Tuesday Night Stories

Tuesday Night Stories 9, Part 2

Robert — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 01:25:27 +0000

I’m back from my awesome February vacation. The blog has felt so quiet lately. Well I have lots of posts to remedy that! It should be a pretty eventful week around here. Our vacation ended with a 3-day weekend at a romantic log cabin in the woods. It was just what the doctor ordered. I worked extra hard on my writing leading up to the trip so that I could justify the time away. Now it’s time to get back to it!

Thanks for joining us tonight, as always I hope you enjoy the story!

Rewarded With a Curse

When the leader of a small group of wizards discovers the existence of an ancient ritual said to grant vast amounts of power, greed and darkness seem to follow in the wake of its discovery. Roger Gardwhin, a middle-aged man trying to maintain a normal life outside of this magical group, is forced to take part against his will. As the day of the ritual approaches, he’s realizing just what he is getting himself into.

Tuesday Night Stories 9, Part 1

Robert — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 02:25:13 +0000

Tonight we start the first new podcast of 2011! REWARDED WITH A CURSE is new attempt on my part to write a story in the 1st person point of view. I usually tend to stick to 3rd person limited. It’s a pretty common tradition in fantasy to write that way, at least in the high fantasy genre I write in. This was a lot of fun though and I’ve already plotted the next two parts. That’s another 2011 change. We’re going to try for longer episodes that don’t go on quite as long. My goal is roughly 2000 words per episode.

We hope you enjoy the story. As always, feel free to comment on where you think the story might be going. Maybe your ideas will get included!

Rewarded With a Curse

When the leader of a small group of wizards discovers the existence of an ancient ritual said to grant vast amounts of power, greed and darkness seem to follow in the wake of its discovery. Roger Gardwhin, a middle-aged man trying to maintain a normal life outside of this magical group, is forced to take part against his will. As the day of the ritual approaches, he’s realizing just what he is getting himself into.

Tuesday Night Stories: Marked By The Dragon

Robert — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 04:31:52 +0000

Here is the full version of Marked By The Dragon. I’m sick, so I’m going to keep this one pretty short. See previous posts for more information about what this story was about. And join us in 2 weeks for the start of a brand new story! Next week I’ll talk about what the story is going to be. Check here to read on the site, or here to read on Goodreads.

As always, I hope you enjoy the story.

Tuesday Night Stories 8, Part 2

Robert — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 05:19:54 +0000

Here is the second and last half of Marked By The Dragon. Renier has begun his initiation ritual, but hasn’t yet realized what a struggle it will be. Will he have the strength to stand up to Nyxor? Or will the dragon find him unworthy? This is the conclusion of story #8. I’ve enjoyed dabbling in the world of Draknor more lately. Many of these tales take place in the world itself, but this is the first that is aligned to the time line of the actual series.

It looks we’ll be starting a new episode at the start of the New Year! That’s always fun. As always, I hope you enjoy the story. If you’d rather read the story, read it here on the site, or on Goodreads.

Tuesday Night Stories 8, Part 1

Robert — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 01:51:06 +0000

So, this is another attempt at publishing a new podcast! Tuesday had…some technical issues. Which, in other words, means I couldn’t even get on my own website. Tsk tsk. But the hosting company got it working late Tuesday night they said. I just had too much to do to get on yesterday. So it’s Thursday Night Stories this week! Yay!

Story 8 is actually a 1st draft of one chapter in my adult fantasy work in progress, The Lands of Draknor, and one of my favorite pieces. I’m calling this story Marked By The Dragon. This story tells of young Renier Matrala, Prince of Palsarrien. He has come to the Draknor kingdom to train and become a member of the Draknor Society. This is about his initiation ritual.

As always, thanks for joining us tonight. Sorry again about the delays. If you’d rather read it, it’ll be up on the podcast page and Goodreads soon.

Tuesday Night Stories: Pushed To The Edge

Robert — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 03:44:17 +0000

Story #7 has officially come to and end. I liked this one, it was a cool challenge. I had fun getting out of my usual comfort zone. Sure I write fantasy, but traditionally fantasy is based on English/European history. A lot of mine also draws from American history as well. But I’ll do a post this week that is more about all that, and I’ll talk more about the ideas and concepts behind the story as well.

If you’re joining us for the first time tonight, this is a complete fantasy story that was told in eight parts. For fifteen years invaders from the distant land of Kallis have held Alsalam in servitude to their army, but they’ve brought peace and prosperity as well. When a murderous and enslaving change in command comes down from the eastern King, Alsalam must use the military knowledge he’s learned from them not only to defend himself, but all the tribes of his homeland.

Remember, a brand new story starts in two weeks. If you’d rather read Pushed To The Edge, or you’d like to download the MP3, you can do so here. As always, thanks for joining us! Feel free to let me know below what you think of the story.

Tuesday Night Stories 7, Part 8

Robert — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 02:44:51 +0000

Tonight we conclude Pushed to the Edge. This has been a fun story to write and record both. The accents were a lot of fun to play around with for the Affraki people, and the Kallish as well. This story ended up longer than any previous we’d done at 13,500 words. Making a total of 62,000 words for the podcast. I’m quite impressed! That’s about the size of a book, if only a young adult/teen book (adult books are generally at least a little longer).

In this final part, Alsalam marches on the city Mallic Pince is guarding, the last stronghold of the Kallish army. Pince has more troops than Brannis held, and a solid defensive structure. In many ways the Kallish army is more advanced and generally better trained for war. It seems apparent that Alsalam must use his wits, and Brannis’ knowledge of his people’s war tactice, to come out of this fight ahead.

