Faith and New Ideas for Death Man

The past few days have been a blur. My friend from Solstice, Faith, came to visit me while she attended the Sasquan (World Con) Convention in Spokane area. It was such a treat getting to spend time with her and she really kicked my ass on brainstorming and storyboarding for my novel. I asked her to help me figure out how the hell to make three books out of my massive missive of mischief. And she did. Now I just have to keep with it, I'm excited because I've restructured my hierarchy a little, changed some of my beloved characters' names (neither Faith nor Hannah were happy about that!) and also figured out the ten commandments of my theocracy. Pretty much I made everyone's lives a bit worse in the novel and have given the slave boys something very, very dangerous and depressing: hope. 

I have a French/English dictionary waiting for me at the Library and once I pick that up I'm going to begin fucking with the language. One of my goals when I started this Dystopian was to create a bastardized Frenchlish language similar to the Nadsat language Burgess created in 'A Clockwork Orange.' I freaking love that book. I'm going to re-read it this next week to get me in the mood for language making.

I'm going to reformulate my map of the city as well. I think for me the best thing to do will be to have a crystal clear vision of the defamiliarization of the novel before I really delve into this new draft. Now, don't worry, I'm not scraping the old draft. Most of it is incredibly workable. But I will be rewriting a great deal of it and then editing and revising from there. Which is why I need to get my ass in the chair and get going on the actual work. The novel is going to be tight. It really will be. And I know the changes I'm making are going to help. At least I'm fairly certain they are. So now I need to finish up the draft and put it away for a bit so I can work on number two and number three. By the end of this year I will have Book One of the Death Man trilogy print ready. That's my goal. I don't have much year left, however, so the pressure is on.

The Commandments of the Theocracy

1. The Luminary is God incarnate. The Luminary’s Word is Law.
2. None but the Luminary and the Elderkin may read or compose writing. Slaves, Paysan, and Gendarme shall not read or produce writing of any form. To read or write on their own is to incur death
3. Apostasy is the greatest crime and demands the highest restitution else the offending party shall die.
4. All shall attend at least one Tournament and ten executions a year and will be punished for lax behaviour.
5. Slaves must obey all commands unless it directly violates an order given by the Luminary. All Paysan and Gendarme must obey all commands given them by their Patrons unless it directly violates an order given by the Luminary.
6. All Death meted in honor of the Luminary is sacred and celebrated.
7. Women must obey and satisfy their Masters/husbands as it is the will of the Luminary.
8. Unless acceptable restitution is offered for crimes of civil disobedience, theft, fraud, and attempts to upset the social order, the penalty is Death.
9. All children born out of wedlock are slaves. 
10. There are monsters beyond the wall. No one shall go beyond the wall. To go beyond the wall is to incur the wrath of the Luminary and verily ye shall die.