Donny Swords's Blog, page 2
October 22, 2014
R.A. McCandless: 9 Heroes: Interview 2
R.A. McCandless9 Questions: 9 Heroes(Exploring Heroic Fantasy's 9 Heroes)
Buy Welcome to Nine Heroes: Interview 2. I am doing a string of articles related to Heroic Fantasy's Nine Heroes. This interview is with R.A. McCandless, whose "Through the sting of Fairy Smoke" closes the book in a rather rewarding way. Here is an excerpt from my review of
Nine Heroes:
Through the Sting of Fairy Smoke by R.A. McCandless:
"This story, centered on Pel Rogue is a fantastic story, written with savvy and style. I particularly enjoyed that this was the closing story, because it had the strength to end the Nine Heroes collection on a high note. This author, like the company he keeps should have a bright future." Describe your hero, or heroes.Pel Rogue is a Servant, a peace officer, warrior, judge and executioner rolled into one. Servants train constantly, in the same manner as men-at-arms or samurai, so that they’re prepared if they find themselves in a fight. They patrol the provinces, enforcing the laws, and making certain the taxes are paid on time. Tell us about your character in 9 heroes.
Pel has suffered what most of us can relate to—heartache. Even though he’s a Servant, he wasn’t prepared for the emotional suffering, and he’s allowed it to consume him. For years he’s used H alcohol and “fairy smoke” to deaden the pain in his head, all the while not realizing what it’s done to him as an individual and as a Servant. The question is, can he overcome these obvious personal and physical issues? What type of setting did you place your story in?Dojito Il Wvermas Sig Collyn. We hold the Peace of Nations. This is the Servants’ motto. The Nations were carved out of the Years of Chaos and are bound together by the Peace. They rely heavily upon the Servants to maintain it. What inspired your story?It seems that everyone suffers through a heart break and heartache at some point in their life. Some of us are lucky enough to get to do it more than once. “Through the Sting of Fairy Smoke” started out as one of those stories, a way to express that kind of emotion, and carry it through a character who couldn’t let it go. Is your story a part of a broader work or series?Most of my stories find their way into one of the larger works at some point or other. At this time, “Through the Sting of Fairy Smoke” is a standalone. In four lines, tell us about your story. Life is as dark and bleak as we will let it. But we can always make it worse. Making it better takes effort. Pel Rogue is about to learn just how much and see if he can rise again. Which, besides your own is your favorite story? I don’t think I had a favorite in the whole anthology. They were all different, and yet the theme was conveyed to well “Tales of heroic fantasy”. Jesse Duckworth’s “To Kill a Myth” stuck in my head though. There was a real visceral quality to the characters and the plot that I enjoyed greatly, and I loved the title. How many of the other authors in Nine Heroes have you read?It seemed only fair to read them all, and they were all enjoyable. Would you make another anthology with Heroic Fantasy? Oh, absolutely. In fact, two of my works will appear in anthologies later this year. The “In Shambles” anthology with Kevin J. Anderson will see my short story, “And Into a Watery Grave”, and “Gears, Gadgets and Steam” will have my “Grenadiers and Dragon’s Fire”. I’m very excited for both anthologies to release, and I had so much fun writing both stories, that I was able to grow an entire concept for a novel out of the process. Constable Aubrey Hartmann will keep the peace, track down evil-doers, and battle bad-guys both mortal and far for the fair folk of Aqualinne! R.A. McCandless has been a writer both professionally and creatively for nearly two decades. He was born under a wandering star that led to a degree in Communication and English with a focus on creative writing. He is the author of the urban fantasy novel “Tears of Heaven” and “Hell Become Her” (due 2015). His short stories have appeared in “Nine Heroes: Tales of Heroic Fantasy”, “In Shambles” and “Gears, Gadgets and Steam”. He continues to research and write historical and genre fiction, battle sprinklers, and play with his three boys. Author of “Tears of Heaven”—People think they want to meet and angel, but they really don’t.
http://www.amazon.com/Tears-Heaven-RA-McCandless-ebook/dp/B00H4IBDSE/
Read the first two chapters from my website: http://robroymccandless.wix.com/ramccandless
Don't miss out on this one: Lulu Paperback Kindle
Buy Welcome to Nine Heroes: Interview 2. I am doing a string of articles related to Heroic Fantasy's Nine Heroes. This interview is with R.A. McCandless, whose "Through the sting of Fairy Smoke" closes the book in a rather rewarding way. Here is an excerpt from my review of
Nine Heroes:
Through the Sting of Fairy Smoke by R.A. McCandless:
"This story, centered on Pel Rogue is a fantastic story, written with savvy and style. I particularly enjoyed that this was the closing story, because it had the strength to end the Nine Heroes collection on a high note. This author, like the company he keeps should have a bright future." Describe your hero, or heroes.Pel Rogue is a Servant, a peace officer, warrior, judge and executioner rolled into one. Servants train constantly, in the same manner as men-at-arms or samurai, so that they’re prepared if they find themselves in a fight. They patrol the provinces, enforcing the laws, and making certain the taxes are paid on time. Tell us about your character in 9 heroes.
Pel has suffered what most of us can relate to—heartache. Even though he’s a Servant, he wasn’t prepared for the emotional suffering, and he’s allowed it to consume him. For years he’s used H alcohol and “fairy smoke” to deaden the pain in his head, all the while not realizing what it’s done to him as an individual and as a Servant. The question is, can he overcome these obvious personal and physical issues? What type of setting did you place your story in?Dojito Il Wvermas Sig Collyn. We hold the Peace of Nations. This is the Servants’ motto. The Nations were carved out of the Years of Chaos and are bound together by the Peace. They rely heavily upon the Servants to maintain it. What inspired your story?It seems that everyone suffers through a heart break and heartache at some point in their life. Some of us are lucky enough to get to do it more than once. “Through the Sting of Fairy Smoke” started out as one of those stories, a way to express that kind of emotion, and carry it through a character who couldn’t let it go. Is your story a part of a broader work or series?Most of my stories find their way into one of the larger works at some point or other. At this time, “Through the Sting of Fairy Smoke” is a standalone. In four lines, tell us about your story. Life is as dark and bleak as we will let it. But we can always make it worse. Making it better takes effort. Pel Rogue is about to learn just how much and see if he can rise again. Which, besides your own is your favorite story? I don’t think I had a favorite in the whole anthology. They were all different, and yet the theme was conveyed to well “Tales of heroic fantasy”. Jesse Duckworth’s “To Kill a Myth” stuck in my head though. There was a real visceral quality to the characters and the plot that I enjoyed greatly, and I loved the title. How many of the other authors in Nine Heroes have you read?It seemed only fair to read them all, and they were all enjoyable. Would you make another anthology with Heroic Fantasy? Oh, absolutely. In fact, two of my works will appear in anthologies later this year. The “In Shambles” anthology with Kevin J. Anderson will see my short story, “And Into a Watery Grave”, and “Gears, Gadgets and Steam” will have my “Grenadiers and Dragon’s Fire”. I’m very excited for both anthologies to release, and I had so much fun writing both stories, that I was able to grow an entire concept for a novel out of the process. Constable Aubrey Hartmann will keep the peace, track down evil-doers, and battle bad-guys both mortal and far for the fair folk of Aqualinne! R.A. McCandless has been a writer both professionally and creatively for nearly two decades. He was born under a wandering star that led to a degree in Communication and English with a focus on creative writing. He is the author of the urban fantasy novel “Tears of Heaven” and “Hell Become Her” (due 2015). His short stories have appeared in “Nine Heroes: Tales of Heroic Fantasy”, “In Shambles” and “Gears, Gadgets and Steam”. He continues to research and write historical and genre fiction, battle sprinklers, and play with his three boys. Author of “Tears of Heaven”—People think they want to meet and angel, but they really don’t.http://www.amazon.com/Tears-Heaven-RA-McCandless-ebook/dp/B00H4IBDSE/
Read the first two chapters from my website: http://robroymccandless.wix.com/ramccandless
Don't miss out on this one: Lulu Paperback Kindle
October 21, 2014
A.L. Butcher :9 Heroes: Interview 1
A.L. Butcher 9 Questions: 9 Heroes(Exploring Heroic Fantasy's 9 Heroes)
Buy Hello. I thought it might be fun to dig deeper into Nine Heroes: Tales of Heroic Fantasy. This is interview 1, with A.L. Butcher. Her contribution Just one Mistake is fantastic on it own, but within this anthology it serves as the mortar of a grand design... Here is what she had to say. Here is an excerpt from my review of
Nine Heroes:
Just one mistake by A.L. Butcher:
"Placed within her Light Beyond the Storm Chronicles, this story is an absolute gem. A.L. Butcher turns a phrase like a pro. Coel commits an act that opens up an adventure worth reading." Describe your hero, or heroes.
Coel is a human bard. He is charming, good looking with long blond hair and green eyes… and he is a desperate fellow.
Tell us about your character in 9 heroes.
My character features in Just One Mistake. Coel is basically a good man, but due to a mistake in his past, which is never entirely explained in this story, he is on the run and living on his wits and his music. He works in a low-life tavern, playing his rebec for whores and drunks, and supplementing his income with petty thieving, a crime for which he could be hanged if caught. A man has to eat, however. After stealing a valuable ring from a patron he finds himself in an even deeper predicament, and must use all his skill to extract himself and thwart a man who profits from the sale of flesh – for slavery is rife in the land. He cannot turn to what passes for law and so he lives beyond the law as best he can, and gives thanks for each day he has. I suppose he is trying to atone for his mistake.
What type of setting did you place your story in?
BuyIt is set in Erana, a fantasy world. Magic is illegal, the land is ruled harshly and many live beyond the law.
What inspired your story?
The minstrel is a fun character and the situation in which he finds himself is typical of the world in which he lives. Coel is not your general hero. He is not a warrior, although he knows a bit of swordplay, as many young men of his upbringing would. He is not particularly brave, but he will risk his safety for others if he needs to. He is, except for his music, a fairly ordinary fellow, but sometimes the world needs an ordinary man or woman to BE a hero.
Is your story a part of a broader work or series?
Just One Mistake is part of the Tales of Erana series , which in turn is a subseries to The Light Beyond the Storm Chronicles.
