deadly drinks

Happy Pride, and a Special Charity Event!

/ Dorian Graves / Leave a comment

Greetings dear readers!

First off, I hope all of you are having a most joyous Pride this month. Especially for those of you who are queer, whether you’re out and open, quiet and closeted, questioning, or anything in between. We’re here to celebrate you, and your existence is a powerful thing! As the title says, be Proud of who you are, for you are the only you there is.

As with every year, there are many wonderful charity drives this month, but this year has something special. My good pal Gregg, also known as Cafe3G of the Nerdy Cafe, is teaming up with a couple other streamers for a week-long video game charity stream. All proceeds go to the Trevor Project, and to help out as much as possible, there are a number of wonderful stretch goals…

…including a live reading of Bones and Bourbon! That’s right; if Cafe3G can meet a goal of $500, he will read the opening chapters of Bones and Bourbon live during a stream! As he is not only a professional streamer, but a radio personality and voice actor, I am beyond thrilled to hear him bring the Gallows Brothers to life.

So check out the stream here, and let’s help out our fellow LGBTQIA+ folks while also having a fun time with games, shenanigans, and more! (And don’t be surprised if you see me hanging out in the chat; in fact, feel free to say hello!)

In the meantime, I’ve been busy with a handful of online conventions (check out my chats at Rainbow Space Magic and IqarusCon), working on my new WIPs, and also creating some more artwork. In fact, I’ve recently joined deviantArt to share illustrations, concept art, and sketches you won’t find anywhere else. Feel free to stop by here and peruse the art!

That’s all for now, my friends. Stay cool, stay safe, and stay proud of who you are!

~Dorian

Announcement: Corpses and Cognac Release Date!

/ Dorian Graves / Leave a comment

Dear readers, today I’m overjoyed to finally announce that Corpses and Cognac is about to release. Mark your calendars for March 5th, or simply hop over to your favorite online retailers and preorder your copy now.

It’s been a long journey to get here. Before Bones and Bourbon even released, I’d been hard at work figuring out what a sequel would look like. A lot has changed since that initial draft, written and rewritten while I was still in college, and the past two years alone have resulted in…three entirely different drafts of the same book. Hoo boy.

But the wait is almost over! And to prepare for this momentous occasion, I’d like to show you all the cover. Feast your eyes on this!

Gorgeous, isn’t it? M. Brackett really knocked it out of the park with this one. This cover encompasses the entire book pretty damn well, with the core of it being one of my favorite scenes (one that’s pivotal to me as it’s…the only scene that’s remained intact through every completed draft).

Let’s look at the full illustration, shall we?

Now that you’ve seen the whole thing, what can you expect? Well, let’s check out that back cover text…

An ancient leviathan lies buried under the town of Arcata, California—which isn’t a problem until its head goes missing and its ghost threatens to destroy the entire town. Sounds like a typical case for possessed hairdresser Retz and cursed bounty hunter Jarrod, the half-huldra Gallows brothers. But the case soon turns complicated with a string of disappearances, a madcap carnival promising eternal bliss, and a motorcycle gang of minotaurs plotting against mysterious strangers that are neither human nor monster.

Lucky for the Gallows brothers, they have staunch allies…or at least they have Nalem, the necromancer ghost who “borrows” Retz’s body, and Farris, Jarrod’s daredevil boyfriend coming to grips with his new un-life as a Faerie. Everyone else they thought of as friends show a different face in the funhouse mirrors, and old foes beg to be saved from “The Happiest Place Out of This World”.

This case will shake Retz and Jarrod to their cores, forcing them to question everything they know about themselves and their loved ones. It’ll be a struggle to save the day with their bodies and minds intact…which means it’s the perfect time for a drink. Sit back and raise a glass—the Gallows brothers ride again!

Lot of stuff going on in this book. We’ve got a motorcycle gang of minotaurs. A mysterious carnival (perhaps connected to the one Retz found in Bones and Bourbon?). A leviathan ghost who, if the cover is anything to go boy, does not play nicely with the Gallows Brothers. And so much more, from old faces returning in new lights to strange creatures we’ve yet to meet. And at the heart is a story about two brothers trying to keep each other alive while holding true to who they are, no matter how the world around them tries to tear them down.

Also, like with the self-published rerelease of Bones and Bourbon, Corpses and Cognac will feature some snazzy extras.

I’m so excited for all of you to be able to read it.

And me…I’m going to let the Gallows Brothers and their pals take a mental vacation while I plot out book 3. It’s going to be tough to topple this book, but I’ve got some fun ideas and revelations brewing already. But after a full year of editing and crash-coursing through the self-publishing world, I think we’re allowed to take a break to brainstorm and dabble with other projects. Fear not though; book 3 will be written and ready to go before you know it. Knowing me, I won’t be able to stay away from writing more Deadly Drinks longer than a month or two.

In the meantime, I’ll be on Twitter talking all about Corpses and Cognac for the week leading up to the March 5th release. There will be QAs! Info on what kind of myths I used for the story and my research process for Arcata CA, the town where the book takes place! Even a talk about queer identity in the book, as it ended up becoming an important factor in the heart of the plot–and myself as well! Check me out over at @DorianGravesFTW. I’ll see about rounding up the posts over here as well!

