StanleyWheeler

     The clouds in the summer sky burned in the red-orange rage of a dispossessed sun crashing below the horizon. The dark hills--recumbent silhouette--shielded the landscape from the final fury of the sinking disk. Seven riders passed along a narrow trail away from the shadow and into the flat expanse separating them from the village. Sharp noses and the harsh lines of many campaigns marked their faces. Neither kindness, mercy, nor remorse found place in the experience etched in their features. (The Riders - To be continued) _________________ I wrote a short story this week and therefore didn't get any writing done on Book 6.  I'm still getting kind words on the talk I gave last week. Comments included: "It was amazing" and "It made me cry." -- I'm hoping that last one was meant in a good way. I've learned it was referred to on the youth activity, but I don't know whether the context was "don't do that" or "see, anyone can giv...

       Ideas vie with one another like battling dragons in the ether. Or, another bad metaphor: Life is like the box for Schrodinger's cat, except it's full of angry badgers--which may be redundant because all badgers are angry, aren't they?-- and the box has a tear in it. It's only a matter of time before one or more of the live one comes scrambling out to demand attention. First: At last chapter 21 is complete. What had been chapter 19 has been pushed to chapter 22, because once the writing begins, it must take a certain course to completion. Characters have to do what they have to do, and in their particular way and method. There are several balls in the air in book 6 of the Tomahawks and Dragon Fire Series, and sometimes the timing of the telling of each thread is relevant to the telling of the others. Meanwhile, we can't leave any thread cold too long or the reader will have forgotten the elements of the tension in that story line. I know where it's all ...

  Interview with Jay S. Willis  Author of The Sphere Saga and The Arcana Chronicles    Please tell me a little about your current work in progress. I am currently working on Order of the Sphere which is the first book of the second trilogy of my Epic Fantasy Sphere Saga series. This book introduces a new Point of View character who will shed light upon part of the world which has not been explored in depth. Order picks up after the conclusion of the first trilogy and follows the rebuilding of the city of Kaharna after the establishment of a new government after the theocratic apparatus which had been in power for three millennia was toppled. Where did you get the idea for this book or series? The Sphere Saga began with a piece of digital artwork called Sunset Mood that featured a beautiful massive golden sphere in the middle of a city. It captivated me and I couldn’t stop pondering why the Sphere was there and what purpose it served. The story sprouted fr...

  I rolled into the UCCC--which does not stand for Uniform Commercial Code Conference--for the Writers Cantina around 8:30. There were two other cars in the lot, a white van and something blue that was not a van. A man occupied the driver's seat of the white van. I approached the vehicle on the passenger side, and he didn't roll up the window, drive away, or brandish a weapon, so I introduced myself. He called himself Lee and hailed from an unnamed swath of sod and sage near Vernal. He was a writer. I had arrived at the correct location, but he told me the place was locked. Another individual arrived and, without making inquiry with us, went toward the building. I lost sight of him as I continued my conversation with Lee. A fourth party arrived--and I use "party" to mean a particular individual for the express purpose of making the event sound more festive--and we three decided to storm the castle. We didn't see the third individual and therefore assumed he had go...

      John Trumbull's Declaration of Independence  Below is my version of a portion of John Adam's speech in support of declaring independence -- from Truth in Flames , p. 292. “Let King George send his armies and navies against us. Let him turn to foul and hellish beasts who descend upon us with death and destruction. We will not be dismayed! We are consumed by the Spirit of Liberty, endowed by Providence with a Fire for Freedom. Though the Supreme Commander, unhallowed creatures, and calumnies by the crate combine against us, we shall prevail. No weapon raised against us shall prevail if we but have the courage to stand, to declare our independence, our purpose, and our power. You have heard me repeat the reasons for independence so often that you can recite them in perfect imitation. Let those arguments, those sound reasons, echo in your hearts and minds. Your souls themselves yearn for this declaration. We declare not only the independence of these colonies, we...