A Scribe's Work VII

This story in my newest anthology book is by far the longest short story I have ever written to date.  It is set in Stave, like several other of my short stories, I introduce several new characters in this story that I hope to use later.

The lead constable, Gunther, is called to the scene of a grisly murder of a shop keeper.  Though Gunther had seen many slayings in his career, the sheer violence and brutality of the act shocks him.  He also has no leads to go on.

He is forced then to turn to a mysterious woman named Jenna, a seer who works as fortune teller in the town.  Neither Gunther, nor Jenna is pleased by the idea, but Gunther is forced to admit she may be useful and Jenna knows it would be useful to have some good karma with the local authorities, especially since her neighboring shop keepers have tried to have her removed before.

The investigation begins with them both going to the scene of the first murder, but things go badly, and Gunther begins to believe that Jenna is hiding something.  Then they are informed that there is another murder, and the two proceed to the second scene, which is fresh.  They enter and Gunther is shocked to find that it actually worse than the first scene.  Once again they gain very little information and Jenna is forced to conduct a ritual, to see who the next victim might be.  In the meantime Gunther sends one of his men to nearby town to learn what he can about Jenna.

The ritual works and the pair learns who the next target will be.  They set up a trap to catch the killer, which of course goes badly.  The killer manages to make it to the victim, but in the ensuing fight, the killer is defeated by an old magi brought back from Jenna’s home town. 

Afterwards, Jenna realizes that she can no longer function as a seer and wonders what will happen to her.  Fortunately Gunther knows right where she can go in the town to start over.  Gunther leaves the young woman with Suman then the story ends.

This is one of the more involved stories I created.  It borders on being a novella, but I am especially pleased with the new characters I have developed for it.  Later on, maybe two or three more anthology books later I am going to create a combined story arc that will incorporate characters from different serials, and from these kinds of short stories.  It will be awesome, and I am looking forward to it.  Until then I hope you check out my work.  I have another anthology almost ready as well as a full novel I am working that I hope to have done soon.  Until then I’ll keep everyone posted!

A Scribes Work VI

So this story is one of the longer ones from my upcoming anthology book.  It is tentatively titled "Odd Jobs".  I may change this title, but I kind of like the irony it has, So I'm probably going to stick with it.

Anyway, this story is about three guys who walk  into a swamp looking for an old tower.  One guy named Z'ehle is a historian who hired the other two named Malac, and Gunthry to escort him into and out of the swamp.  The two protectors are essentially nothing but sell-swords who only go because they were promised a healthy pay day.

As the group travels both Malac and Gunthry show there mutual dislike of Z'ehle, who in turns thinks very little of them as well.  They eventually reach the tower and make their way inside.  At first they find nothing at all, until they come to a door that Z'ehle says leads a crypt.

As they enter the last room looking for their riches Z'ehle turns on them (face it you knew that was coming) and tells them he is going to unleash an ancient demon on the world.

Of course they fight it out, but I will not go into those details here, if you want to know how it ends just buy my book when it comes out.  (shameless plug)

I was really pleased with the way this story turned out.  I honestly believe it is one of the better stories in the book.  I have a few rough copies out there I am awaiting feedback on, but so far it had been pretty positive.  I enjoyed writing this one, especially the bickering between the main characters that I injected into it. 

If any of you are wondering when this book will be ready it should be soon.  At the time of this blog post I have only two stories left that I need to fine tune.  After that I will do one more read through then it will be ready.  Don't worry, I will make a HUGE deal out of it when the times comes.  Until then, thanks to all who have bought my first book, and I look forward to getting my second out there for all of you.

A Scribes Work V

So, after a delay, I am finally sitting down to write about another short story in my upcoming book, boc vol2.  This is titled The Scrolls of Recondite, and it is the third, and final, serial story.  It continues the story of a young magi named Devlin as he tries to uncover the secrets of an ancient artifact known as, oddly enough, The Scrolls of Recondite.

I won't delve too much into the character of Devlin himself, but to give just a quickly back story, Devlin is a young magi, who instead working to gain greater power, he works to discover ancient artifacts.  While his elders consider this a worthy task, they still believe him to be somewhat silly for going after a set of lost scrolls, that most of their order do not even believe exist.

They are said to contain an ancient and great pwoer.  Devlin searches out of pure academic interest.  However, there is another that searches for them for a more insideous reason.  Both of these men want the scrolls, for two totally different reason, despite the fact neither of them are sure what power they, or like, if Devlin's elders claim, they simply are not real.

Anyway, the story starts off with young Devlin following up on some clues from the previous story (if you want to know pick up my book, link is to the left, shameless plug).  Anyway, his journey takes him to a set of ruins near his own home city. 

While there he stumbles upon a secret chamber and makes a discovery in a long sealed tomb.  The problem is, why is there always a problem?  The problem is, he too has been discovered by the necromancer, again refer to first story.  He is saved by a mysterious figure, who is obviously a mage themselves. 

This is where the story ends.  I know exactly where I am going to take this, and I also want to mention that many of my short stories, including this one, are set in the same place.  I am planning a massive cross-story arc that will involve characters from many different stories, but that is not until sometime in the future.

I have been told by several people that the "scrolls" stories were their favorites and they could easily see this set of of stories turned into a full blown novel (hmmmm maybe).  Anyway this was one of the first stories I created for my first book, and while I like the Atonement serials more, these are a close second.

I hope you will check this story and all the others in my second book when it comes out.  I hope to have it done soon, but unfortunately my timetable was thrown off, but I am close to getting it done, and when it is I am going to do a simultaneous launch on Amazon for the bocvol 2 and on Smashwords for both volumes of my short story book. 

Until then, please pick up my first book, boc: A Collection of Short Stories, that is already available on Amazon, and for only a paltry .99 cents.

Thanks for all your support, and I hope to have an poss launch date for my second book very soon!