The Strange Tales of Peter James Martin

The Strange Tales of Brennan and Riz Book 1: A Boy and A Rat

Tuesday, 20 June 2023

#24 It Could Be Wrong + Avalon Tales

Happy Blog Day Everyone!

So today I want to share some brief words about a new(ish) project of mine. There's not an awful lot to say about it, but sometimes talking about these things helps me focus on it more. Before we get to it, there's just the small matter of Rose's continuing adventures, and everyone's favourite pair. Speaking of...

The Comic Tales of Brennan and Riz

Next week is issue #25 and the start of a little experiment, is this Comic teasing that or just how odd Brennan and Riz life is? Maybe I'm trying to have my cake and eat it to?

Still odd to think that I'm on the edge of my 25th strip.

Phantom Dawn: Memories of a Rose

Today I'll be covering the first few entries from April 2021. This is definitely a long haul project for the blog as there was initially 100 entries in the story.

(First posted April 1st 2021)

The old man then noticed the rose, a sight he wasn't #prepared for, the young woman spoke, interrupting him.

"I'm sorry, I don't know my name, or anything at all. Only thing I remember is the garden of roses, and the shadow with the mask."

(First posted April 2nd 2021)

"A rose garden? Maybe find a #painting, but real ones are long gone." The pig like creatures next to the old man started squealing at the sky.

"Guess it's time already eh?" He murmured.

"Time for what?" The young woman asked, turning in surprise.

(First posted April 3rd 2021)

As the young woman looked up, the sky began it's display. With the sound of breaking glass, an ghostly orb cut its way out of the night sky, gaining an ethereal halo. There was no where to #hide from it's malevolence.

The ground started rumbling.

Hopefully I'll have more time next week to finish this little arc in one swoop.

Avalon Tales

Some where in the last decade, I had worked on expanding the world of Daemon Soul, doing a lot more world building on it than I had previously.

Part of this led to the creation of many fictional organisations, after all demons would be confidential information in all countries, so it stood to reason that most, if not all, would have measures in place. Some smaller countries might band together to tackle the threat but not the UK, no, it has its own group, an old one, and its name? Avalon.

While brainstorming, I knew I wanted each countries group to be borne from their myths and legends (or in America's case, their urban legends as I gave them Majestic). Some cases it wasn't easy but for the UK it was relatively easy. Assigning the UK the Arthurian theme opened some doors on how they were ran, their organisational structure to recruitment. Back then I only touched on these things lightly because they were never going to get a major focus surely...

Also at the time, I didn't have many characters associated with the group, other than walking clichés. So there were still a low level threat that would be minor annoyances. They were introduced into the first Daemon Soul story in a throw away line by Serena in the 2015 redraft.

In 2017, when I started working on a completely redone 2nd book, Avalon took on a much bigger role, even gaining the title. With it came a bigger focus on the characters that would be in charge of this organisation...enter this lady:

I should point out I guess that this picture is more recent than 2017 (being from 2021)...anyways, this is Isabelle Blake, commander in chief of Avalon at the tender age of 33. Slowly the story started to come into focus and a major part was about how Avalon reacted to the new Daemon Soul while hinting at past incidents with Serena.

Work on that story stalled as Brennan and Riz came along and pulled focus, proving themselves quite quickly. Isabelle and Avalon weren't forgotten and in 2021, I started work on a spin off delving into the organisation better than what I could have done in the 2nd Daemon Soul story. The star of this story would be Isabelle and instead of being one novel, I decided it was to be three novellas, allowing me to focus on three periods of her life and charting her rise to the tol of Avalon. The rest of the cast started to rise out of the depths of my mind, with her father settling in a big role and casting an even bigger shadow over her. She needed allies of her own so in stepped Robyn, an archer inspired by an obvious namesake, Rei, a mad scientist type on steroids and Cade a 2nd in command to keep everyone else doing what they were supposed to be doing. Originally the plan was for the first novella to show how they came together but things changed a lot.

Seeing as it was connected to Daemon Soul, I sprinkled in some other characters, strengthening the connection (and my plan was to do it lightly so prior reading wasn't necessary).

Amazingly, this draft of the story (all 3 novellas) was completed...but I wasn't happy with it. There was things here and there that stuck out to me, plot points that just happened, characters doing odd things because that's what I needed to happen. So I quickly started rewriting it, trying to make things more cohesive.

