First-look: Among the Shadows

Posted on June 10, 2016 by Darrick Dean

And now, a first-look excerpt from Among the Shadows:

The Righteous One unsheathed a blackened dagger that Solana swore had a subtle red glow. This wasn’t time to sit by like a distressed princess. These men had almost killed her and still intended to do so. No time like the present to stir things up a bit. Their drug had all but left her body as she drew the ripples of energy through her body to her fingertips. Dust began to spin on the floor beneath each hand, rising to them in a swirling column. Soon torrents of air tore through the doorway, forming a cyclone around her. Her hair whirled; her eyes burned green. One man tried to shoot as Solana approached them, but she sent the bullets back into his chest by blasts of air she commanded. Her opponents had never imagined such a terror as they shouted and cursed in their native tongue. They turned to run, but the vortexes of air she threw reached them first, lifting each off the ground and crushing them against the wall. Falling into a crumpled heap, they didn’t move.

Ethan attached an octagonal beacon to the wall and pressed a button on the device. A red light began to flash. He looked at the man on the floor. His breathing was labored. “A little something to hurry you on your way to the Dark One.”

The final moments of the Righteous One’s life were about to slip away. No inkling of remorse could be found in the dying man’s eyes, no longer veiled. In a final moment of clarity, he spoke carefully and slowly.

“The worst evil you can imagine is but a shadow of what lies conspiring, hidden and unseen, waiting patiently to emerge and spread its suffocating malice. I am nothing compared to what is to come.” His eyes froze, vacant and still, and the last breath left him

Darkness fled from the room.

“That was a bit disconcerting,” Solana said, with a shiver. The weight of oppression had vanished. A crossing through the veil.

Now Ethan was quiet; his gaze didn’t flinch from the vaguely outlined road. What he had done – what they had done – no doubt ran through his mind. In hers, it made her feel alive, but would it always? She could see that Ethan had been through so much more.

“Here it comes,” he said in a whisper.

Solana looked through the broken rear window of the truck. A streak of fire fell from above. An explosion reached into the sky and a rumble moved across the desert. Poetic justice it was.

No one could hide from the Light.

Among the Shadows breaks through the veil August 2016.

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Cover Re-release

Posted on June 9, 2016 by Darrick Dean

Yesterday I announced the release date of Among the Shadows. Now I’ll re-release the covers for today’s reveal:

fullcvnewwbs

These were first released quite awhile ago when I thought I was a lot closer to finishing book one than I really was. Well time flies and now the time has come…Update (7/11/16): In prep for final publication, we made a couple tweaks to cover including shorter backcover text, revised spine and some adjustments to front.

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New Press and AtS Release Date!

Posted on June 8, 2016 by Darrick Dean

Introducing:

Sword and Shadow Press™

This will be the imprint for my Watchers of the Light and Servants of the Flame series of fantasy novels and possibly future books by myself or other authors.

And now for one other important bit of info. Release date for Book 1 of Watchers of the Light, Among the Shadows is finally here:

July 2016

Exclusive excerpts begin Friday…

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Lost in Muirwood

Posted on June 3, 2016 by Darrick Dean

I downloaded a book over two years ago and never got around to reading it until recently. This is very unusual for me given the rate I read books. I now wish I would have read it sooner, because Jeff Wheeler‘s The Wretched of Muirwood is an immersive, medieval fantasy world easy to disappear into.

In this first volume of the Legends of Muirwood trilogy, we find the orphan Lia – the “wretched” – who is a servant in the Muirwood Abby. Then, on one stormy night, an injured squire shows up on her doorstep.

Needless to say, everything was about to change.

A classic fantasy tale of a young person coming of age and learning who she really is. It’s an oft-told tale, but it’s the new details, characters and obstacles that an author unveils that take the reader in. Wheeler’s world is atmospheric, the characters compelling and the story pulls you forward into a land of warring factions, hidden magic and discovered destinies. You can always tell if I have enjoyed an e-book when I have ordered a paper copy for my collection.

And the next two books along with it.

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The Last Full Measure

Posted on May 29, 2016 by Darrick Dean

Kenneth T. Jackson writes:

Decoration Day, later designated Memorial Day, began on May 5, 1866, when the small town of Waterloo in Seneca County, New York, organized an entire day of remembrance for its lost sons [of the Civil War]. The idea caught on, and exactly two years later, on May 5, 1868, Major General John A. Logan, commander in chief of the Grand Army of the Republic, the organization of Union Army veterans, issued General Order No. 11, designating May 30, 1868, “for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country.” Logan added that he inaugurated the observance “with the hope that it will be kept up from year to year, while a survivor of the war remains to honor the memory of his departed comrades.”

By 1890, all of the Northern states recognized May 30 as a special day to remember their fallen heroes…After World War I, however, virtually the entire United States accepted Memorial Day (later designated as the last Monday in May) as the primary occasion to remember all those who had died in battle.

