#tu stuff

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The Fire That Froze → I felt the shadows approach me, one last time, and within them crawled and called the nightmarish monsters of my heart. Soon, I’d be like them, enjoying the freedom that was the privilege of cruel, wild things.

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thank you so much to everyone who has reserved a copy of The Fire That Froze or reblogged my post about the Story Peak competition on Inkitt. yesterday, the last copy was reserved and it’s now been taken off the site and will be considered an official entry. 

thank you again for all of your help and support! i literally could not have done any of this without you :-) 

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In your book TFTF (ch. 3), the taltos and Gezte talk about the story of a prince falling in love with a monster, the shutger, and then basty. Are these stories/myths that you created for your story or are they Mongol mythology? If so, could you link some articles to read up more on them? :) Another curiosity I have is regarding the names you gave your characters & why you chose it :)

As I mentioned, I took some liberties with the mythology. I read up on the Magyar mythology first, but decided to focus mainly on the Tengriist and Shamanist traditions in Mongol and Turkic mythology, as these are older and seem to be the “root mythology” of the area, so to say. All of the stories and creatures featured in the book are based off of actual myths from these mythologies. The gods, too, are taken from the Tengriist pantheon (with TFTF mainly focusing on Gok Tengri, Umay and Kubai). You can find most, if not all, the creatures on this wikipedia page. As for the myth about the prince and the monster, I can’t seem to find it, but I remember that it was an actual myth :-) 

Not all the characters have Magyar names, but Merse and Gezte were both named with the help of this site. These are the major characters whose names are of Magyar origin:

Geszte – used for strong women; ‘oak’

Merse – Armenian origin meaning ‘lord’; ‘prince’

Aranka – diminutive of ‘gold’ (Hungarian: ‘arany’) 

Virág – ‘flower’

Tavaszka – ‘spring’

Harkány – ‘uncertain’, possibly ‘woodpecker’ (Hungarian: ‘harkály’) 

Gezte’s name is picked ironically, in a way, because she isn’t very strong throughout the book, and her parents definitely weren’t concerned with her strength. Virág’s name, too, is misplaced, but makes some sense when you’re introduced to another character whose name also means ‘flower’. As for Harkány, the uncertainty refers mainly to his many conflicting emotions (Harkány is possibly the most emotionally developed character, now that I think of it). The rest of the names are pretty straight-forward. 

Some of the characters that are encountered later on in the story have names from different culture, something I did consciously as they would not belong to the same tribe as the main characters (fx Tañsilu [’beauty as evening-red’] and Temür [’iron’], both of Tatar usage). Gezte and Tavaszka are named after the same tradition as Merse’s tribe because their tribe lived in the same area as Merse’s until they became refugees. 

I hope that answered your question! :-) 

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Loving your story The Fire That Froze. Did you have to do a lot of research on Mongolian culture for the story? If I may ask, what was it like for you writing The Fire That Froze (the emotional process & all)? Hope that ques makes sense.

Thank you so much! It makes perfect sense, I’ll try to reply in the best way possible :-) 

The process behind TFTF was the most organic one I’ve ever had writing. The inspiration, as I’ve explained before, came when I was in Budapest, where I learned that the Hungarian language, like the Finnish and Japanese, have Magyar roots. I also visited a cave church with a stature of the first Queen of Hungary, who has definite Magyar traits; broad cheekbones, almond shaped eyes, long black hair. The Magyar people were one of the major Asiatic tribes that roamed Mongolia, Russia and Hungary before Europeans arrived, and this history was so new to me, so intriguing, that I couldn’t wait to work with it in whatever way I could. 

So, in order to build up the culture of Merse’s clan, I began by researching Magyar culture. There were very few websites about it, but I managed to gather extensive knowledge on naming traditions and the Magyar pantheon. Because it fascinated me so much, I was carried away – I read about Caucasian mummies found in Northwest China from several hundred years B.C.; I read about the rich ecological life around Lake Baikal and how in Ancient times it was a trade hotspot; I blended my knowledge on Magyar culture with knowledge from other tribes that were known to roam Siberia and Mongolia in ancient times, and learned about the ties between the Ancient Mongols and the Ancient Turkic peoples. With that knowledge, I managed to extend on my Magyar pantheon and folklore with ancient Asiatic-Turkic beliefs. 

Then, I had to learn about climate. I read up on Lake Baikal, on Northern Chinese nature, googled topographic and climate maps of Siberia and Mongolia. I did this as I went – starting with the place of Gezte and Merse’s meeting and following them north, drawing and redrawing routes that would take them to a place that matched my ending scene in climate and weather conditions. I especially used google maps, both the image function so that I could build a visual setting before writing out a scene, and also the “route” function so that I could somewhat calculate how long it would take to cross a certain distance. 

This was the research aspect, and it’s what took up by far the most time. There were long nights where my head felt like it was exploding or I wanted to cry because I got something wrong that messed up the entire plot, and I had to go back and rewrite tiny details to make it correct again. 

The process of actually writing it, however, was so easy. Gezte’s character was amazingly clear to me – she’s more of a concept, all of the characters are, and getting into her head was never an issue. I was drawn into the world without any effort, I just arrived there, the plot unfolded before me, and I just had to do my best to keep up. I think that’s why it’s so short, I felt like I was sprinting to keep up with myself, my fingers didn’t move fast enough over the keyboard. 

It’s the first book that I’ve loved all the way through. It’s not flawless, but I’m proud of it, and I’ve never doubted it. Usually, when I’m finished, I hate the story and my writing and that’s what launches me into a new project, but with this one I’m kind of stuck. I can’t leave it behind, I feel like I’m not done with it. I can’t escape it and I miss the days that I spent writing it.

I really hope that answers your question! I did my best to explain it, but it’s such a strange, personal experience that it’s hard to put it into words :-) 

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[click image for larger version] yesterday, I entered my literary horror novel in Inkitt’s Story Peak competition for a chance to get published. it needs a hundred readers to read it for it to be taken into consideration, and the books with the highest readers satisfaction will win. for more about the novel & the competition, check my post here. to read the fire that froze, click here. 

image cred to jim nelsen, beforethey.com.

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the fire that froze moodboard. click to read. 

In ancient Mongolia, a young woman fights dark forces to save her unborn child.

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hey everyone!

i’ve recently (3o minutes ago to be exact) entered my novel, The Fire That Froze, in Inkitt’s Story Peak contest. it needs 100 readers to read the story – the stories that do the best in readership satisfaction will get a publishing deal. 

The Fire That Froze already landed in second place in Inkitt’s Harrowing contest for horror stories, thanks to your help, and has an average 5 star rating. now I turn to you again for your help in this contest.

if you’re interested, you can learn more about the contest here and read the story here. you’ll have to click “get free copy” to read it (there are 100 available) but there’s no download involved. i imagine the inkitt team track how far and how quickly you read it, or look at your reviews. 

if you want to know more about the story, here are some character/novel aesthetics I made, and here are some thoughts and praise from tumblr readers. I’ll be posting some new visuals for the novel soon.

important: the story is a historical fiction/horror, and there are some gory scenes and scenes of vaguely sexual nature (consensual), just as a trigger warning. 

feel free to reblog and/or tell friends about the story if you liked it, and have a nice day! :-) 

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summer vacation has begun and i’m rewriting my novel, the fire that froze (prev. the unforgivable). for that reason, i’m having this game: 

send me a ♕ if you want a line from my novel or a ☆ if you want a fact about it

you can read the full third draft here