Identity Revealed: The Tue-Rah Chronicles

by Butler, J. M.

  My mother, Michele Butler, was also supportive. This dear woman is quite easy to frighten, and she does not enjoy stories with monsters or strange creatures or bad people who hurt others. (She read us Paddington, The Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, and The Wind in the Willow multiple times.) Yet she offered to proof the manuscript on multiple occasions in the early stages. She followed through, though I often saw her proofing with one hand to her forehead, half squinting as if that would make some of the evil go away. And I don't think I'll ever forget her expression when she got to the end of Chapter Three, looked up, and said, "You killed a fourteen-year-old, young lady? Why! He's just a baby. How could you kill him?" So I fixed her a cup of tea and sat and talked with her about it, and she resumed editing. She remains the strongest advocate for any character who dies, always negotiating for their lives. No matter how good or bad they are.

  My mother's other challenging task was to make sure I understood my father. When my ego was bruised or I was so frustrated because I wanted to add another world into book one, she listened and then helped translate what my father was saying. (Actually she's the reason I "figured out" that I just had to give a good reason for what I was including.

  More than that, my family was there through the numerous rejections and even in navigating a few possible acceptances. Sometimes I was foolish enough to think that their support didn't matter because they were my family. They loved me, so of course they supported my stories. But that is not always the case, and luckily I realized what a gift they were and appreciated them before it was too late. I always joked that we had no choice but to love one another as we grew up out in the middle of a woods with relatively few friends. And while I'll still joke about it, it's not something I take lightly any longer.

  Sarah's boundless enthusiasm and belief in me and my stories is a tremendous source of strength. I know that her words won't necessarily be tempered with rational analysis, but they will always be sincere and ready for the giving. Elijah and his stoic love for comics and his passion for Spiderman and dinosaurs in particular has encouraged me in the pursuit of my own passions and obsessions. Reuben with his sharply analytical mind and love for fantasy world conquering (or any world conquering for that matter) is another source of regular encouragement and insightful thoughts. And Sam (yes, it seems a fantasy tradition that we must bring along a Sam) is equally supportive. Of all my siblings, he dislikes reading the most, but he and Reuben have read all the books. And while Reuben will want to talk about the philosophy and strategy, Sam goes through and finds the parts that make him laugh or want to commit an act of violence. Another newcomer to the family who fits in perfectly would be Tom Evans, my sister's husband. He shares my love of villains as well as a well-crafted story, and his insights into key elements, especially some of my science sections, has been invaluable.

  My grandparents contributed a great deal as well. My Grandpa and Grandma Butler as well as my Grandma Farlow were always encouraging of my dreams to be a writer. The night before my Grandma and Grandpa Butler passed away, they came to visit. I was sitting at the coffee table, working on Identity Revealed (titled at that time The Portal). Grandpa Butler sat beside me on the couch and read over a few lines. I informed him again that I was going to be an amazing famous novelist, and he nodded and told me he believed I could. (Please never underestimate the power your words have on others, especially children.) My penname J.M. Butler is in part from my initials, but it became even more meaningful when I realized J.M. sounded quite similar to Jim, which was my grandfather's name.

  My Grandpa Farlow was another key contributor in my development. He was the one who believed I was capable of reading at a much higher level. I maintain I was probably a little too young to appreciate many of those tales (I still haven't forgiven Homer for making the Odyssey so hard to read.) He fed me steady streams of books, starting with mythology. Norse and Greek mythology quickly became my favorites along with Egyptian. Then he changed everything when he gave me a copy of The Hobbit, and I fell in love. That was the first book that transported me to another world, the first book that made me eager to create my own coherent world. Obviously I wanted to read The Lord of the Rings immediately afterward. But he took that desire and used it to further my education. I could read Lord of the Rings after I read the complete works of Shakespeare. (In fairness, I originally only had to read three plays: Hamlet, Macbeth, and Cymbeline and give him a summary on each. But…when I tried to bluff my way through Cymbeline and erred on a crucial element, he realized I hadn't read it, and so I had to read everything Shakespeare wrote.)

