Category: Blog

Second Book?!

Second Book?!

Hello my wonderful readers! This won’t be a long blog post today but rather a little update about future works and blogs.

Blogs I still plan to write once a month, though April and May will likely be mid month posts as I will be away around the end of April, traveling and gaining more inspiration for my settings and characters. Previous travels have inspired city layouts, visions of the land or buildings whether small elements or large. Sometimes characters may be inspired by someone I have come across in my travels or it could be someone close to me. Not usually the full person is used as inspiration but maybe their hair color or one particular mannerism is incorporated into a new character.

For more exciting news, my second work has been completed! I still want to run it through some editing before I start the publishing process but I am hoping mid May I will be able to get that started and therefore hopefully have the book published on a similar timeline to the last one. This new story takes place a few years after the events of The Cardinal War but takes place in the newer city of Strongwater on the Eastern edge of the Frythiel Empire. The story, entitled Danger In Strongwater, will follow primarily the character of Reilynn along with her brother Artair and her best friend Mariel. Here is a little description to get you excited!

 

Far across the Frythiel Empire, lies the city of Strongwater, a simple fishing city resting on the shores of Ashside Lake with two Manors looming over its crystal blue waters; Lakeside Manor and Cliffside Manor. Due to its location, Cliffside Manor has less access to the plentiful lake and it falls on one particular family to assist in providing their daily fish. In addition to this chosen household, the city is filled with fishermen, market sellers and of course the nobles of the Manors.

Reilynn and her brother Artair were born into the chosen family that assists Cliffside Manor and the pair work hard to uphold this duty. While Reilynn’s best friend Mariel avoids this type of work, she excels in selling various wares at the market to earn some extra money. The two friends spend as much time together as possible and other than some bumps and bruises from exploring the Cliffside, life seems to be going well for them and the rest of Strongwater.

One day, what was once picturesque and simple living for Reilynn, Mariel and Artair soon becomes anything but. With an increase in fish demand but a decrease in supply, something does not add up to young Reilynn. Keyed into her intuition, Reilynn dives into the mysterious plot but soon realizes she is way over her head when her friend is in danger and mysterious men start appearing at every turn. Determination and a desperate message are all that she can rely on now to not only save her friend but also protect the balance of the city.

 

I hope you all keep your eyes peeled for this new and exciting story in Frythiel and if you haven’t read The Cardinal War, please have a read 😊

Keep reading and I will write again soon!

#lovethejourney

#lovethejourney

Hello everyone! January ended up being a crazy month, so I am starting this year off with a blog post that is less about The Cardinal War and more about life.

The inspiration for this blog came from a pre interview task I had for The Cardinal War with Tuning IN (with Jeff). Keep an eye out for that interview, but I was asked to come up with an Action Step for the listeners. After thinking about my past few months and even last year, I came up with #lovethejourney. I realized how important not focusing on the destination/goal/dream can be. By this I don’t mean forget about it but rather don’t forget to enjoy the steps you are taking to reach the destination. Following a dream or reaching to a goal can sometimes seem daunting, as publishing The Cardinal War was for me at the beginning. But if you focus on one step at a time and remember to fully embrace each step you may realize you have made more progress than you realized. My original goal was to publish a book, that was it. But now I realize it’s so much more as I have learned about my writing style, what I want in a cover and on top of that I have met some amazing people and had some wonderful opportunities.

Pulling away from my publishing goal, I wanted to share with you readers another example of #lovingthejourney. For the longest time, I have suffered from depression and anxiety and recently I discovered a big part of it was because of the view I had of my body. I have tried many things to lose weight/tone up, but nothing was sticking because I was not enjoying what I was doing. And you may be thinking that its exercise and eating right, how can that be enjoyable? But what I learnt is to chose small ways to make it enjoyable. For example, I was not enjoying the workouts I was doing, so first step was realizing I couldn’t do it alone, I needed a community to help lift me up. I found a small gym for this with the challenges I needed and the motivating staff to help me commit. I also wanted to try something new and unique, so I took to google and found circus classes, specifically aerial hoops and trapeze. Yes, at first, I was not as strong as some of the others and it seemed it wasn’t going to help me reach my fitness goal. But slowly I did get stronger, and it motivated me to do extra workouts at home to get even better. Because I was LOVING the class. I was loving the challenge and I was loving the people. Suddenly it didn’t matter as much what I weighed, and I stopped weighing so much, because I KNEW I was getting stronger. I could see it and I could feel it in each new move I tried. I have not forgotten my goal, but I have found new, more enjoyable ways to get there which has lead to a stronger commitment to my goal.

