Crystal Lilac...Ready to Publish!

Alright, the name issue is resolved; I'm keeping it as it was. It just feels right to me. And with that, the book is ready. I'm getting the cover ready now, and I'll be spending most of the night working on the ebook prep as well as getting as much of the paperback done as I can. Ideally, I want them to come out simultaneously, or as close as possible.

So, Crystal Lilac is the sequel to Crimson Moon, last month's book. It continues the adventures of Kane after he accomplishes his mission in the first book, and leads him into something much bigger than ever before. No, I'm not going to give any details; read the book!

I'll keep this entry short tonight, since I'd rather get to work on the publication. In the meantime, don't forget to read the first book, available at an Amazon website near you.

A Question of Names

Well, I've got my book back from my reader (thanks, Mom!) She's a trooper; she's not into fantasy, but she reads my stuff regardless of the genre. So, now I have a cover, a corrected manuscript, and a problem.

See, apparently one of the character names didn't work for her, or for my uncle (who is also reading the book). They said the rest of the book is great; a page-turner, great action, strong characterization... it's just that one character name. So, I've been thinking it over for most of the day, trying to think of something different that would fit. I even went to some online name generators looking for something that would feel right for the character.

And I got nothing. I looked at names for various fairy creatures throughout folklore and literature, all kinds of different critters that come close to what this creature is. Basically, he's something like a brownie or a fairy creature like Oberon from Shakespeare, who can turn invisible by twisting out of our reality into another dimension (more or less, but that works for a quick description).

I don't remember where the name I gave him came from; I think it was just something random out of my head. That's how it works sometimes; the name just fits the character. And sometimes I just go to a random name generator and see what comes up. That can be helpful as well; the names that come up sometimes get mixed and matched, or inspire something completely different.

But in this case, I can't picture the character with a different name. It just...feels right to me. I don't know why; maybe it's because the name helped me get the character's personality figured out as I wrote him. I'm going to give it another day or so, and look for some other ideas. Hopefully, something will come up that feels just as good as the current name. If not, I'll be sticking with it. In the end, it's a minor character with a weird name.

In the meantime, this newest book is the direct sequel to my previous one, Crimson Moon. Check it out, so you'll be up to speed for the new one, Crystal Lilac.

A Fantastic Adventure

Well, it finally happened. Dungeons and Dragons, live, in my home. It was a short game, only three hours, and most of the first hour was taken up with creating characters. Thank God it was old-school rules, because we'd probably still be creating the characters under modern-day rules. But these were basically complete neophytes, learning how to create characters and learning the rules as we went.

There were four players, all roughly Tanner's age, and all friends of his. I added a character of my own just to give them a bit more strength to get through the first adventure. Tanner played an elf fighter/magic-user; his friends played a cleric, a magic-user, and a dwarf fighter. I rolled up a human fighter to give them some backup.

After we got through the basics and they had characters, we were off. I pulled out an old Basic adventure, King's Festival, and gave them a quick overview of Meterra. For some reason, I couldn't find my printed map, but I didn't let it slow me down. We just ran through the first half of the module; it was a rescue mission, going through an orc cave to find a kidnapped priest. I modified the adventure's setting just enough to put it into Meterra; it's generic enough and the adventure takes place entirely underground, so it was easy enough to do.

So, after the setup was explained, the four of them went into the cave. The dwarf took the lead and snuck into the cave enough to see the guards in the first chamber. Two of them were sleeping orcs, and the third one was gulping down orc beer, so they weren't exactly on their game. The fight was short and brutal, with the orcs quickly falling to the superior numbers of the party. The magic-user was a bit disappointed, since he only has the one spell (everyone's favorite, sleep), and he didn't want to waste it on a few guards in the first room. So, he contented himself with throwing daggers for a while.

After dispatching the guards, the five adventurers came to a four-way passage. Taking the straight path, they encountered a pair of doors on the wall to their right. Inside the first door were more orcs, who were shortly joined by the occupants of the second door, another orc who had a pet weasel that he had been training. That fight went well enough, and soon they were happily looting the bodies.

Another encounter with an orc and a hobgoblin from a nearby tribe went well, but they still hadn't found the priest they were hunting for. As they started to go back to check the other passages, the elf noticed a secret door in the wall. Going through, they soon found themselves facing several tough orcs, including the chieftain and a spellcaster.

