Chronicles, lore. and creative insights from the desk of Thornton Sumner.
A Sixteen-Year Retrospective
Welcome to the raw chronicle of a world's creation. While the formal pages of this journal began in September of 2011, its true genesis traces back to June of 2009. The opening entry acts as a vital bridge—revisiting and documenting in chronological order every linguistic breakthrough of the Kanar language and every world-building milestone discovered during those first two foundational years at the desk.
These archival entries are being released one day at a time, exactly as they were captured, offering an unvarnished look into the deep evolution of the Batu saga. Whether you wish to trace the journey from its very first 2009 spark or dive directly into the most recent revelations, select your path below.
39: My Collaborators
Author’s Journal: A 17 year creative journey, revisited one day at a time.
12/24/2012
It took me a week, but I just finished Mosai’s funeral scene. One more brief scene and Lost in the Darkness will be done. Mosai’s funeral scene wasn’t so brief, however. At twelve pages long, it was the longest scene in this chapter.
Beyond its sheer length, it was the intense detail of ritual I hadn’t even worked out beforehand that made it intimidating to approach. Yet I did it in a week, and I believe it’s a solid piece of work. It just feels good to have it done as a foundation for future rewrites.
It worries me some that there’s so little dialogue. It worries me some that the rituals may seem contrived, or worse – boring. It worries me that the spiritual exposition dealing with the organ harvesting lacks poetry. It worries me whenever I feel like I’m just plugging in information to define the sociology without having it directly connected to the story. I’m very paranoid about the “who cares?” factor. I can’t stand it when author’s abuse my patience and take my attention for granted, dropping in things that no reader could possibly care about beside himself.
If I don’t like to read it, I don’t want to write it. Nobody owes me their time or attention. I must make every word earn its keep, and I’m only as good as my last sentence.
So, yes. There are several things to be concerned about within this scene, but even the more problematic sequences were only a paragraph or two.
One interesting thing about the process of writing this scene is that I didn’t map it out beforehand like I usually do for complicated, ritualistic and information-rich, scenes. I had my notes, but I completely winged it in terms of how I got to where I needed to go.
For example, I had no preconception of starting the scene with Diallo by the river until I sat down and wrote it that way. Then I had to figure out why he was at the river and how to get him to the end of the scene where Mosai’s funerary pyre would be lit. I knew everything that had to happen, but not how it would happen – until Diallo showed me the way.
This is how I prefer to work. Not trapped within preconceptions with no creative excursions, but not totally out there winging it with no supports either. Preconceptions are fine (and unavoidable), but I prefer to abandon them at the last minute and breathe into it a new life by painting in a fresh way.
Present-Day Reflection
7/2/2026
I often imagine that my characters are with me throughout every stage of the writing process. In this case, Diallo taking me by the hand as he says, “Don’t be scared, I know the way. Come on, I’ll show you.” He physically tugs me then by the hand toward where he needs to be, showing me step by step what his part in the scene requires.
Like actors on a movie set who know their characters and how they should behave, often better than scriptwriters do, they can break it down for me and explain how and why things must be a certain way. I encourage this with my characters, listening to their feedback. There may be some disagreement, but in the end, I almost always do as they suggest. And I invariably regret it when I don’t.
They’re not just my co-workers, they’re my family. And as such, I’m responsible for them and their well-being. I feel their gaze upon me constantly, waiting patiently for their father to get back to works so they can live again.
38: Looking Forward to My Past
Author’s Journal: A 17 year creative journey, revisited one day at a time.
12/18/2012
Well, for once I actually finished something within the expected time frame. In fact, not only did I finish the eighth scene in one sitting, but I finished it the same night as I did the leopard attack. Though just barely, having finished just a few minutes shy of midnight.
It turned out well with all the ingredients I envisioned. Its tone was right, not overly sappy or self-indulgent. Had a few lines I’m particularly proud of. It was only 2 ½ pages long, but it’s solid.
Now I’m faced once more with two remaining scenes in Lost in the Darkness, that are daunting. Mosai’s funeral and the harvesting of his organs are the next one. It’s a complicated sequence with flashbacks, cultural details I haven’t even decided on yet, and anatomical details I don’t even have notes on.
I shall push on through it, nonetheless. But I won’t even attempt to make a prediction for how long it will take. We’ll just have to wait and see.
Present-Day Reflection
7/2/2026
I want to read what is about to come regarding Mosai’s funeral. It sounds interesting. Of course, I was there and am aware of the broad strokes of what’s about to take place. But it has, in fact, been over seven or eight years since I’ve last read it – and over thirteen years since I first wrote it – so, I’ve forgotten many of the details.
All of this takes place in Book Two: Tears of Stone, which I haven’t even looked at since I last rewrote it back in late 2017. I’ve been so focused on getting the first book rounded out into its own stand-alone book that Tears of Stone has been sitting untouched for quite a while now. Many of my favorite chapters of the entire series so far are in that book, and it’s comforting to know that there’s so much for me to look forward to when I finally move forward to the final edits of that second book.
37: A Satisfying Finish
Author’s Journal: A 17 year creative journey, revisited one day at a time.
