Been Crazy Buzy...But Back To Work...

Just like my ever more elaborate fiction world is an amalgamation of many different influences, starting as a cross between Harry Potter and Buffy, then growing into what it is today, I find myself looking toward my favorite SciFi influences, which are of course Doctor Who and Torchwood. I wonder whether it is possible to incorporate elements of the SciFi without going space opera. I am going to start with a UNIT (from Dr. Who) style secret organization and write them as having kick-ass tech. I probably won't delve too deep into alien involvement, but I already have considered and sketched out a creature called a Border Prince, which is a type of super advanced alien race, what was referred to in one Who episode as the 'higher races'. It comes from one of the Torchwood audioplays in which a character sort of serves as a simulacrum inside of which a supra-human alien was being hidden from his enemies. The alien is able to step through the Rift (in time and space) through some kind of either advanced tech or supernatural ability.

Now, I already have a government organization within the United States, part of the Department of Homeland Security, and is pretty much an expanded X-Files type group, but this UNIT-type organization will be different, and definitely shadier. Will this end up with supernatural beings from earth serving as super-hero type defenders against alien threats? That's the rub. I think that's a really cool idea. A number of things have to happen first, though, and I'm years away from getting the character storylines to where that might be possible. BUT I think it'd be fantastic.

Story About Duke's First Boyfriend

Finished another story, this one may be a little YA, except for the sex scene, about Duke, my main protagonist, and his first boyfriend, Trevor. The story is about Duke's birthday, after he'd been dating Trevor for two months, and the 'special night' Trevor has planned. Throw in a witch using magic to seduce young gentlemen and Duke's 'first time' becomes very memorable.

I hope to have this edited soon, and then will be submitting it to a paranormal romance website. We'll see what happens.

A Dip Into UF/Steampunk Crossover

Finished a short story called 'Trouble At Court', a story set in my fictional traditional fantasy world of Kerithanaal. It is part of a series of short stories I'll be writing with an Urban Fantasy/Steampunk crossover feel. The story centers around Llendiir Arlathol, cousin to Queen Aelli, and an incident at the Royal Court. I admit, it's a little more Sword & Sorcery than Urban Fantasy, but I'm still working to fill out the urban steampunk feel to it. The successive short stories should do a better job illustrating those dark urban elements. I may post an excerpt on here for your reading pleasure. Or...hopefully pleasure...

Opening of 'Blood Chase' (tentative title to first Duke novel)

Heart pounding, I ducked into the service entrance of the office building and opened the cap on one of the plastic tubes from my rucksack. I carefully sifted the shimmering black powder until it spread across the walkway behind me. Almost instantly it began to dissolve into what looked like a cloud of smoke. As the smoke changed into roiling darkness and before I could recap the vial, the narrow walkway behind me was filled with a masking darkness of solid shadows. Quietly I picked my way up the dark tunnel until it widened into a proper alley.

There was no light to see by. This was the Shadow, the part of the spirit world closest to the mortal world and acted as its dark twin. It was always twilight, so I didn't even have a moon to guide me, and electricity didn't work, for the most part, so the iron lamp-posts of the nineteen-twenties version of the city stood dark and useless. I did my best, then, to navigate with what little night vision I had.

An iron door off to my left was the only hopeful escape from the long and spare alley and it would have to do. Slowly I drew up power and concentrated on the door, let my mind's eye open and take in its structure. My knuckles creaked around the tall length of my staff, but the tension didn't distract me. I intoned the words of my spell and let energy flow into the shape my mind called up as noise came from that narrow alley entrance behind me.

Click.

With a distressing grinding noise the iron door opened on rusty hinges and I slipped into complete darkness. I prayed that nothing had claimed the building for its lair. With a half-vampire gang chasing after me, I didn't have much choice other than jumping into the unknown.

Silence...and the smell of rot.

In the quiet I heard my panting before feeling my heaving chest. My rushing blood thundered in my ears. Then I listened.

It would have been impossible for my attackers not to notice the sound of the lock resetting, if they hadn't already heard when the door had opened, and I know that would have given away my location just as I began to realize I'd trapped myself. I'd be dead if the vampire lackeys found me.

Slow breaths, I told myself. Stay still and slow your heartbeat.

That mantra helped.

