This one is going to be interesting to talk about. I'm definitely no stranger to being inspired by other people's thoughts or musings, but it's been a while since I've been so motivated to continue on with an idea like this one. But for now, let's talk about book one in what's planned to be a duology.
WHAT'S IT ABOUT—
Sanguineous Salvation is quite the mouthful, but it's a short story that takes place in a fictional Italian village where protagonist Fiore Iandanza grew up, left, and is now returning to. While away, Fiore learned a great deal about the world, especially about things that have no logical or "reasonable" explanation, and when they return home, they soon discover that their esoteric knowledge can be put to immediate use.
This is a fun little short story that clocks in at 16 pages of readable content, and again, there is already a sequel planned that I more than likely won't work on until next month or the one after. (Oh god, it's already the end of the year...)
THE PROCESS—
True to the nature of the book itself, this is rather short to talk about. This was inspired by a tweet thread. I had initially planned for it to be a regular blog post just as something to write and be done with, but I needed the excuse to get back into desktop publishing as I would be using my digital storefront again relatively soon. So, I thought "Why not?" This was something short to knock out, but I ended up playing myself. Again. While writing it, I thought that this would be a standalone experience. It was only while I was making the graphics that I realised "Ah, fuck..."
So, here we are! I did end up going back into the document itself to add some loose foundations for what would come in the future, but largely, the key scene was the begging and supplication in the forest. I wasn't sure whether I wanted this moment to be explicit or not, so that's why it ended up toeing the line of suggestive/slightly more intimate.
With the sequel, however, I do plan to go into a bit more about Fiore's educational background and bring more of the blood and spice that I was looking for.
On that note of Fiore, the initial opening for this was a lot more somber. This was going to be far more... medieval, for lack of a better term, with Fiore returning as a priest-like character who dines with the villagers, gets the beat, and then goes to deal with the creature. I stopped because I couldn't make the overall poetics work consistently with what I was trying to achieve. That and it started to remind me a bit too much of a good friend's current WIP, so I had to completely scrap the idea and try again.
We often line up in the things that we want to write as we either directly encourage each other or we just creatively synchronise from years of exposure, but this felt too close to something I was familiar with. I'm so much happier with the end results as this has my signature on it and is something I can easily build upon. I'm looking forward to the sequel, which will be called The Sweet Hereafter.
ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS—
I have no real plans for the sequel at all. This project is seat-writing, so I'm making it up as I go along. I have things that I want to touch on and scenes that I want to hit, but this is a project I'm very much writing in the moment. Honestly, I'm more concerned about what the graphics will look like for the sequel than the actual content itself.
That being said, I already know that I'm going to have fun with it because it will have blood rituals, ritual sex, and touch more upon the esoteric, which I write so well.
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