Swords of Talera Author Notes

Those of you who have read my short story collections know I always include a section “about the stories.” These are snippets that tell about when the idea came to me, how it was developed, and when it was published. Although I know many readers don’t give a hoot about such things, I’ve always enjoyed reading about stories in this way. My novels, however, don’t have this sort of thing so I thought I’d put some of this up on my blog. Perhaps I’ll have no readers for it, but what the hey, that’s why they call it a personal blog, I guess. Anyway, here’s a bit about the way Swords of Talera came about.

Swords of Talera was my second novel. The first was a western written when I was 17 and it will never see print. Because of events that happened around the time I finished that western, which I wrote about in Write With Fire, I decided writing was not in my future and just gave it up. I couldn’t stay away, though. Seven years after the western, I was in graduate school. Sometimes late at night when I’d finished my research work but couldn’t sleep I would type out sentences and paragraphs of fiction on the computer. By this time I’d read a lot of fantasy fiction, in particular a lot of ERB and REH. The John Carter stories of ERB particularly resonated with me. I’d been making up Sword and Planet type stories for my own amusement for years, and then just said, what the heck, why not write one of them down. I figured it would probably just be for myself, although the thought that it might get published was always in the back of my mind.

I didn’t start the writing immediately, though. First I spent quite a bit of time in the University of Arkansas library doing research. I already had the idea for the world of Talera, but I needed a character. I decided he would be a descendent of a Maclang, the characters from my western. I looked through a bunch of Irish and Scottish names and found the name Ruane. That didn’t sound quite perfect to me, though, so I modified it to Ruenn. I also did a lot of research on sailing vessels, on gas giant planets, and on all manner of creatures and plants that might be twisted around to form the basis of Talera’s biosphere. Only then did I sit down to write.

In fiction, ERB’s Barsoom books were certainly the biggest and earliest influence on Talera, but another major influence was the Dray Prescot books of Alan Burt Akers, who I didn’t know at the time was really a British author named Ken Bulmer. Still other influences included the Llarn books of Gardner Fox, and the early books in the Gor series by John Norman. Although I never liked the slavery aspects of the Gor books, that didn’t figure at all prominently in the first few books and Norman had a dramatic writing style that I did like.

“Swords,” which was originally entitled “Taleran Genesis,” is a linear book full of all the things I loved to read, and still would love if anyone was publishing them. It had alien characters, lots of action, sword fights and desperate rescues. I wrote “Swords” in about 4 months in 1984, although it wasn't submitted for years and was heavily polished in 1988 before I submitted it. Eventually I sent it to Tom and Ginger Johnson in Texas and it was serialized in their magazine. It was very well received by the readers and was voted best piece of original fiction for the year in which it ran. Below are the notes I kept during the initial process of writing the book:

Taleran Genesis? (Book One)  [begun June 15, 84] [1st draft fin [Christmas, 1984]

(Retitled, 6-7-85 Swords of Talera  [3rd draft fin, 6-11-85]

[4th draft started 5-29-88; finished 6-20-88]

Final draft start 7-12-88, fin 7-29-88;  printed 8-1-88:

final polish 9-29-88  Did a minor rewrite 6-30-96 and reformat

starting 3-3-02, doing a final rewrite to bring it up a notch

Went through it one more time in 2004, again trying to bring it up a notch.

The book was finally published as a paperback from Borgo press in summer 2007. It was mildly revised one last time before it was submitted for publication.

And there you have it. If you should have a hankering for such a book, it’s available from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Wildside Press. It’s in print, ebook, and audiobook, along with the sequels, Wings Over Talera and Witch of Talera. There are clickable links to Amazon for the books along my right side border of the blog.

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Reading Pet Peeve

I've been reading a pretty good book lately but the author occasionally does something that bothers me. I might even call it a pet peeve. He'll start a chapter with some great, eerie, description that clearly suggests that something bad is about to happen. But then he'll short circuit it with some phrase like, "Looking back on it now, we had no idea how bad that night would be."  There are couple of things about this that bother me. First, it's as if the author doesn't trust his prose to convey impending threat and has to "tell" us that there is a threat. This is the equivalent of showing AND telling.  Second, it clearly lets us know that, no matter how bad things got, the person who is "telling" us the story survived. This cuts the suspense.

