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I am terrible at keeping up with posting due to my overfilled schedule and burned out brain. Today, I am lucky to have a lot of unexpected absences in my teaching schedule, allowing me the time to quickly sit down and write this.
So, what's new?
Some of you may have noticed my new logo! I must have spent at least one week straight slaving over this. I came up with endless designs and pestered friends and relatives to give their feedback on them. I wanted to make it open to other genres rather than fixed just in fantasy so even though many designs featured a fairy or a small dragon, I ended up going with the good quill. During its creation, I searched some other fantasy authors logos to see what they were up to and discovered how cool Leigh Bardugo's website and logo is. If you haven't checked her out yet have a look. I think I have developed a new author crush(first R. L. Stine, second S. E. Hinton, third William Goldman RIP :( and fourth J.K. Rowling). I wasn't the biggest fan of Bardugo's work, but I think I want to give it a second chance after checking out her website and media platforms. BTW - Stephanie Meyers website is nothing like I'd expected it to be. It's kinda weird... So check that one out!
Anyway...
William Goldman passed away. I heard about this while at Busan Book Con and was obviously saddened by the news. For those unfamiliar with his work, he is the fabulous creator of The Princess Bride, my favorite novel. So I would like to just take a moment in this blog to pay my respects to him. Thank you William Goldman for your talent and contributions to the creative world. Without you, we wouldn't have this lovely couple:
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE FAELTI!!
November 30th (that's today!!) is the one year book birthday of The Faelti! Yey!! Hard to believe.
To celebrate I am giving away signed paperback copies of The Watcher of the Night Sky and The Faelti. Please watch out for the shout out link to the competition page - it should come to your inbox in early December - and feel free to share the newsletter or link of the competition with your friends or on social media!
As you know I had such a busy November between blog tours, a physical book event, NaNoWriMo, trying to have a social life and all the while working full-time. I was barely able to keep up with social media. NaNoWriMo was a bust. I didn't even hit half of the word count :(. But I aim to continue on and get the manuscript first draft done by the end of this year. Trouble is, I've realised that if I pressure myself too much, I get too uptight and stressed. So while I have a personal deadline, I will follow it loosely or risk forming a dislike for writing.
Busan Book Con was pretty fun. You can see the pictures on my Instagram here. My friend and I went down on Saturday, spent the day celebrating the release of Fantastic Beasts by going to see the movie followed by a trip to a Harry Potter themed cafe down there. We heard there was also one in Hongdae and aim to check that out later :D. On Sunday we went to the Book Con venue and set up. It was the first time for me to try to "sell" my book verbally. I spend so much time behind the computer talking to bloggers or reviewers or readers that I didn't have much experience doing it physically. Once I started talking about the premise of the story, I began to realise how complicated it was to do so. I was glad that the visitors to my table asked me lots of questions about my world and characters and creatures. It helped remind me of how much I had put into the story.
So today, I thought I would share some deeper information about the creatures in my book series, and I hope you enjoy reading about them. Anyone who has read the series will know some of this information already. And anyone who followed my blog tour last month may have seen this posted on some book blogger's site.
The Watcher of the Night Sky (part one of the Aronia Series) and The Faelti (part two) are set in a fantasy land called Aronia. There are many kinds of fantasy creatures in Aronia, some of which readers are all too familiar with, such as dwarves, pyskes, and fae. When creating my version of the fae, my original thought was to combine elves and elemental powers. But I wanted to write about creatures I hadn’t read much about, and since elves were overdone, I looked further into mythical creatures and found interest in the fae.
The fae are the most beautiful beings to live in Aronia. They have the ability to decrease in size, to around nine inches tall, and have wings that are only present through choice. The wings have an elemental association, which means that their appearance matches their power. There are three different fae tribes. Members of the Tuuli tribe can manipulate the weather; members of the Maa tribe can manipulate the earth, and members of the Vesi tribe can influence the water. Independently, a fae’s power is quite weak. As a group, they become alarmingly powerful.
The fae live in isolation in Aaravale, the largest island of the Kelluva Isles. While researching and brainstorming fae and elementals, I considered what I’d learned about human culture and behavior. Fears of the unknown and peculiar. I drew on my studies in psychology and my own experiences as a foreigner in Korea to develop their aversion and fears of others and thus came their detest of the fire manipulators and their labeling them as faelti.
The word faelti means corrupted or one that abandons in Kieli, the language of Aaravale. The development of this ability is seen as a curse from Mother Nature by the fae. They won’t acknowledge any possibility that the ability is natural. But there is always a chance that a fae infant will develop the ability to manipulate fire. The fae detest this ability so if it becomes evident, the child is rejected by society, hunted down and killed. Some have been lucky to escape and flee to mainland Aronia.
The faelti, like the fae, are among the most beautiful beings in Aronia. One of the biggest differences between the fae and the faelti is that the faelti have incredible blue eyes described as a rainbow of blues. Their elemental power is to manipulate fire (palo in Kieli), but it has to be present for them to do so. Although their wings have the appearance of fire, they are like an illusion and cannot be manipulated.
Another creature connected to the fae and faelti is the sudenkorento. They are a product of my moving to South Korea and seeing dragonflies for the first time. I lived in a countryside town, and so I was utterly astounded by the number of dragonflies there. Every day I was dodging them on my way to work and I was fascinated by the way they flew. Just seeing them while having the story in my mind was enough to join the two together and create the species.
The sudenkorento are a mix between dragons and dragonflies and are so named using the language Kieli, which is the language of the fae. Each of the fae have their own sudenkorento - a gift given to them upon the birth of their powers. They are a sacred creature, considered similar to a brother in status. The sudenkorento can shrink in size as well as engorge to a size large enough to be ridden. They have a similar appearance to dragonflies, though look more aggressive, and come in a variety of colours and designs.
Well, that's all for now. If there is anything you want to ask or hear about don't hesitate to contact me. Until then...
Stay Gold
Love, Rachel