I made some progress on Chapter 16 of TBP. The goal is to get at least two chapters finished this week, but the chapters tend to be longer here than in TSoA1, for instance. We’ll see what I can do. Stay tuned.

In an early chapter of TSoA1, the narration, from the perspective of King Coel Hen, says that he can trace his lineage all the way back to the legendary Brutus of Troy, the first King of the Britons. I hadn’t planned on doing that tracing myself, but it came as part of the deal. Interestingly, you have these two branches with the same descendants, only one flattens them out, making siblings children and grandchildren. I suppose it’s not impossible to have successive generations named after the kings in the main line, but I’m pretty sure the source just got the information wrong. Given how some of these alleged kings conflict with other information I have, the whole thing may be rubbish.

I was able to clear some things up with the lines of Conan Meriadoc and Ceneu ap Coel, which I consider accomplishments. I also managed to trace out Arthur’s descendants as Arthwys ap Mor. My original trees may have to be scrapped as a quicker alternative to trying to fix what I have. I already had to revamp the main tree once, so I guess it’s not much of a surprise I’d have to do it again. I need to spend some more time with the Arthurian legends and not just the pseudo-historical genealogies. While I am telling my own story, I’d be doing the legends no justice by leaving out some of the best material. There’s a whole lot of stuff just on Gradlon Mawr I want to explore further.

In short, no story progress to speak of, but since I did almost 12K during the week, I’m not hurting by any stretch. I think by the end of next cycle I’ll have come to a decision on when I want to start serialization. In the meantime, it’s on to TBP. With TTWC3 wrapping this month, it’s going to have to get ready for prime time. I was thinking about a biweekly schedule, but if I can finish at least two chapters a cycle, I won’t overrun the work in progress publishing a chapter a week. I like having at least one story on a weekly schedule, so we’re going to try that and if I do fall behind in my progress, I’ll switch to biweekly. Stay tuned.

I’ve made more progress in Chapter 16 of TBP, not quite making quota, but I was on the road most of the day Thursday, there’s a lot of family activities going on, I’m having to hastily make preparations for my departure for Japan on Monday, I’m trying to get a new laptop set up, and there’s still my translation project to consider, so it’s a wonder I’ve gotten anywhere at all. You may not hear of much else for a couple days, though, but we’ll see. Stay tuned.

I managed to wrap up Chapter 15 of TBP and started in on Chapter 16. Things are moving along nicely, but I need to buckle down on my translation again. I’m starting to slip behind again. All things to work on. Stay tuned.

I made more progress on Chapter 15 of TBP. I’d say I should have the chapter done in another day or two. Stay tuned.

Having to sacrifice story progress to get caught up on my translation project, TSoA1 is getting the short end of the stick once again, but now that I’m where I need to be in my translations, I’ve been able to afford some time for writing. It’s not fair to TSoA1, I know, but I went ahead and switched over to TBP and made some progress on Chapter 15. I made quota, but I don’t think I can afford much more beyond that except for Thursday, when I’ll be on the road. I should get at least two chapters done before the week’s out. Stay tuned.

I don’t believe Mab was part of the original prototype for the story, but when I revised the concept, she was added in to be a counterbalance to Corona on Zephyr’s side. (This makes her a “rook” character in the series’ chess conceit.) My primary influences for the character and scenario were Gargoyles, the 1998 TV mini-series Merlin and Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. I would imagine Mab’s role as the primary antagonist in Merlin inspired me to use her over Titania. I’m more liable to associate Titania with the role of Oberon’s Queen, but I realized there was no reason not to have both, which served as an excellent source of conflict. While neither Oberon nor Mab were strictly monogamous prior, Oberon never elevated any of his flings to equal standing with Mab. That’s the main thing that sticks in her craw. It also doesn’t help that she had grown complacent in their marriage and stopped going out of her way specifically to please her husband, something Titania (at the point we’re introduced to her, at least) is very adept at. Now, Oberon is a terrible person, short-tempered, faithless and cruel, but there aren’t many Fae in the upper echelons of their society that embody many virtues we recognize. Think of decadent aristocracy at its most detached and you get a decent feel for Oberon’s court. While I’d like to think Mab elicits some sympathy, it should be noted that she’s not that admirable of a character. It’s just that she’s on the receiving end of the kind of cruelty she would regularly dish out herself and is never fully cured of her haughtiness and vindictiveness.

