Smorgasbord Saturday Meet and Greet – Bloggers Watering Hole.

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David’s Demon Design Department Store

FMA- Human Transmutation

Welcome and try not to breathe in too much of the sulfur.  We’re in the middle of a clearance sale, so the summonings are coming fast and a little sloppy.  Oh, step around that puddle, which I assure you was a satisfied customer until they slapped their purchase on the rear.  Succubi like being in control and they can get nasty if they think you’re insulting them.  This is why we had you sign the form at the door and wait until all of the scans were done.  Don’t want some pompous priest coming in here to ruin business for a day because they assume demons are always evil.  Ill-tempered and prone to violence in many cases, but evil is rather extreme.  Most of them only do what their masters tell them, which tends to be a lot of housecleaning and cooking these days.  So, what are you looking for?

Ah, this is the best day to ask for a personalized job.  We have spawn pits on the other side that help us design an unlimited amount of creatures.  Any aspects that haven’t been seen before can be created by our Demon Lords.  No, we don’t get our products from Hell because the tariffs on that place are insane.  This is some alternate source called the Chaos Void, which we’re allowed to use for a smaller fee.  Now, are you looking for battle, assassination, spying, romance, or simply to scare people?  All five does make it harder to narrow things down, but let’s go over body types.  We have lean, muscular, scrawny, bony, hairy, naked, skinless, short, fat, tall, and the list would keep going if something hadn’t eaten part of it yesterday.  Towering male with dark purple skin and a collapsible rib cage is rather specific, but I’ll put it on the form.  Yes, you can change to female or alter the color at any point.

Let’s get to the physical additions since clothing and weapons won’t be important until the demon is born.  Please consider your home because they don’t like to be cramped and will destroy your neighbors for space.  Then again, that isn’t a problem if you don’t get along with them, but that’s just my opinion.  We have plenty of wings of various sizes and there’s a sale on them.  Buy a pair of leather wings and get another free.  Have leather wings that can transform into red-feathered ones under a full moon?  That’s doable, but it will take an extra day since our enchanter is out with a sprained pinky finger.  We have a wide variety of horns and spikes too.  Good choice with the chest ones that come out when the demon compresses its body.  My wife calls that the Blowfish Special.  Anything around the head and face?  I assure you that female demons can have large horns as well, but you can wait on that as well.

Where do you stand on claws?  I only ask because we don’t recommend them if you plan on physically interacting with your demon or have pets.  Surprisingly, they enjoy petting animals and don’t realize razor sharp talons can make it messy.  Retractable is an option, but you will have to train him or her to be friendly with your dog.  Sorry, we don’t have the services to transform your mastiff into a hellhound, but I can give you my mother’s card since she knows a guy.  That’s our tail wall, which really should be switched out because the samples are starting to smell.  Either that or we still haven’t found all of the bodies from last week’s accident.  A bony tail is entirely possible.  All you have to do is being one here and we’ll strip off the fleshy parts.  Reptile tends to be the most flexible, but monkey is our top seller.

Now we come to special abilities and powers, which is where things can get a little pricey and dicey.  There is a small catalog of stomach maws that range from close range to inhalers, which are the ones that act like a black hole.  I would need you to sign another waiver if you pick one of those because deaths happen at times.  Ah, that one isn’t too bad with an extendable jaw like a goblin shark.  Regeneration can be done, but you would need to pick something that they are weak against.  This is only to give you or us a way to put the demon down in an emergency.  Sure, we can make them weak against toothpicks, but you better not bring your creature to anything with hors d’oeuvres.  Magic tends to be more focused here, so pick an element.  Sadly, we’re out of fire, which shouldn’t surprise anybody who gets here near closing.  Control over ink . . . that will take some doing since it might require interbreeding water demons with squid-like ones.

That should cover it and I ask that you not tell us what you’re planning.  We prefer to remain in the dark here.  Yes, I know there aren’t many lights here, but that’s because I didn’t pay the electric bill.  I gave it to an assistant and they had a mishap.  Nothing lethal, but they may be trapped within the Plane of Shadows and I refuse to write another check.  Last thing I want is to pay the bill and then he pops up again to finish his task.  Guess I could send a demon to get him back.  Just for that, I’ll throw in a Succubi charm ability for free.  Fine, an Incubi if you now want a guy.  Don’t be so wishy-washy, buddy.

