Gregorio Roman: The Half-Blind Hermit

Posted on February 15, 2018 by Charles Yallowitz

Nosferatu

Gregorio Roman gets that picture because he’s the oldest of the characters and kind of shows his age.  He’s a gnome who has stayed in his lair doing experiments to the point where his eyes have trouble with candlelight.  There are tinted goggles that he uses, but even those give him a problem.  As you can guess, he isn’t one of the action characters since he isn’t strong, appears frail, and has no interest in getting his hands dirty.  In fact, he’s only one of two characters from the main cast who were never a tabletop RPG character.  So, where did he come from?

All of my close friends at the time of the initial creation ended up having a character that they either played or was based on them.  Well, everyone except one friend.  He did have a character for one or two games, but it was a combat, muscle character that didn’t have anything else.  I already had a few of those and this is a guy who, whether he realizes it or not, can be a rather versatile template.  That still didn’t make it easy since I kept changing the character around until the following incidents combined:

  1. I was designing the gnomes in more detail and this friend kept making jokes about them destroying things.  He began sending me messages about summoning his gnome army to rule the world.  This first led to me making him the inspiration for Voran the Gnome God, which made him ‘worse’.  A few weeks later, I came back to War of Nytefall and made Gregorio Roman a gnomish inventor.
  2. We were both into DBZ for a while and one of the jokes was that one of us would grow up to be Master Roshi.  He’s an old man that is fairly strong, teaches Goku and Krillin when they’re kids, and is rather lecherous.  It’s a common thing in anime/manga, but Master Roshi was the first one of these characters we ran into.  He also introduced us to the nosebleed reaction when a character is aroused.  Gregorio isn’t nearly as bad as Roshi, but he does ask the female characters for a lot of hugs.  It’s as far as I wanted to go with the ‘dirty old man’ template.

    Master Roshi

  3. Our interest in discussing philosophy and life in general had created a lot of email chains.  I liked the idea of this ancient vampire being wise without the arrogance that you normally see.  Gregorio developed this sense of having seen the world and becoming a little bored with it.  History hasn’t surprised him for so long that he left everything behind.  This led to an occasional lack of social graces too.
  4. This one is hard to explain because it either came from Futurama or Jewish grandparents.  My friend and I love the show, but he’s not Jewish, so it’s probably the first one.  Gregorio does this weird guilt trip and sarcasm thing at times even in the test scenes.  It’s fairly amusing, especially when he does it to Clyde or Mab because neither of them take it well.  Then again, he doesn’t really do it with any of the others yet.  He’s polite with the noble characters and the others have this fear about going to his lair because of the stories.  Most of those were spread by Clyde in order to give the old gnome his privacy.

Unlike the previous entries, I have no funny story with Gregorio because he was never in a game.  The only tidbit I left out is what he means to the other characters.  I’m going to let people have fun and guess, but I’ll put the answer in a future profile since he has a connection to another character.

Posted in Character Origins, War of Nytefall | Tagged , , , , , , , | 24 Comments

7 Tips to Being Dramatic . . . In Fiction

Posted on February 14, 2018 by Charles Yallowitz

Yahoo Image Search

Adding drama into your writing can be tough and many are leery about adding this due it skewing toward the negative.  Yet, it’s fairly unavoidable if you sit down and consider what can be born from it.  We may even add it without realizing what we’re doing.  There are days I think we all have different views and definitions of drama.  Some people consider it a genre while others call it a literary tool.  So, are there any tips that can cross every genre and be seen as universal?

