Short Story: The Film-maker and the Sceptre

I've just completed a short story that has been buzzing around in my head for the last few months. It's got two main characters: a knight who's off to retrieve a sceptre that was stolen by the evil dark lord of Weswold; and the film-maker who's creating the story about him, using futuristic digital animation techniques that have made today's cinema industry obsolete. Here's the blurb:

Mark Snobbel, using twenty-second digital film-making technology, is testing a new medium that renders things in greater than 100% reality 3D. He and the support team don't realise what they're in for...

enjoy...

Review of Claralice Wolf's Prynne's Island

It's an experiment. Can a family, or a group of people set up a society based on love and mutual respect, in which all are treated justly as equals? Can such a society carry on with its original vision for generation after generation?

It’s worth a try, anyway. Claralice Wolf has written her heart out with this one. The story begins with a bazaar character, "the Red Prophet", who comes into the town of Verden. He's actually a clown, something of a pied piper. Once he has everyone's attention, he begins his prophecy, saying things one wishes would be proclaimed in any centre of power today.

Then, he gives Adam Prynne, a mere boy, his mandate.

Adam doesn't think like everyone else. He asks all the wrong questions. He says things people don't want mentioned. He rocks the boat. It's with a sigh of relief that they see him depart for an island far far away, over the mountains. The island was given to him by the king in return for befriending his sickly son. The prince fit in the same groove as Adam, so much so, one wishes he could have survived to become king -- but that would have been too good to be true.

The island is a very special one. Adam, his wife Zoe, and their two sons begin their new life. They are joined by other like thinking individuals, begin the struggle to make their paradise come true.

The human factor is authentic. Things don't happen automatically. Relationships take work from beginning to end. Adam and Zoe learn much, sometimes the hard way, but they make a solid beginning. The vision, the prophecy of the Red Prophet, important events, subsequent prophesies and light from above, are all written in a special Book.

Though the story lasts for seven generations, Claralice has skilfully woven all the lives into a common thread. We see each stage of the island's history through those lives, as the community grows from an extended family into a large town. The Red Prophet's words echo throughout the narrative, as various ones recall them. They are a warning, sometimes unheeded by those who most need to listen, and sometimes an encouragement. The unicorns also speak, but only certain people have the ability to hear them.

As the story comes to a climax, we see who are the true successors of Adam Prynne, and who only think they are. How does the vision survive? Does it end in a tragedy? For some, perhaps, but for others, it's a new beginning. Though it's a fantasy, it's a very true to life picture of the war between divine light and human nature.

Check out some more about the book, and about the author at www.tinyurl.com/prynne.

Review of Pepe at fallenanglereviews.com

Pepe has been reviewed at fallenanglereviews.com. They gave it a good rating!

Speaking of reviews, my aunt's book Prynne's Island, has been released at Writers Exchange E-Publishing. I've bought a copy, downloaded it, and I hope to post a review here soon.

Christmas News

The holiday season finds us ensconced in N. Ireland, in a nice house with a big back yard, in N. Belfast, which is now fully furnished; Abie is in school; and Pontip has begun her role as a staff member of YWAM Belfast. Her work will begin in earnest when the DTS starts in mid-January. I'm still job hunting, but we are now receiving benefits that will keep us going until I start work.

Thanks to some fellow YWAMmers living not far from us, we found a nice integrated school. Both of their kids go there and they give Abie a lift as well. Their youngest, Eilice, is in Abie's class.

Much to Abie's delight, God saw fit not to back me up when I told him it doesn't actually snow much in Ireland! We've had an early snow. The picture below was taken today in front of our house. He's also made new friends of some of our neighbour kids who happened to be out throwing snowballs.

We'll be spending Christmas day with my cousins, along with their family, and my dad. They've been a great help in getting us situated.

Here's wishing everyone a very blessed Christmas and a happy and prosperous New Year!

Review of R.C.Baze's Overseer's Island

Another book review:

If there's anything you need to remember, it's that Chuck Baze's Overseer's Island is a fantasy novel. Our hero, Jack Murphy is an alcoholic living in a cheap hotel room. He washes dishes at the local greasy spoon for minimum wage.

The wizened wizard of this fantasy is his neighbour, Carl Langum, who talks like your grandpa, and takes a swig of Jack's bourbon whenever he enters the room. Chuck Baze's fellow Texans should find it refreshing that he doesn't speak with the noble but quaint language of Gandolf, Merlin, or Professor Dumbledore.

But the story is obviously not set in Texas in something-something "Year of our Lord", but somewhere on the "Bastenian Continent" in a year designated, A.S. -- presumably "After Secession". That's when the "Free States" seceded from the "Trilov Monarchy". The popular religion isn't Bible Belt Christianity, but that handed down from the "Gima Priests".

But the characters are definately Texan. When Carl knocks on Jacks door first thing in the morning of the day all the action begins, Jack says, "Jesus, Carl, I thought it was someone important!" Where the expression, "Jesus" came from, or the Irishness of Jack's Surname, is one of the mysteries of the Bastenian Continent.

