Summer Camp Prep 2025 Aaaaaahhh
Looks frantically at a calendar. It's that time of year already????
Anyway, welcome back to the Mortal Lands for this year's annual Summer Camp challenge! I'm super stoked/busy/frentic this year, but I'm looking forward to writing, just as always!
I'm gonna slam some more in here later, but I wanna get at least *some* of this done so I can say I was productive.
Anyway!
How interesting it is that this is my first theme, when I recently pulled out a character focused around cooking for a class activity! Calgary, who has had a pseudo article since I first launched the Mortal Lands some 3 years ago, may finally get his own entry this year! He is a Bodaci who loves to cook, and owns a little cafe called the Last Chance. He was originally a background character, but is now the feature of a children's series I want to write that includes recipes for kids to make with their parents. (And teach good moral lessons along the way!)
This isn't the first time I've written about food, either! Tiny Tia's Taco Truck was a fun article from last year that I'm going to fit into a book one way or another. There's also the The Legend of Sabi'ik, which tells the story of one of the Tlecti's traditional foods. Every signature dish has a good (or hilarious) story behind it!
This being said, Nourishment is not confined to mere food! Our own souls are constantly in need of nourishment, as is our self-esteems and creative processes. I look forward to seeing what comes of this year's prompts!
As for the homework; Yeah, the Mortal Lands needs a major clean up. I'm going to archive many of my older articles that don't directly relate to any of my current works. I'm not deleting them; they'll be back someday! But right now I have a lot of miscellaneous concepts and not a lot that directly ties to a written work, planned or not. I want to tighten up the Mortal Lands and make it an easy introduction to the world, not a ramble.
This one catches me a little off guard, to be honest. One of the main themes of the Mortal Lands is pilgrimage, and the transience of our journey through mortal planes; this was never meant to be our permanent home. Still, there's a couple thousand years of history to sort through, along with generations of clans who have staked their claims. The The Goodvich Family, for example, is a near thousand-year old family with some of the closest ties to magic in the Mortal Lands. Then there's the Dalreme royal family, whose lines has remained unbroken for nearly as long. Generational ties aren't the only roots, either; I've got WyrldWalkers that roam the Mortal Lands, but not all of them move....
As for the homework: I need to check what the homework is.
Do not ask me how long it took to figure out how to spell metamorphosis. I recently wrote a short story for an anthology that hints at a metamorphosis for certain characters; ones that are foundational to the Mortal Lands. However, only a select few know their secret, so I don't think I'll reveal that particular plot twist yet. Still, the process of changing from one thing to another is not foreign to the Mortal Lands; we are creatures of change, after all. But I want to take a look at how countries metaphorphosize: how do the ruins of one country develop into something new? How does culture change when the geographical borders do? How fast is the process meant to take place? There's some cool concepts to explore here!
Homework: I've been so out of touch with WA recently it's not even funny. I've got a lot of reading to catch up on, along with the 'crate' of books I want to read. I'm starting a mini-library in my classroom of Christian and catholic authors, but I still like to pre-read books to be sure of the appropriate content level for my students, as I get the entire school through my lab at one point or another. I've got a few recent additions to pre-read, and a book I picked up to read over the summer. (Witches Abroad by Terry Pratchett) But it looks like I need to add some other articles to my reading list.
...anyone got any good suggestions?
This one's actually kind of funny to me. As much as I use a 1920s Art Deco/Art Neuvau style for The Mortal Lands, It is actually set in the far distant future of our own world. It becomes a strange mix of timelines where our future is their past, yet their past is our future. The 'Tomorrow' we are almost living today, of Intelligent programs and robots and travelling the stars, is but the most distant of memories in the Mortal Lands. As such, 'Tomorrow' has a very different feeling for them; they have technically seen 'tomorrow', but aren't ready to grasp it. Their tomorrow is 'hopeful', but the ability to sail the stars again is still beyond their reach. At the same time, we as the reader cannot predict what their tomorrow will be like with any accuracy, as their path through history is different from our own, as much as it is similar.
All this to say, They are not worried about the distant future just yet.
Homework: This is the point where I acknowledge that Grad School Homework (Arguably the more important homework as I'm paying for it) has been kicking my rear so I don't have much in the way of Summer Camp Homework: I am going to be flying by the seat of my pants.
I do want to set up some better processes for creation though, especially with image creation. I refuse to rely on AI, but that means setting up some templates and themes to have a consistent art style across the World.