Making Monsters, and Other Pandemic Activities

/ Dorian Graves / Leave a comment

Long time no see, dear readers! At least, that’s how it feels, given that time has lost all meaning this year. Worry not, for I’ve been busy these past few…let me check the calendar…months, with all manners of projects.

First off, I have a guest post over at the Creator’s Roulette, which you can check out here! If you’ve ever wondered how to go about creating monsters, either completely new ones or adaptations of pre-existing myths, this post shows my process for how I make monsters for my stories. It even has examples from my own work, resources for inspiration, and some art by yours truly! I had a lot of fun writing it up, so I hope you’ll give it a read.

A recent illustration of a dragon-man I played in a Changeling the Lost campaign.

Connected to the art in that post; I’ve recently acquired a new art tablet, and have practiced digital illustrations in my free time. Not only will it be easier to add concept art and such to my books, but I hope to eventually provide more illustrations for you all, be it through Patreon or other avenues. My goal is to eventually branch into creating my own comics or games (along with writing more books, of course!), so keep your eyes peeled. I may also stream some more art on Twitch in the future, but that’ll wait until after edits.

Now for the update on “Corpses and Cognac”, second book in the Deadly Drinks series. Don’t worry, you haven’t missed it: I’m still hard at work editing the book. Having realized that my own editing standards are stricter than my previous press, I’m in the middle of extensive edits and rewrites to make sure “Corpses and Cognac” is a sequel that’ll knock everyone’s socks off. This means it likely won’t release this Summer as I’d planned, but come Autumn, we should have a spooky sequel full of leviathan ghosts, haunted carnivals, and motorcycling minotaurs ready for our bookshelves.

Once those edits are done, I’ll be bouncing between the third Deadly Drinks book and a couple of other new projects. One’s a high fantasy, DnD-esque tale I’ve mentioned here before, while the other is a cyberpunk/cosmic horror mashup. All of these are still in the first-draft stage, so it will take some time before they see the light of day, but I’m excited for all three of them. (And now that I’ve got this new tablet, expect to see more concept illustrations like this one below for the cyberpunk story.)

Concept art for one of the cyberpunk characters, a trans witch cyborg.

Oh, and I almost forgot to mention one other new feature for this site: a Contact Form! If you ever wanted to send me a message, but don’t want to hassle with comments or social media messaging channels, use the contact form to send me a message, and it’ll show up straightaway in my inbox. It sometimes takes me a couple days to respond if I’m busy (as I’m not only deep in edits, but also have a full time day job), but I’ll get to you as soon as I can. I have a couple other exciting updates planned for the site too, but with everything else going on right now, we’ll see when I get around to those.

Hope you’re all staying safe and sane as you can, dear readers! Every day is another victory against all the obstacles that spite you, so keep your chin up. As for me, it’s back to edits I go!

~Dorian

Rolling Right Along: What to Expect from the Bones and Bourbon Re-Release

/ Dorian Graves / Leave a comment

Hello there, dear readers! I hope you’ve survived this past month alright, and if surviving is all you’ve done, that’s still something to be proud of. It hasn’t been easy for anyone. But even with all the turmoil going on, we’ve still got stories, and that’s what has kept me going!

It’s been a busy month of work for Deadly Drinks. Today, I’d like to tell you about what you can look forward to for the Bones and Bourbon re-release!

COVER ART

For the new Bones and Bourbon, I knew it’d need something special to help make it pop in the sea of indie fantasy fiction. As fate would have it, once I decided to go for an illustrated cover, the wonderful M.Brackett (also known as Quel) tweeted about wanting to work on book covers again. With art that’s fantastical, animated, and a dash of whimsy, I knew it’d be a perfect match.

Not only am I teaming up with Quel for the Deadly Drinks series covers, but there will also be streams where you can watch the cover as it’s being created! Quel tends to post on Twitter when a stream’s about to happen, so keep an eye out! We’re still in the thumbnails stage for Bones and Bourbon, and it already looks amazing.

ENHANCED EDITS

Sure, Bones and Bourbon already released once before, but I wanted the book to be in tip-top shape for its self-published debut. I reached out to Bill Tracy, author of the Dissolution series, for editing and advice on self-publishing. Bill has been a font of useful advice, and has also made an already-good book even better.

Worry not: the plot is not changing with these edits. Most of the edits were to clean up sentence structure, remove extraneous words, and make the book easier to read and comprehend. With that said, the book is slightly longer than originally. A couple details have been clarified with better explanations (like how Retz’s body works and how Nalem relates to it), and there is one tiny extra scene with Jarrod and Farris in San Francisco that I will likely release here for those who already bought the original book. I’ve also removed all references to Jarrod’s deadname from the book, as that information wasn’t integral to the story and was otherwise rude to include.

