Goal Post: Weekend Before the Hunger Strikes (Yom Kippur on Monday)

I feel like these posts don’t really have anything interesting these days.  I wish I was doing more exciting things or stuff that I could talk about in public, but that’s not how my life is going lately.  One would surmise that life is boring from what I just said, but it’s really just busy.  Ending every day tired and fighting to get a little me time shows that I’ve been working hard.  The thing I’m battling against isn’t even a person, but my own fatigue, so it isn’t even an exciting struggle.

All that being said, I am proud of how work went.  Very proud of the students I work with and how they did.  The other responsibilities that I have are going well and I’m helping to put some systems together.  Realized that I’m becoming a little more social and energetic too, which could be caused by getting to ‘create’.  It isn’t a story, but helping to build something new always gets my energy going.  Predicting issues, fixing problems, smiling at successes, and even the headaches of failure are a mix that leaves me oddly happy.  It’s like writing a novel where you start with an outline and then adjust as you move along with the actual story.  I get to be creative and use my problem solving skills, which I don’t get to utilize as often as I’d like.  Definitely helps with handling all the changes caused by Covid-19.

War of Nytefall: Ravenous is still for sale.  Nothing gets it to move and I can’t afford to do anything.  This is added frustrated because I feel like my lot in life is to publish books that nobody reads.  Maybe I’ll get everything written and out then people will discover me long after I’m gone.  How morbid is that?  Look, we all know how this rant goes, so I’ll spare you the rest.  I’m still writing and plan on publishing when I can.

War of Nytefall: Eulogy got 3 more chapters added to it since the last post.  Well, I’m doing one of those today.  Maybe it was 4?  This book is harder to do because it’s the final one, so I’m saying good-bye to characters.  Unlike Legends of Windemere, I’m putting a higher death count and ending on a darker story.  Another thing is that you have to read more than just the one book to really get the impact.  I’m seeing how this aspect of the story is the real core instead of the titular war or the fate of the Dawn Fangs.  Honestly, I could have inadvertently made another vampire love story here.  Hard to tell since I still do a lot of action adventure, but the Clyde/Mab relationship is showing itself to be the cornerstone.  Hard to explain this without spoilers and with the knowledge that most people haven’t touched the series.

In other writing news . . . I got nothing.  I designed 1 short story for a future collection and I don’t even think I finished that.  Usually, I work on this during my free periods, but I’ve been running around a lot during those.  Might be able to finish this one outlining project by the end of next week since I have only 1 more short story to add.  Then, Ruins of the Zodiac Gods will get its turn, which I haven’t figured out yet.  Thinking of making that a short story collection with 14 tales.  This involves a blind main character and another with power that she can’t quite control.  If you’re curious, check out a post from earlier in the year.

Haven’t been able to do much biking because of my schedule.  I wake up around 5 am, which gives me no time for biking.  I shower as soon as I get home, so it’s ridiculous to bike and shower again.  Waste of water and toiletries there.  So, I’ll carve out a few weekend days and make sure to spend most of my time on my feet at work.  I walk around a lot, which may help.  The diet is changed a little too.  I have a big breakfast of bacon omelet and some toast with chocolate milk, which helps me get through most of the day.  I have a small lunch of Kitu Super Coffee around noon, which makes sure that I don’t get hungry until 5:30 PM.  Then, it’s a decent dinner, which varies.  I try to avoid snacking as much as possible and stick to seltzer or water.  Maybe do 1-2 cheat meals a week, which I plan so I make sure I don’t eat a lot before or after that.  I’m sure people will be tempted to criticize and suggest ‘improvements’ to what I’m doing.  All I ask is that you don’t.  Nothing is as demoralizing as creating a method that works within your schedule and doesn’t add stress then being told how it’s terrible.  I really believe that the biggest destroyer of diets is unrequested advice.

Let’s see . . . Finished watching ‘Black Butler’.  Began watching ‘D-Grayman’, which is 116 episodes.  I’ve watched up to 51/52 in the past, so I’m glad to have access to the rest. By the time I finish that anime, ‘The Boys’ Season 2 should be entirely out and I’ll binge both seasons.  Hard to watch that show when I’m getting used to the new schedule or have my son around.  I’ll have to think about what to watch after that.  I’ve got time since I use most of my free time for War of Nytefall: Eulogy.

