Looking for readers

Right, ladies and Gents, I'm in the process of editing Burn, Forest City, Burn and I'm looking for people to read it for me and let me know what they think, this is the second draft and I'm hoping to get maybe another draft or two in before I submit it on the 31st of December for Fox Spirit books, and once I'm done also farm it out looking for publishers other than Fox Spirit..

I know not a lot of people have time to read and edit a book, trust me, I've been the process myself for this book, so I'm not expecting you to if you want to read the book, if you are willing to edit a couple of chapters that would be helpful, but I'll find someone to do a full edit before it's submitted.

Just email me, at davidjmmuir@yahoo.co.uk, leave a comment for me to get back to you here or message me on facebook : http://www.facebook.com/davidjmmuir.

Cheers guys.

Going to be gone for a while

I know I was planning on writing a blog more than I have been and putting in short stories at least once a week, but I am going to be offline as much as I can in the run up to Christmas, and working exclusively on the 2nd Draft of Burn, Forest City, Burn, my first Magi Universe book, it's about time I hit it for six and fix all the fuck ups in continuity and every other fuck up I found myself while reading through it. Trying to get it done in time for Crimbo so I can enjoy the festive period.

Hazards of the Job (Fiction)

This is a little piece that I thre together to try and get rid of the writers block, so incoherent and messy it may be, but it's hard to do this when your brain doesn't want to play.

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Hazards of the Job

Damien Ambrosius Caledonensis McCain, High Marshall of the Grey Council, grappled with the Majiesa daemon, both using thier supernatural abilities to keep the other off balance. The High Marshall tore free his huge right hand and formed a ball of ice smashing it against the face of the daemon, who let him go squealing in agony.

"That's what you get when you mess with me." He said, in his thick Scottish brogue, with a grin, throwing the pair of ice shards in his hands, piercing the heart and the head of the daemon, killing the demagogue human that it had inhabited, sending it back to the daemon realms. "Well, that was fun."

"Ah, the work of a Sheriff is never done is it." A figure said from the shadows of the alleyway. "That was but one of my many minions and eventually I will destroy you."

"Oh, really, let me see how much I'm shaking in my boots." He chuckled looking down and his size sixteen boots from the top of his six foot six frame. "Nope, nothin whatsoever."

"You dare insult Temorican the Terror?" The figure's voice began to tremble.

"Really kid, you need to get a better name." Damien said with a snicker. "My new born son could come up with a better one than that."

"I am the greatest terror of the nine pits of hell...." 

"Yeah, there are fifteen pits of hell, not nine, you've been reading too many fantasy and horror books kid, if you were a real power you would know that." Damien snorted and walked towards the alley exit. The figure jumped from the shadows in front of him, he was a foot shorter than Damien, and half his age and weight, in a purely physical confrontation the boy would get beaten to a pulp if he didn't get killed. "Seriously, come on I don't want to hurt you."

"I am the one going to be doing the hurting." The boy said, throwing a fireball at the Marshall, which bounced harmlessly off of his energy shield.

"Really, you really want to throw down?" Damien said with a shake of his head. "Fine, I'll throw down."

"Come meet your doom." The young man said with a snarl, as he moved and slipped on a banana peel as Damien unleashed a bolt of magical energy, exploding his shield and burning the boy's first layer of skin off. "Stop, stop, I yield."

"Boy, you just attacked the High Marshall of the Grey Council, a Wizard of the 1st order no less." Damien growled at him, as he grabbed the boy by the collar and slapped his cuffs on the skinny arms, pulling the teenager towards the alley mouth. "You are going to the cells at Caerleon and you will be found guilty."

"What are you talking about?" The boy said with a whimper.

"I am the leader of the Sheriff's kid, I'm the guy you don't want to be messing with." The Scotsman replied as they got to the mouth of the alley. "You mess with one of us and you best be willing to deal with the consequences Caerleon is the home of the Grey Council, where Merlin started it all, we hold prisoners there awaiting trial for acts that break the laws of magic, don't worry you didn't break any of the Primary Laws, so your ass isn't grass but you're not going to be seeing the light of day anytime soon."

"But, but..." The boy started to whine, but stopped with a whimper.

"So pitiful." Damien said as he dragged the boy towards the portal to Alfhiem, and the leylines which would take them quickly to Wales and the council gaol. The portal itself was covered by four figures and the Marshall sighed, taking his cuff key from his pocket. "Kid, it is your very lucky day, I'm going to let you off with a warning, I'm not going to be responsible for your life if I have to fight a quad of Thenrdak."

"I won't argue with that." The boy said with a nod, and hopped off to let the Damien deal with the underworld's assassin daemons. 

"So, what do you turds want?"

"By the order of the Black Hand, we have been charged with your end." The leader of the hulking, reptilian beings, their skin cracked and oozing lava, informed him. The Black Hand where the Dark ones analogue to the Neutral Grey Council.

