The first thing to announce is that I have completed the first draft! While this is often the most time-consuming step in the writing process for me, that might not be the case with this particular work. I still need to do a massive amount of redrafting and editing, but I am fairly confident that I will complete the second draft by the end of March and, Athena willing, have a completed manuscript ready to submit to agents by the end of May. Yes, you read that correctly; I think this novel has mass commercial potential and I have decided to make an attempt at getting it traditionally published.
So why all of this extra work this time around? Short answer is that it’s just plain necessary. When I began writing the rough draft, I thought I had done well at the preemtive world-building for the mythical society at the center of the story. However, as the Californians interacted with characters from the Ottoman Empire, the Kingdom of the Franks, the Grand Principality of Moscow, and various Italian states (among many others), it became clear that the women of California needed a more complex and far-reaching history and culture of their own.
(If you don’t know or have forgotten the premise of this novel, you can read more about it here.) Just for funsies, I will spoil a few of the basic aspects of Californian culture and history that I’ve been crafting!
No Boys Allowed
The Archipelago of California is protected by semi-magical griffins who immediately kill and eat any men who stray onto her fair shores. Is this entirely fair? No. Do the griffins respect logic and argumentation? Also no. They are animals and they follow their instincts.
Social Organization
The prime unit of organization on California is the Omadha, a word which translates to “group.” Omadhas exist for a variety of reasons – to connect people with similar hobbies and interests, to lobby for political causes, to share spiritual beliefs and teachings – and there’s no telling when one will form (or dissolve) based on the whims of whoever organized them.
Mythical Origins
Any Greek-speaking readers may have already guessed at the origins of the strong and clever women of California – the eastern Mediterranean sea! Long ago, their foremothers the Amazons lived among the Greek peoples of antiquity until a great invasion by their neighbors nearly caused them to be enslaved en masse. The Triune Goddesses – Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite – sent a flock of griffins to rescue them from captivity, and so they eternally honor them along with many other goddesses.
A New Home
The griffiins flew day and night as their passengers searched for a new home. Because they had just been driven from their homeland, they took an oath that they would die before they exacted such a fate upon any other people. On and on they traveled, but the land below them was filled with many people until at last they came to a large, unsettled island chain and called it their home, naming it California and naming their queen the Califia.
Then Some More Things Happened
Obviously I’m not going to give away everything from the novel here but like many nations before it, California underwent many changes throughout its history until the story begins in 1500 CE. It all begins with the coronation of a new Califia, one who has broken with tradition by seeking the office of queen in spite of the fact that her mother had served as queen several years before. The Californians resent even a hint of tyranny, and while royal dynasties are not specifically forbidden, they are also not generally welcome.
Califia’s domestic rivals area already plotting her downfall when a strange man washes up on their shores with tales of a great city in a land far away which has been unlawfully siezed by an enemy whose name is well known to the Californians – the Greeks. Seeing a chance to unite the nation behind her in seeking revenge against those who persecuted their blessed foremothers, Califia will take her griffins to the far end of the world to help Sultan Bayezid II conquer the city that was so deviously stolen from him: the city of Constantinople.