Goals of the week

  1. Survive Yom Kippur on Monday.  Jewish day of Fasting.  My blog responses may be highly delayed.
  2. Write another chapter of War of Nytefall: Eulogy
  3. Spend as much time with son as possible.
  4. Work, which is really a given.
  5. TV when too tired to do anything else.
  6. Start a new puzzle.
  7. Maybe prepare some January blog posts.
  8. Rue something.
  9. Possibly get ice cream one day.
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Questions 3: Writing About Addiction

Full disclosure time: Addiction will be playing a part in War of Nytefall: Ravenous.  I didn’t want to touch on it at the beginning of the promo period because it’s a sensitive   topic and I was unsure of myself.  I planned on skipping it, but then added it at the last minute as a final topic.  It was supposed to go throughout all of next week, but next Friday starts the October stuff.  So, I switched that Questions 3 to here and figured that the weekend might give people more time to take on this subject.

Where to even begin?  Well, I writing thoughts on it next week, so I’m not going to get too far into it.  This is a raw and painful subject.  I don’t have any personal experience with addiction.  I’ve met people and had friends who have been addicts.  Some managed to get better while others didn’t make it out.  There doesn’t seem to be a one-size-fits-all thing here either.  That’s why reading about experiences and talking to those who have been involved can help if you want to tackle this subject.  Well, let’s open up the questions:

  1. Have you ever written a story with an addict as a character?
  2. What is something that you would add to an addicted character?
  3. What is something that people do with addicted characters that you think is wrong?
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The Friday Teaser

coldhandboyack's avatarEntertaining Stories

Here we are, at the last Friday in September. I don’t think I’ve actually fooled anyone with the teasers, but they amuse me. Nothing too complicated, just hit the music and check out the poster.

The Ballad of Mrs. Molony is going to drop on October first, Lord willing and the Amazon doesn’t rise. Enjoy this poster of Lisa Burton recreating an image from the story.

Lisa Burton

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The Future of Barnes and Nobles

Nicholas C. Rossis's avatarNicholas C. Rossis

Barnes and Noble | From the blog of Nicholas C. Rossis, author of science fiction, the Pearseus epic fantasy series and children's book

The Passive Guy recently shared a post by Jane Friedman on the future of Barnes & Noble; a topic you may remember from my earlier post, “How Amazon Destroyed Barnes & Noble.”

Quite frankly, Jane’s post made me sad. The latest chairman, James Daunt, is credited with saving UK’s famous bookstore, Waterstons. However, all you got to do is read the following quotes to understand that he really doesn’t get B&N – or books.

Early on, when Daunt was asked what he thought of Barnes & Noble on his last store visit, he said, “There were too many books,” by which he meant that featuring the right inventory is more important that stocking a big blur of titles. Back in 2015, he commented to Slate, “My faculties just shut down when I go in there.”

So… the big problem with a bookstore is that it has too…

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Immortal Wars: The Summoning Part 37 #fiction #throwback

(Previously on Immortal Wars.)

(Again, we shall revel in my teenage originality.  Everyone groan in unison.)

Disclaimer: Immortal Wars was the book I came up with and wrote in high school.  I hadn’t even hit college by the time I wrote the first two books.  That means I hadn’t developed my style yet, wasn’t good at self-editing, and the story was fairly basic. So, you’ve been warned that this is the ultimate author throwback segment for my blog and will show my author origins.  FYI-  I put the first book (The Summoning) through a Print-on-Demand publisher and the second one (Light, Blood, & Tears) never saw the light of day.  Enjoy!

“Damn it.  This isn’t good,” mutters Fate as he watches the girls get thrown into a pit and Solix gets put in a cage.  Nearby is Psylon’s senseless body as well as the guardians’ melted weapons.  Psylon is buried from the waist down, under a pile of rocks and every now and then she lets out a shuddering breath.

“That’s an understatement if I ever heard one.  Is there going to be any change in your plans?” asks Infinity.

“Sort of.  We’re going into that giant warship sitting over there instead of the unfinished building.  There must be something in that ship we can use to save the others.  Either a weapon or some kind of fast transport.”

“I see.  Just one thing before we try this stunt.  Are you crazy?  The only reason we were able to beat Psylon was because of a lucky avalanche.  We don’t know who or what is waiting for us in that warship.”

“I was the reason the avalanche happened, so it wasn’t exactly an accident.  And I can see most of the bad guys circled around the pit.  I see Adriana, Mindtrigger, and some of the others.  Psylon is right here.  Only Draveon and Cybro are missing from the gathering.  Unless our mystery villain isn’t there, but I think that one is the robot,” explains Fate as they sprint to the rear of the dark green warship.  When they find one of the back doors, Infinity and Fate manage to silently pry it off its hinges.

