This comic will probably show up again before the end of the year. Anyway, I was going to do another ‘Monster Maker’ post, but it felt weird doing it after Halloween. Hope everyone had a fun one. Mine was mild and low key. Since many of us are probably coming out of a candy or horror movie stupor, I’m going to make this post simple and get some feedback.
What did you think of this year’s posts? Should any of them return for next year? Is there anything you would like me to do next October?
I considered continuing the story since we’re almost at the end. Not sure what to do with Thursdays once ‘Derailing Bedlam’ is through in November/December. I don’t have any other novels or short stories to put up since the rest are published. Considered putting up the novels I wrote in high school, but that’s both crazy and self-destructive. Might finish the year with random stuff or poems on Thursday then figure out a new thing for 2020. It might be the high school one for people to see how far I’ve come. Anyway, let’s get to the funny:
The world thinks that pop superstar Kiara Anderson has it all, but she spends her nights 
drinking away memories of her childhood and life as a teen runaway.
The Jacobs family are desperate to see the girl next door again and discover why she ran away, especially their son Shane, who blames himself for her disappearance.
When Kiara’s manager forces her into a reveal-all TV interview she knows the family she loved more than her own will finally discover the truth.
Can she overcome her demons or will the shadows of the past rob her of fame, fortune, and a chance to finally fall in love?
Purchase Link
UK – https://www.amazon.co.uk/Star-Shadows-Helen-Buckley/dp/1528932005
Only the brave write
Writing a book is one of the most enjoyable things I have ever done. Publishing a book? That’s by far the scariest!
Tapping away at my computer, merrily jotting down the…
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Another day of promo for this anthology. Get your copy yet? If so, are you enjoying it?
Today, we’re going into Devorah Fox’s “The Demon of Corpus Christi”.
BLURB: Stymied by a paralyzing case of writer’s block, I go for a drive hoping a short excursion will reignite my creative spark. I have no specific destination in mind so I let the vehicle’s navigation system set the course. Finding myself in unfamiliar surroundings is only the first hint that this innocuous jaunt is about to become a hellish nightmare.
BIO: “What if?” Those two words all too easily send Devorah Fox spinning into flights of fancy. A multi-genre author, she has written a best-selling epic fantasy series, an acclaimed mystery, a popular thriller, and co-authored a contemporary thriller with Jed Donellie. She contributed short stories to a variety of anthologies and has several Mystery and Fantasy Short Reads to her name. Born in Brooklyn, New York, she now lives on the Texas Gulf Coast…
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NiGHTS from Sega
This is one that can get confusing because their name is also used for the career and clothing. The thing to remember going forward is that the Jesters here are spelled with a capital ‘J’. Also that I won’t be talking about the other kind. They get the name because of how they dress . . . Although, the bell-tipped caps and colorful clothing are actually parts of their bodies. Segue into the description!
The Jesters are incredibly powerful beings that are said to have been born from chaotic magic. As I said, they have the clothing of the mortal career and they indulge in some of the same activities such as juggling and getting laughs. All Jesters are high energy and tend to be friendly, but they also have a curiosity that can be unnerving. For example, one meeting a pregnant woman could open her belly up like a door and take a peek without harming either mortal. This was actually done in a Dungeons & Dragons game that I ran and it freaked the mother out. You see, Jesters don’t pay attention to social norms, mortal rules, and laws of physics. They are composed of raw magic and can twist reality to some extent. Only gods and named demons can really hold a candle to their power, which they use at their leisure.
There is no social structure to these creatures because they are fairly whimsical. You might find several in a group for an extended period of time, but then there might be a solitary one. Some adventurers have stumbled onto hidden colonies, which are very rare due to the amount of magic in one area. Many Jesters wander around and search for areas that can entertain them. It could be a temporary weather pattern or a group of mortals that they will stick with until they get bored. Not being gods, they are allowed to interfere with mortal affairs and they will for laughs. It is unclear if Jesters can get angry or even kill people since neither have been recorded. They are more likely to send an enemy away or do something to embarrass them. Being near immortal, they understand the concept of death, but find it bland and refuse to be a part of it.
