Category Archives: Writing

Senta and the Steel Dragon – Sumir

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Sumir is a continent that though roughly the size of Africa, is never the less one of the smallest continents of the world of The Steel Dragon. It is the home of mankind. It is where the United Kingdom of Greater Brechalon, Freedonia, Mirsanna, and the other human countries can be found. From Sumir, humans have begun to reach out and colonize the rest of the world, including the continent of Mallon.

The Voyage of the Minotaur – Chapter 15 Excerpt

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“I believe it to be a function of their reptilian nature,” replied the professor. “They can eat great amounts of meat at one time and then go without for perhaps weeks. I’m sure that this will be of benefit to us once they begin fulfilling their purpose as our natural servants.”
Zeah didn’t pay too much attention to the professor’s pronouncement—in truth, he seldom paid a great deal of attention to what Calliere said—but this time it was because of the presence of Egeria Lusk at Calliere’s side. She wore a teal brocaded dinner gown with large gold buttons from the neck to below the waist, and a straw boater with a teal ribbon around it.
“You look lovely Egeria,” Zeah thought he probably sounded as though he was gushing, but he didn’t care.
“Thank you, Zeah,” she said. “I must say you look ruggedly handsome.”
Zeah looked down at himself. He had been wearing the same type of khaki safari clothing that the soldiers wore. In fact, he had requested a set of the clothing from the mercenary company supplies when he found that he would be spending the day playing tour guide to an oversized lizard. He had to admit that the color accentuated his tall, thin form. And he thought the stone knife blade worn at his belt made him look manly. He took her hand and led her away from the crowd.
“I haven’t seen much of you the past two days,” he said.
“Don’t expect to see much of me the next few days either,” she said. “The Result Mechanism is being brought ashore tomorrow and the professor will need help getting it up and running. After that I need to input the measurements from the survey.”
After watching the look on his face for a moment, she burst out laughing. “You really are medicine for the ego! If you’re going to be all that broken up about not seeing me, you might as well come by and help me with the great machine.” She said the words “great machine” in an abnormally deep voice.
Zeah perked right up.
“I might just do that,” he said, guaranteeing himself in his own mind that he would.
The next morning, most of the colonists were amazed to find that the lizardmen had all left. Only the sentries had seen them rise early in the morning, gather together their meager gear and the collection of gifts of food and manufactured goods which the humans had given them, and exit through the gate in the wall. They took nothing which did not rightfully belong to them, and they left no word with anyone that they were leaving—anyone being Master Augie, who was the only one fluent in their language.
Zeah knew that Miss Dechantagne’s plans for the colony ultimately depended on the lizardmen. They would be needed extensively for manual labor. He also knew that Miss Dechantagne had negotiated well into the night with Chief Ssithtsutsu. He didn’t know what the outcome was. He had better things to do that listen to Master Augie’s back and forth translation. Better things being looking at and talking to Egeria. All the same, he was glad that the Lizzies were gone. They were so very… well, reptilian.
Zeah placed his khakis in the laundry and put on a grey suit. Without the lizardman at his side, it just didn’t seem right to be wearing jungle clothing, especially since they weren’t really in a jungle. Technically this was a rain forest, but the huge redwoods and spruce trees certainly did not constitute a jungle. Starting directly into his morning duties, as he always did, Zeah took his clipboard in hand and went to check on each of the individuals he was overseeing. The need of almost one thousand individuals for fresh food was great. A number of different plans for supplying those needs had been developed. Hunters were again being sent out to procure meat and if possible to capture more local animals for domestication. Another group of men and women would search once again for edible plants, this endeavor having proven fruitful (Zeah laughed to himself at the pun), and another group had been assigned the job of fishermen. They would do their fishing from the shore of the bay. Finally, with a mind to the long term, several areas around the hill where the barracks were located were tagged as locations for gardens, and forty colonists would prepare them for planting.

Senta and the Steel Dragon – Illustrations

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Early on, as I was writing Senta and the Steel Dragon, my wife commented that when it was published, it should have an illustration at the beginning of each chapter, much like the Harry Potter books by J. K. Rowling have. At the time, I was thinking of the books as one complete work, with three parts. So when I finished those three parts, I printed up a volume for my wife, complete with illustrations that I purchased from clipart.com. If I end up self-publishing the books, I will do a text-only ebook, but I will create a special edition with the illustrations. Over the next few weeks I’m going to post these illustrations with the captions from the edition I made for my wife. I hope you enjoy them.

