Prior Enragement Reborn

How the Prior chooses to appear in this story, because he can.

In my last blog post, I promised to come back with an update once I'd completed the initial changes in the third draft of Pantheon Triptych. Well, um, I got distracted.

I planned to take a few days off while my son came to visit before attacking the redraft. That went well, but in the hiatus, a few things changed about the short story I'd just written, Prior Enragement.

My son gave me some useful feedback on the story. I thought it was worth fixing those after he left while it was fresh in my mind. It would only take a day or two.

Then I had a realisation.

I mentioned that one reason for the short story was to explore a world that I might want to set my next novel. My initial reaction after completing it was that I'd scratched that itch. I liked the world, but couldn't see a longer story to tell in the world I'd set up.

Anyway, I had a rough idea of the type of story I wanted to tell, and could see the shape of its plot, including elements of a murder mystery and a heist. However, it lacked an interesting setting to make it spring to life.

So I had a setting without a plot, and a plot without a setting. Well, derr. Why not make them one story?

I set out on the rework of Prior Enragement with this in mind. I improved several characterisations, added more nuance, characters, details, and puns, and seeded a few ideas to see if they gelled. It took more than a week to complete the changes, but now I'm sure. The idea has legs.

That's for the future. For now, the short story has reached 9,400 words in total. I need to give it one final read through, but then I'll make it available on my website so you can see what's in store. I'll probably include the whole story in a blog post too.

The story tells of Chandra's first day working as a qualified historian in the Priory. He wakes up to the first portents that a new god is about to emerge. He soon becomes central to the investigation into its nature.

Interestingly, with a bit of rework and added depth of characterisation, this short story could become part of the novel. Chandra will be one of two point-of-view characters, and this could be the basis of his opening three chapters.

There will be one other main character who lives in the city surrounding the Priory. They have a grudge against the Prior himself, or rather, their close friend has a grudge which they support. This friend happens to be a god too. They're not the only one.

Right. I need to get back to Pantheon Triptych, which might take a couple of days to get into the right headspace. I'll publish the short story in the next couple of days. Watch this space...