You may be reading this far and still wonder why I’m writing a blog post about this. Really, I want to encourage you all to keep following those dreams, but don’t let them become overwhelming. Break things down into steps that are manageable and full embrace each of these steps. Meet new people, reconnect with old friends and try new things to get where you need to go.

Keep reading, keep dreaming, and remember to #lovethejourney

Coronation and Flight

Coronation and Flight

Wow, the end of 2021 already is upon us, and boy is the weather cold here in Alberta, Canada. Despite the cold however, the snow makes the trees look beautiful and winter can certainly be magical if you let it. If you read my previous blog post you will know that the Empire of Frythiel does not suffer the same cold and snowy weather as we do here in Canada, but that doesn’t stop the magic. So, today I want to talk about the two main ceremonies that occur in The Cardinal War: the gift of flight ceremony as well as the coronation ceremony. There will be SPOILERS in this blog so please finish the book before continuing on if you do not want to know more.

The first ceremony that is touched on in The Cardinal War is the ritual that occurs to allow an individual flight. In the briefest description, the ceremony is given to those of nobility who reach the appropriate age. We know as well that the messengers of Mordale, as well as other cities throughout Frythiel, have the gift of flight in order to rely messages and advanced warning of trouble. While only getting a glimpse of Cinnia having gone through the ceremony and later Eileen, it is a small event that generally only involves the one gaining the flight ability as well as those with the ability to grant the ability. It is such a closely kept secret that there is never even a witness as a part of the ceremony. What is known is that the power can be granted and taken away and in future books you will learn more about the specific group that is in charge of this ceremony (don’t want to give to much away too soon 😉)

The second ceremony that occurs in The Cardinal War is the coronation of Eileen near the end of the book. In the best circumstances, it would be a parent or the previous Emperor/Empress that conducts the speeches and crowns the next in line, however as Emperor Ithel had passed some time ago and was ill before his passing there was no opportunity for this to occur. Commander Quilan, as the lead commander for the Emperor’s guards, was the ideal choice to lead the ceremony. In addition to whomever leads the ceremony, the two messengers always flank that induvial during the ceremony both as a guard as well as a symbolic role. Eileen comments on only having a short time to learn what she must say and do in order for her to please the people and become Empress. Normally the heir would have months of study and practice to ensure nothing goes wrong but Frythiel had already been without a ruler for too long at this stage to allow for this preparation. Despite this, Eileen studied hard and performed excellently despite the distractions around her and the people agreed. What topped it off was the imagery of light surrounding and reflecting off of the new Empresses. This would not have mattered to everyone but the more superstitious of souls would have been hard pressed to accept her during another storm. In accordance with law, the two messengers are to be in full support of their Empress and dutifully guide her from the ceremony room. While not explicitly stated in The Cardinal War, Eileen would have gone through the flight ritual as soon as the ritual givers could be summoned.

This post is a bit shorter but I wanted to end it with engaging my readers. If there are any particular topics you would like me to touch on or even anything you would like to know about me or my writing process please comment. Depending what response I get I will do a bonus post in January or include suggested topics in my notes for the future.

Keep reading, Happy New Years and remember to keep doing what you love.

The Rain to the Dryness of Frythiel

The Rain to the Dryness of Frythiel

Hello once again my readers! It is almost the end of the November and wow has 2021 not flown by? Last blog post I spoke about Eileen and some of the details behind her past and who she is. I thought that this time I would broaden again and look at the Empire of Frythiel as a whole. The weather this week in Alberta has shifted from nice fall temperatures to the snowy cold so I decided that for this blog I will write about the weather in the different cities in Frythiel, not just Mordale.

As a general weather over Frythiel, snow is very uncommon in the Empire. While in real life I do not mind the snow and cold, I decided I wanted to focus on more mild temperatures in my stories with rain and storms being the focused precipitation. This also helped with my desire for the characters to have wings and the cold and snow would cause greater difficulties in terms of clothing and flight. Focusing down on Mordale, as it will be the city that is familiar to all of you, despite what you may have read in The Cardinal War, it does not rain ALL the time there, but it does provide good imagery don’t you think! Overall, the temperature is mild in this region of the Empire and temperatures range between say 10 and 20 degrees Celsius (my preferred heat). Not cold enough to get the snowy weather but not hot enough to dry the grass and other plants to much. Another interesting effect that the climate seems to have had on the inhabitants of Mordale, though it is not known why at this time (we will save that for a future book 😉) the wing colors of the people seem to be reflected in the region they are born. This mild climate as seen in Mordale does not hold true as we travel further South to Hiddar and East to Lirlen and we will see the wing colors change as well as we circle around the Empire of Frythiel.

