I had wanted to write something soft and sweet about Hento, because that’s what he was, but apparently that’s just not yet where I’m at. The last two and a half years (plus) have really kicked me in the teeth, and to lose my emotional support animal in that manner at that time just…
Let’s say there’s a lot of pain and anger, still.
The estate chaos is finally over, Autumn is peeking around the corner, the household is looking at our next steps together into a scary but exciting stage, and I’ve unexpectedly fallen in love with another dog far sooner than I expected to be capable of it.
Meet Chief Brody, the most excellent of rescue mutts.
Life goes on. I imagine my rage at the universe for what it did to Hento will cool eventually.
As we enter a new season here at Château Dinosaur, my thoughts turn again toward getting a handle on my most problematic post-thyroidectomy life change: brain fog.
It has been difficult – in part because of the brain fog – to try to convey to the people around me just how serious the issue is. We’ve all felt “a little out of it” before, or had memory blips, or been so fatigued after a late night that it’s hard to think straight, so people tend to assume they know what brain fog is and that it’s possible to just rest up and recover from it. It’s not. Also the term, “brain fog” sounds unserious and made-up, in no way capturing the debilitating and very real effects of losing your ability to marshal your higher brain functions.
With COVID-19 still ripping through the population here in the US, leaving millions in its wake to struggle with the effects of long-COVID, the seriousness of brain fog has finally been garnering mainstream attention. People dealing with various chronic illnesses like ME, CFS, and yes, hypothyroidism, have tried for decades to get the medical establishment and the general public to take this symptom seriously.
When I read this article from Ed Yong at The Atlantic, about brain fog, I legitimately shed tears. Brain fog is real, it’s a medical condition, it’s not psychosomatic, and it is absolutely life-ruining. We need people on this, urgently.
Within two months after my thyroid was removed due to cancer in 2020, I stopped feeling like me. Stopped being able to read more than a sentence before losing my handle on the words. Stopped being able to formulate complex thoughts. Stopped being able to write. Started making simple mistakes in my daily tasks, forgetting my vocabulary, feeling vacant. I felt like I was disappearing, had real fears that I was experiencing early-onset dementia.
At the time, I was trying to put together the release of my second book. It became impossible to do things like write press releases, communicate with reviewers, or contact press. I was supposed to do a Q&A – couldn’t answer questions about my own work. Couldn’t remember my own work. I still can’t. The entire release collapsed into a sad nothing, along with my hopes of launching a successful career as a novelist.
These passages from Ed Yong’s excellent article struck a knifeblade of truth right into my heart:
“Her memory, once vivid, feels frayed and fleeting. Former mundanities—buying food, making meals, cleaning up—can be agonizingly difficult. Her inner world—what she calls ‘the extras of thinking, like daydreaming, making plans, imagining’—is gone. The fog ‘is so encompassing,’ she told me, ‘it affects every area of my life.’”
“At its core… it is almost always a disorder of ‘executive function’—the set of mental abilities that includes focusing attention, holding information in mind, and blocking out distractions. These skills are so foundational that when they crumble, much of a person’s cognitive edifice collapses. Anything involving concentration, multitasking, and planning—that is, almost everything important—becomes absurdly arduous. ‘It raises what are unconscious processes for healthy people to the level of conscious decision making.’”
The article does offer a ray of hope: apparently brain fog can be reversed with proper care. It’s possible that I might recover my stories one day. All two of the people waiting for me to write the third book in my trilogy will no doubt be pleased by that. I would just like to feel like me again. It might sound weird to say I want to hear the voices again, but I’m a writer. Was a writer. Want being a writer back.
The 2020s have taken enough from me already. They can’t have my internal life too. I refuse.
This post is the third in a three-part series. You can find parts one and two at these links.
Most of the conventional wisdom directed at developing writers says to finish your early stories, pat yourself on the back for having completed something, gather up the lessons and the practice you came away with, shelve it, and move on. That’s probably good advice.
I have not done anything remotely like that, and there’s something interesting that happens when you re-write the same story from the beginning a whole crapton of times, assuming you chuck the previous versions and work from memory. A couple of interesting things, really. One is that as you retell and retell and retell, the story takes on this folkloric quality in your mind, like you’re handing down your remembered version of a tale that was handed down to you by someone else. Another is that as you inevitably forget details, only the essential survives, and the skeleton of something new emerges.
Phase Three: rebirth
The map of Asrellion as published in Mornnovin (2019) and Trajelon (2020).
I’ve written before about the bleak, dark period of 2006-7 when I was so burned out that I lost the ability to do most everyday tasks. Luckily for me, because I’d by then spent literally decades developing the Asrellion sandbox, it took practically zero effort to pop in there to mess around with bits and pieces of what I referred to at the time as “Asrellion crackfiction” – writing that I wasn’t thinking of as canon, just a bit of light fluffy entertainment with an intended audience of exclusively me, to take my mind off of how much I hated everything that was happening around me.