12/17/2012
The leopard attack scene is done now. Just finished and took six days to write six pages. That’s much better than the last scene, and I think the quality is better too. Though I relied heavily on my notes taken from reports of actual leopard attacks. Not very much of it was original, save for the phrasing. Someone said that the art of genius is the ability to conceal your sources. Well, I hope I concealed mine well enough.
This was an intimidating scene, its importance being obvious. Given that, I’m pleased with how it turned out. Particularly the death sequence. The leopard attack itself wasn’t much fun, just a lot of staging and having to figure out how to describe it. Action sequences are difficult for me in this regard, and not much fun.
The next scene where Diallo watches his father die will be more “fun” for me. I have no staging or notes that limit or define my options. I can spread my creative wings and just feel my way. It should be brief, too. No reason I shouldn’t be able to write it in one sitting.
Famous last words.
Present-Day Reflection
7/1/2026
One of the most satisfying things about the writing process for me is simply finishing something. Finishing a scene. Finishing a chapter. Finishing a Part. Finishing a book. Finishing a myth or a fable. Even though nothing is ever really finished but merely abandoned. It’s enough to say I’m finished with it for now – adding it to the Batu canon and moving on to the next. Until I return and rewrite it yet again, months or years down the road.
Anyway, I’m at one of those points now with this website, having just finished my Kanar Exegesis upload and formatting. It took a lot longer than I thought it would, but it also turned out well. So, I’m enjoying that transitional pause between one project and the next, soaking up the self-satisfaction of a job well done.
36: Confidence
Author’s Journal: A 17 year creative journey, revisited one day at a time.
12/11/2012
Just finished the leopard stalking scene, and it took me 17 days to write four pages. Written from Pardos’ point of view. It feels overly contrived with too much exposition. Too much cleverness, and not enough creativity. Considering the interesting ways I could have gotten inside the mind of a leopard, what I ended up with wasn’t very inventive.
I think I went into it burdened with too many tools. Too many notes on leopards that only served to confine me. Too many tidbits of information I tried to play in. It weighed it down, damn near suffocating it. Maybe killing it.
But having just now reread it, it seems okay. Hopefully it will at least be salvageable when fresh eyes rework it. Without starting all over with an entirely different approach to depict it, I did the best I can… for now.
Present-Day Reflection
6/30/2026
This has happened more times than I care to admit, especially with the early drafts when I lacked confidence and relied too much on research. It really wasn’t until I returned to those early drafts and rewrote everything I had at the time – around late 2017 – that I began to trust my creative intuition and began to write better pros.
It wasn’t until I began writing The Ghost Frog quest though in 2023 that my confidence was strong enough for me to write chapters with only a passing glance at research notes. Writing whole chapters in a day, then rewriting them the next day. The Ghost Frog chapters were really my breakout chapters as a writer in terms of writing confidently with speed and without perfectionism second-guessing on the first drafts.
That’s when I first began to feel like a real writer instead of a wannabe.
35: Fantasy Versus Reality
Author’s Journal: A 17 year creative journey, revisited one day at a time.
10/22/2012
After a few weeks of leaving my Batu work untouched I’ve been back at it now for the past few days. I’ve been pushing through the leopard sequences for Lost in the Darkness. Went back and rewrote the fourth scene, which lacked the necessary details for reading the spoor. Spent an entire day reviewing my notes on true accounts of animal attacks (leopard attacks in particular) and wrote a step-by-step choreography for Pardos attacking and mauling Mosai. The actual writing of that scene will be within the next couple days. I also collated my notes on the ways of leopards to write the sixth scene from Pardos’ point of view, which I’m almost finished writing. And I touched up and added material to the fifth scene, where Diallo wakes from a nightmare and sees Pardo for the first time.
On an entirely different track, one of philology – in going through my notes I once more came across my old ideas for a calligraphic form of Kanar and fell in love with them yet again. I had abandoned them as being too fanciful and unrealistic for hunter-gatherers, and too similar to Tolkien’s Elvish calligraphy. But for that matter, my Kanar glyphs are also too similar to Nordic runes. So, I’m thinking about overriding my earlier judgement, purely for aesthetic reasons, and bringing back the calligraphy form of Kanar as an element in the books. I really love the look of it.
And I abandoned reality a long time ago anyway. Technically, they shouldn’t even have villages if they were really hunter-gatherers. Not permanent ones anyway. They’d be nomadic, like the Mahalia band to the south. There’s much to be said for keeping it all fun and romanticized, rather than taking it too seriously with an eye for historical accuracy. And it’s with that spirit that I make creative decisions, like using the calligraphy form of Kanar.
Present-Day Reflection
6/29/2026
As a young man, when my skills with drawing and painting began to reach the level they are now, I allowed myself to be influenced by the praise from others around me. Photo realism is a dead-end, artistically for me. Spending hours doing what a camera does in a split second feels like a waste of time, but impressing people with this magic trick kept me stuck in that rut. I sacrificed creativity and artistic expression for having my ego stroked and giving people “art” that is easy to judge as either good or bad. It either looks just like the real thing, or it doesn’t. Makes it easy to assess my skill without the messiness of subjective aesthetic taste.
