Character Types: The Introvert

Posted on September 20, 2021 by Charles Yallowitz

Hey SE Readers. Joan with you today. This is the fourth in a series of posts about character types. Most are from my personal observations or public …

Character Types: The Introvert
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More Strange Animals Because It’s Fun

Posted on September 19, 2021 by Charles Yallowitz

All pictures found by Yahoo Image Search.

Dumbo Octopus

Fossa (Only predator on Madagascar)

Goblin Shark

Lowland Streaked Tenrec

Tufted Deer

Velvet Ants

Yeti Crab

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We Meet Again, Weekend

Posted on September 18, 2021 by Charles Yallowitz

Genuinely a weird week.  Feels like it rocketed ahead, but I barely remember what I was doing last weekend.  All I know is that I screwed up my stomach, so I wasn’t doing much activity.  Wait.  I binged the final season of ‘Lucifer’ while taking breaks to do some hand editing.  Exciting!

More than I can really say about the week.  I mean, it had its adrenaline moments because it felt like the real first week of school to me.  Mostly because I was really busy and my son started getting homework.  It’s so different from last year, so hiccups are turning up because some teachers do paper homework.  That seems to be throwing people off in terms of submitting.  Yet, other teachers are still working entirely through computer programs.  I have a feeling this first quarter is going to be a little rocky as we get used to everything.  Of course, I keep seeing ‘positive Covid cases’ emails from my son’s school district.  That keeps putting me on edge since a lot showed up.  Fingers crossed that it’s done soon and my family continues dodging the disease.

Nothing to report as far as War of Nytefall: Anarchy goes.  It sold another copy this week, which brings the total to 4.  I’m seeing my back catalog move a bit, but mostly Legends of Windemere.  Not bad.  It’s kind of funny that the original series is selling a bit while the new one is limping along.  Doesn’t give me much hope for whatever comes out in the future, but I guess that’s my fate.  I’ll keep writing and publishing as long as I can afford and/or find cover art.  You’ll see the sun one day Do I Need to Use a Dragon? (Fantasy Writing Tips) once I can afford to get 5 pictures (cover and 4 inner art) of Fizzle to complete it.  It’s been edited by a few people, so it’s fairly good to go if I can ever get the final pieces.

I haven’t written anything new right now.  What little time I have is being spent on editing the Nytefall finale.  I’ll probably be doing that for a while then I’ll try to figure out how to get Phi Beta Files working in a new notebook.  I might not write Darwin’s second adventure until next year.  Maybe I should hold off on jumping into his series until the school year is done.  Gives me time to write at least one more volume and gather my mind towards what I should do with my life.  I’d like to say finding a way to get my stories into animated or manga/comic form, but that’s a pipe dream too.  Maybe all this stress is why my right shoulder is feeling arthritic again.

Yom Kippur was this week, which meant it was no eating from sundown Wednesday until sundown Thursday.  Had my son, who doesn’t fast, but things went relatively smoothly compared to other years.  Played an older video game in the morning called ‘Prince of Persia: Sands of Time’.  It’s a lot of jumping, running, and reflexes, so I had to stop around noon when my timing was horribly off.  The rest of the day was spent playing ‘Pokemon Snap’ with the new content.  We’re still sticking to the first 2 areas, but enough was there to keep is busy for 5 hours.  My favorite Pokemon was added too, so I was happy:

Snorlax

This weekend is going to be about seeing family for the first time in 2 months and resting up for next week.  No more days off, so it’s a full 5 of school.  That means no sleeping in on a Wednesday or Thursday to recover.  Hoping to beat ‘Lego DC Supervillains’ tomorrow too.  Then, we’ll probably jump more into ‘Pokemon Snap’ or ‘One Piece Pirate Warriors 3’ . . . At least if I remember to buy the second one before the sale is done.  I’m nervous because it covers a lot of the anime/manga, so it could spoil the story for my son.  Then again, he still gets excited when he knows what’s coming.  Anyway, that’s the tentative weekend plan with some writing possibly thrown in if I get some alone time.

