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cockatiel forger wrote: "I just read the blurb of Pridelord and omg?? Getting super hyped!"

Not too much longer! I think most of the ebook stores have preorder pages now. Just waiting on the physical proofs before the paper editions get theirs, too =] And I'm listening to chapter 15 of the audiobook right now to approve each chapter as it gets finalized. Still about sixty chapters left to record, so James is about 1/5th done.

I just read the blurb of Pridelord and omg?? Getting super hyped!

K. wrote: "Working on side projects gets super easy when you have something else to do =] I've never met an author whose house didn't get MUCH cleaner when they had a writing deadline show up.

I was waiting ..."

I can email you my art, most of it got removed when I deleted my account. I did a 'cover' for Ferrick's story recently, and am having fun printing the pages out and pretending it's a real book.

Yes, fanfiction is the best way to make characters survive because you can add your own elements into the story! I will admit I'm slightly proud you're feeling guilty about killing off characters. (the first time you typed Ferrick's name was like a triumph) keep at it though, books are best when they're the author's creation!

Wish you well in the weeks to come! <3

Working on side projects gets super easy when you have something else to do =] I've never met an author whose house didn't get MUCH cleaner when they had a writing deadline show up.

I was waiting for my author website to get moved to a new host before I got the fan art page going, and that's just wrapped up. Is there a good place to find all of your fan art? I have the ones you emailed me, but I don't have the Tumblr ones.

I suspect your Ferrick Lives / Mignet Lives AU ideas are to blame for this, but every time I edit through Pridelord, I start to feel guilty that a certain character dies. I suspect if I had to read through it twenty more times, I'd be unable to resist saving that them. Perhaps they will get to live on through fanfiction.

I really like that Darkfeather University thing you came up with. Maybe I'll write something on it :)

I honestly can't believe how big Ferrick's story has gotten - 9,000 words! I've written seven chapters in the same time it takes me to write 100 words in an essay I really don't feel like doing. (which I'm supposed to be doing right now RIP..)

I have a feeling the Mignet Lives AU (which I'm thinking of doing next) will be of a similar length to Ferrick's. The idea that Sara never rescues her kin from Jonas's clutches is a dark and interesting one. It'll also be an opportunity to expand on Magnet's character outside Blue Eyes.


P.S. ooh, Pink Paw! Had no idea about that. And yeah, the risk of overcrowding names makes sense.

cockatiel forger wrote: "I'm getting close to Ferrick's infection, and I've got a few ideas of how to write from his POV, though I was wondering if you could give some input.

I saw a post of yours from a few days ago abou..."

It can be tough! There's also a range of sentience the same way sapience has a range. Think of writing a beetle versus writing a house cat. They're both sentient, but they're at opposite ends of the spectrum.

Infected take it a step further. Less Raptor Red by Dr. Robert T. Bakker's utahraptor and more like the few scenes from the perspective of the dog from Cujo by Stephen King where it's been bitten by the bat and succumbing to rabies.

For the parasite carried by the little red bugs in GryphIns, the victims start out as sapient, but their eyes keep leaking goo, they start avoiding water (stormtails take longer to become hydrophobic), and they start having irrational anger moments that become rage. And a desire to fight, scratch, or bite - to spread the parasite. But they still have their awareness here, it's just that things feel wrong, like from a head injury or a bad medication side effect or stroke.

As sapience dims, the infected fall back on a mix of natural instincts and the parasite messing with their brain. They constantly feel like they're starving, which makes them attack anything made of meat. For them, it's a drive like a starving animal. When food runs out, they look for a cool place to hide, away from the light, as their brains feel like they're overheating.

For some wild birds, there's an instinct to eat pumpkins if their body feels sick with a parasite. (Pumpkin goo/seeds inhibit a lot of parasites animals deal with in North America.) We saw that with the goliath bird and their instincts. It helps keep the bog animals from becoming overwhelmed. Some non-gryphon animals like certain sailfins (red-spine) inhibit the parasite enough that it goes dormant, but they can still spread it.

For starlings, it's the green wing altruism (a play on our world's green beard altruism in fire ants, where black fire ants won't fight with other black fire ant colonies but will fight against red fire ant colonies). It's strong enough that it stops infected starlings from tearing each other apart. Over time, the parasite would erode all mental capacity, but infected starlings usually starve before they lose the altruism.

From the cured we saw at the start of Ashen Weald, some have lost their identity. They might have fragments of memories. (We'll explore this a lot more with Whisper's chapters about the Newmoon Pride and susurration, trying to restore infected starlings to some sort of quality of life and awareness.)

Bog, kjarr, and newmoon gryphons are immune. (Usually Maine raccoon cat or caracal back halves, for newmoons, it's only the spotless starling ones that're immune.) Their offspring with other prides are immune small parasite infections, but they're not immune to the resilient strain though it takes longer to take effect. (Quess getting infected eventually.) Mostly, the endemic parasite is the normal weak strain, and the parasite from the mummified opinithings is more resilient.

In terms of writing, imagine an animal whose only instinct is to try to feed and is terrified of water and wants to get out of the heat. Then imagine their personality, logic, and empathy are becoming quieter and quieter as time passes.

