Accidental Adventures Hype

 I'm posting off schedule because I received this Raconteur Press email and liked it so much, I decided to post it on this blog. It's fabulous!

Book 2 of Stan Wheeler’s Accidental Adventures boys adventure series released this month! Let’s take a look at that action!

Two brothers. One dead wizard. And a spell nobody warned them about.

Twins Chris and Kenny only meant to walk through the giant fallen log at the end of Grandpa’s trail. Instead, the world explodes into fire and thunder, and they crash-land in a medieval kingdom on the losing side of a war. A dying blood mage summoned them on purpose, and now Chris is expected to take his place.

There’s just one catch. In this world, magic is paid for in blood. Every spell Chris casts — fingers of fire, a flick that stuns, a stone that breaks locks — opens a fresh wound. They call it the mulct, and the bigger the magic, the bigger the price. Meanwhile Kenny is handed an enchanted sword and mail shirt and told he’s a knight now. Ready or not.

To get home — and to stop a dragon-sorceress whose army is already crossing the Wide Waste — the boys have to find a staff sealed inside a mountain since Merlin’s day. Between them and the prize: flying blood wolves that hunt mages by scent, a valley of shape-shifting trolls, a traitor on a war-wolf, and a one-eyed pirate they were sure they’d already blown up.

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I snapped the thumb and middle finger of my wounded hand. “Fire!” I yelled, throwing my hand toward the chandelier. A sheet of fire appeared beyond my fingers, speeding with a whoosh across the chandelier, melting two inches off every candle.

The wings came forward, feathered tips down, touched before her face, and parted again like a curtain. The mouth remained closed, but we heard a voice; a feminine whisper spoke to our minds: “Look upon your doom!”

I had no shield or sword. I reacted with the only weapon that came to mind, snapping my fingers and shooting a fan of flame at the streak of flying fur and fangs.

A metal helm with holes for the ears guarded Badda’s snout and head. A net of chainmail glistened in the moonlight, protecting the wolf’s neck. Otho wore a mail shirt and coif. Over the shirt, a tunic of gray bore a red lion standing on its hind legs with his forepaws clawing the air. Otho carried a war axe in one hand.

“Welcome, again,” Brand said. “This is Duke Leofwine, whose hospitality you enjoy, and this is King Dunstan, our former enemy now become our ally.”

“Stay close together. Don’t get separated. They can overwhelm and take down any one of us by ourselves... A man alone is dead. Separated, we are three dead men.”

...a younger man with long blond hair and a reddish beard. He wore a loose, gray shirt and a brown vest. His denim pants were ragged and torn above each ankle.

…

“Not the same boys? They’re a year older is all.”

It flopped upward like some bizarre robot assembling before us. It grew to three feet, then six. Finally, six short arms held knobbed club, and the thing leaned and teetered back and forth like a drunken sailor.

---

Two brothers. One wrong turn. A different world every time.

The Accidental Adventures Series!

Chris and Kenny go looking for adventure with their grandpa, and they keep finding the kind that shoots back.

A crack in a cave wall drops them into a Caribbean that never made the history books, where pirates sell boys like cargo and a green dragon burns ships to ash. A fallen log at the end of Grandpa’s trail throws them into a kingdom at war, where magic is paid for in blood and every spell Chris casts opens a wound in his own skin.

No superpowers. No way to save and reload. Two pocketknives, whatever they can talk their way into, and each other.

Every book in The Accidental Adventure series strands the twins somewhere new and takes away everything but their nerve. They load flintlocks. They climb burning rigging. They walk onto Dragon Island because the one thing that gets them home is sitting on it. And when Grandpa’s advice comes back to them, if you don’t feel brave then pretend you are, they do exactly that. The alternative is staying.

Fast, funny, and genuinely dangerous, for readers 8 to 12 who would rather live a story than sit still for one.

Start with Accidental Pirates. Bring snacks!

Crusade to Lisbon

 Fun Fact:

More 2nd Crusade:  (From Chapter 15 of Crusaders by Dan Jones)

Although not part of the 2nd Crusade's proclaimed goals, at about the same time, turmoil in Sicily allowed its fall. Roger II to establish himself there, blending the Muslim influence with the other existing cultures. Likewise, Bernard of Clairvaux authorized the Danes and Saxons to crusade against the Wends near their own lands rather than traveling to join the fight in the Holy Land. Additionally, Lisbon was an important port with links inland via the Tagus; it also had important shipping connections with West Africa. Pope Eugene favored fighting the infidel at every opportunity and approved a plan by Alphonse VII of Castille and Leon to attack on the western peninsula. With the Almoravid Muslims occupied by a Berber rebellion, Alphonso saw an opportunity. Lisbon was also a natural stopping place for crusaders coming from England and Northern Europe by sea--looting along the way would help fund the crusade.

