B. Throwsnaill's Blog, page 7

Hemlock and the Dead God's Legacy

Here is a "teaser synopsis" of my upcoming new novel "Hemlock and the Dead God's Legacy". I had initially written a more detailed blurb, but then I considered that it contained spoilers for Hemlock and the Wizard Tower. I don't want to spoil anything for new readers who find this blog, so I've gone with a less revealing blurb. I hope to release the novel by the end of February!


Hemlock and the Dead God's Legacy

Hemlock realizes that the life of a leader is more complex and tiresome than she ...

After the Sprint

Photo by Ell Brown.  licensed under
Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic.
As I live I am always searching for a deeper meaning to life.  I am a believer in objective reality and science, so I am searching for something that by the definition of measurable, objective reality will never be found.  Yet I continue to search, and I think the search itself is part of the journey--and maybe the journey itself is the destination.  When I do have spiritual moments, they are often amazing simply bec...

Occult Brain Dump

Photo by tyrantel.  licensed under
Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic.I apologize in advance for the rambling nature of this post. It's a bit of a brain dump. But since I haven't posted to the blog in so long, I figure rambling and off the cuff is better than silence...

I've been thinking about the occult and its penetration into mainstream pop culture (and even what the term occult means in the polytheistic, modern world). I remember back to the 80s when Dungeons and Dragons was cons...

Winter Holiday Book Giveaway!!!

Photo by Amie Fedora.  licensed under
Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic.The excellent fantasy oriented review blog "Indie Book Blog" is hosting a huge winter book giveaway featuring nearly 300 books (mostly e-books, but there are a few physical books as well)!  Be sure to head over there and enter by leaving a comment with your email address.  Ten copies of Hemlock and the Wizard Tower will be featured in the giveaway!

---------- Epic Giveaway Link ----------

News on Hemlock and the Dead God's Legacy

Photo by Albion Europe.  licensed under
Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic.First, a news update on the forthcoming novel "Hemlock and the Dead God's Legacy".  I've got about four or five chapters left to write.  I thought I would be cutting it shorter than that, but I have realized that I need to add a bit more content to get a good, smooth plot arc.  Of course there is lots of fighting, scheming, and magic in the story.  I think it pairs well with the original story, and I'm certain it...

A Few Days As a "Real" Writer

Photo by wwarby.  licensed under
Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic.I'm at the tail end of three full days of dedicated writing.  It's been an amazing experience.  And a slightly draining one.  I've been preparing for these past days by imagining and engineering (imagineering) the details of the new novel for the past months.  For me this consists of figurative gears turning in my head--but also a lot of note taking and jotting down scene fragments.  So what happened over these past few...

Songs, Cycles and Surfing

I heard a new song today, and it propelled my mind's eye into unexplored dimensions.  I had a very vivid vision of a vast machine where people were the cogs and gears (Artist=Royksopp, Song=The Fear).  This piece of music transported me to "another place".  That is the highest goal of art I think.  Great artists can probably exercise control over the nature of the experience that the listener/reader of their art has.  In my writing world, I'll just be happy if I can get the reader "there".&nbsp...

Constraint and Inspiration

Courbet: Desperate ManI was fortunate to grow up during the genesis of video gaming. As games have matured and grown along with computer technology the gameplay, sound and graphics have improved steadily.  The first video "game" that I ever played was on a "dumb" terminal. We used to type out racetracks on the screen in ASCII characters, and then we would "race" the cursor around the course using the arrow keys. We thought this was very entertaining at the time. Then came a little program...