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Your Works-in-Progress

#1 User is offline   Gabriele 

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Posted 21 June 2008 - 06:14 PM

Since I was asked about my writing projects on another thread I didn't want to hijack, I decided to open a new one here.

I'm working on some books about the Roman Empire. Here's something in the manner of a backcover blurbs.


A Land Unconquered

Caius Horatius Veranius is a member of Varus' staff and one of the few survivors of the Battle in the Teutoburg Forest where the German tribes annihilated three legions. But when he returns to the forts at the Rhine after having been released from German captivity, he faces treason charges by his rival Publius Cornelius Lentulus and finds that navigating the snares of political intrigue can be more difficult than surviving a battle.

Arminius, leader of the German confederacy and former Roman officer, meanwhile strives to keep the tribes together and win new allies.

Then Rome sends an army to avenge the shame and reclaim the eagles, and the war reaches a new peak when Germanicus leads the legions across the Rhine in a fight that puts not only Romans against Germans, but also friends and brothers against each other.


Eagle of the Sea

Marcus Horatius Aquila wants to make a career in the Roman army. But when he is dispatched to Britannia where the governor Julius Agricola fights against the Caledonians, he has dejà-vus of tribal life he can't explain. During a skirmish, Aquila is taken captive and discovered to be born to the tribes from his mother's side and heir to the leadership of the Epidii.

Torn between conflicting blood ties and allegiances, Aquila tries to adapt to the tribal culture and mediate between the Caledonian Confederacy and the Romans. But some of the tribal warriors don't want peace, the influential patrician Cornelius Scipio accuses Aquila of treason, and the Batavian auxiliaries in Aquila's charge threaten to mutiny.

When his attempts to negotiate peace between the Romans and Caledonians fail, Aquila must decide for one side of his double heritage and become a traitor to the other.


Beyond Dark Mountains

During the invasion of Septimius Severus, the charismatic Caledonian leader Talorcan of fights for revenge and the freedom of his people, but his war carries a death toll the Caledonian tribes are no longer willing to pay. Led by Talorcan's cousin and rival, they cast him out, and Talorcan has to hide, an outlaw, in the lands occupied by the Romans.

On the other side of the border, the Roman cavalry prefect Lucius Valerius is ambitious to reestablish the lost honour of his family, only to find his attempts thwarted by his superior Quintus Manlius. When Valerius disobeys an order, his future is at stake if he can't unveil the intrigues behind it, but the man who knows Manlius' past is a member of the Caledonian tribes who may kill Valerius if he ventured north alone.

But peace is fragile and a treacherous plot may lead to the genocide of the tribes and civil war among the Romans. Can Talorcan and Valerius find proof for treason in time, and what role plays a former auxiliary officer turned tribal leader?


Never to Return

The Roman officer Lucius Valerius Aurelianus must fight the demons of his past and his parents' ambitions, and protect the inept emperor Severus Alexander against the discontent legions. Then Severus Alexander is assassinated and Maximinus Thrax elected emperor by the soldiers. He brings with him a man from Lucius Valerius' past the young officer had hoped to never meet again.

The German warrior Ricmar is outlawed for a murder he didn't commit thanks to the schemes of his half-brother. His exile will lead him all the way to the lands west of the Rhenus that are held by the Romans. Maximinus Thrax offers Ricmar a future if he will betray the people that outlawed him; an offer even more tempting when Ricmar learns the truth about his father and his heritage.

When the Romans invade Germania in a punitive expedition, it will not only be a war between the Germanic tribes and the Roman army, but also the culmination of a family feud where brothers fight each other during a battle on the slopes of a mountain in the Hercynian Forest.


And a Mediaeval NiP

The Saga of House Sichelstein
(Forged at theFighting / Survivors of Spears / In War to Defend)

In the first half of the 10th century, kings strive to expand their realms, noble lords turn rebels, longships prowl the sea and Magyar raiders plunder the land. In these turbulent times, four siblings of a minor Saxon house have to fight for survival.