Anyway, welcome back to the Mortal Lands for this year's annual Summer Camp challenge! I'm super stoked/busy/frentic this year, but I'm looking forward to writing, just as always!
I'm gonna slam some more in here later, but I wanna get at least *some* of this done so I can say I was productive.
Anyway!
Theme #1: Nourishment
How interesting it is that this is my first theme, when I recently pulled out a character focused around cooking for a class activity! Calgary, who has had a pseudo article since I first launched the Mortal Lands some 3 years ago, may finally get his own entry this year! He is a Bodaci who loves to cook, and owns a little cafe called the Last Chance. He was originally a background character, but is now the feature of a children's series I want to write that includes recipes for kids to make with their parents. (And teach good moral lessons along the way!)
This isn't the first time I've written about food, either! Tiny Tia's Taco Truck was a fun article from last year that I'm going to fit into a book one way or another. There's also the The Legend of Sabi'ik, which tells the story of one of the Tlecti's traditional foods. Every signature dish has a good (or hilarious) story behind it!
This being said, Nourishment is not confined to mere food! Our own souls are constantly in need of nourishment, as is our self-esteems and creative processes. I look forward to seeing what comes of this year's prompts!
As for the homework; Yeah, the Mortal Lands needs a major clean up. I'm going to archive many of my older articles that don't directly relate to any of my current works. I'm not deleting them; they'll be back someday! But right now I have a lot of miscellaneous concepts and not a lot that directly ties to a written work, planned or not. I want to tighten up the Mortal Lands and make it an easy introduction to the world, not a ramble.
Theme 2: Roots
This one catches me a little off guard, to be honest. One of the main themes of the Mortal Lands is pilgrimage, and the transience of our journey through mortal planes; this was never meant to be our permanent home. Still, there's a couple thousand years of history to sort through, along with generations of clans who have staked their claims. The The Goodvich Family, for example, is a near thousand-year old family with some of the closest ties to magic in the Mortal Lands. Then there's the Dalreme royal family, whose lines has remained unbroken for nearly as long. Generational ties aren't the only roots, either; I've got WyrldWalkers that roam the Mortal Lands, but not all of them move....
As for the homework: I need to check what the homework is.
Theme 3: Metamorphosis
Do not ask me how long it took to figure out how to spell metamorphosis. I recently wrote a short story for an anthology that hints at a metamorphosis for certain characters; ones that are foundational to the Mortal Lands. However, only a select few know their secret, so I don't think I'll reveal that particular plot twist yet. Still, the process of changing from one thing to another is not foreign to the Mortal Lands; we are creatures of change, after all. But I want to take a look at how countries metaphorphosize: how do the ruins of one country develop into something new? How does culture change when the geographical borders do? How fast is the process meant to take place? There's some cool concepts to explore here!
Homework: I've been so out of touch with WA recently it's not even funny. I've got a lot of reading to catch up on, along with the 'crate' of books I want to read. I'm starting a mini-library in my classroom of Christian and catholic authors, but I still like to pre-read books to be sure of the appropriate content level for my students, as I get the entire school through my lab at one point or another. I've got a few recent additions to pre-read, and a book I picked up to read over the summer. (Witches Abroad by Terry Pratchett) But it looks like I need to add some other articles to my reading list.
...anyone got any good suggestions?
Theme 4: Tomorrow
This one's actually kind of funny to me. As much as I use a 1920s Art Deco/Art Neuvau style for The Mortal Lands, It is actually set in the far distant future of our own world. It becomes a strange mix of timelines where our future is their past, yet their past is our future. The 'Tomorrow' we are almost living today, of Intelligent programs and robots and travelling the stars, is but the most distant of memories in the Mortal Lands. As such, 'Tomorrow' has a very different feeling for them; they have technically seen 'tomorrow', but aren't ready to grasp it. Their tomorrow is 'hopeful', but the ability to sail the stars again is still beyond their reach. At the same time, we as the reader cannot predict what their tomorrow will be like with any accuracy, as their path through history is different from our own, as much as it is similar.
All this to say, They are not worried about the distant future just yet.
Homework: This is the point where I acknowledge that Grad School Homework (Arguably the more important homework as I'm paying for it) has been kicking my rear so I don't have much in the way of Summer Camp Homework: I am going to be flying by the seat of my pants.
I do want to set up some better processes for creation though, especially with image creation. I refuse to rely on AI, but that means setting up some templates and themes to have a consistent art style across the World.
Worldbuilding around food is always fun! Have fun with Summer Camp and best of luck with all your goals!