Beyond that, I watched an anime called ‘Jujutsu Kaisen’, which I’d seen cosplays of for a while.  Got curious and I liked it.  The story is that there are curses, which are similar to demons or ghosts.  A student gets involved by trying to save his friends and swallows the finger of an ancient curse to stop a monster from getting it.  This makes him the vessel for the King of Curses, so he starts training as a jujutsu wizard to save people.  He also is supposed to eat the other 19 fingers and then die to rid the world of the King of Curses.  It has a lot of colorful characters and great action, especially near the end.  Not sure what I’ll watch once it’s done, but I’ll see if ‘Seven Deadly Sins’ is going to get its final 12-13 episodes soon.

Goals of the week:

  1. Ice my shoulder
  2. Video games with son
  3. Editing
  4. Yes, working is a given
  5. Hydrate
  6. Watch some TV
  7. Puzzle time
  8. Possibly gain some type of life
  9. Laugh at the idea of #8

By the way, it looks like WordPress doesn’t add pictures of reblogged posts to my media area any more.  Is it just me or did this change at some point when I wasn’t paying attentiong?

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Questions for Lord Adam of Crego

Posted on September 17, 2021 by Charles Yallowitz

Paladin

Lord Adam of Crego is another new face I created for War of Nytefall: Anarchy and he has an odd origin.  Specifically, he was made up on the fly.  Get ready for a fun ride.

When I made the final outline for Anarchy, I had a character show up who was only called ‘Paladin leader’.  Obviously, this is the guy who is leading the paladin army against the Dawn Fangs.  I never made a bio for him or came up with much of a plan beyond his purpose.  My focus was entirely on Luna, Joran, Clyde’s doubts, and the mystery behind whoever was murdering mortals.  So, I kept going and part of thought I could get away with simply calling him the Paladin leader.  It was a rough year and I was starting to burn out, but that’s no excuse for that level of laziness.  As I got closer to his first scene, I knew I had to do something.

Enter my friend who occasionally asked if I could put him in a book.  Having no other ideas, I based Lord Adam of Crego off of him and things kind of rolled from there.  I’m making things up to him with a better and main character in a future series.  Anyway, I just went full fun with this guy, which was fueled by my friend’s antics.  For example, he said a name wrong one day and I came up with the idea that Lord Adam says locations incorrectly.  I did edge this guy towards comedy, but I believe I managed to keep him as a threat since he had some seriousness to him.  Sure, his speeches were arrogant and kind of cringey, but he was still able to cause damage.

Lord Adam was a difficult character to have show up many times.  Similar to Leo Kandrel from Eradication, he wasn’t working within the vampire world, which is what the series focuses on.  He’s an entity preparing to attack from the outside, so I had no POV characters to work off of besides Lord Adam himself.  That didn’t work the one time I tried because he’s very blunt and straightforward.  He’s a character of action and having him sit around talking never felt right.  It came off as strained and desperate to pad the page numbers.  So, I left him as an enemy who appears throughout the story to terrorize the Dawn Fangs.

Considering I rarely use paladins beyond having them as fodder, I thought it would be fun for people to ask questions about the role in the comments.  Lord Adam of Crego will be happy to answer them.

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War of Nytefall Factions: Nyte

Posted on September 16, 2021 by Charles Yallowitz

Cover Art by Alison Hunt

Welcome to another War of Nytefall: Anarchy poem.  Today, we’re going to have one about the other side of the vampire civil war.  Only fitting that Nyte comes after Nytefall since they’ve been around since the start.

A standing museum
Of the old ways
Nestled within shadows
And thriving
Beneath the surface
*
Once a jewel
In a crown of cities
Forged by fangs
Bathed in blood
Nyte now stands alone
*
Refusing to die
And accept changes
Peace is not their goal
Domination
Wets their desires
*
If Nytefall
Is the kingdom of light
Nyte is its shadow
Always lurking
And ready to devour

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Yom Kippur Funnies to Laugh the Hunger Away

Posted on September 16, 2021 by Charles Yallowitz

It’s Yom Kippur again, which means no eating until sundown.  By now, I’m hopefully well into my video game distraction or still asleep.  The challenge is always how to do this when my son is home, but I’m sure I’ll make like previous years.  Enjoy.

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Smorgasbord Cafe and Bookstore – New Book on the Shelves – Anarchy (War of Nytefall Book 7) by Charles E. Yallowitz

Posted on September 15, 2021 by Charles Yallowitz

Charles E. Yallowitz has a new book available – Book 7 of the War of Nytefall series: Anarchy About the book The paladins of Windemere have had …

Smorgasbord Cafe and Bookstore – New Book on the Shelves – Anarchy (War of Nytefall Book 7) by Charles E. Yallowitz
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How Do Dawn Fangs Handle Holy Relics and Magic?

