Kyle Belote's Blog, page 9

Confessions: Warmaster and Finishing the Race.

…And I’m back! This will be short, so let’s dive right in.

So, I have a little confession to make. It’s hard scrutinizing your own shortcomings and say, “yup, that’s a problem,” but I’ll do it anyway. I really hate finishing things. It’s caustic, really. I suppose it’s better than having an issue with starting projects. At least, you’re halfway there when you start. I’ll give an example.

I really enjoy watching period pieces, dramas, etc.; I just enjoy peering into a snapshot in time and seeing what life was like back then. They were hardy folk, not the soft-bodied feeble-minded individuals we seem to spit out today. Well, one such show I enjoyed watching was Downton Abbey. I don’t know how I caught wind of it, but I watched it—all the way through season five. But when the final season came out, and they declared it as such, I … didn’t finish it. In fact, I didn’t even start it. Once something is done, it’s finished forever. How does this relate to me?

Well, I get really excited about starting books and new projects, but I have a hell of a time finishing them. To be fair, the second through the last draft are actually easier, and it’s the first draft that causes me so many issues, but I don’t mind. I want to see where the story goes, and once I’ve done that, I lose interest in perfecting it. So, what am I rambling about?

Warrmaster: the sequel to The Demon’s Fate. I started it a long time ago, and I got about halfway through, and just … dropped it. And now, I’ve got to finish it and do revisions. So, that’s the next big project, finishing the first draft to Warmaster. And this post is to say, I’ve officially started it.

What other things I’m working on? Still working on draft four of Red Creek. I’m about 40% done. I dropped it in December so I could focus on getting the second draft done to Volume V of my fantasy series. I really like how the novel turned out, what answers are given, the secrets revealed, a character introduced. The octane on the series is about to crank up to eleven. And there’s also Vol IV I’ve got to get around to doing—the third draft, and trying to find a way to cut out a lot of filler and stick with the parts that propel the novel forward, despite its expansive scope. I’d like to get it down to around 300,000 words. But I’m not there yet. I’ll tackle that after I get the first draft of Warmaster complete. Bouncing between projects seems to be my new operating method, keeps me engaged and invigorated.

If you enjoyed this content and want to read my works, check out my books on Amazon. All works are available on Kindle Unlimited, eBook, and print. Reviews can be found on Goodreads and Amazon.

Volume V & Beyond

…And I’m back! This will be short, so let’s dive right in.

Without preambling over another year coming to a close, let’s fixate on the important stuff. I’ve kept up my writing through December, and volume V now has a second draft, the word count increasing from 75k to 95k. Yes, it will be the shortest book in my series. I’m rather pleased with how everything turned out, after spending a good deal of time finding how to ‘crack’ it. This will shape the narration of future books to the culmination of the series. So, let’s talk about volume V for a bit.

This book is a stand-alone within the series. It’s a bridge between the first half and the second half. It follows three characters that weren’t featured prominently in the front half of the series, but they will be part of the main cast in the latter half. Theoretically, you could skip volume V on a second read through because volumes IV and VI are back to back in the timeline, but if skipped the first time around, you’ll miss a lot of crucial elements that shape the end of the series.

Thus far, the series has asked a lot of questions and hasn’t given many answers. A lot is revealed in volume V, not only because the plot necessitated it, but readers need to know for the future installments. I play close to the chest when writing, but there needs to be dividends to keep readers engaged and coming back. It’s time that investment pays off.

I will reveal a character in the book, and I believe I’ve touched on it before: En Rohg Guhl Suhr. The best way to describe him is an entity. His name means ‘the god among us,’ and he certainly lives up to such a lofty title. He will be an antagonist moving forward, and in the same vein of Darth Vader and Voldemort, less is more. In magic—or in the Force for Star Wars fans—you often face a question, ‘who is more powerful?’ I can say this with confidence, few can stand against him. The triumvirate of Starriace, Judas, and Xilor would have to work in concert to stand the minutest chance of surviving. It’s akin to A New Hope Luke Skywalker facing Darth Vader, or the sensation of dread you get after Dumbledore dies, leaving Harry to face Voldemort alone. It should be an oh shit moment, and it is. Down the road, I will discuss En Rohg in detail, how this entity came to be, and why he’s so powerful. For now, don’t want to give too much away.

