TPS concept sketches. Credit: Tori McKenna
Concept Art: The Padmin Stone
The Padmin Stone
Excerpt: Scenes from The Padmin Stone
“Fari is the reason we got all this training equipment here!” Shaw yelled. “You all saying we contributed nothing? Go back to the ocean and paddle boats around and swim naked with blassina all day or whatever you do in Tigan. See what I care! Pooski take you all!”
My head came up. “The sea serpent? I thought he was a joke.”
Pooski concept sketch. Credit: Kristen Wilde
Shaw turned her glare on me first before yelling at Meska again. “He’s not a joke, and he’s going to unleash his wrath on your family, Meska, if you don’t start playing this game right!”
“All right, let’s all calm down,” Melli, acting as referee and disturbingly dressed in his training uniform, which no one wanted to see on an old man, said.
Shaw sat down with a thump and a growl.
Pooski concept sketch. Credit: Tori McKenna
Concept Art: The Padmin Stone
With the cover artwork in its final design stages, I wanted to share some old sketches of the Padmin Stone. This was created by a friend years ago and has served as a source of inspiration for me as I’ve worked through various drafts. At some point, I’m hoping to work with my cover designer to get a 3-D version!
Excerpt: Scenes from The Padmin Stone
She spoke quietly, words I couldn’t make out or understand, to a man glimmering fuzzily behind a shimmery veil. The darkness hung thick around the veil…actually thick, like the man had emerged from sludge. Coldness begin to creep into my body, a sense of not right, and not just because this absolutely could not be happening, but because whatever I was seeing, it wasn’t good. It didn’t come from someplace good. It came from a place of wrong, a place of darkness, a place of….
Evil. Pure evil.
My head began to feel as thick as the sludge and started to prickle. I backed away, unable to take my eyes off the freakish scene, unable to move any faster.
The Inspiration for Padmin
I’m always curious as to how an author got his/her novel idea. We all know the story of J.K. Rowling “seeing a skinny, black-haired boy on the train,” and the story of Suzanne Collins being inspired by flipping between reality TV and the news. Everyone has their own story about being inspired.
Mine starts in May 1999. I had a dream where I was wearing this battle patch, from a war. I drew it the next day at school, and even though I have no skill whatsoever at drawing, I had a very clear picture in my mind of what this patch looked like, and I thought of it as a pendant. Later (I don’t remember how much later), I was on the bus riding home from school, and I remember exactly where the bus was, and the idea came to me: a girl finds a necklace that is connected with royalty in another world. On May 26, 1999, I started The Padmin Stone. I still have that notebook with that handwritten beginning. It is now unceremoniously being used as a to-do list because adulting. The story now isn’t even remotely similar to what I started writing, but that notebook, and the memory of my inspiration, holds a really special place in my heart, because this story has been with me through so many years. I’ve always had a story or two going my whole life, stories I’ve abandoned or completed and forgotten about, but this is the one I’ve always come back to. Its world and its characters are so real to me.
I’m really looking forward to the day when I can share it with others. Not just my friends, family, betas, and critique groups, but my intended audience: teenage girls who feel down about themselves. In an upcoming post, I’ll talk more about that goal in-depth, because it is very important to me, and it’s a message I think teenage girls really need to hear. I don’t want them to have the self-esteem issues lots of us had. I want them to be confident in themselves, no matter who they are.
