September 2024 Newsletter
I have been working night and day lately on my Archaios project, more specifically on editing the manuscript of the first book, currently titled Bjornlings Saga. I want to share a little excerpt from the story:
Some say Uhtric’s Raid was our salvation. Perhaps. But I wonder if death in the cold would not have been better in the end. For the shadows awakened, spreading their corruption into the world. Our hubris and complacency sealed our doom.
I will speak of how it began. After the Prophet was buried under a pile of stones, Uhtric the Wayfarer ordered matters to his will. He was arfurjarl, and would be the next jarl. He was huskarl master, and commanded the raids. His was the voice men heard, and he stood center of camp, a sea-beacon that directed all paths.
The thralls, who called themselves the Doon, understood life in the wastes. Under Uhtric’s watch they built strong skin tents from hides and bones, far superior to Bjornling shelters. They carved the hard earth and insulated the walls with sod bricks, chasing the cold away from the sleeping houses. The men were heartened by their new dwellings, but were unsettled. The Doon thralls understood our language but remained silent, showing neither smile nor scowl, staring with eyes as blank as fish. Those Bjornlings who took Doon women as concubines soon found their northern appetites cooled by their cold, rubbery skin and blank gazes.
I can’t begin to tell you how excited I am for this project. It is the sort of work that I always wanted to do. It is the sort of work that I was meant to create. I hope you find the writing intriguing. It is a grim, dark fantasy world of Northern men who are trying to survive in a frozen wasteland, and who encounter ancient things better left undisturbed.
Another aspect of this project that will be quite different is way it will look when finished. This isn’t going to be a novel. It is going to be a saga, and it is going to be an illuminated manuscript, with a great deal of visual work. I have begun mocking up some of this now, just to begin getting a feel for how it will look. Here is some of what I have been playing with:
One of my inspirations here is RPG books. Growing up, I played a lot of role-playing games, the nerdy pen-and-paper kind. One of my favorites in my teenage years was Vampire: The Masquerade. And I found that I often just liked reading these books and looking at the art, even years after I quit playing the game. The books were immersive and made you want to explore the world. Over the years, I have sometimes bought RPG books just to read for that reason. My book strives to capture some of that feel, but without the rules and tables, just focusing on a deep world and story.
Well, that’s all for this month! Thank you for your support.
If you would like to get my monthly newsletter in your email, you can sign up below.
