"99 Deaths" Gets a Second Life

My short S&S tale "Ninety Nine Deaths of the Monkey God" is up in the current issue #7 of Swords and Sorcery Magazine

What happens when the hunters become the hunted and assassins drop like flies? (I just made up that tagline)  This is the story of a mercenary on a mission to disrupt an evil cult pressing for war. My story “Hel Awaits” also appeared in the March issue of Swords & Sorcery.

Set far outside geographically of a work in progress Gods & Robbers yet still within that worlds realm 99DotMG follows Kold ~ a thug, reaver, assassin, etc who will eventually be a contender (that is likely the best choice of words at the moment) in that forthcoming novel.

A large part of my inspiration for the piece beyond Rogue Blades Entertainments call for an Assassin's anthology (it didn't make the cut) was to get into the shoes of one of my characters for the sake of knowing him better later on.

I don't know yet if that worked, but it was an experiment. Its all for the ultimate good and experience, I actually wrote this tale around two year ago.

And to my writer friends who enjoy that kind of thing, they are looking for more S&S tales.

* Though it has nothing really to do with anything, I had to add the fantastic artwork by Daren Bader

Limp and an Eyepatch

I like the idea of distinguishing tags for certain characters. Whether the character has a limp, drawl, compulsive habit and very common these days a catchphrase, these tags help us know who is who and what to expect. I think there is always a certain amount that readers expect/anticipate from a certain symbols i.e. tags.

 

A prominent one that comes to mind is the eye-patch. While my visual examples today will be from film, it illustrates the very idea of archetypal character for the sake of story resonance.

You pretty much know when you see these guys-he's tough!

 Whether filthy buccaneer or grizzled gunslinger, someone who lost an eye is a bad ass.

I pondered while driving yesterday (where I do a lot of my best thinking) that the root of this could be Odin chief of the Norse gods and for whom Wednesday is named = Woden. He traded an eye for wisdom and he slew a lot of frost giants. This collective archetype could be the reason we think eye-patch = tough guy.

What are some of your favorite tags?

Ten Years...

I met my wife ten years ago tonight because the Morrissey concert was canceled at the last minute.



I had been going into that coffeeshop/restaraunt all summer long (to write, yes people still do that) and had not spoken to her yet. So it was finally time.

She asked me out.

Interview is up on Youtube

We talk about a little bit of everything ~ Lovecraft Mythos, Robert E. Howard, writing, the Elder Sign, Inspiration, Mormonism, Romney,bath salts, and I plug a number of anthos I'm in (or will be in) especially the upcoming Space Eldritch but also IN SITU, Monsters & Mormons, Monk Punk, Unnatural Tales of the Jackalope, etc etc

I enter at about 24 minutes in.

Spirit of Radio

My first radio interview will be up shortly, if you miss it I'm sure a podcast will be available very very soon. Feel free to call in and harass me.

~

WITHIN A MATTER OF HOURS...


DOUGLAS DIETRICH
(LIVE ON-AIR TODAY UPON THIS EVENTIDE;
TUESDAY, JULY 24th [07/24/2012])
...
– With SPECULATIVE FICTION AUTHOR: DAVID J. WEST

(& YOU, YOURSELF, PARTICIPATING INTERACTIVELY THROUGH THE FINAL HALF-HOUR)

– Through: "'CRITICAL OMISSIONS'
– WITH HOST DOUGLAS DUANE DIETRICH,
INTERNATIONALLY RECOGNIZED RENEGADE MILITARY HISTORIAN,"

– ACCESSIBLE via: http://www.freedomslips.com/

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at: 03:00 PM—05:00 PM, Hawai'in Daylight Time;
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Join HOST DOUGLAS DIETRICH & GUEST(S) LIVE EVERY TUESDAY EVENING (Once/Week) at the Hours Listed Above by Entering the REV-RAD Chat-Room (which is Open twenty-four hours a day [24 Hrs./Dy.])

One is always welcome to Enter the Rev-Rad Chatroom to Ask Questions of either Douglas Dietrich or his Guest(s)
when the FINAL HALF-HOUR CALL-IN Phase of the Program commences
via: The Orange-Print Chat-Room Link Located on the Upper Left of the REV-RAD freedomslips.com Home-Page)
to Speak Directly with Douglas Dietrich – & His Guest(s)!

We Take Both Regular Phone-Calls and Skype!
CALL-IN #: 1-347/6882902
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ADD us to YOUR SKYPE CONTACT(s) USING:
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Interview at Dagan Books

An interview with me has been updated and posted at Dagan Books for myself and the other contributors of the IN SITU anthology.

Those contributors being ~
7/17 - Ken Liu
7/18 - KV Taylor
7/19 - David West
7/20 - Kelly Stiles
7/21 - Rebecca Lloyd
7/22 - Robert Hunter
7/23 - Sarah Hendrix
7/24 - Alex Shvartsman
7/25 - Paul Dixon
7/26 - Jason Andrew
7/27 - Bear Weiter
7/28 - Dawn Vogel
7/29 - Greg Burch
7/30 - Mae Empson
7/31 - Graham Storrs

I have IN SITU on the Kindle and as backed up as I have been lately (dealing with my computer crashing and some files coming through hideously deranged and murderous), I have only yet read editor Carrie Quinn's afterword. I'll never be able to read and write as fast as I would like.

If I didn't offend someone with my writing I'm probably not doing it right

I was savaged by a recent amazon review, well not so much savaged as amused. My initial thoughts on reading the rather brief bit of negativity were 'really?'

"1.0 out of 5 stars Hated it, boring, disgusting, July 12, 2012



By mrs.cowboy - See all my reviews
Thought this book would at least be similar to historical fiction. In my opinion, it's far from historical and more into fiction using some of the Book of Mormon names as characters in the book. Blood thirsty kings and references to a homosexual warrior were too much for me. Will be deleting it from my Kindle."
 
At least she bought the book once. A quick once over on her other reviews was enough to confirm my guess and begs the question on why she even picked up Heroes of the Fallen. I suppose we all branch out sometimes but even a cursory glance should have told her this was nothing like the other cozy mysteries she reads.
 
Part of my amusement comes from knowing that the reviewer didn't 'get' the book but needed to share her indignation. That she hated a boring and disgusting book makes me think I at least accomplished some amount of memorability.
But did she really think there weren't bloodthirsty kings back then? And that there couldn't possibly be a homosexual in those wicked and wild ancient times? Let's not even get into the discrepancy that Rezon is a caravan master and not even close to being a warrior!

In any case if I didn't offend someone with my writing I'm probably not doing it right because I'm not moving people enough-this review tells me I'm at the least moving a little something something (granted its nicer when you move people in a positive light as well ~ see the other reviews).
 
But as James Enge recently wrote about negative reviews, they can be quite a service. I had wondered if all the 4 and 5 star reviews looked too biased in my favor-yes, several were from friends and family but several were from complete strangers (that always makes you feel good) So I'm asking dear readers, go ahead and give me a few stellar 3 stars and gushing 2 stars just to round things out and clear the palette.

***Addendum (July 18th, 2012)
It's also good to know (since I just checked Amazon) I am still selling copies after this review~take that mrs. cowboy