So, where does that leave me now? I’m currently finishing the last draft to a novella called Red Creek, and it’ll need to hit the editor’s desk. It’s due out next year, as is volume III: The Jackal of Shades. Both need cover art, so I’ll be searching for an artist after the tax season. Also, during the first four months of next year, I plan to write draft three of volume IV: Lord of the Underworld, and I plan to flesh out and finish the first draft of Warmaster, the sequel to The Demon’s Fate. A lot of moving parts, but I’m all for it. I work better once goals are written down. Perhaps I should do it more often.

If you enjoyed this content and want to read my works, check out my books on Amazon. All works are available on Kindle Unlimited, eBook, and print. Reviews can be found on Goodreads and Amazon.

An Introduction

Greetings, to all new folks reading this. Long time lurkers, welcome back. This blog post is for any new apps or accounts that I’m linking to the blog. If you know me, feel free to dip out. I’d like to introduce new audiences to my work, and if you’d like to follow local artists and indie writers, then I might be the one for you. Texas is home, where I was born and raised, but I’ve traveled the world while serving as a Marine for Uncle Sam, and I lived abroad as a civilian for many years. After eighteen years away, the call to come home grew too strong.

I’m a writer, musician, and painter, but this is to promote my authorial works. My genres are grimdark epic fantasy, military sci-fi fantasy, horror/thriller, and western fantasy. I would classify my writing as more character-driven than plot driven, especially my epic fantasy works, but my shorter works, the novellas and sci-fi fantasy is more plot driven. I’ve been writing for more than twenty years, but only published as recently as 2017. I’ve been part of various writing groups over the years, in distant locales like Japan and Hawaii, but I’d love to start one here in San Antonio.

To date, I’ve released six books, and you can find them here. You can also find many more reviews on Goodreads. I plan to release ten more over the next five years, and here are their potential release dates:

The Jackal of Shades—2024—grimdark, epic fantasyRed Creek—2024—western fantasy, a novellaBloodbane—2025—western fantasy, a novellaWarmaster—2025/26—miliitary sci-fi fantasyMaro 3—2026—western fantasy, a novellaLord of the Underworld—2027—grimdark, epic fantasyMaro 4—2027—western fantasy, a novellaMaro 5—2028—western fantasy, a novellaMaro 6—2029—western fantasy, a novellaThe Stone Angel—2029—grimdark, epic fantasy

Well, that’s all I got for now. I hope you stop by from time to time and drop a line. Please, feel free to peruse my blogs from over the years. You can find them here. If you’re a Star Wars fan and you feel a certain way about how the intellectual property was handled, I might have just the blog for you: Sins of the Last Jedi.

If you enjoyed this content and want to read my works, check out my books on Amazon. All works are available on Kindle Unlimited, eBook, and print. Reviews can be found on Goodreads and Amazon.

Volume V: A 1st Draft?

…And I’m back! This will be short, so let’s dive right in.

After puttering around with Vol. IV and reverse plotting it, I went ahead and looked at what I had for book V in the series. After its own treatment of the reverse plot and listening to it, there was more in the book than I expected, but it was also a hot mess. With roughly 70% written, it wouldn’t take much to just pick up and finish it. 

So, I did. 

And now, after eight-plus years in limbo, Vol. V has its first rough draft. There are a lot of minor issues I want to fix with the book, and that will be easy to do on the rewrite. What I did for this round was solidify my character templates, making minor or major modifications to it as needed, and cementing it in place. Moving forward with those characters, it’ll be more cohesive. 

Volume V is a stark contrast to all that came before and all that will follow. It’s a stand-alone within the series, but a necessary one. I’ve written the series in such a way that when you pick up book six, it will start where book four ended. You might ask yourself, well, why is book five important? Why write it at all? The characters I’m bringing into the narration in book six will be drastically different than the characters introduced in book three, and book five tells that narration. And … book five is where a lot of the answers are starting to come out, not little kernels, but big plot pieces. So, yes, you can skip five, but you’d miss out on a lot of important information. 

