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DerynifanK

March 17, 2024, 03:48:44 PM
Happy St Patrick's Day. Enjoy the one day of the year when the whole world is Irish.

Balance of Power--Chapter Two

Started by Evie, August 13, 2015, 09:38:38 PM

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Laurna

QuoteThe Healer snorted. "Do you know Morgan?" he joked. "He requested discharge nearly as soon as he came out of stasis,
QuoteThe sea-green eyes turned to James. "Get me out of here."

James shared a look with the Healer before turning back to the duke.  "Are you sure that's wise?"

"You tell me, James. Somewhere out there--" The Duke of Corwyn gestured at the city skyscape beyond his window. "--The royal half of my bloodline are scattered to the four winds. Probably quite literally.  If someone is targeting Haldanes, do you think it's wise to keep me here?"  He glanced meaningfully around at the confining walls of his hospital room.

This man appears to be as much the combination of stubbornness and practicality as both his names imply. I am loving every moment of looking into those sea-green eyes. :-* ;) sigh.

As to Tom searching all the descendants of the Haldanes from the last 200 years.  I do not envy him that task.  (been there done that!)LOL

Love love love it. I Hope Eilonwy can contact her Majesty Sophia before more trouble begins. Just to be able to do Morgan's warding spell would be life saving, as he could attest to.


May your horses have wings and fly!

TKnTexas

If this was a hard bound book the size of the NYC phonebook or War & Peace, I would not sleep or eat until I finished and savored every word.  AWESOME is the best adjective I can pull out and it is inadequate.
Thomas Hill

Evie

*blush!*  Wow! Color me flattered, TKnTexas. I guess this means I ought to post the rest of the story, given that too many people here know my address and where to hunt me down if I don't?   ;D (Seriously, one advantage of writing this in Google Docs and sharing it with my beta-readers is that if the unexpected should happen and I have an asteroid fall on me or get run over by a runaway elephant, or suffer some catastrophic hard drive meltdown, there will be at least two others with the ability to format and post chapters if I am unable to. I sure could have used that sort of back-up plan the time when my cat Luke helped me lose my USB drive outdoors and I nearly lost two chapters of Maidens of Mayhem!)

Trust me, it felt to me like it was going to be the size of War and Peace when I wrote it, especially when I got to the middle of the story, since for me the beginnings are the easiest bit and the endings aren't too bad once the final scenes are clearly in sight, but it's that middle bit that gets me feeling like I've got mired down in the Bog of Despair. Every. Single. Time, I wonder why in the world I ever got myself into that mess, and how in the world I'm going to manage to get out and complete the story, so it's always nice to hear some words of affirmation once I've actually got the blooming thing completed!  And in this story's case, unlike some others I've posted in the past, it actually is complete, since I didn't dare start posting this one until I was absolutely sure I could get it finished and that the final story would all hang together. On previous stories I usually just gave myself a five to ten chapter head start, but on this one that would have been entirely too nervewracking for me, since new side plots and plot twists kept jumping into play while I was trying to sort other ones out. I swear it was like trying to herd ferrets, writing this story and keeping track of all of its characters! I haven't done a final word count (I'm almost afraid to!), but my chapters tend to average around 5000 words or slightly above, so with 30 chapters plus a tiny prologue and a slightly longer wrap-up scene for an epilogue, you do the math.  :)

Laurna, I can't really blame you. I don't even share your particular weakness for blonds (or even Morgans, although I quite like Alaric), but I kept distracting myself from the story by looking back at that inspiration picture of Morgan Haldane--maybe I found it a little too inspirational? LOL--and that attitudinal hint of a smirk or suppressed grin ended up really coloring his personality in the story. If you already like him now, I think you'll come to love him even more as the story continues. I definitely did, but then again I tend to fall in love with all of my male characters as I write their stories. Well, nearly all.  Not my villains.  Eww!   ;D
"In necessariis unitas, in non-necessariis libertas, in utrisque caritas."

--WARNING!!!--
I have a vocabulary in excess of 75,000 words, and I'm not afraid to use it!

Laurna

#18
Evie, if you are looking for a picture of the restored and rebuilt Tri- Arilan residence, let me offer you this image.



Ashford Castle in Ireland is the perfect architecture mix of ancient medieval, seventeen hundreds, and modern, 100 year old, "new" addition.

What do you think?  Too grand? Perhaps this is the McLain-Sheehan Castle in Cassan instead?
May your horses have wings and fly!

Evie

#19
Wow, that's gorgeous! I was thinking more Palladian style for Tre-Arilan, though I am willing to be convinced otherwise, or maybe that could belong to one of the other characters. I'll need to give it some thought.

