UPDATE: I’ve switched back to Evinden for now. Apparently Hidden Valley is a brand of condiments in the US. Who knew!?
I’m now calling Evinden by a new name: The Hidden Valley. It’s still likely to be only a working title, as it’s rather generic, but it at least means something. While the name of the fictional continent that the story takes place upon works fine inside the text, as the actual title it doesn’t resonate at all. The Hidden Valley at least suggests certain interesting plot scenarios.
Editing has commenced, with much useful feedback from Axel Wilkinson and James Harvey feeding into the second draft. There’s a ton of work to do on every level: structural, plot, characters, dialogue. It’s going to take probably the rest of the year, but it’s hugely exciting to be working on it again.
The first thing I’m doing is adding some backstory elements to the start of each chapter, in the form of Asimov-style encyclopedia entries, or newspaper cuttings, or similar. They help to flesh out the world without having to dump exposition into the main story/dialogue.
Other projects are coming along nicely too, but more on them another time.
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