tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1398155731348152662024-03-13T02:44:04.581+00:00Tales From The ComputerbankRandom thoughts on science fiction,fantasy and the business of writing thereof.James Leckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05836664255331961912noreply@blogger.comBlogger208125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-139815573134815266.post-47231235986937136622013-06-01T15:56:00.001+01:002013-06-01T15:56:11.996+01:00Migrating to Wordpress<br />
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While Tales From the Computerbank has been a fun thing to do, I've been very remiss with my blogging of late. So... in an attempt to kickstart things again I'm moving my blogging activities across to Wordpress (although there should be a thank you to Blogger and possibly one of those "it's not you... it's me..." kind of conversations into the bargain).<br />
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New random thoughts and ramblings can be found at <a href="http://jameslecky.wordpress.com/">http://jameslecky.wordpress.com</a>.<br />
James Leckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05836664255331961912noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-139815573134815266.post-47900381583048859592013-03-21T03:43:00.000+00:002013-03-21T03:43:02.564+00:00James Herbert RIP<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2P7EBfcaVLP16qXpthMgy65kZgVoVhTuIqA-GdUPb5SPxqrHbGgIcUhlgl5at0iuIWgr-fhM4p_Ic2hr1TWlwaV5hTzw7z6JAQYQlAb9geZIgjDB60eGZ8jmck2idE9ox6bDJIZ1t0E0D/s1600/rats+nel.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" psa="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2P7EBfcaVLP16qXpthMgy65kZgVoVhTuIqA-GdUPb5SPxqrHbGgIcUhlgl5at0iuIWgr-fhM4p_Ic2hr1TWlwaV5hTzw7z6JAQYQlAb9geZIgjDB60eGZ8jmck2idE9ox6bDJIZ1t0E0D/s320/rats+nel.jpg" width="195" /></a>I've just found out, via the BBC, that the British horror/ dark fantasy author James Herbert has passed away at the age of 69.</div>
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In the UK, certainly, he was one of the writers responsible for the horror boom of the 1970s and 1980s with such novels as The Rats and The Fog which were, in many ways, the forerunner of Splatterpunk, with their graphic depictions of violence (although, as Herbert himself pointed out, they were never as graphic as people assumed them to be).</div>
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Together with Stephen King he was one of the writers who ignited my love for horror and fantasy and I am sorry to hear of his passing.</div>
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As a teenaged boy I read his novels avidly and always got a delicious thrill from them. Later, when I re-read them (particularly The Fog) I was struck by how well-crafted they were and how he managed to drag the reader along and immerse them in situations that were often terrifying and always - in context - utterly plausable: London under siege by mutated rats that fed on human flesh, a strange fog that drove ordinary people to violence and madness, the sole survivor of a plane crash driven to revenge by the ghosts of his fellow passengers, the revenant of Himmler and the spear that pierced Christ's side... Herbert brought the horrific into the everyday and helped to bring horror out of the gothic and into the contemporary.</div>
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A godfather of modern horror and dark fantasy, he will be sadly missed.</div>
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James Leckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05836664255331961912noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-139815573134815266.post-85653835401202555312013-02-25T17:25:00.000+00:002013-02-25T17:25:39.170+00:00An Infrequent UpdateMy blogging hasn't been what it was, I admit. But I do have a little bit of news to post this week.<br />
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My short story 'Behold' has been accepted by Megan Arkenberg for her excellent 'zine, Mirror Dance and should appear this summer.<br />
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It's a dark little piece, inspired by a whole slew of things, and is one of the fairytales that come to me every once in a while (with a sharp nod to Marcel Schwab). James Leckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05836664255331961912noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-139815573134815266.post-20245372564295306982012-12-08T19:35:00.000+00:002012-12-08T19:35:15.471+00:00Bones Heal<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My short story<em> Bones Heal</em> is now up at Swords and Sorcery and you can find it at </span><a href="http://www.swordsandsorcerymagazine.com/story-2.html"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">http://www.swordsandsorcerymagazine.com/story-2.html</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">. As I've mentioned before, it's the first in what I hope to be an ongoing series of tales involving the two central characters - Varus, a Roman legionary displaced in both time and space, and Barcaradin, a sorceror without a soul.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It's been a while since I've written any 'pure' S&S, so it's nice to see this one out and about in the world, hopefully folk will like it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In other news, <em>The Man Who Loved a Gaunt</em> will be appearing in the anthology Dark Bard, which should be available fairly soon.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Afer a reasonally lengthy lay-off, I've been writing quite a lot recently. Or rather, I've been finishing quite a lot of stories (folliowing Robert Heinlein's dictum of 'finish what you start') even going back to some tales that had been sitting half-done and getting them completed.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Doubtless, there'll be a few rejection letters in my immediate future, but hopefully a few acceptances as well.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It's good to be back in the saddle.</span></div>
James Leckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05836664255331961912noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-139815573134815266.post-22483817894715378702012-12-01T00:53:00.004+00:002012-12-01T00:53:56.383+00:00Some News<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After a fairly thin year, in publishing terms, I finally have a couple of bits of good news to impart.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My short story “Bones Heal” will appear on-line in <em>Swords and Sorcery Magazine,</em> and another short - “The Man Who Loved a Gaunt – has been accepted for publication in an, as yet, untitled anthology from Indigo Mosaic.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“Bones Heal” is the first in what I hope will be an ongoing series – I've already started on the next tale, tentatively titled 'Kingdom of the Devil Trees' – a of sword and planet sequence, in the ERB tradition (I hope). 'The Man Who Loved A Gaunt' is a kind of off-cut from my Shining Cities series of stories, but set much farther into the Latter Days than the other stories.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It's nice to be back in the groove again.</span></div>
James Leckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05836664255331961912noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-139815573134815266.post-29837279185240748792012-06-07T03:47:00.002+01:002012-06-07T03:47:40.112+01:00Ray Bradbury 1920 - 2012<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One of the giants of science fiction and fantasy, Ray Bradbury has passed away at the age of 91.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Author of, among many others, The Martian Chronicles, The Illustrated Man, Something Wicked This Way Comes and innumerable classic short stories, Ray Bradbury was - and continues to be - a guiding light of science fiction, often moving the genre away from its 'rockets and ray guns' roots, although equally often at home using the familar tropes of the genre.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For me, as for so many others of my generation, Bradbury was one of the first writers I read that showed me the possibilities of sf as a literary rather than generic form and I still have a battered copy of The Illustrated Man somewhere on my shelves, a book which I have owned for nearly thirty years.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Quite simply, Ray Bradbury was a genius.</span><br />