I refuse to make that same mistake with my writing. First and foremost, I write for me and what I want to read. And I’m determined to err on the side of creativity and the aesthetically fanciful. We’re already living in reality, to replicate that in my art and fiction would be redundant and a waste of time. I’m not an ethnographer, trying to portray a real culture that is different from ours for mere appreciation of those differences – as Clavell did very well in Shogun.
I want to create and explore things that never were, that I think would be amazing if they did exist, but don’t. That is my taste, and I refuse to let myself be influenced by imagined critics who will have a field day tearing apart all my historical and ethnographic inaccuracies, or even the anachronisms. I try hard to create a sense of verisimilitude for the average reader who has no background in traditional African cultures, but that is as far as I’m willing to be influenced when it comes to my creative decisions with my Batu.
34: Deadlines
Author’s Journal: A 17 year creative journey, revisited one day at a time.
10/22/2012
I’m still only halfway through writing Chapter Six: Lost in the Darkness. It took me two weeks to rewrite the 162 pages I just finished with, plus three new illustrations. So, I’ve been busy, just not with new material. I have to get my head back into Lost in the Darkness tomorrow though and start pushing on through it again. My fantasy is to be done with Part Two, so the first book will be half done by New Years. But that would mean writing 2 ½ chapters (illustrated, edited, and rewritten) in less than 2 ½ months.
Not very likely. Oh, it’s perfectly possible… theoretically. But given my production history, and creative energy lately, it’s highly unlikely. But I still hope, and time will tell. Time always does.
Present-Day Reflection
6/28/2026
I’m the sort of person who needs self-imposed deadlines. If I just go with the flow and let whatever comes according to the whims of my moods… Well, to be honest I have no idea what would happen because I never do it. Even outside my Batu work, if I don’t give something a deadline it’s because I don’t care much about it. Which means I don’t keep track of it or remember the results of not having a deadline.
So, it’s only because I care that I’m able to enjoy my deadlines. On the other hand, I loathe deadlines that are imposed on me by others, because I never truly care about them. I might care about disappointing someone, but I don’t actually care about whatever it is that’s expected of me. This was usually the case with assignments in school, and art commissions as an adult, where I’m executing something I have no genuine interest in – beyond making others happy, or myself money. I hate those kinds of deadlines. And I usually resent whoever it is imposing them on me.
When it comes to my self-imposed deadlines, however, I thrive on them. I may disappoint myself when I don’t meet them, but I usually get more done than I would have without them, so I forgive myself. And when I meet a deadline, the feeling is extremely gratifying.
Every little bit of motivation helps.
33: Managing the Mess
Author’s Journal: A 17 year creative journey, revisited one day at a time.
10/8/2012
It never ceases to amaze me how quickly time can slip away for me. It’s been four months since I made an entry here. And though I finished Chapter Five: The Kulu, four months ago, I’m only halfway through Chapter Six: Lost in the Darkness. But though I’ve been creatively lazy, it hasn’t been as bad as it appears.
For example, I completely rewrote all of Chapter Five: The Kulu, rewrote and extended Chapter One: Alena, rewrote and added clarifying material to the prologue: The Yara, and have been illustrating the title pages of each of these chapters. I just finished drawing a ceremonial drum for the title page of Chapter Two: Kumbella. I also edited and added crucial material to that chapter and am currently transcribing it into a legible format.
All this rewriting is part of my desire to have a fully realized and designed Author’s Edition, done by hand but as nicely packaged and complete as possible. I spent a bit of time drawing up a cover for this, which was when I also finalized my decision to title my first book The Song of Mugasha.
And then I had some personal drama that involved my having to pack everything up and move. I mailed my Batu scene outlines to family and asked them to mail them back to me while in the midst of moving so I could use this downtime to continue working on the narrative.
So, I started Chapter Six: Lost in Darkness in the middle of my drama and was also in the middle of the fifth scene – just prior to Pardos killing Mosai, when I finally arrived at my new home, which was four days ago. Since then, I’ve rewritten Chapter One: Alena, edited Chapter Two: Kumbella, and illustrated Chapter Four: The Fever as quickly as possible so I can return to finish Chapter Six: Lost in the Darkness. Then Everything will be caught up so I’ll have my Author’s Edition in good order up to Chapter Seven: The Wounded. And hopefully get Chapter Eight: Dissolutions done too by New Years. That would make me halfway done with the first book in three months. I would be very happy with that.
So far, I am quite pleased with this polished Author’s Edition and can’t (at this time) find any fault with it. I have no doubt, however, that time will expose its faults. Time always does.
Present-Day Reflection
6/27/2026
As I reread this entry I can feel the chaos of life back then within my unfocused ramblings, leaving me with a sense of gratitude to have it all behind me. Life will always be messy, just hopefully not to that degree anymore as I move forward. I like to think I’ve got a better handle on this thing called life, and so it appears from the comfort of my writing desk these days. I’m much more stable financially, emotionally, and with far less external turmoil coming from the others I share my life with. So, for the moment, I’m able to confine most of my drama to the pages of fiction.
