I Have Published My First Book

The Ballad of the Emerald Bard: Opus 01 - The Suite of Seduction, Lost Love, and Revenge.  Is Available Now!

It has been a very long time in coming.  Beyond a long time, really.  So many folks had expected me to publish something right out of high school.  And indeed, I have written quite a bit.  It has been a long road, with life constantly getting in my way.

With the start of the blog, I knew above all else, that I was going to write a fantasy story and put it out there.  The Ballad of the Emerald Bard was wonderfully received, yes, but let’s face it, this blog is more of a hobby.

An Announcement

An Announcement:

I am sure many have already noticed, but I have removed the Ballad of the Emerald Bard from the website.  Why you may ask?  The time has come for the next phase in Deeya’s life.  I am going to publish the Ballads into novel length collections of short stories.  These new editions are unedited (as Blogspot’s policies stated I could not publish “adult” content and still have AdSpace), extended editions that fit together better now that they no longer have to be broken up in serial format.

What this means is, soon, you will be able to buy hard cover, physical editions, as well as a digital edition for you Kindle.  On top of these new versions of the stories, which are radically different, there will be brand new stories!  In the first Opus, the first story is now a much better introduction to the character, showing her range, secrets, and morality.

Anyways, stay tuned for more info!

--Dan

A Character's Story

Everyone knows, by now, that I truly love writing and creating characters.  Its one of the true joys of creativity, to be able to really get into a story and work through it.  What most don’t know is, the character of El’Mindeeya Do’Katal, the Emerald Bard, has been around for quite some time, probably close to a decade, and only just recently has she been truly captured in a high quality picture.

She started off as just a name.  Deeya.  Such a simple beginning, but I loved how the name sounded.  It sounded almost elvish, but it was used in other ways first.  In fact, before we go any further, let me go even further back.

Status Update of the Blog and Life 08/2013

There’s nothing like a little update on how everything’s going on the website, hopefully I can drum up a bit more interest in certain things while doing it.  We’ll see, though.  If you haven't checked it out, be sure to read the Press Release that came out on August 4th.

As of this last weekend, the 6th serial story in the Ballad of the Emerald Bard came to a close.  The next order of business in the Ballad is to rewrite the 2nd story.  Buried Secrets was a 5 part story that, I realize now, was poorly written.  Part of the grand experiment of this serial webfiction is to fix mistakes after they are published.  Its something I knew ahead of time I wanted to do, so here’s my first chance.

(poem - Deeya) - A Closed Heart

My heart was closed
For so very long
Closed to all
Who wanted to get along

I had suiters
To be sure
But I cared for none
No matter how pure.

Seeking Artist for the Ballad of the Emerald Bard

The one thing my blog lacks, and I know it lacks this more than anything else, is photos and pictures.  I get a decent amount of traffic and I’m very proud and humbled by how much I do get, but there’s no telling how much more I’d get if I spent a bit more time and tossed in some pictures.  So, I’ve decided to go out of my way to attempt to add a bit of life to at least part of the blog.

Recently I’ve started a campaign to get some artist renditions of the Ballad of the Emerald Bard’s main character, Deeya, drawn.  Its actually quite daunting looking at artist’s work and then seeing how much they would do a piece of art for.

(poem) - Cahsh Dynar Night.

Back in Ballad of the Emerald Bard: Making the Band - 5, I knew that Deeya, for the second time, would be called out to perform on stage.  It was a wonderful opportunity to pull out a song from her early days as a video game character.  The problem is, the song I had in mind was quite interlaced in that old video game's lore.

So, I set about rewriting it.  As I rewrote the poem, I created a new city, a desert city named Cahsh Dynar, where there are sultans and the slave trade, giving the city a very ancient Arabian city, with a seedy side.  This, in turn, brought out the character named The Masked Canary, and inspired parts four through six of Making the Band.  It also allowed me to bring in a different version of Deeya's backstory and add a bit of mystery to her history.  I truly love it when inspiration goes in a circle like that.

Either way, please enjoy this poem, out of the story's performance setting where you can judge it on its poetic merits.

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(poem) - Emerald & Crimson Duet

As I've mentioned a few times before, Deeya was a character in a video game I once played.  In that game, I had several bard friends, one of which played a 'red' bard, which was a great contrast to Deeya's 'green.'  Once, the other player and I sat down and hashed out a duet for the two characters to perform together.

Karn'Al Jex'Ter is a direct homage to that character, though radically different.  In the Ballad of the Emerald Bard: Making the Band - 3, Karn'Al and Deeya sing a duet.  I rewrote the original duet to suit Karn'Al and Deeya, and wove it into the story in performance format.  Here, though, is rewritten poem outside of the story for anyone who loves sheer poetry to enjoy.

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Ballad of the Emerald Bard: Appendix - Characters

I've been pondering on doing this for a while, and now that Mother of the Bride is finished, now is the best time, I believe.  This is an appendix to Ballad of the Emerald Bard, in which I keep a list of every character Deeya comes across.  For those that really enjoy the Ballad, this will be an extremely valuable resource.  Expect it to change and grow as the Ballad continues to be sung.

(poem - Deeya) - Encroaching Darkness

For those of you following Ballad of the Emerald Bard: Buried Secrets, you know that Deeya has had a trap sprung upon her, and she's in a very dark place.  So, I went in and pulled out an old Deeya poem that reflects what she's going through, not knowing if she's going to pull though, yet having to pick yourself up and keep trudging along.  I hope you enjoy Encroaching Darkness, a poem that Deeya has performed 'live,' at one of her venues.

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(poem - Deeya) I Have Loved

(( In celebration of the 3rd part of Ballad of the Emerald Bard - Old Debts coming out tomorrow, I would like to share this older poem.  I've often mentioned that Deeya was a character and I wrote poems for her to be songs.  This is one such poem, and is kind of relevant to the story, Old Debts.  Here I also include an actual performance with the emotes, so you can get an idea of what it was like to see Deeya perform live. Please enjoy, and if you want to see the story jump straight to the Ballad of the Emerald Bard Page with a Table of Contents to the whole story so far!)) ))

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An Etymology of the Emerald Bard

For those of you wondering about where Deeya came from, I decided to write a blog about it.  If you haven’t checked into the weekly serial you can catch the entire series HERE, and they will continue to come out every Saturday at 7pm CST.

Her original name was, “El’Mindeeya Do’Katal, the Emerald Bard of Kelethin.”  She was created in an MMO, and was a true Role Play character.  The MMO went into decline, and I pulled out of it.  It was truly a shame, but the company that ran it, Sony, just did not understand its fanbase.  It’s a tragic but true thing about online gaming, that will hopefully one day be addressed by someone.