As usual, here is your warning that this story has cursing, sex (not graphic), innuendo, and violence. It’s my Rated-R action adventure called Derailing Bedlam. This is the fourth outing (third official) for Cassidy and Lloyd, so feel free to click on one of the two covers to see how it started. Each one is 99 cents!
Cover by Jon Hunsinger
Cover Art by Jon Hunsinger
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“Excuse me, Dad, but isn’t one of your books on special beginning today?
“Yes, The Contract Kindle version is on sale today through the 15th.”
“UH HELLO. Don’t you think you ought to tell someone about it?”
“Geez, Twiggy. I’ll get to it.”
“You’ll get to it? When? It’s only three days. After the sale is done?”
“No. I have some tweets out there.”
“Tweets? How about you let your readers know about it here?”
“Always a good idea. Okay here is the link to Amazon. How about we go outside now.”
“Well, did you get through? After all dog food isn’t getting cheaper.”
“Hard to tell Bailey. He is such a nerd when it comes to promotion.”
“You got to him, Twiggy. Look he even put a cover, blurb, and the awards down there. Way to go Boss.”
Click cover for Amazon
The earth is under the…
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Hey there, all you sleight of hand experts, pickpockets, and Artful Dodgers of every kind. You’ve landed on Lisa Burton Radio, the only show that brings you interviews with the characters you love. I’m your host, Lisa the robot girl, and my special guest today is Bill Hope.”Welcome to the show, Bill.”
“How do, Miss Lisa. Glad to be here.”
“My bio says you’ve lived a pretty colorful life. There is a certain romance to being a thief. What is your preferred method of operation?”
“I work the streets and any place where the moneyed gents gather – theater lobbies, shops, horsecars, crowds watching parades and arguments and fights. The easiest hits are country bumpkins in wide-brimmed hats that walk around real wide-eyed staring at the crowds and sandwichmen and traffic with their coat open wide showing a shirtfront with a peach of a spark so when a mob of…
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Eleven months ago, in the midst of a cold snap that would freeze even Hell over because it was about -5 degrees here in Rhode Island, I was inking up a contract with my mess of a signature. With Hell freezing over I was signing my very first BOOK contract!
By the 18thof January 2018 was already exceeding any expectations, which wasn’t hard, since I, long ago, had given up on believing in expectations, especially when it came to writing and publishing.
My publishing story is long, sad, and at times, even funny. If I ever get it together enough to write a memoir (terrifying thought!), I would call it Failing Forward. It’s not that original or clever but, then again, titles are NOT my forte—see all of my previously (self) published novels.
I’ve detailed my story in various writing forms and across various blogs. A year ago, I tried to…
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Steiner from FF9
The life of a city guard is rife with peril, disrespect, and iffy pay. Nobody really knows how much a city guard makes, but it probably isn’t much considering how many of them need to make extra money gambling. Anyway, it can be a steady gig and you get some perks like free lodging and functional gear. What are some things to keep in mind if you choose this thankless path?
Hi, SE Readers. Joan here today. I’ve been in the editing mode of late. It never ceases to amaze me how many mistakes I find. I edit, then I send pages to my critique partners thinking I’ve got a pretty clean copy. They find other things I’ve missed. So, I edit some more.
Whether you are traditionally published or an Indie author, self-editing is an absolute must. There is no substitute for hiring a professional editor, but there are a few tips writers can do before submitting that manuscript to an editor, publisher, or even beta readers.
Look for “crutch” words
Every author tends to rely on what I call crutch words. These are different for every writer, but reading through your finished manuscript will enable you to become familiar with your own. As you review, look for repeated words or phrases. Some of my crutch words are well, perhaps…
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Legend of Zelda (I think?)
Whenever a city turns up in a fantasy story, these people will be there. Either as background, battle fodder, or momentary obstacles, the guards are around in some fashion. We tend to overlook them unless we need some unexpected corpses or government corruption is part of the plot. Not much personality among these characters either, so what purpose do they serve?
Well, it really depends on the story. Many adventures begin with the hero getting involved with the guards to some extent. Some are arrested and others are members before the story takes them away from the city. This makes the concept of the guards a rather common jumping point. It isn’t that surprising too. For heroes that come from those ranks, it explains their training and certain aspects of their personality. They can either be out for justice or think the entire system is weak after being inside it. Characters who are born from a run-in with the law gain their reputation as outliers of society. Once this happens, people aren’t surprised when they do things that more noble heroes wouldn’t think of. All because they had an early encounter with the guards.
Aside from story, another purpose of guards is that they can fill a similar role to the goons and henchmen of villains. You have a small army of trained, faceless, nameless people that can be thrown into a situation. The villain wiping out the city guards while going after the hero is such a scenario where you demonstrate his/her power. Other times, they’ll chase the heroes out of the city and force them into the next act. Throughout this type of scene, you have guards getting knocked out or killed depending on the personalities of the heroes. One thing I have noticed is that most people don’t get that concerned when nameless guards are taken out. Many times we shrug it off or find it amusing since our focus is on the plot-central character involved.
If you do boil down the purpose of the guards, you get to a basic notion. To establish that a city or region is civilized, you need to demonstrate that they have laws. The existence of guards shows that such things are being enforced even if you don’t know what they specifically are. It’s this little bit of world-building that most of us can relate to because we immediately connect guards to police. I think we bring our own thoughts on law enforcement into this as well. Not only as readers, but as authors, which makes their use rather fluid. If you think the police aren’t that great then your guards might be rather bungling. If you think they’re bullies then they’re villains or obstacles.
So, what do you think about city guards in fiction? What about the heroes who stem from that life and become adventurers? How much of their old mentality do they tend to retain in your opinion?
Figure I’d just post some funny pictures related to Hanukkah. Enjoy!