There’s also a lot I could unpack from this entry in terms of how the structure of my Batu saga differs now from where it stood back then, but I don’t think I’ll bother. There’s still so much upheaval and restructuring yet to come in future entries, and it’s already beginning to feel like an exercise in futility trying to keep up with its unravelling. Suffice it to say, what I was calling “halfway done with the first book” in this entry was really halfway done with book two.
Life is messy. So, it’s only natural that the process of making art should be as well.
32: Lost In the Darkness
Author’s Journal: A 17 year creative journey, revisited one day at a time.
6/3/2012
Finished “The Kulu” tonight. Eight scenes in all – 45 pages, and 14,901 words. I just reread it and its quality is inconsistent. The third scene, which I assumed would be the worst, wasn’t so bad. The fourth, which I thought would be much better, was the worst in the whole chapter. I gave too much Dougga’s background away too quickly in my eagerness to sell him to the reader. And the flora-fauna descriptions were gratuitous and irrelevant. The whole scene was too long and felt unnecessary. Needs a lot of editing.
Joyul’s characterization turned out to be surprisingly fun. She breathed some much-needed life into the dead wood of scenes five and six.
That seventh scene, where Diallo confronts Mosai about the lost Kulu, was one I was dreading, knowing how emotionally laden it would be and the importance of getting it right. But other than perhaps the pacing being a bit too fast, it turned out well.
The eighth and last scene was a last-minute decision, feeling I needed the chapter to end with a clear picture that Diallo was running away so that this chapter will connect well with the next. And I think this scene turned out nice, though not as nice as it felt while writing it. The diction felt good, but it seems that the most fun and interesting scenes to read are the ones with good dialogue.
This does not bode well for the next chapter, “Lost In the darkness”, where Diallo is alone with no one to talk to. And when he’s rescued, he’s no longer speaking. But it can’t be helped. This is the story I’m telling, and I just have to do the best I can. So far, on the whole, I’m very happy with all my writing. As a first draft.
The first person to read my work from prologue through Chapter Five: The Kulu, is a friend of mine, Steve Clark. He prides himself as an avid reader and I trust his opinion. More or less. So, when he agreed to try my work, I was curious how he’d respond.
He really seemed to like it and keeps asking me for the next installment. He’s not one to patronize people, so I believe he’s sincere when he says it’s really good work. He doesn’t want to critique its details for me like an editor though. He’s just giving me food for thought about things that were unclear for him – “Why is Ephrathah up in the trees?” I need to provide a clear reason.
But overall, I’m encouraged by the fact that he wants to know what happens next. And he also says he “loves Dialo.” That’s good. We’ll see if it stays that way.
Present-Day Reflection
6/25/2026
Everything I’m referring to in this entry is from my work with the second book, Tears of Stone. It feels weird to me to reread about things that – from my point of view right now – still lies ahead for me and my writing. All of Tears of Stone is still under revision, with several chapters yet to be written until I can call it done.
I miss my long walks with Steve. I miss our arguments, as well as his encouragement for my Batu writing. He was a rare sort of friend, and I wish I had a way to track him down to send him a copy of what turned out to be my first book, Wings of Providence. It’s proven to be exceedingly rare to find people who care enough about what I’m working on to actually read it.
Though, to be fair, I’ve only ever handed over my work to friends and family so far. And, aside from my uncle Paul, none of them are avid readers of anything. I haven’t reached out and contacted any of my future readers yet. Right now, I’m still shouting in the dark as I continue building the foundations for my platform.
I’m almost ready to start reaching out, but for now I’m just missing my friend.
31: The First Reader
Author’s Journal: A 17 year creative journey, revisited one day at a time.
5/18/2012
When I start a new scene, I look for an unorthodox angle as a hook, upon which I can enter in an interesting way. I’ve compiled all the ingredients for the fourth scene of “The Kulu”, worked out what happens, and with whom. Listed the things about Dougga’s background I want to reveal since it’s his POV. But I need an angle of attack – an approach that is creative and mood-setting. Like what I did with Wanyana’s introduction in “Kumbella”.
Present-Day Reflection
6/25/2026
It’s vital for me as the first reader of my work to be just as enthralled as I’d like my future audience to be. It’s easier said than done though when I know in advance the basics of what’s about to happen. It’s a weird form of schizophrenia as I try and come up with ways to circumvent my own expectations – trying not to let my left hand know what my right hand is about to do.
It involves a lot of pivots, constantly changing my mind about how to do things. Then following my characters and where they want to go, as well as any unforeseen opportunities in the direction of the story. The devil is in the details, and so many surprises arise at every turn due to the chemistry of countless details.
This is the big difference between daydreaming and creating solely in my head. Putting pen to paper solidifies details. Dreams shift and change very easily, and with very little internal logic or consistency. Whereas every drop of ink on paper creates the canon I have to adhere to – or go back and rewrite it all in order to make sense out of it.
It’s fascinating for me, balancing being both creator and audience simultaneously.
30: A Fool’s Hope
Author’s Journal: A 17 year creative journey, revisited one day at a time.
