~ Plotting ~

Trinity here. So, for NaNoWriMo this year, I believe I'll be working on my baby. My precious. My firstborn. Aouthentica. (Previously known as Milliayn, or Village of Milliayn.)

Now, technically, when you do NaNoWriMo, you're supposed to start on an entirely new novel. To say I haven't written anything for Aouthentica before would be a grossly exaggerated lie. In fact, I've filled (yes, filled!) three notebooks and a binder with Aouthentica stuff, but I've tossed it all out (not literally). I'm currently working on plotting the whole thing out first, and THEN writing it all down. A novel idea for me. 

(Get it? Novel... idea? I'm writing a novel and I... Nevermind. It's late. Ignore it.)

Also, as you can see in my fourth and most recent notebook, I try and mark what date and time I start a notebook for future reference, and then when I get to the end, I mark what date and time I finished it. My first one I finished on November 4th, 2009 and it took about 3 months to fill. My second was started November 4th, 2009 and I finished it on April 19th, 2011. So, like two years. The third "assumed duty" on March 19th, 2011 and was "retired" July 30th, 2012. The fourth and (currently) last one assumed duty on July 30th, 2012 as well. And I still haven't finished it. Some of that I credit to using a huge binder in an effort to organize everything better, but then I couldn't carry it around, so my writing slowed down.

Anyway.

Here's how I'm plotting it out. 

First, I wrote down all the major events I could think of that I wanted to happen, as well as a few not-so-major-but-still-important ones, and colored a square next to them to sort them with my nifty colored pens. Blue means I'm not sure if the even will stay in the story. Red means there's a death. Purple means that it's an important part that has to go in somewhere. Green means I'm not exactly sure how that event will play out, or if it's important.

Then, I wrote down all the events on index cards cut in half, still color coded. Well, actually I wrote them on whole index cards, but then they wouldn't all fit, so I bought a whole new package of index cards, forgetting about the package at home in the desk, and cut them all in half and rewrote everything.

I stuck them on my bulletin board, with semi color-coded tacks. Basically, red means death. Otherwise, it's kind of a free-for-all. Underneath the deaths I put a little note for the event that it's linked to.

Since it's written in a three plot lines twined together type style, I have three lines of plot so I can plan out what happens when. Deaths go on the very top and the very bottom. The top left corner is actually a stack of prologue events that I stuck all together, because, again, I didn't have enough room. 

I haven't finished plotting it to the end yet (still working on that...), but at least I've got all this worked out and documented, which is way more organized than I was before.
So. What d'you think?

Sé onr sverdar sitja hvass!
-Trinity

Beautiful People - Rienna Lee

-By Trinity

Ah, Rienna. She is one of my first, original characters. And my personal favorite. She is largely based on myself, or possibly what I would like to be, so it's difficult to let her develop her own flaws. I have to consciously give them to her. (On that note, I'm going to add that I'm skeptical of the whole idea of characters developing on their own. If I'm the author, and I created them, and I control them, then they can't do anything without my approval. Right? Now, I have experienced making my characters react or act in a way that is inconsistent with how I think they should or would act, and then wondering why I thought it made sense at the time. But I don't think that's the same thing. If anyone can explain this "Characters Going Rogue" phenomena, please let me know.)
Anyway, back to Rienna. Her biological parents are lost to her for unexplained reasons, but she was raised by Liza Vulken, and kind of by Arron Vitez (Jrew's guardian). Because of this, she and Jrew were raised alongside each other and are absolutely the best of friends. As they get older, Jrew starts focusing more of his attention on running Milliayn, and getting ready to take back his throne, so Rienna starts working just as hard to become his right-hand... man. Person. She's kind of his captain of the guard. But she doesn't have captain-type duties.
Jrew has a lot of Milliayn-ites working for him, and most of them do about the same things: Assist him with paperwork and go on whatever missions he sends them on, but Rienna's his most trusted agent.
She's well-trained to do a lot of different things, but she has the most training in tactical type skills.
Um... let's see. What else about her?
She's got a kind of sarcastic personality, but she's largely cheerful. She and Jrew tease each other a lot. She teases other people quite a bit. She likes to wear black (like me). She looks pretty much like the picture above.

Well, okay then. Let's move on to the Beautiful People section -

1. If your character’s house burned down, and they were left with nothing but the clothes on their back, what would they do? Where would they go?
Well, first of all, of Rienna has the clothes on her back, she has her gun on her hip. Basically, unless she's in bed, she's always wearing her gun, and even then, it's within arm's reach. So, then, if her house (actually, she lives in an apartment, but for simplicity's sake, I'm gonna say just her apartment) burned down, she'd go across the breezeway to Jrew's apartment and crash there. His "guest" bedroom is pretty much designated as her room, since it's very common for her to spend the night at his apartment, especially when they're working late.

2. Are they happy with where they are in life, or would they like to move on?
For the most part, Rienna's content with where she is. As long as Jrew's around, she's in Milliayn, or wherever Jrew's sent her, she's happy. If she's off on a mission, she'd probably rather be back in Milliayn. And for sure, she'd rather Jrew have his throne back in Aouthentica, but otherwise, she's pretty much dedicated herself to doing whatever Jrew needs her to do, and that's all she really wants to be doing.
At least, for now. That could be different by the end of the book.

