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ch18.09

by dan on May 18, 2012 at 7:00 am
Posted In: The Novel

Freetrick grinned, although he still wasn't sure he knew what she meant about the candle. "What…you mean…here?"

"Of course." Bloodbyrn maneuvered him until his back was on the floor and she was on her knees over him. She leaned down, and an aching amount of white cleavage appeared between the skulls.

Bloodbyrn looked down, and grinned, her voice lowered to a purr. "You would stare so at a lady?" She slid back, a hand coming to rest on, by now, the extremely uncomfortable protective plating between his legs. "My lord?"

She struck his cheek. Gently. "That is unbefitting," Bloodbyrn was smiling, her lips partly open as she stroked his face. "A great fault in a Despot of Evil." Her metal-coated nails scratched down a cheekbone. "But perhaps I have use for you despite your faults." She lowered herself until their faces were almost touching. "Does my lord feel…useful?"

Buckles clattered under Bloodbyrn's hands.

"Buh..Bloodbyrn, you're not going to…here?" Freetrick whimpered as her hand pressed down. "but, uh…" he thought, suddenly, of eyes behind the walls. Wasn't every room in Clouds-Gather watched by spies? Freetrick pushed himself up, suddenly wondering about everything they had just said to each other. "Wait, Bloodbyrn! Where's the blood mist thing?"

"The red noise, you mean?" Bloodbyrn's nimble little fingers were moving down the armor over his ribs, unbuckling. "Fear not, my lord. I have drawn blood sigils around this room."

"Blood sigils?" Freetrick squinted up at the ceiling. "What are blood sigils?"

"Must my lord know?" asked Bloodbyrn, "at this precise time?"

"Maybe I do." Freetrick pulled himself up and looked at Bloodbyrn with sudden suspicion. "We have been speaking pretty openly about things in here, Bloodbyrn."

"Does my lord distrust me?" Bloodbyrn raised an eyebrow, then bent back down to resume here work on his armor. "Good. He is learning."

He snorted. "I suppose you wouldn't have brought the cat here if you thought you could be seen."

"Indeed. And besides." Bloodbyrn's haughty lip-curl turned into something very much like a smirk. "Would you mind an audience, my lord, at this juncture?"

"Strike me out," Freetrick settled back onto the floor, "I'm the Ultimate Fiend, aren't I? I should invite the press in here and take comments mid-coitus."

"I am unsure as to my lord's exact meaning," came Bloodbyrn's voice from above him, "But in any case, worry not. As you have so astutely noted, it would not be in my interest to permit people to know where I am or what I am doing."

"Right," said Freetrick, "except the monsters, of course."

Her fingers stopped. "No. No monsters know I am here, either."

"Um…"

Her face was suddenly above his again. "Do they, Feerborg?"

"Well," said Freetrick, "yes. The Kaimeera knew to lead me here, after all."

Bloodbyrn jumped back, and Freetrick yelped as his knees collapsed under her. "You were led here?"

"Of course," grumbled Freetrick as he sat up tugged his legs out from under his concubine. "How else would I get here?"

"Blood and ichor!" Bloodbyrn leaped to her feet. "Why did I not think of this? My lord, immediately we must apprehend the Kaimeera and destroy it. Who knows whom else that miserable monster has told!"

Freetrick blinked hard. "Well, I don't think—

"We must leave!" Bloodbyrn shouted. "Now!"

"Well…strike it" Freetrick winced as he rose. Once again, horrible things were happening in his pants. "What about your cat?"

"Oh…no!" Bloodbyrn shook her head, "this matter is of more importance than the safety of Princess Fluff. I have no choice but to let her fend for herself in these corridors."

"Princess Fluff?"

"There is no time for foolish questions. One moment." Bloodbyrn closed her eyes and spread her hands in front of her. There were was a crackling like burning paper and a smoke puffed up from the diagram on the table. "We shall search for her later." Bloodbyrn strode toward the door and grasped its handle. She pulled it open, saying "For now we must—"

"Helloooo?"

As if on cue, a shadow rose against a wall, and the Duke DeMacabre materialized out of the indoor mist.

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I got published! Sort of!

by dan on April 21, 2012 at 9:32 am
Posted In: Blog

So I didn't get paid for it, but it IS on a website.

I other news, I've been enjoying spring in Sofia and concentrating on getting World's Other Side ready for submission to agents.

I also made a detailed outline of Tyrannosaur Queen (the first outline I've done for a novel-length story), and I expect fast progress.

Also, I FINALLY saw Karikurashi no Arietti (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrietty) and I am SUPER inspired. I need to draw people like THAT.

chao!

