Goal Post: Jury is Still Out on My Survival

I got the booster shot last Saturday morning, which set the stage for a rough week.  I was fine for that day, but the rest turned into this:

  • Sunday- Achy around joints and exhausted.
  • Monday- Slightly fatigued and swollen lymph nodes on side where got shot.
  • Tuesday- More energy, but still pain on side.
  • Wednesday- Pain gone and energy reviving.  Stress and little water set off IBS.
  • Thursday-  Friggin’ IBS making my lower intestines squirm.
  • Friday-  Lower back got in on the act.  Held it together long enough to finish the day, but muscles spent the night spasming.

Needless to say, I didn’t get a lot done since it was all about work, parenting, and physical recovery.  I couldn’t get my brain to focus on anything else beyond a few future blog posts and checking sales.  By the end of the day, I was too drained to do more than watch more of ‘Burn Notice’ and fiddle with a ‘Witcher’ puzzle.  So, I don’t have much more to say about my week.  Nothing was accomplished.

Speaking of failing to made an impact, War of Nytefall: Eulogy has sold a total of 2 copies.  It debuted last weekend and didn’t give the series a boost either.  Frustrating part is that I’ve had around 10 people tell me that they’ve picked up copies.  I’ve seen plenty of friends on social media share the promos too.  Just isn’t getting me anywhere, which is why I’m routinely trying to figure out what I’m doing here.  Doesn’t help that I get promos of others shoved in my face.  I’m talking the ones where the author was able to drop thousands of dollars into the campaign and has an army of loyal readers/reviewers at their disposal.  Feels like salt on the wound.  It shouldn’t, but I think sensing that me promoting my book caused the algorithms to send the others my way made me hate the system even more.

Another thing that gets triggered are people trying to get me to give them for money to promote my book.  I’m talking the groups/reviewers who DM you or comment on unrelated posts to get you to say yes.  To be honest, I tried one when I released Anarchy and it had absolutely no effect on sales.  With money even more restrained now, I can’t be bothered to do a test run.  At this point, I don’t feel like any money I put towards promoting will get me anything other than stress.  My books simply don’t sell.  At least the new stuff while my original series still flickers to life throughout the money.  Makes me worry for Darwin and everyone who comes after him.

Really all I’ve got to say this week.  It’s a long, busy slog to the break and I need to get my body back into some form of functionality.  Was even hard to walk by the end of things, so this weekend is for resting.  Promised my son a bunch of fun events between bouts of homework.  Though we both want to rest up for next week since this last one wore us down a bunch.  Weather is warm for December, which is frustrating because we can’t use the cold as an excuse to be lazy.  Now, it’s just that we don’t want to do anything more than play around the house.  Some weekends need to be lazy.

Goals of the week:

  1. Make it to the next weekend.
  2. Maybe buy some books.
  3. Parenting and work as usual.
  4. Finish ‘Burn Notice’
  5. February blog posts
  6. Tinker with notebook
  7. Sleep in this weekend
  8. Oil change
  9. Make a better list next weekend
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Magrus the Purifier

Mark Hamill in Knightfall

Another new character showing up in War of Nytefall: Eulogy is Magrus the Purifier, who is hard to explain.  Well, not that hard, but I don’t really know where to go with him since he’s fairly simple.  Not a bad thing there . . . Let me try again.

Magrus was always meant to show up in the finale of Clyde’s story.  I had him down as a powerful hunter who would push the Dawn Fangs to their limits.  He’d kill a bunch off too since he was going to be Van Helsing or a version of him at first.  This plan kept getting pushed aside because I never got a good idea of how the ending would work.  So, Magrus remained a name on a page with maybe a sentence to remind me who he was when I got around to him.  Then, the vampires jumped to Windemere and the poor guy got even more lost in the shuffle.

Every time I came up with a version of Magrus, I accidentally used it for someone else in an earlier book.  He was a priest with a weapon designed to kill Clyde?  Given to Leo Kandrel in Eradication.  A destructive monster who would be the biggest threat to the Dawn Fangs?  Alastyre in Savagery.  A paladin leading an army to defeat the vampire threat?  Lord Adam of Greco in Anarchy.  Poor guy couldn’t catch a break even when I thought he was in the clear.  So, I ended up shelving him for most of the series in terms of planning and focused on the other new characters.  This way, I would have a niche for him to fit into by the time I reached this point.

