Blog

final video

2009-12-18T23:40:00.002-05:00

2009-12-18T09:35:00.000-05:00

Streeter

2009-12-17T20:29:00.001-05:00

News video

2009-12-17T20:25:00.001-05:00

Hair video

2009-12-17T20:23:00.000-05:00

Podcast

2009-12-17T15:20:00.001-05:00

Subscribe Free Add to my Page

2009-12-17T14:48:00.001-05:00

Series 2, book 1, except: The Cell

2009-05-20T01:06:00.002-04:00

Freshly kidnapped, Mhaldin is taken into captivity. From miles away and from total safety, his sister Fenera watches with her thoughts..

Then, around 10:30 on the clock, she saw a flicker of thought come through into her mind.
'Mhaldin, are you there?' she thought. Before he could reply, Fenera felt Mhaldin get struck in the face with an open hand.
“Wake up” a voice shouted in Mhaldin’s ear. Mhaldin opened his eyes and was immediately blindfolded. Fenera could feel him get pulled to his feet and hurried along by two men who grabbed his arms.
'Where are they taking me?' Mhaldin thought.
'How could I know?' Thought Fenera.
'You’re not in your normal bed' Mhaldin thought. Fenera thought about all that had happened today, sprinkling her thoughts with bits of optimism. Although it was hard for Mhaldin to feel happy when he was being hurried along as roughly as he was, he was still able to project happiness.
'It’s good to know so many people care' he thought. Fenera felt him get hurried across a hard floor and from what she could hear, the floor indoors and stone.
“So when do we get off duty?” one of the men holding Mhaldin asked.
“Not sure. I’ll ask the captain once we’re done with this kid” answered the other man. The entire trip took a minute or two, but after descending down a long flight of stairs, they came to a halt.
Mhaldin was scared, so was Fenera. What would happen now?
'Don’t be afraid Mhaldin, my new partners and I will get you out' Fenera thought, 'four of us are mages, we’re going to save you'.
'I know you will' Mhaldin thought.
“Alright, here’s the kid” one of the men holding Mhaldin said. “You want him? He’s yours.”
“Thanks for your help and for the ride in your machine” said a third voice, “you two can go.” The two men holding him released him, Fenera and Mhaldin both heard them run up some stairs. Another person grabbed Mhaldin’s arms, one in each hand and he was led forward a few steps, then abruptly stopped. The sound of rustling chains could be heard.
“From now on I am your master” said a voice. “My men will be extensions of my power over you. You are a belonging, a tool, an item and my men will make you work and like a tool, you will obey. If they tell you to stand you will stand, if they tell you to sit you sit, if they tell you to speak, you speak. You will not see me ever because I have better things to do than guard you, but my men will keep you under their solid watch. If you are thinking about escape then throw those ideas away now, it will never happen, I swear it. Your family is gone, your life is gone. Here you either sit and wait for my men to give you my commands, or do what they say. Do you understand?” Fenera felt Mhaldin nod. A hand struck him across the face.
“Do more than nod, tell me you understand, your master commands it!” Mhaldin did nothing.
'Just say yes' Fenera thought.
'He’s not my master' Mhaldin thought.
“You are insolent scum. But you will learn to obey my men and me by extension. It won’t be too long before you’ll grovel to their feet. I promise!” A fist punched him in the gut and the man behind Mhaldin held him up. The fist punched again, and again, and again, and again. When it was done, the man who had done all the speaking left, his footsteps could be heard going up the stairs.
When he was gone, Mhaldin’s blindfold was ripped away.
He was in a cell, big enough to squeeze four or so good sized horses in. All four of the walls were barred, so it was more like a cage. The room it was in the center of appeared to be a cellar as there were great piles of boxes and other junk lying about. Close to the door to the cell was a narrow flight of stairs going up. On one of the opposite walls was a small trapdoor, which Mhaldin later learned was the latrine. It seemed like a bottomless pit.
There were four other men in the cell with Mhaldin. One of them stepped to the door and produced a key while one man held Mhaldin still. Two others were bringing a heavy chain forward, one end they passed to the back of the cell opposite the door.
'In the name of all the gods…' Mhaldin thought when he saw what was tethered to the end of the chain: a heavy metal collar which opened and closed like a shackle. One of the men grabbed Mhaldin’s hair to hold his head straight while it was brought up to Mhaldin’s neck and closed around it while someone locked it shut with a key. The man at the front of the cell moved to the back and fed the chain through the back of the cell, clipping it neatly to a latch attached to the floor. Now Mhaldin could not leave the cell with the collar on. He tried loosening the collar. Such a cold, heavy weight was so odd. He wasn't used to being chained up like a dog.
The three men in the cell then drew short wooden clubs, each roughly a foot long.
“Are you Mhaldin Viex?” one of them demanded. Mhaldin said nothing and sat down near the end of the cell, unwilling to say anything and deeply intimidated. He fingered the collar idly. “Are you Mhaldin Viex?!” the man demanded again, “you don’t want your master to get mad, do you?” No words were said.
The three men grouped around Mhaldin and raised their clubs. Fenera closed her eyes tight, but couldn’t stop the flood of pain that came through. An eternity later, the beatings stopped. Fenera thought to check her body for bruises but knew it wasn’t she who took the beating. Even so, her left shoulder throbbed: many heavy blows had fallen on Mhaldin’s left shoulder.
“We know you are” one of the men said.
“Stupid little boy” another of the men spat, then kicked Mhaldin as hard as he could, causing Fenera, miles away, to wince and stop to catch her breath. “Come on, let’s go. That trip was too long for me, I need a drink. We’ll torture the kid later.” The others agreed with him, each took their turn at kicking Mhaldin before heading upstairs with the last one closing the cell door and locking it. The last thing they did was put a mageforce-charged amulet by the cell, just out of Mhaldin’s reach. It was the amulet which blocked mages from using mageforce in its vicinity. The kidnappers left sight, chatting coolly.
'Mhaldin, are you alright?' Fenera thought.
'Just a few bruises' Mhaldin thought. 'I’ll be alright. Please go to sleep, you need your rest. Don’t lose any sleep for my sake. I’ll still be here the next time you go to sleep, I promise'. Mhaldin’s thoughts told Fenera that he believed that it was daytime where he was every time night fell where Fenera was. They took time to comfort each other with thoughts and memories, then Fenera did as she was told and went to sleep.

Series 2, book 1, except: Mhaldin gets kidnapped.

2009-05-18T14:45:00.002-04:00

Anar Viex is hosting a party for the Higharc. During the course of which, the party is attacked by some apparently cowardly men with bows. They retreat quickly. Anar thinks its over, but someone is missing...

Anar was fuming with frustration and sighing relief. Despite the two hundred arrows raining down on his guests not one had killed anyone which was a blessing. There were five moderate wounds which angered Anar greatly. The attack had ended when the sentries attacked and drove off the cloaked attackers. From what he could tell thus far, damage had been minimal. Not a single sentry had been killed and the entirety of the grounds had been secured.
Anar had been inside when the attack had occurred so he could not have known how the attack actually went. From what he had heard, the attackers had advanced, loosed arrows, and retreated. A few had engaged the sentries and some exchanges of swordsmanship did happen though as far as Anar knew no one had died. Their remarkable lack of accuracy had probably spared more than a few high profile Jindarian personalities.
“What could these people have possibly wanted?” Anar said to himself as he looked into the common room. The band had begun to play their music again and an increasing amount of people were resuming their dance. The rumor was spreading that the attackers had been mere pranksters. Those wounded would probably be perfectly fine by next morning, if not by midnight. Anar had made sure that the wounded and their families had been taken upstairs. To those who had been indoors during the whole attack, the thing seemed less real and could be ignored. Anar saw that the party could simply resume while reinforcements were brought in from the city to secure the surrounding woods. The only fear Anar had was that the servants watching the horses in the woods had been murdered.
“Assassins, good ones, would have been less chaotic” Anar said aloud as he waded through the crowds of guests. “They must have been insurgents or political enemies wanting to show us how strong they think they are.” Anar shook his head, deciding he would try and figure out who the attackers had been the next day. The attack had been so harmless. The only thing it caused him was some terrible frustration.
‘Can’t we have one perfect night?’ he thought as he looked about, eyes methodically moving from face to face as he looked for Asseah. ‘Where is she?’
“Anar!” screamed Enereus’s voice. “Anar!” he was screaming urgently, coming through the crowd. Rossus stood near him, searching the crowd frantically. Enereus’ tone was a blend of urgency and panic, a fast and fearful voice used in emergency.
“What’s wrong?” Anar asked in as calm a voice as he could, approaching the two.
“Mhaldin’s been kidnapped.” At least twenty people gasped.
It took some time for the words to sink in. For what seemed like an eternity Anar stood rooted to his spot, the words echoing through his head and heart. Was that why the attack withdrew? It made too much sense. Anar couldn’t think of any reason why the attack would withdraw.
“What?” Anar asked calmly, unable to take what he was hearing. “Say that again?” He needed to hear it again; he had to make sure he had heard those words properly.
“Sir, I am so sorry” said Enereus. “We have multiple people, including your daughter, who say that he was taken by the attackers. We were fighting the attackers at the front of the house. I’m told the men who took him struck the back of the house, so we couldn’t stop them They’re long gone by now. One thing’s for sure though, they abducted Mhaldin.”
“Mhaldin?” Anar asked. “My…my son was kidnapped?” he was starting to have trouble speaking.
“Yes, I wouldn’t report this unless I was absolutely sure of its truth. Look around you and see if you can find him. I also have many people that all say the same thing” Enereus replied. “Lord Chrakann of Chazz himself is amongst those who say they saw three robed men grab him tie him up, gag and blindfold him, punch him a few time in the gut…” Anar wouldn’t hear this and silenced Enereus with a gesture.
‘No’ was Anar’s first thought. ‘Enereus is making a mistake. Mhaldin couldn’t possibly have been taken. Where is the proof?’ A small part of his mind was telling him that he was denying it because it was too terrible a thought to accept. “Show me” Anar calmly said as he soothed himself with a slow intake of breath. Enereus nodded and led him across the manor.
As Anar walked he kept his eyes open for his son, trying to spot him among the groves of faces he walked through. He saw friends and strangers but not the person he was looking for. This was an ominous sign.
“Rossus, what are you still doing here?” Enereus asked while the three walked. “Make sure the valkyrie princess is safe!”
“Yes sir!” replied Rossus with a salute and left.
The two reached the back of the manor facing the forest.
Anar was immediately aware of a girl wailing and he found its source: Chi who was sitting at a table and sobbing while her mother patted her shoulders. Anar felt his calmness break away from him when he saw this second sign. Could it possibly be true? Was Mhaldin gone?
“What happened?” Anar asked with some urgency in his tone. “Tell me Chi, what happened?” Chi’s tearful reply was hard to discern but Anar’s focus was immediately drawn elsewhere. There, on the ground near the edge of the tables, lay the sword of Rarend.
“Oh no” Anar whispered as he strode over to the fallen blade and lifted it up to confirm that it indeed was the legendary weapon. “By the gods, no. Oh no…” Enereus joined him. “I…I told him nothing would happen” Anar rasped.
“Forgive me sir, forgive me” Enereus glumly pleaded.
“Find him then!” Anar yelled while his legs seemed to liquefy. He slumped helplessly to his knees. He grabbed Enereus’s waist. Enereus knew the task was impossible but didn’t say anything. “Find him then!”
“We’ll try” said Enereus though he knew he could not succeed. The guard broke away from Anar’s grip and left.
With Enereus gone, Anar was able to comprehend what he had just confirmed He went over it in his head, again and again. The more he did this, the more real it became. The guests formed a circle around Anar, looking nervously at him.
They soon parted like reeds to allow Asseah through. She had a wild look on her face, a sort of confused terror like something someone would have on when fleeing a mysterious danger.
“What happened?” Asseah asked Anar frantically. “Where’s Mhaldin?”
“He’s gone!” Anar cried and was unable to speak another word. It was too real for him to take.

The All War

2009-05-18T14:32:00.003-04:00

The All War is the name of book 6. It is also one of the central cruxes of the whole of series 2, which focuses around the struggle to bring the All War to an end.
It begins with the Erayics and the Jindarians fighting one another over tensions caused by their differences in ideology. The Higharc of Eray is democratic while the kingdoms on Jindaria are monarchies. Trade disagreements and immigration fuels the rage and the two sides fight. In the background lies Usor'an, who lives in exile since the end of series 1 and seeks to regain control of his old kingdom, the Demon Empire. He plans to control the Demon Empire and use it to side with the Erayics to crush Jindaria.
At the same time, a separatist group from the Demon Empire called Demopact is making profit off the All War by selling weapons to both sides. One of the contracts on behalf of the Higharc: protect a band of mercenaries who have been contracted to kidnap Anar's son Mhaldin.
When Mhaldin is rescued, the boy betrays his family and joins Demopact. He dislikes their close relationship with the Higharc and makes Demopact think the Higharc has betrayed them by poisoning their members, killing enough to secure his place as the head of Demopact. Mhaldin then helps Usor'an become the lord of the Demon Empire. Then, side by side, Usor'an and Mhaldin unite the demons and attack Eray and Jindaria together.
The All War thus enters a new stage. With the original causes of the war forgotten, and a mutual enemy bearing down on them, Jindaria and Eray unite against Usor'an. The war thus becomes a prolonged war of attrition with the potential to last centuries.

About the peoples: tweni

2009-04-05T17:56:00.005-04:00

The tweni are a recent addition to the series. Suffice to say, a tweni is a half-valkyrie. Mhaldin and Fenera are tweni (see their entries under About the Characters). Though they originally reproduced by meditating underneath the roof of one of eight towers, valkyries began to die off when the towers they needed were destroyed by Usor'an. Thus, they died out. The tweni arose from unions between humans and valkyries.
A tweni is physically identical to a human, though the females tend to be better built than human females (owing to their valkyrie heritage). The most unique trait about tweni is, like valkyries, they are born in pairs. Unlike valkyries, only one twin is a girl. The bond between tweni twins is the strongest attachment in the worlds. Not only do they have an unshakable devotion to their twin, tweni also can share minds with their sibling (see Fenera or Mhaldin's entry for more details). This bond is so strong that a tweni has never killed their own twin. This fierce commitment also means that incest rates are extremely high amongst tweni.
The tweni do not have a society. They are a scattered, leaderless people living as dregs in the underworlds of Eray and Jindaria. They do not have any political alignment, instead believing themselves to be a secret nation that will one day claim its rightful place in the world.
Since tweni have a high birth-rate, they are often enslaved en mass and bred like cattle for the females to serve as workers while the males are made soldiers to fight the demons: the main antagonists of my series. Because of this forced-breeding, the tweni have a substantial population despite their relatively recent addition to the world.
Males are valuable soldier material because they can constantly commune with their sisters, earning them an instant return to their home, even in the heat of battle. Tweni soldiers are famous on Eray and Jindaria for having high morale. What's more, they train and experience war. If their sisters choose to follow them into the army, they will already be more experienced than most recruits.
Tweni have no distinct culture. However, their rising numbers will soon make them a force that is formidable enough to break from enslavement and integrate into the worlds are a true influence.

Excerpts 7: More from Series 2

2009-02-18T10:58:00.002-05:00

More quotes from my stories. This time, the focus is on series 2.