As we move away from the river that runs near Mordale, we get an increase in temperatures, ranging as high 30 to even 40 degrees Celsius at times. This hot and dry climate causes less plant life to be available and changes the food source and water availability for the people of both Hiddar and Lirlen. While there is a mountain range dividing the two cities, there is great similarity between the two and much trade happens to support their resources. The closest large body of water to them is all the way in the North of the Empire at Ashside Lake so the two cities focus their energy on finding oasis’s and creating wells to support their needs. When looking at the inhabitants of these two regions, the colors of the wings tend to drift away from the dark colors of Mordale and shift to browns, whites, and bronze colors. These differences make it clear when people travel and trade between the cities, where one was likely to have come from. There of course is always exceptions but in general the people of Hiddar and Lirlen seem to have adapted their wings to the colors of their surroundings.

Next we drift back North of Lirlen to the city of Strongwater located next to Ashside Lake. The climate here is much the same as Mordale but there is an increase in the amount of storms and rain due to the proximity to the lake. Not always doom and gloom, the weather can be relatively mild majority of the time allowing for the outdoor markets and other outdoor activities to occur without issue. Shifting to the wing colors of the inhabitants of Strongwater, we see  more mixed color wings with the core colors being greys and silvers, as well as black and white.

Finally we head back West towards Mordale but hit the mountains along the way and a city called Orvale. Orvale is located in the heart of the Sandline Mountain range and it is much smaller with no current manors within it. I will touch on the history and specifics of Orvale in a future post but for now I will just mention that there is less color variety in the wings, ranging from light to dark browns and the wings are actually a bit smaller due to the limited space in Orvale. More rain falls here than Lirlen or Hiddar but much less then Mordale or Strongwater and the temperature seems to stay steady around 15 to 20 degrees.

Weather does affect more than just wing color, as it would also effect commerce, trade and other activities but those we be developed more in future posts as well as in future stories. As I watch the grey skies and snow covered trees out my window, I feel a longing to be in the warmer climate of Frythiel. Maybe some of you feel the same and will enjoy jumping into my creation to get a sense of the warmer weather.

Enjoy what the weather may bring you and happy reading!

Eileen

Eileen

Welcome! When this blog post is posted, my book will have been out for just over a month! Wow, time flies! I know at least a few of you have started reading The Cardinal War so I wanted to start talking about more specifics of the book rather than just myself, as interesting as reading about me may be ;).

So this month, we will be talking about Eileen [Aye-leen], one of the two main characters of the story as well as the first character that was created for this book. I find when I write, I tend to add elements of myself into the story or in this case opposites of myself, at least in terms of physical appearance. My hair is a very light blonde so I knew in my story I wanted the exact opposite for my main character, also I did think the dark hair color with pale skin would look striking in illuminating lightning since the beginning takes place in a storm. Now there will be no major spoilers in this post as I will mostly talk about her as a character and a bit about her past, we will save her future for a later post. I will be talking about her wings but that is a detail discussed in the first chapter of The Cardinal War, so if you have not read that far, get to reading!

I mentioned in a previous blog post that the wings was something I knew I wanted to be a central feature of the story. To start with, I created the four manors and separated them with their differing wing color focuses. That left the Emperor’s manor to be something striking and different from the others. This is where the contrast comes back in with Eileen, I wanted something to go against her dark hair and what better than pure white wings, well almost pure white. I do not go into too much detail about why she decides to cover her wings, but in an area where most wing colors fall in the brown, grey and black spectrum, even a common street thief would be aware that her wing color was unique. She would not have the knowledge of the Emperors wing color as this was kept fairly secret, especially due to the fact that the Emperor has been sick and out of public eye for some time. Eileen learnt quickly growing up that she was different, so to block the stares and whispers she created a cover, for both her wings and her life.