5/14/2012
I finally finished the third scene of “The Kulu”. What a pain in the ass it was. Dribbled out a paragraph here and there, dragging it out. Didn’t enjoy it at all. But I think I got the basic ingredients I need in there and will hopefully be able to breathe life into it on a rewrite later.
I’m hoping the fourth scene will be more fun, I already got the seed for an idea, coming at it from Dougga’s POV. I’m thinking of having him and Diallo in a one-on-one talking about Alena before seeing Kanunga and getting back to the Kulu story. Diallo’s still carrying the doll, setting it down with the Kulu, then being distracted with Dougga while Kanunga finds and picks up the Kulu.
Anyway, this is what I have to work with as I search for a way to make the scene sing – making up for that last mediocre scene.
Present-Day Reflection
6/24/2026
Sometimes all I have to arm myself with as I move forward is hope. I bolster myself with as much research as I can to provide a sense of security, trying to avoid the feeling I’m just building on air. I’ve also been known to occasionally wait for inspiration, or a fresh point of view that excites me, before putting pen to paper. I had the luxury of time in those days to do that. However, whenever the moment of truth finally arrives, all I really have to carry me through is hope.
I’ve never had much use for the notion of faith, which to my mind is a dangerous alchemy of believing and wishing. I’ve always leaned more toward Heinlein’s quip that “learning ends where belief begins.” Deep down, I don’t really believe I’m going to pull off what I’m attempting, because when have things ever gone as planned? They usually turn out better or worse. Or simply different.
So, when pushing forward into the dark with no real beliefs to light my way, shining only with a desire to get lucky and maybe discover something beautiful and interesting – what am I to call that?
29: Great Expectations
Author’s Journal: A 17 year creative journey, revisited one day at a time.
5/8/2012
I finally got back to the main narrative writing tonight… briefly. I only got a page done, taking three hours. It was the third scene of “The Kulu” where I left off four months ago. Left off right where Bakar says he’s invoking the Trial of Truth against Diallo. “Let’s find out the truth,” said Bakar – then I dropped it for four months.
Well, even though I only got a single page done tonight, and it wasn’t exceptional in any way, I’m glad I got the ball rolling again. Maybe.
I started #22 of the Kanar breakdowns but put it aside when I got inspired to get back to the real story.
Present-Day Reflection
6/23/2026
Nothing happens the way I want it to. Expectations. The greater the expectations, the greater the frustration and disappointment. And yet, I don’t see any alternative on this side of living that I want to be a part of. I’m familiar with the alternatives. The surface teachings of many eastern spiritual precepts on how to reduce suffering. I’ve tried them. Looking deeper, however, I’m forced to accept that I need my frustrations and disappointments in order to fully actualize the person I need to be. I don’t enjoy it most of the time, but it’s what I’ve got to work with.
When I first began my Batu project it wasn’t a story or a book, it was an act of desperation due to a frustration and disappointment with my own life in general. I wanted a utopia, even if only in my own mind. And it didn’t take a lot of dabbling with that to quickly find it wanting.
The Batu novels, the characters and their personal stories – it all began to emerge out of a need for frustration and disappointment. Not because I’m a masochist who enjoys suffering. I don’t. I hate it. But I allow it because, for me, enjoyment is not what living is about. It’s not what art is about. Having fun and being comfortable, having the world be exactly as I’d like it to be, is not what my life is about. It’s about finding beauty and awe despite wading through the sewage. It’s about engagement with reality, in all its ugly and miserable details. The beauty of it all isn’t just in its occasional gems, it’s in the struggle and our ability to find them now and then despite everything. There would be no point to it, if not for the frustrations and disappointments.
Anyway, that’s how I see it.
28: The Kanar Exegesis
Author’s Journal: A 17 year creative journey, revisited one day at a time.
5/3/2012
I’ve been working more this past week on the Kanar breakdowns. Done with 20 of them, 20 left to go. They’re each about a page long, but I can only manage finishing two a day at most. There are so many elements to each glyph – the translation, the principle it represents, the totemic image associated with it, the mythology behind it, philosophy, its use in divination and shamanism, and its use as a talisman. And making sure it all ties in consistently with the other 39 glyph’s mythology, etc.
It’s a slow process of sifting through my notes and integrating the most appropriate information for each one. The work is a bit monotonous, but I’m happy with the end result, so that keeps me going. It’s a lot to juggle though while putting it together, and I hope to be done with the first draft of all 40 this month.
I believe I will be where I am for at least another year. It’s my intention to finish the first book in that time, as well as the Vodun sketched, Kanar breakdowns, and The Song of Mugasha fable. If I can achieve those main objectives I will consider this year a success. So far, I’ve been wasting a lot of time though. We’ll see.
Present-Day Reflection
6/22/2026
14 years later and I still haven’t got done what I hoped to get done back in 2012. The final edits are not yet completed on the first book, Wings of Providence. The Song of Mugasha from The Napatawalata is only ¼ of the way done. And I was up until 2AM last night working on getting the Kanar breakdowns transcribed from my handwritten copies to a digital format so I can upload them to this website.