Athalard of Sichelstein inherits the family's lands, but also a bloodfeud that will drive him, hunted and haunted, to the borders of the inhabited world. Wittilo, monastery-educated but with a longing for arms and armour, will become involved in the civil war between Heinrich the Fowler's sons Otto and Thankmar, and must decide which oaths to keep when old enemies play the strings. Ercenmar seeks a future of glory at the court of Æthelstan of Wessex to find it will turn to ashes when friends become enemies. Their sister Erelinda will have to face the masterful queen Gunnhild of the Danes, but to save the man she loves she will have to leave behind her home and her family.

The saga of the Sichelstein siblings is a tale of family, of love and hatred, duty and honour, of divided allegiances and battles, ranging from the glaciers of Iceland to the fertile plains at the Danube, from the swamps and forests of the Eastmarch to the islands of western Alba.


So, what's everyone else working on?

This post has been edited by Gabriele: 18 July 2015 - 03:57 PM

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#2 User is offline   Aptorian 

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Posted 21 June 2008 - 07:58 PM

I'm working on my own fantasy series.

I've not made a blurb and I'm not sure I could summon up the story in so many words just now.But to make a rough outline, the story goes something like this...

It's a sort of steam punk world, more weird/strange fiction than fantasy but it's not sci-fi. Instead of the usual planet with a moon and a sun it cirkles around, this is a universe in ruins. It used to be a dysonsphere like world with planes likes onion rings. The world is destroyed by an invading terraforming expedition, the gods home in the dysonsphere being annihalated.

In present day, the world lies in ruins. The world that is seen in the story lies on one of the bigger fragments of this Dysonsphere. The heaven is littered with a curtain of orbiting asteroids and massive remaining pieces of the world, some as big as the "known world". Night and day doesn't exist only the shadows of the fragments of the world blotting out the inferno that was the cradle of the gods.

Technology, allthough nothing natural and once a foreign entity in the balance of the universe, pervades the world and most of the spheres and planes of reality. Having spread enough before the sundering, the terraforming programme changed to hold the ruins of the world together and it actually started to reform and rebuild the world itself. The further details on this subject aren't really important in this matter, suffice to say the theres machinery beating and grinding behind the fabric of the reality the mortals experience.

All kinds of god like machines, extraterrestriel beings, elder gods, young gods, etc. exist but that's enough backstory.

The story starts on the eve of the Second World War less than thirty years before the First World War. The First World War was a catastrophy, an unprecendented event, the likes of which hadn't been seen in 10,000 years. The Pact of the Gods had seen to keeping the peace since the last Great War, that one between the Gods themselves. But the act of the Eshtrian Konglomerate shattered that peace. Three of the Six System Gods, the Mortal Ascendant Representatives of Mankind have been destroyed "in an accident".

Now the balance is shattered and the Konglomerate, aided by rebel "Wild Gods", the gods that walk among the mortal, have begun a proliferation of technology. Mankind, virtually stagnant in their "Golden Ages", are suddenly developing electricity, gunpowder, steam and crystal power in the span of three decades. The lands of the Machine System Lords are now expanding and encroaching upon the "Magical Lands", if this continues the Empires of the Gods will wage a Holy War upon the "Machine Lands".

This is what the story centers around. The story develops further as war threatens to spread through all the planes of the living, dead and condemned.
The elder beings that were incenerated in the destruction of the Old World attempt to escape from the underworld, the litteral underside of the world. Powers from the other fragments of the worlds are drawn to the gods weakening grip on the "Known World" and old powers, 10.000 years sleeping are waking to fullfill the prophecy... the series main "big nasty".

The awakening of the sleeping machine god. The fractions of the war seek to gain control of it, but the heart of the Machine God was removed millenia past. If it wakes, it will not only alert it's builders outside of the known world of it's wherabouts, it will restart the terraforming of the world. Compared to the power of the Machines even the Elder Gods are like children.

Oh and of course there's human armies blowing the crap out of barbarians with canons and riffles, giant machines and prehistoric demons trampling cities, dragons fighting UFOs, Giants wrestling T-rex's, Gods getting drunk and naughty, etc... and evil chickens, lots and lots of evil chickens :mad:
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#3 User is offline   Optimus Prime 

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Posted 21 June 2008 - 08:09 PM

I'm working on a series as well.

Too hard to really sum up but there are three worlds that are all bunched together. Through varying points in the history, peoples of the three worlds have become aware of one another. At other times, the other two worlds were just "moons".

