#saberbeak

[kvalenagle]

Tonight I'm thinking about... Hatzel and Zeph at the start of their adventures in Eyrie, long before Saberbeak. The last saber-toothed tiger gryphon and a tiny little copperhawk with blue eyes, abandoned by the taiga pride. Who knew how far from home their adventures would take them? 🎨 @merteazy

[rainbowbirds12]

Hello, Tumblr citizens...... I have come to scitter over here and share my art before promptly leaving........

This is my art of Reeve Brevin and Pride Leader Hatzel from the book series Gryphon Insurrection!

Bye

[kvalenagle]

Opening a scene with Stripes and all four motmots in a giant nest while the mates of two of the motmots have to sleep on the floor. "They had called her reevesbane, reeve, reeve-sister, and finally just sister, these four motmot bodyguards who would not give Stripes their names."

Motmot gryphon art by @toadalled

[kvalenagle]

Today's writing session goes out to everyone who has written asking if Satra will ever have a new girlfriend... and specifically not to the one letter I got saying Pridelord had "too many lesbians."

Little Satra has grown up so much since Blue Eyes.

🎨 DarklingDragon on Bsky

[kvalenagle]

With Saberbeak being written, I wanted to touch on more Brenda Lyons interior art, and this time we have Hatzel, a smilodon (saber-toothed tiger) plus Haast's eagle gryphon. @toadalled was very useful here in helping me to imagine how the sabers on the beaks would look. When it comes to saber cats, the sabers are an iconic feature that I never saw translated into gryphons. We tend to associate gryphons more with birds, and I wanted to really bring the cat out. Kieran was amazing with that. We looked at colors, too, even though they wouldn't be in the interior art. (You know, juuuust in case Hatzel ever ended up on a cover some day.) That brought in the influences of the black-billed magpies and Cooper's hawks that the character was closely associated with. Sister prides, if you will. I love Hatzel, and many of you have, too. There's a stereotype in gryphonic literature where there's a massive gryphon who is very full of themselves, just a brawler and a love whose arrogance and vanity are unmatched. Hatzel subverts that trope by being extremely level-headed. Whereas characters like Xavi, the denfather, are protective of the gryphlets, Hatzel protects everyone under her care. Of course, when she gets to let loose, there's no more ferocious gryphon in Belamuria. Though she gets PoV time in Eyrie and Ashen Weald, part of having such a stable character is that you're not presented with many opportunities to spotlight her, as she doesn't need to change and grow the way other characters do. It took the entire world changing around her before she earned her time back in the spotlight. With a character like this, the last of her kind (and based on extinct cats and birds), in a pride that's made up of several smaller prides, you're left wondering how she got that way. How her values were shaped by the loss of the saberbeak pride. Or, as the last ruler of Poisonmaw might say... "Family isn't who looks like you. It isn't even a feeling in your heart. It's in your beak and claws, and who you're willing to bloody them to protect."

I'm about 17k words into Saberbeak now, Hatzel's book, and I think we know who her family are.

[kvalenagle]

"This would fix me" and it's just a novel about saber-toothed tiger gryphons.

🎨 @toadalled

[kvalenagle]

What was the Saberbeak Pride like back before they'd gone extinct? One of the best parts of writing Saberbeak is getting a chance to look at the final days of this near-extinct pride of smilodon gryphons and how they shaped Hatzel into the leader she is today. 🎨 @toadalled

[kvalenagle]

I usually write snowy books in the hot summer and desert books in the freezing winter, but I'm breaking that rule on Saberbeak to write some cute gay taiga gryphons flirting in the snow.