M.J. Whitehead

I’ve just finished world-building the wider universe for Dreamspace. I’m pretty enthusiastic about this one, so I’m having trouble thinking about whether to post it online or not. I am, however, enjoying breaking from aBoM, but I’m getting to the point where I really need to start practicing describing this book for

It’s a fantasy, but unlike the A Beginning Of Magic universe, there’s no science-fiction crossover. (The universe could be said to be a fantasy-western crossover in that it involves interstellar colonisation, frontiers, and as Ian Banks calls them, “out-of-context problems” or first encounter situations. But there aren’t cowboy hats or pistol fights, so I’m never going to pitch it that way) The universe features faster-than-light travel, (but not the book) and I’m tentatively calling it the Worldcrystals universe. The initial book features four hard-fantasy magic systems, three of which are “foundational” to the wider universe. Can’t spoil much more about the world-building, as I don’t know what else I’m embargoing until after the book is finished. (I haven’t decided if I’m going to do a big reveal about the wider universe or not, as this world is “special” within the universe)

The plot of the story is half “magical school is much more frustrating than I expected it to be” and it twists to its other half at the climax point, which is “what might happen after the hero wins the day and kills the villain?”. I’m not done here so I don’t want to say too much more, as I’ve not really started outlining in earnest, just done discovery writing on a few chapters.

The book is narrated in first-person by a main character, and in third person from our narrator’s perspective for two other characters. Trying to differentiate the narrative and the dialogue has really helped me with a better sense of “voice” for my characters, so whether or not this book ends up being good, I’ll have learned a lot from it.