Wizard of Abal now available... FREE!

I just published the first novel in my new series, The Archimage Wars, on May 1st, 2016.  It is ABSOLUTELY free to read if you download it from Amazon.  Here is a link: Wizard of Abal

This novel is a bit different... the lead character starts out a bit rough and kind of an anti-hero, but he is on a journey of discovery, so stick with him, it will be worth the trip, I promise!

This is for the ebook and audio play, though there will be a print version of the book available eventually.

This is a big series, with ten books planned, but you can test out the first novel right now... for free.

I hope you enjoy the first novel in this new series.  Please sign up for my novel mailing list for new on future releases of the series!  You can also post questions about the novels there as well.   You may do that here:

Philip Blood Website

Hope to hear from you!

Philip Blood

New Fantasy Novel Series: The Archimage Wars!

Hey everyone!

I’ve been hard at work on my new urban fantasy novel series, The Archimage Wars.  This is a ten book series, the largest I have written to date, with my Cathexis series being next at 4 novels, and my NexLord series 3.  Because I knew this new series was going to be even larger, I decided to get well into the story before I started publishing any of the novels.  This way, if I decided to change something about how the magic system, etc. worked, I could still make changes to the earlier books. 

Well, I’ve completed the first three novels and am well into the forth, so at this point, I’m pretty confident that I have the worlds, their history, and the magic system, etc. all set.  So, I’m finally getting ready to publish Book 1 of the series, Wizard of Abal.

However, there is more!  I’ve also been producing my first audio play, book 1 of The Archimage Wars series!   I chose to do this as an audio play, rather than an audiobook, even though that is a LOT more work.  To accomplish this, I used voice actors to play all the lead roles of the story, and I also layered in some sound effects where appropriate.

Both the written version and audio play are currently going through final editing, and Wizard of Abal should be available to read or listen to, in May 2016. 

Keep an eye out at my website, www.philipblood.com, for news on the release, as well as links to where they can be purchased.

Oh, and I’d love you to contact me through there and join my mailing list.  Just use the contact system at the website and ask to be added to my mailing list.  I’ll occasionally (not too often) email you a newsletter, with some insights on previous books, news on new ones, and even some giveaways!  (Free stuff is always good!).   Anyone who signs up for the newsletter soon will get a free copy of book 1, Wizard of Abal!

Also, if you email me with questions from www.philipblood.com, I may also include your question and the answer in that monthly(ish) newsletter!

Anyway, The Archimage Wars series is coming, I hope you enjoy book one, The Wizard of Abal!

Philip Blood

Dragon Slayers, Incorporated Novel Published!

Dragon Slayers, Incorporated 

This is my ninth published novel (tenth book), however, in many ways, it is the oldest novel that I have published.  I came up with the idea for the story over 30 years ago, and even wrote some of the first few chapters back then (though I have heavily re-written them now).

Let me start with where the story came from.  I used to do a lot of GMing for Dungeons and Dragons back in my wild youth.  In fact, I had one group that got together every week for five years, playing through one epic story.  Along the way, they named their group, Dragon Slayers, Incorporated (and yes, T-Shirts were made, I still have mine).

Now, role-playing tabletop games are meant to have the players, well, role-play.  This means that they should act like they are actually people existing in the time and world on which the game takes place, without knowledge of modern technology or pop-culture.  My DSI team really didn't do a lot of role-playing, they were more like a group of teenagers from our time tossed into a fantasy world.  Of course, tabletop gaming is meant to be whatever you want it to be, so it isn't like they were ‘breaking the rules’ or anything, and they accomplished the most important element of that gaming, they had fun.

In fact, our games were more about comedy than story most of the time.  I remember one time when I asked Colin Morgan what his character had on him, after he pulled out a 50’ foot rope, tied it to a ten-foot pole, used a hammer and spikes to attach it to a wall, and a pulley to slide down the rope.  I checked his character sheet and found he had something like fifteen 50’ ropes, six suits of armor, twenty 10’ poles, and much MUCH more.  I made him draw a picture of himself, where he had to put everything he was carrying in the image.  There was this little person, and a giant sack the size of a Greyhound bus.  Santa Claus would have been envious!

