Welcome back friends!

I thought that while I build up to actually sharing this story and the world with you, I might give you a short introduction to the world of Valra, where most of my stories take place.

The first inkling I had for this story was during the first NaNoWriMo I had ever reached 50k, all the way back in 2017-18?. The problem was that the words written were not story words. No real narration happened. In fact it was all just a bunch of brainstorm/brain dump and I got so discouraged by the story that I gave up about a week before the month was over.

And then I binge read a series (not the whole thing because it was really terrible and by the fourth book I was rather disgusted by myself). Point being that the story gave me an idea. A specific scene that dramatized ann emotion that I’d been struggling with that I couldn’t quite put to words. And while I appreciated that scene, I still thought, “I could do that so much better.”

Could i? Not really. At least not at that point. Now, probably, but not before.

I switched NaNo gears and finished it rather guiltily, but with a new fire I hadn’t really felt in a while. I had this story idea and I started writing it down. It was awful. Really truly awful. I had no idea how to construct a scene, or plot a story, or build a character.

So I started doing research (thanks Brando Sando for giving me a solid foundation to build on in those early days), and as the research grew more in depth, so did the world. The original story started as a stand alone sleepy romance set in a coastal (if entirely fictional) city in France.

It turned into a four book series in a world I had created entirely from my brain with multiple POV characters from dozens of different cultures. Not only this but it branched into multiple SERIES that I used to stretch my storytelling ability and learn more about the world itself.

In addition, reading story, watching, studying, and writing all of it served as a balm, a a non medical remedy for severe depression.

TL/DR: this world, the writing, the creating, saved my life.

So, here’s a little synopsis for the world itself.

Valra is a planet in “a galaxy far, far away.” Eclipsed from the sun every year by a neighboring planet, the world suffers various natural phenomena that affect life and culture for many areas, including tsunamis, floods, earthquakes, lightning storms and more. Every twenty years or so, the neighboring planet’s moon gets close enough in orbit to be sucked into Valra’s own orbit. There it stays until the next year, where it goes bace to its original orbit.

In order to solidify more about this world, I’ve come up with many, many stores that explore how cities and people deal with it.

I hesitate, because I’m a wishy washy person, but I’d like to share even more of these stories with you. Maybe some day I’ll publish them, but for now I just want to write and share them with you.

Next time, while I finish up the current story, I’ll tell you more about it. But just know that it’s a solo journey through the lightning desert in the wastes of Medea. I hope that was enough to make you intrigued. I know my marketing game is pretty slim right now. I’ll get better eventually, I promise!

Until next time, keep writing forward!