Images Copyright 2009 by Clipart.com

Amathar – The World of Ecos

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The story of “Princess of Amathar” and its sequel “Knights of Amathar” (now in progress) take place in the world of Ecos. Notice I said takes place “in”, not “on”, for Ecos is a Dyson Sphere. There is a lot of information on Dyson’s Spheres on the web and quite a bit relates to an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. I however set Princess of Amathar in a Dyson Sphere long before that episode was shown, having read about it in a role-playing magazine (for the Traveller RPG).
Ecos is a giant hollow ball, about 180 milliion miles in diameter, with its sun in the center. The people walk around on the inside of this great sphere. Though the Ecosian sun is slightly smaller than ours, you can’t tell because it is slightly closer to the surface of Ecos than ours is to Earth. This vast shell provides a surface area that is billions (with a B) of times larger than the surface area of any normal planet.
Ecos was created ages ago by a race of beings known as the Elder Gods. They also populated Ecos with dozens, perhaps hundreds of alien races, who then developed their own civilizations and societies. No one knows what happened to the Elder Gods, but the many races of Ecos continue to thrive.

Senta and the Steel Dragon – Cafe Carlo

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Senta looked up at that perfect face, almost a foot above her own, as the woman in the white, pin-striped dress passed, never looking down at the child engaged in manual labor, nor indeed looking at anyone else on the street. She didn’t even look at Carlo, when he rushed out of the entrance of the café, his starched white shirt, stained with sweat under the armpits and with a dribble of morning coffee just below the collar, and stretched to the limit by his corpulent middle. He ran to greet her with a bow. She didn’t look at him, but she acknowledged him with an ever-so-slight nod of her head.
“Would you like your usual table, Miss?” said Carlo.

His fawning, almost whining tone, as he spoke to her, was nothing like the booming voice he used when calling for one of his waitresses to get back to work, or when he ordered Senta to clean the brass dragon. It was nothing like the grunting noise he made when he paid Senta the fourteen copper pfennigs she received from him each week. It was the tone of a small child who wanted to be noticed by an adult, but who was seldom if ever noticed, and it would have surprised Senta to hear it come from Carlo’s great form, if she had not heard it from him when the woman had previously visited the café.
Cafe Carlo sits in the middle of the Great Plaza in Brech. It is one of the cities finest eating establishements, and so is frequented by Iolanthe Dechantage. It is also where Senta, age eight, works sweeping the walk and polishing the wrought-iron fence. It is here that she sees Iolanthe and becomes fascinated with her.

Senta and the Steel Dragon – Iolanthe Dechantagne

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Iolanthe Dechantage is one of the major characters in the “Senta and the Steel Dragon” series. In fact, as I originally imagined it, she was the main charcter with Senta just sort of being the eyes and ears of the reader. The more of the story I wrote, the more it became Senta’s story.
Iolanthe Dechantage is the scion of a once pretigious and wealthy Brech family that has since fallen in both respects. She is determined to return her family to its past prestige and affluence. Along with her brothers Terrence and Augustus she devises a bold plan to commit all their resources to starting a colony on the coast of distant Birmisia.
Suddenly a figure approached the left side of her carriage. It was a dirty man, wearing dirty clothes, with a dirty bald head, and a big dirty nose. He stepped in close to her and ran his eyes down the length of her form. Another, similarly dressed man stepped up behind him.

“Well, this is nice, ain’t it?” said the second man. “We can have us a little fun.”
“Yeah, fun” said first man, pulling a long, thin knife from his belt.

“Careful though,” said second man. “She might have a little pistol in her handbag.”
“Does you have a little pistol in you handbag, Dearie?” the first man asked. He casually waved the knife in his right hand, as he pawed at her ankle with his left. Then he stopped when he heard the sound of two hammers being cocked, and looked up into the twin twelve gauge barrels.
“I don’t carry a handbag,” said Iolanthe, pulling the shotgun to her shoulder.
Iolanthe is serious and unemotional (some would say cold and hard). She is focused on the goal of reviving her family fortune, and anything else (and anyone else) is expendable. She might have a soft side, but few have ever seen it. The only one she considers her equal is her brother Terrence.
“Kafira’s blood, Iolanthe!”