“You are a monster Usor’an, a monster!” Magakanajaij spat as the flames around her body were sucked into her mouth, nose, and eyes. She began to convulse.
“Say what you want woman,” Usor’an cackled. “But I’m the one roasting your soul.”

“I’m making a pelt out of you,” Jacob told the hellhound as he fired his pistol at it. As soon as he pulled the trigger, the hellhound’s body turned into a goat-shaped cloud of brown fog. A small distortion of mist near the hellhound’s throat was all that happened as a result of the shot. The mist coalesced back into the hellhound. “That’s not fair!” Jacob shouted. The beast leapt forward.

“Usor’an has a new lieutenant, one who leads the angels against the Erayics in a mad genocide. His crimes are piled high”. Each word he said sounded forced, as if he had to squeeze the words up his throat and out of his mouth. "Some call him the Magistrate,” Anar choked out then went quiet and his eyes fluttered across Fenera’s face. “He’s also my son.”

The closest person in the slave pit lay four meters away from her. Fenera’s nose burned with the smell of the waste that lay down there. Her ears bled with the sounds of screams and hundreds of begging voices that reached them. Her eyes took in nothing but the collected misery of thousands of people, who had nothing to look forward to except enslavement, or more mercifully, extermination.

The machine people, the angels, swarmed over to them. A storm of snow was thrown up around them as the angels took their places in a circle around them. Fenera cringed but Mhaldin was calm. As they came to a stop, the snow settled and she could see each individual angelic face. The torchlight glinted off their eyes and illuminated their black carapace, which was like the chitin of an insect. Fenera looked back to Mhaldin. He stood with a straight back, totally calculated. Five angels surrounded him, one rearing over his head, three on his flanks, and two crouching like cats by his feet. She couldn’t even see Mhaldin’s legs through the angel’s bodies. She noticed he had stripped off his left gauntlet and his bare hand was delicately stroking the head of an angel to his left. His caress seemed almost loving.
“See? There Fenera is,” Mhaldin said reassuringly, talking to the angels. He sounded like he had been talking to a scared girl whose closet he had just opened to disprove her imagined monster. “She is my genuine sister. Look at her and memorize her. If you see her, no matter what, you are not to attack her or let her be threatened. Alright?” Fenera shuddered as the angels all squeezed in towards her. They all pushed their soulless faces up around her until she was completely enveloped by a cocoon of metal. Wherever she looked she only saw faces. She felt an angel brush against her shoulder. She flinched and pulled away from it, only to bump into a wall of faces. Fenera huddled to the snow.

Fenera was so detached from reality that she almost fell over a water-filled basin that sat in the middle of the floor. She didn’t take a second look at Lynx, who was naked and washing his clothes in the basin. She heard him say something like “I thought you’d be gone longer.”

Plot Summary of Series 1

2009-01-31T21:28:00.003-05:00

Series 1 deals with the worlds of Eray and Jindaria and a war faced by both of them, war from the Demon Empire on Jindaria. Anarasorian, an Erayic, must unite the worlds against Usor'an the Demon King. In secret, Usor'an is after a secret weapon: the angels, the last traces of an extinct civilization on a third planet. If Usor'an controls the angels, he can end the worlds.

Plot Summary of Series 2

2009-01-31T21:11:00.003-05:00

This is a basic outline of the plot for series 2.

There are two planets: Eray and Jindaria, in a steam-punkish 1650's technology era. On Eray, there is the Higharc, who are a republic. Jindaria is ruled by monarchs. Their civilizations are too different and war becomes inevitable. Anarasorian, a celebrated hero from a previous war with an evil Jindarian empire, the Demon Empire, is desperately mending the damaged diplomatic ties between these two planets. He has two children, Mhaldin and Fenera, who share minds. The Higharc believes it can profit off a war with Jindaria, but first Anar has to be taken from the picture. They kidnap Mhaldin and demand Anar leave politics. The kidnapping triggers the long awaited war between Eray and Jindaria: the All War. The Higharc did not perform the actual kidnapping however. They had a bandit lord named Yuel kidnap the boy. Yuel is collaborating with demons in his other dealings. When Anar doesn't capitulate to the Higharc's demands, Yuel tries to have Mhaldin killed. Mhaldin is rescued by a demon and taken to a demonic city where a demon, who wants him to join demonkind, installs various machines into his body. Among them are weapons. Mhaldin's father recovers him and takes him home.
Blaming himself for starting the All War, Mhaldin believes he has a greater purpose to fill. His sister, with her magic powers, is swiftly becoming a hero in the All War. Her non-violence combined with her healing magic makes her loved by her allies and respected by her enemies. He joins her in the war. Furious that Anar has still not left politics, a member of the Higharc, a man named Haulk, has Yuel send assassins after Fenera. Fenera is almost killed and Mhaldin hunts Yuel down. His quest for vengeance is extremely violent. In the end, he captures Yuel and takes him home to torture him to death.
Angered that Yuel is not given a fair trial, lawmen try to take Yuel from Mhaldin. Angry, Mhaldin kills a lawman and goes into exile. With no family who will accept him, Mhaldin joins the Usor'an (the main villain) and the Demon Empire, where he gains prestige. When the demons ally with the Higharc, Mhaldin murders their leader and takes her place, but makes the assassination look like the work of the Higharc. He leads the demonic army against the Higharc, thus reaping vengeance for his kidnapping. He gets out of control and attacks everything on Eray. Fenera and Anar realize they need to defeat him.
Thus, side by side, with her father, Fenera battles her fallen brother for the future of not only Eray, but Jindaria too. Deep inside, she knows what drove him over the edge and is confident he can be brought back to the light. But is she right?

Peoples: The Servants

2009-01-30T21:22:00.003-05:00

These are the battle-fodder of the demonic army and are by far the most common type of demon. Despite this they appear the least often of all the demon species and lack any sort of influence in the Demon Empire. They are the workers, fighters, and mobs wielded by the kings of demonkind.
Physically, servants look like a scrawny man with no hair, bright red skin, pointed ears, tiny horns of ivory, sharp claws, and a rat tail. They are slightly shorter than men but some can grow to be much bulkier. They are no very intelligent albeit smart enough to take orders. Their vocabulary is limited and their voices are soft and hissing. Baby servants are born from pools of servant saliva and refuse. Their demon masters have perfected these "spawning pools" and built lake sized pools that churn out hundreds of the creatures every week. This, coupled with the fact that servants do not need to eat, ensures that their population is in the tens of millions, even in lean and hungry places within the Demon Empire. Unsurprisingly, their wicked masters take to dining on their flesh if food is unavailable.
They behave like rats (causing some people to call them rat-people). They breed in massive numbers and live in shadowy areas, ruins, or other places that people don't bother to chase them out of. If a demon warlord wants an army, all he needs to do is look in dark places and he'll probably find a nest of servants. Servants are a disorganized society, having no leaders of their own. Instead, they follow whatever powerful destroyer catches their attention. Their loyalty to these leaders is unshakable. They are smart enough to learn some bits and pieces of the demonic honour code, thus earning them the trust of the empire.
Unless given weapons, servants will fight with their claws or whatever they can pick up. Servants have gone into battle waving sharp sticks, rocks, bones, and furniture. When they are armed they are given cheap, simple weapons that are capable of being mass-produced. Then they are thrown into battle, showering on the enemy in wave after relentless wave of scuttling bodies. In book 3, a typical servant warrior carries a buckler, a short axe, and wears a helmet made of a metal plate beaten into a rough bowl shape with studded leather armor.
Poor fighters, it is said that one soldier can take down five armed servants all on his own. A squad of men working together can kill a swarm of them. But the bastards keep coming. In the story, the servants are an enemy for the heroes to kill in large numbers, without resorting to the "Stormtrooper Effect" thus the story is more believable. If I want to bring on the pain, the socrighters or destoryers make an appearance, but if it's going to be a heroic RPG moment then the servants will swarm forward.
Here's a quote about them:

"We don't really think of them as members of the empire. They're more of a tool to be used, and expended, for greater gains. We regard them with as much dignity as a musketeer gives his ammunition. Well, actually no. A musketeer has only so many shots."

All about one of my characters: Vashuss

2009-01-08T14:51:00.002-05:00

Simple and inexperienced. Malleable and naive. Confused and twisted. Vashuss is a minor villain in book 6 onward, making an appearance near the end. He is (at least, he appears to be) a metal centipede the size of a small elephant with a big head. He is supposed to be a mindless killing machine in the service of Mhaldin. Vashuss was gifted to him by Usor'an to serve the boy as his mount. Vashuss is supposed to have an artificial mind, which accounts for his gullibility.
Vashuss says very little, speaking through a free moving holographic projection that has its own voice. In this was, Vashuss essentially has two bodies. His centipede-like metal body had twelve long, flexible limbs that pull him along quite nicely. Because he is a machine he is treated likewise, shown no friendship by Mhaldin and worked nearly to death.
The truth is, Vashuss is not a machine but a hyper-intellectual infant who is stored inside the machine's giant head. Vashuss controls the machine with his mind. Mhaldin does not know it, but Vashuss is actually his bastard son, the mother of whom is Usor'an's daughter. This is significant because now Fenera's nephew is the main villain's grandson. She thought fighting her brother would be bad.

Non Canon Scenes

2008-12-31T12:47:00.002-05:00

I have taken up writing a few non-canonical scenes and scenes that are "unofficial," which is to say, scenes I do not plan to include in the books. Why am I writing them if I do not intend to use them? It helps flesh out the world if I write some things that occur behind the scenes. It is also fun because I can write about what would happen is the bad guy wins. I also have been working on a "blooper reel". I might post it soon.

Anyways, the New Year is coming soon. I'll see you in 2009!

Plans for Book 4

2008-12-27T16:11:00.003-05:00

I started book 4 about a year and a half ago. I have since began and finished books 5 and 6: a total of over 400 000 words. I am now returning to book 4 and finishing it off before I grind on through book 7.
Book 4 is probably going to be the second shortest in the whole series, since its plot is very condensed. Despite what the wordmeter has said for over a year (250000 words) it will probably only be 160000 or less. As it is, it stands at 109 pages. I am thinking of having it at 160 or 170 pages. It is the final book of series 1. I really need to finish it since I am about 1/2 through series 2.

Done book 6

2008-12-13T00:48:00.003-05:00

Just a quick post here to make a note: on December 13 at 12:38 pm, I completed book. I have already made the title image for book 7.

Peoples: The Scorighters

2008-11-30T09:18:00.005-05:00

A long time ago, when the first strings of some of the things that would eventually be added into this idea came into my mind WAY back in 2002, I envisioned a special type of people. They would be a warior society of perfect militant discipline who wore black armor and helmets that had snarling faces beaten into them. They were masters of the blade. They were a nightmarish army of invincible warriors taken from all sorts of different peoples and amalgamated under one banner. I named them the Destroyers.
Though this incarnation did not last, they would be the inspiration for one of the three types of demon that I would concieve when writing book 1. They differed from the Destroyers in that they were their own seperate race whose name came to me when I thought of the role they'd play: the scourge's fighters.
If you've ever seen Lord of the Rings, the Two Towers, you'd remember Sauraman's orcs, the Uruk Hai. They were supposed to be the deadliest kind of orc. They are certainly the most memorable orcs if you ask me. They were well disciplined and wore armor that designated them as the elite. BUT HOLY CRAP THEY WERE TERRIBLE! Ten thousand of them couldn't even take out Helms Deep. I lost faith in the Uruk Hai when the elves fired their bows. Just seeing all those Uruk Hais die made me realize that training and equipment was only for show. I have come to think of them as storm-troopers-with-swords.
The scorighters are kind of like the uruk-hai in that they are the best the soldiers that the demons have, but unlike them in that they can show it. Although they look like gaunt corpses (I wanted to give them weak looking bodies to emphasize how much their armor completed them). For the closest comparison, think of the skeletal pirates from the first Pirates of the Carribean movie, but with no bare bones, lips, and no hair. The scorighters are ruthless fighters. They are immune to pain and shock, and are able to lose certain vital organs and retain health. Combine this with good training and a suit of black armor that covers them from head to toe. One scorighter is said to be able to beat five men in a melee. Traditionally, evil minions tend to be numerous and weak. The scorighters are numerous and strong.
Aside from being the demonic elite, the scorighters also form Usor'an's bodyguard: the King's Wall. They are distinct from the others in that they wear no helmets (helmed bodyguards can be infiltrated) and have dark blue armor instead of black. The King's Wall are the elite of the scorighters.
To date there has only been one scorighter character: the lieutenant of the King's Wall, Wraith. Wraith takes on a very important role as being Mhaldin's first mentor.

Excerpts 6: Fall from Grace (updated)

2008-10-22T15:10:00.005-04:00

Having revealed that Mhaldin turns evil, I have decided to provide some quick quotes to illustrate how it goes down. Some of these passages have not yet been included in the story.

"Mhaldin's been kidnapped".

'The Higharc?' Mhaldin thought in equal parts surprise and dismay. 'They did this?'
'A man named Cipit, working on behalf of the Higharc, had some involvement'. Fenera thought.

“They…tortured him” Fenera replied. “They tortured him and it’s all going on in my head. They wanted to know where we are so they…they asked Mhaldin”.

“Your master will know where Fenera is. You will tell us in time. You’ve got it easy right now but your master could have us get fiercer with you” one of them said. They left Mhaldin where he was: hanging by his legs from the ceiling of his cell.

“One day, maybe not this year and maybe not the next year, but one day I will kill you” Mhaldin stated. “On that day the Higharc and every evil thing it stands for will end. On that day you will regret making me your enemy. On that day I will see Starseran fall from the sky. I will strike it down”. Mhaldin spat at Haulk. “I will see to it that everything you love and have worked to accomplish and preserve burns to the ground!” Mhaldin was losing control; he wasn’t even rationalizing what he was saying. “By the gods, the corrupt Higharc will die, and I will make it happen! You and your filthy friends will pay for what they did to me!”

(while he is being rescued) And there he was, marred by scars and wearing blood stained clothing that had been torn. But there lay young Mhaldin: alive and sitting in front of Fenera’s eyes for the first time in a year and a day. He was still deep in peaceful unconsciousness.

“Someone mentioned his kidnapping and he sat down over there. He just stayed there for the whole meeting, not doing much”. Mhaldin heard her sigh. “I think he might be concerned. You see, I plan on making contact with the Higharc so to discuss the troubles out west. I suspect he fears making contact with the Higharc will give them an opportunity to…take him again”. Through Fenera’s eyes, Mhaldin saw his parents look at him “It is so painful to see him like this”.

“Those men helped keep me in a cage for nine months. It is my right to hate them” snapped Mhaldin.

'War kills bad men. Without war the world would be a terrible place' Mhaldin thought back as he thought about the Higharc and how the All War would destroy them.

“Yuel and his killers” Mhaldin said through his teeth. He looked at Fenera. “They just can’t leave me or my family alone. I…I’ll kill them all. All of them. I won’t take this anymore”. He stood up, fists clenched. He didn’t care how he would strike at Yuel, he didn’t give one single spot of logic to the feasibility of how he would do so. All he thought about was how much he wanted to kill every single man Yuel commanded. He took a few steps towards the exit, Rossus asked him where he was going.
“These animals put me in a collar for nine months and turned those days into a living nightmare for me. They hurt me like I did something to them” Mhaldin said. “Now I’ve gotten away from them and they’re still following me. They’re attacking Fenera now. I’m going out to slaughter them all. I’ve sat back and done nothing, now they’ll all pay with their lives!”

