Monsters of Nytefall: Desirae’s ‘Babies’

Marcus Corvnius from Underworld

Guess War of Nytefall: Ravenous had one more promo left in it.  Well, it’s October, so I’m focusing on monsters, which makes this a perfect time to explain a piece of the overall story.  This would be what is called Desirae’s ‘Babies’.  I’m going to have to explain this without spoilers, so bear . . . bare . . . Bayer . . . work with me.

Desirae’s greatest power is that she can turn anything into a Dawn Fang.  You have those made by the fang, turned by Clyde’s blood, forged by a ritual, and born naturally.  Now, you have Desirae’s children that she creates in her laboratory.  She can have them work autonomously or control all of their actions from any range.  Given that she always has something or someone to do, she prefers to have them follow implanted orders.  That is if she isn’t making the creature for fun and wants to use it for something like arena fights, selling, or just releasing it into the wild.  They’re a vast variety of critters that she lovingly calls her children.  She’s very sad for a bit when she has to destroy any.

Now, when I say she can turn anything into a Dawn Fang, I mean anything as long as it was alive.  So, she can’t transform undead.  For example, she has vampirized harpies quiet often.  This is a flock of winged predators that each have their own abilities.  Desirae doesn’t pick their three abilities either.  She only turns them and sees what happens afterwards.  If they won’t work out then she either destroys or rebuilds them.  She can also free them from her control and turn them back into their original state, but that isn’t a preferred method.  In her mind. her children are either on her side or need to be eliminated because they could reveal her business.  That and they’re monsters, which means an adventurer could kill them and find evidence of her if they do the right things to the bodies.  Best to have them under control where she can self-destruct the corpses if she needs to.

The ironic thing is that her babies are a threat to Clyde’s plan.  While regular Dawn Fangs are able to hide themselves and stay out of trouble, monstrous versions are going to stand out.  A griffin with fangs that drinks blood and is strong in the sunlight?  The chances of such a creature perfectly blending in with a flock isn’t very high.  Desirae tries to keep her babies on some kind of leash, but she can’t always remain aware of them.  Accidents happen and she does her best to control the flow of information about their existence, so she’s almost running the same plan alongside the Nytefall one.  Of course, Ravenous shows that she may be getting in over her head and these creations are a big part of it.

Will these return in a later book?  That depends on if Desirae does.  For now, enjoy them in their debut.

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Basing Your High-Fantasy Towns and Cities in the Real World

Nicholas C. Rossis's avatarNicholas C. Rossis

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

I wisely started the map and made the story fit.

The above words, spoken by none other than J.R.R Tolkien, have been taken as sage advice by many an accomplished – or budding – fantasy writer who felt inspired to create their own world. While Tolkien, like many others, has been lauded for his incredible imagination in bringing places like Middle-Earth to life, it’s worth noting that the creation of these worlds is not something done from scratch. At least, not exactly.

What I mean by this is that there is a – let’s call it a tethering – of the fantasy world to the real world. For instance, if you have a look at some of Tolkien’s hand-annotated maps of Middle-Earth, you will see he has made reference to things like The Shire being on the same latitude as Oxford. You can see the logic of doing this, as…

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Five Tips to Feel Better About Writing Angst

John W. Howell's avatarStory Empire

Pixabay Image

Hi, SEers.  John, with you today. I was reading a few Facebook and Twitter feeds the other day and was quite surprised to find several writers talking about how discouraged they are with their writing. It almost seemed that I was wading through a locust storm of dissatisfied folks. Maybe it was just that since they seem to be everywhere, they came to my attention. It was clear that these folks were somewhat new at writing.

There were some consistencies that jumped out of the postings that I had read. Here they are separated into five general areas. 

The primary complaint was about time. Since most writers also have full-time jobs, this complaint is pretty real.

The second item was about productivity. Many of the people talked about missing word or page targets.

The third area was what I call extrinsic annoyances. Husbands, wives, kids…

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Questions 3: Stay Out of the Moonlight

D&D Werewolf

Instead of doing Teaser Tuesdays, I’m going to do some Halloween-y Questions 3 for the month of October.  I hope people have fun with it.  Don’t worry if you have to take a break from reading War of Nytefall: Ravenous to answer.  I totally understand and look forward to your review.  People still write reviews these days, right?