Noise outside the door froze me in place and I had to continue the slow breaths to keep from bolting.

My attackers slowed and I was almost sure they'd smell me or use some vamp senses to realize I'd entered the building. That must not have happened because after a few moments I heard them continue on.

Sigh.

After minutes had ticked by I finally slumped against the door in relief. Once already I'd been attacked. That time it had been by a human in the Shadow. If it had been in the mortal world I might have been taken out by a sniper or something, so that at least was a stroke of luck. Because of the strange physics of the spirit world, gunpowder was rarely combustible and thus my attackers were restricted to more medieval weapons. There would be no snipers from a mile away.

That hadn't prevented the crossbow bolt that had cut open my cheek, or the poison I could feel starting to take effect. It was sobering. They'd gotten too close to killing me and I had no real idea who these new assailants were other than being partially turned vampires.

As a magus, a mage, I was able to sense the taint of the vampire on my attackers. I could also tell they had not been fully turned. Knowing that wasn't at all comforting. Years before, as an apprentice in Oxfordshire England, I'd had several encounters with the undead. They were things of nightmare under any circumstances. Without having much skill with combat magic, though, they were especially terrifying.

Only a few vampires lived in the Twin Cities, the name for the Minneapolis/St. Paul metropolitan area in Minnesota. From what I knew they were all independent, some having small coteries, and none having any issue with me. Since my master Arthur Pennington had died, and since I'd become a full member of the Covenant, the order providing both governance and social interaction for magi, I'd kept out of politics. I decided to move back to Minnesota where I was raised. I'd taken over a spare room in the basement of my parents house and transformed it from dank storage into something comfortable. I became a recluse.

The first attack may have been a mugging, but the second was a concerted attack. That meant I had an enemy. What I'd done to earn an enemy I didn't know. I was going to find out.

Soon to come: Short Stories

I'm going to post some excerpts of short stories and possibly some very short stories for free here on Blogger. Stay tuned.

My World: Doran Patrick, Dhampyrs and Sucking Blood

Doran Patrick is my primary character in Chicago. He's a former soldier who served in Vietnam, was wounded and sent home, then was saved from the fates of many wounded vets by a vampire woman looking to expand her influence. Now he works for a security firm under the control of one of the vampire masters, though he's low enough on the totem pole that he is often overlooked by the high ups.

He's good at what he does, which is bodyguard service. He's paid well enough that he isn't required to take that many jobs. He drives a brand new BMW SUV/sport coupe decked out with all the best gadgets. All black, leather seats and polished mahogany. He carries a gun, listens to classical music and jazz, and while not a brain he enjoys reading D. H. Lawrence, Jane Austen and Shakespeare.

He's also a dhampyr. That means he's a vampire, but he's a daywalker. And not a daywalker like the half-turned vamps waiting to be fully embraced, but instead a type of lesser vampire that is its own species. Trying to explain the differences between the three can get sketchy because there are so many similarities. Suffice it to say that dhampyrs aren't undead like vampires. They're the product of a virus that forces them to feed like vampires and which was, according to some accounts, created long ago by vampires looking for servants who could protect their lairs during the day. The virus gives them strength and speed, though not as much as "true" vampires, and usually not as much as half-turned vamps, but they can supercharge their abilities for a short time by drawing on the virus' power. The more heavily they draw on their powers the more they need to feed. This is sort of true for the true vampires as well except with the dhampyr it happens far more quickly.

Anyway, so the vampire woman who infected him with the virus and turned him into a dhampyr was killed and Doran escaped to be on his own. Decades later he was taken in by another vampire, this one named Kean McCormick. Doran was taken into this vampire's coterie, their circle of blood feeders and surrogate family. The relationships between vampires and their coteries was complicated and varied widely. Also, coteries were often made up of a number of vampires as well as half vamps, mortals, and sometimes even other types of supernaturals. Kean and his consort Athena treated their coterie basically as their children.

Kean's story is a largely hidden one, even to the coterie. What is now known about the vampire is that he is far more powerful than anyone suspected. After the relationship between Athena and Kean grew sour, the woman went to H. G. Loomis, one of the vampire masters, and betrayed her former lover. The resulting fallout was horrific and spawned many stories. Kean revealed that rather than a vampire of under a century as he'd pretended, he was far more powerful than any of the masters. He also had gifts beyond the ken of younger vampires and which included a talent for magic. Kean instructed Doran, in secret, and Doran is thus both a vampire and a practitioner, though he keeps that second part secret.