Magrus the Purifier finally stepped onto the page as a retired paladin of Zaria the Purity Goddess.  He was a mortal feared by vampires because he could always discern their kind from others.  This is because he lost his eyes and had them replaced with spells that can be shifted into various vision enchantments.  I made him rather vain too because he’s an old man wearing robes padded to make him appear muscular.  Although, he is still smart and tough enough to be a threat.  I think because I never got a sense that this version was worth putting into a fight.  He simply didn’t have that demeanor and I went for really old and worn in terms of his physical fitness.  The man has been fighting vampires for decades, so the mileage is going to show.

Instead, I made him a special investigator for the Zarian temple.  With a fake Clyde running around causing mayhem, he’s been pulled into action to see what’s going on and where the truth lies.  I liked this version because he’s still a threat depending on the information he unearths.  I no longer had this marching, battle hungry holy warrior determined to kill Clyde.  There were already enough of those types of enemies in previous books.  Now, I had someone who would help reveal the truth of the final battle.  At least that’s what I hoped.

Magrus worked better as a symbol of the holy side of Windemere being ready to give Dawn Fangs the benefit of the doubt.  I was surprised that he came out neutral and refused to believe what was presented to him.  He required so many layers of evidence that he wouldn’t be budged by lies or even simple explanations.  It made him more difficult to work into scenes because he became focused entirely on this issue.  He didn’t care about the peace talks, the Vampire War, or anything else going on.  Not to the extent that I could put him into those scenes, which meant he became fairly limited.  On the plus side, this also meant I didn’t overextend the character into oblivion.

I’m still happy with how Magrus turned out even though it’s nothing like I expected him to be.  Would I have liked to do more with him?  Yes, but I can’t do anything about that.  I tried more and that muddied the waters.  He served his purpose and definitely stands out as a unique character, which is a challenge in a final book.  You always want the 11th hour cast members to be memorable and I think he will be.

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The Three Acts: Act 3

Hi again, gang. Craig with you once more to continue my series on Three Act Structure. If you’re coming in here, the previous posts were Act 1, Act 2…

The Three Acts: Act 3
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Immortal Wars: Light, Blood, & Tears Part 40 (Finale)

I want to simply say thank you to whoever decided to follow along with the two ‘Immortal Wars’ books I’ve been posting for a few years.  They were my first attempts at writing a novel, a fantasy, an action story, and a series.  I had no idea what I was doing and my confidence got blown to bits several times when I was creating these stories.  This is probably another reason why they failed because I had very little faith in myself back in high school.  So, it’s nice to see these get some attention.  Now, I don’t have these books sitting on my laptop and acting like a private shame.  So, thank you.

(Disclaimer: A warning to those who continue.  This is a sequel to a previous story.  Both of these were written in the mid-1990’s.  While the first one was slightly edited and vanity press published, this one has not been touched in over 20 years.  I figure I should do something with it and people may get a laugh or fright from how I used to be.  Every author comes from somewhere, so this is part of my origin.  To that end, I am deeply sorry for whatever nightmares I will inflict on the literary world and the American English language.  Enjoy?)

PREVIOUS ENTRY CLICK HERE

Eighteen minutes after Cybro and Adriana get back to the Black Tower, most of the uninjured immortals meet to discuss the lose of two of their own.  Kilanus and Hellax are absent because they were ordered to help fix and refit Cybro.  Meanwhile, Adriana has to try and talk to the other villains, who are attempting to stay calm.  After about ten seconds of holding back, one of them looses control.

“We will ignore Tegam for now.  But I want to hear your explanation of Draveon’s death.  Why were you said to be involved with the guardian?” growls Psylon, who has a tight grip around the seductress’ neck.  Adriana is weakly struggling to break away while Startrix and Mindtrigger are trying to get through a three-foot thick barrier of fire.

“This choking move is really getting old, firefly.  Of course, the fire barrier is a nice touch.  But I don’t know what you’re talking about.  Let me go,” gasps the blonde while she savagely digs her sharp nails into Psylon’s dark skin.  The maniac fails to notice her own fire-like blood trickling to the floor.  She also doesn’t notice a swift shadow leap through the fire until it tackles her.

“It’s a good thing I don’t like obeying any orders from Adriana.  Now, put my mother down or you die.  You know that I will gladly slaughter you like the fat, ugly pig you resemble,” threatens a slightly burnt Kilanus.  The fire barrier dies down while the three female immortals get to their feet.  Psylon walks over to a nearby hoverchair, so she can set it on fire.

