Word Count Wednesday - Words, Words, Words, Knocking and Howling!

Hello everyone,

     Word Count Wednesday is back! Well, the WIP (work-in-progress) currently absorbing the majority of my time is the tale I had planned for November, "Howl of the Ulfhedhnar," a tale of berserkers and wolves! Current word count: 1263.

     Ormsbani, of course, is still stuck in the loop of endless editing. It's basically done, but I'm not quite sure what the next step is, and just about every day I seem to dust it off and find something to tweak. I really need to stop that and get it published. Somehow. Current Word Count: 71,702

     In other news, "The Knocker in the Dark" (which was intended to be my tale for October) has (finally!) been posted to Tales From Midhgardhur on Channillo. Check it out! Word Count: 3900.

     I am trying to catch up on all the stories I missed! When I finish "Howl of the Ulfhedhnar," I'm going to be looking at "Remember!" - an alternative tale to the one I had intended for December (since that was a Yuletide tale - I think it will have to wait until next Yule before I am willing to publish it!), and then on to the New Year's schedule! "Words, words, words!" as Hamlet said to Polonius!

Happy Reading! Skál!
~ Colin Anders Brodd

Still catching up . . .

Hello everyone!

     Happy New Year! Well, it is New Year's Eve here in Arizona for a few hours yet, anyway! I just wanted to give my readers a quick update on how things are going! As you know if you've been following me a while, starting last year around this time I started posting monthly short stories to my series on Channillo.com, Tales From Midhgardhur! I was fairly faithful about posting up until October, when I was hospitalized and could very well have died, as it turns out. I was home before November but still in recovery, so I skipped NaNoWriMo this year (which broke my heart just a little!). Since then, I'm happy to say that my health has recovered fairly well, but my writing schedule is still in pieces. Between illness and recovery and holiday madness, I only just now got around to posting my OCTOBER piece, "The Knocker In The Dark" - my November piece is not even started yet, December was supposed to be a Yuletide story that I probably won't post until next year now, and January starts tomorrow! I've got some writing to do! But now the major holidays have passed, my health is passing fair, and I should have time to work. If you're a subscriber to Tales From Midhgardhur, "The Knocker In The Dark" is now posted and available to read! If you're not yet a subscriber, I recommend Channillo.com - there are some great stories and series available there beyond just the Midhgardhur stories!

     Anyway, Happy New Year to all! Be sure to look for my "Appendix N Revisited" posts on this blog beginning with the Ides of January (that's January 13th for those of you unfamiliar with the rather odd calendar of the ancient Romans), and more stories making their way to Tales From Midhgardhur as soon as I can have them ready!

Happy Reading! Skál!
~ Colin Anders Brodd

Appendix N Revisited: A New Project!

Hello everyone,

     I am embarking on a new project which will see its first results in 2017, though of necessity the work begins now. I intend to begin revisiting the literature of Appendix N, reading and writing about what I've read once a month (probably aiming for the Ides of each month). If you're not familiar with the term. "Appendix N" refers to an appendix in the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Master's Guide, a list compiled by Gary Gygax of the fantasy, science fiction, and weird fiction that was inspirational and fundamental to the original conception of Dungeons & Dragons. The list has come to be revered by many in the "OSR" movement ("Old School Renaissance" or "Old School Revival"), including the creators of the Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG at Goodman Games. Anyway, Appendix N has always held a deep fascination for me, as one of the origins of my hobby (what I often refer to as the Hobby) and as literature that I enjoyed reading and influenced my own writing. These days, fantasy literature is a much more securely established genre than it was in the early 1970s when Gygax and Areneson were first formulating the basics of what became fantasy RPGs. Back then, it tended more strongly to the weird, and indeed the related genre of "weird fiction" features prominently in Appendix N.

     So what is the point of all this? Well, in part, it is "getting in touch with my roots" - returning ad fontes to the sources of inspiration for my fantasy RPG Hobby and my own writing. In part, it is an attempt to give some structure to my rather haphazard re-reading of the Appendix N corpus, and to organize my thoughts on what I'm reading. And in part, it's just for fun. So I'm going to start reading now, and you can look for blog posts on the subject starting around the Ides of January. My intent is to work through as much of the actual Gygaxian Appendix N as possible before moving on to alternate "inspirational reading" lists, such as that of Moldvay or the creators of the Pathfinder RPG.

     I hope that reading about revisiting Appendix N may inspire some of my readers to do the same!