Since I always talk about vampires, I’m going to jump to the other side of the fence.  We’re going with lycanthropes.  Some may be scratching their head at that term, which is generally used for werewolves.  *waits for older people to do their Marty Feldman impression*  In fantasy, it can be used for other types of cursed shape-shifters such as were-tigers, were-rats, were-vultures, were-clowns, etc.  I actually have a long list of lycathropes for Windemere, which were created by Yola Biggs the Chaos Goddess after she got drunk at a party.  In fact, they are the reason she was exiled from Ambervale and hunted by the other gods.  Now, let’s get to the questions.

  1. What type of lycanthrope would you be if you could choose?  (Keep it to real animals. I can already hear at least one person whisper were-dragon.)
  2. How would you prepare for the change?
  3. Would you try to find a cure or make the best of your situation?  Why?
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Songs of War of Nytefall: Loyalty

Cover Art by Alison Hunt

So, I was thinking of a fun way to promote my vampire books for October.  Interviews never work.  Teasers are always being done.  A standard promo post didn’t really appeal to me since it doesn’t even get much when the book debuts.  So, I’m just going to have fun myself and hope people give the series a try.  For the next couple of Mondays, I’m posting music videos that I feel connect to each of the books.  Maybe in topic, but mostly in tone and atmosphere.

First up, War of Nytefall: Loyalty

This song really does appeal to the defiant nature of Clyde even though part of the character is that he doesn’t stand alone.  Whenever I hear this song, I think of a powerful and deadly monster too.  Thank ‘Prince of Persia: Warrior Within’ for that because this song is what played every time the Dhaka showed up.  You couldn’t kill this thing and it would take you out in one shot, so all you could do is run and go through the obstacle course until you escaped.  Very stressful, so I twitch whenever I hear this song.

Solely for the title and maybe because I love the song.  With this series being where the Dawn Fangs debut, it is also the one where Clyde decides on his dream.  He wants his people to live among mortals and that requires acting like them.  So, Dawn Fangs are learning how to be ‘human’ starting now.

Wait.  Am I using a slow, romantic song for a vampire series?  In fact, people who see what I usually post are probably surprised that I went anywhere near anything that isn’t loud song.  Well, this is a good one for Clyde and Mab.  The two tend to stand by each other all the time.  It isn’t shown more than how she spent 50 years believing he was still alive beneath the ground and that he would return.  Works perfectly.

See the book that I connected to the songs
Get War of Nytefall: Loyalty
On Amazon!

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Halloween Music Videos

I do this every year and I usually aim for later in the month, but I think I’m going to try to set the mood for the month by doing it now.  This time I’m going to try to pick less obvious ones since I always do ‘Ghostbusters’ and ‘Monster Mash’.  I think I’m going to save ‘Thriller’ for a special post right before Halloween too.  Mostly because there is a story behind my fascination with it.  Enjoy.

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Trick or Treat Book Bonanza!

Join the October fun with this month-

long giveaway! Run by N.N. Light, you

can find new authors every day from

now until the 30th. There’s even a

Rafflecopter contest! Just click on the

link below to give it a look. Check in

every day for new authors and books.

CLICK HERE

FOR MY OWN BOOKS:


WAR OF NYTEFALL: RAVENOUS on

October 8th!


WAR OF NYTEFALL: ERADICATION on

October 27th!

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A Week Ending with Block Editing . . . The Fuck is This Shit?

Imagine my surprise when I jumped on to make a quick post for tomorrow about the ‘Trick or Treat Bonanza’ going on all month, which I’m a part of.  What do I see?  This white void with no personality and the interface of a handless, all blade ginsu knife that’s covered in acid.  First of all:

WHY DOES THE CALENDAR GO FROM MONDAY TO SUNDAY INSTEAD OF SUNDAY TO SATURDAY?