What big plot piece? Glad you asked. There’s a character that will be introduced in Volume IV, and he will play a pivotal role in all that’s to come. He’s expounded on in book five, with a bigger appearance, and it’s just a taste of what’s to come. An old tribe within my world boasts to have the only living god in memory, and they’ve worshipped him through generations, having built him a temple and even seeing him in the flesh. His name I won’t reveal, but in their language it means, ‘the god among us.’ And … I think I’ll leave off there, don’t want to spoil it for anyone. I hope it won’t be too long before I begin writing the second draft of the story, but in some ways, it’ll be like writing a first draft, due to changes that need to be made. It’ll be an interesting time. 

If you enjoyed this content and want to read my works, check out my books on Amazon. All works are available on Kindle Unlimited, eBook, and print. Reviews can be found on Goodreads and Amazon.

Writing Update: The Problem With Volume IV.

…And I’m back! This will be short, so let’s dive right in.

Over the last few weeks, since before my last blog post, I’ve been going through some of my earlier drafts of my fantasy series, reverse outlining what has laid dormant for years. The first draft of volume IV was crafted in 2015, so that should tell you how long it was left untouched. There were many factors that led me to step away from the series, and first and foremost is how daunting it felt. I now know what George R. R. Martin feels like with Winds of Winter and a Dream of Spring. 

What do I mean by daunting? The first draft of the novel was 402,000 words and had forty-two different POVs. A normal, three-hundred-page novel is about 90,000 words. So, over quadruple the words, and then some. By some counts, the Old Testament in the Bible is 622,000 words, so I wrote two-thirds of the Old Testament. Many people will say, “Oh, well, famous writer so and so does that all the time.” Good for that guy! I’m not him. That was the first time I’d ever written that much. I had a strong case of writer’s exhaustion, and judging by how much it grew from the previous volume, I knew subsequent books were only going to get bigger and bigger. But bigger doesn’t necessarily mean better. 

Also, about this time, I realized I’d been getting a lot of bad writing advice, primarily incorporating ideas that just weren’t what I wanted. My story morphed into something that was no longer mine, but rather a novel other people wanted to read. I’d shifted so much, compromised so much that the thought of going back in and cutting it all out made me weary. So, I set it aside, knowing one day I’d have to face my arch nemesis again. And here we are…

Another factor was how distracted I got by writing other stories that I really enjoyed. The Demon’s Fate, The Dark Portal, Flawed to the Core, THOLAC, brainstorming ideas for other books, and a whole slew of other books/storylines that will go unspoken—and yes, you will see those, eventually. While I went off and wrote another ten to twelve books, the fantasy series grew stagnant and fetid, growing more rank by the year. 

Now, I’ve got to face those demons, and I started where it began: volume IV. The first thing I did was cut out all the garbage that wasn’t part of my original intent, and just like that, over 50k words vanished, bringing the word count down to 345k. But it was still long, and so I took another hard look at the novel and decided to lift someone’s entire plot line out of the novel and make it into a novella. This allows me to beef it up a little more, chase those small threads that I dropped while initially writing, and really flesh out this character and story. This reduced the word count to 319k. 

But there’s still more to cut, but I plan to do so by keeping what’s there and honing the prose into something smooth and well-polished. No more huge cuts, though I would like to get it down to under 300K. Now that I’ve gone through and reverse outlined, I can move forward with volume V and IV, to which only some has been written. When I finished book IV, I pretty much stopped writing the series. 

The reverse outline has enabled me to ruminate on my series and brought about a lot of new ideas, tweaks, and changes I want to make, so it has been far more productive than anticipated. All good things come to those who wait. I think I’ve rambled enough now…

That’s it for this round, short and sweet. I shall return…

If you enjoyed this content and want to read my works, check out my books on Amazon. All works are available on Kindle Unlimited, eBook, and print. Reviews can be found on Goodreads and Amazon.

Forthcoming Books

…And I’m back! This will be short, so let’s dive right in.

Well, it’s been a long time, and this post has been a long time coming. I’ve refrained from making a post a few months ago, because things weren’t as settled as they are now, and there was still a fair bit of uncertainty. The last half of 2021 until a few months ago (Aug 2023), has not been a good time for writing, and it had to take a backseat for life to unfurl. During this time, passions changed, bad habits formed, and apathy set in. I’m here to rectify that.

In 2017, or it might’ve been 2018, I told my fellow writers at our group in Okinawa that I was going to publish five books over the next five years. I think they were all kind of shocked; I was, too. I’m never the type of person to not meet goals, and once declared aloud, it’s time to buckle down and do it. So, that’s what I’m here to do, to declare a goal. 

