Selling the Tale: Part Two
A Sample Marketing Synopsis for Heartwood
It is a land where scattered tribes
offer blood sacrifices to unseen gods, and the spirits of trees and
animals are as sacred as those of humans. A world where all beings –
living and dead, mortal and immortal – are part of the great World Tree,
in whose silver branches dwell the gods and in whose roots float the
Forever Isles of the afterlife.
This is the world of Heartwood,
where life is a precarious balance between life and death, order and
chaos. But the tribes of the Oak and the Holly have no idea how precarious
that balance is until a malevolent force disrupts the Midwinter battle
between the Oak-Lord and the Holly-Lord, locking the world in winter.
Drawing from Celtic and Norse mythology,
Heartwood explores the bonds that bind society and family, the
lengths to which we will go to preserve them, and one man’s struggle to
maintain control of his life – and the lives of those he loves – when
only relinquishing that control can restore balance to the world.
Embittered by the death of his wife and
his mother, alienated from his tribe and the gods who seem to have
abandoned him, Darak’s faith is further undermined by the belief that he
is losing his younger brother Tinnean. He cannot accept Tinnean’s
decision to become apprenticed to Tree-Father Struath, to dedicate his
life to the very gods who have destroyed their family. Hoping to sway
Tinnean from his path, his actions only alienate his brother and incur the
shaman’s enmity.
However, Darak and Struath must work
together when they realize the enormity of the catastrophe confronting the
tribe and the world: not only has the spirit of the Oak-Lord been lost
during the battle, but Tinnean’s spirit has been cast adrift as well,
while that of the Holly-Lord is trapped in Tinnean’s body.
With the world
locked in what could prove to be an eternal winter, Darak must use his skills as
a hunter to search for his brother and the Oak-Lord. Accompanying him on
his quest are his wife’s impulsive sister Griane; Yeorna, the tribe’s
Grain-Mother; the Holly-Lord; and Struath whose past hides a secret that
threatens them all. For only Struath knows the identity of the malevolent
force that disrupted the battle of the tree-lords – the
spirit of his predecessor and lover Morgath who has escaped from Chaos to
seek revenge against the tribe that consigned him there.
Pursued by Morgath, who has usurped the body of a wolf, the little group
crosses the veil between the worlds into the First Forest, the magical
realm where gods walk the shadowy trails, helping – and hindering –
their quest. Chief among them is Fellgair, the mercurial Trickster-God,
whose riddles force Darak to reveal his darkest secrets. In return,
Fellgair offers tantalizing hints about Tinnean’s whereabouts before
revealing the truth: that both Tinnean and the Oak-Lord are trapped in
Chaos.
Before Darak can find a way there, Morgath attacks Griane. After she is
rescued by the Trickster, Griane bargains with the god to open a portal to
Chaos for Darak. Frustrated in his attempt to steal Griane’s body, Morgath chooses a
new victim: the Grain-Mother. He casts out Yeorna's spirit, reveling in
the joy of once again wearing human flesh. When Struath realizes the truth, he summons his magic to
battle Morgath. Darak arrives too late to save Struath, but the Trickster
honors his promise to Griane by ripping open a portal to Chaos. Locked
together, Darak and Morgath tumble through it.
With the group sundered, the story follows each of the main characters:
Darak, whose ordinary skills as a hunter seem useless in the shifting
realm of Chaos where illusions become reality and lost spirits are
irresistibly drawn to the spark of human life; the Holly-Lord whose
too-frail human body cannot contain his ancient energy, but whose
determined spirit impels him to follow Darak; Morgath whose desire for
revenge pushes him to the brink of madness; Griane who turns to the
half-human tree folk of the Summerlands to help her escape from the
Trickster and return to her friends; and Struath and Yeorna, whose lost
spirits live on in Chaos and try to help Darak attain the goal of his
quest.
Instead of finding Tinnean, Darak encounters the spirit of his dead
father. Estranged in life, the two hunters must work together to locate
Tinnean and the Oak-Lord. Their spirits have taken refuge in a twisted
thorn tree, a mockery of the majestic One Tree in the First Forest. Darak
is horrified to discover the Holly-Lord lying at the base of the tree,
twigs sprouting from his fingers, toes curling into roots.
When Morgath captures the Holly-Lord, Darak offers himself in exchange.
As Morgath tortures his body and oozes through his spirit, Darak clings to
sanity – and to the words that have helped him survive plague and
famine, the loss of his family and friends, and the brutal trek through
the First Forest: “Fear is the enemy. Control the fear. Control
yourself.”
But it takes the magic of Struath and Yeorna, the love of his brother
and father, and the ages-old song of the World Tree to help Darak realize
the truth behind Fellgair’s riddle: that his great strength is also his
great weakness. His rigid control has alienated him from his family and
his tribe. It has driven his brother away. And now, it is isolating him
from the World Tree, whose ancient power and wisdom can help him defeat
his enemy and rescue his brother.
Armed
with that knowledge, he finds the strength to battle Morgath. But when he
returns to the world with the spirits of Tinnean and the Oak-Lord, he
faces an even greater test. For only if Darak is willing to surrender his
brother can the world be saved from eternal winter.
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