Jesters will continue to be a mystery, especially after the Great Cataclysm. Prior to this event, they were scattered about Windemere and were fairly active. Once the chaos had ended, only the Jesters that had been trapped in magical locations remained and they lived in secret. Various artifacts that unleashed reality-warping magic have been discovered and it is rumored that the Jesters were transformed by their own power into these items. Others believe they were reabsorbed into the chaotic magic that birthed them thousands of years ago. Nobody really wants to investigate in case they free something strong enough to kill the Jesters. Because of this, they have fallen into legend and appear in bard tales to entertain children.
In my books, Jesters first appeared in Legends of Windemere: Tribe of the Snow Tiger in the form of Fortunatos. He is the guardian of Aintaranurh, which is the holy temple of Timoran Wrath’s tribe. People enjoyed his appearance and antics, which I had a blast writing. Yet, this wasn’t the first time I used a Jester. In fact, he was originally going to be a genie, but I changed it once I got to the scene. They first appeared in that D&D game that I mentioned when I wanted a powerful being that will throw off the players. I had a problem with them attacking and destroying nearly everything that came across their path, so I made the Jesters nonthreatening and beyond their abilities. Even if they attacked, they wouldn’t do enough to warrant a counter. It was the first time I got to play a wacky and curious character, which would go on to influence my creation of Yola Biggs the Chaos Goddess. I do plan on bringing them into a few more stories too. Haven’t fully decided on that one yet.
Following this blog’s tradition, this is this year’s Halloween story. Enjoy!
“No way,” I say and lick my lips. The mere thought makes my mouth water.
“Yes way,” he says and leans back on his seat, a smirk playing on his handsome face.
Does this young man feel as confident as he sounds?
I glance at the rest of the tables in the half-empty restaurant. It is a slow night, which works fine for me. I don’t want any nosy reporters listening in to our conversation. I lean forward, lowering my voice. “You’re telling me you can get people all over the country to dress up like pork.”
“Like pigs,” he corrects me. “Snout, ears and tails, to be exact. Maybe even hooves. Shouldn’t be too hard to design shoes that resemble those.”
I give him a hard stare, still finding it hard to believe, and point my…
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Nyx by Jason Pedersen
In Legends of Windemere, people are introduced to one who we could consider the female lead. Nyx debuts in the second book (Prodigy of Rainbow Tower) for a few reasons. One is that she is a caster (Windemere term for wizard), so she wouldn’t be found in a warrior academy where the first book took place. Also, this allowed me to have Luke Callindor and Nyx debut without overshadowing each other. He is already established and now I can have her enter the adventure. Little did I realize, Nyx would be a bigger catalyst than any of the other heroes.
Nyx talks to Luke about being raised to fight an approaching evil and he promises to help her in her destiny. This officially puts him on the overarching story line path and she tends to be the one who connects the other heroes as well. She is childhood friends with Sari, a love interest for Delvin, partnered with Timoran, and the first to work closely with Dariana. If Luke Callindor is the courage of the champions then Nyx is the core because everyone connects to her. She also stands out as being the only one who has been aware of her destiny and trained from a young age to fight Baron Kernaghan. Even Dariana, who has lived for centuries, had a long time before she discovered her true calling. This awareness has been the driving force for Nyx, which opened her up to a story that is fairly unique among the champions.
You can see that all of the heroes have plans for after the final battle, except for Nyx who was raised to only think about that moment. Part of her evolution is discovering the possibility that she will live and needs some kind of future. Her initial fear of letting people get close, except for Luke and Sari acting like siblings, is most evident in how she reacts to Delvin’s comments. He compliments her in an attempt to be charming since he really likes her, but she responds either with mild violence, silence, or any number of resistant actions. Yet, it’s made clear that it isn’t that she isn’t interested, but that she doesn’t know what to do. Her own feelings are alien and uncomfortable since they don’t connect to her destiny. This is where she matures from the short-fused caster to a more mild tempered maternal figure. Not only with Delvin too, which you can see by how she refers to the other champions:
For those that don’t know her origin, Nyx’s hometown was burned to the ground by demons when she was a small child. Her father had already been killed before she was born and her mother died in the fire. So, she was raised by Cyril and Willow, who are two of the most powerful casters in Windemere. While they acted as her parents, they had more of a teacher role in her mind. She considers them family, but there is a block in her mind that makes her yearn for a lot of connections. This goes against her instinct to keep people at a distance because her ‘inevitable’ (in her mind) death would make them sad. Yet, she creates a surrogate family from the champions and many of the friends that they make along the way. Kira Grasdon, Fizzle, Aedyn Karwyn, Fritz Warrenberg, and the rest of the supporting cast fall into her non-blood related family tree. So, Nyx’s growth is more a social one than a physical one.