"Oh, really, well you're welcome to try." He said with a snort, he formed a pair of iceballs in his hands and launched them at the nearest of his foes. The creature wailed with pain as the water melted on it's skin, many daemons anathema being water. The rest of the quad moved swiftly to surround the Wizard. "Just four of you, really, I thought I would merit more than a single quad."

"Our masters do not rate you, despite your position as a Wizard of the 1st order." The leader replied as he lunged at Damien, the Marshall redirected his shields energy to let the thing's rebound off of it and go flying into a car, crushing it. A second came at him from the opposite side and he blocked it with the bracer of Iron on his arm. He threw his power to the sewer and the filthy water from below exploded through the manhole the creature had stepped onto, engulfing it in the stink but killing it none the less. The two Thenrdak had distracted him enough that the remaining one managed to score it's blade across his right side, but it was just a glancing blow. The Wizard's staff of office appeared in his hand and from it shot a rush of water, engulfing the daemon that had caught him and the leader in a wave.

Damien breathed a sigh of relief as he headed towards the Alfhiem entrance when his mobile phone went off, he pulled it from his pocket and answered it without seeing who it was.

"Damien McCain." He answered chirpily, then realised it was his wife. "Oh, hello Fang, what's wrong.... no.... I'm working... well killing daemons and chasing down dastardly wrong doers.... No I did not forget the milk it's at the office, where I am headed right now... No, I promise... I promise, I'm right at the entrance to the Alfhiem right now, I'll be in Caerleon in half an hour and I'll be home in an hour and fourty-five. I promise, no more trouble tonight, straight to the office to pick up the milk then straight home.. yes, dear." He cut the call off and headed through the entrance to the lands of the Fae. As he stepped out he was confronted by a troop of Kilneir, spiderlegged humanoids with a nasty streak a mile wide, and even though he was an emissary of those of neutral allignment, the Kilneir followed the court of Winter and it's chaotic nature. "Here we go again."

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Hope you enjoyed that little read, took a bit of time but I've got the old creative juices flowing again, even missing the second half of the football because of it.

If you haven't already got a copy of it Strange Tales of the Scriptorian vault is available on Kindle right now, I think it should be up on Smashwords now or very soon and when the paper copy is on it's way, all the profits goes to charity so please buy it.

The Next Big Thing

Do you want to play a game? No, this isn’t some weird ‘Saw’ horror malarky, but a game of ‘blog tag’ that’s circulating at the moment. I was tagged by Sammy HK Smith, who writes like me in a whole load of genres, right now she's working on Anna, a dystopian work, that is kind of outside my wheelhouse.

Thing is I don't have anyone to blog tag, but I thought I'd give it a shot anyway.

The blog tag game involves answering questions about your current work in progress.

What is the working title of your book?

As with all times in the coming and goings of the world, I'm working on more than one, but currently when not affected by the worst case of writiers block I've ever had I am working on one called Magic in the Blood. I am also editing the first draft of Burn, Forest City, Burn.

What genre does your book fall under?

 Like a lot of my work recently Magic in the blood is urban fantasy, but then alot of my work in recent times is Urban Fantasy, very much in the vein of the Dresden Files, and stuff like that. But MitB in a turn around it isn't in the Magiverse (yes I coined a verse for myself) that Burn and my military sci-fi series and my short story book are based in.

 Burn is itself an Urban Fantasy book but it also has is set in an alternative world that is vastly different from our own, where magic is a power unto itself and the people who police the world don't like the normals getting invovled, which also includes elements of Sci-fi other than the alt world concept, it has alternate realities, time travel concepts and throws the history books out the window.

Give a brief synopsis of your book.

Magic in the Blood involves two primary characters, which is a bit of a departure for me, my writing in the past either involves one primary character or between three and six primary characters. I've been reading lots of different genres recently and other than the Urban Fantasy ones the books I've most got into have two primary protagonists. It's basically the set-up story, set a couple of years in the future, introducing Damien Ambrosius Caledonensis McCain Wizard of the 1st order, and Detective Sergent of the Scottish Police Force, his official title being liason between the SPF and the federal agencies of the USA, but his actual job is liason between the Magic World's law enforcement the Sheriff's and the Watchmen, operatives of the neutral Grey Council, and the non-magical law enforcement in the US. He is asked to consult with the SFPD's Major Crimes unit and Sergeant-Inspector Carmen Isabel Cortez, uninitiated daughter of Constantine Cortez, Damien's mentor, when Major Crimes is caught up in a power struggle between two rival magic houses, one of the Light and one of the Dark but with humans getting caught in the middle and getting killed by magic, pretty much a no-no even for Dark magic practitioners.

Burn, again is a first book, an introduction for the three primary protagonists, Gabriel of Alba, Magi Warmaster, Suzie Owens, Wizard and his partner and Sarah Morrow, a Federal Investigations Bureau agent and the very different world that they live in, and by very different I mean so different that it requires a cartographer to draw a map of the world they live in. The basic story is a Pyromancer goes nuts in the City of Cleveland, and Gabriel and Suzie who work for the United Magical Investigations Agency, get sent to sort it out, aware that Sara and her team at the FIB's Unexplained Phenomina Division are looking into it, but none of their team are at this point even aware magic exists. The story has a number of twists and turns and pretty much screws with the order of things, but it sets up the series and explains some very intricate ideas without becoming too bogged down in minutae.

