Carrie and Saturos enjoying a little arcane study date. They get married at the end of the book, and that's major spoilers, but I'm not sure when I'm actually going to get around to publishing the manuscript, so probably by then everyone will have forgotten about it.

While constructing the plot, I went back and forth for a bit about whether or not they were going to end up together, but at one point in the book, Carrie builds up enough self-esteem to break up with her horrible boyfriend back on Earth, and I realized the ultimate resolution to that wasn't just that she was out of a bad relationship, but that she needed the best relationship possible to make up for it.

I'm not a fan of unconvincingly putting two characters together just for the sake of an arbitrary romance, but in the case of these two it just seemed to work. Saturos really appreciates Carrie's kindness and friendship toward him and his subjects, despite Castle Ravenscrag giving off the whole dark lord vibe (it's touched upon in the book that that sort of thing is the usual aesthetic for Saturos's people), and loves having someone he can finally talk quantum-mechanics-magic shop with and who is interested in his travels to other worlds. And Carrie appreciates everything Saturos does for her to make her stay at Ravenscrag as pleasant and enjoyable as possible, his gentlemanly demeanor, and his selfless and sincere interest in letting her be herself that is the polar opposite of how people back on Earth treated her. I think there's someone out there for everybody, and when you've found the right person, you've found the right person. Even if that person is a dimension-hopping demigod who likes to pretend to be a D&D end boss.

Also, in this novel I wanted to address another fantasy fiction pet peeve of mine, which is where at the end of the adventure, the protagonist returns to Earth and leaves a super cool world behind for the sake of keeping up the status quo, except maybe with a few life lessons learned. Like, why would you ditch magic powers and/or an enchanted weapon and/or the friends who helped you through the journey and/or dragons!!!! so you can go back to stuff like laundry and homework?! 

It's just as bad when the author really forces a lame excuse as to why the hero can never ever go back to the fantasy world ever, and they're destined to be completely ordinary for the rest of their days. I almost feel like it kind of sends the message that in the end, you don't get what you really want out of life, which I don't think is true in the slightest as long as you don't give up and follow your inner voice. So I went ahead and gave Carrie what she truly wanted and needed, and a big part of her character arc is her learning to accept and enjoy her life being so much more awesome than she ever thought it could be.

(Saturos also teaches her how to open dimensional portals, so she can go back and forth between Arthabasca and Earth whenever she wants, as well as let Tam visit. Saturos and Carrie are going to need to go back to Earth at some point anyway so Saturos can meet his new in-laws. That's going to be awkward at best, especially since Saturos is not at all pleased with Carrie's parents trying to mold her into a performing STEM monkey.)

I had so much fun writing the cast of this novel that when I finished, it left me wanting to do more with them. However, unlike Disney I don't believe in sequels for the sake of sequels, so we'll see if I get any concrete ideas for another adventure with these guys. Until then, though, I have a lot of other novel ideas I'd like to get around to.

Also, there are tiny wyverns flitting about Arthabasca. <3

 The other protagonist of the novel I've been working on. Brainy Carrie has spent her entire life overachieving to try to please her parents and teachers, but in the middle of her biotechnology master's thesis, she suffers a health breakdown, throwing her family's perfect-looking life into disarray. Between endless rounds of medical testing, failing college classes she was once acing because she can't get out of bed, a boyfriend who's never satisfied with her efforts, and the stress the situation is causing her family, Carrie feels like she's letting everyone down--and then Saturos spirits her away to Castle Ravenscrag.

While at first understandably upset that she has to be the damsel in distress while her younger sister Tam gets to go on the epic adventure, Carrie finds that Saturos isn't nearly as villainous as he wanted to seem, and the other residents of Ravenscrag, despite their monstrous appearances, are every bit as kind and friendly as their dark lord. Carrie also discovers that she has reality-bending powers that only manifest in this world, and Saturos brought her here because he needed her help saving his planet from an ancient threat poised to reawaken.

As Carrie eases into life at Ravenscrag, where everyone actually seems invested in her happiness, her health returns and Saturos helps her come to some important realizations about her situation back on Earth. With her fondness for Ravenscrag growing, and her friendship with Saturos deepening, Carrie must ultimately decide whether she wants to continue to try to chase after the expectations of people who take too much from her, or to be happy in someplace she truly loves with the best friends she's ever had--and then there's also the looming problem of Tam on the loose getting into all sorts of trouble with archaic elementals in an attempt to rescue her sister.

