Austin Worley's Blog: Writing, Reading, and Living with Austin Worley, page 14

Retrospective: Storming Gelon

The cover of Fall Into Fantasy 2018, which includes this story

My #ThrowbackThursday story this week is “Storming Gelon”:

“Obedience will set you free. Cerona has lived by those words—the words of her adoptive father Thonar—ever since she sold herself into slavery to save her exiled family from starvation. In fourteen years as Delondra of Lakar’s favorite weapon, she’s never wavered or questioned her mistress…until Delondra orders her to slaughter the defenseless family of a tribal chieftain. Will obedience finally set her free? Or will Cerona choose to break her own chains?”

When I found the call for heroic fantasy submissions from Flame Tree Press, I knew exactly which author I’d look to for inspiration: Robert E. Howard. Nobody else blends rip-roaring action with larger than life characters and exotic locales quite as effectively as the man who created fantasy icons like Conan of Cimmeria.

Anyone who reads this piece can spot the influence of Conan immediately. Like Conan, Cerona hails from a “barbarian” people native to a dismal northern land and lives by the sword on adventures which have taken her all over the world. They both relish the finer things in life or besting a foe in battle, too.

But that’s where they begin to diverge. One thing I wanted to do with this story is play with the fixtures of heroic fantasy. Cerona may be a barbarian hero like Conan and his cheap imitations, but she also relies on magic just as much as physical prowess. Desperation rather than wanderlust forced her to leave home, and she only adventures because her mistress compels her to do so. Cerona would happily return to her adoptive family and never leave if she could.

In some ways, she draws influence from another of Howard’s sword and sorcery heroes: King Kull. They’re both slightly more brooding, philosophical heroes, which comes into focus through the internal conflict of this story.

Inspiration for that comes from a more unusual source: Ubisoft’s 2017 action video game For Honor.  The moral issues which come with destroying your enemy’s stores of food and leaving them to starve were simply too juicy to pass up. Combined with a few key events which unfold over the course of “Storming Gelon”, they shake Cerona out of blind obedience and force her to confront some doubts she has ignored for a very long time.

If this story sounds like something you’d be interested in, you can check out “Storming Gelon” in Fall Into Fantasy 2018 from Cloaked Press.

Retrospective: Water, Gunpowder, Sorcery

The cover of Warriors & Wizards #7, which includes this story

My #ThrowbackThursday story for this week is “Water, Gunpowder, Sorcery”, a Weird Western set on the Texas frontier in the 1840s.

“Texas Ranger Francisco Ybarra has never worked a case quite like this. Entire families of settlers are drowning in their homesteads, even though there hasn’t been a flood in months. Stranger still, somebody is taking their scalps. Folk have begun to whisper of dark magic, but such things are just stories to scare children with…aren’t they?”

The idea for this story took root after I came across a call for Weird Westerns with some very specific date and setting limits. While researching interesting events which fit the guidelines, I came across the infamous Council House Fight during the Texas-Comanche War, where dozens of Comanche chieftains were massacred during peace negotiations on the order of Texan officials. The intense conflict which followed seemed like fertile ground for compelling stories.

From there, I stumbled across an obscure source which made reference to the Comanche steering clear of the Kichai along the Trinity River due to supposed sorcery. Everything just sort of…clicked after that. What if a minor chieftain decided to break the taboo against sorcery in pursuit of vengeance for the Council House Fight? What if a young, ambitious Texas Ranger was assigned to investigate a series of inexplicable deaths? How would he react to discovering magic is undeniably real? The answers to these questions came incredibly quick, and I managed to write this story in just a week.

If you’re interested in “Water, Gunpowder, Sorcery”, you can find it in Warriors & Wizards #7.

Update: April 2021

Can you believe it’s already Easter weekend? It seems like March just arrived, I blinked, and now it’s gone. But quite a bit happened in that blink of an eye, so let’s dive in without further ado.

