The Fantasy Tavern

A fantasy piece by Malcolm McClinton that is similar to how I am imagining young Onja for my next fantasy series. Art is copyright Malcolm McClinton.

August 2008 - Chapter One "Much to Contribute" from my series-in-progress

I've made substantial progress over the summer on my next fantasy series. I'm well into the second novel of the series, which remains untitled at this point. I'm posting here my latest version of the first chapter. It'll get more edits and re-writes as I go forward, but it is really starting to take shape. Read Chapter One from my next fantasy novel.

February 2008 - My current fantasy writing project

I'm pleased to be back to working on fantasy novels again. Since about October 2007, I've been writing nearly every day. As of January 2008, I have drafted the first novel of what will be another three or four book fantasy series. I do not have a title for the book or series yet. From my experience writing The Rys Chronicles, I can expect to be very far into the writing and editing process before actually working out the titles. Giving a novel a name can be a long process, but naming anything is fairly difficult for me. My second son was two days old before my husband and I settled on a name for him.

Now, on to explaining what my new fantasy series will be about. It is NOT a continuation of The Rys Chronicles. Instead it is a prequel, but a very far back in time prequel, taking place over two thousand years before the events in my other books. As readers of The Rys Chronicles might recall, Queen Onja came to power 2,200 years earlier at the end of her Great War with Nufal. She and her partner Dacian utterly destroyed Nufal and enslaved the souls of many of its tabre and human warriors.

My new novels will be telling these ancient events. We will get to meet young Onja and young Dacian. So, some familiarity with my previous works will be present along with many new opportunities for creativity. My new fantasy series will be fresh in many aspects because I have the whole lost civilization of Nufal to create as well as fleshing out the culture of the other magical race, the tabre, who inhabit Nufal.

The religion of the tabre is divided into two Sects, the Kwellstan Nebakarz and the Drathatarlane Nebakarz. The Kwellstan rule the majority of the large territory of Nufal and they include humans in their civilization. The Drathatarlane as rivals of the Kwellstan segregate themselves and only occupy a single city-state where humans are forbidden. The primary difference between the Sects is that the Kwellstan believe that they can expand their magical abilities through exploration of the world. The Drathatarlane believe that they can increase their magic by staying close to the land of their original creation. Despite this difference in philosophy, both Sects possess and practice high magic and sometimes dark magic.

I feel that I am challenging myself in my writing with new concepts. I want to make this series even better than my first fantasy series. One aspect I am working on is giving the story an ancient feel. I have been doing some studying of ancient history and mythology. I have to create a world that is believably the two-thousand-year-old precursor of the cultures and civilizations that I presented in my first books.

As with my other novels, my new fantasy series will have important human characters as well. I like to have my stories function on two levels. I weave the rys/tabre plot into the human plots so as to create interesting dramas between humans and their magical masters. 

Because the plot of the new series inevitably must erupt into war between the rys and the tabre, I am developing human characters in the western tribal kingdoms and in Nufal so both sides of the conflict can be seen from human as well as magical perspectives. So far I have a human villain, Amar, who will be the Overlord of the Kezanada during Onja's rise to power. Amar has been a difficult and complex character for me to work on. I like him though, which is a good sign because I'm trying to make a bad guy that readers can love. And I don't mean love to hate. I mean you will love him even though you know he's bad for you.

As for my human hero, he will be a citizen of Nufal. His name is Cruce Chenomet. Some of my readers might recognize his last name, and yes he is an ancestor of Lord Kwan Chenomet from The Rys Chronicles. I'm working hard at making Cruce charming and talented like any hero should be. So far he is performing nicely as the young warrior defending his homeland from bad guys.

I am hesitating to say too much about my main female character. For now I'll say her name is Demeda and she is a princess of the Sabar'Uto Tribe in the west. I'm planning some other female characters that will come along later in the series as well. The female tabre, Alloi, and her twin brother Tempet also have major parts in the story.

As always, I'm throwing in plenty of other interesting side characters and supporting characters. There are other main characters that I have not mentioned either. I could say a lot more about my new fantasy series, but I can't reveal a bunch of spoilers. And at this point, most details are premature. I constantly rewrite and change things in my novels as I go.

Publishing my fantasy and making it public is about the only way I can make myself leave it alone and call it done. I still daydream sometimes about little things I could have done differently in The Rys Chronicles, but I can't do anything about it now. This is a good thing.

Once I have the new series completed, I'll present my new work in the same manner as my existing fantasy books. The first book in the series will be available as a free fantasy ebook and then interested readers can proceed from there. I have found that this approach works pretty well. It gives readers a way to check me out, and those that like me come back for the series and everybody is happy.

For fantasy readers who have yet to read my fantasy books, please download the free fantasy ebook Union of Renegades: The Rys Chronicles Book I. That series is complete and you can enjoy it while I stay busy making more fantasy books for us all. I can't wait to write them and share them with you.