Winter Moon of the Winter Solstice
Been reading the Elder Eddas. Here’s a quote that I think will start Loki’s Children:
“The sun darkens, earth in ocean sinks, fall from heaven the bright stars, fires breath assails the all-nourishing tree, towering fire plays against heaven itself.”
These ice landers had a way, an economic way with words. Here’s another example:
“He is sated with the last breath of dying men; the god’s seat he with red gore defiles; swart is the sunshine then for summers after; all weather turns to storm. Understand ye yet, or what?”
These stories captured my attention long ago and I’ve read versions, interpretations and scholarly material. They have seeped their way into my own story-telling, not as templates or as immediate content, but as story evokers. Sometimes I take bits, like a focus on Yggdrasil in Even the Gods Must Die. Sometimes I take ideas, like Ragnarok and Loki’s children, as motivating forces, even characters inserted into the narrative I’m creating.
I treat them as inspiration, not material to follow slavishly. I have the same relationship with the Celtic mythological material and have blended it into Missing and will continue to do that in Loki’s Children.
How long this immersion in them will last, I’m not sure. Maybe a week of reading, maybe more. Depends on how long it takes for Loki’s Children to press forward, demand that I get to work on it directly. After this week I’ll have mornings free through July 1st. That run will see me well into this project.
I also loaded into Scrivener one other full novel: The God Who Wanted It All, a focus on Aztec mythology and Superior Wolf, a partially finished novel that I’ve struggled to get well underway. Working in Scrivener is so much easier than the much clumsier methods required using word.
This guy showed up in some research I did. His model for self-publishing looks very well thought out and creative. Give him a look if that sort of stuff interests you. He’s done a long piece with Beowulf as the backdrop. Fantasy Castle Books.
