Current mood:	optimistic
Current music:	Nightwish - 'Amaranth'

The Phoenix Rises...
What a difference a few weeks makes. 

Just over a month ago I had no story and no characters. I had snippets of history and background, as well as a lot of ideas, but nothing really substantial. I said in my last journal entry that I hoped to spend my holiday in France working everything out, so I could begin writing when I got back. 

I didn't get everything worked out. I did however manage to get all of the history and background down. When it came to the plot, I hit a brick wall. I realised I had three different storylines and absolutely no idea how to tie them together. The longer I spent trying to work it out, the more annoyed I got with the whole thing. I felt like I had a bag of pearls and no drawstring to keep them all together, so they just kept spilling out. It was pretty frustrating. I spent the last week or so of the holiday wrestling with the problem, and then the next two weeks after I got home. 

One of the main difficulties I encountered was the way every time I thought I'd solved a problem, two more would pop up in its place. At times I felt I would have more luck trying to find Bigfoot than sort out these multiple plotlines. Now however, it's finally sorted. I think. As far as I can tell, everything that needs to be worked out at this point is more or less worked out; I know what basically is going to happen, who the characters are and what they want to achieve. It's all a bit more complex than I'd anticipated, but now it all seems to fit together quite nicely. Of course I don't know everything that happens and there are some questions that at some point will need to be answered, but they can wait. It might be easier to answer these questions once I've got a few thousand words into the novel. 

So, how much resemblance does this new project have to my old one, The Ashes of Autumn? Well, quite a lot has survived. The idea of the leylines and the power that flows along them is still crucial to the plot, the centuries-old blood feud between the Phaeron and Ghalgarith is present and correct, and there is still a storyline that focuses on dark goings-on in a city. Much has changed however. A lot of the action takes part in Remgarde, a sub-arctic land, rather than the old setting of Runevia. The remainder takes part in the city of Ember, which I've spent a lot of time developing and am quite pleased with. 

The novel itself focuses on the clans of Remgarde, who have united after years of infighting and are now launching a large offensive against the Emberans (the settlers from the city of Ember) who have colonised the southern reaches of Remgarde, looking to exploit the natural mineral wealth of the region. Lukan Gardova, on the run from the ghosts of his past, finds himself (not for the first time) in the wrong place at the wrong time. Caught up in the struggle, he finds himself forming an uneasy alliance with a band of renegade clansman who claim that the clans are being used merely as pawns in an even more deadly game. After throwing in his lot with the renegades, Lukan finds himself undertaking a desperate search for the truth, a search that will force him to face the terrors and dangers of the frozen tundra. A search that will reveal a horrifying truth...

Meanwhile, to the south, there is hysteria in the City of Ember. A strange cult has arisen and, seemingly with the support of one of the Emberlords, has started a witchhunt, burning dozens of citizens at the stake. Osuran, a young officer in Ember's army, finds himself in the midst of this hysteria when he visits his uncle, only to find him murdered, and a word etched on the floor in his uncle's blood. Before long both the city guards and the cult are on his tail, both for very different reasons. The guards think he murdered his uncle, the cult believe he knows a secret that they must discover at all costs... Finding himself cornered by the cult, Osuran is resuced by Channa Kharnos. Together they must uncover a trail of clues in search of a centuries-old journal, risking the dangers of the city as their enemies gather around them...

While the war rages in the north, while Lukan embarks on his journey and Channa and Osuran hunt for their journal, a hidden power watches and waits...knowing its time will come. 

BOOM. The above is a very basic overview of what the story is about. I could go into more detail but it would take far too long. In any case, going into more detail is exactly what I'll be doing over the coming months anyway, as I actually get round to writing the damn thing. I have to say, I am excited about this one. Of all the projects I've undertaken this is easily the one with the most potential. I think I've managed to build a world and a plot with many interesting opportunities, but only time will tell. 

Tomorrow it all kicks off, when the writing starts. This is what I've been building up to since I put the Ashes of Autumn on hold earlier this year. Tomorrow's job is the prologue. I'm going to be using the old Ashes prologue, but with a few alterations. Hopefully I'll get that nailed tomorrow night, which would be a good start. 

I'll be posting much more frequently over the coming weeks and months as I (hopefully) progress further. My posts (again hopefully) will be a bit shorter than this one...

So, here's to new adventures.