“I’ll go in first,” whispers Fate.  Infinity just nods his head and follows his best friend into the gloomy corridor.  They move silently and unchallenged until they run into a small patrol of brainwashed Palidors.  The violet-skinned Palidors are leather-winged humanoids with bright, yellow eyes and giant, lower fangs.  After the creatures figure out who the two intruders are, they take out serrated swords and attack while releasing an eerie howl.

“Was this little fight part of your plan?” asks Infinity as he jumps over two of the charging creatures.  He telekinetically snaps the spine of one of the attacking Palidors and uppercuts another one through the ship’s thick wall.

“Would you believe me if I said that it was?” answers Fate as he cuts the head off one of his attackers with the steel knife he had in his belt.  The last two Palidors charge him from opposite sides, but end up impaling themselves on each other’s sword when he cartwheels out of the way.  The sight of the blood and internal organs on the floor make the Mars guardian extremely sick to his stomach.  He quickly turns away and tries to get the gory sight out of his mind.  Fate knows that he will see stuff like this many times in the future and he will become desensitized to it over time.  But now the sight and smell make him feel like he’s going to throw up everything he ever ate.

“Do you think anyone heard the yelling?” whispers Infinity who has the same sickened look on his pale face.

“Doubt it.  I don’t think any of the immortals would be exactly here in such a large warship.  There isn’t much of a chance that we could possibly be that unlucky,” claims Fate in a low whisper.  Before they know what is happening, a dark figure drops on top of them from a vent in the ceiling.  Infinity bangs his head on the metal floor while Fate skillfully rolls out of the speedy shadow’s reach.

“Now be a nice little Mars guardian and give up,” orders the shadow.  When the mysterious attacker moves into the gloomy light, Fate finds himself coming face to face with Kilanus.

“I don’t think so, Blondie,” Fate replies.  He gives a quick, hard kick to Kilanus’ slim stomach and attempts to punch her on the top of her head.  Kilanus catches his arm and savagely twists it far behind Fate’s back.  Fate breaks out and throws Kilanus across the hallway.  She nimbly bounces off the wall and ricochets off the ceiling.  She lands on his shoulders, but Fate throws her onto her back with all his might.  The force of her impact and the sudden pressure on her chest knocks the wind out of her in a loud gasp.

“Guess it doesn’t pay to have a well-developed body when that gets done to you.  Gotta admit that you’re pretty good,” says Kilanus as she backflips to her feet.  Fate makes a head first charge at her, but she steps to the side.  She grabs his arm and twists it over and behind his head.  Kilanus also wraps her left leg around Fate, so that he can’t move his other arm.

“Nice move.  Has this suddenly moved from combat to kinky?  I do have a girlfriend and I really have no interest in sexy psychopaths.”

“Don’t make me any madder than I already am, Fate,” growls Kilanus while she repeatedly rams Fate against the wall as hard as she can.  At the same time, she is trying to snap Fate’s arm off the rest of his body.

“You seem to know who I am, but I have no idea who you are.  Can you give me a name to go with the leather?” the Mars guardian says.  He breaks her grip with lightning fast kicks to her shins and throws her into the floor by grabbing the bottom of her foot and pushing up on it with all of his strength.  They fall in a tangle of limbs and Fate kicks Kilanus in the face as they roll away from each other.

“The name’s Kilanus!  Not a common name, but it’s all I’ve got,” jokes the blonde when she notices crimson flowing out of her nose.  She pulls her death scythe out of the shadows and swings it at Fate.  The swirling white and black blade nicks his right leg, but nothing magical happens to him.

“What the hell?  Your soul should be coming out of that cut while you scream and writhe in agony on the floor.  What is wrong with this thing?” hollers Kilanus as she violently shakes the scythe up and down.

“I guess the batteries are dead,” responds Fate as he kicks the blonde directly in her jaw with all his strength.  Kilanus drops on top of the half-dazed Infinity and starts cursing at Fate in a muffled, angry voice.  Blood spurts onto the floor as she feels her jaw try to knit itself together and keep breaking due to her trying to talk.

“Not bad, young warrior,” says Draveon as a nearby door swishes open.  The huge immortal blasts Fate with a repulsion beam of light from his sword, which sends the blond guardian crashing into the far wall.

“That’s your best hit, big shot?  Some ultimate killer you turned out to be.  I am severely disappointed,” moans Fate.  He starts to use his luck powers on Draveon, but instead feels one of the heavy security cameras fall on his head.

