A Trial For a Dragon – Part 4

Oh this is it! The finale of everything the last few Friday posts have worked towards! The last part of A Trial for a Dragon!

If you weren’t already aware, the celebrate the release of Axtara 2, this previously Patreon-supporter exclusive bonus story is now being made available for all. For those who read Axtara – Banking and Finance, you might recall mention of Axtara’s older sibling, Ryax, who was apprenticed to be a wizard. And if you ever wondered what happened with that, well … we’re finding out! Because this is Ryax’s story. And today’s post? It’s the final piece of it.

And who knows. Maybe you’ll see him in Axtara 2. For now, kick back, and enjoy the conclusion to A Trial For a Dragon. A story in four parts, one part each week. This bit is fourth and final, so if you missed part one, two, or three, you might want to check those out. As always, enjoy.

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A Trial For a Dragon – Part Four

The rain had gotten heavier, but Ryax didn’t care. It wasn’t as if the weather bothered him the same way it did humans. He didn’t have any clothing to get wet, and the satchel hanging around his chest was waterproofed. Simply cupping his wings above him, while a little awkward, was more than enough to shield his head from the increasing downpour.

It was fitting weather. Grey skies, flush with rain. A perfect companion for his dampened mood.

Being a Better Writer: Fantastical Calendars

Welcome back, writers! Monday is upon us once more, and you know what that means! Being a Better Writer is here!

Well, Monday for you. For me, it’s Friday, and also a once-a-year sort of day for me, if you catch my drift. So I will be hopefully keeping this a slightly shorter BaBW installment, so that I can try and have a bit of a break day. Which, with everything that’s been going on, I need.

However, before I dive into today’s post, I do want to drop a little news. The Beta Read for Axtara – Magic and Mischief has been going really well. Really low error count, so I guess these extra months did account for something, with really positive reactions to the book.

That’s the good news. The slightly less good news is that I might be waiting on a cover for a few weeks, which would push the release into May.

I know. I know this sucks. Sands, I was speaking with a family member the other day and they made it very clear that the situation just sucked through no fault of my own. Axtara was originally aiming for a Christmas 2023 release, and that was a complete wash. Though it wasn’t exactly my fault (and if you’ve been skipping new and wonder why, just hit that search bar on the side and type “landslide” but be warned it’s not a happy story), it does suck that Axtara is now this long overdue.

At least it’ll be well-polished by the time it arrives. And based on the Reader reactions across the Alpha and the Beta, I think you’re all going to enjoy it immensely.

Now, if you’re itching for more of Axtara to tide you over in the meantime (and have been living under a rock), I’ve got good news for you: You can now read all but the final part of A Trial For a Dragon, a side-story starring Axtara’s older brother Ryax, right here on the site! Part 4 drops this Friday too, so you won’t have to wait long to sink your teeth into the finale. You can read that here.

But if you’re itching for even more content, previews of the first few chapters of Axtara – Magic and Mischief will be dropping in the coming weeks! Whet your appetite for the book! Oh, and if you’re still hungry after that—or before—there is, of course, a whole ‘nother library of books, but also there’s a new short on Patreon for Supporters. While waiting for the Beta Readers to make their passes, I’ve done some prep work for other books, but also sat down and spent a few days pumping out a little Sci-Fi action-adventure short. So if you’re a Supporter, hit this link and go check out Artifacts.

Okay, that’s the news. Over and done, so let’s dive into Being a Better Writer. Let’s talk about fantastical calendars. Hit the jump!

A Trial For a Dragon – Part 3

Hello there! As a continuation of the last two weeks, things are going to be a little bit different today. With Axtara 2 drawing ever closer to flying free into the world, we’re continuing to give Axtara fans a little bonus to tide you over until her newest adventure is in your claws.

No, it’s not a preview of Axtara 2 (that’s a different post), but it is close. For those who read Axtara – Banking and Finance, you might recall mention of Axtara’s older sibling, Ryax, who was apprenticed to be a wizard. And if you ever wondered what happened with that, well … we’re finding out! Because this is Ryax’s story. Until now a Patreon Supporter Exclusive, Ryax’s solo outing is now coming to the site.

And who knows. Maybe you’ll see him in Axtara 2. For now, kick back, and enjoy part three of A Trial For a Dragon. A story in four parts, one part each week. This bit is part three, so if you missed part one or two, you might want to check those out here and here. As always, enjoy.