Where did the idea come from for the book? 

With MitB it was very much a merging of different stories and different characters that had been running around in my ideas folder for a while, the characters in it are amalgams of a number of characters I've written over the years, but the setting is different from anywhere I've ever written before, most of my stuff when the series is set in a particular city in the US, since I'm not an American myself, is normally either LA or New York, but then they are the city's I know best in the US since most crime TV series are based in these citites, but I wanted something different this time, so I did a bit of research on different cities in America and decided on San Fransisco, mainly the differences between it's Police department and most of the other departments or Sheriff's offices, inspectors instead of detectives. With the magic side of it I hadn't read anything that wasn't leading up to a crescendo, some big battle a ways down the road where good had to triumph over evil to save the world, every fantasy series has it whether it's the Wheel of Time, Dragonlance or the Dresden Files, even though Dresden's a half decent mage he's still getting in the middle of some heavy shit, and at some point some evil's needin it's ass kicked. With Damien nothing is black and white, it's just the world as it is, shades of grey and at either end there is the Light and the Dark, but he's there to keep everyone in check, he's a powerful Wizard but he's not going to save the world for the light or destroy the world for the dark, he's going to slap anyone who tries down to keep the world in balance, because for there to be good in the world there has to be evil and eveything has to be in balance.

 Burn was just something that came from my totally messed up head. At the time I started writing it I had never read any Urban Fantasy, I didn't even know there was such a thing as Urban Fantasy, I was totally in the dark about it at that point. It came about because I was sick of writing the traditional fantasy settings, your Sword and Sorcery, High Fantasy and Sword and Sandal types. I love reading them, but I didn't feel at that time that really there wasn't something that hadn't been done before, so I started work on Burn, mixing the fantasy, the sci-fi and alternative history with crime stories that I had been reading a lot of at the time, and it was just something totally different, it evolved into a series of fairly brutal stories set in this alternative world that just sprung from my head from nowhere. But as with everything else I got sidetracked and went and wrote other things, many of them in the same world as that Gabriel, Sara and Suzie inhabit, and many of them with two or three of the characters themselves involved, and it took me until almost a year after beginning the book to complete the final chapters back at the end of September beginning of October and I am working on the bits that I alreayd know needed fixing, and I don't mean the grammer.


Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

This is actually something I think about an awful lot, because I've got to admit I like having a basic facial structure for my main characters that I can go to artists, well this is their basic look, or they look like this person, and it extends eventually into the other characters. for Damien it would be hard because the guy is 6 foot six and built like the side of a house so it would probably have to be somebody that was specfically brought in to play the character, and I would really not like anyone other than a Scotsman to play the character, I find faked Scottish accents to be terrible, for Carmen I'd go with Natalie Morales, she's about the right age, got the right look, I think she's a very good actress .

For Burn, I had a very definate look at actors and the closest I ever got to Gabriel was Gerard Butler for the look and size, then I saw Game of Thrones and Richard Madden, again it's the whole people who aren't Scottish do shit Scottish accents, but yeah he'd be awesome if he bulked up. For Suzie it was always Anna Popplewell and for Sarah I always had Taylor Schilling in mind for that part, and for a couple of the minor characters I had ideas who I would like to play them, for Hjordis, Gabriel's Magi right hand, Linda Zilliacus who is Finnish, for Special agent Tyrone I was thinking probably Anwan Glover of The Wire and for Maria Adler of the UPD Martha MacIssac from Superbad.

Frakkin Writers Block

Yeah, well, it's true I have, was writing a companion story to the one in the recently released anthology, Strange Tales from the Scriptorian Vaults , but I got a huge dose of writers block and it hasn't gone away yet, so soon I will get back to the writing but if you haven't downloaded this to Kindle, hopefully by the time the paper version is orderable (yes, it's probably a made up word, but I don't care) I will have finished the tie in story and I won't be banging my head against the wall trying to get it to work, it's been almost a week, I want it to stop and let me start writing again.

Battletech Novels

Hello all, just a little random thoughts for your troubles this day.

Normally I'm not one to read books licensed from games, because they generally go one of two ways they are very good or very bad and there don't seem to be any inbetween, I do read certain writers of said fiction, R.A. Salvatore, Dan Abnett, and William King pretty much being it.

But I had remembered that I had read the Legend of the Jade Phoenix many years ago, I think I was ten or twelve the last time I read it, which was more than half a lifetime ago, and I found a copy of it in the library, which in itself is fairly unusual, the library up my way generally doesn't have the greatest fantasy and sci-fi collection which is sad really, because there is a whole effing section devoted to "Celebrity" biographies, I'm not going to get into the sad state of reading habits right now, that can be kept for a more drunk and wacky mood.

Now why did I enjoy this because I enjoy the stories where the hero, in this Aiden Pryde, go from failure to redemption in the space of the series, this being a trilogy.