“If you’re wondering what has just happened, then think about this.  I was created with the power to turn any magic or birthright powers used on me against my attackers.  So if you try to give me bad luck, your power gives you the bad luck.  Good night, sweet prince.  There will be on angels left once we finally let you die,” laughs Draveon over Fate’s groaning body.

Fate listens to the muscular man gloating high above him until he hears nothing at all and everything goes pitch black.

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The Ladies of Lust and Lavishness: Desirae Duvall and Chastity Sullivan

Shazam vs Black Adam

Think there’s already a lot to unpack with this post.  I don’t have a great explanation for that title, but it sounded good.  Chastity and Desirae aren’t the types to throw down like the superheroes above.  So, why did I do those things?  Because these two characters have a lot of similarities, but come off as light/dark combinations.  Was about to say ‘mirror image’, but that means opposite and that isn’t necessarily true.  Now, how do these characters stack up

  1. Both characters run profitable businesses that depend on entertainment and making their customers happy.  They also have secret industries that involve the gathering of information.
  2. Chastity Sullivan is open about her business and has a public reputation as a successful businesswoman.  She has trade agreements and works within the community.  Desirae Duvall is a secret to Windemere outside of a few black market and criminal circles.  Even those aren’t fully aware because she shields herself with aliases and fake stories to make her appear like a small army of unassociated people.
  3. Both characters openly enjoy sex and flirting even though Chastity has mellowed a lot over the series.  They are very sensual characters who used sex to begin their businesses.
  4. Chastity focuses on the pleasure of others and considers what they would want to make them happy.  This is why she has loyal customers.  Desirae manipulates and has no worry about loyalty since she plays with the minds of her customers.  When it comes to pleasure, she does care about providing it to others, but she will focus on herself more when she is physically involved.
  5. Both care about their employees and friends.  Well, Desirae doesn’t really have any friends, but she does show that she cares about those who work for her.
  6. Desirae is much more ambitious and cunning than Chastity.  While they are both always looking for new avenues to run their businesses, Desirae definitely works with fewer scruples and less morality.  Chastity has things that she will not get involved in like drugs, slave trade, weapon dealings, and other heinous criminal acts.  Desirae sees some of those as paths.  Not the slave trade though.
  7. Both can fight if they have to, but prefer not to.  Chastity has shown that she can throw down with the rest of the gang if she has to.  Yet, she depends almost entirely on her powers.  Desirae is the same, but she finds ways to avoid violence as much as possible.
  8. Chastity does not have a bodyguard or set up assassinations of those who might be a danger to her business.  She will handle anyone she meets who may pose a threat to her friends, but she tries to do it without killing.  That could expose the Dawn Fangs.  Desirae has Renald and sends him out to eliminate obstacles all the time.  She doesn’t like getting her own hands dirty, but has no problem having him leave a few corpses around.
  9. Chastity has been going about her business, which includes knowing as much as possible about the world.  This puts her on the same level as Kai Stavros and his global spy network.  Desirae . . . is a mystery to both of them?  That’s a strange one.  It seems we have someone who is so good at keeping secrets that a professional spy and an expert information broker doesn’t even know she exists.

Check them both out in
War of Nytefall: Ravenous

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The Astral Conspiracy Series

coldhandboyack's avatarEntertaining Stories

It’s my great pleasure to welcome Staci Troilo to the blog today. She’s a great author, one of my Story Empire colleagues, and a true friend. She’s here to tell us about a series she’s published under the pen name of D. L. Cross. I’ve read the first part of these, along with a supporting short story, and they are outstanding.

***

Ciao, Craig. Thanks so much for having me back today. And a hearty hello to all your readers.

I’m here today to talk about my Astral Conspiracy series. It’s technically science fiction, as it’s part of the acclaimed Platt and Truant Invasion Universe, but my saga is as much thriller as it is sci-fi, so I thought I’d have a little fun with my marketing and include pages from the top-secret government files on my main characters.

Today, I’m sharing info on Landon Thorne.


DOSSIER

Name:

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Teaser Tuesday: Battle of the Allies #fantasy #vampires

Cover Art by Alison Hunt

I haven’t shown much of the other villains within War of Nytefall: Ravenous.  Two that I really enjoy showing off are Kenneth Decker and Archillious.  One is very serious while the other is insane.  They’ve kind of become the Nyte version of Bob and Luther Grathan.  I gave them a great scene that I’m going to partially share here.  Although, things seem to be off with them now.