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A Trial For a Dragon – Part Three

Part of him wanted to go flying. Badly. There was something about being high in the sky, above the world with nothing but air and cloud around him … Perhaps it was part of being a dragon. The urge to stretch his wings, to simply glide on a thermal for miles and let his mind wander.

He’d almost done it. Walking out of the council chambers he’d felt the desire to take off right there from the front steps, to arc into the sky and climb until the words etched above the front door were nothing more than smudges on stone.

“For Glory and Honor” – Submission Call From Hemelein

Hey readers, just a heads up that Hemelein Publishing has opened a submission call for their latest LUTE Benefit Anthology, For Glory and Honor!

Puzzled? Perplexed? Well, let me clear that up. For years now, Hemelein Publishing has organized an annual benefit anthology for LTUE, aka Life, The Universe, and Everything, aka the coolest writing con you’ll ever attend. The purpose of the benefit anthology is for all proceeds from the book to go toward the con to help keep the ticket cost for students and minors low. Like, a couple bucks for the whole con low. Because the con is all about educating writers and helping them become tomorrows greats of fiction, so the stories that are submitted to the anthology are done as a charity. In other words, no one gets paid for this anthology. Instead the proceeds help today’s aspiring writers become the sellers of tomorrow.

Each collection is also themed (because, you know, anthology), but takes it a step further by being dedicated to a particular individual of note in the Fantasy or Sci-Fi community. For example the 2024 installment, Troubadours and Space Princesses (which has a story by yours truly in it) was dedicated to the late and great Dave Farland, by collecting stories with some of his favorite themes.

In like fashion, the current submission call is in honor of Caroljean Hanson, a long-time supporter of Sci-Fi and Fantasy conventions. As one of her favorite genres, according to the submission call, was adventurous Space Opera and Military Sci-Fi, that is the theme of this year’s submission call.

The call is open until May 31st, 2024. If this sounds like something you’d be interested in, and want more details on what Hemelein is looking for, length, etc, then go check out the official submission call here.

Will you be submitting? Let us know on the Discord!

Being a Better Writer: Reversals and Subversions

Welcome once again, writers! Unless you’re new, you know what this is, but for those just finding this corner of the web welcome to Being a Better Writer, your weekly article series on how to improve your writing. Each week we discuss a different topic, so if you don’t like what you see up there in the title, there’s a lot more to choose from. After all, running each Monday for more than ten years makes for a significant backlog.

But for the moment we’re going to assume you’re not entering a request into that search at this exact moment looking for something else. If you are, well, you’ll probably find it. But as to this moment in time right here? We’ve got a reader request to discuss, and so we’re diving right into it.

We do have a few lines of news to drop, though, so just bear with us for a single paragraph. Axtara – Magic and Mischief (probably the final title; haven’t had anything else get close to “Mayhem”) is still in Beta, but making rapid progress. And it is a clean draft, by all indicators. Meanwhile, Part 2 of A Trial For a Dragon has released on the site! Go read it!

That’s it! I did say one paragraph. So let’s get down to business and let’s talk about this reader request. Let’s talk about reversals and subversions. Hit the jump!

A Trial For a Dragon – Part 2

Hello there! As a continuation of last week (and through upcoming Fridays) things are going to be a little bit different today. How, you might ask? Well, with Axtara 2 drawing ever close to flying free into the world, I thought it would be nice if those of you who are Axtara fans could have a little something to tide you over in the meantime.

No, it’s not a preview of Axtara 2 (that will comer later), but it’s close. For those who read Axtara – Banking and Finance, you might recall mention of Axtara’s older sibling, Ryax, who was apprenticed to be a wizard. And if you ever wondered what happened with that, well … Today (and each coming Friday) is your lucky day. Because this is Ryax’s story. Until now a Patreon Supporter Exclusive, Ryax’s solo outing is now coming to the site.

And who knows. Maybe you’ll see him in Axtara 2. For now, kick back, and enjoy part two of A Trial For a Dragon. In four parts, one part each week. This bit is part two, so if you missed part one, you might want to check that out here. As always, enjoy.

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A Trial For a Dragon – Part Two

By the time one of the inn’s employees arrived the next morning to signal second bell, Ryax was already awake, making last-minute preparations. Twice someone checked on him afterwards, curious about the source of the rapid-tapping they’d heard against the floorboards, and he’d stilled his claws until—engrossed in his studies—he’d forgotten and begun the whole process over.

However, he wasn’t so engrossed that time entirely slipped past him, and he arrived on the promenade before the council chambers with a quarter hour to spare.

