During this year's NaNoWriMo I am working on the 3rd draft of The Mystery of the Body Thief. So, here is some information about my project and my plans ahead for the 3rd draft (and other drafts) in general.
As a quick update, I'd like you to know that I've updated two pages. I've added a new character for Dolls of Wax, Eyes of Glass which you can see here. And, I've updated the page for the characters from The Princess Arisias mystery series here.
Synopsis-
Genre: Fantasy | Murder Mystery Series: First book in the Princess Arisias mystery series
Horatio wakes up from being in a coma, but he doesn't remember anything that happened before he fell into unconsciousness. All that he remembers is a name, "Arisias!"
Also... Detective Inspector Time finds himself having to solve a case without Princess Arisias. Murders have been happening throughout many different kingdoms, and no one knows who exactly is behind it all.
Characters-
A lot of things have changed about the characters since I last made a post about them, including some of their names, so here are the characters:
Horatio-
Horatio is a servant who works in the castle, and who has amnesia.
He is still discovering who he is, and wants to know more,
for he feels very lost and confused.
Princess Arisias-
Arisias is a princess, who never woke up from her coma, unlike Horatio.
Before the coma she worked as a detective part time, while also fulfilling her role as a princess.
Ophelia-
Ophelia is a healer and a priestess (to the goddess of the earth and the god of air).
She is a quiet, but very kind person. Though she doesn't talk a lot, when she does she always has something thoughtful to say.
D.I. Elyerin Time-
He is called "Elyerin" by those who know him well, and "Detective Inspector Time" when he is working. He is an elvish detective with time related powers from the god of time. D.I. Elyerin Time is currently working on solving the case of murdered royalty.
Cerawen & Vonivera
Cerawen and Vonivera are Arisias's ladies-in-waiting.
Cerawen- is from another kingdom and was sent over to Dragons' Province for undisclosed reasons.
Vonivera- is a fay, who used to be close to Arisias before the accident.
Marigold-
Marigold works for the civil guard and is training to be a detective. She has not gotten there, but she is working towards it. She hopes one day to be a detective like her father.
My Plans for this NaNoWriMo-
I decided to take a long break before working on the third draft. When I finished the second draft, I took some time for reading to get into the mode of writing the third draft. One book I found particularly helpful was Stephen King's On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft. I usually don't find self-help writing books useful, but this was really inspirational for me.
In fact one piece of advice King gave was to embellish references/imaginary. King referred to his book Carrie, where he used blood related imagery, which he embellished more in later drafts.
This made me think about the imaginary/references in my own work, that I plan to embellish more this time through.
Since I wrote my post about finishing the second draft, I've come up with fantastical names for the characters: Cerawen, Vonivera, etc.. At this point only one character still needs a fantasy name, and that is Marigold. She has two names, an elvish name and a human name. Marigold is the name she goes by as a human, but since she lives among elves and was raised by an elf, she also needs an elvish name.
I'm also rereading Lord of the Rings for inspiration, and I'm thinking about ways to describe my elves without immediately saying that their ears are pointed. They are pointed, but I don't want to just rely on that imagery to define them as elves. I need to capture that something which makes my elves different than humans, and I want to show that without directly saying that they are elves all the time to my readers. This is something that will take several drafts to figure out how to do, but it is something I've been thinking a lot about recently.
My fantasy world has been built much more, since I last wrote about it.
I'm actually working on a side project, a collection of myths involving the myths of the gods and goddesses of that world. I realized the stories and the myths are very important to that world. And while I have talked about the myths in blog posts, I want to steadily build a collection of short stories. I should add, I was partially inspired by Bardugo's Lives of Saints, for the Grishaverse series. While hers is much shorter than this is going to be, it definitely served as an inspiration.
I've found that it helps to understand the world, because the world will effect the characters' actions in ways, whether unconsciously or not.
So, those are my plans for this NaNoWriMo. I hope NaNoWriMo is going well for everyone else!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Are you doing NaNoWriMo this November? If so, what are you working on? If not, have you re-read any favorite books of yours recently?
I filmed a Shakespearian soliloquy, this time from Twelfth Night, another one of my favorite Shakespeare plays. I've been working on it for a while, and I finally got around to recording it.
