Category: The Kasverse

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The Main-Focused Items in Unredeemed

In the story Unredeemed, there are more than a few items mentioned that either help the main character reach her enlightenment or, sadly enough, torture her. I bet you can not guess which items do which of the two things!

But anyway, I had three of the top items made by the Solocs using pieces of their gods. I did this so that empathy, power, and the sadness of the gods could be tangible, even though Airya and those gods were years apart from each other. The last item I created in order to also create a link that needed to be made for various plot reasons.

All of these items were painted by Colin Moore Alvarado and more in-depth information can be found with the links below. Also, if you want to buy the book Unredeemed to see how they fit all together, click on the title in this sentence or here!

Items Made By Solocs
The Shackled Eye of Brillia

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The Conzeal Stran

This scene is a scene from the book Unredeemed, and honestly, I am blown away by how well Colin Moore Alvarado was able to capture it. This is one of the prints I would love to get printed on a metal slate to hang on a wall one day.

This scene takes place in The Conzeal Stran. To read more about the depth of The Conzeal Stran, click below, but I came up with this place to create a mishap with Airya’s powers and to up the emotional tension that would later weave into the relationship arc between two of the characters.

Because we love the art so much, we created a bookmark for it and a mug! You can click on the pictures to see the full item.

I am serious that this wonderful piece by Colin will be hanging on my wall one day, and I can’t wait.

More about The Conzeal Stran
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Strigiformes

This is another lovely piece of art by Colin Moore Alvarado that shows the Strigiformes who had made their way into Ausrine and laid the eggs that birthed the Solocs. This is a concept that I honestly don’t remember how or why I came up with it. It was one of those ideas that played like a movie in my head, as if the world I was building was telling me what I needed to write down. I am happy I did, though. I have a love for these giant creatures and how the Solocs’ lives were shaped because of them. Their height can be shown by the little bits around the rocks that look like runes.

If you want to read a little more about them or about the Solocs and Ausrine, click on the link below.

Strigiformes
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Yelluks

 Colin Moore Alvarado created the concept art for this creature belonging to the Kasverse, called a Yelluk. It is a giant worm on the planet Delloc and appears in our book Unredeemed, where our main character, Airya, deals with it. I made this creature because I wanted something to up the tension and pacing for Airya while she was in Nokia, on top of wanting her to do something to gain respect from the king and queen there.  

Yelluks
Unredeemed
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Airya

I just realized I never introduced the main character of our standalone Unredeemed. Everyone meet Airya! Colin Moore Alvarado made Airya’s art, which we love. We decided for this picture to put her in the attire she acquired from the King and Queen of Nokia. She is a Yellow Eye and is the only one left of her kind. From Ausrine she obtains powers that let her travel to other worlds. Traveling to those other worlds with her owl companion, she learns about colonization and opens her eyes to what happened in her own kingdom.

I have received great comments from readers about how much they enjoyed Airya and her character growth in Unredeemed. If you want to read more about her background and everything attached to her history, please click the link below. It will take you to a page full of information about her!

All About Airya
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Hethei

Everyone meet Hethei!

Hethei is the sidekick to the main character Airya in our book Unredeemed. He is a cute little owl with special powers that match the main character’s. He is adorable, lovely, and is very opinionated.

The whole reason that Hethei exists is because of my youngest daughter, Dawn. She would not speak or make a noise when she was a baby. It was then that my crazy imagination went, “Hmmm, what if she can only speak to owls?” One night after this thought, I came up with a princess who had an owl companion. The story didn’t end up being a type of story where the princess can only speak to owls, instead we went with a deeper narrative on colonization. But Hethei wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for that spark of thought, thanks to my youngest.

Colin Moore Alvarado made this beautiful piece of art for us that we greatly adore.

If you want to dive into Hethei’s tragic backstory, feel free to click on the link below.

Hethei is also on our Unredeemed bookmark that you get for free if you order a paperback directly from us. We also have a cute pin of him, which I listed!

