Next Thursday, I will put up the first section of Immortal Wars: The Summoning and continue until it is all up on the blog.  This is replacing ‘Bedlam’ and I will have the sequel coming too.  Today, I’m going to give a little background.

When I was 15, I was really into comic books and fantasy.  I read Fred Saberhagen’s ‘Book of Lost Swords’ and loved the world-building so much that I wanted to become an author.  I was always dreaming up stories and this seemed like the next step.  Also, it would make my daydreaming and quiet time more worthwhile since I could consider it working when I was an adult.  I ran ideas by a friend who was into the same things and came up with:

IMMORTAL WARS

It was a series from the beginning and really tried to do far too much.  There were magical weapons, space stations, aliens, resurrections, A.I., teenagers in love, villains in love, predictable swerves, and an untrained kid in the captain’s chair.  I’m surprised I passed any of my creative writing assignments whenever I used an excerpt.  Still, this is the beginning and it is where I first flushed out a big series with a variety of tactics that I still use.  Character bios and chapter-by-chapter breakdowns are how I prepare even if the methods have changed.  So, I can’t call this a total waste of time and I figure every author has this something like this in their history.  We all have to start somewhere.

For me it was with these four teenagers who discover they are immortals with powers and have to protect the solar system.  Each one is connected to a different planet and I can’t be sure if there was a significance to the choices.  I mean, Hydrana (codename . . . Sadly, she got the best of the bunch.) had water powers and was connected to Neptune.  I’m also just realizing that her name is close to hydrant.  Whatever, I don’t think I’m going to use her again . . . Except that I believe she got moved to a Sin story along with the others, so I’m going to have to make that joke.  I’m totally off topic and have to jump to another paragraph now.

Okay, the untrained and confused teenagers are to be taught by Solix, the sole survivor of the originals.  His friends were killed and their magic weapons stolen by a group of 9 evil immortals who they mistook for friends.  In this world, immortals can kill each other because their auras cancel each other out.  The overall plot is about the heroes regaining the stolen weapons, which go back and forth, and destroying the villains.  Other enemies turn up throughout the series including a cosmic vampire.  Seriously, what was I thinking here now that I look at these notes?  It really is a simplistic plot with characters that pale in comparison to what I do now.  Going to be an interesting year as these two stories go up, especially since I have NO IDEA what the sequel was about.

In terms of writing style, I was all over the place.  No concept of smooth dialogue and my exposition was rough.  My attachment to tenses was so horrible that I’d switch from past to present in mid-sentence.  That was pointed out and I was told to pick one, so I chose present, which is what made me a present tense author.  You may see flickers of what I’m like now in here, but you’re also going to see a lot of ‘yikes’.  Not to mention clear indications of what movies, shows, and books I was into at the time.  Really makes me wonder why I’m doing this to myself.  Not like I need to be humbled this badly.  Let’s say I’m doing this for a laugh and because I have these books sitting around.

Well, the rambling explanation is done and now we wait for next week.  Some sections will be huge and others tiny.  I hope people take this journey with me and don’t be too harsh in the comments.  I’ll be hiding under the bed anyway.