Of Builders and Books
Replanning and reshaping my next story, Rhean
Hey! Have your best laid plans ever gone awry?
I imagine if we’re all either mice or men, then that’s likely to be true. If you’re anything like me, it’s been true many times.
The latest wrench in the road comes from an unexpected update from Buildspace. The new season isn’t starting now and is scheduled for sometime in the summer.
I already had a new idea brewing so I think I’ll keep moving forward with it, but it is a little disappointing to lose that motivation, support, and community.
So, the long and short of it is that I’m going to keep working on Rhean, my new fantasy adventure set in the world of Maneus.
Old Runes
Moving away from the original concept, I wanted to transform my vague idea—a short collection of pieces of prose—into a complete novel. That took me to interesting places. The first step was adding a character, someone to tell the story in first person as a new perspective. That became Rhean, the protagonist and namesake of the book.
She was then the catalyst I needed to change so much more. Rather than a bit of a side story, I now have a full-on prequel of sorts. The character Rhean evolved from a simple “watcher” or “Tom Bombadil” enigmatic persona into a counterpart to the mysterious and magical Aubir.
A lot of the loose ends and questionable MacGuffins found in Maneus will be given context and catharsis in Rhean. All while maintaining the texture of a complete story for those who never read Maneus.
I’m also using this as a chance to try to combine more commercially successful book storytelling with my own ideas. A very clear plot in the mapped out adventure and an introduction starting in media res—we begin somewhere in the middle with some action and questions about how we got there.
As a part of the hype around Buildspace, I was also preparing a few images with my sister Molly. They turned out great and really captured the re-contextualization and dark themes central to the book.
For those who know Maneus, there’s a thorny villainous question that needs to be addressed. I take that challenge head on with the hero being obvious, but using colors and iconography more often than not used for evilness.
Query Letters
I’m still writing at the moment so I won’t dig too deep into the details, but suffice to say I’m excited about where the story will go.
With some of the steps going awry, I needed to update my plan. I was already hesitant about doing everything like I did before, and I think this gives me time to try something else.
In clearer words, I’m going to try getting an agent for this book and if I can’t by the time Buildspace starts over the summer, I’ll release it like I did Maneus and Besnowed as a part of the big event.
In the meantime, if any of you out there know someone in the literary industry, and if that someone is looking for a straightforward fantasy adventure starring a strong heroine who carries a big sword—with the text itself including some of my signature twisted flavors—I’d truly appreciate your help!
Until next time.
Cheers,
JMB