Tag archives for Skyss
The Mother’s Dream [Write Club] [Fantasy]
The Mother's Dream is my story for the January 2021 meeting of Write Club Surrey, which had dreams as its theme. I chose to write a creation myth for Skyss, the world that I've my fantasy novel is set in. One inspiration for The Mother's Dream is my love as a child of a book of Australian aborigine myths called Dreamtime Heritage. The stories are how the world was formed and shaped in the dreams of the early people. The idea has stuck with me, even if I can no longer find the book on my shelves. Troll head and fist in the woods atop Mount Floyen, Bergen, Norway. An inspiration for The Mother's Dream. (Photo: James Kemp) Another source of inspiration for The Mother's Dream was me thinking about how to describe the trolls in Fierce. I read quite…
Going to Sea [Write Club]
Going to Sea is a fairy tale set as background for my fantasy novel. It is written for the Write Club Surrey challenge for the July meeting on Saturday. It was quite hard writing a decent fairy tale, and I'm not claiming that Going to Sea is a decent fairy tale. My first two attempts ended up more like Icelandic sagas than fairy tales. I ended up reading a book about what the Icelanders call the hidden people for inspiration. That was really interesting, but turned out not to be that useful. In the end I abandoned my earlier attempts and just wrote this instead. I'll probably finish the other ones though, I think having this sort of detail helps add depth to a fantasy world. Going to Sea, or how people started worshipping Kari Replica Viking Longship (Photo: archiwum…
The Seven Virtues – or a guide to Skyssian attitudes
The Seven Virtues are how a good Skyssian models their behaviour. Told from infancy through the fairy tales, and reflected in the glorious deeds of their heroes, every Skyssian is aware of them. Origins of the Seven Virtues A while back I thought it might be useful to sketch out the core beliefs of Skyssian attitudes so that I could use them as guiding principles for how minor characters could be expected to act. They also help to set direction for officials and institutions, after all if they aren't virtuous who else would be? At the time I stole the Skyssian attitudes from the Old Norse. A sort of set of Viking Virtues. That gave me the first five below. The local Write Club prompt is to write a fairy tale for the July meeting. So, I thought there ought…
Straven – Chapter 1 Fierce [Fantasy] [Updated]
Bryggen in Bergen, Norway. Over a thousand years old and the inspiration for Straven. (photo: James Kemp) Straven is the title of the first chapter in my fantasy novel, provisionally titled Fierce. I'm still looking for beta readers to read it. If you liked Chapter 1 - Straven, and would be willing to read the whole novel and provide constructive feedback please get in touch. The story starts in Straven, the home of both Yngvild and Noren. I've linked to some of the story background I've put on my wiki. This isn't the final version, but a second draft. There'll be at least two more versions before it gets published. One after I've had feedback from beta readers, and another after a professional edit. Update 31 Dec 2020: This is a revised version of the chapter from the original posted a…
Horse-Riding Research Round-Up
My pseudo-viking YA fantasy novel moved from seaborne to horse-riding. Yngvild met a cavalry troop and learnt how to ride with them. Like Yngvild, I've had to research how to look after horses, and how far you can travel on horseback. I've not done much horse-riding, I've been on horseback fewer than half a dozen times in my life. I've done it just enough to know that you can take a teenager and give them the basics of horse-riding in about half an hour, but I'm far from being a Dothraki! Horse-Riding for Writers An Argentine Lancer, this is pretty close to how I've imagined the cavalry unit that Yngvild met. (picture credit ) There are many good websites for writers interested in realistic portrayals of horse-riding and horse borne expeditions. There are some links at the bottom, but by…