A new story will begin in two weeks! As always, thanks for joining us. If you’ve missed parts or would rather read the story, check here, it’ll be up soon.

Tuesday Night Stories 7, Part 7

Robert — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 01:58:02 +0000

I’ve managed to slink my way up to publish the podcast. I think I managed to mess my back up at work yesterday. Sometimes we have to move heavy shelves and such around the book store and yesterday was the worst I’ve seen. It was a very painful, restless night. I tried to participate in the real world today, but I only made until about 1pm.

Tonight is part 7 of Pushed to the Edge. As most of you probably guessed, it’s time to learn a bit more about the Karassi tribe and what their arrival means for Alsalam and his plans. Alsalam is surprised how things have gone a bit like they expected it to. Will Alsalam march to war or will he have to find another approach to his plans?

As always, I hope you enjoy the story! If you’ve missed parts or you would rather read the story, you can find it here.

Tuesday Night Stories 7, Part 6

Robert — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 01:25:49 +0000

Welcome back, everyone! Sorry again about the absence last week. Rest assured we’re healthy again (or close enough anyway). This week’s episode is one of those gems that David and I both really enjoyed. I think the writing is some of my best work, and his reading of it is dead on.

Part 6 of Pushed to the Edge takes a look at Brannis watching different interactions between Alsalam and his people. It’s the first time we’ve gone into the Kallish man’s head and I like it a lot. Brannis is a fascinating character with a lot of depth. He’s the kind of character I could see getting his own story some time down the line. There is a lot of history there.

As always, I hope you enjoy! And if you’d rather read the story, or you’ve missed previous parts, you can click here.

Tuesday Night Specials, Conflicts of Battle

Robert — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 01:42:59 +0000

Tonight we’re going to take a small break before getting to part six of Pushed to the Edge. I’m not usually big into poetry but I’ve been taking a creative writing class that is focusing on it. We were asked to write a sonnet and it’s the first chance I’ve had to write in the fantasy genre. I decided on a sonnet through the eyes of Alsalam as he’s watching the attack and defense of his village in last week’s episode. It peeks into a troubled and nervous mind. Of course, it has limitations by form alone, having only 14 lines to work with and only 10 syllables per lines. That really makes you consider each word carefully, a good writing lesson.

I think it worked in the end. I’m even a little impressed with what I came up with. Another fun twist was how David records the poem. The fun thing of poetry is that everyone interprets a piece differently. He really does a great job with the serious tone and it’s fun that his pauses come at different places than when I read it.

But enough of my rambling. I hope you enjoy it. Part six will be back next Tuesday!

Conflicts of Battle

Invading drums commence the steady beat
of a soldier’s march. The General calls
a charge, their avalanche of swords to meet
His own forest of spears. How many would fall?

Men shouted, men fought, men let out a call
of battle so sound it was heard around
Death’s field. Injured were forced to try and crawl
across hard packed dirt of striking red ground.

He watched the scene in a too common way,
A thought that wearied his soul. These brave men
wore masks of strategy, some would ever lay.
Tales would number those, rounding off to tens.

Yet to the man all fought at his command,
In time some might commend this brutal stand.

Tuesday Night Stories 7, Part 5

Robert — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 01:59:04 +0000

The battle is at hand and Alsalam does his best to defend his people. Mavis gets her first chance to prove her worth as a leader and tactician. Will the planning and enhanced defenses be enough to hold back the Kallish troops?

As always, thanks for joining us tonight. If you’ve missed past episodes or would rather read the story, check the podcast page for the full text. Hope you enjoy!

Tuesday Night Stories 7, Part 4

Robert — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 01:16:47 +0000

A retaliation force is heading for Jalsalam while a tired and sick would-be leader tries to rally what forces he is able. The Kallish army does not take their official’s disappearance lightly. Alsalam must help Mavis and his people understand the importance of standing up for themselves, and of working together to do it.

Thanks for joining us tonight, hope you enjoy part four of the story!

Check here to read previous parts if you’ve missed them.

Tuesday Night Stories 7, Part 3

Robert — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 01:10:36 +0000

This poor blog has been neglected for a bit. This week’s episode really threw me for a loop. I haven’t had so much trouble writing for some time now. I scrapped three ideas (and lots of plotting) and modified the one that I didn’t scrap more than once. I think it came out pretty well in the end. Sorry it wasn’t up last Tuesday.

We had a nice Texas rain today, the first one in awhile. It felt fantastic, especially considering the 109 degree heat yesterday. It was kind of a defining moment of the end of Summer. Everything seems to relax a bit and fall into routine when such a large part of the population heads back to school.

Remember, if you’d rather read the story you can do so here. As always, thanks for joining us tonight!

Tuesday Night Stories 7, Part 2

Robert — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 01:00:14 +0000

In part two of Pushed To The Edge the walls begin to close in around Alsalam as he returns to his home village. Instead of a warm welcome he finds the town quiet and the streets empty. Things quickly turn from bad to worse and he discovers exactly why the people are in hiding.

Check out the podcast page if you missed part one. As always, thanks for listening!

Tuesday Night Stories 7, Part 1

Robert — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 02:02:35 +0000

Tonight we start a brand new story! Pushed To The Edge is another way of trying something new. Trying new accents, and hopefully a bit larger scale than any podcast story I’ve written so far. We shall see how this goes! I’ll re-post the synopsis for anyone who missed it last week.

For fifteen years invaders from the distant land of Kalleth have held Alsalam in servitude to their army, but they’ve brought peace and prosperity as well. When a murderous and enslaving change in command comes down from the eastern King, Alsalam must use the military knowledge he’s learned from them not only to defend himself, but all the tribes of his homeland.

As always, thanks for joining us!