“Let us try to rationally discuss this.  Obviously, Adriana has not heard or read any of Earth’s recent news reports.  But first, I suggest that Psylon goes back to her room and rests.  Take her there and make sure that she stays inside until I arrive, Kilanus.  Use any means necessary to restrain her,” orders Mindtrigger from a few feet above the others.

“I have a husband to mourn, so I’ll leave.  But you owe me blood vengeance for Draveon’s death, Adriana.  Now either you send me after the guardians or I take it out of your bouncing carcass.  And I want it soon.”  Psylon storms out of the room and Kilanus silently disappears into the shadows to follow the redheaded lunatic.

“Well, she seems to be taking this entire death of her husband thing pretty nicely.  I’m surprised you haven’t tried to kill me, scientist.  Why?” says Adriana as she sits on the edge of the table.  Mindtrigger lands on the ground and suddenly punches the blond immortal directly in her nose.

“I am angry.  But Startrix has told me what my created son was planning.  He may have been physically stronger than you and he may have had better powers, but I knew that he wouldn’t win.  He would not back down either.  You always seem to find ways out of trouble.  Getting Fate to help you and using Cybro’s only hologram projector was a plan worthy of my genius.  Draveon was a beloved part of my life and I will miss him.  But he made the wrong enemy.”

“Thanks, Mindtrigger.  But rot in hell for this broken nose.”

“Excuse me.  I have a very important question.  Why did Draveon’s body disintegrate instead of teleporting back to the Black Tower?  That was what your potion was supposed to do,” mentions Startrix.

“Well the potion was an experiment, after all.  I mean, how was I supposed to know exactly what would happen?  But I did promise that the guardians would not be able to get their hands on his body.  I think I might have put a little too much cyanide into the drink.  Or else it was bad sulfur.  Now, why is everyone talking about some news reports?” Adriana inquires while her nose heals.  A morning edition newspaper is handed to her and the tired villain’s eyes go wide.  On the front page is a picture of Fate and Adriana fighting Draveon in the museum.  Above the detailed, color photo is the big, bold words ‘Immortal Heroes’.

“Do you need an explanation?  Or, have you just realized the problem?” whispers the frail scientist while the ebony-armored woman goes off to a corner.  She is shaking her head and apparently laughing in her eerie voice.

“I see what you mean.  Whoever took this picture is a terrible photographer.  They shot my bad side, which I didn’t even know existed.  Of course, they get points for having guts and staying near the battle.”

“If you had bothered to read the first ten sentences, you would have realized that you’re being considered a hero.  All of the planet guardians were mentioned, including an explanation and, surprisingly, a Presidential pardon for Hydrana’s actions.  Her father is being put into a hospital for treatment and then a minimum-security prison.  Seems her old man was a child-abuser and his entire household is speaking up against him.  Some reporters even managed to get an interview with Fate, who admitted that you had helped with stopping Draveon and Cybro.  Tegam was left out entirely.”

Adriana hands the paper back to Mindtrigger and starts rubbing her eyes.  “What do they exactly have written down there about me?  I can’t possibly be considered a true hero.”

“You couldn’t do that if you tried.  It states that the woman named Adriana can be considered an even mixture of good and evil.  People are aware that your ultimate goal is to rule this universe, but Fate has said that there’s more to you than that.  Because of your important role in stopping Draveon, you are being called an occasional hero.  It really makes no sense at all.”

“I see.  Well, this is far from a bad thing.  Being thought of as a hero allows me a more public freedom than the rest of you.”

Mindtrigger’s eyebrows rise before he asks, “I’m a little confused for once.  More public freedom to do what?”

“I can walk around Earth’s cities without having to fight through the police and those annoying armies.  Just dream about it, my friends.  I can eat at those expensive restaurants and go to amusement parks any time I want.  And shopping won’t have to be over the phone and through galactic smugglers anymore.  The two of you and Kilanus can probably come with me.  Well, maybe not the two of you,” Adriana replies in a dreamy tone.  She lies down on the cool, metal table and stretches her weary body like a cat.

“Out of sheer curiosity, where do you get the money for these shopping outings and hiring smugglers?  We are stationed on Pluto while you have somehow managed to amass a fortune in both Earthling currencies and Glebnokian stones,” interrupts Startrix, who is holding a goblet of bubbling, yellow liquid that smells like urine.

“There are several ways to collect unlimited funds from another planet.  I play the stock market game, which you usually help me with by using your powers.  Other ways are stealing money from both multi-billionaires and occasionally straight from the U.S. mint.  With my current funds, I could have bought a lot more clothing than I. . .did. . .on. . .Earth. . . That son of a bitch!”