I hope you enjoy it:
Since I have been exploring this soliloquy for a while, I really thought about Viola's character and what she must be thinking in this situation. Such as, whether the words she is saying are communicated exactly as they are written, or whether Viola has a different perspective on the matter than she is letting on.
I thought it was time to do another miscellaneous drawings post! In regards to later posts...I have two Inktober posts planned, as well as a post introducing my novel for this NaNoWriMo, and a post involving Shakespeare coming soon...
But back to this post...since Halloween is near I sprinkled some spooky drawings throughout the post, along with my Fantasy drawings:
A drawing of Elm, I really like how it turned out.
I thought I would include the sun necklace she wears in the drawing.
A drawing of Karleon, the god of mischief, from Arisias's world.
This is a drawing of Galadriel from Rings of Power. I drew this long before the show came out, since I saw a promotional photo for Galadriel and thought her armor was awesome. My main focus in this drawing was the shading, which I think turned out well.
As for the show, I'm watching it now and am I really enjoying it so far. However, there are bits that bother me (the way the elves act--they're too human for my taste, also don't get me started on their hair).
A drawing of Salissah. I figured out that she is the goddess of the moon, but also the goddess of strategic fighting (fencing, archery, martial arts, etc.), as well as philosophy, much like the Greek goddess, Athena. Whereas the god of the sun is like Ares, and just cares for bloody warfare in general.
I've recently been drawing illustrations for a story with a dog character, and I decided to make another dog character. The dog doesn't have a name yet or a story, but I plan to come up with one later...
I figured with Halloween being this close, I couldn't not include a drawing of this eerie door. I drew this a while ago, and I decided to include a figure hidden in shadow on the other side of the door.
A drawing of Arwen from Lord of the Rings. This was inspired by the scene where Arwen rescues Frodo from the Ring Wraiths.
**Warning eerie drawing ahead**
This is a drawing that I created a while ago. I put the warning up in case viewers don't like spooky things, so they can scroll past it. But, my idea for the drawing, was that the woman had her dead fiancée (or husband) return to reunite with her in death. I am thinking of turning it into a short story sometime.
But this drawing also helped me explore making some of my drawings spookier, which is something I intend to do when I illustrate (and publish) my book Dolls of Wax, Eyes of Glass.
**The eeriness is over now...**
Willow the dryad. This is a reimagining of a Pixton character I created. I didn't include it in the post where I introduced her, since it wasn't a majority vote. But I like how it turned out.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Which drawing is your favorite? And do you have any favorite animal characters?
So, in this post, I wanted to talk about an aspect of my general process of writing but one that is still related to Becoming the Body Thief and Arisias. So, I decided another installment for A Look Into a World. If you want to read the previous installments, here is #1 and #2.
A Look Into a World:
How the Power of Prophecy Came To Be
The Myth
Before Karleon had power over prophecy, the power belonged to the God of Time. The prophecies were very direct and to the point. They did not have any rhyming nor were they hard to decipher. Because of this a lot of prophecies came out sounding like threats rather than prophecies. Since a lot of people were not pleased to find out when and the exact date and time of their death, prophecies became less and less like a thing that people would travel to receive. It seemed prophecy was becoming a dying art. However, Karleon the god of mischief decided that he must steal the power.
(Karleon catching the god of time in a form of a firefly (he's not a real firefly, so his glow wouldn't be yellow but instead silver)).
So Karleon insulted the God of Time and challenged him to a shapeshifting contest. They took on different forms of different animals, until the God of Time turned into a firefly and Karleon caught him in that form and extracted the power that way.
As a result, the temples that housed the God of Time's oracles suddenly became Karleon's temples of prophecy. And devotees to the God of Time were still devotees to him, but they had suddenly become devotees to Karleon as well--and not in the typical way which would happen during The Festival of Magic.
This caused Karleon to get in trouble with the King and Queen of the gods again. But they were unable to remove the power from Karleon for he threatened that the power would cease to be in use if they removed it. Since he could see the future, they took what he said to be fact (though variations of the myth told by the God of Time's devotees, say it was one of Karleon's lies).
