Joshua Reynolds's Blog, page 51

WIP Wednesday #19: Katabasis

This week begins my march to the sea. I’ve completed over half of the projects on my schedule for 2016, and begun to line up work for next year. Feel free to applaud, or throw stones, according to preference.

I’ve begun the second big novella project for this year. At 40,000 words, it’s a hefty one, but I think it’ll be fun to work on. It’s an IP I’ve never played around with before, involving some vaguely Lovecraftian concepts that take a left-turn into a deeper sort of weirdness. Alternate-yet-commingled realities, living grimoires, psychic ghosts, and the legacy of Captain Nemo. Fun stuff.

I’m around 6k into it. It’s 1921 and the experimental submersibles have just entered the waters of Abu Qir Bay, pursued by the bullets of a clandestine occult organization. Meanwhile, in the city-that-was, strange doings are afoot…

I’ve also started my submission for Sharkpunk 2. Tentatively titled “The Thunder, His Passing”, it finds the Royal Occultist in Fiji, dealing with an angry shark-god. I’m aiming for brevity with this one, so I’m around 3k into a 4-5k story. I might go a bit longer if I can get the psychic-dream-mind-meld scene to work, but I’m thinking it might be tad indulgent as it stands. ‘Weird for the sake of weird’ isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but I don’t think this is the right story for it. Then, maybe it is. We’ll see.

I’m changing up some things with this one. I want to tweak the Royal Occultist formula some, and see if I can start moving the concept towards something a touch more…elegant? Subtle? Mature? I dunno. Stripping it back to the basics a bit, and forgoing some of the ‘louder’ aspects of the series, basically. It’s not something I’m going to do every time, but I’d like to get the formula elastic enough to fit a variety of markets. At the moment, there’re only a few places that dig the ‘guns, monsters and Wodehouse’ thing, and if the concept is going to get any real traction or staying power, it needs to evolve a bit.

Besides those two, I’m working on the revisions for The Sea-Leopard. I’ve added some new words, to replace the ones I’ve hacked out. Key characters have been introduced earlier, and their motivations/goals more clearly explained. I’m working on roughly a scene a day, taking my time with things. There’s no deadline for finishing this, and I see no real reason to hurry. Slow and steady, etc.

On a parting note, have you preordered Phileas Fogg and the Heart of Osra yet? If not, maybe check out the Kindle edition of Phileas Fogg and the War of Shadows, and see if that convinces you.

Monday Moses

I got nothin’ for you today. Have some Jerry Reed instead. Thank me by preordering Phileas Fogg and the Heart of Osra, why don’t you?

Just Write the Damn Thing

Today I’ll be turning things over to my compatriot, Bob Freeman, as part of the virtual tour for his newest novel, Keepers of the Dead, the second book in the Cairnwood Manor series. There’s a full itinerary for the tour available, if you’re interested, as well as links to the novels. I heartily recommend that you try them, as well as the rest of Bob’s writing, out post-haste.

A question often asked is “when did you know you wanted to be a writer”, but more importantly for me is not when I wanted to be one, but when I actually became one…

For me, the lightning struck the first time I typed the words “The End” after I completed my novel Shadows Over Somerset. Here’s how I see it… How many times have we been at a dinner party or the local watering hole and you’re chatting someone up and the question  gets asked, “So, what do you do?” Invariably, as soon as you say ‘writer’, your conversational foil will respond with, “You know, I’ve always thought about writing a book.” How often do you think biochemists or brain surgeons hear that? The short answer is none, and it’s because most people think writing is easy, until that is, they sit down to actually do the work.

I fell into that category, thinking of myself as a writer long before I had actually paid my dues, staring down the demon that is the blank page, and seeing the battle through to the bitter end. Oh, I’d started dozens upon dozens of novels, none of them getting past the first paragraph or so. Writing is hard work. You spill your guts with every keystroke and the ink as it strikes the paper is drawn from your own sweat and blood. Did I just show my age? I think you catch my meaning just the same.