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Writing my latest short story–which I’ve given the working title “A Good Life?”–was like pulling teeth. I spent the first couple weeks of March inching into the first scene during whatever time I hadn’t dedicated to helping out with virtual schooling. Talk about slow going. Spring Break freed up a whole week where I could concentrate on writing, but even a hundred words a day was a struggle. At the end of that week, I had just over 500 words. Since it was clear I would make the deadline for Whetstone, I decided to set the story aside and work on it over the summer, when I can focus all of my time and energy on it without any distractions. This tale has tons of potential, so I want the execution to be perfect.

About halfway through March, I also started editing my novel “The Silver Shrike” again. It’s been so long since the last time I read the manuscript, I’d completely forgotten some parts. It’s better than I remember, though are a few areas where revisions are warranted. After I finished the editing pass yesterday, I drew up a list of those revisions. I’m planning on tackling them in May, then making one last pass over the entire book to iron out any kinks.

My only goal for April is to write a short story starring Whippoorwill for the Murder & Mayhem anthology from Dragon Soul Press. Not many markets accept vigilante/superhero stories, so this seemed like too good an opportunity to pass up. Hopefully I can break out this creative slump and dash off at least 5,000 words this month. It’s a tall order, but the idea I have for the opening scene is more dynamic, with more immediate character interaction, than the one in “A Good Life?” so I think I’ve got a shot.

Lately, I’ve dipped my toe back into poetry with a narrative work entitled “The Song of the Liberator”. It was originally intended as a companion piece to a sword and sorcery tale, “Twenty Years of Woe”, which I never got around to writing. Excerpts from the poem would’ve been used as a bit of flavor between the scenes, much like the way Howard used bits from “The Road of Kings” in his iconic story “The Phoenix on the Sword”.

In just a couple weeks I’ve managed to double the length of the poem, which is pretty impressive given its complicated structure: each stanza is composed of one line of seven syllables, one line of eleven syllables, one line of two syllables which form a trochee, one line with just a single syllable, another trochaic two syllable line, another line of eleven syllables, and one last line of seven syllables. The first two lines must rhyme with each other, and the last two lines must rhyme with each other.

Hopefully I can wrap up the poem this year and find a publisher somewhere. All my published poetry is technically self-published, as it’s posted on Wattpad and DeviantArt, so it would be pretty cool to add “traditionally published poet” to my resume.

In March, my reading was almost exclusively fantasy. I finished The Traitor Baru Cormorant, which was an absolute gut-punch. 10/10, would be emotionally devastated again. It’s been a long time since a book hit me that hard. On a lighter note, I also finished Brandon Sanderson’s Cosmere anthology Arcanum Unbounded and the first Best of Robert E. Howard anthology Crimson Shadows. In my opinion, Howard’s skills as a poet are incredibly underrated.

This month, I’m reading Dragon Age: Tevinter Nights, the Renegade Swords anthology from DMR Books, and Jae’s romantic suspense novel Conflict of Interest. I enjoyed the second novel in the series, so I’m eager to see how it starts.

Life has been pretty tame over the past month. We’re almost through with virtual schooling, which will be a huge relief. Fortunately, our school district isn’t mandating state testing, so neither of my little brothers have to go out and risk bringing something home. Another huge relief.

Oklahoma has opened up vaccinations to all residents, so I’ve gone ahead and scheduled an appointment for next week. It’s not much, but I’m happy to do my part in putting this pandemic to rest.

Hopefully everyone reading this is doing well and has a blessed Easter! I’ll leave y’all with a little present, perhaps the best haiku I’ve ever written:

Death is swallowed up,
beaten by a bloody cross
and an empty tomb.

See you again in May!

Retrospective: Hanging at Crosbhothar

The cover of Unsheathed: An Epic Fantasy Collection, which includes this novelette

My #ThrowbackThursday story this week is “Hanging at Crosbhothar”, my first published novelette.

