Falling in Place
Significant progress was made today on the outline for the second major religious faction. I’m pleased to report that this faction is staying fairly true to their image. They are devious, unscrupulous, and overall quite malicious in nature. At least they’ve done nothing in the first six chapters to stray from that position. Of course, with six chapters to go, anything is possible. At this point, though, it would take something akin to the conversion of Saul for anyone to actually like this particular faction. I envisioned a religious faction that would be despised by the reader, and I’m happy to say that this faction is going to fit that bill quite nicely.
My final (for now) research books arrived in the mail today. These two books are intended to assist in creating plausible battle scenes and credible battle strategies. Since I don’t profess to be fluent in medieval battle tactics, the research material is an absolute necessity. To that end, the two books that arrived today are both from Osprey Publishing and are entitled “Acre 1291 – Bloody Sunset of the Crusader States” and “Poitiers 1356 – The Capture of a King“.
Don’t read too much into their titles. The purpose of the books is truly to provide details on battle strategy, military life in the Middle Ages, and the composition of troops in that time period. Child of War is not a crusader type novel. The religions depicted in Child of War are not even closely related to Christianity or Islam, nor is the conflict in any way shape or form reminiscent of any of the Crusades. Rather, since the setting I’ve chosen is roughly the late 13th century, the real-life battles from which I can glean tactics and strategies are almost invariably those of the Crusades. That, however, is the extent of the similarities.
Needless to say, I have a ton of research left to complete. Once the outline is completely finished, research will be the focus for at least a couple of weeks. The Osprey Publishing books are rather thin, but they are jam packed with information. It will take some time to glean the information I need from them and to assemble it into the material that will form the basis for life in Westerloch and the details surrounding the battles that will forever reshape that troubled land.
The religious sequence should be complete tomorrow. While I still need to pack for the weekend, I don’t expect that to interfere with the completion of this portion of the outline. Unfortunately, after tomorrow I’ll be out of touch until Monday evening since I don’t expect to have Internet access while I’m in New Hampshire. Upon my return, the focus will be on the second pass through the complete outline. Research will also be underway (since I can at least read while in New Hampshire.) The goal of completing the outline by September 30th is still well in reach, and I’m still optimistic that it will be completed ahead of schedule. I’m anxious to begin writing the novel itself, so motivation to finish early is very high. Stay tuned…
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