'You’re not a killer…'Fenera thought.
'Not yet' Mhaldin thought.

Mhaldin charged out of the shadows and jumped on the back of the banjo player forcing him to the ground. The man was dead before he fell: the sword of Rarend through his heart. The others were so off guard that they were still smiling at the song and music when Mhaldin began to kill them. For Mhaldin, it was a simple matter of pointing the pressure cannon at random people and pulling the trigger.

“No, YOU murdered all those people in New Caesarus!” Mhaldin yelled. “I saw the ashes! You and all your genocidal followers aren’t worth the food you eat! You are a sickness on the two planets. I didn’t murder anyone, I CURED them!”

"I loved you with my soul, I took care of you. I raised you" she said softly to Mhaldin. "When you were kidnapped, my life became a living nightmare. But we got you back". Her voice grew hard and sharp like water that was freezing, and equally as cold. "Now you...murder, kidnap. These are things that no child of mine knows how to do. You are not my son. Go with Usor'an, do whatever, I don't care what happens to you anymore".

"We can be friends" Usor'an offered as he sat down next to Mhaldin.

"Yuel is dead, but I want more" Mhaldin said to Usor'an. "Its time I took up my quarrel with the Higharc".

(much, much later...)
“On behalf of the Higharc, the people of Starseran, Jindaria and Eray, I welcome you,” the emissary said as he approached Mhaldin to shake hands. Mhaldin raised his hand, but not to shake hands. The emissary’s head fell to the floor: a blade that had unfolded from Mhaldin’s palm sat in his hand and blood sat on its edge.
No sooner had Mhadin murdered the emissary when the other scorighters attacked. Gunshots rang out and both drem guards were killed before they could bring their weapons to bear on their young adversary. The whole thing took less than five seconds.
The crowd stood and gazed in disbelief at what they had just seen. They just could not comprehend what they had seen. It was too unreal for them. Mhaldin looked up at the astonished faces, his young face beaten into a hateful glare. He swept his sword down towards the crowd as the scorighters unfolded guns from their hands.
“Kill them!” he screeched.

“I am sorry magistrate. I can only imagine how you feel,” Aironel raised his eyes to Mhaldin’s. “But if you kill us you’ll perpetuate the war”. Mhaldin didn’t react. “You’ll perpetuate the war, the one Eray wanted to start so desperately”. No reaction. “You can’t take vengeance, many people will die”.
“Isn’t that exactly what the Higharc wanted?” Mhaldin asked, his wings flapped a bit. Aironel pressed his hands together as though praying.
“Don’t you want this war to end? Do you think that killing all of us will help anything?” Aironel begged, his calm demeanor began to melt away.
“You are a sickness on Eray. I need to cure this world of you”.
“You’re making a mistake,” Aironel cried. “This is a peace talk you maniac!” Mhaldin stabbed Aironel in the stomach and leaned down. He pressed the flames from his two “wing” tendrils against the drem’s face. The smell of charred scales stung his nose. Mhaldin threw down the smoldering carcass and gestured to the angels. They machines descended down onto the Erayics, blades unfolded from their front limbs. Mhaldin joined them, and was lost in a tempest of screaming and blood. He hacked and killed, no mercy to anyone. None of his victims could fight back, none of his victims could get away. He killed the unarmed drem with the angels. At last he had his revenge.
It was over far too fast.

A Map of Eray

2008-10-21T23:22:00.003-04:00

This is a map of Eray. Names are too small to see, but that is the general layout. Since most of the action takes place on Jindaria, Erayic peoples have little individuality, the the names of Erayic nations really don't matter. Names that are visible are "Southland" and "Northland". These are continents. Rusherson (the rebel nation in book 1) is in Northland. Anar is from Southland, a city called Dynorak to be more specific.

All about one of my characters: Fenera

2008-10-19T00:44:00.004-04:00

Loving and good-natured. Arrogant and authoritative. Resourceful and smart. Fenera is a half human-half valkyrie. She is a 15 year old girl who commands a host of magical ability. She appears from book 5 onwards. Her description from book 5:
"Her girlish looks were being quickly replaced by a more womanly guise, though she still had the look of a child about her she looked a few years older than she actually was. Her face was lightly freckled and she wore her black hair behind her head in a short ponytail. She wasn’t fat like a lot of Jindarian princesses, nor was she skinny. Instead she had a lean and hardened from that had been sculpted by a lifetime of demanding work. Her mother saw to it that she learned to be a hard worker so she could grow up to be an excellent monarch. The work Fenera did, mental and otherwise, had made her strangely fit for a girl of her class"
I modeled Fenera's appearance (and only appearance) on an old classmate of mine: Brita S.
Her role in the books is an important one, almost as important as Anar in book 5. She is very skilled at healing victims of war with her mage powers and takes great joy in saving lives. She is very tolerant of others (except for Lynx Rossus whom she hates for his 'soldier personality'). Like most girls her age she loves to have fun.
In this way, she is an antithesis to her more militant twin brother: Mhadlin with whom she psychically shares thoughts. Despite their differences in ideology, Fenera loves her brother a whole lot (the feeling is mutual). The relationship runs into disaster when Mhaldin is kidnapped.
It falls to Fenera, Anar, and a group of friends to rescue the boy. Fenera is the glue that holds the rescue effort together and she needs to apply her quick thinking many times to bail the group from danger. By the time Mhaldin is rescued, Fenera is a heroine all across her homeland for her achievements (she once turned a whole invading army on its heels with her mage powers). This prompts the wrath of many, but she rises to the occasion and rapidly develops into a legend big enough to rival Anar.
When all seems well the unthinkable happens: Mhaldin turns evil. It falls to Fenera and Anar to take him down.
Fenera represents the ideal hero. She never kills anyone, she saves lives, often spending all her power on helping people. She fights only to defend, and she doesn't even kill her victims with her powers. Unlike Anar (or any action hero) she refuses to kill her enemies. The only person she will be allowed to kill (and even then, I don't know if I will make it happen or not) is her twin brother.

All about one of my characters: Mhaldin

2008-10-13T18:42:00.004-04:00

Downtrodden and in pain. Resourceful and extreme. Exceptional and deadly.
If my whole series was published and sent to stores tomorrow, Mhaldin would be the most controversial character. He is a fifteen-year-old boy with a valkyrie mother and a human father, making him a, as someone once said "male valkyrie". He does not have the usual array of powers but does share the thoughts of his twin sister, Fenera. The two are as close as peas in a pod, both willing to die for the other. His description in book 5:
"Mhaldin was slightly skinnier than his sister though this was due to his body shape and not to a lack of fitness. Actually, Mhaldin was far more athletic than Fenera and stood almost a foot taller than her. He almost always seemed to be projecting a cheery mood. While some might make others feel uncomfortable with their rough appearance or negative attitude, Mhaldin’s demeanor was such that those around him could feel positive just by looking at him even if he wasn’t more cheery than the average person. Like Fenera he was very well disciplined."
So why the idea of controversy? He sounds like a nice enough kid, right? Actually, he isn't all smiles. Religious fanatics hate him for being a male and a valkyire. He has survived 6 assassination attempts. During the course of book 5 he is kidnapped, tortured (Mhaldin is the tortured '13 year old' I refer to in the 'Eray Rated R' post, although the draft it refers to is outdated: Mhaldin no longer gets executed), and nearly killed by decapitation. When finally released, he adopts a horrifying anti-social demeanor. His ideology? The world has rejected him, therefore, he has the right to fight back. During the course of book 6 he takes a terrible revenge on those who wronged him. In the end, tens of thousands of people are killed and Mhaldin murders one too many people and joins Usor'an to escape the law. It falls to his sister (who shares his thoughts and still dearly loves him) to take him down.
Mhaldin, as I believe, pushes the envelope of what is appropriate. I do avoid excessive description when he is being tortured, but do not hold back when he is killing people (in one instance, he slaughters a keep full of unarmed bandits). Is it right to have a teenage boy pile up the bodies in the way he does: a purely anti-heroic style? Maybe it isn't.
Being a villain, Mhaldin is destined for punishment. Not even I know how this is going to end. My projected ending is to have a family member (i.e Fenera) kill him and then mourn over it but do not know exactly how it will go down (one particularly morbid version has Fenera and Mhaldin kill one another, then have their father discover the bodies). I want the scene to be perfect: a totally eye-flooding tragedy that lies at the end of a very long fall from grace.
(edit) in the Theme Songs post, when I say Mhaldin's theme is the Soccent Attack from the Transformers score, I mean the song that plays during the Michael Bay Transformers movie when Blackout attacks Soccent. This song (please don't pull it YouTube) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EM7SWfYSxw4

Peoples: Angels

2008-10-03T12:48:00.004-04:00

Alongside the demons are a race of flying peoples called the angels. They are elusive, shy, very stingy when talking to others, and love to keep secrets. They are so elusive that all of what is known about them is taken from Erayic and Jindarian legend.
Angels are said to be the divine servants of the gods. Legends attribute them with magic powers. All angels can fly at astonishing speeds, always blowing on their magically loud trumpets to announce the presence of a divine herald. Angels are said to have been seen throwing fire, iron, and lightning from their fingers. Those who have seen them wheeling overhead sometimes say the angels' bodies burn with fire while they fly. Legends abound of angels confronting great researchers, learning about the lives of mortals from them. The most famous story is how a flight of angels guided a tribe of people to a land where they could be safe from the Chazzans: a land known as Crua.
Art always depicts angels as beautiful people with burning feet, burning halos of fire, and huge wings. Some legends attest that angels have red eyes. However they appear, they are, without a doubt, the most capable of all the races on Eray and Jindaria.
Most people do not believe they truly exist, fancying them a mere fable. However, the fact that they are reported on both Eray and Jindaria and are given the same traits on both worlds is compelling evidence in favor of their existence.
The angels are purely book 3 onwards. They take very little part in the the happenings of mortals, until book 3. They play the key role in book 4 and are from then on diminished. The most important thing about the angels is all that is known by anyone about them comes from legend. Their true nature is far more horrific.

Theme Songs

2008-09-30T19:55:00.005-04:00

songs I have matched to the personalities and roles of characters.

Anar's Theme song: "Amaranth" by Nightwish
Rook's Theme song: "Planet Hell" by Nightwish
Usor'an's Theme song: "Pompeii" by E S Posthumus
Saldella's Theme song: "Welcome to the Jungle" by Guns and Roses
Theme song for all goblins: "Numa Numa"
Arcool's Theme song: "Bown Down (pray to your god)" by DZK
Jacob Theme song: "Jump around" by House of Pain
Rarend's Theme song: "Ghost of the sun" by Katatonia
Engeel's Theme song: "Points of Authority" by Linkin Park
Asseah's Theme song: "Rich girl" by Gwen Stefani
Skander's Theme song: "Falling away from me" by Korn
Fenera's Theme song: "Wake up" by Hilary Duff
Lynx's Theme song: "Wake me up inside" by Evanescence
Mhaldin's Theme song: "SOCCENT Attack" Transformers Score by Steve Jablonsky
Svva'cke's Theme song: "One Step Closer" by Linkin Park
Rendith's Theme song: "Canon Rock" by guitar90
Usor'vash's Theme song: "Phantom of the Opera" as heard in the famous play
Fury: "Bodies" by Drowning Pool

Peoples: The Higharc

2008-09-20T15:37:00.003-04:00

The Higharc is the controlling government on the planet of Eray. Their job is to ensure that all the "rulerships" and republics of Eray get along, as well as providing guidance and universal policies to unify the peoples. The Higharc is so influencial that about half of all business conducted by an Erayic government is overseen by the Higharc.
On Eray, drem (a race of dragonlike-men) are deemed "superior" to all non-drem. They are given special rites and powers (such as extra freedoms, the right to use the more accessable drem-entraces to buildings...) because they are supposedly smarter. The most well known freedom they have over non-drem is the right to govern themselves. All non-drem societies live under puppet governments called "ruleships" which are not legally true administrations, but elected magistrates who attend to the most basic needs of their subjects, while all other choices are made by the Higharc for them (because the Higharc knows best).
The Higharc itself is a council of fifty individuals: all drem and their staff. They sit in their palace in the flying city of Starseran and distribute their rule to all from there through an efficient system of messengers who utilize airships to get around the world of Eray.
As tyrannical as the Higharc may seem with its extensive control, it is actually quite fair. While no one can live independently from their rule and no non-drem administrations can make their own choices, the Higharc is largely a fair government remarkably free of corruption at the time of book 1. They ensure that a democratic society prevails all across Eray (albeit, votes cast by drem citizens are more valuable than other votes).
The most well known accomplishment of the Higharc is the fact that war is a rarity on Eray. The rebellion that occurs in book 1 is the first war that Eray, the whole planet, has had in two generations.
Higharc symbols make heavy use of griffin imagery since they were originally founded to be the successors of the griffins in the wake of the Sky War. Starseran itself is built on the back of a giant griffin statue. The representative colours of the Higharc are yellow and black, often checkered.

All about one of my characters: Rossus

2008-09-03T14:41:00.003-04:00

Militant and diciplined. Patriotic and devoted. Artistic and rugged. Rossus is one of the supporting characters. He is a young Chazzan, the son of a deceased lord, who was given a vast amount of property for his inheritance. This is a lot of responsibility for the 16-year old since his blind mother cannot help him too much with the care of the property. He doesn't have to spend a lot of time with his wealth though since he is in the army. His noble birth guarenteed him a high position within the Chazzan Army as a prefect-in-training. He works under an official Chazzan legionary officer as an apprentice, learning how to be an officer so that he can assume his station of command when he comes of age.
Rossus is a very patriotic Chazzan, showing intense nationalistic loyalty. He can't stand Verrelinorians (an attitude he considers patriotic). He salutes all of his social/military superiors and acts with exaggerated dicipline around them. He demands everyone excet close friends and family call him by his last name: Rossus. His first name is "Lynx" and it is only what those closest to him call him (or those who Rossus lacks the power to condemn for calling him it). In the story that makes it easy to tell the status of his relationship to the person speaking to him. To everyone, he acts with a military attitude, demanding people stand quietly when he talks to them and referring to them by their last names or simply "sir" or "madam".
Physically Rossus is a thick boy with black hair which he had cut down to the point of baldness so he could wear a helmet. He wears a uniform even when he doesn't need to. He speaks with a "heavy central Chazzan accent" which is comparable to a Germanic accent.
Since he is so strict, someone once asked if he had a personalty under "all that soldier". He does. Out of a uniform he is a devouted outdoorsman who loves to explore nature. This is reflected in his love for drawing animals and scenery. He also is a hunter when taking time off work in the countryside. His skills with a bow are very good though he's no Robin Hood.

Excerpts 5: Good and Evil

2008-08-24T21:56:00.002-04:00

The following are some decent/cruel quotes from all the books I have yet done.

"I'll go in first" Rook volunteered as he moved Anar out of the way. "You have too much to lose. And if anyone deserves to die today its me".

Usor'an grumbled in sour surprise as the unknown knight had raised his visor and showed who he was. "Erasora'hn, how nice of you to come" Usor'an said. "Did you have fun burying your son?"

