Howdy all,
Now
as promised when I found out I would send this out, Strange Tales of
the Scriptorian Vaults has gone live to buy in paperback so if you want
to buy it from amazon the US Canadian and UK links are below and the
ISBN below that. Mine is on it's way.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Strange-Tales-Scriptorian-Vaults-Robert/dp/1909374016/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1359472356&sr=8-1
http://www.amazon.ca/Strange-Tales-Scriptorian-Vaults-Robert/dp/1909374016/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1359472660&sr=8-2
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Strange+Tales+from+the+Scriptorian+Vaults
ISBN: 1909374016 ISBN-13: 9781909374010
Tuesday, 29 January 2013
Thursday, 17 January 2013
New stuff
Little bit of new fiction for you all, short, sweet and new characters for my readers to enjoy. Don't have a title because I suck at titles, suggestions welcome.
Two warriors stood back-to-back surrounded by the foul minions of hell.
Dog faced, goat horned, red skinned, cloven hoofed beasts standing like men, with flaming, acid dripping blades in their hands.
Sarah Bardot creaked her neck and unsheathed her heirloom Guntō in her right hand, having transferred her sidearm into her left. Her riding jacket zipped covered her heavily tattooed torso and arms with it's Kevlar armour plates, her long silky hair held back by her Omaha Storm Chasers baseball cap.
Behind her stood Maximus Kane, tall, Scandinavian and scary as hell, a Viking sword in his right hand and a flintlock pistol in his left, his long leather duster covering the belt that held their sheaths, his homburg covering his hair.
"For the Brotherhood." He bellowed at the top of his voice and threw himself into battle, blasting a hole in one of the daemons, then whipping his sword through the neck of another, as Sarah pirouetted, bellying her ballet training during her childhood in Jerusalem, dodging the abyssal blades of two daemons, slicing the hand off of one and smashing her pistol into the maw of the second and fired blowing it's brains out.
"Well, I must say, life working with you is never dull." She said with a grin as he elbow struck another daemon, he slipped his pistol in it's holster, flipped his hand open and blew the mana dust that had come off his pistol, turning a breath into a conflagration of fire which incinerated the bodies of a dozen of the daemons. "As I said, never dull."
Kane grabbed one of the daemons and snapped it's neck before grabbing a second and running his blade across it's throat. Sarah blasted away with her pistol as she held of daemons at bay with her sword. While his blade had been in his family for twenty-five generations, she had inherited hers from her grandfather, fine for dealing with minor daemons like those they were fighting but not so good for fighting higher daemons, which was the point of the pistol loads.
"I think it's about time we made our way to the boss." Sarah said to him and he nodded, pulling his hands back behind his back, he threw them forward and the force bowled over the remaining Dog daemons in front of him, shattering all the bones in their bodies. "Well done."
He looked at her and raised an eyebrow.
"Your the wizard, I'm the muscle." She shrugged and followed him past the ruined forms of the dog daemons. "I'm sure as a daemon hunter you know what they are called."
"Hundurhelvíti." He replied, wiping his blade clean of the blood with a cloth, checking it for pitting from the daemon blood. "Islandsk for Dog of hell, pretty much literally."
"First engaged in your neck of the woods then." She said and he looked at her with a scornful look.
"I'm from Norge, which is part of the mainland, Island, is an island." He replied, using his native language names rather than the English ones, as they moved on up the stairs, further into the dwelling of the daemon lord. Further up the stairs a bat winged daemon launched itself and dropped to land on top of him, but he launched a fist sized ball of ice which exploded like a grenade the shards fragmenting and piercing the daemon's body, slicing it apart.
Sarah blasted away at the other daemons of it's genus dropped from the lintels they had been perched upon, Kane pulled a six-shooter from another holster and he blew holes in the backs of the daemons heads.
"Gods damned Altimors, I hate winged daemons." Sarah swore, slicing an arm off of one of the daemons that had survived the onslaught from her pistol.
"At least these are little ones." Kane said headbutting a daemon unconscious, and replacing his hat on his head before killing the prone daemon, as a roar came from above them, both of them looked up and he swore.
"Yeah, you spoke too soon." She shook her head, two feet with huge talons slammed into the floor, the beast had a tail longer than it's legs. It's wing span was twice the size of it's little cousins. The tail smacked Sarah and sent her flying slamming her into a wall and stunning her.
"Hey, óhroða sogskál, I'm going to tear you a new arsehole." Kane growled at the daemon lord.
"Puny little mortal man, I will rip your limbs from your torso, and make you watch as I take the woman so she will bear my mortal spawn." It returned, flapping it's wings to batter him with wind.
"Bitch please, I am no mortal and I am sure as shit not puny." Kane retorted, throwing a force ball at the daemon lord, rocking it backards.
