Author Appleton

Writing. Fantasy. Sci-fi. Mystery

fiction

Backstage pass! Specter: the story continues

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Often when writing a fantasy story the original drafts do not contain all of the key elements that flesh out a good tale. But in future drafts as the story evolves, especially if you are a seat-of-the-pants writer, new elements and even new characters come into play. When writing my first novel Swords of the Six I created an utterly unexpected character with which fans of the books fell in love. He is the most popular protagonist, yet his story (for that series) came to an end in Key of Living Fire. Many people have wondered, “What happened to Specter?”

For a few years I have toyed with the idea of following Specter on his journey away from the events in The Sword of the Dragon series. Now, I am pleased to say, the opening chapter to a forthcoming episode following Specter is written. This will likely flesh out into a novel of its own, but for now I am writing it as a longer short story. One that you will find a satisfying addition to the fantasy genre. For now it is titled Specter: By the Portal’s Glow and I am looking to release this Spring 2016.

Here is a tease of what is to come:

Specter: By the Portal’s Glow

Warmth enveloped Specter’s body, cradling him through waves of light and color as the portal sped him where it would. The darkness of the Hidden Realm was left far behind. Ribbons of light formed a veritable rainbow upon which he walked. Portal travel was not new to him, he let it speed him on and waited to see what undiscovered destination it held in store for him.

A few hours or more were lost to him. He waited for the destination to emerge, for never had a portal journey continued for such an extended time. He thought with satisfaction of the frustrated creature that had tried to pursue him. The white beast had been monstrous. Even the dragon Valorian, which vile beast Specter had long dreaded, had proved but a nuisance to the creature as it broke the dragon.

This path of light now spirited him out of the creature’s reach. Not that he was a coward. Specter allowed himself a smile as he lifted before his face the prized skeleton key that the water skeel had sought to obtain. Fire played on the key, burning from within its bronze surface. With this now in his hand the power of living fire would remain sealed in the Hold. It would remain accessible only to the stouthearted man wielding the sword of the dragon.

Perhaps now was the time to bring Specter’s life to an appropriately humble retirement. He glanced at his other fist, flexing his ice fingers. It was a strange thing but wondrous. Where his hand had been severed he had grown one of ice from the realm of the Water Skeels. And his icy fist grasped the two-handed sword of hard crystal that he had crafted from water. A thing of beauty, he had carved through Valorian’s host with this weapon. He had formed it in the image of the sword he had wielded a thousand years ago. It was time to lay this weapon aside, to leave behind the nemesis that he had been to the Grim Reaper. That vile being was dead by his hand, its skull shattered and scattered to the wind in the city of Netroth. And Specter’s pupil, Auron, thinking himself capable of continuing in the Reaper’s steps, now lay dead in the Hidden Realm.

“I saved you once, Auron,” Specter whispered to the vast streams of color. “I saved you and your demise was just. I will not weep at the death of one as vile as you. Instead I embrace the future of those like Ilfedo and Oganna who will seek righteousness and justice.”

In the midst of Specter’s musings the streams of color flashed with angry white. Over his shoulder he glimpsed the tunnel of light collapsing in his wake. His eyes widened in horror. He possessed knowledge spanning over a thousand years, yet he could not recall even a mention of anything similar to this occurrence.

The walls of his tunnel of light thinned. He glimpsed the black depths of space stretching in all directions. Stars flashed by in a blur, for his passage among them was swift. His heart thudded in his chest, such as he had not felt in a long time. He was helpless. Trapped. He had chosen wrong. By stepping into the portal he had succeeded in preserving the power of living fire, yet invariably he had doomed himself by passing into a failing portal.

He held the key of living fire before his face once again, frowning as he studied it. Could it be used to fuel the portal to propel him to the end of this journey? He shook his head, stuffing the key into the lining of his cloak. At least here, in the black depths of the sky, the key would remain safe. There was no greater hiding place than this.

Kneeling in the shimmering current, he resigned himself to the care of God. Nowhere else could he turn. He closed his eyes against the tears his heart longed to bleed. He released his dream for his own future life of quiet, and the possibility of finding a life of peace. War had been his existence. War, treachery, and violence.

Suddenly the floor dropped from under him. He opened his eyes as he tumbled headfirst down a side shaft of light. Behind him the air screamed out of the light tunnel. As he rolled down the side shaft he caught glimpses of the passage vanishing into the void of space.