I no longer call them “breakdowns”, however. Now they’re called the Kanar Exegesis. A more fitting term for what they really are. Though there’s only 40 handwritten pages to the Exegesis, transcribing the phonetics using hex code with Word is a painstaking process. And finding a way to showcase each glyph and their iconography in an appropriate way is proving to be a challenge as well.
That being said, it will all be done in a couple of days. Or at least, that’s the plan.
27: The Illusion of Security
Author’s Journal: A 17 year creative journey, revisited one day at a time.
3/20/2012
Finished the 2nd title page mask illustration a couple days ago – the ugly one that will probably go with the third book. I see it as representing The Others that invade and displace the Batu from their home.
I’m sending it, along with my other finished artwork, to Uncle Paul to hold onto for me. He said he’d send back photocopies of those few I might need copies of for conceptual references or templates for future artwork.
I sent him The Shadow of Damu and The Song of Alodia a couple of weeks ago and just got the photocopies he made in yesterday’s mail. I feel a lot better knowing my originals are safely in Paul’s care with working copies here for me. I’ll be sending him everything I write or draw for archiving. Insurance against losing all my work should things go sideways.
Present-Day Reflection
6/21/2026
I realize security is an illusion, but it’s an important one for me when it comes to my Batu work. My life is much more stable these days, and I now keep all my archives here close to home. I have about half of it digitized on multiple thumb drives and hard drives as backup. Nothing on the cloud. Call me an old man, but I don’t trust that and I prefer to keep what’s valuable to me close to home with no dependence on outside technology working. Hence, the redundancy of even my paper archives. Backups for my backups. Allows me to sleep better at night.
26: First Drafts
Author’s Journal: A 17 year creative journey, revisited one day at a time.
3/1/2012
It’s been almost three months since I’ve written any Batu related material. And what’s really odd is that I not only stopped in the middle of scene three of “The Kulu”, but was mid-dialogue as well, which would be easy to pick up on.
So, I’m not sure what happened to keep me from getting back on track. Christmas, reading, other writing projects. I started another story: You and Me, about an alternate version of my life starting at age 16 and wrote 99 pages of it so far. Not sure if I’ll continue it or not. And I also wrote a 150-page letter last month to Gale – the longest letter I’ve yet written. Also read a few books. So, it’s not as if I’ve done nothing, just nothing Batu related.
I got back into it today, however. Rewriting and putting the final touches on the first draft of The Song of Alodia. This will be my best stand-alone showcase piece of Batu material that will be completed in a readable form and am eager to get it done.
I should point out here, there are no literal “first drafts” of any of my work in my possession, because I rewrite everything so much – starting out on scratch paper that I save for that purpose – and all the early drafts gets flushed down the toilet as soon as I write a better version. And there’s no way for me to recall how many incarnations it went through before reaching the “first draft” I haven’t flushed. Plus, my main narrative is already largely worked out in the scene outline, itself having gone through a half dozen or more rough drafts.
This current draft of The Song of Alodia had two prior incarnations that I thought were finished “first drafts” when I was done with them. What “first draft” really means for me is that I’m ready to file it away and call it done until someone else reads and critiques it for me.
Present-Day Reflection
6/20/2026
I do have several first drafts preserved that really are first drafts, but I only started to occasionally set such things aside well after I wrote this entry from March of 2012. Probably more often when I was in my zone and things were coming together relatively easy for me. As if to hold onto that mental space so I might tap back into it again at a later date.
Part of it was also for future nostalgia and my legacy archives as well. I’ve always been nostalgic and sentimental. I’m still holding onto sketches and doodles I did back in grade school when I was eight years old, always daydreaming while ignoring my teacher and her assignments. So, I guess it was inevitable that I’d eventually start saving certain chapters of my Batu work as well, showcasing their evolution from half-baked dribblings on scratch paper to final drafts.
I didn’t save a lot. Maybe a half-dozen or so chapters, at the most. Just enough to see how my process has evolved over the years.
25: Succumbing to Fantasy
Author’s Journal: A 17 year creative journey, revisited one day at a time.
12/12/2011
My hiatus from writing has extended overlong. At first, I struggled with how to open the first scene of Chapter Five: The Kulu. Knowing full well the action to be enacted int this first scene, I was nonetheless at a loss for a hook upon which I might enter into it in an interesting way.
That took me up to around 12/6 and came up with a two-page dialogue between Diallo and Bakar on the side of Overlook Hill, which was satisfactory. But that is how it has remained for five days or so.
It seems clear that this is not writer’s block but sheer laziness. In the interim, however, I have come to a somewhat important decision to extend the fantasy elements of the story a step further by creating a spiral staircase of path, carved within the trunk of the jola tree that leads from the forest floor to the village proper.
Although there are trees in the African rainforest as wide as a house that could server for such a structure, the time and effort to carve a spiral staircase in it with stone-age tools renders the idea highly fantastical. The labor involved seems to far surpass its practicality. Not to mention that it would no doubt kill the tree, probably causing it to rot from the inside-out until within a generation or two it would collapse under its own weight. Though I’m just guessing. I haven’t been able to research it. But whether it is possible or not it will remain an idea that taxes credulity, pushing it into fantasy.
