Background work in progress.

I've been busy with 'real life' over the last several days. Somehow, in the midst of it all, I managed to snag some writing time. (Update for Dacia's War is coming later this evening. I just have to get it typed up.) I started out in my journal writing about random stuff and what I saw at the diner I had lunch at. (If you're ever in Lakeville, check out the Family Diner. They're in expensive, have good food, and their staff are a riot. Seriously, these guys have a fantastic sense of humor.) Somewhere in the midst of finishing my cup of coffee and paying the check, I got the idea in my head to try to do some planning for how I am going to move forward with everything in Evandar.

(Yes, the prequels are coming. I have the plots drafted out. I anticipate a trilogy. Look for the first book in that triad next year around late September. ♥) I got home and sat down in a comfy chair with some Qntal playing (because you always need mood music, am I right?). As I spent the two hours I had free until the kids got home from school, I started drafting out details about my little world. I went back to an idea that I had way back when I attempted to write the very first draft of book one of the series. (This was in 1993, in sixth grade, if you're keeping score.)

I was enamored with Tolkien's world and especially charmed with the languages. In the first flush of enthusiasm, I came up with some random gibberish that was supposed to be a language. This was then forgotten as I built up world history and such. This afternoon, however, I sat down and gave it some serious thought. I realized that I had to fill in some holes in my story which arose from the lack of languages. I now have two notebooks. One is for the rules and development of words. The second notebook is for the devising of alphabets and how to write in my shiny new languages.

I don't know how long it is going to take to devise these languages and I realized I needed more than one. I am planning on posting some pictures as I work at it. Before I can start doing that, however, I need to work out the rules of my languages and how to put them together. I have a brand new set of pens that I purchased recently on a whim. One of them has a brush tip which will be great for the calligraphy style language I have decided is going to come into being and the sigils that will be magical short hand.

I'm not sure how the others are going to look but there is going to be at least one set of letters based off of runic and one based off of ancient Pictish glyphs. I figure if I do it right, I can probably come up with something that looks close to what people wrote in antiquity but with my own twist on it. First, however, I have to sit down and study my books about the development of the English language (which I have a passing familiarity with but I need to deepen it). And probably go through the couple of language text books that I have kicking around my apartment to work up something that is semi-functional before I start making letters to go with it.