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Oohhh! We call that Nationals. I’m not sure about other districts,(Alaska Yukon sent only one team this last year.) but Texas sent 4 Senior Experienced teams to the 2021 Nationals. (I don’t remember the number of teams for the other divisions.)
First Grand Historian of Arreth and the Lesser Realms (aka Kitty)
Oh cool!
Привет! I am commenting on here as it wouldn’t let me reply to you on the activity-feed-thing.
My brother’s writing is amazing (Don’t Tell him I said that)!
Thank you! I love my wolves and themes too. (Otherwise why would I like talking about them so much?)
My favorite theme to write? Ooo, I suppose that ‘ it doesn’t matter what you’ve done, where you’ve been, or who you are, you’re precious, savable, and loved.’
*Gasp* Another Russian enthusiast! Do speak/learning to speak Russian? YES, those names are Russian/Slavic, and YES my tagline is Russian. In ancient Russ? What is it about? What time period is it set in (roughly)?
Welcome fully accepted. =)
First Grand Historian of Arreth and the Lesser Realms (aka Kitty)
Yeah, sometimes that activity board -honestly I’m not sure what its called- doesn’t always work the best with replies and stuff. *Shrugs* Oh well, this works perfectly and I won’t tell him you said that XD 🙂
That’s so cool that you love wolves too! I don’t know a lot of people who are huge fans, so its always great to meet a fellow fan. Have you read any wolf biographies before? Also I just love the sound of you’re wolf characters, their names are just amazing, (I also get super excited when I see Russian names). Which is your favorite wolf characters you’ve ever written?
Oh! I. Adore. That. Theme. That is just so beautiful and it’s such a powerful one too, isn’t it? Especially since everybody who has become saved, has faced this theme at one point or another.
YESYESYES!!!!! 100% Russian enthusiast!!!!! I love the names, I love the histories, I love the style, I love the language, I love the traditions, I love the architecture, I love wildlife, I love the climate, I love flora, I love the fauna, I love the natural wonders (I mean, Baikal lake, it is the most amazing thing ever!) I just love it all. Oh yes, and the birch trees, I’m totally with Russia on how magnificent birch trees are, they have just about a million uses! And the snow- I could just go on and on about it all!!! 😀
I don’t speak much Russian yet sadly, but I’m taking it as my language this year, (and probably the next and the next until I speak it as well as I can). From what I’ve read, Russian senate editors structure is easier than most languages, which will be interesting to dig deeper into the grammar of it:)
Yep, it’s set in Russia roughly in the ninth century, (however I have advanced some of the innovations to around 13th-15th century technology with an ever so slight Viking take on house interiors). I may eventually move the time period up a little, but for now I’ll leave it where it is.
As for the story, it is entitled “The Snow Warrior” and stars a young (teen really) woman warrior left with the delegation of an entire birch forest, and her misfit band. Her and each of the three boys and one girl of the band all come from wildly different backgrounds and carry separate stories of defeat inside of them. Their comradeship is an unlikely occurrence. Their opponents are often who they believed were friends. The five of them will eventually come to question everything they swore they would never stop believing in, to learn the reasons behind their world’s dwindling Warriors, and to find the meaning and dangerous truth about life itself.Okay, so that sounded dramatic and the plot has been getting yanked this way and that recently. But the five main characters always remain the same and they all, in fact, go through some pretty tough journeys….. I’m not the nicest to my characters all the time. But at the same time, I’m trying to keep the story fun and assessable, so it’s more of an ‘all reader’ book.
So anyway, that’s kind of the idea of my novel (I’m awful at summaries).
What about you? Would you care to share more about your novel? If not, that’s totally alright!:) It’s just that your books sounded so interesting, I love the concept of your animal characters and the POW camp you mentioned sounded intriguing. And did I say how much I love the name Zlatan?Sorry, that post turned out way longer than I thought it would be.
Um, I’m not sure what you mean by biographies, but I don’t think so. Most of what I know has come from old textbooks, pictures, and conversations. Most of the fictional books I’ve read that include some type of wolf usually equate them with something bad. Or maybe I just haven’t read many books with wolf characters.