To be continued (in great detail)…

Q: Would you like to see a Specter novel?

Reading Cinderella to my son

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There are so many wonderful ways to create timeless memories with the people we love and care for. I was recently reminded of this one Sunday night after work. Typically I get home, eat one of my wife’s delicious dinners (she is a good cook) and then we let the kids watch an episode of an old show before getting them to bed. But, desiring to make more valuable use of our time this evening, I dug through my library for an antique edition of Mother Goose printed in 1901.

I do love old books. The tales you find in there are truer to their original form instead of edited for modern readers. Modernizations tend to simplify the fairy tales and also the prose to such an extent that they do not stimulate greater intelligence in children. They are not “dumbed down” for young readers. I am often reminded that some of the most famous of historical figures actually learned to read from the Bible. Can you imagine a child nowadays tackling even half of the Bible before they reach ten years of age? Sadly, I don’t know of any.

The first story in the Mother Goose book surprised me, for it was the tale of Cinderella. It varied slightly from the versions I have seen previously. Most notably, in this version Cinderella wholeheartedly forgave her stepsisters. She forgave them fully, not just in word but by her deeds as well. Cinderella brought them to live at the palace after she and the prince had been married, and she arranged for each of them to marry affluent men in the kingdom.

At first, when I saw the first story in this little book was Cinderella, I glanced down at my son and thought perhaps I’d skip it for the next one. Find one more suitable to a man. But I thought better of it.

Children need stories of princes and princesses. Classic tales told in a traditional manner reinforce family values, instilling in them codes of conduct and virtue that strengthen them in life. Cinderella’s story shows my son what kind of a woman to admire and what virtues to look for in his future wife. There is wisdom to be gleaned from these old fairytales. Wisdom that is often neglected and forgotten in the modernization of story that we often see today.

Q: Do you make a point of sitting down to read to your children?

How nameless characters enhance story

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Nameless characters. They may seem useless to the writer and to the reader but in many respects they are key to enhancing a great fiction story. Consider how many nameless characters populate the books you read and the movies you watch. Nameless characters play well into plot development and world building.

When I am writing a story I take into consideration the environment I am throwing my main characters into. What are the sights, the sounds, the smells. I want to engage the senses so that the reader experiences the story in a profound way. But a great part of creating the environment is the establishment of nameless characters.

Let’s use the example of John, a character who is feeling lost. If you want to convey that John is starting to feel panicky you could throw in a nameless character. Crowds are milling about, heading down the busy sidewalks. Someone bumps into John. He reaches down and finds his wallet is now missing. He franticly searches the sea of faces for the pickpocket but instead his gaze is arrested by a pretty face. She stands a short distance off, smiles, then disappears in the throng moving around him. Someone steps on his foot, mutters an apology, and several other people jostle him. A pistol presses against his back.

In this short example the only characters able to affect John are nameless ones. The advantage of this is that the reader now does not feel the need to know these other characters. Instead they want to know how John is going to react to these nameless characters and the situation in general. The nameless characters have revealed a deeper level to the story and left the mind imagining what could be the motives and purposes of these nameless characters. All the while, John remains the focus.

Nameless characters add mystery and, when written well, they will enhance the traits of the main characters by causing them to react to different circumstances. While it is true that you can effect much of the same with named characters, nameless characters provide less distraction to the reader, thus allowing more focus on moments of suspense and interior dilemma.

A story is incomplete without nameless characters. In my novels I greatly enjoy creating background characters who are not assigned names. Why? Because later I can return to those characters, perhaps fleshing out their own unique stories for later projects. For example, when writing a series of fantasy novels a nameless character might be the bartender or the stable hand. Later in the series I can revisit the character, assign them a name, give them a more significant part in the series’ plot, and reference back to that moment in the story when they were nameless. To the reader it seems as if the author knew all of these facts about the nameless character all along. But truly it is often not the case.

The author might make reference to how the story’s hero/heroine glimpsed something happening to a common soldier during a battle. Then at a later point you reference back to that and make a new and insignificant background character come to life by relationally tying them to the original nameless character. Their deed then matters to the reader on an emotional level.

As you see, there are many uses for nameless characters in fiction.

Q: What sorts of nameless characters to you find interesting in fiction?

 

 

How writing changes our world

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I once wrote a short story titled Trapped In Imagination and it was an exploration of how a writer creates a story. I have always been fascinated by the creative process. It is a gift and it has the power to effect change at the behest of the writer that crafts the words. A writer can quite literally change the world.