Whatever Kean did scared the vampire masters enough that even after the man disappeared and the coterie was considered dissolved, no one messed with them. The phantom of the vampires reputation was enough to shroud them. Some members of the coterie are still close, though they are only the humans, and then Doran. None of them know Doran is anything more than another human who was getting the benefits of a periodic taste of powerful vampire blood. None of them know he's a dhampyr. He wants to keep it that way.

My World: Chicago and its Vampires

Chicago is a city rich in life and wonderful in its cultural diversity. While not the kind of international city that is New York, Chicago is still huge, rich, and a lot of fun. It can also be dangerous. Within my stories it is a place largely free of the Old World supernatural nations, a place where Europe holds little influence and where monsters who originated there evolve into Americans.

Principle to the supernatural political landscape in Chicago are the vampires. In Chicago these monsters are ruled by a handful of powerful masters, though none are much more than a century old, and the organized syndicates of minions under them. As is true in other cities, the supernatural powers are involved in crime, and in a city with a noted history of organized crime activity it is no surprise that the vampires resemble organized crime gangs as well as having their fingers in those of the mortals.

Chicago is too large a city to be ruled entirely by one species of supernatural creature, however. While the vampires do hold a large part of the downtown, the near north, and pretty much all the way up through Evanston, there are other influences within the city that provide some balance.

For one, the organized vampire masters have conflict with the vampire gangs that hunt in the poorest areas of the city. Many of these vampires are minorities and hunt in their old home turf. They keep low profiles because they have to. They know that when things get to bad, the masters may unite their forces and purge the South Side and the West Side of their kind.

There are also some significant demons in the city. These creatures are less often the center of supernatural power webs, instead preferring to play in mortal affairs. That doesn't make them easy prey for the masters, though.

Two groups are noticeably missing. The Covenant and the presence of a werewolf pack. This is for two reasons. First because despite not being a recognized nation among the major powers, the Chicago vampire masters have become a significant enough power to deter the mages. There is a safehouse in the north end of the city, but the practitioners in the area work hard to stay out of the way of the vampires. Werewolves, on the other hand, would thrive in the natural environment of the region as well as the urban environment of Chicago except that the vampire masters have a policy of extermination toward the lycan species. They allow the less organized types of lycanthropes, such as the various cat species, but wolves are expressly forbidden.

Something unique to Chicago is the absence of activity in the Shadow. There is in fact a shadow city, however almost no one goes there. It is a broken and ruined place. Large parts of it are haunted. The land itself is barren. The reasons for this are not fully known, but it is known for sure that a battle between divine and demonic forces went on in the shadow city and it helped tear large areas of it apart.

The absence of the Shadow makes a difference in the saturation of supernatural power on the mortal side of the Border. It means vampires who would largely retreat to the Shadow instead live wholly among humans. Demons, fey and practitioners of all stripes must move among mortals as well. This diversity of supernatural life makes the policing the city all that much more important and makes the streets far more dangerous.

My World: Cities in the Shadow

I addressed a little bit about the cities in the Shadow, henceforth to be called the 'shadow city of...', but wanted to devote an entire post to them because they are almost like a totally different beast than the Shadow and spirit world as a whole.

Each major settlement, towns included, have a twin in the Shadow. Some smaller hamlets or individual farmhouses that are old enough may be represented in the Shadow also, though these are often derelict and uninhabited. They do follow the overall rule of what's in the shadow, though, which is to say that all buildings and settlements in the Shadow seem frozen in the state they were in during the late Industrial period, which was roughly the early part of the twentieth century. If I were to set a date, I would say either Edwardian period, just before World War I in Europe, and just a little later, the year 1923 sticks out in my head, for the States, the Americas and the rest of the world.

Basically, they are stuck at the point where a few people had telephones but before anyone really had radios, and before buildings began to climb above a dozen stories high. Now, in New York there are a few tall buildings, as well as in a few other places, but by and large just picture the first two decades of the twentieth century.

