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Shadow of the King: First Page
Rune hefted the satchel that held everything he owned and one thing he didn’t. Sweat trickled down the back of his neck.
It wasn’t only the early-autumn heat. The stench of grime and rust and smoke combined into a noxious haze. The screeches and bellows of motorized carriages wheedled their way into the back of Rune’s brain. His whole head throbbed.
He stopped for a second on the residential sidewalk to settle his breathing. Settle down, he told himself. But he couldn’t help looking over his shoulder one more time, just in case.
He took a breath, then stopped short in a fit of coughing. This world smelled wrong. Maybe he’d get used to it. Hopefully soon.
Rune forced himself to relax and tried again. His lungs expanded, and he savored every bit of air as it entered his body. And along with revitalizing oxygen came the airy chaos, the elemental engine of creation that was as much a part of Rune as his bones and his blood. It pulsed through him and swirled around him, and with the slightest effort of will, Rune let it clear his mind and expand his senses.
It only took a moment, but everything was suddenly sharper, more coherent. To his relief, his heightened senses brought no sign of pursuit: no skulking shadows, no furtive footsteps, no flash of knives in the falling night.
The sun finally set, and darkness cooled the air. It was a clear night, but where were the stars? The garish lights of every storefront window had driven them away.
He had lost track of time. He was tired, hungry, and cold.
At least he had finally shed the last of his scales.
All he could do was press on…
* * *
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Shadow of the King: Q&A
How long did it take to write Shadow of the King?
Way too long! I first got the idea of Shadow of the King when my daughter was in high school, though best I can remember she had already graduated before I started working on it in earnest.
A quick look at my laptop informs me I created the Scrivener file for the book in September of 2019. The first chapter went through some truly awful iterations before I landed on something I was happy with, and there were definitely some plot points early on that needed not to happen. Then, of course, COVID hit. Which I think means that was about eighteen years ago.
Fortunately, book two, Dead of Night, went significantly faster. I’ve gotten it back from my editor and look forward to diving into her suggestions. And I’m a bit over 20,000 words into writing the conclusion, Twilight of Avalon.
What’s next for Rune?
Rune’s arc is all about finding a place where he belongs, and the obstacles he must face to find it. In the first book, those obstacles come in the form of entanglements with the magical realm from which he came. In the second book, he’ll contend with supernatural threats native to his new, ostensibly mundane, realm. Finally, the third book will pit factions of both worlds against each other, and Rune is going to have to make some hard choices. His loyalties will be tested, and the lines between allies and enemies might even get a little blurry.
All in all, I’m very happy with how the story is progressing. My editor thinks book 2 might be better than book 1, and that’s something every writer loves to hear! I hope you’ll stick around for the whole ride.
It’s Here! It’s Here!
Shadow of the King is now live!
If you’re looking for fun, smart, and uplifting fantasy fiction, I’d be honored if you’d give it a try. You can buy your paperback or ebook version HERE.
The shadow has fallen!
Sunday Inspiration: Grief
I have decided that the only way to live is to embrace grief. For grief only exists where love lived first.
—Franchesca Cox
Shadow of the King: Building a World (Languages)
I know enough about linguistics to know that time devoted to building a constructed language is time I might better spend on other, more satisfying aspects of worldbuilding…or, you know, writing.
But people, places, and things need names, and I have a strong preference for those names sounding like they fit. So I usually end up doing at least a little bit of work fleshing out the languages my characters speak. Call me a reluctant conlanger.
In Shadow of the King, some of the conceits of my premise shaped the direction my languages took. For one thing, the contours of my protagonist’s Otherworld home arose from the myths and legends of real-world cultures. And those real-world cultures had languages from which to draw.
But not only is Rune’s world inspired by real-world cultures, the world itself is a close analog to our own. It is an alternate earth where magic is real and humans share the world with elves, merfolk, water panthers, and other fantastical creatures. You can think of Saynim as our world but in a different key. The continents and landmasses are similar—a mountain might be taller or shorter, a river might run a few miles to the east or to the west of where it would be on our maps, but everything is mostly where readers would expect to find it.
In this world, European settlement began quite a bit earlier than in ours but proceeded more slowly and, for the most part, more peaceably. The mound-building cultures of the Lower Mississippi remained intact, and the “Five Civilized Tribes” of the Southeast continue their traditional ways of life. Though there has been much warfare and conquest, the newcomers from the east (“Easterlings”) have largely been forced to live alongside the Indigenous population as equals, and largely only east of the Mother of Rivers (i.e., the Mississippi) and north of the Southern Lowlands (i.e., the Deep South).
