October Thoughts
This has been a wild few months, and October isn’t slowing down either. Between wrapping up Kickstarter, juggling multiple writing projects, and diving headfirst into videos and podcasts, my desk has been a whirl of notes, drafts, and far too much coffee (keeping up a proud Finnish tradition there).
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Writing, videos, and of Worldbuilding Blueprints Vol I have all been taking up a lot of my time, alongside my actual day job of course.
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But despite my bitching, it's very exciting seeing it all come together.
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Check out all the details below!
Table of Contents
Worldbuilding Blueprints
Everything is coming together for Worldbuilding Blueprints. While the project is still open on Kickstarter for late backers (at least for another month or so), the work to bring the book to print is racing forward. I've received some great art from my artists, both colored (like the fairy stall above), and black and white for the paperback like below (yes, the paperback is getting art too):
The color images for the hardback are still coming of course. I've also created the layout sample for the layouts person to use. You, my most excellent newsletter subscribers, can check that out exclusively right here: Blueprints Sample. Bear in mind, it's sample, not the final layout but it should give you an idea of what's to come.
If you haven't backed the project yet, you can still enter a late pledge...
I've also been hard at work on Season 2 of the Blueprints podcast, creating fantasy towns. Much thinking, walking, a few livestreams, and some writing later, I've come up with what I think is a good start to designing a fantasy city's history. You can check out the podcast episode here: https://youtu.be/59EwVemECvc
Since recording that podcast, I've had further thoughts. So!
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City Core Function:
A city core function is the main reason the city exists, or what it was originally built to do. Think of it like the city’s “job” or purpose. It's the core activity or function that gives the city its identity and drives its early growth. These functions can vary a lot depending on geography, history, and politics.
Here are some everyday examples:
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If a city was founded to protect a strategic military point, its core function is defense (fortress towns or border outposts).
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If people moved there to mine gold or drill oil, its function is resource extraction, which I group under economic.
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If a city grew up near a major university, the core function might be education or knowledge production.
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Some cities grow around a religious shrine or site, making pilgrimage or religion their core function.
Over time, cities can develop new functions (like tourism or tech) or lose their original one, which leads to the growth, transformation, or even decline of the city. Cities can also have multiple cores, normally somewhat separated by region on their map.
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Once you understand that, this is the model for organically growing your city through its lifecycle and also creating it's history: ​​
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This diagram shows how a city core—the original reason the city was founded, like mining, trade, or defense—grows over time. It starts when the core is created and begins to attract people, jobs, and resources through economic clustering. But growth can’t go on forever. Eventually the core hits limits, like running out of space, facing legal restrictions, or community pushback. When that happens, growth slows or plateaus. If no other city core can do the job better, the city might hold steady for a while. But if other places take over its function more efficiently, the core begins to decline. At that point, the city faces a choice: can it repurpose the core for something new? If yes, it reinvents itself. If not, the core may eventually be abandoned altogether.
This diagram zooms out to look at how entire cities evolve over time, not just a single core. It starts with a city’s founding, usually tied to the creation of its first core. As the city grows, the big question is: does this growth give the city a new sense of purpose? If yes, it might lead to new cores being created—like adding a tech sector to a former mining town—which speeds up growth even more. If not, and the original cores start to run out of space or usefulness, the city hits a growth plateau. From there, it faces competition from other cities. If a newer or better city takes over its function, decline begins. But if the city can hold its ground, it might just keep evolving or stabilize at a new level.
This diagram shows what happens when a city faces a sudden crisis, like war, natural disaster, or economic collapse. First, it asks whether the crisis removes a key function of the city. If it does, the core might be terminated, and the city’s survival depends on whether any functional cores are left. If none remain, the city may enter terminal decline. If some remain, it can still recover in a smaller or reduced form. On the flip side, if the crisis adds a new important role, e.g. an earthquake uncovers a valuable resource, the city could actually grow from the experience. Sometimes, even without gaining or losing a core, a city just adapts and recovers with some changes.
Will this model still change as I write? Probably yes. But for right now, this is good enough to create a city's history. Next month I'll start working on the actual layout of the city, expanding from its cores.
Fantasy Species Revisited
Once I completed the creation of my fantasy species series (playlist here: Species Playlist), I found myself circling back to a familiar question: Why do we invent fantasy elements at all, and most especially, why fantasy species?
It’s easy to say: for theme, for metaphor, for meaning. And sure, I’ve argued that before. Your species can reflect decay, divinity, identity. They can (and should IMO) embody ideas bigger than humans.
But here’s the problem: when fantasy creatures are only symbolic, they stop feeling like beings. And the world starts feeling like a lecture. That’s not what fantasy is for.
Fantasy is for wonder. For awe. For the pleasure of discovery. Certainly between all the wonder, we want the thematic elements and the philosophical stakes. But the point isn't to say something clever, it's to build a world worth walking through. And then to let meaning emerge inside it.
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The best fantasy species walk a tightrope between three things:
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Cool: they spark curiosity.
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Coherent: they belong to the world’s logic, be that natural or mythic.
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Meaningful: they reveal something deeper.
And notice how cool is right there in the top? The rule of cool is important. Your readers want cool. Your players if you're a GM want cool. People want story and your job is to deliver that, first and foremost.
But if you make them too cool and without meaning, you're just building pretty toys and might as well work for Disney. And even coherency can go too far. Remember: this is fantasy. If you have no spark, no magic, why bother?
So, if you can balance these 3 aspects, you've got yourself a winner. Sounds like a big ask right? Well, I'm a big fan of breaking big things down into simpler steps:
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Anchor the new to the known. “A wolf made of mist.” This immediately gives the reader an image they know, combined with the fantastical.