In four lines, tell us about your story.
A desperate man becomes a reluctant hero, is given a task he cannot refuse and finds he is a good man despite his past. A shadowy figure shows the world who runs the city. An unhappy woman gets revenge on her greedy husband. A slaver is made to look a fool.
Which, besides your own is your favorite story?
I liked Black Sword, Dozen, and No Life Too Small, but honestly they are all great stories.
How many of the other authors in Nine Heroes have you read?
Walter Rhein, Janet Morris and I have the others to read.
Would you make another anthology with Heroic Fantasy? Yes, of course. It is a great selection of authors and a good group of members on the forum. A.L. Butcher is on Amazon.You may also find her in The Indie Collaboration Presents: Tales From Darker Places: Here
Buy Hello. I thought it might be fun to dig deeper into Nine Heroes: Tales of Heroic Fantasy. This is interview 1, with A.L. Butcher. Her contribution Just one Mistake is fantastic on it own, but within this anthology it serves as the mortar of a grand design... Here is what she had to say. Here is an excerpt from my review of
Nine Heroes:
Just one mistake by A.L. Butcher:
"Placed within her Light Beyond the Storm Chronicles, this story is an absolute gem. A.L. Butcher turns a phrase like a pro. Coel commits an act that opens up an adventure worth reading." Describe your hero, or heroes.
Coel is a human bard. He is charming, good looking with long blond hair and green eyes… and he is a desperate fellow.
Tell us about your character in 9 heroes.
My character features in Just One Mistake. Coel is basically a good man, but due to a mistake in his past, which is never entirely explained in this story, he is on the run and living on his wits and his music. He works in a low-life tavern, playing his rebec for whores and drunks, and supplementing his income with petty thieving, a crime for which he could be hanged if caught. A man has to eat, however. After stealing a valuable ring from a patron he finds himself in an even deeper predicament, and must use all his skill to extract himself and thwart a man who profits from the sale of flesh – for slavery is rife in the land. He cannot turn to what passes for law and so he lives beyond the law as best he can, and gives thanks for each day he has. I suppose he is trying to atone for his mistake.
What type of setting did you place your story in?
BuyIt is set in Erana, a fantasy world. Magic is illegal, the land is ruled harshly and many live beyond the law. What inspired your story?
The minstrel is a fun character and the situation in which he finds himself is typical of the world in which he lives. Coel is not your general hero. He is not a warrior, although he knows a bit of swordplay, as many young men of his upbringing would. He is not particularly brave, but he will risk his safety for others if he needs to. He is, except for his music, a fairly ordinary fellow, but sometimes the world needs an ordinary man or woman to BE a hero.
Is your story a part of a broader work or series?
Just One Mistake is part of the Tales of Erana series , which in turn is a subseries to The Light Beyond the Storm Chronicles.
In four lines, tell us about your story.
A desperate man becomes a reluctant hero, is given a task he cannot refuse and finds he is a good man despite his past. A shadowy figure shows the world who runs the city. An unhappy woman gets revenge on her greedy husband. A slaver is made to look a fool.
Which, besides your own is your favorite story?
I liked Black Sword, Dozen, and No Life Too Small, but honestly they are all great stories.
How many of the other authors in Nine Heroes have you read?
Walter Rhein, Janet Morris and I have the others to read.
Would you make another anthology with Heroic Fantasy? Yes, of course. It is a great selection of authors and a good group of members on the forum. A.L. Butcher is on Amazon.You may also find her in The Indie Collaboration Presents: Tales From Darker Places: Here
A.L. Butcher :9 Heroes: Interview 1
A.L. Butcher 9 Questions: 9 Heroes(Exploring Heroic Fantasy's 9 Heroes)
Buy Hello. I thought it might be fun to dig deeper into Nine Heroes: Tales of Heroic Fantasy. This is interview 1, with A.L. Butcher. Her contribution Just one Mistake is fantastic on it own, but within this anthology it serves as the mortar of a grand design... Here is what she had to say. Here is an excerpt from my review of
Nine Heroes:
Just one mistake by A.L. Butcher:
"Placed within her Light Beyond the Storm Chronicles, this story is an absolute gem. A.L. Butcher turns a phrase like a pro. Coel commits an act that opens up an adventure worth reading." Describe your hero, or heroes.
Coel is a human bard. He is charming, good looking with long blond hair and green eyes… and he is a desperate fellow. Tell us about your character in 9 heroes. My character features in Just One Mistake. Coel is basically a good man, but due to a mistake in his past, which is never entirely explained in this story, he is on the run and living on his wits and his music. He works in a low-life tavern, playing his rebec for whores and drunks, and supplementing his income with petty thieving, a crime for which he could be hanged if caught. A man has to eat, however. After stealing a valuable ring from a patron he finds himself in an even deeper predicament, and must use all his skill to extract himself and thwart a man who profits from the sale of flesh – for slavery is rife in the land. He cannot turn to what passes for law and so he lives beyond the law as best he can, and gives thanks for each day he has. I suppose he is trying to atone for his mistake. What type of setting did you place your story in?
Buy It is set in Erana, a fantasy world. Magic is illegal, the land is ruled harshly and many live beyond the law. What inspired your story? The minstrel is a fun character and the situation in which he finds himself is typical of the world in which he lives. Coel is not your general hero. He is not a warrior, although he knows a bit of swordplay, as many young men of his upbringing would. He is not particularly brave, but he will risk his safety for others if he needs to. He is, except for his music, a fairly ordinary fellow, but sometimes the world needs an ordinary man or woman to BE a hero. Is your story a part of a broader work or series? Just One Mistake is part of the Tales of Erana series, which in turn is a subseries to The Light Beyond the Storm Chronicles. In four lines, tell us about your story. A desperate man becomes a reluctant hero, is given a task he cannot refuse and finds he is a good man despite his past. A shadowy figure shows the world who runs the city. An unhappy woman gets revenge on her greedy husband. A slaver is made to look a fool. Which, besides your own is your favorite story? I liked Black Sword, Dozen, and No Life Too Small, but honestly they are all great stories. How many of the other authors in Nine Heroes have you read? Walter Rhein, Janet Morris and I have the others to read.
Would you make another anthology with Heroic Fantasy? Yes, of course. It is a great selection of authors and a good group of members on the forum. A.L. Butcher is on Amazon.You may also find her in The Indie Collaboration Presents: Tales From Darker Places: Here
Buy Hello. I thought it might be fun to dig deeper into Nine Heroes: Tales of Heroic Fantasy. This is interview 1, with A.L. Butcher. Her contribution Just one Mistake is fantastic on it own, but within this anthology it serves as the mortar of a grand design... Here is what she had to say. Here is an excerpt from my review of
Nine Heroes:
Just one mistake by A.L. Butcher:
"Placed within her Light Beyond the Storm Chronicles, this story is an absolute gem. A.L. Butcher turns a phrase like a pro. Coel commits an act that opens up an adventure worth reading." Describe your hero, or heroes.
Coel is a human bard. He is charming, good looking with long blond hair and green eyes… and he is a desperate fellow. Tell us about your character in 9 heroes. My character features in Just One Mistake. Coel is basically a good man, but due to a mistake in his past, which is never entirely explained in this story, he is on the run and living on his wits and his music. He works in a low-life tavern, playing his rebec for whores and drunks, and supplementing his income with petty thieving, a crime for which he could be hanged if caught. A man has to eat, however. After stealing a valuable ring from a patron he finds himself in an even deeper predicament, and must use all his skill to extract himself and thwart a man who profits from the sale of flesh – for slavery is rife in the land. He cannot turn to what passes for law and so he lives beyond the law as best he can, and gives thanks for each day he has. I suppose he is trying to atone for his mistake. What type of setting did you place your story in?
Buy It is set in Erana, a fantasy world. Magic is illegal, the land is ruled harshly and many live beyond the law. What inspired your story? The minstrel is a fun character and the situation in which he finds himself is typical of the world in which he lives. Coel is not your general hero. He is not a warrior, although he knows a bit of swordplay, as many young men of his upbringing would. He is not particularly brave, but he will risk his safety for others if he needs to. He is, except for his music, a fairly ordinary fellow, but sometimes the world needs an ordinary man or woman to BE a hero. Is your story a part of a broader work or series? Just One Mistake is part of the Tales of Erana series, which in turn is a subseries to The Light Beyond the Storm Chronicles. In four lines, tell us about your story. A desperate man becomes a reluctant hero, is given a task he cannot refuse and finds he is a good man despite his past. A shadowy figure shows the world who runs the city. An unhappy woman gets revenge on her greedy husband. A slaver is made to look a fool. Which, besides your own is your favorite story? I liked Black Sword, Dozen, and No Life Too Small, but honestly they are all great stories. How many of the other authors in Nine Heroes have you read? Walter Rhein, Janet Morris and I have the others to read. Would you make another anthology with Heroic Fantasy? Yes, of course. It is a great selection of authors and a good group of members on the forum. A.L. Butcher is on Amazon.You may also find her in The Indie Collaboration Presents: Tales From Darker Places: Here
October 17, 2014
About Darker Places: (The Indie Collaboration Presents: A chilling horror anthology)
Darker Places
Dark places, where even in the brightest day things unimaginable hide. Those hallowed hells, pits of ruin found not only in nature, but also in men. Within the recesses of the mind, we find them. In hearts, they linger. They fester in thoughts, and grow with deeds. Ebon and foul, unholy and scorned, they prosper through despair, with desperate longings, through unrequited love.
No one truly fathoms where sorrow takes the mind, where anger drives it, or where hopelessness leads it. We are all unique, similar but wholly different, wonderment, and despicable.
All we need is a catalyst to set us forth. Oh the shadows we could see, the dark places we would know, not only in our hearts, but also in the world, above and below. What drives one man to the brink of insanity is another’s breezy day…
Free on
Lulu
Welcome, I bid you welcome. Let’s talk nightmares. Shall we? I am proud to announce the Lulu, Kindle, & trade paperback versions of The Indie Collaboration Presents: Tales from Darker Places: A chilling horror anthology!