<br />James Leckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05836664255331961912noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-139815573134815266.post-29690399411293552802012-04-18T23:56:00.003+01:002012-04-19T00:03:07.701+01:00A Case for Outlines<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFzQCjIg9lFtgbSQxy0xWX3CH4Dlz_g5OM3K3IOpjYCaHtKO6QhoFzJvJ_8vcKOfgNc9OaRTkVdN3Ef2wsC6ZWkef5wNvRuJY06rTC5zqgGlmujNHmcnNTt724ONCrHC9C8bWHYj8YJcpQ/s1600/outline.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 306px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 396px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5732879636606681570" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFzQCjIg9lFtgbSQxy0xWX3CH4Dlz_g5OM3K3IOpjYCaHtKO6QhoFzJvJ_8vcKOfgNc9OaRTkVdN3Ef2wsC6ZWkef5wNvRuJY06rTC5zqgGlmujNHmcnNTt724ONCrHC9C8bWHYj8YJcpQ/s400/outline.jpg" /></a><br /><br /><div align="justify"><br />I've been doing a lot of outlining recently. There, I've said it, and I'm glad I said it. Anybody who's been reading previous posts will know about my on-again-off-again battle with writer's block. (Which also explains why I don't blog as often as I might). One of the things I'm doing to plough through this current one is to do story outlines and hope that when I come back to them in a stumble through the Collected Notes I might find the odd useable nugget.</div><br /><br /><br /><div align="justify">It's kinda fun to outline, particularly if you know there's no pressure either internally or externally. I find it reasonably liberating to just see if I can make connections between things in a logical, narrative way. </div><br /><div align="justify"><br />Very few of them have even the basics of, say, character names – the characters get denoted with a fairly basic archetype (or even stereotype) put them in a situation and then try to work out the how, what, where, when and why. I've found myself using the expressions “and then what?” and “for some reason” quite a lot: for example “a future where Earthmen are highly prized as mercenaries in a galactic war – for some reason” and then try to figure out what that reason be. (If anybody wants to use that as a starting point, be my guest, I'd be interested to see what other folks make of this and I can almost guarantee that no two answers will be the same). </div><br /><div align="justify"><br />This has partly been sparked by my current reading material, which is Kate Wilhem's excellent “Storyteller.” It's a book I can't recommend highly enough. Not so much a book on writing as a book about writing that also has some incredibly used advise within its pages. Mostly, it's a memoir of Kate Wilhem's involvement with the Clarion Workshops (and if you don't know about them, then shame on you – unless you're not a writer in which case, fair enough). Not that it specifically says to outline but it got me thinking about the way in which connections are made in a narrative way.<br /></div><br /><div align="justify">At it's most basic level it's taking the “what if Earthmen were prized galactic mercenaries” notion and thinking out from it. But why? After, all humans are a relatively puny species, physically speaking. But what if that wasn't the case? What if they were the most robust species in the galaxy? What if the warring Empires where ones of pure thought, able to infect the minds of all sentient beings except those humans born on Earth. So our hero is an Earth mercenary? Maybe, but what if.... well, you get the idea, I hope.<br /></div><br /><div align="justify">I think it's about making those connections, however unlikely they may be and seeing if they can be justified in any narrative sense, then trying to add an archetype into the mix and see what happens. </div><br /><div align="justify"><br />I've come up with a few notions that way, not all of which stand up to close scrutiny, it must be said, but in some ways it's a 'broad sweep, go back and fill in the details later” way of looking at the canvas of a story. On the other hand, the outlines are running much longer than my usual notes (perhaps naturally enough) and I've started to find that some of them are outlines for novellas or, God help us, even for novel length works. However, they're most finger exercises to get me thinking about plotting as opposed to my usual 'right, let's start and see where we go' way of doing things.<br /></div><br /><div align="justify">This does not mean that, should any of these outlines become actual stories, there would be no room to manoeuvre or even change tack completely within the story, but sometimes it's good to know where you're headed (it's also fun to wander though the corridors of your own imagination sometimes as well).<br /></div><br /><div align="justify">So I've become an unashamed outliner – now all I gotta do is go back and write the stories, outlines on their own being of no use to anyone but me – and I can already feel the cracks in the Block . </div>James Leckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05836664255331961912noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-139815573134815266.post-8763731558256754502012-02-26T23:25:00.002+00:002012-02-26T23:53:29.680+00:00The Great Fiction Experiment Revisited<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWAoTpYDb2_kamHxfUSS-oWwoEgvTRTAm5H2GcgHNouyUwA2Tp5rqkGASsXyI-HTue_GcE2RnBR4AV1zaHaBDiwl9Ain2LA1xve4vhwT3itS6c_y6e4ExTTzt3gGo4RT3ofBrYwFiUTb1A/s1600/sword3.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 280px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 232px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5713596556631375042" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWAoTpYDb2_kamHxfUSS-oWwoEgvTRTAm5H2GcgHNouyUwA2Tp5rqkGASsXyI-HTue_GcE2RnBR4AV1zaHaBDiwl9Ain2LA1xve4vhwT3itS6c_y6e4ExTTzt3gGo4RT3ofBrYwFiUTb1A/s400/sword3.jpg" /></a><br /><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;">Last year, whilst suffering one of my periodic bouts of writer's block, I made an attempt to write my way out of it, vowing to write a thousand words a day, regardless of quality, narrative sense or any of the other things that writers should adhere to.</span></div><br /><br /><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;"></span></div><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;">Wrote quite a bit, too, before the project got shelved.</span></div><br /><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;"></span></div><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;">Today, after a lapse of several months, I went back to the story, just to see what it was like.</span></div><br /><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;"></span></div><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;">And, do you know, it's not actually that bad.</span></div><br /><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;"></span></div><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;">Yes, some of the names will have to be changed when it comes to a redraft, there's a lot of repetition of phrases and a pulpish feel to the narrative (when in doubt, have someone come through the door with a gun, to paraphrase Raymond Chandler) and, yes, my influences are showing (there's a wee bit of Michael Moorcock in there somewhere beyond doubt)</span></div><br /><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;"></span></div><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;">On the other hand, it's quite fast paced, the characters are, if not exactly three dimensional, then at least recognisable as a certain type of character. There's an (internally) logical reason why they do what they do and the background, although done in fairly broad sweeps, comes across reasonably well (if not by any stretch of the imagination totally unique). And there's that wee bit of Michael Moorcock in there.</span></div><br /><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;"></span></div><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;">It's a fairly old-school sword and sorcery tale where a powerful, yet troubled hero goes a-questing (for Death himself in this instance) fights against, and overcomes, impossible odds, has a wisecracking sidekick, a couple of enchanted weapons (which, in terms of the story, he has to lose rather than gain) and a doom laden destiny.</span></div><br /><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;"></span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:arial;">Not the most original of tales, admitted, but there's a good feel to the story, I think, and it's more character than plot driven (probably due to the fact that it was made up on the hoof so the characters dictated what happens next rather than try to shoehorn things in for the sake of Plot).</span></div><br /><br /><div><span style="font-family:arial;"></span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:arial;">I quite enjoyed reading it - so much so that I added another 1,200 words and a new plot development to the story.</span></div><br /><br /><div><span style="font-family:arial;"></span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:arial;">More importantly, I want to see what happens next.</span></div><br /><br /><div><span style="font-family:Arial;"></span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:Arial;">Writing, as I think someone once said, is an addiction. </span></div>James Leckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05836664255331961912noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-139815573134815266.post-39821907085804759212012-02-10T19:40:00.004+00:002012-02-10T19:53:55.736+00:00Sword and Sorcery Cinema - A Brief Personal Overview<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaWJCx_ILbS8-R-zxVU3t_NTX7-ls-NcqLg3Rerft94L8X0htIfx68BGGFxfkOqjLb8udy61lu-Rru0r5tmlrR9M2cB9esIaDR45oP2VHvU0laDAioMM9A4WF_nwWrbU3-4gBDiUTpO-E2/s1600/Season_of_the_Witch.