I’m happy to report the first draft of Toriko Tales is complete! It took so much longer than anticipated. Of course, a global pandemic, change of job, and occasional writers-block will cause delays!
As the title suggests, Toriko from the main D’mok Revival series is the main protagonist. The great part of the book takes place on her homeworld of Tericn, and centers on the topic on artificial intelligence. More specifically the ethics and varied cultural responses to this advanced technology. As always, there’s plenty of interpersonal conflict, including the trauma of her parents demise when she was a child, and her ongoing relationship struggles with her older sister. Also, an entire set of new characters join the D’mok Revival literary universe.
Readers can expect plenty of references and cameos to characters from the D’mok Revival and Weun Academy series. Even though the Murai Dome and Tericn was visited in the first book of the D’mok Revival series, only a few areas were explored at that time. This required me to do extensive construction of the 11 versions (“levels”) of the Murai Dome itself and explain how the some of the older technologies are still leveraged to create the living environment currently inhabited by Terconians.
I wrote over forth-three pages (16,800 words) of backstory so I could authentically represent the new characters, circumstances, and locations feature in Toriko Tales. Some of these written explorations were used to break through the few instances of writer’s block suffered. I found the reason I could not move forward was because I didn’t understand the history of the characters or location in the scene. This technique became my “go to method” to get that “movie playing in my head” again.
I’ve reached out to my amazing author Arlene Robinson, and we’re working out the details to have her edit my latest work. I’m thrilled to be teaming up with Arlene again!
My immediate next steps are
- Incorporate feedback my Matt Zummo (my first line of review)
- Get the manuscript out to my Beta Readers and incorporate their feedback
- Get the manuscript in the hands of Arlene Robinson
- Determine if I’ll self-publish or go for an agent
So, what’s it like? Toriko Tales is forty chapters strong, with a prologue and epilogue. The final product will include details about Tericn’s capital city the Murai Dome, and the translations of conversations between Toriko and Spark (which appear in binary in the main book).
The current manuscript comes in at 81,597 words. My original goal, the lower-bound for science fiction novels, was 80,000. I truly feel it was the right size to tell this Toriko focused story. It certainly sets up many dynamics in the D’mok literary universe, many of which will begin to be seen in Weun Academy 2 and D’mok Revival book 5.
Here’s a little preview of the (working) chapter names:
- Invictus
- Spilled Milk
- The EEE
- Phrenicide
- The Ardent Syndrome
- The Prodigal Kitten
- The Catadel
- Punitive Cogitation
- Mini-T v2
- Creature Comforts
- The Mind Hack
- Team Purg
- Murai Dome v9
- Cat fight
- The Evidence Vault
- Army of the Broken
- Wound Licking
- The Catress’ Lair
- Level One
- Sirra AI
- The First Lie
- The Past Is Present
- Old Wounds
- PvE
- The Alternative
- The Closer
- Clara Mortem
- The Crowned Paw
- The “Do Different”
- Uncrating
- Bansa
- Edrell Lab
- Sins of the Parents
- Eudorian Sanctuary
- Hacker Royale
- The First Meridian
- Destination Known
- T-Town
- The Manufactory
- Fallout
I’ll keep you posted as editing is done and next steps are taken.
In the meantime, I’m going back and reviewing Weun Academy 1’s manuscript. It never did find an agent. I may move forward with self-publishing that title at this point.
ALSO, as many of you know, Weun Academy 2: The Sabereth Incident is already a few pages in! I know, I can’t help it. I think I’m addicted to writing. I’m taking a moment to retread and run my formal process of understanding the character, location, and plot in order to advanced WA2’s manuscript. More on that in a future post!
Until then, stay safe!