Numero Tres: The Godward Sea

Chapter 1.

Chapter 2.

No visuals except the one this time, sorry! The narration and music of this chapter mean so much more to me; the images only subtract from that importance.

Someone raised the question 'might the emphasis on beauty be a little shallow?'

My answer was: The most important aspect of this book is not the emphasis on beauty, but on faith. Perhaps beauty is all one can see when they have a great deal of faith; this, I'd hoped, accounted for the reverence Astrian paid to the City and its gardens, etc. in Chapter 1. However, if taken at face value, it can appear shallow. I'm not looking to debate opinion or ignore it but to stay true to my intentions, which were good. Interpretations are obviously allowed and encouraged. Beauty is the emphasis of most art, and has been throughout the ages. If it offends here, then know that wasn't my intention. I'm a starving artist. The only pride I have in this book is in my love for its characters. My favorite has yet to make his appearance. He won't come along until somewhere around Chapter 15. I'm not sure if he's a hero or not. He's definitely not a villain.

I love the music here. If anyone notices any compositional differences here versus Chapters 1 and 2, it's because I knew exactly what I needed to support the dialogue. The key is deliberately quiet with the exception of one very lively piano part, which underscores the essence of the chapter. I loved this part so much I wanted it to be way, way longer but it didn't fit, of course. Reading Chapter 3 to the music felt like singing, which is probably accurate.

If it seems I'm lagging on this project, know that I'm not! It takes a lot of preparation and equipment and all sorts of things too boring to explain here. My husband suggested we release live video of the process using podcasts. That too is a project in the making. I hoped for one chapter a month. If that pace slows a little, it's because life is full of too many things I want to do versus things that must be done. I've also returned to Eye of Narkissos, a historical fantasy novel about my emotionally and physically disfigured 15th century goth-boy, the creative muse, the sweet punching bag, Gianni. I love writing about him; he's based on a picture of a boy I saw in nursing school some years ago, who had only one eye. When I first started this book I joined a forum for people with similar disabilities and found them all very kind and informative.

What got me back into this book was finding a book in a thrift store that couldn't have been more helpful with the vaguer aspects of Renaissance life. (It's very cool, filled with correspondence between kings, monks, lords, etc.) Which reminds me to remind anyone who's reading this that thrift stores are awesome places to get books, especially rare ones that are unlikely to be on any store shelf or at Amazon. And so are garage sales, particularly for kids' books as kids and families grow quickly and have to make room for new stuff. That's where we got an entire collection of picture books that our son loves!

Onto Chapter 3: Oriadne --

The Godward Sea Saga, Chapter 3: Oriadne, by TMA from Tanisha Mykia on Vimeo.