The magic-user got his chance to shine, and dropped his sleep spell on the orcs. All of them except the chieftain and the shaman fell victim to the spell. That is such a great spell. Meanwhile, the elf interrupted the shaman's casting with a light spell, blinding him and taking him out of the fight. Unfortunately, my fighter didn't survive the encounter with the chieftain, who took him down with two mighty blows of his magical sword. As tough as the chieftain was, though, the rest of the party took him down, with the elf getting in the killing blow.

After that, it was time to loot the bodies, as well as the chieftain's treasure room. They then found the priest and brought him back to town.

It wasn't an overly long adventure, and I admit that I fudged a few things. Not the dice rolling; I was fair with that. But I decided that since we didn't have a whole lot of time to play, that regardless of what passage they took at the beginning, it would end up leading to the final encounter. They skipped over a few encounters, but they accomplished the mission.

When they were done, the dwarf and the cleric had leveled up; the magic-user is close, and the elf...well, multi-class characters have their advantages, but they pay for it with very slow advancement. Still, everyone got a magic item out of the deal, so they were happy with that. The division was based on who would actually be able to use the item; the elf got the orc chief's magic sword, the magic-user got the magic dagger. The dwarf got a ring of protection, and the cleric took the potion of healing. The elf and magic-user also split the orc shaman's spellbook between them, adding more spells to their own books.

One of the things they said that got my attention was when the magic-user admitted that he had forgotten that they were there to rescue the priest; he was mostly interested in the looting. The other players agreed, so I went with it.

All four of them had a great time, and after we had finished the adventure I added a few more things to their character sheets. There's still more to do, but we will get there. And next time, they will give their characters names. Yes, they are nameless for the moment. But that will change.

And so will their adventure locale next time; since they just want to go in and do what all old-school gamers did (kill monsters and take their stuff), that's exactly what they will be doing next time. We'll get together in a couple of weeks, and they will be entering...the Devil's Playground. Tanner is already terrified.

Yeah, this was a lot of fun, and even though they are kids and keeping them on track was like herding cats, it went well. They all loved it and can't wait to play again. I'm going to call this a great success.

To get a taste of what they will be experiencing in their second adventure, check out the book based on the adventure, available at an Amazon website near you.

Gaming Excitement

Well, it's going to happen tomorrow. My first live D&D game in over fifteen years. Thanks, Honeybunny. Of course, it's not for me; it's for my son and his friends, but I'm the DM. And they will be, of course, in Meterra. Not the Devil's Playground, though. Not for their first adventure. I'm going to be taking a slightly-modified version of B11 King's Harvest, the first dungeon level. It's a simple rescue mission with some pretty straightforward monsters, and it's specifically designed for beginners. So, it should be a good time.

I'll do a writeup of the game session tomorrow night; depending on how long it is, I'll post it either in one piece or in chunks. It's not going to be a regular weekly game, but even if we play every two weeks we'll see some good progress.

Man, I'm excited. This is going to be great.

More Fun With History

Yeah, I missed a night. That's what happens when you burn the candle at both ends the way I have been. Eventually, it catches up with you. Sleep was the priority last night. Tonight, it's back to work.

So, my wife and I finished watching the Ascent of Civilization season two series. The three episodes were the Carthaginians, the Germanians, and the Arabs. Not as immediately relevant to Western civilization as the Greeks, Romans and Vikings from season one, but certainly all three of those civilizations made very significant contributions to the West.

The first episode was the Carthaginians, who emigrated to the other end of the Mediterranean from what we know as Phoenicia in about 900 BC. Their big contributions to our cultural heritage were that they were the first true seafaring power in the world, having settlements from Palestine to modern-day Spain. And they were merchants, trading goods all over the world. They also had a pretty tough military; after all, they had war elephants. Those were the tanks of the ancient world.

The Carthaginians have a bad reputation in history as being involved in nasty cultic practices, particularly child sacrifice. While there is debate about whether that was just Greek and Roman propaganda (since almost everything we know about Carthage comes from those cultures since Carthage was razed by the Romans and most of their writings burned), the Carthaginians were Baal worshipers, which has a special significance to Bible readers. Baal's big moment in the Bible is when Elijah challenges his priests to summon their god through a sacrifice. I won't spoil it here; it's in the First Book of Kings, chapter 18. It's a cool story; there are explosions.

Anyway, the Carthaginians may or may not have been involved in unsavory practices, but what can't be argued is their longevity and success as an imperial power. They reached their peak at roughly the same time as the Athenians did in Greece, and their mercantile network stretched all the way across the Mediterranean, and even around the northern part of Europe all the way to modern-day Britain. There's not much left of them today except stories, but they were vital in shaping the pre-Christian history of the Mediterranean basin.