"No one is beyond redemption Rook, not even you"

Underneath every land controlled by a ruleship the layers of rock began to tremble and split. It initially went unnoticed by the inhabitants, but as time wore on the earth began to noticeably shake. All who experienced this suspected an earthquake and tried to find someplace they could go to in order to be safe. Farmers lay on the ground and prayed for it to end, people who were indoors sought a place to hide or escape.

“What are your feelings towards me?” Asseah asked quietly. “Will you tell me or shall I guess?”
“You can guess, but first here’s a hint” Anar whispered. Then he kissed her.

The third person she healed was a refugee, despite Gherantro’s orders to do otherwise. The refugee was a young human girl of around eight years. She lay on her front and three deep arrow-wounds bloodied her back. Beside the girl sat her mother who was cross legged and wept quietly into her palms while waiting for her daughter to die. Fenera was too good to ignore this and healed the girl.
“I’m feelin’ better” the girl said.
“Tockella?” the mother asked in surprise. “Tockella?”

Yuel asked for the amber coloured liquid and held it up when it was handed to him.
“This liquid is used by our healer as an antidote for various paralyzing toxins. One effect it has is it sharpens the feeling in the body for a period of time. You can rub it on or drink it. Either way, your skin can mistake a pinprick for the fiery thrust of a dagger. We give this to him and we won’t even need the healing salve. We could torture him with a single splinter of wood if we wanted to”.

“The true consequence of a new war with the demons” began Anar, ignoring the drem “will be the sorrow it will bring to the next generation. It’s time we truly end the fighting”.

Wraith turned away from the slave ship and looked ahead as his horse clopped down the road. "I've owned a few myself and found that the best thing about getting a new slave girl is dressing her for the first time" Wraith said. He answered Yuel's question before it came. "I enjoy it because nothing gives me more satisfaction then seeing that crushed look on her young face when she sees her costume and realizes that all she has left to live for is humiliation and torment. Its so...gratifying".

"Why do you heal those peasants?" Iscka asked Fenera. "It's a waste of magic. They'll just get sick again".
"It makes me feel good" was Fenera's reply.

Anar on Hero Machine

2008-08-20T08:57:00.002-04:00

I have made an image of Anar on Hero Machine. To access it, go to: http://www.ugo.com/channels/comics/heromachine2/heroMachine2.asp

Once there, copy and paste the code below into the load window, which can be accessed by clicking on the blue "load" button in order to see the image of Anar I made.

2.1*m1*Anar (Current Look)*Hair:Expansion1,mohawk1,181818,FFFA9C,100,100,22,Eyebrows:Standard,eyebrows4,181818,FFFA9C,100,100,20,Eyes:Standard,plain1,FFFFFF,FFFFFF,100,100,19,Nose:Standard,slash,FFD08C,FFFFFF,100,100,25,Mouth:Standard,closedsmile,FFD08C,FFD08C,100,100,17,Beard:,fraBlank,FFFFFF,FFFFFF,100,100,24,Ears:,fraBlank,FFFFFF,FFFFFF,100,100,18,Skin:,fraBlank,FFD08C,FFD08C,100,100,6,Mask:,fraBlank,FFFFFF,FFFFFF,100,100,21,Headgear:Fantasy,fraBlank,727272,CFCFCF,100,100,27,Undershirt:Standard,dressshirt,CEA66B,CEA66B,100,100,7,Overshirt:Expansion1,fraBlank,BDBDBD,848484,100,100,8,Coat:FantasyArmor,roman,B2B2B2,BDBDBD,100,100,23,RightGlove:Standard,armorband,FFFFFF,FFF764,100,100,16,LeftGlove:Standard,armorband,FFFFFF,FFF764,100,100,15,Insignia:,fraBlank,FFFFFF,FFFFFF,100,100,9,Neckwear:Standard,fraBlank,6A0108,DDDDDD,100,100,30,Belt:Standard,powerdisks,312829,9C9C9C,100,100,31,Leggings:,fraBlank,FFFFFF,FFFFFF,100,100,10,Overleggings:Standard,fraBlank,848484,848484,100,100,12,Pants:Standard,plate1,B2B2B2,FF0000,100,100,14,RightFoot:Standard,plate2,B2B2B2,B2B2B2,100,100,13,LeftFoot:Standard,plate2,B2B2B2,BDBDBD,100,100,11,Back:,fraBlank,FFFFFF,FFFFFF,100,100,3,Wings:,fraBlank,FFFFFF,FFFFFF,100,100,4,Tail:,fraBlank,FFFFFF,FFFFFF,100,100,5,Aura:,fraBlank,FFFFFF,FFFFFF,100,100,2,Companion:,fraBlank,FFFFFF,FFFFFF,100,100,29,Background:Standard,fullscreen,FFFFFF,FFFFFF,100,100,1,RightHand:Blades,persian,9596C6,636363,100,100,28,LeftHand:Blades,fraBlank,CFCFCF,434343,100,100,26,#

Short Story: Slaves of the Demon

2008-08-18T17:27:00.003-04:00

I have written a short story for fictionpress.com based in the Three Planets universe called Slaves of the Demon. Its purpose is to give more depth to Usor'an. In the canon this story will have taen place about one hundred years prior to book . Below is the address for the story.

http://www.fictionpress.com/s/2560806/1/Slaves_of_the_Demon

All about one of my characters: Asseah

2008-07-20T23:32:00.002-04:00

Religious and aristrocratic. Responsible and proud. Kindly and liberal. Asseah is the queen of the valkyries and has a minor role in book 2, a significant albeit small role in book 3, and a large role in book 4.
When first introuduced she is a mere princess of nineteen or twenty years. Then her mother dies and she assumes the throne. Asseah spends most of the series as the queen of the valkyries. She is also fated to be the last of the royal line since she is childless when he valkyrie race loses its ability to reproduce. It falls upon this poor woman to lead her race into a dignified extinction as its last ruler.
Asseah is more religious than most characters and often turns to the valkyrie goddess Lunas for guidance. She prays a lot and makes many religious offerings to her goddess. She also ridigly adheres to religious traditions with the exception of one. Being a race of females, the valkyries are commanded by their taboos not love a man. Asseah finds herself smitten by Anar to the point where she believes she has angered the goddess. Though when the choice finally comes to choose between honoring love or the goddess, Asseah turns to Anar.
Asseah's attachment to the Erayic boy causes turmoil throughout books 2, 3, and 4. Her justification for loving Anar? According to her, now that the valkyries are unable to reproduce they would have to change their customs if they are to avoid extinction. For obvious reasons Asseah resents the idea of the valkyries dying out.
She is the manistestation of feminine power in the series. As well as being Anar's love interest she is also a key player in the war against Usor'an, taking on important policial roles in her homeland of valkyrie-controlled Chazz. It is her lands that get invaded by the Demon Empire and thus she has to take it to herself and her people to save themselves.
She is concerned with the survival and comfort of her people first and foremost, sometimes putting more importance in that than defeating demonkind. There is one instance where she throws a liberating army out of a valkyrie city so it could be repopulated pronto, denying the city's use by the military. As a ruler she allows no one to push her around!
Asseah looks like, and this is directly from the description in book 2: her hair is long and blonde, her skin is pale, she is delicately built. Her legs are her major phyisical flaw. She lost her legs in an accident and goes around in a wheelchair.

Peoples: House Jara

2008-07-19T22:10:00.006-04:00

The great valkyrie philosopher Saffron Koshest once said "To place faith in a Jara is as burning oneself with fire and twice as foolish".
The Jara, alongside the Usor, are one of the destroyer houses within the Demon Empire. Just like the other 12 destroyer houses the Jara share a piece of power within the Demon Empire. The Jara are the least politically influencial destroyer house not only due to their small numbers (a mere 9000 individuals) but also by their isolated lifestyle.
When the Demon Empire was founded the honor code that would bind the demons together as a society was proposed to the destroyer houses. This honor code would turn the demons from a disorganized and fractured society into a rigid and lawful one where personal character as well as duty defined one's worth. All accepted the honor code except the Jara because their lifestyle was incompatable with the code. Why? The Jara rule their lands with networks of spies and assassins. Where other destroyer houses encourage undying loyalty and egotistical pride in one's character which could make each of its adherents almost chivalrous, the Jara are dishonest, cheating, stealing, manipulative liars.
Jara destroyers will stoop to any level to make a profit taking advantage of their honorable cousins, lying and scheming to get rich fast. The Jara enforce their will with complex networks of assassins who "subtract" rivals with a carefully placed strike.
Jara controlled cities are watched over by ruthless vigilantes and run by secret lords from their lairs deep in the underworld. Visitors to these cities are often warned to interact as little as possible with the locals.

Assassins are what the Jara are known for. They are said to be the best anywhere. They are among the most disgusting demons anywhere, even worse than the man-farmers of house Stora or the torturers of house Rarus. They are in love with killing, slaughtering other demons to satisfy their lust for blood. They follow a distinct set of traditions and rules: a vile parody of the honor code:
-Assassins always quickly whisper "death by Jara" to their victims just before killing them, usually as they make the killing blow. If doing so would alert the victim, they say the words to the corpse.
-"From the shadows we come" is the motto of the guild as well as the whole Jara household.
-Each assassin maintains a dark red sword which is a replica of their symbol. The symbol is inspired by a legendary blade whose owner bled all over it after being killed by Jaranaxifus, the first ever Jara.
-Assassins never give their real name to anyone, always making one up on the spot. Stories abound of Jara assassins who gave fake names to their own children, sometimes a different name to each child before disappearing into the night forever.

Done book 5

2008-07-15T10:51:00.003-04:00

Quick post: in the first hours of July the 15th 2008 I finished book 5. w00t. Now I have the first drafts of 4 books finished. I have started book 6 and will resume work on book 4 soon.

Soon to be Finished: Book 5

2008-07-08T23:17:00.006-04:00

My goal for book 5 is 250 thousand words. I am at 238 thousand and the story is just entering the climax (update: 250000 words reached July 12th). The last bit of book 5 is just about to be finished and soon I will have finally finished the first draft. It is already longer than any of the others at almost 500 pages in reading format.
Despite this, I have not yet finished book 4. I have books 1-3 completed (first draft) but not book 4. Why? I started books 4 and 5 at the same time under the idea that both could be written at the same time, that when I ran out of ideas for 4 I could work on 5 and vice versa.
But there was a problem with that. I loved book 5. I love all my works but book 5 really drew me in like no other story had. It was what book 5 was about that drew me in. Its themes have helped shape the way I look at the world and the emotional themes were so powerful that sometimes I would just stand up and wander the house while thinking about what I've wrote or just lie back in my chair. Sometimes I really upset myself when writing the sad scenes, I really did! Of all my works book 5 is my new favourite.
Despite its length, importance to the storyline, and strength, book 5 is the only one (so far) that I will not discuss on this blog. It gives away too much about what eventually happens during the other books. I have personal ban on publishing material related to book 5 here. In fact, of all the excerpts I have in my excerpts posts, only one is from book 5.
Now that I am coming close to the end of book 5 I can do one of two things. One, I can start book 6 which I have already named and made a cover for. Two, I can finish book 4 which I haven't worked on for months. Three, I can start book 6 and work on it when I feel like it while focusing on book 4. I really got to finish book 4, I really do.
I look forward to writing the second draft of book 5. It would mean I get to read it.

Excerpts 4: Charge!!!!

2008-06-27T23:50:00.003-04:00

The following are some brief exxcerpts that highlight the more violent side of the series.

“A mage” the lieutenant growled. He said this as people began crowding into the keep. He was almost swept away by the volume of terrified fighters coming in. “Don’t stand together! Don’t stand densely!” the lieutenant warned but it was too late. Through the crowd of bodies he saw Rook emerge from one of the towers. The last thing the lieutenant saw in the living world was Rook gesturing in his direction and then a fireball coming his way…

Up on the hill, the five Chazzans were shocked when a scorighter teleported into being right beside them. One of the five was a talented mage, but the scorighter recognized him for what he was by his necklace of orbs, and slew him first. The Chazzans scattered and hurriedly drew their weapons to defend themselves. The first of the four tried to sever his head. The scorighter did not parry, instead he ducked his head and stopped the sword by grabbing it in his teeth. His return stab finished the human. As two more men came at him with their swords, one from either side, demon jumped back with astounding speed and grace. Before the two realized what had happened they were both attacked by the scorighter who now fought with two blades.

The Chazzans were holding out against the tide of demons. There were many breaches in the wall which provided the demons many ways into the Chazzan line, but they were so narrow and well defended that the demons simply could not make any headway. The spearheads of scorighters had enjoyed limited success, but the Chazzans were too skilled to be pushed back. It was clear that if the demons were to engage the Chazzans then they’d need to break down more of the wall. The portable rams scrambled to see to this. The Chazzan legionnaires fought by holding their large shields in front of their bodies to keep themselves safe while stabbing out at the demons from behind their protection. In this way they could keep themselves safe while still striking the enemy down. This tactic worked against the servants, but scorighters had an annoying tendency to press against the shield and force the legionnaire back, thus compressing the Chazzan line. Though very well organized, the chaos of the fighting was causing the Chazzan soldiers to grow more disorderly.

A horn of Verrelinorian build rang out, and the Verrelinorians charged the demon army. Across the field, at the exact same time, the oran horsemen charged the demons. Like a mighty pair of jaws, the two cavalry forces closed in on the vast bar of demonic soldiers. On Karylia’s signal, the surviving valkyries fired their bows at the demons. The arrows thudded into their victims seconds before the Verrelinorian riders collided with them.

“CHARGE!” Usor’an roared. On his orders two thousand torch-armed scorighters, or the “arson squads”, rushed at the city. Anar and his guards dashed into the city and were lost in the streets. “I want every scorighter in the city! Kill everyone you find! But don’t touch that human, he’s mine!”

One notable man had survived the barrage of manipulated arrows by hiding behind the parapets of the keep walls. He now rose up and drew a short sword in a ring of steel. He rushed at Rook with his blade raised above his head. Rook didn’t even look at him and gave a subtle gesture as he watched the fort from his perch and the men who fled before him like terrified mice. The man who was charging Rook had a bolt of mageforce shot into his chest. His armor cracked like glass and he fell to the ground a dead man.

...His conclusion was that a powerful group of mages were causing havoc within the city and needed to be stopped. So now he watched the trees, on the lookout for mages.
“Seen anyone?” Talvar asked. “I’m thinking of going into the city and having a look for myself”.
“Ther city was attacked by what sounds like a highly talented mage”.
“What makes you think it was a mage?” Talvar asked. “What makes you think it was only one man? Survivors describe worms with a dozen long legs that can spew fire from their very limbs”.

“The valkyries ascend the plateau my king. We are attacked”.
“It’s about time” Usor’an snorted as he closed the book.

“You’re Anar” Fury said, “the boy with the sword. I am Fury, Usor’an’s daughter”.
“I am Anar as you said” Anar said, “and you are under arrest”. With that two lawmen stepped up behind her and clasped her shoulders.
“I am” Fury began, “a destroyer!” She leapt into the air, throwing both men back. In a flash Fury drew one of the lawmen’s swords and killed them both, opening their throats. Anar jumped back and engaged Fury with the sword of Rarend.

“The oran wing is broken” the cultist said.
“Good” Usor’an said, “And it’s only a matter of time until the Verrelinorians break. Then we surround the hill and break the walls down on all sides and overwhelm the enemy. Send a message to Usor’verten. Tell him to organize the troops, get them back in formation. We need to repair the damage that the cavalry charges did”.