3. Are they well-paid?
Yes, and no. Rienna doesn't get "paid" per se. However, all of her needs (and most of her wants) are provided for by Jrew or paid out of the Milliayn budget. So she doesn't get a paycheck, but she doesn't really need one.

4. Can they read?
Yes... Most of her reading is done while filing reports, because she doesn't have a lot of time for recreational reading. She enjoys it when she can, though.

5. What languages do they speak?
Just English. At one point she could speak some ancient and secret tongue, but that was brief, ridiculous addition that didn't last long.

6. What is their biggest mistake?
Hmm. I don't know if she's made one biggest mistake. Her recurring biggest mistake is probably leaping before she looks. She just likes to go-go-go, and too often she doesn't stop to consider whether or not she can handle the situation she's throwing herself into. About 50% of the time, she ends up coming out unscathed, but just barely. 35% of the time, she gets herself into big trouble and needs help, and the last 15%  she really can just go in and take care of the problem.

7. What did they play with most as a child?
Jrew, I guess. They did a lot of sword-fighting with sticks, I would imagine.

8. What are their thoughts on politics?
Rienna's not personally all that interested politics, but her job and circumstances and friends, etc. etc, mean that she actually has to know a lot about them. So, she's kind of neutral on her feelings for politics. Necessary, but not necessarily her favorite.
Now, her political opinion is that Talman's a vicious traitor, Falk's a treacherous sleemo, and Jrew's blood-line claim to the throne is legit and he'll make an excellent king. That's probably almost word for word what she'd say.

9. What is their expected life time?
?
Expected life span? There is no telling with Rienna. She could live to a ripe old age (I already have plans for who she'll marry and what her children are named, if she gets that far.), or she could get shot down tomorrow. Probably the former, though. Since I've invested so much thought into it.

10. If they were falsely accused of murder, what would they do? How would they react?
Depends. If she were in Milliayn, she'd go to Jrew. And he'd laugh. And then they'd have lunch. Case closed.
If she were in Gillam (where she's kind of new), she's probably blow up. She'd deny it a million times. And hold a grudge against whoever accused her. If she let them live. She's not used to being viewed suspiciously, so it would probably really bother her. Even if Luc, and all the Commandos (director and police force of Gillam) said they believed her, it would probably still niggle at the back of her mind until she found definite evidence proving herself innocent.

Welp, that's all the questions, so that's the end of this post. I hope it kind of gave you a picture of what Rienna's like, because she one of the most important characters, Jrew being the second most important. Or maybe vice-versa.
You'll probably hear (or see?) her mentioned a lot on here, so that's her. She's awesome. :)

Sé onr sverdar sitja hvass!
-Trinity

Blurbs: Young Liza

http://dahliart.jp/

So I was thinking I wanted to do a sort of creative writing thing (which is surprisingly difficult when you have to assign yourself pictures), and then I came across this picture which reminded me of one of my characters from Aouthentica, Liza Vulken, though a bit younger.

Liza worked for the previous king when she was about Rienna's age (nineteen), and over the years (she's nearing forty now) she's become a very silent, withdrawn, strict person, like this. It's very rare to see her smile. But I imagine that when she was younger she was more innocent and easy-going, though not nearly as easy-going as Rienna is. It's kind of fascinating me right now, imagining her younger, so I'm gonna write a little blurb about her.

Liza closed her eyes and steadily counted to three. On three, she dropped to the floor as a wooden beam flashed out at the place where her head had been seconds before. She rolled over and drew her gun, firing at the red target three times and the blue one five times. Each shot went through the same hole in the exact center. Then she shot the steel plate that trigger the second phase of the exercise. 

She scrambled to her feet and the ground beneath her dropped down, taking her with it. She took the brief respite to switch mags, then she was on the second floor. 

There were four hallways on each side of her. A dummy popped out at the end of the hall in front of her and sped toward her on a track. Liza fired at it several times, but failed to hit the stop target, which was in the head, not the torso. 

She quickly corrected herself, but before she could get off another shot, something slammed into her from behind: The second dummy, which she had completely forgotten about. 

She found herself on the floor a few feet away, staring up at the ceiling and gasping for breath. A voice came through her headset.

"This is a recurring problem, Ms. Vulken, and it could affect your grade."

Liza pushed herself up and croaked, "I'm sorry, ma'am. I didn't realize the stop targets had been moved."

"You failed to scan your surroundings." Captain Nahtey said sternly. "That is always the first step. Observe, Orient, Decide, Act. Not Orient, Act."

"I know the OODA loop sequence." Liza replied through gritted teeth, getting to her feet and holstering her gun. 

"Then follow it!" The captain snapped. "If I graduated you now you'd be a dead woman walking."

Liza knew enough not to say anything other than, "Yes, ma'am."

There was silence over the radio for a few moments, and she began to wonder if the phase had been reset. 