Moving on, we have the Germanians, or Germanics. Never a united people, the Germanics were basically a whole bunch of tribes in northern Europe who resisted Roman rule to the point that the Romans gave up trying to conquer them. Some of the tribes included the Gauls, the Goths, the Visigoths, the Anglos, the Saxons, and the Suebi. Considered barbarians by the sophisticated Romans and Greeks, the Germanics nevertheless had their own cultural identity, divided as they were. And we get a lot of our modern culture from things they started. They were the first men to popularize the wearing of pants instead of togas and skirts. That's helpful in those German winters.

They also gave us several of the days of the week; their gods are more familiar to us today in their Norse versions, but Odin was originally the Germanic Wodan. There were also the war god Tyr, Odin's wife Frigga, and of course, everyone's favorite hammer-wielding giant-killer, Thor. Tyr gaves us Tuesday, Odin Wednesday, Thor Thursday, and Frigga Friday. And they also popularized beer, which was their preferred weekend (or weekday) entertainment. The civilized folk thought it to be disgusting, but then, they lived where grapes were easy to grow, so wine was their thing. Grapes weren't a thing in northern Europe at that time, but barley was. So, beer.

As for other noteworthy things we got from them, how about art and architecture? Gothic architecture is derived from Germanic styles. Oh, and let's not forget fairy tales; most of the ones we know are old Germanic folk stories, including all of Grimm's Fairy Tales. We also got bigger stories from them, such as the Eddas and other sagas. Some of the names in those stories include Bombur, Thorin, and Gandalf. Sound familiar? Yep; Tolkien cribbed the hell out of the Germanic sagas. I'm not complaining.

Finally, the Arabs. Today, a lot of people have a particular view of the Arab people, one that involves religious fanaticism and intolerance, and a lack of cultural sophistication compared to us in the West. And in some ways, they are right; Islam is not a forgiving or ecumenical religion. But the Arab civilization that is being discussed in this series is much, much different than what we are familiar with.

First of all, Muhammad is quoted as saying that the pen of the scholar was more important than the zeal of the prophet, or something to that effect. And some of the Arab caliphs of the latter part of the first millenium took that seriously. They were collectors of knowledge and scholarship from all over the world, and not just from the west; they had an advantage that the Romans largely lacked: they had India and Persia to draw from as well. So, in the major cities such as Baghdad, the whole world came together for the purpose of expanding human knowledge. Greek texts were translated into Arabic, as were Indian and Persian texts of antiquity. They had libraries that made the Library of Congress look like a small town public library.

They also had an empire, one that stretched even further than the empires of Alexander or Rome. They ruled territory from northwestern India through North Africa and even into what is now Spain. That's one of the reasons Spanish architecture and music is so different and unique compared to the rest of Europe; they had Arabic as well as Christian influence to draw from.

Back to the scholars, they had some incredibly brilliant men (and yes, even some women) working in multiple fields; they made advancements in medicine, music, architecture, astronomy, physics, philosophy, mathematics...you name it, they studied it. A lot of people today like to criticize the West and point out that the Arabs did have a multicultural Empire that stretched so far and avoided the Dark Ages because they were so enlightened. Actually, their cultural dominance of the time was primarily due to two factors: they lived in subtropical regions, while the majority of Europe was temperate and dealing with a lot more cold. It's not easy to focus on studying Aristotle when you're tempted to throw the manuscript on the dying embers to keep from freezing to death. Second, the Arabs were RICH. The caliphs could afford to buy rare manuscripts from all over the world at any price demanded. Northern Europe wasn't swimming in that kind of wealth.

So, what happened to the Arabs that turned them from the wise, enlightened multicultural empire of scholarly learning into the religious fanatics that burn libraries and historical monuments to the ground? Two words: The Mongols.

Yep. Genghis Khan did to the Arabs what he did to the Russians. He burned Baghdad to the ground, destroying their great library, a crime against humanity on par with the burning of the library at Alexandria. Who knows how much was lost forever? Greek plays, scientific texts, all kinds of stuff that we'll never see again. Damn the Mongols.

So, what did we learn? We learned that while our civilization comes from the two main streams of Greco-Roman culture and Christianity, it wasn't all from them. The rest of the ancient and medieval world had a lot of input as well, and we're all the better for it and what they did.

Except the Mongols.

Planting Calendar

Well, it's that time of year when gardens need to be planned out, especially when they are going to be big gardens. Being on Prince Edward Island, we're in climate zone 5B, which means there's a lot of stuff that isn't going to grow here because our season isn't long enough and the average temperatures are too low. But there is quite a bit that will grow here, and that's what I'm looking at.

