The Dragons Hour, Remembering Robert E. Howard

It's no secret that Robert E. Howard is my favorite author. This is his birthday so I'm dusting the blog off for the new year and giving him a toast as it were.

I'm writing this just after midnight, so I'm not sure yet what tale of his I will read later, but I surely will, of course not too much times goes by since the last time I read one. Recently, I revisited one of my favorite Conan yarns - People of the Black Circle and shortly before that Iron Shadows in the Moon.

Around Halloween as a family we listened to some of the audiobook of The Horror Stories of Robert E. Howard and I was very pleasantly surprised that my son brought up In the Forest of Villefere just a few days ago. The boys have always loved Pigeons From Hell, my kids like creepy.

That's probably why I share it with them, because I am so amazed and taken with the stories. The tales light the fire of wonder in me and I want to share that with the kids.

I went to Howard Days in 2018 and meant to blog about it then and never did, that's when I kinda fell of the wagon blogging here, then I wasn't able to make it in 2019, but it is my plan to go this year again. Its an interesting feeling walking through his house and thinking about being where he was when he wrote - not just his desk but all over the house from what I have heard. It was like visiting a sacred shrine and I can't wait to go back. I have also been able to visit Hemingway's graveside but spending so much time in the Howard house had a lot more personal feel than just seeing Papa's stone and museum.
Meeting a bunch of online friends in person finally was a big plus too!

Not sure where I am going with this other than just expressing heartfelt appreciation to the man for countless hours of reading enjoyment, contemplative thought and the sheer love of the written word.

Wish you had been around a bit longer to write more, but I surely love what you did accomplish.

SKOAL!

This is a print I got at Howard Days, that is in my study.

My son, Mathias (14) made this Conan bust for me for Christmas.

The Brutal Saga and more moving on...

I've been remiss in keeping up with things, ah life.

Last time I was here, I meant to tell you all about how I went to Howard Days for the first time, then I released another book, FIERCE, then Savage, then I took it down cuz it sucked, then I went canoeing down the Green River with my sons - that was awesome and I think I will revisit some of those times and post more here later to fill in the gaps and have a sort of a live journal, but for now I'm playing catch up so here is the deal.

I released FIERCE in July of last year, rewrote SAVAGE and released that in April of this year, and then adjusted an older story - Whispers of the Goddess and added a little bit to make a new novella in the BRUTAL saga - VICIOUS.

The next one WRATH is coming along - I hope to have it out in a month or two.

Fantasy Noir or The Maltese Falcon with Monster Girls

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. Butler
A 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. 

It's Gonna Get BRUTAL

My latest book BRUTAL is out now!

So I decided to try my hand at a pen name - I'm not too worried about the secretiveness of it because either you all are gonna know anyway or you're the type of person that doesn't care who wrote the book.

MY biggest motivation was to see how it might affect my work with the Amazon algorithm. BECAUSE

David J. West is known for writing weird westerns, Lovecraftian horror, viking historical's, action-adventure, weird LDS tales and fantasy. That kinda messes with all the things the algorithm is supposed to do to help me sell more books.

So I thought I'd experiment and see if James Alderdice - my dad's first name and my maternal grandmother's maiden name. (And no one is using it on Amazon and hey its an "A" name - West is always at the end of the list, bottom of the bookshelf)

That also brings me to doing "Pulp Speed" to write this latest book. I wrote about 78K in about 6 weeks. I did follow the plot of RED HARVEST pretty footloose and fancy free and there are loads of other inspirations in the book. A whole lot of Robert E. Howard, Karl Edward Wagner, Dashiell Hammett, Sergio Leone's - Fistful of Dollars and Akira Kurasawa's - Yojimbo in here. I was also pretty inspired by a recent Hawaii trip to Maui too - that's where the whole dark goddess thing came from.

Hammett's book took place in a mining city called Personville/Poisonville by the locals and I found out it was based on Butte, Montana - guess who is pretty darn familiar with Butte - me - my Dad grew up there, I have been there many, many times. I used a lot of real Butte in the book too - albeit fashioning it to fit a medieval fantasy landscape.

Much thanks to editor Jana Brown for keeping the pace flowing on this one and doing a great job with my breakneck writing goal.