"DAEMON HUNTER." It squealed, attacking him simultaneously with it's sword and it's tail, Kane dodged both and slammed his seax into it's tail, pinning it to the floor. Kane slammed a fireball into it's jaw rocking it backwards and tearing off a length of it's tail.
"You going to give up or are you going to make me kill your ass?" Kane asked it, it swung it's sword in reply. "Fair enough."
Kane's own sword stopped the Daemon lords and he pushed it up, he followed on, picking up the seax, using it and his sword to hamstring the beast, after ducking under the monster, it dropped to it's knees and he backhanded the wings off, before launching himself onto it's shoulders. He dropped his blades to the bottom of it's neck and dug his blades into it's flesh, tearing and shearing until it's head came off, the whole time the paralyzed daemon was screaming at the top of it's lungs.
When he was finished, Kane flicked the blood from his blades and cleaned them off, not bothering with the blood and gore on his clothing. Sarah pushed herself from the floor feeling her head for splits, then walked over to him.
"Who was it?" She said looking down at the daemon lord.
"Azazel." He replied, spitting on the remains. "Fallen Angel, daemon lord."
"You might not want to look behind you." Sarah said to him and he looked to where she was looking. His hat was destroyed and he just dropped his head and shook it. "Told you life was never dull around you."
Two warriors stood back-to-back surrounded by the foul minions of hell.
Dog faced, goat horned, red skinned, cloven hoofed beasts standing like men, with flaming, acid dripping blades in their hands.
Sarah Bardot creaked her neck and unsheathed her heirloom Guntō in her right hand, having transferred her sidearm into her left. Her riding jacket zipped covered her heavily tattooed torso and arms with it's Kevlar armour plates, her long silky hair held back by her Omaha Storm Chasers baseball cap.
Behind her stood Maximus Kane, tall, Scandinavian and scary as hell, a Viking sword in his right hand and a flintlock pistol in his left, his long leather duster covering the belt that held their sheaths, his homburg covering his hair.
"For the Brotherhood." He bellowed at the top of his voice and threw himself into battle, blasting a hole in one of the daemons, then whipping his sword through the neck of another, as Sarah pirouetted, bellying her ballet training during her childhood in Jerusalem, dodging the abyssal blades of two daemons, slicing the hand off of one and smashing her pistol into the maw of the second and fired blowing it's brains out.
"Well, I must say, life working with you is never dull." She said with a grin as he elbow struck another daemon, he slipped his pistol in it's holster, flipped his hand open and blew the mana dust that had come off his pistol, turning a breath into a conflagration of fire which incinerated the bodies of a dozen of the daemons. "As I said, never dull."
Kane grabbed one of the daemons and snapped it's neck before grabbing a second and running his blade across it's throat. Sarah blasted away with her pistol as she held of daemons at bay with her sword. While his blade had been in his family for twenty-five generations, she had inherited hers from her grandfather, fine for dealing with minor daemons like those they were fighting but not so good for fighting higher daemons, which was the point of the pistol loads.
"I think it's about time we made our way to the boss." Sarah said to him and he nodded, pulling his hands back behind his back, he threw them forward and the force bowled over the remaining Dog daemons in front of him, shattering all the bones in their bodies. "Well done."
He looked at her and raised an eyebrow.
"Your the wizard, I'm the muscle." She shrugged and followed him past the ruined forms of the dog daemons. "I'm sure as a daemon hunter you know what they are called."
"Hundurhelvíti." He replied, wiping his blade clean of the blood with a cloth, checking it for pitting from the daemon blood. "Islandsk for Dog of hell, pretty much literally."
"First engaged in your neck of the woods then." She said and he looked at her with a scornful look.
"I'm from Norge, which is part of the mainland, Island, is an island." He replied, using his native language names rather than the English ones, as they moved on up the stairs, further into the dwelling of the daemon lord. Further up the stairs a bat winged daemon launched itself and dropped to land on top of him, but he launched a fist sized ball of ice which exploded like a grenade the shards fragmenting and piercing the daemon's body, slicing it apart.
Sarah blasted away at the other daemons of it's genus dropped from the lintels they had been perched upon, Kane pulled a six-shooter from another holster and he blew holes in the backs of the daemons heads.
"Gods damned Altimors, I hate winged daemons." Sarah swore, slicing an arm off of one of the daemons that had survived the onslaught from her pistol.
"At least these are little ones." Kane said headbutting a daemon unconscious, and replacing his hat on his head before killing the prone daemon, as a roar came from above them, both of them looked up and he swore.