“A village of innocents, lynched. Blood magic. Vengeance-obsessed brigands. Ghosts of the past and a demonic pact. Knight-Lieutenant Arlise Dun faces all of these and more as she chases the bandit lord Eoghan One-Ear through the wilds of Vyspa. Can she cut Eoghan down before he becomes unstoppable?”

Seeing this story in print was a real thrill, as a novelette provided me with an opportunity to really dig into this setting for the first time. Many of the elements developed for this story—more detailed rules of magic, coryphium, the conflict between Corhiel and Vyspa, and the backstories of a few supporting characters—have since become fixtures of the world and show up in later stories.

“Hanging at Crosbhothar” is another one of those stories directly inspired by the call for submissions of the market which ultimately accepted it for publication. Their guidelines specified heroic or epic fantasy along with an element of swordplay or “sword-related” theme. So I decided to hedge my bets and blend those together. Thus was born the premise of my external conflict: Arlise up against a master swordsman wielding an enchanted blade.

This raised further questions. What does this swordsman want? Revenge against foreign occupiers and his fellow countrymen who surrendered. Why is the Order of Watchers involved? Perhaps this swordsman is so ruthless he’ll use illicit magic to achieve victory. Maybe he’s even willing to truck with darker entities in exchange for power. How will Arlise defeat him? Well, that’s one question I didn’t have an answer to when I began writing…

Like most of the stories starring her, the internal conflict of “Hanging at Crosbhothar” centers around Arlise and her backstory. A few of my ideas suggested she’d have experience as both avenger and victim of vengeance, which gelled perfectly with the motivations of this budding villain. Who better to face him down than someone who knows the futility of vengeance and the suffering it inflicts upon innocents?

Of all my stories, “Hanging at Crosbhothar” has probably received the most praise from readers. Especially for its very first line: “Corpses hung from the ancient maple like leaves…”

If you’re interested in this story, you can find it as part of Unsheathed: An Epic Fantasy Collection

Retrospective: “The Order” and “Dusk and Dawn at Laufenden”

The cover of The Devil’s Piano, which includes “Dusk and Dawn at Laufenden”

This #ThrowbackThursday retrospective covers two stories–“Dusk and Dawn at Laufenden” and “The Order”–since they’re both about the same incident, a defining moment in the life of Arlise Dun.

“After three years of devastating civil war in the Seven Marches, Lady Arlise Dun has finally cornered the usurper Teign Arnen Raus in the tiny village of Laufenden. But the only way to ensure he doesn’t escape places innocents in peril. Is ending the war worth sacrificing dozens of her own freeholders? Even if it is, can Arlise live with herself afterward?”

All the way back in 2015, when the idea for Arlise and her character arc began taking shape, this moment was the first to jump out at me. I’d already decided she would embark on a redemption arc–one of my favorite storytelling devices–which left me with an incredibly important question: what drove Arlise to seek redemption?

The answer to this question became “The Fall”, the very first story I wrote about Arlise. Not to mention the first story I had the courage to submit. Unsurprisingly, it met with rejection after rejection, though a few were quite positive. Eventually, I shelved it in favor of my newer, more polished works.

Fast forward to a couple years later, when I found an anthology call from Horrified Press seeking speculative fiction stories about the horrors of war. “The Fall” seemed like a perfect fit, but I’d come a long way as a writer since then, so I decided to completely rewrite the story.

This gave me the opportunity to really play up the horror of the choice facing Arlise…and the truly horrific consequences of her decision. My hope is that “Dusk and Dawn at Laufenden” really brings home why Arlise threw away her privileged life, why she picked up death-seeking tendencies, and why she longs for redemption as a member of the Order of Watchers.

The cover of Speculative 66 #14, which includes “The Order

“The Order” had its genesis around the same time, while I was actually working on the early stages of “Dusk and Dawn at Laufenden”. The challenge of writing a complete story in 66 words seemed like a great way to get back into writing after a lightning strike fried my old computer, and I was already thinking about Arlise, so I dashed the piece off in an afternoon and submitted it. To my surprise, Speculative 66 liked it enough to publish!

