Carl Alves's Blog, page 40
March 13, 2015
Two For Eternity: Hispaniola
I get deeply offended every October when Columbus Day rolls around. It sickens me that people would actually celebrate a day for one of the greatest mass murderers in the history of our world. There's no other way to put it other than Christopher Columbus was a thug, scumbag and a murderer of the highest magnitude. For one thing, despite the assertions of my grade school teachers, neither Columbus nor any other European discovered America. Newsflash, there were people living in this continent for hundreds of years before Columbus ever step foot here. To intimate such a thing is to say that the natives who lived were somehow less than human. Secondly, the vikings were the first Europeans to set foot in the Americas, some five hundred years before Columbus.
When I first came up with the idea of writing this novel, I knew that Columbus would be involved. My antagonist Vrag is an evil bastard, so naturally I would want him to be one of the greatest villains our world has ever seen. The part that is covered in Two For Eternity is the genocide that Columbus committed against the Taino tribe in the island of Hispaniola some six hundred years ago. Columbus succeeded in wiping out an entire people off the face of this planet. I guess that is worthy of a holiday after all. How many other people can say that they have accomplished such a thing. My main source for this part of the book was the diary of Christopher Columbus' brother, who accompanied him on the voyage. Read about it and learn, and perhaps you will hesitate celebrating Columbus Day again. You can buy Two For Eternity at http://www.amazon.com/Two-Eternity-Ca....
When I first came up with the idea of writing this novel, I knew that Columbus would be involved. My antagonist Vrag is an evil bastard, so naturally I would want him to be one of the greatest villains our world has ever seen. The part that is covered in Two For Eternity is the genocide that Columbus committed against the Taino tribe in the island of Hispaniola some six hundred years ago. Columbus succeeded in wiping out an entire people off the face of this planet. I guess that is worthy of a holiday after all. How many other people can say that they have accomplished such a thing. My main source for this part of the book was the diary of Christopher Columbus' brother, who accompanied him on the voyage. Read about it and learn, and perhaps you will hesitate celebrating Columbus Day again. You can buy Two For Eternity at http://www.amazon.com/Two-Eternity-Ca....
March 6, 2015
How a Vacation led to Writing Revelation: A Guest Post by Brian Matthews
When I sat down to write Revelation, I faced a significant problem. Forever Man had just been released. People in the industry were telling me how much they liked it. To my friends and family, I had achieved the status of a minor celebrity. Even Publisher’s Weekly gave it a positive review. After two years of work, it seemed I had written a decent book.
Here was my problem: Forever Man was the first book I had written—ever.
And now I had to do it again.
Oh, boy.
That I wanted to write a better book was a given—what professional worth his salt would strive to do less—but the question remained: could I once again catch lightning in a bottle? Was it possible to write a second book that could outmuscle its older, bigger brother? I felt like Sisyphus pushing his boulder. The enormity of the undertaking was staggering, at least to me.
Before beginning Revelation, though, I had to go on a family vacation, a cruise through the Mediterranean that had been planned for two years. Points of interest (ports of interest, I suppose you could say) included Florence, Rome, Venice, Athens, and Istanbul—the heart of the ancient world. Now, I love history. To me, it holds a fascination akin to magic; the peoples and places and events seemed to exist in another world, where gods and heroes walked the earth, changing the courses of civilizations. I could barely contain my excitement. I was going to explore the ruins of the Parthenon, where Zeus ruled with lightning bolts and vanity; sail the canals of Venice, where Titan’s focus on color and light finally broke Michelangelo’s choke hold on Renaissance artistic style; and stand in the Duomo, the marble-sheathed cathedral in Florence, whose construction had to be postponed because of the Black Plague.
Duomo
It would be a trip of a lifetime. Little did I know that it would provided the genesis for what would become Revelation.
Throughout the trip, as I flew to Barcelona and sailed from port to port, in the back of my mind, I thought about the “next book.” I had already decided it would be a Forever Man novel. I would return to the world of Bartholomew Owens and expand on his history, while at the same time giving readers a new story to enjoy, one unrelated to the first. The format for Forever Man was simple: a small setting—the whole story takes place in the fictional town of Kinsey in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula—with a large cast of characters to give it depth and realism. I didn’t want to return to the same formula. I wanted to stretch, to push the boundaries, and show that Bart Owens operated on a much larger stage, which suggested multiple settings. And to strike a balance, the book would have a smaller cast.
