(Given that the wind chills are at least -35F this morning, it seemed like a good time to post this. Actual update on various things forthcoming.)
Cold
Ice on the window,
Smooth and opaque,
With an ice feather headdress.
Snow creaks and squeals.
Exhaust hangs in the air
Like a restless ghost.
Birds are very important to the Suomilen people, who see them as being blessed by the Winds. They are not tamed or kept as pets, since to cage one is a grave sin. However, it is quite common in Suomen to plant trees or build perches and houses for birds, and to leave out food and water for them.
The Suomilen people rank different kinds of birds into a hierarchy of sorts, with ground birds that can only fly a little bit (such as pheasant or grouse) as Lesser Birds. If it is considered acceptable to hunt and eat any birds, it is the Lesser Birds, and some in Suomen would still consider that a sin. On the other end of the hierarchy are the Great Birds. These are any species that show a true “mastery” of flight (master of the Winds and air), usually meaning great maneuverability and/or the ability to soar through the sky for extended periods of time. The Great Birds include all of the raptor species, as well as gulls and swallows.
~Ethelinda
The second draft of The Wizard of Suomen was officially finished at 11:16pm on June 4, 2015. It was 157,000 words, totaling 342 pages in a Microsoft Word document.
~Ethelinda
Suomen has been settled for 361 years when the war with Galviren begins. Galviren has been settled for 577 years.
(Read: timelines are helpful and fun!)
~Ethelinda
The number four is very important to the Suomilen people because of their beliefs in the Four Winds. They often structure things around multiples of 4 (their week is 8 days, and there are 4 weeks in each month, traditionally there are 4 Brigades in the Royal Army, etc.).
~Ethelinda
The Suomilen people celebrate the beginning of the new year on the Spring Equinox, as a combined New Year/Festival of Winds celebration. Traditionally, it lasts for four days.
~Ethelinda
I just finished the second draft of The Wizard of Suomen! 😀 😀 😀
I’m going to do a line-edit on paper before sending it to my editor, and then there will definitely be more edits to make, but at least I will feel like I’m sending a decent draft!
…
I’m really excited! 😀
~Ethelinda
This is going to be a series of short stories and novellas that I intend to work on in and amongst other things for the foreseeable future, and that I plan to someday collect into an anthology of sorts.
As a reader of fiction and especially fantasy, I have over the years developed an interest in stories that portray relationships between humans/mortal beings and immortal beings of various sorts. This series will be me as a writer exploring various permutations of this idea. My goal is that there will be a lot of variation between the stories in length and tone, since the imbalances of lifespan and (often) power between a mortal and an immortal being lead to a wide variety of different outcomes: some happy and some sad, some good and some bad, some dark and some light.
Most, if not all, of the stories will have a song that I associate with them, and I’ll link to it at the end of the story. In some cases, I’m finding that a song is direct inspiration for a particular story, but in other cases the story is already in my mind and the song serves more as mood music. I’ll also say here that for the most part, these stories will each take place in a separate “universe,” and the reader can safely assume that they are not related to each other unless I indicate otherwise.
I’ll post many of the stories in full here on my website, though for at least some I will post only an excerpt, and the full story will be included in the final anthology. I can’t say right now exactly how many stories there will be in total; I have ideas for at least fifteen, with seven of those being more solid. One story is written and edited, and I am in the middle of a first draft of the second story.
The first story will be posted sometime this week!
As always, please don’t hesitate if you have comments or questions for me.
~Ethelinda
The planet that Suomen is a part of has a slightly shorter orbit around its sun than Earth around our Sun, making their year about 355 days long. The Suomilen people divide this up into eleven months of 32 days each, with a “leap year” every fourth year adding a day to the first month.
(Yes, I spent time figuring this out. Because I could. More fiction soon.)
~Ethelinda
The first draft of The Wizard of Suomen was officially finished at 1:48am on January 23, 2015. It was 148,259 words, totaling 324 pages in a Microsoft Word document.
(Thought I’d post some writing stats/world-building tidbits here and there, in case anyone is interested.)
~Ethelinda
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