Then the captain said in a very formal tone, "There's someone here to see you, Ms. Vulken."

Liza closed her eyes and groaned inwardly. She knew who it was. And she could only hope he hadn't seen her mistake. 

"I'll be there in a moment." 

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Liza stopped in front of the door to the training observation room and ran her fingers through her hair, hoping it wasn't too messed up. Then she took a deep breath and entered the room. It was rather gloomy, the only light coming from twenty or thirty television screens on the wall. She realized that they were all playing back various clips of her training exercises from her last year at Imea House. Captain Nahtey was sitting at her desk, silhouetted by the screens, and next to her was just the man Liza didn't want to see.

He turned and grinned at her. "That was quite a hit you took."

Liza didn't answer, trying not to glare at him.

Captain Nahtey turned and stood. "Ms. Vulken, this is Arron Vitez, personal assistant to the King."

"A pleasure, I'm sure." Liza said tightly, shaking his hand.

"Oh, the pleasure's all mine." He gave her an impudent, too-familiar wink.

Liza shook her head slightly to warn him off.

"I'm here to find another recruit for the king's personal task force." Arron said, gesturing to the screens. "Captain Nahtey was kind enough to help me review your training sessions, and I think you might be the one."

She met and held his gaze for a long minute, then said, "I don't want the position."

Arron just smiled.

"Ms. Vulken, this position would take you above and beyond anything we can teach here at Imea." The captain advised. "I highly recommend that you accept it."

"I don't want it." She repeated firmly. "Now, may I be dismissed?"

"No." Arron looked entirely too amused. "This isn't an option. You've been recruited."

Liza stared at him in disbelief, then let out a frustrated sigh. 

Arron looked to the captain. "If I might have a moment to speak with... Ms. Vulken?"

The captain nodded and stepped around them, letting in a flood of light as she went through the door. As soon as it shut again, Liza whirled on Arron.

"Why are you doing this to me?!"

He frowned and folded his arms across his chest. "The captain's right. Working for the king will take farther than anything Imea House has to offer. You should be glad you were chosen."

Liza clenched her fists. "Why was I chosen? I'm not the top of my class. I'm not even near the top."

Arron glanced down at the floor, then looked her in the eye. "We need people we can trust. And I trust you."

"Well, I don't trust you." She shot back.

He groaned. "You're still upset about the prank I played on you?"

"I nearly drowned!" Liza shouted. "Just because you were about to graduate and I was a freshman didn't mean you could use me like a lab rat!" 

"Alright, I made some miscalculations." He admitted. "But you survived."

"No thanks to you. Find someone else to be your recruit. I won't do it." 

"You don't have a choice." Arron pulled a card out of his pocket and gave it to her. "That's my I.D. It says I work directly for the king. That makes you my subordinate and as such, you're required to follow my orders."

Liza glowered at the card for a long moment. "I'll get to keep training?"

"You'll get better training." He promised.

She sighed heavily, then flicked the card back at him. "Fine. I still don't trust you though."

Arron leaned over and picked the card up. "You'll have to sooner or later." 

"Is that a threat?"

"No. It's a warning." He tucked his I.D. into his back pocket. "Look, Liza. I realize you consider me to be..."

"Brash?"

"Yes, and maybe a little..."

"Cocky?"

"Okay, yeah, but I was thinking more..."

"Reckless? Thoughtless? Arrogant? Hotheaded?"

Arron raised an eyebrow. "Are you finished?"

"No, but I'll stop anyway."

"I realize you consider me to be your nemesis, but it looks like we're going to be working together quite a bit and unless we trust each other someone's going to get hurt." He offered his hand. "Truce?"

After a moment's thought, she nodded and took his hand. "Truce."

"Excellent." His roguish grin was back immediately, and he pulled out a small invitation, which he handed her. "You'll be expected in Aryeh tomorrow morning. General Talman Perdant will be visiting and the king's throwing another one of his dinner dance things. The times are on your invitation. You'll be presented and introduced to him there. See you then."

As he turned to go, she asked, "I'll be presented to the General?"

"No, the king." Arron frowned and said seriously, "You'll be directly under me, and I'm directly under him. In no way whatsoever will you be under the General's command." 

"I understand." She nodded again. 

"And one last thing. It's a formal ball, and you'll be going as my consort, so uh... see if you can't dress yourself up a little." 

Liza's cheeks flushed. "I'll see what I can do."

That's it for now. I might add some more later if I get some ideas.

Sé onr sverdar sitja hvass!
-Trinity

A History of Aouthentica

Hannah and I (Trinity) are working to schedule posts now, every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, alternating between the two of us, and this is my first scheduled post! :)

Now, I want to let loose on Aouthentica.

The lion is the national animal of Aouthentica,
as the Arions have ruled it for several hundred years,
and "Ari" means "Lion" (e.g. Ariel means "God's Lioness")

I started it back in October of 2007, I believe. I had the exact date at one point, but unfortunately I lost it. So, 2007, which would put me at about 12 years old.