So, yes, my first and most important battle in my quest toward becoming an author was, in my opinion, the most crucial for each and every one of us who have chosen this path. I sat myself down in a chair and I wrote the damn thing. And you know what, I’ve never looked back. Each successive novel has come easier. Of course new challenges arise, but that’s okay… such is the nature of the beast.

Bob Freeman is an author, artist, and paranormal adventurer who’s most recent novel is Keepers of the Dead, published by Seventh Star Press.

A lifelong student of mythology, folklore, magic, and religion, Freeman has written numerous short stories, articles, and reviews for various online and print publications and is a respected lecturer on the occult and paranormal phenomena.

He lives in rural Indiana with his wife Kim and son Connor.

Mr. Freeman can be found online at his website: occultdetective.com, as well as on social media at twitter.com/occultdetective and facebook.com/authorbobfreeman

THE VAMPIRE MACGREGOR LIVES…

“Foolish pup,” MacGregor chided the werewolf, “you don’t get it. Laddie, if water were evil I’d be but a drop. What lurks below is an ocean.”

From the haunted halls of Cairnwood Manor to the bowels of Rosslyn Chapel, Bob Freeman hurls you into the very heart of the eternal conflict between the forces of darkness and the forces of light.

It’s fang versus claw, spell versus steel, and love versus death in an epic battle of blood and thunder.

When a sinister cabal converges to unleash the ultimate evil against an unsuspecting world, only the combined strength of the Wolves of Cairnwood Manor and the Circle of Nine Skulls offers up a glimmer of hope as werewolves, vampires, witches, immortal warriors, and an army of the undead collide in a battle of epic bloodshed.

Shadows Over Somerset and Keepers of the Dead are available from Seventh Star Press.

WIP Wednesday #18: Republic of Words

This experiment in word metrics is 18 weeks old today. Join me in a celebratory shrug of modest satisfaction, won’t you?

I spent the weekend finishing up “The Hound’s Daughter”, a new Royal Occultist story. It’s a sequel to “The Return of the Hound” (which was a sequel to “Hochmuller’s Hound”), and continues the bloody tale of the Hound of Mons. The first draft topped out at 6k, but that may change at the editing stage. I wrote the story fairly quickly–around three days of writing, start to finish–but it needs tweaking. The pacing could do with a bit of tightening up, and some of the more indulgent dialogue needs to be excised. Also, it might could do with another small action sequence, to break up some of the aforementioned dialogue.

The story was fun to write, introducing several new characters I hope to get more use out of, including the abominable Dr. Wilfred Ptolemy, vivisectionist and follower of the forbidden rites of Bubastis. I wrote the story with tongue planted firmly in cheek, and with an eye to evoking the feel of an old black and white monster movie. There are hints of the gothic, a hidden lair, and a mad scientist, as well as a monster.”The Hound’s Daughter” is set to appear in the forthcoming Pulpwork Press Halloween Special.

Besides that, I’ve been working on the mid-draft revisions of The Sea Leopard. It’s less a complete overhaul so much as increasing the screentime of certain characters, and paying more attention to a few subplots. The draft isn’t radically changed from its initial concept; mostly I’m just shifting the focus to the political storyline, and away from the military. Less fighting, more talking-slash-assassinations. I think the changes will make for a stronger opening book, and it means I get to play with some of the characters longer, which is nice.

The draft still doesn’t have a bad guy, per se. It has antagonists, but no real villain. I don’t honestly know how I feel about that. The antagonists are varied–a politician, an assassin, and a pirate-chieftain, among others–but none of them are particularly evil. They’re simply moving in opposition to our designated protagonists, for reasons of their own. Too, the protagonists aren’t exactly on the same page when it comes to their goals. Some are looking to revive flagging family fortunes, others to protect their loved ones, one wants to build an empire, another just wants to get paid. Then, what’s an epic fantasy without a variety of characters, moving in complex patterns?

