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Dynasty: Damast and Pilo

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      Some character background for my novel The Secret Apprentice…

      Lady Damast is the greatest warrior of the Bodokin, and that’s saying something.

      The Bodokin are already larger, stronger, and tougher than humans. Their Champions even more so. Damast was born before the Manassi wizards openly arrived on the planet. Her mother died in childbirth, prophesying Damast would be un-killable save by “one of the Manassi”. This promise made little sense as Damast grew up and became the strongest Champion of Bodo. She led their armies in their war against the humans in the north. It was on a high mountain pass, the final routed defense on the border with Caulador, where the Manassi wizards first appeared. To Damast and the Bodokin, they were angels, servants of Osa the Magnificent, to be worshipped and never questioned.

      For Damast, the Manassi’s arrival was not a threat, but a promise. For as long as she served them faithfully, she could never be killed. She became their most loyal follower and fought alongside the kind wizard Dalonna for many years. She could not be killed… but she could be hurt. The wizards brokered peace between Bodo and Caulador, but a new threat emerged on the other side of the world. Rakin, a Champion as strong and invulnerable as Damast, united seven warring tribes into an endless Horde and led them in an invasion to destroy the Manassi and all those who served them. Rakin murdered Damast’s husband and tortured her for months on end before Dalonna finally rescued her. The threat of Rakin and the Horde remain to this day. Bodo stands on the brink of annihilation, the same as Caulador. Even with the threat of Anudala and Ardenae attacking the humans, the Bodokin cannot send their armies away from their own lands. They can only afford to send the Lady Damast. She will train and mentor Goodwin on his journey to kill Anudala… and if Goodwin should decide to join the other side… she will be there to slay him.

      Pilo just might be the world’s greatest criminal.

      His greatest advantage lies not in his wits or charm or improper jokes, but in his immortality. Pilo’s body can reconstitute itself from any injury. Decapitation and liquefaction are only momentary inconveniences for him. He doesn’t have any other abilities. He’s not strong or tough. He can just get killed over and over again. Though much of his past over the centuries is shrouded in mystery, he’s used this unique power to steal and cheat his way from one end of the world to the other. He’s been everywhere. Even to Ardenae, where Goodwin must go. That’s why Lady Damast is sent to pressgang him into being their guide into the enemy’s stronghold. She’s met him before, of course. Decades earlier, Pilo stole a particularly valuable religious relic from a Bodokin temple. Damast thought she stopped him when she cut his head off, but he got up and ran off anyway.

      Damast certainly doesn’t trust Pilo, but she will be forced to rely on his expertise. She hopes the promise of gold and clemency will earn his loyalty. Pilo certainly seems compliant enough and takes a shine to young impressionable Goodwin. But who can say where the loyalties of an immortal thief truly lie?

Dynasty Book Six, and the Series, is Complete!

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Today I finished writing the rough draft for the sixth and final book in the DYNASTY series. The series is now complete. I first originated the idea in 2001, 23 years ago, and began writing the first volume in 2006. My original plan was to wait and see if the first trilogy breaks even before spending the money to publish the second trilogy… but these books are my legacy, and I want them out in the world for people to read and possibly even enjoy. So in the coming weeks, I’m going to contact my editor and my cover artist to begin work on the second trilogy.

Meanwhile, TERMINUS, my real baby born in 1993, is halfway written with seven out of fourteen (!) volumes finished. So that will my next larger project. Writing those final seven books.

Dynasty: Goodwin and Anudala

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      Some character background for my novel The Secret Apprentice…

      Goodwin is a bit of an idiot.

      It’s not because he’s illiterate and has no education whatsoever. That’s normal for someone living on the streets of Kingston, the capital city of the kingdom of Caulador. It’s more about the fact that he still has a blind faith in the goodness of the King, the Lords, and the Manassi wizards who keep them in power. The others in his street gang have little love for those who stand over them and don’t hesitate to lie and thieve to survive. But Goodwin has somehow managed to hold onto his faith in Osa the Magnificent (their creator god) and his earthly servants the Manassi. His first young love, tragically cut short by her death, installed this in him.

      Goodwin reluctantly goes along on an egg-stealing adventure resulting in his arrest and sentencing to community service. This is how he stumbles into one of the wizards, who senses Goodwin is a Champion with un-awakened superhuman abilities destined to destroy the evil threatening the land. This is all a great surprise for Goodwin and entirely overwhelming for him. His clumsy terror of everything slowly fades away as his powers grow on the journey to face the ‘evil’ sorcerer Anudala, who is actually a young woman leading a democratic rebellion against the King. His experiences erase his ignorant idealism, leaving the question of whether he will kill or join Anudala when he finally meets her.

      Anudala wasn’t supposed to be the face of a revolution.

