Coming Up For Air

Sometimes life just takes over from time to time. Now that I've wrested control back, it's time for another blog post.

I've been thinking about some of my favorite portrayals of gods in modern fiction, and I got to thinking about Neil Gaiman's Sandman series. I love this series for many reasons, but his re-tooling of old mythologies is probably paramount. One of the characters in these graphic novels, Orpheus, is also the protagonist one of my favorite Greek myths.

If you don't readily recall the story of Orpheus, one of the most famous tales about him is his undertaking a trip to the underworld to rescue his wife. He strikes a bargain with Hades, who agrees that he may return to the world of the living with his wife under one condition- he must make the journey back with her following behind him, and he must never look back at her until they reach the surface. It's a motif in other famous stories you  might be familiar with so you probably know what happens. Just in case, I won't spoil it for you.

Neil Gaiman teases Orpheus' tale apart and then weaves it into his own new, expanded tale. Orpheus actually gains immortality during his quest to save his beloved wife in Gaiman's tale. What makes the story most interesting to me is how Gaiman explores the idea of immortality which, as is often the case in Greek myth, ends up not being the great boon one might expect it to be. Gaiman's Orpheus goes through much of the same travails as his Greek counterpart, including the rending of his body to bits by a mob of angry women. Unfortunately for Orpheus, he's immortal, and despite being severed from his body by the most inconsiderate Bacchante, his head lives on. It's an aspect of immortality I've not often seen touched upon in modern fiction and one that makes for compelling reading.

Immortality is far more interesting in this light, when the potential downside is so starkly contrasted with the benefits. In a good deal of fiction, you'll see instances where a protagonist seems inconvenienced by their immorality for only a while, if at all. Let's take the cult classic Highlander as an example. The protagonist loses his loved one because he is immortal (and unaging, unlike, say, poor Tithonus) while she is merely human. He broods for a while, but by the end of the film all is well again and immortality is no longer such a burden for that character. Vampires are often portrayed in this way as well. They may have moments where they wish they could die, as Lestat does in Anne Rice's stories, or they may reference or flash back to a time before the "now" of the story when they were miserable, but by and large they soon find the one thing that makes their lives bearable again. Gaiman's story is a compelling tragedy because there can't really be a happy ending for Orpheus. He's just a head and can never die. It's a fascinating contrast to all the happily ever afters that happen in most fiction dealing with immortality. This is likely because modern readers (including me) enjoy happy endings more than sad ones. But tragedy can be so powerful- I've always felt Shakespeare's tragedies were the most complex and interesting plays he wrote. That almost inexplicable attraction of the tragic story is probably why I appreciate Gaiman's tale so much.

Riddle me this

Today I will post another entry from the glossary for the Tanavian Chronicles—the sphinx. This creature isn't mentioned in Whom the Gods Love, so this is a bit of a teaser for the upcoming book. Don't worry, the entry isn't going to reveal too much about the next book, so no big plot spoilers. The sphinx is one of the more alluring mythical creatures for me. My first encounter with it was from the excellent movie, The NeverEnding Story. Admittedly, in that film sphinxes are a little different than the myth. Even so, as a child I was fascinated with, well, let's just call it "that scene in the movie" to avoid spoilers. I've fiddled with my sphinx in some ways, but I do maintain some of the more defining characteristics of the creature. The image I've used here is of Ingres' interpretation of Oedipus and the Sphinx. If you have the chance and haven't already, you should check out the story of Oedipus. He's been written into several famous stories because his tale is one of the great ones.

Sphinx – See also Nymphs. See also Satyr. Sphinxes are incredibly beautiful and highly intelligent creatures. Their wisdom and intelligence rivaled that of even the most learned humans. The upper half of the creature was that of a beautiful woman. Golden feathers softer than any fabric ever created lined her back and filled her large wings. It is said that when they took flight, the sphinxes wings would reflect the gaze of the sun or moon, creating a halo of light around them. The lower half of their bodies was that of a big cat, the soft golden fur starting just below the waist and ending in human looking feet, differing in that they were thickly padded like those of an animal. The fur, like the wings, was impossibly soft and silky. They were highly prized for their wisdom, men and gods alike consulting them with problems they could not sort out on their own. The sphinx, ever thoughtful, always managed to find a solution to any query brought to it.

