Rain Falls on Malora

Rain Falls on Malora is now out, in both ebook and paperback.

This short story collection spans the entirety of The Malora Octet, from Mirren Kelta's story halfway through the Mayfly Requiem timeline to Sora Thula's story sixty years after Arrow of Entropy. Rain Falls on Malora expands the narratives of established characters such as Lucienus, Solace, Rabbit, and Vutan, as well as introduces new characters, including two of Bethel's children from the millenniums between Shadows of Absolution and Sand into Glass. I don't recommend reading any stories that correspond to books you haven't read yet because there is a lot of revealing information within them, both spoilers for the books and connections or events that were always in my notes but didn't make it into the final versions of the books.

I've also included character illustrations (color in the ebook, b&w in the print), and a selection of appendices that includes a Volle-Common translation dictionary and family trees (incomplete because one particular character shows up in multiple locations and makes it difficult to draw the trees by hand).

I started working on The Malora Octet in 2003, when I had an unexpected burst of inspiration between my junior and senior years of college and wrote the first half of The Crystal Lattice. I didn't finish that first draft for several years, but when I did, I knew I had to write more. Although I don't think I'll ever truly leave the first world I created, I think I'm finally done writing in it.

Book Sale!

The Crystal Lattice (Emergence #1) is on sale for $0.99 on Amazon. The sale ends the morning of Wed., October 21, so grab your copy before the price goes back up. I may do Kindle Countdown Deals for the other two Emergence books if I have any success with this one.

"The ocean sings to me. The deserts, the wind, the rivers whisper to my soul. The mountains and forests beckon to me, but they are not my masters. I embrace the fire above all else. Starfire and kindling, candlelight and infernos. I am not a disciple of fire – I am the fire. I am wings of flame and sparks on the wind, dampened only by the bitter winter rain and the coldness of an empty universe. I close my eyes and see blazing cascades and meadows of molten rock. I breathe deeply of the ash and char to refresh my spirit and subdue my elemental nature. I open my eyes and return to a far more serene place, the halcyon world of my physical home." - from The Crystal Lattice

Time-Lost Again

I haven't been able to write much recently. It's not due to writer's block or lack of ideas. I'm just exhausted. I have ideas eating away at my mind, but no energy with which to resolve them. I had kidney stone surgery at the end of July and that flared up my narcolepsy to the point that I have trouble staying awake for more than a couple hours at a time. I had bilateral stones, so I had a second procedure, extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy - ESWL, on my other kidney last week. I don't think it worked (will find out next week), so I may be in for a second surgery. I needed a stent for the first one and that was a little traumatic, so the prospect of going through that again is keeping my focus wobbly. I'm time-lost for the moment and hoping this narcolepsy flare doesn't last too much longer.

I do feel a little productive though, due to something I wrote in May. My short story, "They", was published in a little anthology Possibilities Publishing Company put out yesterday. The book is available in both e-book and paperback, so get your copy in whichever format you prefer.

I feel the need to stay productive despite the surgeries and narcolepsy, so I've returned to an old hobby... drawing. I'm planning on including some of my artwork in Rain Falls on Malora. I'm also drawing a geeky coloring book unrelated to my books, but since it's fan art, I don't think I'll be able to publish that unless I figure out copyright for each of the books, TV shows, and movies I've drawn artwork for. You can see some of them on my Instagram, though.

I want to share with you coloring book-style pictures I've drawn of characters from the Malora Octet. I bought a set of art pens recently so this has been a fun new experiment.

Bethel Masiona and Saruza Starsinger. Bethel is always a pain to color
against complex backgrounds for reasons that are obvious if you've
 read the series.

Rain and Dawn. I may alter this into a cover for Rain Falls on Malora
if I end up including Rain's short story in the book.

Silvan and Mairen from Arrow of Entropy. I don't want to be a
spoiler so all I'll say is they're learning how to spar.

Ravaki and Safora from The Crystal Lattice. I'm not happy with their arm
positioning, but I love how the rest of the picture turned out.

This was inspired by Nira's letter to Azfadel in The Crystal Lattice.
It's amazing how just a couple lines reveal her postpartum depression.

Sketching the Imaginary Friends

I drew and doodled all the time as a teenager and young adult, but that hobby faded away as my movement disorder developed in my early 20s. I found my old pencil set in the garage a couple days ago and that rekindled my interest. I've started sketching out some of my characters. I used to go for a more realistic look, but since my hands shake now I've decided to switch to an anime/manga style. My artwork isn't very good and I'm experimenting with style, but I still think the characters turned out adorable. Hands have always been my bane, but I'm working on that. I need to get my scanner hooked up so I can get better images of the pictures.

Who would you like to see me attempt to sketch next?

First time I've sketched people in years. Hands are daunting so I hid them.

Zella, Rassa, Mairen, Silvan (Arrow of Entropy)

Closeup of Zella and Rassa

Closeup of Mairen and Silvan

Bethel and Sora (Arrow of Entropy)
Yes, Bethel's coloring isn't his usual, but there is a good reason for that. You'll have to read it to find out why. 

I love Sora's face in this. It's amazing how personality and emotion can be shown with just a couple lines.

Safora and Terali (The Crystal Lattice)

Ellis Thula (Arrow of Entropy)

I love Ellis. His sister describes his style as "an explosion of flamboyancy" and you never quite know what is going to come out of either his mouth or his mind. My three year old is in love with this picture because of the flamingo.

Line drawing

Color added

Background added (lighting washed out my colors a little)

Lani (Mayfly Requiem and the rest of the Malora Octet)

Snippet Sunday: Creatures

I made these two little guys last night and love how they turned out. The gourdling is probably cuter than it should be, but I still like it. The rychan is kind of nightmarish, probably more how Lani sees them than how other people see them. Rychan can be a nuisance but they're usually harmless. Gourdlings on the other hand...

