I don't know what's going through my head sometimes, and one of those times, for certain, was today while switching my song-binge. I'm writing about Ancient Egypt right now. I'm sure that's not a shock to some of you, but, for the uninitiated, I've long had a fascination with ancient Egypt (me on Booktok/Ticktok rn: TracyEire (@tracyeirewriter) TikTok | Watch TracyEire's Newest TikTok Videos vibing with the *invention* of writing) and have about 10K words in a Work In Progress (though I suppose you all know the term WIP) that's set in ancient Thebes.
Now, I sprint like a peasant, folks. All day. Dawn till dark. I am hardcore. But during the writing sprint I swapped over to BTS Bulletproof. Now, do not ask me why, because I don't know why, but when I swap songs, my head often resets. This is especially bad if I like the song and it's new to me. The inner writer vibes with music, and it really does uncap the creative juices I need to create.
This is a drawn-out way to say I changed threads in my brain, or... flipped channels, I guess. So, I was in my Egyptian Mystery doc, and then started thinking about processing Bind Them into the next part of the Folded series.
If you're me, that's a very daunting task, folks. I'm a generative writer. I write new stuff and don't backtrack much, so it's a scary thought. But lately, I've been thinking about the boys, Anvelere Ruelaf, and Thahawn--Ruel's natural son and the adopted child that friendship foisted on him due to war and loss. I figure Thahawn would have been young when the calamity struck that separated Ruel from his child and wife, and left the pair of them alone together.
As readers know, when Ruel's wife left, she took Anvelere and fled so completely there was a dark cloud of confusion as to whether they were dead or alive. Yet somehow, in my head I'd been coasting along thinking that a potential meeting between the boys would be like that seen in Bind Them. Well....
I think it just hit me that any potential meeting was going to be a lot more hectic, and, because it's me, and because there's music, the entire scene rolled out in my head, and blew my mind. I can only hope, hope, hope that I'm in the same space when I do start writing Book 4, because I love it. It's one of those cut it / print it moments, like I had in Tempered Fire when I realized Baron Beaulay was going to turn around to go up the steps to Kessian's, and nearly walk into the person of the King, and--like I always feel when these things hit me--just be blown away by what's before him.
So... that's been my last 15 minutes. Just to let you know I'm thinking about this book (while, reading through Tempered Fire). I'm missing the King. :)
See the thread below for ongoing updates during the writing of Book 4 of The Folded Earth series. Thanks!
@Monika @Erin Burgess @jinxyblue @midgereader Hi Ladies! Firstly, let me thank you for reading Hammered Heart. Thank you to those of you who choose to help me by giving me a review -- reviews help authors in the Amazon algorithm, and I really appreciate it! I have a question for you (coming from a question I saw online). Would any of you consider the way I write to be 'beautiful' or 'good'? Even if you don't want to answer that, could you tell me what you consider beautiful writing, and good writing? Thanks so much! I know this is a bit odd, but saw a couple questions recently that made me pretty curious!
@midgereader @ @Erin Burgess @Monika @jinxyblue All right! So the line-translations are going to be included in the book now. Though it took a while to update the page numbering! The formatting is better in the new layout (thank you Grad school). Trying to get an author copy of the paperback. There's so much more I wish I could do for this series. I really do love it! The ebook version of Hammered Heart is already up on Amazon at this point. The paperback will follow!
The video from the cover reveal on Tiktok and Twitter has sound! You'd think that the Ordiri would greet her like this. But almost as soon as I thought of the little script for this reveal, I wondered, in my heart, if it isn't almost exactly like this.... For the bad guys.
@midgereader , @Erin Burgess , @Monika , @jinxyblue
Okay. So I have had a request to make a list of line translations for Orth sentences in Book 4. I just spent a day doing a pass on this book to pull out the sentences that are more than a single look-up, and I've made a second part of the Orth glossary in the book. Just letting you know I'll be shooting these out to you by email. Thanks!
Tracy Eire
Jan-13-2023 the draft for FE Book 4 is through a second pass. I'm ready to turn it over to you! @Erin Burgess @midgereader @Monika @jinxyblue
These are the Desktops of my new laptop while I'm writing Folded Earth book 4. Getting this ZenBook (which will help me do renders on videos and art better) was a year of saving up, but it's already proving to be worth it! Upper picture? Ruel at the same age Thahawn is right now. He's a young man just arriving on the scene in the Fata world as an adult. The bottom panel is Ruel as we know him from the books, difficult to read and expressionless, his life has really taken much of the softness out of him and left him kind of hard. Still, the top picture is the young man who went into the North hunting dragons, and the man Skysawen-cwen, among others, pursued.
