I had a surprisingly enjoyable experience today – my first interview with a blogger from Earth. We conducted it via video Skype, our usual method of communicating with people from your world. Phillips had arranged the interview, for the purpose of getting Laeshana’s and my story out to a wider audience than she could on her own.

What I hadn’t counted on was Naruahn being there. I had known that he was visiting the City of Balance today, but I hadn’t remembered that Laeshana was busy all day with Royal Dress-fittings. (She hates them, but it’s something she puts up with to keep a modicum of peace between her and the nobles who think the princess should have a new dress every month or two.)

Naturally, Naruahn wanted to spend the day with me rather than Laeshana, and that meant that he had to come with me to the interview. And once you get Naruahn in a room with someone asking questions…well, let’s just say that it was his interview just as much as mine.

Actually, that might all be for the good. I’m still not naturally predisposed to answering personal questions, an area in which Naruahn excels.

In the end, I think it all went rather well. You can judge for yourself, though – the interview can be found here.

http://brandyjellum.blogspot.com/2013/07/character-interview-with-alaric-naruahn.html

This week, I’m answering an interesting question about Cadaeren that I’ve been asked by several readers. Namely:

What typically happens to a Cadaerian peasant child who’s discovered to be magically aligned (a white-sash)?

Magical alignment typically reveals itself in peasant children between the ages of ten and thirteen. Noble children, who have been raised to know that they will be mages, often begin showing their powers a little earlier. The most common occurrences that identify a child as a mage are:

·         Aesh: flare-ups in hearth fires when the child is upset or excited, or touching fire and not being hurt

·         Aretz: earth-tremors, uncontrolled plant growth (e.g. seeds suddenly sprouting to full plants), wild animals being tame around the child, or innate knowledge about where to find certain types of rocks or plants that the child couldn’t otherwise know

·         Ruahk: gusts of wind around the child on otherwise-still days, control over dust-devils, or the sudden translocation of objects that the child wants (e.g. a bucket of water suddenly disappearing from the well and appearing next to the child when he/she is thirsty)

·         Shamai: waves or waterspouts forming in local water sources when the child is upset or excited, floods, unseasonable rain, or the child staying underwater for unnaturally long periods to no ill effect

When a peasant child is identified as being a mage, it is Cadaerian law that he or she must immediately be brought to the castle of his or her noble lord. The child is then assigned to a medrik, a nobleman or noblewoman of the same alignment who will train the child in the use of his/her powers. While a child is often trained locally, either at the castle of his/her lord or in adjoining lands, it occasionally happens that an aligned peasant child is sent to the City of Balance for advanced training.

A period of apprenticeship follows for the peasant mage, in which he/she grows in the mastery of his/her powers. This includes learning to do more complicated and powerful magic, while not letting the dark side of his/her alignment take control. When the apprentice’s medrik judges that he/she is ready, the mage is proclaimed a white-sash and is allowed to work for others without supervision.

Many white-sashes are placed into the service of a Cadaerian noble, where they use their powers to serve their lord and his lands. Every noble has at least one servant from each side of the balance: an aesh to light fires, repair carriages, keep the castle warm in the winter, and do other odd jobs; an aretz to heal injuries and sickness; a ruahk to carry messages or transport people or objects; and a shamai to keep an eye on everyone else, as a spymaster, a steward, or a historian.

Some white-sashes, however, choose not to take a position in a noble household. Most of these choose instead to return to their home village, where they spend their lives helping their neighbors and are venerated for their gifts. A few (more ruahks, fewer shamais) choose to wander throughout Cadaeren as journeymen, offering their services to the villages through which they travel. A few others end up in the City of Balance, where they join small shops run by other, more established white-sashes. And some choose to leave their homeland behind and start a new life in Tonzimmel, where any white-sash can earn wealth and prestige if they work hard enough.

Of course, that means that they have to live in Tonzimmel, which comes with its own set of challenges.

Do you have a question you’d like to have answered in a Savvy Saturday post? Contact me via facebook at www.facebook.com/author.a.l.phillips, or via Twitter at @phillipsauthor!

The question I get most often from fans is something on the order of, “How did The Quest of the Unaligned come to be?”,  “What was the process for you of getting your book published?”, or “What was your inspiration for this novel?” All are great questions, and I’m more than happy to share the answer with you, as follows.

First of all, ideas for fantasy worlds have a tendency to bounce around in my head at all times, but I tend to not let them take root unless I know I have time to invest in them. My senior year of college was one of those times. Three of my good friends and I all decided to take an independent study in the English Department in which we would each write a novella. I spent a good portion of my Thanksgiving and Christmas breaks coming up with ideas for the plot of The Quest of the Unaligned and outlining the novel, so that I was ready to dive in and start writing in January.

My ideas for the plot (as have most of my plot ideas in the past few years) came primarily from my studies in sociology, which was my major in college. My mind, at the time, was filled with the material from the classical sociological theory class I was taking: Tonnies’ ideas of relationship-oriented communities versus impersonal societies and Simmel’s observations on the nature of life in the metropolis were especially fascinating. What would it look like, I wondered, if a person from a pure society such as Tonnies and Simmel imagined found himself trapped in a pure community? How would he survive? What specific problems would he face? How would he attempt to resolve them?

Of course, these sociological ideas had to actually turn into a plot, the plot had to be outlined, and my outline had to be fleshed out into an actual story. As it was being written, my friends in my independent study and my professor gave invaluable feedback chapter by chapter, resulting in the addition of several key scenes and a lot of reworking of the text.

I finished a short version of The Quest of the Unaligned on the very last day of finals, thus completing my goal of writing the novella in a single college semester. Over the summer, however, I expanded and refined the manuscript until it was no longer a novella, but a novel.

In September of 2011, I discovered that one of my professors had a connection with the president of a small publishing firm: BorderStone Press. I queried this press regarding my novel, and they were willing to review it.

Nine months later, BorderStone Press decided that The Quest of the Unaligned was a match for their vision and a book that they wanted to bring to print. Needless to say, I was ecstatic. After another nine months of edits, asking for endorsements, proofreading, and finding someone to do my cover art (thank you, Galadriel Coffeen!), The Quest of the Unaligned was finally made available for purchase two days before my master’s graduation at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

And that’s that.

Let’s just say right now that there is nothing in the world like holding a book in your hand that you wrote, or reading words on a printed page – published by a real company – and remembering exactly where you were when you first wrote the rough draft of that scene.

I feel so incredibly blessed that The Quest of the Unaligned has made it to this point. As an author, it’s awe-inspiring to think that the words I have written are bringing joy to people, making them think, and perhaps even impacting their lives.

And that brings me to you – my readers. Thanks to all of you who have helped me get to this point, and to all of you who have chosen to read my book, and to interact with me about it. I would still write my stories if no one read them, but you all really make my new life as an author fun. So thank you, and happy reading!