Gourdlings

They wore nothing but hollowed-out gourds tied over their shoulders with bundles of spiderwebs. Tufts of woolly, green hair sprouted from random locations on their leathery brown bodies. Their eyes were the same color as their skins and had no whites, so I had difficulty determining if either of them were looking directly at me. They each grabbed one of my knees between gnarled, green-nailed hands, and then ushered me into a large burrow.

--The Crystal Lattice

Rychan

Rychan frighten me. The Web's prison was full of them, but they were not prisoners. The rychan were the guards, and every time I hear a branch scratching a window, I remember their claws scraping across the floor and clinking over the crystal gates. Such a horrible sound, unmistakable, yet everything mundane reminds me of it. Sleep in my cell was painfully quiet, but my imagination concocted waking nightmares nonetheless, and rychan were among the worst of them.

I suppose rychan were the closest thing in Malora to the mythical dragons, but they looked little like dragons and more like enormous mice with massive membraned wings and silk-furred tails. They were scavenger feeders, and their talons and sharp teeth frightened me the most. I saw the guards in shadows and darkened whispers. They brought me food and water, but I knew they would rather slash me open if I gave them an excuse. I heard the screams, saw the claws dripping with blood. I behaved. For the first time in my life, I truly and voluntarily behaved. Compliance was my only hope for clemency.

--Mayfly Requiem

Short Stories from Malora

Arrow of Entropy is in the hands of beta readers, so I'm waiting for them to dissect and shred my weird little upside down story. (Update: I published this baby in August, 2015.) I guess my brain isn't ready to completely move on yet. I'm backtracking because I have all these little characters and bits of history that didn't make it into my books because there wasn't an appropriate place for them. They are now becoming short stories, which I will eventually amass into a collection titled Rain Falls on Malora. I have some concrete ideas for these stories, and I expect others to pop out of nowhere and demand to be written, like the one I wrote about Aunfrey.

I'd love to hear reader ideas. Who or what would you like to read more about? I'll list what I already have completed, conceptualized, and requested below, broken down by era (though some of them are between books instead of during). I'll edit the list as I think of or write more.

List updated 9/3/17

Mayfly Reqiuem
Nova - reader suggestion
Mirren Kelta - early High Commander of the Ganebran Army immediately following the Mage Wars.  (story completed)
Delora Faradel Narsimor - Lucienus's mother, just before they met Lani. (story completed)
Ariana Achara - this little vignette is directed toward three-year-old Rassa. (story completed)

The Abyssal Night
Aunfrey Tasarian Aloret - Sevilen's wet nurse and primary caregiver during his first couple years of life. (story completed)
Summer Aulani -Tempo's wife in Cascades. She never made a physical appearance in the books but she was mentioned in Shadows of Absolution (story completed and yikes, this one is devastating)
Rain - The Geophorian weather priest meets with Dawn in a Ganebran border city. (story completed)
Sharo Briarwind - Sharo and young Rhodren are visited by two other members of the Briarwind family (story completed)
Rastaban Eryaucra - three journal entries from when he was 17-19, attempts at getting his thoughts out of his head so he could dispose of them. (story completed)
Mirazen Keltau - Moth was 15 when his father came to see him in Reedwater, Anor. (story completed)

Shards of Chaos
Aurelien Dirus - age 14, hiding from Geophorian hunters in Rimara. (story complete)

The Shattered Veil
Solace Achara - about a year after The Shattered Veil. (story completed)

pre-Shadows of Absolution
Maple Briarwind - Rabbit's wife, one of the founders of Efilon (in progress)
Holly Thula - reader suggestion
Zoli Achara - Zoli and his mother, Thora, search for hope in a wasteland. (Story Completed)

Interlude
Ulali Masiona - halfway between Shadows of Absolution and Sand into Glass, Ulali travels into the wastelands, to Corvus Rift far beyond the northern peaks of Gainai, in search of her father, Bethel. (story completed)
Laira Masiona - Bethel's half-Toli daughter ends up in places she didn't expect while learning to control her magical ability (story completed)

Sand into Glass
Sonara Masiona - this one was a reader request. Out of Arden's three half-Mero siblings, Sonara is the one I revealed the least about even though she ended up having a vital role in his story.
Azfadel Thula - I'm thinking either around the time when he leaves Tiponia to go to Vanora or his early friendship with Arden.

The Crystal Lattice
Bralt Achay
Lorena & Valosa Masiona - Theron's wife and youngest daughter
Exi Achay's emergence - Exi has a connection to Bralt and Terali, but I'll let you guys learn about it in Arrow. Her emergence would have taken place during the Lattice era, so that's why I stuck it here instead of under Arrow. (story completed)

Arrow of Entropy
I won't detail these since not many people have read Arrow yet...
Senna and Varadi
Eliani Gira  -  Vutan's exile from Stixa (story completed)
The Liefen coup
Saskia and Cantha - this one would be post-series and would go into Inga culture in a little more detail.

Feel free to leave a comment if you have any ideas for me.

I also recently wrote a totally-unrelated short story that I submitted for consideration in a Halloween anthology. My beta readers loved it so if it doesn't get picked, I'll post it here on my blog. (Update: "They" was chosen for the anthology, Trick or Treat: A Collection of Spooky Stories, which can be found on Amazon in both e-book and paperback editions)

Character Interview: Sefa Metavanya

By the request of one of my readers, I have with me today Sefa Metavanya. Sefa first appears as a minor character in The Crystal Lattice, but he is fairly prominent in both Sand into Glass and Arrow of Entropy. It is difficult to interview him without giving away too many spoilers, but I'm going to try.

