Where to begin?
I began with a character from the first novel I ever attempted, Swan Song. I knew already that Keren, the main character in the novel, was an exile from his city and that he came of an illustrious bloodline, but not much more than that. I started wondering why he was an exile, and eventually wound up planning an elaborate story and family background for him that would be related as Swan Song continued.
Then I realized that the family background could make a good story in itself. I determined to write in first person, from Keren's point of view, mostly because I had read a writing article that said that first-person is a good place to begin for new writers. (Everything I have read since then says that first-person is only for masters. Oh, well). I was 14 when I began the novels, and I finished them in less than a year, which probably tells you what they're like. I personally don't think they're salvageable, committing all the sins of beginning writers as they do (long passages of description, hysterical drama, twining in incidents from the writer's own life, one-dimensional character portrayal).
Still, for better or worse, this was the place I began, and if he didn't make it through more than a trilogy as a viewpoint character, Keren at least supplied me with endless information about living Elwen. Also, he introduced me to the character I wrote my next five books about, in the second book inspired bits of the history that become my next ten after the five, and set the pattern for the race of Elwens I would up loving the best and writing the most books about.
Everyone, I suppose, has to begin somewhere, and I began here. (Prologues and chapters linked off this page copyright 1993-2003 by Anadrel).
Elwensong- Somewhat of a bildungsroman, a growing-up novel, for Keren; it covers several centuries of the first part of his life. Keren lives with abusive parents, and finds solace in his strange friends- a unicorn slave, a curalli boy, and Cuthri Rabbitsong, another young man like himself. He also acquires a foster brother, Sodiest Lafoxbane, who will commit a crime that Keren cannot forgive, and which leads to Keren's exile.
Elwenquest- This was actually an attempt at rewriting the story of Swan Song, which never got off the ground. The humans have stolen a golden swan that contains all the magic in the world; if they smash it, the magical races will die. Keren and his friend Echelli become part of a group trying to rescue the swan. Really, the conception of the swan never worked itself out at all well; I was more interested in Keren's romance with a human woman and the battle fought at the end, humans against everybody else.
Elwenspirit- Keren has lived a peaceful life for the past eleven years with his human wife and three half-human children. However, his best friend, Echelli, has been bitten by a wanderwolf, which means he will succumb to wanderlust unless a cure is found. In the process of finding the cure, Keren accidentally exposes himself to his old enemy, his foster brother Sodiest Lafoxbane, who abducts Echelli and Keren's son Esain. He races to get them back, not knowing that Sodiest isn't going to be content simply to kill him, or even just to torture him. (This book got somewhat disturbing in the sheer depths of pathological hatred that I was exploring).