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 270px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 400px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5707594653012568450" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaWJCx_ILbS8-R-zxVU3t_NTX7-ls-NcqLg3Rerft94L8X0htIfx68BGGFxfkOqjLb8udy61lu-Rru0r5tmlrR9M2cB9esIaDR45oP2VHvU0laDAioMM9A4WF_nwWrbU3-4gBDiUTpO-E2/s400/Season_of_the_Witch.jpg" /></a><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br /><div align="justify"><br />Since I have decided that February is my own personal sword and sorcery month (as opposed to any other time of the year when I'm reading s&s) I decided that the time has come to check out a few of the recent movies, that, broadly speaking, fall under the s&s banner. </div><br /><br /><div align="justify"><br />I've already written at length about Nicholas Winding Refn's 2009 film <em>Valhalla</em> <em>Rising</em>, but it's worth mentioning again, if only because it's such an absorbing and intelligent piece of film making and because it seems to me that that relatively obscure gem has set the tone for quite a few of the quasi-historical fantasies that have followed in its wake. </div><br /><br /><div align="justify"><br />Of course, it all depends on your definition of sword and sorcery and there's an argument to be made that movies like Zach Snyder's <em>300</em> (2006) or 2004's <em>Troy</em> (and, it goes without saying Peter Jackson's <em>Lord of The Rings</em>) brought fantastical warriors back to our screens, but these films are more epic in scope, more concerned with spectacle than the down 'n' dirty which is the hallmark of sword and sorcery. </div><br /><br /><div align="justify"><br />That having been said, some of the films I've watched in the last while – <em>Black</em> <em>Death</em> (2010), <em>Ironclad</em> (2011), <em>Solomon</em> <em>Kane</em> (2009) and <em>Season of the Witch</em> (2011) wear their 'sorcery' aspects fairly lightly, <em>Ironclad</em> in particular being content to give its hero a mystic aura of sorts and leave it at that. </div><br /><br /><div align="justify"><br />And then there is the recent remake/reboot of Robert E. Howard's iconic<em> Conan the</em> <em>Barbarian</em> (2011). Howard is inarguably the wellspring of sword and sorcery, although his legacy has rarely been treated well. But that, and the film, is a topic for another time. </div><br /><br /><div align="justify"><br />One of the things that virtually all the above mentioned films do is to play fairly fast and loose with history (or in the case of Conan, with the established literary 'facts') never letting it get in the way of a rollicking good yarn – <em>Ironclad</em> is a particularly good example of this, with its bloody uprising in the wake of the Magna Carta and its re-envisioning of the Knights Templar as medieval supermen. Season of the Witch, on the other hand, sees no disparity between the shameless American accents of its leads – Nicholas Cage in fairly restrained form and Ron Perlman – even going so far as to tack a Transatlantic twang onto the Liverpudlian actor Stephen Graham. Similarly, all these films exist in an odd Mittle Europa, regardless of actual setting, that is sometimes reminiscent of a big-budget Hammer film or, perhaps more pointedly, the muck and slime of <em>Monty Python and the</em> <em>Holy Grail</em>. Partly this is for the sake of expedience, we all know that the cinematic Middle Ages look like, with muddy green tones and sweeping untouched, if hostile, landscapes. What the best of these films (and to be honest, with the exception of Conan, most of them are worth an hour or two of your time) also manage is that moral ambiguity so common to sword and sorcery, the heroes here are troubled men, sure of nothing but their own prowess with a sword, racked with doubt (James Purefoy as Solomon Kane and as Marshal in <em>Ironclad</em>) or seeking redemption for past misdeeds (Purefoy's Kane once again and Nicholas Cage as Behmen in <em>Season of the Witch</em> “No man has spilled more blood in God's name that I.”). Mads Mikkelsen's One Eye in <em>Valhalla Rising</em> is, at first glance, an exception to this, but his still and sombre performance still hints at something deeper, some unspoken tragedy that haunts the character. </div><br /><br /><div align="justify"><br />They are also, without exception, unashamed and unabashed about their violent content. Great gaping wounds and clouds of CGI blood decorate <em>Ironclad</em>, Mad Mikkelsen is a remorseless killer, Cage and Perlman are seen happily slaughtering huge bands of Infidels <em>(“You take the three hundred on the left, I'll take the three hundred on the right”)</em> Sean Bean in <em>Black Death</em> does not flinch from killing a suspected witch and there are few problems in these films – physical or ethical - that cannot be solved the point of a sword (or a spear, dagger, axe or, in <em>Ironclad</em>, by beating an opponent to death with a severed arm). </div><br /><br /><div align="justify"><br />So much for the sword, what about the sorcery?<br /></div><br /><br /><div align="justify">Since at least two of the films mentioned above (<em>Ironclad</em> and <em>Black</em> <em>Death</em>) purport to be historical adventures (or historical action films, although <em>Black Death</em> does have a suspected necromancer as its central maguffin) rather than out-and-out fantasies, the sorcery aspect is fairly low key, but nevertheless resonates in the background - the fighting ability of the Templars in <em>Ironclad</em>, its seemingly invincible antagonist (the Elric-like Tiberius) or the unexplained mysticism of One-Eye in <em>Valhalla Rising.</em> Both <em>Solomon Kane</em> and <em>Season</em> <em>of the Witch</em> have no such compunction, <em>Season of the Witch</em> in particular relishing its status as an unashamed fantasy (featuring witches, demon possession and the blackest of black magic). But in some ways, sorcery is a state of mind in these films, since the milieu in which they are set is one far removed from the modern mindset, a time of deep religious belief and equally strong superstition. The default tone here is a dark one, where cruelty is common and violence never far from the surface. </div><br /><br /><div align="justify"><br />Another thing that the majority of these films share in common is the use of venerable, mostly British, actors in minor, if important roles – Christopher Lee in <em>Season of the Witch</em>, Charles Dance in <em>Ironclad</em>, David Warner in <em>Black Death</em>, Max Von Sydow in <em>Solomon</em> <em>Kane</em>. More importantly what they all share is a sense of being outside contemporary Hollywood pattern, frequently being financed by European backers, with small budgets compared to the average Hollywood production – <em>Season of the Witch</em>, the most costly of the films looked at here, cost $40 million, whereas <em>Conan the Barbarian</em>, its big budget counterpart, cost $70 million (and a mere $6 million in the case of <em>Valhalla Rising</em>). </div><br /><br /><div align="justify"><br />The crux of all this meandering – and there should always be a crux – is to suggest that sword and sorcery cinema is in relatively good shape at the moment, the seemingly endless parade of loincloth clad barbarians that wandered across our screens in the wake of the John Milius/ Arnold Schwartzenegger version of <em>Conan the Barbarian</em> (1982) have been replaced by a new breed of cinematic sword-swingers, grimmer and more 'realistic'. </div><br /><br /><div align="justify"><br />It might not always declare itself as such, and sometimes the trappings are hidden just beneath the surface, but sword and sorcery cinema is alive and well, if not always on prominent display at the multiplex. </div></span>James Leckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05836664255331961912noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-139815573134815266.post-71512485777926096432012-02-09T14:50:00.003+00:002012-02-10T19:51:47.150+00:00John Christopher 1922 - 2012<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwDxyc7V2lZljFjLa-W4P4YZtCDlAqo7MzAeA-BmLZVjNRPvwCe-0d4nOR-FOv3BoG5ZPPAARD6Iw3dago0YW-sz3E32P31cH5lGeX746uh7mEn6THSGArkLdJtzgSuh8JmMQKpbd8Z0Tc/s1600/NoBladeOfGrass.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 236px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 400px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5707154687911078866" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwDxyc7V2lZljFjLa-W4P4YZtCDlAqo7MzAeA-BmLZVjNRPvwCe-0d4nOR-FOv3BoG5ZPPAARD6Iw3dago0YW-sz3E32P31cH5lGeX746uh7mEn6THSGArkLdJtzgSuh8JmMQKpbd8Z0Tc/s400/NoBladeOfGrass.jpg" /></a><br /><br /><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;">News from the British Fantasy Society that the British author Samuel Youd, who wrote under the pen-name of John Christopher, has died. </span></div><br /><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;"></span></div><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;">Best known as the author of the <em>Tripods</em> series of young adult novels (which was dramatised by the BBC in the 1980's) and, perhaps more importantly, as the author of the bleak eco-disaster novel <em>The Death of Grass</em> (retitled <em>No Blade of Grass</em> in the USA).