Continue reading

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The Pleasure Shadow: Windemere’s Naughty Secret

D&D Tavern

Yeah, I’m not putting the picture of a brothel on here.  Yet, the Pleasure Shadow is more than that.  So, I figure a busy tavern will do just as nicely.  After all, War of Nytefall: Ravenous really only shows the cleaner side of Desirae Duvall’s business.  That means you have nothing to worry about if you read on.

When I created Desirae Duvall in her current state, I knew I needed to give her a wild headquarters.  Sticking with her prostitute origins, I felt that making her a brothel madam would work best.  It would explain how she could gather so much information and feed the lustful seductress persona.  This put her in a leadership position as well, so it was no longer a loner causing trouble.  The Pleasure Shadow gave her more stability in her goals, evolution, and decisions.  Desirae now had to guide herself as someone who had a business to protect and grow.  Of course, it exploded into something much larger when I actually began writing the book.

Originally, Desirae was going to be someone who was trying to rise up the ranks of the criminal underworld and using a certain situation to do so.  I wrote her first scene in the prologue and I immediately realized I wasn’t going in that direction.  Her confidence and level of planning in that one scene made it ridiculous to think she wouldn’t have already reached her goal.  Instead, I saw that I had a character who already had power and influence, but it was clearly hidden.  Since nothing about her had been mentioned in the previous 4 books, I had to make her a secret.  This upped her intelligence and cunning to a point where she might be the deadliest thinker in the series.  Considering this change, I had to alter the Pleasure Shadow to become something more than a secret brothel run by an ambitious Dawn Fang.

Most scenes in the Pleasure Shadow take place in Desirae’s laboratory, but I have enough outside of that to give an idea of the place.  The building is large and shielded from people wandering in unannounced.  Similar to the Scrumptious Siren, this place has a lot of attention to serving drinks, food, and entertainment.  There are rooms with stages where a variety of shows can be viewed.  Various balconies are placed around the Pleasure Shadow for Desirae to observe her business from above or secretly show a special guest that she wants to impress.  There are gambling areas even though I never got to show them and rooms dedicated to using magic in case somebody wants to practice a ritual that is forbidden.  Desirae is fine as long as she is paid and the wards she’s paid for are designed to stop any spells that reach a certain level of power.  Much of the place is dedicated to private quarters that can be rented out for a hefty price.  Above it all are the private quarters of Mistress Duvall herself, which guests can only get to if they are personally invited.  That’s easier to do than you think because Ravenous can go for her libido as well as the main reason I picked it.

The biggest challenge was figuring out how Desirae kept the Pleasure Shadow a secret and became a global success.  Thankfully, I’d given her telepathy, which she uses sparingly and gets stronger if she has sex with her target.  Does that really surprise anyone considering how I’ve described the character?  So, she has thousands of loyal customers that enjoy their time at the Pleasure Shadow, but none of them remember until they come in for their next visit.  There are agents everywhere that are able to reactivate customers when it is time for another visit.  Other employees keep ears and eyes out for signs that Desirae has become too well known.  This is solved either by bringing people who know to the Pleasure Shadow for some treatment or eliminating them.  She prefers the former because she can have fun with that.  It sounds like a fairly simple system on paper with a complicated network of agents and planning.  Still, it gets the job done.

Funniest part of the Pleasure Shadow is that I didn’t have a name until I was halfway through the book.  I realized I’d been calling it ‘the brothel’, ‘Desirae’s business’, or the laboratory depending on the situation.  This added to the decision that it would be a big secret because not many people would say the name.  It took a while to come up with something that sounded right.  Obviously, I went with the key components of the debauchery that occurs in the Pleasure Shadow and the fact that it exists in the shadows of Windemere.  It does sound darker and raunchier than the more open Scrumptious Siren, which is oddly cute in comparison.  Took a while to get the name stuck in my head too.  I changed it to Shadow Brothel, Pleasure House, Pleasure Void, and other versions that only had one word right.  Good thing I sensed that I was wrong those times or this would have been a really big mess.

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Smorgasbord Cafe and Bookstore – Author Updates – New Releases, #Fantasy Charles E. Yallowitz #Reviews #HistoricalRomance Christine Campbell, #…

Welcome to the Cafe and Bookstore update with new releases, reviews and offers for authors on the shelves. A new release for Charles E. Yallowitz……

Smorgasbord Cafe and Bookstore – Author Updates – New Releases, #Fantasy Charles E. Yallowitz #Reviews #HistoricalRomance Christine Campbell, #…
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