From waking up in the healer wing, episode two takes Arud through Vithalia Castle. This setting came about from a Pinterest photo of a man staring out at a castle at the end of a long bridge in the sea. I love to “write what I know” and I live near the ocean.
Mixing what I know about the sea with my research on Labrador, Canada gives me insight into the world, the weather, the vegetation, and the animals. Adding these elements gives the world more depth.
Arud explores his new world in Vithalia Castle and during the experience, he finds Lykke is struggling with their missing father, her new powers as a Cur, and their new home. Scalvia worries that she can no longer be trusted. What I loved about this episode is the use of dreams and dolls to show the character’s inner emotional struggles. Subtext is huge and it’s always fun to write in a way that feels organic. Here’s a passage from chapter two:
“The painful truth was hard to grasp.
A monster lived within him.
I love the way Arud’s love for Lykke and Scalvia contrasts his hatred for the evil that now lives inside him. Especially his love for his sister, like Katniss with Prim from Hunger Games. Don’t we do that, though? Misjudge ourselves, show zero tolerance and unforgiveness to ourselves while justifying the behavior of others? To me, those develop a character substantially. The more juxtaposition the better! That’s why Katniss is such a powerful character. And Ender Wiggins, from Ender’s Game. They both become what they fear the most. That’s beautiful writing to me.
The interaction between Scalvia and Lykke through the dolls was super fun to add in edits. They allowed Lykke to safely express what she was feeling inside, such a kid move, right? And so creepy… dolls and kids meshed together. Gives you all the heebie-jeebies. She shares that there’s something wrong in her and the fear of becoming a Cur, of her ferine blood, of her fragility, and of death and dying, wrapped up in a game of dolls.
It connects us to the story, I think. We all face our mortality for the first time and it’s difficult to come to terms with. Lykke is no different. She’s just a little girl who realizes that in her human form, she can easily die, but shifted into her wolf form, she has powers that can save her. I think that holds true because her world is upside down with her mom dead and her dead missing. And telling it through playing with dolls was a cool way to share it.
ACCESS EPISODES WEEKLY through Kindle Vella every Tuesday and catch up with the behind-the-scenes podcast, MOON CAST, each Sunday! (links below)
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ABOUT DREADLANDS: BLOOD MOON
A new monster hunts the realm.
The Mayan Bat God, Camazotz, has been released. Once trapped within the Torngat Mountains, Sorceress Edda has released him from his hundreds of years in captive to wreak havoc on Vithalia. Arud and Scalvia work to get human and ferine to unite against this werebat threat. However, Arud's little sister Lykke has other allegiances. Her treatment as a halfling Cur has left her feeling betrayed by mankind and she leaves to join the ferine, the shifter wolves that were once the enemy. Arud’s uncle calls upon Vikings from other lands to arrive by sea and fight while Arud and Scalvia search for his father in the Great Beyond. Will they unite in time or fight blood against blood?
Blood Moon... Book Two in the Dreadlands Dodecad. Not familiar? Check out Dreadlands: Wolf Moon Book One, in paperback, ebook, and audiobook here: https://amzn.to/2Yk2zVT
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