Sadly, The Sea Leopard will be returning to the back-burner next week. I have a novella to start work on, and another short story (or two) to write. But more on those next week.

Zibaldone #12: Ghost Dance 1894

Another entry from my commonplace book to start the week off.

In 1894, James Mooney, an ethnographer, recorded a series of Ghost Dance songs, performed by the Kiowa and the Arapaho, among others. Several of the recordings are still available, via the ever-helpful Internet Archive.

Mooney also wrote The Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees (1891), which is interesting reading, if you’re into that sort of thing. Or if you’re a fan of Manly Wade Wellman, who used the book in several of his stories.

Chosen of Gork

The Furious Contest of Gork closed last night at midnight-ish, leaving me with a few dozen entries to sift through. As with the Crawling Contest, they were all uniformly excellent, barring the odd ‘I dipped a white-based orruk in green wash, give me my book’ entry. Which, while I admire the chutzpah, ain’t winning you bupkis, chum. And as before, I sincerly wish I had a few more copies of the book to hand out.

But in the end, as Russell Mulcahy taught us, there can be only one. And that one is…

…Karol ‘Malin’ Malinowski!

Congratulations, Karol. You win a copy of my newest Age of Sigmar novel, Realmgate Wars: The Fury of Gork. 

This was a close one. In the end, it came down to a choice between this fella and an orruk boss by Graham Shirley, but I had to follow the lure of Chaos in this one. It’s an older model (and one of my favorites–I used to have an old Path to Glory warband based around this guy), and nicely converted. Too, the detail work is impressive…the shading, the inking, even the little runic markings on the banner–all fantastic.

I want to thank everyone who took the time to send me an entry. There’s a level of talent and creativity in the Age of Sigmar/WHF community that is just jawdropping. To prove it, I’ll be posting the top four or five entries for the contest up on my Twitter account throughout the weekend, so be sure to check that out, if you’re interested.

The Tiger’s Voice

My 2011 Sherlock Holmes story, “The Adventure of the Sultan’s Tiger”, is now available on Audible, courtesy of Radio Archives and Airship 27. The story finds Holmes and Watson attempting to unravel a mystery involving a spectral tiger and the shadow of an old enemy.

From the blurb:

Five new puzzles to challenge the Great Detective and his ever loyal companion, Dr. Watson. Within these minutes they will encounter mythological fairies seeming to plague a beautiful country estate, man-eating tigers on the loose in the streets of London, and a stolen museum mummy.

These are only some of the mysteries awaiting the famous crime-solving duo as penned by today’s most gifted writers: Aaron Smith, I.A. Watson, Joshua Reynolds, and Andrew Salmon.

Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective, volume 3, narrated by George Kuch, is available from Audible. Give the sample a listen and maybe grab a copy if you like what you hear. It’s available for free with the Audible 30-Day Trial Membership. And if you do pick it up and find that you enjoy it, be sure to check out volume 2 as well, which also includes one of my stories.

Phileas Fogg and the Digital Download

The kind folks at Meteor House have just announced that my novella, Phileas Fogg and the War of Shadows, is now available in an electronic edition, for both Kindle and the Nook. So if you missed out on either the hardback or the trade version, why not grab a copy today? And be sure to check out all of the other great Meteor House titles, now available as ebooks, including Airship Hunters, by Jim Beard and Duane Spurlock, and The Scarlet Jaguar, by Win Scott Eckert. I can personally recommend both of those, by the way. I’ve read them both, and enjoyed them immensely.

Oh, and remember…Phileas Fogg and the Heart of Osra is now available for preorder. If you enjoyed War of Shadows, you probably don’t want to miss this one. It’s got spies, secret conspiracies, Wold Newton-ry and the requisite (albeit subtle) Lovecraft references.

