Tag Archives: poetry

Weekend gift.

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A little something for you folks as I take a brief break from this editing work. Once more, I do not proclaim myself a poet of any fashion. I simply get the urge to sometimes throw down some rhythmic phrases.

This piece is about my two main characters for Under a Falling Sky. One style, written with italics, is from the perspective of Ashayl Faeron. The other, written in standard font, is from Tanis Arkay.

—-

A broken home among the winter’s storms
Such memories are all I leave behind
As I wander from cities of all shapes and forms
Trying to preserve all that is Human in my mind

~^~

Some think me the son of a master of war
Others see me as just another link in the chain
But we all see and tend a torn frayed and torn
As rebels within and empires without bring us pain

~^~

I hide these scars of misfortune from all
Trying to find my place in a world of ignorance
Gone are the memories of forgotten homes and halls
Replaced only by the ruthless fist of intolerance

~^~

The rebellious eyes of our people give us hope
Hammered down by the realization of swift defeat
Turning us from proud warriors with honor in our souls
To a subservient people down on bended knee

~^~

A new dawn is coming for one and all
From the lowest home to the grandest hall
As a generation shall come crumbling down
And we try to bury our old ways in the ground

New Release – Poem: Prayer to the Tribunal.

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Good news, ladies and gents! We got a new release today!

“Prayer to the Tribunal,” a poem I wrote, has been graciously posted up by a dear friend of mine, Patricia DeJong. You can check it out over at her website, the link is right … here. There’s also a permanent link on the published page.

The piece is a bit of background for my upcoming NaNoWriMo novel, “Under A Falling Sky.” I wanted to work with some piece of the story and build some kind of foundation, so I took up Patricia’s offer of having a poem slot on her site. This also gave me a chance to write and finish something quick and brief and get something out there for the crowd to see.

This one was, indeed, a quick write and was very cathartic to create. It doesn’t create a ton of backdrop of the setting, but it does throw in some certain pieces of setting information. In the end, I hope this creates some interest in the setting and might drum up enough questions that might grab some readers.

Either way, back to watching – a little – TV shows, then working on “Gunslingers of Asgard.” Ciao!

New releases!

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A new day, a couple new releases!

First out of the gate, we have A Prayer to the Exiled, a poetic prayer amongst the Vashari in the Dark Stars universe. This piece is exclusively being posted on her website [link], with the full piece posted right … here. The link to this piece has been added to the Published Pieces menu on this website for future references.

This piece gives a little insight into Vashari culture, along with offering a small glimpse into one of the two protagonists for my upcoming works, Vaerys Tyrus Dirion. I hope you all enjoy this piece, just as I enjoyed writing and sharing it.

Second, A Debt of Lead has been released! It is currently available [in pdf, mobi, and epub formats] in the downloads box to the left on this page. Alternatively, there is a direct link to the zip over on the Downloads page.

This story is the debut of my second protagonist, Jacob Wilkens, for the Dark Stars universe. In this story, he’s got to fight his way up through a casino that operates as a front for a stim cartel. If he doesn’t, the cartel’s henchmen will kidnap and kill one of his associates, something he can’t let happen.

These works, combined with Dawnstar, form the beginning of our exposure to the Dark Stars universe. This new universe is a place filled with pirates, massive corporations, stim cartels, aliens known as the Vashari, civil war amongst mankind, and more.

Here’s hoping you stick around and enjoy the ride.

The story is in the workshop-oven.

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So yeah, been slightly longer than normal for me when it comes to posting a new update. It’s been a little busy over here on my end, so I’ll cut straight to the chase and make this short and simple.

1: A Debt of Lead, formally A Debt of Bullets, has had its first draft completed. It’s currently in the editing phase, being looked at. So far I’ve sounded the call for help with edits and critique, though none have answered, making myself the only person to have gone through it. I’d originally intended to begin compiling it and work on the cover art as soon as tonight, but I might possibly extend that deadline in the hopes that someone else takes an interest in the editing process.

2: There have been a couple of slight revisions to the website. The Links tab has been removed, since it didn’t really serve much purpose. At the same time the Poetry tab has been changed to a Downloads tab with a link to the download for A Call to Arms, along with a slot for A Debt of Lead for when it’s released. It still retains the links to the poems, still hosted here on the website, though it’s not the most optimal way to view them.

3: After A Debt of Lead is down with editing, I’m moving back to working on the manuscript for my novel. As of now, I’m still working on Chapter 3, but am still aiming to make more headway. At the same time, it’s come to my attention that Fireside Magazine will be accepting submissions on August 6th. Needless to say, this has my interest, so I’m also spending some time thinking about a new story to possibly submit to them.

That’s all I got to mention for now. What can I say, I told you it’d be brief. Now I’m back off to get cracking on more edits, cover designs, ect.

(If you’re potentially interested in helping provide editing and critique for A Debt of Lead, please drop me a message either here or at one of my social media feeds.)

The results are in …

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That’s right, the results of the vote for my next short story – one that will be available for free download from here – are in. What did they show me?

That I have an extremely silent readership.

All told, I received two votes: one from one of my most loyal of readers, and the other from one of my bloody co-workers. To say that I’d wished for a larger voting audience would be true, but there also used to be days when I’d have no one that would vote at all. With that in mind, I’m still happy with the outcome.

So what is the outcome, you wonder?

  1. Science Fiction: 1 vote.
  2. Western: 1 vote.

So,  a tie between some more SciFi and a Western. What does this mean? It means we’re gonna have another short story that takes place in the Dark Stars universe.

What do I mean by “another short story” from Dark Stars? Nobody’s heard that title before, so surely I must be blowing smoke out my bung hole, right?

Wrong.

You see, I actually created the blueprints and foundations for an entire Science Fiction universe that I could tell any number of stories in. My own sandbox, if you will. I planned for aliens, corporations, rural colonies in fringe worlds, ect. I then also wrote a short story that took place in this universe, one that I hope you’re all familiar with. Its name was Dawnstar.

That’s right, folks. Dawnstar wasn’t simply some little one-off short story that I popped out of nowhere (well it was, but hush), it was part of a much larger universe that I have in mind and notes. Here, with this new short story that will soon begin construction and formulation, we’ll see more of it. Where does the Western part come in? Well, you’ve only seen a tiny part of the Dark Stars universe so far.

So what process will this story undertake? Well, I’m currently planning and mapping out the idea of the story. I’ve got a couple concepts in mind, just deciding what to do with it. After that comes the writing part (obviously), followed by getting it cleaned up. Now what will the “cleaning up” entail? Well, hopefully it will entail a beta reader or two, and/or some time in a workshop. Don’t want to host some raw hunk of space-turd now do we?

Now I’m pretty sure that, if you’re still reading, the question that’s likely on your mind is this: “How will we get to read it?”

The answer is pretty simple. I’ve established a Box account, which is now currently hosting a .zip containing multiple formats (PDF, mobi, and epub) of “A Call to Arms”, a collection of my poetry along with some extras. With this, I’ll be providing downloads to the story in multiple formats (again: PDF, mobi, and epub). I’ll also be changing a couple pages of the website so that the “Poetry” tab will be changed to also have a link to said story, posted – in full – here on the website.

This story, along with the poetry collection, will all fall under Creative Commons. That, in layman’s terms, will mean you can download it, share it, print it out and use it as toilet paper, whatever. You can do all of that for free, with only the small request that (if you do share it) you provide either credit to my name or a link to this website. Seriously folks, it won’t be that bloody hard; it’s not like I’m charging you or anything.

So there you have it, folks! Completed contests, new stories on the horizon, and (hopefully) good times to be had by all.