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Meet Guest Author, Lisa Reynolds…

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

Born in 1990 in the smallest county in Ireland, Louth, I was a surprise baby coming almost 21 years after my only sibling, my sister Sharon. But I was always very much loved despite the surprise. And in return I love my parents and sister very much. A lot of people say siblings with a big age difference can’t be close but me and my sister are incredibly close. As a family, me, mum, dad and Shar lived in a small town in Meath called Oldcastle with our dog who was like part of the family Cookie. In 2008, we lost my father after he died suddenly from heart trouble. It was a really terrible time. He was the kindest man you could meet: encouraging to me and my sister, a wonderful caring husband to my mum and someone who also told me and my sister that nothing or no…

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Smorgasbord Invitation blog Magazine – Guest Post – Legends of Windemere – Warlord of the Forgotten Age by Charles E. Yallotwitz

Thanks for the promo post and letting me be a guest. Hope you’re having a happy new year.

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A Hodgepodge Post

Trigun

I had no real idea for this post since so much is going through my head.  Waiting to hear back from someone about cover art, promoting Warlord of the Forgotten Age, and thinking about the future of this blog.  I’ll just go down the list.

  1. The name will remain the same, but maybe I need a new header since I’ve added more series to my catalog.  Not sure what to do, how to make one, or what is should look like.  To be fair, ‘Legends of Windemere’ still works since most of my stories will take place in Windemere.  The champions, the Dawn Fangs, Ichabod Brooks, and all future stories will be legends in some fashion.  Yet, I do wonder if I at least need a header that looks different after all these years.
  2. Going over my outlines, I’ve realized that most of the War of Nytefall books are 17 chapters.  Loyalty is 18 and two more are 16, but that means 6 are all the same chapter amounts.  Not sure what this means, but it’s odd.
  3. I’m trying to figure out when I should start doing War of Nytefall teasers.  I was thinking of one more Warlord of the Forgotten Age teaser next week and then stop them until February.  This means I’ll have at least 3 Tuesdays with nothing to post.  I’ll either do reblogs, spontaneous stuff, or guest posts if anybody is looking for a January promo spot.
  4. Thursdays are in the same situation as Tuesdays for January.  I was thinking of starting a weekly profile for the Loyalty characters in February, which will last for a bit.  There are 13 main characters that I need to introduce in both the book and the blog.  All of them with their own curious origins.
  5. Quest of the Broken Hearted is getting a little outline fix to hide a few of the Legends of Windemere spoilers.  It’s a summer release, which is plenty of time after the finale, but best to be safe.  Sadly, I don’t even know if I can test the titles, but I’m hoping to get it settled enough to eventually do a ‘how does this sound’ post.  It’s the next project after I edit Loyalty, so I can’t dawdle too much.

That’s really it to help clear my head.  Feels like there are too many thoughts rattling around in there lately.  Be nice to get the cover artist and editing done by the end of next week.  Especially since I still owe myself a pizza reward.

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Tips to Writing a Long Series by Charles Yallowitz #IAN1 #IARTG #fantasy

Rebecca Tran's avatarR. Tran Books

Warlord of the Forgotten Age 2Thank you to R. Tran for hosting this guest post and helping me promote my latest release, Legends of Windemere: Warlord of the Forgotten Age.  This is the final book of my fantasy adventure series, which has spanned 15 volumes.  That’s a long adventure, so you can imagine all the twists and turns.  At least there better be some because you can’t go straight as the griffin flies in something this massive.  So, here are a few tips that I hope will help anyone else who is going to tackle such a project.

  1. I can’t say this one enough because it’s saved my continuity bacon plenty of times in the past. NOTES!  Whether it be notes prior to writing or jotting them down after you finish a chapter, you need to know where you’ve been when it comes to a long series.  This covers character description, relations, monsters, sequence…

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“Secret Writing Rules” and Why to Ignore Them…

Just the title alone makes me want to share.

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

by Anne R. Allen

Somerset Maugham famously said, “There are three rules for writing. Unfortunately, nobody knows what they are.”

But pretty much everybody you meet in the publishing business will give you a list of them. (One is “never start a sentence with ‘there are’” —so watch yourself, Mr. Maugham.)

Some of the rules show up in any standard writing book or class, but others only seem to get circulated in critique groups, conference workshops, and forums.

They’re a secret to everybody else.

But you’ll run into them sooner or later. In a forum or workshop, somebody will tell you with schoolmarmish assurance that you MUST follow these secret writing rules to be a successful novelist.

Nobody knows exactly where these rules come from, or why so many great books have become classics without following a single one.

Don’t get me wrong: many “secret writing rules” involve useful tips…

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7 Tips to Ruins: Vines, Sand, Snakes, & More Vines

Shadow of the Colossus

You can’t have a fantasy world without some ruins, but there’s always the question of how to create them.  Okay, so many authors might come off as simply cobbling together a bunch of broken buildings and wastelands.  Yet, there’s much more technique and substance to these areas.  They aren’t solely for adventurers to wander around, get into fights, and discover treasure.  So, what are some tips to consider?

