Richard Lee Byers's Blog, page 35

The new edition of D&D drops in Summer, 2014

It's official. The new incarnation of D&D drops in Summer, 2014.

http://company.wizards.com/content/wizards-coast-announces-thrilling-dungeons-dragons-launch-summer-2014

Ari Marmell's STRANGE NEW WORLDS

My friend Ari Marmell has had some bad luck lately. If you want the details, you can find more info on his blog. Here, I just want to say that if you'd like to help a member of our SF/F/H clan through a bad patch and score some good reading at the same time, you can buy Ari's collection STRANGE NEW WORLDS here:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00H7JHUJG/ref=s9_simh_gw_p351_d0_i1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=0KAR3KSH18P64FW5N7MA&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=1630083502&pf_rd_i=507846

I sold some audiobooks!

I found out the audiobook edition of BLIND GOD'S BLUFF earned some royalties. Cool!

If you picked up the book in any of its incarnations (audio, print, or eBook), thank you for giving it a try. I hope you enjoyed it.

And if anyone digs urban fantasy and would like to check the novel out, you can do that here:

http://www.amazon.com/Blind-Gods-Bluff-Billy-Novels-ebook/dp/B00AXS5IDS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1387309918&sr=8-1&keywords=blind+god%27s+bluff

Holiday gift suggestions: Games

In case you’re looking for gift ideas for gamers, here are some. My friends and I like all these games.

The Carrion Crown Adventure Path (six modules that make up a horror-themed Pathfinder RPG campaign; also readily usable with D&D 3.5.)

http://paizo.com/search?q=Carrion+Crown&includeUnrated=true&includeUnavailable=true&what=all

 Castle Panic (board and card game in which you defend the castle against the monsters that keep rushing out of the forest to destroy it.)

http://www.amazon.com/Fireside-Games-FSD1001-Castle-Panic/dp/B002IUFSPM/ref=sr_1_1?s=toys-and-games&ie=UTF8&qid=1387074454&sr=1-1&keywords=castle+panic

Elder Sign (Lovcraft-themed tiles, cards, and dice game in which you try to keep a cosmic horror from destroying the world.)

http://www.amazon.com/Fantasy-Flight-Games-SL05-Elder/dp/1616611359/ref=sr_1_1?s=toys-and-games&ie=UTF8&qid=1387074516&sr=1-1&keywords=elder+sign

Hex Hex (card game in which wizards try to zap each other and avoid being zapped; magical Hot Potato.)

http://www.amazon.com/Smirk-Dagger-S-D-0004/dp/B00449RV8W/ref=sr_1_1?s=toys-and-games&ie=UTF8&qid=1387074593&sr=1-1&keywords=hex+hex


High Noon Saloon (card and board game; a gunfight in the Old West.)

http://www.amazon.com/Slugfest-Games-High-Noon-Saloon/dp/0976914492/ref=sr_1_1?s=toys-and-games&ie=UTF8&qid=1387074723&sr=1-1&keywords=high+noon+saloon

Holiday gift suggestions: Books

In case you’re groping, here are a few holiday gift ideas. These are all books by people who are friends of mine to one degree or another. But I actually did read and enjoy them all.

THE NECROPOLIS ARCHIVES by Tim Waggoner.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_9?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=the+nekropolis+archives&sprefix=the+nekro%2Cstripbooks%2C235


REANIMATORS by Peter Rawlik.


http://www.amazon.com/Reanimators-Peter-Rawlik-ebook/dp/B00B0SBFAU/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1387035578&sr=1-1&keywords=reanimators


TALES OF JACK THE RIPPER edited by Ross E. Lockhart.

http://www.amazon.com/Tales-Jack-Ripper-Laird-Barron-ebook/dp/B00E18XCV6/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1387035615&sr=1-1&keywords=tales+of+jack+the+ripper


THE DESERT OF SOULS by Howard Andrew Jones.

http://www.amazon.com/Desert-Souls-Howard-Andrew-Jones-ebook/dp/B00457X8EO/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1387035661&sr=1-1&keywords=the+desert+of+souls


ENCOUNTERS WITH ENOCH COFFIN by W. H. Pugmire and Jeffrey Thomas.

http://www.amazon.com/Encounters-Enoch-Coffin-W-H-Pugmire-ebook/dp/B00DK19EF8/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1387035835&sr=1-1&keywords=enoch+coffin


THE CRONING by Laird Barron.

http://www.amazon.com/Croning-Laird-Barron-ebook/dp/B0083JCPJO/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1387035800&sr=1-1&keywords=the+croning
 

THE REAVER: THE SUNDERING BOOK IV now listed on NetGalley

THE REAVER: THE SUNDERING BOOK IV is now listed on NetGalley. Let the adulation begin! (I can hope, right?)https://www.netgalley.com/catalog/show/id/39679

Read a sample chapter of THE REAVER: THE SUNDERING BOOK IV

You can download a sample chapter of THE REAVER: THE SUNDERING BOOK IV here:

https://www.wizards.com/dnd/Product.aspx?x=dnd/products/frnovel/reaver

I would like to know your opinion

I haven't completely determined my 2014 writing schedule yet. It could be completely taken up with work on series I've worked on before or am working on currently.

But I might also have some time to write a novel unrelated to any novel I've done before. I have a few ideas I'm mulling over.

So I'm curious. Assuming that you like my stuff in the first place and would consider buying any of these, which sounds most interesting?

A heroic fantasy story that would combine real-world history with a whole imaginary universe. (Sorry, I know that's vague.)