Good afternoon, Sefa. Let's start at the beginning. What was your childhood like?
Sefa: Huh. Starting right out with a hard one, aren't you?

Just tell me what you want. You don't need to go into detail.
Sefa: All right, then. I was born in Lina but I mostly grew up in Watulya. I had an older sister who died when I was six months old, and that set me up for a lot of childhood stress. My father ended up walking out on us when I was still a toddler so my mom raised me on her own. I was mad at my father for a long time for leaving me, but now I'm more ambivalent because he explained to me why he did it. Won't get into that now. Anyway, I didn't have a lot of friends because my lightning talent displayed early and frightened away most of my playmates. I spent a lot of time reading. I did have a couple friends, but they lived in Lina and I didn't see them much. They were the younger children of Barchal Vun, who was the closest thing I had to a father when I was growing up.

Magical abilities, especially the likelihood of becoming an Emergent, tend to run in families. Are there other Emergents in your family, or are you alone in that regard?
Sefa: There is a long history of Emergence in my family. My mother is Aerlya Metavanya, the clairvoyant Emergent. Nearly everyone in my father's family is an Emergent. My daughters are both Emergents. Uli is a mimic and Catta is a metal mage.

Were you and your daughters trained by the Aulor Bethel Masiona, then?
Sefa: I was, but my daughters weren't. I wasn't about to send my girls to Bethel after the brutal education he put me through. By the time they were old enough to train, I found a better option for them. Bethel's brother Rassa moved to my village several years after Kirad Pass and after I watched him transform my sulky little brother into a healer Emergent, I decided my girls would be his next students.

Your little brother? Do you have other siblings?
Sefa: I have three younger half-brothers. I'm not going to talk about them, so don't ask.

Can you tell me a little about where you live?
Sefa: Sure. I never felt like I belonged with the Watulya Efi. A few years after my Emergence, my wife and I were having trouble finding a place that would accept us. I'm mostly-Efi and she was Toli, so our marriage was seen as distasteful in most places. We heard about this beautiful lake in the Alata Highlands, north of Argenor, so we went up there and scouted it out. It seemed like a perfect place to settle, but we didn't want to live there alone and be stuck entirely self-sufficient so we invited some other families similar to ours and soon we had a settlement. Rye Lake, the name of both the village and the lake. Other misfits trickled in from all over Melor and now we have a village with a population of about 250. Most of us are mixed-blood and we have a large number of mages and Emergents. This has led to some interesting combinations. For example, my younger daughter is married to a man with a Drey father and a Toli-Mero mother. I think in a couple generations Rye Lake will blend into an entirely new race, a conglomerate of all the other races in Melor. I love it here. The winters are brutal, especially for a southerner like me, but the summers are wonderfully mild and we have a spectacular view of the Athuals over Rye Lake right in our front yard.

Do you mind explaining the goggles to me? I'm a little unnerved by interviewing someone whose eyes I can't see.
Sefa: Sorry about that. [pushes goggles to top of his head] They're corrective lenses so I wear them all the time. My vision is terrible and I'm light sensitive, which is why they're tinted.

I wasn't expecting your eyes to be gray.
Sefa: They weren't before my Emergence. I used to look a lot like my mother - brown eyes and auburn hair. Rare coloring for an Efi, but Watulya Efi are a bit different from Efilon Efi. Now I have gray eyes and white-blue hair.

The last time I saw you, you were visibly electric and we were warned not to touch you or we'd be shocked. Now you look more approachable. Why is that?
Sefa: Well, I have two states and you must have seen me in my charged state. If you touch me when I'm charged, you'll get electrocuted. I'm normally not like that, but I turn into a bundle of static energy when I'm wound up. Normally I'm like this and I'm fairly normal, at least as normal as an Emergent can be.

Do you have a best friend?
Sefa: Two right now, actually. They're both completely insane, but that's what I love about them. Exi Achay and Rassa Buananor. It's a little funny that I get along so well with Rassa because I'm not fond of either his brother or his nephew.

Nephew... Arden or Theron?
Sefa: Arden, mostly. I've only met Theron twice and he's decent enough. Arden's the one I'd be perfectly happy never seeing again. Bethel, too, but he keeps showing up around here looking for Rassa.

What talent would you most like to have?
Sefa: I'm not interested in possessing another magical talent because the one I have is troublesome enough, but there are some skills I would like to learn. My younger daughter is a blacksmith and she's actually taken me on as an apprentice. I'm not very good at it yet, but I'd like to be. I also find Rassa's skills as both a luthier and a musician fascinating, but I suspect my innate electrical energy wouldn't allow me to do either without unintentionally destroying something.

What is your most treasured possession?
Sefa: My daughters. I certainly don't possess them, but I do treasure them.

What is your greatest fear?
Sefa: Losing another person I love. I know it's inevitable that someone close to me will eventually die, but just contemplating it makes me feel ill. I also fear the tremors that have rattled the universe on occasion the last twenty years or so. I'm not sure what they are, but they can't be good.

Do you have any interesting hobbies?
Sefa: I have hobbies, but they're not that interesting. I read everything I get my hands on. I like to hike up in the mountains. I have a little cabin up there. Lately I've been zapping rychan because their population has gotten out of control and they don't have enough carrion to sustain their numbers.

Zapping rychan? That seems like a strange thing for an Efi to do.
Sefa: Remember, I'm a Watulya Efi. We're forest guardians like the Efilon variety are, but we also understand that sometimes we have to kill things for their own benefit. I'd rather zap a few rychan to keep their numbers down than watch the beasts slowly starve to death.

I just have one final question before I let you get back to work at the forge. What was the last gift you gave someone?
Sefa: Seriously? That's an oddball question. Physical gift... I gave Exi a piece of jewelry a week ago. Non-tangible gift... I told another friend that he needed to stop denying that he was in love and just go for it. That bit of advice seems to be doing him some good for the moment.