I mentioned last week that Luke Callindor has a champion core of courage. Nyx is defiance/willpower/determination because she is a character who does not give up. Many times, she will be beaten into the ground and she gets up for more as long as she isn’t unconscious. Her allies attain a similar level of determination when they are with her and she takes strength from their presence. This makes her the most powerful of the champions too. Being a channeler is a big boost in itself since it means she can absorb magic and cast any spell that she can imagine. Once you add a lot of stamina and willpower, she can edge out the immortal Dariana. Although, it could be a tie there because Nyx doesn’t have a clear answer for psychic powers.
To be honest, Nyx is a difficult character to write about. Long ago, I played Luke Callindor in my first college Dungeons & Dragons game. A girl joined in the second semester to play her first game ever and created Nyx. She would charge into battle without a second thought and promptly get knocked out. Her spells were never at the same level as those in the book, so there is a world of difference between the two versions. That makes it a little easier, but the girl is still my ex-wife and the game is still where we met. Yeah, not the greatest thing to mention on this post, but this is a look behind the curtain. I can still write Nyx, but there are difficult memories attached to her. One of the reasons I can use her without much of a problem is because she never became an item with Luke Callindor, so art didn’t come close to mimicking life. Let this be a lesson to other authors. Be careful who you use for inspiration and try to find some separation between fiction and reality in case things go askew.
It’s another Monday in October, so I’m going to present two more characters from War of Nytefall to answer questions in the comments. Hopefully, this gets a lot of responses and we have some fun. To check out the books in this series, here are the links:
Today, it’s Mab for the third time joining us and Jewelz the Vampire Queen. Since Mab was part of the first interview, I’m not going to post her bio again. To get a refresher on Mab, check out her interview alongside Clyde.
This is going to be tough because a lot about Jewelz is a big part of War of Nytefall: Rivalry. She is an ancient enemy of Mab and has been in hiding to become the mysterious Vampire Queen. Her goal is to claim the strongest Dawn Fang as her king and she is already betting on it being Clyde. The fact that he is connected to the woman she blames for destroying her life is a bonus. A lot of the animosity stems from Mab being adopted by their maker and teacher, Rellan Everald. They were friends while apprentices until Mab began surpassing the older Jewelz. Everything fell apart after their final test and they became enemies. At one point, Jewelz turned Mab’s brother, Titus, into a vampire to use as a weapon, but he didn’t obey. He ended up throwing her into a volcano, which everyone thought was the end of her. She survived with the help of Dean Pendrac, a scholarly vampire noble, and waited for another chance to go up against her hated enemy once more.
In terms of power, Jewelz can be considered an equal of Clyde. She can coat her claws in acid and mesmerize others with a touch or eye contact. Her greatest power is the ability to manipulate gemstones for various effects and craft her own from the surrounding elements. This makes her very deadly and more versatile than Mab with her claws and shadow jumping ability. Yet, Jewelz loses in terms of aggression, so this will be an ugly, nasty fight when it occurs within the pages of War of Nytefall: Rivalry.
Let’s get the awkward finale to these interviews underway!
First of all, I always post this music video leading up to Halloween:
I was thinking of adding more to this post, but I’ve done a bunch in the past and can’t think of any fresh Halloween songs. Feel free to suggest any and I’ll add them in throughout the day.
Mostly here, I wanted to say that I was thinking about my old costumes. My son asked what he had been over the years and I remembered most of them. There’s one . . .Olaf! That’s the one I forgot when he asked me 4 days ago. Okay, we’re good. At least, I have a better shot of remembering his than mine. All I can get is (in no specific order):
Johnny 5
That’s really it. I think I’m missing 6-7 costumes. Keep thinking I was a dinosaur or an animal at some point. Most of my costumes were homemade because I would pick some odd things. Surprised that I wasn’t a superhero more than twice. Maybe I was a cowboy at one point because I did have a cap gun and tin star at one time?
Anyway, what costumes can you remember from your childhood?
