Assassins

I apologize for the lateness of this. Book 6 was released on the 1st of February. I think it has the best cover yet. What do you guys think?

Dark Servant #6, Assassins

There's an assassin in the pantry.

High priest S’Rak is a man beset by many problems. The king wants to crown him, the sun priests want to purify him, and the palace slave trainer just wants him. Captain Jisten stands at the heart of an ethical dilemma that continues to plague Rak, for either Jisten is an oathbreaker or Rak is a rapist, and neither result bodes well for their future in the service of a God whose punishment for either crime is death. On top of all that, chaos-wielding assassins are trying to kill his brother.

What’s a high priest to do when the man of his dreams is under a vow of purity and assassins lurk around every corner?

The Hobbit: A Review

I don't often review books, and I never review movies, but in this case, I'm going to make an exception.

I give Peter Jackson's The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey five stars, two thumbs up, an A+, or whatever uber-positive rating you wish. Tolkien's work has always been near and dear to my heart, and I've read it all, from the Simarillion to the Lost Tales. I first read The Hobbit when I was seven. At the time, I enjoyed it for the adventure story it was, taking little thought to the larger picture of Tolkien's intricate, richly detailed world.

If Peter Jackson had stuck to just the words contained within The Hobbit, he would have ended up with a kid's movie that seemed barely related to the events of The Lord of the Rings. But he didn't contain his vision of Tolkien's world, for which I am profoundly grateful. Instead, he drew on other sources, such as the Simarillion, The Lord of the Rings, The Unfinished Tales, and the many reams of notes and thoughts that Tolkien left behind that were never published. He took this matieral and presented The Hobbit to us in the context of the greater whole. Much more was going on in Middle Earth than Bilbo's adventure, and Jackson brought this to light and life.

 
Purists might argue that he should have stuck to the book, and nothing but the book. That's already been done, and the cartoon version of The Hobbit is laughable. What Peter Jackson gave us was The Hobbit grown up and as spectacular, in its way, as his version of The Lord of the Rings. I highly recommend this movie, and I can't wait until next December.

Musings of an author

I really enjoyed the eXtasy Books Christmas party yesterday. It was fun to interact with my fellow authors and with the readers. I'm amazed at how long I spent in front of the computer on flash chat. I think I'll make author/reader chats a regularly scheduled event.

In the meantime, I've got a lot going on. I just saw the cover for The Dark Servant Book 5, Chaos and Flies, and it's awesome. I really like this one, the artist outdid herself. That book's due out Jan 1 and I'm expecting the proofs and galley within the week.

I just turned in Book 11, A Chaos Temple, to my editors. I will now start on Book 12.

I am revising and rewriting an older story, called The Hybrid, which will probably be broken into 4 or 5 books. The Hybrid ties into The Dark Servant, and has some of the same characters. It's sort of a horse story, in that the main character is an equine, but sort of not, since my equines aren't horses, but predators who happen to be shaped somewhat like horses.

I am also starting work on Tevia's tale, which explains how a Loftoni Princess leaves her kingdom, followed by a full third of her people, and settles in a strange land far away. She is, of course, Rak's grandmother, and I've always wanted to tell her story.

I didn't start out intending to write erotica. I intended to write fantasy. But the erotic elements crept into the story, and then one day I realized that the plot was unworkable without them. I thought about it for a while, trying to determine why this bothered me so much.

I came to the realization that my trouble with erotica stemmed from cultural upbringing. We are trained from a young age to view the body as somehow unnatural, and bodily functions as gross. Sex is a taboo topic for young people, and even many adults are so uncomfortable with the subject that they resort to juvenile jokes and behaviors to avoid the issue.

The fact is, we're animals, and nature designed us to have sex. Lots of sex. So I stopped hiding from it. I embraced it and let my character's natural inclinations happen. The result was still pure fantasy. Erotic fantasy.