Giveaway Time!

I'm running a paperback giveaway contest on Goodreads! Enter to win your signed copy.

 
 

    Goodreads Book Giveaway
 

   

       
   

   

     

          The Crystal Lattice
     
     

          by Courtney M. Privett
     

     

         
            Giveaway ends April 19, 2015.
         
         
            See the giveaway details
            at Goodreads.
         
     
   
   

      Enter to win

The Crystal Lattice

After twelve years, countless editing rounds, two complete rewrites, and a file corruption that ate half of one of my rewrites, The Crystal Lattice has finally flown the nest!

You can find the ebook on Amazon and the paperback on Amazon or Createspace. The paperback will be available through other vendors soon, but I'm going to leave the ebook exclusively on Amazon for a couple months while I swear at the ugly formatting.

This book scares me a little. I was a lot younger when I wrote it so the tone is quite different from my later books. It has its dark moments, but over all it's lighter. The Crystal Lattice is a fantasy adventure and a coming-of-age story about a young man with an elemental soul and the heart of a bard.

So, now I can return to something heavier. I'm casually editing the dark and somewhat-claustrophobic Sand into Glass while writing the first draft of Arrow of Entropy. These two encompass the events on either side of the history of The Crystal Lattice. Sand takes place before Lattice and it's Arden Masiona's rather troublesome backstory. Arrow of Entropy takes place after Lattice, and so far in my head it's a both story of the redemption of at least one previous antagonist and also a love story for the end of the universe. If you ever were curious about Oblivion, you're finally going to meet the Element the rest of the Web fears. All I need to do is write it.

Limbo

I'm in love. I fixed some formatting issues and uploaded the final version, so now it's sitting in publishing limbo.

Drifting and Drafting

I'm drifting on the wave of post-book bliss. I finished the first draft of Sand into Glass this afternoon. It took me two years longer to complete it than I expected, but it turned out I needed to trudge through my own personal abyss to figure out how to drag Arden through his.

This book is unusual and I'm not sure how to categorize it. It's a courtroom drama from the defendant's point of view, but it's also an epic fantasy and a dive into the underground caves of mental illness. I went into this book prepared to dig into my own psyche and toss it out naked for the world to see, and I think that is exactly what I am doing.

Now I wait and let the bats settle for a short time while my mind clears. I need to do some rewrites and flesh out the bonier parts, but the story is there and it is finally out of my head. In the meantime, I have some other projects to attend to.

I'm currently waiting to receive my proof copy of The Crystal Lattice. I decided to switch things up and make Lattice first in the Emergence trilogy even though it is chronologically second. I wanted to start out the trilogy with the lighter book and then dig into the dark. I have some additional copyedits to fix on the proof and I need to make sure the formatting is correct, then hopefully I can hit those little "Publish" buttons and release my oldest and most reclusive baby into the world sometime this month.

I'm also starting to take notes for the final book of the trilogy, which is also the final book in the Malora series. This story has been in my head for a couple years but I needed to write everything else first. I'm going to have fun with this one, and I hope you eventually will, too. You'll finally get to meet the elusive Oblivion. Also, several characters who have been fixtures throughout the series finally get what they deserve, especially Rassa. At least, they get what I think they deserve. Arrow of Entropy is going to be a wild ride and it will mark a very definitive ending for my stories of this world.

Emergence is a loose trilogy and not a continuous storyline. Each of the books is told by a different narrator in three different generations of an interconnected family. Tesji is a fiery bard with a knack for embellishment, a love of alliteration, and a hunger for adventure. Arden is the troubled son of an immortal who finally finds himself in a situation he can't escape from. Zella is a light mage with such severe social anxiety that she prefers to remain in the shadows and observe the world from a distance... which directly leads her to a kindred spirit in the form of an ancient Emergent with a lot to atone for.

I hope you enjoy reading this series as much as I've enjoyed writing it. It won't be long now. The Emergents are nearly ready to come out and play.

Author's Note - The Crystal Lattice

I never thought this book would meet the eyes of readers, but it turned out my eldest baby has a mind of his own and is determined to use it. The first draft of The Crystal Lattice was written when I was a twenty-one year old college student with too much time on her hands during summer break. It was written on scraps of paper while solo camping in the Ozarks, on napkins during midnight Steak n Shake runs, and eventually on my bulky old desktop PC. It was a disaster. My narrator aimlessly wandered about the wilderness for something like 150 pages before figuring out what he should be doing, and then I couldn't figure out the ending so I gave up and filed it away.

A few years after college I was working a temp job in Kansas and was struck by an epiphany about how to finish the book, which I hadn't thought about in years. I pitched my thoughts to a coworker, who was almost as excited as I was. He ended up being my first reader and the person I tossed ideas at to help solidify them in my head. A few weeks later, the second draft was complete. It was horrible, but we both saw potential in it. I filed it away for a while since I was inspired to write Echoes of Oblivion, then Mayfly Requiem, then Shadows of Absolution.

Twelve years after walking away from the abomination of a first draft, here I am completing it again. It has been completely rewritten twice, edited, reedited, filed away and found again, names have been changed, characters have been dropped, and the heart of the story has been discovered and embraced. A lot has happened in those twelve years - college graduation, jobs, several out-of-state moves, a marriage and three children, diagnoses and illnesses and injuries - but I wanted to preserve Tesji's young voice, a challenge as my thirty-something voice often tried to take over and delete some of immaturity essential to the character.

