Questions 3 and Looking Back at ‘Charms of the Feykin’

Posted on April 30, 2024 by Charles Yallowitz

Cover Art by Jason Pedersen

Here we are at the other half of the split team story.  Charms of the Feykin doesn’t really follow Delvin, Sari, and Fizzle alone.  They got a few scenes in the previous volume to create suspense about their adventure.  This starts with the other champions going in search of Delvin and Sari who have gone missing.  It doesn’t take very long for them to find out what happened and see that there is something weird going on.  A jungle city of those with fey blood and a powerful priestess claiming Delvin and Sari are great heroes to be worshipped?  How can that go wrong?

The biggest goal of this story was to push the Delvin/Nyx relationship to its inevitable conclusion.  There was never any mystery about them eventually turning into a couple since Delvin was open about his feelings.  Nyx wasn’t and that was where I needed to have a story that forced her to be honest.  Not that it wasn’t clear that she liked Delvin, who might be the only one who didn’t pick up on the truth.  Anyway, a big chunk of the story involves these two on top of figuring out the mystery of what’s going on in the jungle with the Feykin, this priestess, and a cult determined to wipe them out.  A fun backdrop for a romance.

Speaking of the jungle . . . I could never figure out a good name for this place.  Characters kept calling it the Southern Jungle even though there wasn’t any other on the continent.  I had this issue with the desert too.  For some reason, I couldn’t imagine these two areas having official names that every group agreed upon.  Given that both are inhabited by individual groups and independent cities, I thought there would be a variety of names for them.  Those outside of the regions would refer to them by biome since you can’t list a ton of names on a map.  In 2016, I noted this in a post and stated that every tribe had their own name for the jungle.  Also, that any person who did try to name it tended to be conquerors who would get defeated by the local fauna.  Maybe this place simply refuses to be tamed and named.

Another part of this story is Sari.  If I had to change anything, I would try again to push her more into facing her trauma.  She reveals that Kira being the one to stay with Luke Callindor isn’t sitting as well as she thought it would.  So, she’s lashing out and doing other things to make herself feel better.  There’s some manipulation of her as well, but that’s a plot twist.  Sari’s actions do make sense and I got her to vent a bit.  Yet, I again found it nearly impossible to get her to face the pain she keeps holding onto and gathering under a mask of being happy.  She really does focus on making others happy in order to avoid facing her own demons.  I struggle with the idea that she’s a lost opportunity even though it is realistic that some people will hide their pain by helping others in the hopes of it going away.  Maybe having one out of six champions be unable to handle their trauma in a healthy way works.  I just feel bad that this is the book where she came the closest to getting some healing and it simply didn’t work.

Charms of the Feykin is probably the only book where I got to make every champion shine in some fashion.  Each one got at least one great moment and I hit a perfect balance between them.  With six protagonists, it’s really hard to pull this off without bloating a story or stretching events.  Everything fell into place this time.  The other books were good with this, but I feel this one hit the balance so perfectly.  Wish I knew the secret on how it happened, but it is what it is.

Questions to consider:

  1. How would you feel if the person you were interested in started dating someone else?
  2. Do you think racism always has to exist in fiction?
  3. If you could change into a creature that combines different animal parts, what would kind of chimera would you become?
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The Ability Thief

Posted on April 29, 2024 by Charles Yallowitz

Sylar from Heroes

The concept of an ability thief is fairly common.  There are different levels of the ability as well, which can range from killing the original owner to simply copying it.  Guess that makes the ‘thief’ part not true since the term implies that the original owner no longer has the ability.  Anyway, I thought this would be an interesting concept to explore.

This power tends to be held by villains, especially if it involves killing the original owner.  I see it a lot in anime like ‘Yu Yu Hakusho’ and ‘Hunter x Hunter’ . . . Come to think of it, those were made by the same person.  Anyway, there’s also the old series ‘Heroes’ that used this for their top villain.  All of the characters become deadly adversaries who have a multitude of abilities, which means the heroes don’t know what they are going to get.  It can get worse as the story progresses since the villains don’t stop gathering powers and will continue getting stronger.  It almost puts a timer on the adventure because there will eventually be a point where the ability thief is unstoppable.

Authors can go too far with this, especially if they don’t reveal all the stolen powers.  This gives them an easy out for letting the villain win or simply survive.  All you have to do is give them an ability that solves the problem.  Same can be done with heroes, which means the threat of defeat is nullified.  The only way to stop them is to have them lose their stolen abilities, which is a challenge and ends up destroying the character.  Having them set out to gather more abilities from scratch can make a reader wonder if they have any purpose other than stealing powers.  So, this type of villain or hero can lead an author down an iffy path.