Hethei’s Backstory
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Nokia

Let’s start this off by saying that this beautiful piece of art is by Colin Moore Alvarado. Creating this piece of art was a challenge for both of us, but Colin never gave up, and this is what became of many weeks of hard work. The biggest challenge had been trying to capture this magnificent viewpoint.

This is Nokia. A kingdom where a brother and a sister rule as the Brillia King and Queen. If you want more information on the kingdom, the link is below to take you to a page all about it.

I would love to say that Nokia came from a particular idea, but it came from many random ideas I had that I put together. Then, while in the kingdom, I let my mind roam. It was fun creating this. What brought about this kingdom, in general, was needing a place linked to a particular item that the main character needed to find that also brought her to a place that was a little different from her world and challenged her heart along with her beliefs.

If you want to dive into the fantasy aspects of this kingdom where a brother and sister rule as the Brillia King and Queen, click about Nokia below. If you want to be taken to the book where this place is adventured, we attached the link to Unredeemed. Also, there is a link for a mug we made of Nokia with Colin’s signature and also a tumbler with the same concept. 🙂

About Nokia
Unredeemed
Mug
Tumbler
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Behind the Scenes of “Father’s Odd Requests”

“Father’s Odd Requests” started as a writing prompt that wanted the beginning of a story to start with a father’s two requests. When working with this prompt, I let my mind run wild, which was fun. I thought to myself, what are two very odd requests that a dead father could have (because I like things a little dark), and then built my story around that. I love how it opened a whole creepy, whimsical world filled with mystery and how that world helps begin the journey for a son who was never close to his father.

“Father’s Odd Requests” is about a son and a daughter who set out to fulfill their father’s odd requests, which are finding a certain “Ice Blue” cotton candy to put at his grave along with a coin that he always carried in his ankle. After that, they are supposed to videotape what happens to show their mother.

This truly amazing artwork with so much detail was done by Eli Cuaycong. I really can’t believe how he was able to bring this story to life with just one scene. It’s one of my favorite art pieces, and I am so excited to have it up on our wall when we move in the near future.

My plan and hope is to expand on this story that takes place in The Kasverse. I truly cannot wait to watch James grow and uncover his father’s secrets.

If you want to read this story about a son’s connection with a father who has passed, feel free to click below.

Father’s Odd Requests
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Behind the Scenes of “Whispers of the First Witch”

“Whispers of the First Witch” is a short story about a girl who has lost her mom and follows the whispers that took her mother to hopefully find her again. It was a fun story to write and even more fun to work with Eli Cuaycong on this art piece to bring out the creepy factor of the story.

How this story came to be was with a picture prompt about a year ago! The picture we were given was of a piece of playground equipment called the witch’s hat. You can see that piece of equipment behind the creature. When I began to write the story, my mind took me back to when I was a child, and how we had the same equipment in our small town. I loved playing on it and used to imagine it taking me to other places when I would spin with it, especially at night.

In the story itself, the daughter sees her mother as she was before but does notice that her mother seems slightly different. For this art piece, we brought out what the mother really looks like inside as she is trying to coax her daughter to come to her with whispers.

This story takes place in The Kasverse and has strong ties to Wyreli, which will be visited in later stories and is where all of civilization, demons, witches, and the world truly started.

If you want to read this short story, you can click below to be taken to its page on my website.

Happy spooky reading!!

Whispers of the First Witch Story
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Behind the Scenes of “Oceana Estate”

This is concept art by Julija Gumbryte for my short story “Oceana Estate,” which is a small spooky story written in lyrical-like prose. This story started when I was doing a group where we were given a prompt and only a couple minutes to write a quick story with it. I believe the prompt was “last house on the left.”

I enjoyed writing this short piece and also enjoyed working with Julija. It was her idea to bring the houses closer to the character.

If you would like to read the short story, all you have to do is click on the picture, and you will be taken to the page we have set up for this special short story.

Thank you everyone for everything.