Dissecting Literature

  Art by Robson Michel Hey there, travelers! It's Wednesday again, so I once again immersed myself into my newest book baby (really early in gestation), called After The Gods (at least for now). I just realized you can't read Wattpad without registering (it should have been obvious, I'm really sorry) so I decided to put the finished texts up onto the blog as well, so you can all read it and I'll make sure to include links in these posts as well. You can find the first chapter here: Chapter 1  If you're unfamiliar with the project or this series, I'll leave a link to last week's introduction here: link But for those who'd skip it, here's a tl;dr version: I decided to write a WIP and document my progress from the inception till the finishing moments of the first draft. Since I'm a proud pantser, this is as much a discovery for me than it is for you, and I thought I'll let you inside my mind to see how I shape a story. What I knew so far was t...

  1. A relic from the past Asgeir heard the first thud well before the fog crept in, yet he chose to disregard it. He thought it superstition, one of the many shadows plagueing every soul since the serpent’s rise. There was no reason for him to abandon this field so ripe with the remains of a bloody battle. Shattered spears, torn shields and dented blades lay everywhere Asgeir could see, some of which could still fetch him a day’s rations in the Nook. He couldn’t understand why people clung to these rusted mementos, but they did. They sought some salvation from the blunt axes and bent bows, a spark of hope hiding withing these weapons. A chance to fight the terrors that befell humanity. The next thud was louder and more clear, and when Asgeir raised his head, the blood froze in his veins. The horrid figure emerged from the milky mist and trampled on several half-eaten corpses while turning its blind sockets towards Asgeir’s racing heart. It was larger then the tales told, standing ...

  Hey there, travelers!   As we promised last week, today I shall take over the post to come to the defense of the whole werewolf thing. If we go back to last weeks debate about the Underworld factions, I always sided with the werewolves (and only partially because the vampires were jerks in comparison). Why? Well, I think the myth has a large selection of really cool qualities that could serve as the backbone of a story, be it as an overall theme or a specific crux. 1. The savagery Okay, I think we can all agree wolves are scary as shit. The earliest appearances in fiction were almost entirely horror stories and the iconic werewolf adversary in any spooky medium still gives us the creeps. In my understanding, this is because their savage and predatory nature. They have an instinct to hunt, to claim territory and devour anything that sets foot inside. Although modern zoology tends to show these noble beasts in a much friendlier light, older horror fiction kept to the jui...

  (Work in progress cover, the background art is by Klaus Pillon) "Asgeir survived the Serpent's rise. He heard the thundering sound of Gjallarhorn, he saw the moon and starts devoured by wolves of the night, yet somehow he kept on living among the broken remains of what was once the kingdom of Midgard. Scavenging weapons for those who still wish to fight, Asgeir is almost killed in a chance encounter and the only thing saving him is a perculiar spear etched with runes and harboring some great power - Gungnir, the spear of the Allfather himself.  Together with a cursed halfbreed and a malicious witch, the young warrior sets out to use Gungnir's power against the Nameless God and the new rulers of Aesgard, taking revenge for the devastation Ragnarök caused." Hey there, travelers! First of all, I should apologize for the thinning number of posts here. I assure you this is not a trend, we'll catch up with ourselves, but there's a couple of things going on right n...

Werewolves are a debate between me and Darr. I was never a fan of wolves. I like all animals including dogs, but I’m a cat person and I never understood the fuss about wolves in any medium. When I was a teenage goth girl I too had plenty of wolf-stuff: T-shirts, bags, badges, but when I had to choose a side in the lycan-vampire war–the Underworld movie was very popular back then–,  I always sided with vampires. They were elegant and stylish, while the others... But I don’t want to hurt anyone's feelings. Then Twilight came and the avalanche of vampire and werewolf paranormal romances was unstoppable. If someone can ever tell me what is sexy in werewolves feel free to DM me because I don’t think, that all those who read and write these shapeshifter romances have hidden bestiality fetish. I guess it has something to do with the “fated-mates” thing that is slowly becoming a trope (or we passed that and it’s already a cliché), but I’m still not sure about this. But just because I don’t...

Hey there, traveler! It's excerpt madness , especially since I've just finished the self-editing of our second english draft. To celebrate, I'd like you to meet a yet unknown but very important character, championing the political subplot within our desert fantasy WIP, Shackles of the Storm. He's Kherim, younger brother to the prince, commander in chief (or as they call it, the qrahr) of Kahlaran and according to one of our betas, a character with bick dick energy. Enjoy! The Qrahr ~:O:~ Kherim turned a corner and walked by the shady traders populating every inch of the roadside. They were an interesting bunch, somewhere between charlatans and beggars.  Some of them were selling fake jewelry or miracle ointments, while others sold more dangerous things that needed no advertising, if people knew what they were looking for.  Kherim stopped, squatted down in front of a man, and gently picked up a small vial of translucent liquid. “What did we agree on, Jashmid?” he asked, ...