Yeah!  It’s small and petty, but calendars don’t go that way.  If I’m scheduling something for Sunday, I will look to the far left of the calendar.  NOT THE FAR RIGHT!  Oh, and thank you for putting a ‘classic editor’ option on the bottom that does ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!  Not unless I want to upgrade to a business account for $201 extra bucks a year.  I have the classic toolbar here, but I’m still writing in such a sterile, white void that I can feel my soul leaving my body.  Facebook did something similar too.  Was there a memo that went out saying humans do better when there is less color and personality to what they’re looking at?  I think I saw something about ‘distraction free’.  The fuck were the distractions here?  The toolbars and menus that I actually used?  Were those really nothing more than decorations that I wasn’t supposed to be paying attention to, WordPress?  Please tell me that aliens took over and thought this was a good idea because no functional human would think this is an upgrade.  Removing color is what the sun does to pretty things, which forces us to throw them in the garbage.  There’s no word count on these posts either, is there?  Oh, it’s the ‘i’ in a circle that I have to go out of my way to click on, which is totally NOT as big a distraction as glancing down at the bottom of the screen.  You know, this white void is even worse than I realized.  I’m getting a headache as I write this.  When I looked away, there were black spots in my vision for a few seconds.  Think this sets off some light sensitivity, especially when I’m starting out.  Utter nightmare!

Well, I didn’t expect that rant to happen, but it had to be done.  Honestly, I’m writing this on Thursday while my allergies take a break from slowly suffocating me.  Damn pollen.  It’s really bad because I was inside for most of the spring and summer, so my resistance is down.  This is not the year to have a sniffling, coughing issue while working in a school.  Not to mention I keep checking my temperature to be safe, including one genius move when I did it 5 seconds after drinking a hot cup of tea.  It was 100.4 on two thermometers and I flipped out until my dad got the forehead one to work, which said I was fine.  I mentioned the tea, realized what had happened, and walked back to my room in shame.

Work was busy with a lot of people needing to use the testing center.  My years of being a cubicle monkey is helping with keeping the paperwork side of things organized and problem solving as I go.  I’m still enjoying the time I get with the students who keep me on my toes.  I think some of them (or all) have each created their own game with me to see what reaction they can get.  This is what makes me really happy to be there because these kids are so amazing in their own unique ways.  Helps the day go faster as well, which is always a plus.

My son is back as of Saturday and he’s been keeping me busy.  Monday was Yom Kippur, so I was fasting while he was munching away next to me.  9 hours of playing ‘Castlevania: Symphony of the Night’ with him helping out when my fingers were tired and we were in an easier section.  He still goes charging into bad guys, but this is a game where that gets you hurt.  Hit points and limited lives are foreign to him unless they’re done like Super Smash, which doesn’t help here.  Aside from this, it’s been all schoolwork and homework.  The latter made a big jump, so afternoons were all work and no play.  We get the weekend at least with some pumpkin stuff being tossed into the works.

(Gets lost among the blocks . . . Wait . . . Where did the second block come from?  If I could transform into Clyde, I’d get my vengeance.)

I didn’t get any writing done, but I’m a part of ‘Trick or Treat Bonanza’ for this month with the last two ‘Nytefall’ books being a part of it.  If I can figure out the block thing then I’ll post more about it, but this is testing my patience.  Nothing else happened with writing though. War of Nytefall: Eulogy is inching along, but it’s more of a mystery than an action book, so I have a lot of talking and searching parts.  The last chapter I did was entirely around Clyde having doubts about his own abilities because things are falling apart.  I’m about to hit the part where the body count jumps and all the secrets are revealed too.  Barring any other things going on, I could feasibly write 4 chapters during the next time my son is with his mom.  Probably be 2 though.  Wait . . . Columbus Day is off, so that gives me an edge.  I’m really just talking to myself here, huh?  Allergies and exhaustion are taking their toll.

Dang.  I forgot to ask if I could mention something here, so it’ll have to wait until next week.  Let’s see.  Did I mention that I built a chidori for my son’s Kakashi costume?

img_5130

The costume was store bought and the first thing he did was strike the Chidori (lightning attack) pose.  So, I had to make one before he came back from being with his mom.  Not that bad considering my artistic ability isn’t very good.  Aside from all that, I’ve been watching ‘D.Gray-Man’ and finally hit episodes I hadn’t seen before.  That’s really it for this busy week.  Time for the list!