Thing of it was, I eventually realized that, uh, I actually had some good material there that I would hate to waste. Kind of unintentionally, I found myself thinking about what would have to change in canon, exactly, to make this stuff usable.
And just like that I was mentally drafting a complete overhaul of Trajelon.
As soon as I realized I was serious about actually doing it, I also had to face the unfortunate facts: there would be little point in writing a sparkly brand-new fantastic version of Book 2 in a series that at that time began with an admittedly weak Book 1.
So there it was: write the whole trilogy all over again, or finally move on with new stories and let these lie in the past. Which, to be clear, would have been a legitimate choice that is often the correct one. But I was, I realized, too excited about this theoretical new Trajelon to walk away now. Which brings us back to Mornnovin.
Okay, so, there’s no point rewriting a book for the fourth time if you’re just going to tell the same story all over again. That much seemed clear right away. And because in 2008 I was neck-deep in the fanfiction community, that was basically the height of my awareness of both popular and unpopular tropes.
Something that everyone who has ever met me knows is that I have a real defiant streak. I say streak, but it would probably be more accurate to say that I’m like at least 85% composed of pure noat the DNA level.
I state this as a matter of fact devoid of value judgment, not to make the claim that being a stubborn asshole is a desirable trait, but to explain how it is that when I sat down as a mostly-grown pseudo-adult to think about what a reimagined Mornnovin would look like, a significant factor at this stage was a desire to flatly call out, deconstruct, reclaim, revamp, discard, update, and/or examine the well-known tropes of the fantasy genre. If Mornnovin redux had any one single guiding principle at the drawing board stage, it was this.
As an outgrowth of this mindset going in, it wasn’t just the plot or the characters I submitted to re-examination. It only makes sense that as the work progressed, I found myself re-litigating every single established element of the worldbuilding that had gone into creating the world of Asrellion to that point. Some past decisions made the cut. Many did not. Some that did, I felt needed some expanding in order to explain why that would be the way things are. Maybe more importantly, I questioned established staples that I’d never even thought to question before.
(Why would the calendar in another world begin the year in the dead of winter like ours? Like, it could, but what would the reasoning be? Why would months directly correspond to ours? Is the year even the same length as ours? Should it be? Why would there be the same kind of color-based racism that we have on Earth? Why do I assume as a matter of course that historic Earth sexism would be the norm throughout all cultures of a fantasy world I’ve made up from whole cloth? Why is everyone white? Does a conlang need to gender its nouns just because the foreign language I was learning at the time that I started creating it does? Would it even make sense for the language of a culture with no strong delineation of gender roles to be built on heavily gendered foundations? I mean that one was a clear nope, what was I thinking. Etc.)
In general in my life I would say this was a period of refining my assumptions, deepening my understanding, maturing my ideas, and consciously attending to the direction of my personal growth. That translated directly into the evolution of Asrellion. The heavy lifting was already done; this was (and is) the time of fine-tuning.
Of realizing that writing Fantasy well doesn’t mean simply replicating what the genre has already established, but deciding what sort of reality I want to project into the world, what sorts of things I want to be saying, which stories are important to me. And because of my defiant streak the size of the Grand Canyon, this has meant a lot of deliberately rejecting What Is Done.
We can thank the Modern Era of Asrellion for:
the final map (sadly sans inter-dimensional portal)
Tomanasíl’s relationship with Gallanas, which makes his whole deal finally make sense
finally the realization that the denizens of a fantasy world need not be uniformly lily-white (and that it makes little sense for them to be)
Gay Elves!
final name changes for several characters (lookin’ at you, Cole)
the current refinements to the grammar and vocabulary of Elven
Sovoqatsu Farínaiqa. You’re welcome.
this Katakí Kuromé – other iterations were your standard moustache-twirlers
Sekarí
moving away from the standard “and then everything was solved with a really big battle” trope, toward
resolutions that are more about character, relationships, individual growth and change, and cooperation over conflict
Lyn’s colorful swear catalogue
magic as science
Narías’ temporal peculiarity
most of the fun little magical doodads like rovanan, sound boxes, and the Nírozahé
my voice, such as it is
the elimination of certain yucky tropes and plot devices that no longer serve the stories I’m trying to tell
more effective use of the in-world elements I’d put in place over the years
whatever sophistication the work can boast of
a significant reduction in Tragic Content™ (if you can believe it)
Obviously, my work on and in Asrellion is far from finished. With another book still to add to The Way of the Falling Star, several short stories still in the cards, and an entire multi-book series loosely outlined about the creation and early days of Asrellion, it goes without saying that things are going to continue to morph, shift, grow, come together, and fall away in the years ahead. New people, new magic, new histories are bound to emerge. And I’m not done evolving either, both as a writer and as a human who wants to say things.