“What is wrong, Adriana?”

“Well, time witch.  I had bought a few hundred new items for my out of style wardrobe, which I put on the space shuttle.  Of course, Tegam took that particular space shuttle with him to Neptune.  Damn it.  Go fix our robot, Mindtrigger, and just let me worry about the redheaded traitor.”

“Okay.  By the way, seducer.  Nice haircut.  But you looked much better with long hair,” mentions the frail immortal before leaving the room.  Adriana slumps down into her gothic throne while Startrix sits in a distant hoverchair.

“This escapade of yours was pretty unsuccessful.  We have lost two of our own, one of which gave us an irreplaceable edge against the guardians, and you accomplished none of your goals.  Now, the planet guardians have the primal ring along with the sword of light and the Solstar medallion.  How do you explain the point of this particular failure, Adriana?”

“Shut the hell up, time bitch.  I’m severely not in the mood for your dry-leaf voice.  I’ve been beaten, shot, choked, bitten, electrocuted, frozen, knocked out, and skewered all in the past week and it has not been any fun.  Except for when I was bitten.  But enough about my old problems.  Let me tell you about my perfect, yet terribly, misguided son,” explains Adriana with a pleasant, warm smile.

The only reply from Startrix is a confused, wordless noise as the connection between the leader of the planet guardians and their greatest enemy is explained.  But like Adriana told Fate, she isn’t ready to tell the entire tale just yet.

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War of Nytefall 1-8 Available for $8! #vampires #fantasy

Cover Art by Alison Hunt

Waiting for all of War of Nytefall to be published?
Well, the wait is over!
Grab all 8 ebooks for 99 cents each!

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7 Tips to Writing Peace Talks in an Action Adventure

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War of Nytefall: Eulogy has a set piece that involves peace talks.  Between who?  I’m not going to say because that can be a little spoiler-y.  Just know that there are scenes where people are arguing, debating, and discussing.  For an action adventure series, this can really slow things down and cause some trouble.  I had more of the peace talks scenes planned, but realized right away how they take away from the bigger plot of another Clyde running around.  Still, this event had to be shown to some extent, so I needed to do so and maintain the pacing.  Was it perfectly done?  Doubtful.  Did it work?  Yeah, I’m happy with it.  So, here are some tips.

  1. Introduce the peace talks or any form of negotiation as early as possible.  You don’t want to get far into the action and then drop this more mellow event into the mix.  It can derail the momentum, especially if it doesn’t connect directly to the higher octane scenes.  A reader will be able to handle the jumps to the peace talks scenes better if they know from the beginning that they will be there.  This is only necessary if they are to be lasting the entire story too.
  2. Use the peace talks scenes to denote passing of time to allow the other plotlines to move through pauses.  You can move back to the talking section if you need the other characters to change location or activity.  Even without clarifying how much time has passed during the peace talks scene, you give a sense that a less interesting period is being skipped in the other plots.  Readers won’t be upset because it will be clear that nothing of importance was sacrificed and they’ll see how the talks are going.
  3. Show periods where the diplomats and others involved in the talks are resting.  If this event is going to last for days then they’re going to need breaks.  Groups with shared interest will be meeting and coming up with plans.  Secret alliances and deals will be made before returning to the table.  These scenes can help build interest in the peace talks without having the actual arguing going on.
  4. Occasionally show how the peace talks and other plots intersect.  If it feels like this event is running entirely independently of the action plot then readers will wonder what the point is.  Have events happening in one storyline influence the others by making it easier or more difficult.  For example, War of Nytefall: Eulogy has it where the actions of the imposter Clyde makes the peace talks more difficult.  In return, the peace talks start requiring actions that make handling the imposter more difficult.  This shows they are connected.
  5. Try not to draw out the peace talks scenes for too long.  They will involve a lot of talking and very little action.  Not unless you have an assassin turn up every time, but that gets silly.  Short, contentious, aggressive, and to the point can really help when the actual negotiations are going on.  More passive talking can be done for those pre/post negotiations scenes I mentioned in #3.
  6. Do NOT use cliché movie lines when diplomats get angry.  It doesn’t matter if a character can handle the truth or not anymore.
  7. Know when to step away from the peace talks and leave them in the background until the action plot is finished.  Once you hit the final push for the action part, you cannot safely step away to show the more passive storyline.  This only works to help with building things up and can be a hazard if you try it when you are at the height of tension.  Don’t be afraid that readers will be upset about ignoring the peace talks while the big fight goes on.  They should be too interested in the action to care about the arguing characters.
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Great Endings to Your Stories