I called it Village of Milliayn, and it was about (shocker!) the village of Milliayn. Here's a brief synopsis from the very beginning of it, which, as any most writers know, is a terrible and lazy way of writing.

"The village of Milliayn is filled with people with a common gift, the gift of technology. 
      They live in a land called Aothentica. They were the pioneers of technology. That is until someone else came to rule. 
      As a young child Villen was expected to be a prodigy in technology, like the other children of Aothentica. From Kindergarten through College, Villen could never remember what the difference was between a hard drive and a floppy drive. 
Villen vowed to rid Aothentica of technology, and what better way to do that then become the Emperor of Aothentica?"

First of all, the resulting plot line was very flawed. Especially as the good guys were equipped with flying motorcycles, and laser guns. Oh, and incineration beams.

Why were they holed up in one little corner of the country if they had superior weaponry? 

No clue. 

Why was Rienna previously a fashion designer? 

Probably because I thought it sounded cool at the time. 

Why didn't Jrew just lead them on an attack and kill the evil king (Villen)?

He did. In 14 pages the storyline began and ended.

I kind of left it for a while, then came back and began adding on. By page 15 I had decided to jump it ahead a year. Kind of a little in-story reboot. The writing quality jumps visibly. 

Jrew was suddenly, randomly, coincidentally discovered to be the nephew of the previous king (Tomeas, whose current incarnation is Avigdor). 

And guess who figured it out? Arron. Who is still Arron now. But he's only mentioned by name twice. I kept going on the story for another 123 pages, but it was difficult to keep the story going as I had to make all sorts of little changes and leaps in logic, and it just wasn't working very well.
The villain (King Villen) would've had to go against the convictions that made him take over in the first place in order to try to defeat the good guys. Swords really don't work very well against incineration guns. So he had these things called hoodies which were

"The best computer experts he [Villen] can find and they wear those odd costumes to scare people off". 

The hoodies, of course, wore hoods. But there's another fallacy in the plot. Where did Villen find all these computer experts if he's had them outlawed?
Oh! And there was the Filt metal.

“Filt metal. It absorbs lasers of all known types, including incinerators.” 

Jrew explains to his enemy in the middle of a fight. *facepalm* Of course, immediately after, there was this little gem:

The hoodie flicked his wrist. Suddenly the scimitar glowed red. “Allow me to demonstrate.” He said, and jumped off the cart. Swinging the scimitar he sliced the shafts completely off.  “We call it a lightning rod. It too is made of filt. Only engrained in it are bare electric wires. It has several different uses, Most of which I intend to use very soon!”

He pointed it at Ashley and pressed a button on the handle. The lightning rod zapped and a large lightning ball shot from the sword toward her. Ashley managed to flip out of the way in time. The hoodie laughed maniacally.

Because, of course, evil people do things maniacally. Even evil people with glowing swords that shoot lightning balls. 

Eventually I realized that the base of the story was flawed pretty badly. A guy hates technology so he takes over a country. It could be interesting, but I gave it a shot and I couldn't pull it off.
So I wiped it out and started over. Three or four times in a row.
See, I have this affliction where I can't write a story (or at least this story) without a complete plot line first and I'm not very good at getting my plot lines completed. I get halfway through, then get so excited with my characters and the story that I start writing, but I run into plot holes, so I try to go back to the plot line, but it's boring now, so I lose interest and leave it for a few months (or years). Then when I come back I swear to myself that I will write out the entire plot line now and the whole process repeats.
My biggest problem right now is that I don't know what the climax will be. I know how I want it to end (or at least I have a vague idea), but I'm not sure how they're going to get to the end. I would estimate that I've got about 80-85% of the plot worked out in my head or on paper. Maybe a little more, maybe a little less.

Anyway. After  several  lots of starts, restarts and false starts, I began the version (on 8/6/10) that I called The Final Book, because I was tired of rewriting everything so often and I declared that this would be the very last incarnation!
The Final Book was/is much much closer to what I have now than the original. In it, Jrew and the reader know from the beginning that he is the nephew of the last king and the only surviving heir to the Aouthentican throne. I think this was also the first book where I started spelling Aouthentica with a "u" instead of my original spelling "Aothentica". (The pronunciation is supposed to be Ow-thent-ika , not Aw-thent-ika).
And I backed off a bit on the mythical technology so there were no more flying motorcycles or incinerations. But they did still have laser rifles and some other pretty advanced stuff that has since been cut.
Also, in this one, Milliayn was still part of Aouthentica, instead of being in the country next door. But it was too difficult to make that work. Why wouldn't the villain king (Now Talman Perdant) just bomb them into oblivion or send a strike force in to rid himself of the bothersome heir? Or maybe he didn't know about them. Which didn't make much sense either. So that went out.
Strangely enough, of all the things I've cut out, moving Milliayn to Bairek and getting rid of the laser guns top the list of most difficult things to remove. Mostly because it had been that way since the beginning, and to change it rocked my fictional world. After that would probably be any name changes, since when you're reading a book you really see a character through their name. Imagine if it were Henry Potter and the Socerer's stone. Even for people who haven't read the books, that's got to just seem wrong. Harry's name is Harry and it always will be and if it were anything else, it might've been a very different book.

