Pathways

Project 'Starkindler' went off the beaten path for many different reasons. For one, it was inspired by an object, instead of just an idea of mine. It actually began with a silver-covered pewter ring I found somewhere. It began the idea of the rings wielded by royalty to heal and, when necessary, to use against the forces of darkness. Specifically, it followed the path of one such ring that would propel a girl to the position of High Queen while her country was under the jurisdiction of a completely evil dictator, and her eternal guardian. This girl's name was Penna, and her guardian - a boy cursed 3700 years before the story with eternal life - was named Tansar. It followed their trek through many lands to survive, escape, resist, and evade this evil king - yes, I got the previous stuff from the Green Berets' SERE - and eventually Tansar and the king fight to the death. The outcome of the battle is rather...different...than you might think.

This was interesting because another story, called 'Lands of the Sun' (recognize it?) fit in very neatly 7000 years after the legend of Tansar Deathhand. If you don't recognize it, Lands of the Sun is mentioned elsewhere in my blog as a sort of 'episodic' story, where it never really coagulates into a book. So I decided to combine them (it was a really just a way to make sure I didn't have to create different country and people names for both books. Some people call it lazy; I prefer to think of it as 'let it never be said that I didn't do the LEAST that I could do').