Goals of the week:

  1. Enjoy time with son when I can get it.
  2. Work hard when I have to.
  3. Hopefully finish the last short story outline for a future collection.
  4. Continue cursing block editing.  (I guess the phrase is now ‘if it ain’t broke, made it bland as fuck’.
  5. Watch more D.Gray-Man.
  6. Try to put the usually music video at the top of this post.  Can I move the blocks?
  7. Get the allergies under control.
  8. Write more War of Nytefall: Eulogy.  Should be higher, but you never know.  Almost time to return another cast, I guess.

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Return of the Shadow of Monster Maker Fun: Creatures Donated by L. Marie #October #Monsters

Frankenstein’s Lab

Here we are in 2020 and it’s time for Monster Maker Fun.  I’ll admit that I didn’t get many volunteers this year, but it’s been crazy.  This isn’t the easiest thing to figure out too since it can put you on the spot.  All we have are 3 strange, made up words donated to me by a volunteer and I turn them into monsters.  To start this mad scientist event off, we have 3 critters from L. Marie.  Thank you for always giving me such fun challenges.

Bibitless

These light blue birds are found off the coasts of arctic regions where they can blend into the snow and sky.  They are the size of child’s fist and would only make for one bite of food, but that is enough for the predators of the region. The Bibitless need to constantly eat since the only land once a month to lay eggs on the underside of glaciers. This requires a lot of energy, which they get from diving into the ocean. Being too small to catch fish, they snag protozoan and occasionally snatch tiny pieces of meat off larger animals. It is never enough to be noticed. Since the Bibitless needs to maintain such a level of energy, eating it gives a predator a charge of nutrients. Yet, don’t think you can catch one and save it because the meat rots within minutes of being exposed to the air. As for the eggs, they hatch within a week and the baby is already able to fly.

Haboggatling

A lumbering ogre found in the Rehkruth forest, this creature always travels in mating pairs. These partnerships are formed for life and designated by a swamp that shows images of who will be together. Parents bring their child to the holy swamp at the age of four and every year afterwards until a pairing has been made. Once two Haboggatlings have been shown as partners, they must go off on their own. This holds true even if they are children. While we may think this is dangerous, these ogres are nearly ten feet tall and strong enough to throw full-grown trees one-handed by the time they are three.  Their flat noses are not very strong, but their large ears and prismatic eyes make up for the weaker sense. Traditionally, Haboggatlings are seen wearing the pelts made from the first creature they killed as a team. Any humans who have come across the beasts have been scared away by their mournful wails, but there have been no reports of deadly encounters.  This makes many wonder if there is something in their past that makes them scared of humans.

Ogolithe

This creature has two large feet with no toes and rubbery soles that allow it to hop around its mountainous habitat. While its legs are muscular, its body is scrawny and it has no arms. Atop its neck, the Ogolithe has a bowling-ball sized eye with a protective lid that comes out of a circular cap on the top.  The color of its skin and the lid are mottled to help it blend into its rocky surroundings.  If a predator appears and it cannot leap away, it covers its eye and remains still until it thinks the danger has passed.  Not having a nose or ears, it can only guess at what is going on when it has effectively blinded itself.  Some believe that it can sense some vibrations through the ground thanks to their sensitive feet, but it’s clearly not enough.  Many scientists have witnessed Ogolithes revealing their eye when a predator has been standing still for extended periods of time.  Nobody is sure how these creatures get nourishment, but the most popular theory is that it absorbs whatever particles get into its eye’s membrane.  Due to them being endangered and prone to optical aneurysms when stressed by captivity, none have been caught for serious examination.

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Immortal Wars: The Summoning Part 38 #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!

Fate’s senses return to the sound of loud, dripping water and the smell of rotting, half-eaten flesh.  The small room he finds himself in is extremely dirty and damp.  Pairs of tiny, red eyes look at Fate from the many shadows and patiently wait for him to lay down and die.  Distant yells and howls can be heard from the pit where the other three guardians are being toyed with.  Fate finally notices Infinity looking out of the only window in their cell.  They are trapped and neither of them can see a way of escaping.