The wyrms and dragons from Jess's books are probably a good example of a divide where wyrms have moved down into sentience-only, without trying to spoil anything =]

For getting Ferrick south, if it were me writing it, I'd look back at the swamp grouse. We saw that when they spook and run, it'll trigger attacks from infected starlings. While infected starlings would attack Ferrick (no altruism... unless he was part starling? It's late here, and I don't have my spreadsheet in front of me of cat/bird halves), you could play on his occasional clumsiness to have him trying to chase down a particularly wily swamp grouse that takes him on a very long chase south. Or if he was knocked in the water, he'd panic, but the current might take him far south before he got out.

Good luck =]

PS - Oh! I don't see it here, but I got a notification about a message about Blinky and Black Mask's monikers =] In a series with so many names, I do tend to avoid trying to overload everyone when the nickname is already out there. I considered giving Pink Paw's real name in Ashen Weald, then just kept using Pink Paw.

I broke that rule for the violet bog witches, though I don't think I put their real names in my spreadsheet since it didn't come up later.

I'm getting close to Ferrick's infection, and I've got a few ideas of how to write from his POV, though I was wondering if you could give some input.

I saw a post of yours from a few days ago about infected beings seeming to become "sentient" in the height of their... dehumanisation? I've never written anything from a sentient POV before, as I've mostly dealt with either humanoid or sapient creatures.

Jess E Owen's "nameless" is a good theory to what sentient beings feel like - devoid of anything but the instinctual need of survival. Sverin regaining his intelligence and sense of self when he's about to kill Caj is a good example of this. You could say Sverin, in the height of his madness, was no more than a sentient being.

Ferrick needs to reach the outpost Tresh found him at for the story to work, and I can't just place huge gaps in the story where I'm not sure how to write his POV. I'm thinking of doing a "nameless" approach (referring to Ferrick only as "he", etc) and am wondering if you think this is a good idea.

cockatiel forger wrote: "The beginnings of Ferrick's story is up on ao3!

I'd like to see what you think so far... :)"

I read the first two chapters =] Can't wait to see where it goes next!

I'm number 66,000 or something on the waiting list for a new AO3 account, so expect a comment in early May =]

The beginnings of Ferrick's story is up on ao3!

I'd like to see what you think so far... :)

K. wrote: "That said, one of your favourite minor characters shows up in Saberbeak. Maybe two, if the scene I'm currently working on doesn't get cut."

GASP

cockatiel forger wrote: "hi vale :3

going to get an account on archive of our own soon, I've got lots of ideas for different fics relating to gryphins, gryphgen, sotsk, and dire!

most are ships but there are a few aus in..."

When GoodReads sends you an email that someone left a comment, it doesn't put the line breaks in, so that read as one very long single fanfic before I came here to reply!

Let me know if AO3 ever hits 10 GryphIns fanfics, and I'll sign up and add one of my own =] I made that promise awhile back when I was getting a lot of fanfic sent to me but not posted anywhere for other people to read.

Oooh, Mignet surviving instead of Satra would lead to some interesting ripples in the plot. I can't wait to see where you go with that. There's a lot that happens after Mignet's death and before Eyrie begins. I think it'd make for a depressing prequel novel, considering how things go for the kjarr and bog prides, but with Mignet alive, there's potential there for things to go very differently.

My copy editor sent me the first half of Pridelord's copy edits, so I'm going through them now. (Just stopped to make tea.) I had about 750 things to fix, got it down to 688 as of this morning. I'm hoping I'll get down to 600 before today's done, but we'll see. Hopefully, he can work in finishing the second half soon. If not, I can get the first half done and to the audiobook narrator to start recording.

I'll let you know on Nighthaunt. I'm only a third of the way through Saberbeak, so I've hesitated on giving the go ahead for Nighthaunt, just because I want to be sure we don't have another case where I need another book. I'm notoriously bad at those estimates.

That said, one of your favorite minor characters shows up in Saberbeak. Maybe two, if the scene I'm currently working on doesn't get cut.

And... back to the edits. Happy fanfic writing!

hi vale :3

going to get an account on archive of our own soon, I've got lots of ideas for different fics relating to gryphins, gryphgen, sotsk, and dire!

most are ships but there are a few aus in there as well.

a snippet:
ferrick lives au
satra dies instead of mignet au
neider lives au
satra kills jonas au
cockatiel x cherine
silver x foultner
ferrick x bruen
tresh x urious
rorin x jonas (crackship but i want to expand on it as a joke)

that's just for gryphins


i hope your editor feels better soon, a few of us may be grumpy about pridelord but honestly take all the time it needs. i mean it took kazu kibuishi 6 years to make the finale of amulet (and i waited for that too lol)

oh and if you get the cover art of nighthaunt soon SHOW ME. i need mally content (and his chibi was so precious)

CockatielForger wrote: "Going to read Alesa Corrin's books soon! I hope editing Pridelord is going well ^-^"

Let me know what you think!

My copy editor is still handling some big medical things, so I'm on Saberbeak for now =] Hopefully, that means by the time he's able to finish Pridelord, I can hand him Saberbeak. But for the moment, I'm just letting him have the time he needs. He's a great editor, and while I do have two emergency editors I can use, I'll let that be his call.

That reminds me, though, I think I have a meeting with the cover artist for book ten later this month...

Going to read Alesa Corrin's books soon! I hope editing Pridelord is going well ^-^