A simple story, a fire burning down her home, not only explained why she covered her wings but also why she was living on the streets. If anyone bothered to speak to her when she was trying to snatch a meal or some change, she could earn some sympathy as she always said this is how she lost her parents as well. Especially with everyone having something as delicate as feathers on their person, no one questioned why she would not want to show the damage. Eileen created such a form fitting cover that she had never had an issue with her true wing color being revealed, until the rain mixed with being shoved caused the edge to slip. Growing up on the streets, and being very familiar with this particular thug group, she would have quickly realized that being exposed to them would mean being exposed to everyone. You may wonder why she was so worried about the world finding out she had white wings, but remember that for pretty much her whole life, Eileen lived on the streets learning that she had only herself to trust. She had a basic knowledge of reading and writing from whoever raised her, that memory was a bit foggy, but otherwise she learnt what she knew from street sense and observation. Trusting no one, other than the minstrel group she learned to have confidence with, was a way to stay alive and fed.

The minstrel group, while they as a whole will be talked about in a future blog, I will briefly mention how she met them. One cold day where Eileen had had little success in thievery, she stumbled across the group as they were setting up. Seeing that they were distracted with their instruments, Eileen crept close and tried to steal a coin purse. Turns out the one woman, Ceridwen, was well aware she was there and stopped her before she succeeded. For some reason, instead of retreating, Eileen felt a calming presence radiating off her and stood her ground. Before long, the two were talking and Eileen had food in her belly and a few coins in her hands. She also had an open invitation to watch the group preform whenever they were in town and she could learn as well.

As I mentioned earlier in this post, I will talk about the future of Eileen in another post, but I wanted to give some background behind the young thief to go along with the story.

Thank you all for coming on this journey with me and happy reading!

Idea of what Eileen might look like
A little more about me, The Cardinal War, and other works

A little more about me, The Cardinal War, and other works

Finished and Unfinished Stories

 

Hello again everyone!

Well I started to write this blog in the middle of the month when I was not sure when exactly my book was coming out but as of September 24 it is available! But since that is still pretty recent, I did not want to delve into the specific characters or setting just yet in my blog but next month I plan to introduce Eileen in more detail!

For this blog I am going to focus on writing, specifically some of the background behind the Cardinal War and what my writing process is in general. I considered the timing recently, and I believe I actually wrote the bulk of The Cardinal War when I was the same age as Eileen, twenty-two; I am twenty-nine now. At the time of writing, I was studying at Grant MacEwan in the Arts and although I was writing many essays for school, I still found time to write for pleasure as well. I wanted a character that I related with in terms of age and I had recently finished reading a book in which the characters had wings. I immediately knew with The Cardinal War, I wanted my characters to have wings as well. I did not have all the details if they would be able to fly or what color of wings they would have, but I knew that was one feature I wanted to emphasize. Upon finishing the first draft of The Cardinal War, I did not know I would want to publish this book at some point, but I did know as I was writing it, that it was my favorite story I had written to date.

I had only just before that started out in longer stories, previously stories had only been a couple pages, but another story called Elvera, had reached 30 typed pages. Reaching this milestone and having the ability to flush out the plot and characters largely inspired me to write longer stories. The words for The Cardinal War just kept flowing and I wanted to develop some of the relationships and characters in the story. Ironically, at this point I find it difficult to write short stories and I think all my stories going forward will be at least the length Elvera was if not the length of The Cardinal War or even longer!

As much as I say I am going to talk about my current writing process, I do not actually have a strict process that I follow. By that, I mean I do not tend to sit down at a certain time every day and write a set amount of words. I tend to simply write when I feel inspired and keep writing until my inspiration stops for that particular section. When starting a new book, I do begin with creating an outline so I at least know my goals for the story and roughly, what I want chapters to cover. I then tend to write the ending, so no one should ever go through my notes unless you want spoilers. Writing the ending first helps me know what my goals are and how I need to lead the characters and plot throughout the story. At that point, I tend to write a chapter that inspires me. This may be one heavier in action/plot that I am more in the mood to write at the time or it may be a more relaxed conversational chapter. I find if I try to write in a specific order I hit writers block more frequently so to avoid this I write what my feelings connect with. This has also resulted in me having multiple stories being written at the same time but overall I tend to focus on only one or two at a time so I do not confuse any of the details. BONUS Information: I am currently working on a prequel that centers around Daithi and a story with new characters that takes place in Strongwater, another city within the Frythiel Empire.