A couple name changes:
Ondray to Cam
Kourtnye to Cara
Rhyan to Ryan
Zamuel to Samuel to Luke to Luc
Tomeas to ??? to Avigdor
Rienna Ninya to Rienna Lee
Grennid to Triennia (City in Aouthentica)
Villen to Talman Perdant to Talman Arion

A couple other places got their names changed, but that wasn't as traumatizing to me as changing character names. Unfortunately, I think there might have to be a few more name changes before I finally finish (I'm kind of dreading finishing, as that will mean my characters will have a definite story and I won't be able to play around with them in my head anymore. Writing can be like playing dolls or house for me.). Aouthentica may eventually be completely renamed, which I'm having trouble making myself consider, again because that's the way it's always been. And Cerra (Sarah). She might have to have her name changed. Which is a horrible concept to me, but if it's too weird, it may have to be done. (Check out the poll on the sidebar to help me decide).
Well, I've got to wrap this up, even though I think I could keep talking about Aouthentica for hours and hours. I hope this conveys how much I absolutely love this story, because of all the novels I've started, this one is my favorite.

Sé onr sverdar sitja hvass! 
-Trinity 

(Picture attribute: Longai.devianart) 

Aouthentica - Synopsis Part 1

Ever since I (Trinity) last posted, I've been working on my synopsis of Aouthentica. It's taken a lot longer and has become a lot more detailed than I thought it would be. It's helped me find and patch plot holes (no one can find plot holes in my story like I can), and to remember what's going on, since I hadn't worked on it for a couple months and the details were starting to slip my mind. 

So here's the first part, and I do apologize if it's a little too detailed, but I was really just trying to get everything out so I'd remember it in the future. 

Um, first, a quick list of names for reference (in case they get confusing): 

Avigdor Arion - Jrew's uncle, king of Aouthentica 

Anai Arion - Avigdor's brother, Rayla's husband, Jrew's father, prince of Aouthentica

Rayla Arion - Princess of Aouthentica, Anai's wife, Jrew's mother, Avigdor's sister-in-law

Talman Arion - Second cousin to Avigdor, Captain of the Guard

Falk Halcone - Right-hand man to Talman, ambassador, in charge of Triennia

Keyla Bardon - In charge of Triennia under Falk, Eyrik's peer, Falk's assistant

Arron Vitez - Avigdor's right-hand man, Jrew's surrogate father

Liza Vulken - Previous agent for Avigdor, Rienna's surrogate mother

Anjrew "Jrew" Arion - True heir to Aouthentica's throne, best friend of Rienna, son of Anai and Rayla

Rienna Lee - Best friend and agent for Jrew Arion

Kisha Garreth - Agent for Jrew, nurse, cousin of Cerra

Cerra Samerest - Agent for Jrew, cousin of Kisha

Cam and Cara Rodriguez - Twin brother and sister, agent for Jrew.

Ashley Hale - Agent for Jrew, best friends with Lydia

Lydia Mening - Agent for Jrew, best friends with Ashley

Daven Cortel - Agent for Jrew, kind of new

Lord Anson - Previously adviser to Avigdor, advises Jrew now

Lord Carter - Previously adviser to Avigdor, advises Jrew now

Lord Dominick - Previously adviser to Avigdor, advises Jrew now

Luc Walker - Director of Gillam

Eyrik Duell - Captain of the Commandos in Gillam

Jesse Stoiker - Commando, best friend of Eyrik

King Domhan - King of Bairek, associate of Avigdor

Queen Lurra - Wife of Domhan, deceased

Queen Terra - New queen of Bairek

Prince Erde - Younger brother of Terra

Aouthentica - Country ruled by the Arions for hundred of years

Aryeh - Aouthentica's capitol

Triennia - City in Aouthentica

Gillam - Town in Aouthentica

Bairek - Neighboring country to Aouthentica

Cordyne - Bairek's capitol

Milliayn - Town in Bairek

Okay, and here's part one of the actual synopsis on this ever-so-long post:

The kingdom of Aouthentica has been ruled by the Arions for over two hundred years. The current ruler, Avigdor Arion, has no wife and no heir. However, his beloved brother, Prince Anai, and sister-in-law, Princess Rayla, have a son, Anjrew Arion, who he is perfectly content to leave the throne to.
Unfortunately, the brother's second cousin, Talman Arion, finally puts his crusade for the throne into action, using his position as captain of the guard as an opportunity to turn the Aouthentican military against their own king.
His coupe, culminating with an attack on the palace itself, is successful: The king is killed, as well as Anai and Rayla. His loyal subjects are scattered and driven from Aouthentica. His right-hand man, Arron Vitez manages to escape with the two-year-old prince to the neighboring country of Bairek, along with a few other palace occupants.
Arron goes to the King of Bairek and requests refuge for the true heir. Seeing a valuable bargaining chip to use against the new king of Aouthentica, the king of Bairek agrees, and gives the refugees Milliayn, a half-built town. A few more Aouthentican refugees trickle in and are redirected to Milliayn, but soon they stop coming due to Talman locking down the borders.