Posted on September 15, 2021 by Charles Yallowitz

Dracula vs a lower case t

Throughout vampire lore, holy symbols and energy have been one of their greatest weaknesses.  Whether it’s because Dracula got booted from the church or vampires are undead, there’s a reason given to this issue.  Most people don’t even think about it too much because it’s a given.  This can pose problems for newer versions.

In War of Nytefall: Anarchy, the Dawn Fangs are facing the greatest of holy warriors known as the paladins.  These guys smite things that piss them off, which usually involves leaving a burning pile where the target once stood.  Due to this utter destruction method, you can believe that anything hit by them will meet the same fate.  So, vampires don’t seem very unique in this threat, but their nature means there should be a little extra.  It’s the reason why the paladins are feared more than any other mortal warriors, including casters who have a penchant for hurling fireballs.  After all, these are undead creatures with no . . . heartbeat.  Uh-oh.

This has been an aspect of the Dawn Fangs that I’ve had a lot of trouble wrapping my head around.  On one hand, they feed off blood and are corpses brought back to life.  This means they’re undead and should take on the full effect of holy magic.  On the other hand, the Dawn Fangs entire story is that they have heartbeats, can eat food, and possess many other traits of mortals.  Unlike their predecessors, it could be argued that they are alive just like a person brought back by a resurrection spell.  So, holy magic shouldn’t have any affect on them beyond what would be done to a regular mortal.  Yet, this removes one of the biggest counters to such powerful creatures.

At most points, I think I’ve gone with a partial effect on the Dawn Fangs.  Holy magic hurts a lot more than it would a mortal, but it doesn’t destroy on contact like an old-world vampire.  Wounds caused by this type of attack are harder to heal even with focusing your energy on regeneration.  There can be residual magic, which can dampen or block certain Dawn Fang abilities.  None of this stops them from fighting entirely, but it makes it a hindrance one would hope to avoid.  It also means running into a group of holy warriors is a nightmare, but you can’t easily run away and every blow reduces your strength.  Retreat to a better position or just get away are their best options.

Of course, there are other questions that I’ve pondered.  For one thing, can a Dawn Fang go into a temple, which is holy ground?  I was thinking ‘no’ for a while until I realized this would cause a problem for Clyde’s dream.  Eventually, a Dawn Fang would be invited to a wedding of a mortal friend and that would reveal the truth.  So, I changed it to them being able to enter a temple, but they’d be uncomfortable.  Not enough to reveal themselves, but their powers are certainly going to be reduced a bit thanks to the residual energy.  That’s if they don’t have abilities or relics to protect them, but that’s still a risk.

Can a Dawn Fang become a priest?  That’s the question that I thought of first before writing this post.  It’s why I put this off for a week because I can’t give a thorough answer to it.  Those born of the fang or by blood probably wouldn’t work out as a priest since they’d be closer to old-world vampires.  Womb-born are something else since they’re natural vampires, but there should still be some kind of sacrifice.  They’re using the type of energy designed to eliminate their kind, which can’t have a positive effect on the body after long-term use.  If anything, I’d say they would have a limited lifespan instead of immortality or never be able to use their Dawn Fang power unless they go through a lengthy detox.  I don’t know if I’ll ever tackle this question in a book because War of Nytefall never gave me the chance for it specifically.

So, Dawn Fangs and holy magic may still be a work in progress.  That or a mystery until I can figure it out myself.  Really don’t want to pigeonhole myself and then get a great idea later.  Maybe it depends on the vampire.  That might be the better route.

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How to Write Point of View, Part 4, Third Person Limited

Posted on September 15, 2021 by Charles Yallowitz

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay Hi SErs! Harmony here 🙂 Today, I’d like to talk about how to write Point of View (POV) in the Third Person …

How to Write Point of View, Part 4, Third Person Limited
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Teaser Tuesday: New Faces #fantasy #vampires

Posted on September 14, 2021 by Charles Yallowitz

War of Nytefall

It was difficult to pick a teaser for Luna and Joran, so I decided to go with their introduction.  What are their role in the upcoming events?  Check out War of Nytefall: Anarchy to find out.

Continue reading →

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