I can't believe it's October already. Especially in Florida, where there are no well-defined seasons, it seems like the time just flies by.
My biggest news this week is that I finally finished the first draft of the second book of Chronicles of Storm. Like all the books in the Salamanderverse, this story is about 120K words. I'm done with the self-editing phase, and the manuscript in the hands of my professional editor.
Now I can take a short break before I begin my research for the next installment.
Ask The Author
Question: Why Slavic Lore? Why did you decide to use Slavic mythology in your stories?
Answer: Good question... A complicated one. I love mythology in general. Even as a child, I enjoyed reading legends, fairy tales and folklore of different countries. The Slavic mythology is not as well-known and widely used as Roman/Greek, Northern or Celtic, and that was one of the reasons I decided to explore it.
It's different, complicated and dark. The pantheon is complex and entangled. Nothing is ever straightforward. Nothing is ever what it seems to be. And not every story ends with happily ever after.
Most of the gods and characters of Slavic lore cannot be simply qualified as GOOD or EVIL, because they have elements of both. Even Darkness is not considered being completely evil. Only Chaos is.
While the duality of characters makes Slavic lore interesting, it also makes it complex to understand. And if that is not enough, in different Slavic regions (West Slavs, East Slavs or South Slavs), the powers and affiliations of gods and characters may vary.
That presents a challenge, but it also presents a great opportunity when used in the work of fiction. If you have been following my blog, you can find quite a few articles about characters of Slavic mythology and how they are used in the Salamander verse. Some of them are better known, like Leshy, for example, and some of them are most likely quite new for you, like Zlydzens or the Dvoedushnik.
So, today, I wanted to ask you a question.
Which character (a god or a monster) of Slavic lore would you like to know more about?
Please vote in the poll below to select the Monster of the Month for my next blog post and newsletter. If you don't see the character that fascinates you the most in the list, feel free to comment on this post or email me directly.
Characters of Slavic Mythology
0%Baba Yaga
0%Koschei the Deathless
0%Chernobog, the Slavic god of Destruction
0%Perun, the Slavic god of Thunder and Justice
You can vote for more than one answer.
Image Credit:
Baba Yaga, Chernobog, Perun and Skiper Zmey were created by a wonderful artist Igor Ozhiganov.
Koschei the Dethless - Art by Viktor Vasnetsov
Firebird - Art by Boris Zvorykin
As always, thank you all so much for your continued support.
Happy reading!
N.M. Thorn
Enter the Fire Salamander World, where magic and ancient myths are real, and things are not what they appear to be.
If you haven't done it yet, you can download "The Burns Path”, a prequel to the Fire Salamander Chronicles Urban Fantasy series, for FREE on my website.
The events of this 49,000-word novella occur before the Burns Fire, and it can be read as a standalone book.