Writing 'Colonies' Part XVII: SITREP - and a chapter from Sagittaron

 Here's the graphic:

Halfway through Book Five: Sagittaron.  The first half dealt with the arrival of the imperial forces of Virgo and Leo on the planet.  The second half picks up a few centuries later once the oppression has been codified and the people are becoming set in their ways (ways that persist all the way until Battlestar Galactica).

Throughout these books, I'm using the Messengers of The One True God as connective tissue, interviewing people from my books and the TV shows to set up, recap, ask questions, etc.  I try to use characters attached to the colony in question, of course.  There are two known characters related to Sagittaron: Anastasia Dualla and Tom Zarek.  I've used them both.  In fact, you can read Zarek's chapter after the JUMP.

Writing 'Colonies' Part XVI: Mapping Leonis, Virgon, Sagittaron

 I've been making maps but I somehow forgot to share them with everyone.

Let's go back to Book Three: Leonis:

Click to embiggen

Book Three contains two time periods.  The first part is set about 620 years after the exodus from Kobol.  The initial settlers of Leonis regressed into an agrarian society and their language became something akin to Gaulish.  (Many of the smaller towns on the map come from an ancient map I found of Gaul.)  The second half of the book is set 150 years later and the language has evolved into "Old French" (aka Anglo-Norman).  

As for the structure of the world, the book Beyond Caprica states that Leonis has only two continents: one above the equator and the other below.  It also mentions that there are several large north-south rivers and that the capital (at the time of the fall of the Colonies) is Luminere, which is obviously the name of the city Lomere several centuries later.

On to Book Four: Virgon:

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Book Four is focused on only one time period.  A time of transition for the Virgan Empire and a time of civil war.  Thus, the "red cities."  In the ensuing centuries, "Buskirk" became "Boskirk"; "Bloustaff" became "Bloustad"; and so on.  The time period means the language is based on Old English.  (In case you're wondering, "Cent" is pronounced with a "k" sound.)

The general look of the map came from the QMX map.  I enlarged the planet for Virgo from it and traced the outline.  It suited my purposes well.  (I couldn't do the same for Leonis; the QMX map's planet for Leonis differed too much from other descriptions of the planet.)

On to Book Five: Sagittaron:

Click to embiggen

That's a lot of mountains.

As described by multiple sources, Sagittaron is a very mountainous planet with fertile valleys.  Of course, from the show, we know that this particular world was exploited for centuries by the other colonies.  This evokes comparisons to our own planet, including the colonial period of the 18th and 19th centuries in Africa.

There are any number of languages in Africa that I might have used for this part of the series.  I ended up settling on Hausa, a language native to western Africa (in and around Nigeria).  They have (naturally) a very rich history and mythology which made for a great contrast against the Pantheonic "colonizers."  

Why did I choose Hausa, though, out of all the languages present in Africa?  The name of the capital city has been established as Tawa, so I searched to discover its origin.  As it turns out, there are several occasions of "Tawa" in various languages.  The one that intrigued me most, however, was Hausa.  In that tongue, "Tawa" means "mine," as in the possessive pronoun.  My initial confusion at seeing the word "mine" inspired this scene between the Virgan expedition leader and the chief of a village:

Cenric said, "There is no need to change what has worked well before.  Makau, introduce us."

The translator sighed and stepped toward the older man who wore brightly colored skins and a metallic necklace.  "This is the Duke of Sagittarius, Lord Cenric.  He has come to claim your lands in the name of the ruler of Virgo, Queen Beverley."

The chief raised up and angry chattering rustled through the crowd.  "He cannot do this," he said in their language.

The duke ignored him and said to Makau, "Ask him what this place is."

The young man asked, "What is this place?"

Defiant, the chief squared his shoulders and raised his jaw.  "Tawa."

"'Tawa?'" the lord asked.  "Does that have a meaning?"

Makau translated, "'Mine.'"

"Oh, a mine," Cenric said.  He looked around and smiled.  "Very attractive.  I believe we shall establish ourselves here.  Permanently."

Of course the colonizers would want to be near a mine, even though the chief was being defensive and saying his village is "mine."

Most of the green village names on the map feature only in the first half (which I have nearly finished).  The "resettlement cities" don't come into play until the second half, which is set a few centuries later.  

Book Five is a tragedy and, in these volumes, it serves to explain how the Sagittarons became the people we saw in BSG and also as an illustration as to how little mankind has changed.

Thanks for reading.

Writing 'Colonies' Part XV: Sitrep - Book Four is Finished (and I'm halfway done)

Here's the graphic:

SOMEHOW, I managed to write all of Book Four: Virgon in less than one month.  It's about 100 pages ... that's a lot for such a short time.  I wondered if Virgon was "too short" at that length, but the story it tells is tight, fast-paced, and exciting (I thought, anyway).  Plus, as most of Volume Two deals with the Imperial era of the Colonies (both Leo and Virgo), there would be plenty more Virgon to come.