Along with edits, the book will have a new template! I’m not much of a font nerd, but I gotta’ say…I picked up a template to use for the whole Deadly Drinks series for consistency and whatnot, and it looks pretty damn spiffy.

EXTRA FEATURES

That’s right; we’ve got bonus features for the book!

Mainly, there will be a preview for “Corpses and Cognac,” so you’ll be ready for its release in a few months (more on that below)! In addition, I asked in a twitter poll what other feature you’d like to see, and the clear winner…was CONCEPT ART! So look forward to some original Grave artwork depicting the cast of the book. Note that it’ll be in black and white, because colored pages…are expensive.

RELEASE TIMELINE

Now, the questions on everyone’s mind…when, and how, will this new version of Bones and Bourbon release, and how close behind is Corpses and Cognac?

For Bones and Bourbon, I’m looking to release it in early May. This way, I have time to polish up the formatting and perfect that concept art, while Quel works magic on that new cover. When it releases, the book will be published through IngramSpark in both physical and ebook formats, and should be available wherever you prefer to acquire books. Publishing through Ingram also means the book will be easy for bookstores to order, so you can still support your favorite local bookstore by ordering your physical copies from them (or request that your library carry it, if that’s what you prefer)!

Corpses and Cognac is still a few months out from that. While I’m hoping for a release in June or July, I’ll be honest and admit that it may take longer than that. As it didn’t receive any edits from NineStar, it’s still fairly fresh, and will likely need a lot more work. I’m also being respectful of Quel and Bill’s time, as they have their own projects they also need to work around.

Right now, I’m going through Corpses and Cognac again myself, fixing any obvious plot holes or editing mistakes I missed when I finished the draft last year. Once I’m done, I’ll send it on to Bill, and once he’s done with his Kickstarter for the next Dissolution books, we’ll kick edits into high gear. And then, once we have the edits finalized and formatted so we know the page count, we can get the cover template set up and over to Quel for another beautiful cover.

As Corpses and Cognac will be new, I’m also planning to release ARCs of it through NetGalley! I’ll give more details once it’s ready to release, but if you’re a NetGalley reviewer, keep your eyes peeled.

After all that’s said and done? All this work has me super inspired for book 3 of the Deadly Drinks series, and believe you me…it’s going to be a whirlwind of an adventure.

In the meantime, I’m still updating my Patreon with new content. This includes short stories for Deadly Drinks (including one that explains how they acquire a car for Corpses and Cognac), previews of new novels, and behind the scenes posts on my writing methods—and whatever else you’d like to see!

That’s it for now, dear readers. Watch this space for more updates, and in the meantime, stay as safe and sane as you can in these trying times.

~Dorian

New Adventures and Deadlier Drinks

/ Dorian Graves / Leave a comment

Hello dear readers~ Time for another update on “Corpses and Cognac” and the rest of the Deadly Drinks series! It’s not the update anyone expected, but it’s exciting nevertheless.

As of today, I have regained my rights to both books in the Deadly Drinks series! The series is now going to be self-published, with new cover art and some extra features for Bones and Bourbon when it re-releases.

While I still love NineStar and their mission, it’s become apparent that some of our business practices aren’t compatible. I look forward to their new releases, and I’m also leaving Warp Gate Concerto in their hands for the duration of its contract.

Since the books are no longer with NineStar Press, the current edition will be disappearing from most online retailers; the print version will stay on Amazon.com until their stock has sold out. The Goodreads page will also stay up for posterity, and will be the only place you can look at Natasha Snow’s original cover.

This is a big and sudden change, but the Deadly Drinks series will now kick into high gear! I’ll keep you all posted on new release dates as they settle into place, as well as the snazzy new covers and bonus content that’ll come with them.

In the meantime, you can keep up with the adventures of the Gallows brothers and their friends over at my Patreon! I also release behind the scenes content such as writing tips, or this month’s post describing my process of writing and adapting mythical creatures in my books. You get sweet new content, I retain some writing-related income while polishing these books to a shine, and everyone wins!

I can’t wait for this next stage of my publishing journey, and for all you dear readers to come along for the ride.

To new adventures with old friends!

~Dorian

What A Year – It’s Only February?!

/ Dorian Graves / Leave a comment

Hello, dear readers!

My, this year has hit like a hammer! Thank goodness it’s almost over–wait, hold on, my calendar reads February. Is that right? Stars above, preserve me.

I’ve hit this new year and decade running in just about every aspect of my life. My day job has transitioned from an HR/Recruiting role to a more Computer Science oriented role, so I’m cramming as many SQL demos into my eyeballs as I possibly can. And while I don’t talk about my personal life much here, I have made steps to be truer to myself with a new name and preparing for a big life change finally on the horizon.

Of course, we can’t have a Dorian Graves update without discussing writing! Especially since this isn’t a release announcement about Corpses and Cognac. So, what’s going on?

2019 was a hard year for many people, including for my editor and myself, and it hasn’t let up yet. Corpses and Cognac is a big and bold book that still needs a lot of work to be the best damn sequel Bones and Bourbon could ask for, so we’re polishing every aspect until this book shines. At this time, I don’t have a new estimated time of release. But it will be this year, and I thank all of you for your patience.