Okay, that sounded good. Now all I needed was a story.
The vacation proceeded. I visited the splendor of Monte Carlo, the bone-white tower in Pisa (which, I learned, will one day fall over), and the classical beauty of Florence. Next came Rome. The day was blisteringly hot, almost one hundred degrees, and the heat was getting to me. As I stood in St. Peter’s square, feeling slightly dizzy, I stared at the massive basilica looming before me and thought, “This is the largest, most ornate church I’ve ever seen. I mean, it’s huge.” Then, almost as an afterthought, “I wonder what Bart would think of it.”
St. Peter's Square
What would Bart think…?
My eyes widened, and I smiled.
I suddenly had a location for the book, and with it, an inkling of a story—the power of religion. Knowing I wanted a smaller cast, the story would focus on two individuals: one, a skeptic intent on disproving the existence of God, and the other, a fanatic obsessed with his crusade to eliminate the world’s “heathen” religions. Eventually, the skeptic became Miles Knight, and the fanatic, Reverend Destiny.
Now that I had an idea for the scope of the book—international locations and the intrigue that comes with them—I let the vacation provide my research. Part of the Rome trip included a visit to the necropolis under the Vatican, where I saw the tomb of St. Peter. That made its way into the novel. During the stop in Istanbul, I visited the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia (also known as the Sancta Sophia) and fell in love with the Byzantine culture. One structure I found particularly amazing was the obelisk of Theodosius, which stood in the square once occupied by Constantinople’s Hippodrome. Constructed in Egypt in the 14th century B.C., Emperor Constantius II moved it from the Temple of Karnak to Alexandria in 357 A.D, and Emperor Theodosius moved it to Constantinople some thirty years later. To stand before something over three thousand years old was humbling. Those places also made it into the novel.
sancta sophia
For plot reasons, I needed four other exotic locations, the Habib Bourguiba International Airport in Monastir, Tunisia, and the Reform Club in London, both requiring old-fashioned research (Internet searches and lots of reading), and two short sequences in Iraq and Afghanistan, the locations of which are entirely made up.
Domestically, the story takes place in St. Louis, Missouri, and Castle Pines, Colorado, both of which required more old-fashioned research, and Dearborn, Michigan. I live near Dearborn, so I have ample experience with the area. The mosque where Revelation reaches its climax exists. It is a beautiful structure, and, sadly, does draw its fair share of fanatics who try to do what Reverend Destiny does in the book, though to a much smaller scale.
I want to avoid talking about Bartholomew’s flashback sequences, which expands on his backstory, because doing so would be a huge spoiler. Trust me, considerable research went into those sequences.
So, unlike Forever Man, where I created the setting completely from imagination, Revelation got its inspiration from locations I have visited, which I hope lends more realism to the novel.
Here was my problem: Forever Man was the first book I had written—ever.
And now I had to do it again.
Oh, boy.
That I wanted to write a better book was a given—what professional worth his salt would strive to do less—but the question remained: could I once again catch lightning in a bottle? Was it possible to write a second book that could outmuscle its older, bigger brother? I felt like Sisyphus pushing his boulder. The enormity of the undertaking was staggering, at least to me.
Before beginning Revelation, though, I had to go on a family vacation, a cruise through the Mediterranean that had been planned for two years. Points of interest (ports of interest, I suppose you could say) included Florence, Rome, Venice, Athens, and Istanbul—the heart of the ancient world. Now, I love history. To me, it holds a fascination akin to magic; the peoples and places and events seemed to exist in another world, where gods and heroes walked the earth, changing the courses of civilizations. I could barely contain my excitement. I was going to explore the ruins of the Parthenon, where Zeus ruled with lightning bolts and vanity; sail the canals of Venice, where Titan’s focus on color and light finally broke Michelangelo’s choke hold on Renaissance artistic style; and stand in the Duomo, the marble-sheathed cathedral in Florence, whose construction had to be postponed because of the Black Plague.
Duomo
It would be a trip of a lifetime. Little did I know that it would provided the genesis for what would become Revelation.
