Tuesday, July 21, 2015

A Sequel to a Fantasy Novel in the Making


I have been in the process of writing the sequel to "Legend of the Mystic Knights" I am in the final process of finishing the book, before I send it to my publisher.  Hopefully, it will be accepted and then the editing process can begin.


As with “Legend of the Mystic Knights” I have tried to incorporate creatures based on medieval legend. Having an existing creature, even mythical, has many advantages and disadvantages.  One of the advantages is that I have an existing description of a creature. There are many existing documents from this era about these creatures including their size and characteristics. 


These same advantages are also a disadvantage; this is because when I write my novel, I try to be as historically accurate as possible, even with mythical creatures. This means I am limited to these characteristics described by medieval people.  I will let other author’s take vampires and turn them into love struck teenagers, as for me the vampire is a loathsome demonic creature who attacks the living during the night.


The following is a list of creatures which play an important part in the sequel:


OGRE: The name ogre may come from different sources. One is it is based on the biblical king Og, who was an Amorite king and last of the race of giants and was defeated and slain by Moses.

The name could also be derived from the French word and could come from the Orcus who was an Etruscan god who ate human flesh.

The 2nd variation of the name is important, because unlike the current concept of an ogre, traditional ogres feed on human flesh. The other features of an ogre are that they were incredibly tall and had oversized heads and were covered in hair, again, unlike the current famous cartoon ogre we are used to today.

In my sequel I picture the ogre as a 12 foot tall, overweight with oversized head and hands. For clothes it wore a bearskin.  As a weapon it uses a piece of a tree trunk as a club. I could imagine the ogre as a large Neanderthal Man, while still maintaining the human flesh eating characteristic from legend.



WARG: Many people believed this was a creature created by J.R.R. Tolkien, since it is used throughout his novels about middle-earth. In legend, the warg is a creature of Norse mythology, and usually represents Fenrir, a giant wolf who will end up killing Oden during Ragnarok (similar to Christian’s Apocalypse).

In the sequel, the Warg is twice the size of a large wolf. It had fierce red eyes and oversized teeth and claws. Although larger than a standard wolf, they still show the same characteristics, they are a pack animal and can be manipulated as one would a wolf.

In the novel, I use a trick used by Eastern European hunters called fladry. This is a technique where a rope is tied between trees, and large red pieces of cloth or flags are tied to it. A wolf will not cross this line and they can also be herded into one area using this technique.


DRAGONET- This creature has 2 sets of legs, a set of wings and appears as a normal dragon, except it is barely 5 feet long. Although it can breathe fire, its main weapon is its blood, which is extremely poisonous. Even a few drops of blood on the skin can kill a full sized knight.

I wanted to describe the dragon as unintimidating, almost appearing as a colorful snake or frog. This is because a knight in my novel, who was unfamiliar with how dangerous it was, kills one, not knowing that its blood could kill.


LACERTA- (Also known as “gigas lucernta” or giant lizard). This is a creature I created. It is a lizard which humongous in size (150 feet). It has a thick hide which is harder than plate armor, making it almost invincible. The lizard is flat, and has two rows of spikes running down its back.

Originally, I wanted to call this creature a Dyrodor, being a fan of Edgar Rice Burroughs who created it in one of his novels, but I was afraid it was still under copy write protection, so I came up with my own monster.

When I thought of the lacerta, what came to mind was those old cheap sci-fi movies. Where they took an iguana or other lizard, and glued spikes on them, and then filmed them so they would look like they were dinosaurs.

So now you have a sense to the sequel of "Legend of the Mystic Knights",  there are many more monsters and creatures planned in my sequel, and we will cover more next week.  I hope that if you have not already, you will get a copy of my current novel, and also the sequel when it comes out.


As always thank you for visiting and if you want, please leave a comment.

15 comments:

  1. William, you are becoming really creepy here - I am so glad I read your posts in early morning, rather than late at night - I would never sleep. But considering your topic this is exactly what you're aiming for right? Fascinating and scaring people at the same time. Can you imagine coming across a Warg?

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  2. Creepy creatures! I love most of all that you are so intent on being factual in your descriptions. And so much imagination with Lacerta...scary stuff, as I am sure you meant them to be! Great job!

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    1. The creatures might seem creepy, but I think the more important part is who and what they are. The creatures in my novels are evil, plain and simple, and the people who hunt them represent goodness. To me creepy is taking a monster, like a vampire and somehow making them the hero, removing the monstrous aspects that make them evil.

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  3. Fascinating and a little creepy. I like how you're incorporating legends as well as creating your own monsters. And the comment that incorporating medieval legends has both advantages and disadvantages can be extended to a lot of things - a strength can also be a weakness.

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  4. This is a whole new wold for me. I do the voices for video games and they have a lot of creepy mutations. I love the work, but it's definitely a unique niche of people who enjoy it. And those that do LOVE it.

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  5. I had a little trouble reading this one William with the white font against the white in the background image. (I'm using Windows 8 on a laptop.). Look forward to hearing more about the sequel.

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    1. I apologize for that. I look at this blog serval times making adjustment. To me it is white font on a dark background. Blogger is weird and does things like you describe sometimes.

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  6. Really fascinating William. I've read very little fantasy/horror so learning about your process is very interesting and I look forward to following along as you continue in your development of your sequel.

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  7. Thanks for sharing these creatures. It seems like you needed to do a lot of research to understand these characters. Well done.

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  8. I was intrigued by your dyrodor issue so I did a bit of homework on it. According to Wikipedia's Pellucidar page (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pellucidar) a dyrodor is basically a carnivorous stegosaurus, and I find it odd that it or any other fictional creature could be copyrighted. I would like to think that if Burroughs were alive today and you asked him "Can I use the dyrodor name in my book?" he would say "Sure, go ahead." However, your lacerta doesn't really look like a stegosaurus so it is probably better to come up with a different name.

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  9. It's interesting to note how different we are when it comes to what we find interesting. What you write about here is far too creepy for my taste. Looking at the comments I note that I'm not the only one:-)

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  10. I never knew ogres were flesh eating. I guess that is what happens when the most famous ogre you know is Shrek. These creatures sound fascinating and I appreciate your quest to be historically accurate, as that is so rare these days.

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  11. Horror is not my genre but for readers who are into horror in books and movies your sequel will be most welcome. Congratulations on maintaining the accuracy of the creatures.

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  12. Hmmm, I don't see these creatures as creepy at all, but rather as creations that will go forth and serve the purpose they need to serve in the narrative. Looking forward to the release of your next book :)

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