Author's Notes on "Alone"

Discussing how Episode 3 of "Hiraeth" came to be

Here’s the story “Alone” if you haven’t read it yet.

Alone

As yesterday’s story already ran long with the illustrations I created, I’ve made it its own post and placed it Behind the Curtain. Ready? Let’s go … (Don’t want to go Behind the Curtain? Update your subscription here!)

It was more than a little weird how this went from nothing to a completed first draft in two hours. How?

The poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson came first. When I began brainstorming ideas for Hiraeth episodes I looked at both monsters and locations, and I soon discovered that poets write about monsters quite a bit.

So I’m like: cool, I’ve got my epigraph done. Now what?

I did a little more internet reading but nothing was really forthcoming.

Melanie Leavey

puts out a Sunday Scribble and she shared this prompt: “Autumn night - unable to sleep, I leave my tiny cottage” ~ Ryōkan

Sunday Scribble 10.6.24

If you look at the beginning of this story, you’ll see just five words remain from that quoted poem.

The next day, before I began the prompt, I tackled the big question: who’s doing the leaving? As Llewelyn hadn’t been featured yet (and Medwyn will be featured in episode 4), I had my main character chosen.

How am I going to make this different from your standard monster fare? Who knows, I just start writing. That’s what writing prompts are for. Why would he leave his beloved Braith behind?

Typeity-type-type.

I have my Hiraeth playlist running but the music is not quite cutting it after half a dozen paragraphs. I scroll through the list and play the first notes of what becomes this episode’s theme song.

Love me some Ennio Morricone.

Why would he leave his beloved Braith behind? Because it’s too much. He’s trying to outrun his grief. Yep, our Kraken becomes a metaphor for that. Or it’s just a monster, your choice.

I was trying to figure out how the hell to get Llewelyn out of this mess when I re-read the last five lines of Tennyson’s poem.

“There hath he lain for ages, and will lie
Battening upon huge sea worms in his sleep,
Until the latter fire shall heat the deep;
Then once by man and angels to be seen,
In roaring he shall rise and on the surface die.”  - Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Did you notice the giant sea worms? Hmm!

Heat and fire… He’s the Sword in the Chosen Court what would … (pauses to ponder) and it gives us a romantic flashback to boot, yay! Romantasy box checked!

And there you have it, how this episode went from nothing to a completed first draft.

Then came the hours of editing it, even after it refused to be anything other than first person present tense. Why first person present? Um, that was the tense of the poem and then there was this article that I read shortly before starting it:

Thou Shalt Not Write in First Person Present Tense... Or Shall You?

Illustrations

This week’s episode has three illustrations. The first is actually meant for the first episode (and I will place it there as well). The other two I completed over two weeks.

This one is my favourite:

(showing the image full-sized)

I’m thinking it might need to be the series new cover image (although I love the one by

Keyon Ali Hejazi-Far

). Most of it is in watercolour, with the kraken’s skin done in my all-time favourite watercolour, Moonglow by Daniel Smith. The sea dragon, who finally looks a little less lizardy, was completed using Sharpie’s Creative Markers, which are an opaque brush-tip acrylic marker. It took me two passes to reach full opacity but that might be because it was being put over watercolour.

What do you think? Should I make it a cover?

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