“…for which they gave the last full measure of devotion; that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.” – Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, 1863

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Writing and Launching Your Book

Posted on May 27, 2016 by Darrick Dean

Need some book and writing related activities over the long weekend? Try these from author Jaimie Engle who has been busy this year:

She published the fantasy novel Dreadlands which I reviewed here. You can watch Jaimie discuss How to Launch Your Book where she explains the techniques she used to launch Dreadlands — what worked and what did not.

If that were not enough, she has also released Writing Your Novel: Using the Bible as Your Guide. This how-to takes cues from history’s most read book — and all the drama within — to show how your story can be dramatic, gripping and memorable.

And what writer doesn’t want that?

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Writing Dangerously

Posted on May 17, 2016 by Darrick Dean

Around the web today, Morgan L. Busse writes about “writing dangerously,” knowing that this means she is “not going to make everyone happy.” Mike Duran tells writers that it is good to know when to ignore writing advice and stay true to your story. And finally, Robert Bidinotto discusses the challenges of writing gripping fiction.

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Daring to Enter the Dreadlands

Posted on May 14, 2016 by Darrick Dean

There are many fantasy stories that try too hard, or don’t try at all, in their storytelling. The best, as I wrote a few months ago, are reflective of the longings — both realized and not — inside us. Jaimie Engle‘s new Dreadlands is one of these stories.

Set in a lost Viking land in North America (you would know why this caught my attention quickly if you read this), we find Arud Bergson very quickly finding his world thrown into disarray. Shape-shifting ferine have begun attacking where none should be. His father is long overdue from a journey East and now his mother wants to send him off to a distant uncle with little explanation.

Leave. Take your sister Lykke. You must go now.

With this begins a journey where these young people learn who they are and about the world that they were shielded from. A classic coming of age tale, but also an engaging one (any book I read in one sitting certainly deserves some notice). Reminiscent of the detail, character development and the pacing of the Shannara stories — with a Middle Earth style epic battle to top it all off. A comparison of the story has been made to Twilight and this is unfair.

Dreadlands is better.

Admittedly, I haven’t read the Twilight books and my analysis is based on the films that focus on stretching out longing looks and angst between the leads at the expense of everything else. Jaimie’s approach to the history of the conflict between hybrids and humans, the creatures themselves, and planting the seeds of a romance is more mature and balanced. This is a fusion of epic and dark fantasy: Shannarra meets Underworld.

This genre is crowded, but put Dreadlands at the top of your list. The only disappointment you will encounter is finding out that part two has yet to be released.

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401 A.D.: The Year Literature Changed

Posted on May 4, 2016 by Darrick Dean

Thomas Cahill, the author of How the Irish Saved Civilization, called Augustine of Hippo “almost the last great classical man — and very nearly the first medieval man.” Augustine wrote in Confessions:

I carried inside me a cut and bleeding soul, and how to get rid of it I just didn’t know. I sought every pleasure — the countryside, sports, fooling around, the peace of a garden, friends and good company, sex, reading. My soul floundered in the void — and came back upon me. For where could my heart flee from heart? Where could I escape from myself?

Cahill responds to this:

No one had every talked this way before…we realize that with Augustine human consciousness takes a quantum leap forward — and becomes self-consciousness…From this point on, true autobiography becomes possible, and so does its near relative, subjective and autobiographical fiction. Fiction had always been there…But now for the first time there glimmers the possibility of psychological fiction: the subjective story, the story of the soul…[Augustine] is the father of not only of autobiography but of the modern novel.

In Augustine’s words we find someone searching for his true purpose and — shortly before the fall of the classical age — published his 13 part classical work Confessions in 401 A.D. Yet it often sounds like it was written yesterday.

We are no better or worse than those who walked before us centuries ago. Our troubles are rarely unique to us. Those ancient voices left us plenty to ponder, to learn from and to be warned by.

Perhaps we should take the time to listen?

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Is Your Reason for Writing Wrong?

Posted on April 30, 2016 by Darrick Dean

Everyone has a reason for writing. As I have often suggested here, everyone has a story to tell and everyone should do just that. But is there a wrong reason to write a book?

Jim Fletcher writes, “In the giant metaphorical landfill where most published books go to die, there is a strong common denominator: hubris.”

You see, as in film and music, many write to seek fame and fortune. Nothing wrong with making money — and making a living doing something you enjoy — but there should be some deeper fundamental causing moving you. Maybe to “elevate the life experience” of the readers? Fletcher quotes the famous Mark Twain line, “Write without pay until somebody offers pay.” I take that to mean: Pursue your dream until it happens.

Fletcher also writes on authors being seen as “cash cows” and expected to turn out sequels in rapid succession. This is no different than film and television, but indie publishing allows writers — the thoughtful ones — to make their own schedule. Of course, the caveat for even them is, don’t wait too long or your fans will forgot about you.

Ultimately, we all decide what our reasons are for whatever we do. Perhaps having a reason — any reason — is winning the first battle of a long war.

A war to win at telling our stories.

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