The hundreds of demon riders were being pushed back by the massed spearmen, who were sweeping them away like a giant broom. Kelpies turned around and retreated away from the spears. Verrelinorian and Chazzan horsemen cut down the demons as they backed off from the thistle of weapons. Demons that were originally simply pulling back were suddenly being ripped apart and forced into a full retreat.

"The demons broke the column and surrounded us before we could organize" sobbed Dashadu. "The whole army is gone".
"Who's left?" Saldella inquired.
"Nobody! The whole army is gone, obliterated by demonic weapons!" Dashadu wept.

Then something completely unexpected happened. It caught everyone off guard and sent tremors of terror surging through all those present. It happened so quickly that it took Anar a few minutes to fully comprehend what had happened, and even longer to accept it.
Fifty Higharc men were suddenly engulfed in flame that burst from their flesh, an event that could not have happened naturally. It took them a minute to burn to ash. Anar at first believed himself to be hallucinating, but it happened again.
“What in Eray is going on?!” shrieked Nuda. “Fall back…” then his head fell to the floor, decapitated by an invisible blade.

“The fighting” Jacob replied, “I can honestly say I wasn’t ready for it. I never thought I’d ever have to see this kind of misery. There’s blood on everything”. Jacob demonstrated by scratching his hair, then showing Talvar his fingernails which had collected dried blood which stained his hair.

Peoples: Verrelinor

2008-06-24T10:47:00.005-04:00

Verrelinor is the other major civilization of Jindarian humans. They occupy the southern half of the continent that they share with their powerful neighbours, the Chazzans.
The Verrelinorians are a diverse people due to their large geographic range. From the pink skinned Northerners to the black skinned Southerners, they fill the spectrum of human diversity physically as well as culturally.
Verrelinor is not a single nation but a federation of independent city states all with their own unique culture, like the ancient Greeks. The major difference is the states of Verrelinor are far larger and closer to their neighbours, never having war.
The folks of Northern Verrelinor are the most like medieval Europe, specifically, Germany. They have knights in full armor on horseback and live in a feudal system of government with their own royal families and monarchies. The Verrelinorians from the south are more like medieval Palestine and India. They have sultans and they look like the Saladin's warriors. There are also some Zulu-like city states that live in the desert regions of Verrelinor. One in particular worships elephants and it has special canals running through the city where the migrating herds can pass through.
Verrelinor was populated in ancient days by migrating hordes of people forced out of their lands by the Chazzan Empire. These people briefly warred with the natives but harteds were cast aside when they realized that their very existance was threatened by the Chazzans, so they banded together to form a military alliance which provded the nucleus to the vast federation that is modern Verrelinor. Since they had to fight against the greedy Chazzans for so long, Verrelinor's greatest enemy became the source of its greatest strength: unity.
The Verrelinorian populace is too diverse to characterize by one example. The dark, burly Godellians value strength and workmanship while the pale and shadowy Sifish are master businessmen who value cunning and stealth. Because of their violent history together, Verrelinorians hate Chazzans (the feeling is mutual). They consider them arrogant and violent. Northerners tend to hate the Chazzans the most since their nations were always in the warpath of the various Chazzan imperators that they have endured over the centuries. By the time the books have started though, the hatred has died down a lot (mostly because the Chazzan Empire no longer exists). What tension does exist is what helps destabalize the alliance the Verrelinorians entered alongside the Chazzans in the series. This alliance is known as The Legions of Jindaria and it was formulated to combat a far deadlier empire: the Demon Empire.
There is no official flag for Verrelinor. Each city state has its own flag. It is said that the flag for all of Verrelinor is all the city state flags flying together.

Peoples: The Chazzans

2008-06-19T23:36:00.004-04:00

Upon the world of Jindaria there is a continent sized region called Chazz (pronounced "ShAzz"). Very simple name. The people who live there are primarily humans although there are a few settlements of non-humans. During the series Chazz is a federation of independent states linked together by common goals, past and beliefs, a bit like the Commonwealth. Their technology is on par with the 13th century Europe although magic does technically make it more advanced. They are a protagonistic force, playing a role in combating Demon Isle and Chazz is one of the prime members of The Legions of Jindaria. The lands of Chazz are temperate.
Chazzans are proud folk with a distinctive culture which I deliberately modified after the Roman Empure. Their army strongly resembles the Roman legions (organized into cohorts, led by centurions, ect) and the motto of Chazz is "Stalwart Paragon Quintescence Republic" (the acronym for which is SPQR). Their buildings are not reflective of ancient Rome though.
In the of Jindaria, Chazz used to be the single most powerful empire in the world. It was the Chazzan Empire and it stood for over 3000 years. The Imperial Army is maintained to this day as it was the one thing the people of Chazz couldn't live without. Chazz had a very violent histroy. Countless civil wars and conflicts with their southward neighbours, the Verrelinorians, made Chazz a war hardened land and some of the best human fighters hail from it. After a long and rich history, the ruling senate could no longer hold power over the people and the empire split in a surprisingly peaceful divide. Today, five hundred or so years after the empire's end, individual Chazzan nations are known simply as "The Nations of Chazz" but this is more often than not simply shortened to plain old Chazz.
Chazzans are very proud of their history and many aspire to rebuild the empire. The most unique piece of identity among Chazzans is their hatred for Verrelinorians (the feeling is mutual). Hundreds of years of war with the nations of Verrelinor has built a long-standing resentment between the two peoples. These wars really were the fault of the greedy Chazzan Empire though few Chazzans would acknowledge it. Despite this hatred, the two peoples united against Usor'an under the banner of The Legions of Jindaria. But their hatred would help make the alliance unstable.
Despite their militat past, most Chazzans are good people who are willing to shake hands with Verrelinorans. There are still some who are hell-bent on hating their ancient enemies and most of these people are in positions of power.
Individual Chazzan nations have their own flags as well as the traditional flag of the Chazzan Empire: a flame encircled by a wreath of nettles on a red background.

All about one of my characters: Saldella

2008-06-18T14:02:00.004-04:00

Cunning and brave. Stalwart and headstrong. Devoted and polite. Saldella is one of the secondary characters in the series.
She is a human woman from a place called Quezellia in Eray and is a solider in the Higharc army. She is encountered by Anar shortly after his unit gets destroyed. Saldella was apparently a surviving member of the army Anar was in. She is one of his companions throughout the story. Rook is his other companion for most of the remaining time, and his dark and brooding personality is very foul to constantly deal with. Saldella provides some humanity to accompany Anar. She is someone he can talk to and relate to since Rook's social skills are poor. She is sort of a place to go and rest after dealing with Rook's wicked attitude.
She dresses in the typical uniform of the Higharc infantry and carries a standard sword and shield. Her preferred method of fighting is in formation with her comrades which is something her travels do not offer her. When the time comes to fight she is usually found on the defensive. She is definitely not Xena but she doesn't stand in the back and wait for a man to save her. When the battle begins she just wants to stay alive.
Saldella was originally a drem-like reptilian serpent-person who was immune to fire (explaining how she survived the demons) but that really wasn't needed so I made her a human and blamed her survival on luck.

Peoples: Demon Empire

2008-06-14T08:39:00.005-04:00

The Demon Empire serve as the primary antagonists during the course of the stories. They are based on Jindaria and conduct their evil from their homeland of Demon Isle (or Haurorah-dor-Keeissu): a small continent in the center of the largest Jindarian ocean which is surrounded by islands. While I am not going to post the full history of the Demon Empire or its goals because such info would give away more than I want, I will talk about the basics of the Demon Empire.
The Demon Empire was founded about 2000 years before book one as an effort to unify the demons so they could be a force to be reckoned with instead of a small series of weakling nations. It consists of four different demonic peoples living under one power (basically, four species of demon). The most powerful of these species are the Destroyers (Usor'An's people) and they run the empire. The empire is managed on a lower level by the destroyer houses (see: All about one of my characters: Usor'An, summation). The empire's power ultimately falls on the shoulders of the Demon King and his assistants.
In the series, the Demon Empire is invading the other Jindarian nations of Chazz, Verrelinor, and Gasarinia. They are also attempting to negatively influence the people living on the planet of Eray (where Anar is from). Their main source of opposition comes from a large albeit unstable alliance of Jindarian peoples calling themselves The Legions of Jindaria. Their influencing Eray is the main conflict within book 1.
The Demon Empire has no flag but rather the destroyer houses treat their symbols as such.

Excerpts 3: Personal Favorites

2008-06-12T21:57:00.005-04:00

The following are some of my favorite quotations from the whole series (excluding ones already up):

"If I wanted to hear you whine I'd break your legs" -Usor'an

“You are correct” said the drem “I am two hundred and twenty years old, are you done with the questions?” Anar nodded.
“Then get back into your bunk before I wring your neck”

“With this sword, I have served the Higharc just as all of you will. Look upon this weapon and look upon your heritage, the same heritage that is under threat by those who would despoil your lands. You need not be a drem with an ancient sword to make a difference! You can be a regular militiaman on the field. We fight so that no more people will lose faith in Higharc democracy the way the Rushersonics have. We fight to protect our family’s lives! We fight because we are the men of the Higharc!” He spoke these words with such confidence and premeditation that Anar wondered if they were rehearsed.

(planning a battle)
Talvar began to move the demonic army forward until it made contact with the Jindarian counters or the earthworks around the hills.
“The clotheaters will form the western wing, the oran will form the eastern wing” Talvar said.
“What do we do when this happens?” Talvar's lieutenant asked, indicating the map and army counters.
“The demons will try and charge the wings” Talvar said. “Usor’an will want to use momentum and superior numbers to crush our formations. How do you stop a charge?” Again, he looked around the room.
“Counter charge?” someone suggested.
“Not when you are outnumbered to the extent that the wings will be”.
“Fight defensively?” another suggested.
“Expand on that” .
“You slow it down” Kamon stated as he stepped into the tent. “A charge is always disorganized. The power of a charge lies in its momentum. Take away the momentum, and all you have is a disorganized force moving forward. That’s how we beat you Aragenkart”.

"In the names of all the gods" -A common curse equivilant of "oh god" or "Jesus"

"You boys have left your homes behind for this hellish existence that is a military career” snapped the sergeant “I can already tell you fools will be found as dead, forgotten dogs on a blasted field”.

“Is the battle going well?” Ckai asked. “I can’t see very well. All I smell is blood. Is it our blood or theirs?”
“Both” Atteac replied as Ckai stepped over a body which she did not care to examine. She thought the body was dead but it grabbed Ckai by the leg.

(Making bombs) “Their beer is very high in alcohol so to get the troops drunk faster. Alcohol is what makes the beer burn” Anar explained. “Anyways, I’d hate to call it stealing. Since the Chazzans’ aren’t sharing their beer, I think it is only fitting that we put it to a use more practical than turning our allies into drunken maniacs”.

“This is heart” Dashadu noted as she swallowed the first bite. “Beef?”
“Human” Usor’an answered.

"Looks like we're outnumbered again" Talvar murmured as he scanned the horizon.
"Why the hell are we always outnumbered?" Ckai stammered.

“Freedom has a hundred contradicting meanings and each is invented by the speaker to serve the speaker’s own selfish gains. In the end, freedom is distilled from the want to live without responsibilities or law" Chai said.

"Why do you hate Yuel so much?" asked the thug, his captors holding him tightly. "Does he owe you some money?"
"No" replied Erasora'hn, "He killed my son"

Excerpts 2: Offbeat quotations

2008-06-06T21:19:00.003-04:00

The whole series is a more serious piece of work. It takes a gritty and real view on moralities and war. The fighting is certainly very anti-heroic (as opposed to the LoTr hack-and-slash battlefests that have become so popular). But there are still some pieces and quotations that are a little less-than-serious. Here are a few:

-"Am I to stay with you too?” Jacob asked. “Fine, I guess there’ll be no tavern-going for me”.

-Cursing, Laldan scrambled to his feet (after being knocked over) and screamed that he would put the offending man in the stocks. He fell silent when he saw the offender was Usor’an.
“I do not believe your stocks will hold me for long” mocked the destroyer.

-"The more you talk the louder I'll snore" Talvar stated lazily, "just get to the bloody point".

-"Don't let the draconites escape their cages" warned the master. "Last time that happened I was washing guts off the roof for two days"

-“Demonic plate mail is weak around all its joints to allow mobility....Yet the most important weak spot lies around the bottom of the center of the tasset, just above the two cuisses”.
“So the crotch” Halivor blurted out.

-'I swear' thought Anar as he drew away from the doorway to hide the incredible sight, 'sometimes I feel like I'm living in a fairy tale'.

-"First man to break and run dies!" threatened the Rushersonic sergeant as the battering ram struck the door again. His men tensed themselves against the impending attack...The ram broke the door open and the first wave of demons came in. All held their ground, except the sergeant, who made for the shadows with all haste.

-'What's so fascinating about the way a woman walks?' Rook wondered

Peoples: The Valkyries

2008-06-03T21:47:00.003-04:00

The valkyries are a race of people that appear within the series at some point or other. They are not very common and isolated to one single region of land. They worship the moon and draw their religious dogma from real world pagan sources. All valkyries can fly through the air without wings.
There are no external differences between humans and valkyries except for one thing: all valkyries are female. They reproduce by meditating at night and that impregnates them (playing into their mythology of moon-worship). They are a kindly race who only want to be left alone by the chaos which goes on around them. They play a relatively major role my stories and are one of the primary protagonistic forces (in places other than book 1).

Eray: Rated R

2008-05-19T23:22:00.004-04:00

If there is one concern I have when I am typing it is that I am writing about things that are unacceptably dark. My writings are certainly not an excerpt from the screenplay of "Elmo in Grouch Land" but they aren't exactly the most light-hearted of stories either. This is fantasy for teens and the odd young adult so I shouldn't hold back too too much. The youth of today don't give a crap when the good guy punches someone in the face or if someone gets killed with a sword. All five books I am working on have death and blood in them to some extent.
I am not afraid that the violence is too dark, by books are no darker than Lord of the Rings in that respect. But there are some parts that are worrying to me.
The first one is Rook the anti-hero. He's a GOOD guy for pete's sake and he kills with impunity, is apparently sadistic, and betrays, degrades, talks down to, and even attacks his friends.
The second part is going overboard with the violence. While being killed in no big whoop in a book, talking about men bursting into flame and turning to dust might bring about some sickness in the younger readers. Tripping over a dead man in battle only to realize he's mortally wounded but still alive and screaming for help (something that happens in book 3) might be pushing it for the weak-stomached.
The third are some particularly frightning examples that I had to be careful with. I had to be careful when writing about the torture of a 13 year old boy (book 5) the execution of that same boy, sexual themes (most prevelant around book 3) and the systematic extermination of civilians (book 3).
I have an antidote for all three.
For Rook I have my characters remind him (and therefore the reader) that his actions are unacceptable and he sometimes has to atone for them.
For the second, I try to make such brutal descriptions of violence only during the largest fights, when it it stylish to depict the gritty nature of warfare. Instead of the fairytale battles where a bonk on the head slays the orc, I write about the realistic fight where a gutted soldier takes 23 hours to die. ONLY WHEN IT IS STYLISH. Meaning very rarely.
The third varies from case to case. The general idea is I merely imply that the thing has happened. In the case of torture, I showed the prelude and aftermath to the ordeal but not the "interrogation" itself. In the case of sexual themes, I keep it so modest that you have to know what you're looking for to notice or I imply the possibility. Cause how will anybody know that Anar had sex during that twenty minute gap of time when he was parting with his woman in book 3 unless they are thinking about it? For things like extermination of civilians I merely state that it happened and showed the aftermath (but not the bodies) as well as some accounts of the destruction (withholding the actual killing).
In conclusion, I can merely say that the best way to keep myself from writing about things too dark is to avoid them. I only write about dark themes if it is absolutely needed for the plot, unlike vampire stories and the fluff for Warhammer 40000. And I don't personally think my stories are too mature in that way either. At least, I don't think they are...