“What’s happening out there?” asks Fate as he gets off the small, uncomfortable bed that he was lying on.  A small stretch causes the sound of popping joints to fill the room.

“Nothing interesting.  From what I’ve been able to piece together, they seem to be waiting for Psylon.  Adriana is getting very restless and screaming louder every time I hear her voice.  But Psylon must still be out cold where we left her.  You feeling okay?” replies Infinity while staring out the circular window, which is the size of a classroom globe.

“Great for someone who just got smashed into the ground by an angry immortal killing machine.  Are Draveon and Kilanus by the pit or are they stuck guarding us?”

“I think they’re stuck guarding us, but I’m not absolutely sure about that.  You have better eyesight when it comes to distance.  I’m so glad you made a foolproof plan that would be easy to follow.  Any other bright ideas, Fate?  Maybe we can escape and take on every villain out there with our arms cut off.”

“Stop with the sarcasm.  Just give me a couple of minutes to look around and maybe I can get us out of here.”  Fate walks toward the large, green door that is holding them in.  After a closer examination, he notices several badly camouflaged wires running along the hinges and finds a big battery hidden in the shadowy ceiling.  Other than the wires on the hinges, it appears to be a harmless cell door.

“Did you try to break this door down while I was knocked out?” mentions the Mars guardian as he kicks a human leg bone that is lying near his boot.  The bone bounces into the shadows where loud squeaks and sickening crunches follow the bone’s disappearance.  The noises help in making both teenagers a lot more nervous.

“No.  I wanted you to wake up and be able to walk on your own two feet.  You didn’t expect me to drag you out of this warship.  Why do you ask?” states Infinity while he turns away from the window.  He walks over to Fate and looks at the big door in an attempt to find the weakest spot to punch.

“It’s an electrified door.  Or at least has an alarm on it.  See those almost camouflaged wires on the hinges.  They go into the battery attached to the ceiling, which means electricity is going through the door.  There’s no telling how many volts are being sent through it.  It might be enough to knock us out for years or even kill us.”

“That could really wreak our day.  Hey, Fate.  Now I got a plan.  As soon as we get out of this walk-in closet, we’ll split up and try to find a way out of this warship.  We can figure out how to destroy it after we get the others and return to the sun base.  A retreat is definitely in order due to our lack of skill already.”

“What are you talking about?  We can’t leave this cell without the key or touch the damn door without shocking ourselves into unconsciousness.  This battle is over and we lost.  We weren’t ready for this.”

“Is that any way for the future leader of the guardians to talk?  I don’t think acting like all hope is lost will give any confidence to the rest of us.  So, shut up and we can get out of before those creatures run out of bones.”

“Who told you about me being the new leader?  It was only between me and Solix.  And probably SEAS if he was in that red diamond of his.”

“You kept mumbling about it while you were asleep on the bunk.  I warned you long ago that you tend to talk in your sleep.  Especially when dreaming about Miracle.  Thank god we don’t stay at each other’s houses anymore.  Anyway, don’t worry about it.  I have no problem with who’s in charge of us as long as it isn’t me.  Miracle will probably be happy for you, but Hydrana will want to be our leader instead of you.  No big surprise there.  Now stand back and marvel at my genius,” explains Infinity.  He points at the door and releases a spark of telekinetic energy from his extended finger.  The heavy door silently falls off its hinges and the two guardians escape into the dark hallway.  They swiftly put the cell door back up in order to make it look like nothing ever happened.

“Which way are you going, Fate?  Left or right,” whispers Infinity.  Before he turns around, he sees Fate running off to his left.  He tries to call to his friend, but the Mars guardian has already melted into the shadows.

“Okay.  I guess I’m going to the right,” mutters the Earth guardian as he leaves the cellblock.

Soon after they leaves, Kilanus arrives so she can give the prisoners their last, disgusting meal.  It is a bowl full of dead cockroaches and a thick green sauce covers them.  A pitcher also holds murky water with pieces of meat in it.  When she notices that no one is in the cell, she sprints off at top speed in the direction that Infinity had went.

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