Not Dead Yet

For several months now Swords of Fire has sat unlooked at and unworked on. I've been busy writing other stories. Other novels. Those projects aren't generating much more interest than my epic fantasy. A little, but not much.

The truth is, none of my works is of the kind which makes people want to read them. Feel like they need to read them. Not sure why what I write is so dull, but then there haven't been many books in my life which I've read which just demanded I read them. Lord of the Rings comes to mind, certainly. And maybe Well-Favored Man. Those are the two which have spawned many re-reads over time.

Some people make a big deal out of whatever book they're reading. Like teenagers, every book seems to be either the greatest or the worst. While I do tend to categorize books into two groups, the groups are far less extreme. Either I like them or I don't. Sometimes it isn't easy to tell. Sometimes a story has elements which I truly enjoy, while at the same time having other elements which completely annoy me. Ultimately, I will base my decision on the story and the characters.

But back to Swords of Fire.

Swords of Fire has its main story, which crosses over several books. It is the story of Madatar's fight with Shatahar over control of The Great Sea. Not the blog. The place. There will be six books in this series. At least. As the story unfolds I discover some chapters have enough detail and suspense to warrant their own book.

But apart from the main story between Madatar and Shatahar there are literally hundreds of other stories associated with Swords of Fire and The Great Sea. My favorite is the story of Tavaar, which also intertwines deeply with the main Swords of Fire saga.

There are over 6,000 people in Khirsha's family tree. More than once I have thought it would be very cool to write a short biography for each and every one of them. I believe I even gave it a go on this blog at one time. But the process is incredibly time consuming, and it takes away from telling other stories. With 6,000 people you know there has to be more than a few stories in that mix.

Then there are the stories of the Children of Fire, and how they helped shape and fashion The Great Sea in the first place. What of all the creatures they created, most now deemed mythical because they were destroyed in the Great War which nearly destroyed The Great Sea. What of the Dragons and the Unicorns and the Phoenix?

There were Overlords and Mortals. What of their stories?

It's a trap for world builders, I suppose. Getting lost in the background stories of their creations.

Recently, I reread Lord of the Rings again. I've read that story more than 200 times in the past forty years. I used to read it over and over and over again. Now I'm down to a couple of times a year. But in his Foreward, Tolkien says something I didn't understand before, but completely sympathize with now.

"I had little hope that other people would be interested in this work, especially since it was primarilly linguistic in inspiration and was begun in order to provide the necessary background of 'history' for Elvish tongues. When those whose advice and opinion I sought corrected little hope to no hope, I went back to the sequel."

Few people care about a character's background. Or the history of a place. All they care about is the story that's going on now. They don't look back and they don't look forward. I suppose that's ultimately a healthy way to live, but it's an ignorant way, to my thinking. So much of what is now is based on so much of what was then. And certainly the combination of then and now are going to impact the future.

Real stories don't begin at Chapter One and conclude at a book's ending. They began some time before, possibly at the beginning of everything, and they don't end until all is done.

But what I find interesting others find dull. And to a great measure I think the opposite is true, too.

And so I keep writing. My audience is me. There are no others.