2012 Publishing Goals

A young woman ordered to kill stares in shock. If she does not execute the man accused of crimes against the empire, her mother will suffer death at the hands of the emperor’s vicious torturer. The accused, tied up before her, waits for death, his head hanging down exhausted. Trembling, she draws her bow. The emperor relishes the young woman’s anguish for he knows she loves the accused. What will she do?

I’ve had friends, net-friends, and acquaintances asking what’s up with the book. I got the vision above in ‘07. I began serious work on it in March ‘09, after several derails. I have with held the names of characters and places for a reason. So forgive me. Now, let’s do an extremely skinny stick man recap.

As this vision unfurled in the theater of my mind through the years, I sensed this was near the end of an epic. The imagery was akin to Gladiator, Troy, 300, and Lord of the Rings. Accompanying this scene were overwhelming emotions; my job was to understand them, give them underpinning. Where was she from? How did she get in this terrible dilemma?

I discovered her story after many false trails. The scope spanned twenty years of her life through a world lit only by the sun, moon, and fire, a world of beauty and brutality, exotic creatures, vast wildernesses, the hordes of warring empires and realms, sorcerers, a pantheon of gods and goddess. I found her in a temple of religious prostitutes. She was a little girl, being raised by her mother. As it was with all these little girls in the temple of this goddess of love, peace, and fertility, her father was a mystery.

At sixteen, she became the oracle of the goddess. People from across the empire bowed at her feet to hear the fortunes only she could know, but she felt no special powers, save that of the hallucinogenic herbs given to her to summon terrible visions. She manipulated the visions into nicer versions for the people that quaked in awe at the base of the altar. The zealots scolded her. She must make the visions worse so the people would go to the Chamber of Atonement.

One day a distraught soldier came. She sat high on her pedestal. She was drenched in the visions of the herb, her thoughts aloof as he groveled. She felt like the goddess herself. The soldier left his weapons at the base of pedestal and ran to the Chamber of Atonement.

That night, she dug his bow and quiver out of the refuse pile before it burned. The goddess of peace did not allow the girls to have weapons of violence. She took it to the only man allowed to live on the temple grounds, the mute eunuch who tended the stable. He was a former warrior. After she begged, he showed her how to use it. He taught her in secret. That is when she first thought of escaping the temple life.

During the writing of this first book, other characters came to the forefront of importance, needing their own stories and motivations. I “completed” the first book last year. It needs a lot of work. Other compelling characters came to the forefront. I developed one character’s story. I traced back and found him as a bastard son of a weakening king. His story will comprise one, possibly two epics until I reach the girl. I call all of this the Creed of Kings Saga. The working title of the first book is Blood & Soul.

In the future, this is the order of books I have in the waiting. This is the sequential order of the Creed of Kings Saga.

Book One: Blood & Soul (working on now.) *Plan to publish this year. (I realize “Plan to publish” is a loaded statement. That’s another blog entry.)

Book Two: Title Unknown (brainstorming.) *Plan to publish this year.

Book Two and a half: Title Unknown. It is possible another book could fit between Books Two and Three.

Book Three: Creed of Kings was the original title of this book. It is the most complete work I have. It is readable. There is a story with character transformation and all. It is epic. This book was the original one I started with the lead character being the young woman in the original vision. It was going to be a trilogy. This is the one many of my family, net-friends, and friends know about. Some have read the first part. *Plan to publish this year.

Book Four: Title Unknown. This books is basically outlined and ready to start.

Book Five: Title Unknown. This book is basically outlined and ready to start.

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