PetoriusRex: Dark Heroic Fantasy

Feels like a Monster

2012-02-12T14:50:00.001-08:00

I am currently working on a few writing projects, a few tales of Humor and one rather dark tale for an anthology I am hoping to submit (and find acceptance within) this Spring. I have mainly been working on the latter piece, and though the word count requirement is 3000 to 5000 words, the darn thing seems to have taken on a life of its own.

The story won't stop writing itself.

In the last several months, when starting a writing project, especially one for a publication with a deadline to meet, I have been trying to get myself in a different mindset than previously. In the past, I would always sit down and start writing, then hardly get into the first several paragraphs and then I'd start to re-read it and feel the need to edit as I wrote. What problem this created was that I'd hardly get anything done as I was always proofing what I had just written OR practically proofing while I wrote. I never would JUST WRITE. I would not just LET IT FLOW.

And then, time would be eaten, deadlines would loom, and then panic would set in, then writer's block and all other forms of things to break down the writing process and story completion process.

What I am trying to do now is...JUST WRITE AND LET IT FLOW.

What I am trying to get myself to do now is simply write the story, let it all come out, and then worry about molding and whittling it down to size afterwards...if possible. So far, I have been good at cutting away the blubber and dead weight and getting a, say, 7000-word story back down to a 6000-word submission requirement...without feeling I just totally slaughtered the piece.

In my next blog I will relate the dark tale I am currently working on...and how it may become a monster (and potentially something I simply publish on my own).

Happy New Year and a Small Laundry List of Publications

2012-01-01T18:23:00.000-08:00

Happy 2012, and on with the show.

Just to re-cap 2011 (and a bit of 2010 so as to not forget) but here are a few publications you may want to pick up if you thoroughly enjoy a good action-adventure yarn or two...
(Click on the image for ordering)

BEDLAM U NL EAS HED BOOK ONE: INSTRUMENT OF EXTINCTION is available via a limited edition paperback and also in ebook format.

Pieced together from recovered scrolls of sagas and skaldic poetry, here begins the journeys of Norse mercen ary Alanis Johansson and berserker Erik Bedlam. In this first installment of Bedlam Unleashed, we open with Alanis and Erik fighting for the High Irish King, Brian Boru. They leave this battle at Clontarf with hopes of heading home, however the North Sea brings an ominous drakkar into their path, and Erik and Alanis soon find themselves in a scrimmage on this ship filled with the dead.

They land in Scotland, where they encounter dragons, druids, and treachery. Then, with a bounty of gold, they head south, where Alanis experiences a vision rank with specters from his haunted past.

BEDLAM UNLEASHED BOOK TWO: ETERNITY IS NEAR is also available...only in ebook format. This book continues to epic saga of brain-addled Viking berserker Erik Bedlam and his stalwart companion Alanis Johansson. Still in Scotland, they travel to Rannoch Moor, where they take food and drink in a small village, and learn of an ancient witch who has conjured old spirits to haunt the clan that inhabit the area. Men, women, and children are going missing, while a bagpipe-playing ghoul haunts the wilderness, and ghosts haunt the wastelands of the moors.

From here, they head for the coast of England, looking to obtain passage home. After a brief time at sea, they end up in Leftwich, outside a castle, where they are attacked by strange winged beasts, then charmed by the deadly Haley Wenda. Kendrick the Wizard also joins the men on their journey.

GW THOMAS'S DARK WORLDS MAGAZINE #5 features a plethora of great short stories, including a STUROQ OF DUNHUGEL tale entitled THE BLACK GRAVE OF DECEPTION. Searching for something to fill his thin coin purse, Sturoq is told about a ancient treasure in a dark and mysterious tomb. He runs into another rogue and they venture forth into the TOMB OF UNKNOWABLE SOULS. They find what they are looking for including an ancient beast of the depths who is keen on adding them to the long dead inhabitants of the dreary tomb.

(Note: this came out in 2010 but, really, it is such a great magazine of great authors and stories, I had to add it here.)

GW THOMAS'S DARK WORLDS MAGAZINE #6 (Summer 2011) is the next installment of this great magazine featuring all manner of great stories and authors. What is very cool is that DARK WORLDS was nominated for the 2011 Pulp Ark Award. It makes me feel quite honored to be part of this publication and I can't boast enough about its great content.

This issue also features a Herodutus Lucien Dark Fantasy tale entitled NON SUM QUALIS ERAM (I Am Not What I Once Was). Herodutus Lucien is an aging dark and hard-edged warlord who fights under the laws of the Old Code of his god Zoth-Khaoticas the Dark Bringer. War ravages the land and he is called out to command an armed force only to be tested by others of his own ilk...for what purpose? To see if he can survive in a world where a new code and order of the Dark Bringer is rising.

Thanks for your support and see you in 2012.

Blog As Official Website?

2011-08-08T10:24:00.000-07:00

After seeing what other folks (and authors in particular) have done when it comes to websites and blogs, and seeing what this particular blog site/engine (?) can do, I believe once my own website gig runs out (through Freeservers web-hosting), I am very near to leaning towards using this year blog to post announcements and pics and other doodads of my written and writing material.

Keep close tabs on this blog. :)

Why I Write Fantasy

2011-07-05T04:19:00.000-07:00

I think what appeals to me about writing (as well as reading) Sword-n-Sorcery and High Fantasy/Heroic Fantasy is the aspect of adventuring in strange lands, fighting against strange beasties and forms of potential magic-toting adversaries, crawling across rugged unchartered terrain or underground darkened corridors chock full of the unknown...with a sword and wit.

Nothing against the modern Thrillers, the military action-adventure (which I write also) or Sci-Fi, but for the most part, even though you have a lot of the elements mentioned above even in thrillers/modern action-adventure/futurtistic fantasy tales, there is something to say about the ruggedness of a character defending him/herself and his/her world and the innocent folk against the monstrosities of the of the world with only a sword and their will to survive against all odds.

If I envision it, I can much rather imagine a hoary horde coming at our protagonist, him drawing his sword, gripping it so tight his knuckles are white, facing the gibbering monsters or human thugs, waiting to become up close and personal, where strength meets strength, steel meets steel or claw, and may the best man win. Versus a guy with some form of gun...black powder or laser pistol...in the same predicament, and just squeezing the trigger....POW POW ZAP ZAP...kills a few dozen, and then has to roll into hand-to-hand and hope for the best.

Hopefully has a sword can pull out just in time.

Hear ye! Hear ye! Material out there!

2011-01-15T14:04:00.000-08:00

While I am waiting for BEDLAM UNLEASHED to find its way into publication...which will be this year via BELFIRE PRESS...I have a few items up at SMASHWORDS of interest.

Some of my early SWORD-N-SORCERY material is available. Volume One is for purchase. http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/36141
It consists of all swashbuckling, blood-n-guts, heroic fantasy. Decent short tales one can read during some downtime.

THE CHRONICLES OF BRACCUS STRAUN BOOK ONE is available also. It is published via UK publisher THE PENNY DREADFUL COMPANY and their GHOSTWRITERS PUBLICATIONS imprint.
The print "chapbook" can be found and ordered here:http://www.thepennydreadfulcompany.com/
The ebook can be found and ordered here: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/35623