Behind the Scalpel #1 - Our WIP

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Hey there, traveller!

So, this is a new section coming out every wednesday-ish (we'll see). About what, you may ask? Well, it is no secret that we are currently working hard on the first book of a five part fantasy series and we are really determined to publish it as soon as we feel it's ready.
That, my friends, is an arduous journey, full of terrors. Sometimes we cry laughing, sometimes just cry, other times things somehow move forward. Behind the Scalpel (or BtS just to confuse K-POP fans; oooor, as I originally wanted to call it: Tales of Woe and more Woe, but it’s not a really encouraging title, is it?) is a weekly segment about our work, the process of publishing your own novel, juggling a PhD and med school with writing and the advices and bullshit we found along the way. All this covered up in sarcasm and dark humour, because life is only bareable if you find your own misery funny.

For the first occasion, I'd like you to meet our WIP. I saw that there is a format for this but I couldn't find it again for the life of me, so I just made up my own for easy of reading.


(This is a working cover, we’ll still experimenting but you can and should tell me your opinion. Even if it sucks. Especially if it sucks.)

Title: The series is called Spirits of Seiran, and we named the first book Shackles of the Storm. 

Genre: You may call it new adult since there's a lot of topics concerning early 20-somethings, but we'd much rather stick with Epic Desert Fantasy (sounds metal, eh?). If there’s Blazing Desert Metal - looking at you Myrath -, then Epic Desert Fantasy is a thing. Bite me.


Summary: Okay, so the story’s about a murder conspiracy in the fictional portside desert city of Kahlaran. A young girl named Zaira is accused of killing the city's treasurer and although she manages to flee, soldiers imprison her foster father along with the single officer that tried to help them. Pissed off about this Zaira teams up with a local hearttrob mercenary who happens to be the officer's nephew, as well as an undercover magician girl hiding in a brothel to reveal the real murderer and outplay the enemy who tried to frame them. There's only one problem - that enemy is not human, and neither is Zaira. They are both djinn, magical spirits born from the elements themselves, imprisoned in flesh and bone bodies. If you want the fancy version, here's the synopsis:

"Tales tell of the ancient djinn, the spirits of fire, water and air. They walk among us in human shape, imprisoned in flesh and bone.
Zaira is one of these spirits, spending her days as a perfumer's adopted daughter without magic, power or hope. At last, even peace is taken from her when she's accused of murder and forced to  clear her name or face certain execution.
While running from the unjust sentence, she finds unlikely allies in a hot-headed young mercenary and a crippled enchantress, and it will require all their combined wits to stand against their enemy - be that man or djinn.
Will their new bonds of friendship and love aid them in this battle, or are they destined to scatter in the storm..."

State: Okay, that's an interesting point. We've written book one and two in our native tongue. That's right, neither of us speaks the Queen's from birth, we just learned it like most of the world. That will not stop us however to publish our book-baby in english for everyone to enjoy, so we used all kinds of magic and services to self-translate the first book. Having said that, as of writing this post we're 90% done with the translation but that's equivalent to the first draft (meaning it's still bad). As soon as we're done, we'll jump right into line and copy editing, then follow the drill.

Length: As of now, the book stands between 140-150k words for the first draft. Since there's still a lot of "very" and many unneccesary adverbs, I hope it will shrink to around 110-120k.

That is for today I think. If there's anything that makes you interested, let me know! Want to know more about the book? Wanna know how we put the world together? What were the most usefull and most bullshit advices we got along the way? Anything else you're excited about or think is dumb and I should explain myself? Throw a comment or DM and I shall remove your liver (or is it deliver? I always mix those up.)

Cheers,
Dar

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