Hello again!

I have something a little different for you this week, but first I'm thrilled to tell you that I've written a couple of chapters since we last spoke.

Hooray! Sweet relief! It's like rain on a drought-stricken plain. It's like the wi-fi coming back on after a major outage. It's like the curing of a horrible bout of—forgive me—constipation.

As such, I'm firmly in the back half of the book, and progressing nicely towards the climactic scenes. Everything is starting to come together.

I miss writing when I'm not doing it! I appreciate it all the more after an absence. I am a creature of routine—by necessity—and my routine has finally calmed down, back to its normal rhythms.

A large part of this writing drought has been caused by circumstance. I am naturally chaotic, you see, down to my DNA. I can't write very well when there is external chaos on top of that. You would think I thrive in it, like an animal in its true habitat. What I really need, I've found, is this: regular, weekly, hours-long stretches of boredom.

Boredom is great! It is the ultimate freedom. Whenever I am busy, burnt out, or even just having fun, it's hard to put everything down and consciously choose to write. In a way, being busy is having less freedom to choose what to do. When I'm bored—trapped somewhere with nothing but a keyboard for entertainment—writing is suddenly the most thrilling, riveting thing I can possibly do!

Bonus content: An In-Character Essay

I polished up something I wrote a while ago, and I've got the link here for you to read it:

https://timothyscottcurrey.com/timothy-s-currey-blog/2023/11/19/elixir-of-power-in-character-essay-oenan-telth-ahar-the-strength-of-the-whole-by-sage-nyend

Part worldbuilding, part history, part character, this is something I think few writers do—an essay written from the point of view of one of their characters. I, er ... sometimes write essays for fun. We all have our vices.

This essay is by the elvish Sage Nyendí, and it is about Oenan Telíth Ahar, which means 'The Strength of the Whole.'

Sage Nyendí was one of the most influential Sages in Elarím culture. In the decades before the events of the book, her philosophy united her people by stitching together belief systems that seemed incompatible. The philosophy—Nyendíthe—went on to be a major influence on Sidarí.

If you enjoy reading the essay, I can certainly do more! Let me know!

For those who have read War with Elves for Profit and Amusement, which character would you most like to see write an essay or letter or journal entry?

What's with the letter 'i' in elvish?

The 'i' in elvish that has a slanted accent 'í' is pronounced like 'ee'. Some words in elvish contain a non-accented i, and that is pronounced like the 'i' in 'hit'.

Basically, the slanted 'í' is a longer 'ee' sound and the regular 'i' is the shorter sounding version. So 'Sidarí' is pronounced 'sid - ar - ee.' I think I've said all this before but I don't want to alienate anyone by using non-standard letters!

One day soon I'll do a proper pronunciation guide for everything in the Elixir of Power, and I'll explain why the Norimandian language is suspiciously similar to French and Spanish.

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Thanks for reading!

Until next time!