After all the thinking, all the playing with ideas, all the many variations—after all this I am trying to finally put it all together into a completed product. Hopefully I can ultimately get it published, but the first step is simply putting together a real final draft.
One major disclaimer: I hope to eventually work with an artist to add terrific illustrations. This is not only an aesthetic dream, but a practical one: it will cut out the need for annoying and disruptive details in the narrative. I can just write the story and let the illustrations help readers keep in mind the unique characteristics of the world.
But since I don't have illustrations now, here are some basic facts to keep in mind:
- The characters are a race I call the Shanra: they have wings and fly. Instead of hair they have feathers. They don't look like birds, though. Their faces, bodies, etc. resemble humans.
- The Shanra live in a place they call the Great Wood. It is a vast forest bordered by mountains to the north and east.
- The Great Wood is, for the most part, a forest like what we encounter all the time.
- Occasionally giant trees, called lorelais, grow in the forest. They grow in groves of 3-20 and tower over the main forest—which lay far, far below. These lorelais grow thousands of feet in the air, and the Shanra build their cities in their branches.