In Rune’s part of the world, there are three important languages.
Miskoese, Rune’s native language, is Germanic. It is mainly Scandinavian but with a fair bit of Old English influence as well as a fair number of loanwords not only from Gaelic but from Algonquian and Iroquoian languages. The word Miskoese itself comes from the Ojibwe word misko’o, “he wears red,” a reference to the “Redcloaks,” the earliest Easterling settlers.
Teilic is derived from Medieval Welsh with loanwords from the Indigenous languages of the lower Mississippi, mainly Choctaw.
Aavish, commonly called Trade Jargon, is an English creole with borrowings from a host of languages both European and Indigenous. Of all the languages of this part of Saynim, Aavish is so far the only one to appear in print.
All this, plus some cursory investigations into personal names in a few of the Indigenous languages of the region, helped me name people and things in ways that fit the setting without stressing overmuch about, say, noun declensions and subject-verb agreement. Which is good, because I’d still be writing the book if I’d stopped to do that!
The shadow falls on October 1.
Sunday Inspiration: Justice Is Not Enough
Peace is a product of justice, but justice is not enough. Love is necessary. The love that makes us feel that we are family is properly what makes true peace.
—Saint Óscar Romero
Shadow of the King: Building a Protagonist (Part 3)
Morty pushed his empty bowl of stew to the side. He leaned in, all business.
“I know some folks who might can hire you,” he said. “Nothing permanent, you understand, at least not right now. But there’s always somebody from the old neighborhood who could use a hand.”
“Thank you,” Rune said.
“Don’t go thanking me,” Morty said. “I hook you up with the right people, maybe you can do a favor for me down the line.”
“Of course.” The honor game had rules, even on this side of the Mere. Give, and receive in return. Keep the favors flowing. A hasty “thank you” might imply a one-time transaction, but this Morty obviously had his eye on the long term.
“You got skills. You told me a little about that, being trained with—” He looked around. Everyone was listening to the musicians, but he lowered his voice anyway. “With them people…and all.”
“The Haw wasn’t a bad place,” Rune said, a little defensive. “Intense, but not all bad. Whisper seemed happy to have me around.”
“Whisper,” Morty said. “He’s the one that runs the joint?”
“That’s right. He said he’d always wanted to see what I had it in me to do. He’s the one who really taught me magic. Of course, my mother and stepfather started me out when I was young. But it was Whisper who pushed me to show what I could do.”
“I expect you can do quite a bit.”
“I try to be resourceful. Think on my feet. Having the biggest sword doesn’t matter much if you don’t know how to use it. And it helps to have the right people behind you.”
“Did you? Have the right people?”
“It was a good team,” Rune said. “Even if they weren’t always doing good things.”
“I aint’ here to judge,” Morty said. “Folks don’t get a say in the cards the Good Earth deals ‘em.”
Rune just nodded. He was coming to like this Morty Grindle.
“Any of ‘em you’d call friends?”
“One. Goodfellow. Avice was the team leader. She tried to make things hard for me. She succeeded in making things hard for me. But Goodfellow always took my part.”
“Most have been hard to stand up to her, being the team leader and all.”
“Goodfellow’s family was as well-placed as mine. It limited what Avice could do to him…openly. And, to give him credit, he was fierce in a fight. You didn’t want to cross him if you could help it. But being my friend cost him at least one relationship—another Nightwalker he’d taken a fancy to. I suppose I’ll always owe him for fouling that up for him.”
“D’you think you’ll ever see him again?”
“I don’t think that would be a good idea.”
“But suppose you did. What would you tell him?”
Rune stopped to think a minute. “I’d say thank you. I’d tell him… he taught me a lot—about loyalty and perseverance and…compassion, I suppose you’d say.”
“He sounds like a real friend.”
“He is,” Rune said. He swallowed. He looked down and pushed his own half-eaten bowl of stew to the side. “He was.”
Sunday Inspiration: Worthy
Our job is to love others without stopping to inquire whether or not they are worthy. That is not our business and, in fact, it is nobody’s business. What we are asked to do is to love, and this love itself will render both ourselves and our neighbors worthy.
—Thomas Merton
Shadow of the King: Building a World (More Ingredients)
(Last time, I shared a little about the world from which my protagonist came. Here are a couple of thoughts about the world to which he goes.)
