Over the summer I made a trip back home and was able to spend a few days at my parents lake house. One of the outings I made with me family was to go shopping on the classic small town main street that included a used bookstore. There's something about the smell of old paperbacks that is comforting and I took my time searching the fantasy and science fiction section. I found a treasure in a Greyhawk novel (published by TSR, before it was bought by Wizards of the Coast, before it was bought by Hasbro). It was my beach read for the vacation and I enjoyed it, so when I got home the paperback was slotted on my D&D novelization shelf in my bookcase. Despite having at least five new novels on my TBR, I wanted to read another book that had the classic late 80's early 90's fantasy feeling and pulled out a book I've read several times, Dragons of Autumn Twilight.
There aren't many books that I go back to more than once, but the Dragonlance Chronicles are some of them. Ensemble casts of characters going on a righteous quest isn't a common storyline anymore in modern fantasy, and I think that's too bad because I really like that trope. That got me thinking about why I go back to Dragonlance novels and not any of the (objectively better) books I have on my shelf. I came to the conclusion, at least for me, it's the characters. I like Tanis as the reluctant leader with a foot in two cultures, but not sure how to navigate either. Also, the sibling dynamic between Caramon and Raistlin is interesting and complex. Speaking of Raistlin, he is near the top of my list for favorite fantasy novel wizard (along with Pug from Magician: Apprentice and Magician: Master). The actual plot and lore of the Dragonlance world is fine, but without interesting people to have on the adventure, it's just a bunch of peopel going to kill a dragon.
As for a writing update, the month of October was more productive. I logged 11k words, which brings my draft to a total of 34k words. I've completed seven chapters, and by my outline I'm almost exactly one third of the way complete. I was mostly consistent with getting some writing in every day, which I think was missing from previous months. My November obligations at work and home won't cut too much into evening writing time (I think), so I anticipate a similar output this month.
The other exciting writing news is that I got paid for my short story that will be in the Shapers of Worlds Volume V anthology. It's was a trip to see a (digital) check for real money for a story I wrote. All in all, good stuff going on and I'm exciting to keep seeing progress on the project.
Thanks for stopping by.
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