The thing is, our last frost day is in May. Which means we don't plant anything directly into the ground until then, for fear of killing the seeds as they germinate. So, we're going to have to start stuff inside. The problem is that we don't have a greenhouse yet, and there's simply no way we can get fifty tomato plants and a couple of dozen pepper plants growing in the house. So, those crops won't be quite as big as we might have hoped. But there will still be lots of stuff.

Getting a greenhouse is high on my list of 'I really need to buy this.' It doesn't have to be a huge greenhouse, but it needs to be big enough to let us plant a lot of stuff early on so we can get a head start on the garden. It will also let us start things later in the season to replace things we pull up, like radishes and carrots.

There's still a lot to learn about this; we're still relative beginners, and we don't have a lot of people in our little social circle who can help us get through the toddler years. But we'll figure it out. After all, watching her cook food that I grow in the garden? That's awesome.

So, I'm going to get digging into the gardening calendars for this area and see just what I can start with to get the garden off to a strong start in May. Here's hoping...

Valentine's Day

This used to be a much bigger deal; I remember in grade school getting a whole bunch of Valentine's cards from everyone in the class, boys and girls alike. Chocolate of some sort, of course, and maybe a little party before the end of the day.

High school, not as many given out (definitely not from the other guys), and few received. One was all you really needed at that point, if you were lucky enough to be with someone (or have a shot at being with someone).

College, you either had someone or you didn't.

Between college and getting married, Valentine's Day was mostly a reminder that my son's birthday was coming up in a few days. I didn't think about it much otherwise.

Nowadays, after nearly sixteen years together, Valentine's Day is nice, but it's not high on the priority list. She got a card, I got chocolate. No flowers, not at these prices. She'd beat me with my garden tools if I paid that much for flowers. I'll grow her some in the garden this year instead. I already have the seeds.

I wonder how many people know that it's actually SAINT Valentine's Day; that first part has pretty much disappeared from society. It's not like St. Patrick's Day, since the Irish won't let you drop the 'saint' part. Too bad; St. Valentine was a pretty impressive fellow. A priest or even a bishop in Imperial Rome during the later persecution of Christians prior to Constantine's arrival, he ministered to the persecuted Christians before being martyred himself. There aren't many records of him, and some 'scholars' have attempted to mythologize him out of existence, but the Church agrees that he was a real person. Why he is the guy associated with courtly love and romance isn't exactly clear; that wasn't a priestly thing even back then.

Ah, well. Today we remember this brave, unflinching priest with chocolate, hearts, and flowers. There are worse things to be remembered by.

Fun with History

I found a great TV show on Amazon Prime: The Ascent of Civilization. It's a British(?) show, so it doesn't have a lot of episodes. Six of them over two seasons, actually. Like Sherlock, with less murders. But all six are really interesting and fun. Even my wife was watching them with me, and that is not a statement I ever expected to make about history documentaries.

The first season has three episodes, as does the second. The first three episodes are about the Greeks, the Romans, and the Vikings. The second set are the Carthaginians, the Germanics, and the Arabs. We started the last episode tonight but haven't finished it. I've watched the other five, though.

We start with the Greeks, who gave us democracy, philosophy, theater, literature, and early science. All noteworthy things to have, definitely. Greek culture is the foundation of Western civilization, there's no question about that. But the Greeks weren't perfect, either. The city-states squabbled amongst each other constantly, coming together only when the Persians invaded; that, and their shared language and religious beliefs, were all that they had in common. They thought of themselves as Athenians, Sparthans, Thebans, Corinthians, etc. before they thought of each other as Greeks.

The Romans, on the other hand, gave us engineering, republican government, the legal system, and a shared culture and language that still resonates to this day. The Greeks were the foundation, but the Roman Empire was the skyscraper. It still looms over Western civilization like nothing else before or since, with the exception of Christianity, with which the later Empire is closely connected. They stole liberally from the Greeks, even their gods, and synthesized the whole into a phenomenal culture. And the Roman legions were the greatest fighting force ever assembled; pound for pound, they had no equal.

The Vikings, on the other hand, didn't have a lengthy part in the historical record; they showed up out of the blue in the late eighth century and started rampaging and pillaging. But they gave us more than just cool stories and operas; they also established trading centers and traveled extensively, exploring more territory than even the Romans did. And, they were the first Europeans to find North America. I still want to go to L'Anse aux Meadows at some point to see the Viking settlement there.

So, that was the first season. It was fascinating, and the wide scenery shots were incredible. That's what first got my wife's attention; she loves mountains and islands and such, and Greece has plenty of both.

