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Giveaway!
To celebrate the upcoming release of The Cerberus Rebellion, I’ve decided that I’m going to do a giveaway!
Here are the what and how:
What: Depending on the number of participants, I’ll be giving away some of my short stories (you can find the descriptions on the Products page).
For up to 7 participants, I’ll give a random winner their choice of short story! For 7-14participants, I’ll give the Grand Prize winner a copy of The Chesian Wars (not yet listed, this includes the 3 short stories and an additional prelude short story) and 1 other winner their choice of short story. For 15+, I’ll give away 1 copy of The Chesian Wars and 3 short story winners.
I can do these in .mobi, .epub or .pdf format, as requested by the winner.
How: all you have to do is leave a comment below. Each comment will be assigned a number and next Sunday I’ll randomly select numbers for each winner!
So leave a comment and pass the word along. The more entries, the more winners!
Poll!
As I mentioned in a previous post, I’ve decided to add Orcs to the world of Zaria. I’m going to have two different groups present: the first is going to be the citizens of a group of city-states (as mentioned in the above linked post).
These city-states are famous for their powerful trade barons and for the dozens of mercenary groups that call the cities home. The second half of the Orcish people will be modeled after Native Americans, particularly t he Iroquois. They’re going to live in the vast plains, farm and hunt.
I have all of that well established. Where the question arises, is that I need to decide on a mount that the Orcs favor. I was considering the stereotypical large-wolf mount, but then I thought about where I’m going to have these people live. It’s very similar to the Great Plains of America: grasslands and flat areas.
A herbivore would be better suited to the rigors of travel across the plains. So here’s my question: go with the traditional large wolf/warg, European Bison (buffalo) or something else. It has to be large enough to support a race that ranges from 6’8″ to 7’6″ and several hundred pounds. If you choose other, please leave a comment!
Finger on the Trigger
I got Cerberus back from the editor and he approved of the changes that I made to improve the flow and cut down on the clutter. All I have left to do is review the 2nd pass of edits, send it back for formatting and then it’s ready to go to Amazon.
Having just released the three accompanying short stories (you can check them out at the Products page) the initial nervousness of releasing isn’t as prevalent. I am slightly nervous in that once Cerberus is released, I’m going to go into full time promo-mode. For the short stories, I’ve limited myself to a twitter blast here and there and a couple of facebook posts. Other than that, I’ve let them sit. And it shows: their ranking is abysmal.
They were never meant to be leaders, and they didn’t cost much to produce, so if they do pick up sales off of Cerberus’ coattails, all the better.
Additionally, 10 other Authors and I recently launched the Guild of Dreams. It’s a joint-blog where we’ll be posting on themes (sometimes) and generally doing cross-promotions.
You can click the link to take a look and follow our twitter hashtag #guildofdreams.
Humble Beginnings
I think I’ve mentioned it before, but with my first set of Griffins & Gunpowder short stories getting ready to launch and The Cerberus Rebellion so close to publication, I thought I would revisit the flash in the pan that started it all.
This short piece of fiction was written on my phone, though I couldn’t pinpoint exactly when. It was probably during a slow point at work when I had the chance to type it out in Google Docs.
It was done in April of 2011 and for about 4 months, it just stewed. Finally, in August the story took off. So, without further ado, here is the short story that was titled “Griffin Steampunk”.
The hunting party rode slowly along the low rolling hills, buffered from the wind and light drizzle by their thick, fur lined cloaks. They had been riding in the fields and hills for the entire day and had yet to see any of the prey that they sought.
There was sign everywhere along the low hills that there were Griffins in this part of the country, but neither the party scouts nor their hunting hawks had come up with anything.
“My Lord,” one of the riders shouted from the hilltop. “Griffins, about three lengths ahead. A whole flight of them!”
“Lead the way, Alvars!” Lord Thomas Collins, Baron of Shadow Ridge, shouted to his armsman.
The hunting party turned, their large horses climbing the hill with little effort, following the scout. Armor clattered as the riders picked up speed, their cloaks flapped behind them as they road hard toward the flight of griffins that they had been tracking.
As the party neared, they slowed to a trot. Griffins were notorious for having impeccable hearing and for maintaining a keen watch when they were away from their avaries.
“Armsman, bring me a rifle!” Thomas shouted to the back of the party. While swords were the primary weapon on the planet Gregorov, rifles were the hunting weapon of choice. One of Lord Collins’ armsman dismounted and pulled the long gun from its holster at the horse’s side.
“My Lord,” the armsman handed his lord the weapon as Thomas dismounted from his horse.
“Thank you, Vance,” the baron said as he flipped open the caps on the scope.
The rifle, a meter long, weighed at least ten kilograms and was of the finest make on the planet. Thomas had used the rifle since his tenth birthday, though he had to use a mount until he could carry the weapon himself. Now, he hefted the barrel with no trouble and brought the stock to his shoulder.
