Lissa Dobbs's Blog: Shadow Walkers of Grevared, page 19
February 12, 2017
Broken Treasure – Excerpt
[image error]Broken Treasure
Augustus Hopperton slipped through the streets of Whitehall and away from his home on the outskirts of the village. No one saw him; no one ever did. He was a small man, short, thin, with a balding pate and not much to lend itself to acknowledgement. He had no real skills, other than his ability to pass unnoticed, and no acquaintances to reprimand him for his behavior. He was a scavenger, plain and simple, and he had no desire to be anything more.
The village was quiet this late in the evening. Most folks were home with their lights out and their kids tucked into bed. Businesses had closed at the dinner hour, and the nightly rainstorm was in progress. Drops fell in sheets, and runoff from the nearby mountains threatened to turn the streets into rivers. But Augustus didn’t care. Tomorrow was burning day, and he had to reach the Heap before the light shone.
Augustus skulked by the last house and made his way through the swamp grass to the place where the Heap rested. Putrescent pools surrounded it, and rot saturated the ground. But that didn’t bother Augustus. All he cared about were the treasures he’d find in the Heap, things he could take home and save from destruction.
The Heap rose before him, almost head high. It spanned the several feet of dry land in the middle of the swamp and was nothing more than a tangled mass of garbage. Food scraps lay side-by-side with broken furniture and garden instruments, and a few moldy books were tossed in for good measure. It had always amazed Augustus that the people of Whitehall could throw away such treasures, things that could be mended and used, and the food, while not fresh, was rarely rotten. There was good stuff here, if one cared to look. Augustus himself hadn’t had a meal from anywhere else in years, and he was as fit as he’d ever been.
Wasteful. That was the word. The people of Whitehall were wasteful. It was bad enough that they threw away valuable items and food, but them burning the pile once per month made it even worse. There was no point in it, and Augustus saved as much as he could carry.
Lightning cracked the sky, and Augustus took a moment to peer upwards. Dark clouds rolled across the heavens, and thunder shook the ground. The swamp itself seemed angry, and Augustus shivered. The storm was worse than usual tonight, and he wanted to finish his business and get home to his fire.
Augustus raised his lantern to better see the mound of trash before him. He spotted a chair leg and pulled it from its resting place. He could use this, he was sure, and there was no point in wasting good wood. He also found a lamp, cracked down the side so it would never hold oil again, but he was positive he had an adhesive at home that could mend it. His heart lifted when he found the freshly tossed remains of a roast, and he shoved it in his pocket to have for dinner. If he could just find some fruit, he’d eat well.
The rain’s intensity increased, its fury beating the swamp grass into submission. The mountains groaned as lightning touched their tops, and thunder shook the ground so much that Augustus stumbled. It wasn’t safe here, not tonight. He’d have to just grab what he could and get back to his dwelling, no time for dilly-dallying. Even his treasures weren’t worth his life. Not in this storm.
Lissa Dobbs
February 11, 2017
Writing Update
[image error]Well, I think I’ve actually accomplished a little bit this week. I’ve gotten a couple of short stories revised, and I’ve worked on ‘the story that never ends’. I’m letting Gwennyth rest for another week, then it’ll be time to look at it again. I’ve also come up with some ideas for a fourth book in The Chronicles of Ethan Grimley III, and I’ve made a little progress on the YA book I’ve been playing with for the last year. For once, I feel accomplished. Let’s see if I can keep it up.
Best wishes!
Lissa Dobbs
Just Thinking
I was playing on my phone, one of those ‘I’m too tired to do anything productive’ things, and came up with this photo using the old photo function and a bright frame on the photo editor. It got me thinking about how cool some of the technology we have now is.
My first computer was a Commodore 64 that was programmed with Basic. Not Q-Basic or anything that came after it, just plain, old Basic. I could write programs for it, and there were books out the wazoo of programs that could be typed into the thing. Some of them took days to do, and, compared to what we have now, there was little to show for it. The few games available on cartridges were simple games, even the animated ones, and programs were stored on a data cassette that you could turn around and put in your stereo if you wanted to annoy someone with high-pitched squeals and grating sounds. Back then, it was pretty cool, but I was never able to sit on the couch and do something like alter a picture on it. Heck, my simple cassette player was larger than my current phone.
It just struck me as cool just how far technology has come in my lifetime, and got me wondering just what it was like for my grandmother to see everything from the beginnings of the automobile all the way up to cell phones. I’ll bet it was amazing.
Best wishes!
