V-alimar

I have a five book series planned for my next fantasy saga.  The series is called Guardians of Valimar.  It took forever to find just the right name for this land I’ve created in my mind, but while my husband was in the hospital and I spent so much time sitting alone at tables in restaurants, I wrote down everything I could think of that was a positive sounding thing.  My lists included words like:

• noble
• beautiful
• courageous
• brave
• chivalrous
• mysterious
• powerful
• mighty
• valiant

There were other words, of course.  I had pages of them in my notebook, three columns per page.  I scratched most out the moment I wrote them, but at last those pages were condensed into smaller groups, cut out into even smaller ones, and at last, I came up with a few that fit.  I had named it several things before Valimar came to me.  It had the beginning of “Valiant” with the locale sounding ending of “mar.”  I loved it.  Of course, I’ll probably do a Google search as I get started and find out there are tons of Valimars out there in the fantasy/fairytale/sci-fi world and I’ll have to change it.  I should look now, but I want to keep my happy name for now.

I have sketches of Valimar in my notebooks.  The world building for it was one thing that kept me sane during days where I wondered if they’d ever get my husband out of pain.  I planned the kinds of houses they lived in–and why.  I planned their transportation, their history, and what makes the five young people in these books so special.  Characters took on names and personalities.  Enemies had reason to BE enemies.

It kills me not to open them up sometimes.  I’m aching to write some of the things in my mind, but this is a series I’ve had percolating for a good four years or more.  The more I let it sit, the better it seems to get, so like the fine wine of my Valle de Morado, I think I’ll just let it ferment a little longer…  I finished the first one in the way– Annals of Wynnewood.  The second is nearly done–Everard.  Once the five book series, Legends of the Vengeance (book one down, book two in June or August) is complete, I can open that first document and type out… well, not the FIRST words… those came already.  SHH.