5. Louisville, Kentucky. A few months back, I came across a new story where Louisville was voted the most ordinary city in America. So obviously, setting a contemporary fantasy story there meets a clear need! I went to graduate school in Louisville. I met my wife there. I have many fond memories of the city. But yeah, if you’re not a big fan of bourbon or horse racing, it’s pretty ordinary.
And yet, there is potential here. Geographically and culturally, Louisville is in the middle of everything, with the Midwest to the north, the Upland South to the south, the Appalachian Mountains to the east, and the Mississippi River to the west. It’s a macro-scale version of the sort of crossroads where you might expect a shadowy figure to offer to make you a deal.
And oddly enough, Louisville is apparently at the midpoint of an important ley line between Yellowstone National Park and Bermuda. So maybe it’s appropriate for it to be some kind of nexus of mystical energy, if only people were attentive enough to see it….
6. Religion. When the literal forces of creation course through your mind and body and you can bend them to your will, concepts of Ultimate Reality and the true nature of things are bound to get a little problematic. Rune’s people don’t have “religion” as most Westerners understand the term. This is my nod to the mythology that says the Fair Folk are averse to human religions. Some despise or denigrate them; most just don’t understand them.
So of course, I made Rune’s landlord in the mortal realm a preacher.
The shadow falls on October 1
Shadow of the King: Building a Protagonist (Part 2)
Rune’s contact seemed unimpressive: short and apparently uncomfortable in his ill-fitting clothing—an outfit meant for a human form, though this Morty Grindle was anything but. Some might take his heavy brow and broad back as evidence of limited intelligence, but Rune saw the glint in his eye.
The waymaker said he needed to meet this man. If he wanted to get along in this new world, he’d need contacts, and Morty Grindle had the reputation of knowing just about everybody.
“You settled in, then?” he said. He swallowed a bite of stew. On the other side of the room, a band played “Creep” by Radiohead on tin whistle and hurdy-gurdy.
Rune just shrugged.
“It takes a while,” Morty continued. “The Fallow ain’t like home, but it ain’t bad. Have you tried ice cream yet?”
“Just last week,” Rune said. “My landlord’s daughter calls it ‘comfort food.’”
“That ain’t far wrong. You got a favorite flavor?”
“So far I’ve only tried strawberry. It was quite good.” Rune took a sip of his yaupon tea, grateful that Gamaufry Tavern had at least some of the pleasures of home. “I’ve always loved strawberries. My mother kept a strawberry patch. Or I should say, the servants did, out behind the carriage house. I used to sneak away to visit them. Clervie fed me strawberries.”
“You won’t have no problem finding strawberries around here in the summer. Servants…that’s another thing.”
“I understand. Fallow folk have machines to do their work. Servants are…out of fashion, I suppose.”
“Yeah, that’s a nice way of saying it. But I could tell from looking at you you’d come from a house with servants.”
“We had three cabins full,” Rune said. “Clervie and Malunthy and their children. And then there were Dollick and Caelia who looked after the grounds and gardens. And then when Caelia was expecting their first baby, Mother brought on Quamp and Cabma to help them.”
“And you got with them all? ‘Cause I gotta warn you, folks in the Fallow will judge you if you start acting like you’re better than other people.”
Rune paused. Things had changed, and quite abruptly, when he took leave of the King of Shadows. Back home, he’d now be considered an outlaw. Clervie and the rest were now his betters, at least by Saynim’s strict code of honor.
“Just fine,” he said. “Maybe too good.”
Morty sat there, waiting for him to say more.
“I was young. I didn’t understand that the son of Herdis of the house of Claea wasn’t supposed to rub elbows with the help. Let’s just say strawberries were a rare treat.”
“A little rebel, huh?” Morty chuckled. “I hope hanging out with the help didn’t get you in no trouble.”
“Not…directly.”
“Not directly?”
Rune sighed. “Clervie and Malunthy’s youngest was about my age. Jussie. We would play together in the vineyards. Somehow Mother got it into her head that… I mean, it’s ridiculous. We were only thirteen years old.”
“She thought there might be something developing between you two?”
He nodded. “She turned her into a fawn.”
Morty’s mouth dropped open.
Rune stared at his stew. His face warmed.
“I’m sorry. You mean she just…”
“You heard what I said.” Rune took another sip of tea and collected his thoughts. “She kept her that way for a week. Her parents were beside themselves. When Mother finally turned her back, she told me I should be grateful she didn’t do worse”
Morty took a long drink of his beer. “That’s…something.”
“That’s my mother.”
Darrell J. Pursiful 