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Bazinthiad, a Quick Tour
Bazinthiad occupies a low peak on the coast of the Bay of Istria. The original settlement hugged the shore of an inland lake, but the building of aqueducts from the Delkan Hills to the northwest...
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Mandine’s Curse
Magic is perilous in the North-lands. Draw too much power through your radices, and you have left the safe byways of energea. You are using incantatio and have embarked on the road to troll-disease....
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The Suppressed Verses
Mandine de la Royaume has pulled off an almost impossible feat: suppressing the utterance of part of a curse. Curses require the channeling of a substantial torrent of power, more than the safe magic...
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Cover Creation: Perilous Chance
Clary is the great grand-daughter of a rofane of Auberon, and her papa is a renowned sculptor. The family could live more ostentatiously than they do, but their values are bohemian rather than those of...
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A Great Birthing
Mere glimpses of the spiritual beliefs held by the peoples of the North-lands appear in Troll-magic. Lorelin attends a dance in the chapel in her village. So we know the Silmarish have chapels. Kellor...
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Character Interview: Lorelin
Across a sennight, Lorelin Ingesdotter welcomed three interviewers to the stucco rowhouse that is her home in the capital city of the Empire of Giralliya. A crier for the Bazinthiad Bulletin – writing...
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North-lands Timeline
So far, all my published stories take place in my North-lands. But some clearly transpire in the earliest history of the world, while others are more “modern.” Several weeks ago, a reader asked me in...
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Origin of Canning – Not What You’d Think!
Calico. Little House on the Prairie. Pioneer women. These were the things that came to mind when I considered the domestic accomplishment of home canning. I couldn’t have been more wrong. (It still...
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Why Did the Three Goats Cross the River?
When I started writing Crossing the Naiad, I knew that Kimmer’s goats weren’t as healthy as they ought to be. The rural people of Silmaren wouldn’t have access to the vitamin and mineral supplements...
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Justice in Auberon
Perilous Chance will soon release in paperback! I’m excited about it and have all-things-perilous-and-chancy on my mind, so I’m going to share a series of blog posts relating to my story. The first is...
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What Does the Tally Master Tally?
The wealth of Belzetarn is measured in its metals. How many ingots of bronze, copper, and tin – tin, so rare – lie in its vaults? How many bronze swords? How many shirts of bronze scale? The...
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The Dark Tower
My inspiration for The Tally Master came as a sort of vision, although “vision” is a misnomer, given that the sense of sight had little to do with it. I felt as though I were Gael as he sat in a small...
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Belzetarn’s Smithies and Cellars
When I made the (vague) plan to share my floor plans for Belzetarn’s tower on my blog, I envisioned a vast spill of drawings showing all of the main levels. But when I opened my computer to write the...
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Belzetarn’s Formidable Entrance Gate
Three significant scenes take place in or adjacent to the melee gallery of the tower (on level three). In the earliest, Gael first sets eyes on the cursed gong that his warlord’s scouts dragged from...
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Belzetarn’s Battlements
In The Tally Master, the elite of the citadel possess quarters in the uppermost levels of the tower. Its warlord, Regenen Carbraes, inhabits chambers with an internal stair connecting several lower...
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Lodestones
So, what is a lodestone? In the real world, it’s a magnet. But in my North-lands, it’s a magical artifact that intensifies the magical powers of a mage. Different cultures in different time periods and...
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From Navarys to Imsterfeldt
When I conceived of this post, I envisioned it as a tour of Imsterfeldt, the great port city where Liliyah and Mago make landfall after their journey by airship across the great ocean. But when I went...
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Wing-clap of the Phoenix
The antiphoners of Pavelle—magic users—give flowery names to their art. Basic techniques taught to beginners include things such as the Zephyr’s Gavotte or the Breath of the Pegasus. Lealle, the...
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