But, even though they were not able to remove the power, the King and Queen tasked the God of Time with punishing Karleon. So Karleon was temporarily frozen in time.
The Oracles & Their Powers
(An elvish oracle in a trance foretelling what is come)
There are many oracles across the different kingdoms. When an oracle uses their power, they go into a trance. Their eyes glow a bright vibrant blue, and they talk in a voice that sounds unlike their own.
The prophecies of course are told in rhyme and also are very ambiguous in meaning. In regards to prophecies related to heroes, some people in the world believe in "chosen ones." Others believe that the people mentioned in prophecies relating to quests are just descriptions of people who could fit the criteria, but not an exact person.
But it does all come down to a belief in fate, and what power it has over actions in the world.
The Relationship between the Devotees
Nisis/Nyro's and Karleon's devotees are on somewhat good terms. (The gods aren't exactly enemies, and despite their disagreements, they have teamed up more than once). On the other hand, the God of Time's devotees and Karleon's are not friendly.
This is because some of the devotees, think that the power should have been left with the God of Time, as prophecy foretells the future and is related to time itself. They are also upset that they could have received the ability but the god of mischief, Karleon stole it from them.
It is not unusual that arguments--even heated debates--would happen between them. The devotees to the God of Time would like the power back, whereas the devotees of Karleon think it is rightfully theirs.
Part two of the Q&A For Becoming the Body Thief
Now, we're back with part 2! If you wish to read part 1, you can so here. Many of the questions that were submitted related to the 2nd book in my Fantasy murder mystery book series, Becoming the Body Thief, and there were other questions relating to the world in general.
I'm wondering how far Arisias will go with her ruse. Will she hold back just enough to not commit an actual crime?
Without spoiling anything, Arisias does admit she has had a lot of regrets from having to do things because of her alias in the 2nd book. She actually said that in this post(note, that I called her "Annabelle" then, so the post is a bit outdated in terms of names but not content), in response to the question "what is the hardest thing you've ever done?" So, I will just say-- she has a lot of regrets.
Will she change the behavior of the real criminals?
You shall see, Arisias may be able to, or she may not. Italldepends...
Does she use costumes, disguises, to hide her true identity and intent?
(Arisias in disguise)
The criminals Arisias works with, have no idea they're helping Princess Arisias. So, yes. She's in disguise, and she is using an alias, so no one actually knows it is her. However, that is not to say that someone won't discover that she isn't who she says she is. 😉
Question from Anonymous:
Will Arisias find friends among the criminals?
She will have to be allies with them, even if not close friends. Because if she is enemies toward them that will not help her get to where she needs to go.
Will she turn these in to the police when she sees the crimes they commit?
This is one time, where she cannot turn criminals in to the civil guard (police) because, she herself has become a wanted criminal. So, by doing that, she would risk being arrested just for the sake of arresting a criminal. At this point, she is at the same level of the criminals so cannot do much to go against them-- unless, she wants to end up arrested, too.
Questions from Fleming:
What made you decide to change the character’s name to Arisias, especially after living with Annabelle for so long?
(Still from the video where I announce Arisias's name change).
When I named this character "Annabelle" back in 2016, the name fit her character at the time. However, when she was developer further, it stopped fitting her. So, it felt appropriate to call her "Arisias" as was drafting it now.
Also, I realized the name "Annabelle" sounds very strange when there are other characters with names like Cerawen and Vonivera. And also since she is the main character, it felt weird that the other characters had fantastical names, but she did not.
In the first book, Horatio only knows the character's name, rather than her as a person when he first wakes up. I thought "Arisias" as a name held more mystery than "Annabelle."
The name Arisias also seemed closer to who she was, and as for the background in creating the name I talk about it in this post here.
Also, are there any characteristics of the fairies, elves or dwarfs that you feel are completely original to this world?
(Image from Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_mythology#/media/File:Riders_of_th_Sidhe_(big).jpg)
I wouldn't say anything is completely original. I am taking a lot of elements of my story from mythology from thousands and thousands of years ago (Greek, Norse, Irish, etc.), along with inspirations from some more modern fantasy stories. But, I would say they're different in some ways from other elves, dwarves, and fairies I have seen in the media.