Throughout the trip, as I flew to Barcelona and sailed from port to port, in the back of my mind, I thought about the “next book.” I had already decided it would be a Forever Man novel. I would return to the world of Bartholomew Owens and expand on his history, while at the same time giving readers a new story to enjoy, one unrelated to the first. The format for Forever Man was simple: a small setting—the whole story takes place in the fictional town of Kinsey in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula—with a large cast of characters to give it depth and realism. I didn’t want to return to the same formula. I wanted to stretch, to push the boundaries, and show that Bart Owens operated on a much larger stage, which suggested multiple settings. And to strike a balance, the book would have a smaller cast.
Okay, that sounded good. Now all I needed was a story.
The vacation proceeded. I visited the splendor of Monte Carlo, the bone-white tower in Pisa (which, I learned, will one day fall over), and the classical beauty of Florence. Next came Rome. The day was blisteringly hot, almost one hundred degrees, and the heat was getting to me. As I stood in St. Peter’s square, feeling slightly dizzy, I stared at the massive basilica looming before me and thought, “This is the largest, most ornate church I’ve ever seen. I mean, it’s huge.” Then, almost as an afterthought, “I wonder what Bart would think of it.”
St. Peter's Square
What would Bart think…?
My eyes widened, and I smiled.
I suddenly had a location for the book, and with it, an inkling of a story—the power of religion. Knowing I wanted a smaller cast, the story would focus on two individuals: one, a skeptic intent on disproving the existence of God, and the other, a fanatic obsessed with his crusade to eliminate the world’s “heathen” religions. Eventually, the skeptic became Miles Knight, and the fanatic, Reverend Destiny.
Now that I had an idea for the scope of the book—international locations and the intrigue that comes with them—I let the vacation provide my research. Part of the Rome trip included a visit to the necropolis under the Vatican, where I saw the tomb of St. Peter. That made its way into the novel. During the stop in Istanbul, I visited the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia (also known as the Sancta Sophia) and fell in love with the Byzantine culture. One structure I found particularly amazing was the obelisk of Theodosius, which stood in the square once occupied by Constantinople’s Hippodrome. Constructed in Egypt in the 14th century B.C., Emperor Constantius II moved it from the Temple of Karnak to Alexandria in 357 A.D, and Emperor Theodosius moved it to Constantinople some thirty years later. To stand before something over three thousand years old was humbling. Those places also made it into the novel.
sancta sophia
For plot reasons, I needed four other exotic locations, the Habib Bourguiba International Airport in Monastir, Tunisia, and the Reform Club in London, both requiring old-fashioned research (Internet searches and lots of reading), and two short sequences in Iraq and Afghanistan, the locations of which are entirely made up.
Domestically, the story takes place in St. Louis, Missouri, and Castle Pines, Colorado, both of which required more old-fashioned research, and Dearborn, Michigan. I live near Dearborn, so I have ample experience with the area. The mosque where Revelation reaches its climax exists. It is a beautiful structure, and, sadly, does draw its fair share of fanatics who try to do what Reverend Destiny does in the book, though to a much smaller scale.
I want to avoid talking about Bartholomew’s flashback sequences, which expands on his backstory, because doing so would be a huge spoiler. Trust me, considerable research went into those sequences.
So, unlike Forever Man, where I created the setting completely from imagination, Revelation got its inspiration from locations I have visited, which I hope lends more realism to the novel.
February 28, 2015
Revelation by Brian Matthews
Revelation is the sequel to Brian Matthews’s debut novel Forever Man, although it is not a direct continuation of the events in the first novel. This story starts with a firmly convinced atheist, Myles Knight, who runs a blog and tries to debunk any kind of religious relic or artefact. Knight receives a box with a religious artefact that he can’t open, one that people are willing to kill for. On opposite sides of the fence are Bart Owens, an immortal being who is a defender of humanity, and Marbaes, a demon bent on the destruction of humanity. When Myles goes on the run with Bart and his sidekick Katie, they go on a journey that takes them to Africa, Rome, and Turkey. Meanwhile, Reverend Destiny, a radical right-wing preacher, is trying to ignite a fire against Muslims by preaching a very anti-Muslim sentiment. This all culminates at a rally in Dearborn, Michigan where Destiny plans on burning the Quran, and Bart and company must stop him.
I really enjoyed the buildup in this novel. Having read the first novel, I was immediately absorbed into this story. The novel starts off with a bang and is loaded with intrigue. As the story unfolds, more of the backstory that was missing in the first novel is slowly unveiled. The writing is strong and professional. It does what it is supposed to do—keep the reader into the story at all times.
