New Website

Hello, readers of Mapping Out a Sky,

I've decided to move to a more professional author website and archive Mapping Out a Sky. All posts from this blog will remain, but any new updates will be posted at:

Amanda Grace Shu | Author Website

Arkady Revealed

Image description: A digitally-painted portrait of Arkady, a dark-haired, light-skinned young man in a black garment, with golden light reflected onto the left side of his face and golden flames behind him. Art by Amanda Grace Shu.

The 2018-2019 academic year is over, meaning more time for me to devote to my various literary projects, and to this blog, so here's another excerpt from my novel-in-progress, The Shapeshifter Prince!

Previously: Arkady's mother, King Thyld, visited him in his wilderness hideaway to try to convince him to return to the royal court and succeed her as king, following a prophecy that she would die before springtime.

Shapeshifter

Image description: a raven in flight, its tail and wing feathers dissolving into black smoke,
lit from behind by a large, yellow-tinted full moon. Image from Pixabay.

I think it's high time for another excerpt from my novel-in-progress, don't you agree?

This passage comes from the very beginning of the book, featuring Arkady (as usual) and Thyld. We've seen some of Arkady's relationship with his mother and the beginning of his search for transformation magic... Now it's time for these two aspects of his identity to come into direct conflict.

Enjoy!

Shapeshifter

Kevarya: Kevaryese Language

Image description: a pair of eyeglasses resting on and magnifying a handwritten alphabet in medieval-style calligraphy.

I'm a bit of a language nerd. (If you know me in real life, you're probably rolling your eyes and calling that an understatement.) And now, like J.R.R. Tolkien before me, I have combined my passion for languages with my passion for fantasy worldbuilding and writing to create a fantasy language of my very own! And now you lovely readers get to experience firsthand how deep the rabbit hole goes. Here's a page full of information on the structure of this fictional language that only I know!

Skip to the "Common Phrases" section if you just want to learn some cool made-up words without getting bogged down in linguistics jargon.

Ver ath Kevarya allai!

Cross-posted to WorldAnvil on 9/1/18.

KEVARYESE LANGUAGE

Kevarya: An Introduction to the Kingdom

Image description: a cross-section of the map of the Kevarya Universe. 
Design and photo edit by Amanda Grace Shu.

I'm back! Yes, after a long and arduous journey through Camp Nanowrimo (total wordcount: 55,447), I have returned with the greater part of a novel and some new worldbuilding information. So who's excited to hear me ramble about the history of a country that doesn't exist?

Anyone?

Well, I'm excited, anyway...

An Introduction to
THE KINGDOM OF KEVARYA

Him

Image description: statue of a mother holding her infant child. The child's hand is pressed to the mother's cheek.

This is a story I started working on three years ago. Since then, it has gone through a number of revisions and rejections, and ultimately I decided to let it be as is while expanding on the characters and world in what would become the Kevarya Universe and The Shapeshifter Prince, my project for the upcoming Camp Nanowrimo. Some details have changed since I wrote it; for example, Arkady's name meaning and how he acquires it is very different in this story than in The Man Who Is Revealed. Still, the emotional truth of Him remains an essential part of both Arkady and Thyld's character development.

Content warning for misgendering, transphobia, and attempted suicide.

Him

Confluence & Ode to My Muscles

Image description: A young woman seen from behind, clutching the top of her head. The muscles of her back are strained and ridges of her spine visible. From Pixabay.

I'm taking a break from Kevarya this week to showcase some recently rediscovered poetry from 2015. It's somewhat hard to believe that three years have passed since I wrote these, but in a way, it makes sense, since they had started to fade from my memory.

Both poems deal with the relationship between mind and body, exploring both the positive and negative sides of physical awareness. Confluence contains references to characters you may recognize from other posts, while Ode to My Muscles deals with a topic I've rarely touched upon here: my experience as a disabled person.

So, without further ado, here's...

Confluence &

Ode to My Muscles