Podcast Interview Alert!

Hey folks! Updates and cool news here! Axtara – Magic and Mischief (which is probably going to be the final title as nothing else has come close to matching Magic and Mayhem) is into the Beta now. Not a lot of errors found so far, thankfully. I’ve completed my Beta Read and made a few corrections, and there have been a few others found, but overall I think across the multiple passes that have been made Magic and Mischief is pretty clean right now.

While the rest of the Beta Readers go through it, I’ll be getting a cover ironed out. At last. But yeah … extenuating circumstances.

Anyway, that’s just the update. The news of this post is that I did an interview! For a podcast!

Now, it’s not anything most of you would have heard of, I expect. A bunch of students from my hometown are interviewing creatives that have come from that hometown, including authors, and they interviewed me a few weeks ago! They call themselves Stikine Stories, and you can check out their page here. My interview released this week, and is embedded below the jump. Because I know the embed will work here, but when crossposted, I’m not so certain. So it’ll be after the jump.

Anyway, I had a lot of fun answering questions, talking about writing, the works. It’s a quick breezy half-hour, the students clearly put a lot of work into it, and hey, it’s me talking about writing, my background, what I’ve worked on, and some of my inspirations, which for those of you who have seen me at cons, know is a good time. I’ve got energy to make it fun.

The embed is below the jump, or you can just follow that link above and listen to the student’s other interviews. Give ’em some traffic!

Being a Better Writer: Let Characters Fail

Welcome back writers! As work continues getting Axtara – Magic and Mischief (I still miss Mayhem, but we’ll be getting a BaBW post on that next week) that hasn’t stopped Being a Better Writer from delivering!

Oh, but if you’re a fan of Axtara and weren’t around last Friday (or you’re brand new to the site), don’t neglect to check out Part One of A Trial For a Dragon, a free short story set in the Axtara universe starring Axtara’s older brother. A dragon becoming a banker is one thing, but what about a dragon becoming a wizard? You can check out the short here, and if you’ve stumbled across this post months (or even years) after the fact, read the rest of it by following the comment links!

That’s pretty much it as far as news is concerned. At this point Beta Reading/Editing is underway, and next up will be a cover … So you’re all caught up—

Wait, almost. Just a quick reminder to Patreon Supporters that you only have until the release of Axtara – Magic and Mischief to vote for the next book to come out! You can do that here!

Okay, that’s the news. Let’s talk writing. I’m sure a few of you writing vets have looked at the title and thought “Well, that seems pretty straightforward, but I must admit that today’s post is one that comes about due to a perceptive shift I’ve witnessed taking place over the last several years. A shift that, in the last six months especially I’ve seen on display more and more across various internet forums and even in reviews for books.

Because recently, one of the most common strikes I’ve seen leveled at characters in movies, books, and games, is that they’re failing. No, not as characters, but in their goals until the climax arrives.

Let me give you a direct example, one of the more memorable ones that, because it bugged me, stuck in my mind, and was one of the inspirations for this post: 2023’s Super Mario Bros. movie. Look, I’ll be the first to say the movie doesn’t shy from what it is: non-offensive child-friendly entertainment that’s greatest achievement, previously unmatched by Hollywood, was actually representing the property it was based on (which, for Hollywood, is like a lawyer refunding cash: a blank look followed by “I don’t know what those words mean).

But I was really interested in some of the criticism leveled against the movie, in particular the accusation that whole elements of the story were “a waste because the characters failed.”

In particular, if you’ve seen the film, the recruitment of the Kong army. Critics across the web will note that a good portion of the movie is spent on the recruitment of the Kong army, which includes Mario trying a training course—and failing, the critics either ignoring or forgetting that he does actually succeed at the course eventually—to show that he deserves to go along for the recruitment pitch, having to face a challenge to “prove” they can handle the army … and then the army is beaten anyway by the antagonist in a big battle sequence.

These critics argue that because the army failed, it’s a waste of storytelling time. That it shouldn’t have been in the story at all because due to the failure, the story didn’t move forward.

And these critics are not alone, nor are they just unhappy with Super Mario Bros. It seems any story that comes out these days—or even an older story—is increasingly being viewed with this lens. “Oh, the characters had this plan and it didn’t work out? That’s bad storytelling. It’s a waste of the audience’s time and attention. It’s padding to lengthen things out. It’s boring.”

Or my personal “favorite” accusation, that it’s “woke.” Which is about as empty and hollow a criticism as I’ve ever seen. And I’ve seen some doozies.