Now for the good news: I’m now releasing new content every month over on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/doriangraves launched January 1st with two kinds of content. First off, I’m releasing a new short story every month, each piece a couple thousand words long. Right now, they’re centered in the Deadly Drinks universe with stories that are only hinted at in the books, such as the first meeting of Jarrod and Farris, or how the Gallows brothers acquire a car for Corpses and Cognac. The second kind of content is behind the scenes work, showing various aspects of how my books are made. Some will focus on technique, others on the nuts and bolts of aspects like how huldras work or the particulars of magic in the Deadly Drinks series. I’m also open to questions to cover in these posts!

In addition to the Patreon, I’ve been hard at work on “For Those Who Burn,” my standalone fantasy novel. I’ve passed the 20k wordcount mark already, which is pretty exciting (even if it’s scratching the surface for a fantasy novel). I’m currently talking about it for #LGBTWIP this month on Twitter, where I have more frequent updates and commentary on writing progress (and artwork, plus the occasional cat picture).

2020 may be a big and busy year already, but let’s make the most of it. Keep reading and creating, and fill this year with enough stories to make it something wonderful.

Bones and Bourbon – 1 Year Celebration!

/ Dorian Graves / 1 Comment

It’s hard to believe, but Bones and Bourbon has been out in the book world officially for a year! And what a year it’s been; there have been conventions, a slew of reviews (mostly good ones!), e-pirates, Rainbow Awards, and most importantly, the reviews and support of readers and fans like you!

As thanks, I wanted to do something special for the 1 Year Anniversary of my first full-length novel. So I asked on Facebook and Twitter both what I should do to celebrate, which seemed like a good idea until Facebook votes for special artwork, and Twitter voted on a new short story. What was I to do?

Both, of course.

First off, feast your eyes on some celebratory artwork!

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From left: Isamu, Aimi, Retz (holding a Nalem skull), Jarrod, and Farris

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From left: Lady Delight, the Harvester, Vairi, and Alexander (w/ a Unicorn head)

While I originally planned on illustrating a scene from the book, I wanted something that would appeal to both new readers and those who’ve already enjoyed Bones and Bourbon. Hence why I created two celebration scenes; one with our protagonists, and one with the more…complicated characters. I also included the colors of a pride flag fitting each character in their artwork! Can YOU figure out each flag?

Now, I’m also all for writing new content for our favorite drunk and deadly brothers, and since “Corpses and Cognac” doesn’t have a release date yet, I ended up writing a new tale to get everyone excited. You can read On the Rocks here on this website, but here’s a small excerpt below:

I had expected Jarrod to reveal some taped-together contraption, like the scanners on all the late-night ghost hunting shows I loved to laugh at. Maybe some alchemical concoction to smear over our eyes to see things with. A pair of binoculars, at the very least.

Instead, as we stepped onto a beach more clay than sand, strewn with driftwood with a rickety canoe tied to an even dingier pier, Jarrod pulled a collapsible fishing pole out of his coat. Keep in mind that my brother was short to begin with, and his stupid leather coat reached down to his ankles and was weighed down with about five-billion pounds of supplies, including two pistols and a shotgun he’d left in the car.

“Are you hiding an entire tackle box in there too?” I asked as I eyed the canoe. It was red, relatively clean despite its surroundings, and even had two oars slotted in and ready to go. It totally had to be a kelpie in disguise. They loved disguising themselves as vehicles for people to ride.

“Don’t need one.” This time, Jarrod fished out a lure made from a wine cork and some old bottle caps. “Works great for bass.”

“We’re not here to catch bass, bro.” I side-eyed the canoe before leaning in and whispering, “…We’re not, right? Tell me this wasn’t some huge ploy to trick me into going fishing.”

Taking place right after Bones and Bourbon but requiring no prior knowledge of it, On the Rocks follows Retz and Jarrod (and Nalem, whether he wants to or not) as they investigate some mysterious disappearances along the Columbia river. Par for the course, mishaps and complicated feelings about family ensue. It’s a more lighthearted romp, because hey, I think we all figure the boys could use a break.

I hope you all enjoy the new content! And once again, thank you for all your support. After years of working on this story, with these characters so near and dear to my heart, it’s amazing to be able to share these adventures with others. Your support means the world to me, and I’ll strive to do right by it by giving you all the best book series of brothers fighting monsters (and sometimes each other) that the world has ever seen.

BonesandBourbon-f500

Here’s to our first year, and many more to come.

~Dorian

PS: If you happen to be around Cottage Grove, OR this Friday (April 26th) evening, find me at the Cottage Grove Art Walk to celebrate in-person! I’ll have books to sign, stories to tell, and perhaps can be convinced to do a reading…you can find me outside of Delight on Main St.

From the Ashes of Old Tales: on Recycling Characters

/ Dorian Graves / 5 Comments

Sometimes, a story doesn’t work out. Not enough time, plot doesn’t make sense, the list goes on for reasons why a book idea might get scrapped. But does that mean all that plotting need to go waste? Not at all, which is why this post, I’m going to talk about about recycling…recycling old characters, that is.

