Happy Blog Day Everyone
After last week's momentary blip, we're back to our normal Wednesday update, and with it, another brand new comic, speaking of...
The Comic Tales of Brennan and Riz
Readers of my short stories will have encountered this typical Brennan and Riz example before (most notably Ghosts on the Moor, the 3rd story in the first short story collection).
Would Brennan actually follow through on that threat? Only time will tell...
I will apologise for the even poorer colouring then normal, I tried to make it look like you were viewing the pair through a windscreen but it failed...spectacularly. You don't learn without trying I guess.
Now let's move on to the main performance...
Folklore Redux pt 5
These following stories are from the latest two Harvey Duckman Presents anthologies (not the two that were just rebranded specials). One is more interesting to talk about for reasons you'll discover, the other is about plumbers...You'll see, let's start with that one first:
The Rat in the Drain- Confession, this story isn't based on any folklore whatsoever. Instead of leaving this as the shortest entry in my entire folklore exploration series, I'll share a look at how this story even came into being.
Few of you would have been aware that Harvey Duckman had a few specials under its belt, where all the stories within its pages shared a common element (most notably Christmas and Pirates), most others are free form anything goes type stuff. Then I hear talk that the next special will be...Plumbers. I can tell you that many an eyebrow was raised upon hearing this, as well as checking to see if the date was April 1st.
It was real of course, and as someone who had been in every Harvey Duckman at that point, I know that I had to rise to the challenge. The question was though, how could I do it?
Instinctively, there wasn't much of a connection between the pair and plumbing, and I didn't think a story of Brennan unclogging his drains by pulling out Riz fur was that much of a winner. The answer to this was to bring in a plumber who has need of Brennan and Riz's specialist abilities. The title came about when I realised the comedy value of having Riz having to go into the pipes. He'll probably not forgive that in a hurry!
Rat in the Drain was published as part of Harvey Duckman Presents Volume 9, get yours here!
The Knight and the Fae- This story has its origins in a very different place. I was approached by an individual to see if I had a story to submit to a paranormal romance anthology. I suck at writing romance in general so paranormal romance had no hope. Nevertheless, I attempted something but ultimately withheld it from that anthology as I knew for certain that what I wrote would not have been what was intended. It's quite hard to write romances for the central pair as 1) Brennan X Valarie is pretty much a thing, and 2) Riz is peculiar with romance. Not to mention that writing a story from Riz’s perspective is fraught with its own dangers. So, I had two options, either write about different characters in the Brennan and Riz universe or tell a story in a story that dealt with paranormal romance.
I tried both of them. The former would have been the first solo story for Doctor Lauren Ashton, but it never seemed to pan out (and she was too married to the job it turned out). The latter was definitely more successful, as I took advantage of a seam of folklore that I'd been itching to explore, Fairies.
I can heat you shouting from here:
"Peter! You'd already been writing about Faries! Haven't you been mining their folklore already!"
Well, there's always more folklore. This time, I was looking at more the foolish mortals who fell for the Fae and went with them to their Fairy kingdoms. There's been a lot of stories in this regard, and almost all of them don't end well. Like the guy who was instructed to never get off his horse once he'd left the magical kingdom. He returns home to find that, while for him an hour or so had passed, a hundred years had passed in the mortal realms. He got off his horse and turned to dust as he aged to match his surroundings. I twisted this as I introduced the concept of Fairy Knights (something that was meant to appear in A Boy and A Rat, but was left on the cutting room floor).
This is a sign for things to come for the next full length Brennan and Riz novel, as I have plenty of fae folklore to dive into, such as Fairy Rings and a full exploration of the Seeley and Unseeley Councils. I also couldn't just leave it as Brennan learning the tale, no, I dragged Valarie and Riz into it, each offering a different take on the ending of the tale...
Another fun fact about this story was it was a late submission to Harvey Duckman, replacing a completely different story that got moved up to an upcoming volume of the anthology. Why was it moved? Because it fit the theme better of the aforementioned Volume. What was it about? Well, you'll just have to wait and see won't you...
This story appeared in Harvey Duckman Presents Volume 10, get your copy here!
That's all for this week, join me next week where I finally get into the nitty gritty about the first Brennan and Riz novel, A Boy and A Rat. If you want to join in the fun, check out this link to order your copy.
Till then, keep writing.
Peter James Martin.