I talk about powers, but this can be done with other traits.  There are characters who can steal fighting styles and various skills.  It isn’t on the same level as the power/magic thief, but it works off the same principle.  They’re basically mimics, which I would put in the same category.  In fact, the ability thief is the same as the mimic, but there isn’t always a physical change.  People tend to think of mimics as shape-shifters that steal the identities and abilities of others.  The ability thief remains the same unless a physical change is part of the stolen ability.

Personally, I like this power, but I don’t like seeing it used so often.  It can be very broken and a long-running story seems to always require the ability thief become almost god-like.  This results in their defeat being unbelievable.  I like them more as short-term enemies or obstacles, which means they can’t grow too powerful.  If they’re heroes then I prefer to have a cap on their abilities.  Although, I think a heroic ability thief is easier to work with since an author will have to establish their repertoire and can’t pull a surprise power out of nowhere.  The hero doesn’t get as much time away from the audience as the villain, so it’s harder for them to secretly go god-like.

Not sure if I’ll ever attempt one of these characters.  I did have a similar concept in mind with a character who had a different power depending on the personality that is in charge of the body.  Unfortunately, I started seeing that turn up in comics and other stories, so I haven’t touched the character for about 20 years.  Still not an ability thief, which is still something that I’ve seen so much that I don’t think I can do anything unique with it.  Not enough for me to feel like I’ve added to the overall concept.  With a concept like this, I would like to try something new since it has so much potential to go off the rails.  Guess I’ll have to tinker with the concept when I get an opportunity.

So, what do other people think of ability thieves or the concept?

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Politics

Posted on April 29, 2024 by Charles Yallowitz

Okay, I said it. Craig here with something you might find useful if you keep reading. In polite society I never talk about politics unless I really …

Politics
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National Cubicle Day? Really?

Posted on April 28, 2024 by Charles Yallowitz

Ugh

What sick bastard came up with this holiday?  I was going to go with Superhero Day or Blueberry Pie Day, but this requires a post.  This is a horrible idea for a holiday.  It’s a travesty to the concept!  Cubicles are horrible inventions that drain the soul of whoever is sitting within.  They’re designed so that the person inside cannot see those around them, including a higher up coming towards them.  You live in fear of a figure appearing in the opening that is always in your peripheral vision.  If the walls are low enough, you can peek out like a prairie dog and get caught by a manager for not doing your work.  I always compared these things to three-walled jail cells, but without a personal toilet, bed, and window.  Nightmarish creations.  Only way this holiday should be celebrated is by taking a sledgehammer to a cubicle.

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Late Goal Post: Back from Oswego

Posted on April 27, 2024 by Charles Yallowitz

Aside from Passover, this week was the big father/son trip to Oswego, NY.  This place is on Lake Ontario and . . . I went to college there and it’s a nice town about 5.5-6 hours away depending on how brutal the traffic through New Jersey is.  Why my GPS kept sending me through NJ is beyond me?  Didn’t help that it took me through the Bronx too.  At least the overall trip was fun.  Let’s do a daily break down:

Tuesday

The drive up was fairly quick with me only needing one stop halfway.  To be fair, the worst traffic on the way up is around NYC, NJ, and Long Island.  Once I get away from that area, it’s rather smooth sailing outside of some construction areas near Syracuse.  Made it up around check-in time and we relaxed for a bit.  Dinner was a pricey, but tasty pizza place where my son got Mac & Cheese and I got a rather big Hawaiian calzone.  After that, it was Pokemon Go on SUNY Oswego campus.

Stepping foot on campus is something I should touch on.  Last time I was in SUNY Oswego, it was 2013 and I was at a local convention to sell my first book.  I had swag, a banner, and didn’t get anywhere because I was in a rather quiet room.  Got to hang out with friends.  Yet, that was still when I was married.  This was the first time I was on campus after the divorce and with my son.  There was a weird sense of nostalgia battling the sense of loss, which went on throughout the trip.  Not a bad thing, but it definitely felt strange.

Wednesday

First of the full days and we went to the Rosamund Giffords Zoo in Syracuse.  It was a little, but enough was inside where it didn’t matter.  The zoo is smaller than the Bronx Zoo, so we got to walk around a few times.  The highlights were nearly 1-year-old tiger cubs wrestling, seeing the 5-month-old elephant twins, golden lion tamarins, meerkats, and the gray wolves.  Got some food from the café there and headed back to the hotel in time to go swimming in the pool.  Spent part of the evening walking around campus playing Pokemon Go again.  Not sure if that was the best move since it was cold and windy.