Starting next year, 2024, to 2029, I plan to release ten books. Some of these already have names, some do not. Some are sequels, some are an entire new series. There are books that aren’t within the list, such as Dark Portal sequels, but I will be getting to them. What I don’t want to do is overextend my pledge and fail to deliver. So, view these books as bonuses when they drop, and if life gets in the way again, well, those Dark Portal stories will just be part of the ten. While the list may change, the goal is ten, with an absolute surety of five getting published. The asterisks indicates which ones will be published come hell or high-water.

Without further ado, let’s get into it:

The Jackal of Shades | The Dark Legacy Series vol. 3 | 2024*Red Creek | The Maro Prakk Novella Series | 2024*Bloodbane | The Maro Prakk Novella Series | 2025*Warmaster | Sequel to The Demon’s Fate | 2026Maro 3 | The Maro Prakk Novella Series | 2026Lord of the Underworld | The Dark Legacy Series vol. 4 | 2027*Maro 4 | The Maro Prakk Novella Series | 2027Maro 5 | The Maro Prakk Novella Series | 2028Maro 6 | The Maro Prakk Novella Series | 2029The Stone Angel | The Dark Legacy Series vol. 5 | 2029*

After reading this list, you might ask yourself, “Who is Maro Prakk?” Good question. He’s a character I created in a book I wrote in 2020 called The House of Lust and Candor, or THOLAC for short. Where is this book you might ask? It’s buried on my computer, not because it’s terrible, but because it’s special, and with it, I want to try and find an agent and go the traditional route with it. But instead of waiting on this route, which might take years, I yearned to share the character with you, so I devised this hairbrained prequel series for the story to come. Readers should see how the bounty hunter became as he is. I’ll discuss this and the list in future blog posts.

You might also be asking yourself: “How can you have a sequel to The Demon’s Fate after such an ending?” That’s simple to answer. I left it wide open for a sequel, and I plan to continue the story, albeit in a new direction while treading over familiar ground. Let’s just say this: the hints were in TDF, and the title for such a sequel is a big clue. Besides, Celesta Six is too intriguing of a place to ignore.

That’s it for this round, short and sweet. I shall return…

If you enjoyed this content, check out my books, The Bearer of Secrets, Mark of the Profane, The Demon’s Fate, The Dark Portal, For Heathens of Heaven, and Flawed to the Core: Building Memorable Characters and Writing on Amazon. All works are available on Kindle Unlimited, eBook, and print. Reviews can be found on Goodreads and Amazon.

Author Shoutout—Rodney McWilliams

…And I’m back! This will be short, so let’s dive right in. 

It’s not everyday you meet another writer and kick off a bond borne from a shared passion. Writers, from my own experience, are reclusive, living-under-a-rock unicorns that exist in mythical folklore. In 2002, I met one of these fabled creatures in the wild while working together, Rodney McWilliams, and it was the first time I’d ever met another writer. We talked for countless hours of our own stories and writing journeys, and we even swapped critiques over the years. At that point in time, I was in my infancy of writing, and Rodney had been plugging away at his passion for a good long while.

During this time, Rodney was working on his first novel, Scourge. When I read it, there was a lot of police lingo in the book, specifically the 10-codes. You’ve also got to remember that the internet wasn’t as integral to our lives as it is now. I mean, we still might’ve been in the dial-up phase at this point. Jesus, that makes me sound old. I digress. Anyway, I was really blown away by the thought and research that went into tracking down all the 10-codes and having the gumption to put it into a novel each time it was necessary for the police to use the radio. And I thought to myself, ‘Research? I don’t want to do research to write a book! I’ll just set it on my own world with my own rules.’ But, this little glimpse into his process is what countless writers had done before him, you know, making long treks to a library. For all you youngin’s out there, that’s this place in your city where they have a bunch of books, and people check them out, for free, and return them within a few weeks. Shocking, I know.

Well, Rodney is back at it again, releasing his second book in the saga, and I feel a shoutout is warranted. It’s not everyday you release a book, let alone a second one. Demons is the second book of the Triskellion Saga, and the series kicks off with Scourge. I don’t want to give too much away, but I’ll say mystery, a damn cold winter, humans, vampires, and gargoyles, all in the city that never sleeps, but with the promise of much, much more on the way. For those of you who love mysteries, urban fantasy, or thrillers, this might be a book for you.

