Chapter 1 Redux Marathon

For those of you following along at home, you know that we've started on a marathon challenge of re-writing the beginning in a few different ways to see if we can come up with something better. Since we've been getting a lot of good feedback, we thought we'd share with you what we're thinking in rewriting the prologues.

Why not stick with the original prologues?

It was a tough decision to try re-writing. We were very fond of the original four prologues, but after looking at them again, we realized that they set up a few problems. We aren't saying that these are huge problems, but they're what we're thinking about when we try out these alternate openings. These issues are:

1. The prologues start with Fell. This is tricky because, as many people have pointed out, Fell doesn't end up being a central character to the entire plot. If anything, it seems like the story centers more around Averi and Wisteria. Of course Fell is important, but by starting with Fell, we set up a the wrong expectation about whose story it is.

2. The prologues build up a world that we quickly lose sight of. Fell's world is built on the bonded laborer system and local bullies. Averi is from a palace, and Wisteria is from the Ling Monastery. All of these are important, but maybe they aren't the most important parts of the SFA world. Maybe they aren't what we need to immediately lead with.

3. The prologues introduce four different characters. While we do like the idea of showing where everyone comes from, we're worried that it's a lot of people to meet--instead of building up a connection with one character, it feels a little scattered.

What now?

For the next few weeks, we'll be playing around with the introduction and seeing what we can come up with. The original prologues will still have a place in the continuity of the world, even if we end up going with a different opener. We know that rewriting means potentially losing some of the good things we liked about the original prologues, but just maybe we can come up with some new good things that serve SFA a little better. When you read, keep in mind that you're reading a rough draft--something we've written but haven't yet polished. We're doing this to just try out a few different ideas before we start feeling locked into one of them, but the downside is that they'll feel rougher than the original prologues.

Anyway, that's what's going on behind the scenes here at SFA. Thanks for reading, and feel free to leave any comments you have about the new openings.

Best,

KL and JLY

Gift-Giving

Happy Holidays from SFA!

Just for fun (much like everything we do here at SFA), we've decided to post another scene from the world of SFA Modern, which pretty much writes itself.

We don't know about your high schools, but ours had an annual Secret Santa gift exchange. This could mean many things. If someone nice was your Secret Santa, it was a week full of excitement. In JLY's case, she got secret notes with candy every day that week and a big present at the end. On the other hand, if you were like KL, you might not hear anything from your Secret Santa until two months later when he hands you an open Excel Saga DVD with a lackluster apology.

Oh, high school.

In any case, that Secret Santa exchange program was the inspiration for this holiday bonus scene.

Happy Holidays from all of us at SFA!

Gift-Giving

Wisteria was feeling smug. She had finally been assigned to give Rakam a gift for the holiday gift exchange at school which meant she was finally able to pay him back for last year. On the appointed day, he had presented her with her present: a pair of men’s sneakers in size 12. When she rejected them, he’d widened his eyes and feigned disbelief. “Wisteria, you don’t like them? And I spent so long picking them out for you,” he had added. “I suppose I’ll just have to take them myself.”

But this year, she would have her revenge. She’d found just the thing: a gold, heart-shaped mirror. She’d even practiced what she would say. I wanted to get you the thing you loved the most, she would tell him with a smirk.

It would be perfect.

When it finally came time to exchange the presents in the gym, she marched up to him, ready to shove her wrapped gift at him. But to her surprise, he was standing there holding something out to her.

She looked at it suspiciously. “You weren’t assigned to me,” she accused. “I made sure of that.”

“Does it matter? Maybe I’m making up for past crimes,” Rakam said with a shrug.

She took it from him hesitantly, almost sure it would be a joke as snide as the one she had planned for him.

“It’s not going to bite you,” he prodded her, prompting her to tear off the wrappings. The last thing she would ever want was for Rakam to think she was afraid.

She pulled away the bits of silver paper and revealed a metal rectangle with a soft square back. “It’s a picture frame,” she stated, perplexed.

“Good job, Sherlock,” he said. “Are you going to turn it over?”

“I imagine it’s a picture of you,” she said dryly.

He smiled as she flipped it over. “You could say that.”

Wisteria’s eyes fell on the picture, and she got quiet. She had expected to find a cheesy, glamour-shot of Rakam, the kind you took in a mall picture booth for a dollar. Instead, it was an old photograph, yellowed with time and worn at the edges. In it, a much younger version of Wisteria’s mother sat beside a much younger version of Rakam’s mother, and in front of them, two toddlers were playing on the grass.

“It almost looks like we used to get along, doesn’t it?” Rakam said ruefully.

Wisteria laughed. “I’m sure this was taken right before you took my doll and kicked sand in my face.”

“I was toughening you up,” Rakam objected.

Wisteria rolled her eyes and punched him in the shoulder.

“See how well I’ve trained you?” Rakam teased.

“Seriously,” Wisteria said, looking down. “Thank you.”

“Didn’t you have something for me?” Rakam asked, grabbing the wrapped package from her backpack and dangling it in front of her.

“I wouldn’t—That’s not—” Wisteria stammered, fumbling over the words as she tried to grab it back. After what he’d given her, her present hardly seemed just.