I set the bar pretty high with this novel since Forever Man was one of the better novels I’ve read in recent times. The characters and mythology of this world are intricate and well designed. In comparison to the first novel, one area where I think this novel suffers is some aspects of believability in terms of character motivation and action. What stood out, in particular, was the notion that Reverend Destiny’s denouncement of Islam would start a catastrophic war. People like Destiny exist in our world, and no such war has been started. Where it exceeds the first novel is in the backstory. I really enjoyed the evolution and revelation (no pun intended) of Bart’s character. I found that aspect of this novel to be fascinating and enriching. This novel was moving and gripping and enjoyable to the end.
I really enjoyed the buildup in this novel. Having read the first novel, I was immediately absorbed into this story. The novel starts off with a bang and is loaded with intrigue. As the story unfolds, more of the backstory that was missing in the first novel is slowly unveiled. The writing is strong and professional. It does what it is supposed to do—keep the reader into the story at all times.
I set the bar pretty high with this novel since Forever Man was one of the better novels I’ve read in recent times. The characters and mythology of this world are intricate and well designed. In comparison to the first novel, one area where I think this novel suffers is some aspects of believability in terms of character motivation and action. What stood out, in particular, was the notion that Reverend Destiny’s denouncement of Islam would start a catastrophic war. People like Destiny exist in our world, and no such war has been started. Where it exceeds the first novel is in the backstory. I really enjoyed the evolution and revelation (no pun intended) of Bart’s character. I found that aspect of this novel to be fascinating and enriching. This novel was moving and gripping and enjoyable to the end.
February 25, 2015
Two For Eternity: 10,000 BC
I wanted to establish that my two main characters had been around since the beginning of human kind so I put them in a scene in Central Africa in 10,000 B.C. This chapter of the book was mostly guess work and speculation since not much is known about this time. I chose this area and time period since it is generally established that this was the start of homo sapien in this planet. Other than that, there wasn't much to go off of. When I initially wrote this scene, I did it without dialogue, because I wasn't sure that people would have had spoken language back in this time period. Then I watched the movie 10,000 B.C. (which was an abysmal piece of garbage). Since they used dialogue, I figured, what the hell, I'll use dialogue as well. The scene turned out much better this way. Because I had so little information to work off of, this was the most challenging chapter in my book, but I hope the readers like it. Find out if it works for you and get a copy of Two For Eternity on http://www.amazon.com/Two-Eternity-Ad....
February 22, 2015
Oscar Predictions
Best Picture – Boyhood – Birdman has a shot, but the uniqueness of Boyhood will give it the edge
Best Director – Richard Linklater
Best Actor – Michael Keaton – this is a toss up between Keaton and Eddie Redmayne, but I’m going with the upset
Best Actress – Julianne Moore – this is a stone cold mortal lock
Best supporting actor – JK Simmons – take it to the bank
Best supporting actress – Patricia Arquette – bet the farm on this one
Best adapted screenplay – The Imitation Game
Best original screenplay – The Grand Budapest Hotel – lock it up
Best animated – How to Train Your Dragon 2 – I can’t believe The Lego Movie didn’t get nominated. This is a disgrace to humanity. I think a congressional investigation should be started.
Best cinematography – Birdman – total lock
Best costume design – The Grand Budapest Hotel – this is one of many awards for Budapest
Best production design – The Grand Budapest Hotel
Best documentary – Citizen Four
Best short documentary – Crisis Hotline
Best editing – Boyhood – take it the bank
Best original score – The Theory of Everything
Best foreign film – Ida
Best makeup – The Grand Budapest Hotel
Best original song – Glory – this is a travesty that Everything is Awesome isn’t going to win this category. Not only is Everything is Awesome the best original song this year, it’s the best movie song ever! Someone call your congressman.
Best animated short – Feast – this was really cool. Very deserved.
Best live action short - The Phone Call
Best sound editing – American Sniper
Best sound mixing – Interstellar – this is a total tossup
Best visual effects – Interstellar – the only category where I actually watched all of the movies. I would choose Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Best Director – Richard Linklater
Best Actor – Michael Keaton – this is a toss up between Keaton and Eddie Redmayne, but I’m going with the upset
Best Actress – Julianne Moore – this is a stone cold mortal lock
Best supporting actor – JK Simmons – take it to the bank
Best supporting actress – Patricia Arquette – bet the farm on this one
Best adapted screenplay – The Imitation Game
Best original screenplay – The Grand Budapest Hotel – lock it up
Best animated – How to Train Your Dragon 2 – I can’t believe The Lego Movie didn’t get nominated. This is a disgrace to humanity. I think a congressional investigation should be started.
