New Year's Resolutions - 2024

2024 Major Goals

1. Write the first draft for Heart of The Half-Dragon.
2. Find an editor who believes in the story and wants to add their own mark on this quirky sci-fantasy world.
3. Get the novel ready for publishing so that I can hire an Agent!

Reading Challenge Articles

These are the ten articles that I read for the reading challenge to learn more about the craft of writing. Take a gander at them and discover a new world to explore!

It's always fun to see how other writers explain vampirism and the effects that this condition result in. In the world of Etharai, notahumanhand has created a form of vampirsm that can result from overuse of magic and can be transmitted by draining others. It results in a lonely and tragic death. I don't want to catch vampirism in this world!

Ninodonlord has written a thoughtful article about the seasonal scarcity of food in the Moondoor region. Harsh winters, dangerous fae and the difficulties of raising animals in such a wild area make the need for stockpiling a matter of survival. Fortunately the people here are able to import some foods and have learned to fast during the hard times.

Etherwave Arcana is an interesting form of spellcasting. C. B. Ash has come up with a difficult method for using magic that requires immense concentration and energy. I find the use of platforms to keep the navigators steady so they can create gates for their ships to pass through to be interesting. There's plenty of room for villainry as well, since some navigators use relics or living victims to fuel their spells rather than drain their own energy.

Annie Stein writes about ancient cave paintings on the moon of Rhea. I love that she used a real life mystery (the missing fingers from real life ancient cave paintings) as a jumping off point for her own creative mythology. The article makes me ponder what life was like for the earliest humans living on Rhea and what they thought about the migrations of the space leviathans that they depicted in their artwork.

This article stub left me curious about Daren, The Wall, and The Darenites. There's so many questions that arise when I think about this strange and mysterious place. Who built the wall and why? What do the people in this island community think about the outside world? I like that Serukis made sure the people here take care of their limited forests. Since this is a small island, the people are also careful to make sure they don't overpopulate or interbreed with people too closely related.

Magic carriages and omnibuses powered by moss and magic reservoirs make for interesting travel in the city. I love that Amélie I. S. Debruyne specified that this form of transportation is mostly used in the big cities. Intercity travel requires larger reservoirs or teams of drivers switching relay-style. This leaves a possible sense of adventure when heading to more remote or distance locations.

Normalizing the use of healing magic and resurrection by allowing kids to fly around on toy pocket hang gliders that fold out sounds dangerous. Fortunately magic is common place and there are some safety systems built into Airables. What a fun idea from Vazdimet! I may have jumped from a few high places as a kid and would have enjoyed having a quasi-safe glider to play with.

What happens when an entire populace of people who wield powerful magic and create amazing constructs disappear from the world suddenly? The fallout from the jindo leaving after The Great Betrayal leaves many questions unanswered. How did they all disappear so suddenly? Where did they go? I enjoyed reading a little bit more about how the remaining people view the fallout from the jindo leaving in the article about The Museum of Mysteries that TJ Trewin linked to.

An interesting take on Elves! They are separtists who arrived from the Stars. I like that they're aliens who have chosen to maintain their culture by staying in enclaves and limiting interations with the humans on Astra. Looking forward to learning more about KajetanWrites's Elves in the future!

This is an interesting adventure location, a dungeon designed by Loki. Since he's a trickster god, his Gungeon focuses on puzzles instead of combat. Explorers have to aquire all seven keys to escape, no small feat! Each room's puzzle is unique and would challenge any group foolhardy enough to venture inside Loki's dungeon. I wanted to leave a comment, but ElfAllTheTime doesn't have the community features turned on. I'm hoping that by sharing this article here, more folks will visit this interesting world.

Additional Inspiring Articles

More articles that I read during November, December and January. I'm making sure to like and comment as part of the #CommentCaroling initiative:

The Goblins got their own page! K.S. Bishoff wrote this entire article live on Twitch. Not only is the content great to read, but there's amazing BBCode to boot.

A super fun quiz to see what sort of psionic talents you have. I happen to be a telepathic biospion! A fun article and a unique idea.

A terrifying ghost ship naval battle with undead rising from the sea caused by an unknown sleeping god.

Merchant explorer Dwarves with runestone enhanced sailing ships and a vibrant port!

A fleeing pirate using an experimental reality cutter accidently opened a permenant rift from from which hostile darkverse fauna flood out.

A festival dedicated to learning and sharing knowledge held in honor of Quan He, Enlightened Scholar.

Agressive skeletons animated by a glowing fungus that drains the positive energy of anyone who gets too close.

Meatybones is a Tabletop RPG that offers flexible roleplaying experiences. It's been a pleasure watching Dazzlikat create this game system on their twitch stream!

Capepo appeared literally out of nowhere about 700 years ago, complete with flora, fauna and people. Visit to admire the birds and buy some of the abundant crops.

Magic perfume that mages carry in little vials to help focus their arcane actions and make their spells more powerful.

Lovely little blue and white flowers that often grace the facades of village homes. They're great for birds and can be found in the mountains growing wild.

Assassins with a license to kill. These highly trained killers who work for The Gold Collars are never prosecuted. They live segregated lives in the Meggido Pits, a separate area aboard ships and bases that only BC's are allowed to enter.

A nice introduction to Beyond The Dome and explorer Amelia. I'm excited to learn more about the wild world beyond the protected civilization sequestered within The Dome.

Invasive monstrosities from the impact of the Bael Star meteorite. Humanity has recovered from the ice age caused by the impact, but the world has been forever changed and the Anima cycle has been disrupted with alien energy.

A young mercenary tries to secure illegal passage across the river for himself and his shapeshifter friend but has to take some risks along the way. Fun prose to read!

The Salhi family are gifted with prophetic visions but they are also cursed to die young. They're known as The Cursed Children. Their family is believed to attract death.