Thursday, July 24, 2014

Empires Falling, Thoughts on Epic Fantasy


 Writing an epic fantasy series is different from almost any type of story telling because the canvas you are afforded is so vast. When writing suspense or horror you operate in the fifty to one hundred thousand words realm. Romance and historical romance takes you up to the hundred and twenty thousand words area, but fantasy almost demands hundreds of thousands of words over many volumes. I suppose that this is because you are building an entire world.

  There are times I find that I have to force myself to slow down and get into how these ancient cultures functions and how they differ from the ones that they mirrors in our world.



 The more I work on Empires Falling as a whole story the more that I have to tell myself that I need to focus on the small events. By taking the time to rewrite the short stories and to add new ones to the series I am learning more about the central characters that will carry the story. While rewriting one of the early stories I have discovered that it could reach novel length if I allow it. Over the next few weeks I will offer a chapter or two of that story and ask you the reader should I do just that. 

 Right now I would like to post the next chapter from the speaking demon. Chapter six, a day before it hits Wattpad. Thank you for visiting and I look forward to reading your comments.

Whispers from A Speaking Demon




 Chapter Six.
Aldo left them and the cart out in the paved yard in front of the house. It seemed that westerners loved to leave their mark on all lands belonging to them by paving it over with their concrete roads and walks and yards, Lanzo mused as he paced the edge of it.
Off to his left was the burnt remains of a stable. At the other end of the yard beyond some fences was a newly constructed stone stable with a slanted wooden roof. There were at least a half dozen horses in there which suggested that the riders who owned them were most likely within the home.
This burnt stable had fallen recently. The stench of burnt wood and animal flesh was fresh. Lanzo stepped over what remained of the fence here and toward what amounted to a lean-to of a standing wall and what remained of the roof.
“It falls on you Lanzo, you will have to conjure your way out of there.”Amelina yelled.
Lanzo was not worried. He had seen structures like this before and unless a strong storm came by what remained standing would probably hold up for years. Besides he was listening to that small voice that sometimes told him to do something. Life had taught him that if he ignored it that voice would only grow louder and louder.
He stood near the entrance that remained and listen until everything around him became still. The wind dropped to nothing. The clouds far above stopped flowing along their appointed path. The shadows of all things around him including his own shadow went dead still and then he was looking backwards through events as they happened. It was like being on a perch high above a flowing river watching not only where it was going, but where it had been along the way.
In a blink of an eye the stable was what it had once been. Strong and solid with the sound of horses stabled inside. The man clocked in robes similar to those who worn by Aldo was leading a donkey into the stable. It had struck Lanzo funny how he had never met a practitioner of the magical arts who actually rode a powerful well groomed horse. Was it some sort of tradition to wander the earth of the backs of animal that could not outrun trouble. This donkey had died in the fire, he knew it by sight and if he had wanted to reach for it he could have seen how it died, but Lanzo could see no reason to do that. The robed man had been the one who came here before them. He had died here too and Lanzo also dismissed the idea of watching how he died. He wanted to know something else. That voice inside of his head was whispering about something that this man, this sorcerer, had been carrying. Something powerful. A powerful thing that had been hidden here before he died. Hidden and untouched by the fire.
How was that possible?
The man did something clever.
It had not been to bury it or to stash it away. It was to put it where only one of his kind could ever find it. Lanzo watched the man closely. He stood exactly where Lanzo stood now. He raised a right hand that held something shiny inside it and with his first two fingers and thumb he did a few finger passes in the air. The finger movements casting a spell and then his hand shot forward and disappeared into nothing. A moment later his hand reappeared and he quickly blew on it as if it was chilled.
Lanzo raised his hand in the same way. Made the finger gestures that he had seen and his hand disappeared into what felt like ice cold water. Something touched the palm of his hand and Lanzo made a fist around it and yanked back. His hand came back from where it had been. He had expected his hand to be dripping wet. It was dry, but ice cold. He ignored the cold and opened the hand to reveal a cylinder, the length of his thumb, made from a single piece of green crystal. It was beautiful and had a simple chain around one end of it, but the chain was not looped for wearing.
“What are you doing in there?”Amelina’s voice came from the yard.
Lanzo considered putting the crystal back where he got it, but until he found out exactly what it was he planned on keeping it close at hand. Lanzo slipped it into a pocket that was made into the left sleeve of his robes.
 “I thought that there might be something in here.”Lanzo responded as he retraced his steps out of what remained of the stable.

Saturday, July 12, 2014

Empires Falling, Writing Fantasy Fiction



 The great thing about being a fantasy writer is that you are usually getting to live out a life long dream on paper. You are writing about kingdoms or empires that you have created. Heroes and villains on an epic scale. 

To the public it would appear that I sat down to write Empires Falling a year ago. To me it has been a twenty five year journey. I believe that maybe the second story that I ever finished was fantasy. To understand me as a writer you must understand that Sci fi was my first love and then came a close second epic fantasy. Like most of you I started with the Lord of the Rings. When reading those stories I thought that maybe I could do something like that, but it would most likely be for me alone to read. Empires falling was a million miles away. Now it is just a matter of me putting the whole saga on paper for the rest of the world to read. 



 If any of you have missed my posting I would like to say that I was busy finishing a suspense novel and getting it published. Now that that is done I can devote my full attention to this project. From this point forward the stories are going to come fast and furious. I am knee deep at the moment in the process of transforming the outline for the first novel into a full length novel. Over the next few days the final chapter of the forth story will be published here. Then it will be released as a short for sale with bonus material. 

 The fifth story is the series is titled Zed’s Escape. If you have read story number two then you will know what it is about. 

 Story number six will be about Miri and Magnux. It features the trial of Captain Lucan also it will introduce the Lurkers to you for the first time. 

Story number seven is titled Fire Dance and it features Kiylah Khan now four years older which will bring her closer to the same time period as stories one, three and six. Note: To tell Kiylah’s and Zed’s portion of the story I needed to start earlier in their timeline than the other character. By the twelve story in the series of shorts I promise that all characters will occupy the same time. This will of course lead them all into the first novel of the Trilogy.

 Story number seven is titled The Hand Stands. It features Julia Cato, the Wind Riders and introduces the Emperor’s new hand as internal threats to the Emperor are revealed. Story number eight is The Heritic. You will meet two of the major villains in this story. Okay that is enough about the upcoming stories. 

Thank you for visiitng and I hope that you will take a few moments to share this post with a friend and to like this blog on stumbleupon.