It remains to be seen what the Fourth Era of creation will end up looking like, but it seems pretty clear to me that I am transitioning into a new phase.
Partly because it’s been five years now since I last did any major work in Asrellion, and those five years have been tumultuous, significant years both for me personally and in the larger real-world sense.
Partly because I’m now having to learn how to work with a cognitive disability that, it seems, can be managed but not entirely cured. (That remains a bit up in the air. I’m doing better on my current treatment regimen, but better is relative. Can we improve my cognitive function still further? Is this as good as it gets, now? Too early to say, but I am someone different now, as a creator.)
Partly because my living and working conditions are vastly different now to what they were the last time I did any real writing or worldbuilding in Asrellion and I have yet to see the effect that’s going to have on my process.
But also? Largely due to the way that the real world that I have to exist, think, and create in has changed. I haven’t completely teased out what that means regarding the direction I’d like to take Asrellion in from here, or the impact on the kinds of stories I want and need to tell. That’s one of the reasons why Book 3 has been so slow to coalesce.
I’ll have to get back to you when I do figure out what Phase Four brings to the evolution of Asrellion.
Who knows. Maybe we’ll circle back to the talking animals.
The History of the History of Asrellion parts one and two.
This post is the second in a three-part series. You can find parts one and three at these links.
Earlier this week I started talking about the early days of creating an entire fantasy universe from scratch, in answer to a question about how that worldbuilding has evolved over the years. Because I’ve been working in this universe for such a long time (since I was ten years old in 1989!) there have definitely been stages to that evolution.
In the previous installment, I described how the first details of Asrellion emerged from the tip of a child’s brain as she explained it to the new girl she wanted to befriend. And how, really, a lot of that early worldbuilding was pretty stupid. No fit foundation to build further work on top of.
Also, when you’re ten years old, then eleven, then twelve and onward, you’re constantly changing your mind about what you like, what’s interesting to you, what’s cool. You’re always learning new things and adjusting your understanding of the world and of yourself accordingly. You try on new self-identities like a new outfit every few months. All of this is just part of growing up. So in a very real way, Asrellion grew up with me through those years.
The next era of worldbuilding, as I started to clean up that mess while making new ones, was tumultuous but extremely productive.
Phase Two: I Have No Idea What I’m Doing, Actually, But That’s Okay?
When I was a toddler, The Hobbit made me want to write stories, but when I was sixteen, a book called Tigana made me realize that there’s a difference between writing a story down and storytelling. It honestly changed my life. Not immediately for the better.
The cover of Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay.
After the utterly amazing and emotional storytelling journey of that book, I’m afraid I went through a pretty severe “I don’t know how to do that and I lack the ability to ever learn, so I should just give it up” phase. I’ve… had a few of those over the years. (I almost had another, many years later, after reading American Gods, but by then I was old enough to snap out of it by deciding that it didn’t matter if what I was writing was trash, comparatively, or if no one was ever going to read it, I still had to write.)
I did make another attempt at Mornnovin in junior high and high school after a friend lost more than two hundred pages of the original draft(!!!), forcing me to start over, but I wasn’t any more satisfied with that one than I was with the first.
But, while I was busy wallowing in this Imposter Syndrome, I was also reading a lot. A lot. I went to college as an English major and read a lot there too. And because I’d had my Storytelling Awakening, I was now really noticing what things did and did not contribute to an effective and well-told story. Even though I’d convinced myself I could never learn how to do it like the greats, I was, after all, learning.
The thing about being a writer, even one with Imposter Syndrome, is that you never completely stop making stuff up. In fact, what has usually ended up happening to me is that the more stymied I feel on the storytelling front, the more I tend to lean into thinking about the tiny unrelated details of the world that I feel like I’m being locked out of. Can’t write a story, I guess, but I sure can hyperfixate on calendars or spend an entire week thinking about how elves would go about having snowball fights!
So this became the heavy lifting phase of the evolution of Asrellion. Most of the names, places, dates, history, cultures, and intent shifted during this time, in my early to late twenties. I attempted yet another version of Mornnovin, and this time I actually made it all the way through an entire trilogy plus a related stand-alone novel. As the work progressed, the worldbuilding naturally filled itself in.
This era, roughly 1996-2008, is where we can trace most of the development of elven history and culture, as I finally gave serious thought to the elves I was writing rather than simply coasting on Tolkien’s work. It’s also when Tomanasíl Maiantar started to be a real character and not just a cartoon villain with no other purpose but to stand in the way of whatever cool thing Loríen wanted to be doing.
