The printed word

So, now the first draft of the book is finished I decided it was high time I bound a few copies. I will always have the first hard-bound copies of my book.

Here's how I took 'The Mighty Orange-Peel' from a bunch of papers to a printed novel.

Enjoy!

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Loose folios ready for binding.

Stitched folios and papers ready for binding. 

The final book in all its glory.

So satisfying to see this.

Two more copies of the book.

Insult to injury

My favourite insult from the book is calling someone a 'wan-faced troc'.

In Arbea, you do get these awful little troglodites called trocs that are blind proto-sentient salamander-like creatures. Nasty, ugly little beasties that live in damp fetid places feasting on decomposing carrion.

One of the best parts of writing fantasy is the sub-creation. Tolkien - one of the first to coin the phrase - created 'deep and wide and beautiful' stories because of the rich invented culture of his lands.

Now, I'm not the biggest Tolkien fan (I enjoyed the Hobbit, but the rest are beyond my attention span) but he was a master of creation. And I firmly believe that to make an authentic reality, one where the reader can successfully suspend disbelief, you have to have an authentic and believable world.

It's the little touches like, in Arbea, reason is the highest power. There is religion and mysticism, but the society's culture is centred on it prizing of intellect. That means the characters wouldn't say things like 'goodness me' but something more like 'reason be'.

And, because the mythology of Arbea is different, creatures like trolls wouldn't necessarily exist. Hence calling someone a 'troc' is similar to calling them a troll.


Enjoy!
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