FanX 2017 Recap

I'm a week late, that's life. But hey, in that last week, the dictation software = Dragon, I have talked about for years now - is actually working for me. So I'll do a post about that very soon.

Back to the Con. It went pretty well, I signed a lot of books and even sold out of my copies of Redneck Eldritch, The Mad Song and Weird Tales of Horror.

The Saturday panel I did with the Space Balrogs was a lot of fun. I was the Undead and while I had some super dedicated fans and really enjoyed my last minute art round of demonstrating how death works to people = its eerily similar to duck, duck, goose. - James Wymore was dragons and had a singalong with some friends that was awesomely bad yet Dave Butler won with a phenomenal round doing an audience induction to becoming an elemental sorcerer via the Hokey Pokey - maybe you just had to be there.

Oh and that's me, a confused dinosaur and my the friend up and coming movie star, Wren Barnes.

Looking forward to the next one this September. And of course, here are some pics of the con.

This was the Space Balrogs on the panel.

Twilight Zone classics.

Me and the fantastic fitness model Dana Tracy. I first met her as Red Sonja at FanX two years ago.

Awesome Willow cosplay.

I don't know who she was but she looked fantastic.

the Lone Ranger turned up!

Jedi

I told them I was Dave but they were confused.

Me and rising cosplay superstar Joanie Brosas.

My son Mathias and one of his favorite Dr. Who episode folks.

Swedish Chef!

Ragnar and Lagertha.

Amazing Spawn and Angela.

Agent Carter

Odin and Son.

Chewie Dude and Walter Solo.

Poison Ivy just as I first reached my signing table.

View from the Green Room

Got my Flash Gordon poster signed by the man himself! Sam J. Jones!

Sam J. Jones - such a cool dude. I got to talk with him for a bit. Awesome guy!

and...Whispers of the Goddess is out!

So, it is available here at Smashwords and here on Amazon

This has been a long time coming, I wrote Whispers of the Goddess in a white heat back in January of 2010. It was a combination of all kinds of things that fire my imagination. Templars, the Crusades, the Holy Grail, Varangian Guard of Byzantium (Viking mercenaries), Greek and Norse Gods, all told in a proper Sword and Sorcery style. 


I was even more thrilled to have the tale accepted into RBE's Roar of the Crowd anthology, but that died the slow death with some misphaps  and the tale was returned. So I have edited it, added in a couple other short tales starring Tyr (the main character) that have been published elsewhere and got the wonderful Carter Reid (Space Eldritch 1 and 2 covers, his ow Zombie Nation comic along with a slew of others for some great spec fic authors) to do a a cover for me.

My description:
"From the wrath of the Northmen, O Lord deliver us." -- Old French Prayer 

Warships of the Fourth Crusade surround Constantinople threatening murder, rapine and worse. 

The only option left the impotent Emperor to avoid the sacking of the great city, is to secretly give away a sacred relic. 

Enter Tyr, a red-handed Swedish mercenary and Wolfram von Eschenbach, the Templar poet, together charged with retrieving the holy artifact and escaping the city. 

What they don't know is that arcane forces, old as myth, are marshalled against their mission. The old gods of multiple nations war with the New. 

And Ragnarok is coming to Greece. 

Plus two more short sword and sorcery tales of Tyr: Hel Awaits and Sailing to Valhalla 

What the critics are saying about David J. West's writing! 
"Brutal, gory and depressing," - Jennie Hansen, Meridian Magazine 
"I was afraid to read this book." - Marissa Walker, Timpanogos Times 
"And he just keeps getting better," - Keith West, Amazing Stories 
"One of the most well-written fight scenes I've ever had the opportunity to read." - Darkeva, Hellnotes

Whispers of the Goddess is Coming

I haven't been around, all my regular readers know why, but finally my first project of the year is almost here.

I need to figure out all the nuances and get it put together but WHISPERS OF THE GODDESS my novella from the departed Roar of the Crowd is coming soon.

Here is the back cover blurb I recently put together, (and thanks to Angie Lofthouse for helping polish it)

"Warships of the Fourth Crusade surround Constantinople threatening murder, rapine and worse.
The only option left the impotent Emperor to avoid the sacking of the great city, is to secretly give away a sacred relic.
Enter Tyr a red-handed Swedish mercenary and Wolfram von Eschenbach the Templar poet, together charged with retrieving the holy artifact and escaping the city.
What they don’t know is that arcane forces, old as myth, are marshaled against their mission. The old gods of multiple nations war with the New.
And Ragnarok is coming to Greece."


Here is the cover by the talented Carter Reid - he also did the SPACE ELDRITCH cover.


In other news, the prequel of sorts for Whispers of the Goddess, The Dogs of War, has been accepted into the Thunder on the Battlefield, Sword & Sorcery collection edited by James R. Tuck, so if you like one tale I hope you will like the other and we can get some cross-pollination going.

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?