An Explanation: my most recent Lunacy

           Aka: my most recent writing project. The Sandy series.

           Those Guidelines I talked about awhile ago? About finishing that fantasy book before my birthday. It's still going. Good, yes. Except these unplanned and yet necessary scenes keep prolonging the process. But you know how characters are. . .

            I realized that nobody really knows about the Sandy series. You hear about Oddball a lot. But I'm not sure I've ever mentioned Sandy before.

           The Sandy series lacks a good title (I sound like a broken record :P) and is a fantasy. Sandy is a Sierran slave in Caspar. Sierra was at one time a very powerful kingdom and has recently become complacent. For the past generation, Caspar has raided the Sierran borders regularly. Burning villages, taking slaves, just causing the usual trouble. Sierra has secretly been built up their strength again to wage war against Caspar. They've sent spies into Caspar to relay the date and details of the coming war to the slaves. Sandy is a slave in the palace. The slave village is monitored well. Any spies are soon caught and hanged. Despite the Colonel's protests that she's too young, the slaves vote her in as a spy. While searching through the king's desk, Sandy finds out that the king, Carlo, plans for Caspar to be a superpower. Caspar will "ally" with other kingdoms in order to conquer the remaining kingdoms. Sierra is the biggest kingdom in Caspar's path. Besides being one of the largest kingdoms, Sierra has a long history of intervening on behalf of other kingdoms. Many years of peace have let Sierra's guard down, and with the Sierran king still mourning the long-ago death of his wife, daughter, and newborn son, the slave raids were initiated to further cripple Sierra. With other kingdoms allied with Caspar, they would be sure to take down Sierra. And with Sierra under their control, who stands in their way to conquer the lesser kingdoms? As the last slave spy, Sandy must survive long enough to give this vital information to the Colonel, and among other reasons.

           That's the general plot of the whole series. A lot like the world wars. Which doesn't make it sound original at all. . .

           Originally, this idea was completely different. At first, it was more like the American Revolution. It took place on a secret island where the inhabitants were still living in the Middle Ages. But, now, with satellites and all, secret islands are only possible for Jules Vernes (grr to technology). So I debated a long time with maybe an underworld. Or just dropping any relation between our world and Sandy's world.

           But last year (when I wasn't supposed to be thinking about Sandy), an idea came to me out of the blue (okay, out of the Once Upon a Time TV series). Sandy's world is in a different realm from ours. In ways it's like a parallel universe kind of thing. With an unnamed in between realm that helps you make the transition from our realm to the fantasy realm.

           When you first go from our realm to the fantasy realm, you will already have the knowledge you're supposed to have. For instance, when Sandy is sent to the fantasy realm she is already a slave in Caspar. But she has full knowledge of her past life in Sierra, the raid that took her to Caspar, her new name, her family and friends in the slave village, her master, and her enemies, etc.

           In the in between realm, you have a mentor sort of person. Pretty much they answer any questions you may have. . . if/when they want to at least. Each mentor is different and has his own ways to go about things. They help with coping and things like culture shock.

           And of course, one of the main reasons they're there is to ingrain in your brain that you can never, ever speak of your realm in the fantasy realm, and when you do return to your own realm you can never speak of the fantasy realm.

          Or what? You cannot exist in either realms.

           So since you can't talk about your realm in the fantasy realm, guess who you take your problems to? The mentor. Not that you can just summon your mentor whenever you want. It depends on the mentor. They see you're having trouble and they summon you/bring you to the in between realm (yes, I know, it really needs a name). Or not. . . if you happen to have a tough love mentor.

           The longer you're in the fantasy realm, depending on how well you forget/adapt/how intelligent you are and how much you fight it, the more you will forget your life in your realm and the less you will see of your mentor. Then you will live in the parallel fantasy realm as if you've always been there (in an offhanded way, you have been, but that might be confusing).

           Now when you return to your realm, all your memories will be replaced to you, along with those you've acquired in the parallel realm.

           Since this whole parallel realm thing is new, it's not in the first draft that I'm writing. It'll be added into the rewrite.

           So there's the plot and world of the book. In a small case. I was thinking about doing a character post with Sandy. Or maybe some of the other characters. Here's a list of some of the characters. Who would you like to hear about?

Sandy (protagonist, Sierran slave/spy)
Seth (Casprian spy in training)
Jade (assassin/ head of secret ops)
King Karlo (the king of Caspar)
Krystal (girl in the tower, think Rapunzel without all the hair)
Sammie (Sierran spy, Sandy's cousin)
Deaf (Sierran spy in the palace dungeons)