  Though at the time I was annoyed because my grandfather was getting in the way of the fantasy books I wanted to read, he did help me become a better reader and subsequently a better writer. When I went to visit in his studio, we talked about all of these stories, why they worked, what made them work, and why they were classics. (My scintillating argument was that these were the books that had survived over the years, and because they were old everyone loved them. It took me a fair bit to learn to appreciate what they actually contributed to culture and language.)

  Thanks to my grandfather and others pushing me, I learned a great deal. They taught me not to be afraid of failing or being wrong. And goodness, was I ever wrong on so many things.

  All of this led up to another who would push me in a different way: James Fry. We met and married while in law school, and, though I was writing everyday and mentioned my love for stories and writing, he actually went for a whole two years before he was plunged into my fantasy worlds. That particular summer, I tearfully confessed how sad I was that he had not asked to read anything, and, as we were preparing for a twelve-hour roadtrip, he placed his hands on my shoulders and gallantly suggested I could talk to him about The Tue-Rah Chronicles as much as I wanted. The poor fellow seriously believed I couldn't talk about it for a full twelve hours. (In case you're wondering, I can go longer so long as water is provided. My throat gets a touch sore after eight hours.)

  Despite that, he remained a strong and steady source of strength and encouragement. To date, he has yet to read the entire series or even the full first book, but he knows as much, perhaps more, than most anyone else who has read it. His love for acting and live performances meshed well with mine, and so I often roped him in to act out scenes with me so I could get the feel right. Obviously, it was amateur hour with numerous home substitutes, but it was massively helpful. (One of the funniest occurrences came when we were acting out WroOth and Amelia's hostage situation from Chapters Sixteen and Seventeen. I was WroOth. He was Amelia. And…yeah, that was a challenging sequence. It went much better when we switched positions.)

  James has never stopped pushing me to be better, and for that and so much more, I am eternally grateful. He has never been afraid to share his thoughts, even when they risked hurting my feelings. Most of our arguments in our marriage have actually related to this series, and it has taught us communication.

  (Seriously, spouses to authors have to go through so much. In addition to our isolative habits and eccentricities, they also have to put up with wondering whether characters are based off them or the author, and what does it mean? James one time asked me if I based Amelia off myself and whether he was Shon. Fair questions indeed. I assured him no, not at all. Then I informed him that I draw on myself for all the characters. His brow tweaked, and he looked at me quite seriously and asked, "even the villains?" Laughing and saying "oh definitely the villains" was probably not the best way to respond to that. But it is true.)

  I don't know how I could have finished this without a husband who supported me. To all those authors who have had to do it without spousal or family support, my deepest sympathies and heartfelt condolences. I wish you all the best in the world because you have a difficult row to hoe, and while it may take longer for you to get there (or it may inspire you to go faster because you want to prove them wrong), I know you'll succeed as long as you keep pushing ahead.

  Now obviously, all these w
onderful people whom I adore are all well and good, but where would I be without an editor? Without going into too many details, I had searched for an editor for quite some time. Not only did I need someone good, I needed someone who was willing to work with a fantasy epic. And that particular prayer was answered in the form of Mary Iamandi.

  Ladies and gentlemen, I have to tell you this is one talented editor. Not the least of her skills is her ability to soothe uneasy authors. After some bad experiences, it was a little challenging to let go of my manuscript, no matter how necessary I knew it was. But she took great care and showed such passion for making the story even better that she quickly won my trust.

  This series is made so much stronger through her work. You can thank her for all the hyphens and dashes too. I have an aversion to them, but she knows when they're needed. She also checks up on little facts like "did you ever give a definition for feshtashoon?" and remembers to ask "where did that dagger disappear to?" Seriously, she is worth her weight in gold, and I am so grateful for her and her influence on this series.