But there were many other funny moments, like when one of our team learned how to move his body through solid stone, then he ran into a giant stone golem.  So, instead of fighting him, as I had planned, he went inside the stone of the golem’s body, moved up to the head, and stuck his arm and weapon out, and preceded to smack the golem in the head, from inside its head.  This is not standard fantasy battle stuff, but it was funny.

So, I got the idea to write a story about a company from our time, called Dragon Slayers, Incorporated.  The name meant that even though dragons are mythical if you pay them enough, they will slay your dragon.  In other words, a company that claims they would take on the impossible for the right fee.

This company is then approached by an old man who wants them to do something clearly impossible and meets the price they placed.  The send a team, expecting this guy is a nut case, and end up being transported, in their Chevy Van, with all their modern equipment, to the fantasy world of Zot.

This novel is about what a modern group of problem solvers does when stranded in a wacky and crazy fantasy world.  And, just like my group of players, this is a comedic look at the outcome, not anything too serious.  The story also pokes fun at many fantasy clichés, even things I have used in my own epic fantasy series, as well as doing parodies of things from Lord of the Rings, Conan, and many other fantasy works.

It is all meant to be in fun.

Finally, because the idea came from a group of friends of mine, I decided to base ALL the major characters (and many of the minor) on those friends and family.  They are called by their name, and may (or may not) have some real elements about those people.  However, as I warned all of them, these are characters, and they aren't really those people.  I took as many liberties with them as I pleased, after all, this is a comedy!

So that is Dragon Slayers, Incorporated, my latest novel, and one that has been a long time coming!  If you are in the mood for a quick, light read, in a story that doesn't take itself at all seriously, then come join the crack squad from Dragon Slayers, Incorporated on their first adventure on a fantasy world.  And just remember, no matter what, Dragon Slayers, Incorporated always delivers!  You can find the novel on Amazon, here: Dragon Slayers Incorporated

My new novel is published: zONE: The End and the Beginning

Book One in the zONE series: The End and the Beginning

Well, I've got my writer hat back on.  My new novel, zONE: The End and the Beginning is available to read, in ebook or print and there is even a full audio play for those who prefer ot listen to a novel.  The End and the Beginning is also my first (pure) Science Fiction novel.

The End and the Beginning takes place around thirty years from now.  First off, think about what has happened to technology in the last thirty-some years?  Let's take a quick trip back.  It's 2014, so if we subtract thirty years, we would be 1984, George Orwell's year.  Personal computers were just starting to get into a few homes, and were at the basic level of the Apple IIe, with green screen monitor, there were no cell phones and no Internet.  Imagine that (or if you're older, think back to that time).

In just thirty short years we went from the Apple IIe to where we are today with the Internet, Cell phones and computers in, well, just about everything.  I think there are toasters with computers more powerful than the original Apple II.

How about politics?  Remember the Cold War between the U.S. and Russia?  In 1984, thirty years ago, Ronald Reagan made the gaffe while joking with a live mic where he said, "My fellow Americans, I'm pleased to tell you today that I've signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever.  We begin bombing in five minutes."  Only seven years later, that same Super Power, The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) formally ceased to exist on the 26th of December, 1991.

The First World War lasted just over four years, the Second World War lasted just six years.  These were world sweeping wars, hence the name, yet they only lasted a few years.

A lot can happen in thirty years.

And so, in my novel, zONE, subtitled, The End and the Beginning, a LOT has changed in the next thirty years.  The Internet is dead, cell phones are gone, and it was all changed by a new technology called the Zones.  The Zones are a virtual reality where they can create any environment, story, world, or even universe.  When you go in, you feel like you are in a real place.  Every famous book, movie, time period, historical setting, etc. have been recreated into Zones where you can actually go there and experience it as a living person.  In the Zones you are a Puppeteer, or 'Teer', controlling a Puppet.  What this really means is that you get a new body, of your choosing, and you travel through these worlds as that person.