Carrie and Tam are the dual heroines of the novel, which follows their separate and very different adventures in the fantasy world of Arthabasca. Carrie is the polar opposite of her sister in many ways, and she comes from me wanting to see more speculative fiction about kind, polite people who get to go on adventures. I was that nerdy kid who spent summer breaks reading all the fantasy and sci-fi I could get my hands on in the children's section of the library, but one thing that used to drive me crazy was how many of those books involved a mouthy, self-centered protagonist who just complained the whole time they were journeying through a really fascinating setting and interacting with lovable creatures. I get that what those authors were probably trying to do is give the reader the satisfaction of watching the protagonist build character through their trials, but for me, it also just kinda sent the (unrealistic) message that only those with egregious personality flaws get to enjoy fantastic escapades. (Nearly as bad is Exhibit B, the protagonist who is eternally clueless about how the fantasy world works and shows no desire to actually explore and learn about their surroundings, just to go defeat the bad guy ASAP so they can hurry and get back to mundane reality, which strangely appeals to them more.) 

It always seemed like the adventures happened to the characters who didn't appreciate them, and it was really fulfilling to finally write about a heroine who actually enjoys getting clothes made for her by giant spiders, befriending the resident demonic sorcerer, and living her best life in the obligatory foreboding (but very comfortable) fortress where the weather is always stormy for some reason.

I also wanted Carrie's character arc to speak to people who may be struggling with putting too much pressure on themselves and/or letting other people put too much pressure on them. Life isn't supposed to be about joining the rat race and seeing how impressive of a career you can achieve--you contribute the most to the world when you're doing what truly makes you happy, and your real value to others lies in how you lift their lives, not how much money you make or how many accomplishments your resumé lists.

 

I drew this for my niece's birthday; I've been having a blast playing Zelda with her and I'm hoping we'll get more gameplay in at some point. Right now she's pretty busy with school, but come summer break we'll be tromping all over Hyrule again.

Also I guess I have to change the name of the comic now.

Video game ramblings

 I'm not even gonna make up an excuse for this; I just wanted to blog out stuff about video games. (Spoiler alert for Zelda and Pokémon games!)

 Concept design for Tam, one of the main protagonists of the novel I've been working on. Tam is a 16-year-old who's got it all together: her parents buy her whatever she wants, she's super popular at school, she's a star athlete, and she's tremendously spoiled and entitled because of her legendary tantrums.

When Tam's sister Carrie is taken away by the mysterious Lord Saturos, Tam follows them and finds herself adventuring through the fantastic world of Arthabasca on a quest to free the Erdunn, powerful elemental entities. Tam develops a special bond with the first Erdunn she finds, Smaragdus, who is able to link with Tam to lend the girl her powers over crystal and electricity.

While at first Tam isn't used to actually having to solve her own problems, as she journeys through Arthabasca, she learns how to work for what she wants and that the universe doesn't revolve around her. But in her stubborn drive to outwit Saturos and get Carrie back home, Tam is missing some critical details about her adversary and the beings she is helping, and her actions may end up deciding the fate of Arthabasca.

Tam was fun to write as the archetype of the bratty teen who goes on a character-building adventure. She's sort of me poking fun at the fact that in a lot of teen-oriented fantasy, the main character is a disagreeable person who it seems the writer just sent on a quest to learn some life lessons and get a good dose of humility. In Tam's case, she gets her quest completely wrong and really makes a mess that Saturos and Carrie are stuck trying to clean up--but she does end up learning some life lessons along the way, and in the end, she helps to permanently make things better in Arthabasca, and reconciles with her sister.

I find her growth into an independent and resilient young woman satisfying, especially because she is not the only heroine in the story who gets to have fun adventures in a fantasy world--but more about that later.

 Concept sketch for Smaragdus, the crystal Erdunn from the novel I've been working on (not the one that just came out). Smaragdus is a small entity who Tam, one of the heroines, finds imprisoned in the ruins of a city and inadvertently frees. Smaragdus asks her to find and free the other Erdunn, elemental creatures who were sealed away eons ago, and together they set out on an epic journey to gather the Erdunn and rescue Tam's sister Carrie from the questionably evil Lord Saturos. 

Along the way, Tam discovers that she and Smaragdus can link energies, giving Tam access to Smaragdus's ability to crystallize and control the rock around her, which proves immensely helpful in their adventure. However, Smaragdus remains suspiciously vague about her origins and true motives, and Tam might have bitten off more than she can chew in her quest to show Saturos what she's made of.

 

My novel Between the Salt Water and the Sea Strand is now available in ebook format (and paperback is coming soon)!

Check it out for a fun collision of modern England and British/Celtic mythology and folklore, a heroine on the autism spectrum, and more than you ever really needed to know about making rock (the confectionery, not the geologic object). 

I worked hard on this one and I really hope readers enjoy it. (Old Tom is totally based on my cat.)

Stay tuned for that cool announcement I promised!