  I am so grateful for Mel Hall too and her proofreading skills. In a story like this, there are so many errors that can slip through. And her combing over found those last couple bits of vague and confusing language (you know, the places where I didn't intend to be vague and confusing) and where it changed the meaning. Thank goodness! Her notes and insights were quite helpful.

  Over the years, I have also had dear friends who have become engaged with the series. The first was Danna Jo Matsuki. She jumped into the world with me, starting at the point in the series when WroOth was trapped in skinchanger form and AaQar suffered from a bad cough that was eating out his lungs. As a missionary kid, she traveled a great deal, so we kept in touch through email. Oftentimes we had problems with attachments getting stripped from the messages, so we joked that there were aliens or shapeshifters stealing our messages. She is also the only other person who knew some of the Libyshan language and the Vawtrian alphabet. We had great fun exchanging stories, and I can't wait to see her books hit the shelves soon.

  Alyssa Barton, my suitemate in college, is another kind friend who became involved. She supported me in her enthusiastic way, often joining forces with my sister to ask for details. Most of the giggling details did relate to the romances contained within the series (not shockingly, they were more amenable to romance in the series than my father was) as well as who they would be in the story. We shared many fun nights of conversation, and their enthusiasm helped push me through dry bouts of frustration and discouragement.

  One of my favorite professors from college, Dr. Paul Allison, was another source of encouragement in this series. He let me work on Identity Revealed and other projects and never criticized me for risking bites I might not be able to completely chew. He took each story as it came his way, evaluated it on its own, and helped me learn how to do even better the next time. His willingness to work with me where I was while also allowing me to test my own limits was a tremendous blessing.

  Emily Godhand is another dear friend who has encouraged me so much throughout this journey even though we only got to know one another particularly well in the past year. She and I have swapped stories countless times now, discussing the finer points of a culture's textile traditions or debating a character's long-term arc throughout multiple books. Not to mention, she provides a steady flow of adorable animal gifs and memes.

  And of course I must say thank you for the Wattpadres. I am so grateful for each of them: Debra Goelz, Sarah Benson, Amber Bryant, Darly Jamison, Vic James, Lindsey Lippincott, Tim Johnson, Josh Townley, Melanie Abed, and Nicole Fearahn. Deb, in particular, has sat through many hours with me, chatting about this and that and fantasy in general. She's also phenomenal with blurbs. And thank goodness for that because that is one area where I am particularly weak. But even more than that, she and I have shared so many hours of friendship and conversation. Over the past couple years she has encouraged me to be a stronger writer in every respect.

  The little community that began developing around my Tue-Rah Stories is also quite dear to me. Oh my goodness, these readers! They engaged in this great big game of pretend with me, going along with my characters and sharing their thoughts as we went. It is such a delight and a pleasure to have someone to share these stories with. I know I will likely miss some names, but I am going to do the best I can to mention as many as possible. Anna, Ivory, Tom, Freyja, Jillian, Krissy, Richard, Ben, Hannah, Sarah, Mary, Seisi, Stef, John, Mariann, Stephanie, Lucy, Janice, Jen, Rachel, Kristin, Leo, Gabriela, Katrin, Lyanna, Deana, Angela, Miriam, Marcus, Stephen, Lena, Artemis, Kat, Glen, Jerel, Latoy, Britt Britt, Courtney, Neveah, Sasha, Natalya, Trevor, Michelle, Andrea, Valerie, Danielle, Zac, Brianna, Tan, Pia, Katherine, Elizabeth, Olive, Cynthia, Beth, Raven, Ethan, Laura, Roberto, Chloe, Hugh, Dawn, Mariah, Brandon, Tim, Amy, Riley, Marissa, Amber, Rose, Patrice, Nicole, Jeremy, Indu, Picoult, Luke, Chris, Dani, Kara, Catherine, Yudhan, Kalley, David, Sam, Jean Paul, Asia, Rhiannon, Leslie, Mina, Jess, Manz, Ian, Patel, and Oby, you are all spectacular, and I am so thankful for you.

