Well, I’ve had my fill of early medieval British history for a while. There’s still plenty to sort out, but I need a break. I’ve switched over to TTWC1 and got a little writing done on Ionathas’ Chapter 4. I hope to get it and Chapter 5 done over the course of the week and then I’ll switch over to Tico3.

I need to get this week’s update out. Maybe after I get back from work. Stay tuned.

Arthur Mania just won’t quit. In fact, this update comes so late because I was up till 0530 working on it, woke up around 1300 and picked things right back up. It’s been a while since I’ve been this consumed by my work. I’m mildly concerned about the potential consequences, but I suppose the only solution is to just keep pushing and get to a place I feel I can leave it.

I’ve been a lover of myth, fable and legend ever since I was a child. This should come as no surprise given that I’m an SFF author, but I’m also big into history. In fact, my minor was in history. I could easily have made it my second major, but I was getting a little weary of school by that point and was eager to begin my adventures in the Orient. One of the great things about the Arthurian mythos is that it blends the historical, pseudo-historical and the fantastic all into a single bundle, much as I’ve tried to do with my own story canon.

I was still in high school when I sketched out the first ideas for what would become The Brothers Pendragon. I wanted to use Excalibur, so it naturally followed that I would adopt the Pendragon name. I had the patriarch call himself Adam in the pretension that he was starting a new humanity. Of course, naming your two sons Cain and Abel is just asking for trouble. Going back to Excalibur, though, I envisioned this Adam Pendragon as a forgotten castoff of Uther Pendragon’s excessive womanizing who fancied himself as Uther’s true heir, seizing the opportunity he had long been seeking at the Battle of Camlann. When Bedivere goes to cast Excalibur back into the Lake, Adam (who I’ve recently decided to call Lother prior to his arrival on Tellus) intercepts and kills him, but he and his followers are transported from our world. Ever the pragmatist, he conquers the new land just as he intended to do with Britannia.

I won’t deny being rather strongly influenced by the ’98 Merlin mini series. (No, I haven’t really watched the more recent series, just caught some glimpses as my roommate was watching it.) The inclusion of Mab in the mini series had a bit of a domino effect for me. Mab happens to be involved in The Trident War Chronicles. She’s bound by Rowland in TTWC3 and forced to serve the Promethean Alliance. You remember that barrier around Maximilion that drove out the Third Legion back in Cronos’ section? Her work. Anyway, certain things are going to happen with her that I’m not going to spoil. If you’ll recall, I did a big shift of the timeline of the Tellus Arc not that long ago to resolve an issue relating to this very spoiler item. I will reveal that it’s related to the Arthurian mythos. Because the Earth and Tellus timelines are synched up (though time flows more slowly on Tellus, similar to how time flows faster in the Fairy Realm, a.k.a. Avalon), there were fixed events I couldn’t wiggle around. I originally resolved the problem with chronomancy, sending the character in question 20 years into the past to make things work. Much like Old Joe in Looper, I don’t like messing around with time travel too much, so this bit of juryrigging never did set right with me. (Speaking of time travel, there were two projects in pre-production I scrapped because of my decision to adopt a “no time travel” rule. Maybe I’ll tell you about them one day.)

Perhaps it’s that recent edit to the timeline that got me thinking about what little I’d already put down for an Arthurian story I was considering. Whatever the case, I’ve pulled out all the stops and this obsession is going to continue until I pretty well have the peripheral materials settled. Sorting through the fragmentary and often contradictory stories can be a pain, but it’s like solving a puzzle. The link to my own canon restricts my freedom of movement a little, but I’m coming up with some innovative solutions. I believe I’ve mentioned before how the already tangled genealogies of the major characters have been tangled further thanks to my love of interconnectedness. I honestly think I’ll have a hard time finding someone who isn’t related to one degree or another. Royalty!

I’m trying to find a balance among all the English, Welsh, French and Latin and it’s a little tricky to say the least. I want it to be accessible but not too anachronistic. I still have time to settle things but it’s a bit of a pain. I’ve actually taken to drawing up my own map of the British Isles rather than sifting through a couple dozen at a time to find this or than ancient and/or mythical border or feature. Learning a fair bit of British geography this way. ^_^; It’s a wonder just how much is packed into so little space. The world really was a bigger place back then.

Speaking of back then, I’ve got to curtail how far I venture into the timeline in either direction after the timeframe of the stories. I really don’t have any business going further back than the 4th Century or further forward than the 7th, but the urge to fill out the chronology is strong.

Okay, that’s enough rambling for now. There’s plenty more work to be done. Away!

I managed to pretty well finish Ionathas’ Chapter 3 and then pretty much skipped over Chapter 4 to start on Chapter 5. (I’ll get back to it later.) I also worked on the peripheral materials which has me thinking about formalizing my own take on the Arthurian mythos and how it ties into my stories’ canon. As The Brothers Pendragon is a story I’ve got a particular soft spot for, the inclination to draw up plans for a trilogy is pretty strong. Be on the lookout for new teasers soon. Stay tuned.

I started by resuming work on Ionathas’ Chapter 2 of TTWC1 (which is turning out to be a fair bit longer than I originally intended), played around with a related side story, and even found myself doing a little writing on The Witch Hunters, all the while doing a fair bit of work on the peripheral materials. All in all, a rather productive day, but perhaps I should’ve been devoting a little of that time and energy toward other things. So it goes. I hope to at least finish Ionathas’ Chapters 2 and 3 this week and after that we’ll see if I continue on a bit further or switch back to Tico3. Stay tuned.

More progress on Ionathas’ Chapter 2, though not quite as much as I would’ve liked. I’m still hoping to finish it in the next couple days. Stay tuned.

Still moving along with Ionathas’ Chapter 2. I only have two or three sequences to wrap up, so that should be done soon. Still at a bit of a loss when it comes to Tico3, but I need to power through it somehow. Stay tuned.

A little more progress was made on Ionathas’ Chapter 2. It’s going to turn out a bit longer than I initially planned, but hopefully I can get it knocked out in the next day or so.

On a side note, I find it interesting that it’s one of the few chapters in Ionathas’ section to really highlight his relationship with Corona, even though it’s a significant part of his story. Well, I suppose the reader’s questions will carry them on to her section of the book, which happens to be at the end. That’s how you plan it, folks. ^o^

Although I didn’t post yesterday, having devoted my morning hours to squaring away my financials for the month, I have been continuing my progress on Ionathas’ Chapter 2. Hopefully I can find the time to wrap it up and move on to the oft-delayed Chapter 23 of Tico3. Stay tuned.

I managed to finish up that short I’ve been working on and made some headway filling out the narrative in Ionathas’ Chapter 2 of TTWC1. I’ll probably finish up the chapter before switching over to restart Tico3. Stay tuned.

I wrote some dialog for Corona’s Chapter 3 and plan on shifting gears from TTWC1 to Tico3. I can’t make any guarantees as to how much progress I’ll make, but we’ll see. Stay tuned.