Thank you! I try to find fitting names. I can easily get sucked into research and forget about writing. =|
My favorite character to write would either be Zlatan or Instruktor Krik. Zlatan is just one of my most developed characters, and Krik… he writes himself. His name means scream, something he does quite a lot at his students, his fellow Instruktors, even himself.
Is your book just one or a series? It definitely sounds like something I’d love reading. And characters just beg for hard lives.
My POW camp is based on Siberian Prison camps. I don’t know how it’ll turn out, but I like what I’ve figured out so far.
I can post the first draft Prologue and Epologue for Heart of Gold Heart of Stone below, if you would like. (I don’t have much written in between.)
First Grand Historian of Arreth and the Lesser Realms (aka Kitty)
Oh, and I’m thrilled you are using 9th century Russia! Most good Medieval fantasy I’ve read is based in later centuries when there is so much left in earlier times.
First Grand Historian of Arreth and the Lesser Realms (aka Kitty)
Oh, good! I always love explaining this, so a wolf biography is basically just that. A wolf biography is written by people who observe and record a wolf’s life or a part of that wolf’s life. Which I think is super cool since like you said, wolves get a bad rep a lot of the time. People always hear about them attacking people when really they don’t on a big a scale as people think and their actually extremely amazing animals; loyal, intelligent, and look they after each other. Biographies such as The Rise Of Wolf 8 show the side of wolves that people don’t really get the chance to see.
But yeah, most fictional stories use them as some form of bad omen, which I get on one account, but I think is sad ‘cause wolves are just so amazing:)AH! That’s so cool!! I love how Krik’s name means scream and that he does it so often, (super intriguing:) My favorite part of writing is the character development, so I love hearing about characters 🙂 And I love how Zlatan is your more developed character while Instruktor is grabbing the wheel, or, uh, pen and writing himself. Love the author/character relationship in that 😀
Currently, TSW is a standalone novel. But honestly, all my characters stories couldn’t possibly fit inside one novel, so who knows? Maybe someday it will expand into a duology or even a trilogy, but that’d be a long shot. And I’m elated that it sounds like a story that you would want to read, that is the best compliment I could receive about my novel, so thank so much!!! 😀 And if you ever wanted to get a little glimpse into what the novel will be like, I have been writing a spinoff of the novel for the past four months to keep me writing and accountable. I post an installment of varying word count on KP at the end of every month and is open to pretty much whoever wants to read it, though if you ever decide to check it out I must warn you that it is not related to the plot and revelations of the actual novel and it is first draft material since the idea of the installments is primarily to keep my words flowing.
Yes, I have noticed a lot of use of the later centuries in those genres, which also makes writing in the ninth century so much fun:)
Oooh! I’m loving this! Basing POW camps off the Siberian camps? Love it. That must be SO interesting to write and totally sounds like something I’d love to read. I mean, literally, everything to do with this book of your’s makes me want to read it. Wolves, Russian origins, themes, POW camps based off- yep. Sounds like something I’d definitely want to read.
ARE YOU KIDDING?!? Would I like? I’d LOVE to read the Prologue and Epilogue!!! That’d be awesome if your willing to share it, it sounds completely amazing:D 😀This is all first draft, so… you know. Feedback more than welcome.
Note: The epilogue takes place in a world war almost a thousand years later.
Prologue
The sun was sinking, weary with winter. Moonlight was already dancing with the falling snow. A lonesome voice joined winds in song, then fell away. The stars hid, buried deep in sky’s gray blankets. As the world stirred in her sleep, a chill swept through the hills. The fading draft of light touched the peak of Mesto Drevnikh and gave up its last breath. Smothered in ice. Frozen. Stiff.
A thousand voices cleared the air, setting the stars a tremble.When strelts will strive with weapons,
When Korols fight with none,
When captor serves his captives,
When earth is made of stone,The solitary voice called back.
Then our world is shaken.
So listen now my son,
For when the peace is broken,
Fetch your blade and run!Their words swelled the air as one.
Fight this battle with valor,
Be fearless now my lads,
Protect our wolfish honor,
And victory shall be had!The words echoed, fading into the night. A sound colder than the wind.
A lone howl arose, answered by the multitude, rising on the wind in a wild, spiraling trail. Carried out, over the pass, into the valley, across the plain. Then it fell away into a dull rhythm of marching feet and the slight rasp of metal on metal.The moon rose clear of her shroud to find her mountain snow furrowed by the tracks of fifty thousand wolves.