Thursday

MALL DAY!  Seriously, we spent the entire day in the Destiny USA mall.  This place is huge and allowed my son to do a lot of Pokemon Go between scheduled events.  The morning was a ‘Sloth Encounter’ at the animal place they have on the second level.  The place was bigger than expected and we got to go into the sloth’s enclosure to feed them.  It was fun and we could gently pet their backs as long as we gave them food first.  All of them were rescues too.  This was the big event of the trip too, so it was totally worth it.  Sloths are really soft to the touch and have the most interesting, serene faces.  They can be picky eaters too.

The afternoon event was seeing ‘Spy x Family: Code White’ at the theater on the top floor of the mall.  This is based on a manga/anime that my son and I read/watch.  It’s about a fake family where the father is a spy, mother is an assassin, and the daughter is a telepath, but nobody except the daughter knows who everyone is.  So much fun to see this kind of story on the big screen.

Getting back to Oswego, we had dinner with a friend.  It was McDonalds and we just hung around talking until about 9.  Nice to see old friends after so long.

Friday

This day didn’t go smoothly.  I took us to some walking paths I remember hearing about, but I didn’t realize they would be muddy.  Well, they weren’t until we got so far along that turning back was an issue.  My son’s shoe got stuck at one point and mine nearly came off too.  This resulted in us having to go back to the hotel to change shoes and then go to Walmart to buy new pairs.  Oops.  The afternoon was swimming and just relaxing until my friends were freed up to have dinner.  Another relaxing evening of chatting.

Today

Drove home and here we are.

Definitely want to go up again one day.  My son and I discussed the trips we like, which are those where not a lot is planned.  We just like getting away to relax, which Oswego is really good for.  Just not in the winter when the weather is terrible.  Same goes for Finger Lakes, which he wants to go back to one day.  I keep thinking I have to find new and exciting trips for us, but we do that on family trips with my parents.  Maybe the father/son adventures could be these two areas where we can still do things.

For myself, I might try a solo journey up there at times.  I always wanted to do an author getaway and thought I’d need a cabin, isolation, or a group.  My ex-wife once gave me one for my birthday, but it was to a nearby motel.  She meant well, but it happened right after I finished writing a book and I ended up in a room under the stairs with no windows.  It didn’t work out very well and taught me that atmosphere is important.  Oswego has a relaxing setting for me.  I might not do any book work, but hand-editing and notebook stuff can help.  Figured out a few problems with Rayne’s full journey that haven’t been sitting well for 15 years and I wasn’t even trying on this trip.  Can’t do author stuff when I have my son there though, so I might go back on my own one day.  Probably need a laptop I can close without it breaking too.

Spring break is still going on through Tuesday, so I won’t be doing much.  Going to type in some edits for Darwin & the Halfling Hunt.  Want to do a bunch of posts for June too since I have topics.  Beyond that, I’ve got a busy 3 days of work.  Schedule is changing and then basketball after school.  Won’t give me any time to do my own stuff until next Saturday after some recovery.  Guess that’s how it goes these days.

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On the Road Today

Posted on April 27, 2024 by Charles Yallowitz

On the road, so I couldn’t write up a goal post.  I’ll either make one before I go to bed or wait until next Saturday even though it would be a week after the trip.  Probably give me time to get pictures for it.  Make that decision later.  For now, enjoy some semi-related music:

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Can Heroes Be Homesick?

Posted on April 26, 2024 by Charles Yallowitz

Google Image Search

I’m not even sure if I can make a big post about this.  The idea came to my mind when I was thinking about how heroes in fantasy go on big adventures.  Can’t remember many of them getting homesick.  Not majorly.  Sure, many lose their hometowns during their origins, but that isn’t everyone.  So, why don’t heroes get homesick?

Part of it might be that the heroes are heading out on a mission, so it’s assumed that they won’t think of home very often.  They will focus on the job and only consider home when they remember who they are trying to protect.  Guess it makes sense, but it can’t hold out for years like with most adventures.  Traveling with friends certainly helps, but they aren’t the same as going back to family.  Not only family, but just returning to your place of origin and remembering where you came from.  Maybe humans have a fear of forgetting their hometowns if they’re away for so long.  I know I definitely started feeling that when I lived in Florida for 4.5 years, especially since I think I only came back to Long Island twice during that time.

In Legends of Windemere, I kind of bypassed this by having the heroes either not have a hometown or return over the course of their adventures.  Luke Callindor, Nyx, Delvin Cunningham, and Timoran Wrath all had points where they went back home. Sari and Dariana didn’t have a home to return to.  So, there wasn’t much of an opening for them to get homesick.  In War of Nytefall, it never came up because the heroes were always at home during part of their story.   Clyde and the Dawn Fangs weren’t traveling adventurers, but protectors of their kingdom.  Hence, homesickness wasn’t a thing.

