.

Hmmm... Lots of thinking still to do.

Creature Feature #1

After battling the bugs I am back in phayrie land putting my finishing touches on the catalogue of creatures that inhabit the world of Enshae: Phayrie Dawn. Just this weekend I was banging away at the keyboard outlining the origins, attributes and cultural qualities of a gaggle of creatures including the Enshae, Leviathans, Sentinels, Chimeras and more. There are other, more uniquely named races, but I don't want to include their details here, at least not at this early stage, as I don't want to ruin the surprise.

I have enjoyed coming up with all the different types of beings who inhabit this universe; some are all new creations, others have been with me through a number of creative journeys and have appeared in different guises in a range of unfinished projects. What I am hoping to do is to come up with an interesting and diverse range of characters and races to inhabit this world; exploring them, their worlds, history, culture, science, mythology, religions, politics and more should give me plenty to write about for the rest of my life!

That's the plan. You see, Enshae: Phayrie Dawn is only one of the stories that I hope to tell in this universe. But, I can't get ahead of myself! I still haven't fully formed the idea of what this story is all about, beyond the creation and corruption of the phayrie realm, so I think I better keep my focus tightly on this universe and its story before I start to think of any others!

In future Creature Feature posts I will be giving more detail on some of the beings outlined above...

One goal to bind them

Over on my DragonFUZE Comics blog I have set out my creative goals for 2009. Fans of Enshae: Phayrie Dawn will be keen to know that by the end of next year I want to have finished planning/ plotting the novel and to have at least started on the manuscript. While this sounds like a modest goal, I am going to have a lot on my plate in the coming year. I am trying to keep things achievable.

Due to a number of real world concerns, I haven't been able to do any near as much work on this project as I would have liked to. But, almost every day I do spend at least a few minutes coming up with new creatures or some other element of the world in which my phayries live. Progress is slow, but my creative wheels are moving...