Buildings in the Shadow can and do change, though, along with their owner's/occupier's whim. While the cities overall reflect their mortal world counterparts, some have been knocked down and replaced with similarly dated style buildings by owners. The datedness of new construction is mostly due to the building machinery being limited to those of that same time period and because of inability for electricity to function in almost all of the Shadow.

Technology is consistently somewhat prehistoric compared to that in mortal reality. In some places, locations particularly close to the mortal world, telephones actual work, and what's more they even connect to those in the mortal world. This is a rare quirk and sometimes makes those locations valuable property. The same things that make that location able to have a working phone, however, also makes it hard for spiritual entities to subsist there. In general that area isn't as dark, sometimes even seems to have more sunlight, and has a lot more of the properties of the mortal world than the areas around it. These patches can be as small as a corner in an alley or as large as a small neighborhood, but they never take up a large chunk of a city, and the larger of such an area a city has the fewer of those areas it has overall. Few cities have more than five or six even when the areas are all small.

Just as technology is a problem, so then are cars a problem. There are cars in the shadow cities, but they are infrequent. Mostly they are owned by people wealthy or powerful enough to be able to afford the fuel usable throughout the city, since gasoline is an almost completely worthless source of fuel. Almost all cars in the Shadow are pre-1960 models. A few models from the 60's and even the 70's are on the streets, but for a lot of reasons people prefer the more solidly build and heavier older car models.

Money in the shadow cities is very important. Wealth is power just like it is in the mortal world, only in the Shadow there are a lot fewer laws and a lot less enforcement of them. Because resources are scarce, though, a lot of stuff is imported, such as food, so crime is high and for most people money is tight. Those supernaturally powerful enough can make a fortune for themselves, but doing so eventually runs afoul of one of the big powers in the area, and doing that without the power to win means they will end up dead.

My World: The Shadow

I want to make a few remarks about the Shadow, in case any of my fellow reviewers on the workshop sites I belong to read this, and so it's down somewhere.

The Shadow is part of the Otherworld or spirit world. It isn't the whole spirit world, just a region of it, and to borrow some terminology from Dungeons and Dragons, it is a coexistent plane, that is it overlaps our reality. One of the unique properties of it, however, is that it functionally has a coterminous relationship to its connections to the mortal world, so there are specific places that are geographically stable, whereas most of the rest of the spirit world and the Shadow is relatively nebulous when it comes to its geographic layout in comparison to mortal reality.

To explain further, the overall coexistent nature of the spirit world is pretty easy to understand, it exists all around us, everywhere, at all times. Its secondary nature of being coterminous within that coexistent nature means that there are specific places that are like anchors. These places are either locations with significant amounts of natural energy, such as large waterfalls or particularly biologically diverse and active areas of forests, or cities. The degree of permanence is tied to the amount of spiritual energy, which is generated by living creatures and the natural environment, or by significant events such as major battles. These places are always connected to a version of them in the spirit world, and in particular in the Shadow. The landscape and geography within these locations is also stable and does not change significantly, so they are easily the most inhabitable. Outside of these areas things grow much more unstable, and one can enter the Shadow from two spots only a dozen feet from each other and end up miles apart in the Shadow, with no real discernible or calculable method for distance or direction.

This also holds true with respect to the overall geography of the Shadow, especially in relation to the cities. The layout of the Shadow as a whole does not correspond to that of the mortal world. That is to say that it is not like there is an exact map of the mortal world in the Shadow. Distance and location of individual cities largely seems random. The distance between Omaha and Paris may only be a hundred miles in the Shadow, whereas it is thousands in the mortal world and in the opposite direction. Some areas of stable geography do exist, especially where large settlements are connected by an overall metropolitan area. London, for example, is largely stable until one really gets to the country. Then distances start to get distorted.

When one does step into the Shadow, you do arrive in a shadowy double of where you'd been, the same terrain and environment specifics. However, the spirit world is far more vast than the mortal world and so the distances between two relatively close sites in the more chaotic locationality of rural areas just incorporates greater amounts of space and a seemingly random geographic layout.

