Oren's Forge PG 394 (Patreon)

With the end of that scene, it seems like a good spot to take a short break.

So, next page will be out the 27th.

BOOKS: I am planning on putting some of the new soft cover copies of Oren’s Forge Vol 1 up for sale on my ko-fi sometime soon-ish, whenever I can get my ducks in a row (I can only ship to the US right now, I’m sorry.) I’ll make a separate post when I do (with WIP stuff) and have a code for a Patreon discount if anyone wanted to grab a physical copy.

I’m going to turn off comments for just this week. I honestly hate to do it because so many of you are thoughtful, funny and kind. Right now, I don’t necessarily think anything I’ve written below warrants a discussion (at least, one that pops up in my inbox). Part of why I am taking next week off is I’m spending time helping a family member prepare for a potentially serious medical thing and I want my focus there. Thanks!

>This next bit is in response to some arguments in the comments, so feel free to disregard!<

Just a “quick” note, covering some story stuff—

I get it if some people are frustrated by the story. It’s okay— not everything is for everyone, and also, this story is meant to be read in one sitting. In a perfect world, I would retreat into the woods and come out after nine months and drop a book at your feet. I can’t do that, though. Things can look granular and oh-so-wrong when you take a book page by page, paragraph by paragraph, sentence by sentence. If it’s not for you (or not for you right now) no worries.

When my partner first read the draft of this book, she got to this point and, outraged, said, “You KNOW Swift will never be redeemable, right??” to which I asked, “Does she need to be?” and then my partner finished the draft and saw the whole picture and all those pieces fall into place. She was satisfied. I soldiered on.

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I don’t think Swift is an irredeemable cartoonish villain— I think she’s exactly as she’s always been: stubborn, choosing the path of most resistance, relying on brute force. And— yeah, she’s an apex predator in a world of “lessers.”

To better illustrate: We don't have sentient apex predators trying to kill us all the time (yay) but class is a social striation not entirely dissimilar in human context.

Imagine if Swift was a billionaire (the apex, the top .1%, those who fear no laws, no destitution) and she wanted to build a data center in the Hollow’s backyard. Do you think listening to them beg for her to NOT do the thing she wants to do, a thing she’s never been challenged on, a thing she’s never been denied, will fundamentally touch her heart? It’s not a perfect analogy but I think it goes a little way toward showing the disconnect I think an apex predator would have from the plight (or even threat) of the things she eats. They are not “people” to her; they are resources to be consumed.

I think change comes to some people only after a complete breakdown/hitting rock bottom/ego death. Swift (is/was) a fully functioning apex predator. Her rock bottom is somewhere in the subbasement and she has a long way to fall. Love her or hate her, she is who she is and you can relish in her fall or cheer for her redemption (or both).

As for decrying that Swift is lucky— yeah, certainly she is, but her whole spiel about “I am good at hunting bison” is to demonstrate that she is good at you know, hunting. Dodging. Not getting stabbed or kicked by animals with a lot of range. There are less lucky wolves in the story. If Swift was one of them, she’d be dead and we wouldn’t be talking about this. (I’d also argue that Swift’s luck has probably run out, friends.)

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Killing Sibyl was rough but it isn’t at a whim. It wasn’t for ‘shock’ value. (Every time something divisive happens/someone dies I lose readers, so suggesting it’s to somehow shock people is a little silly. Why would I do that.) My motivation is to tell the story I am telling. Sprig dies in the story. So does Sibyl. So did Quanaq, Craic, Yarrow. So will many more.

(Note: wolves kill porcupines by flipping them and eviscerating them since they don’t have quills on their bellies. I didn’t really want to show intestines everywhere. That felt gratuitous. But maybe I didn’t show enough.)

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I totally get being frustrated with Rask. I find him frustrating right now too because he doesn’t actually know who or what he is. He’s pretty upfront about that, really. He’s a ball of clay that I so badly want to be fired but the world’s hand is still shaping him, alas.

