Kitsunes of Darkwana

I described, last week, a few of the creatures that you will encounter in my novel series, Diaries of Darkwana and how those creatures relate to Japanese mythology.

I will, today, describe the most prevalent creatures you will find in my series. Folklore calls these creatures “kitsune,” but many versions of these creatures exist in many different mythologies across much of Asia.

I, armed with a creative license, picked and chose amongst those mythological factors want I wished to incorporate into my novels.

Let’s start with the word, “kitsune.” A person ought to spell it the same single as plural. I found this confused some readers, so I added an “s” whenever I made the word plural.

Mythology often pictures kitsunes as half-human half-fox. I create the female kitsunes in my series as full-blown anthropomorphic foxes, while the males exist as half-breeds—humans with fox tails and ears.

Kitsunes in my series may mate with humans, kitsunes, or kitsune-human half-breeds.

Male offspring arrive, with one exception (Mordechai), as either human or half-breed.

Female children (with the exception of Rebecca) arrive as either full breed kitsunes or full breed humans.

Female full breeds, consequently, prove more powerful than their half-breed counterparts. This creates a power shift in gender roles. Titles, as a result, possess a feminine ring, regardless of the person who holds that title (more on those titles in a future post).

Most folklore depicts kitsunes as shape-shifters. Some stories suggest that kitsunes could only switch from the form of a regular fox to that of a person with fox traits, such as fox ears and tails.

Many stories portray kitsune as giant, multi-tailed, fox-shaped demons.

Diaries of Darkwana offers only a few shape-shifters, and the effects of two of them prove limited.

York can transform only from her usual form to a larger, beastier body (and back again, of course).

Yuki Onna can transform her body from flesh and fur to other substances, such as diamonds, provided that she touches a sample of such a substance during her transformation.

Buthaynah stands as the only true shape-shifter, which seems strange given her frankness and inflexible personality. She can turn into anything and anyone—but she cannot change her tail, which must remain unchanged for reasons I’ll explain in a bit.

Buthaynah exists as a purple-furred, brown-eyed kitsune who drinks Scotch, smokes fat cigars, gambles, and insults her opponents with phrases such as, “twat waffle,” “ass-hat,” and “dick mitt. Her vocabulary stands at odds with that of her clansmen, many of who speak regally.

Buthaynah also exists as my favorite character from my series. I often feel as if I exercise little control over her. With Buthaynah, I serve as a reporter, not an author.

In Japanese mythology, a kitsune can grow up to nine tails. She or he grows more powerful with each tail.

I use this in my novels. The kitsunes of Darkwana frequently gain new tails throughout the series. Whenever a kitsune evolves a new tail, she or he also evolves new, supernatural abilities. My kitsunes cap out at nine tails.

I manage to incorporate this also in my upcoming card game (Duelists of Darkwana), which I based upon my novels.

Since tails serve as the source of their owner’s magic (called “fox fire”), Buthaynah cannot shape-shift her own, lest she lose her ability to change back into her normal form.

Many kitsune clans live in Diaries of Darkwana. Each possesses a unique headquarters, history, family crest, specialties, and customs.

The Inari Clan stands as the most prestigious, but all clans (with the exception of two) hold membership with the C.K.C. (Council of Kitsune Clans).

These separate clans and their customs serve as the subject of next week’s post.

See you then!

I publish my blogs as follows:

Mondays and Thursdays: Short stories at martinwolt.blogspot.com

Tuesdays: A look at the politics of the entertainment world at EntertainmentMicroscope.blogspot.com.

Wednesdays: An inside look at my novels (such as Daughters of Darkwana, which you can now find on Kindle) at Darkwana.blogspot.com

Fridays: Tips to improve your fiction at FictionFormula.blogspot.com

Sundays: Movie reviews at moviesmartinwolt.blogspot.com

The Creatures of Darkwana

My fantasy series, Diaries of Darkwana borrows heavily from Japanese mythology. Today, I’ll discuss a few of the creatures I adopted from that mythology and their roles in my novels.

Let’s start with tengu.

Mythology often depicts these “mountain trolls” in possession of either a ridiculously long, red nose or a bird’s beak. Mythology almost always depicts them with wings.

Tengu in my novel series, Diaries of Darkwana, appear as humanoid birds, with large, white wings, fingers and toes armed with black talons, and orange beaks.

Tengu appear in various folklores while in possession of a ha-uchiwa, a type of magical fan.

While the tengu in Diaries do not wield such fans, another character named Sparrow, who appears in my first novel (Daughters of Darkwana), possesses several . . . let’s say “special” fans.

Tengu make their first appearance in the fifth book of Diaries (entitled Deceivers of Darkwana). They serve as the former slave owners of a kitsune clan (more on kitsunes later).

The mythological tengu possess the ability to change their shape at will (often into human or bird form). They do not do this in Diaries.

Many tengu in mythology possess (control) and torment humans. Such stories tell of a tormented spirit named Sasaki, who, in his rage, projects a giant image of a big-nosed, winged demon. Remind anyone of a certain antagonist from the Japanese manga, Naruto?

Stories exist of a land called tengudo, which belongs to the tengu. In Diaries, tengudo exists as a range of mountains in which the tengu take refuge after their kitsune slaves revolted against them.

The slave revolt serves as old news by the start of the fist book, Daughters of Darkwana.

Many specific tengu (too many to recount here) earn mention in the old mythologies. Many of these characters (each afflicted to some degree by my creative license) make appearances in books five-through-seven of Diaries.