</span></div><br /><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;"></span></div><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;">Seen by some as a response to the 'cosy catastrophe' novels of John Wyndham, <em>The Death of Grass</em> is a powerful and relentlessly downbeat novel, that in many ways prefigures the early work of J.G Ballard and is without question one of the high water marks of British sf in the 1959's.</span></div><br /><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;"></span></div><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;">The novel was filmed by Cornel Wilde as <em>No Blade of Grass</em> in 1970 and is a fine example of Wilde's more esoteric work; staying relatively faithful to its source material while embroidering it with Wilde's trademark surrealistic touches (something that can also be seen in other Cornel Wilde films such as <em>The Naked Prey</em> and <em>Beach</em> <em>Red</em>).</span></div><br /><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;"></span></div><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;">As well as Samuel Youd and John Christopher, the author wrote under a number of other pen-names (including Stanley Winchester, Hilary Ford, William Godfrey, William Vine, Peter Graaf, Peter Nichols, and Anthony Rye) but it is for his sf that he is probably best known and admired.</span></div><br /><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;"></span></div><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;">His other novels included <em>The Year of the Comet</em> and <em>The Caves of Night.</em></span></div>James Leckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05836664255331961912noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-139815573134815266.post-9572199409958060342012-02-08T00:56:00.004+00:002012-02-08T01:02:30.875+00:00The Many Worlds of Magnus Ridolph by Jack Vance<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxr9id_ITO-gxKLldaazqibxISaK296HurXchh4XZklpzD65n2shhIeYU1gtve7BqsXLv38_qvMzTVC4FHAJHeARGylWgIU3kQcxtjAHWY-08McI2-_r1579AHacYcSF7BjS0qKvFkZ2hW/s1600/many.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 242px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 400px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5706563380372021234" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxr9id_ITO-gxKLldaazqibxISaK296HurXchh4XZklpzD65n2shhIeYU1gtve7BqsXLv38_qvMzTVC4FHAJHeARGylWgIU3kQcxtjAHWY-08McI2-_r1579AHacYcSF7BjS0qKvFkZ2hW/s400/many.jpg" /></a><br /><br /><div align="justify"><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">It's amazing how easily things can get derailed. It was my fullest intention to start reading Lin Carter's <em>The Wizard of Lemuria</em> - the first in his Conanesque Thongor series - but while searching for the book in question I stumbled across my copy of <em>The Many Worlds of Magnus</em> <em>Ridolph</em> by Jack Vance.<br /></span></div><br /><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;">I have to confess that I haven't read much Jack Vance recently, and <em>The</em> <em>Many</em> <em>Worlds</em> <em>of</em> <em>Magnus Ridolph</em> has the advantage of being a short story collection. So, I thought, a quick bit of Jack Vance and then on to Lin Carter. However, I'd reckoned without the rather seductive power of both Jack Vance and Magnus Ridolph and quickly found myself lost in his many worlds.<br /></span></div><br /><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;">The Magnus Ridolph stories are early Vance (the lead story, <em>The Kokod Warriors</em> first appeared in 1948) but still display the light touch and wild inventiveness that characterises his best work. The prose is nowhere near as jewelled as, say, <em>The Dying Earth</em>, but the stories are flamboyant and Ridolph himself an engaging central character.</span></div><br /><div align="justify"><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">In some ways Magnus Ridolph could be a second cousin of C.L Moore's Northwest Smith, inasmuch as both men are interplanetary adventurers, but where Smith was a hard-bitten, wanderer with a quick gunhand, Magnus Ridolph is a much more urbane figure - older, for a start, part consulting detective, part businessman, a character who solves problems with his intellect rather than his fists.(To get Hollywood about it, think Sherlock Holmes meets Indiana Jones... in Space!).</span></div><br /><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;">In <em>The Kokod Warriors</em>, Magnus attempts to solve an age old problem on the planet Kokod, where the inhabitants indulge in ritual and very bloody warfare as a very basic survival method and, at the same time, he seeks to get some revenge on couple of double-crossing former business partners.</span></div><br /><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;">Double crossers also feature in <em>The King of Thieves</em>, in which Magnus briefly finds himself as king of the Men-men, and in <em>The Howling </em><em>Bounders</em> where a business opportunity that is too good to be true turns out to be just that... except the tables are turned by some clever thinking on the part of Magnus Ridolph (and some wonderfully comic support from an alien cook who's idea of breakfast, dinner, lunch and supper all boil down to the same dish - stew!)</span></div><br /><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;"><em>Coup de Grace</em> (my personal favourite) is a who-and-why-dunnit in space where a murder and a murderer are not all they seem, and shows Vance at his dazzling best, piling idea upon idea to create an engaging little mystery and, at rarest of things, a genuinely funny sf story that doesn't rely upon subverting genre conventions but rather actively embraces them.</span></div><br /><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;">Of course, what's so good about these stories is the sly humour in them and the deft ways in which Jack Vance creates the various alien worlds and environments which Magnus Ridolph passes through. Sure, there's an occasional info-dump here and there (and Magnus always seems to find just the information he's looking for when he's looking for it) but it doesn't take the shine off the stories.<br /></span></div><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;">Colourful, inventive and hugely entertaining, the Magnus Ridolph stories (six of which are collected in <em>The</em> <em>Many Worlds</em>... ) are a refreshing change from some of the more blaster-happy Earthmen who have roamed through science fiction over the years and a reminder that sf can be great fun sometimes.</span></div>James Leckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05836664255331961912noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-139815573134815266.post-20213502369708627632012-02-07T23:53:00.003+00:002012-02-08T16:48:34.895+00:00Bill Hinzman RIP<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwyBeu7f6-mlc5jFkp5jUbEhihTv6svaJzQV9rRocEq81dWMsenLJg8oV-jY35TWTabUd8nQw0ouqhEPaLyQW0mZ0n3FuXt7YaSNRpfEvrzcxDZ9PMkHSGcgWBz94Y6lKJX6x45oFYjS_7/s1600/220px-CemeteryZombie.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 220px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 165px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5706549558783082562" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwyBeu7f6-mlc5jFkp5jUbEhihTv6svaJzQV9rRocEq81dWMsenLJg8oV-jY35TWTabUd8nQw0ouqhEPaLyQW0mZ0n3FuXt7YaSNRpfEvrzcxDZ9PMkHSGcgWBz94Y6lKJX6x45oFYjS_7/s400/220px-CemeteryZombie.jpg" /></a><br /><br /><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;">The actor Bill Hinzman - best known as the first zombie seen in George Romero's <em>Night</em> <em>of</em> <em>the</em> <em>Living</em> <em>Dead</em> - has passed away at the age of 75.</span></div><br /><br /><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;">He also appeared in the Romero movies <em>There's Always Vanilla</em> and <em>The</em> <em>Crazies</em> as well as directing a number of feature films, perhaps most notably <em>Zombie</em> <em>Nosh</em> aka <em>Flesheater</em> (1988) which capitalized upon his most famous role.</span></div>James Leckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05836664255331961912noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-139815573134815266.post-24748226490071791032012-02-04T21:54:00.003+00:002012-02-04T21:59:41.813+00:00Lemuria, Here We Come...<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhStXeWOGLKWPfkUvocCxOOvLihRfGBTBhzajjlzlsNL665KDoPZwR62xhHGCrR4cNiOhD-s0HfEzRBKPYI2MNl93eYo-ZquYMsYF6pFif0wTi8GMJUBdFvjSOK16tq9xkCphjxssSH9TIh/s1600/1.