Dispatch #16: Time To Share Stories
Wherein I Decide To Damn The Torpedoes And Start Sharing Story Content With You, The Reader
Greetings!
Welcome to The Known World, where I post about my forthcoming book, The Other Side Of The Sun, amongst other things.
Today’s Topic: Telling More Than One Story
Let’s cut to the chase.
My plans to write a book have congealed into many stories, not just one. I have lots of stories to tell, and this has complicated things a bit.
The Problem: Too Many Stories, Too Little Time
These 3 storylines have been my biggest focus so far:
The story of Rêvin Morel and his friends the Band of Five. Rêvin is a teenaged freeman who has lived a somewhat normal life in the Meldûn Borderlands, but whose parents are not really his parents. Both sets of parents - both visible and hidden - have and will continue to influence his fate, whether he likes it or not. (BTW disregard the picture of him shown in his first introduction, he’s getting a makeover.) This was the original story I was going to tell, dating back to late 2022.
The story of Navi Atma, a twentysomething daughter of merchants who becomes an adventuress aboard the intrepid Cloud Ship NŜ Wayfarer. Navi and the whole Cloud Ship thing give me a great opportunity to delve into a sort of Renaissance-meets-Steampunk milieu. This story came to me in February 2023 and I like it to much to set it aside.
The origin story of Kryd the Archmage, a man who is hundreds of years old, who has a way of turning up in the right places at the right time… but it was not always thus for him. Before becoming a powerful Archmage, Kryd was something of a Space Cowboy, and I’d like to explore his journey between the two. Kryd has been a backstory to tell since about 2004.
But there are numerous other story threads to share as well. Some tie in with the above named 3 stories, while others not so much, or not at all.
Examples include:
The story of the twins Brin and Lysela Angbroda, Rêvin’s friends and fellow Band of Five members, who hail from an extended family of unfree peasant folk and aspire to be free and unbound. They share the same origins and same desires, but follow different paths.
The story of Modo Rostar and his father Medrik Rostar. Modo was born in Meldûn, but his forefathers hail from the faraway southern Alako Islands. I’ve always been interested in the stories of immigrant families and how they adapt to life in new places.
The story of Prya Atma, Kryd’s latest apprentice. She too hails from a migrant family - a very successful family of mercantile folk, whose matriarch Dypa Atma btw is a very exceptional individual indeed. Prya is a nice young lady, but faces considerable adversity going forward that will test her and her family.
The story of Alia Kronar, a thirtysomething scioness of a landed clan who abandoned her place of privilege to become a master Ranger, living exactly the free life Lysela aspires to. It hasn’t been easy for her over the years. Alia has seen her share of tragedy and she’s generally estranged from her father and the core of her clan. She deals with it, though.
The story of Jador Kronar, Alia’s aging uncle and mentor, who prefers to stay out of the affairs of the world around him but still occasionally finds himself pulled into various maelstroms. He’s not getting any younger though, and he’s having to cope with his own limitations and mortality.
There’s also the backstory about Sî the Dandiprat, Alia’s demihuman sidekick. He’s a bit of a different sort of fellow, and not just as comedy relief - in short, he’s something of a freak among his own people, and something of a curiosity to humans. At least Alia accepts him as he is.
I should also mention there’s the stories of two demihuman friends of Kryd, namely the grumpy Dwurin Ĵorma Xodin, and the somewhat aloof Manikin Nadylo Voax. Their species were doing just fine for many millennia until mankind showed up one day and basically turned the Known World into a cat’s breakfast. Both are outcasts from their own native groups for different reasons.
The story of Queen Ydela and the royal clan Buja, who have ruled the Kingdom of Bryn for centuries but whose lineage is now coming perilously close to ending. Many are ready to dismiss Ydela, but underestimate what she’s made of.
Like I said, many stories to be told. I could name still more of them, but this should give you an idea.
For the past few months, my quandary has been: Which of these stories should I tell? Which story shall be the centerpiece of my planned book, The Other Side Of The Sun?
Solving the quandary became frustrating, and imposed a huge writer’s block on me for months, which resulted in the aforementioned Summer Vacation I discussed in a fairly recent Dispatch.
The Solution: Just Write About Them All!
But this week I concluded that, rather than spend forever trying to decide which story I should tell first and how I should write it, I’m going to write them all here as short stories, vignettes and maybe even novelettes. I can start producing this sort of content readily, while a book will take far longer.
The goal is to break the ice and start sharing stories with you, not just share endless Dispatches.
So going forward, you’ll see three types of posts:
A Tale, meaning a story selection of whatever length;
A Backgrounder, meaning a post that imparts some background or “behind the scenes” information about a subject; and
A Dispatch, a post about whatever I’m thinking about at a given moment in time, as usual.
I will begin with some past tales of events that have happened to some of the above named characters prior to the current story time frame… probably featuring one each from the lives of the Band of Five, Navi, and Kryd. I also want to post an Explainer that will offer Humans such as yourselves a backgrounder in the differences between life on Earth and life in the Known World (and the planet it resides on, known as Vadu), among other topics.
The various Tales and Backgrounders that will spill forth here over the coming months will likely be revised, edited and tweaked later for inclusion in whatever forthcoming books they might show up in, but you’ll get a first glance at them here, as imperfect as they might be.
Needless to say, feedback from you, the Esteemed Reader - and especially the Highly Esteemed Subscriber - will be essential. Please feel free to share them either in the comments of a given post, or by writing me directly at me@beturpin.com.
Hopefully, Dearest Reader, you will find these forthcoming posts to be pleasing, and should you decide to subscribe to the Substack, I’ll figure out a way to provide said Subscribers with an autographed special edition of the resulting book(s).
At least, that’s the plan. :-)
Steady as she goes…
Conclusion
That’s it for today! I hope you have enjoyed reading this Dispatch.
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Until next time, thanks for reading!
— B.E. Turpin
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