Recently I watched a fun Twilight Zone episode where a writer literally brings people into existence through his writing. The concept was fascinating to me and entirely entertaining to watch. In my own mind I have often thought what it would be like to actually bring to life the characters I write on paper or type into my computer.

This fascination is brought on by the deep impact that the writing process has on my mind. As the writer, I sink my mind deep in the stories I create. The characters become real to me, in my mind. The imagination of them is powerful. I can relate to their fears, their hopes, and aspirations. There are moments when I almost cry over the story I am writing. Other moments I feel almost giddy with happiness.

It is that utter abandoning of one’s self to the power of story that makes one realize its power. Through writing we can effect change. Not superficial change only, but real change. Consider the impact of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, or the negative impact of Hitler’s Mein Kampf. What of the rise of western civilization through The King James Bible. The list goes on almost indefinitely.

Writing changes the world. It impacts hearts and minds for good or ill. It is our responsibility as writers to impact the world for good.

Q: How do you see writers impacting real change in the world?

Dealing with creative slumps

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We creatives are strange creatures. We are writers and artists who live off of the ideas that populate in our brains. Let me stop beating around the bush. Tonight I am admitting I am having one of those moments… one of those days… one of those weeks.

My creative well has run dry. I smile as I think about it because I have been here before. It feels frustrating. I want to write some fantastic blog posts that will give you some great information and, hopefully, entertain you. Yet I stare at the screen and foolishly smile at myself.

I think we all hit these times. If we are writers, artists, or some other type of creative. Our brain works overtime when other people seem to relax. When I am thinking hard on a story idea, world-building, or publishing and writing in general, my hands literally get cold. I am not sure if this is the reason, but it seems to me my forehead always feels warm even when my hands are cold, as if my brain is firing too fast and all the blood runs to my head instead.

So what am I to do, and what should you do when you reach these moments? I have been in a creative slump for the past few weeks. This year I ran on burnout for too long and I think it simply caught up with me.

So what will I do?

I will relax. I will watch TV shows and a good science fiction movie, pick up a good book, listen to music. In short, I will refill my creative reservoir.

As far as keeping up with my blogging, I cannot let that fall behind… so I have written a blog post about my lack of creativity. 🙂 And you know what? It was fun! Sometimes the path to victory in these slumps is to admit you don’t have it so that you can fill your mind afresh.

Don’t think of these moments as defeat. Think of them as a time to reset, and recognize that you will come out stronger. Great art is not forced. It must be allowed to slowly grow.

Q: What do you do in creative slumps?

Short stories this Christmas!

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Christmas is my favorite time of year. When I was growing up I populated my wish list with books. One thing I dreamed of was writing books that other people would want to put on their Christmas lists. It was five years ago now (which is hard for me to believe) when I had signed a publishing contract with AMG Publishers and I had no books to sell until they released Swords of the Six. In the time between I bundled together my short stories into a new book titled By Sword By Right. It sold surprisingly well for a collection of short fiction, and ever since then I’ve always referred to it as my bathroom reader.

Originally this book was available in paperback as well as on Kindle, but the distributor I had placed it with charged an annual fee so I discontinued the print version. From time to time I still receive requests for By Sword By Right in paperback, and now Amazon’s platform has enabled me to re-release it in time for Christmas!

There is something magical about short stories. From my perspective they are more difficult to write. Everything for me turns into a long-form writing. Short stories usually sit in my “idea bucket” to be later transformed into novels. But with By Sword By Right I put my journey as a writer under the x-ray machine. I included stories that were some of my best writings, and some that were written prior to the launching of my writing career.

For Christmas this year if you are one of those readers who wants something to take into the bathroom or into a closet for a quick read, By Sword By Right has an assortment of fantasy, science fiction, fairy tales, biblical, and even allegory. This book demonstrates the diversity of my writing interests and will give you an idea of where all of my stories will take you. From dark underground worlds to surface utopias, and even into the interstellar divides.

There is no limit to where the imagination can take us. And we can explore the depths and heights of imagination through short stories in the moments that reading longer fiction prohibits.

Q: Do you enjoy short speculative fiction?

A new writer’s biggest mistake

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First-time writers are fun. They are full of energy because they are crazy enthusiastic about the stories they are creating. I have found this particularly true of those who write fantasy. It is interesting what holds many of these writers back, and it is a problem they can overcome.