If you’re interested in “Dusk and Dawn at Laufenden”, you can find it in The Devil’s Piano, an anthology from Horrified Press.

If you’re interested in “The Order”, you can find it in Speculative 66 Issue #14 or on my DeviantArt profile.

Retrospective: Decisions

The cover of Fifty Flashes, which includes this story.

My #ThrowbackThursday story for this week is “Decisions”, which follows my first recurring protagonist: Arlise Dun.

“After joining the Order of Watchers—a monastic organization which protects folk from monsters and magic—Arlise Dun believes she has found redemption. But then an encounter with a werewolf cub leaves her facing the same dilemma she did at Laufenden. Will she make the right choice this time?”

Some of you might notice a few influences from the videogame series Dragon Age in my earliest tales featuring Arlise, and the most important one happens to be the theme of this story: a character facing hard, morally ambiguous decisions. Should you choose the lesser evil? Or should you adhere to your principles despite the risk?

In “Decisions”, these questions terrify Arlise. The last time she answered them, innocent people died. What if she makes the wrong decision again? What if she hasn’t truly changed?

The interplay between these fears and a hunger for redemption quickly made her my favorite character to write. Although it took a couple years and dozens of rejections for her to catch a break, Arlise is now my most prolific lead. Hopefully, you’ll be seeing even more of her before long.

If you’re interested in “Decisions”, you can find it in the anthology Fifty Flashes from Whortleberry Press.

Retrospective: Acheri

The cover of Warriors & Wizards #2, which included this story

My #ThrowbackThursday story for this week is “Acheri”, which follows a tribal priestess hot on the trail of the monster her daughter has become.

“Miakoda wasn’t there when her daughter died. She wasn’t there when the restless little girl rose from the grave as an acheri and felled half their village, either. Duty demanded her presence elsewhere. But not this time. This time, when Taini dies, she’ll be there to lay her to rest for good.”

This story was my second Weird Western to find a publisher, although it actually came before “Hooves and Tobacco on a Sunday Morning”. The creature turned up in some casual reading, and digging deeper revealed a ton of story potential. A creepy demon child which kills its victims by spreading disease with its shadow? Which can only be banished by wrapping a red cloth around its neck? Talk about a terrifying, dangerous foe. Especially if the person who faces it has a personal connection to the child the acheri once was.

While developing the story further, I drew inspiration from an unusual source: “A Night to Remember”, one of the CGI trailers for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. The way it built up tension through quiet conversation and the fluidity of the fight scene made quite an impression on me, so I decided to attempt to introduce those qualities into my own writing. I’d like to think I succeeded.

My fight scenes have come a long, long way since this story, but they wouldn’t be where they are today without the lessons I learned while writing “Acheri”.

If you’re interested in reading “Acheri”, you can find it in Warriors & Wizards #2.

Update: March 2021

Wow, I can’t believe it’s already March! This year is just flying by, which I suppose is better than dragging along for an eternity like 2020 did. Some exciting things have happened in the last month, so without further ado, let’s get on with this post.

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

On the writing front, I’ve dived into my sword and sorcery tale for Whetstone, which will follow Arlise Dun as her latest brush with death sets her on the path to joining the Order of Watchers. The premise has me pretty excited, but actually writing the thing is slow going so far. It’s been a while since I’ve started a brand new story, so my creative muscles are taking a while to warm up. Right now, my plan is to write out all of the dialogue for my final scene first, then fill in all the connective prose. A similar strategy helped me achieve a breakthrough on “Law, Love, and the Whippoorwill”, so I’m hoping to replicate that success.

The deadline for submissions to Whetstone is March 28th, so there’s some breathing room on this project for the moment, but I won’t be too upset if the story takes longer to finish. Missing the deadline just gives me the opportunity to try this story out on higher-tier markets once it’s complete. It’s been a long time since I submitted anything to the Writers of the Future Contest, so I’ll probably start there if Whetstone doesn’t work out.