Going through the editing process of this book was a wonderful and information filled experience. I had reviewed and edited as much as I could but it was far different having another set of experienced eyes looking at it. It was also someone who does not know me so they were able to give honest feedback but also very helpful feedback. I was able to see areas where I could expand my story telling and describing visuals as well as ensuring I vary up my language. I hope that you will find not all my characters smile softly now. The editing process also gave me ideas and ways to expand future stories before I even get to the editing stage. I am hoping future stories will be longer and more detailed which will hopefully add more enjoyment and I will be able to get even more out of the editing process when I go through it again, not just on my own but with the experience set of eyes as well.

That’s all for this blog but stay tuned for next month where we will learn more about Eileen!

Introducing Me and this Blog

Introducing Me and this Blog

Hello everyone and welcome to my first official post of my blog series. These posts will range from information about me and my writing process to more background to the Frythiel Empire where The Cardinal War is set as well as specific characters and items within the story.

To start, my name is Jennifer Tempest, and I was born and raised in Edmonton, Alberta and currently live with my boyfriend Evan and our large cat Jerry. We have only had Jerry since December 2020, but he fits right into our family. I am a big lover of board games (we have over 150 games) and escape rooms (I have completed 70). I also love animals and spending time with my friends and family, and of course I love reading and writing!

My love of stories grew from an early age when I was read to at night by one of my parents. I still remember some of the series ranging from Poppy and Rye to Chronicles of Narnia to Harry Potter. I looked forward to story time and quickly began to read on my own to devour   more reading material. I remember I read so much during the summer that when I tried to submit my reading times to the library summer reading contest, they thought I was cheating with the minutes I was submitting.

The love of writing came a bit later, but my first ‘published’, in the sense each has a cover and are coiled, were a collection of stories written in school at the age of eight. I wrote a story about a magical cat, named Tigger after one of the cats I had growing up, and another story of magical leprechauns following clues. Both themes seem to have stuck with me as I am an avid Fantasy reader and writer as well as I host and now write murder mysteries. I have a full binder where I keep my completed stories as well as ongoing ideas and partial stories. Some are inspired by my friends, and some are inspired by things around me.

Despite loving math and science while growing up, once I hit high school and then while attending Grant MacEwan University, I switched my love to the creative world. I love English and continued to read and write whenever I could and started acting as well. While acting is more of a hobby for me then a career aspiration, I enjoyed every minute of it, and it has helped my ability to public speak immensely.

While I have never had a story published previously, I have had several poems published via contests and the feeling of having those in solid books helped guide me to the journey of my publishing of The Cardinal War. But more on my writing process in a later blog!

I’m sure you are tired about hearing parts of my life story and just want to hear what’s next? Well, my plan is to write a blog for you every month to finish the month off. This month the post will be a bit early since I wanted one ready to go for my new website viewers! But otherwise, you can expect at least one a month with potential bonus blogs if I have anything exciting to share with you guys. The other thing I wanted to address in this blog is I want to encourage engagement with you! If you have any comments, please feel free to post on the blogs, even if you are new and the blog was posted months ago, I will still have a read.

In addition to this, if you have any topics or themes, you would like me to cover, drop it in the comments and I will keep a running list in my notes! You can also drop any questions you have for me, if I see a lot of questions, especially if they are the same question, maybe that will turn into a bonus blog.

I look forward to connecting with all of you and I hope you enjoy these blogs as well as The Cardinal War when it is available for purchase!

THE CARDINAL WAR

THE CARDINAL WAR

With no known heir to the Empire, four conflicting noble families will use whatever means necessary to claim power for themselves, but only one can become the next ruler. While the nobles fight amongst themselves, some people of the Empire struggle to survive.

Growing up on the streets of Mordale, Eileen has never known her family, or much else beyond the best place to steal a meal. This all changes after one stormy night of loss, fear, and escape. Eileen is suddenly plunged into Mordale’s political turmoil, and her fate is intertwined with a warm-hearted but strict-to-his-duty messenger of the Empire, Daithi.

Although raised in the political world, Daithi’s loyalties are challenged as he must decide between his duties as a messenger and a hidden truth that could change the course of not only his life, but that of every citizen in Mordale, as the imminent civil war has taken in more then just the noble families. He must stay unbiased while making decisions best for the Empire while helping those he cares about make the best decisions for themselves.

In the end, Eileen must determine who she is and who she will become as the struggle to rule consumes Mordale, while Daithi must choose between duty and his heart before too much is lost.