Best cinematography – Birdman – total lock
Best costume design – The Grand Budapest Hotel – this is one of many awards for Budapest
Best production design – The Grand Budapest Hotel
Best documentary – Citizen Four
Best short documentary – Crisis Hotline
Best editing – Boyhood – take it the bank
Best original score – The Theory of Everything
Best foreign film – Ida
Best makeup – The Grand Budapest Hotel
Best original song – Glory – this is a travesty that Everything is Awesome isn’t going to win this category. Not only is Everything is Awesome the best original song this year, it’s the best movie song ever! Someone call your congressman.
Best animated short – Feast – this was really cool. Very deserved.
Best live action short - The Phone Call
Best sound editing – American Sniper
Best sound mixing – Interstellar – this is a total tossup
Best visual effects – Interstellar – the only category where I actually watched all of the movies. I would choose Captain America: The Winter Soldier
February 18, 2015
The Story Behind the Story: Last Man Standing
My story Last Man Standing, which is currently out in The Best of Dark Eclipse, Volume 2, is the third in a series of stories that I wrote about extreme reality television shows where things go horribly wrong. My first story How Far Will You Go, featured seven contestants who did ultra-extreme challenges for the chance at a big prize. The contest ended with several of the contestants dying. The second in the series was a story called Secret, which also had seven contestants. In this case, each of the contestants had terrible secrets in their past that they had to agree to be revealed on national television in order to progress to get the massive cash prize. In this case, contestants also wound up dead after things got out of control.
The host of each of these series was Brad Billington, a former star college football player, who is desperate for attention and success. He returns as the host of Last Man Standing, and is ostensibly the main character of the story. Brad is ruthless and shallow, and will do anything to get back on top after the wildly successful runs of his first two shows. Because this new series is so extreme, the producers of the show abandoned the use of network or cable television and went straight to internet and television pay per view. In this story, there are sixteen contestants who are set up in a deserted island. Each of the contestants is a prisoner of the absolute worst variety. The goal of the show is simple. They have to be the sole survivor—literally. The contestants have to kill each other.
I am a fan of the show Survivor, and have watched every season of the show. I patterned many of the things that happen in my story after the show. The contestants form alliances, generally with prisoners of similar backgrounds, they have to find food and shelter, and of course they have to kill each other, which is where it varies differently from the show.
With so many characters and a word count of about 6000 words, one of the big challenges was giving the characters unique personalities so that the reader would remember who they are and that it wouldn’t become a jumbled mess. There were factions in the show- drug dealers, neo-Nazis, and international terrorists as well as a couple of stragglers like a child molester and a cannibal so scary that even the hardened prisoners fear him– but I tried to give each character at least one very distinguishable feature about themselves.
This story is very violent and not for the faint of heart. I tried to make each of the deaths as gruesome and visceral as possible because I think that would be the way it would go down. They had to use either hand-made weapons or kill each other with their bare hands. The only way that sort of thing would happen would be for the killings to be brutal and violent.
This is a story that I really enjoyed writing and hope that readers will also enjoy. You can get your copy at http://www.amazon.com/Best-Dark-Eclip....
The host of each of these series was Brad Billington, a former star college football player, who is desperate for attention and success. He returns as the host of Last Man Standing, and is ostensibly the main character of the story. Brad is ruthless and shallow, and will do anything to get back on top after the wildly successful runs of his first two shows. Because this new series is so extreme, the producers of the show abandoned the use of network or cable television and went straight to internet and television pay per view. In this story, there are sixteen contestants who are set up in a deserted island. Each of the contestants is a prisoner of the absolute worst variety. The goal of the show is simple. They have to be the sole survivor—literally. The contestants have to kill each other.
I am a fan of the show Survivor, and have watched every season of the show. I patterned many of the things that happen in my story after the show. The contestants form alliances, generally with prisoners of similar backgrounds, they have to find food and shelter, and of course they have to kill each other, which is where it varies differently from the show.