Now let’s dive right into the likely controversy that may be sparked around her section of the story. Let’s make no bones about it. Rowland raped her and there’s no excusing it. I wanted Rowland to sire Puck via Mab and I envisioned her trying to seduce him in a ploy to be free of her chains, and that ploy failing because, honestly, Rowland isn’t dumb enough to release an extremely dangerous High Faerie who has repeatedly expressed her intention to kill him just so he can have a supposedly transcendental sexual encounter. I found myself stuck, though, as I realized that this would destroy just about any sympathy Rowland might have as a character. (He’s got plenty of bad points, but it’s not like he’s without redeeming value.) This led me to come up with the idea of the madness that took hold of Mab, both a natural side-effect of her imprisonment and also a metaphysical thing due to the Fae’s reliance on the natural spirits to sustain them. (Things like cut stone and wood lose their vital essence, for instance, making human settlements basically dead zones for the Fae.) This drove her to desperation and I wanted to establish a certain closeness between her and Rowland that ends up being exploited. Yes, she did solicit him initially, but she didn’t consent under the circumstances that followed. I then wanted to have Rowland show indirect signs of guilt after the fact but I also thought Mab showing her utter contempt for him was important too. And, yes, in case you were wondering, all this was allowed to happen according to Oberon’s design. While Rowland deserves guilt for raping Mab, Oberon is vastly worse for orchestrating the circumstances for his wife to be enslaved and raped just to teach her a lesson. Yeah, he’s a real scumbag.

I did like contrasting Mab with Simona. Here you have two women in Rowland’s service, both far more long-lived and powerful to justify serving under him, one who despises him and the other who loves him to the point of fanaticism. In the end, though, it’s the one who hates him who bears him a son, even if he never knows the son in question. (Though as noted in the text, Rowland did regret never consummating his relationship with Simona after she was gone. It was purely for political concerns that he kept his hands off her and you might argue that his pent-up unresolved feelings for Simona got displaced onto Mab when she tried to seduce him.) For Rowland’s part, he cared for both of them in his own clumsy way. I’m sure you can sympathize with the poor mortal woman who found herself being stacked against those two.

I’m not entirely sure I did full justice to the character of Mab in the brief seven chapters I gave myself to work with, but it was an interesting effort all the same. Next time we’ll be looking at our final lead in TTWC3, the red warlord Akasame. Stay tuned.

I made my way through to finish Chapter 14 of TBP and wrote a couple lines of Chapter 15 before wrapping things up. Now it’s time to switch back CeleKing1. I’d say I’ll have it done in another two or three cycles. Something to look forward to. Stay tuned.

I made more progress on Chapter 14 of TBP. I stand poised to finish it before it’s time to switch over, meeting my goal for the week (well above the usual quota). The way I spin my tires with TSoA, it’s a nice change of pace to be moving along at a good clip. More to come. Stay tuned.

I went through Chapters 12 and 13, adding some to the end of the former and making some minor tweaks to the latter, then started working on Chapter 14. Some of the earlier work I did years ago, had a clumsy perspective shift, something I used to do at times but now avoid in favor of a consistent third person limited perspective. Having to choose between Cassandra and Rafael as my active lead, I decided to go with Cassandra, something I hadn’t done since the prologue. In both the chapters Rafael appeared prior to this, he was the active lead, but here it was more useful to put Cassandra in the driver’s seat. I don’t think it’ll be too disorienting, but I guess we’ll see. Stay tuned.