Swords Against Boredom

I’m in short story mode right now, not wanting to dig into anything too thick while I await my contributor’s copy of this:

Once Flashing Swords Presents: The Return of the Sword finds my mailbox, I plan to dive right in. Until then, I’m reading short stories. I read in modes — a couple of mysteries, then some science fiction, then some fantasy, then a classic, etc. Right now, it’s mysteries.

I finished a novel the other night — Dashiell Hammett’s “The Dain Curse.” This is one of Hammett’s Continental Op detective yarns, which set the template for later hard-boiled heroes. Very enjoyable, full of curses and ghosts and weird cults and morphine and bodies dropping like rain.

Hammett’s book reminds me why I prefer to write from the vantage of a single character, rather than hopping from the mind of one character to the next. Sticking with one character is a terrific way to build suspense. In “The Dain Curse,” the reader experiences things as the Continental Op does — and if the Op’s mystified, so is the reader. The sense of mystery would be lost if Hammett jumped from the Op’s point of view to the villain’s, or to a potential victim’s, or to anyone else’s.

That’s probably why most of the really good mystery writers stick with single-character point of view, huh? It also works well for sword-and-sorcery, horror or anything else in which you want to inject some suspense. A lot of what I know about writing a sword-and-sorcery yarn comes from reading Hammett, Chandler, et al.

In “Dain,” Hammett put single-character point of view to particularly good use during the Op’s fist fight with a spectral figure. Yes, this is a mystery and it plays by the “mystery rules” so all the supernatural stuff has a natural-world explanation — but the Op doesn’t know that while he’s tussling with this weird shimmery thing in a dark room, so it reads like a horror story at this point. It’s that first-person, single-point-of-view thing at work, and it’s rather effective.

Now, I’m perusing the other end of the mystery spectrum. I’m reading some of G.K. Chesterton’s Father Brown short stories. These are eloquent and bizarre little mysteries, with a mousy cleric as the detective. Don’t let that fool you, though; there is no Miss Marple cuteness to these stories. Along with the bizarre crimes, etc., there is a fair amount of psychology and philosophy to chew on. And some gentle humor, too. Father Brown is a memorable character, but it takes a while to get to know him.

And, of course, Chesterton bounces from one point of view to another, just to prove you don’t always have to stick with one character, even when writing a mystery. Chesterton keeps the mysterious mysterious by writing in third person and by having Father Brown say things that make sense to him, but leave other characters in the story — and the reader — absolutely flummoxed. The effects are mystifying and rather funny. Imagine a highly perceptive, highly intelligent fellow spouting off about things that are obvious to him, whilst the rest of the crowd wonders what the flaming goo he’s talking about. Good stuff.

When it comes to mysteries, I bounce between hard-boiled (Sam Spade, Travis McGee, the Continental Op, Phillip Marlowe) and cerebrals (Sherlock Holmes, C. Auguste Dupin, Father Brown, Ellery Queen). That’s probably why I like Rex Stout’s tales of Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin. Those offer an eccentric genius detective with a wisecracking, tough-guy right arm — the best of both worlds. Nero is more set in his odd ways than even Sherlock Holmes, and Archie is no fawning, befuddled Watson. They’re an entertaining, capable pair who complement and exasperate one another to a wonderful degree.

Once upon a time, I thought I’d be a mystery writer. I still might do that someday. Until then, I enjoy reading them.

Anyway, I’ve got dozens of Father Brown stories to keep me occupied until my anthology comes in the mail, all short and compelling enough that I can finish whatever I’m reading right away and then give all my attention over to heroic fantasy.

Sword mode!

The Return of the Sword anthology includes a never-before-published Faceless Sons story from me, called The Mask Oath. I’m also eager to read what Ty Johnston, S.C. Bryce, James Enge, Michael Ehart, Bruce Durham and others have written. I can’t get enough of that sword-slinging goodness.

Click the button below if you feel the same way.

– Steve

I’ve often pointed out here that I like a good pulpy story, but I’ve never really sat down and tried to describe what a “pulpy” story is. So, when Paul Jessup asked about the fascination with pulp-style stories, I decided to see if I could delineate what I’m talking about when I say “pulp.”

I have no expertise with the heyday of the old pulp magazines. All of the stories from that era came to me via anthologies and collections, or reprints in magazines. I know some of the garish covers with aliens clutching semi-nude women, or shadowy gunmen hovering over bleeding babes, from collections and anthologies, too. So when I talk about pulpy stories, I’m not talking about the entirety of what you would have found off the news rack in the pulp era. I’m talking about the stuff that survived.

I’m also talking about paperback original novels, of which I have a bunch. Those aren’t technically pulp, of course, but to me they share a few things in common with what I think of as pulpy.

So, what is pulpy? Read more »

I’m pretty certain that at one point while digging snow from our driveway, I spotted Han Solo in the front yard, stuffing his frozen buddy Luke into a dead taun-taun. And I thought they smelled bad on the outside …

Seriously, we had a lot of snow in Ohio this weekend. At one end of our rather longish driveway, my wife measured the drifts at twenty inches. It took a while to move all that snow, even with Gere grabbing a shovel, too, for a good chunk of it.