I’m doing it anyway. I love the imagery it invokes, and it solves all the logistical problems of coming and going from the village proper. I began leaving reality when I put them in the canopy in the first place, but with this I am making a radical decision declaring that imagination and romantic imagery will supersede any desire to remain faithful to what is likely, or even possible. I’ve succumbed to fantasy.
The idea came to me when I saw in a magazine how a man built a treehouse with a circular staircase of iron wrapping up around a tree only a foot in diameter. That image percolated for a week until last night it boiled over into a necessity.
At any rate, my vacation from writing has at least bore this element that I really love. And now I’m determined to finish the first scene of “The Kulu” today, which was already well begun last week.
Present-Day Reflection
6/19/2026
I had forgotten how far along I’d gotten in my narrative when I finally crossed the line into fantasy by forsaking anthropological accuracy. Indeed, The Kulu chapter is the beginning of what is now the second book. This single creative decision has probably had more influence over the tone and character of the entire saga than any other decision I’ll ever make.
I didn’t make it lightly. Even back in 2011, I knew very well how big a step it would be. Just as I knew how important it was for me to make it. It wasn’t merely another feature of my story’s milieu, it was a profound declaration that I was writing this for me, and let the critics be damned. Whatever self-inhibiting golems I had on my shoulder judging every decision I made – all the experts on the traditional lifestyles of ancient African cultures, or even the artists and writers of fiction I most admire – I was telling them all that I was writing this for me, not for them. This was what I wanted to write and read, whether anyone else would or not.
It was always about me and what I wanted, not about what the rest of the world might have wanted. So, it was important for me to make a bold symbolic gesture in order to get out from under whatever influence my internal critics might have been imposing on me. For the most part.
24: Unpredictable Rabbit Holes
Author’s Journal: A 17 year creative journey, revisited one day at a time.
12/02/2011
Finally finished the first draft of Part One of the first book. Blew my deadline by two days, but that last chapter was twice as long as I planned. My total word count for the first book so far is 57,742. Been averaging 1,000 words a day since mid-October.
As for quality, it’s hard to tell. It feels good as I write it, but the initial reread is disappointing. But I need to let it sit before I can get a fresh take on it. I’m too close to it right now. Meanwhile, I’m going to rest for a day or two before I plunge into Part Two. My current goal is to have Part Two done by my birthday in February, and at my current pace that shouldn’t be a problem. But as I’m learning, you just can’t predict what the big time-spenders will be.
Present-Day Reflection
6/18/2026
Amen to that.
I still can’t predict such things, even today. Especially now that I’m on a computer and working on building this website. I can spend a whole day slipping down technical rabbit holes I didn’t even know existed when I went to bed the night before. Website deadlines are never met for me. The upside though is that things keep getting worked out so the end results are better than I initially hoped for.
Which is the only reason why I’m not complaining… much.
23: Foreshadowing Prominence
Author’s Journal: A 17 year creative journey, revisited one day at a time.
11/26/2011
Been working on Chapter Four: Twa Yal-Jukun, every day without bothering to log it here in the journal. I have 9,344 words of it done, which is over a thousand words a day, and yet I haven’t even got everyone on the river yet on their way to the festival. Diallo just got his reading from Siona in scene five. Which, by my reckoning, only puts me 2/3 of the way through the chapter. Which means it’s going to be way too long. And there’s hardly any exposition to edit out to shorten it – it’s 98% dialogue and action. Easy to improve and modify, but hard to cut without losing something needed.
We’ll see. At any rate, it’s coming together well. The spontaneous addition of Banyoro Badru was divinely inspired and helps a lot. Her free spirit helps to alleviate the uptight feeling I get from the other characters. I like Badru, and she’ll find her way back into the story later somehow.
Foreshadowing Broka, Topol, and Dugal through Bakar, Tamal, and Dougga worked fairly well. A couple of nice vignettes with them.
Deciding to turn the tables on all my preconceptions for Siona’s scene, I gave the POV to Alena, and she did a good job with it. There’s a lot of things to tweak and improve, but I believe I was right to give the scene to her rather than Diallo or Siona. It gives it a fresh twist so I’m not just taking dictation on the preconceptions and thoughts I’ve had about the scene these last couple years. If I’m bored, the writing will be boring. Going with Alena made it more complicated and more difficult, but also more interesting.
The rule of thumb may be to give the POV to whoever is most affected in a scene, but that would mean Diallo would get almost every POV. That would bore the hell out of me.
Anyway, my goal is to finish “Twa Yal-Jukun” (and Part One) by the end of the month. Difficult, but possible. I’m feeling good about this.
Present-Day Reflection
6/17/2026
It’s interesting to reread this entry where I write so casually about the introduction of characters who are now the heart and soul of the entire series. Bakar, Tamal, Dougga, and Badru may have been peripheral and relatively unimportant back then – merely “foreshadowing” their eventual status – but as the first book stands now, they are right at the center of things from the very beginning, each getting their own introductory chapters. Badru is still a secondary character, but she’s also the most colorful for me to write for. The three boys, however, get just as much fleshing out as Diallo does – despite not getting quite as much “screen time”. They’re also often more sympathetic and fun to follow than Diallo. Which probably isn’t a good thing for a protagonist.