That’s it for this round, short and sweet. I shall return…

Author Review: Terry Goodkind

…And I’m back! This will be short, so let’s dive right in.

Okay, here’s the author review of Terry Goodkind (TG) as promised. Clarification: I will try to keep this centered on the books of the Sword of Truth (SOT) series, and not the man himself. I’ve seen lots of stuff written about him and interviews, and I’m just not going down that alley. That should tell you enough. Also, I’ll try to keep my swearing to a minimum, but it’s hard when dealing with TG or talking about something I’m passionate about.

While everyone’s view is subjective, my number one reason for not liking his writing will probably fall flat with a lot of people. Being a writer myself, I have certain pet peeves, and I try to eliminate them from my own writing. When I see it in other people’s work, it really irks me. So, again, my number one reason may make your eyes roll. And no, I’m not trying to prop myself up on a pedestal and say I’m better. 

Lastly, I’ve read this series twice now. The first time, I was new to fantasy, and he was the third author I read. Since then, I’ve branched out and read a lot of fantasy authors—the sphere of work is small compared to how much other people have read. I generally find an author I like and stick with them. When I don’t like an author, I just stop reading them and typically never go back.

In my early fantasy days, I enjoyed the SOT series. I didn’t know much about the fantasy genre, tropes, etc. I was just exploring a new genre. So, my initial impression was that I liked it, but I didn’t love it. Some books were about a seven out of ten, while others were a five. To be fair, I thought Stone of Tears was his best work then. Now, I’m not so sure any of it is his best. 

And I don’t know why I must make this disclaimer, but after perusing people’s opinions of the book—and the man himself—I guess I’ve got to make this disclaimer: it’s a work of fiction, and people read for entertainment and escapism. I’m okay with some things being a little over the top, but not everything.

Here we go …

I saw a quote on Reddit, and I think it aptly applies: “My god, he’s (TG) like the Kanye West of fantasy authors.” That should tell you what kind of author you’re about to engage with should you read his works.

Goodkind has one type of writing voice, 100% loud and larger than life. It’s disgusting. Everything is over the top. The overbearing tendency to dial every villain and hero to eleven or beyond is irksome to say the least. There’s little nuance in his prose or characters. While it’s good from time to time to up the stakes and maybe introduce a zealot or two, when you oversaturate a series and everyone is a zealot in their own way, it becomes mind numbing. 

Recycled plots: Let me be the first to say that it’s okay to echo previous plots or show the aftermath of such plots by having a variation of it come again, but to habitually use it for every single book is moronic at the least. It’s always that the hero, Richard, loses his love interest, Kahlan, or the other way around. There’s always some variation of contrived plot to pull them apart, and we spend the rest of the book getting back together. 

Politics: It’s hard for a writer not to let some of their own personal beliefs into their works. It happens. However, the books are flooded with the author’s personal beliefs, and there’s no counter to it other than the villain(s). To me, this makes for boring writing. Why not have a sidekick have a different opinion? They don’t have to be exact opposites of each other, but it’d be nice to have a little bit of a grade.

Brutality: while this isn’t an issue for me, I know for some it might be. There’s brutality, and various degrees of it. I like grimdark fantasy. To me, grimdark is bloodier, sexier, and everything is heightened. It doesn’t bother me, but I’ll tuck it away on this list for some debating on whether to read or not. 

Ripoffs: I see a lot of people saying TG copied, lifted wholesale, or was heavily influenced by A Song of Ice and Fire (Game of Thrones), The Wheel of Time, and Lord of the Rings. As stated earlier, I’m not as widely read as a lot of people. Some books I’ve only read once, and some less than a handful, so I’ll not likely pick up on a lot of things that die-hard fans will, but I can definitely see parallels between the works, and the most blatant to me is Samuel, a stand in for Gollum in LOTR. Unfortunately, nothing is original anymore. Everything has been explored. That said, how you present the retreaded material matters greatly. But when you can spot a copy and paste after two sentences, you need to go back to the drawing board.