Now, the story is written in first person so you have a pretty good idea that person survives anyway, but I'd still rather "see" that survival occur rather than making sure ahead of time that I know it.  I actually did this in Swords of Talera and didn't even think about it at the time. Later I wished I hadn't put it in. I don't think it's as big an issue with fantasy as with horror, but it's still something I don't really like.

How about you? Does this kind of thing bother you? Or do you not even really notice it?  If you happened to  read Swords of Talera, did you notice it? It's about mid-way through chapter 1.

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Ebook News

Well, sooner than I had thought it might happen, two of my books have been released by Borgo/Wildside as ebooks for both the Nook and the Kindle. This is Swords of Talera and Bitter Steel. The rest will eventually follow, although dates for that are unknown. A couple of folks have asked me particularly about the Nook versions so I thought I'd put up the links today.

Swords of Talera for the Nook

Bitter Steel for the Nook

Both Swords of Talera and Bitter Steel for Kindle:


Killing Trail is, of course, still available on Kindle, although not on the Nook as of yet.


Cold in the Light is also available in ebook from Google Books.
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More Updates

You'd think I'd have more time to write information heavy posts since I'm off from school, but I've been spending most of my free hours lately working on the two Graphic Novel articles that I agreed to do. Good progress so far. The hardest part has been identifying other scholarly works that address the books, since graphic novels are only beginning to be taken seriously in the larger world.

So, here's another promo type post if you will, wherein I talk about myself. Egads, that sounds pretty boring even to me. But, there are some good things going on at the moment. David J. West has a review of Bitter Steel up over on his "Nephite Blood, Spartan Heart blog. Thanks to David for the kind words.



Also, Swords of Talera is now officially a "Nook Book," at $4.79. That's purty cool. At least to me. The second and third book in the series are scheduled to be released as ebooks eventually, probably in the new year.

I already mentioned here that Cold in the Light is also available as an ebook now, although apparently not yet for Kindle. It's available for only $2.84 at the Google Ebookstore. The link is here if you were wondering.

One of these days I'll put up another, more substantive post. I promise.
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Publications and Sales and Sech

I’m excited to announce that Hint Fiction is currently available for preorder on Barnes & Noble and Amazon. I got my contributor copy of the book a couple of days ago and have already read it. It’s a wonderful collection and I’m very happy to be a part of it. I almost couldn’t believe how well many of the pieces worked as both standalone efforts and to suggest or “hint” at a much bigger story behind the scenes. The work starts out with a dynamite piece from Joe Lansdale, probably my favorite in the collection, but there are many more great pieces and for the first time I really saw the potential of the hint fiction concept realized. I feel pretty lucky to have made it into this group.

Among the bigger names in the collection are Jack Ketchum, Joyce Carol Oates, Peter Straub, and F. Paul Wilson, but the selections from unknowns and relative unknowns are just as powerful. I got lots of smiles and quite a few “winces” out of these pieces. They were just amazingly effective.

In other news, I’ve gotten in some author copies of Bitter Steel finally. If anyone should want a signed copy, I can offer them at a discount over what the unsigned book costs at Amazon and Barnes & Noble at present. I’m asking $12.50, and I’ll cover shipping within the US. For Canada or elsewhere I might have to split the costs with you. If you’d like a copy, please email me at kainja at hotmail dot com.

I also have one copy of Swords of Talera in which the red color of the cover is worn through in places. It’s not bad, but if anyone wants it I can let it go for $5.00, plus whatever the shipping would be. Same email if you are interested.

Finally, I just finished reading Ty Johnston’s Kindle collection American Crossroads, which puts together five stories about people reaching turning points in their lives. I enjoyed it very much and reviewed it on both Goodreads and Amazon. I highly recommend it. It’s worth much more than the .99 cents it costs.

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SLA Author's Night, and Writing

I was invited to the Southern Library Associations Author's Night for SF/Fantasy last night and it was a lot of fun. Another local writer, M. F. Korn, and I went. There was a question and answer session, which I enjoyed, and later we sold and signed books and talked with librarians, who are a writer's natural allies in this world. I sold quite a few copies, especialy of Swords of Talera, and was happy about that. I was a little surprised at the number of librarians who asked if our materials were on Kindle. I'd say about a third of them wanted to know about the ebook markets for out books, which in my case is virtually nonexistent except for Swords of Talera, which is available on ebook from Barnes and Noble. That was one of the questions from the audience for us in the more formal part of the night, as well.