Not coincidentally, these were also my big fanfiction years. As a reader of fanfiction, and later a judge for an awards site, I came to be aware of which fantasy and storytelling elements people think of as “tropes,” which are considered overdone, and which are fan favorites. To be completely honest, fanfiction taught me more functional, usable information about the nuts and bolts of writing than school ever did.
I finally started keeping notes, which is probably important and one of the only useful things I took away from college. In fact, I sort of became obsessive about keeping everything consolidated in this cool three-ring binder with a pretty sun-moon-and-stars design on it. (Sadly it was one of those floppy binders and it eventually fell apart.) It gave me a unique thrill of satisfaction to flip through all of my reference materials and be able to actually see how much worldbuilding I was doing.
Possibly one of the biggest single things I did to grow the worldbuilding at this time was getting really serious about the conlang. There was an exercise I developed in these years where I would take a page of existing material – mine, someone else’s, whatever – and translate the entire thing into Elven. That meant figuring out consistent grammar applications; more, it also meant stopping every few words when I would encounter one that I hadn’t invented in Elven yet, giving some thought to the kind of sound that concept would have in the mind of an elf, doing a bit of research into existing world languages to sort of get a feel for the way people all over the world hear and think about that concept, then crafting something of my own. Doing whole pages like this got me way deep into building my own language. Who knows – maybe I’ll publish an Elven guide someday.
Two pages from my reference binder. A poem translated into Elven, left, and a poem written out in an earlyversion of the Elven script, right. You can see evidence that I was still working it out and testing things on the page.
Aaaaaaaalsooo, and I almost wasn’t going to admit this, but… playing a lot of The Sims 2 during this time really helped me to see the various side-characters and locations and families as real entities going through the mundane business of daily life. Yes, I’m saying that I built various Asrellion locations in The Sims, popped my characters in, and watched them go about their lives. Apart from being terribly amusing (Sim!Lanoralas really really really hated Sim!Qroíllenas and honestly tried to spend all of his time working out on the weight bench. Chill, man. Sim!Neldorí is exactly what you would expect and never quit, and consequently, all of the other Sims hated him), it provided me with some unexpected insights into the social complexities of life in Asrellion. Yes, really. One reason the world of Asrellion feels lived-in is because I spent many computer hours actually watching it be lived in.
I think it also can’t be denied that the evolution of Asrellion was significantly impacted, in ways that are impossible to quantify, by seeing the major fantasy influence of my childhood brought to life on the big screen during these years.
Despite multiple stops, starts, dry spells, and mind-changes, this long phase of Asrellion’s evolution gave us:
solid prototypes of Mornnovin, Trajelon, Eselvwey, and the related Faríel, which you don’t know about yet
a more “human” Tomanasíl
map names and geological features that were the result of more than spur-of-the-moment thought – including “Asrellion” itself
most of the grammar and vocabulary of the Elven conlang
detailed visualizations of the individual cities of Evlédíen and the structure of elven society
a slimming down of the characters and story elements I was trying to cram into each novel
serious conceptualization work on Elven, Grenlecian, Telrishti, and Mysian cultures
much pondering of what it would mean to be immortal
the Creation Myth
fleshing-out of the deep history of Asrellion
Autumn Festival
the first throwaway appearance of a bodyguard named Sovoqatsu, somewhere in the middle of Eselvwey
The Eleven Noble Houses
endless “what would x character do in y situation” thought exercises
a noticeably Shakespearean flavor and tragic bent
the first binder full of detailed – and I mean detailed – supplemental notes, including
the first Elven glossary
the Elven alphabet
elven poetry (that you’ll never see lol)
the history of Naoise’s family
so many timeline charts
a brief obsession with pearlescent colored gel pens
the first time I thought about the calendar in Asrellion
rough outlines and character profiles for a 7-book series on the early days of Asrellion
I do still have a copy of the map from these years, but it’s pencil-drawn and far too smudged now to be of any use to anyone. A nice memento, I suppose.
An old pencil-drawn map of Asrellion on lined notebook paper, smudged beyond recognition.
This era is technically not the longest but is definitely the meatiest stretch in the history of the history of Asrellion. That’s because this is when I was learning how to do what I wanted to do, and how to be more thoughtful and intentional about doing it. It’s not a coincidence that I was doing a lot of living in these years too. Living is how you develop any ideas worth actually writing about.
Which set the stage for Phase Three.
The History of the History of Asrellion parts one and three.
This post is the first in a three-part series. You can find parts two and three at these links.
Long, long ago in the once upon a time, a child drew a map to impress the new girl at school. The child often drew maps, but mostly they were of places that already existed because someone else had already created them. This time, the place did not exist until the map was finished, because no one else had created it yet.
Asrellion was born.