With so many characters and a word count of about 6000 words, one of the big challenges was giving the characters unique personalities so that the reader would remember who they are and that it wouldn’t become a jumbled mess. There were factions in the show- drug dealers, neo-Nazis, and international terrorists as well as a couple of stragglers like a child molester and a cannibal so scary that even the hardened prisoners fear him– but I tried to give each character at least one very distinguishable feature about themselves.
This story is very violent and not for the faint of heart. I tried to make each of the deaths as gruesome and visceral as possible because I think that would be the way it would go down. They had to use either hand-made weapons or kill each other with their bare hands. The only way that sort of thing would happen would be for the killings to be brutal and violent.
This is a story that I really enjoyed writing and hope that readers will also enjoy. You can get your copy at http://www.amazon.com/Best-Dark-Eclip....
February 14, 2015
Movie Review: American Sniper
With the controversy surrounding American Sniper, and the Clint Eastwood/Bradley Cooper combination, this was a movie I had to watch. The movie portrays the real life story of former Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, a sniper who was credited with the most kills of any sniper in United States history. The movie chronicles his family life as well as his four tours of duty in Iraq.
This movie is often compared to The Hurt Locker in terms of its style and grittiness. I liked this movie more than The Hurt Locker in many different ways. There was much to like. To start with, Bradley Cooper gave an Oscar winning type of performance in his portrayal of Chris Kyle. Having seen Kyle in interviews prior to his death, Cooper nails his portrayal and had great emotional scenes. There were great dramatic scenes in the movie, such as when Kyle had to agonize over killing a child who might kill many American soldiers. Another excellent dynamic was the rivalry between Kyle and a sniper on the other side. I liked the back and forth between these two characters.
I don’t understand what the controversy surrounding this movie was all about. There was no glorification of killing terrorists. Kyle did what he did to protect his fellow soldiers. He didn’t seem to take the kills lightly, and the movie effectively portrayed the turmoil on Kyle’s family. Knowing what happened to Kyle in real life, I knew it wasn’t going to end well, but there was a certain satisfaction seeing him overcome the mental struggles after his four tours of duty. This is definitely a movie worth watching. I am sure it will not win the Oscar mainly due to political considerations, but it probably should.
This movie is often compared to The Hurt Locker in terms of its style and grittiness. I liked this movie more than The Hurt Locker in many different ways. There was much to like. To start with, Bradley Cooper gave an Oscar winning type of performance in his portrayal of Chris Kyle. Having seen Kyle in interviews prior to his death, Cooper nails his portrayal and had great emotional scenes. There were great dramatic scenes in the movie, such as when Kyle had to agonize over killing a child who might kill many American soldiers. Another excellent dynamic was the rivalry between Kyle and a sniper on the other side. I liked the back and forth between these two characters.
I don’t understand what the controversy surrounding this movie was all about. There was no glorification of killing terrorists. Kyle did what he did to protect his fellow soldiers. He didn’t seem to take the kills lightly, and the movie effectively portrayed the turmoil on Kyle’s family. Knowing what happened to Kyle in real life, I knew it wasn’t going to end well, but there was a certain satisfaction seeing him overcome the mental struggles after his four tours of duty. This is definitely a movie worth watching. I am sure it will not win the Oscar mainly due to political considerations, but it probably should.
February 7, 2015
Two For Eternity: Judea
This was a touchy area for me to write about. Being Catholic, I didn't want to do anything that could be considered sacreligious, but Vrag, the antagonist in my story, is the ultimate baddie, so what better way to set him up as such than to have him be Christianity's ultimate villain. There has been so much written, featured and told about this the time of Jesus Christ in the land of Judea, that this was a bit tricky. I didn't think I needed to paint much of a picture of the land and the time period, since most people have probably watched a movie or two or ten that took place during this time. Still, I wanted to add some flavor to it, so in this period's piece I wrote about some of the cultural aspects of the time such as the importance of the marketplace in Judea, the public baths, and a pilgrimage to the land of Galatia.
Being a work of fiction, I didn't want to just regurgitate what can be found in a standard bible, but at the same time I didn't want to stray to far off course of what is commonly known and accepted during this time. I also purposely never refer to Jesus by name, opting to call Him the Nazarene. The reason being is that I didn't want to spell out everything for the reader, hoping the reader will want to dig deeper and perhaps even do some research of their own for some of the time periods I wrote about. So if you like some biblical fiction, give Two For Eternity a try on sale on Amazon.
