Draft 2 of Dragons of Blood and Stone

Today I started Draft 2...again!

About two months ago I wrote a post titled "The Second Draft Is the Hardest." Maybe that's why I started rewriting Dragons of Blood and Stone and then stopped for a while. What I realized after revising about thirty pages is that for this novel I want to work more consciously on point of view. So far my novels have been pretty much third-person limited point of view--from the main character's point of view.

With Dragons of Blood and Stone, I want to unfold the story from the limited point of view of three characters. I suppose this could be called omniscient point of view, but I prefer to still consider it limited because it defines my focus and intent.

The characters are as follows:

• Glimmer, dream mage and main character. Glimmer's growth as a mage leads him on a series of adventures and requires him to "fix" a series of environmental catastrophes. He gradually comes to realize that considering himself a dream mage is a limitation. He comes to understand and appreciate more the magic of his teacher, who is a Mage That Gathers.
• Gnossos, a Cleric of Thom. The Clerics are a group of scholars from the Empire that exist outside the political divisions of the many principalities. The Clerics seek knowledge and record it, storing it in their libraries. They are also, in effect, an efficient spy service that gathers information...only they gather it for themselves, first and foremost.
• Giselle, the Black Widow, the femme fatale. Giselle's magic is Allure. She is a spy and agent for the current monarch of DeVasier. Her charms have given her power in the Empire, even though on the east side of the mountains, magic is limited in its strength. When she travels to the west of the mountains, she finds her powers greatly increased, yet to her frustration, her ability to enchant those she wishes to is most strangely limited.

I have finished revising the first fifteen pages of Dragons of Blood and Stone. In this beginning section, Glimmer, swallowed by a cave on a hillside, sleeps the sleep of an ancient apple tree.

"He lay within the dusty palm of the soil, tree roots clouding him with finer and finer gossamer until where soil and root ceased and body began was a commingled edge of awareness hidden deep within the womb of the hillside. He slept, consciousness trickling down, roots merging with flesh, blood feeding roots and brackish water flowing veins, bone leaching to stone and teeth no more than cracked memories of mountains."

Today was the sleep of the apples and a conversation with Applemaster Guy of Greensward and gnomes Firstblush and Applewood. Tomorrow? Glimmer travels the Gnome's Path and Gnossos dreams.

Copyright 2009 by Thomas L. Kepler, all rights reserved