Synopsis: A selection of chilling stories from some of the best Indie authors on the market. We dare you to venture into these pages of spine chilling tales and stories of dark shadows & darker tidings, shifters, ancient warriors, zombies, & demons… See the world through the Ripper’s eyes, and so much more. So many dark, foul things wait for you between these pages. Freely donated by the authors themselves, these dark passages are a great example of their various, unique styles and imaginations.
Join us in Darker Places.
Brought to you by The Indie Collaboration .
A bit of backstory. I know- I ramble, I’ll try to be brief…
I was invited to join the Indie Collaboration early this year. It has proved to be an awesome exercise for my writing, and has gotten me a few allies I have truly enjoyed working with. I was excited to join and I am proud of our work together. I hope to continue to work with these authors at Primal Publications, where I plan to coordinate the release of two anthologies next year.
Together, we have produced four volumes since my introduction to the group. The first I was part of is a truly unique children’s s edition, Snips, Snails, and Puppy Dog Tale s. Then came the often overlooked gem Summer Shorts.
Boots? My contribution to the 5th The Indie Collaboration Presents series, is not a story that is alike my usual fare. It does not contain a single death.
Then came Spectacular Tales: the Sci-Fi Edition. My story, Sparks , is one I am really fond of. It stars Ufburk, a Barbarian who discovers something within the wreckage of an alien Starfighter vessel. Give them all a read, they are FREE on Smashwords.
But this post isn’t about those cool anthologies. Nope.
I had the itch right away. I spoke up, and offered to do a sequel to The Indie Collaboration’s Dark Places: The Halloween Edition . It is important to note that Dark Places veterans Chris Raven and Alan Hardy return in Darker Places: A chilling horror anthology. Their stories bring significant weight to what I feel is a heavy hitting volume. Everyone was so encouraging. So here we are.
I wrote my three stories earlier this year, before the run of various platform releases of my books in eBooks and trade paperbacks. I love all of them. As a group, I recalled us deciding that Dark Places, my story, should kick things off, so this is how it starts.
When most the stories were in, I suggested we try a fresh format. I call this my “Morgod” format, as this is how I formatted Ways of the Stygia Cult of Morgod . I’m proud to say the format functions and looks excellent.
Of the stories involved, I have read every word, and cherished many of them, cringing at some as I edited them. When the first of these stories started coming in, Chris Raven’s Wormshead Manuscript really encouraged me, I knew then this would be as great a book as it is. It really came together well. Chris’ other offering The Sham continues the C.R. tradition of solid, readable tales, that deliver. A.L. Butcher’s So many nights, So many sins is a significant gesture within the book, but coupled with Blade in the Night, A tale of Jack the Ripper? Oh Lord. This is the grit of ebon night gone foul with beauty in scarlet death, dealt by two noteworthy villainous characters.
Alan Hardy’s story will shake you out of balance. It is a darkly disturbing story that feels real enough to discomfort even the most calloused. Though Alan’s prose sings throughout to such an extent that Double becomes one to remember.
Adam Bigden’s Where? Was a justifiable follow-up to Alan Hardy’s Double . Well written and revealing, and of course dark.
Dani J Caile, from Hungary, is a cool writer. First out of the gate is, A day in the life of a Zombie, This story was the last to arrive, as I was formatting the paperback and designing the cover no less, and was worth waiting for. It was the icing on the cake- exactly what we needed, for balance’s sake. Read it, I think you’ll love it. His catchy story Payback is a fantastic way to close a great read.
My stories, Dark Places , (see excerpt), The Cleansing Bar , & Sandra are definitely fun. I found it exhilarating to show restraint, while maintaining the ability to scare at least a few folks.
Dark Places begins with another member of the Baldric Family ... You may recall Dietrich , Helen’s father from my novel The Bitter Ends . I often do this, have recurring characters such as the Baldric’s , Lilith , or her sister Jezebel peppered throughout my stories. In my new free release on Lulu, (also available for under $5 in paperback) 7 Slices , the final story, Only a dream away is related to the Bitter Ends franchise as well, though the main character, Edwin Taft is no Baldric.
My main point is that several of my novels and characters are a part of either The Bitter Ends landscape or my Ways of the Stygia universe. The Cleansing Bar’s character Terra, appears in the The Vampire Faus, Dragon Stone , which takes place in 200 B.C. Faus is linked to Kain, from WotS. The Cleansing Bar is the opening segment to my novel Favor of the Gods. FotG will release in 2015.
Sandra is a pre-view story from my upcoming flesh eater/character driven short story novel- The Bitter Ends, Other Side of Town . Expect plenty of dark zombie action…
As for Tales From Darker Places , the book is a gem, and it was a pleasure to have a hand in producing it. I do think you’ll love it, and pray it frightens you…
In closing, I am going to say you have nothing to lose and everything to gain by reading this collection- except possibly a wink of sleep or two. Though this is the season for scary. We would love for you to give Darker Places a read through.
Thanks again for reading,
Donny Swords
Want to know more? Here is a linkto A.L. Butcher’s article on Darker Places .For Kindle version click Here
Get
Paperback
October 3, 2014
WotS Fallen Song: A Void Feature.
Ways of the StygiaFallen Song Concepts:
Buy for .99 on NookFallen Song. I hesitated to write this article. For the longest time I sat on the idea. How was I going to write anything about Ways of the Stygia- Book 2 without spoilers? After all the title is somewhat a spoiler in and of itself.
I'm going to say this, Fallen Song is essentially two novels in one... Combining the first and third aspects lent weight to the segments. Sometimes the narrative, given us through the voice of the enigmatic Thomas Van Pelt drives the story. At other times you see the Character's lives, and know how they feel about their actions.
In my last few Ways of the Stygia articles, I focused mostly on the freshly released Ways of the Stygia Book 1: Cult of Morgod, and it characters. Rest assured I shall return to Morgod in upcoming articles.
You might have caught that. Morgod, just released, is Book 1. C.o.M. is in effect a prequel to Fallen Song. Because of Thomas' scope alone, several more of these "prequels" could potentially be written.
It doesn't matter.
The most important thing to remember about the Ways of the Stygia universe is that you do not have to read the books in any particular order. If you want to a guarantee, read the books in the order they were first released. Reading Banner significantly enhances the Cult of Morgod plotline, where Banner is involved. If I were to read all three available WotS books, it would be Banner, then Book 1&2.
Reading Fallen Song is different. It's troubling. It's dark. It's chock-full of wisdom. There's a lot of light. It will shock you. I wrote it that way. Not for some cheap thrill, but because I do have methods to my madness. One thing I do is take a feeling I have, give it and situations to my character, and then blow it all out of proportion. I felt consuming loss during 2012-13 when I wrote the novel.
Buy eBook for .99 on AmazonOf my novels, Fallen Song is the one I had to edit several times over, as I learned and began to peel away my mistakes so I could reveal the story. When I revised Fallen Song, I stripped away the fat, getting to the bones of the story. I looked at several of my early paragraphs and re-wrote them entirely. The Fallen Song that is on the market today has been re-written by around 65% of it's total word count. Even so, the story was sublime to start with, and now it is an epic. It is an accomplishment for me. I had never released my writing publicly before Fallen Song. I learned everything I needed to know writing F.S.
It shocked me when it was selling so swiftly. It sells regardless of what my other books are doing. Not always a bunch of copies, but it moves a few units once in awhile. It hasn't gotten a ton of reviews. One person had the gall to compare Fallen Song to Robocop after reading approximately 8% of the novel, but that was not a highlight. Seth Lindberg said, "Fallen Song is a modern day Stormbringer for Horror fans!" Shane Porteous called it "Bloody but brilliant."
I often have no idea what to think of Fallen Song, I do know it's made me laugh and even cry every time I've edited the novel. It's emerged as shiny as the quintessential Fallen Song herself.
Often I wonder how someone could read a novel like Fallen Song and "catch everything.". Truth is it's not that hard to overload on the info involved.
If it's so complex, why should I read it?
I will make you this promise. If you read Fallen Song start to finish you will be entertained. This is a story you haven't read. Ever. It will make you beg for resolution, and every time you find an answer, the questions will change.
Until the end- which satisfies.
Thomas' shifting emotions, and internal darkness mirrored my own, in huger proportions, given who he is. His actions did not mirror my own. I let Thomas decide who he was. He came onto the page magically. I started to feel that magic around the point where Thomas has his first flashback memory. There was something bigger inside him, That is what he became. But who is he? As the story begins unfolding, he doesn't know either. You find out when he does. The eventual truth will widen your mind.
Characters of significance:
Click
here
for
Author's CutThe Few: Thomas, Franco, & Henry. Serena, Lucrettia, Stephan, Kain, Tyrrell, Darrel, & Uncle, Nonyl, Saverus, and Ragnar. Banner makes a brief appearance as well, but it is not nearly as large as his thread in the Morgod storyline.
Fallen Song is about Thomas, his self discoveries. It is through him that the WotS universe becomes plausible in a way.
I'm not going to say Fallen Song isn't fantasy. Some of these things might happen in a universe such as this one where demons, stalkers, and the devil are very real, where worse yet is around every bend. Where heroes are flawed, full of righteous rage and passion. Where deities spread the Stygian curse throughout the Seven Realms, which we will explore in the next article.
Battles:
For the Amazon Prime Ed. Click HereFallen Song is as packed with action as it is with Thomas' introspection, and self-growth. Savishelm and Sistinal (In the Barrens) appear in these sequences.
Get it for .99 on
Kobo
Enough here. I've run out of non-spoiler material. At this point, I'd recommend the book.
So in closing, I hope you were able to learn something you did not previously know concerning Ways of the Stygia Fallen Song (Book Two) . Fallen Song is available in Print as two editions, (I'd recommend the Author's Cut for uniformity if you are collecting the complete series) and a substantial value on eBook, at 99. I hope you do read it. It is darker than you'd expect, so to quote Janet Morris, "Buckle Up" Fallen Song is intended for mature audiences.
Thanks again for all your support, Donny Swords
Buy for .99 on NookFallen Song. I hesitated to write this article. For the longest time I sat on the idea. How was I going to write anything about Ways of the Stygia- Book 2 without spoilers? After all the title is somewhat a spoiler in and of itself.I'm going to say this, Fallen Song is essentially two novels in one... Combining the first and third aspects lent weight to the segments. Sometimes the narrative, given us through the voice of the enigmatic Thomas Van Pelt drives the story. At other times you see the Character's lives, and know how they feel about their actions.