In other news, I did a guest post on the real west over at Richard Prosch's Meridian Bridge. Thanks, Rich.

I'm working on two stories at present. One is a western tale for my planned Kindle ebook, which I'll try to publish in July. That story is working under the title "Powder Burn." The other story is for a secret project that I'm not currently at liberty to speak of. How's that for a tease? ;)
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Well, I’m getting ready to start chapter 4 of what I’m now calling Wraith of Talera, which I decided was more indicative of what was going to happen in the book than “ghost.” I’ve been writing fairly slowly, but making progress. So far I’m at 20 something pages and roughly 8,000 words. A long way to go, for sure, but these books have been running between 70,000 and 75,000 words so it’s not as far away as it might seem. Today while I’m out and about on a bunch of errands I plan to do some plotting. It’s needed, believe me, although I’ve created two new characters that I’m growing fond of, a young man named Munt and a woman warrior named Shai.

So far the chapters are entitled:
Chapter 1. Echoes of War
Chapter 2. No Victory Without Loss
Chapter 3. Of the Dead and the Living
Chapter 4. The Awakening

I don’t plan to run this book, or even large sections of it, on my blog as I write it, but here’s a little flavor. This piece features Jask, who had an important role in Swords of Talera. The “I” in the following is Ruenn Maclang, of course.

Sample:

Strange as it sounds, a visit from a group of Klar provided a welcome distraction. At the group’s head stalked Jask, my old friend, with his blood-red targe slung over his back and the pommel of a well used broadsword beneath his hand. I strode to meet him and we clasped arms. He smiled, and meant it. Though few of his people either express or seem to truly understand human emotions, Jask was an exception. I did not know why. Nor did I ask. The one time I had mentioned it to him he claimed to be insulted.

“I should renegotiate our agreement,” Jask said. “You failed to deliver on your promises.”

“Oh?” I asked. “What promises were those?”

“You claimed there’d be a fight and then went ahead and had all the fun yourselves. We scarcely got our ships into battle before the krutt-lovers surrendered.”

“I guess we got carried away,” I replied. “But if you’d like there’s still the remainder of the Ubain empire. We could always invade and conquer them.”

He laughed and slapped me on the shoulder. “Humph. I’ve got enough hassle trying to govern my own people. I’d never want to rule a bunch of troublesome humans. Especially not if there were any more like you among them.”

"There are no more quite like him,” Rannon said as she came up beside me. “Of course, he is from another world.”

“A world where the delicate flower of the Klar race never took root,” I added.

Jask shook his head. “A sad little place where there are no Klar,” he said, before sketching a bow to Rannon. “But you, Milady. Your khi was surely once housed in Klar form.”

“I think you’ve just been insulted,” I said to my wife, grinning. “Maybe I should take this Klar outside and teach him some manners.”

“Oh, ho,” Jask said. “And still I’d not have the fight you promised.”

In the Courts of the Crimson Kings

I just finished a very good book by S. M. Stirling called In the Courts of the Crimson Kings. This is actually a newly released Sword and Planet book which basically reprises ERB's A Princess of Mars, although greatly updated for modern audiences. I really liked this a lot. The characters were very well developed and the Martian civilization was brought to life in great detail, all the way down to a consistent presentation of the Martian language. I was quite sad to see this one end, and that doesn't happen these days too much.

In writing news, here's the "What Has Gone Before" section of my new Taleran book. So far I'm only about 2,000 words into the work but I'm beginning to feel it again. And that is fun. However, if you haven't read the previous books and plan to you should not read the section below. So therefore:

SPOILER ALERT

WHAT HAS GONE BEFORE

Ruenn Maclang was born and grew to manhood on Earth. On the planet of Talera, he was reborn a swordsman, and a leader of warriors. Through three volumes, Ruenn fought his way, Swords of Talera, Wings Over Talera, and Witch of Talera. He began as a man lost and alone on an alien world of death and beauty, but he found his path. He found friends who fought with him, and for him, and he found a woman to love. That woman was Rannon, a Princess who became a Queen of the island kingdom of Nyshphal after her father was murdered.