Some people think that the biggest problem with new writers is that they don’t edit their writing well, or that they don’t spend the time revising and changing things in the manuscript to craft a stronger story. But both of these things are symptoms of the bigger problem and the most common issue with writers who aspire to be published authors.

There are so many times that I have been approached by aspiring authors. They have many questions related to publishing, selling their work, and editing. I have been told that I am an approachable person and I do try to be. When someone has questions and enthusiasm for writing I want to help them. Writing and publishing are long, challenging processes filled with mystery to the outside observer. When possible I like to pull back the veil, revealing the ins and outs of the process so that others can more speedily learn what I struggled with.

Often, but not always, I run into an issue when this happens. The writer will ask for my advice and I will give it. But they are quick to dismiss what they don’t want to hear and zero in on what they want to hear. They have trouble accepting professional criticism.

A writer’s first work is going to lay the groundwork for their career. If you have taken professional criticism and polished your work it will make a good first impression on readers. But if you have not then you will lose readers’ trust, your work will barely sell, and your future writing career will prove even more difficult to build.

Professional criticism is the single biggest boon to an aspiring writer. If a writer is unwilling to humble themselves to accept criticism they will not grow, they will not improve their craft, and they will have little to no respect among their writing peers. Certainly they will hold no respect with publishing industry professionals.

I liken these writers to a vacationer making a mountain trek through the snow. Instead of following the footprints of their guide they choose to strike out on their own, seeking a better path.

It is foolish to neglect criticism and to listen only to what we want to hear. We only grow and improve when we are uncomfortable. It forces us to change things, it forces us to conform to a better way.

Certainly there is the challenge of retaining our own unique creativity, but ultimately writers are born not made and if we seek counsel from mentors accomplished in what we are endeavoring to do, we can succeed.

Find a guide who has gone before you and listen humble to their advice. If you want to be like them someday and succeed as they have you will need to listen to their advice.

Q: Do you look for mentors to help you grow in your life?

Breaking George Bailey this Christmas

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Every Thanksgiving I look forward to watching It’s A Wonderful Life. When I was growing up my parents knew how to throw a great Thanksgiving. They cooked a fantastic meal and invited a bunch of family over. My Dad would, at some point later in the day, flip through our limited selection of channels. Besides watching the parades, I remember him stopping when It’s A Wonderful Life came on. And I now try to make that movie a part of every Holiday season.

The tale of George Bailey is such a sad one. He has wonderful friends and he is endearing to almost everyone he meets. He is genuine, honest, and fair. Yet he lacks confidence in himself. He dreams big but always puts the dreams of others before his own, and in doing so he loses everything. By his generosity and fairness he makes friends with the poor and the sick. And when his uncle could go to jail for fraud, George takes the blame. Even at his lowest point he does the good thing, continuing his good deeds despite all expectations to the contrary.

The most beautiful thing about this story is that George does not broadcast his good deeds to everyone. He never “toots his own horn” but rather turns the spotlight onto those he has helped. I prefer to watch this movie in black and white as the absence of color is an artful way of emphasizing that the story is not about the lights and glitter, but rather about the hearts of people.

Why do I bring this up now? Yes, it is Thanksgiving and the Christmas season is practically upon us. But I have recognized within the fictional character of George Bailey the struggles of all honest, hard-working men who never get credit for what they have done. They do what is right because it is what they must do. It is the character they have established within themselves.

Contemporary fiction is filled with a lack of faith in the human spirit. Everyone is shown as liars, cheats, and backstabbers. But I am tired of that kind of story. I want more George Baileys. Characters of people who are broken, brought to the very end of their hope, yet still do the right thing by the people around them. This Christmas I want to revel in the spirit of good deeds and restore my faith in humanity.

We live in such a pessimistic world, yet there is so much good going on all around us. We need only look for it in others and in ourselves. I believe God has given us that ability.

I love how It’s a Wonderful Life demonstrates the true reward of doing right by people and doing good without expectation of reward. When it appears that George Bailey has nowhere to turn it is the poor, the sick, and his family that come to his aid. Kindness reciprocates kindness. We live in a world of great fear, but if we reach out with love we will see love return to us.

This Christmas let’s remember the real reasons this season is special. Let us leave behind the greed and the selfishness in favor of sharing Christian love with all people.

Q: Did It’s a Wonderful Life similarly impact you?