Childhood = Ruined

So,

I come home from the pub and the Cathouse this morning and switch my computer on, fairly happy and ready to type out all of the notes and story that I had written while getting drunk off my ass as is par for the course on a night out for me.

Then I sign into Facebook which I haven't checked since about 14:00 local and find out that Ben Affleck is going to be Batman,

I consider myself to be a tolerant, easy going guy, but this shit, pissed me the hell off.

Ben Affleck destroyed Daredevil for me and I loved Matt Murdock almost as much as I loved the on the Marvel side X-men, Spidey, Iron Man and the Hulk and Green Lantern and Batman himself on the DC side along with 2000AD and Hellboy while I was growing up and maturing.

George Clooney in the shit piece that is Batman and Robin will not have fucked up Batman and could not have ever  as much as this dipshit will.

Hell, I'm a better actor than Affleck is and I suck, I think I got a D in Drama in second year of High school and my acting hasn't really improved since, but I'd be more convincing as Batman as this asshole and I'm unfit and outweigh him by a couple stone,  as an older, out of shape Bruce Wayne but still, I'm eleven years younger and a whole lot more in tune than Affleck could ever be.

Fuckin Warner Brothers execs that are bringing this tosswit in are probably the same idiots that let Ryan Reynolds play Hal Jordan and allowed Parallax to be his opponent when Hal Jordan was fuckin Parallax.

Anyway, not happy and if he continues to remain as Batman, I won't be going to see Superman Vs Batman and the Justice League movie, even though I was really looking forward to them.

If this crap continues I am done with DC and my kids (if they ever materialise) will be brought up on Marvel and 2000AD and I will exclude all DC after now.

An excerpt and some thoughts.

  Little bit of Running out of Space, one of my works in progress, it comes in after the main character Caleb O'Hearn has been talking about the history of Psionics and language in the Magiverse to demonstrate his genetic memory from his Magi heritage, that bit is about six hundred words itself and it's a little bit lecturing but part of the rolling history into the story without it being just flung at you so I'm not going to post that. After the excerpt there are a few thoughts of mine on shared universes and collaboration between writers and shared timelines.

****************

'But it's funny to watch you drone on and not even realise it though, but also educational. Learned a little piece about my own heritage while bored shitless about yours.' Kerry-Anne told him and he flipped his middle finger at her. 'That wasn't Magi ancestor knowledge, all of your Magi ancestors were Hunters, Guardians and Soldiers. Where did that come from?'

'Sarah of Trenton, her sire's sire was a Professor of Germanic Languages at the University of New Amsterdam.' He replied with a grimace. 'When the hippie pothead wasn't on a commune.'

'Your warrior attitude would be an embarrassment to him as much as he's an embarrassment to you.' Kerry-Anne chuckled at him. 'Hell his granddaughter was an embarrassment for joining the FIB. He considered the whole notion of war and Big Government pointless.'

'War is fuckin pointless.' O'Hearn sighed and Kerry-Anne gave him a look of surprise. 'Show me a true warrior that wouldn't rather he never had to fight again, and I'll show you a damned liar or a homicidal maniac that should never be in uniform, like dear old dad. It is true, I am never more alive when I am chasing down prey or fighting hand-to-hand in a struggle to the death, but I've been stabbed, shot, sliced open, gouged, blown up, and had to heal from those wounds too many times in what has not been the longest life. I would really rather that I could spend the rest of my considerable life time with my feet up until I'm old enough that it's the end for me and one last battle for me to shuffle off the mortalish coil and sit in Bilskirnir until I am needed  once more.'

************************************

 This plus everything else I'm working on, is running through my mind constantly, interlinking all the Magiverse stories can be a bit of work, especially when you are jumping two thousand years from the time of Gabriel to the time of Caleb,  and even when I jump just under a hundred years to my cyberpunk work, totally inspired by Continuum and Shadowrun, Corporate governments and Megacorporations.