Those who have already read my other books may be interested to find that The Crystal Lattice is where the Aulors and Web lore originated. The first five Malora books were written well-after this one. Someone told me that my little fable about the fall of Ganebra would make a good story on its own, and that one, simple, possibly drunken comment sparked five books. I still blame this all on you, Jason. To everyone else, thank you for joining me on this millennia-long journey. There are still two books after this one (one on each side chronologically), so I hope I can keep you entertained for just a little bit longer before I bounce on to another world.

Courtney

Order and Chaos

I am often asked the intended reading order for my series. Some people choose to read Mayfly Requiem first, but frankly, it can be a little difficult if they haven't read the trilogy first. Lani is a narrator with a lot on his mind and a sometimes-archaic vocabulary. When you've read the trilogy first, it is easier to see how the history and characters fit together in the overall scope of the world. The series is still enjoyable when read out of order (except the trilogy, which wouldn't make sense out of order), but your perception of them may be altered.

None of my books fit neatly into the epic fantasy genre. There are no dragons, vampires, elves, or werewolves, no absolute good or evil. I merge elements of philosophy, dystopia, and superhero fantasy with memoirs, adventures, and hostile takeovers by ambitious leaders. I create my own creatures such as the winged scavenger rychan, the forest guardian ketrow, the jungle-dwelling aerfen, and the civilized and fox-like Tenjeri.

The recommended order of reading is as follows:

1. The Abyssal Night (Echoes of Oblivion #1)

2. Shards of Chaos (Echoes of Oblivion #2)

3. The Shattered Veil (Echoes of Oblivion #3)

4. Mayfly Requiem

5. Shadows of Absolution

The Echoes of Oblivion trilogy is the story of two brothers, one whose ambition may destroy the world and the other who has always been caught in a shadow but still searches for a light. Meanwhile, the Geophorians, a culture of priests with superhero-like powers, is being systematically exterminated because of a culture of fear created by the older brother and his ancestors.

Mayfly Requiem is the prequel to the trilogy and reveals several intersecting characters and historical events (the creation of Ganebra, the Mage Wars, and meetings with younger versions of Lucienus, Tordian, and Faraban). It is the confession of a fallen immortal named Lani, a Time Child sent to Malora along with his twin to act as a sentinel for the Elements. Since this book covers 2,500 years of Lani's history, it can be a bit unwieldy, but it is much more manageable when viewed as a series of short stories, each depicting a different era in Lani's life.

Shadows of Absolution takes place about sixty years after The Shattered Veil. It is the story of a young woman who thinks she has nothing left to live for and how the Time Child Bethel helps her find a purpose. I describe it as a post-apocalyptic epic fantasy adventure and occasional coming-of-age love story. The love story aspect is quite unconventional, but I'll let you discover why on your own.

I have three more books in various stages of writing and planning to follow the first five. They make up a loose trilogy spanning 4,500-5,100 years after the original five books and the first should be out in 2013. Each book is told by a different character in three consecutive generations of post-human Malora, now called Melor. The first is told by the glassmaker Arden, the troubled youngest son of Bethel. The second is told by Tesji, an awkward elemental mage on an adventure while his dreams call for destruction. The third is told by the reclusive light mage Zella as Oblivion begins to wake.

The work-in-progress Emergence trilogy is:

1. Sand into Glass

2. The Crystal Lattice

3. Arrow of Entropy

I'll leave you with that for now. My laptop is in need of repair for a loose power jack so I'm about to be briefly sidelined again.

The Web

The Web is the deity hierarchy of the Malora universe. There are fourteen primary Elements and many minor ones. Humans cannot see or interact with most of the Elements, but Tenjeri and some members of the Aulor-descended races can.

A note on Elemental merging: It would seem the Elements are inbred, and in a way, they are. This is often found in world mythology. 

“The Elements of the Web are not people, Velocity,” Verity explained. “They are Elements and merging for them is like creating new colors by blending paints and pigments. Inquisitive child, there is nothing sinister about that when it pertains to the immortal Elements." - from Mayfly Requiem

The Web

Eryagloris (Stars) - One of the center points of the Web, Eryagloris is thought of by Lani as more paternal and caring than the other Elements, possibly because he spends more time watching humans than the others. He manifests as a pale man with indigo hair and eyes. Temple city is Starfall.

Aucra (Time) - Eryagloris' mate is constant and unforgiving. She holds grudges for eternity and occasionally plays games involving mortals. She manifests as a young woman with red hair and gold-flecked blue eyes. Like Lani, her voice is rhythmic and verging on monotonous. She is often seen not as Eryagloris' equal, but above him and at the very center of the Web. Temple city is Meridian.

Omalara (Ocean) - Daughter of Aucra and Eryagloris. She is as turbulent and changing as her element, and can slip from kindly to raging in response to a touch of wind or cloud that is not to her liking. She often chooses to manifest as a water-toned Watersinger. Patron Element of the Mero and all mariners. Temple city is Wavecrest.

Aumua (Desert) - Son of Aucra and Eryagloris. Arden Masiona describes him as "Aumua crept into my mind like lingering sand after a swim in the ocean." Aumua brings a cloud of sand with him wherever he ventures and can transcend space in a similar manner to the Aulor Bethel. He is the patron of glassmakers, and has taken several mortals on as his apprentices. He is the creator of Dunewind and the Vin people, is the co-creator of the Thulan, and has a tenuous alliance with the Marglor (sand spirits). He manifests as a sandy-haired, tan-eyed man who cannot escape his cloud of dust and sand. Temple city is Dunewind.

Rima (Sky) - The androgynous child of Aucra and Eryagloris can become male, female, or anywhere in between depending on mood. Rima manifests as a slight person with long blonde hair and blue eyes. Rima's Kiedran equivalent is Palas. Temple city is Skyspire.