  1. Drama tends to be seen as highly emotional, which means it can be the cornerstone of conflict.  When a person or character goes through change, they have emotions that guide them just as much as thoughts.  This is part of their growth, so we have to consider this in our writing.  Without this type of drama, the characters become stagnant and never change.  There might not even be a story at all because every event has at least a touch of drama.
  2. It doesn’t always have to be negative.  A definition of drama is ‘an exciting and emotional series of events’.  That doesn’t mean it’s always bad.  Sure, there can be some downturns, but the characters can remain optimistic or happy.  We tend to relate drama to characters being put through some type of trauma or being pushed to the brink of sanity.  Yet, it really doesn’t have to be that way if you stick to the mentioned definition.
  3. You can still have humor when working with drama.  There is a type of person who will crack jokes in the face of stress and despair.  Others will do it when they’re happy.  My point is that you can still have at least a basic level of comedy when drama is taking the spotlight.  It’s risky though.  You’ll have readers that don’t like this, but everybody has their own take on when the right time for humor is.
  4. Male characters are allowed to cry too.  Doesn’t matter if people see it as a sign of weakness.  Crying is a natural response to physical and mental pain.  The character’s equipment doesn’t change this, especially if he’s struck in the equipment.  That could be either a dramatic or comedic event.
  5. Drama doesn’t have to be the main plot point of a story.  Sometimes, it works best as a subplot to give a specific character a stronger foundation.  This is especially true for genres like fantasy, science fiction, and horror.  Their focus can be more on the adventures in that world, which isn’t always drama.  So, while the characters proceed along their path, these smaller, personal stories can help them evolve.  It doesn’t even have to be for the main story, but to pose them as multi-dimensional characters.  After all, those of us in the real world deal with our main job and personal dramas all the time.
  6. There should be a payoff for drama since it can be very taxing on the author, characters, and readers.  Going through an unexpected and emotional event with no closure can feel like a waste of time.  You don’t have to have a clear idea of the finale of the drama when you start, but it needs to be there.  This also has to make sense within the context of the story.  Twists are fun and can earn praise, but they can backfire if there’s no foundation to make them plausible.
  7. Never be ashamed of including drama within your story.  These things happen in real life, so why should fiction be any different?
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Promoting a New Series in the Same World

Posted on February 13, 2018 by Charles Yallowitz

World of Ranger’s Apprentice

Back in 2013, I began blogging to promote Legends of Windemere and the ideas for blog posts came flowing.  The monsters, characters, magic system, kingdoms, lore, and everything had yet to see the light of day.  I introduced people to Windemere before they stepped into the books.  Not only that, but I revealed the inspirations and behind-the-scenes for the whole thing.  Talking about world-building is an easy topic to use for blogging because it’s so difficult and immense that there are so many nuances.  After 5 years, I touched on a lot.

And that’s part of the problem.

War of Nytefall takes place in Windemere.  It’s a couple hundreds years before Luke Callindor set out to become a hero, but the magic, monsters, and lore are pretty much the same.  Since the story has a big focus on the evolution of Dawn Fang society, I can’t post much about that.  There are only so many vampire topics you can do too.  This leaves me struggling to find a way to bring attention to this series and get people talking.  The world is old, but the series is new. That’s a conflict that I’m having trouble getting over.  It resulted in my first topic list being more comedy than serious posts.  This might get easier after the book is out and I have less to hide.  Still, I’m finding myself struggling.

So, I’m going to open the floor to see what people think.  How do you promote a new series in a world that has already had its core discussed at length for previous promotions?  Is there anything people want to know about War of Nytefall?  This is probably going to get harder and harder as I progress to series that take place after Legends of Windemere.

Posted in Legends of Windemere, War of Nytefall | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 38 Comments

Drama, Drama, Everywhere!

Posted on February 12, 2018 by Charles Yallowitz

Yahoo Image Search

Maybe it’s because drama has a slightly different meaning these days, but I find it a difficult subject to discuss.  Randomly ask a friend what they think of drama with no context and they’ll talk about the real life stuff.  You know, the stress and headaches of being a living being that interacts with other living beings.  There are days I wonder if the majority of people have no recollection that drama can also be a genre or at least part of a story.  It’s a fairly broad category too since it could be considered more tool than stand alone genre.  We tend to have it be second such as historical drama, cop drama, romantic drama, science fiction drama, comedic drama, etc.  Makes it pretty hard to talk about since it’s so widespread.

