Author talk, January 20, 2014

Comment’s on today’s installment

Vincens, Elven Crown Prince

Vincens, Elven Crown Prince

 

Elisa’s meeting of the Prince does not go particularly smoothly.  For those who are keeping track of elven stuff

  • The Crown Prince is from the House of Alberich.   For those who are lore hounds, you know that Alberich is the dwarf-elf whose name translated into French is “Oberon.”
  • Succession is not decided (necessarily) by birth order/oldest heir/oldest male heir.  Vincens refers to a system of succession where the next king is decided by other elves (not the King). This succession “championship” or decision considers all eligible elven (female/male) children or relatives presumably descended from the current King.   Azul briefly touched on this (without saying exactly what it was) in Chapter 6, Part B/C. 
  • Vincens claims to be from the Ice Elves.  I seem to have lost my earlier art links explaining this but this is an example of an Ice Elf.  There are Wood Elves/River Elves, then the violent Fire Elves, and the unreliable Minstrel Elves.

 

 

 

Fan Feature: Sir Grimoire

 

 

This wonderful tweet came at me last week. This week I caught up to Sir Grimoire who informed me that this piece was related to this story!  It was his significant other who somehow found me at Anime Weekend Atlanta and cued him into the first book.  This mysterious thumbnail is part of a larger work that he is creating to cover all the “Tales” stories thus far!   After looking at that first link he attached to his tweet, he kept shocking me with other thumbnails of increasing complexity and detail. (So pretty it hurts.)

These are some of the breadcrumbs he’s been dropping so far:

http://semna20.webs.com/W_preview_II.jpg
http://semna20.webs.com/W_preview_III.jpg
http://semna20.webs.com/W_preview_IV.jpg

I’m really excited to see the final piece! I keep checking my Tales twitter account every day hoping for new thumbnails to ogle :D.   Sir Grimoire is very kind and  if some of you are on Twitter, say hello to him. His artwork is otherwise featured at http://squareenixmembers.webs.com/Grimoires_Corner.htm  

 

As a follow-up, you can see the post describing the final art  here.

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Comments

Author talk, January 20, 2014 — 13 Comments

  1. My, my…I am as pleased as I am honoured to hear that my occasional details of this piece of art based on your captivating and intriguing Tales of the Big Bad Wolf have had such an impact on you. I can say the same about you and your stories, and would therefore like to present you with this particular artwork as token of mine and my lady’s sincere delight for having been able to take part of your fascinating story so far.
    I will, of course, stop by to leave more crumbs whenever there is something new to show.

    Hmm…Moreover, I believe I might as well reveal that the illustration in question will focus mainly on two considerably tsundere characters, namely…
    http://semna20.webs.com/W_preview_V.jpg
    …yes, who? The finished piece is (obviously) due on Valentine’s Day.

    • ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
      deep breath. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

      • ^_^ I’m glad that you also like Grimoire’s art as well. By the way, nice to meet you. I’m his lady that introduced him to the Tales of the Big Bad Wolf.

        I love your stories. However, I’m still at Chapter 16 of the first volume. Keep up the great work! 😀

        • ahhhha! Nice to meet you! He told me how you were reading it together and how you all ended up having to pause on the reading. I know you’re only halfway through but hope you continue to enjoy the story!

          • ^_^ Of course. I do thoroughly enjoy reading your Tales of the Big Bad Wolf. Besides, I have to catch up with Grimoire since he went ahead and completed the story without me. Then again, I’m just as guilty of reading the summary of the whole first volume without him noticing. ^_^’ Also, he happened to spoil to me that the Count and his companion are having twins. ^_^ However, life as a student can keep me very busy.

            Also, allow me to introduce myself a bit more. I hail from the South, more precisely the state of Texas of the U.S.

  2. I just now caught up with yesterdays story update. Even though I did finish the first book by the end of last year, I still managed to resist the urge to wolf down The Queen of Swans in one go. Most fascinating thus far, as expected. I certainly enjoy the glimpses of a rich world still brimming with mysteries and magic this second part provides. And, concerning the affairs of a certain Count…I believe I should leave that topic be for now. Better save some surprises. ^_-

    • more or less the written version of Red Riding Hood is a fantasy story with a veneer of fairy tales. I grew up on high fantasy and then watched a lot of fantasy anime and played or observed quite a bit of Final fantasy. When you start with those influences you almost always have a lot of stuff going on.

      This world is really huge — it really could be the subject of many stories or an IP platform (much like Final Fantasy is) but i doubt I’ll have enough time or money to implement the other things I want to do such as a visual novel “dating sim” or a manga.

      We shall see though. Maybe someday when I retire I will have the time to push things forward.

      As for the Count — At least I think he is fairly happy for now in spite of whatever garbage gets thrown his way. His companion however …

  3. Ah…Final Fantasy, ever the topic wherever I go. (I’ve just spent a few hours on my daily Square Enix customer support, news posting and “super admin” routines.)
    Even though I may only have contributed with the monster design for one of the company’s Japanese titles (Avatar Heroes), my position as a member of the NA/EU staff nonetheless keeps me busy seven days a week.

    Actually, your tale helped me solve a few riddles that had been haunting me for quite some time concerning a certain Final Fantasy title. And for that, I am grateful.

    Speaking of which, have you had a chance to try the Lightning Returns: FFXIII demo yet (released on the PSN yesterday)?

    Mh…good thing you haven’t put together a story summary of part two yet, else my own companion would already have indulged in it.

    • I would love to download that demo but didn’t realize it came out on PSN. I had seen the XBox alert only earlier in the week. I’m a little afraid to get it though.. already preordered the game anyways on Amazon and know that once it arrives I’m going to end up fighting the temptation to play instead of write or create D:. XIII-2 kept me really busy for a while but I was seriously messed up and couldn’t beat one of the in-game levels with Caius so took a break. (That and the ending spoilers just depressed me so I didn’t want to play. I’m very much in love with Noel and Serah even though I know Serah and Snow are the canon pairing. haha!)

      I also ordered the X-2 (I think) which should be coming soon too. sigh. DOOM FOR ME AND WRITING.

      I’m curious btw about what the riddles you were contemplating might be?

      And as far as your regular job duties – 7 days a week is a lot of work. Do you ever get time off?

      As for part two — a summary I think won’t happen until a few more chapters in. I am trying to drop both stories into one place before things move/shift in the second half. I was asked to do this with book one and thought about it as I know some people want to “keep up” or lose track of stuff. I’ll think about it though before the action swings up. Just gotta wrap this chapter up and one more with the Wolframs and then I think I’m moving into the second act.

      • Oh, don’t worry – I am mostly doing this on my so called free time, which has me face the same grim fate as you: in the end, there is not much time left to actually play games.
        So, Caius caused you trouble? Feel free to ask me for gaming tips should you run into any difficulties with your two new additions to your game collection.

        Merely some phantoms of days of old. To be frank, I was trying to make up the connection between some characters in my mind…not to mention in my heart.
        Your story made perfect sense…especially from a personal point of view.

        I see. It will be most interesting to see how the story and its many mysteries eventually unfold. And, again: take your time. Do, by all means, make sure to find time enough to explore the vast worlds of Nova Chrysalia and Spira.

      • ^_^ I believe you should try the demo of Lightning Returns. After all, you’ll be able to get free cool new outfits for Lightning in the main game.

        • OHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. Okay, I’ll at least start the download . Haven’t updated my PS3 though in a while so this could take a while to finish.