 Pryde is his bloodname, being Trueborn of the Sibko, the Clans of the Battletech Universe's genetically created warrior sibling company where those who are created to be warriors grow up, it's a bit fucked I know.

When I first read this I was a player of Battletech but I had never actually learned anything about the Clans, the guys I played with were very much purists of the game, though they were like 20 or more years older than me (I played at the Wargaming club I am still a member of) and never had anything to do with the clans, I think they may have had a Tech readout or two with some clanner stuff in them but just for reference.

So I was intriqued, my only knowledge of the Clans came from the Animated series, which according to the canon of the game was lets say wrong. So, I found every piece of this particular series of books very interesting to read in the first place, adding knowledge that I did not have of battles and such in the series that I had never even heard of up until that point (and pretty much made it my mission to find out more, which I have and far too much information for one human brain to contain it's all in the books).

Anyway Aiden and his Sibko start their warrior training having been whittled down from their ninety members after their birth to a much smaller number when they begin weeior trainign, because only the strong survive, which eventaully through deaths or washouts becomes three, along with Marthe, who would one day become Khan of their Clan (the Jade Falcon, funny I hadn't mentioned that yet), they enter their trail of position which he loses because to Marthe who stabs him in the back when he makes it a free-for-all with veyr unClanlike tactics, which would become a watchword for Aiden himself.

He is demoted to Astech and escapes before his training commander can engineer a second Trail of Postion, only meant to get one, he is brought back by his Sibko's Falconer, or trainging officer, Joanna who would be part of his life up until the end. During this time Aiden fathers a child, Dianna, with his Sibkin, Peri, yes I know it's a bit ick. Ter Roshak has a Freeborn, that would be someone with a momma and a Poppa, training group killed so Aiden can take his place. He does and with the help of Horse, a Freeborn warrior who becomes his constant companion on his journey through the universe of Battletech.

He eventually gets to fight for a Bloodname, with the help of Marthe, Horse and Joanna, wins it, in the book Bloodname, having earned his place in the Grand Mellee, he eventually wins his bloodname and goes on in Falcon Guard to command a disgraced cluster of Clan warriors (Named the Falcon Guards) but eventually because of him and his unClanlike tactics the Guards become a unit of choice for Clan Trueborn, nicknamed Pryde's Pride after him.

I Highly recommend this trilogy to anyone, if you like big robots that kick the shit out of each other, and if you've played any of the previous computer games based in the universe you'll get a kick out of it, don't need to know anything about the games, because it's all explained in the back.
 
 So, now because I'm clambering to find as many of the novels as I can get my hands on, got an eye on the seven books of the Saga of the Grey Death Legion it would be nice if you could get them in an omnibus Catalyst Game Labs should do that.

Night of a Thousand Spells

Good evening to you all, just another little short story from the world of the Magi, this one coming from the day from the main character, Gabriel of Alba's, birth, it was written for a short story anthology I'm going to release sometime in the new year when I get around to finish writing all the short stories I started, got lots of others on the horizon. I will be posting the ones that have been posted elsewhere later, going to post one a week and then continue with the newer ones once they are finished thought there will be two posts next week, one coinciding with the release of Dark Tales from the Scriptorian Vaults on the 31st of this month, dwhich I'm fairly sure you will know if you read my blog often or know me at all, since I can't stop talking about it, I'm fuckin proud so sue me. details of how to purchase it and where to purchase it will be posted here when I find out how and also on my facebook page and also that week probably another short story from the Magiverse and maybe one from the rest of my many fantasy worlds or alternate realities, there are 30 odd so plenty to chose from.

So if you like it let me know if you don't feel free to tell me and if you read it and like it pass it along to some friends,

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Night of a Thousand Spells

He was not your typical baby, even for one of the Magi. His tufty down of hair was dark brown and his eyes already a piercing blue. Gabriel his parents had named him, bloody idiots, he thought to himself, hardly a Magi name, it was the name of the Christian texts, messenger of the gods indeed.

He could already feel the Dark ones gathering, always happened after the birth of a Magi child, when their magic was bound until puberty, not that it was always so, and this time they were in for a bloody great shock.

He growled to himself and wove shields around the other babies and the nurses in the nursery, only fair that they be protected, it was subtle but it meant they would be protected against just about anything that could happen during the coming fight.

He felt the first one come through the door of the nursery, a dark mage on his own, dressed in a ceremonial black robe, he backhanded the nurse who was looking after the babies at that point, she had been cooing over the grimaces and gripes of the children.

That was not a nice thing to do. Gabriel growled to himself, it didn't sound like a growl it was a squeak. A white fireball appeared in his tiny hand and it exploded forward at the dark mage incinerating him instantly.

A little grin appeared on his face. Come to take my power did you, wretched little toe-rags, the baby though. I'll bloody show you why I was feared by the Dark Lords in my previous life.

Another of the Dark Ones entered the room and a lightening bolt shot from the crib and Gabriel's hand, it shot through her and impacted off of the ceiling and the plaster began to fall, bouncing off the shields of the babies below the impact point onto the floor.