I'm trying to be creative with the people's/races, and so far I've come up with about 10-12 solid different types. None of the "rules" of fantasy apply. Humans aren't dominant, etc, etc.

The first book begins with a legend of the people of one world that basically "God" is about to be reborn and save them all. Of course.....that's about the last thing that happens that anybody plans on :mad:
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#4 User is offline   Gabriele 

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Posted 21 June 2008 - 08:20 PM

Aptorian;335905 said:

Oh and of course there's human armies blowing the crap out of barbarians with canons and riffles, giant machines and prehistoric demons trampling cities, dragons fighting UFOs, Giants wrestling T-rex's, Gods getting drunk and naughty, etc... and evil chickens, lots and lots of evil chickens :(


Oh no, no evil chickens. They have this habit of getting all philosphic and put the readers to sleep. :mad:

The mix of magic and technology and dragons fighting UFOs sounds cool. Since I read both Fantasy and SciFi I can imagine a mix of both to be a fun read.
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#5 User is offline   Aptorian 

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Posted 21 June 2008 - 08:31 PM

Yes, imagine the poor saucermen. There they are minding their own business, setting fire to villages and stealing livestock, when along comes an angry dragon :mad:

Pew pew pew... Great Xenu! what's that?!
Chomp, chomp, chomp, flap, flap ... Mmmh, tastes like chicken.
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#6 User is offline   Raymond Luxury Yacht 

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Posted 21 June 2008 - 11:09 PM

I've got this totally new, unique idea about a farmboy, who turns out to be an orphan, and he grows up to be a powerful wizard from prophecy. Never been done before. Ever. I promise. :mad:
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#7 User is offline   Gabriele 

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Posted 22 June 2008 - 12:08 AM

But ... will there be chicken?
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#8 User is offline   Raymond Luxury Yacht 

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Posted 22 June 2008 - 01:47 AM

Evil chicken, of course.
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#9 User is offline   Illuyankas 

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Posted 22 June 2008 - 01:53 AM

Is this the good guy?

Posted Image
Hello, soldiers, look at your mage, now back to me, now back at your mage, now back to me. Sadly, he isn’t me, but if he stopped being an unascended mortal and switched to Sole Spice, he could smell like he’s me. Look down, back up, where are you? You’re in a warren with the High Mage your cadre mage could smell like. What’s in your hand, back at me. I have it, it’s an acorn with two gates to that realm you love. Look again, the acorn is now otataral. Anything is possible when your mage smells like Sole Spice and not a Bole brother. I’m on a quorl.
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#10 User is offline   Gabriele 

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Posted 22 June 2008 - 02:10 AM

Oh noes, the Evil Chicken is hijacking the thread. Quick, get the eggs out before they can hatch.

:mad:
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#11 User is offline   Raymond Luxury Yacht 

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Posted 22 June 2008 - 03:30 AM

Gabriele;336057 said:

Oh noes, the Evil Chicken is hijacking the thread. Quick, get the eggs out before they can hatch.

:mad:


You're going to fit in around here just fine.

On a serious, on topic note, I have a lot of garbled ideas floating around in my head, but nothing coherent enough to actually write about. I would love to give it a shot though. My big problem, which was discussed in a different thread, is every time I think I have a great new idea, I soon realize that it's actually from the last book I read.
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#12 User is offline   Optimus Prime 

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Posted 22 June 2008 - 06:35 AM

My plan is to write a short story type of prequel and see how that works. I've written some short stories in my "world" as well, I continually have my older brother reading and critiquing him. He is my toughest credit. He's called me after reading stuff and said "dude, that shit is weak" or "Seen that in a story before." so he's a huge help.
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#13 User is offline   Aptorian 

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Posted 22 June 2008 - 07:30 AM

Raymond Luxury Yacht;336067 said:

On a serious, on topic note, I have a lot of garbled ideas floating around in my head, but nothing coherent enough to actually write about. I would love to give it a shot though. My big problem, which was discussed in a different thread, is every time I think I have a great new idea, I soon realize that it's actually from the last book I read.


The best advise I could give you is write something down. Anything you can think of.

Try and make some lists and schematics of characters, cities, worlds, armies, gods, ships, animals, etc. etc.