In my last few Ways of the Stygia articles, I focused mostly on the freshly released Ways of the Stygia Book 1: Cult of Morgod, and it characters. Rest assured I shall return to Morgod in upcoming articles.
You might have caught that. Morgod, just released, is Book 1. C.o.M. is in effect a prequel to Fallen Song. Because of Thomas' scope alone, several more of these "prequels" could potentially be written.
It doesn't matter.
The most important thing to remember about the Ways of the Stygia universe is that you do not have to read the books in any particular order. If you want to a guarantee, read the books in the order they were first released. Reading Banner significantly enhances the Cult of Morgod plotline, where Banner is involved. If I were to read all three available WotS books, it would be Banner, then Book 1&2.
Reading Fallen Song is different. It's troubling. It's dark. It's chock-full of wisdom. There's a lot of light. It will shock you. I wrote it that way. Not for some cheap thrill, but because I do have methods to my madness. One thing I do is take a feeling I have, give it and situations to my character, and then blow it all out of proportion. I felt consuming loss during 2012-13 when I wrote the novel.
Buy eBook for .99 on AmazonOf my novels, Fallen Song is the one I had to edit several times over, as I learned and began to peel away my mistakes so I could reveal the story. When I revised Fallen Song, I stripped away the fat, getting to the bones of the story. I looked at several of my early paragraphs and re-wrote them entirely. The Fallen Song that is on the market today has been re-written by around 65% of it's total word count. Even so, the story was sublime to start with, and now it is an epic. It is an accomplishment for me. I had never released my writing publicly before Fallen Song. I learned everything I needed to know writing F.S. It shocked me when it was selling so swiftly. It sells regardless of what my other books are doing. Not always a bunch of copies, but it moves a few units once in awhile. It hasn't gotten a ton of reviews. One person had the gall to compare Fallen Song to Robocop after reading approximately 8% of the novel, but that was not a highlight. Seth Lindberg said, "Fallen Song is a modern day Stormbringer for Horror fans!" Shane Porteous called it "Bloody but brilliant."
I often have no idea what to think of Fallen Song, I do know it's made me laugh and even cry every time I've edited the novel. It's emerged as shiny as the quintessential Fallen Song herself.
Often I wonder how someone could read a novel like Fallen Song and "catch everything.". Truth is it's not that hard to overload on the info involved.
If it's so complex, why should I read it?
I will make you this promise. If you read Fallen Song start to finish you will be entertained. This is a story you haven't read. Ever. It will make you beg for resolution, and every time you find an answer, the questions will change.
Until the end- which satisfies.
Thomas' shifting emotions, and internal darkness mirrored my own, in huger proportions, given who he is. His actions did not mirror my own. I let Thomas decide who he was. He came onto the page magically. I started to feel that magic around the point where Thomas has his first flashback memory. There was something bigger inside him, That is what he became. But who is he? As the story begins unfolding, he doesn't know either. You find out when he does. The eventual truth will widen your mind.
Characters of significance:
Click
here
for
Author's CutThe Few: Thomas, Franco, & Henry. Serena, Lucrettia, Stephan, Kain, Tyrrell, Darrel, & Uncle, Nonyl, Saverus, and Ragnar. Banner makes a brief appearance as well, but it is not nearly as large as his thread in the Morgod storyline. Fallen Song is about Thomas, his self discoveries. It is through him that the WotS universe becomes plausible in a way.
I'm not going to say Fallen Song isn't fantasy. Some of these things might happen in a universe such as this one where demons, stalkers, and the devil are very real, where worse yet is around every bend. Where heroes are flawed, full of righteous rage and passion. Where deities spread the Stygian curse throughout the Seven Realms, which we will explore in the next article.
Battles:
.jpg)
For the Amazon Prime Ed. Click HereFallen Song is as packed with action as it is with Thomas' introspection, and self-growth. Savishelm and Sistinal (In the Barrens) appear in these sequences. .jpg)
Get it for .99 on
Kobo
Enough here. I've run out of non-spoiler material. At this point, I'd recommend the book.So in closing, I hope you were able to learn something you did not previously know concerning Ways of the Stygia Fallen Song (Book Two) . Fallen Song is available in Print as two editions, (I'd recommend the Author's Cut for uniformity if you are collecting the complete series) and a substantial value on eBook, at 99. I hope you do read it. It is darker than you'd expect, so to quote Janet Morris, "Buckle Up" Fallen Song is intended for mature audiences.
Thanks again for all your support, Donny Swords
WotS Fallen Song: A Void Feature.
Ways of the StygiaFallen Song Concepts:
Buy for .99 on NookFallen Song. I hesitated to write this article. For the longest time I sat on the idea. How was I going to write anything about Ways of the Stygia- Book 2 without spoilers? After all the title is somewhat a spoiler in and of itself.
I'm going to say this, Fallen Song is essentially two novels in one... Combining the first and third aspects lent weight to the segments. Sometimes the narrative, given us through the voice of the enigmatic Thomas Van Pelt drives the story. At other times you see the Character's lives, and know how they feel about their actions.
In my last few Ways of the Stygia articles, I focused mostly on the freshly released Ways of the Stygia Book 1: Cult of Morgod, and it characters. Rest assured I shall return to Morgod in upcoming articles.
You might have caught that. Morgod, just released, is Book 2. C.o.M. is in effect a prequel to Fallen Song. Because of Thomas' scope alone, several more of these "prequels" could potentially be written.
It doesn't matter.
The most important thing to remember about the Ways of the Stygia universe is that you do not have to read the books in any particular order. If you want to a guarantee, read the books in the order they were first released. Reading Banner significantly enhances the Cult of Morgod plotline, where Banner is involved. If I were to read all three available WotS books, it would be Banner, then Book 1&2.
Reading Fallen Song is different. It's troubling. It's dark. It's chock-full of wisdom. There's a lot of light. It will shock you. I wrote it that way. Not for some cheap thrill, but because I do have methods to my madness. One thing I do is take a feeling I have, give it and situations to my character, and then blow it all out of proportion. I felt consuming loss during 2012-13 when I wrote the novel.
Buy eBook for .99 on AmazonOf my novels, Fallen Song is the one I had to edit several times over, as I learned and began to peel away my mistakes so I could reveal the story. When I revised Fallen Song, I stripped away the fat, getting to the bones of the story. I looked at several of my early paragraphs and re-wrote them entirely. The Fallen Song that is on the market today has been re-written by around 65% of it's total word count. Even so, the story was sublime to start with, and now it is an epic. It is an accomplishment for me. I had never released my writing publicly before Fallen Song. I learned everything I needed to know writing F.S.
It shocked me when it was selling so swiftly. It sells regardless of what my other books are doing. Not always a bunch of copies, but it moves a few units once in awhile. It hasn't gotten a ton of reviews. One person had the gall to compare Fallen Song to Robocop after reading approximately 8% of the novel, but that was not a highlight. Seth Lindberg said, "Fallen Song is a modern day Stormbringer for Horror fans!" Shane Porteous called it "Bloody but brilliant."
I often have no idea what to think of Fallen Song, I do know it's made me laugh and even cry every time I've edited the novel. It's emerged as shiny as the quintessential Fallen Song herself.
Often I wonder how someone could read a novel like Fallen Song and "catch everything.". Truth is it's not that hard to overload on the info involved.
If it's so complex, why should I read it?
I will make you this promise. If you read Fallen Song start to finish you will be entertained. This is a story you haven't read. Ever. It will make you beg for resolution, and every time you find an answer, the questions will change.
Until the end- which satisfies.
Thomas' shifting emotions, and internal darkness mirrored my own, in huger proportions, given who he is. His actions did not mirror my own. I let Thomas decide who he was. He came onto the page magically. I started to feel that magic around the point where Thomas has his first flashback memory. There was something bigger inside him, That is what he became. But who is he? As the story begins unfolding, he doesn't know either. You find out when he does. The eventual truth will widen your mind.
Characters of significance:
Click
here
for
Author's CutThe Few: Thomas, Franco, & Henry. Serena, Lucrettia, Stephan, Kain, Tyrrell, Darrel, & Uncle, Nonyl, Saverus, and Ragnar. Banner makes a brief appearance as well, but it is not nearly as large as his thread in the Morgod storyline.
Fallen Song is about Thomas, his self discoveries. It is through him that the WotS universe becomes plausible in a way.
I'm not going to say Fallen Song isn't fantasy. Some of these things might happen in a universe such as this one where demons, stalkers, and the devil are very real, where worse yet is around every bend. Where heroes are flawed, full of righteous rage and passion. Where deities spread the Stygian curse throughout the Seven Realms, which we will explore in the next article.
Battles:
For the Amazon Prime Ed. Click HereFallen Song is as packed with action as it is with Thomas' introspection, and self-growth. Savishelm and Sistinal (In the Barrens) appear in these sequences.
Get it for .99 on
Kobo
Enough here. I've run out of non-spoiler material. At this point, I'd recommend the book.
So in closing, I hope you were able to learn something you did not previously know concerning Ways of the Stygia Fallen Song (Book Two) . Fallen Song is available in Print as two editions, (I'd recommend the Author's Cut for uniformity if you are collecting the complete series) and a substantial value on eBook, at 99. I hope you do read it. It is darker than you'd expect, so to quote Janet Morris, "Buckle Up" Fallen Song is intended for mature audiences.
Thanks again for all your support, Donny Swords
Buy for .99 on NookFallen Song. I hesitated to write this article. For the longest time I sat on the idea. How was I going to write anything about Ways of the Stygia- Book 2 without spoilers? After all the title is somewhat a spoiler in and of itself.I'm going to say this, Fallen Song is essentially two novels in one... Combining the first and third aspects lent weight to the segments. Sometimes the narrative, given us through the voice of the enigmatic Thomas Van Pelt drives the story. At other times you see the Character's lives, and know how they feel about their actions.
