I've always been a fan of noir, and the older I get the more I think I appreciate the grim attitude and sense of corruption bleeding around the edges of smoke filled back alleys and luxurious parties. It just makes good fiction. Among my favorite works are classics by Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler, and of course my introduction to them was through film and the amazing Humphrey Bogart first, I didn't read the books until quite a bit later.So when my friend Jason King asked a few of his author pals if we would be interested in writing stories set in his world of Valcoria, I thought sure - IF - I can still do it my way.
As luck would have it, Jason was actually kind of hoping that we would take his premise and run with it and help him flesh it out a bit, as it turned out he was very happy with how we did things and especially with my novella - because my story kept growing - he changed up a bit for the next book he has coming. So this isn't just a bunch of screenshots of stories set in his world, these are integral points in the ongoing series, so I'm excited for that. Especially since I went all fantasy detective noir with my story - Jia For Luck.In the world of Valcoria, Jia is another name for magical power, people have a Jia of Strength, Intelligence, Power, Magic's etc etc
My world weary protagonist, Tam Zphinx, isn't so blessed with anything except perhaps an amazing amount of luck considering all the trouble he gets into, throw in some gorgeous dames and monstrous killers and you've got a winning combination.
Here is the Table of contents
Prologue
Ice Witch, James Wymore
Vaekra Take Me, D.J. ButlerA Dream of Clouds, Mathew Cox
Interlude 1
Tremors Within The Storm, Daniel Swenson
Thought Power, Sarah E. Seeley
By Blade & Blood, C.J. Workman
Interlude 11
Just Breathe, Holli Anderson
Jia For Luck, David J. West
Epilogue
Oh and just like I used Jia from Jason's stories my good friend Dave Butler used Vaekra Take Me as his title, that being one of the swears, Jason incorporated into the books, funny thing is, I actually thought about using that as my title, until realizing Butler already did!Anyhow, check it out if you're so inclined, this 22K novella is my last release for 2017!
Available here
and if I had to do a one sentence description of my story, I think I'd go with
The Maltese Falcon with Monster Girls.
5 comments:
THat sounds very cool. I definitely came late to noir
Sounds great. On the wishlist.
Thanks guys.
Charles, I️ came late as far as reading goes but I’ve loved the old movies.
I’ll bet they do a discount run sometime, Paul.
And if they take too long, mine will go into My next Fantasy anthology.
I was watching a Ridley Scott talk (Searchlab lecture Part 2) yesterday and he mentions while talking about Blade Runner that when he first put the movie out, people would ask, "Why's it always raining?"
His answer was: "Because I wanted it to. Cuz I bloody well said so, mate."
He then talks briefly about darkness and grit being a romantic notion. Noir environments strike me in this way, as the romantically aesthetic side of ever-present danger.
Very well said Dominika, thanks for stopping by.
I'm late visiting my own blog, because holidays and because its a blog. ;)
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