For my fairies I actually took some elements from Irish mythology. Because of that they're more trickster like, not someone you want to anger, nor someone you can completely trust which is why they have a bad relationship with the humans. They have the ability to make themselves "invisible" (go to another dimension), and realm-travel. Both elves and fairies came from another realm, but fairies have the ability to actually magically get themselves there if they want to, whereas for an elf it would be harder.
The elves are more trustworthy. They have been there for thousands and thousands of years. They are able to detect gods from within a crowd more than a mere mortal (human) could. And elves believe themselves to be made in the likeness of the very gods they worship-- which is why they're so ethereal and live longer than humans.
Dwarves I'm still working on. At the moment, only two have shown up (the two criminals that Arisias has to work with). So their culture, beliefs, and society are things I'm still working on building as a whole. But, I will say that not all dwarves are miners. There are some who are, but while wealth is important to the culture (particularly jewels and gold), not all dwarves are miners.
....And that's the end of the Q&A. Thank you to everyone who submitted questions. They were fun to answer. 😁
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------What would you (or your character) do if you could tell the future? What's your favorite Fantasy creature?
I am back with another Inktober series! This year is my second year doing Inktober, I did it for the first time last year. Continuing the theme of last year, I will be dividing the series into three parts-- 10 drawings for each part, and then 11 in the final post. If you wish to check out my Inktober posts from 2021, you can check them out here: part 1, part 2, and part 3.
Also, as a reminder, I am doing a Q&A on this blog for novel. If you wish to leave questions for the second part of the Q&A (if you haven't already) you can do so here. But back to this post, let's get started with the drawings:
The Official Prompt list for Inktober:
And here are my drawings...
Day #1 Gargoyle, I thought it would be interesting if someone (a spy/rogue), was hiding amongst gargoyles waiting to make a move.
.
Day #2 Scurry, I drew of a dog character from a children's book I'm working on, whose name is Toto. This isn't one of the drawings for the book, but I thought it would be fun to draw none the less.
Day #3 Bat, I drew an (elvish) vampire, since that was the first thing that came to mind. She has a tattoo/face-paint of a bat on her left cheek, and I gave her red eyes.
Day #4 Scallop, I had to look up what a scallop was to make this drawing. Once I figured it out, I decided to draw a mermaid with a scallop as a necklace. It ended up turning into Arisias as a mermaid.
Day #5 Flame, Since Karleon the god of Mischief gives his devotees blue fire magic (along with sometimes the gift of prophecy, but that will be talked about later), I thought it would be fitting to draw him.
Day #6 Bouquet, This drawing was inspired by a John William Waterhouse painting "Gather Ye Rosebuds While You May (1908)". I took the life drawing approach and only drew the lower part of the body (not the face), so that I could focus on the hands.
Day #7 Trip, This reminded me of my characters traveling in my novel, Becoming the Body Thief. So, I drew something inspired by that. Since the writing on the sign got a little messed up, I'll tell you what it says. It says "The Woodland Tavern." There is an also an altar to a god off to the side with coin offerings from travelers.
Day #8 Match, The first thing that came to mind was lighting a match. So, I decided to draw that along with a candle.
Day #9 Nest, It's been a while since I did a drawing of a bird! So, I decided to draw a bird sitting in its nest.
Day #10 Crabby, For this I thought I would reference the mermaid theme from earlier, and draw a mermaid sitting with a crab. I really like how it turned out.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Which drawing is your favorite? And are you doing Inktober this year?
On September 17th, I finished the first draft of Becoming the Body Thief!It was a novel I worked on during Camp NaNoWriMo, and it feels good to have the first draft done so that I can move onto the second. In this post I will also be including a Q&A about my novel. Thank you to everyone who submitted questions. Like my last Q&A, this is going to be divided up into two parts. I did this because some of my answers were quite long. So, if I don't answer your question(s) in this part I will in the next, and if you didn't get a chance to leave a question for this part, you can leave one for the next part here.