I’ve been creating new worlds and stories for years, from fanfiction in my youth to college tabletop campaigns and my published original works nowadays. It’s no surprise that I’ve built up a steady stock of characters over this time…as in, enough to populate at least a small town. Some are newer; most of the characters in my short stories, for example, are made specifically for that story. But others, I’ve been writing and re-writing for years. In Bones and Bourbon alone, I’ve had Retz around since Christmas of 2009, Jarrod was created a few months later, and Nalem was created before either of them in 2007.

(Meaning Nalem’s been around as long as a pre-teen, which explains a lot about what it’s like writing him, now that I think about it.)

Of course, these long-time characters have changed quite a lot since their inception. Retz is ace instead of a cowardly womanizer, Nalem is no longer a benevolent demi-god of darkness (much as he may claim to be), and Jarrod…is still a monster-fighting alcoholic, but now with a boatload of identity issues and a steady boyfriend. Heck, said boyfriend Farris was meant to be a one-time character in my first-ever tabletop campaign, but the players attached to him so much that I kept him around and snuck him into a book, where the readers then attached to him, and now he’s one of the main characters.

So, how does one recycle and reinvent characters? If their details and storylines get changed so much, are they even the same person—and if the answer is no, does that matter?

To explain how this process works, I’m going to explain one of my more extreme examples. I’m going to talk about Nalem.

For those who haven’t read Bones and Bourbon yet—first, please do so if dark fantasy action with bad puns is your thing. Second, Nalem is the main antagonist of the story, an ancient spirit who controls bones and experiences the world through a vessel whose body he steals, that currently being protagonist Retz Gallows. Yet as I mentioned above, I first made him as a benevolent deity, despite him being a demi-god of darkness. What changed, and how much of the old Nalem has stuck around over the past eleven years?

We begin with college, when I’m first working on the Deadly Drinks series and trying to figure out how Retz’s powers work. He’d had the bizarre bone-controlling powers since the moment I made him, but I’d decided I wanted there to be a drawback. (I was super invested in magic having equivalently powerful drawbacks in those days; probably from watching too much Full Metal Alchemist.) I had just finished the first draft of Bones and Bourbon, a draft so early it holds no similarity to the finished product, and Retz spent it all alone in his head…save for a key moment in the climax when he was rescued from possession by a sinister voice in his head whispering “Mine” as the spell was broken.

I wanted to know who that voice belonged to. I tried to make a new antagonist, but all I found were stereotypical creepy necromancers. I wanted someone new. I turned to my roster of characters with no stories of their own, which held an already sizable lineup by the time I turned eighteen.

It didn’t take long to stumble upon Nalem. He already had the design in place; back when he was a character with a body, his trademarks were flowing pale hair, thick sunglasses, and a visible spine that descended into a tail with spiked vertebrae. Even without his body, Nalem was a smooth talking immortal who thought he was better at hiding his temper than he was, insisted he was a hero even when others called him a villain, and already had a history of meddling in the lives of other characters for reasons he believed benevolent.

I still had a lot of work to do in turning him from benevolent demi-god to a wicked body-snatching spirit. The toughest thing about recycling characters is deciding what elements to keep and what to throw away; it’s far too easy to force details in just because it’s supposedly integral to the character. I scrapped a tragic love for a goddess of light, deciding there’d be no true deities appearing in the Deadly Drinks books, and set aside his right-hand soldier for a more high fantasy venture (though somehow, this character ended up in the scifi novella instead…) Nalem always had a musical focus for his powers, but his original castanets didn’t seem quite as fitting for Retz, hence the switch to a far more menacing viola. He lost his family, his backstory, and even his body—but that core identity remained.

Could this Nalem still be called the same character as the original demi-god? In terms of design and backstory, there’s almost no similarity past the skeletal theme. But personality wise? New Nalem was a twist on the old, a musing on what would’ve happened if a kind deity was accused of wickedness too many times, even by his own followers. To quote a certain Blue Öyster Cult song, “If he really thinks we’re the devil, then let’s send him to Hell.”

Thus, we had an antagonist, a counterpoint to Retz who stands in his way from within his own head. And from this twist in his original concept, I found a theme for the Deadly Drinks series in exploring what happens when one’s noble purpose becomes corrupted, plus some commentaries on the pitfalls of immortality. Readers loved to hate him so much that instead of making a one-word debut in the climax, he’s right there in Chapter 1 and keeps up his arrogant sarcasm for the whole book. Not bad for a character born from doodling edgy designs in my notebook during class.

And sometimes, characters are like notebooks. They acquire notes and scribbles and odd extra tidbits in the margins. Sometimes, all that paper gets recycled into a brand new notebook. It’s usually not 100% recycled material, says right there on the sticker; some bits are old, some are new, but all the paper’s still blank and waiting for you to spill ink upon.

~Dorian

Once More, With Feeling

/ Dorian Graves / Leave a comment

Hello dear readers, I hope you are all well! Things are busy here in Gravesworld, so I figure I’d best give you all an update before starting this week’s blog post.

