Wisdom, an immortal raised by the djinn, has gathered a band of super-powered teenagers to stop the Council of Peacocks, a group of evil sorcerers. After the battle in Thessaloniki, the Council is on the run. Just when final victory appears imminent, Josh’s mother is murdered and the prime suspect is his father.
Description:
She’s dead because of me.
Josh Wilkinson is haunted by two words written in still-warm blood: Your fault.
Wisdom, an immortal raised by the djinn, has gathered a band of super-powered teenagers to stop the Council of Peacocks, a group of evil sorcerers. After the battle in Thessaloniki, the Council is on the run. Just when final victory appears imminent, Josh’s mother is murdered and the prime suspect is his father.
Once Josh was integral to the Council’s plans for world domination. Now Josh learns his cousin, Travis, is the one set to activate the Verdenstab. If he does, the Orpheans, demonic allies to the Council, will escape the Black Sea, a pocket dimension that serves as their prison.
In a last-ditch effort to prevent the invasion, Wisdom and Josh use an ancient portal hidden beneath Gobekli Tepe to enter the Black Sea. The rest of the team – a pyrokinetic, a telepath, and a mercenary – head to stop Travis from activating a device.
The end is closer than anyone suspects. The Activation is set to happen tomorrow.
GUEST POST
9 Things You Need to Consider When World Building for Fantasy and Science Fiction
I write epic and urban fantasy. I also have moderate OCD. These two things should never mix. When people hear I'm a writer, they are often amazed at how I can come up with ideas and keep it all straight in my mind. The answer to the second part is easy: I don't. I no longer rely on my memory for details of the worlds in my book because I've created extensive almanacs filled with world building information. So here are a few tips to consider when you are world building for your own series.
1. Geography
This one's easy. Draw maps of the regions you expect to use in the story. This will save you several headaches because after the map is drawn you no longer have to think about things like direction and travelling time. Nothing will derail a writing session fast than having decide if City A is east or west than City B. There are several online free online resources you can use to create maps but I prefer the old school method: pen and paper.
2. Flora and Fauna
The easiest option here is to assume your new world has exactly the same plant and animal life as Earth. But what's the point in world building then? If there are similarities, figure out why. In my fantasy series, similarities occur because both our world and the one I created, Maghe Sihre, were terraformed by an alien species. Either way you should have a basic understanding of food chains, which plants are poisonous, which are edible, etc. I'd also recommend not to overwhelm the reader. Give them points they can relate to (e.g. horses, roses, birthday cake, etc.) helps get the reader invested in the story.
3. Weather
My sister helped me realize this one. You ever notice how in many fantasy books it never rains? In fact, it's always sunny. Like all the time. How do plants grow? If the planet spins, shouldn't they have season? Shouldn't there be storms? Now, I'm not saying you have to go as far out as my sister (who may have numerous diagrams showing jet stream movements) but it's something you need to consider.
4. Magic Systems and Technology
In science fiction, the story usually driven by a specific technology. And technology needs to follow certain rules. Those rules do not have to conform with our current understanding of physical reality but they do have to remain consistent. You don't need a PhD in quantum mechanics but you need to do your research. Nothing will drop a reader out of science fiction faster than science that doesn't make sense. You have a bit more room writing fantasy because you are shouting loudly that the world you've created uses magic. Therefore, it clearly does not follow our current understanding of physics. No one can question your "magic" because it's a system you've created. However, you have to be consistent.
In my world building, I created far too many magic systems, most of which will never even be mentioned on the page. I have detailed write ups on range, damage level and area of effect for every spell. But that's my D&D background. My advice, keep it simple. Create one, maybe two magic systems. Detail is more important here than quantity.
5. Legal and Political System
Again, it's easy to go overboard here. You don't need a full legal wiki but you need to consider what types of acts are legal and which are illegal. You need to have a basic understanding of the function of the police and the courts. Does every city have its own system or is there a country-wide norm? The most common choice for fantasy authors is to base the system on Earth's feudal system. If that's your choice, do your homework.
6. Food and Drink
Would you notice if you went a few days without food or water? Of course. But one of the biggest mistakes new writers make is forgetting to feed their characters. You don't necessarily have to discuss growing seasons or create a logistics plan for getting material from the farm to the table. But you should decide what types of food are common and which are rarities. One of the easiest ways to show class is to illustrate differences in what people consume to survive.
7. Transportation
Spend some time thinking about how people get from point A to B. In many fantasy novels the defaults are by horse or by foot. This means you need to know how far the average person can walk in a day. What effects do long periods of walking have on the body? Do people use saddles with horses? What type? Science fiction often jumps to transporter beams or spaceships. You need to know the speeds of these devices and how common they are. What is their fuel source? Is fuel expensive?
8. Take Your Time But Know When to Quit
For the average writer, fully-formed world building is not something that can be done in a day. It might take weeks, months, or yes, sometimes longer. However, learn from my mistake. I once spent a full 3 years spending all my free time world building. I created an entire role playing game based on my worlds featuring complete with full-color player manuals, random dungeon encounters, 18 playable races, 27 classes each with their own magic system, random roll generators for skills.... you get the picture. I went way overboard. Which meant I didn't get any actual writing done. World building is meant to supplement and enhance your writing. It should never supersede the writing.
9. And the most important part - Keep Your World Building Out of Your Writing
This is often the hardest lesson for new writers to learn. You've spent so much time developing your world that you want to share it with your readers. But the truth is, most readers don't care. True, some people, myself included, love the almanac. In fact, I love the Dune Encyclopedia more than I like the actual Dune novels. But that's not true for most people. World building is supposed to develop the scaffolding or the framework for the story you want to tell. And if you think about it, we remove the scaffolding from buildings after their built. He hide the framework beneath the piece of art. So don't have your world building screaming on the page.
Further Links
A warning that this is probably overkill, but it's the foundation of what I used to create the almanacs for my fantasy world Maghe Sihre. If you can answer every question here, your world will be fully developed.
The same information is also available as a google.doc at the link below:
7 Deadly Sins of Worldbuilding is a great guide at what not to do.
About the author:
M Joseph Murphy was born and raised in Ontario, Canada. He earned his geekdom at an early age. He read X-Men comics from the age of 8 and it only went downhill from there.
As a teenager he wrote short stories and wanted to be the next Stephen King. Instead of horror, however, he kept writing fantasy stories. After surviving high school as a goth with a purple mohawk, he studied English and Creative Writing at the University of Windsor.
When not writing, Joseph works as Lead Accounting instructor at a local college. He lives in Windsor, ON (right across the stream from Detroit, Michigan) with his husband, two cats, and a shy-but-friendly ghost.
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