Ruenn and Rannon married in a bloody throne room after a desperate battle and narrow victory against the sorceress Vohanna and her allies, allies that included both Rannon’s brother, and Ruenn’s. But though the Witch herself was defeated, the Witch’s war is not yet over. Rannon’s air-fleet lies devastated; her army is nearly bled white. Nyshphal’s remaining enemies are gathered in fire and steel. Amid the chaos appears a new threat, an apparition from the past that warns of the future—honor and love can be corrupted by hate.

And now, Ghosts of Talera.

Hangin' with Chris

Just a reminder that I'll be hanging out mostly on Christine Eldin's blog today. She's having her Author's Week this week and I'm first writer up. You can win a copy of Swords of Talera with no strings attached. I'll even remove the tracking device.

I do give my last final today and will also have plenty of grading to do so I won't be making it around to many other blogs for a visit today, but tomorrow I should be able to get myself onto my regular summer schedule.

A Podcast and a Pub

I received a very nice, and I thought very accurate, review of “Swords of Talera” in a podcast from Dial P for Pulp. The mastermind behind “Dial P” is David Drage, who lives in Aberdeen, Scotland with his wife and son. David is a Pulp fan and advocate with a particular interest in Robert E. Howard. We made contact on one of the online Robert E. Howard fan groups. David really seems to know the genre well, and respect it, and he acknowledged both the traditional qualities of “Swords” and the strengths of how those qualities were portrayed. If you’re interested, the podcast is on “Show # 5,” but if you want the direct link it’s here. It will take a little while to load, or at least it did on my computer. The “Swords” review is about a quarter of the way along the podcast. But there looks like a lot of interesting stuff on the site.

In other news, Strange Worlds of Lunacy has just been released, which contains my story, “Mirthgar.” This is a big collection, with over 50 humorous stories. I haven’t even gotten my contributor copy yet so I haven’t read any of the other stories, although I know a number of the authors. It looks like a good collection. The cover is above. I posted a piece from my story before, but here’s another taste. Remember that a “pale,” which is basically a horrible, lingering fog, has fallen upon the fabled land of Mirthgar.

“Ill omens abounded. A question mark was found crop-circled into a farmer’s lotus field in Mirthdale, while in Mirthhedge an albino Irish setter was born to a pair of bluetick coon hounds. In the very halls of the Queen’s palace, the infamous ghost of King Hornrey the First was seen to slip on an ectoplasmic banana peel and do the splits with an expression of considerable pain. The habitual hilarity had already fled from the people of Mirthgar, and now hope joined hilarity in exile.”

And, BTW, I recieved the following award from Anna-Lys. I really appreciate it since it's something I hope to do in my blog. Thank you!

A Review

Travis Erwin has posted a very nice review of Swords of Talera over on his blog, and I much appreciate it. I didn't even have to pay him. Travis is working on a manuscript called Plundered Booty, which many of us are hoping to see published soon.

For other comments, I just have to say what a gorgeous place the area around our Abita Springs home is. The Azaleas are blooming everywhere. Most are a gorgeous dark pink, but there are quite a few different shades, including a wonderful red. There is purple wisteria in the trees, several varieties of white flowers, and some lovely yellow flowers in the woods whose name escapes me right now. It's Carolina something or other. Add to that a lot of wildflowers in the ditches, the crimson clover bordering many of the roads, and the budding maples and dogwoods and you have a world clad in festival clothes.

Life is pretty good.

The Pleasure of a Good Review

One of the first things I saw this morning was a message from a fellow in Ireland who really seemed to enjoy Swords of Talera. His name is W. Nelson and he posted an outstanding review of the book on Amazon.uk..

Not long ago I got an email from Randy Johnson, who I know is a regular visitor of this blog, telling me how much he enjoyed Cold in the Light. Randy now owns every book I’ve written, all three of them. That’s a pretty nice feeling. And, of course, I’ve had several very good reviews of the books already on Amazon, although the one from Nelson is the first from the United Kingdom. Some of those have come from folks who check this blog, and, of course, many folks here have given me tremendous support on their own blogs with commentary, reviews, and even an interview.