Here is the Description etc:

A man of violence. A duchess with dangerous desires. Two warring wizards. Things in Aldreth are going to get Brutal.

A man known only as the Sellsword has come to the border city of Aldreth, where rival wizards struggle for control of a weak-willed duke. Amidst murderous conspiracies and a scandal plagued dynasty, the Sellsword plays all sides to his advantage, bringing about a full-scale gang war between the two ambitious and unscrupulous men, while wooing the reckless and willful duchess.

Though corrupt paladins, demonic adepts, and a surprisingly formidable assassin stand between the Sellsword and the unwholesome truth, spells and blades might not be what take the Sellsword down. It could be plain old bad luck...

BRUTAL is an powerful sword and sorcery tale with colorful characters and wit straight out of a 80's flick. If you like humor in your pulp, gritty heroes, despicable villains and grimdark fantasy then you'll love this riveting debut by James Alderdice.
Grab a copy now!


This was a lot of fun and I think I need to keep pushing myself and getting out a lot more of these quick reads.

Posting over at On An Underwood 5

In case you missed it, I did a guest post over at the On An Underwood 5 blog

Talking about my affinity and kinship to Robert E. Howard.
 Thanks to Todd Vick for inviting me over.

Happy Birthday Frank

Its no surprise my all time favorite artist is the Frank Frazetta.

I've heard of ungodly amounts of money paid for his work (not that he didn't earn that and not that I wouldn't pay it myself if I could) but the closest I've been able to manage myself to own in my personal collection aside from several calendars, books and of course prints is an actual signed poster! One that was meant to be part of some exclusive collection of Robert E. Howard's work - probably with Wandering Star but I'm not sure.

It is one of my favorite pieces and of course I have the fill print hanging in a place of honor in my study, but the signed print is right behind me, looking over my shoulder.

Today would have been Frank's 89th birthday and I'm just saying my Thanks and how grateful I am for the amazing works of art he put into the world, we are surely all the better for his unique vision.

Listen Up: There was a Woman Dwelt by a Graveyard

Inspired by both M.R. James and Robert E. Howard, I wrote a collection of western themed ghost stories told in a bizarre mashup of those two writers titled Whispers Out of the Dust.

I loved James way of bringing you in to the English countryside and telling you about this very true story told by an old man or validated by this manuscript found in a musty library. As much as I loved those stories, there was an aspect I could never duplicate; I didn't grow up in 19th century England, I don't know that place as well as others for the sake of truly bringing you into that space, but I do know the American west and that ties me closer to my favorite writer Robert E.  Howard.

Howard was a Texan and wrote about what he knew (and so much more) and I could relate to that.
Jumping off from that I know the American west, so I found an intriguing place that was perfect for my backdrop. A real old west ghost town drowned beneath the waters of Lake Mead. - St. Thomas, Nevada. It was founded by Mormons (like me) and gave me a great place to start from because I know that history like James knew the Church of England, like Howard knew Texas boom towns.

So Whispers Out of the Dust has a score of shorts and among them was a piece inspired by James that was in turn inspired by Shakespeare - There Was a Woman Dwelt by a Graveyard.

My good friend Jason King shared it for a flash fiction Friday and then surprised me with a audio reading of it.

So one of the few audio formats of my work out there yet - here is "There Was A Woman Dwelt By A Graveyard." Enjoy



I plan on making sure more of my books become available in Audio this later year. I suspect that market is just going to keep growing, just like I listen to more audio books myself each year.

Interview on Story Hack!

I was interviewed on Monday at my palatial estate - well my house in my office/library by new friend  Bryce Beatty. I'm the first author of a new writer podcast he is doing called Story Hack.
Check it out here

Latest Around These Parts...

My latest installment of Walking Through Walls: Chapter 8 Burning Bridges is available online here

I still need to get some print copies, because as I've mentioned before it brings me a great amount of joy to feel I am truly a pulp author with these bi-monthly mags. And it also has a whole lot of Star Wars content for those that are into that.

For myself I am still cautiously optimistic.


And while I have wanted to blog more, life has been busy with the new baby etc.