80 pages in 4 weeks

2008-05-06T16:38:00.004-04:00

I have written 80 pages in 4 weeks. This is quite an accomplishment for me because I do not recall ever having done so much. On average, one page takes a little over an hour to write from start to finish. Although there are may variables that come into play when I am writing that determine my page-per-hour count, I can safely say that I have spent the equivilant of three days during the past 4 weeks working on my stories.
I am trying to finish another 20 pages by the time this week is done in which case I would have finished 100 pages in 5 weeks. In reading format (if these pages were the pages of a smaller novel) 100 pages on Microsoft Word in the format I have would equal about 230 pages. So that's the equivilant of writing a 230 page novel in 5 weeks. But that will only be so if I actually acheive this "100 pages in 5 weeks" goal. As it is, I have only done 80 pages in 4 weeks.
Well, I've just blogged. Back to the binge writing.
**********UPDATE**********
It's Sunday May 11th and I just finished writing the 100th page so I am at 100 pages in 5 weeks. wOOt

The Cure for slacking off: piss myself off

2008-04-23T18:38:00.005-04:00

What a strange concept? The cure for slacking off when writing is to get myself angry, or rather, cheesed off. Genuine anger is distracting and makes me upset, pissing myself off gets me worked up and frustrated. It is the ultimate cure to writer's block (as long as I have some kind of idea). That should be an antithesis of writing coherently, I mean, shouldn't frustration scramble my thoughts and make myself think less clearly? No.

I noticed it first when procrastinating. I do it alot when I am writing and have access to the internet (I'm doing it right now). YouTube videos are some of the best things in the world and I cannot get enough of them. I was watching a video which featured a Christian bashing the fantasy genre as being evil and satanic, thus all who even glance at it turn into sinners and go to hell. That really frustrated me. I got really frustrated, which made me passionate and excitable. To the video, I thought "you don't like witchcraft, eh?" The next minute I had written four pages about a demon destorying a city with magic of the most evil kind. It fit into the story like a puzzle piece.

Now, if I feel lazy or lacking in motivation to write, I go straight to the internet and read statements from missionaries (GeT a LiFe YoU iDIOtS!!!), statements about creationists (ThE DuMbEsT pEoPlE iN tHe WoRlD!!!) or remind myself of the Inheritance cycle (SoMeThInG sO bLaTaNtLy PlAgArIzEd AnD aWfUlLy WrItTeN sHoUlD nOt HaVe BeEn AlLoWeD!!!) The next moment I am pumped and ready to type. As a bonus, I can think of more firey scenes when I'm furstrated

Eg. I'm bored (Wraith pressed Anar against the wall and leveled his sword's blade against his throat. "Where is it?" the demon asked.

I'm pissed ( Wraith fiercely clenched Anar's throat in his his hand and threw him painfully against the closest wall. He brought face closer to the eyes of the panicking human and pressed his sword against his neck. "Where is it?" the demon demanded "

A picture of Rook a friend drew for me

2008-04-18T23:34:00.003-04:00

A friend of mine, Aaron Dalzot, was kind enough to bring Rook to life with his artistic talent. I gave him a description and Aaron drew him. I only just managed to find an image of the drawing on his facebook page. And so here it is, an image of Rook, all credit goes to Aaron of course.

All about one of my characters: Skander

2008-04-09T19:01:00.004-04:00

Alone and nervous. Divided and eager. Treacherous and persistent. Skander is one of the minor villains of the series, appearing in a minor role in book 2 and taking on a more important bit during part 3. He is an anti-villain, as Rook is an anti-hero, although you'd never guess when you first meet him. Skander is a half-demon and was raised demonic society, therefore he feel sympathetic to the goals of the Demon Empire. He tries his best to see that Usor'an's goals are fulfilled. When he first meet him, he is devoid of feeling and seems completely soulless. He appears to revel in carnage and fanatically loyal. How then can Skander, a heartless ass, be a person who pursues evil intents with a good persona? The answer lies in his blood. Skander is only part demon. All demons are devoid of sympathy and enjoy fighting, but Skander doesn't truly have these qualities. His human side gives him compassion and the ability to feel.
Skander doesn't want to be a half-demon, he wants to be a full demon. The only way he can be a true demon, according to Skander, is to have no emotions and to love killing. So he pretends to be a soulless freak to try and beat emotion out of himself. Skander hates killing because his emotions keep getting in the way. He prefers to negotiate, forgive, and make peace. So he is alone, stuck with the wrong friends and trying as hard as he can to be like a demon but never managing to lose his feelings.
Skander is still a villain, he believes in the ultimate demonic goal. Alas, he cannot try to bring this goal about through violence because he is bothered by fighting. One important thing about Skander: he is dishonest. He is one of the only villains with the capacity to betray...

Excerpts 1: Rook the anti-hero

2008-03-23T22:40:00.006-04:00

Some passages that I think deserve to be shown.

(From book 1: Outside of the gates of a city, Rook gets out from under a car he was holding onto the bottom of in order to gain free transport)
“Aye, you!” the gruff voice of the driver shouted to Rook. “What were you doing under my cart? Did I run you over?” Rook snuck a glance at the sunburned man who was now looking at Rook with a confounding stare.
“Not to worry” Rook said, his face still covered.
“Are you sure you are fighting fit?” the driver asked and he caught a long glimpse of Rook’s face when he climbed down from his cart and inspected him. “Do you have some wasting disease?” Rook was quite offended by that question and considered murdering the driver where he stood with a wring of the neck. He imagined the sound the driver’s neck would make as it broke and it made him smile in sickly delight...
...“You must be the product of some disease” the driver added as he climbed back onto his cart and began to drive away. Rook took a few steps towards the city and scooped a small rock off the ground.
“A product of some disease, am I?” Rook asked, then he turned around and threw the rock at the driver in his cart who was now twenty meters away with an angry shout. The rock sailed through the air and hit the old man in the head, knocking him out cold. He wouldn’t remember his encounter with Rook when he would come to the next day.

(From book 1: Rook's reaction to a dead teenager)
“Why is this so sad?” demanded Rook with a piercing voice that brought a squawking bird to mind. “He was just like everyone else who I have seen killed. What makes him so special, what did he do to earn your petty grievances?”
“He was a boy” replied Saldella “have you no understanding of this? He didn’t even live through half of his life before dying. You don’t remember much about your past, but do you at least remember the sadness endured when a young person dies?”
“No” replied Rook “I cannot be sad. It’s not something I’ve been able to do very well”.

(From book 1: Rook collects change in a tavern)
“I am giving you one last chance” said Rook “I paid a silver dollar for an eight copper dollar drink. You owe me ninety two copper dollars”.
“How will you claim it?” asked the barkeep as he drew a rapier “will you rob me?”.....The tavern exploded into chaos as the fight erupted. Glasses were thrown and tables were overturned. Punches were exchanged and some people went down with bloody noses or broken bones.
Rook parried a swing from the barkeep, then kicked him in the knee. The barkeep fell over, dropping his rapier. Rook picked up the rapier and tossed it behind the counter. Rook peacefully finished off his drink and placed the glass onto the counter, then he found the barkeep’s coin pouch sitting behind the counter. He opened it and found it overflowing with copper coins and bronze coloured coins all the size of a thumbnail. Rook saw the coins had the symbol of the Higharc on them. Rook dumped out the coins from the pouch and put ninety-two copper coins into his own money pouch. Then he decided against being honest and stole the remaining coins, including the silver dollar he bought the drink with.

(From book 1: In a deserted battlefield, Rook and Anar have conflicting means of treating prisoners)
“Go” ordered Anar. “Run away, we don’t need or want any prisoners”.
“What?” the Rushersonic scout asked. “Aren’t we on opposite sides?”
“We cannot keep you and killing you would be senseless” answered Anar. “And our sides are eventually going to reach peace anyways”. The grateful cavalryman nodded before stumbling off into the dark.
Rook walked up beside Anar carrying one of the long spears the cavalrymen had used.
“I am proud of your decision” said Rook. “But the scout was right. This is war and he is an enemy”. He threw the spear point first toward the retreating man. The spear pierced the man’s heart and he fell to the ground with a heavy thud.
Anar blinked in shock and then yelled “What in the name of all of the gods was that for?” Rook walked towards the dead soldier as he replied
“In the name of all of the gods, all of them have a big backpack filled with supplies. Plus we get these two fine horses”.
“You…murdered him. He wasn’t even facing you when you threw that spear” Anar shouted as he ran over to the felled scout to learn if he was slain.
“Again I must remind you that our two sides are at war”.
“We won’t be at war for very long” Anar remarked as he discovered the scout to be dead. “Rusherson cannot stand against the massive armies of the Higharc”.
“Not unless the demons are helping them” Rook answered. He removed the scout’s backpack and began sorting through its contents which hadn’t been damaged by his spear throw. “This looks tasty” Rook said to himself as he inspected a small item which was wrapped in paper and gave off a meaty smell.
“But…” Anar stammered, “I’ve just seen so many awful things in one day. I didn’t want to see anymore dying so I let this man go. You spoiled it”.
“You’re a smart boy. You should know that war is a terrible thing” stated Rook.
“This man didn’t have to die”
“He is only one man, there are plenty of others where he came from” Rook calmly said as he unwrapped the paper-covered object he held. “Would you like some jerky?”

(From book 2: Rook's low opinion of his comrades-in-arms)
“You may have more appreciation for nature than me, oran” the soaking man said as he slipped in a puddle of mud and fell on his stomach. The whole group stopped briefly the stone skinned sailor hauled himself up, clothes stained with dirt. “If the rest of the journey is going to be this miserable” the sailor said once he had stood up. “I’m out”.
“Be my guest” Rook muttered as he wiped dripping rain from his mask’s eyeholes. “One less mouth to feed”.
“Rook” Anar said. “Not everyone is feeling at their best right now. We’re caught in the rain, we’ve had our ship cloven in two by a giant fish, the land that we though would be peaceful contains a community of kelpies, and the war is going poorly for our side. I understand why some of the crewmen are feeling down right now. They signed on expecting a smooth voyage and now a few of the original crew have been killed. Some of the crew are just afraid that they too might die”.
“Fine then” Rook said. “Let him leave, one less corpse to bury”.

(From book 3: Inside a temple which is recovering from attack, Rook and a local talk)
“The demons have kidnapped one of my friends” he said to the governor quietly. “We need some of your mageforce to teleport over to their hideout and rescue him before the demons harm him”.
“No, teleporting is forbidden” the governor’s mage replied. “The first wall on the Temple of Laws prohibits teleporting”. Rook narrowed his eyes behind his mask.
“Why?” he asked.
“Jindar says that teleporting is an anathema”.
“Why is it an anathema?”
“Because it’s an abomination”.
“Why?”
“Because it is very offensive to the gods”.
“Why?”
“They forbade it”.
“WHY! WHY! WHY! WHY! WHY!” Rook said loudly while cupping his hands around his mouth to project his voice. The mage frowned and scratched his head.
“I don’t know” he concluded.

(From book 3: Rook interrogates a prisoner)
“Where is Usor’an’s hideout?” Rook asked the destroyer as two mind reading valkyries scoured her thoughts in case the mention of the hideout invoked its memory.
“I’ll never say its location” she promised “or think it”. She had caught onto their methods of interrogation and was showing remarkable resistance. So far she hadn’t thought about the hideout and given her captors no answers.
“Is it underground?” Rook asked.
“It isn’t” answered one of the valkyries. “She just slipped”.
“Is it similar to the place you are in right now?”
“That got no reaction” the other valkyrie said. “In her head she’s repeating the words ‘my name is Usor’manar’. Just saying it over and over”.
“Your hide-out Usor’manar, where is it?” Rook demanded as he tapped the side of her head. “The only reason I’m not torturing you is because I have nothing with which to torture”.
“Stop tapping me” Usor’manar muttered.
“Shelter!” Rook yelled in her hear as he banged her head against the wall. The two valkyries looked a little uneasy at this show of force, but were rewarded with a few slipped thoughts.
“They’re hiding in the Temple of Jindar” both valkyries replied at once.
“Now that wasn’t so hard?” Rook thought as he banged her head against the wall a second time and threw her down to the floor.

The Sky Wars

2008-03-23T22:11:00.003-04:00

The Sky Wars was the war between the griffin race and the dragon race which took place 200 years before the events of book 1. It ended in the massacre of almost all griffins and dragons as well as the establishment of the Higharc, which is still the ruling body on Eray during the series.
Prior to the Sky Wars Eray lived in relative peace with the dragons and griffins using their superior wisdom to police the less intelligent civilizations like the humans and drem. Racial tensions broke out and the two fought over ideals. The griffins thought that civilization needed to be encouraged and that exploration of the sky could usher in a new era of society. The dragons favored the hunter-gather lifestyle and thought that with civilization came pollution and destruction. They believed the sky was to be used to fly around in to stay above the heads of the "lesser" races so to make remaining superior to them easier and that exploration was futile. Unable to agree, war broke out.
The demons saw the war as an oppertunity to take over Eray. Their reasoning was that if the dragons and griffins killed each other off then they could simply march into Eray and assume control of the lesser Erayic peoples who, at the time, relied on the dragons and griffins for guidance.
The name "Sky Wars" suggests more than one war. Technically the Sky Wars was two seperate wars. First was the war between the dragons and griffins and the second was the war between their supporters. Those who supported the draconic goals were known as "Draconites" and those who supported the griffins were called "Griffians". These two ideologies fought a war of attrition to eliminate the supporters of the rival species so that when the war in the sky was over the victors could guide the world without opposition. Sometimes these two wars crossed over and many times a dragon army would fight with the ground-based Griffians or a fleet of Draconite blimps would take on a flock of griffins.
The victors were the griffins and the Griffians. The Draconite cause died with the dragons, but there were enough griffins still in the world to show the Griffians how to run their own society. The Griffians became the Higharc-the government which is in control of the planet of Eray in the books.
The Sky Wars is largely background material, it helps give the story some context and makes the setting more believable. The consquences of the Sky Wars as well as the lessons Anar learns from the conflict also play a key role in the plot of the series.
The Sky Wars plays a key role in Rook's character. One of the reasons he is so anti-social is because of certain events he took part in during the Sky Wars (Rook is centuries old).