Nineteen years pass with little to no political activity in Bairek or, presumably, Aouthentica, which has become a very closed, secretive country under Talman's rule. However, all reports convey that the people are happy and prospering.
Then the king of Bairek dies, leaving the country in the hands of his daughter, Terra, who is not known for her wisdom or discernment.
Doubt and worry falls over the minds of the Millianites concerning their future. Jrew Arion is now 21 and the people miss their homeland. With Arron's guidance, and three lord's (from Avigdor's old counsel) advice, he decideds the time to take action has come.

First, he goes to speak with the new queen in person, along with Arron, Daven Cortel, Cerra Samerest, and the Lord Dominick.
Second, he sends his best friend and right hand, Rienna Lee, her surrogate mother Liza Vulken, and Kisha Garreth in one team to "investigate" the state of Aouthentica.

Almost as soon as Liza's team enters Aouthentica she is recognized and arrested. Barely escaping, Rienna and Kisha flee farther down into Aouthentica. They tell Jrew what's happened and he sends Ashley Hale and Lydia Mening to rescue Liza.
While travelling back roads and through the woods to avoid the Central Police, Rienna and Kisha come across a large cement compound, with walls too high to see over. They stop to investigate, but before they can they are captured by an unknown group.
Meanwhile, Jrew is having his own troubles with Queen Terra. Talman has sent ambassadors to influence her against Milliayn, and she is very hostile toward them, trying Jrew's patience. After a particularly frustrating meeting, Terra's younger, but more mature, brother, Prince Erde, offers his encouragement and a little secret assistance as he feels it would be better for Bairek if Jrew were on the throne. However, how much assistance Erde can offer greatly depends on convincing Terra of their side of the argument; While Terra holds the throne of Bairek, Erde holds their hearts, a fact she is well aware of. If she decided against backing Jrew's claim to the throne, Erde could be committing treason; Or worse, if she decided to back Talman's claim to the throne, Erde could start a civil war, something he is not willing to risk.
Unbeknownst to everyone at the meeting Daven is recording it to give to Talman's ambassador, Falk Halcone, who's greatest delight would be to start a civil war, as that would weaken Bairek enough that Aouthentica (Or more specifically, Talman) could take over the country they were once equal to.

Rienna and Kisha find themselves in separate prison cells, guarded by surprisingly courteous jailers. Rienna finds a way to make a break for it, but is confronted by Captain Eyrik Duell, and (to her shock) is defeated in hand-to-hand combat and taken to the mysterious Director. The Director turns out to be an older gentleman named Luc who politely interrogates her and eventually reveals that she is in Gillam: the place all of the other Aouthenticans who wanted to leave fled to after Talman closed the borders down. Rienna mentions the concrete walls and he quickly corrects her. The compound she saw before was not Gillam, but an invention of Talman's. The entire country is now run by blackmail. There is a member of almost every family in Aouthentica in a compound somewhere. Talman has the compoundees working for him and simultaneously uses them as leverage to enlarge his army and prevent uprisings.
Rienna believes him, but only reveals half her story. In exchange, Luc only gives her half her freedom: she may explore Gillam to confirm the validity of his story, but she will be accompanied at all times by a Commando (Gillam's peacekeepers), and she must return to her cell at nightfall. Rienna agrees to this, and, to her disgust, she is assigned Eyrik Duell as her watchman.
She meets up with Kisha, who is assigned Jesse Stoiker, and the two compare stories. They are relieved that they both chose the same course of action in only sharing the barebones of their mission in Aouthentica. During the course of the day they learn that Luc was indeed telling the truth and they agree to share the rest of their mission with Luc, who releases them from Gillam's custody.

Back in Milliayn, the Lords Anson and Carter are alerted that Queen Terra will be sending representatives to inspect Milliayn's structures in comparison with Bairek's building codes since the town was only half built when Domhan let them move in.
Unfortunately, the ongoing construction of Milliayn was and always has been a haphazard affair, each citizen building on as they saw fit, without a thought toward building codes.
The Lords, along with Cam and Cara Rodriguez, must think of a way to immediately improve almost every structure in Milliayn, and quickly, because they're beginning to garner public attention, and the inspection itself is no doubt a ploy by the Queen to further discredit and disgrace Jrew.
|••| With no other solution the Lords muster the Milliaynites and begin repairing and rebuilding Milliayn as quickly as possible. Cam and Cara are assigned to learn the building codes as quickly as possible. |••|

Upon getting their possesions back, Rienna recieves a call from Ashley and Lydia, informing her that they cannot locate Liza in Aryeh, but they heard a rumor that she was sent to Hospitality Center. Rienna directs them to come to Gillam to regroup, and relays the message to Luc and the Commandos. Luc tells her that the politically correct term for the compounds is a Hospitality Center, as the occupants are now "enjoying" Talman's hospitality and Eyrik may be able to help locate Liza.
He explains that Eyrik lives a double life, spending half his time in Triennia, undercover as an officer directly under Falk Halcone, who runs Triennia when he is not running errands for Talman. He has only one peer, Keyla Bardon, as he is above everyone else.
His high status allows him to visit regularly, and to warn and protect Gillam.
Eyrik vehemently opposes the idea, especially when Rienna decides to go along. She lays out her plan: Eyrik will take her into Triennia under the pretense of just making a pit stop after having captured her and being under orders to personally take her to join Liza.
Luc likes and agrees to the plan, but he must give Eyrik a direct order to carry it out.