Funny thing is, quite a while ago, I'm forgetting when exactly I moved my blog comments to accept all as long as it was within say two weeks. After that there was a greater tendency for spam rather than legit comments, still I do get legit ones on old posts every now and again, not that I suspect anyone but me ever see's them.

But I've not been checking the blog for the last few and Lo there was another comment on a post that is almost four years old! It was was my Write What You Don't Know post, wherein I said as a fiction writer how ridiculous it is to think of what our fiction would be without imagination = only writing what we know, and I do absolutely stand by that.

Somebody had to post anonymously and sound all superior about how rich he would be if he had a dollar for all the people out there who don't write well or do good  research and thus respect cross cultural peoples etc.

Whatever dude, there's a lot of bad writers out there and guess what? -they won't get better without working at it. AND lets talk for a moment about what cultural illiterate hole you have been living in. Reading is one of the best ways people can understand and empathize with others. I love to read and want my children to read so they can be better people  - its what books do.

But not everything is "the Best". People read what they like and part of hooking children on reading is letting them read whatever "trash" they like, they will come around and find the good stuff when they are ready. So don't come to my blog disparaging anyone on how they write and on not being culturally sensitive - go take a walk.

Yes, I'm a little inflamed as part of my original response on Write What You Don't know was following that spirit of Robert E. Howard and dreaming great dark dreams and I suspect the person the same tired old arguments against Bob and company. I've seen more of that stuff online lately and I'm dead sick of it and don't need to hear any more on it. Accept great writers for what they are = just people, you take the good with the bad, that's life, get over it.

Three Days of the Con Man

And the big Con for me starts today! I'll be at Salt Lake Comic Con for the next three days, I've got a panel everyday, discussing fantasy fiction and writing and such. I always have a good time in part because I get to hang with so many cool writer friends and its just a fun reckless geek atmosphere.

This is a promotional banner my brother in law made for me. And as it says I'll be at table BLACK 15 which from what I've heard is a great spot in a heavy traffic area of the con floor. Kind of in the neck of the big L which the conference floor looks like.

In addition I'll be speaking on panels at
Thursday 2:00 pm in room 151A: Its The Good, Bad and Very Ugly of Writing.
Friday at Noon in room 150 G: It the Forgotten Gems of Fantasy and Sci-Fi (You regular readers have a good idea on the things I'll want to talk about to the hipster crowd.)
Saturday at 8:00pm in room 255F: Its Writing the Sins - This is one of the panels I volunteered for and it sounds like we'll be working a little blue - perhaps more so than I ever actually write. But who knows that will be the last panel of the whole con.

I'll post updates here in a few days, and I'm sure I'll have plenty of pics and stories,.

Also in my writing news, the latest issue of UGEEK Magazine #7 is up with the seventh chapter of my Walking Through Walls novella :Tentacles and Pentacles.

The tale took an unexpected twist because I made sure to throw my protagonist Kenaz and his accomplice Lysandra into a world of trouble that I wasn't sure how they would extricate themselves from, the muse gave me something I think quite unique and it was exciting for me to discover where it was taking me along the way.

The Big Things in Life

I've neglected my posting for a bit now, but you know I have some good excuses.

My newest daughter (she's my fourth!)was born just three weeks ago. Her name is Athena Eve West, I wanted
something feminine and powerful and unique in that when she is in school there won't be a passel of others kids with the same name, That's my own hell with a good  but incredibly common name -I can't tell you other writers out there how many times I  pondered using a pen name for that very reason but at the same time I want everyone to know that I am me = ego wins.

That all said, despite the many sleepless nights (giving my wife all the breaks possible) this has been my most productive writing summer I have ever had. I don't have an exact count but I have probably nailed down about 70K words just this summer. And that is my personal all time best I believe. So progress has been good and I am working at keeping that drive and progress up and running.

Coming up very soon is Salt Lake Comic Con and I so hoped to have my latest quick project out but it won't quite make it - instead it will be available in time for October, which is fitting considering its ghost stories. Largely inspired by the weird tales I love by Robert E. Howard etc but also by a new favorite ghost story writer M.R.James, I'mm nearly thru all of his tales and think they are magnificent. His are all very English but I am borrowing a lot of his framing devices though set in the American West rather than the English countryside, a whole lot of found letters and the like  and a lot of this is really true, type verbiage. I'll have Whispers Out of the Dust available shortly.

