NaNo – Day 12, Truth, Justice, and Aw, Crap...Playing By The Rules.

As if to balance out the full tilt dialogue that came before, today's writing concentrated on description. Usually I write and put a gesture or two in for the characters, maybe a line of description then come back later and backfill (hey, it's an engineering thing...). Today I felt like proceeding at a more leisurely pace. I have creatures in my novel called llarmals, they are a hybrid, a cross between llamas and camels. I needed to get their actions and features set in my mind.

Llarmals figure prominently in the story, they function as riding animals and beasts of burden. In my previous book, the people preferred horses to llarmals. To each their own. Whichever creature I use I want it to have personality without delving into cuteness. I've had horses with more personality than some people I know, and I'd like that to show. I'd also like to reflect on the times when animals were an integral part of our daily lives.

The interconnectedness of man (and woman) with the natural world is something that lurks beneath the surface in my stories. A dash of magic, some animals and a quest, and I'm happy. I'm still attempting to figure out what it is about the nature of magic – and the gods – that attracts me to write about them. I think I can explain away the gods part, growing up Catholic and reading mythology at the same time is bound to form a nifty compost pile for story ideas.

I've also discovered that having magic doesn't make things easier for my protagonists; it usually makes their lives miserable. As the warrior tells my female protagonist in the Godhunter, "Even Gods have rules they must abide by." And no, before you ask, they aren't "more like guidelines". Rules are rules, even for the mighty. How else would they end up in the complicated pickles they do? If you're a hero, sometimes being honorable can be a cotton-pickin' pain in the arse.