Personally, I think drama is one of the best ways to evolve a character.  These are your conflicts that range from personal to global because there are things at stake.  People aren’t involved in drama when they are living a quiet life and that goes for the literary tool as well.  So,  you need it to push a story forward and get your characters to change.  Most times this relates to relationships, which is that different from real life.  The people we interact with cause us to change either through getting along or opposition forcing us to reevaluate our own views.  This should be the same for our characters if we want them to be more relatable.  I’ll go more into this on Wednesday with a 7 Tips post.

So, what do people think of drama in fiction?  Is it possible to avoid it or is this the crux of conflict?

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Off the Beaten Path & How to Get There

Posted on February 12, 2018 by Charles Yallowitz

Great post about ‘off the beaten path’ marketing.

P. H. Solomon's avatarStory Empire

“Off the beaten path” is an interesting turn of phrase. It implies traveling in ways that are uncommon or discovery of little-known places of interest. Being off the main path can offer a variety of benefits. I love going to a local state park where I can take the less used trail with the dogs, especially on cooler days when there’s definitely fewer people at the park. It’s like being off the beaten path.

Out there, you may find both wonders and the least expected. Where will your journey take you? Can you make it both enjoyable and informative – for yourself and others?

When it comes to marketing there are some broadly traveled paths. Facebook and Twitter are constantly used and should be. Likewise, many authors use email marketing and blogging as their main reader outreach. Others use giveaways and free books. All of these are frequently used and…

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When Free Time Appears

Posted on February 11, 2018 by Charles Yallowitz

Fantasy Magneto

The work is done
And the project is filed
Editing is too soon
No time to start another
As an event begins to loom
What can a person do?

It’s been too long
And life still calls
You lose a day in thought
Guilt and shame
Will come to call
Nurtured by those who judge

Chores and errands
Will be your fate
If people see you idle
No sleeping in
Or watching shows
Without running yourself ragged

You end the week more tired
Stress higher than before
Free time became a curse
Because you were denied
By self and others
To truly enjoy your time

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One Step Forward, One Shove Back, Two Stumbles to the Side

Posted on February 10, 2018 by Charles Yallowitz

Okay, I’m a little worn down here because my son’s martial arts class needed a third adult for the sword-fighting fun.  It was only 5 minutes, but I wasn’t ready.  Those kids are fast and relentless.  Not to mention short.  For a guy who did fencing as the little guy, my instincts are more aiming high.  Low was an experience.  Lots of unexpected fun, but I wanna lie down now . . . I can’t because laundry, some blogging, and then haircuts need to get done.

Good news is that I finished writing Quest of the Broken-Hearted, which is the summer release.  When in the summer?  Not sure because it depends on other events that are up in the air.  I’ll need to look for a cover artist for this since I tend to use someone other than the main series for my one-shots.  I don’t know.  I’ll ask Alison if she’d be interested.  This is going to be an interesting book in general for a variety of reasons.  It gives closure to a character from Legends of Windemere, which means there are series spoilers in there.  That’s unavoidable and I might put a warning the book blurb.  I haven’t figured out how to handle that one.

Also, this is a very action-oriented story where the hero has to defeat a monster in every chapter, except the first.  The trick was to keep the action high while still allowing character growth and development.  This led to some unexpected twists and on-the-spot rewrites near the end, which was exhausting.  I should have known it would happen when an earlier chapter resulted in an addition to the cast.  This might be why the final paragraph of the entire book took an hour to write.  I had altered so much that the final piece of foreshadowing/closure needed to be reconsidered.