The reason I decided to do a Q&A along with this celebration post was that I realized readers would probably want to know a bit more about the story, or about what it is like to be a criminal in my Fantasy world. So, I decided to make a post asking for questions about that. This post will answer those questions, as well as talking about what I will be doing next drafting-wise.
Synopsis
(Images used from Pixabay. The paintings are: "The Soul's Prison House" by Evelyn De Morgen, "The Shadow" by Edmund Blair Leighton, and "God Speed!" by Edmund Blair Leighton. The lyrics quoted are from the song "Over the Hills and Faraway". The template I used to make this mood-board was made by Ayzrules).
Genres: Fantasy | Crime | Adventure Series: Second book in the Princess Arisias Mystery series
After Arisias is framed for a crime that she did not commit, she finds herself having to work amongst criminals. In order to bring the one who wronged her to justice, that is "The Body Thief," Arisias finds she will have to blend into her new surroundings by acting like a criminal. In doing so, she has to enlist the help of two thieves and a con-artist. But as all of this is happening, Arisias fears that she will become the very thing she is pretending to be. Will she become a criminal like The Body Thief?
What's Next For Becoming the Body Thief?
The next phase for this novel is to work on the second draft. In the first draft I worked to get down what happens in the story, but I did not focus much on the prose. So, I will now be focusing more on the style and the world-building. While I already built a lot of the world (though there is still more to work on--such as the pantheon of gods, and the magic system), I didn't include as much of it as I would like to do in the first draft.
With this in mind, I will be focusing more on what the criminal world is like. In world-building for this book, criminals' relationship with the gods is different from that of law abiding citizens. Some gods will refuse to give criminals magic, but other gods are more willing to, or perhaps they just do not care about the background of the person. Karleon, the god of mischief, is one of these less careful gods. This is because he is a trickster god, and tricksters tend not to care about legality of most things. (Also, Karleon stole magic from the king and queen of the gods. I don't think he has a leg to stand on when judging criminals.)
Speaking of criminals who have magic, I have a con-artist character who was given magic by the god of music. But then, I also have a character who has no powers whatsoever, but his abilities as a thief seem magical even though they aren't.
I also want to develop the locations of the story more. For example, I made some versions of one of the taverns that appear in the book in a virtual world. I did this because I generally have trouble figuring out the layout of a room in writing: visualizing it is just hard for me. I want the readers to feel as if they are there and could visit the taverns that appear in it.
This was also one of the few books where I actually have written a fight scene. Most of my books didn't focus on fighting, but instead on solving a mystery. So, because fight scenes are important in Becoming the Body Thief, I want to make sure they are well written. For instance, I don't have my characters instantly defeat an opponent or monster with magic or weapons.
So, that is my plan for the second draft of Becoming the Body Thief. Now on to the Q&A!
* * * * * * * * *
Q&A
In order to make this more fulfilling and to ensure that I give you the information you want about the novel (but not enough that it spoils the story), I asked for questions for my novel in the previous post. Here are my answers to some of the questions.
The first wasn't really a question, but I want to talk about it anyway. Someone left a comment about fantasy stories involving heists and criminals, mentioning Six of Crows. I find this interesting, because it was only this year that I read Six of Crows. The Fantasy writing group I am running voted for it as one of the books to read for our book club. This really led me to think about the inspiration for my own story...
My inspiration was the TV show, Leverage (which is not Fantasy, but is a show focusing on heists). This was the first crime show I ever watched, and it also definitely inspired elements and characters of my story. However, I should say that, unlike the characters from Leverage, my thieves and my con-artist (who all work for Arisias) are completely unaware that they are doing something good (or at most, a pale shade of gray).
I love fantasy cities. Will Arisias be working with a thieves guild or anything like that?
The thieves that Arisias works with are loners. They work for themselves and don't like being tied down to a guild. (There are thieves who join guilds in this world, just not these thieves.) Nevertheless, they were persuaded to work for Arisias.
I also enjoy Fantasy cities: my characters visit several throughout the story. Some are shader than the others, like the one where Venus (the con-artist) lives. However, to visitors the city appears to be safe, People ignore what is going on beneath the surface and generally come there to have a good time (with or without later regrets).