Epilogue
The dawn was still hours away, and falling snow buried the world in darkness. The only sound was the tread of a sentry over his well worn path, fighting the cold. Then he stopped, his head cocked, listening in the dark. He swiveled, and aimed his rifle at something in the dark.
“[Halt] or I fire!”
“Kapitan Yarik.” A weary voice called back. “Back from Kholm with my troop.”
“Give the password.”
“Boyevye deti.”
“Come forward and be reconized.” The sentry flashed on a small electric torch.
The Kapitan stepped into the haze of snow filled light. He was young, but his eyes were old, and the paw resting in his gun strap was bandaged. The sentry looked him over.
“Kapitan, welcome back to camp. Report to Polkovnik Lyov directly. You are two days overdue.” The sentry’s brow creased. “We were worried over you.” He switched off the tourch and let the troop pass.
At the outskirts of the camp, someone touched Yarik’s arm. He looked up and smiled as the Kapellan fell into step beside him. After a little way Yarik spoke.
“Four sir. Boris, Milan, Stas, and- and Radmir.”
“How are they?”
“Stas can walk. Boris is conscious. I don’t know about Milan. We- Lev and Aleks have Radmir.” He fell silent for a several paces, then. “Sir, when does the mail leave?”
“Tomorrow night.”
Yarik swallowed, his voice hoarse. “He gave me a- letter for his family. Here.” He handed the Kapellan a small envelope.
“He was brave and true as the Desaniks of old.”First Grand Historian of Arreth and the Lesser Realms (aka Kitty)
Is there any particular wolf biography you would recommend? Wolves are such beautiful creatures, it is sad when they are usually viewed as evil. That was one reason I wanted to write about them. This does help with the theme for this series; it doesn’t matter who you are, what you had done, or where you’ve been, you choose what heart road you will walk. You can come back, turn around, or go down the worst path possible. It’s your choice. Also sins of the heart are more destructive than sinful actions, because all things come from the heart.
First Grand Historian of Arreth and the Lesser Realms (aka Kitty)
Have you ever heard of Simon Khorolskiy? If you like good Russian worship music most of what I’ve heard of his I recommend.
First Grand Historian of Arreth and the Lesser Realms (aka Kitty)
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Hi @koshka! Welcome to Kingdom Pen! I’m a little late XD but I’m glad you could join us here!
@e-p-writes
Thank you! It’s alright, life is hard enough to keep up with. 😉
First Grand Historian of Arreth and the Lesser Realms (aka Kitty)
Okay so first of all, I love this! The prologue was very poetic and although it wasn’t evident that the characters were wolves until the line of wolfish pride was mentioned, I thought it was very good. (Love that line btw).
Alright so here’s a weird thing I love looking at in fiction: the weather. I adored the weather and the aesthetic and mood that both of the scenes set. Very, very good.
And I love this thousand year distance between the prologue and the epilogue that you mentioned; perhaps that made for a large change in weaponry in that land? I noticed the mentioned of rasping metal in the prologue, so I’m guessing that there were axes and swords involved. And then in the epilogue, an electric torch was mentioned. And I’m really liking that, the huge shift in innovations. And I like how it ends in the middle of a war, and emotions are going around, and Yarik wanting to pass on a letter for another soldier.So to sum all that up, I love it and would love to read more of it someday because I am seriously interested in all of it:)
Thank you so much! I don’t have anyone much beyond my family to go over my writing, so although I know it has flaws I have trouble pinpointing them.
Oh my, description (in any form) is one of the things I struggle with the most. I love crafting scenes in my head, but they rarely work out on paper. Thank you, I needed that.
Yes, there is a huge diferance in innovations. The rasping metal = swords, spears, axes, pole weapons, armor, all that. The first two books in the series are set in midievalish time, the last book is WorldWarish,/WarOnTerror. The epilogues of the first books are set in the last one. It’ll be interesting to write. =]
Question, did I make it clear enough that Radmir is dead? And should I use Chaplain instead of Kapellan?
First Grand Historian of Arreth and the Lesser Realms (aka Kitty)
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