A Short History Lesson

Originally, I created this blog to talk about The Great Sea. Hence, the name: The Great Sea. And originally I was doing a lot with Swords of Fire. I had just submitted a failed query to Evil Editor and had learned why the query had failed. I spent a good amount of the next three months reworking my story and ultimately reduced it in size by about thirty percent.

But I got away from Swords of Fire and the blog has morphed into a blog about my writing in general. I will still post things which have nothing to do with my stories, but mostly that is what this blog is about. My stories, poems, plays, and creative ideas.

Well, Swords of Fire: Traitor (the latest title for Book I) has become active again. It is in the hands of a beta reader, and sometime in May my latest query letter should be harpooned on Evil Editor's blog. So I thought I would provide a little background on The Great Sea itself. That, of course, is what SOF-The People was ultimately supposed to be, but that blog has morphed into Tavaar's Background Story.

Below is a map I created in the late 1980s or early 1990s, after Swords of Fire had been around for nearly twenty years. The Great Sea is not just the ocean, although that makes up a significant part of it. The Great Sea is the entire place, including sun and stars and air and what have you.

In the map there is a dark blue ring which runs around the edge of the light blue circle. The light blue is simply to provide contrast to the grey void. The important part is the ring. That is the ocean. It is the route all The Great Sea's worlds travel as they circle the Fire in the middle. Don't worry about trying to read the captions. They're not important.

The worlds float around and along the ring like stripes on an old barber pole, or candy cane. The entire Sea is in a place, and that place is called, Time. You see, I am of the mind that Time is a place. For real. And that if one leaves this place, they leave Time. Perhaps one then is in a different kind of time, but one is no longer bound by the limitations of our time. That's the way it is on The Great Sea. And it is a significant point in the later books, beginning with the third.

Imagine being able to step out of Time. You could look at it like you would look at your house. There might be several doors in which to re-enter at different places. Or windows to crawl through. That is true on The Great Sea. However, not everyone has the power to leave Time. And not everyone is allowed in. The more I think about it the more confusing it gets with all of the possibilities. But the concept is very important to Swords of Fire. It explains some VERY important points which are introduced as early as Book I.

Oh, and the Fire in the midst (yellow circle) is not just fire, like our sun. There is a lot more to it. A LOT more. However, as that is revealed in the Saga's final book, I will say no more about it for now.


Couldn't think of anything to post about today, and yesterday's post was kind of a downer. Sorry about that. I get that way sometimes. (A lot.) But I had a infusion of good spirits from my a good friend and I'm feeling better. Hope you found at least some of this interesting.