Questions 3 and Looking Back at ‘The Life & Times of Ichabod Brooks’

Posted on June 25, 2024 by Charles Yallowitz

Cover Art by Circecorp

The Life & Times of Ichabod Brooks . . . Where to even begin?

This is a short story collection staring Ichabod Brooks.  He is an experienced adventurer with a wife and kid back home.  The jobs put food on the table, so he keeps working hard and building his reputation.  That’s pretty much it.  Ichabod is the selling point since he’s older, experienced, achy, and not trying to save the world.  I always enjoyed putting a sense of exasperation and tiredness on him when things would go wrong.  It wasn’t frustration, but more of a ‘I’m getting too old for this’ thing.  Guess I did kind of picture him as Donald Glover at times.

The creation of this series began with a fun short story I made prior to this with the same character.  People liked it, but he was named Ichabod Jones.  It was pointed out that there was a monster hunter with that name, so I played around with other surnames.  Ichabod was staying since he’d had that for years while sitting in my ‘to be used’ pile.  Came up with Brooks when I turned on the TV and saw Mel Brooks as Comicus in ‘History of the World Part I’.  The rest was history.

Except for making him an archer to make him different than most of my other heroes at the time.  My plan to make him a smart and strategy-based fighter had him gravitate towards a distance fighter.  Ichabod could still throw down in close-combat, but only due to decades of experience instead of training.  His main weapon was the bow and I gave him an arsenal of magic gear to choose from.  With so many adventures under his belt, it made sense for him to have a lot of special weapons even if he couldn’t bring all of them on a job.  I came up with a triple quiver too.  It was a magic device he had that held three quivers with one over his shoulder, one to his left and one to his right.  This way he could have more than one type of arrow.

Really wish this book sold better.  People loved when I put up teasers, but that never translated to sales and reviews.  Maybe I could have marketed better, but I didn’t have a lot of money to put towards it.  My hope was word-of-mouth, which didn’t spread that well when compared to my main series.  This is why I never made time to write up the sequel, which would have been a second collection.  There are outlines for the other 11-13 stories, so maybe one day.

Let’s get right to the questions:

  1. Have you ever felt like you’re getting too old for something?
  2. What do you think of short stories?
  3. What do you think of an adventurer who does it to feed their family instead of saving the world?
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About Charles Yallowitz

Charles E. Yallowitz was born, raised, and educated in New York. Then he spent a few years in Florida, realized his fear of alligators, and moved back to the Empire State. When he isn't working hard on his epic fantasy stories, Charles can be found cooking or going on whatever adventure his son has planned for the day. 'Legends of Windemere' is his first series, but it certainly won't be his last.
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17 Responses to Questions 3 and Looking Back at ‘The Life & Times of Ichabod Brooks’

  1. Oloriel's avatar Oloriel says:
    June 25, 2024 at 10:31 am

    Always loved the name you chose for the character.

    For the questions :

    1. I have been told many times I am too old for various things, mostly hobbies and what to wear, but I have never felt it, so I still do what I enjoy and wear what I feel like. I’d say, if the feeling comes from you, by all means, one should heed it, but otherwise in reality, I feel it is lame to impose ‘oldness’ .
    2. I love short stories, love collections of them, though am partial to ones that usually involve the same set of characters, and tend to gravitate more towards ones that are all different characters, or one same place with different POV’s and stories.
    3. I love it, because I believe it brings relatability into reading the story, which I prefer over the cliches, which are often there cause it feels like they should be. I also love when fantasy writing includes more of the day to day stuff, and this falls in that category, because I think not all stories need to have a protagonist who is extremely special or ‘chosen’ for a special experience.

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  2. L. Marie's avatar L. Marie says:
    June 25, 2024 at 11:05 am
    1. The Icabod short stories are good! As for whether I’m too old for something, I think that a lot, especially since I am working on young adult novels! Many young adult novelists are in their twenties and thirties. Not me! 😊
    2. I’ve written and published short stories, so I’m all for them! 😊 I also write picture books, which are considered to be short stories.
    3. Sounds very realistic and compelling. I can’t help thinking of bounty hunters in some ways. They’re doing it for the paycheck. Gotta eat and pay bills.

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  3. John W. Howell's avatar John W. Howell says:
    June 25, 2024 at 11:50 am
    1. I’m too old to get up on 20 foot ladders. I not only feel it I know it.
    2. I love short stories. In fact I write them to relax or when I’m stuck on a WIP
    3. I enjoyed all the Icabod stories and think that doing the adventures as a paid consultant is the highest form of service. Saving the world is overrated and feeding one’s family should be the first priority.

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  4. V.M.Sang's avatar V.M.Sang says:
    June 26, 2024 at 3:34 am
    1. Yes! I’m getting too old for most things! I often look at some energetic pass time and think, ‘That looks like fun’, then reality sets in.
    2. I’m not overly keen on short stories. I like something to get my teeth into.
    3. I’ve no problem with that. Everyone has to feed their family. But I don’t think it would hold up as a complete novel.

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  5. coldhandboyack's avatar coldhandboyack says:
    June 26, 2024 at 7:05 am

    I have that Donald Glover thought all the time now. Maybe I’ve seen too much and am losing faith and patience with the modern world. I love short stories, have my own collections, too. I think Ichabod treating it like contract work makes him more unique in the genre. He’s like that quiet guy in a room full of boasters. The one you should take seriously. Aside from the questions, I loved Ichabod. I’d love to see more of his tales some day.

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  6. DebyFredericks's avatar DebyFredericks says:
    June 26, 2024 at 9:39 am
    1. Have you ever felt like you’re getting too old for something? I am too old for people’s bullshit.
    2. What do you think of short stories? I enjoy them, but they are their own art form. Not something I’m super good at.
    3. What do you think of an adventurer who does it to feed their family instead of saving the world? That makes at least as much sense as any other reason for adventuring.

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