Apsos, the god of creation, spent much of his time creating creatures to fill up the world, some of which failed to please his fellow gods. When Apsos created the beautiful sphinx creature, some of the other gods became jealous of its beauty and cleverness. They claimed Apsos had created a creature that would be worshiped by humans, such was its elegance and wisdom, worship that was rightfully due them, and not any mortal creature. This claim was not without merit as the sphinx, unlike many of the gods, was benevolent and free of the politics and petty infighting they were often mired down in. The gods persisted in their complaints until Apsos finally capitulated to their demands that he do something about the sphinx. Loathe to destroy his creation entirely, he instead split it in two. The aspects of beauty and wisdom were separated, and he reforged them into the nymphs and the satyr. The nymphs retained all the ethereal beauty, and most of the human aspects of the sphinx, but none of the wisdom. Without the intelligence to guide them, they are pretty creatures, but simple, and spend most of their days flitting about the woods. The satyr kept the animal aspects of the sphinx, legs covered in dull brown fur, padded feet, and ruddy complexions. They were not beautiful by any means, but their cleverness and wit was surpassed by no other creature, save perhaps the occasional unique human. With their most envious aspects separated, the other gods tolerated these creatures that descended from the sphinx.

Underwater Inspirations

I find it interesting to read where different authors get their inspiration from. Everyone seems to have their own way of thinking up new stories. When I was in college my creative writing prof believed you could be inspired by anything. To prove it, he passed around a blank piece of paper and asked us each to doodle something on it. When the paper was passed around the whole class he took it and made photocopies of it. Then he passed out the copies and told us to write a story based on what was on the paper. I actually recently found that little short story, and without any context wondered what it was for a while before I placed it. Here it is in all its unedited splendor:

The eggs grew cold as I stared at the cook cracking them open, and the man in the booth next to mine thought he was so cool because he had this sweet bow tie with the picture of a drunk dog and two butterflies on it, but I couldn't help noticing that he was crazy, kind of out of it because of his habit of smoking with his mouth full, but I didn't care anyway because the waitress came to me and told me that I had to ski or die so I stepped outside as she pointed her semiautomatic at my head and hopped onto the pair of skis there thinking how did these get here? Lucky for me the diner was at the top of a hill and as I flew pass the snowman I began to think of spring and of how the flowers looked when suddenly I saw a strange man staring at me in a cold and calculating way, and all I wanted was to go home and I swore I would never come this way again because after all it wasn't a shortcut anyway. 

Yes. A masterpiece. I know. I kind of only really remember the "ski or die" part because it was the trickiest bit to fit in. Someone had doodled the logo - at least I vaguely recall this being the logo of some company that made sporting wear - on the paper next to the various other doodles of cracked eggs, flowers, eyes, a gun... I think you get the picture (pardon the pun). In any case, though the story won't win any awards, it did make me realize you can find inspiration for things in unlikely places. Which brings me to the video I linked. While sometimes it takes work to find inspiration, the images from that underwater museum almost write a story themselves. Imagine an adventurer stumbles across a site like that. One day I hope I get the chance to visit it. Until then, these videos and my imagination will have to suffice.

Dream Merchant

From the movie Metropolis

I've been writing for quite a bit longer than I have been publishing, so I have a significant backlog of "open projects" as I like to call them. When I get an idea for a story I often write about 20 pages or 15000 words of it so that if I need to leave it for a while when I come back to it there is a pretty good foundation to remind me where I was going with it. Occasionally I'll even toss in a very brief outline of where I had planned the story to go. I don't always follow the plan I originally laid out. Sometimes I revisit these unfinished writings and massage it into something I hope is better. Whom the Gods Love started this way. I had about 15000 words of it finished for quite some time before I revisited it and was compelled to finish it.

I'm going to share another such "open project" with you. This one is science fiction and it's an idea I return to from time to time with tweaks. I'm getting close to being able to finally complete it, but of course I plan to finish the Tanvian trilogy first. Here is the first small part of this story, approximately 5% of what I've finished to date.

The Dream Merchant

It is important to remember that people are looking at you all the time. In order to appear the most natural, never have an expression program running your face unless actively engaged in some form of conversation, verbal or otherwise. This may seem counterintuitive, and that you should always be running some program, but my extensive study into the subject says otherwise. Maintain a blank look throughout most of your day. Only change your expression after making direct eye contact with another person. Then, engage a smiling function from a randomized set. When you are responding to an individual you appreciate more, make sure to program in the eyebrow lift. Various texts suggest this is an automatic response when greeting someone you know and like. I prefer to use Peterson’s Greeting Expression software for all my facial emotes as it has been programmed with all the most up to date studies in mind.