Rape: This is a touchy subject, no matter if it’s done once or a thousand times in a book. That said, my God, there’s a lot. I would like to draw a distinction though, and some of you will be up in arms about it, but here it goes. The indiscriminate and repetitive raping or threat of raping supporting characters, just because the author can, is where I do take issue. I do tend to give authors a grace period on hot topics, but they can quickly wear that out, and TG stomped a mudhole on this topic. Moreover, when you have a villain like Jagang, the emperor of the old world, raping a new chick every night, it loses not only the integrity of a plot device—if it was used that way—but also the seriousness of such a vile and reprehensible act. Then, to salt the wound, when you have a character like Jagang, who professes to love the woman he brutalizes the most, give her out to turn tricks for his soldiers, you really can’t say, “He’s just demented beyond any mental condition.” If I loved a woman the way Jagang professes, I wouldn’t be sharing her with hundreds of other men, not to mention treat her the way he does. 

Rape cont’: The second side, or the distinction I’d like to point out, is rape during war. No, I’m not advocating this is okay either. I can’t believe I need to put that quantifier in there, but there will be someone who will come along and take things out of context. In fantasy, as it was in real life long ago, this happened, just like the saying goes, “Rape, pillage, and plunder.” The brutality of what happened to civilizations in ancient history is echoed in fantasy, especially when your books revolve around a war that drags out for years. And that’s all I’m really going to say about it. That said, surprisingly, there’s very little sex—in terms of loving relationships—written in detail. Please, authors out there, I’d much rather read a tasty four-page romp—to include their kinks if they have any—between two characters in love than a book full of hints and innuendo of non-consensual sex, gang rapes, and brutalization and degradation of women. Or men, should it come to that.

Mord-Sith: You’re reading fantasy aka fiction. I know a lot of people have a problem with women dressed up in tight leather torturing people. Many folks theorize this is TG’s personal fantasy. I won’t get into that. What I can say, in terms of rip-offs, is the moment I saw it, I immediately thought Star Wars. What a lot of people are just arbitrarily forgetting to mention is that Mord-Sith are taken as children and tortured. Then, to graduate, after being tortured for months or years and any semblance of humanity is destroyed, they must kill their father and mother. Take out the leather for just a moment and try to envision a scenario where something like this happened. No wonder these women are deranged and broken. The leather, to me, helped them stand out in a book with a sea of bland characters. The Mord-Sith are some of my favorite characters because they have distinct personalities, unlike the majority of TG’s characters. Everything these women do, whether torture or sex, or both at the same time, I regulate to mentally unstable people who are regurgitating what they’ve been conditioned to do or have been subjugated to. Again, it’s just fiction.

Book Titles: All of them can be renamed to Richard defeats (villain, problem, world-ending event) by (being right, being stubborn, dues ex machina, or some other contrived reason). Richard Defeats Darken Rahl Because He’s Already In Love. Richard Defeats The Imperial Order Because He’s Right. Richard Wins Because He Doesn’t Believe In Prophecy.

Prophecy: Holy shit! There’s so much prophecy in the book, and none of them really have any bearing on the overall plot. It’s a way for the author to tell you what will happen if you fail. Readers can surmise this without the plot device. Further, the main character doesn’t believe in prophecy, so therefore, naturally, he voids and nulls them all. Case closed. 

The Evil Chicken: That chicken is not a chicken. When I first read this almost two decades ago—maybe not that long—I thought it was funny. Now, I hate it! It’s so … dumb. Moreover, it’s repetitive. More on that later. Bottom line: when you’ve got to do this tongue and cheek humor or parody yourself, you’ve lost me. 

Romance: I hate writing romance. Everyone is a critic. I’ve rarely read romance done well. The thing about falling in love is that it’s different for everyone, and that’s okay. I don’t want cookie-cutter anything. If I wanted that, I’d watch a Marvel film. That said, the “romance” between Kahlan and Richard is projectile vomitable. For two people who barely have a hundred pages together in most books, how in the hell did this romance evolve?

Everyone loves Richard: Kahlan loves Richard. Cara loves him. Even Nicci loves him and kidnap him away for a year just to prove it. Everyone that Richard runs across ends up loving him or being reverent at the very least. He wins over men who have never known anything but hate for him. Everyone becomes fast friends with him. Richard can do no wrong, he’s just a swell guy. I hope you are reading this with sarcasm. Richard reminds me of Bella Swan in Twilight. Everyone is just falling over themselves to be picked by her/him. Everyone is a part of their fan club. To have every woman swoon for Richard reeks of author insert/ wish fulfilment.

