Marryanne, Eve, and Yelena; representing chains
Hey world!
So, I think it would be fair to say my series has a lot of symbolism in it. From the characters themselves to the lesser Gods of the Rizen cult to the very concept of the Abyss itself.
Marryanne is, for all intents and purposes, the key to this series. Nothing else would have come to be if not for her.
Yelena is one of the stand-alone parts of this. She means something both old and new; the past and the future, the old self becoming the new, the self-realizations one has when they grow and evolve and learn, and how those realizations can hurt equally as much as they can help.
Eve is the other standalone. A separate character from the series but still equally important. In a sense, Eve is the guide. They help spur things along when the path is too dark to find, or the weight is too heavy to bear.
Pictured: me whenever Fatal Frame does anything scary (I couldn’t find the artist for this one :( )
The Fatal Frame games have an interesting relationship with weight.
The first is about discovering what happened to a manor in the past and feels a bit more dissociated with the death and weight of the series as a whole to me.
The second game is far more personal; Mio and Mayu, the leading characters, are siblings drawn to an old dead village. There they become intwined with the village’s past and descend into the madness that overtook the place. The twins must make a final choice before they leave, and that choice is intertwined with death itself.
FF3 is far more intimate with its relation; the protagonists are all survivors in some form, their loved ones taken from them without choice. As they are drawn into the ‘manor of sleep’ that is the game’s setting they are confronted with an ever-encroaching choice: to follow their loved ones into the abyss or to reject their beckons and continue living.
FF4 focuses more on medical malpractice and the lengths some go to bring their loved ones back. It ends on a somewhat bittersweet note though.
FF5 is where things get rough. The game has a heavy but not exploitative focus on suicide, on dying and the beliefs one passes with. All of these games have some sort of ‘chains’ on them, a weight that never quite eases but 5 is far more open and far more relentless with how visible and how heavy those metaphorical chains are.
The weight of these same kinds of ‘chains’ is present in my books too, though not as a symbolism for death or grief as much as the all-encompassing weight of mental struggle. The Void, the Abyss, whatever title gets slapped to it, it is more than just a dark omnipresence but a feeling, a thought, a memory, even a sound that evokes those least-liked memories in a person.
Okay, now for something lighter! Don’t want to make you think my work is just about cults and death and violence, just part of it!
I’ve come up with other series ideas over the writing of my current series. It isn’t going to take a backseat, far from that in fact. It’ll still be the prime focus, but the need to write something else that’s lighter in comparison has been growing on me since I began drafting this series over 10 years ago (holy cow it’s really been a long time).
My focus now, aside from editing Book 1 and drafting books 5 and 7 is focused on drafting the first manuscript for my next series. It’ll still have weight to it, still be dark and have those chains at times, but it won’t be nearly as constant.
Flea and Rorschach, that’s all I’ll drop for now!
Pictured: Art from the game Elden Ring. This piece has probably influenced the fantasy idea I’ve been brewing more than any other thing.
Project Zero and the Abyss
Hey folks, writing is coming along good! Book 5’s first draft is roughly halfway done! My final edits of book 1 are also coming to a close soon, and I’m looking forward to the moment I can send it off to my editor.
Pictured above: me when literally anything happens with my books
The ‘abyss’ of this story is kind of a personal one, and writing about it is both freeing and taxing in equal amount. It’s also kind of eerie writing about something so dark at times, but this is a story about winning a war, not a battle.
Speaking of eerie, I finally played through Fatal Frame 1 through 3, and that was something else! I love those games, with 3 being my favorite by far. Rei is braver than most people for sure.
Pictured: me when literally anything ever happens in Fatal Frame (credit to Terri Wiseden!)
The first book’s cover has been finished too! That’s another exciting thing. I’m getting closer to publishing with each day. That’s all for now! Peace out world!
Art, Snakes, and Knowledge
It’s weird having my work start to take a full, tangible shape. It’s no longer just an idea or just some words on a document, but a real, graspable thing.
I’m in the process of getting the art for my book cover back currently, as well as having another wonderful artist create character art for the website. Seeing other people put my ideas and words into reality in their own creative way is so… exciting! Having their spin, their creative freedom filtered over my ideas and seeing how they translate my scrambled mess of thoughts and ideas into something real is just… Wow.
I’m so excited, so thrilled, so nervous, so worried. I’ve been replaying both the Metal Gear Solid series and Alan Wake 1 - partially for the inspiration they helped to originally give me and partially because I love (and in the case of MGS love and loathe) these games. I recently finished painting a resin statue too. It looks terrible, but there’s something fun in it too. It’s calming in a way.
I’ve been working on my sketching abilities too, need to keep the tools sharp right?
I’m terrified the world won’t like my books, but at the same time, a part of me is okay if it doesn’t. I’m writing these for myself as much as anyone else, but if others love my work, then I’ll be happy too.
I’ll slap a picture or two below to show what I’ve been up to!
The sketch I did! Neighbor’s dog included.
I love how the picture makes the paintjob look even worse.
Anyways, that’s all from me today!
Games, books, and other bidness…
So, I’ve been working on making this website for a long time. I’m scatterbrained on most days so it can be hard to form enough thoughts and energy into something precise.
I’m working on a lot of things at once here. I’m hunting artists for cover art and other exciting things. I hope to have backgrounds, character art, etc. all that jazz so that my stories and dreams can better be realized. I can’t wait to show off their great work! On top of that I’m writing book 5 (about halfway done with the first draft) and re-editing my first book so that my editor doesn’t give up hope on me! (I kid, thank you Susan, you’ve been amazing!)
I’ve also gotten into DnD recently with some friends, I’m still trying to practice guitar, and I might get into painting miniatures (40k has consumed my brain lately).
I’ve got a million ideas, both for this book series and two others I hope to write some time in my future. We’ll see how that goes. Check back here in like 10 years or something.
I’m also going to be reading more books, and I’m excited for that too!
Take care world, I hope I can make someone else’s day better.
The beginning of something more!
So I’ve decided I’ll be writing a blog to catalogue the progression of my books, story ideas, and personal adventures!