I managed to finish Chapter 15 of CeleKing1 and make some progress on Chapter 16 as well. Another couple days and I should be ready to switch over. Stay tuned.

It’s not worth mentioning the past couple days as I only managed to get a sentence or so written at best. The worst was Friday (technically early Saturday), when I sat down and thought, “Okay, I can get a good two hours of writing in before bed,” and then promptly conked out right in my chair. -_- I spent a fair bit of time writing reviews and getting the site updated before finally putting some time into Chapter 15 of CeleKing1. I made quota, but after missing so many days, that doesn’t count for as much. Dissatisfied with my progress as I am, I’m going to stick with CeleKing1 until I at least finish Chapter 16. I’ll move on to TSoA1 after that. Stay tuned.

Stock fantasy races like Orcs, Goblins and Trolls tend fit the Always Chaotic Evil mold, no doubt in part as an easy way to have them slaughtered en masse without triggering any moral compunction. Some more recent authors go to great pains to avert the stereotype. I don’t set out explicitly to upend what you think about when you hear the word “Goblin”, but my two Goblin leads in the Trident War Chronicles are among the more sympathetic, so you could be forgiven for thinking that was specifically my objective. No, I just develop characters in ways I find interesting.

Actually, Urgill was more of a stock Goblin character in earlier incarnations. Only as I tried to make her more interesting did she become a more rounded character (and in many ways more upstanding than a lot of my human leads). Her tragic infatuation with Rowland was an early development, but as she became a consecrated warrior maiden kept from fulfilling the traditional female role in her society, that infatuation took on grander proportions. You can imagine the fantasy that took shape in her mind, her returning to her homeland in triumph with her otherworldly prince to liberate her people from the Monarch Lich. Of course, even if Rowland had any intention of helping her, even if he loved her the way she wanted to be loved, that dream would’ve been doomed to failure. Her ultimate fate was almost a mercy.

Originally Urgill went to Notos entirely of her own volition, a terribly ill-thought out bit of teen rebellion. Now it’s part of a plot by her father that’s still ill-thought out, but has a little more credibility to it (if you ignore the overwhelming power of the Monarch Lich, which is something no one who hasn’t faced him directly has a good handle on). You feel more of a touch of destiny in Urgill’s mission, even if she was destined for failure.

It might’ve been fun to have more scenes of Urgill’s rivalry with Simona, but I think I had just the right amount. If I showed too much of Simona’s merciless contempt for Urgill, there wouldn’t be much audience sympathy left for her. I did like the juxtaposition, Urgill who was elevated in the eyes of her people contrasted with the debased Simona (not so much in Rowland’s service, but definitely in her old life as a comfort woman). Both of them had their unrequited love for Rowland, though as we learned, under different circumstances Rowland might have actually responded to Simona’s feelings. I still feel a bit sorry for Urgill getting hooked on someone way out of her league.

If she had the resources for it, it might have been interesting to see Urgill found a community south of the River. It definitely would’ve sown the seeds of future conflict, but Rowland’s ruthlessness put an end to that possibility well before it could present an actual threat.

And I guess that does it for Urgill. Next time we’ll deal with Mab, a character who developed in some interesting ways that I look forward to discussing. Stay tuned.

I jumped ahead a bit to do a little writing on Chapter 16 of CeleKing1. The goal was to get this block of dialog out of the way, but I was already too far gone and didn’t actually make that much progress. Maybe if I actually start writing earlier in the day, I’d get more done. And here we’ve got the new Samurai Spirits crossover in GBF… *sigh* We’ll see what I can get accomplished. Stay tuned.

Well, I certainly intended to be making progress rather than have two days of nothing, but I discovered the webcomic Darths & Droids and ended up reading through its 10 years of strips in a 48-hour period. Once that was done, I was able to make some progress on Chapter 15 of CeleKing1. The goal is to get two chapters knocked out. Stay tuned.

Well, I didn’t quite meet my goals, but I did make some decent progress on Chapter 9 of TBP. I guess it’ll be next cycle that I bridge the gap. In the meantime, it’s time to switch over to CeleKing1. Stay tuned.

I managed to wrap up Chapter 10 of TBP and started in on Chapter 9. If I can at least finish Chapters 6 and 9 before switching over, I’ll consider this week to be a success. Stay tuned.

I spent most of my writing time working on reviews, but I did do a little work on Chapter 10 of TBP. We’ll see what I can get done before the week is out. Until next time. Out.

I managed to finish up Chapter 13 of TBP. I actually cut out a good 200 words when I decided the scene was going on too long and distracting from the intended focus of the chapter. I also rounded out Chapter 12 and started filling in Chapter 10. Yes, I know I’m all over the place, but I’ll get the ducks in a row soon. Maybe not by the end of this round, but soon. Stay tuned.

I jumped ahead in the story a bit to round out Chapter 13 of TBP. I still need to pen the conclusion, but it’s about 98% done. Because I was kinda stuck on Chapter 6, I may go and fill in the partial chapters I have between 8 and 13 first. We’ll see. Stay tuned.