In Partibus Infidelium

 

The cover was particulary difficult to depict as the themes of the novel are vast. I tried to represent the religious element with the church on the background and the two main characters on the front, which are divided by a thin line that implies their conflict. I placed a few skulls, because death and futility are a predominant theme and the moon in the background, which takes new significance during the finale

While I was working on In Partibus my main goal was to succesfully manage a novella, which took some effort as it was a significant step up from the short stories, and also to reivindicate myself from another attempt that had all the possible faults that a novel could have. 

I was experimenting with the idea of having two main characters, rather than just one, but having them in paralel, symultaneous timelines that converge in the end rather than being the traditional "Protagonist/coprotagonist" format common in novels and particulary in fantasy novels.

The implementation of the horror element to the fantasy setting was tricky, mostly because the "magic" of the fantasy world made events which would be eerie or uncanny in a modern setting practically commonplace. For instance, the giant spider race that Rivel (right of the cover) finds on the caverns aren't really fearsome. A bit disgusting, sure, but not something I could focus on. I had to work a lot on different angles in order to make things scary. 

On a first draft, I was going to work on a third timeline regarding the city for which the protagonists fight for, but eventually I concluded that it would take a lot out of the ending. 

Another thing that I tried was to leave the more clichéd spell-shouting mage and went for the poetry chanting type instead, and while this idea isn't exactly new to the genre, I felt that it turn out pretty well. It was taxing, though. I find it hard to imagine writing this style of magic for a high-fantasy, dragon slaying novel. It wouldn't really work with the more action-like disposition of that type of novel anyways.  

As an author, it was difficult to balance the events on each timeline. I personally favored Malcolm (left of the cover) more than I did Rivel, so I wanted to give him more chapters and save all the interesting ideas for his timeline, but naturally, I couldn't do that. For the most part I felt that each of the characters had their thing going on and that the story took its own course, and each individual reader may prefer a character over the other with no clear "best one" 

If I had to say, while obviously the novella is horror, the thing that stood out the most for me was a sort of existential crysis and sense of vacuity. When I put the (metaphorical) pen down, I was left with a certain bleakness and emptiness rather than just thrill or being scared. The fantasy, while present, is more of a background theme, I felt, and not a focal point of the story. No ogres and elves, so to speak. There really aren't though, I tried to be as original as I could with the races, which turned out to be far more difficult than I originally had thought, and I'm not fully satisfied with the results. 

The title was my dad's suggestion, thanks dad, and I felt that it fit right into what I was building. Cryptic yet making perfect sense at the same time. 

I also made a little hint for you, death/black metal fans, and all the episodes are named after a extreme metal song. The little quotes are from the song in question too, I tried to choose everything so it makes sense with the chapter so it's not random.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1TzpBvz2LkSELcD3t4jhUAj62flVeOmMx/view?usp=sharing