Actually, I wonder if that might be the Eirian River (upstream of Rhemuth, of course) or some other river in Gwynedd? I can think of one or two characters who might have a home like this, if it would fit in the right location. (DesertRose may know of at least one of the locations I'm thinking of, and if this might work for that venue. . . . :D )
"In necessariis unitas, in non-necessariis libertas, in utrisque caritas."

--WARNING!!!--
I have a vocabulary in excess of 75,000 words, and I'm not afraid to use it!

DesertRose

That would work quite well for 21st C. Eirian House.  :)
"If having a soul means being able to feel love, loyalty, and gratitude, then animals are better off than a lot of humans."

James Herriot (James Alfred "Alfie" Wight), when a human client asked him if animals have souls.  (I don't remember in which book the story originally appeared.)

Evie

Quote from: DesertRose on August 16, 2015, 05:09:47 PM
That would work quite well for 21st C. Eirian House.  :)

Heh. Just what I was wondering, DR!   ;D
"In necessariis unitas, in non-necessariis libertas, in utrisque caritas."

--WARNING!!!--
I have a vocabulary in excess of 75,000 words, and I'm not afraid to use it!

Laurna

Awesome! I can not wait to read more about it.
May your horses have wings and fly!

Elkhound

You mentioned Camberia as having been settled by deporting Deryni there.  Is it Australia, then?

Evie

Quote from: Elkhound on August 17, 2015, 07:51:44 AM
You mentioned Camberia as having been settled by deporting Deryni there.  Is it Australia, then?

Short answer: No. :)

Longer answer: The only resemblances between Camberia and Australia are where they roughly happen to be, geographically speaking, relative to Gwynedd/the UK, and the fact that both Camberia and Australia happened to be used as penal colonies at one point in their history. And that is pretty much where any resemblance ends. Even the establishment of Camberia as a penal colony is historically different, since Camberian was settled primarily by Deryni who were forcibly exiled there after a royal coup, because a Haldane King a couple of centuries ago was too soft-hearted (or maybe just too soft-headed?) to execute a treasonous son and his followers outright, so he exiled them to the newly-discovered (and very harsh) land of Camberia halfway around the globe. Camberia's native wildlife decimated this already small population in its early years, leaving only the strongest to survive and forge a new settlement there, so modern-day Camberia is descended from these original exiles who brought with them a strong sense of rank, hierarchy (masters vs. servants) and power combined with an entitlement mentality, and later added on a survival-of-the-fittest mindset on top of all that. So culturally speaking, this makes for a very . . . shall we say, interesting group of people, many of whom continue to have a huge chip on their collective shoulder when it comes to the Kingdom of Gwynedd, and Haldanes in particular. Many, though not all, as hopefully you'll see if I ever get the sequel to Balance of Power written.
"In necessariis unitas, in non-necessariis libertas, in utrisque caritas."

--WARNING!!!--
I have a vocabulary in excess of 75,000 words, and I'm not afraid to use it!

Elkhound

Quote from: Evie on August 17, 2015, 12:02:25 PM
Camberia's native wildlife decimated this already small population in its early years, leaving only the strongest to survive and forge a new settlement there,

http://www.cracked.com/funny-163-australia/ 


Jerusha

Sequel?  Did I hear Evie say sequel?  SQUEEEE!

No pressure, of course.   ;D
From ghoulies and ghosties and long-leggity beasties and things that go bump in the night...good Lord deliver us!

 -- Old English Litany

Evie

ROFL, Elkhound! OK, so maybe that's one more thing Camberia has in common with Australia--Nature's Bounty. Her deadly bounty, that is.  ;D

Jerusha, you want a sequel already? You're only two chapters into this one! Give me a chance to catch my breath! LOL!
"In necessariis unitas, in non-necessariis libertas, in utrisque caritas."

--WARNING!!!--
I have a vocabulary in excess of 75,000 words, and I'm not afraid to use it!

Elkhound

Quote from: Evie on August 17, 2015, 12:02:25 PM
so modern-day Camberia is descended from these original exiles who brought with them a strong sense of rank, hierarchy (masters vs. servants) and power combined with an entitlement mentality, and later added on a survival-of-the-fittest mindset on top of all that. So culturally speaking, this makes for a very . . . shall we say, interesting group of people, many of whom continue to have a huge chip on their collective shoulder when it comes to the Kingdom of Gwynedd, and Haldanes in particular. Many, though not all, as hopefully you'll see if I ever get the sequel to Balance of Power written.

Sounds a little like perhaps what Nazi Germany might have developed into had they been given similar treatment?

Evie

Maybe, at least if many of them also happened to be Deryni of the less scrupulous sort when it came to using their powers.
"In necessariis unitas, in non-necessariis libertas, in utrisque caritas."

--WARNING!!!--
I have a vocabulary in excess of 75,000 words, and I'm not afraid to use it!