22: A Lot Yet to Do
Author’s Journal: A 17 year creative journey, revisited one day at a time.
11/17/2011
Finished Chapter Three: The Fever. Took two weeks and 11,322 words. That makes it the longest so far. I think it will require less rewrites than the others so far though. The last scene got a good glimpse at the strained relationship between Diallo and Mosai. Nothing else though that wasn’t planned for.
Present-Day Reflection
6/16/2026
When this “chapter” was written, there was still a lot that was undeveloped. The Fever would become Part Four eventually, where every scene would become its own chapter. In addition, nine more chapters and two fables would be included. Just as I would eventually expand the other three Parts, which back then I called chapters.
The “strained” relationship between Diallo and Mosai got well established in these fleshing out chapters. So, by the time we get to the end of The Fever – which is also the end of Book One: Wings of Providence – the chapter with Diallo and Mosai becomes rather poignant.
21: Craft & Heart
Author’s Journal: A 17 year creative journey, revisited one day at a time.
11/16/2011
Finished scene six of The Fever – 1,970 words and six pages, Diallo’s prophetic dream. Not many prophecies though at this point. I’ll have to fill those in more once I have specific details and quotes that would be pertinent from future chapters way down the road. But for now, I’m satisfied. The bones of it are straight from my earlier draft on 9/29/2009. But it’s enhanced and more fleshed out now. Especially the living moth within the amulet of golden light. It’s a nice tie-in with Wings of Providence and that theme. When things just naturally weave together and mesh like that, I gain some hope that this may actually work.
Well, only one more scene for The Fever, and it’s a small one. Done tomorrow, easy.
Present-Day Reflection
6/15/2026
Things tend to “naturally weave together and mesh” more often when I don’t cling to expectations and my preconceived scene outlines. When it feels more like taking dictation than controlling the narrative and all the details I think I need or want to include. When I allow myself to feel my way into a scene rather than just thinking my way into it.
I don’t mean to sound like Yoda though, because I know very well I need to weave both heart and mind into my work with some semblance of balance. I’ve known too many artists who rely solely on their feelings and intuition, looking upon art as a purely mystical experience where they can achieve great work if they could only tap into the core of their souls. Or some spiritual creative essence, like Yoda’s Force.
The closest I can come to agreeing with this notion is how John Fowles described it. He alluded to the idea that for artists to create great art they need only make themselves great, then paint naturally. Though this reflects ideas found in Taoism, I don’t see it as being at all mystical. It requires discipline, self-development, and training before you can just let yourself go and let your subconscious perform naturally.
All heart with no craft is noise. All craft with no heart is a well-ordered vacuum. An artist might get lucky with their happy accidents on either extreme, but there’s no consistency in it. And writing novels are marathons, not sprints. Consistency is absolutely necessary.
20: Time Was On My Side
Author’s Journal: A 17 year creative journey, revisited one day at a time.
11/14/2011
Just finished scene five of “The Fever.” Took a couple days off to collate the material I would need for it, and then to think about how to make it interesting. It’s essentially an exposition scene between Wanyana and Bulala, and those can be deadly. Very hard to keep the pacing up to speed and maintain interest. Very little action, and almost all dialogue between the two women.
I think I pulled it off okay. The diction and syntax can always be improved but given the constraints of the scene I think it’s as good as I could have hoped for. We’ll see in a couple months when I reread it with fresh eyes.
This scene was 2,170 words – longer than I planned on, but that’s okay. This whole chapter will be about 11,000 words by the time I’m done. Two more scenes, one long and one short. My total word count for the whole book so far is 37,489 (not including The Song of Alodia), with a total of 123 pages. If I finish “The Fever” by 11/17 it will have taken two weeks, just like Chapter Two: Kumbella did. It’s coming along.
Present-Day Reflection
6/14/2026
I wish I had the time these days to just take a couple weeks to “collate the material” I need for any given project. I knew even back then that time was on my side, and that one day I’d look back on that period with envy. So, I never took having lots of time for granted, which proved enough to keep me on task. Usually.
Now, just having a single day without distraction is a true luxury I can rarely afford. I’m not complaining though, because on the whole things are an improvement for me now. I’ve just had to learn to better prioritize my “to-do” list and work more efficiently with what time I have – focusing on speed and quality simultaneously. Lots of pivoting in my tactics to avoid wasting time as I try to maximize output.
Though it works well for this publishing phase I find myself in, I’m hoping it’s just a temporary lifestyle. Because, though I’m far happier with my life now than I was 15 years ago, it’s not very conducive for the rumination and navel-gazing I need to produce my best creative work.
Or, at least, that’s what I tell myself. Truth is, I’m not sure. Art and creativity are still a mystery for me, where I can only speak in hindsight about what’s worked in the past. I can’t truly forecast the future with any accuracy.