Haven't seen series two of Continuum beyond the third episode been too busy with writing and painting soldiers. I can have TV shows in the background if I've seen them before but if it's new I have to actually sit and concentrate on it. But I'm getting off topic.

When I'm doing the Cyberpunk I have to remember what the map of Gabriel's Terra looks like even though it's all in my head (not the best idea, right now it's a bit fluid), trying to fit the Corporate Nations later in the timeline to nations from earlier in the timeline and then having to remember to use the right names in Caleb's time can hurt your head sometimes but I love reading shared universe fiction, and seeing how they evolve and how the stories evolved from where, granted you don't normally see three different periods on a timeline at the same time but that's me, glutton for the punishment I put upon myself.

I always wanted to be one of those authors that inspires collaboration with his fellow writers, I think that's what makes the Roleplaying, Comic book and TV & Movie shared universes so fun to immerse yourself in is the vibrant and many voiced reality, that no-one person is telling the story. Don't get me wrong they always need a strong hand to guide the ship and some of my favourite books series are written by one hand but I still believe it doesn't happen nearly enough in Sci-fi and Fantasy fiction that many hands help to form a better universe unless they tie in with a TV series or Movies or RPG's. 

Often enough authors will have others write for short story anthologies from their Universe which they edit,  but I think personally that D&D settings especially the Forgotten Realms Novels and even the Games Workshop forever dubbed the Evil Empire, fictional universes are made so much better, deeper and more real by the dozens of authors that write in the universe, though I'm sure most authors wouldn't like giving up money they would make writing their own work. 

People I'm sure will quote the expansions of the Cthulhu Mythos, the Man-Kzin Wars that added to Larry Niven's Known space, the expansion of Asimov's Foundation series and the adding to Lyman Frank Baum's (A prophet was he) Oz, the additions to Robert Howard's (Himself a Cthulhu Mythos expander) Conan, to me but I will also point out none of these except the Man-Kzin wars were ever done in the original author's lifetime.

But I won't deny that's always something nice to see, people trying to anticipate what would this author have written about next if he hadn't passed onto the halls of Valhalla, and I do applaud that, I would however like to see more authors collaborating to expand their own universes.

That's my end for today, off to the Falkirk District Wargames Club tonight, so dinner and work out an army, which I should have done last week when I was sitting on my arse at the club.

Healer's Touch

As part of the bloggers tour that brought you Seasons of the Dead, it now brings you Healers Touch, unfortunately this is a couple of days late, because I finally replaced my PC (yay) and spent the first twelve hours after replacing it minus time for food consumption and other things that we won't name I played Star Trek Online (withdrawal from Gaming much?) also apart from that I've been busy writing my own stuff, and I'm going to stop myself from ranting and droning so without  further ado.

HEALER’S TOUCH

by

Deb E Howell

For Llew to heal, something must die.

Llew, a young pickpocket who lives as a boy on the streets of a wild-west mining town, finds her real problems begin when she survives the gallows. Forced to run, she persuades a group of fighters escorting a young girl to her wedding to let her travel with them across the badlands. On the journey Llew faces hostile tribesmen, desperate bandits and, the enmity of her own companions should they find out who and what she is: a girl, a fugitive, and a feared Healer. One of the fighters, Jonas, possesses superhuman prowess as a warrior, and carries the knife able to ‘kill the unkillable’; the knife that can kill Llew. Despite being of races at war for centuries, they are drawn to one another.

During the journey, they encounter Braph the magician, Jonas’ half-brother and potential nemesis. He pursues them as they journey across the sea to the continent of Phyos and at the moment Llew finally feels safe, he abducts her. He begins to take what is most precious to him: her blood.

