Another Name Change

Well, this weekend was a bust. I managed to get hit with what I think is a cold; sore throat, fever, awful headache, and sadness. Luckily for me, the fever lasted a night, and the illness is already on its way out.

I'm well enough to be at work, in any case. Which sucks. Because I definitely would be at home resting right now if we had any sick days. I'm not going to turn this into a rant about public health and politics and the stupidity of forcing people into work when they're ill, but I really want to.

Man, I need to get my books famous or win the lotto soon. I'm getting quite irritated with life.

I was supposed to do so much this weekend. Primarily, I had this weekend scheduled to finish the last two paintings for a special project I'm doing that will be exclusively for the Starlings (my Ko-Fi subscribers).

I was also supposed to start a painting that I'm going to donate to Can*Con. I have the idea in my head. It's complicated and probably quite above my skill level, but I want to try anyway.

In fact, I have a number of paintings I really want to do, but cannot seem to find the time or the energy to get them done. I really need to knuckle down, because the deadlines are fast looming.

Not that that seems to mean anything. This has been the year of destroyed deadlines.

I still haven't finished the rough draft of the final book in the series I'm writing. I am plugging away at it, but I'm thinking the whole thing needs to be scrapped and restarted. I might be just a little miffed at myself about it. It's probably not that bad. I just don't have much faith in it currently. My brain has been extra scattered this year, and it's been difficult to focus. So I'm fairly certain the book is a haphazard mess.

I have though, not for the first time, renamed the series. I did a lot of thinking, consulted the Starlings, and decided that the new series name works better. So, instead of the Three Worlds War, the series has now been named (drum roll, please):

The Hunter Cycle

I think this suits better.

Part of the reason I liked The Three Worlds War, was its allusion to World War Three. I quite liked that play on words. And it suited. Three worlds are involved. However, as I was writing the series, I realised that the main character of the first book becomes just one of a diverse cast of characters, and a character that was to have minimal input in the story - a character sometimes simply referred to as The Hunter - has risen to be one of the major characters. Him, and those closest to him.

Additionally, the aim of the writing of this series in particular was to call to mind ancient legends and myth. Not only did I borrow heavily from Celtic mythology (I usually do, but this time it's much more blatantly obvious), but I wanted the text itself to read like a translation of something like Acallam na Senórach (The Tales of the Elders of Ireland - a collection of Irish legend and myth featuring characters that are likely euhemerised gods) or the Mabinogion (a collection of Welsh legends and myth, including many stories of King Arthur or his knights).

A collection of legends or myth all centering on the same character, or involving characters that regularly interact with one another, is often called a cycle. The Arthurian Cycle is one that comes to mind. Since these three books are essentially that, I think calling the series a cycle is more in line with what I'm attempting to achieve with this series.

Unsure what to do, I put the question to the Starlings, and it has come back that The Hunter Cycle is preferred to The Three Worlds War. So, I've renamed the series. I can do that, since I've not submitted any of the books yet.

​It's one of the perks, I guess, of being one of the Starlings. You get to help me make decisions. Anyway, I quite like the change. I feel it fits well.

With this established (for now. I've been terribly indecisive when it comes to this series, so maybe it'll change again. I doubt it. It feels permanent. But never say never, I guess), I think I'll start working on character descriptions for the Starlings; including the very specific myths I nicked them from (or created them out of). If that's the kind of thing you might be interested in, feel free to join the Starlings. It's roughly $1.00 a month. When I start earning enough, I'll be able to focus more on delivering more and more things for you to enjoy.

Right, I have to get to actual work now. One day, actual work will be returning to writing and blogging.

Slán go foill!