Harmony Kent is a dear friend, and one of my partners over at Story Empire. She’s graciously offered to host me on this tour, and the topic is recurring location in my new series.
Make sure you look around Harmony’s site. I’m not the only one who writes Halloween stories and really enjoyed The Glade. You might enjoy her stories, too.
***
Hi everyone. Today, it gives me great pleasure to host fellow author and friend, Craig Boyack to showcase his latest book in the fab and funny The Hat Series. I’ve enjoyed both The Hat and Viral Blues and look forward to feasting my eyes on The Ballad of Mrs Maloney. If you’re a fan of magic and mayhem and humour, then you’ll love Lizzie and The Hat in all their incarnations.
I never intended to give Clyde a pet, but it showed up in Loyalty and I kind of had it hang around after that. He doesn’t play with it or spend time with it like the other characters who have animals. I can’t even be sure he intended to turn this animal into a pseudo-vampire or whatever it is. It’s definitely not like the others. Of course, I bet most people here don’t know what an Eusu is.
So, what is an Eusu? Debuting in Legends of Windemere: The Compass Key, these are enormous alligators. It’s big enough to give Timoran Wrath, a barbarian warrior, a difficult fight. There have been smaller ones though, so you can assume that a gigantic one is fairly rare. They act like regular alligators with how they attack, but they are more likely to give chase on land. So, you need to do more than jump away from the shore. Just bolt and don’t look back. Of course, there’s the physical difference, which is really one thing that you can’t miss. An Eusu’s mouth opens into four jaws to make this shape:
X
Imagine that clamping down on you because you can’t really dodge to the side as easily as a regular ‘upper and lower’ thing. The thinner jaws are still incredibly powerful and have been known to crush plate armor. Eusus are why all adventures get nervous about swamp journeys.
This is what Clyde adopted in Loyalty after winning one of his fights. It was hanging around the area since it could get free bodies to munch on. He saw it feasting and suddenly it was on Nytefall in Lost. I have it in the background whenever characters are around the moat. Think someone had an argument with it at one point too. It’s certainly fed and being taken care of, but Clyde doesn’t take it into battle. Not really sure how that would work either. He’d have to carry the large reptile off the island, across the ocean, and dump it at the battlefield. It feels too embarrassing for all involved, so the Eusu is part of the fortress security system. Pretty sure the Dawn Fang children of the island enjoy throwing snacks to it also.
One question I haven’t answered in my own mind is: Did Clyde turn the Eusu into a Dawn Fang? I can see how it would happen since it’s eaten so much vampire flesh, but you never see any powers from it. Not sure he would do it anyway. Hard enough having Dawn Fang kids running around, so an Eusu with vampire powers would be very difficult to control. It could be why it stays on the island though. If anything, I think Clyde has given it enough blood to make it stronger and live longer, but I doubt it’s a real Dawn Fang. He wouldn’t be that reckless.
I keep wondering if I should have something big happen with the Eusu, but it feels more like a quirk than a character. It doesn’t have a personality or anything more than being in the background. It will be in Savagery that it gets any real attention. Nothing to make it rise to the same level as Lost’s bunny or Bob’s horses. I wonder if this is a lost opportunity, but it was a spontaneous character. Unlike Raksha and Melanie from Legends of Windemere, the Eusu doesn’t really stand out. Clyde has no reason to bring attention to it during the scenes because he would only be interacting with it when he isn’t involved in the story. This is the risk one takes with pets because you can’t always have them be in the spotlight. Sometimes, they’re nothing more than movement in the background that shows a character has a connection to something other than the people around them. Maybe that’s good enough.
I was trying to think of a good one to end this Question 3 thing with before I move back to Teaser Tuesdays. There are a lot of scary and creepy topics that I could touch on, but I’ve done quite a few over the years. So, I had made my list and then puttered around the Internet in search of the finale and locked in on a word I saw in a lot of horror-based descriptions:
DEATH!