Iolanthe pursed her lips.
“It was Yuah. Don’t you even care?”

“Yes, I know it was Yuah. And of course I care.”
“It didn’t seem like it. God, Iolanthe. I grew up with Yuah. We used to play together. She’s like our sister.”

“I know,” said Iolanthe. “I know and I care. I care just as much for her as I do for you.”
Augie looked her in the eye for a moment. “That’s what I’m afraid of.” He turned and started to walk away.

Amathar – Malagor

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In the very first version of “Princess of Amathar”, Alexander was transported to the world of Ecos, where he met a family of Amatharians living in a homestead far away from Amathar. In that version of the story, the daughter of the family was captured by Zoasians, and Alexander set off to rescue her.
When I revised the story, I had Alexander first come into contact with a creature called a Malagor, who took him in and became his companion. In the final version of the story, Alexander and Malagor stumble upon a battle between Amatharians and Zoasians and see the Amatharian Princess (hence the title) captured, and must rescue her.
Malagor resembles a sort of cross between a wolf and a baboon. He is furry, rather stoop-shouldered, and has a long dewclaw upon his thumb. Malagor is the name of the species (in Amatharian), and as Alexander can’t pronounce his name, he calls his companion Malagor. The Malagor lived in a pragmatic pack-like society, with inter-species trade the main source of the economy, at least until they were killed by the Zoasians.

Amathar – Alexander Ashton

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I really wanted “Princess of Amathar” to have that same feel that I enjoyed while reading Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Mars books as a boy. Consequently, my hero Alexander Ashton owes a lot to John Carter. He is brave to the point of foolishness. He is smart enough to quickly learn a slew of new languages, but not usually bright enough to clue in on what’s going on right in front of him. He was named Alexander right from the start, to evoke Alexander the Great’s wreckless personal heroism, if not his drunken fits of rage, but he didn’t have a last name until I was well into the manuscript. A young lady I worked with at the time, had the last name Ashton, which just seemed to fit so well.

Senta and the Steel Dragon – Brech

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The story of Senta and the Steel Dragon begins in the great city of Brech, although the scene moves on to other locations after chapter eight of The Voyage of the Minotaur. Brech is patternend after Edwardian London, with the addition of some steampunk ideas (specifically steam-powered automobiles). Horse drawn trolleys ply the streets and coal powered industry has left a fine covering of soot over everything. Fortunately there are plenty of orphans to employ in cleaning surfaces. The city is split by the River Thiss (pronounced Tiss) which brings ship traffic from the sea.
image Copyright 2009 by Clipart.com

Senta and the Steel Dragon – Senta

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The series of books I’m now calling Senta and the Steel Dragon has a great many characters (something over 250), but it’s no surprise that the most important is character is Senta Bly. The series is really the story of her life, growing from a small child to become a powerful sorceress.

The Voyage of the Minotaur (Book 1) -Completed.
Senta begins the story as an eight year old orphan living in the great city of Brech. She is adopted by the mysterious sorceress Zurfina the Magnificent and is taken with her on a voyage to the distant land of Birmisia.

The Dark and Forbidding Land (Book 2) -Writing Now.
Senta and Zurfina have been living in Birmisia for almost two years as this book starts. She struggles to understand the magic that Zurfina tries to teach her, as she must face the terrors of their forest home.

The Sorceress’s Apprentice (Book 3) -Completed.
As a twelve year old apprentice sorceress, Senta has become well-known and, by some, feared. She struggles with the problems of adolescence along with her friends Hero and Hertzel and her boyfriend Graham.

Not Yet Titled (Book 4) -Planning.
Senta must deal with becomming a woman and the changing dynamic between her and her friends, as well as the growing anipathy between her and a woman she thought was her friend. To make life all the more difficult, she has a rival for Graham’s affections.

The Two Dragons (Book 5) -Completed, but may see major revision.
The last book involves a war between Brechalon and Freedonia in which Senta (now a seventeen year old sorceress) and Zurfina play pivotal parts.

If I write more books in the series, they will continue Senta’s life into her twenties, thirties, and maybe beyond.

Tall and thin, with blond hair and blue eyes, Senta is intelligent and witty. As a child she is precocious. As an adult, she is clever and sharp tongued.