Affaji (Tundra) - Son of Aumua and Omalara. Affaji generally dislikes humans and holds a great hatred for Rassa, but he greatly respects Bethel. He created the Tenjeri and is able to interact with them, and later with the Masai. He employs winged wolves (Grikashk). He manifests as a tall Tenjeri with white hair and silver eyes, and the sound of bells follows him. Temple cities are Northwinds on Malora and Trieskel on Rikulon.

Velatari (Rain) - The son of Rima and Omalara is universally described as "boring" by anyone he has come into contact with. However, he is the focus of the epic poem Sing to Samiaya, the most acclaimed piece of Tenjeri literature in the world. He has been referred to many times in the Malora Series, but has yet to make a physical appearance. Temple city is Palmshore in the southern rainforests of Kira.

Maldalo (Plains) - Also known as "The Lifegiver", Maldalo is the daughter of Aumua and Rima. She is the bringer of the harvest and the patron Element of the nation of Maritor. She manifests as a human woman with golden hair, rich brown skin, and blue eyes, hearkening to the wheat, the soil, and the sky. She often walks the fields of Maritor, unseen by humans. Temple city is Fruithill.

Samiaya (Aurora) - Daughter of Rima and Eryagloris. Samiaya is beautiful, but elusive and inaccessible to many who prefer a warmer climate. She manifests as a teenager with bright, color-shifting hair. Temple city is Icelight.

Aksuvian (Mountains) - Son of Rima and Maldalo. Aksuvian is gruff in manner, but generally harmless unless you venture too close. He manifests as a middle-aged gentleman with gray hair and eyes. Patron Element of the Baku and the Drey. Temple city is Nighthollow.

Faloway (Forest) - Daughter of Maldalo and Velatari, twin to Sepitira. Faloway walks the forest much like Maldalo wanders the plains. She is jealous and unforgiving of those who maim her trees. She harbors a long-standing feud with Affaji. She has not yet made a physical appearance in the Malora Series. She is the patron Element of the Efi. Temple city is Moonhaven.

Sepitira (Wetlands) - Daughter of Maldalo and Velatara, twin to Faloway. Patron Element of the delta country of Anor. She has not appeared in the Malora series. Temple city is Reedwater.

Metalis (Rivers) - Daughter of Aksuvian and Maldalo. Metalis deeply loathes Bethel and advocates his death. She has not yet made a physical appearance in the Malora Series. Temple city is Riverbottom.

Uadiamore (Sound) - Son of Velatari and Samiaya. Uadiamore manifests as a chestnut-haired, dark-eyed young man (not the silver-complected infant depicted in Sing to Samiaya). Like Affaji, the sound of bells follows him. Temple city is Cascades.

Outliers

Paradox - No one is sure where Paradox came from. He is a mate of Rima and has been imprisoned by Aucra for many eons.

Kairen (Metamorphosis) - The androgynous trickster child of Rima and Paradox. Kairen usually manifests as a color-shifting creature vaguely reminiscent of an owl, but has been known to take human form to procreate with humans. Kairen makes a game of influencing people and even Aulors to do things they normally wouldn't. He is often imprisoned by Aucra, but just as often escapes or survives his own execution.

Taiga (Boreal Forest) - Son of Faloway and Affaji. Patron Element of the Masai following his release from Aucra's Elemental prison. Affaji claimed there are over thirty Elements on the Web, but little has been revealed of the outliers beyond the core fourteen.

Sebelra (Oblivion) - The sleeping abyss is the counterpart of Eryagloris and Aucra, the void between the stars. He sleeps on unaware of his own existence while the universe grows and shifts around him. Sebelra is the only thing Aucra truly fears, especially now that he is on the edge of waking from his calm dream world. Bethel long-believed that Oblivion's soul lived in Rassa, but Affaji confirmed Bethel's assumption as an error, so the abyss still sleeps for now. When Oblivion wakes, the universe will know.

Laatulya (Redemption) - this fallen Aulor is the guardian of the Evergreen Abyss, the underworld that receives the souls of the damned upon their deaths. Laatulya appears as a heavily scarred young man in a ragged robe. His physical condition depends on how recently Aucra has repaired him. He is frequently abused by Aucra to the point where many of his senses are stripped away, but his mind is still mostly intact. He is tasked to relive the crimes of the damned along with them, but he has never been very good at his job.

Aspects

Aulors - Time Children, the human-like offspring of Aucra and Eryagloris. They are the sentinels of the Web, sent to the world in human form to watch and interpret between cyclic cataclysms. As of the beginning of Arrow of Entropy, six Aulors have been named. They exist only in pairs, and are biologically immortal, locked in time as young adults.

Morazend - Wind spirits, volatile and vicious. "The Morazend are infinite in number, the zephyrs on the wind. They are the ones who howl through the trees and against the windows during storms. We shall not invoke them either, for they are volatile and wrathful." - from Mayfly Requiem. There is one example in the series of a Morazend soul in human form.

Thulan - The Phoenix is believed to be the offspring of Eryagloris and Aumua. Only one exists at a time and the Thulan can be born into any sentient race. Examples have existed all across history and have been included as characters or referenced in every book of the Malora Series. Upon a great upheaval, altruistic action, or turning of events, the Thulan becomes self-aware and transcends into an elemental form. The Thulan dies in this form and is born again in a new body. The Thulan's primary responsibility is to illuminate the world, either through destruction or through bringing light, depending on what is needed.

Velador - "The Velador are the children of water, a trio of many-fanged creatures concocted by Omalara, Velatari, and Metalis to avenge any who might unjustly fall dead into the waters of the world." - from Mayfly Requiem

Sketchy Sunday

I used to have decent drawing ability, but my movement disorder put an end to it. These are some older sketches I found in the garage. Most of them are characters from The Crystal Lattice. I took photographs of them because the scanner isn't plugged in, so I got some weird glare.

