Star Spun Souls

This post is Part 4 of a series to augment the Author's Manifesto available for free download. Start with Part 1 here . This and other inspirations of mine are gathered in the Spark Directory for you to explore. Find more prophetic poetry in my Portents Directory . In Part 1 of this series , I wrote my very first poem. After learning how to make riddles in rhyme, I started creating prophesies for my first novel. With five prophesies for the book and its four sections complete, I set out to refine the other prophesies referenced tangentially in the story. These snippets quoted in the book's prose became full-fledged poems in their own right, and I began to crave a way to keep the prophesies organized. I pondered how the scholars within the tale would categorize prophesies, and realized they'd use specific dates. I invented a calendar for them to use, and used it myself to organize the pr...

This post is Part 7 of a series to augment the Book Reviews by D.N.Frost available for free download. Start with Part 1 here . This and other reviewed content is gathered in my Book Reviews Directory for you to explore. Find more guest-inspired content in my Guest Directory . Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. ★★★★★ Darklands by M.L. Spencer Five stars! This great story delivered something I've never seen before. ★★★★★ A thrilling and momentous foray behind the veils of good and evil. M.L. Spencer turns evil inside-out to explore the long-term consequences of demonizing another people. The setup is quick and definitive, delivering the stark conflict in visceral terms. Spencer truly loves her characters, and it shows...

This post is Part 3 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. This post is also Part 8 of a series about M.L. Spencer. Start with Part 1 here . Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I first connceted with M.L. Spencer in Part 1 of this guest series , and in Part 7 of this guest series , I provide the actual book review! The long-form style analysis below goes into much greater detail, diving into many aspects of storycraft, worldbuilding, and wordsmith techniques. I wrote my first style analysis for M.L. Spencer in Part 1 of this workshop series . Darklands by M.L. Spencer is Book Two of The Rhenwars Saga , an epic fantasy spanning a millennium, two realms, and all the ethics of the human ...

This post is Part 3 of a series to augment the Author's Manifesto available for free download. Start with Part 1 here . This and other inspirations of mine are gathered in the Spark Directory for you to explore. Find more tarot-related content in my Tarot Gallery . In Part 1 of this series , I began my spiritual journey by questioning the world around me. After my awakening, I noticed my perspective on other people was shifting too. If I was an infinite depth of clarity and loving existence, then so was every other person on the planet. All the pain and suffering we endure (and cause) as humans is because we've grown out of our inborn sense of self-awareness. On the whole, humanity teaches its children to think certain thoughts and assume certain roles. With enough training, these children release their intuitive ways of being and take on the identities that are expected of them. ...

This post is Part 3 of a series to augment the Author's Manifesto available for free download. Start with Part 1 here . This and other inspirations of mine are gathered in the Spark Directory for you to explore. Find more prophetic poetry in my Portents Directory . In Part 1 of this series , I created my first poem. Throughout my high-school days, I used poetry as a means of emotional venting, railing against the overblown tragedies of teenage angst and distilling meaning from the carnage of the social scene. I read very little poetry outside of school, but still played with configurations of language to create rhyming structures within my own works. With the onset of my trendy counter-culture obsession with Alice in Wonderland , I explored the complete works of Lewis Carroll and found inspiration in the riddling Cheshire Cat. Something about the fictitious feline helped me make the connection b...

This post is part of a series to augment the Codex of the Known World available for free download. This and other mapping resources are gathered in my  Cartography Directory  for you to explore. Find more website tag definitions in my Index Directory . Cartography is the science and process of creating maps. The two-dimensional representation of a three-dimensional world is a science as well as an art. There are cartography schools to train professional map-makers, and there's a lot of survey equipment and math involved in drawing a real-world map. I must confess, I know little of the science of surveying in the real world. While I apply topographical principles to my own maps, fictional map-making is an entirely different beast than the real-life surveying and mapping of geography. So while I use the word cartography to refer to my own map-making, please keep in mind that my own cartography i...

In the novel Broken , there are 24 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! Misguided roams the winding way From lowest vale to coral heights In exiled shadow voice invites The prince to join the fray Dissensions thick arise in droves To cloud the eyes of prince's wake As land prepares for battle's quake And sea its timeless troves In bonded oath does prince await Immersed in time's enraptured thrall By will incited bitter squall The vacant voice and gate. Can you decode the future Tales of the Known World ? Share your interpretation! Comment below with your take on this portent. This prophesy comes to pass in Part 4 of Broken , and it foretells the long journey a prince must undertake. What do you thin...