From the text, “Naturally Human: The Comprehensive Guide to Appearing Lifelike” 

*** 

The city pulsed with the comings and goings of dark transports, quietly hissing through the air save when they paused to land at one of the many parking levels throughout the city to pick up one set of tall, perfectly beautiful people and disgorge another. The majority walked to and fro busily chatting with each other, seemingly taking no notice of the minority of drably dressed drones that were among them. The bald drones, all dressed in the customary gray jumpsuits that they were compelled to wear, trudged along behind their owners—their faces blank and their expressions unresponsive to the colorful world of light and noise around them.

Amidst the bustling flow of life, one motionless man stood out. He was dressed in a sharp suit and stood in a shadowy spot between two buildings, staring across the street. His eyes were fixed on the small shop there that specialized in dreams. His own drone stood behind him, motionless, his eyes glazed over. The man, whose name was Soltaire, hesitated, his softly humming transport shielding him from the rest of the street.

Compared to all the other shops crying out for attention, this one was nondescript. It had no extravagant lightshow describing the contents within. The shop wasn’t crowded with fanciful furnishings meant to delight the eye. It simply had the product lined up along the walls; tiny chips of silicone that were deceptively common looking. Soltaire knew quite well that if he approached the wall of chips and reached for one, a signal would pass to him describing the contents of the dream stored within. Currently there was only one person in the store perusing the wares. She had her drone with her. The store’s owner, a pale-skinned, dark-haired woman, was smiling at her customer as she spoke. Soltaire could read the owner’s lips if he so desired but decided that would be unnatural, so he resisted the urge to do so. He watched for a bit longer, waiting for the customer to finish. He liked his privacy and had no interest in entering the shop while anyone else was there.

The customer was listening to the feed from a product in front of her. Her drone was standing patiently to her left, seeming lifeless until its owner addressed it. Soltaire didn’t even have to glance back to know his drone was standing just behind him in the same lifeless way. This drone had been particularly well behaved so far. He’d been forced to get rid of the last one. No matter how many inhibitors he had injected into the thing, it still smiled too often.

Finally, the woman took one of the programs off the wall and took it to the counter. Soltaire could feel his excitement kicking in. The program cascaded through him, aptly imitating what he believed to be anticipation. The owner of the shop smiled widely at the woman and nodded toward the terminal interface in front of her. Soltaire didn’t relish his own interaction with the owner of the shop. She had been flirting with him since he first began frequenting the shop. Affairs were natural, so it had seemed prudent to start one. Even so, Soltaire had no interest in beginning one. He found it trying to keep the one relationship he had running, let alone another one on the side. The very idea of it tired him out.

For anything else, he would have simply found another merchant, someone he personally found less abrasive. But Soltaire had tried many dreams over the years and nothing matched what this shop offered. It was well recognized among the synth community that this particular merchant was the most skilled at creating dream sequences. So far she had managed to keep her trade secrets, and no one had been able to compete with her in all the years she had operated this particular shop.

Soltaire watched the customer place her hand into the terminal and saw a considerable amount of credits transfer into the shop owner’s account. As soon as the customer left and climbed into her own transport, Soltaire strode across the street with purpose. He paused, his hand halfway to the door. He savored the moment as a program caused a chill to run down his spine. Tonight, he would dream.

Freesus, the goddess of vengeance

Today's post will be another glossary entry as I have promised. This one is one of the many gods spoken about in the book Whom the Gods Love. She plays a major role in many of the important god stories of the world of Tanavia. She's similar to a trickster character in that she causes a lot of mischief, but unlike many trickster characters she isn't particularly likeable.

Without further ado, the entry:

Freesus - Freesus is an old god. She is the goddess of vengeance. Freesus was often called upon by those who believed they had been wronged. Unlike Tempora, the god of justice, who would extract compensation for the wronged parties and a punishment as was merited by the crime, Freesus would bring pain and suffering down upon those who had wronged one of her followers. Freesus was fond of curses that fit the supposed crime: forcing thieves to have everything stolen from them, no matter how little they had, be it their meager possessions, or lacking that their wives and children; forcing murderers to have all their family and friends slain; forcing adulterers to fall in love with those who would never return their affections. Freesus could be fickle though, and worshiping her was dangerous. If she ever felt an acolyte was not making sufficient offerings to her and worshiping her with the appropriate reverence, she would turn her wrath on them and dole out the worst of her punishments.

