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Dearest Squad,
“Nabi” was one of the first Korean words I learned while watching Nevertheless in 2022. (It’s not my favorite drama…but it had some good stuff in it. They all do!) Nabi means “butterfly.”
Butterflies are fabulous. Colorful. Beautiful. Ephemeral. They are symbols of freedom, transformation, and rebirth. They also represent chaos. The stone that starts the avalanche. I refer of course to The Butterfly Effect as it pertains to science, math, meteorology…and life.
(Y’all know me. I was going to turn the conversation back to science at some point)
Back in 2016, I knew the female bartender in Thieftess’s first chapter was one of the Savage Seven from Enchanted, Chapter 14: “Pain and Punishment.” I just didn’t know her name was Nabi until I started writing “The Love Song of Peter Woodcutter” (a.k.a. “Twinkle”) in January of 2023. Her character all but leapt off the page.
Like the other major side characters in Thieftess (Tempest, Black Jenney, Yorgo Krakatoa, Webster Poom, etc), Nabi has a detailed backstory. Yes, I wish I could write her entire novel, but I really do have to finish the Woodcutter Sisters first. Also, It would be cool to actually, you know, GO BACK TO KOREA and do some in situ research for that one. Unfortunately, that requires money which I super don’t have.
(Please support me on Substack and/or Patreon!)
The existence of Nabi meant that Korean folklore was now officially a significant part of the makeup of my fairy tale World (I don’t actually have a name for this world/planet—Arilland is just one small country). I invented the Land of Seven Kings almost as a joke—for those non-ARMY in the audience, the seven members of BTS are sometimes referred to as “seven kings.” Only, as soon as I named it, the history of this imaginary fairy tale land sprang into my head as well. As these things tend to do.
In a nutshell (please forgive the lack of detail/nuance here for summary’s sake):
Once upon a time there were seven brothers who ruled over a great land (read: huge unified country) as kings in perfect harmony. Their land was a thriving, prosperous place. The seven brothers were all incredibly handsome and incredibly promiscuous, which led to the saying “In the Land of Seven Kings, every man is a prince, and every woman in a princess.”
Of course, as we are all painfully aware, nothing lasts forever.
The youngest brother considered this when he knowingly took a beautiful gumiho woman (nine-tailed fox) as his consort. He stole her fox bead (a marble-sized essence of the gumiho’s power, often transferred through a kiss). The fox-woman escaped before the king could kill her, which meant that the king would always be in danger of the fox-woman returning and reclaiming her power. In the meantime, the fox bead allowed the youngest king to live an unnaturally long life…so long that he outlived every single one of his royal brothers. Now he rules that impossibly vast country, all alone.
One old king just doesn’t have the ability to properly do a job that once took seven men, no matter how much power he thinks he has, and ultimate power corrupts absolutely. And while he may have sired countless children, only one has the ability to reclaim that precious fox bead: the granddaughter of the gumiho it originally belonged to.
Sound fun?
The reason I am telling all of you this now is because I honestly have no idea if or when I’ll actually be able to tell that story. Yeah. Sorry about that.
I also wanted to tell this story because it should be noted that I finished writing Thieftess the day after I went to see BTS in concert. As my poor, broke tuchis wasn’t able to attend any of the US concerts, one of my dear friends (who also happens to be a character in Thieftess) bought me a ticket to see one of the Tokyo shows at my local movie theatre.
It was an odd venue in which to see a concert, but my soul was desperate for even a sliver of joy. The theatre was too hot and the show was late, but BTS were wonderful and that’s all that mattered.
It made me miss Piper. She loved BTS. Jungkook, especially. I knew about BTS many years before I got into K-pop myself—mostly because of Piper.
As I drove home, I was reminded of the last novel I finished drafting. It was October of 2023. Tempest and I were in Seattle for a month—housesitting for Piper—and I was trying my damnedest to finish the crazy manuscript I’d been working on for 4 months before The Rose concert. I wrote hard and fast, but I just couldn’t manage it.
The Rose were amazing. I danced my face off for 2 hours straight. It was one of the best concerts I’ve ever attended—a celebration of what I feel is their best album: DUAL.
I finished writing that manuscript the very next day.
I’d tell you the working title of that novel, but it may never see the light of day either. Yeah. Sorry about that, too.
If only, if only…
xox
Princess Alethea
My Writing Patreon has been keeping me alive – please consider supporting if you don’t already. Thank you!
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