Worldbuilding Blogfest 1: Geography and Climate

Whilst I have quite a few projects on the go at the moment it wasn’t too difficult to pick which world to work with for a series of blogs on world building, since my other projects are all based in various alternate realities of good old earth. The world of the Veil however, is entirely from my own imagination. The only difficulty was in picking the time frame, as it has plots going on at about three points of its history. I opted for the middle route, so this is the world as it’s seen in  the Tales of The Rangers series, the project that’s currently at editing phase.

There are many countries in this world as in ours, but I’ve chosen to concentrate on the  three most of the major characters are from. I might add further details of these places throughout the week, but for now, let's get the basics up and this show on the road!

Jiarthe

Jiarthe stretches from arid dusty land in the south  to slightly  greener mountains in the north. Temperatures vary from  45 Celsius (Yes, Celsisus, you americans can just deal ;) at the height of a southern summer, to  around  freezing , perhaps even -5 in north,  during the winter. The landscape in the north is ideal for farming, while in the south herding animals is more practical. The south has an arid beauty, but the greatest gift of this land is space, there’s more  of it than any man could need and her famous horses roam both wild and tamed over the land.





Biggest exports:
Grains
Horses

Biggest imports:
Silks
Chocolate (nobility only)
Iron

Carremar:

Carremar is the greenest land in all the world . Lush rolling hills, verdant forests, mountains and lakes. What more could you need?  Temperatures range from – 10 in the winter to 25,  30 if it’s a particularly warm summers day in the south. In the very north winters  can reach as low as -25,  and the cold can be your deadliest foe.

Biggest exports
Iron
Stone
Furs

Biggest Imports:
Silk
Chocolate
Horses

Rialla

Rialla is a rainforest kingdom. It’s  people live in scattered semi permanent  villages but can easily take everything they need a flee into the trees. No man here is entirely settled  in his home, his home is all the forest. Few cities  exist, and those that do are centres of trade, hugging the edge of the forest where it thins  at the edge of the ocean. Plants and animals of the forest can  hurt or heal in equal measure, but one thing is for sure, you are never ever alone underneath the shelter of it’s trees. Temperatures never fall below  20, and  at their maximum reach 45 degrees, but humidity can make the forest feel much, much hotter than it is.  Perhaps because of this Riallans are noted for not wearing may clothes and their fashions are  the most daring and scandalous of all. Even at court, some might say especially at court.

Biggest Exports:
Spices  (medicinal and for food)
Silks
Chocolate
Some hardwood

Biggest Imports:
Iron
Stone
Grains

18 things

Bucket List

After browsing Jamie Ayers blog I gave some thought to my own bucket-list  If I  included all the countries and places I wanted to see  then this  list would suddenly become much, much longer since a lot of my bucket list is travel related, but here below are 18 selections from my own list. It was really quite uplifting to do this and realised I'd already ticked quite a few things off!  Jamie Ayer's  intriguing book will be released on January the 24th and I will be interested to see the work in print after sampling her prologue!

1) Fall, madly, passionately in love
2) Get something I’ve written published
3) Make friends that will last a lifetime
4) Dance the tango in  Argentina
5) Doubt self
6) Visit  Barcelona and Andalusia
7) Believe in self
8) Visit the giants causeway in Ireland
9) Skinny dip on  a moonlit night
10) See the northern lights
11) Swim with dolphins
12) Visit as much of the world as possible
13) Actually do something romantic for valentine’s day for once
14) Have and raise a child of my own
15) Sing like no one’s listening
16) Dance like no one’s watching
17) Get heart battered 
18) Make a difference to someone's life (? probably already have :D)

New Beginnings

January is a rather traditional month for new beginnings. So traditional in fact, that I briefly considered not starting this blog till February just to be different. However not starting this till February would likely  render it yet another  project that  fell by the  way side, another entry on the never completed to do list that includes items such as  alphabetising my  cds (never happen) and learning to sew (someday?).  With several projects on other authors blogs that currently interest me, there’s  no time like the present and so here I am at last.

Welcome to L’encre.  There’s a perfectly good (well , reasonable) author’s bio down the side but since this is my first blog entry I want to share a little more about me. I was born in the UK, moved to Switzerland at 6 years old and spent my childhood holidays in France and Italy, somehow failing to learn more than five words of Italian. I returned to England for university, studying all then wrong degrees in Brighton. For me the city’s like that boyfriend you can never quite leave, because for all their stupid flaws their still the best person for you. I completed a course to Teach English as a foreign language and spent two years in a love affair with the country, managing to pick up more than five words this time. Now it’s back to the devil I know ,  I am aim to continue teaching  English in Brighton, complete some of my work in progress and start querying and  spend more time with the newest addition to the family, my tiny, perfect, nephew. ( He’s probably only perfect because I can give him back at the end of the day, but hey ;)).

Like most writers I’m a keen reader. I’ve loved fantasy since I first picked up the hobbit, and focus mainly on both traditional and urban fantasy. However, I also dabble in paranormal romance and YA. I love reading crime, but have never seriously tried my hand at writing it.  One for the future perhaps. I’m always analysing my work and trying to promote a feminist view point. I try to steer clear of damsels who through their hands up and wait for the hero to sae them, though a fair few of my heroines (and heroes!)  end up in distress.  Where would be the fun otherwise?

When  not writing I  can be found drawing  (see the DA link  if you have  an interest in art or would like a character portrait for one of your main characters) singing, (usually loudly, to myself and in the wrong language for the country I’m in at the time) dancing, or just hanging out  and eating all my friends' chocolate.

I aim to try and update this weekly, but as I’ve nothing at the query stage at the moment promotion and networking on here may get side-lined in favour of actually producing more manuscript. At the very least it will be fun to try and get to know other authors and have a platform  to communicate with them and I must say there are some very  intriguing projects being run by people who are currently strangers to me here on blogspot. So with all that out of the way, it’s time for another adventure, this time the lands I’ll be travelling are the mysterious wilds of the internet…

I hope you'll all come along for the ride.