I like the idea of Arisias having to work with criminals. I wonder if they'll be hardened ruthless types or more heart-of-gold types. :)
I'd say the criminals are in the middle between these two. I will say they lean more toward hardened-and-ruthless than heart-of-gold since they have been in the criminal world for years and years. However, a lot of my sympathetic characters have backgrounds that are...bad or questionable. Despite their ruthlessness you, the reader, will eventually be able to relate to them on some level...even if you disagree with their (past) actions.
Question from Anonymous:
How long will your novel be, and how long do you think you will need to complete it? Good luck!
Thank you for wishing me luck. 😃 The first draft was 32,520 words in length. My best guess is that the second draft is going to be twice as long or longer--in the first draft I was outlining more than focusing on the prose. I really don't know for sure, but my best answer is, longer than 32,520 words.
As for when I am going to complete it, it has really no exact date at the moment. It depends on other projects of mine-- given that I have to take into account details like world-building, character-building and naming certain characters and places.
I believe I am going to finish (and publish) Dolls of Wax, Eyes of Glass first, and then The Mystery of the Body Thief,and then this one. As I answer this, though, I also have to take into account that I've been working on The Mystery of the Body Thief since 2018. My writing was very different in 2018, so I had to do a lot of work to get it to my current writing style. For Becoming the Body Thief, it will be far easier to rewrite. But since Becoming the Body Thief is the second book in the series, the first book will have to be completed first.
I'm interested in the justice system in your novel's world. Is it fair? Are judges/lawyers corrupt and bribable? Is the justice system excessively punitive?
(Image from wiki commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:John_william_waterhouse_fair_rosamund.jpg)
It really depends on what judge/lawyer you get and the situation as a whole.
If the crime is related to royalty then there can be meddling and bias in the court (as in if the person who was attacked was royalty not the accused). Judges will be on the side of royalty for the most part and rule in favor of them. But, if a royal is accused of a crime, there will be different opinions.
It is believed that if a king, queen, prince, or princess commit a crime, that they have gone against the gods, since they were chosen by the gods to be royalty. But others will assume that the royal is innocent and try their hardest to prove this, even if the evidence is pointing in the opposite direction.
So overall, for Royalty the legal system is complicated and sometimes can be corrupted. I should also say this applies to priestesses/priests, because they the same power as royalty.
All that being said when a crime involves only common citizens, the legal system in this world is quite fair. Nevertheless, other biases can arise in the court (such as people avoiding angering the god(s) they're devoted to, political biases, biases based on species, etc.)
Penalties for some crimes are quite extreme. But once again it really depends on the situation. Some people are not eager to give out penalties that are irreversible for petty crimes such as theft. Instead people will be confined to prisons for a certain amount of time. But for murder, it depends: some people believe in the death penalty, while others have argued that a life sentence is better.
(Keep in mind that a "lifetime" to a certain species might be different. For the Fair Folk that is hundreds if not thousands of years, to a human it would be shorter).
Will Arisias face the death penalty for any crimes she may commit or be framed for?
The death penalty is a thing some criminals face in Dragons' Province for committing crimes, and public executions are held (this is something some kingdoms ruled by elves find primitive, so don't do it, but since Dragons' Province has had both elvish and human rulers at different points that it is why it happens). In this case-- without spoiling anything, the crime Arisias was framed for would usually have the death penalty, but, they were unable to do it. (This is for reasons that will be revealed in the book. I'll let you, the readers, speculate for now on what those reasons are.) But regardless, her punishment is far from being pleasant and is very traumatic, even if not that extreme.
What are the prisons like? Warehouses or hellholes or both?
It depends on the prison you're sent to as a prisoner. Most are far from pleasant and quite hard to escape from (whether it was made by humans, dwarves, or the Fair Folk--that is the elves or fairies). They're all different, and they have different ways of messing with a prisoner's mind. This is not illegal to do in their world. (It would be illegal in our world.)
(A typical made by the Fair Folk, prisoner at the front an illusion appearing at the back).