      She was an unassuming handmaiden in the King’s castle, one of the beleaguered adolescents responsible for the spoiled and nasty little girl Princess Megan. Anudala faced her share of traumas at the hands of the corrupt Kingsmen guarding the castle. One day she was rescued from them by the Manassi wizard Baraka. Baraka made her his own servant to protect her and began to secretly teach her how to awaken her dormant abilities as a Champion. Baraka was openly disgusted with the corruption and cruelty on display everywhere. Anudala not only admired him… she fell in love. Baraka was forbidden from such things, but he revealed hidden secrets to her and Anudala’s power grew until it finally became too great for even him to ignore. The confrontation ended with Baraka slain, an impossible feat, and Anudala fleeing to the neighboring hostile kingdom of Ardenae. She swiftly became a great leader and found likeminded brethren in the Arden. Now, she is ready to lead their armies in a final invasion of Caulador… not to destroy it, but to liberate it.

      Her past still haunts her, however. Anudala has risen above everything but remains a driven woman incapable of trust or happiness. She will never love again… and she will sacrifice everything to liberate the world from injustice. No matter who she has to kill to do so.

Dynasty: Back Story

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      Some world-building for my book The Secret Apprentice…

      Eighty years ago, the human kingdom of Caulador stood on the brink of annihilation. Their vastly superior neighbors to the south, the Bodokin, had demolished their armies and were on the verge of storming over the border to conquer and pillage. Not only were they outnumbered, but the Bodokin also possessed vastly superior strength and durability compared to regular humans. The humans’ only advantage were a handful of Champions, rare people born with extraordinary powers of various sorts. Even so, all hope seemed lost.

      Then the Manassi wizards appeared. Angelic beings who existed in the religions of both sides, they arrived to stop the war and broker a peace between the two warring nations. They took the form of six frail old men but possessed incredible powers including flight, speed, and strength. The six wizards set out to reshape the planet to the benefit of both Caulador and Bodo, though for reasons unknown they seemed to show a particular interest in the Marchand family ruling Caulador.

      The war between Caulador and Bodo was over, but new threats emerged. Ardenae, another kingdom to the west of Caulador, began to take an aggressive stance towards their neighbor. A recent natural disaster had destroyed their best farmlands and they were forced to take food by force. Caulador replaced one foe for another. As did Bodo. In the faraway East, across a vast ocean, a new Champion named Rakin united seven warring tribes into a Horde ready to invade Bodo. Though the Bodokin were individually stronger than the Horde, the numbers of their foe are endless, and Rakin is so powerful even the Manassi fear to face him. Only the Lady Damast, the Bodokin’s strongest Champion, can meet him in battle. They have a long history together; Rakin murdered Damast’s husband before abducting and torturing her for months on end. Rakin cannot kill her, though. A prophecy states Damast can only be killed by ‘one of the Manassi’, and she is their most faithful servant.

      The threat of Ardenae grows for Caulador, and their new allies the Bodokin cannot aid them because of their own greater war with the Horde. Lionel Marchand, King of Caulador, begins taxing his people more and more to finance the military. Conditions worsen for all but the richest, who prosper even further.

      Matters turn even more dire when the Manassi wizard stationed in Caulador, Baraka, is murdered. The Manassi were thought to be immortal and un-killable, but his secret apprentice Anudala somehow manages the feat. He had taken her under his wing, trained her, and awakened her dormant Champion powers. She fled to Ardenae and became a leader in their army. Because of the inherent misogyny rampant in Caulador, only the highest elites know Anudala is a young woman. The public is told ‘Anudalo’ is a man. They are also not told Anudala’s true motivation is to overthrow the monarchy and the patriarchy to introduce democracy and equality to the kingdom.

Now, Anudala and Ardenae stand ready for the final invasion of Caulador. The humans’ only hope lies in an old prophecy the wizards discover about a new Champion destined to defeat ‘the greatest evil’, which they assume refers to Anudala. Dalonna, the new wizard in Caulador, tests endless masses of hopeful candidates, but has yet to find the supposed prophesized one…

The Secret Apprentice

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      THE SECRET APPRENTICE is the first book of DYNASTY, a young adult high fantasy series comprising two linked trilogies. The idea started in 2001 as my morally ambiguous twist on Lord of the Rings and has grown from there. It’s an epic war story with plenty of action and spectacle along with a great deal of humor. While the subject matter is dark, I do try to have as much fun with my characters as possible. It’s definitely not ‘grimdark’ in tone! As much as I love high fantasy, I struggle with thousand page tomes of immense complexity and seriousness. This is much more straightforward and entertaining, to my mind at least.