Gabriel tried to roll himself but his little muscles just left him flapping, he was trying to do what he did in his previous life with his body. I hate reincarnation bloody already. He grumbled to himself. Not even twenty-four bloody hours old and I'm already being attacked.

A number of Werewolves entered the rooms with a pair of sorcerers. A phantom hand from the baby grabbed one of the Were's smashing it into another and then another which cannoned them through the glass viewing window and off the wall. The remaining Were's looked around to see where the attack had come from, only to be set on fire by the baby. The sorcerers imploded with his asigation spell.

What has the world come to that I can't be left in peace for the day of my birth and leave the chuffing mundane hospital, they start trying to chuffing kill me. He growled away to himself as he launched a pair of whitefire balls at a group of warlocks who appeared in the room before they could get their bearings and they were killed instantly.

The baby magi was struggling to roll himself again but was getting absolutely nowhere and it was starting to annoy him greatly. The next Dark One who appeared, was ripped apart by Gabriel's phantom hands, taking the full brunt of the baby's frustration.

More of the dark ones appeared through the corridors, each shielded and ready for a pack or two of the Magi Hunters protecting him, As there bloody should be. His father was a Pack Master, commander of the Fifth Circle, the most elite hunter packs of the entire cadre. Damn well nearly as powerful as the Huntmaster himself, or the Triumvirate, his son should be protected by the best.

If these bozos are teleporting in here the bloody Hunters or some bloody Guardians shouldn't have any problems with it. The baby's squeaked out loud since he couldn't vocalise his frustration in any other way.

The sorcerers were fighting with each other now to get at him, to tap the power from his tiny little body, a battery they would feed off until he was spent of all that power, Magi children were at their peak of power during the day of their birth, and every five years on that day until their fifteenth birthday, their day of ascension, when they become adults in the minds of the Cadre and they chose their path, and for most the day they are filled with the most power. Many of his kind never reached the day of ascension because of the likes of the men and women trying to take his power from him.

The baby cackled away to himself as he launched white fireball after white fireball into the hallway, making sure that he instigated a full on brawl between the different factions, and keeping his tiny little backside alive.

He was sure some of them weren't there to drain his power, some of them, especially the demon thralls were probably just there to kill him. The children of the deep knowing full well who he was and what he was reborn to do.

His coming was prophesied, by one of his own siblings no less, he really didn't like the fact that he got screwed by his own sister. It was one of the side effects from being who he was, always got screwed by good intentions and bad mistakes.

He could hear the war cries of the Magi as the Hunters finally appeared. The little baby Gabriel giggled to himself in triumph, but it was short lived. A dozen of the Midnight Heart, a Cabal of Dark magic practitioners entered the nursery filled with their power and surrounded by their own powerful shields.

All around them they felt shields around the babies, each of the shields identical in construction and with the same stamp of the Magi who created them.

“The little bastard is here somewhere, just check every one of them for the Mark.” The leader, Anastassia Andolfo ordered her people, she was a most powerful Dark Wizard, apprenticed by they Grand Necromancer himself, Adjustier Namock, Dark Lord of Hell. “Only one with the Mark could weave this many shields at once and hold them. We must find him before the Hunters break free.”

“Did our lord give you any idea how to break his shield?” Jared Dalmuir, murderer of Gabriel's parents first born daughter asked her. “He may be a baby but he's got the power of a Magi Warmaster.”

“Ah, but you can see he left his mark, not too subtle.” She said with a snort.

“Since when have the Magi Warrior Caste done anything subtle, they're brute force incarnate, they don't need to be subtle when they have all the power they do.” Dalmuir said as he felt his robes go on fire. He hurriedly pulled them off and began stamping on the robes to put the fire out, it wouldn't and it started to consume his trouser. His eyes went mad with fear. “Fuck, it's whitefire, the little shit can use whitefire, somebody help me.”

“No, Dalmuir, I think you can be of use for something else.” Anastasia said with a wicked smile as her ceremonial Athame went across his throat and his blood spilled into a ceremonial bowl, she put more and more ingredients in the bowl and began chanting in Sumerian. The Sumerians had been expert practitioners of magic and those that did follow the dark arts were very good. When she was finished she blew the contents of the bowl out into the air. Locator dust, fueled by death energy, not a good combination. Gabriel shot his little arms into the air firing brimstone charges everywhere, sending the Cabal flying away from the babies.

Every baby except from Gabriel was crying by this point, which didn't go unnoticed by the locator dust, which coalesced around his shield. Oh crap on a crap stick.

“Thought you were clever did you.” Anistacia said with an evil grin. “Brimstone charges, very naughty, I thought all you old ones never used such naughty spells.”

“We need to begin.” Heirmandier Wulfen growled to her. “The night is almost up, his power is at it's strongest right now, even with all that he's used to repel us.”

“There's something different about this one Anastasia, I think we should leave him be.” Gillian MacCord told her, the youngest member of the Cabal was actually a Council of Magic plant in Midnight Heart.