Healer’s Touch is a mesmerising mix of fantasy, steampunk and Wild West adventure – and even a dash of romance!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Bio:

Deb E was born in New Zealand’s North Island, but her parents corrected that within months, moving south to Dunedin and staying there. Childhood nights were spent falling asleep to cover versions of Cliff Richard and the Shadows and other Rock ’n Roll classics played by her father’s band, and days were spent dancing to 45 LPs. Many of her first writing experiences were copying down song lyrics. She graduated to scientific reports when she studied a fungus in the Zoology department of the University of Otago, trading all traces of popularity for usefulness... then traded both for fiction.

Deb lives in Dunedin, New Zealand with her family and a menagerie of pets.

Links:

Website/Blog: http://deberelene.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/deberelene

Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/deberelene

and many more...

REVIEWS

REVIEW BY JO TOON,

SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY ASSOCIATION OF NEW ZEALAND

Healer's Touch is set in a fantasy world where magic and the Wild West era have combined. Llew is a street girl with the ability to heal herself, whose life is changed beyond recognition when she tries to steal a knife from a stranger. Disguised as a boy, she is forced to leave her home, the gold-town of Cheer where she has lived all her life, and accompany the stranger, Jonas, and his companions on their mission, crossing country and continents. Along the way she learns more about Jonas, and the ancient emnity between the two races, the Aenuks and the Kara. She also discovers where she fits in in this battle and that her ability to heal herself and others is more dangerous than she could ever have imagined.

Healer's Touch is Deb E. Howell's debut novel, and is an absolute page turner of a read. The setting of a Fantasy book against a Wild West era background provides a novel viewpoint to the quest story. The world which has been built is intriguing, and the history of both the races and the main characters is very well written.

There isn't a dull moment in the story, with the action starting from the first page. Deb E. Howell has a great knack of building the tension up subtly without ever making it seem forced, and mixing it with moments of calm and sudden bursts of energy. She draws the reader in to the world and brings it to life, allowing us to discover the landscape, people and history along with Llew as she starts her journey from the small frontier town of Cheer, Aghacia, to Rakun in Brurun and beyond.

The principal characters are very much frontier town folk and are very well rounded and realised. The secondary ones could have possibly done with a little more fleshing out, to give us a bit more of an insight into their history and motivations, and I am hoping that this will come in the second volume of the series.

Overall, this is an excellent read, and a very promising start to a series; I am now eagerly awaiting the next book!

REVIEW BY ELISA NEVILLE (blogger/reader)

lostinsidethecovers.wordpress.com/

This is an epic fantasy adventure and is a tiny bit reminiscent of an Eddings book or something similar. Llew is a healer, but knows nothing of her people, history or abilities.  She has to get out of town fast when she heals herself in public and the townsfolk come after the “witch”.  She hooks up with a girl and her guards who are going across the countryside to meet her new arranged husband.

Llew has been hiding in plain sight as a boy since her father disappeared when she was 11.  She hasn’t had an easy time of things, and even though she makes friends in her new travel companions, things aren’t that easy.  Her abilities are a double-edged sword, sure she can heal, but she pulls the life force from living things and can kill people, animals and plants using her healing powers.  Because she is so dangerous to living things, her kind is not popular in many countries and she will either be killed, studied or sent to a breeding program to make more like her.  Not good options.  Llew starts to find out who and what she is, a bit of a coming of age and taking responsibility for ones actions - I always love stories like that!

Jonas is also gifted, but with strength and speed and is the mortal enemy of the healers.  So guess what happens…

Llew is a strong heroine I loved reading about.  She is pragmatic, women aren’t treated very well but she has learned some tricks and stands up for herself physically and verbally.  I wanted to cheer her on a few times when she stood up for herself.  I was also embarrassed for her a time or two when she couldn’t control her mouth.  Double edged sword.  It is funny, I was reminded of the fairy tale Ring of Consequences while reading this story, because the ring grants wishes, but you never knew what the result of the wish would be: something good and something bad, that dang double edged sword again!