I'll finish watching the last episode before I talk about the second season; there's lots of good stuff there as well.

Getting Ready to Game

I must admit, there's a bit of nerves on this one. The gaming group is set; my son has four of his friends invited, and my wife, of all people, invited another homeschooling parent and his daughter to come along. The game is set for next Sunday, and it's going to be exciting. At least, I hope it will.

The thing I need to remember is that these kids are just that: Kids. And their experience with fantasy isn't the same as mine. My formative fantasy was Lord of the Rings and its eighteen bazillion pastiche/ripoffs from the 1980s and 1990s. Their is Harry Potter and its eighteen bazillion pastiche/ripoffs. Sure, they might have seen the LotR movies, and even read some of those types of books, but when it comes to fantasy, they're thinking about Muggles and Quidditch before hobbits and orcs. So, it's going to be an interesting experience for both them and myself.

One of the advantages of the old school system that I'm using (basically 1st edition AD&D, modified to a simpler base form to start out) is that character creation doesn't take long at all. In fact, if you give the players a basic equipment setup (backpack, food, waterskin, spikes, torches, etc.) that pretty much every adventurer is going to need, the rest of the creation time can be done in about five or ten minutes. With a group of six or seven players, it will take a bit longer, but still, it's a very simple process.

Roll ability scores. Choose class and race. Pick weapons and armor and/or spells. Write down modifiers. And...that's about it. Pick a name and alignment, sure. But otherwise, it's basically done.

With modern games, character creation ends up being a game all on its own. The phenomenon of 'Session Zero' is a relatively new concept that originated with 3e D&D. That system involved a lot of choices right at character creation, and some groups would basically spend their first session planning out their character's entire twenty-level career, setting themselves up for particular prestige classes, feats, class abilities, etc. And when a group was being put together, with the idea of parties being only four characters, the players had to work together to ensure that they would have all the important basics covered. Cleric, fighter, rogue, wizard...you had to have at least one of each type in the party, so what you played often ended up being a group decision.

Contrast that with old-school games, where you can have four fighters in the party if you want...or four magic-users, if you're really brave. But there were enough players in a group that you didn't have to guide a player into picking a particular class to 'fill out the group'. As long as everyone is playing something they like, that's all that matters.

So, how will this go? I was debating giving them pre-made characters to choose from, ensuring there were multiple options for everyone. But my son thinks it would be better to just let them create their own, and he's right. After all, it doesn't take long to get started with old-school games, because the point is to get to the fun stuff as soon as possible.

The next question, then, is what sort of adventure will they get to play? Well, I did create the Meterra setting specifically for this sort of gaming situation, although I admit I was pleasantly surprised to find out I'd actually get to use it. And it comes with a ready-made place to explore: The Devil's Playground. My son has read the book, and he actually blanched when I told him that was what I'd be running. That's a nice reaction to get, as a writer and as a DM. Still, I'm going to go easy on them at first; they are beginners, after all.

To get a taste of what these intrepid explorers are going to be in for next week, check out the book that I wrote about the place. It's deep, dark, and dangerous...but it's a lot of fun, too. And yes, the critter on the cover is somewhere in there...

Bible Study

I know, it's not exactly a writing topic. But it is a topic of interest to a lot of people. Since I'm Catholic, I look for Catholic Bible studies. Yes, they exist, and yes, they are awesome. The most well-known one among Catholic circles these days is the Great Adventure Bible Timeline series, which breaks the Bible into two sets of books: Narrative and supplemental. The narrative books tell the main story from Genesis to Acts; the supplemental books enhance the story, but aren't necessarily the plotline of the story. That's not to say they aren't important books; they are. But how may people have tried to read the Bible from start to finish and gotten stuck halfway through Exodus or the first few pages of Leviticus? that's what the GABT seeks to avoid. And it does a good job.

However, that series costs money. Lots of it, in fact; it's a set of videos and printing materials, so there's quite the start-up cost to get going. A similar study program that is available for free is the Agape Bible Study webpage, with dozens of Bible studies covering more than half the Old Testament and all of the New Testament. Lots and lots of stuff there, so it's worth checking out.

Another thing I found on their website just the other day is the Sunday Readings list. Now, those are easy enough to find; there are hundreds of sites that list the Sunday readings, including official church sites. But the Agape list isn't just the readings; it's also a study guide to the week's readings and how they connect and fit into the Church's teachings. That is a great resource, and one I'm definitely going to make use of here at home.

Check them out, and see the amazing stuff that's available for Bible study. You won't regret it.