Do come in, grab a comfy seat 🛋, some yummy biscuits 🍪 and be very welcome to Dana Ilic and the Shadow Door. 🚪
I bet the title and the cover (not to mention the mini banner 😹) are already allowing you to guess that this is a young adult fantasy novella.
Its creation owes its existence to my recently discovered and I am sure, undying love for a Netflix TV Show "Shadow and Bone."
It is, it was and it shall remain one of my favourite pieces of television evah produced!
Having seen "The Shadow and Bone," and having read the entire Grishaverse trilogy, there was something about its background premise that wouldn't leave me alone. It kept nagging at me, lurking in the creative corner of my brain.
To me, there is something poetic about the duality between light and darkness, that seems to have been emphasised in many shapes and art forms throughout humanity timeline, transcending time and space.
The second source of inspiration for "Dana" is the middle grade all-famous saga "Percy Jackson and the Olympians," by Rick Riordan. His books are so funny and witty, effortlessly matching old mythology and tradition with modern culture in a way that makes them engrossing and unpredictable.
It's a style I can only hope to emulate, but with a single difference--I'll do the Greek for Slavic mythology switcheroo!
My first attempt to write anything remotely young adult and fantasy-ish occurred in early 2017, with my first book ever, "The Prophecy of Water." 'Twas created jus' way back when I participated in Wattys2018 contest, and since then, I've been itching to try my virtual pen at another talelet of this genre. Alas, I haven't truly been inspired until the re-apparition of the Open Novella Contest in 2022.
After having spent couple of weeks on the hunt for an ONC prompt, tweaking existent ideas and brainstorming like crazy, all the cogs clicked into place and the clock finally started ticking.
The prompt I eventually chose for this adventure is # 15: "Being a single child has pros and cons. Being stuck with a weird elderly aunt for the holiday certainly counts among the latter. Or does it?"
This is the fourth time I am participating in ONC, and, err... It seems that I always come up with the craziest ideas! All Open Novella Contest projects I do end up just being something for fun and ultimately connecting with my fellow writers 💜, testing out new genre waters!
I love getting feedback of any kind, and this book is in its first drafting stage, so if you want to tell me how you feel about what I wrote so far, see errors of any kind, or have helpful comments and suggestions:
Do not hesitate to shoot! 🔫
Oh, and I almost forgot! 🤦🏼♀️
Bonus perk:
You get to see the process of creation of my cover 😹!
Stage 1-- Back when it was a black and white gunk of shadiness o.O
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Stage 2-- We're getting somewhere now, but, Evelyn, does that cute Labrador puppy head in the clouds look like a formidable flying God? Fat chance 🙄!
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Stage 3-- Ahh, ye see, lass, now THAT'S MORE LIKE IT! Mission complete! 👍🏻
P.S. I'll put the high-high resolution of this illustration in the comment next to this version so you can really appreciate the details if you'd like to do so! 😻💜
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
So, you might wonder, what's all this about the Shadow Door? It's a mythical door from Slavic mythology behind which, supposedly, Chernobog, the Black God, is imprisoned. The story is called "Dana Ilic and the Shadow Door" precisely because he shall be the main villain here!
I decided to add a bonus "Glossary" segment that should help you with all the deities that will pop up in the upcoming chappies. It will also contain the Slavic names of locations, creatures and plants that you will meet along the way, as well as their translation to English.
Dana Ilic is the protagonist of this book, but guess what, "Dana" is just her nickname!
Her full name is actually Danica. The name Danica comes from the Slavic word "dan," which means "day, daylight." In combination with word "zvezda," which means "star," zvezda Danica signifies: "morning star/day star."
Given that Dana is a light wielder, I thought that this name fit her to the T!
If you dig the chapters, don't forget to star them or give me your opinion on them! That allows me to tap into the readers' thoughts and see what I'm doing well, and what I can improve upon! ❣️
Thank you so much for passing by and reading my ONC entry. I do hope you'll enjoy it!