Book Review: Poets in Hell

I'm damnably late on this, especially when I am seeing a legion of press pushing the next Janet Morris edited production Heroika.

Poets in Hell continues the tradition of famous and infamous persons alike in Hell having their dramatic turn on all the monstrous possibilities for conflict.

I recall I read Rogues in Hell a few years ago and quite a few of the same authors are back. My first thought years back was why did so many of these mazing people end up in hell? They don't deserve it, until Janet herself commented that there are 613 commandments that nearly everyone of note in life has broken and thusly we end up with Heroes in Hell...

I'll mention my favorite tales:

Seven Against Hell, by Janet and Chris Morris
I love this opening, we get the magnificent point of view of vaunted Diomedes (one of my favorites from The Iliad) he along with Odysseus, Homer and Sappho. Gotta love anything with Sappho! Greatpoetry and imagery for anyone who loves The Iliad and Odyssey.

The opening line of Nancy Asire's Reunion got me - If hell had a GDP ("Gross Demonis Product"), that product would be rumors.
Great line and a great tale.

My friend Bruce Durham's Hell-Hounds is fantastic combining Alexander Graham Bell, Marconi and a run in with the aforementioned Hell hounds and of course the great Snorri Sturluson and Robert E. Howard - my only beef Bruce is that your tale is far too short!

My favorite this time around is likely Larry Atchley Jr's Poetic Injustice probably because I like Samuel Coleridge and always loved his Kubla Khan and this tale is about Coleridge being vexed that he never truly finished that poem to epic length and he needs to - couple that with a nefarious plot by Guy Fawkes and Anton La Vey again as a tailor and we have devilish conspiracies.

And one of the things I really enjoy about this series is the wide variety of people in hell, like Beowulf and Boudica in Tom Barczak's Pride and Penance - and the Jabberwocky!


All in all a great collection of twisted historical personages in the worst place in the universe.

Flexing Those Writing Muscles

I have got to say I love the cover for Issue #5 of UGEEK magazine  which contains the fifth chapter of my ongoing noir-fantasy serial Walking Through Walls. 

While the cover itself is the poster for Filmquest, a local fantasy related film festival, I find it serendipitous in regards to what's happening in my tale - specific to this installment Silence Falls on Tolburn's Walls (the title of which is a nod to Robert E. Howard's - Silence Falls on Mecca's Walls)

So, just saying for the sake of my friends here who are avid pulp fans - you of course recognize that elder being who dreams...

I am so pleased with where its going - oft times I don't even know where its taking me until I write it.

Keeping the readers attention with a serial is equivalent to a hardcore workout and I'm feeling it - but I'm also feeling those writing muscles growing too.

Overall this is one of those lessons where you have to push yourself to grow and improve and I am a firm believer in eternal progression.

From the intro:

The story so far:

Kenaz, an information broker, can step outside his own body to gather secrets. He has been blackmailed by multiple sinister parties. If he doesn’t give them what they want—a powerful artifact known as The Reliliqy—many lives besides his own will pay the price. He has less than a day to get it all together… He has overcome being poisoned and the demonic worm of Vavath, now he just needs to steal The Reliliqy from the city’s most powerful Sorcerer…

Chapter 5. Silence Falls on Tolburn’s Walls

Enjoy...

The Good Kind of Curse

I am on the edge of releasing my charity Sword & Sandals novel BLESS THE CHILD. 100% of the profits will be going toward the Hannah's Hope Fund in so doing I am hoping for both a good amount of press and funds to get to the charity for the sake of research etc, and of course I should like some good karma coming my way for the effort.
I've wondered at the what if? of my lead character and story actually becoming popular enough that a sequel is asked for. Do I want that?

Of course I do.

There is not a sequel planned as yet, it is a standalone novel, I've learned a lesson by having my first novel HEROES OF THE FALLEN end on a cliffhanger and its not something I wish to do again.

But again with the question. What If something is popular and you have to write to it? Robert E. Howard certainly had that problem with Conan the Cimmerian. Had Mr. Howard not suffered an untimely death there would have been a clamor for him to write more Conan stories and yet some scholars have suggested he wanted to leave the Barbarian behind and concentrate on his westerns. I for one enjoy the westerns but hunger for more tales of the Hyborian age over those of Breckenridge Elkins.

