…If you thought you heard the sound of splintering balsa wood, shattering sugar-glass, and crashing cheap crockery, you’re likely not wrong.
Been wrestling with Pearl of Fire edits. This round (major edit round 2) been going… slowly. Currently I’ve gone through page 108 of what’s ATM 177 pages and just over 68K words.
(That’d be regular 8.5×11″ pages. I tend to stick to that for most edits, only formatting to book size when I’ve got what I think are all the edits hashed out. Usually another couple do show up then too, so it goes.)
As I dig through and make edits, I uncover many, many other things that need fixing. Some I can fix on the spot. Some, I swear at, then go back and fix a day or so later when me ego’s not quite so tender. Some I just note as needing either a separate edit run or another look a week from now, because gah.
One of the things currently being unearthed is some worldbuilding. I had a very broad impression of what the Calderan faith was, but I hadn’t nailed down some of the specifics. And they needed more nailing – in part because in a world where the five elements are things you can reliably work magic with, religion will reflect that.
So part of my editing time has actually been poking-around-internet research, until I found enough bits and pieces I could hammer together into the basic framework of what Calderans believe, where it came from, and why it ticks off the rest of the world. Because the fact that it does tick off other nations is an integral part of the plot and characters… and how various groups within Caldera itself have in turn reacted to that is a key factor in why one of the main characters, Allen Helleson, is an Inspector instead of a preacher.
(Yes, his family is aghast. No, he hasn’t gotten over that. He just has Reasons why he won’t quit.)
So. Still working on edits. Slowly. And compiling a pile of “this needs fixes” for the next go-through.
But at least now when the characters swear, I know what epithets they’re using!
Crossover Queen's Creative Chaos 
. . . why it ticks off the rest of the world.
Yeah . . . .
There is a lot of religious conflict out there in the world, both now and historically (and probably into the future because people) . . . through while religion differences has been used a stated reason given for a war and/or a justification for certain behaviors towards people who don’t believe what you believe (not a slam on any particular religion – ALL have followers who have done this at some point or another. And probably will again. Because some people are jerks) . . . a lot of time war and conflict is more about RESOURCES than ideas . . .
Ideas can be the spark that sets off the tinder-box but usually that tinder-box has been ready to blow well before it does and the root often has more to do with “They have more food” or “They keep taking my food”,etc.
Through humanity’s sense of tribalism is always a factor . . . believing different things is one way of marking someone as Not-Tribe. And Tribe has always killed or been deeply suspicious of Not-Tribe.
And there is propaganda. I would bet that both the government of the Caldera and the governments outside make use of it for various and sundry reasons . . .
And there is the conflict within the Calderan religion itself . . . because anytime you get a bunch of followers of one particular faith, eventually they start having differences of opinion about how to view THIS particular tenet or piece of text or whatever . . .
Not saying you didn’t think of all that. You very likely did. Just noting that people and anything involving them is often complicated.
This is also what my brain does when it gets going on something . . . pardon my brain-babble . . .
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I thought of at least most of it, but is cool to see the breakdown of categories. 😉 And yes, there’s Orthodox, Reform, and odd Sunrise sects in the mix, and poor cops…. Babble away!
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