The weather of the spirit world ranges from cold, damp and wet, such as a cold day in early spring, to cool, damp and somewhat dry, such as nighttime a little later in the spring. It never gets truly warm, though temperatures can rise to highs in the low 60's Fahrenheit, but usually hovers between the mid-40's and low-50's. It is also almost never dry. No matter the geography or environment of the corresponding mortal world location, it is always cool and damp. This is in part because there is no real sunlight. the little light one does get is like sunset once the sun has already gone below the horizon and there is only a haze of purples and dark reds on the distant clouds. There is also only a shadowy specter of the moon in the sky, so even on the rare nights when the sky is a little bit clear, there is little to no light, and only a few dim points for stars.

Because of the lack of sunlight there is little thriving vegetation, though somehow plants seem to cling to life, despite mold, spores and leaves beginning to rot. There are some species of plants that are native variations of mortal world plants, which somehow evolved to survive, or maybe always existed in the Shadow and able to live there.

Pumping out the short stories

Okay, so I don't know if I'm feeling especially creative at the moment or if I'm just putting out crap, but I've written three short stories in the last four days. They need editing, yes, but they're not too bad.

So, I wrote a story about the vampire lord Erik Vayne, of House Vayne, one of the major houses of the British vampire nation, but it really turned out to be kind of pedantic. This one maybe not so much. The first one is about a vampire in Chicago, named Kean McCormick, the second about a different kind of vampire, a sort of hybrid I guess, named Doran Patrick, also in Chicago.

The trouble with vampire fiction is there is soooooo much out there already. I am not looking to remake the wheel, but it has to be something that is not just the same old vampire stuff.

In my opinion, though, vampires should be scary. The number of vampires that retain anything like human morals is very very very small. I also think that there should be some specificity in the nature of vampire. If they're undead, they're physically dead. They don't procreate, they don't breath, they're scary and evil things. If they're not undead, then, what exactly are they? Is it a virus that causes vampirism? Is it venom like in Twilight? Or is it more of an alchemical/magical/spiritual thing?

Anyways, hopefully someone will be interested. Hopefully the writing doesn't suck too bad. Hopefully I'll have enough money together soon so that I can get onto one of the online writing workshops where people can critique each others work.

Are mainstream readers ready for gay characters?

That's more a question than a rhetorical title to a rant. I had a friend ask me last night if I would change a main character into a woman so that I could get a book published. Truthfully I don't know. It would depend on who was asking or was willing to publish and how much they offered. Yes, that's right, I would consider it for a dollar amount since I am poor and have student loans to start paying off.

One of the reasons I started writing and continue to write is because aside from it being an outlet for my sometimes overflowing juices it has always irritated an saddened me that there aren't more gay lead characters anywhere in our culture. Now, television has come along, however slowly that has been compared to British TV. But what about the literary world? Where are the gay characters in mainstream commercial fiction?

There is for sure a market for gay fiction and publishers at small presses, and some imprints of bigger publishers, who do publish fiction with gay main characters. By and large those novels have never really circulated in the mainstream market, with one exception - bisexual or gay female characters. Why would anyone be surprised that people are more willing to accept some lesbianism in their fiction than even think about gay men. I'm sorry if that offends anyone, I certainly recognize that gay women face just as many hurdles to equality in our culture as gay men, aside from just the gender gap. It is still true, though, that gay male sexuality is still largely taboo no matter how much we try to present ourselves as Mike and Joe humdrum from down the block.

But here is the rub - if we don't have gay characters out there to become mainstream, to step out of the supporting gay friend role and into main character status, is it going to get any better? Will people be more willing to publish stories with gay leads, or read them?

It is hard for me to grasp that with the number of gay people and gay friendly people, especially considering how huge the slash fanfiction genre is online, that there aren't enough people to read fiction about gay characters. Can you bridge the gap between romance/erotica and something a mainstream audience will warm to though? Can you do that especially when so much of the mainstream of the Urban Fantasy subgenre is falling into the sub-subgenre of Paranormal Romance and has some pretty erotic parts to it too?

Listen, I don't know how to write about sex with a woman. Believe it or not I am pretty sure that things happen a little differently in the lead up to and during the actual act of hetero love than when it is two men. More than that, I understand how the hetero intercourse happens but I think that I'd be laughable writing about female anatomy and the sense experience of it.

