I have a confession to make. When I started this journey, it was easy creating and developing characters that would become the main and supporting people in Just One. It was also incredibly fun that I have since created characters you haven’t even met yet, for an entirely separate story within the same universe. I have created variations on this, trying to plot an angle in which this story should be told and failed, until finally settling on some characters that will not only prove relevant in the future installation of Just One: Conspiracy (this is just a working title, to be honest), but has also given me a few ideas on wat happens next in the main storyline after book four…
On the other hand, creating location has never been my strong suit. I’m a fairly visual person and I have to be able to picture in my head before I can put into words. It’s almost always inspired by something I have seen, and somehow blended into something new.
Long before I though about the planets, I knew that my species would be divided by – eyes. For a very long time I didn’t know why they were divided by eyes, until dear Uncle Connor began to explain to our young characters, and it made sense as the words formed (this is where I am a pantser despite the early plotting, and this has been a subject of this blog in the past). Even when I wrote the fan fiction, I know there was a world called Ryctor which was gone, and the story had much to do with this world. Everything else about the worlds came after as I reinvented Just One.
The constellation we talk about here doesn’t quite have a name yet, but it has been visible within the first book and discussed. In truth, there once eight planets, and this is something that will be explained in detail. Each planet had different eye colours, representing a planet. So eyes. The idea behind this was simple enough. My aliens are humanoid. The subject of little green men may come up but more of a pop culture reference point as I have been brought up on Star Wars and Star Trek and I do live by the belief that there are many different species out there and if humanoid life developed on Earth there is a chance that somewhere out there beyond our reach, something similar occurred. This belief manifests within the Just One universe where majority of my aliens won’t be *that* different yet there will be signs.
One particular race within this universe, which will be mentioned later stands out in their appearance but majority of time, we will be talking about extraordinary eye colour and strange names of characters which were invited by a simple rearrangement or alteration of letters.
Just One focuses primarily on the small town of Colletown, which is the main setting within the first book. A small mining town, that sounds a lot like Eveleen Collins’ last name (for good reason). In Just One, in particular, you will be able to get to know this little place, its streets and landmarks and where our characters reside or hang out.
There will be glimpses of distant planets but not in much detail as memories can be a fickle thing, and we, as humans, wouldn’t remember a whole world when we’re remembering a particular part of our past but maybe the room or parts of it as the memory unravels. This is how the two main planets of three first books – Ryctor and Hadin – will be portrayed throughout the first book though I can promise you right now that as the series progresses, we will be exploring the worlds, species and use brand new characters to dive deeper in the constellation.
As always, I hope you enjoyed the read and tune in again next week for the next rendition of Inspiration Monday. For the time being, this will be the only written blog section which will cover all previously existing topics (except quotes, because I love quotes).
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Until next time…
~ Love, L.V.
L.V. Luca 