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Peregrine and Blade: The City in Shadows

The first story, The City in Shadows, after the initial three took Peregrine and Blade to a new part of the world – the deserts. I like deserts, and stories and settings that take place in them, like Dune and Dark Sun. I also visit them a fair bit in my stories, but this is the first time I took Peregrine and Blade into them.

There was, once again, some DNA that came from other stories; you might be able to pick which Conan stories inspired it, in parts.

But this story sends the duo off on mercenary work for the first time, though one that didn’t quite work out, and also continued to expand more on the history of the setting, and of the world in general.

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Peregrine and Blade: Blood Upon the Sands

The third of the trio of stories written to get a feel for Peregrine and Blade and their world, Blood upon the Sands, took them far from Qaiqala for the first time, seeing them as part of a corsair crew landing upon a tropical isle in search of treasure. Conan went a-pirating so I didn’t see why they couldn’t. And treasure hunts on tropical islands are always fun.

Except it didn’t turn out that way, naturally. When I started the story I had no idea of what was to happen, because that is the way I generally write. I don’t plot or plan for the most part, but let the story – and the characters – go where they will. And this story ended up starting the world building of the setting, introducing an inhuman race from before the time of man, one that would crop up again later.

And as happens in S&S stories, the duo didn’t completely succeed in their adventure, and not for the last time. Some times the foe or situation is too dangerous, or a choice has to be made or mere bad luck prevents the heroes succeeding. It is a part of S&S that makes it feel real.

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Peregrine and Blade: The Scroll in the Tower

The first three Peregrine and Blade stories I wrote in very quick succession, with the second being The Scroll in the Tower. Sadly, my early attempts at names for the stories weren’t great; in hindsight I could have done better. It was still a learning process at the time, which was also why I wrote the first three in a rush; to get to know more of the characters and the settings.

And yes, that meant there were still cliches in the story as a result. I mean, it starts off in a tavern, with a tavern fight and a mysterious stranger approaching the heroes to undertake a quest. And it wouldn’t be the last time either.

What is does do is introduce for the first time a recurring side character, though at the time that wasn’t the plan. Bakanon, the hard done by owner of the tavern in question, was to make a number more appearances in later stories, as does his tavern, which remained unnamed for the time, and which served as a base of operations for the duo when they were present in the city. And it also introduced the Souk of the Crimson Mists, in which the tavern resided, another place oft visited, a hang out for the ne’er-do-wells of the city. A perfect home, then, for Peregrine and Blade, and for them to start – and end – their adventures in.

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Peregrine and Blade: Darkness in the Flames

Darkness in the Flames was the very first S&S story that I wrote, and one of the earliest attempts at short fiction as well. This is where it all started, around fifteen years ago. Looking back on it, I do have a fondness for the story because of that, though it does wear its DNA on its sleeve. It is a little bit cliche in parts, and its inspirations fairly obvious to see, but we all have to start somewhere.

And this is where Peregrine and Blade’s story starts. At least from a writing point of view, not a chronological one. From that point of view, it takes place much later on in their adventures.

The inspiration for the story was not the characters though – they grew through the story to take form when they had started fairly vague in my mind – but the city itself; Qaiqala. I wanted to make a memorable city and so was Qaiqala born, the pre-eminent city of the Swordlands. I know it is a fanciful place that probably couldn’t function, but nonetheless it is an interesting place, and Peregrine and Blade’s stories keep coming back to it, and the various parts of it, especially the Souk of the Crimson Mists. But more of that in later stories.

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The Long and Short of It

Flash fiction, short stories, novelettes and novellas.  I’m a big fan of all forms of short fiction, both reading and writing it.  I didn’t used to be so enthusiastic about it.

Once upon a time I was an avid reader of the epic doorstopper form of fantasy, with its multiple volumes of weighty tomes and series that didn’t end.  However, the more that they didn’t end, the more I began to drift away from them.  Waiting 20+ years for the conclusion of a story I started when much younger began to wear thin.  As did the padding that became more ad more pronounced as the series went on that filled out the books solely to keep the series going.

In addition I didn’t have as much time to devote myself to such weighty series.  And so I began reading other forms of fantasy – short fiction.  The epics went unfinished – there are only a few that I have completed.  I grew to enjoy the shorter form for its sharp action, succinct stories, lack of padding and general fun of action and adventure.

These mega-epics weren’t always the way – during the days of the pulp magazines short fantasy stories were all the rage. Authors like Robert E Howard (creator of Conan of Cimmeria, Krull the Conqueror and others), Fritz Leiber (creator of Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser) and others wrote short stories, novelettes and novellas. C.S.Lewis’ Narnia series are actually what would be called novellas, and the grand-daddy of the epic novels – The Lord of the Rings – is only as long as single volumes of current day series.

The more I read of them, the more I wanted to write them as well.  I had always thought I’d write those sprawling epics when I was younger, but just as my reading tastes have changed, so have my writing.  I began to write short fiction and found it much easier and fun.  While I knew making a living from short fiction was harder than novels I had found my style and wasn’t going to let that stop me.

The style of writing long and short stories is vastly different – short stories are purer. That doesn’t make them better – just that they have to be distilled down compared to novels. Those 1000 page epic need a lot of padding, casts of thousands, pages of purple prose descriptions and dozens of plots to reach that length. Short stories only have the one, simple plot for the most, and don’t have the space for long, flowery description – they have to do more with less.

It is for such reasons that I currently prefer short stories, both reading and writing them.

Over a couple of years I’ve written a large number of works of short fiction, with a whole bunch more planned.  I look forward to sharing them and hope people have as much enjoyment reading them as I did writing them.