“Go watch the door, McCord,” Anastasia growled at her, and she did as she was told. The numbers of their circle was made up to thirteen, and they began their ritual to take down his shield and then his power. The little baby Gabriel, clenched his little fists almost to the beat of their chant, He was trying to think of a spell to rid himself of all of them, but he was being drained with every chant.

Gabriel started to convulse and foam from his little mouth, almost drained of the will to maintain his shield he was suddenly filled with the power of his ancestors, all the Magi of his line who had came before him first son to first son, his eyes glowing the bluey white of whitefire, his baby hands shot out into his shield which exploded with such force it literally shattered every bone in the bodies of those that touched it. And the white fire consumed their bodies leaving not even ash.

Anastassia & Hermandier had split seconds to realise their folly in following their master's orders. They felt for that instant the pain of being burned alive and having their bones shattered. It was in that final second that the Hunters broke through the lines of the Dark ones and into his room.

McCord nodded to the first of the Hunters Saluting him before teleporting away with a wink to the baby.

About fucking time you losers. Gabriel thought as he relaxed the shields.

His father stepped into the room, and imposing man towering over his pack mates, he scooped his son under the arms and raised him like a winning captain held the Scottish Cup.

“Behold my brothers and sisters, my son is who was prophesied in the Pythian Scrolls,” the Warrior Caste leader shouted to them, and they dropped to their left knee, right fist on their hearts and left fist planted in the ground, heads bowed.

All Gabriel could do was ineffectually try to kick out his tiny little legs, and think to himself.

Here we go again.

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 Just as a little addition if you haven't read anything I've written then you probably get lost by the references, it can happen even I get lost in some of my own, but don't be to worried at some point I'll through up a Glossary of terms from the Magi Universe, mostly it's changes from our reality to their reality or references to organisations that while central to the mythos aren't essential to read the stories.

Hello

How do folks

It's been a week or two since me last blog, I've been relitavely busy with the writing, even though my damn hand was useless for three days, I over did the writing and strained my hands muscles. I've been mapping out a Military Sci-fi series, which is based in the same 'verse as my Gabriel of Alba stories.

The short story in the Steampunk Anthology that's coming out on the 31st of this month, more details when it is coming out.

  I actually started with the middle book, which was meant to be the first book in the series, but I started doing back story for the main character and thought. Hmmm, why not start from the beginning of his journey to this point, and through that I added a number of details that made the original work a bit out of scew, and then went onto the second book, because I thought, I'm mapping out why not take it a bit further, keep on going until you've done book nine and then go all the way back to book one and write it but I've already added little bits and pieces that I know I'm not going to write into the books, thing is adding these little bits adds a little to each of the characters in my mind, which makes these characters even better, more real.

But I'm having to restrain myself from moving on to the next one because I've got this idea for it and this idea for it, I'm also having to completely keep my mind off the many ridiculous number of ideas I've got for series, I had a look recently and found 30 ideas for series, and I don't think that includes this one and the Gabriel of Alba. This got me into a scared shiteless position, how the hell am I at not even 30 ever going to finish a series if at this age I've got 30 ideas for series already, and I've only finished the first draft of one book from one series, how am I going to get through this.

So, what I've done to keep me on focus is draw some ships for the series, which as anyone who has ever seen any of my art must no it is very basic, very, very, very, very basic and kind of cack, but also I've kind of mapped out the part of the cosmos that the series is based, with little circles for the planets and importanr planets included, so I know this is how far away from where the main characters home is where they are and far away the bad guys homeworld is, course the distances and things like that are completely out of scope and scale but it's a nice thing to know that's where they are now, this is what part of the cosmos they're fighting in and it's helping but not when the brain shuts down for a couple hours.

But I'm having fun which is the most important thing.

Okay, going off maybe to get some sleep, maybe to do other things.

David's rules of Writing

I have devised a set of rules that I abide by in every book that I write, not  necessarily in ever story, because some short stories don't need necessarily so much gore and madness as I can come up with on any given day and with that much psychosis people would more than likely think there is something seriously wrong with me other than being mildly entertaining.  But unless you follow these rules when writing it tuns out to be no good, and no fun.

 While these are just some of the rules I have put together, they are by no means the lot, I'm just pretty drunk, and since the control of my civilised sentience goes bye bye when I'm drunk, which I find oddly liberating, and also when I write at my best, since I have no inhibitions and I'm frankly a little crazier than normal when on the libations of the fermented apple (Cider for those not in the know) this may be one of the few times that I feel that I'm not completely nuts (which I do feel pretty often, I know why but I don't think anyone else would get it). Due to the lack of filter I presently feel able to launch this into the blogosphere, though if this was everyone of my rules to writing I would be giving away the secrets that makes me  have a raw edge to my talent (I could tell you I knew that before but I'd be lying). that would be a direct quote from Sammy HK Smith, my friend, who is awesome, if you get a chance to read any of her work take it and read it, her writing is awesome, and I don't say that very often. Kristell ink is her imprint and this is their website http://www.kristell-ink.com/.