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 252px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 400px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5705403438266959650" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhStXeWOGLKWPfkUvocCxOOvLihRfGBTBhzajjlzlsNL665KDoPZwR62xhHGCrR4cNiOhD-s0HfEzRBKPYI2MNl93eYo-ZquYMsYF6pFif0wTi8GMJUBdFvjSOK16tq9xkCphjxssSH9TIh/s400/1.jpg" /></a><br /><br /><div align="justify"><br /><br /><br /><div>I'm going back to my roots, reading wise, this month. In practical terms this means reading a heapin' helpin' of sword and sorcery. I've had Lin Carter's Thongor and Brian Lumley's Primal Land series sitting on the shelves for a few months now, and the time has come to get stuck into them.<br />I know that for some critics/aficionados of the fantasy, Lin Carter is practically He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, but I recently read Imaginary Worlds, his excellent (although somewhat dated now) history of fantasy/sword and sorcery. If nothing else, it's clear that Carter genuinely loved fantasy, even if his own work within the genre was often perceived as 'second hand' (if not downright derivative and heavily influenced by writers such as Robert E. Howard, Edgar Rice Burroughs and Jack Vance).<br />However, he seems as good a place as any, Thongor was, so to speak, one of the first direct descendants of Conan (a lineage that also includes John Jakes Brak the Barbarian and Gardner Fox's Kothar Barbarian Swordsman, both of whom I've intended to read for a while now)<br />As a genre (or rather as a sub-genre) sword and sorcery has been somewhat maligned, sidelined even, by the growth of epic fantasy, although epic fantasy tends to use some of the tropes of s&s, especially in some of its more down 'n' dirty incarnations (Joe Abercrombie's First Law trilogy and subsequent novels or Peter Brett's Demon series, for instance). However, and to paraphrase Lin Carter, sometimes there's nothing quite so enjoyable as a bit of s&s for pure fun.<br />I read a lot of Michael Moorcock in my early teens, particularly the Elric stories, and it was only after these that I started to explore other writers like Howard and Clark Ashton Smith (both of whom I have 'rediscovered' in the last few years) and then later again, Fritz Lieber. Charles Saunders and Karl Edward Wagner.<br />Sword and Sorcery has been described by wiser heads than I as 'the genre that wouldn't die' and even now there are writers producing colourful tales of warriors, wizards and magical lands. In some cases the writers are moving the genre on, moving it away from the Eurocentric, quasi-Medieval settings and such other trappings that have defined sword and sorcery for so long, happy to explore new ways of telling a story.. Others are embracing the traditions of the genre, favouring action over characterisation, straightforward prose as opposed to a more experimental approach.<br />Still, the fact is that the genre that refused to die has, quite simply, still refused to die. Hence my delve back into its history..<br />Lemuria, here we come.</div></div>James Leckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05836664255331961912noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-139815573134815266.post-23365395750683928752012-01-30T16:25:00.002+00:002012-01-30T16:33:21.520+00:00Angry Robot Open Door<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRPcQD3h_7CIpKt45JNzwJIgEglUaeeQv-0MoVroST5UBlDmyER42ZPnHWKVBN2F8i9oFmwFYf-8TnbftVLGy8nxLWHTbjfwGzvyaWLyUe8iSjGcuMkfnmhLMJMbNli886CeETNRAJQjEi/s1600/ar-web-banner05.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 61px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5703463911553642258" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRPcQD3h_7CIpKt45JNzwJIgEglUaeeQv-0MoVroST5UBlDmyER42ZPnHWKVBN2F8i9oFmwFYf-8TnbftVLGy8nxLWHTbjfwGzvyaWLyUe8iSjGcuMkfnmhLMJMbNli886CeETNRAJQjEi/s400/ar-web-banner05.jpg" /></a><br /><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;">Some interesting news from the UK publisher Angry Robot</span></div><br /><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;"></span></div><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;">Following a successful Open Door period in 2011 (we signed 3 debut authors from it!), we’ve decided to do it again! This time around, we’re looking for classic fantasy (for Angry Robot) and all sf/fantasy flavours of YA (for Strange Chemistry).</span></div><br /><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;">If you have completed a novel, and are unagented, between April 16th and 30th this year, we’ll happily read it for possible publication. If you are agented, this isn’t for you – submit via the usual route.</span></div><br /><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;"></span></div><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;">What we’re not looking for:<br />• Anything other than classic fantasy – swords, magic, kingdoms, castles. You might describe it as high fantasy, epic, magical, low, classic, medieval, or whatever. If you’ve written an urban fantasy or supernatural modern day chiller, that’s great, but not what we’re wanting this time around.<br />• Book 2 or later in an existing series.<br />• Books that have already been published elsewhere (including podcast, self-published as eBooks or print-on-demand).<br />• Books that have not yet been completed.<br />• Children’s books.<br />• Anything shorter than novel length (approx 95,000 to 140,000 words, but there is some flexibility in this).<br />• Books submitted in last year’s Open Door Month (even those that have been redrafted).</span></div><br /><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;"></span></div><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;">You can find out more here: </span><a href="http://angryrobotbooks.com/opendoor/"><span style="font-family:arial;">http://angryrobotbooks.com/opendoor/</span></a></div>James Leckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05836664255331961912noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-139815573134815266.post-89245315725104498622012-01-26T23:16:00.003+00:002012-01-26T23:20:00.372+00:00Nicol Williamson 1938 - 2011<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheeMoCzuZEGlkUKZlzFKWqkByY5tZDUn5prrAQ3t9nth68eMfR9reYRoDnDgwQjwD9lW45uT4SB_eX1QSHGkUWiRkvchOYYgOoZEJd5rKUNh09anq2RLquzW3GMBm_ftoDzwEKq9-W2zC4/s1600/excalibur-1981-14-g.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 249px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 164px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5702084153962325410" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheeMoCzuZEGlkUKZlzFKWqkByY5tZDUn5prrAQ3t9nth68eMfR9reYRoDnDgwQjwD9lW45uT4SB_eX1QSHGkUWiRkvchOYYgOoZEJd5rKUNh09anq2RLquzW3GMBm_ftoDzwEKq9-W2zC4/s320/excalibur-1981-14-g.jpg" /></a><br /><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;">Some news from the BBC reporting that the Scottish born actor Nicol Williamson passed away last month. </span></div><span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br /><div align="justify">Regarded by many as one of the finest actors of his generation, his varied and award-winning career encompassed both film and theatre, from the the powerful war drama, <em>The Bofors Gun</em> (1968) to the anti-apartheid thriller <em>The Wilby Conspiracy</em> (1975) and, both on stage and screen, title roles in <em>Macbeth</em> and <em>Hamlet</em>. </div><br /><br /><div align="justify">However, for genre fans, his most notable role was probably that of Merlin in John Boorman's <em>Excalibur</em> (1981) a mesmeric performance that gives the film its heart and soul as well as its primary focus. A bold retelling of the Arthurian myths, <em>Excalibur</em> remains one of the few examples of intelligent fantasy on screen, mixing its more fantastical elements with gritty realism and superb cinematography. </div><br /><br /><div align="justify">Other genre roles included Little John in Richard Lester's <em>Robin and Marian</em> (1976), Sherlock Holmes in <em>The Seven Per Cent Solution</em> (1976) Badger in Terry Jones' <em>The Wind in the Willows</em> (1996) and Father Morning in the much underrated <em>Exorcist 3</em> (1989).</span></div>James Leckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05836664255331961912noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-139815573134815266.post-37801177436521913502012-01-20T16:28:00.002+00:002012-01-20T16:33:58.034+00:00TITUS ALONE by MERVYN PEAKE<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqfZeAbrvH7VBPVgmWY_tuszRlR3KwIBO_pou9yJyJIalpjKUOuc5zJuSksRgNIACZW5w4D9tcvrapj3CSFZVSqELJKJkGR0lMGw5Er9Gu3o5xkPuEM-hSMNi4DI_7uumssg8QAODQ_QKg/s1600/titus-alone-chinese-edition.