First off, events! For those near Cottage Grove, I’ll be selling and signing books at Books on Main during the Art Walk, starting at 6 PM. If enough people show up, I may even do a small reading!

Then, come August, you can find me at SpoCon up in Spokane, Washington! Not only will I have my books available, but I’ll also be appearing on a number of panels, discussing everything from fantasy creatures to tabletop games and colonization in sci-fi. If you’re in the area August 10th through 12th, I’d love to see you there.

In other news, not only has Bones and Bourbon continued to do well, but its sequel “Corpses and Cognac” is in the works. We have a tentative release month for it over at NineStar, so long as I am able to complete a workable draft by the end of summer. I’m currently three chapters (out of twenty-one) into Draft 2, and for various reasons, I’m rewriting most of the book.

Sound scary? On the surface, but in this part of the process for me, it’s business as usual. Now that I have a couple books (well, a novel and a novella) under my belt, I have a better idea of what to expect for the jump from Draft 1 to Draft 2. Thus, today’s blog is about the refining process of later book drafts, as we slowly lurch from writing to editing.

In reality, the draft numbers are arbitrary for me; when it comes to the Deadly Drinks books, I’ve actually written them numerous times before Draft 1 is completed. These “Draft 0” stories are the preliminary runs deemed unfinished or unsuitable for publication. Bones and Bourbon’s Draft 0 was only the same in title and protagonists; it didn’t even have Nalem or Farris, much less anything even resembling the same plot. Corpses and Cognac had much of the same characters, but its various early drafts kept wandering in strange directions, ending too early or getting lost in weird concepts that didn’t fit the rest of the book.

Draft 1 is what I call the completed draft I decide I want to refine into a book. The overall characters are in place, the plot hits most of the moments I want, and I have an idea of the book’s themes. If I already have so much in place, why am I still rewriting the entire book for Draft 2? Well, there are a number of reasons…

  • Updating the writing style. I finished Draft 1 back in early 2016, after a couple years of false starts and Draft 0’s. It wasn’t an easy book to develop, so after my beta reader gave it a look, I let it sit for awhile as I started the third book and edited Bones and Bourbon. As such, I’ve written quite a bit since then, and my skills have improved quite a bit. It’s time to bring “Corpses and Cognac” up to that level.

  • Strengthening story elements. All the prior drafts were about figuring out where I wanted the plot and character arcs to go. Now that I have an idea of what I want to keep, I can cut out the extraneous details and build up what works best. This is the draft where most of the foreshadowing comes into the story, new concepts are fine-tooled to fit the story (while making sure they remain consistent with the series as a whole), and the cool descriptions come in.

  • Reworking an antagonist. Because I realized, in the middle of writing Chapter 2 of this draft, that elements of one antagonist were perhaps a bit too similar to Lady Delight’s in the first book. Even if it was just me being paranoid, I still figured it better to change things now than hope no one notice later. Hence, changing how that antagonist works—and fiddling with my outline in the process.

  • Finding the humor. “Corpses and Cognac” began as a rather bleak story, all things considered. Then again, so did Bones and Bourbon. I have to know the story first before figuring what makes elements of it funny. Humor and the darker elements of a story are delicate to balance; they best work together when they ebb and flow, so readers are eased out of the deep stuff by a moment of light and brevity.

  • Letting the characters speak. Draft 1 is a journey in what needs to be said. Draft 2 concerns how that’s spoken. Retz and Jarrod alone sound quite different from each other, from their word choices to their sentence structure. Now that I’ve worked with both old characters and new, it’s time to make sure each of them sound distinct (and for the reoccurring characters, that they sound familiar too). By the end, the goal is that readers should be able to tell who’s who even if they ignore all dialogue tags.

In the end, is that a lot? Well…perhaps it is. As it turns out, that’s the nice thing about giving the draft time to sit while working on other parts of the series in the meantime. After months (er, years) of thinking on it, the words are flowing like a fine wine. Even if the words and some of the story elements are new to me, I’ve lived with this story so long that I know where it needs to go as I write it. Armed with the first draft and a rocking playlist, I’m ready to polish this draft into the novel it needs to be.

Right now, my main goal is to treat this like an extended NaNoWriMo; write every day that I can, and try to hit a higher word count when possible. However, it’s also important not to burn out, so I’m making a concentrated effort to take time to relax, be social, and plot out other projects. Through a balance of dedication and recharging, this draft of “Corpses and Cognac” should finish up by summer’s end, maybe even with time for a pass by my beta reader and some literary polish for Draft 3 before it hits my editor’s inbox.

I’m excited. Are you, dear readers?

~Dorian

From the Secret Diaries of Evil…

/ Dorian Graves / 1 Comment

It’s almost here!

“Bones and Bourbon” releases this coming Monday…except for those who pre-ordered the ebook through NineStar Press, who can download their copies tomorrow. For everyone else, Amazon currently has print and ebook copies ready to preorder, as does Barnes & Noble, and ebooks can also be acquired through Kobo and Smashwords. I’ll update you here as more options, such as Barnes & Noble, become available.

