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.

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.

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.

For a number of reasons, some that I’ll mention in a moment, David and I have decided to change the format of our podcast. Instead of bringing new episodes every week we’re going to do it every other Tuesday and make each episode last a bit longer. It may not be a permanent change, but for now it’s how we’ll run things. Because of this I’m going to attempt to do more posts than just the Tuesday Night Stories. I figure one post every two weeks might be a bit too rare.

To keep up Tuesday posts, I’m going to talk a little bit about where the story is at on the days that we don’t have a podcast episode. It will be a way to get into my mind as I’m plotting and writing these. Hopefully a little insight into my process will be entertaining. It’s possible that I might have something else to share about the stories on the off weeks, but it’s too soon to talk about it just yet! For now it’s my super-secret TNS plan. *gives a drastic villain cackle*

So, some reasons why we’re moving the podcast to every other Tuesday:

• Time has become a serious factor for me lately. The point of this isn’t to let my writing suffer by pushing too hard. Longer episodes, a bit more spread out, will let me dedicate the time needed for each one.
• Some of the stories are 7-9 episodes each. Without any breaks that is more than two months per story. That seems like a long time to keep people’s attention. Longer episodes should mean that each story can be released faster.
• Since I started this my writing time for non-podcast projects has been a lot more limited than I originally planned. Having more time for each one will let me get back to work on my novels. That’s really important to me.
• Last but not least, I think each episode will contain a lot better writing by not having to rush (sometimes I’ve have to rush it a lot more than I want). This goes for David as well, giving him plenty of time to get a perfect recording.

I appreciate your understanding in this matter. I hope that it will only increase the quality of our podcast. Sometimes writing just needs a little more time to marinate!

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.

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.

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!

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.