After Bjornlinga

It is always strange to finish a major creative work.

For around two years I worked on the Bjornlinga. Some days I forget that it is finished. Now I must enter into a stewardship position with it. I believe strongly in this work, and so I have begun sharing it with others by giving certain people copies. For myself, it isn’t so much about becoming rich and famous from my writing, but sharing what I have done.

I have also spent a lot of time looking at possible events where I can share my work. Surprisingly, my options are slim. I mean, there are a lot of places that I could take my work to: I could set up a table at a lot of these comic conventions and such, but these aren’t really the right audience for me. Right now the only major event I plan on going to is Necronomicon in Tampa, which I think will run in September. I went a couple years ago and found that it was my kind of scene.

I am also talking with a local bookstore and will having my work there. There might be an opportunity for a book signing or such as well. That would be nice and I like the idea of collaborating with a small, independent bookstore anyway.

Meanwhile, on the writing front, I continue to work on Archaios—specifically on the next book chronologically from Bjornlinga. I wouldn’t really call it a series, not in the sense that a lot of modern fantasy works have ongoing series. Rather I am modeling my works more on the saga tradition. Each book takes place in the same world, and there are characters that will appear in multiple books, but each book tells its own tale.

For readers of the Bjornlinga, this next work will take place in Sundhrom, but will not be narrated by Fjolvak Ice-Eyes (although he is still around in the margins). This book will be told from the perspective of Asanatos, who two centuries later is putting together various fragments to try and understand exactly what happened during this time. Writing a story without having any scenes, and purely through a collection of fragments has been an interesting challenge, but I think the results will be worth it. It makes the story a bit of a mystery, as the reader must understand that all historical fragments are biased and limited, and it isn’t always easy to sort out the truth. To complicate things further, Asanatos himself is somewhat obsessive and biased, and the reader might question his interpretation of these fragments as well.

I am sure I will be working on this for some time, while sharing my world through the Bjornlinga. On both fronts, my work and calling continue.