Character designs for Isabelle

First character concept for Robyn Gouzen

One of the bigger changes was to Robyn. In the original first novella she wasn't part of Avalon, being just shy of their minimum recruitment age at 17. Instead she helped her best friend Isabelle whenever, however, she could. They were incredibly close, with Robyn being the only person that Isabelle could open up to, and this led to them being together in the 2nd novella. I moved that fact into the redraft having them start at the same age, and already being together. Given all the crap that Isabelle was about to go through, she needed that rock. I also made several plot changes, dropping a character altogether because he just wasn't needed at that point.

Things were looking up for the project, till my time was diverted away and it went dormant again. However that changed recently when I re-read it. I knew I wanted to do it justice this time so I went heavy into the research of the Arthurian myths and stories, which is something I should have done a long time ago. There was a wealth of material there and its enhanced what I had before.

So yes, I've restarted work on Avalon Tales.

Front cover concept featuring Isabelle, Leo Blake (her father), Robyn, Ramona, and Cade.

Will I fully complete it this time to my satisfaction?

Only time will tell.

Till next time,

Keep on writing!

Peter James Martin

Quick Links

The Strange Tales of Brennan and Riz Book 1: A Boy and A Rat

Wednesday, 14 June 2023

#23 Day in the Life + Rejection

Happy Blog Day Everyone!

Today, I wanted to talk about my new (well this draft anyway) Arthurian inspired Novella series...but I had a rejection today so I'm going to talk about that instead.

The Comic Tales of Brennan and Riz

It's hard to tell in comic form but I was trying to reference old looney toons cartoons, the classic Wiley Coyote vs Roadrunner affairs. Not sure I got it as I envisioned it, but I think Riz was well worth it, proper size perspective be dammned!

Getting close to the old #25 milestone, a quarter of a year old for these comics. I have inklings about what I'm going to do, so we'll see in a couple of weeks if it happens or not.

Phantom Dawn: Memories of a Rose

This is a new segment I'm starting today, for the whole purpose of archiving this story thread I started way back in March 2021 that lasted till July-August that year. I started it using the #vss365 twitter tag and drawing a page to match the story, sometimes it meant drawing the page and then the next day, frantically trying to mash the prompt in there.

Today I'll post the first 3 installments but I'm not sure at the moment how many will appear each week, let me know in the comics what you think of it!

(First posted March 29th 2021)

There was only the black.

The young woman, allowed herself to sink further into the abyss. Overcome with the loss of identity.

A rose appeared, floating in the dark.

Without #vacillating, she reached for it, gasping for air, a reason to live again.

(First posted March 30 2021)

The girl woke with a start, throwing off a blanket. It was dark, yet no stars pieced the night. She felt like crying despite not knowing why.

"Ah! You're awake," a voice said.

The girl turned to see #porcine like creatures runing around an old man.

(First posted March 31st 2021)

Respectfully the girl bowed her head imitating some custom that was entrenched in her psyche.

"No need to be so #Obeisant!" The old man chuckled. "You're among friends, What's your name?"

The young girl hesitated, she didn't even know her name.

Rejection

Soo... Where do I begin here? Guess I should start by saying that at the beginning of the year, I submitted a pitch to a certain companies publishing arm. It wasn't my best work (mainly because my best work involves a talking rat that isn't something that really appears in that particular setting.) However I was confident in my idea. Still that confidence didn't betray the idea that I was going up against a thousand+ other applicants. I worked on my pitch, and worked hard on my writing sample and I clicked submit, leaving it in the hands of the fickle gods. 4 months later...I got rejected. The email itself was a clear mail merge of polite necessities, a dear John as it were but on a grand scale.

Here's the thing though, I was expecting it but it still felt like a gut blow. This particular company only open their doors to submissions once a blue moon, if that.

Of course, this isn't the first time I've been rejected. During the early 2010s I sent Daemon Soul to any publisher I could find that allowed open submissions and had it threw back at me every time. I then tried magazine submissions but, yeah, nothing worked there either and i started writing less and less (till I got my hopes up by a certain publisher that they were interested in Daemon Soul but that turned inti q nightnare pretty quickly once I realised that they were a vanity publisher).

Even after I found some small success with Brennan and Riz, I was rejected from different short story competitions (one of them thr exact same competition that I first entered BrennanandRiz into), failing to make the short list each time. I've spoken already about one of these instances on this very blog, doing a full on autopsy of the work.

What am I getting at here? Well, this is why I hold tremendous respect for the writers out there are in the query mines, those that keep on submitting to each and every magazine/ website they can. That they can keep getting back up after every rejection and trying again.

Right now, it's a fear of rejection that is keeping me from querying Daemon Soul again. For ages now I've had the landing page of Query Tracker open but daren't do anything with it. My fear stems from the pessimism that I know that no one will accept it. I have defeated myself before I even started. This has also spread to the short stories I mentioned a few weeks ago, and what drove me to rewrite one completely, a fear that it wasn't good enough.

