Short Story Briefing- Pun Intended

Once more, I've hit the creative roadblock that always happens during every book I write.  I've built the world, named its inhabitants, and identified where they belong within the over-arching story.  When I write and think of writing, I use a lot of music as an aid and it puts images in my mind of moments that would be really cool to explore in a book.  Unfortunately, this leaves my characters doing a lot of really cool things with no development in the middle.  If I wanted that, I'd write new scripts for He-Man, or I'd recreate new Conan comics, but I want my work to have more substance.

The latent issue is coming up with realistic events that tie these "action scenes" together in a way that leaves you emotionally-impacted when whatever happens happens.  Sure, it's sad to see someone getting crushed under the heel of a hundred-foot-tall monster called the Monolith, but it's a lot more side when you have two-hundred thirty pages invested in them.  Ultimately, I'm trying to create the believable characters that react the way I imagine they would in certain situations.  I want my books to read like really good movies.  That, I'm finding, is seriously hard.

And so I go to the short story.

In every tale is a cast of characters somewhere between major and tertiary, but none of them fill the place of "hero" except one.  You can develop them in a book as much as you want, but the reader will normally root (if you've written them properly) for your main character.  The other guys are interesting for sure, just not enough to warrant a fifty-thousand-word lexicon of their goings on.

Instead of giving them their own full novels, I've decided to write snippets, little slices of their lives and events that ultimately bring about the end of the entire saga.  With these, I can talk about any event that I want, flesh out whomever I want, and make moments as cool, crazy, or interesting as I want because I don't have to worry about tying them together with a lot of "Middle-Earth walking".  I get to kill two birds with one stone: eliminating my roadblock, and writing constructively until I can focus on the novel again.

I'm working on a few short stories that I'll tie together in compilations, but in the meantime I'd like some feedback from you guys, either on here or via e-mail, for suggestions about what you'd like to see or whom you'd like to hear about.  After all, the story doesn't go forward without you.

Here's to the future!

Politico- The Elven Edition

As a nation, Galavia must have a government, a seat of power from which the people are controlled through enforced law.  It must also have a religion, a seat of power from which they are controlled through their minds.  Because I based it on Ancient Rome, I wanted it to have a base and style reminiscent, but not identical, to the world I'm pulling it from.

Because the Roman Empire ceased to exist at the dawn of the Byzantine, I have to project what it would be like if it existed to this day.  The architecture is primarily Italian High Renaissance, since a lot of Greek and Roman work was revived by the masters of the period, but the more inland regions of the country could be confused with Spain.  It used to be a senatorial empire, but slowly became a senatorial monarchy as the government decentralized.  Around the time of Throne of Blood, it's kings have drawn more power back to the crown, with the current king having recently begun calling himself an emperor and granting himself power over a third of the military.

Besides the king there is a regent, a man who is granted the king's power if he dies before an heir comes of age.  There are also two retainers, men who get the same power if the regent dies and are never allowed to be in the same place in case of emergency.  The king's house also has seven cardinal generals, each over an army of the military, with three directly beneath the king's control.  There are also a number of dukes, barons, and common lords who owe fealty to the crown in wartime and must pay a tribute tax annually in exchange for protection against foreign invaders.

At the provincial level, a greater lord lives in a fortified city with a huge tract of land around it that no one can use for anything (as per a "beautification" law).  Surrounding him within his province are dozens of smaller fiefs, usually a few-hundred to a few-thousand acres in size and ruled by minor lords who rule over either land-bound workers or free men, depending on the ruling lord.  At the bottom rung, the peasantry follows laws established by the landowner, who follows the laws of his lord and so on.  The system of laws in Galavia is remarkably complicated and bureaucratic, and because of this great inefficiency a lot of people have been crying out against the government more and more.

On top of a mostly-ineffectual ruling class that uses a great deal of money, the people of Galavia adhere to a religion that is slowly dissolving in the face of recent advances in science.  The official religion for over a thousand years has been a polytheistic one with a Pantheon of gods that controlled different aspects of nature and natural law.  There are gods for things like storms, fruit trees, and gravity, and patron lesser gods for things like apples, clocks, and the left-hand turn.  In light of learning heliocentric theory, such a pantheon seems utterly ridiculous to anyone who can read, which is a surprising number of people in the wealthy nation.

With the people losing faith in the system and becoming empowered through growing knowledge and the newly-invented printing press, the government and church both push back with fears of their influences waning.  With both sides bent against each other in the middle of a growing global conflict, the sparks of revolution flicker brighter and brighter.  It is in times like these that bonds are broken, heroes are born, and kings are made.  I don't know about you guys, but I'm all kinds of excited for the Throne of Blood!