So...basically...would I change my main character to a woman for money, yes, though I'd be very uncomfortable with it and the actual work would suffer. Maybe instead people should take a chance at publishing a novel with compelling gay characters with a very infrequent love scene that doesn't get graphic about the prep-work and the lube and all of that. Maybe the mainstream fiction world can just suck it up and get over the fact that there are compelling gay characters out there who still pay lip service to the double standard out there keeping gay male sexuality out of mainstream books.

First Short Story Rejection

I'm feeling positive about my first rejection. Number one because while I thought it had been fully edited and ready to go I found a shocking number of problems in it. It wasn't a complete disaster, but as a closeted perfectionist, and knowing my competition is probably fierce, I was not happy. I am able to polish it a little bit more, now will try and get my Alexi O'Shea piece fully ready to go. I've even got my mom on the case and she gave me some good feedback, so I've beefed up the beginning a little bit and have a few more people read it before I send it out.

Fingers crossed...

First Short Story Submission...

So, I've decided that in order for me to get any momentum going for my first novel, I need to get some short stories published. Now, I have several mostly finished stories, but the one I just wrote and polished, which I think is good. It's a date-night story about Duke while he was still in Britain, so we'll see if it gets picked up.

Practitioners 101

The term 'practitioner' refers to people who have the ability to and skill with manipulating the energy fields that surround us all the time, an act commonly called magic. There are a number of different types of classifications for practitioners, most having different practices for how they channel their magic, and some have different powers altogether.

Mages: First among the list of practitioners, and often they consider themselves literally first, are magi. These are often the stereotypes of wizards and magicians. They are the ones who concentrate almost to an obsessive level on their skills with magic. The magi are often at the top of the list in terms of magical firepower and are the most versatile of spellcasters.

Witches: This group of practitioners is composed of people who have some array of other inherent abilities in addition to whatever strength they have with magic. Some of these powers maybe more psychic than magical, such as empathic abilities, though true psychics don't generally fall into this classification, but most of the abilities are somewhat magical in nature. Such 'magical' abilities include the ability to communicate and call up spirits, to tap into and channel a certain type of elemental energy, of even to shapeshift.

Druids: This group of practitioners is somewhat interchangeable with witches, except for the explicitly nature focus of their powers.

Sorcerers: This is a classification somewhat like the magus in the sense that often their main supernatural gift is the ability to work magic. This group, however, does this by either making pacts with powerful beings outside mortal reality or makes such pacts for power. Many of these dangerous spellcasters specialize in a form of magic called Blood Magic, which cannibalizes life energy from other animals or people to use as a power source. This type of magic is not only illegal under the laws of The Covenant, but it is also just incredibly icky as it involves a lot of blood and body parts.

The Others: There are other less well defined or smaller groups of spellcasters, Necromancers foe example, but by and large the above are the big for.

Werewolves in My World

So there are a lot of interpretations of what the werewolf is. In my world they are one type of lycanthrope, a type of shapeshifter that has been changed from a mortal or in rarer cases are born that way. Lycanthrope affects people all the way to the molecular level so that they are literally a different species. They are, however, andromorphs, a type of creature who began as a human or whose physiology and DNA are based on that of humans. Lycanthropes fall into this category, as do vampires.

The actual infecting of another person with lycanthropy is difficult. Unlike what popular culture would imply, it isn't simply a matter of a bite or scratch from a lycanthrope. There is, actually, a spiritual element that is a part of the supernatural nature of the lycanthrope. Thus it isn't just a virus or a toxin in the saliva or venom.

Whatever the source of the lycanthropy, there are a few things that are true for all. First, it is a permanent change once it occurs. There are perhaps a few beings out there who could permanently bind the beast inside, or maybe even remove the condition, but for all intents and purpose there is no way to remove the transformation into a lycanthrope. Second, all lycanthropes have the spirit of their beast type bound to their souls. This spirit isn't independent, but an represents the investiture of supernatural power that grants strength and healing but which also is accompanied with the instincts of the beast. This creates all kinds of social problems for the lycanthrope when they aren't in a social situation similar to what you see in the wild. Wolves have packs, lions have prides, bears and tigers are solitary.

The supernatural nature of the lycanthrope grants increased strength, speed and reflexes. It also provides intangible abilities that often vary by the type of beast.

New Blog For My Fiction

This is my new blog to discuss characters, story themes, plots, and eventually maybe to post short stories. I'm hoping this might generate interest in my stories.