In my last few Ways of the Stygia articles, I focused mostly on the freshly released Ways of the Stygia Book 1: Cult of Morgod, and it characters. Rest assured I shall return to Morgod in upcoming articles.
You might have caught that. Morgod, just released, is Book 2. C.o.M. is in effect a prequel to Fallen Song. Because of Thomas' scope alone, several more of these "prequels" could potentially be written.
It doesn't matter.
The most important thing to remember about the Ways of the Stygia universe is that you do not have to read the books in any particular order. If you want to a guarantee, read the books in the order they were first released. Reading Banner significantly enhances the Cult of Morgod plotline, where Banner is involved. If I were to read all three available WotS books, it would be Banner, then Book 1&2.
Reading Fallen Song is different. It's troubling. It's dark. It's chock-full of wisdom. There's a lot of light. It will shock you. I wrote it that way. Not for some cheap thrill, but because I do have methods to my madness. One thing I do is take a feeling I have, give it and situations to my character, and then blow it all out of proportion. I felt consuming loss during 2012-13 when I wrote the novel.
Buy eBook for .99 on AmazonOf my novels, Fallen Song is the one I had to edit several times over, as I learned and began to peel away my mistakes so I could reveal the story. When I revised Fallen Song, I stripped away the fat, getting to the bones of the story. I looked at several of my early paragraphs and re-wrote them entirely. The Fallen Song that is on the market today has been re-written by around 65% of it's total word count. Even so, the story was sublime to start with, and now it is an epic. It is an accomplishment for me. I had never released my writing publicly before Fallen Song. I learned everything I needed to know writing F.S. It shocked me when it was selling so swiftly. It sells regardless of what my other books are doing. Not always a bunch of copies, but it moves a few units once in awhile. It hasn't gotten a ton of reviews. One person had the gall to compare Fallen Song to Robocop after reading approximately 8% of the novel, but that was not a highlight. Seth Lindberg said, "Fallen Song is a modern day Stormbringer for Horror fans!" Shane Porteous called it "Bloody but brilliant."
I often have no idea what to think of Fallen Song, I do know it's made me laugh and even cry every time I've edited the novel. It's emerged as shiny as the quintessential Fallen Song herself.
Often I wonder how someone could read a novel like Fallen Song and "catch everything.". Truth is it's not that hard to overload on the info involved.
If it's so complex, why should I read it?
I will make you this promise. If you read Fallen Song start to finish you will be entertained. This is a story you haven't read. Ever. It will make you beg for resolution, and every time you find an answer, the questions will change.
Until the end- which satisfies.
Thomas' shifting emotions, and internal darkness mirrored my own, in huger proportions, given who he is. His actions did not mirror my own. I let Thomas decide who he was. He came onto the page magically. I started to feel that magic around the point where Thomas has his first flashback memory. There was something bigger inside him, That is what he became. But who is he? As the story begins unfolding, he doesn't know either. You find out when he does. The eventual truth will widen your mind.
Characters of significance:
Click
here
for
Author's CutThe Few: Thomas, Franco, & Henry. Serena, Lucrettia, Stephan, Kain, Tyrrell, Darrel, & Uncle, Nonyl, Saverus, and Ragnar. Banner makes a brief appearance as well, but it is not nearly as large as his thread in the Morgod storyline. Fallen Song is about Thomas, his self discoveries. It is through him that the WotS universe becomes plausible in a way.
I'm not going to say Fallen Song isn't fantasy. Some of these things might happen in a universe such as this one where demons, stalkers, and the devil are very real, where worse yet is around every bend. Where heroes are flawed, full of righteous rage and passion. Where deities spread the Stygian curse throughout the Seven Realms, which we will explore in the next article.
Battles:
For the Amazon Prime Ed. Click HereFallen Song is as packed with action as it is with Thomas' introspection, and self-growth. Savishelm and Sistinal (In the Barrens) appear in these sequences.
Get it for .99 on
Kobo
Enough here. I've run out of non-spoiler material. At this point, I'd recommend the book.
So in closing, I hope you were able to learn something you did not previously know concerning Ways of the Stygia Fallen Song (Book Two) . Fallen Song is available in Print as two editions, (I'd recommend the Author's Cut for uniformity if you are collecting the complete series) and a substantial value on eBook, at 99. I hope you do read it. It is darker than you'd expect, so to quote Janet Morris, "Buckle Up" Fallen Song is intended for mature audiences.
Thanks again for all your support, Donny Swords
September 20, 2014
Morgod: Characters II: a Void feature.
Now Available. Ways of the Stygia (Facebook)Cult of MorgodCharacters II
Now that Morgod has been unleashed upon the populace, it is time to return to the Void and continue our discussion of the characters within Book 1, Ways of the Stygia- Cult of Morgod.At this juncture, it is important to point out that the events within Cult of Morgod take place before those in Fallen Song. It makes no difference either way which sequence you read the novels in, however, I would recommend reading the Ways of the Stygia series in this order: Morgod, Banner, & finally Fallen Song.
I know there is a lot of information in this series to take in. Whenever a reader picks up a Ways of the Stygia novel they are bombarded with a sea of characters, and plot twists. So here, we shall focus again on Morgod’s cast. Last time, I spoke of Kain, the Revels, The Few and more. I mentioned the demonkin Culvex, a rising star in the series. I talked about Banner, who has the distinction of already having his own character novel. In case you missed it, Banner is a night stalker, born of the abyss. Night stalkers are normally quite deadly. While Banner is born of the night, violence revolts him, and having to use it makes him ill.
The few are Thomas, Franco, and Henry, who you met in Fallen Song, they serve the light and Lucifer’s army. Thomas is the living Conduit, Franco and Henry are aliases. You will learn more about them in C.o.M.
The Revels, again are equivalent to archangels in this cosmos. They are Morgod’s children, and serve the World-Eater with impunity, and uncompromising resolve, providing power gained through souls to foster his escalating strength. The Revels, Abyx, Balfren, Sangul, Dina, Tangas, Vex, Zassul, Byron, and Melkin are the bad guys.
While Kain is the void master and commits horribly dark acts, he is a realist. Occasionally, he can even get caught doing something right.
Culvex fights for dignity, his and others’ as well.
That’s the recap.
Let’s get to more of what’s under the hood…
More about the Suttgars:
The beginning of Cult of Morgod involves the extraction of the Suttgar from Earth to Quantanost, to conceal them from Morgod and to keep them out of reach. Quantanost in itself is a fascinating realm, little discovered in other Ways of the Stygia volumes (Fallen Song, Banner) but exposed here in dramatic detail. One gets to see how a young Thomas Van Pelt (19) lives at that early age, what he eats, even how he trains- and who with- the Suttgar Grandmaster Maku. I actually based this character’s sprit from some of my own master. Maku is a beloved character who serves what is right and never strays from honor or integrity. The interactions between Van Pelt and Maku are awesome ones.
Of the Suttgars, it is known that they once served Morgod, leaving his charge when he turned to the Stygian side. They could have become Revels, but for reasons entirely related to the individuals, they refused. All possess varied, and altogether formidable powers, such as magic, endurance, flight… foresight,
Dropping names:
Maku, Pye, Ficus. Noga, Piron, & Fontana.
There is an extensive army in Morgod. Some of these characters are well-developed and integral to the main plot, in that they fight in the apocalyptic war, which is overrun with angels, night stalkers, gods, and several species of demon kind.
Of these characters few are as crucial as Secord, Valus, Valen, Roland, Fenier, & Culvex.
So you see. Cult of Morgod has a lot going on.
While the particular brand of writing I use in Cult of Morgod is irreparably dark and Weird Tales fiction, I wanted readers to engage with the characters. I wanted you to feel what they did to an extent. This ambition is tough to achieve when the plot involves so much warring. There are a lot of battles, very intense and descriptive battles, but I felt it would be a redundant affair if the characters involved did not feel crucial or pivotal. When certain characters join the fray the reader should experience some emotional something. As I went through all the edits, and phases, the re-writes and all the agony and the time-consuming obsession I had with Cult of Morgod, a novel that I first finished around this time last year, the characters began to shine.
There are so many amazing moments. Each character is thrown headlong into the chaos rocking the cosmos. While many take paths of self-preservation, others face the World-Eater head on. It is a gruesome, nasty affair, where heroes are made.
Black Steel and the Abyss have begun to take action. Through Morgod, the Revels raze ancient civilizations to ash, as the demonmor legions swarm in. Worse is yet to follow- but then that is in the book.
Thanks for reading,
Donny Swords
Here is where you find it-
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GET MORGOD
Unrelenting by Travis Ludvigson: A review from the Void.
Buy
UNRELENTING Unrelenting:A Northwoods Myth By Travis Ludvigson Unrelenting puts a modern day twist to a far older legend. As I began reading, I felt immediately comfortable with the cast. I found the author’s portrayal of each character easy to take in, believe, and adopt as truth. This became a highlight throughout the well-written story. The easier it was to believe how each person would react, the scarier this story grew.
I loved the tension between character personalities. I got the feeling that because of their military service, each character has a bond with their fellows because of that shared experience. I also had the feeling that without their common bond, some would not be friends with others. There is comradery on display instead. This is far more realistic than most casts in stories like this one.
In the opening, the group of friends has chosen to go on a camping trip together. When they arrive and set up camp, everything is fine-until things go awry.
No spoilers.
The author’s descriptive prose delivered these segments believably, realistically, and descriptively, some dark things did fester in my brain as I read them. I found the story increasingly more involving. At this point the reader has either invested themselves entirely, or not, I fell into the invested group. The creature was cool- and by cool I mean the author knew his business. Travis Ludvigson re-told the legend for fresh ears, and tied his name to it. I really enjoyed the direction the story took while handling the creature. There were some big surprises, and exciting action throughout Unrelenting’s ending.
I was not disappointed.
Should you buy and read this book? Yes. One of the best features of this book is it delivers a short read, (it took me around two hours) that engages.
To learn more about Travis Ludvigson , visit the following links: Land of the Norsemen The Northern Scribe
GET MORGOD September 16, 2014
Interviews from the Void: Tom Barczak
Interview with the Devil (click here)
It is my privilege to introduce Tom Barczak. I have found Tom refreshing, both as a writer and person. His writing has the ability to transform the mind, placing the reader in the moment. Tom has been busy finishing up his new novel Mouth of the Dragon, and readying his first audiobook, the release of Veil of the Dragon. Thanks for the interview Tom. Could you tell us a little about yourself?