Happy Reading! Skál!
~ Colin Anders Brodd

Just a reminder: "Tales From Midhgardhur, Volume I," is on Kindle Countdown Sale NOW!

Hello everyone,

     Just wanted to remind everyone that Tales From Midhgardhur, Volume I is still on Kindle Countdown Sale through Wednesday, 12/14/16! People have been taking advantage of the sale, but I wanted to remind everyone before the opportunity is gone! If you have last-minute holiday shopping to do and want to give a friend with a Kindle the gift of Midhgardhur, or just get the stories for yourself, now is the time!

Happy Reading! Skál!
~ Colin Anders Brodd

Word Count Wednesday and Holiday Sales!

Hello everyone,

     Since my return from the hospital late last month, I have not been posting much, so it is probably time for an update! Here's where things stand:

• I am not participating in NaNoWriMo this year, which makes me sad. But what I have decided to do instead is edit Ormsbani AGAIN. Sounds tedious, I know, and it can be, but I think this is the best editing session yet. I've made some pretty big changes to the original manuscript, and I think they're all pretty awesome ones. I got rid of a lot of clunky scenes and text that always bothered me, and have it reading much more the way I want! Huzzah! Word Count: 71,614
• I am trying to catch up on my backlog of stories for Tales From Midhgardhur on Channillo. Right now I'm trying to finish up "The Knocker In The Dark," which was supposed to be my October story. Haven't even started November, and it's almost December! {sigh} Working on it. Current Word Count: 1710 (yeah, I know, that's not even a really good DAY by NaNoWriMo standards!)
• HOLIDAY SALES: Want to give someone the gift of Midhgardhur this Yule-tide? I've got you covered! The Kindle editions of my books will be going on Kindle Countdown Sales between December 1st and 14th! First up is The Saga of Asa Oathkeeper: A Midhgardhur Fantasy which will be on Countdown Sale starting December 1st and ending December 7th. Then Tales From Midhgardhur, Volume I will be on Countdown Sale starting December 8th and ending December 14th. So if there is a special someone in your life with whom you want to share the Yule-tide glory of Midhgardhur on their Kindle, that's the time to do it! 

Happy Reading! Skál!

~ Colin Anders Brodd

Ormsbani - Work In Progress!

Word Count Wednesday and Burning Spirits (available now!)

Hello everyone,

     It has been a while since I posted a real update (as I mentioned in a previous post, I was hospitalized for some time, and my health is still not fully recovered), so I wanted to let my fans know a little of what is happening with my work!

     First of all, it is Word Count Wednesday, so here is the word count on my latest project, "Burning Spirits": approximately 5719 words. For those of you who follow "Tales From Midhgardhur" on Channillo, that story just became available TODAY. It was a hard one to write, truth be told, because it was based on my own family history and lore in large part, and it is not exactly a happy story, so i kept pausing as I was writing and editing it to ask myself, "Do I really want to tell this story?" In a way, it is the most personal thing I have written to date, and that made it very difficult to finish. But it is finished and posted. "Burning Spirits" deals with four generations of a family on a remote farmstead inhabited by a wight they call Tomtagumi ("Tomti-man"), a version of the Scandinavian tomte of more recent folklore (the art above shows a disgruntled tomte from traditional folklore stealing a farmer's hay). Tomtagumi watches over the family for generations, but cannot really prevent the family's demons (the cursed gift of berserkergang, abusive relationships, and alcoholism - in the form of addiction to a kind of spirits called brennivin, "burnt wine") from taking a terrible toll on the family.

     The month of October is nearing its end, which means the beginning of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) is only a few days away. I won NaNoWriMo the last couple of years (completing The Saga of Asa Oathkeeper in 2014 and my as-yet-unpublished novel Ormsbani in 2015), and I even did Camp NaNoWriMo in the summer of 2016 (when I finished my novella, The Tale of Halfdanur the Black). I had intended to write another novel this November - I had begun research, and was preparing a general outline, etc. But then I got sick, and ended up in the hospital. And I still have a 2 year old and a 2 month old that I care for. So, I talked it over with my wife, and i agreed to skip NaNoWriMo this year, both for my sake and the sake of my family. It was not an easy decision, but I have to be realistic about what I can do, given the circumstances. Fear not, I'll be writing the next novel eventually. I'm just going to wait until my health improves a bit.

     Well, that about wraps it up for the moment. I am about a month behind on my schedule for "Tales From Midhgardhur," but I hope I can catch up, while I am busy not writing my next novel! Until next time . . .

Happy Reading! Skál!
~ Colin Anders Brodd