Hey guys. Here is the transition poll I mentioned before.

So I have pretty much planned out the rest of this book (Crime Lord) and figured it was time to start considering how to start the next part of the story where I will move across into a fantasy setting. 

Please note that will keep this poll at the end of the chapter list until I actually start writing book 2.

Just in case any of you haven't picked up on it, at the end of all this portion of the story I will migrate this story into a hybrid fantasy setting. I have already figured out exactly how Tiama is going to depart from the current world setting, but am somewhat indecisive about where to start her off in the next world. Accordingly, I'm putting all my options into a poll for you guys to vote on. Each option will start off differently but in the long run, they will all have more or less the same end result.

I've broken it down into nine different options from three general groups. (There were originally seven, but three sets of three satisfied my nonexistent OCD - free cookies for anyone who manages to guess which two were added. tongue-out [../../../../../Scripts/Plugins/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-tongue-out.gif] )

The first variety is "Summoning". This group is pretty straight forward; Tiama gets summoned by someone and asked/demanded to do something for them. How they treat her initially will mostly be based on who summons her and my mood at the time. These will also tend to be the most political options. Since I might find random inspiration about who should be summoning her I'm just going to list the various possible roles or jobs she might be asked to do.

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The second group is "Crashing". Those of you who pay attention to the comments should already have an idea of what this entails and why I considered the idea. These will have a faster start overall since she will be mostly uninjured and have some tech to start off with - though most of that tech would be heavily damaged and unusable. Engineering with scrap seems like a nice challenge for her. The location she crashes will decide exactly how she uses said tech.

The last bunch is my favourite, I call it "Skyfall". Long story short, you'd get to watch Tiama attempt atmospheric entry without a protective suit. These options will likely have the slowest start since she would wake up with a severe lack of resources and heavy injuries to deal with. In return for that drawback, however, they will also lead to a better emphasis on her powers and personal growth.

In conclusion:

I'd prefer the Skyfall route so I can work more on character growth since, well, from my point of view Tiama is currently closer to a "template" than a "character" and I'd like to change that... That said, each category has it's own pros and cons; "Summoning" will allow for an earlier introduction to magic and much faster world building - another thing I need to work more on, and "Crashing" would allow me to introduce magic tech and several other cool innovations much faster.