Xenithar's Lair: Hikes, Costume, and Project Lineup

I finished drafting In Chaos Forged, which was a super relief, as I wanted to move on to BIV of The Legacy Incarnate: Incarnate Key. I look forward to eventually going back to and revising ICF, but that won't happen until at least after I finish writing Incarnate Key.

I say writing instead of revision because I will be rewriting most of BIV and changing much of the plot line. There's going to be some crazy stuff that our heroine Sabra runs into, stuff that will involve some ancient Liberan history and technology.

Right now my current order of projects is BIV of LI, then Book 3 of The Legend of Draconite. B3 of LoD is long due, and I'm excited to make some heavy revision on it, especially in regards to Sabra. In the original versions of LOD, I didn't mention Sabra was a witch until B5 of LoD, but in the new version of Book 3: E'lsra, Sabra will begin formal magic training with her bodyguard and mentor, the Crin Warlock Eveningstar. It makes more sense that way.

I've been thinking lately about Founders too, and I would love to get it in print again, but I need to go through both Part 1 and 2 and see if I can do more revision. Founders talks about the original Draconite warriors, as well as the ancestors of Sabra the Incarnate and High Priest Aaron, Ayaka Di'rutia and Skandar Theral, respectively. I used to have it on Lulu, but took it down in hopes of fixing it up.

I have so many projects I want to do that I probably won't finish them in my lifetime, but at least I have plenty to do!

For October and Halloween I've been donning my Resvel uniform, Ayaka's uniform from BIII to be exact. With the help of my mom I actually put this costume together back in 2013, a couple years after I drafted BIII. I had shared a picture of it on my old blog, I think, but I never specified what the costume was to my readers. The only things missing from this costume are Ayaka's badges of office to the main elven military (the Resvels ranking is the golden lining on the tunic), the sigil of Rutiatum, or the gold griffin pin, and her awesome sword Eblum.

I got some pointed ears but I couldn't make them fit on me, so I'll have to get some different ones in the future. Normally the Resvel leggings are white, but what I found showed my temple garments a bit too much, so I opted for some nice warm black sweats. All in all, I love wearing this costume; it's awesome to see something you've written about come to life, so to speak.

My only surviving photo of the
Hidden Valley hike. Love the meadows
during the cooler seasons.

I've also gone on some awesome hikes in the Ogden area lately. I hiked to Malan's Peak, which was a rigorous hike both physically and mentally, but so worth the view! It was cool and cloudy, so I wasn't overheating, although it did get darker faster in the canyon. It was a little spooky walking through dim pine forest. The Fall leaves are so beautiful up in the mountains and canyonlands.

I also hiked to a beautiful forested area called Hidden Valley up in the highland area. Unfortunately my phone seizured on the hike and I lost most of the photos from that hike, but I plan to go on the Hidden Valley trail again.