Farnsworth Wright, the editor of Weird Tales magazine turned down the notion of any one else writing Conan pastiches for his magazine after the famed authors death even though this would have been a continuing golden egg - it certainly was L. Sprague deCamp.

Other writers have had this conundrum too, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, another Conan! His Sherlock Holmes stories grew wildly popular once he went from novella to short story form until he reached a point of not being able to keep up with with the deadlines of what he deemed low brow entertainment.

I feel for his notion that it was not his best work, but it is what the people wanted. Several years after supposedly killing off Holmes, he had to bring him back. All in all it probably helped the Holmes stories to stay top notch, giving a break and letting people hunger for them rather than becoming routine and formulaic. It effectively increased Holmes immortality.
The Sherlock Holmes enduring popularity is the classic example of a good kind of curse for the writer - one that torments you BUT keeps you in demand, working and making a living.

Would that all of us writers could have that kind of commercial curse.

Read Somewhat Lately

The Tipping Point, by Malcolm Gladwell

I'm late coming to this bestseller, I had to look it up and its been out for about 14 years. Like Freakonomics (which I greatly enjoyed last year) The Tipping Point gives us insights into how things work outside our usual perception. The analysis on how things worked out for Paul revere's ride to be so successful while simultaneously 'what's his name?' ride wasn't...
That was a joke - it was William Drake, but it shows how some people can work things out according to their own connections etc and others don't.
Like Freakonomics this left me wanting more knowledge more insights if only for the sake of better understanding human nature for the sake of my fiction. I don't read these books as I imagine so many others do to better get a handle on business etc, I want to understand human nature and write believable stories where the coincidences work and don't sound too far fetched.
So I'll have to look for more works like this - highly recommended for the sake of understanding humanity.

Last Argument of Kings, by Joe Abercrombie

This is a favorite reread of mine, yes I do that quite often. This took awhile though since I was doing it all on audiobook while taking short drives, same with People of the Black Circle. As before this is an absolute favorite of mine and it was great to revisit some favorite heroes and villains yet again. Abercrombies writing is visceral and fast paced but also with wonderful metaphors and imagery.

LAOK is the third part of the Last Law Trilogy and wraps up a complex tale involving one of my favorite secondary world fantasies. Like things mentioned in Tipping Point, small yet believable little things can ripple and create big differences.
Abercrombie has become one of my favorite living writers of fantasy.




Three Uses of the Knife, by David Mamet

A quick yearly reread, this is David Mamet's examination of Drama and how we need it. I'm reluctant to espouse too much, but this rather short work really makes me think about why we do art and how it gives us a cleansing awe. I just found another one of his essay books today and will start on Some Freaks, right away to continue that artistic high and push to keep working that his work gives me so strong.







The People of the Black Circle, by Robert E. Howard
Always a favorite passion of mine is to return to Robert E. Howard's worlds of wonders. People of the Black Circle is among the best of Conan's adventures, rife with swordplay and magic; its a great entrance to the Sword and Sorcery realm.
Capturing the Devi of Vendyha, Conan soon become embroiled in multiple twists with backstabbing sorcerers and the tumultuous nature of his own raiders. When the Black Seers of Yimsha become involved it only gets more desperate.
I just started The Hour of the Dragon on audiobook so I'll be keeping up with that state of adventure for my short drives for awhile.

REH 108 Years: A Perfectly CROMulent Birthday

Happy Birthday to one of my favorite writers - Robert E. Howard

He would be 108.
I had forgotten it was his birthday til a moment ago but was actually listening to my audiobook of "People of the Black Circle" whilst taking the kids to school.

Weird Tales Magazine, the original publication of many of his best stories, posted a great tribute with loads of sword swinging art and several of REH's poems this morning  here. 

and a final thought...

I cannot express enough how much moving to LA just barely makes me feel this way ~

“Barbarianism is the natural state of mankind. Civilization is unnatural. It is the whim of circumstance. And barbarianism must ultimately triumph”

-REH

Solomon Kane

Solomon Kane, directed by Michael Basset and starring James Purefoy was released everywhere else back in 2009. I've wanted to see it for years and yet avoided watching it on youtube or other possible sites. I guess I just wanted to see it theatrically first - of course it never came to Montana, so I had to wait for DVD, and even that took me longer than it should have but...


