Tag: Summersalt

Summersalt – Tracer

According to the latest census by the Summersalt Ministry of Commerce and Security—it makes sense in Summersalt, but nowhere else—the city-state is home to more than 700.000 beings, with humans being the majority. This census is the most accurate report on Summersalt population, if you forget that it ignores all mutants, saltbabies, horrors and aberrations born in the depths and slums, most of them from exposure to some form of raw salt.

Twenty percent of the population make up the upper neighbourhoods, where the Trade Princes, nouveau riches, big merchants and old school nobility live. But among them is a family with enough skeletons in their closet to beat the census by at least twice its reported amount, and enough secrets to burn the city itself a few times over. Continue reading Summersalt – Tracer

Writing Guide – Naming

When I create a new world for an RPG campaign or fiction, I always spend most of my time with names, be it for characters, place or historical events. For me, it’s central to the process of world building, and depending on the rules of my world and its civilisations, it can help ground my fantasy enough for readers to find their way and grasp the basic concepts.

There isn’t really a big secret with naming, but I’m very particular about it. Continue reading Writing Guide – Naming

Summersalt – Character Concept – Blankface

The city of Summersalt is a dangerous place, particularly for the Summer Knights, the regulation agents for The Salt, the wondrous substance at the core of the city’s technology, mysticism, economy and everything in between.

Regulation agents come from various background but they all have one thing in common: the job is their last hope. Some like Keegan Leona Mercer, have spent centuries burning bridges and making enemies. Then there are those like Julianne “Tracer” Allen, with two clear choices: service or some ghastly capital punishment, particularly if they have her unusual skills in Saltcraft. Continue reading Summersalt – Character Concept – Blankface

Fiction – New One-shot Premises!

Hi everybody. I mentioned a short while ago that I would come back to you with new premises and updates on the current stories.

Let’s get the updates out of the way. The stories I’ve already written are still with my proofreader, whom I’ll stick with a cattle prod this weekend to get him reading and giving me the feedback I so desperately need, so I can start working on second drafts and possibly posting the stories (sadly, don’t have many proofreaders or beta readers at the moment, though I’m in the process of roping a few more people in). I’m also thinking of getting some custom artwork made for them, to enhance the stories with a couple of visuals–well, that and the fact that I need very few excuses to commission more stuff from my go-to artist, Biddoodles. It might cost me money, but the quality is phenomenal and I just dig her style. Continue reading Fiction – New One-shot Premises!

Writing in the Attic – New Projects and Old Ideas

Yesterday I published a new writing guide. It’s been a while since I did one of those. But I did mention I was working on a few, I just needed time to put the finishing touches on them and figure out which one to publish first. Continue reading Writing in the Attic – New Projects and Old Ideas

Writing in the Attic

I know there haven’t been any new Bad Blood chapters in a little while, nor have there been any new pieces or character concepts for Summersalt. Hell, there haven’t been any new Writing Guide entries. I haven’t abandoned them, trust me I haven’t. But Extra Life was my first priority for a while.

They will be back soon but to make sure the quality is there while I’m working on several things at once, I’m going to do things differently now. Let’s go over each: Continue reading Writing in the Attic

Summersalt – Early Character Concepts – Fuse

A few weeks ago I introduced you to the world of Summersalt, my new story idea which you shape with your votes on the poll you can see at the end of this article and on left sidebar on The Mental Attic. Each vote limits what I can create, and tells me what you don’t want to see in Summersalt, the general fantasy races, tropes and styles you feel should just go.

As part of creating this world, I’ve also started writing some of the characters that inhabit it. Currently I’m focused on the protagonists, and today I’ll introduce you to one of them, the leader of a small unit of Salt Regulation Agents aka Summer Knights.

I hope you like Keegan Leona Mercer as much as I do. This is her profile. But it’s only a story, and a few bits of her personality. If you want to truly get to know her, who she is as a person, you’ll have to wait until I write the novel.

Continue reading Summersalt – Early Character Concepts – Fuse

Summersalt – Early Concept

A few weeks ago I posted an article on a project I called “The Great Fantasy 2015.” It was dumb name, a really dumb name, but it was on purpose. The name was always a placeholder and I’m a firm believer that placeholder names should never be cool, because you never want them to be better than the actual name.

With the poll in place and some votes already in, most of them focused on the type of Vampires or Elves you don’t want to see, I’ve begun working on the setting for this fantasy series. And today I’ll tell you a bit about it.

Let me introduce you to Summersalt. Continue reading Summersalt – Early Concept