You’re welcome. My privilege. And yes, I can.
I’m an Architect in Norman, Oklahoma, where I live and raise my three sons. I paint, write poetry and music, and I also write books. My novel, Veil of the Dragon, along with the Illustrated Kindle serials, Awakening Evarun, Fall of the Chosen, and Wolfbane. I have short stories published in the anthologies What Scares the Boogeyman, Nine Heroes, and Terror by Gaslight. I am also a twice published author in the award winning Heroes in Hell series by Janet Morris. My first Audiobook, for Veil of the Dragon, will be out within the month.
As an architect and painter are you making something from literally nothing, the same as a blank page?
Honestly, I’ve always liked this idea that the story, the painting, whatever, is already done. I just get to see it where others don’t. What I get to do is translate it in a way that honors it and hopefully does it some justice. So the kicker for me is in the listening and the seeing. I don’t know if that’s so much me not taking responsibility for the story or the work, but rather staying humble about where it comes from. I find I do better when I don’t make it about me and simply accept the story as a gift that I just happen to get to tell. Certainly takes away a lot of the pressure of the blank slate.
What inspires you?
Everything. Mostly honesty. Truth. Funny thing about fiction is you can never really lie. Certainly my truth is going to be different from somebody else, but that’s the point isn’t it. If I try to tell anything else, I’m a liar. So long story short, I find inspiration in life as I live and have lived it. Sometimes it’s cloaked, veiled as dragons or werewolves or heroes of old, but in the end, I believe it’s our own hero’s journey that we scribe. I don’t know any other story I could tell. For me, honestly, I only got serious about writing after my daughter died. She was my only child at the time. Her name was Olivia and she was 2 ½ and the love of my life. So very much of that, and everything that has happened in my life since then, it is the absolute foundation of my work. It’s just a part of who I am. I will never be able to not write about that.
When I read Veil of the Dragon I was surprised by the dragon. What is your take on the dragon?
It’s fear.
Is Chaelus your type of hero?
Yes and no. Yes, in that his spiritual / hero’s journey has been mine. No, in the sense that sometimes I want a hero to help me escape, and he will never do that for me because he’s just too close. What he’s been really great for is being someone, I can explore new parts of myself with. In that sense he’s the perfect hero for me, in that he helps me to reach beyond what I know.
You write for the Hell series, how is that going?
It’s Dante’s Inferno meets the Screwtape Letters.
It’s amazing. The series draws upon such a pantheon of great writers. All of them with such widely different skill sets.
I’m still in awe that I get the privilege of writing for a series that has been ongoing since I was in High School. I remember first seeing them too, on the shelves of Walden Books at Quail Springs Mall. And the creators, Janet and Chris, are both amazing as well and I can’t imagine being where I’m at now without their being a part of it.
Tell us about your werewolf shorts.
Wolfbane. It’s a campy irreverent, sexy, urban fantasy serial. I was a little nervous about it at first. But fell in love with it fast. It’s a great departure from the fantasy I normally write. And I love writing serials like I first did with “Awakening Evarun”.
Tell us about Evarun.
Buy
Awakening Evarun is a 6 part illustrated epic serial and prequel to my novel series Prophecy of the Evarun, of which part one, “Veil of the Dragon” has been released.
Evarun is the mythology around which most of my fantasy work centers. The Evarun are a race of people who left the world as a protection of their own perfection. In doing so they plunged the rest of the world, the Pale, into unending suffering. The only hope for those left behind lies in a prophecy that was left for them and a prophet repeatedly sent back to try to save them. But it’s like throwing a few scraps of bread to a starving man when you’re the one who took all of his food to begin with. All the while it’s the Evarun never should have left.
The story line of Awakening Evarun itself, is what started it all for me and I didn’t even write it first. I had finished up Veil of the Dragon and sending out queries, and had a discussion with someone about doing short serials for Kindle, kind of as a get your feet wet sort of thing. Mostly to help me build up my base while I tried to get my novel published. So, I had all this backstory that was just waiting to be written. So I did. Wrote then published each part one at a time. It was almost like doing performance art once I did the first one, because it just kind of wrote itself, and each within a 2-3 month time frame.
How much of your time does writing take?
Not enough. I wish I could write more, but have decided its best for my children and myself both, if I have a little balance in my life. I write something most every day/ Sometimes it’s only a few words, some days a few pages. I quit making excuses a while ago when I realized as a single dad with 3 boys, I’ll never just have a whole day to write any time soon.
Do you edit yourself?
I do as much as I can myself. But I always have somebody else edit as well.
My style is much more direct than yours. When reading Veil of the Dragon, I almost imagined each line as a brush stroke on a canvas… Tell me about your processes.
I write in layers. First pass is almost like a screen play because that is how I see them, like a movie. Then I go back and fill it in by layers. An agent I worked with gave me the best phrase for it, for me it’s like painting between the buildings. Sometimes I don’t like it, and I wish I could be more direct, but it’s just how I write.
How important are reviews? For sales? For marketing?
They’re both incredibly important and incredibly dangerous. See below.
How do you feel when you get a good review?
Encouraged. Confident. Somewhat vindicated, and that’s when it can go wrong. When I start taking credit for what I really believe is so much bigger than me. But without good reviews you don’t sell books, so I just have to learn to take them all with a grain of salt. And be grateful that I get good reviews for what I write.
Does it hurt your feelings when you receive criticism through reviews?
Yes, sometimes more so than others. After 4 years of Art School and 5 years of Graduate Architecture School I’ve learned to take criticism. But writing is a little more personal for me, even than my paintings. So as with life, you take what you like and leave the rest. Fortunately most of my criticism has tended to be from people repulsed by even the most oblique reference to a spiritual life, and frankly, people like that just won’t like what I write, and guess I have to be ok with that.
How do you feel you are doing as far as connecting with, and gaining an audience?
Depends on what day you ask me. The truth is I’m doing amazingly well. Particularly considering from where, and how long ago, I started, and how much time I actually have to put into it. As of this date I’ve self- published 9 short stories and one novel, and traditionally published 5 short stories. My second novel, Mouth of the Dragon, should be sent off to the publisher hopefully by Christmas. I’m really excited about my first audiobook, for Veil of the Dragon being scheduled for release in a month. The narrator, Neil Hellegers is amazing. And the only way from here is up. And every day I get a little bit better, and little bit closer to my Muse.
Thank you so much for the opportunity to share.
Tom Barczak
Links: Veil of the Dragon
http://www.amazon.com/Veil-Dragon-Prophecy-Evarun-Book-ebook/dp/B0086RX20Y
Awakening Evarun
http://www.amazon.com/Awakening-Evarun-Part-I-VI-ebook/dp/B005CTBFWG/ref=pd_sim_kstore_1?ie=UTF8&refRID=14K6D41ZYJCDRKQFHMTH
Wolfbane
http://www.amazon.com/Wolfbane-I-gotta-be-me-ebook/dp/B00CK45M70/ref=pd_bxgy_kstore_img_y All things Donny Swords Donny Swords author ( Facebook ) ( Blog ) Primal Publications ( Facebook ) ( Blog ) The Indie Collaboration ( web ) Novels & Links
The Bitter EndsSomewhere in the Bible Belt Gateway has gone insane. Who knew what would come? Thrust into the end of times, Gateway’s citizens attempt to outrun the zombie outbreak… Discover 12 unique stories, and see how Gateway’s main cast fares against the deadheads. See how they live. Watch lives expire and people become heroes or villains. The Bitter Ends is more than just a book about zombies. It is about the characters, like Anna. It is seeing what ordinary people might do in a zombie apocalypse and unordinary ones too.
Will any of them survive? Or Will They All Meet Their Bitter Ends?
(Amazon) (Facebook) (iBooks) (B&N) (Kobo) Ways of the Stygia (Facebook) Ways of the Stygia- Cult of Morgod (Book 1 ) Releases September 19th 2014
Destruction. To see something destroyed, gone. None can deny its appeal. To the abyss, nothing is forever. To the World-Eater creation is flawed… Flesh is weak. Souls are fodder- fuel. Power is endless. The Stygia grants unlimited strength to the daring… Slavery and death are a means to an end… For Morgod , everything must burn. Ruination must reign immaculate. Heroes come in many forms. For who is truly evil? There are shades of light and dark. Left with two choices, survival or total annihilation, the cosmos displays signs of harmony.They face a common foe. Ways of the Stygia- Fallen Song
(Book 2)
Thomas Van Pelt lived a normal life. On one dreary raining evening that all changed. His work as a CSI investigator had led him to yet another crime scene, and there, prompted by his primal senses he discovered the ancient artifact that would that day forward alter his own life and the fate of the universe itself
. The ancient weapon Fallen Song summons Thomas, and reawakens his forgotten past. He embarks on his new calling- bringing justice to the guilty, the ones who would otherwise remain free to perpetrate their vile acts on the unsuspecting.Thomas is reunited with past allies and embarks on an epic adventure involving demons, necromancers, deities, vampires, sorcerers and the terrorists of Purgatory itself, the night stalker. Get pulled away to new lands, terrible enough to cost you sleep and see what ends Thomas will go to in his quest to bring a new era of light to an ailing universe. Ways of the Stygia- Fallen Song is intended for mature audiences. ( Facebook ) (.99 Nook ) ( B&N ) ( Amazon ) (.99 Kobo )
Ways of the Stygia- Banner (Character Novella 1)In Purgatory, there is one law. It is damnation.The abyss plots as the gods use its powers to suit themselves. Born of the void, to the hostile landscapes of Purgatory, not as a child, and not as a man, Banner must overcome his roots. The realm of Purgatory does not forgive so easily, suffering is ceaseless. It is a realm where death grants rebirth so suffering can begin anew. Those of his race are bred killers, evil, and cold to their marrows.Banner, a night stalker set apart from his peers in extremity faces an uncertain future as he attempts to leave Purgatory and the nightmares behind. He cannot do it alone...