It really was that simple – and simplistic – back then. I mean, I’d always been making up adventure stories in my head and pretending to fight orcs and dragons and things in my playtime. But up until that moment, I’d never committed anything to paper. I’d never settled on any continuous canon details. I just liked to pretend that I was an elf sometimes, usually a tragic orphan because so many of the stories are about tragic orphans (and because being the youngest of seven children, an introvert in a household of nine people, I loved the idea of being alone.) Usually I was in Middle Earth, because I was very familiar with Middle Earth. The important thing was that I had a cape, and a sword, and a trusty steed (played by my bicycle), and bad guys to defeat. The details were inconsistent and irrelevant up to that point.
But this, when I drew that map? This was the first time I started making up stories in a place with a name I’d invented.
Turns out, though, there’s a lot more to developing an entire fantasy world than just drawing a map and slapping a few made-up words onto it.
The evolution of Asrellion, in life as in-universe, can be looked at broadly in three phases: 1. excited, naïve, careless genesis; 2. cautious slowing and intentional retooling – the heavy lifting years; and 3. rebirth, carefully making thoughtful tweaks and additions while watching the world grow organically as life moves through it,
Phase One: flinging oatmeal at the wall
I really wish I still had that first map so I could show you how ridiculous my little-kid ideas were, but also how surprisingly-not-as-different-as-you’d-expect the final form of Asrellion actually is. It probably looked something about like this though:
Why does the landmass have no southern edge? Why is the entire world a single continent? These and many other sensible questions will never have any answers because children don’t know shit.
What’s extra hilarious is that back when I was 10 to 12, I had this starry-eyed notion that I’d write these stories and send them anonymously to some publisher who would be like “THIS IS AMAZING. THE NEXT TOLKIEN. SOMEONE FIND THIS GENIUS AT ONCE SO WE CAN SHOWER THEM WITH ACCLAIM!” and then I’d reveal that I was A KID and everyone would be so shocked.
So as you can see, the first phase of Asrellion was not terribly serious.
What it was, was fun. My friend and I would share our princess adventure story ideas with each other, and together we came up with a loose mythology for the worlds we were playing in. There wasn’t a lot of consistency but it didn’t matter. What mattered was fun and creation. We’d get together to play and a new adventure would emerge.
I think exactly two names from that first Asrellion have survived from their earliest incarnation into the present day: Grenlec and Telrisht. Maybe Dewfern also? Not a single one of the characters, although Lyn is close – formerly Lynne. The main cast of characters were almost all around by the first version of Mornnovin, though, and more or less like themselves. The name of the world did at least begin with an A, but it was a horrifying portmanteau of three or four nonsensical things that I happened to have on my mind at the moment that I blurted it out.
Some of the delights we’ve lost since that first draft include but are not limited to:
a talking unicorn
talking horses
a whole pack of helpful dog friends
an inter-dimensional portal (yes, really)
an undead army brought back to fight for the bad guy Black Cauldron-style
a plucky comic relief dwarf character
a zany, possibly-mad wizard who helped the heroes when he felt like it
random magic rings
magic singing
a magic sword
Lyn and Loríen as identical twins so hilarious mistaken-identity hijinks could ensue
a really kickass dragon fight
a visit to a whole entire fairy city
secret waterfall caves
everyone in love with Loríen, actually
so much kidnapping
just, like, so many magical doohickeys
a hundred distracting and unrelated subplots
at least 80% more angst
I wasn’t writing down any of the lore during this time, roughly 1989-1996, which is a shame. In fact, I still have copies of absolutely none of this early writing or worldbuilding anymore. (Most of my earliest recorded stories were saved on floppy disks which erased themselves spontaneously. There was swearing.)
The only form in which any of this has survived is in the DNA base code of what came after.
The History of the History of Asrellion parts two and three.
In my recent author Q&A, I was asked about my writing process by more than one person. I got every bit as weird while answering it as I always do when asked this question. Despite rambling awkwardly for a good long while, I don’t know that I actually said anything useful or interesting about it in the end.
I remembered that I had blogged agonizingly on this very topic what is now six-and-a-half years ago, so I moseyed over to my archives to have a look at what past-Alyssa had to say. It turns out that even though like EVERYTHING has changed about my life since then, and even though I’ve churned out a whole novel and several short stories in the interim, so much about that post remains accurate today. Especially the parts about creative blockage. (And the tea obsession.) Plus ça change, right?
So I figure it’s worth nudging that old entry back into the spotlight, because I think it does a better and more organized job of talking about whatever the hell my process is than my rambling answer in the Q&A did.
What is always true across all times and formats in which I talk about this subject is that it has a way of kicking up my Imposter Syndrome with an intensity that little else can match. I’m not sure why this one thing is the Big Red Button of activating my sense of being a fraud, but I feel like it’s probably lodged somewhere near my ridiculous but unshakable feeling that I can’t be called an “artist” if I can’t draw, specifically.