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GoodReads Evil

by dan on March 8, 2012 at 10:02 am
Posted In: Blog

The Kingdoms of Evil now has a GoodReads page. If you're feeling generous, please add a review :)

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An Illustration of Bloodbyrn

by dan on February 17, 2012 at 10:03 am
Posted In: Blog

Guess what I found browsing deviantart. Snowkatt101 has unwittingly made a very accurate picture of Bloodbyrn DeMacabre (aside from the horns and tail, of course).

Actually the coincidence isn't that surprising. I used deviantart as a mine for fantasy archetypes I used when I described my characters, and so these influences are floating around all over the place.

Can anyone out there find other "illustrations" of characters from the Kingdoms of Evil? At some point I'll also share the images I used as references.

And please click the picture to view the full-sized version. If you have a devart account, favorite it.

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Audio sample and commentary on my next book!

by dan on December 24, 2011 at 3:52 pm
Posted In: Blog

The people: Paul Jenkins, Pavlina Borisova-Bensen, Daniel M. Bensen

The Menu: Duck on a bed of wheat, hot apple cider, and "The Wrath of Khan"

The purpose: to read through the next chapter of Dan's new book, and help him see what needs fixing.

Three Scary Voices Presents:

The World's Other Side

Chapter 3 (and commentary)

  • podcast1 (Wentama meets a White leader and gives him a warning)
  • podcast2 (Father Barnabas, priest of White-town, confronts George Boatman)
  • podcast3 (Bounce goes shopping with Joan)
  • podcast4 (commentary from the readers and author)

In case you don't know, the World's Other Side is my completed second novel, a alt-history, sci-fi thriller-romance I'm currently polishing up to show to literary agents and (eventually, hopefully) get published.  To do that, though, I needed a way to gain perspective on the story, and see what worked and what didn't on a big scale. Enter Paul Jenkins, playwright extraordinaire and fellow EFL teacher, who suggested an outloud reading of the book (actually, this is a simplification. Paul originally came up with the idea of reading through The Kingdoms of Evil, and he, Pavlina, and I read through several chapters of Freetrick's adventures...which it didn't occur to me to record. Sorry). Anyway, I deeply thank Paul for his idea, and for agreeing to lend his (professionally) trained voice to the recording. I also thank Pavlina, who had already read and commented upon this chapter twice (first when I first wrote it, and then again after I had written the whole book, for which I owe her a picture of a baby Triceratops...it's a long story).

Neither me nor Pavlina are trained speakers, and none of us has the first clue of what to do with audio recording aside from which end of the microphone to talk into. So I apologize in advance for the quality of this production. It's not supposed to be an audio- or podio-book as much as it is a teaser for my new book, and a way for interested people to see part of my writing process. Stay tuned at the end for commentary by the Three Scary Voices.

And now for some background in the story. You're going to listen to Chapter 3, in which the character introductions are mostly done and we set up for the plot. Here's what you haven't read yet (unless you're one of my beta readers. For more information on being a beta reader, see the bottom of this page):

The World's Other Side is a alt-history romance/techno-thriller that takes place in an alternate-history world in the Age of Exploration turned out very differently. Five hundred years ago, the people of the southern super-continent of Gondwana discovered and colonized the Northern Hemisphere. Now, a tiny community of English-speaking refugees tries to survive in the North American city of Shikaakwa, capital of the Native-run Ilinwa Republic.

George Boatman is the leader of a gang of young men of White-town. Although he once trained to be a priest, George is now the leader of a gang, fighting to protect the White-Towners against the Ilinwa majority.

Bounce Nakmara is a foreign student from the world's strongest military and economic power, Gondwana. She studied the Ilinwa language, but finds herself living with a host-family of English-speaking barbarians.

Wentama Inoka is a police officer of the Native American Ilinwa majority, who falls in love with a White girl.

Joan is George's sister and the object of Wentama's affection. She finds herself straddling two worlds, unwilling to choose one over the other.

In chapter one, the story opened with an act of vengeance. In retaliation for the rape and beating of a woman in his community, George Boatman firebombed the Ilinwa culprit's house. Upon his arrival home, George discovered that his grandmother agreed to host a foreign student from wealthy and powerful Gondwana.

The student, Bounce Nakmara, was everything George hated about modern global society. She was arrogant and commanding, sexually promiscuous, and scornful of the faith and traditions of his people. Worse, as a wealthy, foreigner she would bring down the scrutiny of the local police.

The police were already interested in George's community. In chapter two it emerged that the house George burned down had been owned by a member of a powerful local crime syndicate, the Mound-Builders. A scion of the syndicate was killed in the fire, and now the boss demanded vengeance. Wentama, an Ilinwa (Native American) police officer working the White-Town beat, has been charged with finding the culprit and "nailing him to a tree."

