Fantasy in Ancient Egypt?!

New vlog after a… brief delay due to job switching and depression :’)

For those who aren’t able to watch, here is the transcript:

Guys, I am raging in the station. I don't much like the holidays. This year is no exception. Oh, and what's that sound? Is… is that the sound of the people singing? Wait…. wait! Let me join you!!!

[Brief interruption for apocalypse]

Ah, I almost forgot. I'm stuck in this box. My only escape is making up worlds to escape my own. I was planning on talking about the story I'm working on anyway.

So, I guess it's healthy to process emotions by turning them into stories. And this past month, I found a really raw inspiration for the story I've been working on. It's now a story about betrayal.

Ah, to be beholden to the whims of a dastardly overlord, capitalism. One must be content with their lot, I suppose. No job, no healthcare. But I can still write fantasy stories about it all. You can't have my mind yet.

Anyway.

Right now, my story is called The Dog Who Swallowed Millions. And here's a pitch for it!

Featuring a hidden world fantasy, we meet Mehru, exiled from home through no fault of his own, and forced to live in a culture his own family thinks is repulsive. Which, honestly, isn't hard to find because they are munikin and think all humans are repulsive.

Mehru wants to believe that family must have good intentions even though his uncle is lying to the humans about his shifted shape being god touched and taking advantage of hopeful young girls. It might just take an act of true divine intervention to teach Mehru otherwise. This is a story about what poisons arise when one must keep their true self hidden.

What damage do we cause by betraying our own beliefs for the sake of a broken system?

And that's that. So, it's a historical fantasy set in ancient Egypt's fifth dynasty. Uh, that's about 4,400 years ago. This was when the pyramids of Giza were about 100 years old.

So, I started with wanting to write a story about broken systems. Mehru's grandfather is a powerful lord who uses his authority to control everything. One day, he gets upset about something Mehru's father did and decides to show that he can do whatever he wants and no one can stop him. Thus, Mehru, pettily, gets sent to live in Egypt with his already banished uncle. Now, Mehru has to keep his munikin ability to shapeshift hidden. If he reveals it to humans, he'll be breaking sacred laws and his own people will punish him.

But it's not just the munikin he has to fear. If he steps out of line and displeases his priest uncle or the other Egyptian priests or scribes or heaven forbid the pharaoh himself, he'll have a whole other set of worries to keep him awake at night.

Both systems that Mehru lives within are rigged against him. But he has hope that he can do something from within, that there is good that can be done even in awful circumstances. But will he find out how? Or will he just be another nameless body lost to history? You'll have to stay tuned to find out!

But I'm looking forward to the whole thing. Thinking of posting my story online somewhere like Royal Road. And when it's done posting, I'll compile it, clean it up one last time, and then make an ebook and an audiobook version to offer to anyone who'd like to support me. I was also thinking of selling handbound copies that I make myself to help raise money for the next project.

So, this project is going to be funded by my own savings for my day job. I want to hire a book editor and also voice actors for the audio book. And I want to have custom music made for the book trailer. So, yeah, it's going to take a while. Like I said, I'm not rich and I have bills to pay. So, the savings will be slow. I want quality over quantity. And I'm hoping to make a pipeline that I can repeat for my next story. And hopefully the next one will be easier because I'll have learned a lot from this one.

Speaking of grad school, my first semester is over and I passed. Yay! I did two classes this semester while working full-time, and it was a lot. I got my bachelors while doing full-time work and school, and unfortunately feel like I forgot a lot of it because it was so stressful. So, being older and hopefully wiser now, I decided to drop down to one class next semester. It's hard to work and go to school at the same time.

It's also just like stupid expensive to go to school in the US right now. Doing one less class will give me time for other things like grant and scholarship applications and… bathing! And it'll be a lot more affordable for me. I'm also paying for everything by myself right now.

Well, that's all I got for you today. Hope your new year goes well. Year of the horse, baby!

Stay safe out there.