A huge fleet of 164 ships departed from Dartmouth May 23, 1147. When they landed in Porto on June 16, Alphonso was already on the march to Lisbon. After a rousing sermon, they set sail again to join Alphonso at Lisbon where they beached the ships and laid siege to the city. In July, they took the suburbs and constructed siege engines to attach the main city. They locked it up tight and sent back any who dared leave to plead for mercy with their hands cut off. The defenders' repeated sorties were repeatedly rebuffed until they were reduced to hurling taunts and strong language.

The crusaders had taken the main warehouses and the defenders suffered from hunger, sifting through the trash drifting from the crusader ships for food. In late October, a section of the city wall fell to mines and siege towers bridged over another section. The crusaders sacked the city and Alphonso raised his flag. With winter setting in, the crusaders would be unable to travel until spring.

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I'm getting notes that fans are in happy receipt of Accidental Wizard. I think they'll enjoy it even more than Accidental Pirates. Meanwhile, I've only a few chapters left to conclude Accidental Chessmen. The boys go from frying pan to fire, but have so far managed to make the right connections or find the right resources to extricate themselves each time. They'll need everything they've learned to survive the final chapters and find their way back home.

 

Accidental Wizard and The 2nd Crusade

 

 Accidental Wizard released this week. From the back jacket:

Chris and Kenny wanted an adventure. They should have been more specific.

One step through an old fallen log and the twins are hurled into a kingdom at war--where a dying wizard has just spent his life summoning them. Now Chris is a blood mage, and every spell he casts tears his own skin. Kenny gets a sword that never loses and a shirt that turns blades aside. They'll need both.

A dragon-sorceress is coming. Her army is already crossing the desert, and the only thing that can stop her is a staff hidden since Merlin's time--guarded by blood wolves, trolls, and a traitor who wants the boys dead.

Two brothers. One impossible quest. No way home until it's finished.

It gives away a little more of the story than I would've, but it should arouse interest in the story.

You can get it here: ACCIDENTAL WIZARD is on sale this month. (Note this is an affiliate link whereby I or Rac Press or someone may receive some commission on qualifying purchases).

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FUN FACT: (From Chapter 14 of Crusaders by Dan Jones)

Edessa, one of the first Crusader states to be established, came under attack in the fall of 1144 by Imad al-dinn Zengi. The city fell to the besiegers on Christmas eve. Hugh, Bishop of Edessa, was trampled to death in the onslaught. Naturally, the Crusaders looked to Europe for aid.

Hugh, Bishop of Jabala, envoy for the Crusaders, found the papal state in turmoil. The newly elected pope, Bernardo Paganelli, had taken the name of Eugenius III; he needed something behind which Christendom could unite. Eugenius leaned heavily upon his mentor, Bernard of Clairvaux. December 1, 1146, Eugenius issued a call to the faithful to rescue their brethren in the Holy Land by a new crusade.

March 31, 1146, King Louis VII and Bernard of Clairvaux mounted a wooden platform outside Vezelay in northern Burgandy to stir the audience to righteous fervor. While the French King prepared for the crusade, Clairvaux went on to Brussels and elsewhere to spread the good word for action. He persuaded Conrad III of Germany and that king's greatest rival, Welf VI of Bavaria to join the crusade. 

Easter, 1147, fifty years after The First Crusade, and more than two years after the fall of Edessa, The Second Crusade set out for the Holy Land.

 

 

 

 

Ghost from the Past

 A ghost from the past formed in the smoke as the candles went out. A scene from Accidental Wizard - preorder now. Available September 11.

Twin brothers walk through a fallen log and land in a kingdom under siege. The wizard who pulled them across dies doing it, and Chris — the one with blood on his cheek — is handed the dead man's job. His first lesson is a knife across the palm and a chandelier he has never been taught to light.

For parents and teachers: roughly 48,000 words across 31 short chapters, first person, alternating between the two brothers. Book 2 of the Accidental Adventures series, and it opens with enough context to be read on its own. No romance, no crude language. Worth knowing going in: the magic system runs on the caster's own blood, and Chris carries wounds through most of the book.

