I get people who ask me where I come up with the ideas for my novels and stories in my Portals Series.
Since I already wrote blog posts on both The Keeper of the Key and Last of His Kind, I figured I would talk about Portal Seeker in this post. This is my favorite of my novels, because, well, the main character in this story became so much larger than life in my mind. But I am getting ahead of myself.
Here’s the book on Kindle (but it’s also in paperback) – I love this cover!!:
Even though they are the heirs to the Dynasty of the Realm of Original Magic, twins Tetyana and Xavier remain exiled for fear of what they could become. They languish in their banishment, cast there by their mother, who fears them like she fears no other, for they could become more powerful than even she is.
Bound by common ancestors and common magical powers, Solilune and the twins are thrown together in a race to find the answers and the magic that they seek. They also find that they must protect the realm from a darker force that seeks to destroy magic as they know it.
Backstory On This Novel
As I was writing Last of His Kind, in introduced Solilune (Sol – Lee – Lune), or Soli (Sol-EE) as he is more commonly known. He inherited the darker, more sinister magic of his ancestor, the necromancer Erynnion (Uh-Ren-EE-un), who was the antagonist in the first novel The Keeper of the Key. This dark magic made him an outcast in his society, which had banned any magic associated with Erynnion and his ilk.
Soli’s story needed to be told, especially the story of why and how he becomes the Portal Seeker. I also wanted to flesh out a bit of a back story on how that magic, and well, all magic, was created in the worlds I was creating. So I did so when I created the Realm of Original Magic and the inhabitants that lived there, particularly those who are the protectors and keepers of magic, the original Seekers.
But if I type too much, I might give away the story, and I’d love for you to read it instead *wink*!
The inspiration for this story seemed to just flow out of me. I had started writing it when I was still substitute teaching four years ago, but I kept hitting mental road blocks. I wrote a little of it while I was working my previous job, but the stress from that job (touched upon in this blog post) kept me from having the mental head space to do more than just dabble. It wasn’t until I started my current full time job in February 2021 that things really started to pick up writing wise for my story and the inspiration just seemed to flow.
I borrowed heavily from mythology again to create some of my characters and the magic behind them, but I also researched a great deal about depictions of Wisdom/Spirit magic and Dark magic in particular to create the world in which these all co-exist and are actually used for good. This story took a great deal of research, but I enjoyed doing that research.
Names:
Douglagal (Doug-LA- Gall) was the original Dynast of the Realm, and his name stems from Douglas, which means “dark or black waters.”
Most of the other named characters that are descended from him have some sort of name that stems from meanings that are light. Synthesia (from Cynthia, goddess of the moon), Luciana (means light), Xavier (meaning bright). Adryanos was pulled from the name Hadrian “dark one” and was named in the same style as Titius from The Keeper of the Key since he’s related to that character
The two exceptions are Rouena and Tetyana. Those two characters just seemed to name themselves in my mind. I tried to change their names….. but nope, the voices told me not to!
Even the Bearers of Magic that I created have names that are important.
Melisandra (and Liandan) were names I collected back in high school for a fantasy novel that went nowhere special except for a short story that I posted long ago that you can read here. Liandan Melisandra was going to be the head of the gray women of Mach Coyral. Anyway, Liandan came from Liadan, the gray lady in Old Irish mythology (I told you I was into myths!). I later discovered that the name is also a minor goddess in Chinese lore. Melisandra came from Melissa, meaning “honeybee” in Greek and I thought that was a beautiful name for a woman (pre Game of Thrones of course!!) I then used Liandan as my online handle in my World of Warcraft days. I am often called Lian to this day by the many friends I made on that game. I thought the two names were suited for the Bearer of Spirit and Wisdom and her daughter.
Eathelin means “noble waterfall” in Old English and stems from the same name-collecting stuff I did for Liandan and Melisandra. The proginal character was also in the storyboarding I did for that project that never saw the light of day. It also was used for one of my alternate characters in my gaming days and I felt it suited the Bearer of Nature. She is often a fickle thing, but she’s very formidible. She’s not seen in Portal Seeker but she is referenced. She actually makes her first appearance in The Last Druid and will play a big role in my upcoming novelette, Luna.
Qwyddion (quid-ee-un) comes from the Welsh story about Gwydion, the trickster magician. I was trying to come up with a strong name for the Bearer of Elements and stumbled across that myth. I loved my version of the name and thought Qwydd (quid) was an apropos nickname for the creator of all things elemental. Like Melisandra, he plays a huge role in Portal Seeker and is in many of the novellas as well, since he is a main character in the nameless village.
Finally, Gorgonian was the name I settled on for the Bearer of Sorcery, the Lord of Darkness (but not evil!) His name stemmed from the Greek myths of the Gorgons, in which the etymology of their name came from the word meaning “terrible”. The Bearer of Sorcery is indeed a terrible (formidable) person, though he is not even seen in my published works (yet….), aside from his sleeping form in the novella Emissary. But he is not evil. He is just the creator of the magics of darkness, which balance the magics of light.
Anyway, that’s where and how my ideas came to light. As I already stated, I didn’t intend for Solilune and the stories to become as large a part of my world as they are now…. but I am glad they did. It was how I was able to learn to find the magic in a moment and keep on writing these stories that came into my mind.
Perhaps one day I might tell how the stories of the novellas came around. But for now, this ends my tale.
Stay magical, readers!
This is post 12 of 13 for the Name Your Number Writing Challenge I am partaking in this month. Want to know more? Just click the hyperlink!
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K. S. Wood Writes 
Love the backstory and history of the book and characters in the making! What people don’t know about the “behind the scenes” of the written work, hey? 💞
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Indeed!
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