  1. Don’t forget to have your adventurers wander around these cobbled together broken buildings that are probably in the middle of a wasteland.  They will probably get into fights and find some treasure that’s been lost to the ages.  What?  Oh, I guess this does contradict everything I said before.  Well . . . moving on!
  2. Ruins should show their age since they are typically not maintained.  There are those that the locals preserve and continue to use for either tourism or traditional rites.  Even so, the passage of time should always be considered.  It’s hard to believe that you’re standing in ruins if the building are perfectly intact, the roads are clear, and the fountains still work.  I mean, these are possible if there’s a spell involved, but you have to make that clear.  Otherwise, people will wonder if these are real ruins or fakes designed to bring adventurers to the local shops.
  3. Mechanical and magical traps are important, but not always necessary.  If the ruins were designed to store treasure then having these things makes sense.  The long dead citizens wanted to keep people out.  Yet, you have to consider if these things are able to reset themselves too.  If you have 20 traps that can only work once then adventurer #21 is going to reach the end without a problem.  Also, if the ruins are an abandoned town then there might not be any traps.  People lived and worked there, so the chances of them having explosive ruins on the door to the local tavern isn’t very high.  Then again, they could have been wiped out by a war against prohibition.
  4. If your ruins are supposed to be from a long lost civilization that nobody knows about then you should put them out of the way.  Having the ancient ruins next to Max’s House of Cigars and Smoked Vegetarian Veal can reduce some of the mystery.  Especially if Max keeps having customers because that means plenty of people have had the opportunity to explore.  Once the characters can find a source to reveal the history of the ruins to even a slight extent, the readers will be prepared for certain situations.  People driven out by a mysterious force?  Probably a monster or curse waiting there.  A war over an ancient item wiped out the populace?  Guess what’s probably sitting inside.  Now, you can always do this to help build the world history up, but understand that the trade off is creating some pre-existing expectations.
  5. Ruins should be designed to fit their surroundings or have clear signs that they existed before the landscape changed.  A castle covered in jungle vines, but surrounded by desert doesn’t make much sense.  You would have to reveal that there was a jungle, but an event happened to turn it into a desert.  Same thing goes with having ice in the middle of a hot region, sand where there’s no sand around, and animals that shouldn’t exist in the environment.  The explanation of ‘a fantasy world is strange’ can only work for so long.
  6. Try to name your ruins.  If you keep calling every site ‘The Ruins’ then travelers will keep getting lost.  Imagine being told to go to ‘The Street’ to meet your friends.  You might know where they are due to a history, but it doesn’t work if everything is called ‘The Street’.
  7. Try to have fun with the whole thing since ruins have been a part of fantasy writing since the beginning.  Many people see the concept as an unnecessary trope in general, so go with your instincts.  It doesn’t hurt to use what’s been done as a foundation and give tweaks to make it work for your world.  For example, passing through the ruins could take a week even though the adventurers only think a day has gone by.  Maybe there’s a guardian that doesn’t like it’s job and phones it in.  The mighty treasure might be one gold coin, which isn’t much these days due to inflation.  Let your imagination run wild.
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Coming soon!

Kevin Brennan's avatarWHAT THE HELL

The Disappointed Housewife is approaching!

I’ve received a number of fun pieces the last few weeks, and though I’m still keeping the pre-launch submission window open, the big day will be January 15. Mark your calendars.

I hope all my readers here at What The Hell will quickly follow the new lit mag and start spreading the word. But I’m also eager to see new submissions coming in so I can build up a nice catalog of material for readers. I’ll be posting open submission calls at a variety of places, hoping to find a lot of writers willing to try new things. Of course, I’ll always give readers of this blog a fair shot at publication because loyalty deserves reward. If you have something you think would fit in at TDH, send it on over. Or read the pieces that I’ve already assembled to get a feel for…

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Warlord of the Forgotten Age

Thanks for helping me with the promotion.

coldhandboyack's avatarEntertaining Stories

Charles Yallowitz is a good friend of mine. He has appeared on my blog many times, and me on his. If you are the kind who read comments, you’ll find us getting into some fairly deep topics on one site or the other. Charles has what I see as a major accomplishment. He’s completed the final volume of his Legends of Windemere series. As a writer of stand-alone books I am in awe. This series is epic fantasy, and epic in proportion at fifteen volumes.

Many months ago, we got into a discussion about writing characters of the opposite gender. This isn’t something that comes easy to every writer. Our discussion morphed into the following post, and it’s part of his blast to announce Warlord of the Forgotten Age to the world. Read the post, join in the discussion, and get your copy of the book. I’ll also note that…

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