I've been a fan of Robert E. Howard's grim puritan avenger for years, I'm sure I like him more than Kull, and I was not disappointed. Great action, atmosphere and all.

As much as I despise pointless origin stories, this one doesn't bug me. Its quick, its easy and its entertaining. There was no wasted effort and pointless pandering on how and why I should understand Kane's motivations. And I have to add that I'm pretty happy with the casting. Purefoy is magnificent in everything from Mark Anthony in ROME to Marshall in Ironclad, so his Kane is perfect. And most of the supporting cast are well played too.

While this movie is outside the REH cannon, I felt like it was reasonably true to the character - certainly more so than the recent Conan movies - and the S&S elements are well done. Listening to Bassett and Purefoy's commentary on the DVD I do hope that sequels happen, I'd love to see a merging of "The Moon of Skulls" and "Hills of the Dead".

Having a rather dim view of film for the last couple years, I enjoyed this one despite its non-cannon material. Here's hoping for more.

On Top of the World: 80 Years of CONAN

"Know, oh prince, that between the years when the oceans drank Atlantis and the gleaming cities, and the years of the rise of the Sons of Aryas, there was an Age undreamed of, when shining kingdoms lay spread across the world like blue mantles beneath the stars - Nemedia, Ophir, Brythunia, Hyberborea, Zamora with its dark-haired women and towers of spider-haunted mystery, Zingara with its chivalry, Koth that bordered on the pastoral lands of Shem, Stygia with its shadow-guarded tombs, Hyrkania whose riders wore steel and silk and gold. But the proudest kingdom of the world was Aquilonia, reigning supreme in the dreaming west. Hither came Conan the Cimmerian, black-haired, sullen-eyed, sword in hand, a thief, a reaver, a slayer, with gigantic melancholies and gigantic mirth, to tread the jeweled thrones of the Earth under his sandalled feet."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A whole lot of things have contributed to my writing inspiration and drive, my own poetry expanding into prose, the sheer love of reading-especially myth and legend, a love of history and lost mysteries, Tolkien is absolutely huge, Hemingway and more as well, but I must give credit that the biggest factor that literally kicked me in the face and said I HAVE TO START WRITING - instead of just talking about it, was Robert E. Howard's creation CONAN, who turns 80 today since his first appearance in Weird Tales.

The first tale of Howard's I read was People of the Black Circle but I know The Phoenix on the Sword (the first Conan tale with the familiar opening above, was soon to follow) I devoured the tales and harassed used book shops to acquire all the beat-up old dog-eared copies I could find, usually the lamentable DeCamp series. This was before the Del-Rey releases. I hardly read anything else that summer, and soon enough  I read most of the rest of REH's catalog and then got to work on my own.

If I can someday engender that same fascination with a reader, the sheer excitement and thrill that I felt reading these stories, I will have truly succeeded. I can think of no other praise or reward so high as sharing that feeling with another person when it comes to writing.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“What do I know of cultured ways, the gilt, the craft and the lie?
I, who was born in a naked land and bred in the open sky.
The subtle tongue, the sophist guile, they fail when the broadswords sing;
Rush in and die, dogs—I was a man before I was a king.”

The Next Big Thing Blog Chain...

I was chained to this by Shelley Brown (author of The Fall of Cliff Castle (Book One in The Glass Slipper Chronicles)) and so I'm sharing a little bit about my WIP with you today.

So without further ado (because ado is seldom useful) my WIP:

What is the working title of your book? 

 Bless the Child

Where did the idea come from for the book? 

I was fascinated with the concept of mercenaries in the ancient world. The idea especially of Greeks, when they weren't fighting each other, would sell themselves out to the Egyptians, Babylonians, and other minor kings; and that brothers could potentially find themselves facing each other on opposite sides of a conflict very far from home.

I also wanted to utilize some Biblical old world references that I found interesting such as Elephantine Island on the Nile, the fall of Jerusalem thanks to Nebuchadnezzar, and a number of rumored aspects of that siege and destruction.

