Darren Pearce's Blog: Behind the pages

Higher, Further, Faster

Higher, Further, Faster, More

Or now, just Higher, Further, Faster

These words mean a lot to me, they mean more to me now than they’ve ever done before honestly. I was never late to the Carol Danvers Ms. Marvel/Captain Marvel train and I’ve been on those awesome tracks since I fell in love with the character after reading where she basically told JJ to stuff it way back.

I’d heard that Kelly Sue DeConnick was taking on the task of bringing Carol up to date, making her something more than she already was and I was blown away by the idea. I was really excited for seeing this new Captain Marvel and what I finally saw took my breath away and kept me hooked for the whole of Kelly Sue’s run.

I was brought up here, by two very loving, understanding and awesome parents. My mom and my dad, and it is fitting on International Women’s Day that I talk about my mom a little bit here. She was my Captain Marvel, my rock, the person who I could talk to about all my troubles and she was an amazing shoulder for my wife too.

Now I can talk to my wife, she’s awesome, but my mom was extra awesome because she was a mom who got comics.

She got books; she got the whole of media.

My dad too, but that’s a given.

I had both awesome parents and an awesome Nan who got me into Spider-Man and 2000AD when I was a kid.

But mom, mom just got it. She got everything about why I loved my comics and why I adored Captain Marvel.

In 2012 my world turned dark, my heart broke, my mom suddenly passed away. I am sure a lot of you can relate to something like this, or offer condolences and so on. But unless you’ve experienced the sudden loss of someone who just passed away before your eyes, without any serious illness – it’s a shock to the system which I don’t think I’ve ever recovered from.

So I turned in on myself, I wasn’t OK, and I wrote 90,000 words of my novel in one day making myself pretty ill in the process.

Then I grabbed 2012’s Captain Marvel and I began to read about Carol. A character I loved, I hooked onto that character and I saw my fight in her every single step.

She got knocked down; she was human, fragile, beautiful like the Hala Star and totally capable. She was in essence all the elements of the strong women I’d grown up around. Because when I was younger, a lot of my role models were female.

Slowly thanks to 2012’s run of Captain Marvel I realised that I needed to get out of the dark, hit the light, and keep running toward it. Higher, Faster, Further… I needed to be more like my wife, who lost her mom in 2005 and struggles day to day with chronic health issues.

I needed to basically step up and stand tall.

Carol Danvers every single issue, every story I could find, and every bit of information I could summon became a laser-fine focus for me. I fell deeper in love with these comics and Marvel all over again.

Carol became a very important character to me through the 2012 run. I watched the formation of the Carol Corps and I was proud to think I might be one, wear that Hala Star and count myself amongst Carol’s fans.

I watched Kelly Sue hand over the reins, and I saw Margaret Stohl take Carol into a whole beautiful direction with Life of Captain Marvel recently. I’ve never been more proud to be a Captain Marvel fan and witness the true star of a hero who means a great deal to me.

I’m reading Kelly Thompson’s wonderful comic at the moment.

I’m crying as I write this, but so what, it’s OK to cry and that’s what my mom and dad taught me not to hold that in.

Captain Marvel gives me hope, and fairly soon I’ll get to see Brie Larson take flight as Carol Danvers and blaze into the MCU finally – I couldn’t be happier.

The ladies of comics, and the MCU they’ve got this, they have got this so well and to them I say:

#HigherFurtherFaster

Thank you for being awesome, every single one of you.

<3

Demons of Amarra

Hey there, been a while. I've been busy with various RPG writing projects and I've not really had time for fiction, but... that's changed recently with the start of the third and the final Ashlyn Dark novella: Demons of Amarra.

Prepare for the final act against the mysterious and deadly Shapers, and prepare for things to change!

Ahes of Amarra II

There are worse things than demons in the world, things that hide in the shadows and at some point human and demon kind will have to come together to stem the tide of evil that's coming to Amarra.

Shadows of Amarra (Book II of the Ashlyn Dark demon hunter series of novellas) explores this facet of Amarra and introduces a few new characters, as well as lays the groundwork for a new (old) enemy.

The Order Noctis has been guarding the world for a long time, and now they are in the process of creating a new outpost near the City of Xaskoth.

The demon hunter in charge of this mammoth project is Ashlyn Dark.

Ashes of Amarra Book I is in editing with the publisher at the moment, but I love the Amarran world so much that I have decided to spin up Book II whilst I'm waiting.

I won't post up a sample of II, because I isn't out yet...soon though!

Soon!

Spinward Assassin

Last year I decided to take a break from fantasy, write something cyberpunky with high tech starships involved too.

The result was Spinward Assassin.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...

It came out recently in e-book format and I'm pleased with how Dark Quest handled it, then again, they're pretty darn awesome.

I've a few other things with them at the moment, they have Ashes of Amarra well in hand and I love working with Neal Levin and crew.

Great stuff!

The evolution of Ashlyn

Ashlyn Dark has changed at least three times whilst I've been experimenting with the character over the time I've been planning this small series of novellas.

Her first iteration was a young woman who was murdered, then crow-like she returns bound to a demon, a revenant destined to punish demon kind in the world.

Her second iteration was a young demon hunter, again bound to the demon and using the power of the demon to transform her weapons infusing the demon into a sword, or a knife, or even a simple wrought iron poker.

