One of the most interesting elements of writing a story within a world like this is trying to balance how much of the greater world we want to share with the personal beliefs of those we’re following. Last week, we got a minor reference to the legendary Ermehn hero, High King Aeslid, who some Ermehn believe Hardin is a reincarnation of. Ermehn religion is polytheistic, similar to the ancient Greeks, though different in that all Ermehn deities are based on individuals who were, at one point or another, mortal.

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Hardin, as evidenced last week and this week, doesn’t appear to hold much weight to such things. He takes pride in his actions, and doesn’t like the idea of his great works being credited to somebody other than himself. This is where the balancing act between the wider beliefs of the Ermehn culture and Hardin’s own belief system come into play; figuring out just how much of each to work into the dialog is always a tricky situation if we want to keep the conversation moving at a realistic pace without characters expositing too much. As with real life, it’s also important to know that Hardin’s and Ashtor’s personal beliefs may not be the same as others around them, even if all Ermehn are brought up alongside a certain foundation of beliefs.

Speaking of bringing things up, you might have noticed a certain new link up at the top of the page!

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That one right there! Give that there link a click and you’ll be taken straight into our BigCartel store, where you can grab the book, our Shark Hunter print, or an enlarged “mini-print” version of the postcard image Rachel and I showed around at NYCC last year.

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I know a few of you have noticed it, because I’ve been sending out new orders of books EVERY DAY this week! The implementation of international orders a few days after the store went online resulted in EVEN MORE orders, which was totally awesome. Hopefully everybody who ordered their books gets them soon!

Oh, and for international readers looking to order stuff from the store, the USPS click-and-print service doesn’t appear to recognize non English-Standard characters like ß and ø. If you can, please make sure that your addresses are written in their English equivalents for maximum streamlineitude (I fudged it a bit with the first batch of orders, so hopefully everything works out okay there).

Next week there will likely not be a page right away — hopefully we can at least get a fun “Gone to Baltimore” image up :)

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That’s right! Next week, Rachel and I will be at Baltimore Comic Con! In… well, BALTIMORE!

We’ll have a table set up in Artist’s Alley, number A106. It’s actually a pretty great spot, right on a corner near a main thoroughfare. We’ll have books and prints for sale, and we’ve also got more than enough bookmarks to last all three days of the convention (last time I ran out partway through the second day — whoops). If you bring your book, we’ll both sign it — Rachel will even do a little doodle in it! I’ll probably do my usual [insert sketch by a writer here] thing.

So remember! A106! That’s A as in Alex, and 106, which is the atomic number of Seaborgium. Now you’ll NEVER forget it!