But the timing of this snowstorm actually was pretty good for us. I got home early Friday, whereas if I’d stayed my full shift I might not have gotten home until late Saturday/early Sunday. I had the weekend off, so that was good. It meant I was around to dig snow (including a Princess Path so my daughter could get to the school bus) and not be stuck twenty miles away, worrying about my girls.

Other than a lot of digging, we enjoyed being somewhat snowbound. Wife and daughter made a wonderful snow fort, we all made a snowwoman and the girls ganged up on me in a furious snowball fight. Gere had made pork and sauerkraut and we had plenty of food and drinks on hand, plus we managed to get out Sunday for some snackage. All in all, it was a pretty good time.

Other than that, the other thing distracting me from posting here more frequently is the impending free agent draft in my baseball fantasy league. Last season, we had four teams in contention for first place even during the very last Major League Baseball game of the year — unheard of in all my previous fantasy league experience. I ws one of the four teams who briefly occupied first place during that final game. So this year, I’m expecting things to be very competitive again. And we added some teams (TW and my brother Clark both joined the league) so the available talent will be diluted further, making for a more difficult draft.

We have 10 teams and 30-man rosters, so when all is said and done we’ll have drafted the top 300 players in pro baseball. So, beyond the superstars, we’ll need to look at those rare prospects at catcher, those young pitchers who may start the season in the minors, the second guy on the depth chart at second base, etc., in order to win it. It’ll be fun.

Existing teams kept some players from last year, and I managed to hold onto some fine players. Then the new teams raided our existing rosters before we each protected two more guys — and I still held onto some quality players. Now that the expansion draft is over, I think I’m in a good position to compete with the 10 guys I have. Of course, there’s every possibility I’ll screw it all up royally when we have our free agent draft next weekend.

Obsession, thy name is baseball …

– Steve

Looking for a fantasy book you can sink your teeth into? How about one that might sink its teeth into you?

That’s right. You can now buy the long-awaited Flashing Swords Presents: The Return of the Sword.

This is heroic fantasy, folks. You’ll find monsters, ghouls, bloodshed, peril, the forces of evil … but most importantly, you’ll find heroes who Do Something about all of the above.

The anthology includes a never-before-published Faceless Sons story from me, called The Mask Oath. This is a pivotal story of the Faceless Sons series, the one story that several other tales I’ve written revolve around It has demons, possessed people, savage mountain folk, fast hungry predatorial lizards … and a very human hero dealing with it all. I hope you enjoy it.

Who else is in here? Ty Johnston, for one, who also will grace our Carnivah House anthology, “The Infinity Swords”, with a dark and disturbing tale. And there’s S.C. Bryce, who also wrote a wonderful story for “The Infinity Swords.”

But wait! There’s more. You’ll also find stories by James Enge (creator or Morlock the Maker, of Black Gate fame), Michael Ehart (creator of the Servant of the Mantychore stories), E.E. Knight (Vampire Earth), Bruce Durham (Dalacroy), Bill Ward, Nicholas Ian Hawkins, David Pitchford, Angeline Hawkes, Christopher Heath, Nathan Meyer and several others. (A good number of those authors pop in to visit this blog from time to time; I invite them to tell us a bit about their stories if they wish.)

Not convinced? How about we toss in some classic swashbuckling historical fiction from the thoroughly awesome Harold Lamb?

Ah … now you want it, don’t you? Click the button below and you can buy it. Go ahead. It’s good for you.

So why are you still reading this? You know you want it. Go get it.
– Steve

My flash story, Tell’s Choice, is rated in the top ten stories published at “Every Day Fiction.” Not too shabby, considering the one-flash-a-day venture has published about 200 stories to date. If you haven’t read it and are so inclined, you can read Tell’s Choice here.

EDF has added a ratings system, by which readers can rate stories on a 1-5 scale. The editors use those ratings, reader comments, the number of times a story is read, their own editorial sensibilities and some voodoo involving black roosters to assemble their top ten list. Those stories are listed in the sidebar of EDF’s home page.

If you are among those who helped vote the story into EDF’s top ten, I thank you. If you haven’t read it, but like a little bit of ghostly historical fiction now and then, feel free to give it a try. And be sure to look around the site while you’re there — Every Day Fiction publishes a wide range of flash fiction.

– Steve

Bloodshrikes, a brand-spanking-new sword-and-sorcery adventure of Calthus, the resurrected warlord, is now available in Issue 2 of “Staffs & Starships” magazine from Sheer Speculation Press.

As you can tell from the title, Bloodshrikes is obviously a tender love story along the lines of Austen’s “Pride & Prejudice.”

“Staffs & Starships” is available as a .pdf file, and I believe as a print product. The debut issue, in which my story The Fourth Knight’s Quest appeared, did rather well in the 2007 Preditors & Editors poll.

I hope you enjoy the new one.

What’s that? You don’t know Calthus? Well then, here’s a brief biography of Calthus, Slaughter Lord of Thaal.

– Steve

P.S. Enjoy National Beer Day.