Dispatch #14: How I Spent My Summer Vacation ¬‿¬
Plus Updates About The Book, Including The Opening Sentence!
Greetings!
Welcome to The Known World, where I post about my forthcoming book, The Other Side Of The Sun.
Today’s Topic: Where The Hell Has Barry Been?
I have a couple of things to share with you about the book and where things stand, but first, I want to share a few pics from this past summer.
I also spent lots of time over the summer delving into generative artificial intelligence far beyond just creating cool artwork (thanks to Google for letting me into a beta program they’ve been doing), and I also taught myself how to do better graphic design. I still can’t draw a stick figure with a pencil, but now I can draw things better than previously with a computer. I might even be able to sketch my characters before long… maybe.
So it’s been a nice summer for Yours Truly, both recreative and productive in a 1st year retiree kind of way. I’m tanned and I’m rested, and all is well. :-) I hope this is case for you wherever you may be.
Now… on to the book!
The Book - What’s Happening?
Plot Hole Interdiction
The biggest thing blocking me from writing my story up until now has been a big plot hole that was revealed to me in my book’s back story. A friend of mine, who knows more about the story than most folks do, pointed it out to me back in late May, and it sort of stopped everything. Much of my beachy summer was spent pondering how to overcome said plot hole without having to start over.
What is a plot hole you might ask? As Wikipedia defines it:
In fiction, a plot hole, plothole or plot error is a gap or inconsistency in a storyline that goes against the flow of logic established by the story's plot. Plot holes are usually created unintentionally, often as a result of editing or the writers simply forgetting that a new event would contradict previous events.
Here’s a good example of an existing “plot hole”… At the end of the Lord of the Rings story The Return of the King, after destroying the One Ring, Frodo Baggins and Samwise Gamgee are rescued from Mordor by the giant eagles. Some readers have argued that the eagles could have simply flown the Ring to Mount Doom themselves without being corrupted by the Ring or seen by Sauron's all-seeing eye, and thus Frodo and Samwise would not have needed to undertake their epic journey in the first place.
When you look at it that way, an 1800 page novel trilogy could’ve been turned into a 50 page short story.
Well the good news is, while I was away on my summer vacay, I figured out how to solve the plot hole without starting over. Problem solved (I hope…).
Who Will Be My Hero?
The 2nd issue I’m contending with is, which character should be my main protagonist?
You’ve met pretty much all of the contenders:
Rêvin Telkirk, my original protagonist, whose parents are in fact adopted parents and his true parents remain hidden for a reason;
Lysela Angbroda, Rêvin’s friend and kinda-sorta-would-be love interest, who starts out as an unfree landed peasant seeking to become free;
Brin Angbroda, Lysela’s twin brother, a highly conflicted would-be mage being pulled to the dark side;
Prya Atma, also a mage apprentice who will meet tragedy early on in the story and struggle to recover from it; and
Alya Kronar, a master ranger in her early 30s, and Lysela’s mentor, who left behind a life as a privileged lady to become her own person beholden to no one like her uncle.
As I said, Rêvin is my original protagonist and could still be so. But having sketched out the other 4 characters and shared them with others (including you folks), I’m considering placing one of them out front instead.
I’m currently more inclined to make the story less centered on Rêvin and turning it into more of an ensemble cast story, where all 5 of these characters - along with Kryd the Archmage and Sî the Dandiprat, and Band of Five member Modo Rostar - would get their turn in the spotlight.
Decisions, decisions…
The Map
The Map [very big PDF] of the Meldûn Borderlands - the setting where the book will take place - is still in the final 1% stage of development. It will be getting more of my attention this month, now that I’ve brushed up on my Inkscape skills quite a bit compared to when I first shared it with you just before Memorial Day weekend.
The Book Cover
It’s going to be redrawn. More on that later.
Plus: The Opening Sentence
I’ve already written most of the opening chapter, but here’s the opening sentence:
Once upon a time, many years from now, there since lived a great Archmage by the name of Kryd.
Once the opening chapter is done I think I’ll definitely post it here for subscribers.
What’s Next?
As mentioned in May, I’m not going to force myself to put out a weekly update, as this will delay my ability to work on the story. I was starting to spend more time creating content for the Substack than I was for the book, which isn’t a productive way to go about writing a book.
Having said that, I would like to share more stuff with you about characters and setting. So in coming weeks I’ll probably push out more things along those lines.
Conclusion
That’s it for today! I hope you enjoyed reading this Dispatch!
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Until next time, thanks for reading!
— B.E. Turpin
Some but not all images displayed were created using Midjourney AI.