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.

 

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.

 

Next Tuesday we’ll be starting the ninth podcast story. I’m challenging myself yet again with this one. I’ve never tried to write a 1st person story before so it seemed time. It’s not that I dislike them. It’s more that I think 3rd person limited is more fun when writing fantasy. I love having multiple characters telling a story, hiding certain things, revealing others. It’s a delicate game you have to play when writing them. 1st person is a bit more straight forward. Still, since I’ve never done it so I figured why not?

Next Tuesday will start REWARDED WITH A CURSE. This is the tale of a small group of wizards living in the modern world. When the leader of this group 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 discover. Roger Gardwhin, a middle-aged man who tries to maintain a normal life outside of his magical group, is forced to take part despite many misgivings. As the day of the ritual approaches, he’s realizing just what he is getting himself into.

I hope you join us next week to start the new story!

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.

The Lands of Draknor is something that has been rolling around in my head for a very long time. I still remember the very first short story I wrote in that world. Ashthranh, mercenary for the Gods, and a murderous task. It was a very simplistic tale back then, written by a 16-year-old Sophomore in high school, but it started something much bigger. Over time that simple plot changed a great deal, but the main protagonist, Ashthran the Dryth, never did. Working on these podcasts, many of them being set at various periods in time in the world of Draknor, has really made me want to get back into the creation of this world. And so I think I will. I am getting close to finishing the final draft of The Forest Awakens, so I believe my assassin novel will have to be put off yet again to make way for something much more significant to me.

Check back next Tuesday for the full audio of Marked By The Dragon!

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.

Something I’ve wanted to do more lately is work on a little artwork to go along with each of my stories. I don’t know how successful this will be, I’m not a very good artist. But I have a lot of fun drawing. And I figure, like writing, practice can only make me better. I wanted Nyxor to be a little bigger I think, but I like how this came out.

This a one of the Draknor shields that might be found where Marked By The Dragon takes place, in the holy city of Alindrak. The symbol is of a dragon, Nyxor, eating her own tail. Based upon the oldest known symbol, the Uroborus. It’s one of my favorite symbols.

I’m looking forward to going back a bit and trying my hand at some artwork for older stories as well. Hopefully it all ends well. If nothing else, at least I’ll get to have some fun with it.

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.