In Cordyne (Bairek's capitol) Jrew's troubles are mounting. Terra has found out about Erde and Jrew's secret meeting, and is absolutely furious, accusing them both of plotting against her. Erde angrily confronts Jrew, demanding to know why he told Terra. Jrew assures him that he wasn't the one to tell Terra, and the two princes conclude that someone from their meeting must have betrayed them, though neither is willing to suspect their own men. Finally, they agree to quietly investigate their own group.
Jrew tells Arron of the development, and Arron promises to help him investigate Lord Dominick, Daven, and Cerra. Jrew continues to struggle with the idea that one of them could be a traitor.

Remember, I'm still working on it, and that's not the end (for those who complain about my "bloody cliffhangers"). This will be going on my "Trinity's Works" page when it's completed.

Also, since I'm a geek about my own stories, I may do a post where I share all the nitty-gritty details about Aouthentica's past, which is very long and (IMHO) very interesting. 

And, if you're very very very lucky, I may post part of my original Milliayn story, which makes me want to sink into the floor, curl up in a ball, and claw my eyes out all at once when I read it. So, ya'll will probably think it's hilarious. 

Sé onr sverdar sitja hvass!
-Trinity

P.s.
This little thing: |••| doesn't mean anything except to me. It's just a note to remind me that the stuff between is new, and so I can find it quickly.

Blurbs: Rienna and Jrew

Trinity here!
It's been a while since I posted anything writer-ly, but I did write something recently about my two of my three favorite characters, Rienna Lee and Anjrew Arion.
They're from my Aouthentica novel that I've been working on since 2007-ish. They're also the very first characters I ever wrote in, and the first characters I wrote with any depth. It's also my only novel that is not set in a fantasy, dystopian, or middle-age type of setting. They've got guns and cell phones and whatnot.
Rienna's nineteen, and has no clue who her birth parents are, though she's pretty sure they're deceased. She was adopted by Liza, another character, so she's kind of got a mother.
Jrew's twenty-one (That's what everyone calls him, though his full name is Anjrew) is heir to the throne of Aouthentica, but is currently living in the refuge city of Milliayn in a neighboring country because his uncle (the last king) and his parents (the prince and princess) were killed in an uprising by one of the generals.
I really ought to write out the whole story for a post soon. It's very interesting (to me anyway), as well as long and involved. Plus, it would be good for me to have a complete synopsis written out for future reference.
In any case, Jrew and Rienna have been best friends since she was two and he was four, and she blew out the candles on his cake and they both burst into tears. They're more like brother and sister than best friends really. And just for clarification, there is absolutely nothing more to their relationship.
So, here's my blurb for them, which I wrote while pondering how the two would greet each other after being parted under various circumstances. Sometimes Jrew would just chew her out for almost getting herself killed, and other times he'd be absolutely frantic. He's kind of a worry-wart like that.
Then I thought what Rienna would be like if Jrew went off on a long trip and what her reaction would be like when he came back, and this is what I got.
It also surprised me how easily their dialogue came, and then I realized that of all the characters I've brought to life, I know Jrew, Rienna, and their friend Eyrik the best. Like, I know their brains inside and out. I wish I knew all my characters like that. It would make it so much easier to write. Of course, I've also put Rienna through all sorts of horrible things in my many blurbs, so I think that helped me develop her character a little more. (That and I've known her for nearly six years now.)
Okay, NOW here's my blurb:

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Jrew shifted his duffel bag to hang behind him and began to fumble with his keys. He finally found the right one and inserted it in the doorknob. It clicked faintly as it unlocked, making him smile with relief. It was good to be home.

He pushed the door open, picked up his other suitcase and went into the kitchen. Dropping his bags on the floor, he flicked the light on and opened the fridge to see if anything was still good after his trip.

A dull thud came from the other room. Jrew straightened and frowned. There wasn't supposed to be anyone else in his apartment. He shut the fridge quietly and turned to face the rest of the house. Footsteps were approaching rapidly. Suddenly a figure clad in all black turned the corner. Jrew pulled his gun, placing the red dot sight on the intruder's chest.

"Jrew!" Rienna shrieked, completely ignoring the gun as she launched herself at him.

"Oof!" Jrew took two full steps backwards before putting his free arm around her. "Holy- Ri, I almost shot you."

"Did you just get back?" She asked, her eyes sparkling with excitement.

"Yeah. Crossed the border about ten minutes ago. What are you doing here?"

Rienna pulled back to give him an offended look.