When you're playing around in Procreate and you keep painting that one guy.... XD
Happy New Year! Here's where I am with the Folded Earth re-read right now!
So, at least 6 chapters to go with some possible rewrites. This one is a rollercoaster!
@Erin Burgess @midgereader @Monika Kobryń @jinxyblue
@Erin Burgess @midgereader @Monika Kobryń @jinxyblue When Daroth is spying on you and you see him: https://twitter.com/i/status/1592138879301455872
(Seriously, having a lot of Fates stare at you feels a bit like this. :)
I hope you're all well! Thanks for your patience waiting for this book. There is a lot going on right now. I'm just sorting out some burbles with my tuition at the moment and really just holding on to the fact people are going to be happy to have this book in their lives. I really appreciate you!
@Erin Burgess @midgereader @Monika @jinxyblue Hi there! I'm wondering if anyone is still aboard Discord? I'm thinking of using it for when the ARC drops. I'm closer than I thought I would be, at this point. But I need to speak to you as a group about the book I've written. I really feel like I need to speak to you, and get your opinions on a few things. So, I'd like a private forum for that to take place, even before the ARC is done. I hope this makes sense, and, of course, any of you can opt out. But I hope you don't! If you'd prefer the email please let me know! Either way is fine by me!
I'm silent because I'm 1-part recovering from a very bad infection, and 1-part swamped at work and homework. And, in there, I'm writing some stunning things, folks. :) It's crazy interesting to me to write in this world! Just like candy!
Wow, I'm actually running a temp. I feel pretty terrible, rn. I hope crashing for a rest will fix it! Glah.
Just made this one....
Cross your fingers for me, ladies. WordFire Press shuts its submissions for Merciless Mermaids (which is over here, btw, Moksha) tomorrow at midnight. I'm so looking forward to it. I've read soooo many submissions. Maybe 84? More? I'm feeling pretty exhausted and, as awesome as this topic is, and as it feels to get these amazing submissions from writers worldwide, I will be glad to move to the next phase. In the meantime, I'm thinking of Ruel-torr, and painting the him while I have Word do it's 'Read Aloud' thing for me.
Yes, I think I'm getting better!
What's happening this week? Well, I have sorted that I'm extremely stressed out. Lucky me, I had a nice meltdown that has landed me in a place where I now know I'm doing too much and need a break. Since the slushpile submissions for my Grad School end on the 7th, I decided I won't be writing again until the weekend. (I think. Sometimes it's out of my hands.) And... there's so much that's changed with my understanding of the novel in the last three days. Oh my gosh. But more on that later. In the meantime, this is leading to lots of artwork for adverts, most of which feature the King. (Though I did make a Dead Set video, finally! <-- my first novel!) Okay! So, there may be more potential advert art popping up in this forum! Thank you for helping me out! The Dead Set trailer and Ruel in his natural element. Cute thing. :)
@Erin Burgess @Monika @midgereader Hey. I thought I'd run something by you. I'm thinking of using this for ads. This is Ruel (pretty clearly). I do think his hair is a little on the longer side. He would never think to cut it considering half his Kingdom would react to that. I'm often reminded that Mirari's hair was wavy. Ruel's is mostly straight though, with body at the ends. Anyway. Let me know if you like it. :)
You know, when I look at this:
I can't help myself but think that some Eligere is soon to pop down out of the surrounding trees--a literal blur of motion--to fix that windswept lock of bone-white hair off his shoulder and back inside his hood, and then dash into the wilderness in the blink of an eye. :) I just know that in their great Alvisc hearts... they would be all about that. My money is on Efnian.
All right, Folded Folks, I'm at 94,756 pages, right now. If I were to add the number of pages currently in this book to all the pages in the Folded Earth series so far, it would equal 1,184 pages. And I'm not done yet! I can, however, see the end from here. Just a few more machinations and we will roll full throttle toward the end of the book!
At 87332 an 207 pages. I'm expecting this to be a bit closer to Twisted Cord's length, which is about 382 pages. A LOT is going on. I have thought, many times, about cutting parts of this book. We'll see how I feel in the end, but something unexpected happened and, because of it, Ora has come to a shattering realization. And forced herself to bounce back.
Well, here's how I feel about The Rings of Power's version of Galadriel.... Readers, I had a terrible accident with one of my files of Folded Earth book 4, and am recovering from that now. I will write this book. I will write onwards. I promise you that! More later. On a break from writing rn. Love you all!