Interested in the story? Want to give your feedback? Want a free dinosaur picture? Become a beta reader and all this wealth and power can be yours. Just let me know in the comments if you're interested.

Thanks for listening!

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Ladies, Gentlemen, Reptiles

by dan on December 3, 2011 at 10:55 am
Posted In: Blog

 

Here's a little something-something I wrote to accompany the Kingdoms of Evil.  Enjoy!

~~~

Ladies, gentlemen…uh, assorted reptiles, may I have your attention please?

Oh, excuse me, what I of course meant to say was hark unto me, legions of the damned, else may the fires of the Maelstrom blast ye from the earth!

Thank you. Thank you.  Please be seated.

Ladies, gentlemen, and reptiles, this is a time of transition.  The old Ultimate Fiend of the Kingdoms of Evil is dead—may the blood never dry from his hands—and I, your new despot, am untested and unknown.  I am sure you have many questions about my intentions, which I will try to answer during this presentation.

All right.  First—I’m sure all of you are anxious to hear about my plans concerning our mortal enemies, the forces of Good. It will gratify you to know that I do have a proposed solution to the eternal struggle between Good and, uh, us, but that will actually come second in priority under my other projects.

You see, ladies, gentlemen, reptiles, this is not the time to focus on foreign affairs.  This is the time to look inward, to fix problems within the Kingdoms of Evil.

I know what you are all thinking—how can we act to stamp out light and goodness in the world if we don’t make foreign policy our top priority?  Well, the truth is that if we don’t shift our attention to our own problems, we’re not going to be in a position to stamp on anyone.

Basically, ladies, gentlemen, reptiles, the Kingdoms of Evil are in trouble.

First: we’re broke.  Oh, we have some priceless artifacts, but we can’t use the Taloned Scepter of Khattd’ragu to finance a new public works projects.  Nobody would pay money for the Gauntlet of Storm and Shadow, even if it can rip living souls from their bodies.

Which brings me to the next problem: we have no one to trade with.  The countries around us have all declared undying vengeance and eternal battle against the forces of, once again, us.  Villagers run screaming before us, ports would rather burn their docks than let our ships land, and every time we send a maggot-tongued abomination to parlay with the Council of Reason, it gets its head lopped off by a Paladin.

So.  We have no money.  Why is this a problem?  Because, ladies, gentlemen, and reptiles, we have no food.  Think about this for a moment.  Think about the Bleaklands that surround us.  We have lakes of molten rock.  We have permanent storms that cloak the sky in a Maelstrom of dark and oppressive power. What we do not have is farm land.  What are our monsters going to eat?

Yes, I see your hand there.  Claw.  Yes?

No.  No, I’m sorry, we cannot simply eat each other.

To dig ourselves out of this hole, we will need to work hard, and work together.

Now.  I want you all to take a moment to look around you.  Look at the monster on your left, and the monster on your right.  Say hello.  No.  No, please do not sink your teeth into your neighbor’s jugular.  This is what I’m talking about.  I have had to replace my chief of staff twice in the past three weeks because just walking around in this black castle, the average person stands a three to one chance of being eaten alive.

To put it simply, ladies, gentlemen, and reptiles, our Evil lifestyle is not sustainable.

So, ladies, gentlemen, reptiles, I ask you all to re-examine your motives. Ask yourselves, what good is Good and Evil?  Is the eternal struggle between Light and Darkness going to put food on our tables?  Or bleeding gobbets on our flat stones, whichever the case may be?  No!

We have based our moral system, our entire civilization, on doing the opposite of what everyone else thinks is good.  Of course, a lot of what they think is good is just them doing the opposite of what they see us doing.  And in the end, what profit does this generate for anyone?

What we need to do, ladies, gentlemen, and reptiles, is to take a good long look at ourselves.  We must each ask ourselves this question: How Evil do I want to be?  Do I want to chop up my brother into little pieces?  No.  Because, intact, my brother can give me advice and lend a hand when I’m in trouble.  Do I want to eat my own children?  No.  Because my children can work and support me in my old age.  Do I want to betray my friends, spread poisons across my land, and blot out the sun with never-ending darkness?  No.  Those things are not Evil.  They are Stupid.

So I ask you, ladies, gentlemen, and reptiles, no, I demand that you forget Good and Evil, and instead live according to the rules of Smart and Stupid.  Because no one can win in the battle between Good and Evil.  But if we are Smart, the odds in a fight against Stupid are much, much better.

Thank you ladies, gentlemen, and reptiles.  I will now take questions.

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