Beautiful and Ugly: Everyone who is good, or will be good, is beautiful. Everyone who is evil is ugly. Can you get any more cliché than that? It’s okay to have beautiful people in your book, but for crying out loud, not every woman orbiting Richard needs to be drop dead gorgeous. We get it, hot women. Can you have some more nuance?

Time Stops for Richard: Okay, so now to a big problem I have. Pages upon pages of grand speeches about how he is right and the moral authority in the world. During these soapbox rants, nothing happens. Everyone around him stops to listen, and nobody, no villain, no hopeful renegade, knocks an arrow and takes a shot. No one slips up from behind and tries to stab him in the back. Everyone is just so awe-inspired by his preaching that everything stops. Barf. We don’t need to know Richard is right, we got that in the last book, and the one before, and the one before that, and guess what? The one before that. You’re just recycling and repeating what’s come before. 

Richard is an idiot: He’s stubborn, refuses to listen to people who’ve literally had a thousand years to live to gain insight and wisdom, but twenty-year-old boy from the farm, I mean, woods (Luke Skywalker anyone?) knows better! Plots of the books can be summed up to this. Richard: “If you’re not with me, you’re my enemy, and you hate life and all that’s good. Now, I’m going to go do this thing over here.” Everyone else: “No, don’t! You can’t. You’ll destroy everything. There are magical rules.” Richard: “You’re forgetting, I don’t believe in prophecy, so, I’m right, and I’m going to do things my way because reasons.” Richard ends up doing his thing. Turns out he was right, everything is well, and everyone loves him because he came through. And most importantly, Richard can’t fail! EVER! No mistakes, no lessons to be learned, just good ole fashion stubbornness!

Dues Ex Machina: Every problem is solved this way. It usually comes in the form of “And then, Richard suddenly knew what to do. It was so simple. Why didn’t he see it before?” I’m still scratching my head thinking, WTF did he figure out cause I’m still lost in the sauce. Richard breaks Wizard Rules to accomplish his means, or he’s had the key all along and didn’t know it, or his undying love for Kahlan wins the day. Or he happens to find some new power that makes you go, “How in the hell did that happen?” I guess you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do when you write yourself into a corner.

Resolution: The end of the book is usually wrapped up in twenty pages or less, the final thing happening right before you close the book—for good. There’s no breath of relief, no genuine resolution, no aftereffects of everything that just transpired. It’s done, get over it, let’s go to the next book—which, ironically, starts minutes after the last one ended.

No time to breathe: Speaking of the next books starting where the last one ended. There’s no time lapse at all between books, and one thing just happens right after another. There’s no germinating to make things progress at a natural pace. Nope, can’t have that. One crisis ended? Here’s another just minutes later. Unrealistic.

No Character Connection: I didn’t feel anything for Richard, and by extension, poor Kahlan. Kahlan was a much better character than Richard. That’s not even a contest, but I still didn’t connect with her. I felt more pity and connection to the Mord-Sith than any of the main characters. Zedd was cool though. 

Filler: At least 40% of each book can be cut because it’s filler, repeating previous books, repeating conversations, repeating events, or just info dumps. The editor didn’t do their job to reign in a mediocre author at all. I guess, at the time of his publication, desperation was high to have the next big thing, and that inflated his ego. In this case: less would’ve been more. Case in point, a confessor’s power. We get it, it’s cool, but you don’t have to spend eight paragraphs or two pages each time it’s unleashed to talk about how time stood still; in that moment, he was hers; she had all the time in the world; the thunder without sound, etc. We got it the first two dozen times.

Merry-go-round: Okay, this one is tapping into my number one problem, repetition of conversation. They spend twenty pages talking around the issue than talking directly of the issue. They just go in circles and circles. What you thought was resolved at the beginning of the convo circles back and is an issue again. Holy crap! That’s not how conversation works, especially in books. Get to the point, say what you’re going to say, and move on.