That was the step forward, so I’ll get to the shove back.  My wife still doesn’t have a car and we’re hoping that changes this week.  It means I’m still doing all the driving and errands, which includes getting her to work and then getting the kid to school.  I haven’t been able to do my biking in weeks because I need to shower to wake myself up enough to handle the traffic.  Getting my son to school is typically us leaving at 8:30 for a 15-2o minute trip, but we’ve had to leave at 8 for a 40-50 minute trip now.  I’ve come dragging my carcass home to clear social media/email stuff and dive right into writing.  Weekends haven’t allowed me to hand responsibilities over to my wife because she can’t go anywhere unless I drive.  Even if I drop her off, I can’t get too far into things in case I need to get her.  With my son, you never know when you might have to do an immediate exit.

Because of this and my son having his Winter Break the following week, I’m not sure what to do this week.  I was considering another editing run of War of Nytefall: Loyalty, but I found that I’m comfortable with the story and my wife is doing a second read through to check continuity for the reader.  Jumping into it and changing things around might undo what she’s doing.  I considered editing Derailing Bedlam, but that’s a 2019 release if I can even make it that far.  People might suggest lounging around because I’ve been working so hard.  I considered that, but then remembered that I’m made to suffer if I appear idle.  This week might be Ichabod Brooks outlines and preparing more future posts to clear the way for writing War of Nytefall: Lost.  Since I won’t have the summer to do big writing projects, I need to bust my butt.  I will go over the outline for that book and I’m already seeing a problem with the Prologue.   At least, I think it is.  The issue is more that it doesn’t have any of the main characters, so it feels like it will be brief.  Just sets up the new threat that Clyde will face.

Speaking of blog posts, I’m trying to come up with topics for April and May.  March is Hype for War of Nytefall and that will carry over into April.  Possibly even May, but I’ve run into an issue.  I’ll go more into detail on Tuesday, but it’s become very difficult to think of topics.  Part of the issue is that vampires have been done and I’m working with my own species, so some topics won’t work.  Hold a cross in front of Clyde and he’ll think you’re offering it to him as a gift.  Coffins aren’t a thing and the list goes on.  So, I’m trying to focus on flushing out the Dawn Fang’s world.  Yet, it could result in spoilers and they’re still in Windemere.  The overall world was explored and blogged about during the Legends of Windemere years.  This means I’m not sure what to do here and I might be looking for topic ideas on Tuesday after thinking more about this.  Feel free to pose any questions that could be turned into posts here if you have anything.  Follower feedback is always important.

So, what are the week’s goals?

  1. Get my wife’s car back.
  2. Return to biking 15 minutes every morning.
  3. Pizza reward finally.
  4. Ignore criticism for indulging in pizza reward.
  5. Watch Fullmetal Alcheimst: Brotherhood.
  6. The Longbow of Ichabod Brooks outlines.
  7. Revamp outline for War of Nytefall: Lost
  8. April posts if nothing else to do.
  9. Try to get a little extra sleep.
Posted in Goal Posts | Tagged , , , , , | 25 Comments

Let’s Talk About Romance – Guest Post by, Jaq D Hawkins…

Posted on February 9, 2018 by Charles Yallowitz

Chris The Story Reading Ape's avatarChris The Story Reading Ape's Blog

It’s February and with Valentine’s Day giving the month a romantic flavour, it’s a good time to talk about romance in fiction.

I’m not a Romance reader, but shhh! That wasn’t always so. As a teenager, I used to enjoy a good Romance story and if I’m honest with myself, I still do. Far be it from me to insult a genre or a reader who enjoys it!

The thing is, for me to call a Romance story a good Romance story, it has to satisfy the criteria for a good story. I don’t make allowances for genre. And quite honestly, Romance stories that focus exclusively on the romance aspects of the story don’t often qualify for the standards I set for any genre.

We’ve all heard of the imprints that churn out simplistic stories to feed a hungry readership for a quick emotional romantic fix. Let’s call them H…

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Elemental Uses: Earth Can Be Fun

Posted on February 9, 2018 by Charles Yallowitz

Jura from Fairy Tail

The last of this element series is one that doesn’t get as much attention as the others because it has a lot of limitations.  Earth isn’t an element that can be rationalized very easily if it comes from the human body.  Water and wind can be considered components of the wielder and fire is associated with emotions or body heat.  Earth requires using what is around a person, so it’s almost entirely manipulation of pre-existing materials.  That means an earth user will have areas that prevents them from operating such as the open ocean, the sky, and things composed entirely of ice.  So, I’m going to start by showing a way that these weaknesses can be countered.