So, will this be an issue with Darwin Slepsnor?  I genuinely don’t know.  Events in the first book kind of prevent that, but I also found that his personality wasn’t letting me give him a bout of homesickness.  He just kept getting distracted by a new adventure, new friend, or whatever was in front of him.  Darwin being sad and missing home never felt natural even though he’s stated many times that he plans on going back.  Maybe a hero who is sure that they’ll return some day and plan to do so with stories doesn’t get homesick?  I mean, if he goes back too early, Darwin won’t have enough stories to tell or miss a big one.  For some reason, that logic makes more sense for him than missing home.

So, what do other people think about heroes being homesick?  I’m talking primarily from a fantasy adventure perspective, but we can talk in general.  I figure characters on Earth will be easier to suffer from it than non-Earth.

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How to Become a Murderer

Posted on April 26, 2024 by Charles Yallowitz

No, I’m not gonna tell you how to get away with the perfect crime. Not today, anyway. 😉 But I will show you how to become a murderer… and transfer …

How to Become a Murderer
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Poetry Day: If This Was My Last Day

Posted on April 25, 2024 by Charles Yallowitz

(Guess I had a lot of downers in ‘I’ section.  Then again, is anyone surprised that I wonder about my own legacy?  I write stories with destined heroes and question if free will is stronger or weaker than destiny.  I have my heroes hope to create a legacy even if they die because they want to leave the world a better place.  So, I always wonder if there will be anything left a hundred years after I’m dead to tell people that I was here.  Not just that I lived, but that I did something.  I also wrote this when my son was really young, so the idea that I could die and he wouldn’t remember me was scary.)

If this day
Was my last day
What scar would I leave
Upon the world
Or would I fade
Into a set of photos
Collecting dust
In tear stained albums
Packed into a box

 

Would my stories live
Beyond my notes
Finding life
When I am gone
Or would they remain
Trapped
Within their tombs
Of lined paper and cheap binding
Crumbling on a shelf

 

Would my collections
Of blade and book
Become heirlooms
Passed to generations
With stories told
Or would they depart
Sold or donated
To make some space
For newer toys

 

Would the key to legacy
Be the son
Carrier of the bloodline
Living proof
That I was here
Or is he too young
To remember his old man
A memory not yet forged
Fading before I cool

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7 Tips to Writing Father and Son Relationships

Posted on April 24, 2024 by Charles Yallowitz

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Being a single father, I think about the father/son relationship a lot.  Mostly because I’m always hoping I’m doing right by my own son.  This gets tougher when I see fiction maintaining the ‘stoic father’ ignoring the son’s issues until they explode or not having the father be in there at all.  It can get even worse with adventures because the father tends to die at some point.  Come to think of it, fathers are fairly common sacrificial characters if they’re in the picture at all.  Anyway, here’s some ideas on writing a father/son relationship in fiction.

  1. If the father comes from a generation where men don’t show emotion or parenting is the ‘woman’s job’ then establish that.  Fatherhood has changed over the years with more fathers taking on child-rearing responsibilities.  Many show emotions and talk about feelings with their sons too.  This isn’t seen as manly by some, but it is how many relationships are these days.  So, don’t be afraid to show that if it’s the type of story you want.
  2. The son doesn’t always have to be railing and battling against the father.  We know that children test their limits, but something about the father/son challenge turns into toxicity in writing.  Authors seem to want the father to be the villain or the son to be the young fool.  I rarely see these portrayed as a problem that gets solved by talking before somebody gets hurt.  Most times, I see it result in the total destruction of the relationship or at least the disappearance of it until the epilogue.
  3. Fathers aren’t always disappointed in their sons!  This is a common trope, which does play out in real life.  I’ve always wondered if it happens so often because it’s seen in every genre.  Our culture practically demands that fathers criticism and frown at whatever their son is doing unless it’s following in their footsteps.  This also tends to make the mother the more understanding and loving parent, which feeds into other clichés.
  4. As stated, fathers are more than able to talk about feelings.  An open and comfortable relationship between parent and child is fine.  You won’t get conflict between them, but you can challenge them in other ways.  The story doesn’t always have to involve the near destruction of the father/son relationship.
  5. Hugs.  Nothing wrong with a parent hugging their child.
  6. There should still be some boundaries between the father and son.  A child will not be comfortable talking about everything with their parent.  You also need to make sure the parent has a level of authority instead of coming off solely as a friend.  This can be delicate, but it doesn’t have to be something that causes conflict.  Boundaries can be established and respected by the characters.  They don’t always have to be pushed and broken.
  7. There’s a rule in society that parents shouldn’t cry in front of their children, especially fathers.  Apparently, doing so can be called manipulation, weakness, pathetic, and a long list of insults.  I disagree.  Having a father cry when one would normally cry makes them human in the story.  Otherwise, you end up blocking the emotional connection between parent and child.  As stated, fathers can have this too.  It isn’t only for mother/child stories.
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