Prologue

This new style is…not easy. I’m trying to be aware of and curb my issues–sparse description, rambling structure–and the going is slow. But so fun! It’s hard to comprehend. I mean, I was certainly enjoying writing Joss. I’ve enjoyed everything I’ve written; otherwise I probably wouldn’t have written it.

Fidelis though–wow.

Oh. Figured out it’s not urban fantasy. Urban fantasy is contemporary. This is apparently set in an alternate New York City at the turn of the century.

Do you know what that means? 😀 That means it’s steampunk.

From Wikipedia:

Steampunk is a subgenre of fantasy and speculative fiction which came into prominence in the 1980s and early 1990s. The term denotes works set in an era or world where steam power is still widely used—usually the 19th century, and often set in Victorian era England—but with prominent elements of either science fiction or fantasy, such as fictional technological inventions like those found in the works of H. G. Wells and Jules Verne, or real technological developments like the computer occurring at an earlier date.

When I realized that’s what it was, I realized I hadn’t set my story firmly in time and place, and I needed to do so. Looking back, I didn’t see anywhere in the story I could lever it in.

So I wrote a prologue. I’m rather proud of it.

Beneath a blizzard more violent and vigorous than any living had yet seen, the city of New Yorke huddled upon itself and trembled. Winds wailed and snow flew stinging and none set foot outside who had opportunity to avoid it. Those with gas heating praised the modern conveniences, while those without prayed to God that their fuel would last. And all who knew alchemy or augury, sorcery or thaumaturgy or witchcraft, felt the crackle and spit of wild Magic spurring the tempest and wondered what was come upon them.

Bwahahaha…