A dark, horrific urban fantasy, heavy on the undead.

A Cthulhu Mythos novel starring the protagonist from my short story "The Things That Crawl" (which is in my collection THE Q WORD AND OTHER STORIES.

If you've got an opinion, I'd like to know what it is, although I don't promise to go with the option that gets the most votes.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Q-Word-Other-Stories-ebook/dp/B00501N49S/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1386544366&sr=8-1&keywords=the+q+word+and+other+stories

A selection from "Death in Keenspur House"

For those who may be interested, here’s yet another sample of what you’ll find in my new heroic fantasy collection THE PLAGUE KNIGHT AND OTHER STORIES. This excerpt comes from “Death in Keenspur House,” another adventure of the mercenary turned fencing master Selden.




The steps debouched into dank crypts, festooned with webs the spiders spun to snare the beetles, and smelling faintly of incense, embalmer’s spice, and rot. The lesser Keenspurs lay behind graven plaques in the walls. The principal lords and ladies had their own private vaults, where stone sarcophagi, the lids often sculpted into likenesses of the occupants, reposed on pedestals in the center.

I assumed Yshan had rated one of the latter, and found him quickly. If his marble likeness could be trusted, he’d possessed the sharp features characteristic of his line, honed beyond the point of gauntness. It gave him a look of fanaticism and spite, which the sculptor had accentuated by rendering him with glaring eyes and a scowl instead of the usual expression of serenity.

I inspected the lid of the sarcophagus, trying to discern whether anyone--or anything--had opened it recently. I couldn’t tell. Not unless I opened it myself.

Assuming I could. It looked damnably heavy for a lone man to shift. But I meant to try. I set the lantern down, then, with a dry mouth and sweat starting beneath my arms, tried to work the pry bar into the crack between cover and box. The iron tool scraped the stone.

The lid flew up and to the side, like the cover of a book, straight at me.

It could have shattered my bones, but my reflexes jerked me backward, and perhaps that robbed the impact of some of its force. Even so, the sculpted marble slab slapped me like a giant’s hand, knocking me into the wall. I fell, and the lid fell with me, crashing down on top of my legs.

Meanwhile, Yshan, who had, by dint of either magic or prodigious strength, flung his graven image at me, reared up from the sarcophagus. He was relatively intact. The embalmers had evidently done their work well, and his box had protected him from rats and worms. But his face was shriveled, flaking, and streaked with black leakage. His right eye had gone milky, while the left had crumbled inward. A few slimy strings stretched across the vacant socket.





You can find THE PLAGUE KNIGHT AND OTHERS here:

http://www.amazon.com/Plague-Knight-Other-Stories-ebook/dp/B00H1EN9BU/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1386384739&sr=1-1&keywords=the+plague+knight+and+other+stories
 

A selection from "The Cheat"

For those who might be interested, here’s another sample of what you’ll find in my new heroic fantasy collection THE PLAGUE KNIGHT AND OTHER STORIES. Specifically, this is the opening of “The Cheat.” Like several others stories in the collection, “The Cheat” stars Selden, a fencing master who was once a mercenary and who still hires out his sword on occasion to help those menaced by sorcerers, demons, and the like.



Falnac was nervous. I could tell by the way he kept swallowing.

I put my hand on the lad’s shoulder. “Use what we practiced,” I said. “Leap into the distance, feint to the groin, and finish on the outside.”

“Yes, Master Selden,” he whispered.

“And if the two of you wind up close together, stay there and stab like a madman. Alsagad’s taller than you are. Close quarters will make him awkward.”

I could have said more, but a swordsman about to fight for his life can only retain so much advice. Indeed, given that this was Falnac’s first duel, it was an open question whether he’d remember anything I’d just told him, or anything from his six years of lessons, either.

When they deemed the light sufficient, the seconds called the duelists to a patch of ground where there were no tombstones to trip them up. As they advanced, Dromis caught my eye. He was Alsagad’s fencing master as I was Falnac’s, and the protocol of dueling required that we treat one another with solemn courtesy. Instead, the big man with the curling mustachios, pointed beard, and hair all dyed a brassy unnatural yellow gave me a sneer, as if to assert that my teaching and my student were so inferior to his that Alsagad’s victory was assured.

For a heartbeat, it made me want to see Alsagad stretched out dead on the dewy grass, and then I felt ashamed of myself. Like many quarrels, this one had materialized over a trifle, and any decent man would hope to see if it settled by, at worst, a trifling wound.

The seconds gave the principals the chance to speak words of reconciliation, and of course, being proud young blades of Balathex, they didn’t. So Alsagad’s second whipped a white kerchief through the air. That was the signal to begin.

The duelists circled one another while waking birds chirped, a cool breeze blew, and dawn stained the river on the far side of the graveyard red. Then Falnac sprang forward.

His blade leaped at Alsagad’s crotch in as convincing a feint as I’d ever seen. But the move didn’t draw the parry it was meant to elicit. Instead, Alsagad simply cut into Falnac’s wrist. Falnac’s blade fell from his hand.

The seconds opened their mouths to shout for a halt, but they were too slow. Alsagad slashed Falnac’s neck.

Falnac collapsed with blood spurting from the new and fatal wound. Dromis crowed and shook his fist in the air. “Yes!” he bellowed. “Yes! Yes! Yes!”



You can find THE PLAGUE KNIGHT AND OTHERS here:

http://www.amazon.com/Plague-Knight-Other-Stories-ebook/dp/B00H1EN9BU/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1386384739&sr=1-1&keywords=the+plague+knight+and+other+stories