"Yeah, you spoke too soon." She shook her head, two feet with huge talons slammed into the floor, the beast had a tail longer than it's legs. It's wing span was twice the size of it's little cousins. The tail smacked Sarah and sent her flying slamming her into a wall and stunning her.
"Hey, óhroða sogskál, I'm going to tear you a new arsehole." Kane growled at the daemon lord.
"Puny little mortal man, I will rip your limbs from your torso, and make you watch as I take the woman so she will bear my mortal spawn." It returned, flapping it's wings to batter him with wind.
"Bitch please, I am no mortal and I am sure as shit not puny." Kane retorted, throwing a force ball at the daemon lord, rocking it backards.
"DAEMON HUNTER." It squealed, attacking him simultaneously with it's sword and it's tail, Kane dodged both and slammed his seax into it's tail, pinning it to the floor. Kane slammed a fireball into it's jaw rocking it backwards and tearing off a length of it's tail.
"You going to give up or are you going to make me kill your ass?" Kane asked it, it swung it's sword in reply. "Fair enough."
Kane's own sword stopped the Daemon lords and he pushed it up, he followed on, picking up the seax, using it and his sword to hamstring the beast, after ducking under the monster, it dropped to it's knees and he backhanded the wings off, before launching himself onto it's shoulders. He dropped his blades to the bottom of it's neck and dug his blades into it's flesh, tearing and shearing until it's head came off, the whole time the paralyzed daemon was screaming at the top of it's lungs.
When he was finished, Kane flicked the blood from his blades and cleaned them off, not bothering with the blood and gore on his clothing. Sarah pushed herself from the floor feeling her head for splits, then walked over to him.
"Who was it?" She said looking down at the daemon lord.
"Azazel." He replied, spitting on the remains. "Fallen Angel, daemon lord."
"You might not want to look behind you." Sarah said to him and he looked to where she was looking. His hat was destroyed and he just dropped his head and shook it. "Told you life was never dull around you."
Thursday, 10 January 2013
Damn brain
Hope everyone who reads the blog across the world had a Merry Christmas (A Happy Hanukkah for my Jewish readers) and a Happy New Year.
I know it's been a while since I was on but I've been rather stuck on a couple of other things, mostly playing waaaayyyyy too much Star Trek Online, I know I got pissed with it two years ago, I got pissed off with SWTOR due to the weak ass shit they're bringing up right now, the fact that they haven't fixed the shit that they were told about in the Beta and other things since but never mind, since STO is free I went and played it to see what they changed and I liked it, so I've been playing it as I said, way too much.
I was fairly drunk a couple of times over the holiday period so I did get some fairly insightful writing down, it happens all the time when I drink, get's better the sloppier I get.
Problem with the writing is I'm not sure where I want to go with it right now, I've got a half dozen ideas swimming around in my brain and I want to finish Burn but I'm still waiting on people getting back to me on their thoughts on it, can't really get back into it until I've got the thoughts on it.
I'm on a bit of an urban fantasy kick right now, all I've been reading is Urban Fantasy, pretty much all of the stories I've got in my head are urban fantasy, the Sci-fi stuffs still stuck in my head.
Anyway, some time soon I hope to have something short stories written and up on the blog and hope to have news on Burn, I really want to finish it to it's final draft before the end of June, and have publishers and agents looking it over.
Jolan tru, Qapla and Live long & prosper.
I know it's been a while since I was on but I've been rather stuck on a couple of other things, mostly playing waaaayyyyy too much Star Trek Online, I know I got pissed with it two years ago, I got pissed off with SWTOR due to the weak ass shit they're bringing up right now, the fact that they haven't fixed the shit that they were told about in the Beta and other things since but never mind, since STO is free I went and played it to see what they changed and I liked it, so I've been playing it as I said, way too much.
I was fairly drunk a couple of times over the holiday period so I did get some fairly insightful writing down, it happens all the time when I drink, get's better the sloppier I get.
Problem with the writing is I'm not sure where I want to go with it right now, I've got a half dozen ideas swimming around in my brain and I want to finish Burn but I'm still waiting on people getting back to me on their thoughts on it, can't really get back into it until I've got the thoughts on it.
I'm on a bit of an urban fantasy kick right now, all I've been reading is Urban Fantasy, pretty much all of the stories I've got in my head are urban fantasy, the Sci-fi stuffs still stuck in my head.
Anyway, some time soon I hope to have something short stories written and up on the blog and hope to have news on Burn, I really want to finish it to it's final draft before the end of June, and have publishers and agents looking it over.
Jolan tru, Qapla and Live long & prosper.
Wednesday, 5 December 2012
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.
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.
Wednesday, 28 November 2012
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.
Wednesday, 7 November 2012
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.
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.
**************************************************
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."
********************************
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.
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.
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.
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