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 200px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5699752211330026034" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqfZeAbrvH7VBPVgmWY_tuszRlR3KwIBO_pou9yJyJIalpjKUOuc5zJuSksRgNIACZW5w4D9tcvrapj3CSFZVSqELJKJkGR0lMGw5Er9Gu3o5xkPuEM-hSMNi4DI_7uumssg8QAODQ_QKg/s320/titus-alone-chinese-edition.jpg" /></a><br /><br /><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;">Mervyn Peake was a man of many, many talents – painter, illustrator, playwright, novelist, poet – but it is as a writer, more specifically as the author of the Gormenghast novels that he is best remembered. </span></div><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;"></span></div><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;">Set in the sprawling, ritual-ridden castle of Gormenghast, the first two novels in the cycle – <em>Titus</em> <em>Groan</em> and <em>Gormenghast</em> - deal with the birth and coming-of-age of the new Earl, Titus Groan and the rise and fall of Steerpike, a would-be usurper. The novels are lush and richly decorated – not only in terms of their language but also in terms of the illustrations that Peake provided for them – filled with Dickensian grotesques (characters such as the obscenely obese cook, Swelter, or the dusty and gangling Mr Flay, the foppish Dr Prunesqualor or the doomed Lord Sepulchrave) and a painter's eye for detail they are among some of the finest fantasies ever written (although, in all truth, it is perhaps a matter of reader perspective as to whether or not the novels could be considered fantasy in the commercial sense). </span></div><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;"><br /></div></span><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;">Remarkable as both <em>Titus</em> <em>Groan</em> and <em>Gormenghast</em> are, the third novel in the cycle – <em>Titus</em> <em>Alone</em> – is an equally remarkable book and one which is, sadly, often overshadowed by it predecessors.<br /></span></div><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;"></span></div><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;">When Titus finally leaves the confines of Gormenghast castle, he is plunged into a world equally as strange and dangerous as the one he has just left, populated by characters every bit as grotesque as those of his abandoned realm. Whereas the first two novels in the cycle could be considered to have a Dickensian feel, or to have a skewed Ruritanian aspect to them, <em>Titus</em> <em>Alone</em> is set in a world not too far removed from the mid 20th century, almost as if Titus has stepped forward in time to an age of aircraft, automobiles, secret policemen, and stark, foreboding architecture. </span></div><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;">Befriended, albeit reluctantly at first, by the gaunt giant Muzzlehatch, imprisoned for ill-defined crimes and set free by the good graces of the ageing but still beautiful Juno, who briefly becomes his lover, Titus finds this new world no more to his liking than the old. But his further wanderings – firstly to the Under-River and then to the sinister environs of The Factory – offer little or no purpose and the loss of Gormenghast itself – although his exile is entirely self-imposed – leads Titus to the verge of insanity as he beings to question his own memories.<br /></span></div><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;">A picaresque novel which casts Titus as a latter-day Candide, <em>Titus</em> <em>Alone</em> is a dark and sometimes nightmarish read, often obeying its own narrative rules (a technique that Peake had explored in his novella <em>Boy In Darkness</em>). Yet it is also a novel that shows Peake's delicate touch as a writer, with gleeful, sometimes morbid, slapstick thrown into the mix – Titus's impromptu arrival at Lady Cusp-Canine's over-crowed and mirthless party, the failed writer Crabcalf who carries the unsold copies of his novel everywhere with him or the horrific, almost cartoonish, death of Mr Veil (“<em>Crushed and prostrate, he rose again, and to Titus's horror it seemed as though the features of his face had all changed places.”) </em></span></div><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;"><em><br /></em></span><span style="font-family:arial;">The extended climax of the novel – where Cheeta, daughter of the scientist who owns the Belsenesque Factory, tries to drive Titus past the point of madness by recreating Gormenghast in the crumbling Black House – is by turns thrilling and terrifying and demonstrates Peake's mastery of the written word. <em>(“Under a light to strangle infants by, the great and horrible flower opened its bulbous petals one by one...Out of his fear and apprehension something green and incredibly young took hold of Titus and sidled across his entrails... Something was emerging from the forgotten room. Something of great bulk and swathing. It moved with exaggerated grandeur, trailing a length of dusty, moth eaten fustian...)<br /></em></span></div><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;">A critical and commercial failure upon its publication in 1959 (due in large part to editorial tampering which Peake - by then firmly in the grip of the Parkinson's Disease which would end his life tragically short – was unable to correct) <em>Titus</em> <em>Alone</em> was subsequently re-edited by the British author Langdon Jones in the early 1970's to emerge as a truer version of the text and one which is as close to Mervyn Peake's original vision as possible. </span></div><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;"></div></span><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;">Sometimes and unfairly regarded as a bizarre postscript to the Gormenghast cycle, <em>Titus</em> <em>Alone</em> is a novel which defies expectation – and, to a certain extent, category – never content simply to be 'the third book', taking the story of Titus Groan into strange new places, a unique and unsettling novel from a writer who's imagination was boundless and who's legacy should be treasured. </span></div><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;"><br /></div></span><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;"><strong>(By way of addendum</strong>: Mervyn Peake's intention was to continue the story of Titus Groan beyond <em>Titus Alone</em> and he had planned a fourth novel –<img class="gl_italic" border="0" alt="Italic" src="http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif" /> <em>Titus</em> <em>Awakes</em> – for which only a few fragmentary notes existed.. The novel was taken up by his widow Maeve Gilmore and retitled Search Without End. In 2011 it was finally published as <em>Titus Awakes – The Lost Book of Gormenghast</em>. A review should be forthcoming</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">on The Computerbank soon</span>)</div>James Leckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05836664255331961912noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-139815573134815266.post-19050821067912078812012-01-15T20:18:00.002+00:002012-01-15T20:29:26.038+00:00Arcane<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBpgnW1RCV2xSMWHHsg_F7Q0Nqwu21TsUCY63SY81hnecsdgWseUvvBsjy0PtVnNoqRc1nKFOgr3QaJV53A4g8m8fhqbFDR43qYBqzRt7VGrC9MpJ7_T0jxMTPz7lD_7dTKxGelghH4h4y/s1600/arcanecover-mid.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 212px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5697958378087837378" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBpgnW1RCV2xSMWHHsg_F7Q0Nqwu21TsUCY63SY81hnecsdgWseUvvBsjy0PtVnNoqRc1nKFOgr3QaJV53A4g8m8fhqbFDR43qYBqzRt7VGrC9MpJ7_T0jxMTPz7lD_7dTKxGelghH4h4y/s320/arcanecover-mid.jpg" /></a><br /><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;">I have to admit that 2011 was a bit of an artistic wasteland for me, I didn't write a lot of short stories and published very little. However, one tale that did see the light of day was "Beneath the Arch Of Knives", another story in my Shining Cities Sequence, which appeared in the anthology <em>Arcane</em> at the tail end of last year.</span></div><br /><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:Arial;"></span></div><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:Arial;">The anthology gets a decent review at Leslianne Wilder's blog <em>Skull Honey</em>, and <em>Beneath The Arch of Knives</em> gets a sort of honourable mention, being described as: 'whimsical and playfully cruel'. (heh, heh).</span></div><br /><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:Arial;"></span></div><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:Arial;">You can read the full review here: <a href="http://lesliannewilder.blogspot.com/2012/01/review-arcane-edited-by-nate-shumate.html">http://lesliannewilder.blogspot.com/2012/01/review-arcane-edited-by-nate-shumate.html</a> or find out how to order a copy of Arcane here: <a href="http://www.coldfusionmedia.us/2011/12/22/arcane-is-now-on-sale/">http://www.coldfusionmedia.us/2011/12/22/arcane-is-now-on-sale/</a></span></div>James Leckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05836664255331961912noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-139815573134815266.post-53855717835297011042012-01-15T03:15:00.002+00:002012-01-15T03:22:11.376+00:00Is Anyone Out There?It has been a while, I must confess, since I last blogged - the reasons for this are many, varied, personal, professional and, quite frankly, too dull to go into in any detail.