However, with this criticism becoming more and more frequent, it’s been leveled at books and written stories as much as anything else. I’ve seen people post about famous books decrying them because ‘So-and-so waffled around not being able to face the big bad for two-hundred pages and getting beat. What a waste of my time. No one should read this as it doesn’t respect the reader’s time.’

Worse, I’ve started to see newbie advice handed out by these critics that such scenes should be cut or removed from stories. Advice given on writing forums that young writers should not include scenes or story elements where the characters fail because “This doesn’t move the story forward, therefore it is bad” (and lest you think this is hyperbole, I’ve see variations of that exact statement several times in the last month).

And while I can see where that advice is coming from, and how that conclusion has been reached, I’ve just got to say it, in as straightforward a manner as I can: It’s just plain wrong.

So hit the jump, and let’s break down this new bit of “advice” that’s circling the writing circles.

A Trial For a Dragon – Part 1

Hello there! As you might have gathered, today (and across upcoming Fridays) things are going to be a little bit different. How, you might ask? Well, with Axtara 2 drawing ever close to flying free into the world, I thought it would be nice if those of you who are Axtara fans could have a little tidbit of something to tide you over in the meantime.

No, it’s not a preview of Axtara 2 (that will comer later), but it’s close. For those who read Axtara – Banking and Finance, you might recall mention of Axtara’s older sibling, Ryax, who was apprenticed to be a wizard. And if you ever wondered what happened with that, well … Today (and each coming Friday) is your lucky day. Because this is Ryax’s story. Until now a Patreon Supporter Exclusive, Ryax’s solo outing is now coming to the site.

And who knows. Maybe you’ll see him in Axtara 2. For now, kick back, and enjoy part one of A Trial For a Dragon. In four parts, one part each week.

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A Trial for a Dragon – Part One

It’s not hard to see why Rietillia considers itself the “crown jewel” of the kingdoms, Ryax thought, his wings extended in a lazy glide. It really is as beautiful as it claims to be. Beneath him stretched endless rolling hills, rising and falling over one another in gentle green and brown waves. Each was dotted with workers, tending to the carefully cultivated crops that were the kingdom’s livelihood.

It’s like looking at a painting. The undulating rows of green gave way to a sinuous stone road, and he beat his wings slightly as the ground neared. A faint breeze made itself known, stirring up circling drifts of warm, spice-scented air tinged with reddish dust. Nearby travelers, also heading to and from the capital, looked over and then up in surprise as he braced himself for impact.

A final beat of his wings with a quick twitch of his tail for balance adjustment, and his paws touched down atop the warm stone in a smooth, easy landing. From here, he would walk to Avnivaria. It would be a change of pace from the fairly lazy glides he’d been able to use for most of the morning, but it was better than flying over a busy capital looking for a clear landing space that wouldn’t have issues with a dragon dropping down in the middle of it.

Being a Better Writer: Retellings

Hello again, writers! Welcome back to Being a Better Writer! It’s Monday once more and that means that it’s time for us to dive into our Topic List again and see what we’ve got to discuss!

Which today should be interesting, as it’s a reader requested topic that can sometimes be a hot topic of discussion among young writers and writing forums, even when it really shouldn’t be outside of a few specific key approaches we’ll get to in a moment.

But first, just so you’re aware, there is an active Beta Call going for Axtara – Magic and Mischief. No, that isn’t yet the final title, but it’s the best alternative I’ve found, and I’m trying it out to see how it rolls off the tongue. Anyway, if you’re interested in trying out being a Beta Reader, head over to last Friday’s post and take a look at what’s there.

Oh, and don’t forget that this coming Friday will be the posting of the first part of A Trial for a Dragon, a story set in Axtara universe starring non other than her own brother. It’s not a prequel, not quite, but it is a side story that will tie in to Magic and Mischief. And you’ll be able to read it right here, for free, each Friday until it’s complete.

Got it? Okay, good! Now let’s talk writing from the angle of creation, rather than consumption. Let’s get down to business with today’s topic. Which, as I already noted, can be somewhat of a contentious topic in some circles, oddly enough. Especially when some of those circles are fanfiction circles, which have a hefty plethora of stories dedicated to “Let’s retell my favorite show/game/book/comic but with one small tweak.” One would think retellings of other stories would see more slack given amid such surroundings, but …

Well, we’ll discuss it. Along with other aspects of storytelling to be aware of or consider … when you set out to create a story that’s a retelling. So hit that jump, and let’s talk writing.