You can go, do or be anything or anyone you want, and it all seems real.

Not only that, but there have been sweeping changes to the political landscape as well, there is no more United Nations, in fact, there are no nations.  There is just one world government, run by a company called Zcerebral, Inc., the company that created, and owns the secret to running the Zones.

zONE is told in First Person from the mind of the lead character, T.C. Hamilton.  The problem is, he has lost some of his memories, but not all of them.  There are just big gaps.  He is the most wanted man on Earth, and in the Zones, he is a Pirate.  Pirates are like Hackers, but these are the very few who are on the top 50 wanted list.  These are people who have figured out how to create and sail their sculpted spaceship through zSpace and illegally enter any Zone.

As the reader you get to ride along with T.C. on his adventures through an Earth run by the iron fist of a new totalitarian government, who use the bodies of their own citizens as zombie bodies for their operatives to commandeer.  If T.C. is caught before he can discover why he is the most wanted person, then his body will be donated to the Zombies, the zPol police force.

But there is much much more to this onion than just why T.C. is wanted, and he will have to travel through the various story world, like Wonderland, Hyperborea, The Jungle Book, and through other famous people's worlds, like the Harrison Zone, the Roddenberry Zone, the Lucas Zone, the Rowling Zone or the Tolkien Zone in order to find the answers, and solve a great mystery.

I had a lot of fun with this and got to pay a lot of respect to authors, directors, screenwriters, and artists of many kinds in this novel.  This was a challenge in some ways because of copyright laws.   Fortunately, due to the 'Fair Use' I can mention authors or titles of other works, which I do.  I stay away from their stories, characters and other copyrighted information.  This means a certain amount of dancing around, unfortunately, but it is their work and their rights should be protected.  However, zONE pays homage to these works without infringing on their rights.

In the case of stories in the public domain, I had a lot more freedom, like Alice in Wonderland, or The Jungle Book.  I was also able to use some of my own previous novels as worlds and did so simply because I knew I could without getting sued.  :)

There are many references throughout the book to other famous works, and this is an integral part of the story, as you will find out before the end, or was that the beginning?

As for what kind of Science Fiction, well, that's hard to pin down.  It has some science to it, though I wouldn't call it hard science fiction, and it has some fantasy to it, but I wouldn't call it fantasy.  This is mainly an adventure, with some romance and humor mixed into the science fiction.  As with all my novels, the most important part of it was to be entertaining.  It's a fun look at what might be, and what would happen if there were such things as the Zones.

I invite you to read or listen to the book and remember that, as with all my novels, not everything is as it seems.  Please find zONE: The End and the Beginning at his link.on Amazon.  Most importantly, if you enjoy the story you can really help me out by posting a review.  I've found that good reviews go further to spreading a book than anything else on the Internet (or in the Zones).  :)

Pauper to Power

If you read my books you will find a common theme even though you are reading vastly different worlds and stories... what I call pauper to power, (others might all it rags to riches, but my characters don't always get rich).  What they do is come from humble beginnings and work their way up to greatness.  They may start out as a poor orphan, or a boy cleaning chamber pots, or a man with no possessions, not even his memory, but in the end, they will become embroiled in the great epic events of the world.

I certainly didn't make this up, or pioneer anything... it's just the way I like to write my stories.  I feel that the reader (assuming he isn't the King of Atlantis, or something) can relate better to a protagonist who comes from humble beginnings.  If you want other examples of books that use this, look at Lord of the Rings... ask yourself, who are Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippen when they start their grand adventure?  Or, who is Harry Potter, but a boy living in a cupboard under a stairway.  Or Garian of The Belgariad, who grows up in the kitchen, and becomes the most important person in the world.  There are countless examples of this mechanism, because it's a good one!

Not that this is the only way to write a good story, but I think that it helps you readers to connect with the hero, and it gives the hero something to achieve... greatness, from humble beginnings.  The thing is, we all like to believe that we could achieve greatness, given the chance.  That somewhere inside each and every one of us is someone just waiting for the right moment in time, the right circumstance, where we can become the hero.  It is fun to ride along with other characters who achieve this greatness, and live vicariously through them, hoping the day comes when we too can show our mettle.

Wow, I never saw THAT coming!

I'm sure that different writers use different methods to write their novels. For me it works like this, after I have my premise and universe (see posts below), I finally set my story. For this I begin with my end, so to speak. I like to know the big climax of my story before I get down to figuring out anything else. Once I know the scene for the climax it will help me start to define my characters. And once I know who the main parties are, and how the climax will affect them, I go to the beginning of the story and figure out how to get them started down the road toward that climax.

Once I have a beginning and an end... there is this whole... middle part to deal with, the lion share of the story. It reminds me a bit of Kevin Kline in A Fish Called Wanda, when he says, "What was the middle part again?" Now, I don't just ignore the middle, at this stage I work out a rough outline of what will transpire, a path toward that epic climax that I already have planned, but... I don't force my characters to adhere to that outline. It ends up more of a suggestion list, or something to keep me going should I wonder what should be happening next.

Now, I've got my premise, my universe and world, my climax, my beginning, and my story outline, however, before I can actually start writing I have one more important stage of planning... characters. By now I have a list of my major characters and what they will generally be doing along the way, but at this stage it is critical to develop the personality of each of these people in my story.

To do this I need to understand pretty much everything about each of my major characters. What do they look like? What is their personality? Why do they have this personality? And, in order to understand this, I need to know their history, all the way back to childhood. How and why did they develop into who they are at the time my story takes place? What are their goals in life? Who are their friends, enemies and family? What haunts them from the past, and what do they desire to achieve in the future? The more you explore them BEFORE you start writing, the easier it will be to write the story, and to make the characters seem three dimensional, and alive.

This is very important to how I write my books, simply because I like to let my characters work out a lot of that 'middle' stuff in the book, rather than force them to my original outline. With characters that are fully detailed and real I no longer have to make up stuff, all I need to do is set up a situation and then see what they do.

I can't tell you how many times I am surprised by what my characters end up doing, or saying at any given moment in the story. Even though I am writing them, it is the characters that are making the decisions, and that often leads me down a path that I never saw coming.

Now, I still use that outline to setup some of the situations, and when needed I nudge my characters down that path, but I never constrain them to the path, and will often let the story go where they take it naturally. I do keep my climax in mind, and make sure that the main story that I want to tell unfolds at the proper speed and builds to the proper planned climax, but the road to that climax is filled with little surprises and scenes that I never saw coming.

Someone who wants to be a writer recently asked me how writers of big epic series keep all of this stuff in their head, and my answer was, "Well, we don't, at least, I don't. And I suspect that most writers don't." Sure, there are clues, and foreshadowing, and other things early in the story that tie into the later story, that's what having your climax and outline do for you, but there is so much that you don't know until you write it, even with the best of planning.

If your characters are real people to you, then sometimes you just go along for the ride and see where they take you. It's one of the most rewarding parts of writing a story, and if you flesh them out to start with, and give them a real life and history, they will become as real to you as any living person... in some ways, more so, because they come from your heart and soul. Good or bad, they still come from you. Let them show you the way in your story and you will often be pleasantly surprised, but no matter what, they will add to your story if you let them. And it’s nice to have friends help, even if they are the people in your books.

I don' t know, it's MAGIC!