      The series stars Goodwin, a street rat living in poverty who discovers he has superhuman abilities. He gets recruited by the King and his wizard advisor to go off on a quest to assassinate the evil sorcerer about to invade the kingdom. That’s the story for the public, anyway. Their adversary is actually a young woman named Anudala leading a democratic rebellion against the King’s corrupt regime. She was the secret apprentice to another wizard who helped awaken her own dormant power. Now she’s ready to conquer the kingdom for its own good to liberate its oppressed peoples. Goodwin was always a loyal and unthinking citizen, but his quest will lead him to question his assumptions, leaving the question of whether he’ll kill or join Anudala when he finally meets her.

      Joining Goodwin on his quest are an assortment of amusing supporting characters. Lady Damast is his stern and unforgiving mentor and commander, a hulking and powerful woman from another race who is blindly obedient to the wizards she worships as a part of her religion. Pilo is a thief who happens to be able to recover from any injury including decapitation. He gets forcibly recruited to be their guide into enemy lands, but his crude jokes and charming ways may belie hidden allegiances. Mary is a cunning warrior and scout whose tongue was cut out by the enemy. Nicolas likes to proclaim he is the greatest archer in the land, though his advanced age and farsightedness do him no favors. His rivals for the title are the younger twins Julius and Julius, who enjoy reminding him of the fact. Rounding out the group are three warriors from Damast’s race who don’t speak a word of Goodwin’s language but always seem to be saying something very rude and laughing about it.

      Their company will go on a journey across two continents and an ocean on their way to Anudala’s stronghold. Along the way they’ll encounter a number of spectacular foes, both human and beast. I’m particularly fond of the fight with a ten-story-tall giant! But this is all mere prelude to Goodwin’s confrontation with Anudala where he will learn the truth about her life, the world, and the secrets the wizards keep…

      The Secret Apprentice is the first part of a completed trilogy. I’m almost done writing the sixth and final book in the Dynasty series. I will publish the first trilogy in short order, and assuming people buy them (fingers crossed!), I will publish the rest of the series. And after that I also have the young adult sci-fi series TERMINUS to publish; seven books are finished! That’s a fourteen book series so I’m only halfway done with that particular monster.

Introduction to Dynasty

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      The Dynasty epic fantasy series came, of course, from Lord of the Rings.

      It was opening night of the Fellowship of the Ring in December 2001. I was twenty years old. I had just seen a near-perfect onscreen recreation of my most treasured book of all time. I saw Gandalf on screen and he was just as warm and kind and powerful as I’d always imagined. My mind was racing when I got home. I was never going to get to sleep. I started reading Fellowship again for the twentieth time.

      As I read I started thinking… what would MY version of Lord of the Rings be? Just like I created Terminus eight years earlier to be MY version of Star Wars/Trek. Being a big comic book nerd, my first thought was ‘what if Gandalf could fly?’ My second thought was, well then he could just fly over to the evil lair and end the story right there. (Let’s not get into the eagles debate. They were servants of Illuvatar and not meant to interfere in the story!) My third thought was, ‘what if he chose not to?’ That was my leaping off point for the story. I started thinking about the moral implications of that. What sort of character would possess the power to help and decide to let others take the risk instead? This in turn took me to thinking about the morality of your typical medieval fantasy setting of rich corrupt kings and poor villagers. What if there was a character (a woman, of course) with our modern day sense of right and wrong who decided to rebel against ‘the way of the world’? What if this was the ‘villain’ the wizards fought, or sent others to fight?

      I didn’t start writing right away, of course. It stayed in the outline stage for years. I eventually worked out an entire trilogy of an epic war between the forces of good and evil with a healthy mix of moral ambiguity on both sides. The invasion of Iraq in 2003 had a huge influence on the story. I suddenly found myself with a current event mirroring the planned story in a twisted way, raising the question of the futility and morality of invading another country in the name of saving it from itself. I even found myself giving some Dick Cheney quotes to my characters.

      I completed my first novel, The Secret Apprentice, in 2006. What an accomplishment! I had finally put my money where my mouth was. I immediately started querying publishing companies and learned the dubious joy of constant rejection. I started writing the sequel, The Lord of the East, right away but found myself quitting halfway through. The story was about to visit a brand new land based on historic cultures I didn’t know enough about to write. This hurdle kept me from coming back to the story for almost a decade until I improved my skills enough to learn to write through the mental blocks and blank spaces.

      That first novel has been almost completely re-written, word by word, over the past eighteen years. Several times. I’m a very different writer now than I was when I first started. Every once and awhile I’ll come across a sentence that actually appears to have survived from the original draft. It’s usually in an action scene. I seemed to know what I was doing from the get-go there.

      The original version of the novel definitely had an emphasis on spectacle and action. Character and dialogue became much more important to me as I matured as a writer. I still like the spectacle though! I’ve put a lot of work into this first novel and I’m happy with it. My only regret is the story builds and improves so much in the sequels, I worry that readers will never get to the highs because they didn’t make it through the beginning. Here’s hoping they enjoy the first one enough to keep going, because it just gets better and better!