“I’m happy to see the sun, even when it gets too hot. I’m happy see the stars even though I can’t read them. I’m happy to feel the wind even when it grows cold. I feel my… freedom. My freedom. Before this, I hadn’t given a lot of thought to the future. Why should I? Who was I to think that I’d have a future? Now, I might. Give us some time, give me some time, to figure out what to do with it. I am with you now, and I will ride with you to Flowingwind and maybe on to Edgewood. But where I go from here is my choice. I’ve another shot at life. For a revolutionary, for a fighter like me, that’s rare. Even if I do decide to go back to fighting in the future, I’m free of it all, if only for a moment. Can you understand that?”
-Eilatek, Another Time
Justin X. M. Corriss
There’s a kind of maxim about writers, especially writers starting out with a wealth of abandoned or ancient projects sprawling the likes of Fanfiction, AO3, and Wattpad: Don’t read your old writing. The basic idea is that because, ideally, one’s grown as a writer and developed new voices, honed their existing ones, and has become more well-read and more educated in the world of writing as a whole, that to read what has come before is disheartening. It’s an unfortunate, not wholly inaccurate view to be sure. My own golden age of Fanfiction.net, and the resulting three whole deadfics I left behind, looms large in the back of my memory.
So too in a way does the beginning of my fantasy writing: A Place I Have Never Been. As we prepare for the release of its sequel, Another Time, in its entirety, I cannot help but feel the weight of its predecessor on me. But it’s a different kind, a nostalgic weight, and one which feels not entirely unlike love. There are two more books yet planned in this series, Freedom and Control, and understanding where it came from is the best way to help propel me forward and, moreover, the best way for me to understand where my other projects can go.
Querying remains a uniquely disheartening experience, and not for nothing am I actually querying a non-fantasy story inspired by my travels up and down the east coast. Telgora followed those travels, too, and the world itself predates even my high school career, predates Fanfiction. There are plenty of elements in the world I adore, which inspire how my stories behave now, and inform the plethora of worldbuilding and expansion possible within it.
A Place I Have Never Been was born in no small part from my love of politics and history, inspired greatly by the beginnings of the First World War. All of Freedom and Control is informed by this, and the grappling historians have to make with dates and “great people.” There’s a fascinating debate to be had about when World War One started, and the month following the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand is rife with decisions viewed idiotic or dismaying when viewed through the lens of the future. To write a novel which examines similar questions, questions of politics and war, of industrial development and its interactions with magic, of fear and our response to it, and of course of human freedom and control, beside questions I personally struggle with (especially of identity, belonging, and personal growth) was an outlet I didn’t know I needed at the time, and one which I find time and again I still need.
In that way, Freedom and Control is a deeply personal series to me still, and one which I cannot ignore even as more immediately tantalizing or literary projects seek attention. In returning to Telgora time and again, I return to my own growth as a person and a writer, and the characters within appreciate that too.
Eilatek, who I frequently refer to as ‘my baby’ (the first ever draft of what would become A Place I Have Never Been was named for her alone), has seen and will arguably see the largest character growth of the bunch, and the longer I age and reflect on her journey the more I see myself in her in ways I did not even know at the time (so much for author intent). Within the pages of Another Time, she is able, barely, to take a breath and examine the course of where her life has brought her, and her options ahead in ways I think she and I are both grateful for—that I long for sometimes. The actual methods are nothing short of unpleasant, but the space is there and I think it’s something I am remiss about not focusing on more in A Place I Have Never Been.
What then are sequels if not, in some way, responses to their preceding works as much as they are continuations of the story? The shifting worlds and characters are clues into what authors wished they could have done better, could do better, and thankfully they are given the chance to try and be and write better. That’s the great thing about writing, and in some ways about life. It’s always about trying to do just a little better, to progress after breaths and soldier on through the arduous times. It’s about growth.
I am currently editing up the final, full draft of Another Time. Releasing the books in serialized parts has helped me keep on top of editing, and lets my friends who want to read the progress as it happens get the chance. But these full releases are the totality of that effort, the parts combined with more maps, explanations, world, and the everything a solo self-publishing outfit and do. I am beyond excited for them.
This release will be a little different. One of my dear artistic friends is creating art, my first commissioned character art, in preparation for its release. Naturally, I chose to commission Eilatek, the one character to whom I owe the most out of my currently available literary canon. Her name has changed, her story has changed, and her world changes around her every day. I sympathize with her more than I care to admit, and should take some of her own advice more often than not as my world prepares to change around me—as it always does.
Another Time
Justin X. M. Corriss
3/31/2023