  Readers should never underestimate the power that they have, and these readers all had their own influence on me. Sometimes working on such a massive story can becoming tiring and wearing. Being able to share the journey with people who came to care for the characters made it easier to bear. And it brought me such great joy to be able to share with them. Their generosity in response left me excited to tackle more and to finish this series and the surrounding novellas with all the skill and speed I could.

  And so long as I am listing those for whom I am grateful, I also owe a great debt of thanks to J.R.R. Tolkien. Truly, I owe a lot to many other authors and storytellers, but my debt to Tolkien is probably the greatest. WroOth's reading from The Hobbit is my little homage and nod to Tolkien. The level of worldbuilding and the myriad of characters Tolkien created have inspired me for years. There's something comforting and beautiful in his books, and I am so grateful he saw the writing journey through to share his stories with the world. Without the spark his stories gave, my path would have been different indeed.

  It's been an incredible journey for Identity Revealed, but the series is far from over. I can't wait share the rest of the stories involved in this series and others with you. Thank you so much for reading. Much love and joy to you, my friends.

  Glossary

  Here you can find all the definitions and descriptions you might want for a refresher on meanings. If you want to know how to pronounce these words and the names in this series, you can visit me at my website www.jmbutlerauthor.com, which has an audio guide.

  * * *

  Cities, Countries, People Groups, and Worlds

  Ecekom - the primary world of the Vawtrians. Formerly the primary world of the Shivennans.

  Eiram - the name for Earth and primary world to the Awdawms and Neyeb.

  Istador - the former capital city of the Machat.

  Libysha - the most powerful of the nations on Reltux.

  Nalthume - sister nation to Libysha.

  Polfradon - an old fortress built in the Igorl Age now used primarily to house old texts.

  Talbokians - a group of loosely associated nomadic tribes who range throughout the more inhabitable regions of the Mallakish and Svelnon Mountains. They are generally Awdawms, though their men sometimes marry non Awdawm women. (Talbokian women who marry non Awdawms typically leave the tribal units.)

  Reltux - the primary world of the Machat.

  Reda - a small but growingly influential nation that is under Libysha’s protection.

  Telhetum - the capital city of Libysha.

  * * *

  Races

  Awdawms - the human race as we know it is generally referred to as the Awdawms, regardless of which world they are from. They can be found on all of the worlds, but their primary world is Eiram. However, the majority population on Reltux is also now Awdawm because Awdawms tend to travel significantly more than any other race exce
pt the Vawtrians.

  Bealorns - the beast talking and beast taming race. They were originally from Ecekom, but they have scattered throughout the worlds with the heaviest concentration remaining on Ecekom.

  Machat - the prophet race. They were originally from Reltux, and most have remained.

  Neyeb - the mindreader race. It is believed that all were destroyed in the Neyeb Massacre before the Tue-Rah’s Fall. Their home world was Eiram, and though many traveled, they all returned home before the Massacre.

  Tiablos - the illusionist and telekinetic race. They were originally from Ecekom and have maintained a heavy focus there, but they, like the Awdawms, have traveled a great deal.

  Shivennans - the elemental race. They were originally from Ecekom, but many moved long before the Tue-Rah’s Fall to form a new world known as Paradiseo.

  Unatos - the healer race. They were originally from Ecekom, but they destroyed themselves in attempts to aid opposing sides in a massive war.

  Vawtrians - the shapeshifter race. They can be found on all of the worlds, but their primary world is Ecekom. They are the most abundant and aggressive of the races.

  * * *

  Foreign Words and General Concepts

  Almonyek Vawtrian – a Vawtrian who can become any living creature whether based in the land, air, or water while retaining original abilities and benefits of original Vawtrian subtype. The only type of Vawtrian who can transform into another sentient being with consistent reliability.

  Ayamin – the royal guard and only remaining military force under King Theol's rule.

  Bakai – a special psychic stone honed to create an immediate bond between two individuals and a conduit of connection into their souls; one person in the pair being struck is sufficient to create the bond so long as the preparation is sufficient.