Of course, my mind went to the Grim Reaper. Well, that’s a logical path for me during this time. It’s weird too because I never think about him outside of pop culture. I watched ‘The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy’ way back when and he was always a major boss fight in the Castlevania series. Honestly, the Grim Reaper seems to be a fairly benign horror figure. He shows up in comedies fairly often or he’s mentioned without making an appearance. I can’t even tell if he’s still an influential monster in today’s world, but it’s hard to tell if he’s a monster at all.
You see, vampires, zombies, werewolves, and the like were once human. They have been cursed into becoming evil. Demons were always evil, but they need to influence humans to get their work done. Ghosts happen because you have died and need to settle things before you pass on. The Grim Reaper doesn’t have any of these situations. He is supposed to be Death Incarnate. Unlike other monsters, he is a force of nature in every sense of the phrase. He exists to make sure the cycle of life continues unabated, which means he’s an essential part of our world. The only reason we fear him is because mortals with a sense of their existence are terrified of death. Well, I guess the skeletal body and the giant scythe don’t help his case. Time for questions:
If you got to be the Grim Reaper for a day, how would you handle it?
Do you believe the Grim Reaper is really a monster?
Today on the blog I’m delighted to have with me the always fabulous Laurie Morrison, another of my splendid Secret Gardener classmates. Laurie is here to talk about the cover of her upcoming middle grade novel, Saint Ivy: Kind at All Costs (Abrams/Amulet Books). Laurie is represented by Sara Crowe.
Feast your eyes!
Here is the synopsis:
A thoughtful middle-grade novel about caring for others and for yourself—and what it truly means to be kind and vulnerable
Thirteen-year-old Ivy Campbell has always been a good kid: She supports her soccer-star brother, bakes with her nana, and puts her friends’ needs before her own. So of course, Ivy is 100 percent supportive when her mom decides to be a gestational surrogate. But when Ivy finds out the surrogacy treatment worked and her mom is pregnant—and has been for weeks—she’s shocked that she’s jealous and worried about what others will think. And…
This one was tough. War of Nytefall: Eradication is where I start moving deeper into the emotional spectrum. Primarily through Clyde and Mab’s relationship, which is still a subplot here. The main story is about Leo Kandrel and the Fist of Durag being a threat to the Dawn Fangs. So, there’s a lot to unpack here. You would think taking songs about war or enemies like last week would work, but it doesn’t feel right. That was about a grudge while this is a group trying to wipe out another group. I had to think a lot more about tone than subject matter here.
While not the original version, this one stuck in my mind a lot while I was writing Eradication. It makes me think of cults, especially in the part the singer is trying to convince others to do something. There is also the idea that, if successful, the voices of the Dawn Fangs will be silenced forever.
With the religious aspect of the story, I felt like this could work for the followers of Leo Kandrel. It’s made clear that he’s created a rogue sect of the Duragian order, so his people are kind of stepping off their path. Some of the were surely questioning it at several points, especially during the climax.
I wish I could put my finger on why this one keeps coming to my mind. It could be that this is part of a war that involves a change to Windemere’s environment. Maybe it’s how some characters are trying to fight that flow while others are questioning their purpose in these events. Either way, it works for me.
Sue Coletta is a long-time friend of mine. Her fiction is fantastic, but today she has something that isn’t fiction. It’s going to make your skin crawl, and is perfect for this time of year. Make Sue feel welcome, and make sure to use those sharing buttons at the end.
Thanks for inviting me back to Entertaining Stories, Craig!
Ever wonder what drives someone to kill?
While researching the cases of the five female serial killers in Pretty Evil New England, I examined their entire lives, not only their crimes. To show a complete picture — and perhaps, to help explain their motivations — I delved into their backgrounds, childhoods, and early adulthood.
The horrors I found could rattle the foundation beneath even the most stoic, and I couldn’t help but be affected.
Jane Toppan in particular had a brutal beginning. Her mother died when she was a mere…
I was going to do this the day before Halloween, but I figured that’s a better time for one of my meme collections. I have my son for the holiday this year, which means I’m going to be busy during that time. So, this seems like the best time to talk about the first time I saw the ‘Thriller’ music video.