He grinned. "No, I'm glad to see you and all, but how did you get in? And what are you doing here? It's three in the morning!"

She smiled sheepishly. "Cerra said you'd be back any day now, and I didn't want to miss you if you came in late, so I started staying over in my room."

Jrew extracted himself from her tenacious hug and gave her a push towards the kitchen table, saying, "That's not your room, it's the guest bedroom."

"I'm the only one that ever sleeps in it, and all the stuff in there is mine." She argued. "Oh, and we're out of shampoo."

Jrew looked away from making himself a sandwich. "I bought a new bottle before I left. You used it up already? How many days have you been staying here?"

Rienna picked an apple out of the fruit bowl in the middle of the table before answering, "Three nights."

"You do realize your apartment is just across the way?" He reminded her, bringing his sandwich to the table. "And that this one is actually mine?"

Rienna didn't look up from polishing her apple on her sleeve. "Are you saying you don't want me here?"

"Yes. Wait, no. Oh, forget it!" Jrew groaned and started in on his sandwich.

Rienna bit into her apple, froze, then yanked it away. "Bleah! It's fake!"

Jrew grinned and swallowed. "I was wondering if you were actually going to try to eat it."

"You knew?" She threw the apple at him and it bounced harmlessly off his shoulder. "You could've told me."

"I thought you knew." He shrugged, taking another bite.

They sat in silence until Jrew finished his snack, then he stretched and said, "You should get back to bed, Ri. I'm gonna do a little unpacking and hit the sack myself."

"Do you mind if I stay up with you?" She asked hopefully.

Jrew stretched and put his hands behind his head. "I'm only going to be up for ten more minutes, and I'm just gonna be getting out my toothbrush and stuff. Go ahead and go back to bed. I'll still be here in the morning."

She sighed and got up. "All right. You promise we can talk in the morning?"

"Yes, I promise." He got up and gave her another hug. "Incidentally, what did you knock over when I first got here?"

Rienna's face went a little red. "Nothing. I fell out of bed."

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

And that's all I've got for them right now. I hope that gives you a bit of a better idea about their relationship and personality. You'll probably being hearing more about them soon. But no promises, 'cause you know how bad I am about posting what I say I might post.



Sé onr sverdar sitja hvass!
-Trinity

First Post!

Trinity here! And I believe it's high time we had a post or two around here! 

Now, my first thought was not to introduce myself since I have an "About Trinity" page that you could read to figure all that out. But, really, you need to know some background about my writing. 

I have two main hobbies. Photography and writing. We can discuss photography another time and on another blog.  But I have been writing for a long time. A really really long time. 

My first novel was called Village of Milliayn and I started it when I was about seven years old. It. Was. Horrible. I got to about 100 pages and then went back to reading the beginning and it... it was too awful. It wasn't that the plot was sagging in the middle or the beginning or the end. It was that the plot had collapsed on itself at some point in it's conception and I somehow didn't notice and kept happily picking my way through the rubble.

There was some treasure in the rubble, however. My beloved characters. Rienna and Jrew especially, but a whole host of others as well. I couldn't just dump them. 

So I rewrote Village of Milliayn, and it became simply Milliayn. This time, being a bit older and having read a lot more, the plotline was much better, and the dialogue was good as well. Relative to Village. I tweaked my characters a little bit, bringing some background characters more to the forefront, working out settings and all sorts of awesome stuff. 

And yet still, there were gaping plot holes when I looked back over it. 

Obviously, scrapping it and starting over was the best option. It worked last time, right?

And so another thirty or forty pages became obsolete. Again and again I would write and scrap, write and scrap, write and scrap. It always helped bring out the storyline a little more, but not quite as drastically as the first time. 

I'm still working on that novel today, only now it's titled Aouthentica (the name of the country), and I am bound and determined to finish it someday even if it's the last thing I do!

And I am still using quite a few of the original characters. They're like faithful dogs, going through whatever tragedies and horrible plots I happen to send their way in any particular incarnation of the story without holding anything against me.

And that is my novel. Besides that, I've written a ton and a half of short stories and started just about as many. 

More recently, though, I've started a program called One Year Adventure Novel (which will probably be called OYAN from now on), and I've enjoyed that so far. It really makes me think and consider about what I'm writing, rather than just banging out random things on the computer. 

         

However, for the month of November, I will be setting aside both OYAN and my photography to do something called NaNoWriMo (commonly called NaNo) which stands for National Novel Writing Month . Your goal is to write a whole novel, which is defined by 50,00 words or more, in November, which is exactly 30 days. 

     This goal is made more achievable by the fact that you're just supposed to write without worrying about too much about grammar or plot. The editing can wait until December. 

During the rest of October I will be finishing up a Photography Challenge I'm doing here, and attempting to work out a plot line for my NaNo novel. I'm not allowed to actually write any prose until November 1st, but I can outline and do research and character building. Which is stuff I love to do. My only problem is, I haven't decided what I want to write about yet! Not usually an issue for me. But I will figure it out before the first, and I will post about it when I get a little more work done. 

Sé onr sverdar sitja hvass! 

~ Trinity