Figures of Text

One measures a circle beginning anywhere; so too let it be with blogging. In other words, I’m back.

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While most of the last two months was taken up with the aftermath of my mother’s passing, the attendant legal matters, and trying desperately to catch up on work, deli and I did manage to keep fish for fish going. The webcomic is into its ninth chapter, and while the audience for it hasn’t exactly exploded, we’re going to keep working on it and other projects. Learning how to grow a readership base is one of those other projects.

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The story so far – Pearl is one of the daughters of the Archmage; specifically, she’s his overlooked middle child. Just before the Archmage dies, he distributes his books of magic among his children, but he forgets Pearl. She ends up with a book that’s ‘not quite one of the books’ – it’s the study of Piscomancy.

Fish magic’s no good without a fish, which is why Pearl spends most of the next few chapters being menaced by various siblings, especially the demonic minions of her elder brother Onyx and her brother Malachite, who has grown innumerable tentacles since their last meeting. Pearl eventually escapes the castle by a convenient moat, where she finally obtains a fish.

The book’s first spell is the Invocation of the Tutelary Fish, which imbues the fish with the knowledge and personality to instruct Pearl in Piscomancy. Before her lessons can begin, she and the Tutelary Fish are ‘rescued’ by a singularly clueless wandering hero, Sir Avaunt, and his manservant Grenley. Avaunt mistakes the Tutelary Fish for an ensorcelled princess – he does that a lot – and so the quartet set off for the Western Ocean.

En route, Pearl discovers that Sir Avaunt was the assassin who mortally wounded the Archmage, and that there are consequences to magic she was previously unaware of. Despite these revelations, she uses Piscomancy to save Avaunt from Onyx’s demons during an attack.

Meanwhile, we learn that Onyx has taken possession of the Archmage’s castle, but his position is by no means secure, as many of the other siblings oppose his claim to his father’s throne. Pearl and her fish magic are the least of his concerns.

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It’s updated every Monday, when family tragedy allows. This blog will be updated Tuesdays and Thursdays, same proviso.

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Introductions, real life, self promotion, Webcomics