This is a simpler version of a typical entry. For my own reference, I would have who this god married, who she sired, significant stories she was included in, etc. For this blog entry however, I've gone with the briefer entry to keep spoilers away.  A great deal of this detail will probably never make it into this trilogy. When everything is said and done, I plan to make the whole glossary freely available to anyone interested. Some of my favorite little bits of story are in these entries and I would hate to see them go to waste.

Poodle Moth? More like Angora Moth!

I love science and nature. Ever since I caught my first National Geographic documentary as a kid I've been glued to the set surfing for any and all shows on nature. I am so lucky, at least as far as entertainment goes, that now we have whole channels dedicated to National Geographic, science, and animals. Sir Richard Attenborough's documentaries, by the way, I cannot recommend enough. You've probably heard of Planet Earth and Life, but his Life in the Undergrowth and Life in Cold Blood are excellent as well. Since they are so focused on insects and reptiles and amphibians, you get much more time with those critters than in the general documentaries Planet Earth and Life.

Why am I going into all this? Well, as I mentioned before, when I write I often look to the real world for inspiration and these strange little creatures certainly inspire me. You'll come to see as I post more glossary entries that nature has heavily influence my fantasy writing. I also find it fertile territory for my forays into science fiction, which I'm hoping you'll see some of in the near future. They say that truth is stranger than fiction. I've found there is nothing stranger than some of the stuff you can find in nature.

This little moth with the big attitude (pictured above) showed up recently. They've nicknamed it the poodle moth, but I think it's more of an angora moth. It's like a little angry angora rabbit morphed with a moth. Is it scary or adorable? I'm on the fence. This particular shot does look as if this tough guy is about to launch itself into your face. It's a moth with a grudge.

Okay, well enough of fuzzy things, though saying that seems all kinds of wrong. My books sales for the month have been promising. I'm very happy with my progress, modest though it is. Thanks again to everyone who picked up a copy of either of my books. Sometime next week I'll post another entry from the glossary for anyone who comes by here to enjoy. Until then, I'll try to believe this fuzzy moth wants me to pet it and not to chase me out of its territory.

A SINK FULL OF KITTENS! and some other stuff

First off, thanks to all who downloaded Whom the Gods Love during the two day promotion. That was awesome, and led to a wonderful new review for Amazon. I've now included Amazon reviews in a widget on the blog there on the right. A good friend worked that up for me. She deserves a sink full of kittens as much as all those who downloaded the book. So enjoy those kittens. I originally saw this image on imgur.

Second, I thought I'd shed a little light on how I get some of my ideas for my mythological creatures and characters. Many of the creatures are inspired by established mythologies and folk stories. Some you might readily recognize, like griffins or harpies. Others, like the aswang for instance, might seem a bit more obscure to some readers. The aswang in my book are loosely based on the real myth of a Filipino version of a vampire. They are quite horrific in any description I've seen. My version is no where near as terrifying as theirs. I try to take a few aspects from the established myth to keep some of the familiarity for readers, but since I am writing them into my own world, I also have enjoyed playing with the beasts from these stories and fleshing them out into something more fitted to my stories and atmosphere.

Some creatures, like the crawlers I posted about before, I just make up completely. I use a little of what I've seen from nature docs, which I love, and exaggerate them like crazy. I love playing with how real biology would work if you made if really frightening or strange.

As for the gods, they are just made up from whole cloth. I am not using any established myths for them. They all have their own back stories and myths, some of which will come into play in this trilogy, and some of which won't. I can't really say whether or not I'll revisit Tanavia after I've completed this trilogy. I have so many other ideas I'd like to explore in writing, but who knows. Maybe I'll feel compelled to write about some of the other warriors or people of these lands.

Again, thanks to those who downloaded my book, and a special thanks to the person who reviewed it. Reviews are always helpful to me, even negative ones, but the positive ones truly make my day. :)

Whom the Gods Love Free Today!

Whom the Gods Love is free until midnight tonight! So far the book has managed to get into the top 20 for Epic Fantasy. Which is awesome! I've gotten lots of downloads for the book, which means more exposure. More exposure is a good thing. Unless we're talking about to the cold. Then it's bad.

In other news, if you haven't seen the cat that sings the Game of Thrones intro music, you really should. It's funny even if you aren't a cat lover. I have verified that by forcing various cat non-lovers to watch it. I know, how did I find so many cat non-lovers? It was a long and arduous process, but only the best for anyone who stumbles across this blog and decides to read it. So check out the video. It's been vetted.

