Inside the Book: ~Ivanhoe~

Follow me. For the next two months, we will wander onto the unknown paths of A Time to Die. I expect we’ll meet new characters, foreign places, wondrous inventions, and maybe a little danger…

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Location Exploration #2 — Ivanhoe

Welcome to Ivanhoe! The city where you haggle prices, walk tightropes, and challenge others in the barter-combat Arena. That beautiful structure you’re seeing in the middle of the city is The Core. That’s where all the fun happens: the market, arena challenges, and even The Preacher lives there with his thirteen — or is it fourteen? — wives. Don’t ask me…we don’t openly talk about his marriage choices. Besides, they’re all alliance-marriages anyway, what does it matter?

So, how did you arrive? Ohhh, by train? I hope you were able to pay your own way on the Ivanhoe Independent. If not, then you’ll have to find someone willing to take you on as an apprentice to cover your ticket.

Yellow Locomotive I by H Sundholm (henriksundholm.com) on Flickr

Oh good, I’m glad to hear you paid your own way. That will make things easier. Apprenticeship isn’t awful, but sometimes you get stuck working for some strange people. Then again, sometimes you work under a fantastic master and find a new job and future! You never know…

I notice you keep staring at the booth signs. The stick figures are our main symbols used to indicate what type of store it is. That’s how all our signs are, what did you expect? Oh…words? Wow, when did you learn how to read? I wish I could read. Few residents of Ivanhoe can, not unless our apprenticeship or job calls for it. I’m just the tour guide, so reading isn’t important for me. Signs and symbols are the extent of our literacy. Let me get this straight. . .you’re saying that, where you come from, everyone can read? What a strange idea.

Moving on…we don’t want to dwell too long on one topic. Let’s look at the specialties of Ivanhoe. For one, it has the only Barter-Combat arena and people come from miles around to watch competitions. Another specialty is that it has the only glass elevator run by suction instead of cables. Hope you’re not afraid of heights. Lastly, our main form of transportation is by bicycle. Almost everyone has some form of bike — tandem, side-car, trike, you name it. The busyness of the day is the best time to watch all the riders. I suppose you could sum Ivanhoe up in one word: balance. Everything is balanced here.

That’s all for today. Maybe tomorrow I’ll introduce you to the foods of Ivanhoe and maybe you’ll glance a sighting of The Preacher! I doubt you could meet him one-on-one. That takes a special appointment that you’d need to barter for one with trade tickets.

But before I bid you farewell, be sure to get a glance at the city lights. Night time brings out a hidden beauty in our beloved Ivanhoe. It makes you want to move here, doesn’t it?

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Do you have any other questions about Ivanhoe? Would you ever live there? Tell me in the comments!

A Time to Die is available for Kindle and paperback!! To find out more about the book, click here. And don’t forget these awesome events going on for the A Time to Die launch: