The books below are by David Gemmell. With respect to the series they are listed chronologically with the publication date in parenthesis. The first book I read by him was Troy: Lord of the Silver Bow. I quickly read the entire trilogy and it ranks in my mind as the best historical fiction I have ever read (and he was a fantasy writer).
… Read moreSocieties need heroes. So we travel to places where the revisionists cannot dismantle the great.
A picture and quote inspired from a book from one of my favorite fantasy fiction writers David Gemmell. I hope that I can approach his skill someday. I have literally wept tears of awesomeness reading his books. He wrote action-packed heroic fantasies that rang with realism. He infused his characters with great heart, great depth, mighty inner struggles and epic noble actions. I’ve read about two-thirds of his books. Every time I start one of his books I brace myself for that WHAMMO!… Read more
In the writing state—the state of inspiration—the fictive dream springs up fully alive: the writer forgets the words he has written on the page and sees, instead, his characters moving around their rooms, hunting through cupboards, glancing irritably through their mail, setting mousetraps, loading pistols. The dream is as alive and compelling as one’s dreams at night, and when the writer writes down on paper what he has imagined, the words, however inadequate, do not distract his mind from the fictive dream but provide him with a fix on it, so that when the dream flags he can reread what he’s written and find the dream starting up again.… Read more
I swore I would never self-publish. Typically, self-published books are awful. I didn’t wanna be guilty by association. Then Kindle/Amazon exploded. Then I started to understand there’s no shelf space for me. No one is going to move Martin, Jordan or Sanderson books off the shelf and put up mine. To the traditional publishing world I’m a risk. I changed my mind and decided to self-publish.
I had written 3/4 of an epic fantasy. I pulled back and redoubled my study of how stories are structured and what makes readers wanna read them.… Read more
What a year! Blood & Soul spent 5 and half months on the bestsellers list. It made 1# in niche categories a couple of times but hung out between #30 and #40 mostly. I knew I had written a decent book but I had no idea it would do so well. I had lots of help. Here’s the list of professionals and friends that were crucial to Blood & Soul. Thanks again!
Good reviews are lifeblood for “unknown” authors.… Read more
Enjoy these astounding visuals. I never had an academic love for astrophysics. I was more a Star Wars adventure guy and an observer of the heavens. I did devour Carl Sagan’s book “Cosmos” and the PBS series. Those glittering celestial sights always sparked wonder and wandering thoughts. I remember — after watching Planet of the Apes — going outside and looking up and swearing there had to be a Planet of the Apes out there somewhere.… Read more
Romantic love i
s already complex and mysterious but society’s understanding of it has now become terribly flawed by profound confusion and misapplication. Love has been unlearned, and often disabled. The windows into our souls have become more clouded. The roads are rougher and the cars are rundown.
Dark forces have attacked Love on many levels in our world. For me I see the attack in our media driven world. Because I enjoy studying story structure I see more people fall in love on the big screen at the theater or TV than in life.… Read more
Saturday, Nov 1st and Sunday Nov 2nd , my e-book epic fantasy Blood & Soul will go on sale for only 99 cents. It’s been on the bestsellers list for 4 months. It’s 5 star reviewed. It’s regularly $4.99 here:
I hauled my laptop into diners and Starbucks’ around north Texas for the last 7 years writing Blood & Soul, an ancient world of beauty and brutality, a time of sword forging and shield making, a place where myths are often true and legends are made.… Read more
Fury starring Brad Pitt and Shia LaBeouf- I did not like it. It’s as if Hollywood is trying to do to the WWII American warrior what they’ve done to the American warriors of Vietnam and Iraq – which is to make the exception the rule.
What I mean is, in these “serious” movies the American warrior/soldier is more often than not portrayed as morally bankrupt, lust-driven, alcohol soaked, knuckle-dragger, willing and eager to commit atrocities – and they usually throw in a naive, vexed, bible-toting young man, who loses his faith, to take a stab at Christians.… Read more
Here’s an update on books in the making, marketing, upcoming promo and letting go.