<br /><br />However... the various grey skies have cleared up and I am ready to get back into the saddle.<br /><br />Therefore, and if anyone is still out there, I am declaring the return of Tales From the Computerbank and, simultaneously, my return to being an active (rather than passive, as I have been for a while) writer.<br /><br />So, if you would care to, please join me once again for some random book and movie reviews, combined with some equally random thoughts on the business of writing and anything else that might take my fancy.<br /><br />Coming Soon.... Titus Alone by Mervyn Peake.James Leckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05836664255331961912noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-139815573134815266.post-85837730320729651282011-09-11T18:32:00.004+01:002011-09-11T18:43:06.361+01:00Cliff Robertson RIP<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCBe2JpD8TABTsr0082a1pU96GgW5vRxIJoKOIHAg8oyZWwGeUBHS1amPU1Yd52ItT4ucYWKxl8LUJevGgeJkga9sgdyQKlGPd2Ckdcb4Roboq9floyxzKMOu_1eucPKXjixST95bAqCW-/s1600/14785-79.gif"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 320px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 240px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5651158775370918178" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCBe2JpD8TABTsr0082a1pU96GgW5vRxIJoKOIHAg8oyZWwGeUBHS1amPU1Yd52ItT4ucYWKxl8LUJevGgeJkga9sgdyQKlGPd2Ckdcb4Roboq9floyxzKMOu_1eucPKXjixST95bAqCW-/s320/14785-79.gif" /></a><br /><br /><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;">The US actor Cliff Robertson passed away on 10th September.</span></div><br /><div align="justify"><br /></div><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;"></span></div><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;">In a long and varied career he made a number of apperances of interest to genre fans - including the Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits as well as appearing as Uncle Ben Parker in Spiderman 1 & 2. But it was his Oscar winning performance in Charly - based upon Daniel Keyes' Flowers for Algernon - in 1968 that he will probably be best remembered in sf/fantasy circles.</span></div><br /><div align="justify"><br /></div><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;"></span></div><br /><div align="justify"><br /></div><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;">Other notable appearances included Robert Aldrich's powerful anti-war film, Too Late the Hero in which he co-starred with Michael Caine and Cliff Robertson.</span></div>James Leckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05836664255331961912noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-139815573134815266.post-56624751681643762762011-08-27T12:59:00.002+01:002011-08-27T13:08:39.502+01:00News in Brief<div align="justify">Matters both personal and professional have kept me away from the Computerbank for the last while (and from most other things, come to think of it). But rest assured that normal service will be resumed as soon as possible.</div>
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<br /><div align="justify">But here is the news in brief:</div>
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<br /><div align="justify">I have a few short stories slated for publication later on this year - <em>Beneath the Arch of Knives</em> is due in <em>Arcane</em> at some stage, <em>Forged in Heaven, Tempered in Hell</em> should be appearing in the Ricasso Press anthology <em>Through Blood and Iron</em> and <em>And Other Such Delights</em> will be included in the upcoming best of <em>Beneath Ceaseless Skies</em>.</div>
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<br /><div align="justify">The Great Writing Experiment is continuing on, albeit at a somewhat reduced pace, and I'm learning a lot about how to construct a long story (I hesitate to use the word novel just yet) by making a lot of mistakes and doing a lot - and I mean a lot - of rewriting.</div>
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<br /><div align="justify">And that's all the news that's fit to print for now.</div>James Leckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05836664255331961912noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-139815573134815266.post-13823874649986013912011-06-27T22:04:00.003+01:002011-06-27T22:11:47.643+01:00RIP Fiction Blog<div align="justify"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6emidTbBtTltw3K-8tvGYWMHdF7yczbSwEplIAMZ8jtmIiuoSZvVvIB5-PCerwH2AcA8rRkTE-wOMSi2g3H-nY2Pg-4A5SvRDBvTS6i0Px6ioJpuGwrG9PzG_bXiV6W7vyp61dDQD42FX/s1600/blogger_41387_delete_blog_en.png"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 81px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5623009878754543698" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6emidTbBtTltw3K-8tvGYWMHdF7yczbSwEplIAMZ8jtmIiuoSZvVvIB5-PCerwH2AcA8rRkTE-wOMSi2g3H-nY2Pg-4A5SvRDBvTS6i0Px6ioJpuGwrG9PzG_bXiV6W7vyp61dDQD42FX/s320/blogger_41387_delete_blog_en.png" /></a><br /><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;">After debating the pro and cons of it, I've decided to get rid of my fiction blog. The reasons for this are fairly straightforward - firstly, it's been a while since I've had any new material to put onto the blog and, secondly, I've decided to publish a small e-collection of my work and am going to include some of these older stories.</span></div><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">The collection is more by way of an experiment in e-publishing than anything else, just to see if I can do it. Links to my other online fiction can still be found to the right.</span><br /></div>James Leckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05836664255331961912noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-139815573134815266.post-3906438493483526172011-06-22T17:20:00.002+01:002011-06-22T17:25:28.893+01:00And Other Such Delights for Best of BSC<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiX28s-UGZTNkRsK-ehUCAetL2hjXVbzgHu6NLWvV5gZ1mfMIjWayFo4NDWPM8jNHkSfdL9kVik7T-qcMYL7QwIfhuvoNMIU8-ofBbRUdauYjjUGZX9Wu0Aat1A5WXeLLQGlCp6-wvbLNiP/s1600/BCS.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 200px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 112px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5621080951271535218" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiX28s-UGZTNkRsK-ehUCAetL2hjXVbzgHu6NLWvV5gZ1mfMIjWayFo4NDWPM8jNHkSfdL9kVik7T-qcMYL7QwIfhuvoNMIU8-ofBbRUdauYjjUGZX9Wu0Aat1A5WXeLLQGlCp6-wvbLNiP/s200/BCS.jpg" /></a><br /><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;">Just recieved word from Scott Andrews at <em>Beneath Ceaseless Skies</em> that <em>And</em> <em>Other</em> <em>Such</em> <em>Delights</em>, which appeared in BSC last year, has been selected for inclusion in <em>The Best of Beneath Ceaseless Skies: Year Two.</em></span></div><br /><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;">The e-anthology should be available in the autumn.</span></div><br /><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;"></span></div><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;">To say that I am rather pleased would be an understatement of sorts.</span></div>James Leckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05836664255331961912noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-139815573134815266.post-13078687203652278682011-06-19T23:13:00.002+01:002011-06-20T01:51:34.831+01:00Getting Unlocked<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6vV2-cNsQclzSsVWkyWTU_QCL0rRPvxA8m1c2PpIARDj00Il1CXyPQgqT1pqym2rUSL55J-yt0gn3COFhI7reiyikznKFopq2VS0EjO3AOprk5aHQv3W-aZK4wVKcFpD7qG9oGGI8E8ow/s1600/0001.png"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 133px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 133px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5620057779925323954" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6vV2-cNsQclzSsVWkyWTU_QCL0rRPvxA8m1c2PpIARDj00Il1CXyPQgqT1pqym2rUSL55J-yt0gn3COFhI7reiyikznKFopq2VS0EjO3AOprk5aHQv3W-aZK4wVKcFpD7qG9oGGI8E8ow/s400/0001.png" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;">The Great(ish) Fiction Experiment continues on apace, with my still as yet unnamed story up to 15,000 words, making it the longest piece of fiction that I have written so far (there's an unfinished novella that comes close though). </span></div><br /><br /><div align="justify"><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">The mission statement for this has been fairly straightforward - to write 1,000 words of fiction every day regardless of its quality - and although real-life work sort of got in the way this week I've managed to stick fairly closely to the rules.