Following Eli down into the small town, passing large farms budding with rye and wheat, the three lads seem to be a little peevish as they were raised next to a forest. The last few weeks have been eye-opening for them as so much land has been cleared for agriculture.
The village itself was clearly small by most standards, ten houses with only three more than one story. Eli’s short legs pumped to keep ahead of the brothers. As they moved into village proper, he headed to a more well-built building.
“Here we are, our town hall. Come on inside, and I will find my boss to talk to you as well.” Eli said as he quickly headed across the cobbled road to a prominent inn.
The door was only around six foot high, with a door nob around the knee area. Being in a predominantly gnome village, the concept as usual. Asteria opened the door and strode in with his older brother Aldrich following suit. At the same time, Orroark had to duck and sidestep to get through the small entrance.
Seeing the ceiling was at least seven foot high, Orroark blew a relief breath, “By the books, my back and neck won’t cramp up with ducking all the time.”
Asteria, a mere five foot nine specimen half-elf noted. “I hope they have some better accommodation as I am of despite need of a bath.” Sniffing the air, “we all are.”
Aldrich, with his paranoia, scoped out the area for anything unusual and kept an eye out for some tiny trinkets that could be misplaced. “With the job only stating that we will be paid only fifty gold pieces with food and board. I just wonder if the special reward noted will pay us out a heck of a lot better than the trivial amount we have been promised.”
“And you will be right.” Another gnome walked in from a back room, her hair shining like pure gold. “I am Mayor Tabitha, and yes, the special reward should be quite adequate to compensate for your adventurers’ needs.”
With another overly flourishing bow, Asteria added, “Please excuse my brother; he can be a bit mercenary when it comes to our funds. We have been sent by the Hall of Adventurers to be of service.”
Orroark piped in, “Could you tell us what vermin plagues your town.” He reached into his side bag, finding a decent volume which the title states’ Animals of the Wild (with Pictures). “The books associated with the job told us that it was a bee problem?”
“Yes, there are bees, but they are of the giant verity inside the common honey bee. Due to that nature, we do need strapping adventurers to deal with the issue.” Tabitha responded.
Aldrich came out bluntly and stated, “And what is this special reward that was offered?”
Asteria sighed by his elder brother’s greed nature. Still, it does help that he will always find the most money out of most situations. “As my brother said, and please forgive his rudeness, what do we need to look for?”
Mayor Tabitha smiled and looked up at the three, “That is fine. I, too, can be a little too forward when the situation arises, but it is simple; I am looking for royal jelly.”
Orroark roared in laughter, flipping a few pages. “Yes, by the books, here it is. Should have realised it earlier.”
The gnome looked shocked at his outburst as Orroark built more like a massive thug. Only then she noticed the small wire glasses on the edge of Orroark’s nose as he flipped through a book with unabashed joy.
Aldrich huffed, “Are you going to spit it out, Orroark or do I tell Mum you are reading again?”
With that statement, Orroark’s pale green face flashed with a deeper green. “No, no, Mum doesn’t need to know about this.” Looking worried, Orroark looked over at Asteria, who shrugged and gave a small encouraging smile. “Maybe we should let the mayor answer as she has much more knowledge than my merger understanding.”
With that, Mayor Tabitha took up the conversation. “Yes, royal jelly is found in most beehives, but the Giant bee variety is widely known as being more potent in healing properties. With even a pound of the stuff, I can increase the potency of my potions by at least one degree with little effort.”
“So, how much will you pay for this jelly?” Aldrich asked.
Asteria added, “If you please, Ms Mayor.” Aldrich scoffed at his pretty brother, fancying up the situation. “Also, do you have lodging of people of our size in the town?”
“First with the lodgings,” As Tabitha was about to answer, an older halfling of stocky build moved quickly into the town hall. “The Militia Captain and innkeeper can tell you in one moment. With the royal jelly, I am willing to give one hundred pieces of gold for each pound you recover. Now I will leave you with Darren.”
With that Mayor Tabitha, exited the room. The halfling known as Darren stepped up to the three brothers. “Well, I guess it is time for me to tell you about our problems. Please come this way, so I can show you where you will stay for the duration of the job.”
Each of the brothers shrugged and followed the stout grey-haired halfling out, each wondering different things. Aldrich looking forward to gold coins filling his purse, Orroark reading and finding out more about the bees, while Asteria just wanted a bath.
Tag: creativity
Part One: Getting back to my roots
So next Sunday will be the first day of my ‘going back to my roots.’ I will be introducing three new people to dungeons and dragon. Still, I have found some interesting concepts and want to write a side by side short stories on their adventures. I will first start as an introduction to future games.
I would introduce each character and break into the story after the first game on the 11th of April.
The three players are the children of Karraaaggg, the Half-Orc Barbarian (Mum, 7ft tall) and Jazerith, Half-Elven Ranger (Dad, 5 foot 8 inches).
The oldest child is Aldrich, a roguish man of the grand age of 27. He inherited from his mixed-race parents only the human side—a bit of a trouble maker and a disappointment to his father not following in his ranger’s ways.
The next Asteria, a half-elven like his father but was born with magic from a long lost dragons’ bloodline. Being the prettiest of all the children and 21 years old. You can find him down either in the fields practising his innate magic or down at the town centre as he is a bit of a ladies man.
The last is Orroark, a strapping 16-year-old half-orc like his mum and did follow/forced to become a barbarian, but he loves to read. Unfortunately, Karraaaggg knocked sense into him (literally), so he cannot read. A wandering scholar told him in passing that knowledge is power, and the best way to knowledge, can be found in books. So now he uses books as his weapons.