The scope was high powered, it brought the beasts so close that Thomas could seen the individual feathers on each of the beasts. The male Griffins were covered in spikes, the females were smooth backed. Males were much larger than their mates, but were less valuable as trophies because of the ungainly spikes.
Thomas settled on one of the females, stalking along the side of the hill with her ears pinned back against her skull. Thomas held his breath and settled his sights on the beasts’ chest and flicked off the weapon’s safety. He braced himself against the ground and squeezed the trigger.
The rail gun thumped as it spit the the bolt of metal at supersonic velocities. It took mere seconds for the round to reach its target and Thomas could hear the screams of the other Griffins as they lifted into the air. The hunting party lowered themselves as much as possible: a flight of angry Griffins was nothing to be trifled with. The beasts circled for a few minutes before they finally drifted toward the cliffs, retreating to their avary.
“Let’s go see what we’ve got!” Thomas shouted as he handed the rifle back to his armsman. The party remounted and took off at a gallop towards where the Griffins had been.
The party had stopped at nearly a full length from the flight of Griffins, so even at a full gallop it took almost ten minutes for them to reach the corpse of the majestic beast that had been their target. The scouts arrived first, their smaller horses were faster than those of the armsmen and nobles, and they circled the corpse slowly. Even as he approached, Thomas could tell that the scouts were talking to each other about something.
As he approached, Thomas quickly realized what had the attention of the scouts. The corpse of the female Griffin had fallen where the beast had stood, but there was something else. Laying in a small stone circle were a trio of baby Griffins. Their wings were still tucked back against their bodies, a sure sign that they were not yet able to fly.
“What should we do with them, My Lord?” One of the armsmen asked.
“Griffins are dangerous animals, My Lord,” Thomas’ master-of-arms suggested. “We should put them down.”
“My lord,” Thomas’ advisor interrupted. “Griffins could be a great asset. When fully grown, they could support riders. And even if we can’t ever train them, their wings could be clipped like a trophy hawk and they could be prize animals. Imagine walking into the King’s Palace with a trio of Griffins at your heels. Everyone would respect your power and wealth.”
“Alexander,” Thomas looked to his oldest son, and most accomplished horse trainer. “Do you think that you could train these beasts to carry a rider?”
“If there is a beast that cannot be trained to take a rider, I have not come across it yet,” Alexander nodded. “They won’t be of size to take a rider for at least nine months, and in that time we could train them to be hunters.”
“Very well,” Thomas nodded. “We’ll take them back to the castle.”
And from that, the Griffins & Gunpowder universe was born. It just goes to show how far a story can wander before it finds its home in your head. Have you ever written down a quick idea and had it morph into something very different before you finally started writing it in detail?
A Character’s Death (Excerpt)
This is an excerpt from a future novel in the Griffins & Gunpowder universe. It wandered into my head tonight and I just had to get it written.
Flares continued to explode overhead, flashing white against the black of night. Fires burned in every corner of the fort, the result of powder magazines struck by explosive rounds or incendiary shells gone awry. Spouts of fire and smoke erupted from cannons and muskets all around him.
The smell of blood and burnt flesh was thick in [Name Redacted]’s nostrils. The air was hot, despite the late hour, and heavy with salt from the sea. Acrid gray smoke hung in rolling clouds and stung his nose; black pillars rose from the fires.
He could taste blood as well, from where the rifle butt had split his lip. The dry, bitter taste of gunpowder and the sweet salt of his own sweat were on the tip of his tongue.
Through the ringing, he heard the crackle of musket fire, the booming rhythm of artillery batteries lobbing rounds across the battlefield, the screams of the dying and shouted commands on all sides.
And as he stared down the barrel of the smoothbore cannon, his men skidding to a halt behind him, [Name Redacted] felt nothing.
The ten pound cannon had been rolled down from its place on a small ramp and turned inward, toward the attackers that had breached the clay walls. The gun sergeant stared at him with cold green eyes, lanyard pulled taught and gripped in a gloved hand. The gun’s officer was shouting commands, but not even his crew could hear him through the roar of battle.
[Name Redacted]’s heart beat twice, and then the sergeant yanked on the lanyard
What do you think?
That One Day…(Creativity, Brainstorming)
…When ideas flow like water.
Yesterday, I woke up and started getting ready for work. I started the Keurig machine (best.investment.ever), went downstairs to feed the cat and went back up to start the second half of my travel mug of coffee.
As I was standing there, my brain starting working on why I should introduce Orcs to my world (inspired by Satis’ comment of having a purpose for having a race present).
So my mind wandered a little bit down that track and Bam! an idea for another series set in my Griffins & Gunpowder universe (that would make 3). I liked the idea so I opened up my Evernote app and tapped out a few quick details and started off to work.