You’ll just have to try to bear with my anguished flailing until I go back to remembering that I can’t be a fake writer if I’m literally holding, in my hands, a real copy of a real book that I wrote.
Hard to believe that we’re already a third of the way into June, but here we are. Summer! It’s certainly an artifact from my long-ago schooldays, but I tend to think of summer as a time to readall the fiction. Just me?
I don’t have any new books ready for you guys to dig into yet, but I’m pleased to announce that two more of the Asrellion short stories previously available only to my Kickstarter backers are now open to all readers: “Green” and “Witness.”
Have you wondered what happened just after Naoise Raynesley left at the end of Mornnovin? Wished you’d seen Lyn and Cole’s wedding? “Witness” is the story for you. Ever wanted to know what Tomanasíl Maiantar was like before he became Regent and Loríen’s guardian? Wondered just how he got involved with someone as different from him as Gallanas Raia? Read “Green” to find out. And while you’re at it, check out the rest of the short stories currently up for grabs to really get into the world of Asrellion.
The stories are password locked and a whatever-you-think-is-fair payment to my PayPal.me account gets you access.
It has been brought to my wandering attention that I missed a question in my author Q&A. It’s a good one too and it seems a real shame to let it slide, so I’m going to take a crack at it here.
Q:“Who is your favorite and least favorite characters and why excluding the main hero/heroines/villians?”
Wow!
I have this feeling that writers probably aren’t supposed to admit that they have favorite characters, sort of like the way parents aren’t supposed to have favorites among their own children (even though we all know they totally do.) But I’m nothing if not a rebel.
So, obviously my main characters are my favorites, or else someone else would be the main characters. You want to know who else, though? Unapologetically, I am a big fan of one Neldorí Chalaqar, my favorite shitlord. He’s a terrible, terrible person who is so much fun to write. For real, I often find myself grinning as I write Neldorí scenes because he’s just so in love with himself, so brazen, so smooth, so amoral, and so pleased to be exactly who and what he is. He has, like, whatever the exact opposite of Imposter Syndrome is. If he were a real person, he would be insufferable and I would hate every second of having to deal with him. As a fictional character, he’s a damn delight.
My least favorite character? Would it surprise you to hear that if you’d asked this question a couple decades ago, I might have considered Lyn in this category? I used to have a fiercely difficult time understanding and writing her. Just in general, I don’t understand optimism and I sometimes find myself annoyed by it. As I’ve gotten older, though, and as I’ve made deliberate choices to lean into my own softness and my wonder at the world, Lyn and I have started to see things more like each other. I realize that I wasn’t being fair to her (or optimists) back in the day and I like her a lot better now.
Today I’d probably say my least favorite character is Qroíllenas Qaí. It’s not his fault that he really has no redeeming qualities — he’s just doing what he was written to do. But yeah. He really has no redeeming qualities. In the same way that writing Neldorí gives me joy, writing Qroíllen always sucks it out of me.
So there you go, question-asker! Sorry this answer didn’t make it into the Q&A video, but you got your very own blog post, so that’s something.
For a surprise on my Saturday, a vendor returned an unsold copy of TRAJELON to me with slight exterior damage along the bottom edge. This is mainly surprising because I had no idea that any vendors actually had/have physical copies of my books in stock. Huh.
I’m offering to turn that poor rejected copy around at cost ($8.26 + tax) plus $3.55 shipping for a total of $12.31 to the first person who speaks up for it.
Normal retail $17.99.
Email me at DogwoodHouseBooks@gmail.com if you would like to give this lonely book a forever home!
UPDATE:
The book has been claimed and is going to its new home tomorrow. ❤
Last night, we had a wonderful virtual launch party for TRAJELON and I did a reading from the first chapter (while my jerk dog loudly ate his kibble right next to me.)
This is a recording of that stumbly reading in my very echoey dining room, for anyone who wanted to be there but missed it.
Other highlights of the event included a giveaway that I swear was not rigged despite the fact that the same eight people won all thirteen prizes, a lovely group toast, and an uproarious game of Cards Against Humanity played with a custom deck we made just for the occasion. All cards were in the theme of writing, fantasy, sci-fi, or Asrellion. Several people asked if they could purchase the deck for themselves because it was amazing. (Alas, it’s a one-off.)
The real hero of the night, the card that could win every hand, was “Wookiee Wang.”
We did it! It’s November 24th, 2020, and TRAJELON is live for purchase at all of the major online retailers.
And at literally 12:00 a.m. of release day, there are already hucksters claiming to have used copies to sell.
Hopefully, all of you have your copies already, as I sent out the physical copies three weeks ago and the eBooks last week. I’m very proud of this book and am terribly excited for you to read it!
As a reminder, this evening at 8 p.m. EST I am having a virtual launch party featuring a prize giveaway and a naughty writing-themed card game. All you need to attend is Zoom, the link to the party room, and the password 2TRAJELON. There is a handy FAQ here to address all of your questions.
To keep all social media posts about the party easily followable as the evening progresses, please use the hashtag #TRAJELONparty.
I hope you will be able to join me, not least because this Book Birthday is your victory too! Thank you again to everyone who helped make this happen. We did it! We made a book!
A final word before I twirl off to enjoy my Book Launch:
This mostly concludes the Kickstarter campaign for TRAJELON, with two notable exceptions and one request.
All rewards have been delivered at this time except for the two fancy maps of Asrellion (which are in progress), and the exclusive backer Q&A which will take place some time in January. Look for news about that after the New Year. If there remain any rewards you are due that have not arrived yet (or, like the eBook or short stories, that you are having trouble accessing,) please get in touch with me so we can get that sorted out right away. Otherwise that’s us square and I hope you enjoy the book you helped me make!
Which brings me to the request: Now that TRAJELON is out in the world, its success depends entirely on reviews and word of mouth. Please help this book you supported to realize its potential by doing your part in that arena. Online reviews and ratings, blog posts, social media boosts, book clubs, even just gifting it to your friends or talking it up to anyone who might appreciate it — all of that is an essential part of helping a new book to thrive in the wild. If all you can do is an Amazon and/or Goodreads rating, that alone is significant and a great help. So pretty please, go forth and review!
And I hope to see you tonight on Zoom at 8 Eastern.
Well we’re in the final days of the countdown until launch here and I just wanted to let you know, in case you didn’t see your emails, that I did in fact arrange for the eBook downloads early.
Be sure to select “Ebook.”
Find your copy here at this shop (and be sure to put the eBook rather than the Paperback into your cart — a blooper that more than one person has made, so you would be in fine company if you did too.) The promo code for your free download was sent to the email address you provided on your backer survey.
Just a heads-up, the eBook does not automatically appear in the Kindle app when you download it from Aerio, unlike when you purchase an eBook from Amazon. We discovered this through trial-and-error on the day the emails rolled out. You have a couple of options to ensure that the book goes into your Kindle Reader app.
Option one: when the Aerio store asks you for the delivery email address, enter your Kindle delivery address. You can find this in the “app settings” in your Kindle app. This method, however, requires the preliminary step of adding the sending address aeriosupport@ingramcontent.com to your “Approved Personal Document E-mail List” in your Amazon account settings, before you have the file sent. If you do not, the delivery will be blocked by the Kindle app.
Option two: go into the File Manager on your phone or Kindle device, (wherever you downloaded the book to,) find the actual eBook file (named 9781733648042.mobi), and move it into the Kindle folder. Then, when you open the Kindle app, the title will appear in your library.
If for some reason you have not received your email with the promo code, please let me know.
Also, I am aware that international backers had some trouble downloading Mornnovin from Aerio last year. If they’re still a problem for my backers outside of the U.S., get in touch with me and I’ll make sure you have access to a download.
Because I felt the need to do something productive and positive today, I just spent an hour and a half at the Post Office mailing out these bad boys.
It’s, uh, going to take me a while to input each and every tracking number for you guys, so bear with me on that.
Now that I’ve put all of the hard copies in the mail, three weeks before the official launch date, I’m mulling over the unfairness of the fact that the eBooks will not be downloadable from the Aerio store until November 24th. The only way to circumvent this would be to manually add the eBook to the store early, which would make it sort of a soft early release because it would then be available for purchase to anyone who should happen by. So… not sure how I feel about that, but I’m also not completely taking it off the table. I’ll get back to you.
But in any event, the paperbacks (and hardcovers) are now on their way to everyone to whom one is due. I hope they arrive swiftly and that they hit the spot when they get there!
Just five weeks! That’s how soon this book we’ve been waiting all year for is going to burst onto the scene. I hope you’ve got the launch party in your calendar, because the custom card deck has gone to print and I’m really excited to play a silly game with it. (I know I said I would take suggestions through October, but we were full up already!)
The signed grand prize poster is here and it’s beautiful – ready and waiting to go to whomever the lucky winner of the draw might prove to be.
Shiny.
The special hardcover copies for the top-tier backers have also arrived, and I am pleased to report that they are just scrumptious.
I hope you’re as pleased with it as I am, you three!
It’s also worth mentioning that I’m getting very excited about this book birthday – so excited that I am almost certainly going to mail your books out to you even earlier than I said I would. Probably the instant it’s November. The envelopes and the books are just sitting here ready to go, and I’m champing at the bit.
As a reminder, there are short stories at my website if you find yourself craving more Asrellion in the next month while we wait.
Very close now, folks! I hope to see you at the party!
Well it’s October now which means that Trajelon comes out NEXT MONTH! It sure has been a long and crazy road just to get this far.