A prison made by the fair folk (the elves and fairies) would seem beautiful upon entering. It would even be hard to tell that it was a prison because of its sheer beauty. However, upon staying there for a long time, one will begin to feel like the prison is playing tricks on their mind. They will see visions of different things that happened in their prior life and of their greatest fears. At times, it will seem possible to escape the prison-- the prisoner will have false hope and only later will find out it was all a trick. And sometimes when walking around the prison, they may feel as if they are getting lost in it. Time will feel as if it either going too quickly or too slowly, depending on what the prisoner is used to.
(A fay and a human prisoner in a prison made by humans)
A prison made by the humans is mostly like a warehouse. Prisoners are allowed to leave their cells periodically and wander around-- but only at certain times. Prisoners usually keep to themselves. Even though it is periodic isolation, this kind of isolation eventually begins to mess with the minds of the prisoners confined there.
(An elvish prisoner in a typical dwarf prison).
In a dwarfish prison, one is confined in a completely underground prison. There are cells for different prisoners like in human prisons, but prisoners are not allowed out. The cells have the feeling of a collapsed mine: no sunlight is allowed in, and prisoners can feel as if they are stuck unground for ages and ages. It does not help that they are not able to wander about.
The state of the prisons makes criminals (and people in general) want to avoid getting arrested. Some authorities believe that the harsh nature of the prisons makes crime-rate lower, but in reality the prisons are not the issue. It just makes criminals try to avoid getting caught at all costs. And for those who are framed for crimes, it is a very scarring punishment when they didn't do anything wrong.
Are there a lot of criminals in this world? Are people forced into criminality in order to survive?
There are a lot--enough that I'd say that the crime rate is high in Dragons' Province. Generally, people are forced into being criminals in order to make ends meet. Though, people's reasons also depend on the crime committed. For murder, there can be sympathetic reasons (such as self defense), but it can also be done for horrible reasons...
Theft or conning someone, is something most people do to survive, at least something they are forced into doing. There are others, who do it for greedy reasons or because of the fun of it. But, mostly people do it because they have to or are forced to. It really depends on the criminal whom you're talking about.
...This is the end of part one of the Q&A. If you would like to get a question or questions in for part two, you can ask them here or comment them down below.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Which prison from my Fantasy world would you least like to be confined in? And, do you have a favorite Fantasy story that involves criminals or crime?
I just finished the first draft of Becoming the Body Thief. It is a novel I was working on during this year's Camp NaNoWriMo. Last year I did a Q&A forTheMystery of the Body Thief, which you can readhereandhere. I thought I would do a similar post for Becoming the Body Thief, because I don't want to just give a simple description of the project and what I am going to do next. So, a Q&A with questions from you, the readers, is also going to be included in the post.
Here is a synopsis, which will also be included in the Q&A post, and may be helpful for coming up with questions:
This takes place after the events of The Mystery of the Body Thief.
After Arisias is framed for a crime that she did not commit, she finds herself having to work amongst criminals. In order to bring the one who wronged her to justice, that is "The Body Thief," Arisias finds she will have to blend into her new surroundings by acting like a criminal. In doing so, she has to enlist the help of two thieves and a con-artist. But as all of this is happening, Arisias fears that she will become the very thing she is pretending to be. Will she become a criminal like The Body Thief?
Here are two posts I made during Camp NaNoWriMo that involved Becoming the Body thief: part 1 and part 2. And lastly, here is the page with profiles of the characters from the entire book series (Becoming the Body Thief is the second book). I have not yet created the profiles for all of the new characters, but most of the characters who are included on that page also appear in the second book-- even if they don't directly talk to Arisias in it.
Regarding the questions: feel free to get creative with your questions. (But please avoid asking questions that have spoilers in them such as "who or what is the Body Thief?"). If you're feeling stuck, here are some example questions to get inspired by--
Has your story surprised you in anyway while you wrote it?
What are the new characters (the thieves and the con-artist) like?
What is it like to be a criminal in your Fantasy world?
What was the inspiration for your novel?
You can either ask the questions you have about it down in the comments down below, or ask it in this Google form (I will be mentioning who left the questions hence the name and blog part of the form, but if you would like to be Anonymous, you can just enter "Anonymous" and entering your blog is optional (since not everyone has one)):
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