Glossary Entry: Crawlers

If you've read Whom the Gods Love, you may have noticed my interest in mythology and folklore. As long as I can remember, being interested in writing and reading, mythology and folklore have always held my intense interest. The idea of being able to create my own myths and legends for a world was exciting and fun.

As I began writing Whom the Gods Love, I started up a glossary for the series. It seemed the easiest way to keep track of all the people, places and things I continually referenced throughout the work. After I finished the first book, looking back at the glossary I realized that it often held far more detail about some of the entries than the book ever went in to.

I thought including some glossary entries would be a fun way to reveal parts of the world of Tanavia without spoiling too much of the story, particularly if I picked entries that I knew weren't integral to the main plot of the story. So here's the first entry I've chosen. I hope you enjoy it!

·        Crawlers - Crawlers are huge worms (adults ranging in size from 40 to 80 feet in length) that travel deep underground and eat early in the morning. There is a saying on Tanavia, “Only the early worm catches the bird.” This saying comes from the fact that crawlers enjoy feasting on the nests of rocs. Baby rocs are their favorite prey. Crawlers can sense heat even from deep within the earth. In the early morning hours, when the parents of the young rocs have gone off to look for food, the babies will sometimes fall out of the nest in anticipation of their meal. If they do not make it back up to the safety of the rocky crevices where their nests are, they are likely going to become the meal of a crawler. Crawlers will also make a quick meal of a traveling party if the group has not taken care to sleep atop hard ground when in crawler territory. Around the same time as the dew begins to settle in the morning, men will disappear from a camp, bedding and all, into the mouth of a crawler. Crawlers have mouths capable of opening wide enough to easily swallow a man whole. Unfortunately for the victims of a crawler attack, they have no teeth. Instead, they have a very tough leathery interior to their mouths that is extremely slick with saliva. The tough, slimy orifice makes it difficult for the prey to claw or cut their way out. The walls of the throat and digestive track of a crawler are also very muscular. Yet they do not constrict the life out of their prey. The final unhappy factor in being eaten by a crawler; they eat their prey feet first. This is particularly gruesome for the victim because the airway and the digestive track of a crawler is the same common passageway right down to the fork where air is funneled into the lungs and food is funneled into the stomach. Due to the unique qualities of the crawler’s digestive system, it can take the crawler days to fully pass a meal into its stomach. In order for the crawler to breathe while it eats these large meals, it must lodge food tightly into the passageway to the stomach until it had fully passed beyond the common duct. The prey, awash with oxygen, can still live while its lower extremities are being digested.  Some men say they can tell when they are near a colony of crawlers by the faint, muffled screams coming from beneath the ground. Crawlers have no known predators, but adult roc pairs have been known to take one down in defense of their nestlings.

Goodreads Page coming soon!

I've signed up to get an author page on Goodreads. Soon that will be all set up. Already have a lovely review over there, so half the job of getting my author page has already been done for me! My promotional period for The Arbiter did fairly well. I'm quite happy with how many downloads there were. I plan to keep on building my book portfolio, so keep an eye on my author page for new books.

I know these posts have mostly been news, but next time I promise to post something related to my writing. Until next time!

P.S. Almost forgot! Take a look at the first chapter of Whom the Gods Love. I always make sure to use the Look Inside This Book feature, so you should get a good sample of the writing style of that story. Hope you like it.

Big Time! (I'm an optimist, yes I am)

Woo! The Arbiter is number 34 in Kindle Fantasy! Thanks to everyone who downloaded it yesterday! Maybe we can get a little higher on that list? If you like it, tell your friends. :) The Arbiter is still free today until midnight, so now is your chance to pick it up.

Don't forget, if you like it, give Whom the Gods Love a try. I'll soon be blogging some excerpts from the sequel I'm currently working on. Whom the Gods Love is the same price as one of those new McDonald's dipped cones, but I can guarantee it won't melt all over your hand in this heat, so that's a bonus.

The Arbiter, free today and tomorrow!

I’m putting The Arbiter up for free for a couple days to help promote the release of my new book, Whom the Gods Love. Go over and grab yourself a copy. If you enjoy my writing style, I hope you’ll come back and give Whom the Gods Love a try.

Whom the Gods Love is a little more light-hearted than The Arbiter. As far as tone goes, think somewhere between Peter S. Beagle and Terry Pratchett.

I’m already hard at work on the next novel in the Tanavian Chronicles. I just put chapter 4 to bed last week, and with luck, I’ll be publishing the next book within the next 6 months.

Enjoy!