In other writing related news, I made one last editing pass over “The Death of Liberty?” and began looking for a cover artist. I’m fully committed to self-publishing the story at this point, though it might take a while to get everything in place. Keep your eyes peeled for further updates!

All my submissions so far this year have yielded rejections, but one pleasant surprise did come my way during #PitMad this week: a rather prominent editor invited me to submit “Folk of Rock and Water”. Fingers crossed! Even if it doesn’t work out, it’s encouraging to see industry professionals interested in my pitches.

My reading is currently focused on fantasy fiction, especially sword and sorcery tales. Everything from modern fantasy like The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson and the contributors to Sword and Sorceress #34, to rereading classic Conan stories like “The Gods of the North” and “The People of the Black Circle”, to dipping my toe into Fritz Lieber’s expansive universe starring Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser.

“The Gods of the North” actually helped inspire the opening of this current story starring Arlise, which has morphed into something quite different.

Meanwhile, on the recreational front, I dabbled with some more amateur astrophotography around the landing of NASA’s Perseverance rover on Mars. None of the pictures are particularly exceptional or anything, but I’m proud of what I managed to capture with limited equipment under light polluted skies. Here’s the Pleiades:

Hopefully, all of you are doing well in these trying times. I’ll see you all again in April for my next monthly update!

Retrospective: Hooves and Tobacco on a Sunday Morning

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been posting a look back at one of my stories every week on my Facebook Author Page. Given the official nature of this site, it makes sense to archive them here.The cover for Riding the Dark Frontier, which includes “Hooves and Tobacco on a Sunday Morning”

Since today is #ThrowbackThursday, I figured a great way to inaugurate this page is with a few posts introducing my stories. What they’re about, the inspiration behind them, where you can find them, etc. Every Thursday for the next few months, I’ll cover a different tale.

There’s no better place to start than with my first published piece: “Hooves and Tobacco on a Sunday Morning”. Set in 1896, it follows a young cowboy from Kay County on a fateful ride to church.

“Vernon Payne just wants to woo his beloved Ina Whitney, and he figures the tribal legends of his Ponca mother are the perfect way to her heart. After all, who doesn’t love a tall tale? But a chance encounter on the roadside leads him to a startling discovery: at least one of those legends is very, very real.”

The premise of this story started to take shape right after I discovered the Weird Western sub-genre. I’ve always enjoyed westerns, and most of my previous work was fantasy, so the idea of fusing both genres spoke straight to my soul. Then I stumbled across the legend of the Deer Woman and her connections to Oklahoma, specifically an area where my family has deep ties. All the pieces fell into place perfectly.

My personal connections to this tale ensure it will always hold a special place in my heart. Prairie Chapel, where Vernon intends to meet Ina? My mother’s side of the family were frequent members of the congregation. The countryside between Blackwell and Ponca City (New Ponca, back in 1896)? I knew it pretty well thanks to spending so much of my childhood on my great-grandmother’s farm near Blackwell. Writing this story was like revisiting my childhood again, which made bringing the setting to life so much easier.

If you’d like to check out “Hooves and Tobacco on a Sunday Morning”, you can find it in the Thirteen O’clock Press anthology Riding the Dark Frontier: Tales of the Weird West

Welcome to My Website!

At long last, I finally have my own author website. It took quite a bit of work, and was more than a little frustrating, but I’m proud of the final product.

Underneath “Books”, you’ll be able to find pages for all of my published works. These include a cover image, a blurb for the story, and links to where it’s available for purchase.

My current plan is to swap the monthly updates I’ve been posting on Goodreads over to this site, so you’ll be able to find those under “Blog”. I’ll be sure to link the feed so these posts appear on Goodreads and Amazon, though.

Finally, you can learn a little more about me over on the “About” page.

Hopefully this site suits all of your needs as well as it does mine. If not, feel free to get in touch with me through the Contact form. I’ll gladly do whatever I can to improve your experience.