As expected, I’m both excited and low-key freaking out. It’s a good kind of freakout, but still. This is actually happening. I can’t thank you all enough for helping this happen, because even your presence alone has been an invaluable support to me.

Now let me tell you about last Saturday, when I participated in an Author Takeover on Facebook for NineStar Press authors. There were a lot of entertaining presentations and conversations, and for my part, I shared some artwork and information for the creatures set to appear in “Bones and Bourbon,” complete with some commentary from my antagonist Nalem’s secret notebook. However, I recognize that not everyone has a Facebook page, or wants to scroll through all the discussions to find my posts, which is why I’ve decided to re-post them all here! Without further ado…

ATN Retz

Retz, with Nalem as a laughing skull.

“There are those who call me an evil necromancer. Regardless of their morality, they are wrong, if only because I do not RAISE THE DEAD, just their bones. What use have I for flesh? It is weak, fallible, and…smelly. Eugh. I also refuse to be called a lich, a witch, sorcerer, or any other inane titles. I am but a self-made god.” —Nalem

Fantasy is rife with the undead and those who raise them. Flip through any generic fantasy tale, be it a Tolkien rip-off or a modern horror tale, and you’ll find necromancers and zombie hordes galore. Sometimes, there are also just skeletons running around, with no flesh and no cares in the world, and they’re goofy to watch.

At least, it is until Retz and Nalem get involved.

Nalem was created by taking many of my favorite antagonist tropes—formless spirit that can possess people, “raising” the dead, a penchant for snark and inflicting horrific bodily harm—mashing them together into one evil bastard, and then sticking said bastard into a protagonist’s head. I also decided that instead of raising zombies, he would only have powers over their bones, either animating them as their skeletons were or completely warping them to suit his whims. Swords out of ribs? Check. Fusing your enemy’s teeth together? Also check. The result is a “hero” with decidedly un-heroic powers, and a deep connection between a man and the world’s greatest evil…who also happens to be his worst enemy, mentor, and confidante all rolled into one arrogant package.

…

ATN Huldra

Jarrod (left), Retz from the back (upper right), and their parents (lower right)

“I have never been a fan of huldras. They have always flaunted their emptiness, as if that makes them immune to my powers. They also keep claiming I’m “wicked” and “beyond redemption,” as if I care about their opinions. However, I suppose I should thank them for their foolish ways; they have inadvertently created the perfect vessel, with which I may finally complete my plans…
…If that troublesome brother of his doesn’t decide to “rescue him” first.” —Nalem

Traditionally, huldras are creatures in Norse and Scandinavian lore, though there have been mentions of them in other cultures. They are known for their ethereal beauty, complicated by a cow tail (or a fox tail, in certain variations) and a gaping hole across their back that reveals their bodies to be hollow inside. They are known to assist those who are polite, but those who cross them are reminded of their strength when the huldra straightens an iron horseshoe with their bare hands…or just uses their immense strength to batter the offender senseless.

In “Bones and Bourbon,” our sibling protagonists have a huldra mother who fits the lore, but since the Gallows brothers are also half human, they are known as hulderkind. Jarrod inherited his mother’s incredible strength—and a cow tail—but Retz’s biology is far stranger. He has the hole in his back and his hollow inside, save that unlike a traditional huldra, he still has a human skeleton. This led to him being the perfect vessel for Nalem, whose powers can warp Retz’s bones to suit his whims without worrying about puncturing any vital organs.

I also gave the huldras sped-up healing, so the Gallows brothers don’t have to visit a hospital after every fight. Plus, it seems huldras have developed an instinct for judging whether someone is good or evil…and while Retz’s morals are warped by his necromantic mental roommate, Jarrod’s instincts are clearer than he’d care to admit.

…

ATN Furaribi

Isamu (left) and Aimi (right), Furaribi siblings

“Fools more superstitious than I would consider spotting a furaribi to be an ill omen, much less two of them so far from home. I, of course, will not be waylaid by such opinions; all I have to do is track these creatures without my vessel betraying me, and I will be one step closer to the fruition of my plans.
…And yet, I swear that girl is familiar. Have I somehow encountered her and forgotten? Or does her boundless optimism and love of scathing pop music simply remind me of my vessel?” —Nalem

Furaribi aren’t particularly common as far as yokai (spirits and other creatures from Japan) go. They’re said to take the form of fiery birds with dog-like faces as they float along riverbanks. They supposedly form from lost souls unable to pass on to the next life, and while most are content to float in peace, some can be goaded into a vengeful fury if reminded of their past lives…

Since not much is known about furaribi, I’ve given them a couple twists for “Bones and Bourbon.” For one, I made them more humanoid, though their talons and fiery wings are still reminiscent of birds. I also gave them the ability to disguise themselves in a human form, so they may travel past their riverbanks to mingle with mortal society. Their origins are unclear in this story; their only concern is escaping their wicked lamia captors. However, it may be significant that Aimi is the first furaribi to be born outside of Japan, and a few key powers seem interested in her…

