A Gift For You…

Happy Holidays, Champions!

Every December I like to write and share a new short story as a small way for me to say “thank you”. And this year year is no exception! I wrote this story as a thank you to to each and every Champion who has been such a support to me over my writing journey, especially during this year of health issues. I couldn’t have made it without your encouragement!

This year’s Christmas Gift/Short Story is from the Elves of Lessa world. It’s been a while since we’ve visited Myth, Tari, and Fyn, so I hope this story makes you laugh. Here it is: Notes on Elves!

This is the first time I’ve written a letters style short story for the Elves of Lessa series, but I’ve already done two of them for The Timeless Fairy Tales series:

1. Between a Queen and Her Colonel: PDF file

2. Between a Prince and His Lady: PDF file
   

I’m curious to hear what you think about this style of short story? (Post in the comments below!) Personally I like them since I get to really let the character’s personalities shine which means I can also bring in the humor in full force, without having to worry about adding to the cannon of the story. (Even with my grids and outlines, I can keep only so much straight!)

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, Champions.

Elves of Lessa: Time Flies

I’m so thankful for all the love The Prince’s Bargain has received from you Champions, and I’m honored Myth and Arvel were able to make you laugh! Thank you so much! In honor of that, today I thought I would tie up the book celebration by discussing characters from previous books!

When The Prince’s Bargain picks up, it’s been roughly eight years since Tari and Arion were first bonded, and about five years since Benjimir and Gwendafyn married. (My math is iffy on that so don’t take it as 100% for certain. The point is, it’s been almost a decade.)

Benjimir is now the Commanding General of the Calnor Army, while Arion was promoted to Guard Commander and runs the Honor Guard. (The previous Guard Commander followed Benjimir to the army.) Similarly, Thad, Grygg, and Wilford were all promoted to  the position of captain, and they now have several squads under their command, although they are still up to their old shenanigans.

Thad married his elven sweetheart, Evlawyn, and he continues to be the one that accompanies royals around–something I did on purpose. 😉 😉 😉 And Grygg is still forever alone! As for Wilford…go read The new short story!

Tari and Arion now have three children: Braydynn, a little boy who is approximately four; Rinthalita who is nearly three; and Orian, a newborn baby boy. And (spoiler) by the end of The Prince’s Bargain, Fyn and Ben have a set of newborn fraternal twins: Cyderren, a baby girl; and Pendell, a baby boy. I did hide a tiny bit of a fun Easter egg in the twins’ names, and in the names of Tari’s and Arion’s two youngest. Good luck seeing if you can figure them out!

Arvel was (obviously) named the Crown Prince several years prior to the events of The Prince’s Bargain. His trajectory is pretty straight-shot.

Myth–and Blaise–however, have an intertwined history with the events of the previous books. Both Blaise and Myth were mere students when Arion and Tari were bonded–a momentous occasion for both translators and Calnorian wizards/elven enchanters. (Fun Easter Egg: Myth’s father is the stone-faced wizard who performed elven magic on Tari during her Nodusigm ceremony. Blaise’s master, Wizard Edvin, is a personal friend of Arion’s and also took part in Tari/Arion’s bonding ceremony.)

Myth was made Apprentice at the tail of end of the events of Royal Magic (Translators serve as apprentices for several years where they learn more about their chosen translator path before they are officially apprenticed to another Translator.) and Blaise graduated from student to apprentice about a year later.

And that brings us up to speed with the events of The Prince’s Bargain!

There will be one final book in this arc for the elves of Lessa, and that will be Blaise’s story. Blaise’s book will tie up a few loose questions–specifically about magic. (She is a wizard, after all!)

That’s all for today! Thanks for reading, and for supporting the Elves of Lessa series!

What’s in Store for Calnor and Lessa

Although I won’t be writing book 4 of the Elves of Lessa Series until next year, I thought I’d talk about where the series is going so I can clear up some expectations.

Book 4 is titled Accidental Enchantment, and it will finish off this current timeline/arc as it follows the adventures of Blaise and Seer Ringali’s currently-unnamed son. (Yay! You’re finally getting a human heroine and elf hero couple!)

I’ll be blunt, the High Elves do not come back in Blaise’s book.

I’m aware a bunch of you Champions were hoping that they’d come back. You might even think it makes more sense. But as the author of the story, there’s some things about the High Elves return–and what they bring back with them–that I know, which made me decide from the moment I started writing Tari’s book that if I kept writing in this world, the High Elves would have to return a long time after the age of Tari, Arion, Fyn, Ben, Myth, and Arvel.

Why? Because if the High Elves came back now…Lessa and Calnor would fall.

The Elves of Lessa series (By which I mean this current arc.) is all about Calnor and Lessa coming together. It’s about the relationship between the two countries, and essentially follows how they moved from two very separate, isolated countries, to such close allies that their people intermingle. And because the countries are only just now–with this generation–really coming together, that’s why it would be a disaster if the High Elves returned.

I’m big on trying to include realism in my fantasy books–it’s why I make such a big deal out of budgets, include a variety of governmental departments, and even why I was excessively careful with the language barrier between Lessa and Calnor. As it stands, less than 1% of the population of both countries can speak both Calnoric and Elvish. There is only one elf capable of using High Elf magic, and the Evening Stars are very limited in number. Calnor just started accepting female guards in the past few years, and Lessa has barely begun to take strides to move its government to Haven.

Only the royal families are truly capable of interacting and speaking together, and the Translator’s Guild is already stretched past its limits. Heck–the human wizards and the elf enchanters can’t even communicate!

If the High Elves came back now, they’d slaughter them. Lack of communication is a huge deal–or the governments won’t be able to work together, much less the general populace.

So what— you may be thinking Then have everyone learn the language–it’s fixed! But my love of realism means it can’t work that way. The best way I can describe it is to say it’s like cars.

These new, open lines of communication, Fyn discovering she can use High Elf magic, Myth opening up new lines of trade, all of that is like the original Ford Model T car produced in the early 1900s. The model T was a huge leap forward for humanity as it was the first car built with the intention of being more widely available, but it had immense limitations and is excessively rudimentary if you compare it to something like one of the newest Tesla models from today.

Just like it took over a century of innovations to get from the Model T to the newest Tesla model, it’s going to take Lessa and Calnor a lot of time to be at a point where they can face the High Elves, and the trouble they bring with them. To begin with, Lessa and Calnor both need to be better versed with magic, with fighting together, and most importantly, they need the average citizens to be able to talk to each other. And none of that can change in a mere decade. As it is with my car example, it’s the kind of thing that takes generations to fix.

Looping this back to book 4, Accidental Enchantment will be the final nail in bringing humans and elves together, and it will loop back to the events of the first book as Blaise struggles to uncover the secrets of Nodusigm. It’s the culmination of bringing Lessa and Calnor together, and the hero and the heroine’s actions will have a lasting impact on both countries, and change the course of their future.

Whew! I hit you with some pretty heavy discussion topics there, Champion. Thanks for hanging in there with me! 😀 I still have one more Elves of Lessa themed post you can expect to see next week! Until then, thanks for reading!