August was busy and too hot. Turin continues to disrupt life at home with his puppy energy. Family visited, which was great fun. We visited Powell’s Books, and the nieces loved it (one of them had to finish a book she picked up before we left, super reader!). On the last day, we hung out at home playing board games, watching TV, and baking delicious food. Some of the best family time.

I’m glad September is here. It means rain and colder weather. I barely survived the heat this summer.

With Hannah going back to work, our schedule will be more structured and busy. We’re determined to boulder throughout the week. I have sword fencing once a week. I’m hoping to add in Jiu Jitsu. I tried it for the first time and enjoyed it more than I thought I would. Working closer to home has allowed me to do more on the weekday evenings.

My writing has been productive and arduous. It’s time for edits! I’ve decided to postpone writing my novella A Cold Task. It was great exercise. Unfortunately, there wasn’t enough time in the month to work consistently on both, specially making ‘finished’ chapters. Since it hasn’t received the same number of edits as my other works the mistakes are more prominent and distract from the story. I’m planning to finalize it when I’m waiting for feedback on another novel. I’ll leave what chapters I have for a couple more weeks. 

The third draft for Morvelving has started. I have the new first two chapters written and am incredibly pleased with how they improve and expand the story. I had to stop as I began to place and shuffle old prose with new and rework it to fit. Lots of Ctrl + c and v!

What I’m working through now is inline edits. The readers gave comments, made corrections, or offered suggestions throughout the draft. I go to each one and determine whether to make revisions based on the advice. It’s arduous but constructive. I’m looking forward to the completed third draft. 

The main characters in Morvelving – The Sword of Mourning, are Morvelving and Nippiktua. I’ll introduce both in the future. Since Morvelving isn’t a human character, I wanted to give more information about the Mulranei (mull-raa-nay – learning phonetics is on my list!) in hopes of sparking your interest and imagination. 

I place my writing in the genre of High Fantasy due to the non-human races I’ve created for the stories. Examples on the top of my head that are High Fantasy and do the same thing are – Brandon Sanderson’s Stormlight Archive and Riftwar trilogies by Raymond E. Feist & Janny Wurts. These books fit in with other categories of fantasy as well – I digress. 

Mulranei are wolf-humanoids, fitting the role of Tolkien-style-elves in my stories. They are fair, noble, wise, and immortal. The Mulranei cultures vary between tribes, but I use aspects of Native American nations as a foundation to draw from. They value nature and all the things that live. They worship the goddess of the moon, Telunian, who created the moon, and the Mulranei. Mulranei are one of the several ‘elder’ races created in the beginning. They assisted the gods in guiding and nurturing the younger races, which led many races (especially humans) to revere them. 

Capable of utilizing magic to great effect, Mulranei rarely use it – to them it isn’t worth the risks. They rely on their power (magic and power are separate – magic is a learnable skill; power is an innate gift). Mulranei have the power of healing and song. Physically they are stronger and faster than humans and are tall – six to seven feet. Their hearing is exceptional, and they can smell emotions, which is as helpful as it is misleading. 

Instead of describing how they look, I wanted to share the picture that inspired me to create Mulranei in the first place. I’ve always been fascinated by people’s art. My imagination has allowed me to envision fantastical scenes, but I’ve never been able to draw them (I’m great at drawing stick figures!). So, I searched the internet for art that has elements of what I’ve imagined. When I saw this piece back in high school, I knew I had to create stories about it.         

 {by Christy Grandjean}

I’m planning to share more about Morvelving in the future. Once the third draft is finished, I’ll have more time to post more details and updates about the story. 

It’s fun to talk about what I’m working on, and I hope it sparks your interest. If it does, please let me know by giving this a like, following my blog, or finding and following me on Instagram (for other media platforms check out my Social Media page for links).