…

ATN Lamia

Lady Delight

“A letter from Lady Delight arrived today. Of course the damnable snake refused to state what she needed help with—she has to lure me over first before she can bribe me, after all. Or betray me, seeing how she loves to mimic my own tactics.
I should burn the letter and send back the ashes as my reply. Then again, if the rumors are true, she may finally have the connections I need to make her useful. I may as well investigate the veracity of these claims…but first, I’ll have to find a goat.” —Nalem

The lamia seen in “Bones and Bourbon” are a composite of multiple snake-women hybrids found in mythology. The most notable is Lamia, a lover of Zeus who was cursed by Hera into a monstrous form often described as serpentine; most art depicts her with the upper half of a woman and the lower half of a snake, similar to Gorgons who also feature in Greek Mythology. However, the lamia in “Bones and Bourbon” also have a completely nonhuman form, where they resemble giant snakes such as the Hindu Naga…except they also grow multiple heads as they age, reminiscent the multi-headed Hydra. Plus, their fangs contain deadly poison, just like…actual venomous snakes!

Lamia are also known to live for centuries, which gives them time to indulge in their common hobby as collectors. Unfortunately for the Gallows brothers, the lamia they have to face is Lady Delight, owner of a fantastical menagerie of monsters. Sentient, rare monsters she’s planning on selling at an otherworldly fair. And the highlights of her collection, a pair of furaribi, have just escaped her lair…

…

ATN Unicorns

Two rude, bloody unicorns

“I hate when unicorn heads escape and bleed all over my notebook. I still neither know nor care why it was following me, but Lady Delight should appreciate the gift. For now, I think I’ll leave it in the passenger seat; I want to see how my vessel reacts when he wakes up.” —Nalem

Ah, unicorns. Pure champions of love, light, justice and…wait, is that blood?

Yes, unicorns are one of the few common creatures you’ll see in “Bones and Bourbon,” but these aren’t the mild-mannered sweethearts you find statues of at the kitschy fantasy stores. These unicorns are warriors, carnivores who purify the blood spilling from their kills. As long as a unicorn’s horn is intact, they cannot be stopped, even as a disembodied head. For reasons unknown, they also seem to have a vendetta against Retz, even though he doesn’t actually have any blood in him to purify. Perhaps they just don’t like him and his decrepit car?

…

…

…

ATN Alexander

Alexander Gallows as a Fae

“Good news: Alexander Gallows is dead!
Bad news: I wasn’t the one to kill him.
Worst news: Whoever DID kill him botched the job, and now he’s an undead Faerie, complete with powers he really didn’t need. I should have murdered him myself while I had the chance!” —Nalem

The word Faerie brings a variety of beings to mind. Some think of Tinkerbell and other diminutive beings with glittery wings, flowery homes, and pint-sized attitude. Others imagine grand courts full of magic and deceit. And then there are those who imagine the “kindly ones” waiting just off the path, luring travelers to follow them to the lands of the dead or other strange worlds…

All these and more count as Fae in “Bones and Bourbon,” though the most commonly seen are the latter. A world known as Arcadia waits just past our world, twisting the familiar into visages where chrome trees leak oil and castles of fire and light await on brimstone clouds. Those who die in Arcadia find they do not stay dead, but fuse with the environment to become bizarre creatures. Such a fate has befallen Alexander Gallows, father to our protagonists…though in his case, his transformation may not entirely be a curse.

…

ATN Farris

Farris O’Reilly

“I love when mortals bring me toys to break. Jarrod, you make it all to easy to ruin your day. Wait, he’s able to see the supernatural AND has no memory to speak of? Could I be so lucky? It seems that Fate has decided to smile upon me after all…!” —Nalem

Of course there are humans in “Bones and Bourbon,” even if they don’t make up much of the cast because…well, almost every story has humans, but how many have snake-ladies and carnivorous unicorns? But I may as well mention how humans play into this supernatural mess, if only so I can showcase a picture of the novel’s main human, Farris.

Most humans can’t see the supernatural. Well, they can, they just…can’t comprehend the supernatural for long, so their memories warp so that events make sense to them. They’re quite skilled at accidentally ruining paranormal plans without realizing it, particularly because a mysterious being known as “The Harvester” seems to be protecting them from supernatural backlash.

Once in a while, for a myriad of reasons, a human comes along that can see man and monster both, often becoming mediators between them. One of these was Alexander Gallows, father to our protagonists Retz and Jarrod. Another is Farris, daredevil amnesiac and Jarrod’s devoted boyfriend. Where did he come from, how does he know how to use a sword, and what makes him think trying to rodeo a unicorn’s in any way a good idea?

…

Oh dear, Nalem found me with his notebook. I was going to tell you all about two mysterious beings, The Harvester and Bloody Mary, but Nalem just…ripped the corresponding page out of his notebook, tore it up, and ate the pieces. Guess you’ll have to read “Bones and Bourbon” to find out what that’s about, now won’t you?

Hope you’re ready for the 23rd, dear readers.

~Dorian