Announcing . . . The Sea Beyond!
8 days ago
– Tue, Nov 12, 2024 at 07:43:13 PM
I largely keep these updates focused on the material of the Kickstarter itself, but if you'll forgive a tangent, this is news we just can't resist sharing everywhere. Alyc and I are officially collaborating again, this time on a historical fantasy duology called The Sea Beyond. From our publisher's formal announcement:
In an alternate Spanish Golden Age, where the map becomes the territory and mapmakers are the architects of reality, the Council of the Sea Beyond has risen to unrivaled power, exploiting the world’s most precious resources for their own gain.
Determined to discover how cosmographers pin down the islands of the Otherworld, Estevan seeks power with the Council of the Sea Beyond—but he risks the exposure of his own secrets, too. For he is a changeling, a faerie masquerading as a mortal. And for a faerie to enter the mortal world like that, a child must go the other way…
The Hungry Girl, the nameless human daughter whose place he took, has grown up opposite her “brother.” Lost among the fae and desperate to find some purpose for her pitiful existence, she leaps at the chance to help a group of Spanish explorers in the Sea Beyond…only to be horrified at the atrocities they commit.
Soon the unlikely siblings will need to overcome their rivalry–because only together can they bring down Spain’s worlds-spanning empire and save the homes they have come to love.
We've secretly been hard at work on this since March, first with several months of research, then tiptoeing into the process of drafting while also still doing research (because that part of it never really ends). The first book probably won't be out until 2026, so there's some time to wait yet, but we're incredibly excited for this new series! And in case it wasn't obvious, once that's done, we have other collaborations in mind, because we really enjoy working together.
But don't worry -- we're still charging full speed ahead on the Kickstarter, too. So I'll be back in two weeks with a sneak peek at another card!
--Marie
Sneak peek: The Mask of Fools!
about 1 month ago
– Tue, Oct 15, 2024 at 03:44:38 PM
The preview for this fortnight's update takes us to The Mask of Fools, the counterpart to The Face of Ages. We had a fair bit of back-and-forth about this one, because the name kind of drags one's thoughts in the direction of a European jester, but in terms of the concepts behind the card, it's more about contrast with the elder wisdom of the Face, i.e. the foolishness of childhood. Avery's drafts covered that whole gamut in various forms, but also brought in a detail that was entirely her suggestion: using spirals as a kind of counterpart to the labyrinths that play a central role in Vraszenian religion. (Those of you who have read Labyrinth's Heart may also recall a key use of that image in a very chilling context . . .) Here's the array we started out with:
(I was especially amused by Avery's gloss for #6: "I hate this with all of my heart and I am definitely using it if you don't because it makes me deeply uncomfortable. Seriously looking at it makes me want to die but that is a visceral reaction and those can be very good.")
As with several of the other cards, we wound up hybridizing elements to arrive at a final sketch. I liked the baby face of #4, given the symbolism around the card, but the diamonds were too blatantly Venetian-coded, and Alyc felt the top curl too strongly evoked kewpie dolls. So we stole the hair/ribbon surround off #5 and worked the spirals onto the face, and here's the resulting mockup:
I thiiiiink the top curl scribbled in there will be going away -- that's a relic of earlier fiddling -- but I don't remember for sure. Either way, I'm certain the actual painting will look amazing, and I will be haunted by that creepy tongue spiral in my sleep!
As a heads-up, there will be no update two weeks from now. I'll be back on November 12th with more news of progress!
--Marie
Sneak peek: Orin and Orasz!
about 2 months ago
– Tue, Oct 01, 2024 at 04:44:48 PM
So far you've seen initial concept thumbnails and pencil sketches from A.C. Let's start taking a look at the inked versions! These are still very far from the finished images, but they are the point at which you can really start to see what the card will look like: the rough lines of the earlier stages have been cleaned up, so the compositions are a little easier to parse.