My number one pet peeve: For those of you who know me or read my works or my ranting blogs, you know that repetition is the killer of all things. There is so much repetition that at times while listening to the audiobook, I screamed at the speaker, “We fucking get it, Goodkind!” Case in point was one of the last books, and Rachel is running from imaginary beast. “Rachel had to hurry. She couldn’t stop, and she was so tired. But she couldn’t. She had to hurry, or the monsters would get her. She needed to make camp before nightfall. She had to hurry, otherwise they’d find her. In the morning, she could start running again. Rachel didn’t know what was chasing her or where she was going, but she had to hurry.” My God, how many times can you say ‘hurry’ in a page? I swear, it was fifteen times within the first three minutes of the chapter. 

This type of repetitive writing is either fluff and padding, the author thinking his audience is dumb, or the author not realizing it’s terrible prose. I’m going with all three. This example above is just a small snippet of the repetition in the books. Every book or chapter is replete with circular conversations, highly-trafficked introspection, recapping previous books, rehashing ‘cool’ ideas and magic, or restating the obvious. For the love of God, you should’ve learned subtlty. 

Okay, that’s it. I’ve read it again, and my opinion has changed from somewhat favorable to if-I’m-a-glutton-for-punishment-I’ll-read-it-again. I hate his writing style because there is no style. There isn’t any prose of note. It’s just an ever-repeating word vomit. That said, there are few and far between pearls among the swine. Not everything he did was terrible, but the good long-buried deep within the unwieldy series isn’t worth it. 

Have you read Goodkind or the SOT series? What’s your opinion? Leave a comment below. 

That’s it for this round, not so short or sweet. I shall return…

If you enjoyed this content, check out my books, The Bearer of Secrets, Mark of the Profane, The Demon’s Fate, The Dark Portal, For Heathens of Heaven, and Flawed to the Core: Building Memorable Characters and Writing on Amazon. All works are available on Kindle Unlimited, eBook, and print. Reviews can be found on Goodreads and Amazon.

Incoming Author Review: Terry Goodkind

…And I’m back! This will be short, so let’s dive right in.

A long time ago, in a life far, far away, I was introduced to the Fantasy genre. Terry Goodkind was the third author I read, and I will admit, at the time, I enjoyed the Sword of Truth series (first 12 books) immensely, though I did have some issues with it.

Now that I’m rereading/listening to the series (a decade and a half later), my opinion has changed. I’ve stayed away from doing author reviews for the most part because they’re subjective, just like star reviews on a book. What may be five stars to you is only a two for me. That said, once I’m done with my reread, I will be reviewing the author Terry Goodkind. Like everything I do, it will be bold, blatant, and without fluff—for good or ill.

Stay tuned…

After the Respite

…And I’m back! Welcome to Outpost Dire, home to the shared Dire Universe of epic, grimdark fantasy, military sci-fi, thrillers, and more! Let’s dive right in.

Well, this post has been a long time in coming. Let’s recap the last 2 months or so… Left my job in Hawaii and relocated back to Texas. Still in the air where I will end up here, but somewhere in the Lone Star State. Currently job hunting and playing the market, and I was writing for a time, but I got burned out, so I’ve been on a short hiatus. 

The book I’ve been working on is in the last quarter of the first draft. I’ve got it planned on where I’m going, so it’s just crossing the finish line at this point. 

From there, I’ll be shifting my attention to Volume III of the Dark Legacy Series and have that ready for the editor in Sept-Oct time frame. I’d like to go through it one more time and make some small corrections based upon a beta reader. 

From there, who knows. I’ve got a rough outline of The Dark Portal sequel; I’ve written half of The Demon’s Fate sequel; there’s Volume IV to contend with; and not to mention THOLAC and its subsequent rewrites. Also, I’m germinating a love story novella. I’d like to clarify the difference between love story and romance. By my reckoning, romance is an active role with courting/wooing another character. Love story is just that, a story about love—in any of its incarnations. 

Another idea I’m tossing around is a satirical comedy of the fantasy genre. Don’t want to give too much away at this point, but it’ll be very much on the nose and play to the stereotypical tropes.

That’s it for this round, short and sweet. I shall return…

If you enjoyed this content, check out my books, The Bearer of Secrets, Mark of the Profane, The Demon’s Fate, The Dark Portal, For Heathens of Heaven, and Flawed to the Core: Building Memorable Characters and Writing on Amazon. All works are available on Kindle Unlimited, eBook, and print. Reviews can be found on Goodreads and Amazon.