Thanks for reading.  Here's to the future.  :)

Galavia- A Brief Note on Weapons and Armor

For me, the best way to create a plausible story with believable characters is to put them in a functioning world.  Tolkien said the he drew the map of Middle-Earth and went from there.  For me, I'm writing the history of the world and allowing characters to fall into place.

A parallel of our own world and for good reason (a spoiler that I won't yet spill), the world of Terra is one that exists in a setting just before the dawn of the early modern era.  Guns have just been invented and, while incomparable to sorcery and the existing war machine, their usefulness is certainly noted.  Beyond food, fashion, and language, however, the way of the world is markedly different from our own.  The three primary continents are merged around a single massive body of water, the White Sea, and their cultures show it.

Modeled after 15th century coastal Europe (primarily Spain), Galavia is different from its real-world counterparts by a lack of a massive navy. While sea trade is important, the lack of a trading partner across an open ocean has turned their focus toward light, fast ships and a military with the same focus.

Bearing in mind the implications of deep river movement leading to a vast sea, the Galavian navy consists of weaponized cargo ships similar to small galleons, as well as light warships reminiscent of the Roman bireme, fitted with a ram and small guns.  With a third of their standing army staying on ships, most of the elven (Galavian) military is outfitted in light armor- leather with mail underneath and six quick-release straps in case one falls overboard.  Heavy units include cavalry and shield-bearers who wear solid-plate armor that functions like gothic armor but looks similar to the centurion armor of antiquity, including stylized galea with horse hair plume and all.  The greatest of them, the Praetorian Guard, are the royal elites in charge of guarding the king and his household; fitted with a thicker version of the shield-bearer armor, they play a surprisingly big role in Throne of Blood and other books to come.

With armor down, I’m left with weapons.  By this period in history, heavy armor had made both shields and slashing weapons far less common, if not obsolete.  While shield-bearers used broader weapons for thrusting and slicing, Praetorians use a thinner version of the zweihander, with a rapier as a secondary, a cinqueada as a sidearm, and something like a Swiss mercenary’s pike as an alternate weapon.  Marines, fighting mostly unarmored pirates and privateers, use a shamshir with the end modified for weight, a design that they took from their desert enemies.  Lastly, any footmen that use swords normally hold a rapier that is either bone-handled or has a modified crossguard, with a cinqueada or stiletto at the side.

In the end, the lot of it is inconsequential nonsense, but for me to keep in mind what they use helps me to remember how they should fight, the ways they react to things, and what types of enemies they should come up against depending on what I want to happen.  For the average reader, it’ll mean nothing.  For anyone as nutty about the High Renaissance as I am, it’ll be a treat to know that I’ve done my research, at least to a degree.

For now, that’s just a tidbit of the world I’m trying to create.  I hope you guys enjoy hearing about it further and let me know if there’s anything you want me to discuss. 

Here’s to the future.

Finally Underway Again

It has definitely been a long time coming, but between work, Army obligations, and trying to further other ventures, I haven't had a moment to write.  Now that I'm finally able to again, I've also had something to blog about for the first time in a long time, which is nice.

With a couple hours one night and nothing better to do, I turned to the laptop and started reading through my old content.  A LOT of old content.  Stuff I wrote more than a year ago, that had been left lying neglected on the dusty, upper bookshelf in the library of my mind.  I read through what I'd written for Throne of Blood, and I think I've decided that it's going to be the next book I finish.

The story is a re-telling (naturally) of themes that have followed any great hero, as well as most of us.  The book explores loss, betrayal, vengeance, the strength of the family bond, along with what defines a family.  In it, I'm trying to weave together a tale that is easy to follow without being too obvious, while also introducing a cast of characters that is both large and fairly memorable- just enough so that they are missed once removed from the plot.

The story takes place in the land of Galavia, a large country with forests, sweeping plains, and rolling hills, separated from other nations by two mountain chains and a vast stretch of ocean coast.  In the book, the people are suffering under a king who is both self-gratifying (go figure) and inattentive to the slow destruction of his holdings.  Fed up, his peers spark a revolution that engulfs the capitol and changes the ruling hand early on.  What follows is a story seen primarily through the eyes of two characters: Aurelius, the young son of a duke and one of the heirs-apparent to kingship, though he's too immature to take office; and Lycinius, one of Aurelius' guardians, his father's retainer, and a member of the dukedom's court.

The two must grow together, both in stature and maturity, and must together face a world that threatens to descend into chaos at any moment.  With treachery lurking in the shadows and enemies around every corner, it will be more than a feat to raise the child into the man the kingdom needs, if he even lives that long.  Through the trials and tribulations, the duo learn about the power of trust and what it means to rely on one another.  Both their friendship and resilience will be put to the fire and by the end of it all there will be a great many weeping eyes.

Will their bonds remain strong, or will they stand against one another?  Will the nation burn around them as infighting embitters them to inaction?  Will they even survive?

Find out in my next book, Throne of Blood.