Some people might not understand why Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’ can be such a big thing for those of us born around the time of its release. I’ll admit that I was 2 and didn’t see the video until I was around 11. Yet, we’re talking about a time when Michael Jackson was huge and not a controversial figure. Let’s just leave that second part out of this, but I’m sure I’ll get at least one private comment like I do every year I post ‘Thriller’. Anyway, my exposure to Michael Jackson was primarily through a younger cousin who was obsessed with him. I think he had the jacket, but I know he had the one glove. I was into Billy Joel and Elton John at the time, so I was left scratching my head while still enjoying the music of all three. Of course, this will be when I find out that he reads the blog. Hey, I can’t really talk. I run around the neighborhood with a backpack that was surrounded by a cardboard box and connected to an old vacuum hose with handle because I swore I was a Ghostbuster. Really miss being a kid.
Yet, he never managed to get me to watch ‘Thriller’ and I only had a vague notion of its existence. I’d hear it on the radio and recognize Vincent Price’s voice since he was on ‘The Muppet Show’ once. The music was catchy and I knew several people who would do the dance, which I couldn’t get right. I degrade into toe-tapping and hip-swaying when it comes to music because my mind wanders away from reality. It’s a major reason why I don’t like going onto a dance floor. So, it meant that I was always kind of on the outside of the ‘Thriller’ phenomenon. That is until I turned 10 and went to a birthday party down the block. I got the full effect then and I could even say that this is the first ‘scary’ thing I ever watched entirely.
Now, the birthday party was for a boy who I hung out with and he was younger. I was the same age as his sister and they had all these cool things in their house. So, we always enjoyed going over there. The party was held in the basement and they brought out the videotape (we’re in the early 1990’s, people) of ‘Thriller’. I was confused because I didn’t understand why a music video would be on a tape that is typically used for movies and TV shows. Knowing that it was scary, I considered leaving, but I was an older kid and none of the younger ones were scared. Looking back, there was also his sister, who I had a small crush on, but I also had a reputation in school as being a shy, quiet crybaby. This seemed like a terrible time to carry this over to the block environment. So, I watched the music video all the way through and the party ended soon after.
Did I mention this was at night? Since it was on the same block, I was able to walk home by myself. At least, I think I did. The problem is that I was still a kid with a hyperactive imagination and I’d just seen ‘Thriller’. We’re talking maybe 5-6 houses to get to mine, but it felt like days. I was nervous about every shadow. Turning around could result in me seeing zombies shambling towards me. I couldn’t run because the zombies might be hiding ahead and I’d crash into them. Not until I reached my lawn and then I sprinted across, leapt over the flower bed, and darted inside. I see that I had anxiety issues even back then. The funny thing is that I still enjoyed the video because it was both scary and entertaining.
I should point out that I went to a summer camp starting in Kindergarten. We had a talent show at the end of the season, which was when each age group performed. There was always one group that did ‘Thriller’. It reached a point where a rule was made that nobody could do it for a year or two. Even with that constant, I didn’t really understand what I was looking at. A bunch of people who fell down the stairs are dancing? Did they forget to do laundry before going out? Maybe I wasn’t the brightest kid back then.
Work was work with the usual amount of excitement and comedy. This was a full week instead of the shorter one before, but it was a lot less stressful. Think things went smoother, but I wouldn’t be able to tell you exactly why. Not because of privacy and such. I just can’t really put my finger on why the days moved swiftly for the most part. Hope that trend continues.
The real chaos came about at home with my son being back, which meant the challenge of school returned. The beginning was fine, but we had some issues when it came time for him to go in. Things are gradually improving there thanks to some ingenious thinking on my part. Notes can help a lot with kids that need reminders. Still having a challenge with breakfast, but we made progress. He was kicking butt on his test grades too. The kid is still very used to being able to ace everything without much help, so we’re running into a little headbutting when we try to assist or correct. Although, this could be the beginning of his teenage years, which I sense will be either easy or nightmare-inducing. I’ve heard both from parents who have been through it already. Good week overall with my son even though I was left tired.