Being a work of fiction, I didn't want to just regurgitate what can be found in a standard bible, but at the same time I didn't want to stray to far off course of what is commonly known and accepted during this time. I also purposely never refer to Jesus by name, opting to call Him the Nazarene. The reason being is that I didn't want to spell out everything for the reader, hoping the reader will want to dig deeper and perhaps even do some research of their own for some of the time periods I wrote about. So if you like some biblical fiction, give Two For Eternity a try on sale on Amazon.
January 31, 2015
The Story Behind the Story: Ghost Tour
When I was young, and the world was bright with new adventure, I was on a vacation that encompassed Las Vegas, the Grand Canyon, and eventually California. As part of this west coast trip, my wife and I were in Long Beach, California where we decided to visit the Queen Mary, a massive, retired ocean liner that was larger than the Titanic. The ship was pretty cool and I enjoyed the tour. Since I’m a horror aficionado, what appealed to me even more than the regular ship tour was a special Ghosts and Legends tour about the spooky and supernatural history of the ship.
My wife and I were on the first tour of the day, and we were the only ones on the tour. It was filled with all sorts of special effects and spooky images, as well a very dramatic presentation by the tour guide. This was the basis of my story Ghost Tour, which is out in the current episode of Bards and Sages Quarterly. Much of what I wrote in the story was taken from my real life experience. The one major exception being that in my story, the ghosts are real, unbeknownst to the young couple taking the tour, and the rookie guide. I had a lot of fun working in my actual experience into what I hope is a spooky and fantastical tale. You can find my story in Bards and Sages Quarterly at https://www.smashwords.com/books/view...
My wife and I were on the first tour of the day, and we were the only ones on the tour. It was filled with all sorts of special effects and spooky images, as well a very dramatic presentation by the tour guide. This was the basis of my story Ghost Tour, which is out in the current episode of Bards and Sages Quarterly. Much of what I wrote in the story was taken from my real life experience. The one major exception being that in my story, the ghosts are real, unbeknownst to the young couple taking the tour, and the rookie guide. I had a lot of fun working in my actual experience into what I hope is a spooky and fantastical tale. You can find my story in Bards and Sages Quarterly at https://www.smashwords.com/books/view...
January 28, 2015
Two For Eternity: Ancient Babylon
The aspect of Ancient Babylon that I concentrated on in this section was the worship of Marduk and the religious and cultural impact of it. Marduk is an interesting character in Babylonian mythology. Although Anu was the principle god in the Babylonian pantheon, it was Marduk that became the patron of the city of Babylon at the rise of the Babylonian empire at the time of Hammurabi in the 18th century BC. Marduk was a warrior god. In Babylonian lore, Marduk challenges Tiamat, a dragon and leader of the Annunaki gods. Marduk defeats Tiamat in single combat, establishing his stature in the Babylonian pantheon.
I chose the time of Hammurabi in Two For Eternity, since that is when Babylon truly established itself as one of prominent cultural and political centers of the world. My main antagonist, Vrag, instead of playing the role of Hammurabi, is the high priest of Marduk in the city of Babylon. This role fits his character. Instead of being the front man, Vrag is usually behind the scenes, controlling things, manipulating people and drawing true power. I embelish the use of human sacrifice in Babylonian culture, but it fit the story and hey, this is a work of fiction. Raiken, my main protagonist flees Kush after assassinating the Kushite queen. He saves a Babylonian girl and her brother from marauders only to have her given up for human sacrifice. When Raiken goes to save her, it pits him once again against his ancient enemy Vrag in the city of Babylon.
You can read more about this in Two For Eternity, out now on Amazon.
I chose the time of Hammurabi in Two For Eternity, since that is when Babylon truly established itself as one of prominent cultural and political centers of the world. My main antagonist, Vrag, instead of playing the role of Hammurabi, is the high priest of Marduk in the city of Babylon. This role fits his character. Instead of being the front man, Vrag is usually behind the scenes, controlling things, manipulating people and drawing true power. I embelish the use of human sacrifice in Babylonian culture, but it fit the story and hey, this is a work of fiction. Raiken, my main protagonist flees Kush after assassinating the Kushite queen. He saves a Babylonian girl and her brother from marauders only to have her given up for human sacrifice. When Raiken goes to save her, it pits him once again against his ancient enemy Vrag in the city of Babylon.
You can read more about this in Two For Eternity, out now on Amazon.