All about one of my characters: Rarend

2008-03-23T21:39:00.004-04:00

Cunning and quick. Ruthless and evil. Selfish and genocidal. Rarend the Black (or Rarend the Bright as he is known to those who think him a hero) is a character in my stories. Though he doesn't actually appear in most of the books, he is shown in flashbacks and reffered to countless times. The sword of Rarend, which is Anar's weapon, used to belong to him.
Rarend is a griffin, a spawn of demonkind. In my stories, the griffins (stock fantasy creatures) are an intelligent race which has gone extinct along with the dragons during an event known as the Sky Wars. The griffins were created originally by a demon and therefore they are technically demons. Rarend is one of them, he was the only griffin at the time of the Sky Wars who truly remembered his race's origin. Rarend was also a servant of the demons and had the title of "Demon King" or ruler of the Demonic Empire.
Rarend's goal was to hijack the Sky Wars and use it to destroy the dragons and griffins. He did this by covering his black pluemage with chalk and impersonating a newborn (Rarend is unusually small). When he shows the wisdom of an adult and the leadership skills of a monarch (which Rarend is) the griffins made this "newborn" their general in the Sky Wars, thinking him to be a messiah. Rarend betrayed this trust and led the griffins on countless disastrous campaigns against the dragons, who were fighting the griffins. These campaigns saw the deaths of over one million griffins and dragons, but were carried out in such a way that the griffins thought Rarend was actually leading them to victory. The griffins blindly followed this messiah to their deaths.
A man named Erson discovered what Rarend was doing and persuaded him to see his mistakes and realize that he was serving the wants of his superiors in Demon Isle instead of himself. Rarend betrayed Demon Isle and stopped working for them, thus enough griffins survived the Sky Wars to establish the Higharc. A new king, Usor'an, was crowned and Rarend went into exile.
This story takes place 200 years before book 1 and forms the foundations of its plot.
As the story progresses, Rarend's role becomes more direct. We finally get to see him in book 3, where Anar fights him. He is a supporting character by book 4.

Writing During March Break

2008-03-22T16:52:00.002-04:00

It is kind of late for this post, but I do think that an account of my march-break writing deserves to be posted. During March Break I would write literally whenever I could. For the five day time span I probably wrote about three pages a day: about a total of 3100 words. On some days I'd write 5 pages a day. Book 5 ballooned from 14 pages to 30 pages and I finally finished writing book 3. On the weekends of march break I wrote even more.
Having long stretches of time off is good for my scheduel. I have nothing to do on some days and could write literally all day if my creative spark endured. It is possible to wake up, eat, write, take a break, then write some more. There was one day where I only got three hours of sleep (I went to bed at 2am and woke up at 5am) I didn't write for the whole of that day but I finshed about 4 pages of book 3.
Am I an insomniac? Probably. I hate sleeping. I try and get the bare minimun of bedtime hours, especially on weekends. The idea is that if I sleep less on weekends then I'll have more weekend to enjoy myself and more potential hours to write. I have to get enough sleep so I can get to work or school, that goes without saying, but when I haven't any responsibilities to see to other than writing my books I am adamant in my desire to get as few Zs as possible and during March Break that was very obvious. The only downside is my daylight hours sometimes are hit with fits of crushing fatigue, the kind where keeping one's eyes open is an impossibility.
Today, though, I won't be doing any writing. My creative spark needs kindling. I'm just going to go to work and read some books.

Title page for book 4

2008-03-22T16:49:00.005-04:00

Thus is the title page I made for book 4: A Hoard of Angels. Right now I have written about ten pages of it. I am currently having a lapse in writing since I have to catch up on school and other stuff but I will soon be getting to more writing soon. I'm sorry I cannot explain to you what the title page means without dropping some of my greatest secrets.

The background is some desert, and the pyramid is a pyramid. The guy on the left is a picture of actor Matt Dallas, who plays Kyle Trager in "Kyle XY". I felt he fit the role of Anar quite well. (the other person who portrays Anar in the title page of 'Eray' is T.R Knight of Gray's Anatomy fame). The other person is Dante from the video game The Devil May Cry. He is also on the Eray picture. I think he fits the role of Usor'an well, albeit he has no horns.

Done book 3

2008-03-14T12:11:00.002-04:00

This will be a quick posting and a short message because I haven't very much to say.

On Friday March 14th 2008 at approximately 12:12 EST I completed book 3. It is 431 pages long making it the longest of the four stories. I can now focus more time on writing book 5 and can start writing book 4.

Title Pages

2008-02-19T22:09:00.005-05:00

For all of the books I have written, I have given them each a title page, which is really just a little embelishment to have around in order to give me a picture to work off of instead of a giant Word Document. Each of my word documents have the picture replacing the title. Here are all three title pages for all four books I have started (of which, two are completed).

All about one of my characters: Jacob

2008-01-29T17:01:00.000-05:00

Street smart and brave. Stout and informal. Lawful and strong. Jacob is one of the later-occuring characters within book 1, and throughout subsequent works he takes on a more profound role. He is a human in his late twenties or early thirties. Although it is not ever mentioned what his last name is, I have theorised that it is not important enough to mention and will therefore give him none.
What is Jacob's role in the story? He is met at the very end of book 1 and provides the characters an inside contact into the city they are trying to sneak their way into. He is the ringleader in a band of vigilantes that inhabit his home city and they are known as the Iron Hand. When something happens to the Iron Hand to stoke Jacob's anger, he sides with Anar and his troope. Jacob the vigilante doesn't play much of a plot related role in the story. Where other characters make deep decisions about the way things go, Jacob utilizes his intelligence to the aid of another. He helps Anar with his task in the city he lives in and he works to fight against the enemy with his street hardened skills.
Jacob has a backstory which goes above and beyond most other characters of his importance. Being a vigilante, as his backstory went, always meant he was defying the odds and working for the city, taking it easy in the local tavern when on his off time. During his early life around his late teenage years, Jacob took a wife and had two daughters. He could not devote enough time to them and his drinking (vigilante work in the city is hard) seperated him from her. In the end he was found passed out on a table, drunk as ever. Disgusted at her husbands show of foolishness and apparent inability to visit him, Jacob's wife left him forever. To make it worse Jacob has since found out that his wife informed their children of his fallacious passing. By book one he is a hard bitten brute with nothing to lose although his heart is still open to empathy.
Jacob fights with dual rapiers and wears a dark red hood (he stops wearing it forever by the end of book 1). His face is scarred and his hair is "the colour of dead grass". Though I do not mention it, his voice has a heavy Irish sounding accent to it. He is quite street smart and very skilled with his weapons.

The books I read from

2008-01-04T17:31:00.000-05:00

So far I have done some research into the fighting styles of the medieval world in order to accurately describe a medieval battle. I have also looked into the tactics and styles used in the Renaissance and classical periods. My hopes is to take a real world group of people and match them up with a group of people from my stories in order to have a model to base them on so to give them a believable element. The books I have looked through include:

-Fighting Styles of the Medieval World
-Warrior (part of the same series as Weapon)
-Weapon (part of the same series as Warrior)
-Battles of the Crusades

All about one of my characters: Anarasorian (Evolution)

2008-01-03T11:16:00.000-05:00

Anar has a short and simple name. I cannot remember how I came up with it and it means very little. Many of the characters in my writings are "recycled" from D&D games, other stories which I have scribled down and then lost over the years and other places. Anar is one such person.
Originally a boy of 16, I aged him up to 20 in order to make his heroism a bit more realistic since I did not want a godlike child soldiers beating up on the enemy as is all too common in works by such names as JK Rowling, Philip Pullman, C.S Lewis and Brian Jacques. Even 20 seemed a bit old for him and I cut it down to the bare minimum of 19. He was recycled from a pervious story of about 100 pages of handwriting which I haven't read. This little story, known as Halfscore, forged the foundations for what I am working on now. His original last name was Engeel which became the name of one of his brothers and Viex replaced it. He has no description in Halfscore and thus his current look did not evolve from anything the way Rook's did. The concept of the Anar character has come some ways.
He was intended to be some godlike individual, a concept discarded. The idea is that nothing he accomplishes is due to destiny or inheritance, he has to work to become a hero (inspirational message?)

All about one of my characters: Anarasorian (Appearance)

2008-01-03T10:47:00.001-05:00

Young and promising. Eduacted and talented. Inquisitive and adventerous. Anarasorian, more commonly known as Anar, is the main character and all the stories are told from a 3rd person view of his perspective with occasional sidetracks to other scenes. When I describe a feeling someone is having, it is almost definitely Anar feeling it.
He has black hair, usually worn to the right side of his head. He is fit, being a farmhand, and educated in warfare. Many authors base their characters on themselves in part and Anar is based slightly on my own appearance, mostly with the hair though his skintone is more European than mine. His appearance is nothing special so the reader could make him into whatever they want and it wouldn't change the story.
When the story starts, he is a typical farmer though he gets a Higharc uniform by the time he's in the army. Later he acquires a full suit of platemail which he wears, though rarely does he wear his helmet which he finds uncomfortable. His change of clothing is supposed to show his progression from a farmer into a soldier and later, in books 2 and 3, into a Jindarian commander and a hero.
With his strong build, intelligence and adventerous ways one might ask if he is perfect, if he is a "Gary Stu". He could be seen as an impossibly perfect individual though he does have a few weak points. For one, he hates his father though it plays a small role in the story it still shows through. Anar cannot describe his parent without noting his anger when things are not going his way and cares very little for his feelings. He has a terrible fear of the dark which comes up here and there. Finally, he has little experience in the outside world and there are times when he opens his mouth when he should best be quiet. These are some rather minor points in comparison to his strengths and in the end, does come off as a strangely perfect person. Hey, he's got the whole wrath of the Demonic Empire staring him in the face, he'd better be something special or the story wouldn't be very long.

All about one of my characters: Anarasorian (Summation)

2008-01-03T10:19:00.000-05:00

Anarasorian Viex (or Anar) is the main character in my books. When the stories start he is nineteen years old. His birthday is December the 5th. He has the adventerous personality that any hero of his genre cannot do without as well as an extensive knowledge of military history which is the result of having a childhood friend who taught him all he needed to know about life in the army and the army itself. Needless to say, this knowledge serves him well in his travels and in his military career as a Higharc militiaman.
He grew up on his farmstead on Eray with his three brothers and parents. He has had a life which is more comfortable than the lives of most Erayic commoners. His family is richer than most others, have better living conditions, and most importantly: better food. Though this plays little active role in the stories, it does account for Anar's lack of disease and outstanding health which keeps him going through his journey.
While the role of "young hero" may be a cliche, it is an unavoidable one. A story about a middle aged hero may be difficult to appeal to the young readers. Anar is a lot like the typical hero. He is exceptional, wants to do his part, and brave (somewhat). Unlike many heroes of his type, there is no question about his parentage. There is also no question that he is a regular guy with no prophecy telling of his ascenion or destruction of evil and no secret inheritance lurking in the background just waiting to slap divine power in his lap. He is like any other farmhand: a normal human being.
He becomes a soldier and later gains some authority and acquires the power to direct his own actions in the army. By the end of book 1, he is a very different person.

All about one of my characters: Usor'An (Appearance)

2007-12-27T12:45:00.000-05:00

Charistmatic and strict. Terrible and mighty. Clever and honorable. Brutal and powerful. Usor'An is the current king of the demons and rules the demonic nation which is on Jindaria. The demonic nation is the main source of the problems in the series and are the main antagonists (there are others, but the demons are the worst). Usor'An fills the role of monarch and military commander as did many real world leaders.
He has a very militant personality as do many villains. He is a very intelligent man who takes a good long look at something before acting. His charistmatic personality is one of his greatest strengths and weaknesses. He is an excellent leader of his people, but he is also very concerned about his impression on others. He worries about "losing his honor" and can sometimes be driven into spasms of rage if things aren't going the way he wants them to. In other words, his massive ego can slow him down, and it does throughout book 2. Usor'An isn't crazy, he is just too concerned about how he appears. He's more than willing to delay an important attack just so he can arrange to lead the army personally (as he does in book 3).
Usor'An is very clever and can arrange elaborate plots to defeat his enemies from behind the scenes (as he does in book 1). He rigidly adheres to law because he would look poor in the eyes of others if he didn't. He is somewhat chivalrous in his upholding of the laws and wouldn't break a promise even if it compromised one of his plans.
While he may be a minor character in book 1, he is the main villain in the other two books. He fights with a huge war hammer and a small sword.

All about one of my characters: Usor'An (Summation)

2007-12-25T11:15:00.001-05:00

Destroyers are a type of demon. They live to be centuries old, age slowly (a 300 year old destroyer man looks like a 60 year old man) and look very humanlike. The only difference is that they have cloven hoofs for feet and sport a pair of horns. Some but not all have batlike wings. They are organised into various households which are like family clans but far bigger and with more influence on politics. Below are some symbols for five of the thirteen destroyer households. (left to right: Usor, Skeert, Cro, Wisha, Killia)

A destroyer has two name which form their name. The first is their house's name and the second is their personal name. A girl could be named Sue, but if she was in the Cro household she would be named Cro'Sue. Usor'An's personal name is "An", but since he is of the Usor household the name he goes by is "Usor'An".

Usor'An looks like a well built man of about fourty (he is 200 years old). He doesn't have wings and keeps his white hair long. Being a demon he is spiteful and wicked. He is not the insane madman that some villains are, but rather the witty and clever villain who is always one step ahead of the hero and is an expert at talking down to people. He's a warrior who fights with a huge war hammer and a small sword which is stored withing the hammer's hollow shaft. His black armor is decorated with a short cape of dark blue (to reflect the Usor symbol) and to show his status. He is almost completely fearless and the only person who can frighten him is Rook.

Usor'An is a typical villain in that he has a straightforward goal and that he is an object of fear to his enemies and friends alike. He is completely ruthless as villains should be and all-round evil. He plays a minor role in book 1, but when book 2 begins, he is thust into the spotlight as the arch enemy of Anar.

Thus far, my favourite thing he has said is "know that there are things, things such as you, that do not win the right to exist"

The Setting

2007-12-25T10:49:00.000-05:00

The following is an in-universe description of the setting that my stories take place in.

The universe was created eons ago by a massive fluxuation of space and time. Where there was once nothing there was now space and matter. From an unknown source and through unknown means a typhoon of energy the size of billions of suns tore across the void of immaterium. This energy, which had the capacity to create material out of nothing and the capacity to change the very nature of space and time would one day be known as mageforce. It forged the stars, the comets, the sky and time itself. At the beginning of time there was nothing but a storm of mageforce which gave birth to everything. With the universe now in existance, mageforce began to vanish from the universe though much would never disappear and float around the void for eons.
Around one star there were two worlds. From their seas and oceans crawled life which began to evolve into complex animals. The worlds they lived on were close enough to be seen by the inhabitants of the other but not so close that they could easily be accessed by the other. They were twins, but one of them had an advantage over the other. Jindaria, as the planet would be called, was flooded with mageforce that didn't disipate. The mageforce reacted with the world and the creatures on it, creating strange and unnatural properties within the creature living there and within the world itself. One species, for instance, gained the ability to live unnaturally long while another lost the ability to feel pain. One even acquired the talent to set all it beheld spontaniously aflame.
Eray on the other hand gave birth to a variety of mundane and unsophisticated people. They were mostly unintelligent and primitive. The exception were the dragons, who cononized Eray and kept all its simple peoples under a constant rule of peace and harmony. The most numerous of these peoples? Humans. For thousands of years peace ruled Eray, but on Jindaria things were different.
The ambitious Jindarians were busy forging empires and battling one another in their quest for supremacy. A vast coalition of Jindarian peoples known as the demons, whose very nature made them fierce and sinister, were crushed by the other Jindarians and banished to a lifeless continent in the middle of the largest Jindarian ocean. The demons had been driven from their homes and hate burned in their hearts. As the other Jindarian races battled, the demons prepared...

