News about Mennistriam
13-8-2022 17:08
It’s been a long time since I’ve properly updated this website, and of course a lot has happened in the meantime—not least the start of Fictera. I’ve updated the page about me with a new photo and revised text to reflect who I am and what I do at this moment. I suppose it won’t be the last time!
There are also plenty of developments in my writing projects. What was first going to be ‘probably a short story’ about a ‘scalekin’ in the cold is now an almost completed novella nearing publication in a fantastic story collection titled Werelden ontwaken (‘Worlds Awaken’). More on that later! The novella, Winterwaker (‘Winter Watcher’), is set in the same world as my planned fantasy series, and that world continues to evolve. That means the page Stories from Mennistriam was also in need of an update. You can now read a new, hopefully even more intriguing description of the setting and some previews of new stories that are waiting until I have time for them…
I hesitated whether I wanted to keep the page about Thaoryn, the working title and name of the main character of my fantasy series. But that too was hopelessly outdated, both the description and the story excerpt that I now know will not appear in the new version in that form. So I removed the page (actually made it invisible, because as the oldest page in the database, removing it felt too final) and redirected links to the Mennistriam page. That way I only have to keep one page about this continuously evolving project updated.
So: less information about Thaoryn, but still something new. In the old version there was a certain plot twist at the end of chapter two that I didn’t want to spoil. However, that thing the main character can do is such an integral part of the entire series, maybe even more so in the new version than in the old one, that it simply has to be on the cover. Anyone who knows anything about the story will understand what I’m talking about by now, but in case anyone else is reading this, I hereby present a new mini-pitch for the first book in the series:
A swordswoman who can turn into a dragon fears losing herself to that dark side, especially after a wizard forcibly recruits her to his own ends.
With Winterwaker practically finished, Thaoryn is finally coming to the forefront again. After a lot of worldbuilding and puzzling over larger storylines, I am now working on a concrete outline for the first chapters, which I hope to start writing soon! News about all these stories will of course (eventually) appear on the website, but if you want to stay informed, better keep an eye on my Facebook page. This was the page for ‘stories from Mennistriam’, but has now become my general author page under a new name: ‘Anna Mattaar schrijft’.
That’s it for now! I still have a huge laundry list of much needed additions and adjustments to the website, so hopefully I can present another update soon.