Now, they are off into the big bad world searching for adventure!
Why I have lost the will to Write.
Pullout my laptop and wireless keyboard, blowing off the dust and then waiting for the computer to boot up, which was like waiting for a 386 to come alive (that is an old person reference). It made me realise that I might not have done any writing for a long time. There are reasons which I will touch on in this blog, but I don’t want to make this a morose blog, only a learning experience for future self-published authors.
If we have to start anywhere, it would be the dedication page of my novel, Lake Merrin. It states:
I would like to dedicate this to my friends. Kstar, Hobbit, Khaos, Carebear, Raccoon and Kiba. As this story would not have existed without you.
Obviously, my friends had a hand in helping the world-building Favinonia and supported my writing of the said novel. Lake Merrin was published in 2017, and many things have changed. Only one of the six is still a friend, two outright slammed my creative expression, and the others fell to oblivion. I only realised this when a now close friend mentioned ‘How was my writing going?’, and I cried for the loss of passion for my creative spirit. Again this is only one of the reasons.
The next section of my dedication I will like to state is:
I would also like to thank my Publisher, believing in me.
I will not name my Publisher, but a simple search would find the name of the company. Did they support me? My oath they did, even when I should have been thrown aside because of my depression. The thing is, they started small, and I felt comfortable talking to my publishers about my hopes and dreams of future works. Unfortunately, they have gotten so large and focus on more non-fiction that they are no longer a fit for me. I will remember the past fondly, but I can’t live in their publishing present.
The next is about selling my books, and yes, I do have multiply published books. You hit a wall as a self-published author, libraries and bookstores. They will not accept your book period! There are other ways to move your blood, sweat and tears, creative expression, Conventions. They, unfortunately, are hit and miss. Each year I barely made back the money to pay for the booth, let alone the books, flyers and other expenses.
With all this negativity, where should I go from here? My decision was to start back to my roots, which was dungeons and dragons. Creating stories that a few can enjoy and maybe motivate my flagging creativity. I do have some fans, not many, but they have been very passionate about my books. All I can give them is an undying thanks.
I hope future authors learn that there is a wall, and sometimes you have to go back to basics to get through to inspire your passion and creativity. #passioninspirecreate
Review of Parts, Pieces and Aspects of a Frozen Mouse By AJ Mouse.
One thing I love about AJ Mouse’s novels was experiencing something that you don’t think is common, but it is surprising how her books have a connection to me/my life that spans beyond what we deem as normal.
I was lucky enough to receive an advance copy of her new book; Parts, Pieces and Aspects of a Frozen Mouse. It picks up from the first book, expanding from Alternatives to a Frozen Mouse. I love this series, and each work allows me to see in my mind’s eye of these ten beautiful people.
Again taking up the pen are Jade and Anne, but we had a bit more of an insight into the others. Peter’s survivor spirit, Ray’s dance parties, Jane’s calm and beautiful soul and Lucy’s understanding of passion and touch.
Miss Mouse gives us much warning when the rabbit-hole could be too profound for some, but I would suggest you read even with this advice to skip as you need to see and feel. Monsters are not hiding under the bed but in plain sight.
I adore this book and the series. My love of these ten people makes my heart sing. The honesty and compassion of this book brought me to tears, laughter, anger and joy.
This again has knocked another big-time fantasy author off my top ten #1 books. This is a must-read for anyone who wants to see the world behind that curtain people fear to open, that monster hides behind normality, and a mental disorder does not mean you are an odd duck.
Exceptional and insightful, 5 out of 5 stars!
You can pre-order at the links below, at her website: ajmouse.com or at Ocean Reeve Publishing: oceanreeve.com
P.S. Thank you for sharing your lives with me, Jade, Anne, Lucy, Peter, Neil, Zen, Jane, Nancy, Ray and of course Mouse.
- Mouse and her 9 brothers and sisters. Love you guys!
Update For Samuel Colbran; The Creative Side.
Hello all, it has been a while since I have written a blog. Most time I can’t think of anything compelling. There are so many fantasy authors out there, and I am just a drop in the ocean. So I am using this to update everyone, go figure.
So what has been happening in my personal, professional and creative worlds?
Let us start at the creative, I mean I love my creative life, as the stories come to life and blossom into incredible books. I have finished my companion novella to Lake Merrin; it is called The Great Spoon Heist. Pretty much, two weeks have passed since the conclusion of Lake Merrin, and the Rejects realise that Klaus Handwerk, a lumber trader gave them a job. So this is about them discovering the mystery that WayWocket found out in Lake Merrin.
It was a significant bit of fun writing this, as Lake Merrin is in the present tense and it’s POV is the stream of consciousness, it was hard to go beyond the perspective of Lone Solo. As I wrote this book in past tense and third person, it allowed me to explore my main characters and how Lone’s mindset did not squint their personalities.
I had one of my friend’s model the cover for me as WayWocket, it going to be awesome. He is thinking while licking a spoon (if you want to know why, you have to read Lake Merrin, no spoilers here.) I am going to have him cosplay this character at a future Oz Comic-Con, it will be radical to see my character to come to life.
I am also working on book two of Journal of an Adventurer; I am about 10k words in. After finishing this first draft, I will be starting FableLands Fugitive; the first novella will be called Jamila and James: Ardor. This novella will be following the conclusion of Interrogation, as the Arcs split up to escape Doctor Hamill, they find out the police and agents of BPResearch are hunting them. Can Jamila and James find a balance between uncontrollable emotions to survive this organized search of the Arcs of FableLands?
My next one will be talking about my professional life.
For the links to my books head to either www.samuelcolbran.com or Amazon.com.
Samuel Colbran 