A Unicorn is rare, desirable and difficult to find. In a
world full of magic there are creatures which are even more scarce. The
Pentacorn for one is the cousin of their single horn family member. They are a
sight to see as they are rarely seen.
An infant corn will start growing their horns within months
out of the womb. The protrusions at first form around its head in a crown like
fashion. Over...
Thursday, July 30, 2020
Tuesday, July 28, 2020
Mischief managed
A friend had asked me once, “what’s in your book?” Not, what
is your book about. This was during the aspirational pre-production phase, so I
answered, everything. All the things that have ever floated around in my mind
has a home here. I would liken it to a giant Halloween party, where a mish-mash
of unrelated characters interact with each other. This is a playground where
the following scene can...
Monday, July 27, 2020
Man doing jumping jacks
Vitruvian Everywoman
Vitruvian Everyman
The concept for these logos were pretty simple, we are all perfect
in our own unique way and are capable of achieving the extraordinary. The Vitruvian
framing represents perfection. The non-descript gender models are inclusive...
Friday, July 24, 2020
Black hearts to kill black souls
Cuori neri per
uccidere anime nere is the
old world maxim of the Black Heart Academy. Graduates of this secret society were
extremely skilled at doing one thing―killing. Other electives were also available
like advanced interrogation, espionage, chess and historical art. Many peculiar
habits were ingrained/beaten into the students such as properly marking weaponry
right down to wiping your feet...
Thursday, July 23, 2020
A hint of what lies ahead
“Magic abounds… dragons are its physical manifestation… they
now live in varying states of depression after having their wings clipped. New dragons
have not been created since that fateful day … the magical force has only
dwindled with the passing of each dragon.”
As the prospect of regaining the gift of flight is
understood, the dragons finally have hope. With their spirit reinvigorated, the
magic...
Wednesday, July 22, 2020
Tools of the trade
The proper application of magic requires a deft hand, some
savvy misdirection, smudge less mirrors and a whole lot of smoke. Hiding a whole
Kingdom in darkness should require something a little more elaborate. The
following are two tricks of the trade utilized to keep this long running secret
alive.
The seven-note tune serves in the same fashion as the Neuralyzer
from Men in Black. When...
Tuesday, July 21, 2020
If you can make it here and all that jazz
New York City is renowned for drawing people from all over
the world. There is a certain personality which is invigorated by the energy
here. A taste of this experience will make some individuals pack their bags and
make this their new home. This by itself can provide the basis for a good story.
This series can be described as many things. One way I like
to characterize it, is as an immigrant...
Monday, July 20, 2020
The first review
I can’t fully explain how nerve wracking it is to have your
work judged. In my mind, I have created a magnificent work of art. However, A.
Person’s art can easily be another person’s artistic failure. My friend had said
it was really brave of me to publish a book. I did not understand the rationale.
He illustrated by doing so, you open yourself up for critique and that is not
an easy thing to do.
Excitement...
Wednesday, July 15, 2020
840 acres without a mule
In the middle of New York City sits Central Park. It is a
vast oasis of nature which provides outdoor space for a population lacking a
backyard. It is a place that I frequent and imagine this story unfolding while
doing so.
In the City of York we discover that the Conservation
is located in the southeast corner. “Each person, animal, walkway, and tree could
be put on-screen, right down to a gob...
Tuesday, July 14, 2020
Blurb, blurb, blurb
Below are some promotional blurbs that I have thought of
over the years. In need of a home, they have logically found their way to this
blog of aimless sayings.
In the City of York, a hidden community lives amongst us.
Can this society remain in darkness when a dragon once again flies?
Emily and her boyfriend are about to turn twenty. By chance
she meets Hollister, the most eligible man in the...
Mighty Morphing Powerful Trolls
Trolls have always been a common inclusion within fantasy
stories. They make for easy antagonists as they almost always maintain the negative
attributes of being grotesque, surly and dumb. I wanted to reimagine them differently
as protagonists and that act would require providing them with a sense of
humanity to their personas. It was determined that the best way to do so would
be to give them an...
Saturday, July 11, 2020
Tone deaf?
I would like to believe that there is a rhythmic elegance in
my writing. It would have been preferred to quote someone else saying that, but
no one is saying that, yet. Anyway, this is due to constant re-writing. Once I
have something down on Word, it would be passable but typically requires
further refinement.
After several rounds of editing, proofreading and personal
rereads, I finally had something...
Friday, July 10, 2020
Relatability
In the real world, those of us with the strongest moral
compass can still do horrible things and those defined as psychopaths can still
have moments of incredible humanity. Our lives are in effect a choose your own
adventure story. We are all different and we must all make constant decisions
that have an impact on our lives, those around us and the world at large.
I believe this also needs to...
Thursday, July 9, 2020
Un believable
My favorite chapter in this book is Eunice’s introduction. I
feel this way because it is uniquely different. It was not my intention to be
creative here and I was simply playing around to see how far this
unconventional approach could go. Turns out, there are hundreds of words that
have the prefix un and an untold number more that have that letter combination
in the word itself. To say I had fun...
Wednesday, July 8, 2020
What’s in a name
The absolute hardest thing for me to do when writing was
coming up with names for the characters. Rupert Grim might be the best I can
do. That happened to be a name which took me many years to conceive. With over
thirty noteworthy characters in this book, that process was not going to be an
option for everyone else. I was spending too much time trying to think of
something of significance. Eventually,...
Tuesday, July 7, 2020
Sharing the spotlight
The Kingdom in Darkness was a loosely planned multi-part series
and when I say loosely it is in a WD-40 greased up kind of way. I have a good
idea how I want to pace this story plus I know how I want this to end. How many
books it would take for me to get there though is something I have yet to
figure out.
This story was originally supposed to be about the
adventures of Emily, Cat and James....
Monday, July 6, 2020
A.P.’s quest for reviews.
In the act of penning this story, there wasn’t much structure
involved to bind me. I would regularly write out of sequence and only when inspiration
was in great supply. This for the most part was fun. Now that I have a polished
product, real work had to be put in to have it marketed. A game plan needs to
be implemented and the first step is to acquire reviews. This for the most part
was not so much...
Sunday, July 5, 2020
nuff said
I have probably read about a hundred novels in my life. Depending
on who you ask, that could be considered impressive or lacking. What I used to devour
though were comic books and that number would easily be over a thousand. In grade
school, I was extremely fascinated by Greek mythology and that loosely translated
into a fondness for Thor. I eventually discovered the X-Men when they were just
uncanny...
Saturday, July 4, 2020
Me, myself and an idea
It was during the fall of 2016 when some aspirational taps
on a keyboard finally kickstarted this stalled project. I had attempted to
begin this process several times before. However, the fantastical which floated
around in my mental ether never looked right in print. Where the rubber hit the
road or in this instance where the text popped on the screen, there was a major
disconnect. The fluidity...
Friday, July 3, 2020
Onward. Mush.
What
you have here is mush. Sit in front of a screen for too long and
apparently your brain will turn into it. For decades upon decades, the
imaginary has been colliding with items heard and remembered alongside
those enjoyably misremembered. The media has successfully crafted
concepts and rhythms which have incepted their way into my head. The
proof is in the pudding or should I say mush. ...