For this preview I've chosen Orin and Orasz. You may recall from the books that these are the Vraszenian names for the moons; what's less obvious there -- in fact, I'm not entirely sure if we ever say it outright -- is that they are also the mythic foundations of Vraszan's transgender traditions. Orin is rimasz, i.e. what we'd call a transwoman; Orasz is lihosz, i.e. a transman. In the version of the Vraszenian origin myth where Ažerais married Orasz, because he could not give her children she lay with Orin instead, and from that came all seven founders of the Vraszenian clans. (There are other origin myths as well, because Alyc and I are well aware that real-world mythologies often contradict themselves.)
I love the design A.C. came up with for this card. Without me ever saying anything, they echoed a painting a friend once made of an RPG character of mine -- a painting I love for its ability to suggest a yin-yang-like duality. This being the card of duality, it's a perfect composition:
The pattern deck doesn't build significance around cards being reversed in their orientation when they're dealt out, but this is one whose image will be equally legible whether it's upright or inverted. And that's exactly as it should be!
--Marie
About those other stretch goals . . .
2 months ago
– Tue, Sep 17, 2024 at 04:35:05 PM
You may recall (though I know it's been a minute) that two of the stretch goals we unlocked were pieces of short fiction in the Rook and Rose setting, written by myself and Alyc, respectively. I figure I should update you on the progress for that!
Here's the thing to know about Alyc: even though they attended the Clarion West Writers' Workshop (which, if you don't know it, is a very prestigious SF/F short fiction workshop) and I didn't, they write many fewer short stories than I do. They're very good at such things! . . . but really, their heart lies in longer stuff. Which is why it's not surprising that, of the ideas Alyc has been batting around, the first one has ballooned up into something much too large and complex for what we originally intended. On the one hand, I doubt y'all would object, but on the other hand, it would also take way longer to deliver than our promised timeline, and that's not good.
They've pivoted toward a new idea instead -- one we hope will stay within bounds! I don't want to say too much because 1) it might still change along the way and 2) there should still be some excitement left for when it comes time to unwrap the surprise, but I do have one word for those who have read the novels: Ganllech.
As for me, I've started drafting my piece. It's often the case with me and short fiction that I start writing when I figure out a good entry point into the story -- opening lines, paragraphs, maybe even a whole scene -- and then I pause while I work out the rest of it. We're in the pause right now, where I have to figure out how I want to get the main character into the central problem, but once I have that, the rest of the drafting may go very quickly. For this one, I have two words to whet your appetite: Clever Natalya.
I don't think we said anything specific during the campaign about how we'll deliver these, other than "digitally." We'll definitely have a PDF version, but it's my intent to try and also get the stories formatted as EPUBs, for greater convenience of use with e-readers. When the time comes, we'll message backers privately with links to download those files. And hopefully we should have the first of them ready for you before too much longer!
--Marie
Sneak peek: The Mask of Night
3 months ago
– Tue, Sep 03, 2024 at 02:08:03 PM
I realized today that I've only been sharing Faces so far from Avery's work (in part because she did all the Faces first, before starting on the Masks). Let's flip around to the other side for a look at the cards of more negative meaning!
The Mask of Night -- counterpart to The Face of Stars, and the card of ill fortune -- is an interesting one because it changed fairly radically between the initial set of sketches and the final sketch. Here's what we started out with:
(Note that some of these don't come through all that well because Avery's sketching in greyscale, whereas the finished paintings use color. But they're enough for us to be going on with for design purposes.)
We knew at the outset that we'd be going with something more like #2, but we wanted to jazz it up. Alyc, inspired by Diane Damrau's costume as the Queen of the Night in Mozart's opera The Magic Flute, suggested adding a headdress; I, inspired by a wardrobe item I have in one of my habit gamification apps, suggested the headdress could feature the phases of the moon. With a few facial lines added to provide contrast, here's what Avery landed on:
It's beautifully regal, evoking the night without touching on the stars that are the visual domain of its counterpart card. And, as I'd hoped, the eyelessness of the Masks gives them a faintly creepy air in contrast with the eyes of the Faces -- exactly what we wanted!
Because I am cruel, I will say that we've also seen the finished painting for this card, and it is GORGEOUS. But that will have to wait for a future update . . .
