Michael Eging's Blog: The Silver Horn Echoes and Assorted Other Tales - Posts Tagged "dragons"

This past week, I was the spotlight author for the Rave Reviews Book Club. I've been hesitant to begin blogging for the singular reason that I've too little time to begin with as I rewrite projects, produce a film and try to participate in raising my children.

But I found the experience with the club and the interactions with fellow writers, interested readers and my own thoughts to be a lot of fun. And besides, marketing is marketing, right? So, please consider this the beginning of my blogging. We'll see where it goes.


Also, I've just released a short story, "What's In A Name?" as part of a collection that I intend to publish over the next year. Tales of the Lost Horizon will go a variety of directions and I hope you'll stick around for the ride!

What's In A Name?: Tales from the Lost Horizon

First star to the right and straight on til morning!

I was recently talking with my daughter who related to me some of my own stories created and written when she was a young child. She has since graduated from college and is now living and working far from home. The time she recalls occurred when my wife and I were still in college. During that time, I was excited by the worlds opened to me through my study of medieval history and English. As a writer, it was one of the most productive periods of my life, writing short stories and poetry that filled late 1980's era hard drives. We traveled from Utah to attend graduate school at the University of Maryland, College Park to study with a preeminent scholar of Byzantine and early Russian history. And all the while, I wrote.

In the evening, I would spin tales for her and her brother of worlds far from our own, populated by lost kings, intrepid elves and paladin knights. Many of those stories sprung from my imagination, others from the pages of Tolkien, Lewis and Alexander. Each character had unique voices and I tried to find those voices, often to their delight. Giants with craggly deep voices, brave heroes with stolid, confident voices, etc. Usually my feeble efforts dissolved into laughter, yet we discovered worlds beyond our own within those pages.

Last night, my son wrestled with an assignment focused on Quixote where the author of an article postulated that changing the author (Cervantes) altered the depth and perspective of the work, even if the words remained exactly the same. I asked him, if you didn't know the author had changed - does it even matter - for the story remains. I postulated that possibly the reader has greater power over the written page by bringing imagination to the effort. The power to speak in different voices, imagine faces and identify unique ticks and place characters in fully developed lands even more fantastical than what the page conveys.

My children still remember stories told to them with my very rudimentary acting abilities. But what I thought to be just a father's attempts had became magical memories to them. They remind me of them as I wrestle with rewrites of rewrites. To them, the hard work was already done. They have imagined the worlds already. It's now upon dad to share them with all of you. Lessons I've learned from my children.

What's In A Name?: Tales from the Lost Horizon

Over the past few weeks, a few posts/reviews of my short story What's In A Name? expressed the sentiment that this short story should be expanded and written as a novel.

Of course, such responses to an epic fantasy short made me think about why I love short stories and chose to wrote this piece as a short, rather than a novel.

I cut my teeth as a kid reading Robert E. Howard, Michael Moorcock and Ray Bradbury short stories. These shorts were at times epic in nature - full of world building, fantastic situations, monsters, lore, etc. Some were set in far future worlds, others in the more mundane present or realities scattered across the multiverse. The decision to write What's In A Name? as a short story began with the very conception of the tale.

The story started for a college class. The challenge at the time was to create a character in which growth would be seen throughout the short story arc. Vondrall of course became that central character who grew from an unseasoned officer to someone who would inspire his comrades by the end of the short story. The short story format provided a focused palate where he could shine. Thus the nature of the quest, the selection of the company, the journey across the world, etc. really are just background for the growth of the character which occurs in the pages of the short story.

I rewrote the short story extensively over the last year. This time, there was another layer to the short story that developed in a very focused sense. The journey of a young, inexperienced leader who finds faith and light while struggling against ultimate darkness. Again, as a short story, this element becomes a contrast with the character who, by his own acclamation, should have emerged victoriously from the quest.

Short stories are very different than novels. They are intensely polished for story arc, character development and word selection. Each element woven into the story serves a purpose because the length inherently doesn't always provide page space for novel length explorations. What's In A Name? immerses you into a world as ambitious as those contained in Howard's Cimmerian or Moorcock's Eternal Champion shorts. The journey is much more focused than a novel. On purpose. Elements that stand out in the current story may have been lost or muted in a novel. Writing this short piece actually allowed me great freedom to tell Vondrall's tale. Because of the length, I could focus on humor, character interactions that filled in back story and drove the narrative ahead. Then with streamlined construction, I hope the comparison between two lead characters comes into sharp focus by the end of the tale.

I like to think I'm a capable storyteller, able to take the material and write a novel from it. I've done that with Annwyn's Blood, which also began as a brief vampire short story then exploded into a fully developed novel. However, I'm not sure I will do that with this tale. I am very flattered with the desire to expand the story. At present, I'm already sketching a follow-up short story, set in the same world and re-examining the impact of the events chronicled in What's In A Name?

Would the story be better served as a novel? I'll leave you to be the judge of that.

Thank you to everyone who has downloaded and enjoyed this short story. For those of you who haven't read it yet, here is the link!

What's In A Name?

My daughter, who encouraged me to start this, is cheering me on to release another short from Tales of the Lost Horizon so stay tuned. I am excited to share them with you.