The Golden rule being that in every single book at least 1 principle character should either be severally injured, disfigured in some way, almost die in some horrific accident, actually killed (but some how returns to the land of the living) or actually completely snuffs it altogether, and if you are feeling particularly malicious at any point do it to more than one of them

Rule 2 is if you start getting bored, go work on something else, if you get bored the writing is going to be boring and when you get pissed off with it you are never going to go back to it

Rule three, when you write on an empty stomach don't stop until you almost crash from starvation, the writing is so much nastier

Rule four Writing until you are so exhausted you fall asleep at the computer is absolutely viable writing style, except you have to remember all the shit that was typed when you fell asleep.

Rule 5 Having a character speak like Yoda may be funny but its been done and over done, so don't eeeeevvvveeerrrrrrr do it, unless you're writing Star Wars stories, then it's acceptable, but only when it's Yoda 

Rule 6 Unless you are writing porno stories it's not necessary to have more than two rounds of the horizontal mamba in your book, then it gets tacky or turns into porn, in addition it is entirely viable that the first time two people screw that it is short, hard and nasty, or entirely awkward, cause that's how it always goes, it's never wonderful and life affirming. 

Rule Number 7 Getting drunk so you can write is totally acceptable, in my case especially it normally makes the writing better, but not too drunk, cause then you tend to puke over the paper, which is no good. Think Hemingway and Joyce, they may have been drunks but they wrote classics for a reason.

As an ancillary rule

Under no circumstances what so ever should you have a vampire that glows in the light, screws an under-age girl or mopes like a fuckin emo, Vampires are not like Edward Cullen, nor are they like anyone remotely like Edward Cullen, for Vampire, See Dracula alla Blade Trinity, he's a fuckin bad ass, sword slinging bad ass, totally bad ass. Also an addendum to that rule, if a Vampire's going to screw anyone in a novel, movie or tv show, she should look like Anna Paquin, no vampire should have no reall teeth, no venom, no animus. I get the symbolism with true Blood and I not only understand it and respect it, I damn well applaud it, few TV series, books, Movies have the balls to do it but Vampires should be Hunters, Killers and Warriors, not whiny little bitches or slaves to the blood of a certain species.

My own Vampires, few and far between, hard ass mother fuckers, almost impossible to kill, without being a harder mother fucker than they are which is the way it should be. Vlad the Impaler wasn't the inspiration for Dracula for fuck all, he was a fuckin hard case and thus so should all vampires.

Yippppeeeeee

Finally after almost a year of writing it, and much procrastination, getting bored and writing something else, spending too much time it the pub, playing MMO's and generally screwing around, I've finished the 1st Draft of Burn, Forest City, Burn, finished the last 3 chapters in the space of 10 hours Friday night into Saturday morning, yes it's very sad I know when I should have been out drinking I was in writing, and then went to my Gran's Birthday part with no sleep, much joy, but I'm not getting into that.

I'd like to say that it was easy to write because of my over active imagination. But, really it was f*in hard because of my over active imagination, when you have what, you at least, think is a great idea and write it down unfortunately it spawns other , again what you think, are great ideas and you get damn well bored of it. I even tried writing short stories in the world of my characters and that became harder and harder to do when I had more ideas for even more stories and characters. Then you get side-tracked by one of your friends, Sammy Smith, who say 'hey I'm looking for writers to write short stories for an anthology that I'm releasing in a couple of months how do you fancy it?' It turns out it's in the Steampunk, which I had never read in my puff because I've never been into that kind of thing but I will also admit because of her I love now. It means you have to go off an read a whole load of Steampunk books, but I forgive her because of the knock on effect, it means also I get my first professionally published short story coming October of this year, whoop, whoop, once I've got the notes for it and fixed it to her exacting specifications.

But, now I'm absolutely jamming and working on book two of the series Burn is the beginning of and working on more of the short stories, which I will eventually get around to releasing in a short story anthology of my own.

So, all in all things things are good right now, and I hope they stay this way for a bit.

I'm going to post a short story or two up here for you all to read over the next couple of weeks and maybe a few chapters of the book when it's edited and I'm happy with it.

So, I'm going to sign off for the momento and actually get some work done for once.

The drunken blog,

I felt at one point in my time in the blogosphere that I should do one drunk, and low an behold it happens to be this morning, I went out for a couple of pints to free my mind for some writing and I did quiet a bit, nothing for the Short Story book (Yeah there's going to be a whole book and I'm still trying to get more artists in my sphere of influence or lack there of, and when my ass finally get's round to doing a brief I'll be shooting it out to my writer friends) I'm writing for myself, nor the Steampunk short that I'm doing for the illustrious, patient and frankly more understanding than I would be Sammy HK Smith, it was in fact for my latest insane Military Sci-fi idea, of which there have been a ridiculous number of and always last until I read something and go, oh shit I've been writing something similar, hopefully this lasts longer.