Bralt, the Efi Emergent paladin (The Crystal Lattice)

Lirana, Efi teacher (The Crystal Lattice)

Hrenba, the queen of the Baku (The Crystal Lattice)

  

Safora Nightwolf, the human bard (The Crystal Lattice).

  

Terali, the narrator's infatuation (The Crystal Lattice)

Ravaki Thula, the half-Efi Emergent mage (The Crystal Lattice) 

Kith the Vin Thulan from Sand into Glass. This is a quick sketch I did tonight.

Saruza and Bethel, post-The Shattered Veil. Quick sketch I did tonight.

Emergence

There is so much going on right now! I have a giveaway contest going on Goodreads, I just today approved the paperback of Shadows of Absolution (it was already available in e-book), and my muse is running wild through the first book of the Emergence trilogy! I've been playing around on Pinterest lately, so if you're interested in seeing some of my characters as I see them, check out my Malora board.

So, while you're busy reading Shadows of Absolution, would you like to know what comes next?

I thought this was appropriate, given the title and subject matter of my new trilogy. I made this for my daughter.

The Emergence trilogy takes place approximately 4,500 years after the Echoes of Oblivion trilogy, when Malora has become Melor. The descendants of Aulors have become something other than human. The primary races are humans, Efi (tall forest guardians with lifespans of 500-600 years), Mero (red-haired water dwellers, also long lifespans), Baku (argent-skinned mountain guardians), Toli (tallest race, muscular, coloring is shades of blue and green, live in the southern rainforests), Masai (similar to Tenjeri, live in the boreal forests), and Drey (slight, jewel-toned mountain inhabitants). Magic is rarer than it was in the time of Ganebra, and most mages are very weakly skilled. However, some of the stronger ones have the capability of transcending to become purer forms of their talents. They are known as Emergents, and every Emergent mage was once a student of Bethel Masiona.

Book One is Sand into Glass, the story of Arden Masiona's struggle to overcome his own primal nature. He is the sole non-magical member of the Masiona family and the son of the Aulor Bethel and the Efi Emergent Andra Brier. At the onset of the story, Arden has been arrested by the Drey and is awaiting trial on on murder charge. You'll have to read it to find out how he got to that point. Arden is partially deaf, has mild cerebral palsy, and sustained brain damage as an infant which rendered him unable to fully control his emotions and behavior. I am currently over 20,000 words into this book and have had long conversations with Arden, so there is a huge amount of story ahead.

Book Two is The Crystal Lattice. It is already written, though it will need some tweaks now that it is the center of the trilogy instead of the stand-alone book I originally drafted 9 years ago. Tesji is a young elemental mage, an outcast among the Efi. He was left with his grandfather as a very young child and has little knowledge of his parentage. He finds himself alone when he comes of age, and leaves his home to head the call of the far-off mountains and the sea of Ara. He becomes a student of Bethel Masiona, and later a revolutionary.

Book Three has the working title of Arrow of Entropy, and is currently little but a collection of notes and ideas. Zella Thula is the daughter of Tesji and the narrator of the story. Arrow of Entropy follows Zella's relationship with the Aulor Rassa as the tension initiated by Tesji in The Crystal Lattice culminates in a second transcendence for a major character in the series and a shifting in the cosmic balance when the Web discovers just how vulnerable it really is.

Seeking

This short story is told from the perspective of the equivalent of a five-year old who was born long after the fall of Malora.  Arden Masiona is the youngest child of the Aulor Bethel Masiona, and he is a secondary character in The Crystal Lattice.  I have several stories of Arden's unusual childhood in the Yolane Forest, but this is the only one I've written out in full so far.  Arden's mother was an Efi, a descendant of the original refugees of Efilon.  Efi have long childhoods and lifespans of 500-600 years because of their Aulor blood, but most of them fall to unnatural deaths well before reaching old age. 

Arden Masiona loved living in a hollowed-out tree at the center of the Yolane Forest. Then again, he did not yet know there was any other way for a person to live. Birds lived in nests, foxes lived in dens, badgers lived in burrows, and people lived in trees. The concept of living in a stone or plank house never occurred to him until he was much older.

Arden's tree was ancient and Daddy said he planted it himself. Arden found that confusing. He knew Daddy was old, but it seemed odd for Daddy to be older than the big tree. Daddy was magical, though, so maybe he really was that old.

Mommy used to live in the tree, too, but she was gone now. Arden was sad when he remembered her. She was always there before, but she left one day and never came back. Arden always felt like she left because he wasn't magical enough. She wanted magical children and instead she had ordinary Arden.

Arden was aware from a very early age that he had no magic in him at all. Daddy was something called an Aulor. He had many magical abilities. Most obviously, his coloring changed to match his surroundings. Mommy could change the temperature of anything and make the air hot or cold around her. Mommy tried to teach Arden to do magic. He only became tired and frustrated because he couldn't do what she wanted. She was mad at him sometimes, but now she was gone and Arden wanted nothing more than for her to come back.

Daddy would never leave. He never expected Arden to be anything other than what he was, and Arden knew Daddy loved him even without magic. He thought Mommy loved him too, but he must have been wrong about her. He hoped he wasn't wrong about Daddy.

Daddy was hiding and it was up to Arden to find him. Daddy was the hardest person in the world to find because he changed colors. His hair, skin, and eyes blended in with everything around him until he was almost invisible. It was such a neat trick, and Arden was sad he would never be able to learn it. Magic would have made Arden special, but instead he was ordinary and out of place his own family.