AND, if you'll note on the handy-dandy chart, this means that eight out of the sixteen books in Colonies of Kobol are now finished.  Wow.  Halfway ... I didn't believe I'd get here so quickly.  (Note, however, that this halfway mark is somewhat arbitrary.  As far as actual pages go, I have no real idea of where or when the halfway mark would fall.  At least I won't until I've actually finished the thing.)

So now I have outlined and am ready to move on to the most exploited of the Twelve Colonies, Sagittaron:

The story it tells is necessary but probably not fun.

Thanks for reading.

Writing 'Colonies' Part XIV: Page Count

Quantity is by no means a measure of quality.  There are plenty of fans of various franchises who would agree to that.

For me, I'm trying to lay down some serious quantity and I am constantly worried that the quality may not be up to people's expectations.  Other than writing, reading, editing, writing again, etc., there's not much I can do on that front.  (And, I suppose, I could tell people, "Hey, lower your expectations.  We'll all be happier."  There.)

If you're curious about the quantity of what I've put out versus what's coming, here you go.

Lords of Kobol - Book One: Apotheosis: 206 pages
Lords of Kobol - Book Two: Descent: 203 pages
Lords of Kobol - Book Three: The Final Exodus: 260 pages
Lords of Kobol - Prelude: Of Gods and Titans: 310 pages
Lords of Kobol - Alternate: Tales from Ancient Days: 116 pages

Total for the Lords of Kobol series: 1,095 pages

Now, here's what's coming using current first draft(-ish) page counts:

Colonies of Kobol - Book One: Earth: 157 pages
Colonies of Kobol - Book Two: Gemenon: 134 pages
Colonies of Kobol - Book Three: Leonis: 138 pages

Total for Colonies of Kobol - Volume One: 429 pages

Colonies of Kobol - Book Four: Virgon: 5 pages

(Gimme a break.  I just started.)

Colonies of Kobol - Book Thirteen: Caprica: 544 pages
Colonies of Kobol - Book Fourteen: The Colony: 147 pages
Colonies of Kobol - Book Fifteen: New Caprica: 61 pages
Colonies of Kobol - Book Sixteen: Earth: 101 pages

Total for Colonies of Kobol - Volume Three: 853 pages (plus whatever Book Twelve: Tauron will be)

Total for the Colonies of Kobol series thus far: 1,287 pages

There you go.  Time for me to get back at it.

Writing 'Colonies' Part XIII: SITREP - Book Three (and Volume One) Are Finished

See for yourself:

Leonis ended up being an enjoyable exercise in writing and plotting.  How to set up a thousand-year war between two worlds ... I planted some seeds that don't begin to sprout until Book Four (which I've already outlined, as you can see).

With the completion of Book Three: Leonis, Volume One is also finished.  I made a graphic to show you how I (currently) plan to separate the books into volumes:

Yes, Volume One is "only" three books.  As that volume is subtitled Foundation, these three books had to set up all that follows.  In Book One: Earth, we set up the Final Five and their flight to the Colonies.  In Book Two: Gemenon, it's the conflict between monotheism and polytheism there that later becomes part of the Cylons' programming.  In Book Three: Leonis, it's setting the stage for the conflict between Leo and Virgo, one that shapes everything that happens in the Colonies for a millennium.

Volume Two: Evolution is just that.  How these different worlds evolve and how they are shaped by their masters who live on far away planets.  I get cracking on that in short order, starting with Book Four: Virgon.

Thanks for reading.

Writing 'Colonies' Part XII: SITREP - Half done with Book Three

Here's the handy-dandy graphic:

The first half of Book Three - Leonis went fairly quickly, I thought.  It's about the coming of Virgo to Leonis, their sister world in the Beta System, and the establishment of a unifying presence there.  I don't want to say too much, but suffice it to say that the people who led Virgo after its colonization were far better about passing along technology and knowledge than just about any other world in the colonies.  The second half continues this story a century later as Leo is more fully a vassal of Virgo and how the world breaks free of that rule, leading to a thousand years of conflict.

As Leonis has always been an analogue for France and Virgon England, I'm trying to keep a linguistic symmetry, so most of the places and names on Leo at the time of Virgo's arrival are Gaulish, minus as much Latin influence as I can muster.  The Virgo speak Latin but that is on its way out as Old English is on the rise back home.  In later books, I will transition names and words to Old English, Old French, Middle English, etc., over the centuries.  This is by no means important; it's just flavor.

Want a taste?  Here are a couple of chapters from the first half of Book Three after the JUMP.

Writing "Colonies" - Part XI: SITREP - Book Two is Finished

Here's where I stand:

Yay.

Six down, ten more to go.

Oof.  That's fatalistic.  Let me go another way.

Book Two was very fun to write.  The first half is revisiting the aftermath of the exodus from Kobol with a couple of familiar characters and getting the stage set for the next two thousand years of strife in the Colonies.  The second half takes place about a thousand years later and features the source of a lot of the conflict on Gemenon between monotheists and polytheists.  Fun to write.  I hope it's fun to read.

Next up, Book Three:

Time to French it up.