This is the fifteenth installment of West Wind, your daily drop of thoughts, ideas, and info for this Season.
So yesterday I mentioned Counterbalance, which is the next story in the Euphony of Seasons series. This world has been around for a very long time, and it’s only just beginning. I plan to set up a World Anvil codex for it like I have already with Frontier Flora, though it will take a while because of the sheer amount of stuff that I have to post.
EOS has been called rural fantasy, everyday fantasy, and garden fantasy (but not cozy fantasy, for various important reasons). Basically, imagine a world where the force that you would normally call magic allows people to infinitely recycle materials of any kind. This, coupled with a deep respect for the land and agriculture, essentially removes competition for and scarcity of natural resources. This makes people nicer, more well adjusted, and society healthier overall. Sounds like an unrealistically ideal utopia? Of course, there are still malcontents who cause trouble through greed and straight up ill will, but that isn’t the focus of the stories. Wars and betrayals and false gods secretly controlling the world aren’t on the menu here. Instead I aim to show people just living their lives, but in a very different kind of setting.
Paper & Feathers is the first book in the series, and you can read it right now. Those two colorful people above are the main characters, fussy Ahlden on the right and patient Reya on the left. Ahlden ends up finding his purpose in life through some unexpected circumstances, and while Reya plays her part, the focus of the story isn’t really around the two of them, which is refreshing.
There’s no banner yet for Counterbalance, but there will be. While P&F is a romance, CB is definitely a tragedy. The story of a hunted Hunter and her run-in with a runaway, there will be a lot more action, adventure, and drama. The layered city of Als Solare was featured in P&F a bit, and you’ll get to see many more layers in this story, some of them at high speeds!
The final entry in the initial trilogy (using that term in the original sense of three related works rather than sequential, continuous stories) is a comedy, to round out the lineup. The Scarlet Cavaliers is the story of a small troupe of performers, and how mechanical failure makes them take an unscheduled detour, along with a few other unscheduled events as well. This is definitely one of my very favorite stories that I want to tell, and I can’t wait to release it.
But first things. Paper & Feathers is entering audio production soon, after which you’ll be able to hear the story out loud and find out how to pronounce the names of all the kinds of people, and learn just how obnoxious Curator Bosna can be. As always, stay subscribed to read it here first!
Enjoy the weekend, see you again on Monday.