Bags of Dirt

Seriously, this is something that such a person would consider.  If the bag is enchanted to hold an incredible amount then that’s even better.  You can also have multiple bags with different minerals like dirt, iron shavings, and gemstones.  Only a few works let metal and jewels fall under this category.  Even then, they’re typically extensions or powerful variations that are only known by a few.  Yet, these don’t fall under any of the other element categories.  There isn’t even a crossing over like magma/lava being both fire and earth.  Anyway, someone who specializes in this could very well bring their medium along to avoid getting caught defenseless.  One could also refuse to bathe and use the dirt from their body, but that’s fairly gross.

Offense and Defense

This element lends itself to brute force pretty easily, which is why you see the standard boulder hurling and creating pillars from the ground.  On a grander scale, a character can create earthquakes, landslides, and sinkholes.  You also have those who will create weapons and armor from the earth around them.  These can get more interesting if you allow the manipulation of metal and gems.  For example, an earth wielder can create a sword from the nearby rocks, but add a diamond edge to it.  Weight is something that can be played with too here.  If they are able to control the material then it’s possible for them to be swinging a giant sword by their power more than their physical strength.

Defenses are your typical shields and walls, but one that is rarely used is weapon and armor destruction.  These tend to be magical or physical strength abilities, but earth wielders can feasibly do these as well.  Metal armor or at least the metal clips can be sundered with a blow.  Swords and spearheads can be shattered as well as the tips of incoming arrows.  This can range from breaking to turning the item into dust, which makes this character even more dangerous.  They become a threat to one’s gear as well as one’s life.  Not easy to get a new suit of armor or weapon in the middle of a fight.

Transportation

Like wind wielders with flight and water wielders with waves, those who manipulate earth can move people around.  It could be as simple as having a chunk of the ground lift and float along, but they can also be more subtle.  Maybe create beasts of earth that carry the group or, in a modern setting, control a car by manipulating the metal parts.  This does make it sound like magnetism falls under this element, which is entirely possible and up to the author.

Daily Life

The list of jobs that this power could help with is pretty long.  Construction is probably the easiest choice since you can make buildings without help.  Of course, this requires training and research to make a stable structure.  Betting we’d love a crew of earth wielders to fix bridges and eliminate pot holes too.  Aside from that, I can see some uses in any job that requires metal tools.  This can range from staplers to kitchen knives.  Other uses can be with jewelry and pottery.

Outside of a career, this power can be used to help with yard work, gardening, and home repairs.  Imagine being able to create or alter a stone patio whenever you desire.  You can keep it looking like new by using your power to protect it from the weather as well.  There’s also a sensory aspect that we’ll get into.

Vibrations and Weak Points

By being in tune the element, an earth wielder gets a similar ability to the wind and water ones.  As long as something is touching the ground, one can pinpoint their direction, speed, and possibly even the weight.  They could get a better picture if you say that the steps create a bridge of vibrations that allow one to pick up a heartbeat and movement of the bones.  This would require a lot of concentration and practice.  In the same vein, one would be able to find the weak points in structures.  This can be done to destroy a building or make repairs.

So, a lot of the earth advice revolves around including more than dirt, mud, and generic stones.  If you include metal and jewels then the versatility of this element grows ten fold.

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The 2018 Interview Series Featuring Elle Boca

Posted on February 9, 2018 by Charles Yallowitz

This gallery contains 5 photos.

Don Massenzio Welcome to the 2018 author interview series. Author interviews will be posted every Friday throughout the year. I am honored to continue this series with fellow Florida author Elle Boca. For those of you that have read my … Continue reading →

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