(B&N) (Amazon)Anthologies: Free on Smashwords across all e-reader platforms. The Indie Collaboration Presents Snips, Snails, & Puppy Dog Tales (The Wacky Adventures of Bob & Dill, Case of the Missing Ghost & Barracuda Blast by D. Swords) Summer Shorts (Boots by Donny Swords) Spectacular Tales (Sparks by Donny Swords) Tales from Darker Places Releases October 25th, 2013 3 stories by Donny Swords Coming Soon:The Bitter Ends_ Other Side of Town- Tentative street date Oct 25th, 2014 7 Slices - November 2014
September 10, 2014
Interviews from the Void: Chris Morris
It is my honor to introduce Christopher Crosby Morris. His passion to connect with life, and its people, and to be an honest, true voice that shines out is an extremely valuable blessing. I have had the opportunity to interview Janet Morris his extraordinarily talented wife already. I knew Chris' responses would be very informative. I had no idea how insightful of an interview I was in for. I am humbled. Chris Morris possesses fiber, that something which took years of practice, and years of pushing beyond mastery to possess. His writing- no matter the medium, whether you prefer audiobooks, music, or written prose challenges and moves the mind into directions not often pursued, but well worth the journey. I have been listening to Chris narration of the Sacred Band available on audio lately, and as a singer who has studied formerly under one of the greatest voice instructors of all time I have to say that I would not be able to deliver so much substance, such enriching quality in my deliveries, even using my characters. In short, Chris Morris is astounding. Keep reading to begin finding out why.
Hello, thank you for agreeing to the interview. Would you tell us a little about yourself?
A must have! Click Here.My pleasure. My consuming passion is voice in all its aspects, but especially as it manifests in storytelling, both in prose and verse, literature and song. Metaphorically voice represents many things, even the sum of a life. Voice is a double-edged sword we learn to wield to our benefit or detriment. Most recently I’ve assumed the task of narrating our prose catalog and am thrilling to offer publicly what has heretofore been a private but seminal feature of our writing process. 
You write as a team with your wife Janet Morris. When did you first become drawn to writing, was it before or after you met her?
Before. Since childhood I’ve enjoyed arranging words to varied effect. In my youth I became a marvelous liar, more because of my fascination with discerning and fabricating what people wanted to hear than from mischievous or malicious intent. When Janet and I met our first collaborations were songs, many of which I still perform today — they are that good. She wrote stories from a very early age. A lasting part of our attraction was and is a shared desire to precisely express what life is showing us, and that means capturing those observations in story form. The difference — or complementarity — between us is that she is expansionist in her portrayals and I am reductionist.
You are a musician, when did you start playing? What instruments do you play?
My older sister and brother proved miserable piano students, so our parents decided that Christopher could do without. Unbeknownst to me (and thankfully so), I was spared the disadvantage of entering musical life through the doorway of percussion. I’m a baritone and baritones seldom wow anyone vocally until the instrument develops, usually in one’s mid- to late twenties. Therefore my public school music teacher, Ms. Hutton, smiled commiseratingly and showed me to a seat with alto boys whose glee club lot was to huff and puff in support of the shrill girls reciting rote melodies. I loved it: anonymity and license to experiment with pitches against a preprogrammed backdrop of boys droning away predictably. In short, I sang, and still sing, first and foremost. And I utterly believe that all music in the human bandwidth derives from controlled breathing.
Guitar started for me at age eleven and is my most satisfying lifetime tool-oriented skill path, several times requiring me to experience the miracle of starting over in order to thoroughly master basic aspects. At this point I am pretty deeply into creating digital models of guitars impossible to achieve in strictly analog settings; I use custom built guitars with Graphtech’s Ghost hexaphonic sensors fed to Roland’s VG99 effects unit, then into a Yamaha board (with my vocal mic) and out in stereo to one of two twin Bose tower monitor systems (L1 and/or L1 Compact) so I am always in the same sound field as any listener. This all stems from wanting a bigger – not louder – guitar sound. I “build” a guitar for any song that needs something a little different and now have twenty or thirty pretty amazing guitars dial-able from one setup. Can’t wait for you to come check it out, and we be jammin’ man.
To me the guitar is a universe of possibilities, which is the same with writing. Do you ever feel limited by people’s expectations of you and your crafts?
I could spend an hour on your first statement here, but will answer the question bit first. No, I no longer feel constrained due to others’ irrational calculations of what comprises art. I say ‘no longer’ because every creative must ascend from the pit of self-doubt into the light of self-knowledge and mastery through determined focus and practice. In his autobiography Miles Davis stated the gospel: “The most difficult thing a musician can do is sound like himself.” And, as you said in that first sentence, it’s “…the same with writing.”
When I played onstage I got instant feedback as to how I was doing. I often find it difficult when I release a book and it gets less attention than I’d hoped. Does your perception of what you feel will or won’t be received well change when you consider your fan base?
Buy Music No, nor should it for you. This is a variant of the last question, but with a putative contrast between two, on the surface, apparently different art forms. Beneath the surface however they are so closely related as to be nearly identical: they are both listening sports, simultaneously involving the sources and receivers and overlapping the roles of each. Anything you can say of one has an obvious parallel in the other, the biggest difference being in rate of transmission.
One of the glories of human consciousness is that we can hear ourselves hearing ourselves. Shakespeare was the first to portray characters listening to their own inner voice, “the invention of the human” as Harold Bloom calls it. In both music and literature you are your own first audience and, if you like what you hear, by any and all means do not hesitate to proceed for want of external approbation. They are your audience, not your judges. Disregard this truth and that way lies madness.
Get your copy here
Does a really good review feel as good as a standing ovation at a gig, or are they apples and oranges?
Glad you asked. Distrust both. If you pin your self-esteem to them and their approbation or lack thereof, you are lost. As Heraclitus said, “He who is praised to the skies lives a life of fantasy.”
You and your wife Janet are a team, how does that dynamic play out when you are developing a novel? When it is underway?
Our novels develop from conversations reaching a point where further elucidation will best be accomplished by the exploration of personality(ies) – in our case, fictional heroes — living their way through circumstances embodying the challenge under consideration. Our working definition of a hero is one who struggles in service to an ideal; if we run out of ideals we may write a different sort of book, but that protagonist would most likely be struggling to find out what happened to all the missing ideals … hmmm.
When the book is under way it’s buckle up time, the blessed state, because (and this is hard for many of our writer buddies to accept) we honestly don’t know everything that’s going to happen. The way to find out the details is to go where only the characters can take us. By that time we are way onboard and strapped in and boldly going we know not where, but headed for a climax we’ve seen but not yet lived. Fun or what? Is it real? For us and the characters, you bet. Does it have that precious quality of feeling true to life? Yup. That’s the reward of the collaborative arrangement; it imparts a binaural, binocular, bi-conscious view of uncertainty, which we and a host of readers find magnetic.
When you edit do you have a process?
When Janet began drafting (typing, mind you) High Couch of Silistra I would read her day’s output (and still do) aloud, because sound is primary to my apprehension, especially if analytics are involved. When I draft we do the same. Although it might seem laborious, this actually saves time and speeds up the rate at which we achieve publishable work. Linguistic anomalies can be heard by the ear and missed by the eye; our editing voice benefits from two sets of each. I’m frequently amazed at how much a slight alteration of pitch or emphasis can inform the net effect of syntax. If we have a passage that wants to be heard a certain way it’s incumbent on us to nail the punctuation so the experienced reader ‘hears’ it.
Since you began as a published author, how have things changed?
It might be easier to list what hasn’t changed, but for those tuning in late there’s: lots more slush being published and given away; increased ability of content providers to call the shots at every production level; no more meddling middle-folk; no more security of the reasonable advance for a multi-book deal; lots more transparency; even more slush being published and given away; piracy; more feedback from readers and trolls; general confusion as to what intellectual property is and how to preserve ownership of it; still more slush being published and given away; genre-fication whelping a litter of niche-of-a-niche-of-a-niche popularity contests; ability to purchase emblems of legitimacy bestowed for a price by formerly powerful arbiters of taste such as Kirkus; global reach to millions of readers; yet more slush being published and given away, or did I say that enough?
One of your recent projects was narrating the audio book “The Sacred Band”. Could you tell us what it takes to accomplish such a feat?
Like anything worth doing, it takes tenacity and focus. Because it was a first-time project The Sacred Band audio book involved a learning curve which added time and cost. I’m a team player and narration has a solitary aspect to it; I’m getting accustomed to it, but I was grateful for the technical assistance of a good friend who babysat me as I got this first one recorded over a period of a little more than a year. If I narrated full time it might now take me only eight or nine weeks. I’m working in Adobe Audition and can handle everything up to but not including audio-post mastering chores (adding noise reduction, some compression and normalization processing before converting to Mp3 for submission). I am an ACX.com (Amazon>Audible>ACX) user and have no plans to market outside their considerable infrastructure; I’d recommend them to beginners because they’ve done the homework necessary to service all the stakeholders in a project. ACX is also a good place to listen to samples of what other production teams are doing and obtain a reference point of view as to what constitutes a finished product. ACX costs nothing to join; they’re compensated from what Audible gets from sales of your book. I say feat due to your performance. You are merged with your and Janet’s characters in that delivery. This summoning of Tempus or whomever is speaking shows a deep connection to your characters. Do they make you laugh or cry?
I had already read The Sacred Band aloud two or three times before embarking on the narration. We are meticulous about “voicing” our characters and punctuate and format very carefully to emphasize their characteristic speech patterns while still retaining transparency of style. For our first audio project we decided to hire Alex Hyde-White to learn the ropes and see how an accomplished pro would narrate our material. He did a bang-up job with Wake of the Riddler, a shorter TW piece of Janet’s, and immediately caused me to realize what I could bring to our work because of my greater familiarity. I am gratified that you heard the characters coming through because after experimenting with inventing a distinctive sound for each character I opted instead to read with consistently clear articulation and to respect each character’s mood and message within the limits of my voice rather than risk caricature.
They don’t make me laugh or cry. They make me disappear. I miss that when we’re not together.
Your music is intelligent and endearing, quite moving actually, were you going for the same effect on the audio book?
