Star Spun Souls

This post is Part 14 of a series to augment the Atlas of the Known World available for free download. Start with Part 1 here . This and other TotKW maps are gathered in my Map Directory for you to explore. Enjoy! The Gulf of Lohki Tropical paradise of plantations and aristocrats. Geography and Climate In Chapter 10 of Awakening , the Gulf of Lohki lies between the Katei Ocean to the northeast and the Desperate Sea to the southwest. Ringed by land on almost all sides, the gulf is much calmer and more predicable than open waters. Hot summers give way to temperate winters warmed by the currents flowing up from the south. Though the Great South Sea might sometimes churn up a hurricane, the storms rarely enter the Lohki Gulf to make landfall. This region also borders Kanata , the Plains of Rishi , and the badlands of Old Ryerin . Flora and Fauna The shoals and reefs along the Lohki's g...

This post is Part 2 of a series to augment the Tips for Writing Fiction available for free download. Start with Part 1 here . This and other writing workshops are gathered in my Workshops Directory for you to explore. Find more guest-inspired content in my Guest Directory . In Part 1 of this series , I connected with author and blogger Jocelyn Crawley. We soon collaborated on this guest post for her now-extinct literary blog. I originally wrote this piece in November 2014, and it has been reposted here with permission. One of reading's greatest joys is stretching the imagination and breathing life into the world described on the page. Readers can't do this without good, descriptive composition. But the writer's adage, "Cut your adverbs," asserts that description profanes the imagination, hobbling a reader's immersion in the scene. Readers slogging thro...

In the novel Awakening , there are 23 portents fortelling the events of the unfolding saga. Start with Portent I here . These and other riddles in rhyme are gathered in the Portents Directory for you to explore. Enjoy! A prison she cannot defeat Where shadows lost and daemons meet Untimely tide assents to greet The gateway unentombed For lover lost in moments stark Her eons squandered long and dark Can forth by master's hand embark With powers rife exhumed Yet languish they in kindly wake Of recollections blankly fake But shall by distance undertake To don the mantle groomed. Can you decode the future Tales of the Known World ? Share your interpretation! Comment below with your take on this portent. This prophesy is cool because portions of it come to pass in different books. The first two stanzas manifest in Awakening while the ...