After days of working on family trees and spreadsheets, I have a pretty good idea who the remaining leaders of the Northern Alliance are and where they and their troops are located. This means I can describe a few more scenes.
Next: the Eastern Alliance and the Southern Alliance.
Meanwhile, tonight I sketched the arms of the original eleven houses allied around the Northern Plain. The banners and the tunics of the rulers do get described from time to time in the tale and sometimes the head of an aristocratic house is nicknamed by his/her arms. The Silver Stallion, for instance, refers throughout to one of the cousins claiming the throne.
That I am no professional artist becomes evident when my fox passant looks more like a depressed rat with a fluffy tail. Ah well, at least I can visualize the arms easily now (in my mind's eye, that is).
Yes, all this means I really am gearing up to write again and I am pleased about it.
Looking at all it takes to recount this civil war in a single principate I shuddered this afternoon to contemplate the Great War of 1291 waiting for me several volumes ahead. That tale was told in quick strokes and a mere hundred pages back in the early 70s but it will take two entire books to narrate properly now that the world is fleshed out and I know so much more about history, setting, and characters than I did then. It is the richness of the characters that intrigues me; otherwise there would be little pleasure in writing (nor, I suspect, for others in the reading).
--the BB
3 comments:
Mr Witty says it looks like his uncle--whom everyone swears had a fox for a father.
When I saw it, I was thinking that with only slight modification it could be changed into a coat of arms for me. Are you familiar with the term, "Yellow Dog Democrat?" LOL
I am, Boocat, and bless yore heart.
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