Tanuki (not tengu) exist in the real world as a creature known as raccoon dogs. They also exist in the world of myths. A tanuki, in the latter, serves as trickster god with a power set similar to a kitsune’s own.

In Diaries, only a single character, named Tanuki, appears on behalf of these deities.

In Diaries, Tanuki appears as an anthropomorphic raccoon giftwrapped in chains and surgical dressings. My Tanuki serves as an assassin who specializes in summoning creatures via “summoning strings” (more on those in a future post).

In mythology, kodama serve as small spirits that live inside trees. In Diaries, they exist as human-sized creatures that appear as if constructed entirely from different types of plants. We meet the first one in book four (Duelists of Darkwana).

The kitsune proves, of all the mythological creatures that make appearances in Diaries, the most important.

A large sum of the characters in Diaries exist as kitsunes (you should spell this word the same singular as plural, but I add the s at the end for multiple kitsunes. Many readers found it confusing if I didn’t).

I enjoyed such a wide creative license with these creatures that they alone stand as the subject for next week’s post (Wednesday).

I publish my blogs as follows:

Mondays and Thursdays: Short stories at martinwolt.blogspot.com

Tuesdays: A look at the politics of the entertainment world at EntertainmentMicroscope.blogspot.com.

Wednesdays: An inside look at my novels (such as Daughters of Darkwana, which you can now find on Kindle) at Darkwana.blogspot.com

Fridays: Tips to improve your fiction at FictionFormula.blogspot.com

Sundays: Movie reviews at moviesmartinwolt.blogspot.com

Why Promote?

Shortly after I published my first novel, Daughters of Darkwana, on Kindle, I sat back, crossed my fingers, hoped for the best, and soon realized that crossed fingers amounted to squat.

“If you build it, they will come,” doesn’t fly. Write, rewrite (X1000), edit, publish, and promote. Promote like crazy.

Many of my fellow writers look down their noses at self-promotion, as if the activity sits beneath them, a cheap, desperate activity. All those writers hold a commonality: obscurity.

Let’s start with the accusation of “cheap.” You bet your ass it’s cheap. You can now accomplish for free what used to require your lifesavings, thanks to the age of social media and cyber networking. Take advantage.

As a self-published writer in cyberspace, you can’t kid yourself; you stand very “desperate.” Desperately promote. Desperately take every opportunity. Desperately build your brand.

Those aforementioned obscure writers claim that your writing ought to “speak for itself.” It should. Polish your work before you promote it. However, your best work can’t shine in the dark.

I suspect that most of these writers who self-publish but fail to promote stand afraid to do so. They doubt the quality of their work and second-guess the opportunity to draw attention to it. Don’t follow those writers’ example.

Get a Facebook account. Boldly state in your profile that you’ve written and published your work. Tell people where to find it.

Invite people on Facebook to become friends with you. Spin a wide web of influence, and remember to collect information about others while you offer information about yourself.

Facebook and Google + each offer separate pros and cons. Create accounts with both of them. Use the benefits of both to endorse your work.

Start a blog on Wordpress or Blogger. You may have noticed that I started several.

Start a Twitter account and connect it to your Facebook account. Tweet constantly (yes, constantly) about your blogs.

You blog probably offers tools to promote your posts instantly on Facebook, Twitter, and Google +. Use those tools.

Keep a strict schedule for the release of your blogs. Advertise those release dates. The best filmmakers in the world would not release their summer blockbuster without some advance warning to their potential viewers.

The blog-building site, Blogger, allows me to arrange ahead of time the release of my blogs. That means I can write all my blogs over the weekend and time them to surface at predetermined dates and times.

Don’t forget to use LinkedIn and Aboutme.

Some people (even with the best of intentions) will call all this promotion shameless. It’s not. Nobody calls Coke shameless for its nonstop advertising, and if they do, I don’t think Coke cares.

Some people find it intrusive when someone they don't know attempts to “friend them” on Facebook or Goggle +, but social media exists, above all else, as a means to network, to extend your circle. Extend it. Find likeminded people and connect with them.

A self-published writer works as a sole proprietor. No two ways about it.

Want your business to succeed? You must promote it as if you run a constant political campaign. Ever notice how much those people market themselves?

I take every opportunity to promote my novels, such as Daughters of Darkwana. I promote Daughters of Darkwana whenever I can. If I don’t discover an immediate opportunity to promote Daughters of Darkwana, I create an opportunity to promote Daughters of Darkwana and the other books in my Diaries of Darkwana series.

That’s Daughters of Darkwana, available on Kindle, and in two weeks, I plan to discuss a little more about the world of Darkwana and the characters it contains.

(The Army reserves wants to borrow me for a bit next week, so no new posts after Friday, but I'll return on the 21st at martinwolt.blogspot.com with a new, short story)

See you then!

You can catch my novels, such as Daughters of Darkwana, on Kindle.

I publish my blogs as follows:

Short stories on Mondays and Thursdays at martinwolt.blogspot.com

A look at entertainment industries via feminist and queer theory, as well as other political filters on Tuesdays at Entertainmentmicroscope.blogspot.com

An inside look at my novel series, its creation, and the e-publishing process on Wednesdays at Darkwana.blogspot.com

Tips on improving your fiction writing Fridays at FictionFormula.blogspot.com

 Movie reviews on Sundays at moviesmartinwolt.blogspot.com