Brandyé Dui-Erâth was born under a low red moon to awful circumstances. Mere moments after his birth, the house in which he was born was engulfed in flame and burned to the ground around him. The men and women of the village flocked to the scene and looked on helplessly, knowing with sadness that the family who lived there had perished.
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I’ve been in a productive mood lately. It’s a good thing, really – it keeps me busy, allows me to work through my creativity, and stops me from feeling terribly depressed in these dark, cold winter months.
Over the holidays I really was doing a lot of music work; in particular, I started writing a requiem, which is something I’ve wanted to accomplish for a very long time. (It’s not for anyone in particular – no one has died!) And whilst its been coming along pretty well – four and half movements complete as of right now – it’s nonetheless fairly slow, tedious work as I plug in every single note, one by one, for an entire orchestra.
So I’m taking a break from that just for the moment, and in the past couple of weeks I’ve come back to The Redemption of Erâth. For those of you who don’t know or don’t remember, this blog started out originally, back in 2011, as a way of publishing chapters from my ongoing fantasy series for people to read. It soon expanded from there as I shared any random thoughts that crossed my mind, and then, of course, deteriorated into a once-in-a-blue-moon posting about how I lament not posting more frequently (see last week’s post).
The Redemption of Erâth is the story of a young man who is banished from his home after a terrible tragedy, and spends the rest of his life (so far) wandering the world, trying to save it from impending destruction at the hands of Darkness (yes, with a capital ‘D’). So far I’ve published the first three books in the series, entitled Consolation, Exile, and Ancients & Death (all available on Amazon and Apple Books if you want to support a starving artist!). Each book is really a direct continuation of the last, so do make sure you tackle them in order (very à la Lord of the Rings), and I will say they grow in scope and excitement with each new book.
I’m currently about halfway through the fourth book, which will be called The Fall of Thaeìn. In it, we see our hero struggle deeply with his own inner darkness as he races to warn the great kingdoms of men about the advances of Darkness. We’re up to a chapter now called The Siege Begins, and it promises to house one of the largest battle scenes the series has seen so far (outside of flashbacks). I’m excited!
As I push myself to complete the fourth book over the next few months, I think I’d like to try something I’ve done in the past (without any great success): I will post a chapter from The Redemption of Erâth, starting with the first book, every few days for you all to read for free! After all, my great desire is not to make millions off my writing, but simply to enrich people’s lives with stories of darkness and fantasy that might help them escape into a world they’ve never seen before. If slower-paced, dark fantasy is your thing, then stay tuned – I’m going to start this week!
If you just can’t wait to know what happens next, then you can do one of two things: if you really, really like me you can purchase these books on Amazon (both digital and print) and Apple Books (digital-only), and enjoy your very own copy; or, send me a message or comment below and I’ll happily provide you with digital copies absolutely free for you to enjoy in your own time.
It’s a great feeling to be writing again, and I truly can’t wait for the fourth book to be finished so I can share it with you all!
I did. I really did. It was a creative outlet, it was a chance to connect with people over a medium I felt moderately talented at; it was a way to share my thoughts into the void, and sometimes get a phenomenal response out of it. There was a point where I was posting 3-4 times a week, or more. I was featured on WordPress’ front page – twice!
I don’t really know why I stopped. It wasn’t all of a sudden, either; it kind of just petered out, slowing to a post a week, then a post a month, then maybe two or three in a year. Part of it is my bipolar, I’m sure; when I’m severely depressed, I really just don’t feel like doing anything. But part of it is, I suspect, a severe lack of self-discipline.
You see, it’s not like I don’t create anymore. In the past years I’ve written books, songs, albums … I’m currently working on a classical requiem, for no other reason than I want to. All of this takes energy, effort, and time, but there are also long periods of time where I just don’t do anything. I don’t create. Yesterday, I got home from work at 8 PM, ate dinner by 9 PM … and then just went to bed. No work, no creativity; just sleep.
I do like sleep.
But this lack of discipline, I suspect, is chronic in my life. It takes me forever to achieve anything. In the time I write one book, others write four or five. In the time it takes to get a promotion at work, others are three or four levels ahead of me. I think the biggest issue with my life is that I give in to complacency: an idea that what I have is enough, and that working towards more is not worth the effort.
But I’m also getting older, and I have to recognize that half my life is behind me. There are still things I want to accomplish, and I don’t have forever to do so. I want to finish The Redemption of Erâth. I want to write a symphony. I want to see it performed by a real orchestra. So many things, so little time.
But it wouldn’t be so little time, if I had a little more discipline.
So here’s my attempt. My attempt at discipline. I will try – try, mind you – to write a post once a week at a minimum, for the rest of the year. I will post it on Monday each week, no matter what. No excuses, no delays. Today is number one. It doesn’t matter what the posts are about; I don’t care if they’re deep, profound, or totally banal and boring. And NO repeats – this doesn’t count if I post previously-written material. The goal here is to actually just write.
And who knows? Maybe 2023 will be the year my blog takes off again. I mean, probably not, but you never know.
So here’s to 48 more posts. This is number one.
Satis Writes 