Originally posted during Sapphire: Home and Abroad book tour.
So... magick systems. Love them or hate them, they’re unavoidable in fantasy. Consistency is key, especially since eagle-eyed readers will spot discrepancies and call out the author. It’s important to keep it fresh in a series, in the descriptions of the actions and the usage. Don’t want to bore the reader! I have an info page about the rules of magick that I frequent during writing, and I also re-read the previous books to put myself back into that mindset and mood to deliver a quality product. That’s the only time I read my own books, since it’s inevitable I find a mistake or two that managed to hide from me and my editor. Then I just want to smack my head against the desk.
But back to the point at hand—the magick system of The Stones of Power series was influenced by my exercise regime, of all things. I was in between jobs, receiving unemployment, and busting out the first book in the series, “Ruby: Lost and Found.” I joined a gym during that time and decided to lose some of that college weight. That’s why the descriptions of Morgorth’s magick usage is centered around endurance, pulling a “muscle,” and constant practice so the mage doesn’t become “flabby.” Also keeping it fresh so he doesn’t hit a plateau or become bored with spells. It made sense to me to see magick that way, and it was something I could sustain through thirteen books. Since I’m on book eight, with a clear path to book thirteen, I think I made the right decision!
Another consideration to this series was what sort of creatures I was going to populate it with. The first version of “Ruby: Lost and Found” had your standard elves, dwarves, dragons, etc. But my beta at the time pointed out that my descriptions were lackluster, and that I should take ownership and do something different. I took that to heart and ended up scouring my different magical/folklore creatures encyclopedias (yes, I have several), and choosing different names for my beings. So elves became dialen (of which Aishe is one), and dwarves became ludkis, and dragons became payshthas. Then once I had different names for the creatures, I felt free to modify their appearances and personalities as needed. Once that was done, I promptly created a glossary of creatures for myself so that I could remain consistent about those as well!
Considering my deep love of mythologies across the world, especially creation myths, I just had to create my own. So I ended up with the Mother and her companion, the Hunter. And because I never do things by halves, I wrote a song, which describes the Mother’s origins, how she created Karishian (Morgorth’s world), the Hunter, and her children—the inhabitants of Karishian. She’s an important, active player within the series, and has a vested interest in Morgorth’s choices and his destiny... much to his intense displeasure.
And if you’re curious about that song, it’s in the back of book two, Peridot: War and Peace. It is singable, since it was modeled after the tune of an actual song. So, yeah... like I said, I don’t do things by halves.
May dragons guard your dreams,
M.D. Grimm
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