This story does have a little romance in it, but it is pretty PG13 and stays fairly clean even though there are definitely adult “situations”.  There is a lot of death, some curse words and they have to deal with rape.  Nothing violently written, and it was “well done” but it was still a bummer and the characters struggle with it – as they should.

Ok, so this is an epic fantasy, and there are three books planned for the series and I was super worried it would end with them in the exact middle of a quest on the trail or something, and while there is more story to tell, it was ok.  Shew!  It wasn’t one big book cut into three parts (cough, LOTR cough).  But I want the next book NOW!  There are some things, and some decisions, and what will happen and somewhat about that guy questions I would really like to get some answers to.  So this is a rainbow day (happy yet sad) I am happy to have read this early, but I read it early and now have longer to wait!  My life is so tough. I give this book 4.5 glowing stars (out of 5).

SHORTER REVIEWS/SNIPPETS

“There isn’t a dull moment in the story, with the action starting from the first page.” — Jo Toon, Science Fiction & Fantasy Association of New Zealand (SFFANZ)

“It has been a while since I rated a book 5 stars for more than the fact that I liked the story… but I have to say Healer’s Touch was definitely a truly well earned 5.” — Miz Reader (Book Blogger).

“Deb E. Howell comes out swinging!” — Craves the Angst Book Blog

“Howell is only scratching the surface of her writing talents and worth watching as the series develops.” — Noor A. Jahangir

“Healer’s Touch brought very real, very wet tears to my eyes on several occasions, and this is one of the signs that let me distinguish between good authors and great authors. …I really felt this book.” — Hypervorean Book Blogger

“From the first chapter Llew grabs hold of your heart and you are there fighting with her.” — Eclipse Reviews

“…an epic fantasy adventure and is a tiny bit reminiscent of an Eddings book…” — Lost Inside The Covers Review Blog

“Healer’s Touch Delivers Transfusion of Originality to Fomulaic Fantasy Genre” — Author Dean Lombardo

“…a must read for all fantasy lovers especially those looking for a new slant on the genre.” — Amazon Review

An Excerpt from Healer’s Touch—

“Llew!”

He gathered her to him. So alive moments earlier, now limp. All he could see was blood. It covered her hands, soaked her shirt and pooled on the ground. He clasped her chin, turning her to him. The touch sent a tingle through his fingers even as more blood gushed from her open throat and he jerked his hand away, letting her head fall back. His eye was drawn by movement in the grass. One of Llew’s hands had fallen to the ground and the grass around it was dying in an ever increasing circle.

Jonas swallowed down his revulsion and dumped her unceremoniously on the ground, jumping to his feet. In a daze, he reclaimed his knives from the corpses, taking them to the water’s edge to clean with vigorous sweeps of his fingers down the blades. He berated himself for even toying with the idea of getting involved with her. What did he really know about her? He knew her name. And now he knew all he needed to know.

He wiped the half-clean blades on his thigh, sheathed them in his vest and drew the big knife at his hip. He cradled it in his hands, watching the moonlight fly off as he tilted it back and forth. There was one purpose to this knife’s existence: to kill the unkillable. And there was no safer time to make an attempt on the life of an Aenuk than when they were already half dead.

Jonas turned from the water. The meadow was now like a hayfield. Each blade of grass, each leaf of clover, each dandelion had given its all to provide but a tiny fraction of the energy – jin, as it was known in Turhmos – needed to bring a person back from near-death.

She lay unconscious, but her breathing was steady now. He had limited time to act. He crouched beside her, knife hovering over her back right where her heart should be, assuming Aenuks had a heart. But this was Llewella. She wasn’t like the Aenuks he had faced on the Turhmos killing fields. She wasn’t trained to fight, to continue to fight, and to take the enemy with her when she faced final death. She was merely a girl doing what she had to do to survive.

PURCHASE LINKS

Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/323265

Amazon US (Kindle): http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DJE8NSK/

Amazon UK (Kindle): http://www.amazon.co.uk/Healers-Touch-ebook/dp/B00DJE8NSK/