The third and more popular (with me) iteration is the Daughter of the Mark, a bonded warden of a living prison where a demon lord or king is trapped in the body of a human.

The Order is a mysterious group that has protected the world for centuries, all taking the bond and becoming a jail for incredible power.

The bond protects the demon hunter from death, for the demon inside knows that if the demon hunter dies so too does it...and that means it will do everything in its power to keep the demon hunter alive. Of course it'll give them horrible nightmares, influence the world around them and generally make their life a living hell.

The Order Noctis looks upon this as an essential and small price to pay to gain insight, power and a modicum of control over demon kind enough to use it as a weapon in their endless war.

Humanity vs. the Demon Lords and Kings.

There are no elves, dwarves or anything of the like in Amarra. I wanted to a story world that was more like Howard's Conan and if there are non-human races they'll be different to those presented in the usual fantasy stories I often write.

I'm hoping to explore more of Amarra as 2014 progresses and write at least two more novellas for Ashlyn. I'll be focussed on getting Fate's Hand part 2 together at some point and as much as I'd love to tell a longer/deeper story with Ashlyn, that will probably come after Fate's Hand part 3, providing Fate's Hand does well enough.

I'll also be talking more about the world of Amarra in the coming months.

Ashes of Amarra

The world of Ashlyn Dark may, or may not be linked to that of Hestonia. Perhaps it takes place in the same universe, since the idea of space travel between the stars of fantasy worlds has always been a firm favourite of mine since the advent of Spell Jammer and planar travel with Planescape.

I'm a bit of a fan of those concepts, if you hadn't already guessed.

In Ashlyn's world though, compared to Fate's Hand, demon lords are the old lords and kings of her planet, they are the first prime movers and shakers.

In terms of RPG ideas, especially in my favourite RPG system to-date: 13th Age. They would be the icons, or at least agents of demon kings who'd be icons.

I have made lots of alterations to Ashlyn Dark over the last year or two, never quite happy with how the first two iterations of her story progressed. Then I re-read some Conan and suddenly it hit me, I wanted to write a story that followed a path from A to B...one that didn't really flirt with complex politika and incredibly deep convoluted plots.

Something that could be expressed in about 30,000 words.

So Ashes of Amarra was born. The tale of a demon hunter and her travels across a world that is being preyed on by demons, drawing her deeper into a bigger story that could unfold over several smaller books. Each one is a definite A to B story though, with enough room to progress into a sequel if I really felt like it.

I delved into Robert E. Howard's work a lot to get the feel of Ashlyn Dark's world, but I wanted to mix it with a bit of Fritz Leiber and Robert L. Asprin. These are influences of mine that have shaped my view of fantasy from an early age along with Michael Moorcock and J.R.R. Tolkien.

I focussed on distilling combat down into a really short flavour piece, where each blow isn't detailed and every movement isn't tracked. There's a paragraph in Howard's Tower of the Elephant where Conan kills one man when the candles are out, you don't get the whole blow by blow account and it's so visually satisfying because of it.

I also looked a bit at how Howard described things and brought a little of that into the story. So in the end, I hope people enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

I'll be updating as it heads towards publication.



Art by my gorgeous wife: Gillian Pearce

The life of a demon hunter

Ashlyn Dark, she's an interesting character that came to me in a few stages...like a lot of my characters she's evolved as I've tinkered with her until where she is today.

Here's a very short bit from Ashes of Amarra, Ashlyn's first solo novella and the beginning (I hope) of a beautiful author/character friendship.

Ashlyn has just overheard several soldiers from an invading empire, they've been talking about how they enjoy visiting suffering on the heathens of the city they're laying siege to. It's a harsh winter and a heavy snowfall/blizzard has put pay to their siege plans for now, the catapults lie still.

Ashlyn has already knocked out one guard, before she overheard his companions...what she heard made her question letting the unconcious guard live.

After another guard comes to investigate, she takes the law into her own hands. After this, she decides that the four soldiers left on guard need to die as well.

Five men dead, one unconcious and catapults to burn...she's going to have a busy time of it.

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He stumbled and half-ran down the embankment where Ashlyn had stashed his companion only to find his flight arrested by a sudden pain. He drew back with a gasp and then felt his throat open as Ashlyn’s knife flashed in the dark, lit by the barest spear of moonlight as it mixed with the red on the blade.

“I prefer my knife,” she said and kicked the man backwards against the hill. She ended his life with a quick stab and pressed her hand against his mouth to muffle his choking screams as the air escaped the hole in his throat across his windpipe. “To yours.”

She was careful to avoid the blood as it came thick and fast when she lay the body down, she even moved his companion out of sight behind a nearby tree.
“Two down.”

The four remaining men were carefully patrolling back and forth, yet so wrapped up in their talk of debauchery, drunkenness and other matters they missed the dark shadow that crept forth ever so slowly from the edge of the trees. Then, like an avenging wraith Ashlyn was upon them with a blur and a flurry of motion cutting and slicing with her sword, turning their bodies into cut meat and leaving gouts of blood in the snow.

She stood before the last guard poised to deliver the killing blow, her eyes alight in the night made her look a thousand times more hellish than she was. He begged for his life right up until the moment she turned away with a casual flick of her sword and opened his throat so he bled out on the ground, gasping for air like a fish on dry land.

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