I began the Progeny project in February 2009, spending the full
month researching and piecing the story together. The writing of
the story itself began on February 28th 2009, and the first draft
was completed, July 9th 2009.
The fun of revisions and editing never ends. After allowing the
manuscript to sit for a month or two I re-read the entire
manuscript and made the decision to make drastic changes to the
beginning of the story. The opening chapters are faster paced and
introduce conflicts much earlier.
I attended the David Farland Professional Writers Workshop in
Dallas, Texas on July 6th - July 11th 2010. For the workshop I
submitted the first few chapters and a synopsis of the first draft.
I’m currently working hard on revisions and plan on completing them
by the end of September. My hope at that point is to pitch editors
and agents at the World Fantasy Convention being held in Columbus,
Ohio at the end of October.
I loved the back cover of Joe Abercrombie’s The Blade Itself, so I
used that as a model to blurb my story, but even this is a very
rough:
Vedrik Veldkamp: son of an influential man,
friends with lords, servant of a benevolent King, and betrayed by
one he loved during a war he’d like to forget. Now he drinks too
much, and has a score to settle with the Blest Church. To make
matters worse he’s a wary practitioner of what some call ‘The
Gift’, others curse it as ‘The Affliction’, could it be connected
to the Blest Church, the very church that banned its use or a more
ancient, primal magic?
Ruul: loyal friend or angry monk exiled from the
Blest Church? Is he a puppet for the church and powerful families
of the realm or will his own agenda win through?
Patriarch Gregory II: a leader of the Blest
Church, both opportunistic and ambitious, but bitter from the lies
of his childhood. He plots to overhaul the church and rid himself
of those who oppose him by any means possible, but will he see the
error of his ways before its too late?
Matriarch Catherine: a leader of the Blest Church,
born into and married into nobility, now old and impossibly vain,
but still trying to maintain her beauty and power. She too plots to
overhaul the church, but in a much, much different way than anyone
ever imagined.
Nobility: the van Houtens, Forsters and Morozovs
have vied for the throne of the Kingdom for hundreds of years. The
Morozovs have left the Kingdom and established their own, leaving
the van Houtens and Forsters struggling for the throne. Could the
Blest Church or the Morozovs be scheming to take over the
Kingdom?