1986 years later...

Eray had changed. It is now in the beginning of the Renaissance era though Jindaria is still in the middle ages. The Eray peoples were now very prosperous and clever though were ignorant of their violent neighbours, the Jindarians. The humans had built cities and castles all over the land alongside other Erayic races. They could forge swords and shields. The peaceful reign of the dragons had ended and was replaced by a peaceful but restricting reign of a race called the drem who consider themselves the "superiors" to all other peoples. The Higharc, the drem government, had some control over all governments on Eray. All respected the drem but resented them for their dominance. Now someone is rebelling against the Higharc. Anarasorian Viex is joining the army to battle the rebels....

Christmas Day

2007-12-25T09:13:00.000-05:00

Today is Christmas and I am now sitting in my living room surrounded by unwrapped gifts and other such things. For those of us in the West, this bastardized pagan holiday means presents. I don't care how many times you've read "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" there are very few who see it as anything but a trip to the mall as they scramble to fill the holiday quota.
What about my quota? Am I so pathetic that I should spend 25th of December tapping away at my keyboard working on my novel instead of spending time with family? Should I spend the most wonderful time of the year trying to keep up with my writing schedule? The simple answer to that is no.
I may be doing my best (and am failing) to stay up with my standard of one-page-a-day . I typed three pages the day before yesterday and no pages yesterday so if I don't type anything today on December 25 then it'll all even out. I mean, it's Christmas! I'm not supposed to be working, I should be playing with the toys that Santa left me, with my little wooden train and my new toy drum. That's what Christmas is all about!
Who knows? I might type stuff up today and I might not. I do not like to procrastinate but it is just so easy to do so with the holidays right here. I probably won't get much writing done today. I'll leave it for Boxing Day.

Writing During Christmas

2007-12-22T15:19:00.000-05:00

The Christmas holidays (holiday holidays for the politically correct) have given me big chunks of time to do some writing. Though I average a half page to a full page of new text per day on Microsoft Word sometimes I can write many pages in one sitting, which ends in my inability to continue once the cramps set in. The ideal time for writing is when I am undisturbed, in a comfortable room, and have the creativity flowing. Of the those three points the most important is the third since I simply cannot write when I am feeling uncreative.
The problem I am facing is that during the long idle hours between outings during the holidays, I am faced with a problem: I am idle for so long that I begin to lose my creative flow. I am most creative when active which is why I chew gum when thinking or ride my bike to overcome writer's block. But during the days of Christmas I can get SOOOO bored when not with others. This ends with me sitting for long hours playing unproductive video games to kill off the boredom when I know I could and should be writing.
However, there are times during the course of my precious days off when I feel quiet creative and sit down to type. The next time I stand back up, book 3 -which is the book I am working on today on December 2007- is two or three pages longer. I get the creative flow going and I sit down and after a while my creative high has either run its course or I've got to eat. I am aiming to type as many pages as possible to make up for lost time I experienced during the beginning of the year. Despite the long hours of boredom I am prone to face when alone during Christmas, I am still accomplishing all the typing I need to do.

All about one of my characters: Rook (Evolution)

2007-12-19T23:32:00.000-05:00

He wears a cloak of dark brown that never seems to get dirty. Upon his back is emblazoned an outline of a bird that he claims to be a rook. The black metal mask he wears moves as though it were his face and it wraps around his head like the mask of Loki from the film "The Mask" starring Jim Carrey. He wears a hood and keeps a sword sheathed at his waist.
As I have already said, Rook was originally a Dungeons and Dragons NPC. He underwent some extensive changes from his days as a D&D character to the Rook of book 1. Originally he had a cloth mask which I liked because it reminded me of Leatherface. But a problem arose when I was writing book 1. I wanted it to be impossible for him to remove his mask until he learned all that there was to learn about his forgotten past and a cloth mask could be cut off with ease. The mask became metal. His personality also went through some changes. Originally he was a leader of an orginisation of an adventuring army and although it suited him for D&D I wanted an anti-hero. I made him ammoral to give him the frightening aspect of unpredictability and cruelty. Though he got no other cosmetic changes, I do think he has changed a lot since original conception, mostly in his goals and moral values.
He was also killed at the end of the quest he was in for D&D. This obviously would not happen in the end of book 1 yet I knew he might have to pay for his sins one day. I don't know if I'm going to kill him but he will pay one day. Will he inherit the death of his previous incarnation? Maybe... But if he dies, he won't die like V did.
It's odd, but I never read "V for Vendetta" or saw the film until long after book 1 was finished. When I saw the film, I saw Rook in almost every single aspect of V and now feel compelled to state that all similarities between V and Rook are coincidence. I want to be original, and though the idea of a masked anti-hero may not be original I would not model a character after another person's work so deliberately.

All about one of my characters: Rook (Appearance)

2007-12-19T23:13:00.001-05:00

Dark and brooding. Mysterious and wise. Shy around strangers and bold around enemies. Faceless, amoral, devoted and cruel. Rook the Cloaked.
According to wikipedia, an anti-hero is a protagonist "who is lacking the traditional heroic attributes and qualities, and instead possesses character traits that are antithetical to heroism." Rook once smiled as he thought about breaking someone's neck, pinned a man against a wall and threatened to kill him if he didn't act more maturely, beat up an innocent man because he didn't like what he was saying, and killed his best friend to save himself. Yet he is a good guy who seeks the destruction of the antagonists and the safety of the innocent.
In the story, Rook needs the most forgiveness and is the one who seeks it the most through the destruction of evil. It is possible that he cannot help but be sinister and cruel to some even when he is trying to help others. One possibility is that he only fights for good to further his own agenda. Very little information is given on his motivations in Book 1 other than the fact that he strongly dislikes demons.
There is a lot of mystery surrounding him and his past. In the beginning, when he has no menory of who he really is, he and Anar are journeying around the country and Rook is slowly realling bits and pieces of his life. It is not known how he lost his memory although he can regain it by looking at things or visiting places that have something to do with his past. For example, if he had a favorite toy when he was a boy he could recall things he had done with the toy if he ever saw it again. I wanted the reader to want to know more about this man and what lurks behind his moving mask. His backstory is slowly revealed over the course of the series and it is the desire to know more about Rook that I hope will keep the reader reading. Although the full details about his past are still unknown by the end of book 1, we can trust him a bit more by then.

The Plot of Book 1

2007-12-19T22:18:00.000-05:00

The first book focuses around the experiences of a boy on the verge of manhood (surprise) and his experiences. His name is Anarasorian (or Anar) and he lives a simple life with his wealthy family on their farm in a region of the world of Eray called Dynorak. Anar is the youngest of his brothers. The world he lives in is called Eray and its people are in a level of technology somewhere around the end of the Middle Ages. It is a round world that orbits around a sun and it shares its orbit with a similar planet called Jindaria. The most important thing to note about the relationship between these two planets is that the inhabitants of Eray know nothing about the existance of life on Jindaria and most of the inhabitants of Jindaria know nothing about Eray life. The only people on Jindaria who know about life on Eray are the demons, who are the main villains in the series.
At the time that the story takes place, there is a war going on. A nearby kingdom called Rusherson has decided that it will disturb the peace and try and forge its own empire across the oh-so-innocent-peace-loving kingdoms of Eray. Anar and his brothers join the army in order to get out and live a little. His parents do not want him to go and fight in the war against Rusherson but he is determined to get out and have an adventure.
Eray is a very peaceful planet and it has had almost no wars ever. Because of this the Eray people have a very naieve view of the subject and undertake it with greater enthusiasm than most would be willing to go to. The reason why this is so is because I wanted the world to seem oblivious and in-the-dark about a lot of things. This makes them easier to manipulate. Unknown to Anar, the kingdom of Rusherson is being exploited by a demonic king from named Usor'An (more on him later).
Anar goes out to fight in the war that has started with Rusherson as a militiaman. I know very little about medieval training and since I didn't want to write three chapters about how Anar trained to be a soldier I merely gave him a small role in the army. The idea was that the war was so sudden and the kingdoms of Eray so unexperienced in combat that they had to scrape up armies of militia and conscripts out of eager young men and equip them like full-time soldiers. The unit of militia Anar is in gets sent to fight the Rushersonics who are devoted to their new war. From there, his entire unit is slaughtered by three demons who are allied with the Rusherson soldiers. The demons attack Anar's unit while they are behind enemy lines and he the only survivor. Alone, Anar has to survive and figure out what is going on with the Rushersonics and their demonic allies. He meets the mysterious Rook and the two of them form a friendship not because they find the other to be an enjoyable person to be around, but because they are forced to be together. The conflict and danger that ensues forms the rest of the story and since it may very well one day get published, I don't want to post information regarding how it ends nor do I want to post any spoilers.
Most fantasy stories are about the coming of age, light defeating darkness, and companionship. Not so with book 1, nor book 2, nor book 3. The world of Eray is not black and white with an absolute evil fighting an absolute good. The government that helps control the kingdom that Anar lives in who serve as a protagonistic force are the Eray equivilant of the Nazis. Rook, the second most important protagonist, is a complete anti-hero. I want the series to focus on critical thought, forgiveness, and basic morality. I also want the series to be original. This first book is the first chapter in the series which I work on.
On Microsoft Word it is 237 pages long on font 11 with the resolution at 1280 X 800 pixels and thinned margins and 1 1/2 spaced. It took me four months to write and has been the only manuscript that has thus far met the eyes of a senior editor. I started writing it in September of 2006 and I finished on December of that same year mere days before the Christmas holiday began.

All about one of my characters: Rook (Summation)

2007-12-18T23:48:00.000-05:00

Chapter one is called "Rook" and there is a good reason for that. It is the chapter where we get to meet one of the most impotant characters in the series. He is also my personal favourite. Why?
He was originally created to be a Dungeons and Dragons NPC and when I first described him I saw one of the players look a little creeped out and asked him what he was.
Rook looks like a masked man who wears a dark brown robe. his feet are armored and it is impossible to see anything but shadow beneath the eyeholes of the black metal mask that covers his face. When he speaks, the mask moves and flexes with his face to give the impression that the mask IS his face.
I conceived him because I wanted to make the scariest most sinister "good guy" possible. I drew some inspiration from No-Face from "Spirited Away" though I was mostly motivated by the iconic image of the cloaked-stranger. I wanted to name him after a black bird but all the good names were taken. I wanted to be original, so Raven was out. Honestly, Raven has been done so many times in so many things. I could get away with naming him Crow, but it was out because of Crow T Robot from MST3K. I wouldn't be able to think of my character without thinking of Crow! Ah!!! The only other birds that suited the role were sparrows (Johnny Depp) magpies (not scary) and Rooks. By process of elimination, Rook won. In the end I like the name Rook more than Crow or Raven.
But who is he?
Rook is a tragic anti-hero who cannot escape his dark past and now must redeem himself. He never takes off his mask around others (indeed, in the beginning of book one it was impossible for him to do so). He was involved in some very bad things in the past (what he was involved in, I shall withhold). He tries his best to be good and needs help doing so. He sounds likeable, right?
He is also completely ammoral. He sees nothing wrong with dealing out death to those who he thinks "deserve" it and is unflattering and doesn't get along with those he finds in the least bit detestable. He has no respect for tradition and hates with a villainous fury. If he wants to get the job done, he does it without obeying the laws. He's a bad cop, a vigilante, a hero who does things his way, a Robin Hood.
His greatest weakness is the constant fear he has of someone finding out about all the bad things he did before he began to wear his mask. Because of this, he stays away from most people and sulks in background, doing what he can to escape notice. He wants to be good, but if anyone finds out about his past crimes then he will be forever pursued by the very law that he wants to fight for. He may be a death-dealing vigilante but he doesn't want people to hate him.
Throughout books one and two, he sticks by the main character and acts as his second hand man, providing the muscle needed to get through a situation.

How it all began...

2007-12-18T23:02:00.001-05:00

I am writing a series of fantasy novels that I am currently trying to get published?!
Yeah... I am
But how did it come to be? Why did I begin writing? Howcome? Where did I get the idea/inspiration?
I'll tell you...
Fantasy has always been an interest of mine ever since I picked up my first Dungeons and Dragons rulebook. I love the genre. Am I a nerd? Possibly though I don't look like one. I am no fan or Star Trek but there is something about fantasy that gets me going. I consider myself a good writer for the age I am and am able to devote large swathes of time to writing.
The series I am writing got started in a very surprising place: at work. I hate the work I do and know I will one day leave it. As I work I ususally pass time by thinking about stuff to keep my mind off what I am doing. There are times (such as after seeing a movie when my imagination is running) when I tell myself queer little stories in my skull while at work. During those long idle hours at my job I let my mind race while my body endured the crushing boredom. There was one funny little day when I was working and I conceived this idea of two planets, side by side, completely unaware of life on the other. Although the story had no resemblance to what it would one day be, the basic idea had started then: two fantasy worlds side by side.
By the end of the day I had devised a whole little cast of species which would live in the worlds and interact with each other. I decided that, for the most part, one world would be peaceful while the other one wasn't so much. The original races I created in my head for my little pair of fantasy worlds were as follows:

Demons (a bunch of different types of humanoids who are hateful and evil by nature)
Beasts (a race of minotaur-like people)
Effigies (living statues)
Quezzelians (snake people)
Xendi (Ant people)
Drem (Dragon people)
Goblins (garden gnomes)
Ivvids (plant people)
Valkyries (humanlike race of warrior-women)
Griffins (griffins)
Dragons (dragons).
(the list would eventually shrink significantly, but this was the beginning)

The idea was complete! By the time I was out of work for the day, I wanted to write it all down. To keep myself from falling asleep at work, I had come up with this cute little setting. I was a writer back then and knew that I wanted to turn it into a book. The problem was I had a setting, a list of peoples, and places. I had no characters, plot, or story. All I had was a stage, but no script and no actors.
If you remember the beginning of this article, you'd know that I play Dungeons and Dragons. I am a Dungeon Master and am thus good at storytelling. I could give my setting a problem to solve at the drop of a hat, all I needed was time and thought. But there was one more problem: commitment.
'Writing a book will take effort and time. Can I afford to expend so much effort and energy on something like this' I asked myself. 'Do I have the patience to write a book?' I didn't answer that question. Instead I told myself that the task of turning my cute little fantasyland into a serious piece of work would take effort, hundreds of hours, and more than a few sleepless nights. I said 'If you really want to do this, you will have to undertake a great responsibility'.
Then I said 'bring it on, I can give it my all'.
Sometime in September 2006, just before I had to eat dinner, with my new laptop, I sat down and began to write.
"Chapter one" I typed. I paused and thought. Then I typed a single word: "Rook".

More to come soon!

Introduction

2007-12-18T22:56:00.005-05:00

Greetings everyone who may read this post. My name is Sean Sakamoto and this is my blog.

I am trying to be a novelist and am currently writing a quadrillogy of fantasy novels which I hope will one day be published. As of this writting, I currently have the attention of a senior editor at Scholastic who I contacted through a personal contact. I am working on my second draft for my first book (I am working on three at the moment: I have the first drafts for two finished and am working on the first draft for the third while a fourth is being planned).

Throught this blog I hope to record the following:

Ideas and stuff that I just would enjoy having on the internet that relate to my writings.
The progress of my work
Details and thoughts about my writings (in universe details, ect).