It began with an image in my sophomore year of high school: a great warrior on the prow of a ship, staring over the horizon…
Meanwhile my sister was complaining about ‘female warrior’ tropes… characters in modern literature who might as well be men with different bodies for all stories explored their personalities.
I started thinking… what if I subverted that trope? What if there was a fantasy heroine, wielder of terrible magic powers, feared and loved across the land, the warrior-savior of her people? And what if she wanted none of it? None of the legendary status, the tales whispered around campfires, the burden of thousands of lives under her command? What if all she wanted was to retire in humble obscurity?
But she of course, she can’t. Because fierce invaders are swarming over the northern provinces with their arboreal magic. Because her nefarious half-brother seeks to take the throne and rule with an iron fist. Because as much as she tells herself she hates fighting and doesn’t care about glory, deep down her identity is so intertwined with the heroic role thrust upon her that she doesn’t know who she’d be without it.
And so I created Keylori Shan. I gave her a sassy talking sword whose banter hides a disastrous secret. I gave her a friend, an older, wiser woman whom she could confide in. But my original draft revealed that the friend was too boring, so the friend got a husband— a dead husband. A husband whom she has a faint hope of resurrecting. She’ll do anything to bring him back— even betray Keylori.
The stage was set for a sprawling tale of valor and vengeance, betrayal and redemption. And that is what I wrote. The second draft took about six months of chaining myself to the desk nearly every day, but I got it done. In June 2020, I wrote 'the end' on a 140,000 word draft, making The Lore of Yore my greatest writing accomplishment so far.
I put it through another round of revisions in November 2020, and in Spring 2021 began the very early stages of outlining the second book in the series.
If you're willing to put a little time and effort into beta reading The Lore of Yore, email me at [email protected] and I'll give you access to the first part.
Meanwhile my sister was complaining about ‘female warrior’ tropes… characters in modern literature who might as well be men with different bodies for all stories explored their personalities.
I started thinking… what if I subverted that trope? What if there was a fantasy heroine, wielder of terrible magic powers, feared and loved across the land, the warrior-savior of her people? And what if she wanted none of it? None of the legendary status, the tales whispered around campfires, the burden of thousands of lives under her command? What if all she wanted was to retire in humble obscurity?
But she of course, she can’t. Because fierce invaders are swarming over the northern provinces with their arboreal magic. Because her nefarious half-brother seeks to take the throne and rule with an iron fist. Because as much as she tells herself she hates fighting and doesn’t care about glory, deep down her identity is so intertwined with the heroic role thrust upon her that she doesn’t know who she’d be without it.
And so I created Keylori Shan. I gave her a sassy talking sword whose banter hides a disastrous secret. I gave her a friend, an older, wiser woman whom she could confide in. But my original draft revealed that the friend was too boring, so the friend got a husband— a dead husband. A husband whom she has a faint hope of resurrecting. She’ll do anything to bring him back— even betray Keylori.
The stage was set for a sprawling tale of valor and vengeance, betrayal and redemption. And that is what I wrote. The second draft took about six months of chaining myself to the desk nearly every day, but I got it done. In June 2020, I wrote 'the end' on a 140,000 word draft, making The Lore of Yore my greatest writing accomplishment so far.
I put it through another round of revisions in November 2020, and in Spring 2021 began the very early stages of outlining the second book in the series.
If you're willing to put a little time and effort into beta reading The Lore of Yore, email me at [email protected] and I'll give you access to the first part.