Brondt Kamffer's Blog, page 12

chapter 5, part 2

[*This is a work-in-progress and may not fully reflect the final draft*]

Two days later, I knocked on Deryn Lhopri's door at noon. "Enter," she replied from within so quickly I wondered whether she hadn't heard my footsteps out in the hall as I'd approached.

Her office was rather smaller than I was expecting for someone in her position, assuming Kynaston Lornis was correct about her proximity to the Hymage. The walls were mostly unlined, only a handful of books on a single shelf taking up wall ...

chapter 5, part 1

[*This is a work-in-progress and may not fully reflect the final draft*]

My first private lesson with Deryn Lhopri was to be two days later, the day we'd been divided according to our abilities being Third Day. I had not seen her at all since parting from her in the hall, but she had never been far from my mind.

As soon as I entered the classroom to which the Hymanni had been taken, all discussion ceased. The professor, who had been dealing with putting names to faces, stood wordless for a...

dissecting "mad gods"

Today's post is a short essay on Athanasios' Mad Gods novels. It sounds rather interesting, wherefore I offer you this inside look at the series from the author's own pen.

Mad Gods dissects two very controversial and compelling topics: religion and entertainment.  It shows the first is just the ancestor of the second.  Its scandals and imperfections hide undiscovered conspiracies that can be so far fetched they seem fantasy.  Religion, conspiracies and fantasy have long been successful topics ...

chapter 4, part 2

[*To subscribe to this serial novel's exclusive rss feed, click the "book" icon in the "Other ways to follow" box on the right of your screen.*]

[*This is a work-in-progress and may not fully reflect the final draft*]

The next morning we were roused so early and set in motion so rapidly that I had no chance to talk things over with Hero after she'd run off the previous evening. The day after Midsummer was an important day for us, for today the classes we'd been divided into for the past four y...

weekly goals

Last year while I was writing the first novel in The Ossian Chronicles series, I read about and implemented a system of weekly and monthly writing goals. On the old blog that I had at the time, I would post an update once a week detailing whether or not I met those goals and noting anything of import that happened along the way. At this point, I am going to revive that system, if only for my own accountability, in an attempt to finish a draft of The Scion of Abacus before the end of...

chapter 4, part 1

[*This is a work-in-progress and does not fully reflect the final draft*]

Hero and I had to wait almost until nightfall before we felt safe enough to open the book I'd taken from the mage's tower. I'd carried it against my belly, as we'd returned to the lecture halls where Golpin Anamis had given us the particularly cruel parting gift of another exam, threatening to remember those who failed it by name when he came into real power. We were terrified enough of him as it was without having to...

hodden grey: the harrowing of yeshua

The Harrowing of Yeshua is destined to ruffle some feathers. There is a lot to like in this novel, but if you are a religious person, particularly a Christian, then you may find much to dislike as well. I open with this because I think that fair warning may be in order as the title may draw some readers in expecting one thing and finding something quite different instead. As a Christian myself, I constantly battled my desire to put this book down and walk away, but I think that if you can...

chapter 3, part 2

It was on Midsummer's Day of my fourteenth year, four years to the day since I had joined the University, and the day when several hundred new ten-year-olds would enter those same ancient halls, that Golpin Anamis finally took us on the long-promised tour of the mage's tower.

By then, my desire to walk the corridors and see the rooms of Abacus' venerable home had begun to drive me mad with obsession. I still managed to keep this yearning quiet from all but Hero, who was wonderfully good at...

chapter 3, part 1

[*To subscribe to this serial novel's exclusive rss feed, click the "book" icon in the "Other ways to follow" box on the right of your screen.*]

The next four years passed slowly, with much the same on a daily basis from Golpin Anamis. Of Aarian history, our knowledge become more fully developed. We learnt, for example, of the Plebian Rebellions of Dominion Years 478 and 722, both of which were quashed almost as soon as they had begun. It seemed to me, though I kept my mouth shut in all class ...

crystal shade: angeni (preview)

Crystal Shade: Angeni is an upcoming epic fantasy novel by Istvan Sazabo. I was given the chance to preview the first seventy pages of the text, and what I found is an intriguing world with many layers that promise to be unfolded over the course of three novels, the first due out in November. From the little I read, I can say that the author has a very descriptive style, with scenes and images springing to life on every page. The pacing early on is rather slow, so it remains to be seen just h...