Lissa Dobbs
February 10, 2017
The Chronicles of Ethan Grimley III – A Walker is Born – Free
[image error]For the next couple of weeks, The Chronicles of Ethan Grimley III: A Walker is Born is free through Instafreebie. Claim your copy now.
Best wishes!
Lissa Dobbs
February 8, 2017
One of My Favorite Sites
Even though most of my writing is fantasy fiction, there is still a good bit of research to be done, especially when I want to check my information on a mythological creature or god. Since I’ve studied mythology for the better part of two decades, a good bit of it is in my head, but there are still times I need to double check something.
One of my favorite sites for doing this is http://www.sacred-texts.com. They’ve published public domain works of just about any text on religion and mythology that you can imagine, and it’s a great place to kick back and read. Some of my favorites are the texts written in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s with the woodcut illustrations. Of course, some of the more scientific texts are outdated, but they’re still great reading.
Best wishes!
Lissa Dobbs
The Slave’s Caress – Excerpt
[image error]When the Catastrophe destroyed the universe, all were impacted, including the gods. In the battles that followed, many were killed or driven mad. The mad gods are those who resisted the new world and seek to destroy it and the humans who caused it. Below is an excerpt from “The Slave’s Caress”, a short story I’m currently working on. I’m hoping to release it in the next week or so.
Violetta Redsmith breathed a sigh of relief as the airship docked in the port city of Grimview. She’d been running for months, dodging the demon trackers that had been on her tail since Pistofficle, and considered herself lucky to have found berth on the airship from Flameport in the Kingdom of Emerell to Grimview in Riverland Pearlrest. She didn’t particularly want to spend the rest of her life in the cold near the Shizzuria Wasteland, but it beat being a slave.
Violetta looked around the port and noted the long wooden piers and the bustle of those embarking from the ship. The town before her was small, especially for a port, with one story buildings and copious amounts of smoke coming from chimneys. There was no market square as there was in Pistofficle. Instead, all shops had signs hanging from them, and people entered them instead of shopping out in front.
“What do I do now?”
Violetta had no idea. She’d left Pistofficle with no thoughts other than escape, and planning her future had played no part in her thought processes. Now she had to figure out what to do with the rest of her life, and she had little coin to use to sustain herself.
You will find what you need.
His voice had been a constant source of reassurance and guidance throughout her journey, and she was grateful for his companionship.
A chuckle. You still think me no more than a figment of your imagination.
That was true. The voice in her head and the image that manifested to her all seemed no more than a dream born of desperation, a safety valve for her sanity.
Be on the lookout for Rise of the Mad Gods 1, which will contain “The Slave’s Caress” and “For Love of Her”.
Best wishes!
Lissa Dobbs
February 6, 2017
Chimera
The chimera is a creature from Greek mythology. It has the head of a lion, with a goat’s head sticking out of its back, and a snake for a tail. It was said to be the child of Typhon and Echidna, and it could breathe fire. It’s mentioned in Homer’s Iliad and Hesiod’s Theogony. In short, it isn’t a nice creature to meet while travelling.
In the world of Grevared, the Chimera lives mainly within the forests of E’ma Thalas, though it can be seen in the mountains of Moirena as well. It is a reclusive creature and will attack on sight. It’s primary diet consists of other creatures, with asacon and yeasacon being its favorites. It doesn’t hesitate to attack the elves and wizards of E’ma Thalas, and both of these groups tend to avoid it.
In Moirena, the creature is sought by the demons for breeding purposes, for they believe that each chimera can only be bred once before it loses ferocity. Demons who can capture the chimera and bring it home unharmed gain status among the community and have a greater chance of survival.
Lissa Dobbs
Rise of the Mad Gods
[image error]I’ve been doing some thinking about what I can do once I ever complete the ‘story that never ends’, which I’m actually working on, by the way. It’s dawned on me that, aside from the antagonists in that story and random creatures, the Shadow Walkers haven’t had any real adversaries, except for themselves, of course.
At the time of the Catastrophe that created Grevared, the universe and all the planes were thrown into a state of turmoil. Needless to say, those who survived did not do so unscathed, and this includes beings we call gods. It seemed obvious to me that some of them would be vengeful against humans, so I decided to work on some who definitely weren’t interested in fighting evil.
I have two short stories that should be ready in the next couple of weeks showing how two of these gods went about making their mark, so to speak. These stories definitely won’t be child-friendly, nor will they be appropriate for those with tender sensibilities. These are beings bent on destruction, after all, and there are no redeeming qualities to them at all. The ultimate question, though, is will the humans they possess be able to redeem themselves?
Best wishes!
