Tuesday, February 19, 2013

In Some Non-LEGO News...

I am now a published author! Well, a self-published author of an ebook on Amazon... but let's not dampen the celebration. Battlelord of Thalmandar is a fantasy novel, which should come as no surprise to any reader of this blog, where I have many times expressed my love of Tolkien and have alluded at times to my love of Castle LEGO generally. Indeed, the very name of this blog is a reference to a LEGO-told Castle epic.

Anyone who has followed that story and enjoyed my take on the fantasy genre may well enjoy Battlelord of Thalmandar, which stems from much the same set of preferences for the genre--albeit without the LEGO involvement. That is not to say, however, that there is no LEGO connection to the book. Battlelord of Thalmandar is set in a world that has existed in my mind for over ten years, and the very first LEGO pictures I ever uploaded to Brickshelf were of characters from the same world, though from a different story.


So

What is Battlelord of Thalmandar about then? Well, at its core it's a love story following the classic model of a man who has to go achieve something on a quest before he will be allowed to marry the princess. The wrinkles come, and this model won't fit, when Beiorthil (the main character) discovers that the impossible quest really isn't so impossible, while discovering at the same time that True Love is not so simple as falling in love. Before this can be sorted out, however, Beiorthil finds his story caught up the wider politics and wars of his age, as he is called on to help defend the North against the evil sorcerer set on destroying it.

Naturally, being a fantasy story, it holds the promise of a fuller series. The next story is sketched out and underway with its first draft, while another 3-4 stories lurk behind that one. And then there's the original sequence of stories that spawned this world (and the above picture) in the first place, which may now get a chance to see attention again. If any of that sounds interesting, head over and check out the book further!

It's an ebook, so you can look inside to get a feel for parts of it, and if you don't have a Kindle, there is a free app you can download to go with it. And if you ever find yourself encountering a rabid fan (as unlikely as that might be right now) remember to point them at my Brickshelf folder where they can develop some conspiracy theories based on nine year old pictures.

Saturday, February 2, 2013

Aquazone Breakfast News: 138


Teaching on Fridays has been rewarding, but it's kicking my butt when it comes to getting AqBN up on Fridays. I might make a permanent shift to posting on Saturdays--irrespective of that, I plan to continue with a comic per week (barring computer failure of the sort experienced this past autumn).