Her reluctance only made him more enthusiastic as he ripped into the present. He tore the wrapping and opened the box to find the gilded, heart-shaped mirror. He looked at it blankly before turning to Wisteria curiously.

Wisteria shrugged. “I wanted to get you the thing you loved the most,” she said lamely, though the phrase she had once thought would sound triumphant and clever was now caught in her throat. “Rakam, I—”

“It’s perfect,” he said, cutting her off. “You know me too well.”

When she looked up at him, she saw the familiar cocky grin on his face.

“Merry Christmas,” she said weakly as he turned to leave.

“And a happy new year,” he called over his shoulder.

Behind the Scenes: The Warrior Faculty

Today we've got part-two of the Professor series. The Warrior faculty is led by Kherif Halden, Rui Halden, and Ivan Trowe.

Professor Halden is the head of the Warrior department. He oversees the day-to-day affairs of the program and deals with the Warrior majors and minors. He is brash, blunt, unsympathetic, and serves as an appropriate introduction to the Warrior major as he teaches first-years Sparring. He doesn't place as much value on the rules as the heads of the other departments.

Professor Rui Halden, often referred to as "The Firecracker of the North" both for her fiery temper and quick blade, is the second-in-command of the Warrior department. Even more so than her husband, she is hot-tempered, impatient, and impulsive. She teaches endurance training, Nornese fighting styles, and upper-classmen studies with an emphasis in rune magic as it applies to weaponry and combat situations.

Professor Ivan Trowe specializes in teaching weapons work to first-, second-, and third-year students. Providing balance to the Warrior faculty, Professor Trowe has a calming effect on the students and is known for his limitless patience. Composed and contemplative, Professor Trowe is one of the few Warrior teachers capable of conducting class without raising his voice.

Any questions?

Behind the Scenes: The Mage Faculty

Today, we're bringing you a look at the fine instructors behind the Mage program at Eastridge. The Mage faculty is composed of Eleanore Beven, Isabella Colwyn, Joe Valint, and Violanna Laurel.

Eleanore Beven is the ever-respectable leader of the department. Level-headed and pragmatic, Beven provides a stable foundation for the Mage staff. Though the personalities of her staff vary greatly, her strong leadership unifies them, and she's more than capable of settling any conflict.

Isabella Colwyn, more commonly called Isa by her colleagues, is the powerhouse of the Mage department. She specializes in Combat-Casting and has a no-nonsense approach to students that even the Warrior faculty respect. Her impressive height adds to her already imposing presence.


Joe Valint is the first Mage professor that most first-years encounter. He teaches many of the introductory courses, but he also oversees Magical Ethics and a few higher-level seminars. The most laid-back of all the Mage faculty, Valint is the most approachable and charming member of the staff.


Violanna Laurel's first passion is teaching Decorum, and she's often single-handedly responsible for encouraging the students to have any sort of social lives; however, she has a natural aptitude for animal sympathy magic. She has a gentle demeanor, and she generally avoids conflicts unless anyone threatens her beloved Decorum classes or the Winter Ball.


Any questions? =)


--KL & JLY

Easden Never Looked So Delicious...

To continue on with our dessert theme, we thought we'd share this Map of Eastridge cake that KL's friends made for her birthday! On it, you can see all of the main continents. Also, it was delicious.

(Mmm Eastridge!)

Sooner or later, we do plan to make some newer, better maps. These were made by KL on one of those days when JLY left her alone for too long. Had she been there, the name The Middle Sea probably wouldn't have made it past her, despite KL's insistence that it's in the middle. (Never mind that on a globe, there wouldn't really be a middle...)

Take care,

KL and JLY

Finishing the Second Book

Things are busy here at the SFA office, also known as KL's place. It's been a year since we started writing Book 2, and that means our demanding, entirely arbitrary, and self-imposed schedule requires us to finish it within the next couple weeks.

Today, we got to some of the more exciting and fun scenes that we've been looking forward to for quite some time. Sometimes writing is hard, and you have to fight for every word, but sometimes writing is easy, and nothing feels better than writing when it feels right. We like to joke that, once we got past the Winter Ball, the book would write itself. Luckily, in all honesty, it is starting to feel that way. Hopefully this good streak of writing will last.

To that end, we've been working overtime, both so we can take advantage of this bout of inspiration and so we can get it done before our deadline and before JLY goes back to school. Not that we were slacking off before, but we've gone from meeting two or three times a week to virtually meeting every day (including weekends, though there tends to be more cheesecake and video games during those meetings).

(KL's Beautiful Homemade Cheesecake)

We also recently celebrated KMRicker Day as she visited us just this past weekend. She's got some great artwork coming up for you to see. There just might be some second-year profiles in the works. =)

Things have also been busy with Phase II: Tales of Eastridge. We're really proud of our beta group. They've been responding well to our various prompts, and we're really excited about how their stories are developing. Once we have a little more time, we're still hoping to figure out a way to open the beta up to more people... But that's probably still a ways off.

We'll keep everyone posted.

Best,

KL and JLY

Archived

If you'd like to see the original blogs, you can find KL's here and JLY's here.

We're sad that we had to lose all the comments in this transition, but hopefully, there might be some new ones. =)

Take care,

KL and JLY