Ciao, SEers! This is my last post of the year, and it’s only fitting it’s on endings. I wrote one back in 2018 that discussed, among other things, …

Great Endings to Your Stories
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#NewRelease – Mountain Laurel Christmas #ShortStory #ChristmasStory @JanSikes3

I want to welcome Jan Sikes to Fiction Favorites. She has a new book and is here to describe it to you. Jan and I have been friends for a long time …

#NewRelease – Mountain Laurel Christmas #ShortStory #ChristmasStory @JanSikes3
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Teaser Tuesday: Hunting Down the Fugitive

Cover Art by Alison Hunt

With War of Nytefall: Eulogy being live, it’s time for some teasers.  This book moves at a different pace than the others because there’s more mystery.  So, it was harder to choose a riveting teaser to start with.  Decided that it’s best to start with Clyde and how he starts this adventure.  Enjoy.

Continue reading →

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Diplomat of Nytefall: Alexis Nucian

Bilbo Baggins

One of the toughest things is introducing new characters to a series when you’re at the final volume.  It isn’t necessary, but sometimes you need fresh faces to get certain events over the finish line.  I had that issue with War of Nytefall: Eulogy.  That’s where Alexis Nucian comes into play and the character has a rather wild creation history.  Kind of a shame that he gets so little time in the series, but that’s what happens at times.

Alexis is not a combat character at all.  He was designed as a diplomat, so his entire thing is talking problems away.  I realized early on that the story would need a character like this at some point.  Various incarnations had Alexis showing up in the middle and others at the end.  There were two versions where he wasn’t around at all and another where he was an evil diplomat.  Poor guy was all over the place.  The most common version, which wasn’t the final one, was a vampire who stepped in to force peace between Clyde and Xavier Tempest.  Sometimes he was successful and it was the end of the series.  Other times he failed and made things worse.  This is why I omitted him a few times because he caused too much trouble.

The physical description of Alexis wasn’t any better.  The current incarnation is a halfling while all previous ones were human.  For a while, he had tiger-striped hair, but no powers to explain that.  He was tall, short, handsome, ugly, and the list goes on until it feels like I tried every combination.  At this point, all of the Alexis versions bleed together and I can’t differentiate between the early versions and what came before he was turned into a peaceful halfling.  Of course, the change of species came with another big alteration, which was needed really badly.

Alexis was originally named ‘Brian Hunter’, which is a name I may have mentioned once or twice on this blog.  This is the name of the super spy character I made in high school and kept using in college for various non-fantasy action stories.  As expected, he was based on James Bond.  I’ve since moved him into ‘The Ether Thief’ series and given him a short story collection afterwards.  Yet, he was retired for a while because I wasn’t sure if I could move him to Windemere until I came up with a story.  Of course, him returning meant I couldn’t keep the Dawn Fang diplomat as Brian Hunter.  To be honest, the name didn’t work for a peaceful character either, so I toyed around with sites until I came up with Alexis Nucian.  That last name showed up because I remembered he was a werewolf during one version of this series.  A rather clunky road to what I have now, but it got to where it worked.

Like many of my War of Nytefall characters, there’s a role-playing game connection here.  This one isn’t too great.  Most of my friends were playing a live-action game of vampires, which is called a LARP.  I was avoiding it for a while because it felt like too much work, but then I got lonely and left out.  So, I created the first Brian Hunter version who was to be a diplomat among a group of warriors who kept getting into trouble.  I thought it was good, but it was a disaster.  My first gaming session resulted in the group getting exiled and marked as enemies, so I couldn’t do any diplomat things without being a traitor or killed.  I quickly realized my desire to simply have fun was being squashed by just trying to keep the character as it was supposed to be.  I’m also really bad at playing politics and my, at the time unrealized, social anxiety kept making my diplomat be dumber than his stats and abilities would suggest.  In the end, he was killed and I tried two more times to play this game.  #2 would be Kai Stavros who was an archaeologist that lasted 1 session because his reason for being in the game was eliminated by the end.  #3 was Lou who I played off as Lenny from ‘Of Mice and Men’.  That went better, but he was inevitably killed in a way that left a sour taste in my mouth.  It all started with this diplomat, who never met his potential.

Thankfully, Alexis Nucian gets to shine in this book.  Maybe.  Sort of.  You’ll have to read War of Nytefall: Eulogy to find out.

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