I met a few new people and saw a few other people who I have known for a while in a whole new light, one person told me a story about George Lucas, Star Wars not being his original idea, apparently it was someone Else's which he bought. Don't know whether it's true, frankly I could give a flying fuck, Star Wars the Old Republic is still the best fuckin MMO I've ever played and let's be honest no-ones surprised that I've played a shit load of them, and less that is said about the prequel trio other than the lightsaber combat is awesome the better.

I learned that when I feel it's time to release how much I dislike a friends ex I should probably wait until he/she starts ragging on them until I go thank fuck I hated them, they drive me batshit crazy, and then add another two weeks.

I also learned that there is a very good reason why I stopped drinking beer (yes I drink cider, we all know I drink cider, it's the reason I walk in the pub, may the Gods Bless RUFUS T FIREFLY with another 21 years, they pull me a pint of it), because it tastes like feet, I like cider, I like the taste, I may be getting old, I may be getting boring (a friend of a friend apparently nicknamed me boring Dave, I'm not fuckin all that boring, I'm half insane but that's an entirely whole different kettle of fish) but I like booze with a taste in it, granted I'm not older than some people I drink with (you all know who you are and still look younger than me ya bastards :) ) but really I like walking into the pub on a random night during the week and before I've even got to the corner (that would be the regulars corner at Rufus which is our domain for the uninitiated) my pint is pulled and all I need to do is pay the fine young lady (which Rufus has many of) or friendly young gentleman and I'm happy as fuckin larry, and the only larry I know is always happy.

With Father's day fast approaching I thought I'd say something about my dad, many of you that know me haven't heard me say much about my dad other than he's alive, he was a cop (retired and still going strong thank the gods, retired police don't tend to last that long but my dad's lasted since he was 48 and a half so I'm happy there) and at times we don't get on. But I also have a lot to be thankful of because of my dad, I have my love of Celtic but not a bigoted, idiotic, I hate Rangers Supporters and the other shit that generally comes with supporting one of the Old Firm, a real football fan's love of Celtic, a healthy support of my beloved Hoops, much as I can get crazy when they play shit it's just cause they're playing shit. I also have my love of Rock from my father, I still love listening to Creedance Clearwater Revival, Uriah Heap and Jimmy Hendrix, and it wasn't until I saw his vinyl collection where I saw where I first got it from. I also have the hobby I am most passionate about other than reading, Wargaming, slowly but surely I was introduced via Space Marine, Warhammer and 40k into the world of "Real" wargaming, that is historical gaming, I have some of my most happy memories of my Childhood and my adult life because of that.

Of course the biggest thing I am thankful for is my Dad introducing me to Fantasy and Sci-fi, if it wasn't for him encouraging me to read and even more encouraging me to read the hobbit, lord of the rings and Magician, I would have never read George RR Martin, David Weber, Jim Butcher, and others, and if not for that I would have never realised my love of writing and Gabriel of Alba would never have been born, I would never have written him and those who have read the published and unpublished stories so far would never have got the enjoyment out of his crazy exploits.

So in short I dedicate this Blog to my Dad John Jospeh Muir, the man who I share a middle name with an whom I share my lifeblood with, I hope he very much enjoys this Father's day and the present he's getting, and I hope to be enjoying many more to come with him, no matter how often I drive him crazy.


Peace to you all and if you're dad is still with you, buy him a beer. :)

 Everything has to have a beginning

Hello all, David here, this is going to be my blog, where I'm going to write random crap and post some of my own work (I'm a writer, sort of), shout out about books I've read, and their authors, TV shows and Movies I've seen, and probably mostly rant at the world while I'm sozzled out my face.

So, Firstly I've got to say this is weird for me because while I'm a bit of a techno geek, I never really got the whole thing about blogging, and even social networking until very recently, on Facebook my friend list went from 3 to 90 odd in the matter of a few months.

Secondly, if you haven't read the Dresden Files and you like Urban Fantasy, by the love of all that is unholy you have to read them, Jim Butcher has completely blown me away with his writing, I never did get the whole 1st person writing style (mostly cause I've been thus far shite at it myself) until I read them  they are extremely well written, funny, sad, thoughtful and smart all at the same time. If you like smart ass main characters, who are constantly getting themselves in stupid positions just cause they do the right thing, trust me you'll love it, it's Urban fantasy but with a detective leaning and believe me you are going to enjoy it.

Third, in the very near future (I'd say 6 months, but more likely 8) I'm going to be releasing a short story book, all of the stories written in the alternative history fantasy world that I have been writing in for a while, the opening book (very raw, unedited and unfinished version) is here Burn Forest City Burn. And I'm looking for writers to do short stories for it too, people to add their own little bit of flavour to my weird world, so if your interested give me a shout and I'll get you some information about my little world and you can play to your hearts content.

Along with the book I'm looking for a concept artist, somebody who is going to define the series and the world by their art, it's my plan to do a whole lot of work in the world, not just with my main characters, and I want a coherent look to it all, so maybe just one or two artists to do the most of the work. Again get in contact with me if you want to give it a shot, give me a shout.

Well I believe that is all for the moment, so have a good day all.