That isn't a criticism of Chuck Baze's novel, simply an observation. If Tolkein could import actual medieval European culture into Middle Earth, why can't Baze do the same with Texan culture? All he wants is a character that many potential readers will relate to. It's about a down-and-outer who's sunk about as low as one can. Baze paints him using the cultural symbols that we know only too well. He's your high-school career councillor's worst case scenario.

So, back to the story: There's a good reason he's an alcoholic. His dreams have driven him to drink. The realness and repetitiveness of them convince him that they are memories of previous incarnations. In each one, he remembers himself being murdered. The horror of it, many times per night, makes him dread going to sleep.

Carl Langum's excuse for showing interest is his screams during the night, but really, he knows exactly what's happening. Every one of Jack's lives for the last thousand or so years have indeed been shortened, in each case, by the same person. It's someone whose sole purpose for existing is to track him down and kill him before he can fulfil his mission.

But what is that mission? That's the question that still puzzles' Carl. They can only find out when the two go to the Overseers' Island. How they get there? If I told you, that would be a spoiler.
Carl, as I said, is the wizened wizard of this fantasy. He's a Calta Brici, one who knows how to derive telekinetic powers from Ley Lines and Nexus Points. I Googled "Calta Brici" and "Ley Lines". While I found plenty of material on the latter, I think that "Calta Brici" is a Chuck Baze invention. The various Calta Brici characters in the story insist that the art isn't magical, rather it's based on gravitational and magnetic forces that run through the Ley Lines and are especially strong around Nexus Points, where the lines intersect.

Carl knows all about that, and he also knows that the popular religion of "Gima" doesn't tell the whole story of the earth's beginnings. The real story begins with the "Overseers", who are 13 very special people, not quite gods, but not human either. They were assigned as the guardians and teachers of humanity. Only one of them was given the power to administer death, either to humans or his fellow Overseers, as a last resort in administering discipline. However, that power went to his head. He is Shaitiman, the Destroyer, who thinks he's a god.

Shaitiman has only one fear. That is Jack Murphy, or Cassimus, as he was in his original incarnation. The narrative is that of Jack's quest to find out why he is so feared, and once having found out, how to remember what he needs to know from all his past incarnations to complete his mission.

Reincarnation isn't really a part of the world-view of Overseer's Island. Everyone else enters the "afterlife" on dying, but only two people have been destined to endless rebirths, Jack Murphy/Cassimus and the one sent by Shaitiman to hunt him down.

In the course of the story, Jack begins to remember. At first, he surprises himself by speaking out about things he didn't remember learning, but he's learned it, none-the-less. His endless reincarnations have given him valuable experience which he must learn to tap into.

One of these is the art of the Calta Brici. Cassimus had it, but Jack Murphy has lost it. It's not something he must learn, but remember.

Author Chuck Baze, very skilfully, renders the process of recapturing the lost art in a believable way. There are also other things that return. Jack Murphy, the down-and-outer, was too far out of it to have a love life. Cassimus, however, had a lover, a ravishingly beautiful woman. Jack has no memory of her, but soon, begins to remember missing her in subsequent lives -- I'll stop there, or I'll spoil it. But Chuck Baze does it beautifully.

Things like Calta Brici, military strategy, swordsmanship, interpersonal relationships, as well as the overall plot, are Chuck's strong points. Relationships are something that's lacking in many a Fantasy or Science Fiction story, but not in this one. Whether it's a growing love between Jack Murphy and the aforementioned lady, the deep friendship between him and Carl Langum, or the father that Jack never had, but finds in the one he had as Cassimus; the reader will find a warm safe haven.

If only the characters didn't talk so much. Much of the action is dialogue driven, which is good. However, it sometimes feels like the characters, in explaining their perceptions, don't know when to stop, and keep it up well after the reader has already got the point. Perhaps in a later edition this can be adjusted -- or at least, in the sequel...

It's a great story, and the ending does seem to hint at a sequel, probably a whole series. I think that once having read Overseer's Island, the reader will be looking forward to getting their hands on the next one.

Get the book at Readers Eden, the same place that publishes Pepe

More Poetry

My 7th grade English teacher told me there's a difference between poems and rhymes. She assessed the few lines I showed her as the latter. I suppose today's offering also classifies as the same:

I've finally finished a long one that I began about six years ago. It's a parody of Mother Goose. If you enjoy the occasional silly but amusing rhyme, you may enjoy the adventures of jack horner and jill moffet

Pepe Haiku

What if, instead of chapter titles, one used haiku? I bounced that idea off my publisher as Pepe was being prepared for publication, but she didn't want to do it.

Anyway, I did have a whole set of haiku ready to use, and even had one file of my Pepe manuscript with the haiku in place. I've decided to post them on my Author's Den Page, for anyone who's interested.

There's a lot about poverty, slum life and homeless children there.

Here's one I actually made up in front of the creative writing class I was teaching for summer school over a year ago:

the boy with no shoes
now you see him, now you don't
my wallet -- it's gone!