Magic is a strange thing.  By definition we don't understand it, because, among other things, magic is "any mysterious or extraordinary quality or power".  Mysterious... or when someone just can't explain something, it's 'magic'.  In creating a fantasy world one of the elements of that world is invariably magic, but what is that magic? Is it a set of spells, some utterances that somehow 'magically' create an effect?  Possibly, but in truth I find magic without a system of logic the cheap way out.  I prefer to look at magic as the same thing as science.

When we look at our world, or universe, there are many unexplained things.  We tend to attribute these unexplained things as 'magic'.  Long ago wrapping a wound in a particular plant pulp would help heal the wound, and that was called 'magic', done by a 'witch'.  Now days we call those witches 'doctors'.  There were even witchdoctors.

Once it is understood, the science looses the term magic.  However, as long as the mass majority of people do not understand how it works, then it is still 'magic'.  So, for example, how did our universe begin?  Well, most scientists believe there was a big bang... fine.  What started the Big Bang?  What caused it to happen?  What came before it, because for something to start, something had to start it.  Nobody has a widely accepted theory on that... unless you figure in religion, which, in essence is the belief in magic.  A supreme deity fits quite nicely into the definition of magic, let's try it out: God is... a mysterious or extraordinary quality or power.  Yep, magic.


So, when creating a fantasy world, I like to go back to the beginning... of everything.  At least, the beginning of everything in the universe of this fantasy world (which has nothing to do with our reality, generally).  I like to understand how things work, and from that, come up with a somewhat logical system within that framework.  So how is this then 'magic'.  Well, I said that 'I' understand it, not the people who live in that universe.  To the masses in that fantasy world, there are unexplained happenings, and they call these things, magic.


Once I have an understanding of my universe I can set up a clear set of rules for my system of 'magic'.  Now, this could be spells, I have nothing against them, I would just want to understand what is behind those spells, what is the force, and how do a string of words control that force and shape it?  


In my NexLord series, the essence of magic came from the power of emotions and belief.  In Cathexis magic comes from three completely different sources (there is no limit to what people find mysterious).   The first was the property of the metal Cathexis, and how it can store a copy, or imprint of a person's thoughts and identity.  The second was their aura.  I got this idea from an old type of photography called Kirlian.   To quote from Wikipedia:


"Kirlian photography refers to a form of photogram made with voltage. It is named after Semyon Kirlian, who in 1939 accidentally discovered that if an object on a photographic plate is connected to a source of voltage an image is produced on the photographic plate.


Kirlian said that the image he was studying might be compared with the human aura. An experiment in evidence of energy fields generated by living entities involves taking Kirlian contact photographs of a picked leaf at set periods, its gradual withering corresponding with a decline in the strength of the aura. In some experiments, if a section of a leaf was torn away after the first photograph, a faint image of the missing section would remain when a second photograph was taken."


I was intrigued by this, and decided that I would base part of my 'magic' system on this phenomenon, though I took my own liberties with the concept since this is fiction.  As a tribute to Semyon Kirlian, in my books the school and practitioners of aura powers are called the 'Kir'nath, and the mercenaries also adopting some of those practices are the Tchu'lians'.  Put the first and last parts together and you get, 'Kirlian'.


The third system of 'magic' is that which the Necromancer's use.  For this I created a second universe, one where a kind of negative energy that had sentience fed on human souls (auras).  Since they fed on life, I made their power that of death, and thus called those who tapped that power, Necromancers, since that term is derived from 'necro-' which is a combining form meaning “the dead,” “corpse,” “dead tissue.”  While 'Necromancer' is defined as a noun:

1.

a method of divination through alleged communication with the dead; black art

2.

magic in general, especially that practiced by a witch or sorcerer; sorcery; witchcraft; conjuration.

And so I had my magic of life, 'Kirnath aura magic' and my opposite power of death 'Necromancers', and my strange metal, cathexis, which is also loosely tied into the Kirlian photography since inanimate objects like a coin, also showed this 'aura' at times: hence, the second book title, Conspirator's Coin. 

So there you go, magic, and how I generally figure out the magic system for my books.