Technically, I need 3 days to finish War of Nytefall: Eulogy. I fell a hair short of my goals last weekend because two sections I merged worked better separately. It doesn’t change the day too much. If not by the end of next weekend then I should have it done before Election Day. Halloween eliminates a night, but I’m fine as long as the final volume of Clyde’s adventures are done before my son comes back again. There’s only one real question that has been plaguing me though:
What do I do next?
Tales of the Slumberlord is the next big series, but there’s a galaxy of difference between Clyde and Darwin Slepsnor. I haven’t made the book outlines either, so I’d need to tackle those. I could do that next over the course of a weekend since there are only 8 in the series. Unlike Legends of Windemere and War of Nytefall, this series will have an overarching plot that stays in the background until the end. Darwin is an oblivious character who stumbles into different adventures, so each book works as its own story. I don’t know if this will make the outlining easier or harder. I don’t have to worry a lot about plot points jumping and focus more on character consistency since there are a few recurring ones. Actually, this is the first big series that takes place about Legends of Windemere too. So, I get to have some big cameos.
All that being said, I don’t know when I’ll start writing that series. I might write Do I Need to Use a Dragon? (Fantasy Writing Tips) first since I have all of those notes ready. I’m getting nervous about this because I don’t have the confidence in thinking my opinion is worth paying money to read. Another option is a spark of an old series that I don’t know if I should entertain. I got the urge to write another Bedlam book, but I’m lost on this one. The last two volumes were blog only, so I don’t know if I should bother with one that I publish. They never sold anyway, which means I might end up writing this and putting it on the blog once the ‘Immortal Wars’ sequel is done at some point next year. People don’t keep up with these big stories either, but I really want to write this story and do something with it.
For that matter, I keep wondering if I should try to make a collection of the ‘Raven’ series that I posted on here. That would require editing, adding a section to bring the first book up to 31 like the others, and getting a cover. Guess I’m looking at all these lofty projects and wondering what the point was. I’m not marketing anything, so what’s the point of the big things on the blog? Maybe I just feel like a wandering soul and am looking at what part of me considers past failures. Bedlam was a lot of fun to write and people enjoyed the characters when they appeared on the blog, but no amount of marketing seemed to help there. ‘Raven’ was an experimental into horror-type stories that I never had full faith in to publish, but people liked when I made them the October tradition for a bit. That might be where those were meant to go, but I do always feel like I should try to give all of my ideas the biggest stage. Honestly, I don’t know if I’d have it in me to edit ‘Raven’ anyway because that one always took a lot out of me. Once to the point where I got depressed and wondered if it was cursed. Guess we’ll see what happens, but that one probably won’t go anywhere unless I know it’s worth it.
I finished watching ‘The Boys’ and it was a lot of fun. I’d already heard a few things about it, but I still got shocked. Sometimes it’s oddly cathartic to watch a show or read a book that has such darkness and depravity alongside characters trying to maintain some of their humanity. Definitely made me wonder about what a person with incredible powers could turn into. Probably more of a chance that someone would go Homelander than Superman if they were that powerful. I moved on to ‘The Slayers’ after that, which is a classic anime that I kept meaning to check out. Definitely a series that is heavy on the silly campiness you’d find back in the day. I didn’t really get to watch much since I ended most days wanting to go to bed.
Goals of the week?
Finish or get close to finishing War of Nytefall: Eulogy
Decide on the next project.
Time with son.
Work.
Outline more of Ruins of the Zodiac Gods. Might have to do some tonight since there’s info I need on my computer.
Pizza.
Laundry.
Halloween prep! No idea if Trick or Treating will be a thing, but my son and I might walk around looking at decorations. Might be some bowls left out for kids. This year really has had all of the fun sucked out of it.
Gift wrap an oddly shaped present or find a bag big enough.
Legends of Windemere 