They don't make 'em like this no more....

Limited time offer...

For one week only, Gaebrel's Gamble is now on sale for just .99 cents. Click on the link to the right and order your copy now!

Another attempt at digital art...

I try, I really do try...didn't come out quite the way I hopes. 


Still...you learn from your failures....

A rant for a new Romanticism....

We live in a rational age, a new Enlightenment (for a given value of enlightened....) Science pushed ever further towards revealing what few mysteries are left. The mind, far from a fog of the unknown, if declared a machine like any other, bound by rules that can learned and understood, and manipulated by those who possess the knowledge. Love...chemical reactions in the brain, to delivered in pill form courtesy of Big Pharma! Hate...a sickness to be cut out of your gray matter, really its for your own good in the end. What need for silly things like faith, hope, charity, imagination and wonder, they're all nothing more than electrical impulses firing in the great central switch box that is the brain? God is dead, Science has replaced him. Instead of priests we have physicists, biologists and various other -ist's, telling what what we need to know, what we're supposed to think and why we should think it. And lest anyone think to object, there's a whole intelligentsia following up behind them, writers, reporters, professors, commentators of every stripe and color, all eagerly proclaiming that we are nothing more than lumps of self-mobile meat destines to end up rotting and to think otherwise is to prove yourself a silly relic, a throwback to the ancient darkness in dire need of re-education....

We've been here before, of course, there's a reason why I refer to the Enlightenment. The Golden Age of reason, where outmoded superstition in all it's dark splendor was hurled aside in favor of a bloodless clockwork rationality. The world would be rebuilt, it would be sane, orderly, every though would finally be made the way it was supposed to be....uncountable deaths later, from all those wars fought in the name of Reason, and they still couldn't admit they might have been wrong.

Against this tyranny of the boring and the unimaginative rose a new move. Romanticism, a lovely rebellion against this mindset. Love, desire...to feel is to be alive, the understanding that there is more to life than dull rationality. “Only religion and art can educate a nation—what use is science, which analyzes everything and explains nothing?” So spoke Richard Wagner, and whatever his other faults, I think he had a point.

Nowadays were live a world that is more technocratic than ever, presided over by a new priestly caste who wave their credentials as a bishop would his crozier. Worthless in the end, man is more than the sum of his flesh and organs! We need a new Romantic movement, something once again affirms the centrality of wonder, of emotion, of desire and bliss! Love, not mere sexual attraction. Glory, not simply prosperity. Something that once again lets us know You are a human being. You are more than mere flesh and bone. Even in death you are alive.

Here endeth the rant.

Dragon prince...Ahead of its time

Gather round children, and cast your minds back to the ye old days of the late 80's/early 90's, when fantasy was still very much an underground thing, most stories were tedious Tolkien retreads or Dungeons and Dragons sessions put down on paper, and writers of the feminine persuasion were notably light on the ground. Which makes this book and the various series it spawn so interesting....

Nowadays, female fantasy authors are a pretty common sight, so it's a bit shocking to consider just how ahead of its time Dragon Prince was in terms of what could be done in a traditional fantasy novel. When I first picked it up, it was amazed just how different this was from the other fare to be found in bookstores (yes, books were sold in actual stores. Ask your Dad....)What Melanie Rawn did with this story was take all the elements of an awesome epic fantasy and mix it with the conventions of a romance novel, seasoned with some of the most detailed and compelling examples of world building to be found anywhere. The result was something groundbreaking. While there are battles galore and fantastical deed by the score, the core of this tale is the relationship between Rohan and Sioned, the passion that draws them together, the dangers and obstacles that block them. No final voyages to Valhalla here...more along the lines of a traditional romance, Lancelot and Guinevere, Romeo and Juliet, or any number of bodice rippers sold by the dozen made magnificent by the inclusion of dragons.

Today it's a common enough formula, which makes this book something of a groundbreaker. It showed (to angsty Gen-X teenagers at least) that fantasy could be more than just the slay the dragon while standing on a mountain of skulls. That there was room for real emotion and passion.

In short, a good read. Not to mention the cover art by Michael Whelan, reason enough to buy the printed version.

Michael Scott Rohan's ANVIL OF ICE

I first came across Michael Scott Rohan's WINTER OF THE WORLD series as a boy, and it was one of the books that turned me onto the fantasy genre as a whole. What set's him apart from the rest of the generic Tolkien-clones are the vivid characters he creates (the relationship between Elof and his true love will set even the the crustiest heart aflutter....) and the truly vivid world building. The author draws upon and ice age setting and mixes it with Finnish folklore and the still-vivid trope of a Lost Civilization, creating something unique.


There are tons of novels out there that draw upon North European folklore. Most of them don't get beyond the stereotypes and are forgotten as quickly as they are read. This book sticks in your mind.


---Reposted from Amazon

Most Underrated Fantasy series

Fantasy is on something of a hot streak theses days, what with the success of GAME OF THRONES and the dominance of urban fantasy/paranormal romance. A Song Of Ice And Fire has been called Lord of the Rings for our generation, and while I don't think ANYTHING can topple the mighty JRR from his mithril throne, GRRM does give the Old Master a good run for his money.


But what about the other series and sagas, the ones that set the blood racing and imagination aflame...yet for one reason or another never really caght up with the genre fanbase, let alone the reading public at large. What are your candidates for the most underrated fantasy series?


I would start with three forgotten serial masterpieces: Barry Hugharts MASTER LI series (featuring a drunken sage-detective in a China That Never Was) Michael Scott Rohan's THE WINTER OF THE WORLD (Finnish Mythology Meets Prehistoric Ice Age) and just for the heck of it John Norman's GOR series (purely to stir the pot... )


Course that's my list..any one else care to venture an opinion?

GAEBREL'S GAMBLE Print Version Available

Purchase your copy now via the CreateSpace eStore...be the first to give me money!

Repost from Kindleboard

Something to consider...there are very few people who know how to write sex scenes that are any good. Or at least not the sort that won't be favored with a (dis)honorable mention at the Bad Sex Awards....

Gaebrel's Gamble now available for the Kindle!

My first novel is now available for the Kindle! GAEBREL'S GAMBLE, the first book of the Nine Suns!


"Nine Suns there are, nine watchers, nine masters. The worlds their children. The races their seed, the soul the shards of their intellect, the Empyrean the workshop of their divine labors. Who among us has the wisdom to hear their voices, to know their words written?"


Gaebrel Harrn is a thief. A smuggler. A wanderer. Abandoned by his father, he survives by his wits. Always a step ahead of his enemies, winning the day with his charm, his words...and when all else fails the sharp edge of his blade. Knocked down by fate, he rises again, swifter and stronger.


Together with his companions he will face off against a bloodthirsty pirate queen and her marauding fleet, steal a mighty treasure from under the noses of its magic-wielding owners, face death and betrayal as they sail into battle against Ulzarad the Neverborn, a soul-devouring monster in search of the perfect prey.


Fleets gather in the Empyrean, carried between worlds by the Celestial Winds, shaping the fate of nations with blood and cannon fire. Arcanist's call upon the ineffable mysteries of the Aethyr in their search for power while spies plot in the shadows. Join Gaebrel and his companions as they embark on the greatest adventure the Nine Sun's have ever known!


Click HERE to purchase from Amazon. Download, enjoy...and please, feel free to post a review!

GAEBREL's GAMBLE Cover Art

Behold, the cover art for my first novel, Gaebrel's Gamble! Not to shabby, if I do say so myself....