ACCIDENTAL WIZARD is on sale this month. (Note this is an affiliate link whereby I or Rac Press may receive some commission on qualifying purchases).

The unpacking continues. The storage unit is emptied--thanks to some friends--and most of that stuff has found a place in Xanadu. Unfortunately, much of it remains boxed in the caves of ice, but all the bookcases are up and in the process of receiving designated contents. I also discovered these beauties that I hadn't been able to find for years and wondered if they were lost or stolen:

I also found three boxes of metal figures--two 12 packs of adventurers and one of twice that many monsters. Old school heavy metal figures that I painted in high school and gamed with for hundreds of hours. I can honestly say that my painting skills haven't improved.

In writing, I've paused Accidental Chessmen for a day or two in order to work out the details of the titular game, because it can't be regular chess our heroes must play. They must learn and succeed at a similar game on a different planet. I took inspiration from ERB's The Chessmen of Mars for this adventure, and naturally, there must be a fabulous chess game with living players as part of the high stakes conclusion. I have to play a few games to fine tune the relationships between the pieces. The first game revealed that the casualty rate is extremely high. The losing side was down to three pieces before conceding defeat, and the winning side was down to six survivors. The short moves and layout of the board and pieces necessitate trading of pieces in an effort to create an advantage or breakthrough opportunity. The balance of power can shift suddenly.

Here's a scene from Threading the Rude Eye in which Jonathan Knight makes an exit from a tavern in a more conspicuous manner than he had hoped. The knife is supposed to be pinning the malevolent sailor's palm to the bar, but apparently depicting that would violate some ill-defined standard.

The books in the series are on sale for 99 cents each. From Sept 4 to Sept 11 -- and then it's over, so don't miss out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Antonio in the rigging and a book review

  

 Those of you who have read Threading the Rude Eye may recognize this scene in which Antonio dares the British to do their worst. He, of course, has great confidence in his enchanted ward against British ball--as well as his personal charm with women.

Earlier today, I spent a short time Les Freres Corses, and we did one of our talking adventures. (These adventures don't use dice or abilities etc; each participant makes a suggestion of what happens next in the adventure--like being spotted by dinosaurs, making it the ruins, suffering a fall, or what happens when the single lit button in the ancient UFO is pushed--and then everyone votes by playing one of three cards dealt to them to start the game. The suggestion that receives the high card is what happens; and the players each draw another card). Anyway, I'll spare you the turn by turn, but in less than an hour, the heroes escaped dinosaurs, discovered a secret passage into the ruins, activated an ancient starship and survived the crash thereof, were attacked by a giant spider and dinosaurs, did some highly cinematic battle sequences, and completed the mission while suffering some serious wounds.

One of the things we talked about was the imminent release of Accidental Wizard - the sequel to Accidental Pirates. (Amazon Associate link acknowledgement: I, or someone else, may receive some kind of remuneration or commission when the link is used). Let me share with you something about the new book before we get to the book review for this week:

Chris and his twin brother Kenny step into a fallen log on a hike with their grandfather and come out on a grassy hill in a kingdom at war. The court mage who summoned them is dying on the spot from the cost of the spell. Within the hour, Chris has been handed a cut palm and an order to produce fire.

The magic in this book is not free. Every spell Chris casts opens a wound somewhere on his own body — the book calls it the mulct — and it never stops being true. Power costs something and he is the one who pays it.

There is no romance subplot and no crude language. What there is: two brothers who refuse to be separated, and a grandfather who sends them off expecting them to come back having learned something.

ACCIDENTAL WIZARD is on sale this month.

Check out the cover: 

 

Book Review:

 

I finished reading Rick Cutler's excellent book, Colt Ostergaard: Man with a Gun. I've already sent him a note of appreciation for writing the book. It's a rip-roaring good time and a rootin' tootin' shootin' read. Colt's a man of honor surrounded by dishonorable people from both sides of a war, the wounds from which have never healed. Colt is the man in the middle, the honorable man who is therefore a target and scapegoat for those carrying the wounds. Speaking of wounds, Colt's not the white knight hero who never gets a wound. In fact, if there is something that is opposite of the guy who never gets a scratch, it would be Colt. Get his book on your list to be read immediately.

I could tell you more about this book, the planet Fenris, the war with the Alphies, the fur snakes, the 40 year winter, the exoskeletons, etc., but I won't ruin the delightful discovery of these things for yourself.