Radish followed Arden and he thought she was funny. There were lots of cats at home, but Radish was the only one who was his and not Daddy's. She was very fluffy and had yellow eyes and gray stripes. She always slept on his pillow at night, even when he didn't want her to. Every time Arden turned around, Radish was either not moving or was lazily licking her paw, so she must have only moved when he wasn't looking. She was sneaky and it made him giggle.

“Where do you think Daddy is?” Arden asked the cat after he unsuccessfully searched both the fallen oak and the little wooden bridge over the icy creek.

Radish squeaked at him. Arden wished he spoke cat, because she had just told him exactly where Daddy was hiding. If he spoke cat, he would know so many things and he could talk to Radish and the other cats.

Arden sighed and scratched at his hair. “Radish,” he said as sternly as possible. He put his hands on his hips and shook his head at her. “You are no help. No help at all. Go home, Radish!”

She tilted her head to the left and stared at him with her yellow eyes. Her tail swished as she watched a little brown moth fly far above her head.

“Don't eat moths, it's not nice,” Arden cautioned. Cats ate nasty things like birds and mice. Sometimes they left dead voles in Arden's shoes. Daddy said they were presents, but Arden thought they were gross and the cats were mean to do such a thing.

Arden skipped away from the creek and walked back toward the tree house. The air smelled like fresh bread, so maybe Daddy was hiding in the kitchen. Arden ran down the cobblestone walkway and swung open the front door. To the right was the spiraling staircase that led up to his bedroom, and to the left was the kitchen and the smell of bread. Radish ran past him into the kitchen. Arden tiptoed behind her. A steaming loaf of bread sat on the table, but Daddy was nowhere to be found. He was there recently, though. Arden squinted in the bright afternoon light to try to make out Daddy's shape against the counters.

Radish jumped on the windowsill and yawned. Daddy was definitely not in the kitchen, and Arden doubted he was in the house at all. He had to be outside. There were more places to hide outside than inside.

Radish trotted at Arden's heels as he left the house. Above his head, lofty branches creaked in the gentle breeze. The great and wonderful trees seemed to speak to each other. The Yolane Forest was so exciting that Arden hardly ever wished to see anywhere else. There was too much left to discover in the forest to think about other places like the ocean. the cities, or even the huge mountains on the eastern skyline. Everything in Yolane was magical except for Arden, and he didn't mind as long as Daddy didn't.

Arden carefully crossed the archery range. He was not supposed to be in the range, but there was no one around and it was the fastest way to get to the garden. Maybe when he was bigger he would be allowed to shoot the arrows too, but for now he was too little to even draw back the bow string. He had be content for now with the little wooden swords Daddy taught him to spar with.

The garden was overflowing with wonderful things. Rows and rows of colorful vegetables made Arden's stomach grumble. His favorites were the pumpkins, but they would not be ready for a long time, so he grabbed a handful of green beans instead. He snapped the beans with his teeth and swallowed them quickly. A small grove of peach trees stood at the other end of the garden. Arden was afraid to go there alone after seeing a particularly angry-looking fox scouring the blackberries beneath the peaches a month earlier.

Bored Radish stretched and yawned. Arden decided Daddy must not be in the garden after all. He ran back across the archery range and through the back door of the tree. He returned to the kitchen. A bowl of strawberries had joined the bread on the table. Arden grinned widely and his mouth watered. He wanted to eat the food, but he had to find Daddy first. It would only be polite to eat with him, after all.

Radish jumped up the spiral stairs and Arden followed her into the higher levels of the tree. There was no one in the study, or the bedrooms, or anywhere else. Daddy wasn't anywhere! Maybe he tricked Arden and left like Mommy did. Maybe Arden was all alone in the world with no one to look after him and no one to look after except for Radish.

Arden ran down into the kitchen and sat at the table. Radish furiously rubbed against his ankles as he leaned on his hands. Tears welled in his eyes. There was no one in the house and he was frightened.

“Everyone has left me, Radish!” Arden cried. Maybe if he cried loud enough, Daddy would hear him and come back. “Mommy went away and Grasshopper Kitty died, and now Daddy disappeared. I have no magic and no one wants me!”

Radish nipped Arden's ankle and he yelped. The bite did not hurt, but it did surprise him. He sniffled and the sound he made was not quite loud enough to cover up the shuffling noise behind him.

“Daddy?” Arden asked nervously. He jumped from his chair and turned around. The faint outline of a hand crept around the pantry door frame. Arden bounded towards the door and threw his arms around Daddy's waist.

“Found you!” Arden shouted. Daddy put one hand on Arden's shoulder and ran his fingers through Arden's hair.

“You don't have to have magic to be magic, my Arden,” Daddy said. His low, soft voice always reminded Arden of the talking trees of Yolane. “You're mine and that is all the magic you will ever need.”

“I thought you ran away like Mommy did,” Arden whispered, clinging to Daddy's side.

“Mommy will be back next week. I'll never run away from you. Do you know why we play this game?”

“No, why?” Arden asked. He looked up at his father's face, which was golden brown against the wood of the kitchen. Daddy was green if he was outside in the grass and black at night, but inside the house he was usually brown. It didn't matter, as Arden was comfortable with him no matter what he looked like.

“Because I want you to learn that even if you can't always see me, I will always be there for you,” Daddy explained. He smiled warmly and his white teeth lit up his face. “You will never really be alone even if we are separated by distance. Sometimes you have to look hard to find me, but I will be there when you need me.”

“Can we eat the bread and the strawberries now?” Arden asked. He tried to make sense of Daddy's words, but he couldn't really understand them. Maybe when he was older he would, but for now he was happy that Daddy hadn't run away from him like Mommy had. Daddy was the only family in the whole world who wanted to be with him and he was happy Daddy promised never to go away.

“Of course!” Daddy said. He took Arden by the hand and they sat at the table to enjoy warm bread and fresh-picked berries.