Category: Book Extras

Heart of a Chalyn: Chapter 10

The setting for the hidden kazera colony was inspired by Hang Son Doong in Vietnam is the largest known cave in the world. References: CNN Travel: World’s biggest cave is even bigger than we thought Wikipedia: Hang Son Doong National Geographic: Explore the World’s Largest Cave...

Heart of a Chalyn: Chapter 9

When imagining Serena’s drawings, I had M.C. Escher and his Metamorphosis works in mind. Serena’s sketches were far too intricate to be called doodling. Continuous bands of precise width morphed one pattern into another in a blocky spiral from the paper’s edges to the center. A flock of geese...

Heart of a Chalyn: Chapter 8

Let’s talk about how Ashlon came to be the Rhi’Camran. Lothor wanted to go back to sea. When he is first introduced in Legend of the Storm Hawks, he has just returned from serving in the Innish Navy. He left because of the restrictions placed on Rhynns, and he...

Witch of Lurago Chapter 20: Deterrents

So that’s how our cycle ends. Someday soon, your world will end. Ending is not as final as it sounds. Our world has ended before. Nigel Willoughby Nigel warned us the end is coming. Cycles always end. When and how don’t matter much. Because new cycles begin. But we’ve heard...

Witch of Lurago Chapter 16: Peculiar

Have you read Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs? Bethan is peculiar. She and her peculiarity play an increasingly pivotal role in the story. Emotionally damaged by a mindgifted sensitivity to her narcissistic addict mother’s thoughts, Bethan is not handling her peculiarity very well right now....

Witch of Lurago Chapter 11: Grief

Grief is one of the rawest emotions in the spectrum of the human experience. We’re made of substance, and time erodes substance, so loss is inevitable. Everyone who has ever lived has lost someone or something they held dear. We gather mementos, build shrines, and sort our pain into...

Witch of Lurago Chapter 29: Collective Consciousness

Esfir is onto something. Place names and languages of the Rootstock Saga world echo those of past cycles. You’d already noted as much. The maps of Innis and Tallu from the first two books have familiar coastlines. Surnames, given names, and place names aren’t so different from those you’ve...

Witch of Lurago Chapter 97: Goodbyes

The winnowing begins, yet no death is gratuitous. Each departure serves a purpose in the narrative. Raise a toast to the ones we lost in this book. Some we mourn. Some we will miss. Some we are glad to see go. Brynmohr o’Berwyn. King Brynmohr of the Firstborn. Your...

Witch of Lurago Chapter 90: What Goes Around

Reincarnation requires the continuity of a soul. Remove religion from the debate for a moment and just wonder… what do we call the unique sense of self that makes us sentient? Soul, spirit, or essence. It’s the intangible energy sigil that makes you… you. For the sake of objectivity,...

Witch of Lurago Chapter 9: Masaki

Do you remember Masaki? He was first mentioned in Chapter 27 of Path of the Spirit Runner. Dara was sleeping. Dreaming. Before he woke and coaxed Madelyn off the balcony rail… Dara drifted, following his hindsight wherever it led. Most nights, he used it to escape when thoughts of...