I’m slowly but surely preparing for the virtual book launch party.
I’ve ordered some prizes for the raffle, I’ve spruced up my press room, I’m planning decorations and snacks for the evening, and most of all I’m working on the custom card deck for our Cards Against Humanity-style game. I even worked up a spiffy event flyer.
It occurred to me suddenly when my friend sent me those adorable book earrings, and I commented that now I knew what to wear to the book launch, that actually I hadn’t been giving any thought to getting myself ready for the party. If this thing were in-person, I absolutely would have already been thinking of what to wear. I’m not sure why that never crossed my mind for this. So yeah, now I’ve also begun to fuss over my party clothes. It might seem like a silly thing to worry about, but I want to get into the proper party mindset as much as I can, even though circumstances are weird. Especially because circumstances are weird.
But the main thing, right now, is that custom card deck. I am still soliciting suggestions and welcome all of your fun and kooky ideas. Anything relating to writing in general, speculative fiction genres (for example: Tolkien references ahoy), and references to my stories is welcome. We’re currently at about 70 white cards and 40 black cards, which is respectable but more would be so much better.
If you think you have a prompt for a custom card, email your idea to alyssabethancourt@gmail.com. If you feel a little iffy about the necessary format, don’t worry. We’ll clean it up so that it fits. I’ll be taking suggestions through October, so the clock is ticking!
Q: When is this party? A: Tuesday, November 24th, 2020, from 8 p.m. Eastern Standard Time until we’re all partied out.
Q: Is this event in-person or virtual? A: Due to COVID-19, this book launch event will be exclusively virtual. The author will be joined at her home by her husband, fellow writer Jonathan R. Skocik, but all other attendees will log into the party virtually via Zoom.
Q: Will it be live? A: Yes! Live and interactive, so be sure to log in on time.
Q: Is there a hashtag for this event? A: #TRAJELONparty
Q: The announcement mentions a raffle. Do I have to purchase tickets? A: No. Your attendance at the Zoom meeting is your ticket to entry in the raffle. All attendees will be eligible for all prizes.
Q: What are the prizes being offered in the raffle? A: Some of the prizes remain TBD, but the grand prize will be a Trajelon release poster signed by the author and the cover artist.
Q: Do I need a password to enter the party? A: Yes. Use the link provided and enter invite code 2TRAJELON to join the Zoom meeting.
Q: What is this card game mentioned in the event announcement? A: Alyssa has arranged for a few fellow authors and artists to join her in a game in the style of Cards Against Humanity, using a custom card deck that has been created for the occasion. It references the fantasy genre, writing, the world of Asrellion where Alyssa’s novels take place, and the settings of the other players’ created works.
Q:Trajelon is the second book in a series. What if I haven’t read the first book? A: The first book, Mornnovin, is available to purchase on Aerio, Amazon, and most other major book retail sites in both eBook and trade paperback format. It’s a good read; you should absolutely check it out!
Q: I’ve never been to a virtual launch party. How does this work? A: The good news is that we’re all just figuring this (and 2020 as a whole, really) out as we go, so there’s no wrong way to do it. We suggest wearing something comfy, nerdy, or fancy — whatever makes you happy — rounding up some snacks and a festive beverage or two, and settling in with your screen someplace quiet. Alyssa will do a reading from the book, the raffle will happen, and then we’ll all just relax together and chat while the sure-to-be-ridiculous game unfolds. The main thing to remember is that we’re celebrating a book birthday!
Q: Can I suggest cards for this special custom deck? A: You absolutely can and Alyssa would be delighted if you did. You can leave your suggestions for both White and Black cards in the comments here or email them to alyssabethancourt@gmail.com until October 31st. They may be edited slightly to fit the format of the game.
Q: Who are the other authors who will be attending? A: Given the nature of… all of everything happening this year, some of them have asked to be allowed some fluidity in their commitments to events so far into the future. For this reason, no names are being announced until such time as the party is actually taking place. However, the MC for the evening will be Matt R. Lohr, co-author of Dan O’Bannon’s Guide to Screenplay Structure.
Q: Do I have to talk at this Zoom meeting? A: No! You can mute your mic if you want. Or not. Whatever makes you happy.
Q: I might be a little late; is it okay to sign in after the party has started? A: Absolutely! Join when you can. Just remember that if you don’t get there in time for the raffle, you’ll miss out on the chance to win some sweet prizes.
Q: I’d like to be there, but I might have to leave early. Is that okay? A: Of course. Your presence is appreciated but certainly not required. You do you.
Q: I might miss the party, but I’d still like to see it. Will a recording ever become available online? A: Alyssa currently has the Zoom meeting set to save to the local hard drive. Assuming all attendees agree, a recording will go up on YouTube on November 25th. If they do not, then no.
Autistic Wordpainter 
