Author's Note: Well, it's been awhile, folks. My husband almost died (again)! This time from COVID which hit him pretty hard as a cancer/heart patient at the beginning of this year. Sorry for the bad joke, but gallows humor is how we cope in our household after he's beaten heart failure and lymphoma. The man has lives like a cat (and hopefully more)!
Life has thrown us for a loop since then. Kev's thankfully made an incredible full recovery and we're on our way to a new home, with Kev finding an awesome new job! Things are on the upswing and I've finally been able to clear my head long enough to post this beta chapter which I actually finished at the beginning of this year, but never had the clarity to post with everything going on.
Unfortunately, this may be the last chapter for a long while! I've come to the conclusion that I want to totally restructure this story from a chronological tale to one that has a non-linear structure. I thought of what I hope is an AMAZING idea to realize the idea of Kalara ruminating on her mortal life, so that means I'm due for a rewrite. Again!
I wouldn't even blame you guys if you just bailed on me. It feels like I'm ALWAYS rewriting this story! I'm incredibly excited with my idea for this restructuring, however, and I believe if you stick with it that you might love it! I want to allow Kalara's story to unravel from the perspective of a fully realized Solar being forced to look back on her mortal life for very Dark and Sinister reasons. I don't want to spoil it, but you'll just have to see!
It's going to mean probably that I'm going to work on an ugly rough Alpha draft I'll share with a few patient folks privately, which I'll then start sharing here as an entirely new beta draft. I don't even know what to call this retelling. Echo Draft? Ugggh why writing so hard??
But What About this Blog?
While I'm taking the time to get my shit together as a writer, I'm going to focus this blog on building Visual Guides for Exalted and sharing artwork inspired by The Uncrucified/Exalted.
So until the next time, enjoy the latest chapter, which also features a special guest character cameo who belongs to Sam Seaman! I'll let you guess who's knocking around Kalara's neighborhood from Sam's amazing Exalted stories.
Rating PG-13: Violence, Adult Themes
Chapter Summary: The dangerous journey to Chiaroscuro begins! Kalara bids farewell to her past as the caravan makes its way through the Deep Desert Road. The journey is long and treacherous, but not as treacherous as the apathy that threatens to consume her spirit.
- Read the chapter here!
- See the full folder of Beta Draft chapters
(Instead of embedding the text in the blog entries, I'll be linking off to Google Docs from now on for easier updating and commenting on specific elements of the story.)
