For several months now, you’ve heard me talk about Stonecharmer in some of my Monday progress blogs. I’ve been pretty closed mouth about it other than that because I didn’t want the story to pop and fizzle on me. I also want to make sure that it was not connected to my Sacred Knight/Wells of the Onesong stories before I started saying, “Oh, yes, I’m working on a completely stand alone novel.”

For me, that would be the kiss of death for it being a stand alone! It would then, undoubtedly, be tied to EVERYTHING for ever and ever!

Why am I telling you this now?

I feel as if I’m nearing the end of the story — at least the first book. At the moment, I know there will be at least two. I’m also fairly confident that they are true stand alone novels  except with each other. I was so hoping I’d have just one novel that didn’t connect to anything else. Sigh. Not yet, I guess.  I only know for sure that there is a book two because I have the title for it and I’ve begun to work in the plot elements necessary for that title to arise.

Stonecharmer is set in a Victorian-like period of another world and it really wants to push toward steampunk. I haven’t been developing the setting too far in this first draft since I’ve been waiting to see what all the story would need. But, so far I haven’t had need of a Porsche in the story, only horse drawn carriages, so I might go steampunk. I think that would be pretty cool. We’ll see.

The main character of Stonecharmer is named Saebryne. She’s the younger sister of the magesmith (someone who creates magical items by embedding Thyst into things like rings, pendants, wands, etc.) in the town of Bayllor. Saebryne’s life changes when she starts to hear the Thyst, precious stones mined from the nearby mountain.

Along her adventure, she meets two friends: Goose and Xode. Each of them are trying to overcome their own issues.

I’ve pretty much written this book straight through. It feels almost like one of Loki’s stories in that way, except this one is longer.

Since I’m still writing this, I hesitate to say when I will put it out, even a vague date. There’s part of me that chants that I need to write the second book first; partially to see if there is more, and partially to see if there’s anything else I need to add to this story. In the way that I can “hear” the story process telling me to heed its advice, I can understand how the Thyst whispers in Saebryne’s ear.

I did want to give you a taste though. Start to whet your appetite for more.

The piece above is actually part of the last scene I was writing before I left Salt Lake. And I’ll tell you know, it’s neither Goose nor Xode that is with her in this scene. “Dum, dum, dum!” (suspenseful music)

I’m pretty excited to get back and see what happens, so I’m going to hop on back to the world of Stonecharmer so I can find out what happens to Saebryne.

Catch you later!