WIP Wednesday #17: Stay on Target

Seventeen weeks in. I’ve written three books, four short stories, one novella and four pitches. I have also rewritten one of the aforementioned books. It’s been a busy four months.

I finished the rewrites to the Novel-With-No-Name early Monday. 100,000 words pruned down to 88,000. Subplots were excised, characters tweaked, jokes extracted. I mentioned my issues with this one last week, so I won’t go into them again. Suffice to say, I’m not entirely satisfied with the rewrite. I think the new version is better, in many ways. It’s leaner. Faster. But it lacks something. Or maybe not. I should probably leave that to the editors and the readers to determine, I suppose.

With that I finished, I’ve started on the revisions to The Sea Leopard. After excising the extraneous material, I was left with around 84k, which is more than I expected. No massive sea battles in this version, but more swashbuckling to make up for it. I’m looking forward to getting this draft finished. It’s got jokes, pirates, leopard-goddesses…the works.

I’ve got two stories sitting half finished, as well: “Cemetery Gun” and “The Hound’s Daughter”. I’m hoping to push forward on one or both later this week. “The Hound’s Daughter” actually has a deadline to it, so I’m aiming to see it done by the end of May. Too, it’s always something of a relief to get back to a Royal Occultist story. I’ve written enough of them by now that I can do it without too much trouble, but they’re still fun to work on.

And that’s what I’ve been working on this week. What about you?

Death and Ruin

Death and ruin.  

Death to the dealers of death.

Ruin to the bringers of ruin. 

-War-song of the Beast-Bane

The Realmgate Wars: Fury of Gork is now available from Black Library, and I thought I’d take some time to talk about it. First and foremost, it’s part of the The Realmgate Wars series (number 7, to be exact), which means it’s part of the main narrative, as opposed to a side-story, like Black Rift or Skaven Pestilens.

And like Skaven Pestilens, it features the Stormcast Eternals of the Beast-Bane warrior chamber. Led by Lord Celestant Zephacleas, the Astral Templars of the Beast-Bane chamber have played a part in the Realmgate Wars from the very beginning. In Aqshy, they aided the Hammers of Sigmar in liberating the crater-realm of Klaxus. They were then called to Ghyran and the Jade Kingdoms, where they fought alongside the Hallowed Knights, until the destruction of the Athelwyrd.

Now the Beast-Bane make war in the wilds of Ghur. Alongside the reptillian Seraphon, they freed the Crawling City of Shu’Gohl from the verminous skaven of the Clans Pestilens. But as greenskin drums sound once more in the Ghurlands, Zephacleas and his warriors are sent to find and make peace with the doubleheaded god, Gorkamorka…

This book was a fun one. Of all the Stormcast characters, Zephacleas is possibly my favorite. He’s a brawler, rather than a tactician, and a near-constant trial to his Lord-Relictor, Seker Gravewalker and his Lord-Castellant, Taros Nine-Strike. A barbarian chieftain before his Reforging, Zephacleas still thinks (and fights) like the man he was, rather than the godly weapon he’s become, hurling himself into the enemy at the head of his warriors. In a way, he’s among the most human of Sigmar’s Chosen.

Perhaps that’s why it’s been his fate to find himself fighting alongside so many of Sigmar’s ancient allies…the Sylvaneth, the Seraphon, and now, the Orruks. Indeed, out of all of Sigmar’s champions, he’s probably the perfect one to send looking for the so-called Fist of Gork…

I’d like to write more about Zephacleas and the Beast-Bane in the future, should the opportunity arise, and sales warrant. There are so many stories yet to tell…the Liberation of Fiendforge, the Unification of the Clawtribes, the Search for the Eight Lamentations, the Worm-War, not to mention Zephacleas’ reunion with his old friend, Gardus Steel-Soul…

The Realmgate Wars: Fury of Gork is available in hardback and as an ebook. It’s also available as an ultra-swanky exclusive edition, should you feel like splurging a bit.