No ratings.
The events, people and places of my world called Numenol. A series of many parts. |
The Vinlarion Chronicles comprise a series of novels detailing the lives and events of the people of Numenol - a distant planet which orbits a binary star system. These are the tales involving the Vinlarion family, their rise to power and their ultimate fall. The lands of the World are overrun by the evil forces who dwell in the southlands, but there is hope that once again the family Vinlarion will rise and prevail. |
The original concept of the tale covered three books... each would form part of the overall series, but they also could be read individually. Book One - The Tower of Numannon Book Two - Darkling Moon Book Three - The Calasarn Throne Book One details the fall of the Vinlarion line, following a battle with the forces of the Southland Queen Myomarne. Only a few thousand words of outline text exist for this book. Book Two tells the story of the exiled Princess Celean, who was brought up by foster parents from a baby. Reaching her eleventh birthing day, the young girl was removed from her home and trained in the skills of the Wydwitch under the watchful gaze of Salaazen, a member of the high Temeric order. Darkling Moon consists currently of around 38,100 words. Book Three describes the events around the overthrow of the forces of the Queen, the rebuilding of the Tower of Numannon and the installation once again of the Vinlarion line on the Calasarn throne. Again, the book only exists as notes and/or outline texts - not much of a plotline is in place for this book either. Each of the above books has therefore been started to some extent. Book Two is almost completely plotted out and characters and locations have been visualised for all three. However, somewhere along the line - around five years ago - a new novel began to take shape. It has a new protagonist at its heart and sits in the centre of the above three works, fitting in perhaps as Book Two-A. Again, like Darkling Moon, this novel 'Firestones of Aeganarth', is well under way and is around 95,000 words long at present. Looking at where the story is up to at the moment, I think there may yet be another 30K words to go on this one before the first draft is completed. There can be little doubt that for a late addition, this novel has had by far the most work completed on it to date. I haven't as yet come to any conclusions on what to do next, but I am thinking that I should concentrate on 'Firestones' and get the first draft of this finished as quickly as I can. To do this I need to review the plotline I have in mind and revisit it in some places to make sure that the story flows slightly better. I was going to put this off until the end but think I can probably take advantage of coming back to it after a break and do it now. I've decided to give myself a month to do this. I had thought initially two weeks but need to be realistic with work and other personal commitments in mind. As long as I knuckle down and do it, the time span doesn't really matter. I just need an end date in mind to spur myself forward. Sorry to ramble on but getting my thoughts out of my head and into here will hopefully give me the incentive I need to get on with it! What did John Wetton of the band Asia once sing...."Only Time will Tell...". |
Perhaps it was a mistake, but deciding to write a series of novels instead of just one, has been keeping me busy for over twenty years. In that time my two young kids turned into three, we've lived in three different houses, the young kids have grown up and married, there are now grand-children floating about and visiting on sleep-overs, and our names are now Grampy and Granma (with no 'D' included). Our lives have invariably moved on. We've lost a few people we loved dearly and are now looking after others who need to be cared for. And what of the books? Are they finished? Have they progressed any further than they had done when we lived in the first of the three houses? Of course, the answer to this is a resounding 'YES!'. Or at least, the answer to the last question can be taken as a positive one. But they are far from complete, that is individually... never mind the series itself. So should I worry? I don't think so. For there has been something going on called 'real life' that needed to be sorted. It has its own twists and turns to deal with - some of them occurring without any warning at all - and the majority hold some importance which cannot be ignored. Everything else (including the books) need to be fitted in around the important stuff. Of course, it would be nice to get one done and dusted. To see it in hardback, in a brightly coloured dust-jacket, sitting on the bookshelf in our dining room. But even if I don't, I have still achieved more than I could ever have hoped. Bringing up a family is no mean feat, and the fact that they have all turned out to be well-rounded individuals who are altogether nice people, is an added bonus. There are two of us to blame for that, and together we can be proud of what we have done. And now my wife has decided to write a book. Maybe she will beat me to it and grab a publishing deal before I do... but this is not important. What is important is that I keep working at it and whittle away at the plotlines bit by bit until at least one of the books is complete. Don't give up... that's what I need to keep remembering. And now, over to the summary....! |
And so I finally take the plunge and decide to do something which I should have done a long time ago. Hang-gliding? Studying the sex lives of marsupials? Scuba-diving? No. It’s easier than that. The answer is… to focus and write. That’s right. You know how it goes… we all have the best intentions to produce something tangible from out of our heads. Get it down on paper - the written word - you don’t even have to shout it from the rooftops, just pick up your pen, crayon or Logitech mouse and FILL THAT PAGE! Apologies for shouting, but I just wanted to make my point absolutely clear. Just get on and do it, flippin’ heck! What’s so difficult about that? But then the reality kicks in. There is that certain something which invariably will interfere with your best-laid plans. Try as you might, there is just no way to avoid it, whatever the ‘it’ actually is. Play with the kids. Take the cat for a walk. Flick channels on the TV to see what you might be missing. Play a game on the XBox. Then there is Instabook, Facegram, Whatchat, Snapsapp, Twot and a million other 'social-media' distractions. Is there no stopping this curse? This dark cloud of distractionism (did I just invent that?), which sweeps down from nowhere and eats up your best intention? Of course there is! Three little words…. Just do it! I have this phrase written on my black Nike armbands and I often wear them, ‘in times of trouble’, to try to gain a bit of inspiration. If you’re lucky, I’ll root out a photo of them and post it here. If you’re unlucky, I’ll post two! No apologies - just welcome to my world! |
Well, this is it... I've taken the plunge and decided to set myself up, (hopefully NOT for a fall...), and begin a journey into the wild, exciting and potentially perilous world of WDC. I'm hoping to pick up a few friends along the way, and am eager to learn and extend my craft - sharing what I know along the way. I'm hoping to return here as often as I can, so please bookmark this corner of the WDC community, and perhaps we can share the journey together. See you on the other side. |