A SINK FULL OF KITTENS! and some other stuff

First off, thanks to all who downloaded Whom the Gods Love during the two day promotion. That was awesome, and led to a wonderful new review for Amazon. I've now included Amazon reviews in a widget on the blog there on the right. A good friend worked that up for me. She deserves a sink full of kittens as much as all those who downloaded the book. So enjoy those kittens. I originally saw this image on imgur.

Second, I thought I'd shed a little light on how I get some of my ideas for my mythological creatures and characters. Many of the creatures are inspired by established mythologies and folk stories. Some you might readily recognize, like griffins or harpies. Others, like the aswang for instance, might seem a bit more obscure to some readers. The aswang in my book are loosely based on the real myth of a Filipino version of a vampire. They are quite horrific in any description I've seen. My version is no where near as terrifying as theirs. I try to take a few aspects from the established myth to keep some of the familiarity for readers, but since I am writing them into my own world, I also have enjoyed playing with the beasts from these stories and fleshing them out into something more fitted to my stories and atmosphere.

Some creatures, like the crawlers I posted about before, I just make up completely. I use a little of what I've seen from nature docs, which I love, and exaggerate them like crazy. I love playing with how real biology would work if you made if really frightening or strange.

As for the gods, they are just made up from whole cloth. I am not using any established myths for them. They all have their own back stories and myths, some of which will come into play in this trilogy, and some of which won't. I can't really say whether or not I'll revisit Tanavia after I've completed this trilogy. I have so many other ideas I'd like to explore in writing, but who knows. Maybe I'll feel compelled to write about some of the other warriors or people of these lands.

Again, thanks to those who downloaded my book, and a special thanks to the person who reviewed it. Reviews are always helpful to me, even negative ones, but the positive ones truly make my day. :)