It really makes my day when someone spends a few moments of their limited time to tell me that they like my work, and even to tell others. I don't know if folks who aren't writers quite understand what a pleasure it is to hear good things about one's works. For me, it really keeps me going even when I know I'm not making a ton of money from my writing.

Today is another good day.

Back in the Saddle

I rolled back into home late last night and did nothing but rest and cuddle Lana, who I had missed about like one misses a lost limb. Today I'm blogging again and doing various errands that have gotten ahead of me, including groceries and checking out a new used bookstore in the area. (Yes, checking out bookstores is a part of my job, not a luxury.)

On the writing front, I'm a week behind but will try to start catching up tomorrow. I had a nice interview/article run on me in the Xavier University Newsletter. If you're interested it's about 2/3rds of the way down under the title "Psychology Professor Has Tales to Tell." There's a picture of me that looks like I'm preaching the gospel. (Now there's a scary thought.) Other than calling Cold in the Light Cold in the Night it's well done and quite flattering. In fact, a lot of people have said good things about me lately, including Steve Malley and some of his commentators. HA HA HA HAHA. I have them fooled!

I got my author copies for Swords of Talera and Wings Over Talera, as well as a few author discount copies that I ordered. I'd orginally planned to go up to Arkansas in July and have a signing when I saw my mom, but her hospital stay threw that off a bit. I can always go back, although I don't want to make that 9 and 1/2 hour drive again right now.

I hope by tomorrow I'll be able to get back to posting some more writing related stuff. Was good to check everyone's blog today. Thanks everyone for your overwhelming support. It means a lot.

The Weird World of Amazon

Well, when Amazon first listed Swords of Talera they had the author name slightly screwed up by putting a comma in it so that it read "Charles, Allen Gramlich." This didn't bother me too much. In fact, I was so excited about the cover that I didn't even notice until a couple of people called my attention to it. My editor had noticed it too and he contacted them about correcting it. So?

So, today I notice that Swords of Talera is by "Charles Allen." I'm a little more troubled by the fact that my last name has disappeared. I emailed them about it, although it took me 20 minutes just to figure out how to navigate through their email contact procedure. It's a little bit funny, actually, but I hope they do get it corrected. A good reason not to use three names on your book, I guess.

Btw, some folks have asked me why I wanted Charles Allen Gramlich on this one as opposed to Charles Gramlich on Cold in the Light. The main reason was as a sort of homage to previous writers of Sword & Planet fiction like Edgar "Rice" Burroughs and Alan "Burt" Akers. But also, I thought I'd use a variation of my name to differentiate my fantasy work from my more horror/thriller work.

I also got my first review at Amazon and it's a good one by Randy Johnson. Thanks, Randy. If we ever meet I'll owe you a beer, or a beverage of your choice.

The Pleasure of Holding a Book

As soon as I knew that Swords of Talera was on Amazon, Lana and I ordered a copy to see how the process would work. We got it late Wednesday evening, which seemed very fast to me, especially since other folks have told me that theirs is not going to be delivered until after mid-month. I imagine, though, that they had some printed and the first orders went out from those.

I was as excited as a kid to actually hold the book in my hand, and it looks very nice up close. The cover is great and the print and typesetting is dark and readable. The book is well put together and I’m very happy for that. Right now I have one signing set in Covington for July 31st, but I’ll be posting more on this as it gets closer. This was set up for me by the incomparable Lana Jackman, who is much better than the incomparable Dejah Thoris that John Carter fell in love with on Barsoom. I’ll probably have another signing in Arkansas when I go home to visit my family this summer.

Here’s a little bit of information from David Morrell’s writing book that I thought was interesting. He points out that Hemingway used more adjectives and adverbs than people often think but that he used them differently. Here’s the first sentence of A Farewell to Arms.

“In the bed of the river there were pebbles and boulders, dry and white in the sun, and the water was clear and swiftly moving and blue in the channels.”

We’ve got five adjectives and an adverb here, but the adjectives seem almost more like nouns because they stand alone, “dry and white in the sun” rather than directly modifying the nouns they are directed at, “pebbles and boulders.” If we rewrote it in a more standard fashion we’d have something like:

In the river bed there were dry, white pebbles and boulders, and the clear, blue water moved swiftly in the channel.

I thought this was an interesting observation, and one that had not really occurred to me. Worth considering.

