Welcome to our Monday Coffee. Every Monday is set aside for musings and considerations around the Twinverse, the Tales, and the writing craft as a whole. We will occasionally discuss sources of inspiration for the Twinverse, share some text from existing or upcoming books, discuss the history of the Twinverse's development, and how roleplaying games have contributed to fleshing out the world. We may even look at some of the original documentation on the Twinverse, at its very beginning. Happy Monday!
While I started writing my first attempts at a novel when I was in my early teens, inspired by my first reading of Lord of the Rings, and even created my first world back then - a place called Lennon, with its own history and races - I did not seriously begin writing stories with a critical eye until much later. In 1999, as part of my weekly roleplaying game with my friends, I developed a world-hopping event which would lead them to a place I had invented just for the occasion, and which I called the Twin Worlds. The world was very bare at the time - but the basic building blocks of its history were there, including the Thelalorn and Iranorn (collectively known as the Ledhrorn), the Trienorn, the Reflection, and the general plotline that would lead to the War of Saints.
After our campaign was over and our group went its separate ways, I moved to Germany for my doctorate and continued to work on the Twin Worlds setting. Whether roleplaying in it or not, I enjoyed developing the setting to a higher level of verisimilitude. In order to do so, sometimes I would write short stories set in the world, which would also help me capture the mood and tone, and develop some of the characters I found most interesting. Sometimes these stories would have a plot that was planned from the beginning; other times, they would be little more than scenes to capture the character's personality.
I was also part of a forum dedicated primarily to the works of Stephen R. Donaldson, Kevin's Watch, where many of the community members also engaged in lively conversations on other authors, and even wrote their own stories. The community eventually published several anthologies of stories offered by various members, and Ghostblood was first published there.
In 2007, I wrote North Star, a longer novella with substantially different themes compared to Ghostblood. One of the members of Kevin's Watch at the time had just started a publishing company called Calderwood Books, and expressed interest in North Star. The book narrated the journey of a nurain - a centaur - called Riyya kin'Nanimah as she grappled with life beyond the comfortable routine of her tribe, and was eventually thrust into a personal quest to find meaning in life. It was a fantasy story, but I didn't intend for it to be focused on an epic quest to save the world, or similar high stakes.
Calderwood Books believed in North Star, and submitted the story for the 2008 EPPIE award as best fantasy e-book. I was floored when, at the end of 2008, I was informed that North Star was among the three finalists, and even more stunned in early 2009, when it actually WON! With most fantasy books being focused on end-of-the-world stakes, epic journeys, and chosen ones, I was amazed to see that there was still an appetite for smaller-stakes, more intimate fantasy stories.
Winning the EPPIE is still one of the proudest moments of my life as an author. North Star was sold by Calderwood Books for a few years, but when the company went out of business, I regained the rights to it and it went out of print. Re-releasing it is highest on my list of things to do, and I will share more updates on the development of the new edition as we get closer to relaunch.
In the next Monday Coffee, we'll continue this story and touch on Ghostblood. As always, thanks for reading and I look forward to seeing you soon.
Comments