* the artwork for the cover has graciously been donated by Kris Cooper

What genre does your book fall under?

Historical Action/Adventure with a Sword & Sorcery flavor

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition? 

I have given no real thought to this. Most of the characters (even while many are real historical personages-Solon, Psenophis, Jaush of Lachish, Nebuchadnezzar, Zedekiah, and Balthazar/Daniel are inspired by people I personally know)

While I do think this could be turned into a screenplay much easier than my other works. The protagonist, known as The Spartan would need to be an able bodied man in his mid twenties in the beginning of the book and it follows his story up to around forty or so.

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book? 

Never thought about this before but here goes...

To keep from getting wet, the bloody, drowning road to redemption for a Spartan mercenary is perhaps best traveled by boat.

another...

Saving oneself is most nobly done by saving another.

and (having too much fun with this)...

No country for sword-less men.

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency? 

This will be my first self-published novel. The greater motivation for such will be explained toward the end of this post.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript? 

I think I finished the rough draft in about 5 months. 

This was also when I was offered my first publishing contract and decided to start this blog and hence the name Nephite Blood, Spartan Heart - a merger of sorts of my Heroes of the Fallen saga and this Spartan book, the only two things I was working on at the time.

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre? 

I really liked, Jezebel by Frank G. Slaughter, Lord of Samarcand by Robert E. Howard, Gates of Fire by Steven Pressfield, Lion of Cairo by Scott Oden, and 300 by Frank Miller.

Who or What inspired you to write this book? 

I began the book when my daughter was in the hospital with a terrible case of RSV. She almost died. The frustration and heartache in the beginning of Bless the Child is from that pain of not knowing if she would make it or not. I wrote it at her crib-side in the Primary Children's Hospital in SLC.

I was also greatly inspired by a lot of my historical research reading related to my first novel(series) Heroes of the Fallen ipso facto - Hugh Nibley.

And lastly, when I was still doing construction to pay the bills, I was remodeling a basement at the home of an old woman and her daughter - a single mother whose toddler son kept calling me 'Daddy'. It broke my heart.

What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest? 

I am going to donate 100% of the proceeds to The GAN Warriors a trio of young local boys with a terribly debilitating disease. I wanted to do something to help them and polishing and dusting off a trunk novel seemed the most viable thing I could do. It lets me get my work out to a greater audience and help someone(s) else at the same time.

There you go, that's all she wrote!

 

Now I have to chain people to this thing...so...

I'll stick to my regular blogger friends who I know are always working on something

Charles Gramilch

Paul McNamee

Angie Lofthouse

and

Adventures Fantastic Keith, I'd love to hear more about what you're working on, not that we don't all groove on your reviews.

Gods in Darkness

It took far longer than I ever meant, or honestly thought it would, but I finished 'God's in Darkness' (title gratefully stolen from a Karl Edward Wagner chapter heading in Darkness Weaves.)

for my Space Eldritch contribution. At least this time he didn't haunt my dreams saying I could not use his title as he did here.

Gods in Darkness is 15K of pulpy speculative assault on the seven senses in the cold emptiness of space. My goal with the piece was to put a Lovecraftian Sword & Sorcery tale up into the Detritosphere (Crypto-Cosmic military term for a Low Earth Orbit) ~ alas I never did put a sword up there, but knives, blunt objects and sorcery abound.

I am pleased that my wife says it is the best thing I have ever written.

There are several homages thrown in for good measure, the naming of my protagonist as Cormac Ross was deliberate as the Cold War veteran is cut from the same Gaelic cloth as the bulk of Robert E. Howard's hero's.

And while I didn't name (yet-still doing copy edits) the Lovecraftian being, its hard to not throw out some kinda Zyth-Yog as an addition to that mythos too. I am sucker for name meanings and it is the rare exception that I don't have a purposeful name with a meaning in relation to that character. Not being fluent in Elder Gods vernacular, I chose to simply not name the thing.

Still, this has been a fantastically satisfying month for writing and I figure my regular readers will greatly enjoy what is likely my very best work to date.

The chilling artwork at the top is 'Breathing the Void' from 5kypainter  Absolutely awesome!

The above is an example of a Soviet tool used in space by the cosmonauts. Deadly blunt objects indeed!