Like any young adult/college age kid, he decides one day it’s time to actually be himself. He says “Ah, I will be an envoy! I shall bridge this predator-prey gap. That is what I will do with my life. It feels important and I have been inspired by my one cool professor to pursue a career in the humanities.” It’s nice when you’re young and you’ve figured out a few things, you're free from your parents, you know yourself as an individual, and you have a (narrow) vision of not only how the world is, but also how it should be. You do not yet know how much you don’t know.

To me, Rask right now is the folly of youth, inexperience and exuberance of “figuring it out” meeting the sharp edge of reality. He sees the path clearly for once and boldly goes on only to stumble. That is life. It’s how he will actually become who is growing up to be; it is the recovery from failure that makes us who we are.

If Sprig’s death provided the reality-check lesson of ‘prey are people’ and ‘killing people is probably wrong,’ Sibyl’s death adds another layer of complexity to Rask’s relationship with the world, specifically who dies and who kills within it. It is nascent morality: from black and white to gray, from gray to texture, and from texture to terroir. We internalize our experiences and eventually we become.

There’s a scene later (two, really) that I’m proud of that lets Rask unpack and (dare I say?) grow, but alas (insert frustration of reading week-to-week.) Sorry he screwed up his attack on Swift and got scared. We are so often weak before we are strong.

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Sibyl’s death effects so much more of the narrative than just Rask. Her death fundamentally unbalances the Hollow in a big way.

Consider — Oren was disgusted that his fellow rabbits would not stand up against wolves in Oren and the One-Eyed Wolf. He went away, he found a land where prey does not run but rather sticks up for itself. He brought the idea back and started the Hollow. Hemlock and Sibyl were early joiners. Hemlock feels the world will only be safe when all the predators are gone or driven away. Sibyl felt it was not about being safe from monsters, but living in a world where no one is monstrous. These are two very different world views and one has (effectively) collapsed.

How does this change Oren? He has what he wanted way back then— prey that won’t run, prey that will fight— but also people he wants to keep safe and he is faltering at that fundamental goal. Fighting back ≠ staying safe. There’s a missing piece.

Oren is not necessarily internalizing that realization with healthy perspective as we see with his shift in ideas. It’s no longer “Don’t be scared,” it’s “You should be scared.” What does Oren do when he can no longer adhere to the beliefs he built the Hollow around? What kind of leader will he become?

And of course, where does Rask fit in now? Who is he in a world that demonstrates monsters sleep just fine? Will Rask pick up Sibyl’s mantle? Can he possibly champion that all people, even the apex billionaires, are still worth saving after what just happened? Does he choose hungry passivity, or the Hollow spear, or his own teeth? Or is there yet another way?

Most importantly, what about THE BEAR!

(And yes, Hemlock will be back. Very soon.)

I do not think humongous societal cross-species change happens fast or easy. I know the neat bow tied at the end of this narrative but mountains need to be moved to get there. And the story is about moving the mountain, not necessarily about seeing the view from the top.

—

So, real talk here, I get a max of about three days to layout a page and sit with it before I have to commit. “Fight scenes” are about 10 times as hard for me to layout as anything else. Pages with multiple characters add hours to each panel. I’m sorry if some of the action was not as clear as it could be but in my opinion, it’s better on the page than never. You can criticize the art — my layouts, whatever— to your hearts content and I may skim those comments but I don’t read them. I’m by far my own worst critic. I know what should work on. I know for a fact artistic improvement doesn’t come from reading disjointed criticism.

So, sorry I guess if it looks like Swift jumps too far or someone doesn’t react fast enough— I am constrained by both my skill and the medium. It isn’t film where I can easily show two things at once happening concurrently, and my skill is metered by the time I have.

Anyway, I am going to just go quietly back to doing the thing I do. I’d love to have you along for the ride if you’re enjoying it! Until next time!