Lissa Dobbs
February 4, 2017
Muhulda Urswyk – Unlock the Truth
[image error]I recently had the, ehem, honor of interviewing Shadow Walker Arianna Henderson. I’ll have to say that it was an eye-opener. Read the full interview below.
Muhulda: Good morning, Arianna. I’ve heard you’ve just returned from a tour on the Greydawn Spirit. Can you tell me what it’s like to travel the void?
Arianna: Well, it’s big and gray and full of void serpents. What else do you wanna know?
Muhulda: I’d like to know why the Shadow Walker guild employs ships and people to patrol out there. What do you do? How is the expense justified?
Arianna: Well, the expense is for the Shadow Walker guild to worry about. As to the why? (Arianna leans forward. There’s a glint in her eyes that this reporter can only interpret as madness.) How would you feel if a hundred-foot serpent with poisoned fangs that could possibly breathe fire came flying over Sangeron right now and leveled half the buildings?
Muhulda: I don’t think I’d like that very much. But isn’t protecting our borders, both from within and without, the job of the military?
Arianna: (She leans back and crosses her arms at this point.) Don’t you think they have enough to worry about? And how far out into the void do you think they go?
Muhulda: I would think they would stay close to the borders.
Arianna: (Her eyes light up, and she again looks mad.) Precisely. They stick near the border. We go further out. You have no idea what’s out there, what could be coming for us at any moment.
Muhulda: And what, exactly, is coming for us? This sounds like some kind of bizarre conspiracy to me.
(Arianna laughs at this point, and it makes this reporter’s skin crawl. There’s no doubt that this woman is stark raving loonies. Is this the kind of people the Shadow Walkers regularly recruit?)
Arianna: Sweet cheeks, you can sit there and judge me all you want, but, let me tell you, if a swarm of pixie mites got through to the Xaggarene Empire, most people would be dead before they knew what was happening.
Muhulda: And what’s a pixie mite? (I had to chuckle here, for the concept was simply ridiculous.)
Arianna: It’s this tiny little spirit that looks like a pixie. The thing is, though, when it touches you, it sucks out your life force before you can do anything about it.
Muhulda: You don’t look like you’ve had your life force, in your words, ‘sucked out.’
(Again, that laugh.)
Arianna: Of course not. I know how to fight them.
Muhulda: And how, exactly, do you fight them? Do you use poison? They sound like bugs.
Arianna: I use a sword. Others use their magic or their weapons from the gods.
Muhulda: A sword? But I thought all Shadow Walkers had weapons. Why would you need a sword instead?
Arianna: Because my ‘weapon’ isn’t one. I carry the Cauldron of Plenty from the Dagda. It gives me the power to heal. I don’t use it to fight.
Muhulda: So, the Shadow Walkers don’t use physicians?
Arianna: Of course we do. I can’t be everywhere at once. Now, if it’s life-threatening, then I’m the one who deals with the injury, but I don’t handle the lighter stuff. I don’t have the energy.
Muhulda: So, there’s a limit to the amount of power a Shadow Walker has?
Arianna: Well, yeah. Did you really think we were made into some all-powerful, invincible people? Really? We’re just normal people who’ve been given a gift and chose to use it. That’s it.
Muhulda: And how do think Barnabas Merriweather does with running the guild? Does he train the new recruits? Does he make sure those who are supposed to ‘protect us’ are competent?
Arianna: He’s great. He has a lot on him, but he does it all. (She leans forward again, and this reporter can’t help backing up a little. There is something too uncanny about that glint in her eyes.) We get training, and there’s the school, after all. New Shadow Walkers who come to us can take classes there even if they’re adults. Others have learned on their own. (She shrugs.) It works.
Muhulda: And when will you head back out into the void?
Arianna: I’m not sure. I have another mission down in Freywater for a bit, then I’m sure I’ll be back out there. I love it. Sure, it gets a little dull sometimes with all the endless gray, but the creatures that come out of it keep me hopping. I like that.
Muhulda: Is there anything else you’d like to tell us about the Shadow Walkers?
Arianna: Is there anything else you’d like to know?
Muhulda: No. No. I think that’s all for now.
Arianna: All right, then.
(The woman stands and tosses her hair, which is candy pink, over her shoulder. She sashays out of the office and winks at me from the door. This reporter must admit to being terrified. This woman is obviously insane and should be locked in Josephus Halidon’s Home for the Insane and Destitute. Why she’s allowed to interact with normal, decent folk, I’ll never know, but something needs to be done to ensure that these Shadow Walkers are upstanding citizens.)
February 2, 2017
Shadow Walkers of Grevared
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