<br />One of the things it has taught me - or rather retaught me - is how much fun writing can be when you just let yourself go. It's also helped to get my creativity flowing again, and I've been making loads of notes for new stories as well as thinking very strongly about how I can make the current untitled piece actually work as a decent piece of fiction (a lot of editing and rewriting is the relatively straight-forward answer). </span></div><br /><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;"><br /></div></span><br /><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;">But its also helped to focus a few thoughts that had hitherto been rather scattered if not downright fragmentary, mostly to do with the setting of the story which, currently, tales place in Thule Before The Ice - and will continue to do so - that until now was just a phrase in a notebook that kept coming back to haunt me.<br /></span></div><br /><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;"></span></div><br /><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;">I'm not entirely sure that I've completely gotten over my bout of writers' block, but I at least feel that I'm getting there.<br /></div></span><br /><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;">Roll on the next 1,000 words.</span></div>James Leckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05836664255331961912noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-139815573134815266.post-85305383757485411312011-06-06T19:10:00.004+01:002011-06-06T19:28:34.844+01:00The Great(ish) Fiction Experiment: Week 2<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiI7VFtTWZvN97nZ-QMxpapihrSVjUpJ_ntPyhjzvLFT7Wk1C-jGltdeKeonb0cjjkwFsz-lIybZLw55WL6PRmH0IOrLg9DCMWvg-afUdH5uX3uhy0QMJB8u3J78yW3tYsQ-A7kP9AWW4AH/s1600/927149909_4a0a124013.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 195px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 257px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5615174946884651266" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiI7VFtTWZvN97nZ-QMxpapihrSVjUpJ_ntPyhjzvLFT7Wk1C-jGltdeKeonb0cjjkwFsz-lIybZLw55WL6PRmH0IOrLg9DCMWvg-afUdH5uX3uhy0QMJB8u3J78yW3tYsQ-A7kP9AWW4AH/s320/927149909_4a0a124013.jpg" /></a><br /><br /><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;">The second week of my attempt to write my way out of my recent bout of writers' block has begun.</span></div><br /><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;"></span></div><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;">So far I've managed to stick to the self-imposed rules of my Great(ish) Writing Experiment, producing no less than 1,000 words a day (except Sunday, when I decided I needed a break). In truth, I have written some terrible rubbish in the last week, but the rules dictate quantity over quality and hopefully some odd phrases have managed to glitter among the dreck.</span></div><br /><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;"></span></div><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;">For those who want to keep count I have written just over seven and a half thousand words of this still-as-yet unnamed tale about the warrior Xlaxas Duv and his quest to find Death.</span></div><br /><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;"></span></div><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;">One of the strange things about it is that the story started off as one thing and has morphed itself into another. Initially, the whole thing was vaguely patterned after Clark Ashton Smith's <em>The Seven</em> <em>Geases</em> but has started to become a little more Moorcockian as it has progressed (Xlaxas Duv has acquired a piratical sidekick who is a sort of Moonglum to his Elric, for instance) possibly because I've just finished reading <em>Stormbringer</em> once again<em>.</em></span></div><br /><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;"></span></div><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;">It's also become clear that what I thought was going to be a short story has begun to change itself into something much longer if not necessarily more complex.</span></div><br /><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;"></span></div><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;">Thankfully, this is not intended for publication of any sort but rather is to help me get to grips once again with the mechanics of writing and - maybe more importantly - the habit of writing.</span></div><br /><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;"></span></div><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;">I've found myself actually looking forward to sitting down at the keyboard again and even starting to connect with the characters (cardboard cutouts though they are) in a way that hasn't happened for a while.</span></div><br /><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;"></span></div><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;">I still don't know what will happen next, or even if this literary experiment will help to get my creative flow back on course, but so far its been a blast.</span></div><br /><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;"></span></div><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;">And I can't wait to find out what happens next.</span></div>James Leckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05836664255331961912noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-139815573134815266.post-20926696964482136932011-06-02T17:00:00.005+01:002011-06-02T20:10:22.524+01:00The Great(ish) Fiction Experiment: Day 3<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjm0c3Jkdwbebtb6VGj4jEpmoCrfSs0OZmc3swR2mYFC5Zmb2GO7sdYrdp2aD7-kOPrEKUI7DtvlCdgl-RvcFBr2AzWiGtPX2SAJOYBNePgcV8-iUAhDPvHyfy1L_ODq6lOzURkvLV38VAH/s1600/4505910818_12542871c9.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 248px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 206px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5613658643950192066" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjm0c3Jkdwbebtb6VGj4jEpmoCrfSs0OZmc3swR2mYFC5Zmb2GO7sdYrdp2aD7-kOPrEKUI7DtvlCdgl-RvcFBr2AzWiGtPX2SAJOYBNePgcV8-iUAhDPvHyfy1L_ODq6lOzURkvLV38VAH/s320/4505910818_12542871c9.jpg" /></a><br /><br /><div><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;">On Monday I decided to try and cure my writer's block by employing the relatively straightforward method of writing any old crap that came into my head for the next week. The only rule for this experiment is that I have to write 1,000 words a day - I can write more if the mood and muse take me, but certainly no less.</span></div><br /><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;"></span></div><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;">On Tuesday morning I sat down and wrote the following words:</span></div><br /><br /><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;">"Alvannah is gone, and with her any reason I may have left for remaining in Salmu Alu, the Black City. Gone, too, is any reason for continuing to live - for what is life without her? - but I am determined to sell my life as dearly as poss ible, among the abominations of the Flint Wastes and Rippling Mountains and in the embrace of death I may know peace and in oblivion may find once again my beloved Alvannah"<br />So wrote the warrior Xlaxas Duv, champion of Salmu Alu, before his departure from that great city."</span></div><br /><br /><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;"></span></div><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;">So far I have written nearly 3,900 words of this nameless and somewhat rambling tale, making stuff up as I go along and doing my level headed best not to worry too much about literary quality, strained metaphors or overly complex character motivation.</span></div><br /><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;"></span></div><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;">I have been having a ball doing it.</span></div><br /><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;"></span></div><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;">So far, Xlaxas Duv has faced three sorcerors (one good, one bad and the other fairly indifferent) a group of shape-shifting warbeasts and is currently on his way to the First City of Calgorum in order to confront the Golden Breed. He has discovered that Alvannah awaits him on the other side of the Veil of Life but that if he dies before fulfilling certain mystical criteria then he will be doomed to wander through limbo forever and never find her again.</span></div><br /><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;"></span></div><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;">Oh, and he has also broken two of his weapons and gained the magical heart of an Atlantean sorceror named Keritos.</span></div><br /><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;"></span></div><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;">What will happen next? Who or what are the Golden Breed and why is someone or something trying to prevent Xlaxas Duv from joining his beloved in the afterlife?</span></div><br /><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;"></span></div><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;">Damned if I know but I'm going to enjoy finding out.</span></div></div>James Leckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05836664255331961912noreply@blogger.com0