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Show, don’t pause. Let readers see how the creature moves in the world, don't explain the full history and logic when you introduce the creature.
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Keep tone tight. If your world is solemn, your creatures should echo that. If it's slapstick, the creatures should have funny moments (I'm reading Joe Abercrombie's Devils at the moment and there are some truly hilarious moments despite the horror and grimdark-ness)
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Let discovery be the reward. Reveal the meaning through consequence, not commentary. Let the reader draw their own meaning from the creatures and story rather than telling them what you're trying to say.
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Fantasy elements, all of them including your species, are about creating a world that has different rules, different stakes, different metaphysics. When a creature feels as if it's alive, makes sense, and matters, that's when your reader feels as though they are truly wandering in your world, not just imagining it.
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And isn't that what we're all aiming for?
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Writing Update
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Picking a cover is incredibly hard. The reason why there are 3 Blood and Bloom covers up there is so that you, my dear newsletter reader, can help me choose. I'm happy with the cover image. But the typography eludes me. What title do you like best? Send me a mail on the site or comment on a YouTube video, or a on a blog or send me a mail (author@mariemullany.com). I'd love some second opinions.
The first cover though was easier and that's the cover for the novella that you all are getting in December! That will be my Christmas gift to you. It's already written and is currently going through beta reading and editing. Here is the blurb:
Gilliam has a tassel at his belt but no sash across his chest. Half-marked, half-ignored, he walks a knife’s edge between noble law and common gutters. When the sashed drag him into their games, he must bargain with spirits and shadows alike to survive a world where precedent weighs heavier than truth.
In the marble halls of power, Giselle balances loyalty, ambition, and the fragile thread of law holding the empire together. Her choices may decide not only Gilliam’s fate, but the shape of justice itself.
In Somfaux, theft, power, and law tangle like threads in a fraying tassel. And once pulled, no one can predict what will unravel.
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The novella is set in The Empire of Lumiaron, 2 years after the events of Keeper of the Gate. Accompanying it will be 2 pieces of character art, one for Giselle and one for Gilliam. So I hope you're looking forward to that as your reward for reading my yapping :)
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The other covers are potential candidates for my urban fantasy novel. That is finally going through its last round of edits and will eventually head toward Kickstarter.... If I can ever pick a cover for it haha. It's about a druid living in Las Vegas who is working to keep the magic of the world under wraps. One of my alpha readers described it as "Dresden Files but with Iron Druid skills". I felt that was one heck of an honor :)
If that sounds interesting to you, check out chapter 1 right here: Blood and Bloom Chapter 1
And seriously, let me know what you think of the cover.
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And finally in Sangwheel Tales, the big series following on from Sangwheel Chronicles, slow progress continues. Book 1 has crossed 90 thousand words and is in the middle portion of Act 2. It should close out at around 140 thousand words, with editing pushing it up to 160, if past experience is anything to go by.
I also got new Sanghweel maps! You can check them out under the The World of Sangwheel menu item on the site.
Questions and Answers!
Here are the questions asked since my last newsletter. Remember, you can always submit questions via my website for the newsletter!
I’d like some hints about how the mechanics of writing tie into different components of fantasy, & co genres. Symbolism, sentence length/structure, voice. Maybe too broad, maybe too dumb but that’s my question :)
Well. Well damn. That's a question! I did do a video on that topic fairly recently (how to lore), and I have an older video about showing your world (boost your narrative).
But your question might be broader than my video. So let's plunge a little deeper (another video might come from this question haha).
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The short version is the mechanics of writing, things like sentence rhythm, symbolism and voice, are how you make your world feel real to the reader. And how you use them vary a bit by genre.
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High fantasy, Epic, and Historical tends to go big and lyrical: long, flowing sentences, formal tone, and imagery that feels ancient or mythic. Think Tolkien or Le Guin or Jacqueline Carey. Older words, lots of prose, the feel of mythic tales. That being said, it depends also on your "base" setting for world building. Katherine Kerr draws her inspiration from the dark ages Gaelic cultures. There is for example this paragraph that "feel" very lyrical, reminiscent of the (very small) surviving Gaelic poetry we have:
Rhodry smiled and wondered if Cullyn had come in hopes of finding him ill. He was an ambitious man, Cullyn was, because Rhodry had raised him to be so, had trained him from the time he could talk to rule the vast gwerbretrhyn of Aberwyn and to use well the riches that the growing trade with Bardek brought it.
Notice the names as well, all related to the Gaelic style of names, except Bardek, which draws on a different culture.
Grimdark flips that lyricism around. Joe Abercrombie’s style is short, gritty, and cynical on purpose. Every line feels like it’s been dragged through the mud alongside the characters, because that's the nature of Grimdark. Here's an example from The Devils:
Alex nailed the jump from window to carriage-roof, rolled smooth as butter and came up sweet as honey, but botched the much easier jump from carriage-roof to ground, twisted her ankle, blundered off balance through the crowd, bounced mouth-first from the dung-crusted flank of a donkey, and went sprawling in the gutter.
The donkey was quite put out and its owner even more so. Alex couldn’t be sure what he was yelling over the wails of some passing penitents, but it was not flattering.
Notice the cruder and more modern language, alongside the slapstick moment.
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Urban fantasy is all about immediacy and personality. Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files has that snappy, conversational voice, a little sarcastic, a little weary, but fast-paced and clear. It fits a world where wizards drive beat-up Volkswagens called the Blue Beatle. It's got a kind of noir feeling, with some humor interlaced.
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Basically, it all comes down to matching tone to world. Lush language creates wonder; clipped sentences build tension; a wry voice grounds the magic in the modern day. As a kind of short overview, I hope that makes sense and answers the question!