It’s about a ten minute drive to work and I wasn’t even halfway there when another G&G series idea slammed me. And then another. And then a third.
I was incredibly excited! I just had four new series ideas come out of nowhere, essentially tripling the number of series I could work with in my universe.
As soon as I got to work, I fiendishly tapped my ideas into evernote and then got to work, but my brain was still buzzing with creative energy and my stories started to add details and ideas to themselves.
And then another series wandered along and made itself known.
I think that I can honestly say that yesterday was one of the most exciting and creative days I’ve had in a while.
Have you ever had a day when your brain won’t shut off and the ideas come out so quickly?
Breaking the Fantasy Race Mold
When I was first building the Griffins & Gunpowder universe, I had considered leaving out the typical fantasy races, if for no other reason than to avoid the typical “elves live in the woods and are good with bows, dwarves live in mountains and like to mine things” tropes.
I finally decided to bring Elves into the mix, but I decided that there would be two different nations of Elves. While the nation of Lot’Mai-Ron is more of a typical Elf situation, they live in a heavily wooded area and are more neutral/stand-offish, the nation of Laine is a sea power. The captains of Laine are treated as Kings aboard their ships and are prone to piracy and smuggling because of their better sailing skills.
Now I’m considering bringing Orcs into the scenario, but not as the typical bloodthirsty idiots that they are portrayed as throughout most fantasy.
I’m thinking about bringing the Orcs into the scenario as the people of a collection of city-states that were once a powerful republic but collapsed under the weight of corruption and the sheer size of the government needed. They have devolved to a collection of independent city-states that occasionally go to war with each other.
I’ll keep them somewhat war-like in that some of these city-states will be the home to renowned mercenary regiments.
I could even make it so that some of the city-states were humans and were conquered by the Orcs and integrated into the Republic before regaining their autonomy when the Republic collapsed.
What do you think? And how do you handle the Fantasy Race trope? Do you embrace it and have tree-hugging elves and dirt-eating dwarves, or do you rework your races so that they have some variety?
Killing Your Characters
With The Cerberus Rebellion in the hands of my beta-readers and 3/4 short stories finished, I’ve been working on plotting out the character arcs for my main characters over the rest of the series (right now, 5 more novels).
When I first developed the general idea for where I wanted this series to go, I had a pretty solid idea for how I wanted each character to end up. As the first novel developed, however, my long term goal for person shifted.
My plot, as it stands now, is radically different from what it was. First off, I had to kill an important secondary character in order to nudge one of the main characters down a certain path. As I’ve developed the arcs for the series, I’ve realized that at least one of my POV characters needs to die at some point toward the end of the series to bring closure.
This is really the first time that I’ve considered killing off a main character. In all of my other works, the main character comes through at the end.
I think the catalyst for this change of perspective was reading the Song of Ice and Fire books by George RR Martin. I won’t spoil it further than saying that he doesn’t mind killing off fairly important people.
I think that the multiple POV approach to writing provides the backup necessary to be able to kill off main characters because new ones can slide right into place and the other POV characters can continue the story.
When I initially killed off this secondary character, I went back through and read all of the chapters that he/she were involved in and realized that there wasn’t much to attach the read to him/her. So I went back through and beefed up this characters involvement in the story and the interactions with MC(s).
I haven’t received any feedback yet, but I’m hoping that my re-work of the character provided enough substance to make their death felt.
So what’s your opinion on killing off primary or important secondary characters?
How do you write?
The world of writing has evolved extensively, even in just the past few years. I still remember the first story that I wrote. I don’t remember how it went, or how it ended, but I do remember it was a short story for school and involved castles.
I wrote it on my dad’s dos computer that had like 64kb of ram, in the basement office that he had set up.
When I started to extensively write, I was 12 or 13. We were getting ready to move an hour away from civilization and I was homeschooled, so I needed something to occupy my time. I started having my parents buy me pens and 5 subject notebooks and I went to town.
I still have those notebooks, all 30 of them, in my basement. Most of them are terrible, terrible things that are really just a combination of ideas taken from books, comics and games and adapted to my own universe.
As I grew older, I started developing my own ideas and worlds, but I still wrote on paper. It wasn’t until maybe 6-7 years ago that I wrote nearly exclusively on a computer. But, I still used paper and pen for when I was away from my computer or just to jot down ideas.
Even now, I find myself grabbing a piece of scratch paper and a pen when I’m at work and an idea hits me. It’s something about the scratch of the pen as I drag it across the paper that gives me the satisfaction that the tap-tap-tap of a keyboard doesn’t.
So with all of the options for writing in this modern era of smartphones, tablets and ultra-thin laptops, do you still find yourself scratching out ideas on paper or have you gone over to the completely-electronic world?
Gunpowder Fantasy 