Mire of Madness
Happy autumn and welcome back to yet another blog post! I have given up on these being a weekly or biweekly occurrence, so we’re just going to refer to this as the yolo blog for now! This week I wanted to talk about some stuff with the fourth Harmonizer book as well as some other changes and things happening elsewhere! Let’s get into it.
Mire of Madness
The fourth Harmonizer book is now WELL in progress. At this point in time, I am just past the halfway point and still believe that it will be ready to go by mid-December! Additionally, the cover for this will, in fact, still be done by… me. Yeah, at some point I’ll figure out how to get out of this cycle! Anywho, with the Mire of Madness right around the corner, I figured it would be fun to discuss some of the themes coming up in this.
Each of the past three books has had some kind of theme or goal. Book 1 was just about kicking off the adventure and establishing the overall threats. Book 2 was about REALLY establishing the Steel Legion as the major antagonist force. Book 3 was about introducing the leader of the Guardians and revealing their motivations in all of this. So, what does that leave us with book 4?
Book 4 is about establishing the secondary and tertiary villains of the story! In this book, we are reintroduced to Reikar! Those that read the previous books will know that it was revealed at the end of Stampede that he’s been enhanced in some way. In this book, he finally makes an appearance on the battlefield once again as he seeks vengeance against Vianna and her friends. Some of his new abilities will be shown off during this, and he will push Vianna to her limits, but he isn’t the primary villain of this book.
New to the series is Celene, the swamp witch. Celene is a wanted sellena who earned a name for herself through murder, thievery, and the destruction of an entire town, and she makes it clear very fast how she pulled it all off by herself. Celene is an tinker by heart and has developed an interesting formula that excels at driving people mad. Additionally, she has managed to craft herself a suit from Guardian technology and firmly establishes herself as the most powerful foe Vianna has faced thus far. Throughout the Mire of Madness, Celene will drive Vianna and her friends to their limit, and she may very well truly threaten one of their lives before the end.
In addition to building up two of the three villains that will harass our heroes throughout the series, this book also introduces a new land, Shademire. Shademire is a vast, drowned landscape. There is almost no real soil to be found, and the islands scattered through the mire are really just gunk that’s built up around the marsh’s trees. The fog is extremely thick through this region, and the landscape itself is treacherous. After the previous two journies through more barren lands, it felt right to dive into a more lush and diverse landscape. Mire of Madness kicks off a series of books that will be set in far lusher terrain, and, since I’m already on the topic, it’s worth noting that the next book will take place in… a jungle! Keep your ears peeled. There’s thunder in the skies!
Art Stuff
On the subject of art, I recently published out yet another youtube video featuring art created for Stampede! You can find it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00C29ig-Fms
With that video FINALLY behind me, I’ve turned my focus fully to the next book’s cover. When I originally conceived the art of Mire of Madness, I had envisioned Vianna clashing with Reikar while Celene looms like a threat, but I’ve since realized there’s a more accurate cover. In this one, Celene will still be looming behind everyone, but Vianna, Feera, and Garrin will all be caught up in the throes of her madness. Shadows will be threatening to choke the life out of them, and will find herself trapped in a nightmare that she can’t wake up from! Overall, I think it does our heroes more of a service than my previous idea, and it’s turning out quite nice! I’m not showing off any pictures just yet though. I’ve still got some stuff to iron out, but next week will be a different story for sure!
Schedule Changes
Twitch is finally taking the back foot. It’s been a ride, but I’ve since realized that it’s too much for me to manage alongside everything else. The pressure of straining for words while writing followed by days of straining for words while streaming has been too much on my mind. I’ve realized it’s been steadily burning me out, and it really shouldn’t be taking this much out of me. It was always meant to be a for fun thing, but given how it’s turned into a tertiary job, it’s gone a little bit far.
As such, Mondays are off the table, and other days will be getting paired down as I feel necessary. It does suck to be shutting down a little, but my books are my priority, and I’ve got a lot of work that I need to do!
Speaking of which, I will be attempting to spread Harmonizer to more platforms and do some outreach stuff, so expect a slightly bigger social media presence in the near future!
Conclusion
That’s all I think I have for this week. There probably won’t be a blog next week, but we’ll see what time allows! I have a feeling that Mire of Madness will be very close to done when next we speak, so, until next time! Cheers!
The Flying Fennec