Thank you. Yes, in both cases it turns out to be what I do instinctively. After countless attempts to sound “commercial” musically, I finally took Miles’ advice and dared to embrace what comes out of me ingenuously. Being comfortable in one’s own skin is worth whatever effort is required to make it so. It took me decades to get there (hence my remarks about the acclaim of others) but once arrived, I rejoice to possess sheer bandwidth that accommodates a broad spectrum of emotion without disproportion.
What is your take on violence in books?
Gratuitous…or not. If a story is merely a vehicle to roll out a train of atrocities, what’s the point except to titillate adolescent sensibilities? Writers of all sorts leverage threats of violence, many to avoid the laborious task of carefully laying out a sequence of events building to a genuine need for overt confrontation. I write for the more experienced reader, and myself, who want a little more justification, realism, and reason to care what happens than a story where hardware and machinery are indistinguishable. No doubt about it, there’s violence in books.
Who are your favorite musicians? Authors?
Ray, Mose, kd, Chet, Tony, Sly, Diana Krall, Tommy Emmanuel, Bill Evans, JS Bach, CPE Bach, Mozart, Davey Spillane, Bela Fleck, Victor Wooten, Nat, Haydn, Corelli, Leadbelly (see video), Lightnin’, Jeff Lynne, Roy Orbison, Dinah Washington, Aretha but she ticks me off, Eddy Arnold, Mitchell Parish (wrote the lyrics to Stardust), Carmichael (wrote the melody to Stardust), Michel Legrand.
Janet Morris, Arthur Clarke, Hermann Hesse, John Milton, Will Shakespeare, Jack London, Will James, Marcus Aurelius, Seneca, Heraclitus of Ephesus, P. G. Wodehouse, Harold Bloom, Homer, Deborah Koren, Mika Waltari, Sam Harris, Roger Penrose.
How long did it take to compose the backing track on the Outpassage trailer?
Read Outpassage
It took about two days, back in late ’78, culminating in that recording. It’s a song called No Man’s Land, a bedroom demo recorded on a TEAC 10 inch four track reel to reel with Janet on bass, Leslie Kuipers on guitar, Nathan Seely on drums, Ted Lo on ARP string synthesizer, and me on guitar and vocal. It smoked sufficiently that we began playing the Boston fusion clubs around Berklee and generally had a very good time. We were regrouping after moving back from LA in the wake of the MCA album’s short but glorious run, and I still had three quarters of my band to work with and Ted and Nathan eager to jump in. We were listening to Mahavishnu and Return to Forever and I was wondering why nobody ever sang over that kind of stuff, plus it was in my “sky high” period when I’d figured out how to build section momentum with circular patterns. The song has some cool cousins I’ll put up pretty soon. What I’m digging now is that shelf life is pretty much irrelevant these days and No Man’s Land has a rabid following on a site called NumberOneMusic.com ; entry level listeners take in Hendrix and Gaga and Norah and Eminem and me all at once and could care less when a piece of music was made or even whether the artists are still alive. Tell us about your publishing house.
Perseid is damning the torpedoes and putting out stuff that is representative of what we grew up wanting to read; we say books for experienced readers, or books worth reading.
What inspires you?
My favorite of your questions.
Growth. A starry sky. Acceptance of the greater without diminution or forfeit of personality. Personal truths: the value of distinguishing between what one is told and what one learns from experience. The love of a dog. The suppositions of consciousness turned upon itself. In music the ability to reharmonize melody, steal time (rubato) and imply realms beyond physical scope. Kindness. Exploring Heraclitus’ thesis that all things are reflected in all things. The hunger for truth, beauty and goodness. Sister Wendy.
We live in cataclysmic times, for all I know analogous to all preceding ages. What is unknown to me so overwhelmingly eclipses what is known that my fate is to be inured to the idea that uncertainty is somehow requisite to continuity. I accept. I am human for a blink, a moment in an infinite progression. My moment too is subsumed in eternity and, being part, reflects its whole — harbors the DNA of the eternal — from micro to meta. So, even as a relatively infinitesimal particle I may intake my portion of the entire mystery of mysteries. If I am a moment, so am I eternal. Beyond cool. And partnership…to host an intellectual life is a high privilege, to share such a life closely, transcendent, to make art of such sharing, nonpareil.
For readers new to your novels, which three would you recommend?
The Sacred Band (book, e-book, audio book) Click Here.
Outpassage (book, e-book) Read Outpassage
The Fish the Fighters and the Song-girl (book, e-book). Buy
How important are reviews to you? For marketing? For sales?
Reviews are Rorschachs of their writers, offering subjective accounts of questionable exposure to some work or other. The substance of reviews is of most interest to other reviewers. Although taken for marketing currency, reviews are seldom value added. Creators inevitably fail to accurately calculate the effect of reviews on sales because the study of the relationship is an inexact science at best, at worst an obsession stymieing their creative efforts for lack of prudent allocation of attention.
Now advertising is a little different….
I would like to thank Chris Morris for this famously insightful and encouraging interview. It is good to know the human condition is not wasted on him- but rather seen as an opportunity to grow. Bravo- Chris! See everyone next time. :)Thanks for reading.Donny
Chris' Links: http://www.amazon.com/The-Sacred-Band/dp/B00N1YRVH2/ http://www.audible.com/pd/Sci-Fi-Fantasy/The-Sacred-Band-Audiobook/B00MU2VCEO/ http://www.amazon.com/Outpassage-Janet-Morris-ebook/dp/B00IDC1E84/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=&qid= http://www.amazon.com/Fish-Fighters-Song-Girl-Sacred-Stepsons-ebook/dp/B007VQIJFY/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1410294833&sr=1-1&keywords=the+fish+the+fighters+and+the+song-girl http://numberonemusic.com/christophercrosbymorris/ https://www.reverbnation.com/christophercrosbymorris?profile_view_source=profile_box http://www.amazon.com/Everybody-Knows-Christopher-Morris-Band/dp/B004GNEF3A/ https://soundcloud.com/christopher-morris http://www.amazon.com/Chris-Morris/e/B008L41JNO/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_2 https://www.facebook.com/JanetMorrisandChrisMorris https://www.facebook.com/christophercmorrissings http://www.sacredbander.com http://www.theperseidpress.com/# http://www.facebook.com/christopher.c.morris.7?fref=ts http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Morris_(author) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLqxH_Tx5VA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7g79LZAgk8w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EylzKQa4yg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCv4GA5W5eA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICAPn0E7NC0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SQFmxwfT7g http://www.amazon.com/Outpassage-Janet-Morris-ebook/dp/B00IDC1E84/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=&qid= Where to find Donny Swords stuff: Donny Swords author ( Facebook ) (Blog) Primal Publications ( Facebook ) (Blog) The Indie Collaboration ( web ) Novels & Links
The Bitter Ends Somewhere in the Bible Belt Gateway has gone insane. Who knew what would come? Thrust into the end of times, Gateway’s citizens attempt to outrun the zombie outbreak… Discover 12 unique stories, and see how Gateway’s main cast fares against the deadheads. See how they live. Watch lives expire and people become heroes or villains. The Bitter Ends is more than just a book about zombies. It is about the characters, like Anna. It is seeing what ordinary people might do in a zombie apocalypse and unordinary ones too.
Will any of them survive? Or Will They All Meet Their Bitter Ends? (Amazon) (Facebook) (iBooks) (B&N) (Kobo) Ways of the Stygia ( Facebook )
Ways of the Stygia- Cult of Morgod
(Book 1
) Releases September 19th2014 Destruction. To see something destroyed, gone. None can deny its appeal. To the abyss, nothing is forever. To the World-Eater creation is flawed… Flesh is weak. Souls are fodder- fuel. Power is endless. The Stygia grants unlimited strength to the daring… Slavery and death are a means to an end… For Morgod , everything must burn. Ruination must reign immaculate. Heroes come in many forms. For who is truly evil? There are shades of light and dark. Left with two choices, survival or total annihilation, the cosmos displays signs of harmony… They face a common foe.
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Ways of the Stygia- Fallen Song
(Book 2)
Thomas Van Pelt lived a normal life. On one dreary raining evening that all changed. His work as a CSI investigator had led him to yet another crime scene, and there, prompted by his primal senses he discovered the ancient artifact that would that day forward alter his own life and the fate of the universe itself. The ancient weapon Fallen Song summons Thomas, and reawakens his forgotten past. He embarks on his new calling- bringing justice to the guilty, the ones who would otherwise remain free to perpetrate their vile acts on the unsuspecting.Thomas is reunited with past allies and embarks on an epic adventure involving demons, necromancers, deities, vampires, sorcerers and the terrorists of Purgatory itself, the night stalker. Get pulled away to new lands, terrible enough to cost you sleep and see what ends Thomas will go to in his quest to bring a new era of light to an ailing universe. Ways of the Stygia- Fallen Song is intended for mature audiences. (
Facebook
) (.99
Nook
) (
B&N
) ( Amazon) (.99
Kobo
) Ways of the Stygia- Banner (Character Novella 1)
In Purgatory, there is one law. It is damnation.The abyss plots as the gods use its powers to suit themselves. Born of the void, to the hostile landscapes of Purgatory, not as a child, and not as a man, Banner must overcome his roots. The realm of Purgatory does not forgive so easily, suffering is ceaseless. It is a realm where death grants rebirth so suffering can begin anew. Those of his race are bred killers, evil, and cold to their marrows. Banner, a night stalker set apart from his peers in extremity faces an uncertain future as he attempts to leave Purgatory and the nightmares behind.
He cannot do it alone... (B&N) (Amazon) Anthologies: Freeon Smashwords across all e-reader platforms. The Indie Collaboration Presents: Snips, Snails, & Puppy Dog Tales (The Wacky Adventures of Bob & Dill, Case of the Missing Ghost & Barracuda Blast by D. Swords) S ummer Shorts (Boots by Donny Swords) Spectacular Tales (Sparks by Donny Swords) Tales from Darker Places Releases October 25th, 2013 3 stories by Donny Swords Coming Soon: Ways of the Stygia- Cult of Morgod- Street date September 19, 2014 The Bitter Ends_ Other Side of Town- Tentative street date Oct 25th, 2014 7 Slices - November 2014