Then see if you can make some kind of structure out of your story. What is point A and where is point B. What happens in between? Are there multiple stories within the structure? Is it AB CD EF GH etc? How do these then mix?

While you might not get far, you now have a record of how far you've come and you won't have forgotten all the names or descriptions next time you have the urge to write. More importantly, next time you get an idea, reading a book, watching a film, sitting on the toilet, you can take a look at what you've got written down and see if the idea fits. If it doesn't fit discard it or see if you can change it to fit. Don't just try to use it because it's an awesome idea... I've made that mistake more than once.
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#14 User is offline   Raymond Luxury Yacht 

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Posted 22 June 2008 - 08:02 AM

Aptorian;336149 said:

The best advise I could give you is write something down. Anything you can think of.

Try and make some lists and schematics of characters, cities, worlds, armies, gods, ships, animals, etc. etc.

Then see if you can make some kind of structure out of your story. What is point A and where is point B. What happens in between? Are there multiple stories within the structure? Is it AB CD EF GH etc? How do these then mix?

While you might not get far, you now have a record of how far you've come and you won't have forgotten all the names or descriptions next time you have the urge to write. More importantly, next time you get an idea, reading a book, watching a film, sitting on the toilet, you can take a look at what you've got written down and see if the idea fits. If it doesn't fit discard it or see if you can change it to fit. Don't just try to use it because it's an awesome idea... I've made that mistake more than once.


Good tips, thanks. I think I better not start trying to write a book before getting a full-time job though, my wife would not be amused. "Look honey, I didn't do anything with the job search today, but I wrote a wicked battle scene!"
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#15 User is offline   Chance 

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Posted 22 June 2008 - 01:52 PM

After having written the first 10-40k words of any dozen stories I've at last begun a book thats approching 50-60% completion...an oriental fantacy story about outcasts and traitors who get caught up in something they did not expect...

And the only reason its come anywhere close to being finished is writing everyday at least a paragraph or two...and set part goals begin with a structure an enlarge...
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#16 User is offline   Macros 

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Posted 22 June 2008 - 03:47 PM

Meh, my older ideas and stories that I attempted when younger (15/16 ish) were horrifically influcenced by eddings and his ilk, terribly cutout cheesy fantasy, its ridiculously easy suff to write, but the actual plots were pathetic :(
My more recent efforts (hit sort a block at the minute for actual scene writing but story boarding and the like continues slowly) fairly standardish fantasy world, the story is somewhat conflict driven but political intrigue abounds. Initally in my head twas billed as a trilogy with a novella set chronoligically before the trilogy, but meant to be read after (sort of like midnight tides placement) but the way the storys working out it would be more like a 2 book thing, as for actual %advancement, Its still in the early stage due to my world beating procrastination. First book is titled The Unwanted Struggle, no overarching story arc name yet, potnetial names and full plot reslutions are floatign about in my head though
I'm terribly at summarizing things so I wont bother :p

One thing I was going to suggest a few weeks ago was a joint effort on a fun typically cheesy old school fantasy novella. (I personally don't want to offer any of my proper creativity up, and assume you are all the same) I've been involved in 2 collaberative effort before, one was a large group agreed on a basic story then did a chapter each, it died around chapter 8/9 due to writers block and horendously differnet writing styles. The second one was a group agreed to put ideas to gether and continuous write and critique and edit as the story progressed, it fell apart due to arguements and eventual apathy.
So I was thinking something more low key, just a short (say, wizard) length book, intentionally old school and cliched (not lampooning, but thats a possibilty) with no massive world building or anything going on. For the sake of it basically :mad:
anyone interested?
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#17 User is offline   drinksinbars 

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Posted 23 June 2008 - 09:47 AM

Chance;336282 said:

an oriental fantacy story about outcasts and traitors who get caught up in something they did not expect...


the :mad:??
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#18 User is offline   Raymond Luxury Yacht 

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Posted 23 June 2008 - 10:17 AM

No one expects that. It is known.
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#19 User is offline   Chance 

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Posted 23 June 2008 - 08:07 PM

drinksinbars;336807 said:

the :D??


Must be the best smile ever :p
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#20 User is offline   Raymond Luxury Yacht 

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Posted 23 June 2008 - 10:20 PM

Thank you.
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