For those wondering why I can't just talk to my own publisher about DaemonSoul, well the truth is they don't want it. They're only interested in my Brennan and Riz work.

What do I do now though?

Someone I know is getting ready to re-enter the query mines and they are pulling no stops with their preparation. Make no mistake, this person deserves to be published a thousand times over. Its just that it made me question myself. Maybe, just maybe, I can try.

I'll accomplish nothing leaving the files to rot, and as always, the path to self publication is open (though that's another area where I wouldn't know where to start and I don't have funds for an editor or even a cover artist).

Still, I need to do something, and that first something will probably be rejection again but if I can stand up faster like everyone else does, then I'll have made an improvement on me, after all it's been said that every rejection brings them closer to a yes.

I've seen it happen, I know people who it happened to. I just need to be brave like they were in taking that first step and reaching out.

This has turned out to be a much harder topic to talk about than I anticipated, I've had to re-order my thoughts and prune away some personal stuff. Next week I'll talk about something happier, and maybe I'll have gotten another rejection on my path forward.

Till then,

Keep writing.

Peter James Martin

Quick Links

The Strange Tales of Brennan and Riz Book 1: A Boy and A Rat

Wednesday, 7 June 2023

#22 A Special Gift + Harvey Duckman Presents Volume 13

Happy Blog Day Everyone!

This week is a special week, as another brand new Brennan and Riz short story has hit the shelves/kindle! This tale appears in the superb Harvey Duckman Presents Volume 13 and you can be sure that I'll be talking about it in a moment...but first!

The Comic Tales of Brennan and Riz

The title here refers to both Riz’s gift to himself and when Brennan knows that the little git has spent money on the credit card. The art didn't quite come out as I wanted but it is what it is. I knew I had to get Riz’s statue fetish in here some where and it probably won't be the last time it crops up. Maybe even next week in some fashion...

Update

Before I dive into the story behind the story in Harvey Duckman Presents Volume 13, I thought I'd give a little update on what's going on with me.

So following on from last week, one short story has been accepted and is about to go through the dreaded editing phase (by others in the project...don't trust myself!), my submission for Harvey Duckman Presents Volume 14 is done...till I got cold feet about it and started a new one. I have got till July to do it but will it be any good...I also learned that I mucked up the HDP schedule so I have to rearrange my plans a lot. I better do more research on steampunk...Though I will say from what I've got planned, a certain character appears in the steampunk story who is in the story about to be edited...that's set in 1980s London...How could that be? Maybe wait and see...

I was hoping to talk about another new venture but I've had no time to start that, so hopefully next week...

Now then, let's talk Harvey.

The Cursed Teddy bear!

So it may have escaped your attention but a new Harvey Duckman is out:

You can get your copy here

The theme for this edition is (of course) cursed Teddy bears, and I first learned of it the same time I was told of the plumbers special (Harvey Duckman Presents Volume 9 for those keeping track, it has Rat in the Drain in it) and my teddy bear story was written just after that one (I submitted it and forgot all about it).

It should have been easy really, a cursed toy? How can Brennan and Riz not get involved in that? There's been a lot of stories around cursed items, from stolen scarfs given as gifts, to cursed chairs that belonged to outlaws. Even things like James Deans car! Cursed toys slot so well into it like the original story of the Annabell doll (popularised by the conjuring spin off movies). Problem was that it felt...predictable that I pitted the pair against an evil presence infesting a kids toy (oh look, the Chucky films did that as well!) Given the right spin it could be fun, really play ul the hamminess of it. However, I wasn't feeling it. For this story I wanted another way of looking at it, just as I did when I wrote Girl in the Water.

After much thought, I started the story, playing up many haunted aspects, pitting the pair against fun tropes like killer cutlery. The bears play a massive part in proceedings but I hope I made their motivations equal parts logical and mysterious, only the readers will decide if I succeeded or not.

I probably could have made it easier for myself by going the easier route but I've kept that open for future stories if I want. The ending was very hard to write as it was exceedingly difficult to get the tone right to what I wanted it to be.

Odds are, if I had to rewrite it now, I'd probably go a third way from my plot dilemma maybe take a little inspiration from the Bleach anime which was a favourite of mine back in the day...Trying not to think about the fact that I first saw that back in 2008...

Anyway, I hope you read it and like it.

Next week, I hope to bring news of another story submitted, let's see if it happens.

Till then,

Keep on writing!

Quick Links

The Strange Tales of Brennan and Riz Book 1: A Boy and A Rat