Marketing For Today

I haven’t posted here in a couple of days, but those days have been pretty much of a whirlwind for me. I’ve been contacting a lot of people about Swords of Talera, trying to set up a couple of signings, and also just enjoying looking at the cover. I’ve always heard that the time for writers to do their marketing is “before” a book comes out. I didn’t do any marketing directed at “Swords” before it came out. This isn’t completely because I’m lazy and dumb. I do have my reasons for not doing so, some of which do have to do with marketing.

First, of course, I freely admit that I’m superstitious about talking of potentially good publishing things until I see them in front of me. Writing primarily for the small press means that, often, things will not come out when you think they are, perhaps just not on time, and perhaps not at all. I’ve been embarrassed before by telling my friends that such and such was going to be published and then having it…not.

Second, and this is a marketing related issue, I see the benefits of “pre-marketing” to be much more important if your book is going to be widely distributed in bookstores and be there on the shelves when potential buyers stop by. The purpose of this kind of marketing is to create an awareness in potential readers that the book exists and to suggest in some way that it might appeal to those readers. But if the book is going to be sold primarily online I suspect that the same rules don’t apply. So far, all of my “marketing” has been done online. I’ve sent emails to friends and have posted about the book on my blog and on various other sites/groups that I visit regularly. This worked pretty well to create an initial surge. “Swords” reached into the 8000 level on Amazon’s Sales Ranking, and hung around in the 9000 to 14,000 level for a couple of days. I know this doesn’t mean I’m going to hit the Times Bestseller list, but it felt good and I know it means that I did sell some books pretty quickly.

Third, in a way I have been doing marketing, but not marketing of a “book.” The internet has been a boon to folks like me. Strange as it may sound, I’m a pretty shy sort of fellow. I don’t make friends easily and I don’t really enjoy a lot of social events. I often feel ill at ease or even a bit awkward when there are a lot of people around. I suspect that this is true of quite a few writers, of course. But the internet has given me a forum where I can feel comfortable posting information about myself and letting people get to know me in a sort of slow, non-intense way. I also have interests in reading and writing that aren’t necessarily shared by large numbers of other folks. The net has helped me find several groups who have common interests with me, and it was after posting to those groups that the biggest jumps occurred in the Amazon sales rankings.

Some of the people who bought Swords of Talera had read my writing before and liked it. Some bought it because they love the genre and are willing to take a chance on anything new in that area. But some of them bought the book simply because they had gotten to know me online. Many of those are folks reading this blog. I appreciate you all.

We Interrupt This Regularly Scheduled Blog

Over the past few months I’ve dropped little hints here to suggest that something good might be on the horizon for me. Well, now it’s begun to happen and I can finally talk about it. My novel, Swords of Talera, has just been released by Borgo Press and is available on Amazon. This is the first of a trilogy. The follow-up books will be Wings Over Talera and Witch of Talera. Both are scheduled for publication but I’m not sure exactly when that will take place.

I’m very happy. It’s been five years since Cold in the Light was published, and nearly eight since “Swords of Talera” ran as a magazine serial. This version has been substantially revised for book publication, by the way. Those of you who have read Cold in the Light should know that this is a very different kind of book. “Cold” was a horror/thriller. “Swords” falls into the “Sword & Planet” genre (often called “Interplanetary Romance”). This type of book originated with Edgar Rice Burroughs and his John Carter of Mars series.

Swords of Talera has a convoluted history. I wrote it when I was 24, then revised it around the age of 29 and started sending it to the bigger publishers. DAW and Del Rey passed on it, although I got good commentary from both places. DAW was cutting their Sword & Planet books to the bone about then, and Del Rey had moved much more into fantasy that was heavy on magic and dragons. I then sold it to a small publisher, who never published it, sold it to a second small publisher that went under when the owner absconded with the press's funds, and finally offered it to Tom and Ginger Johnson who ran it as a serial in their Startling Science Stories mag, where it won their readers’ choice award.

Last year a pro writer friend of mine named Charles Nuetzel, who has written Sword & Planet fiction and a lot of other stuff too, suggested I try my Taleran books on Robert Reginald over at Borgo Press. Rob liked the trilogy, accepted it, and then did a thorough editing job on all three. My special thanks go out to Charles (CAN) and to Rob. Much appreciated, my friends. Your names are gold with me.