Today, I am featured at South Branch Scribbler. I was asked about Dragons in the Dungeon and what had inspired me to write the novel.
Check it out here: The Story Behind the Story with Diane McGyver.
Just a reminder, Dragons in the Dungeon is on sale for $1.99 for the month of February to celebrate Fantasy February. It is available to everyone at Amazon, including Kindle Unlimited Members.
Download your copy here: Dragons in the Dungeon.
Have you ever wondered where Dungeons and Dragons got it start? I had always thought Gary Gygax had been the creative mind who had dreamt up the game that transformed my youth. I had even put this in the front of Scattered Stones, the 2nd book in the Castle Keepers, series to thank Gygax. [NOTE: I will be changing this front material soon to reflect the truth.]
Gary Gygax for creating Dungeons & Dragons, my first real adventures in the fantasy world. If I had a dollar for every hour I played, I could build a castle.
Decades later, I’ve discovered I was wrong. But I’m not alone. The multi-million dollar industry has not been kind to the original creator: Dave Arneson. Many were led to believe Gygax had done it all. Now, even Gygax is being pushed out of the picture as the role-playing game continues to grow in popularity.
The Informal Game has taken the lead to correct this false narrative (or as some might call: deliberate cloaking of the truth). They’ve created a film revealing the origins of Dungeons and Dragons. Through researching the documented history and interviewing players of the original game, including Arneson’s daughter, they’ve uncovered the Secrets of Blackmoor – the very first role-playing game that gave birth to Dungeons and Dragons.
Watch the first two chapters on YouTube: Secrets of Blackmoor – The True History of Dungeons & Dragons.
Or dive into the full film at Vimeo or Amazon.
What if everything you knew about the history of Dungeons & Dragons was wrong?
6 Years, 12 Cities, 200 Hours of Interviews, 20,000 Documents and Photos: An unprecedented investigation into the history of D&D – the game that spurred a multi-billion dollar industry.
Be among the first to know the Secrets of Blackmoor.
Blackmoor is the name of a fictional world created by David Arneson. It is also the prototype of Dungeons & Dragons, the first published role playing game. Unlike other fantasy worlds, such as J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle Earth, Blackmoor is a living world that is being explored to this day. Secrets of Blackmoor investigates the origins of the role playing game, through candid interviews, archival footage, and newly discovered artifacts.
It’s time to set the record straight and bring Dave Arneson’s name back to the game. We can do that by spreading the news to all gamers who love Dungeons and Dragons.
To celebrate Fantasy February, I’ve put the eBook Dragons in the Dungeon on sale until the end of the month. Download your copy today at Amazon:
Ryan McCormac is addicted to playing Mediaeval Dungeon Adventures with friends every Friday night. He’s so consumed with the role-playing game that he wishes he could find a spell to transport him into that world where he could create his own campaign. One day, his wish comes true. But his friends aren’t there, and the world is nothing like he thought it would be. Every day he fears for his life. The people are soulless, the landscape is colourless and the magic is nowhere to be found. The only way home is to find another like him and sacrifice them.
After five years, he’s finally found someone from his world. Now he just has to get her to the wizard who can perform the spell. Simple right? Except she’s a gatherer and before he reaches the wizard, she’s gathered several friends who plan to save her.
If you played Dungeons and Dragons in the 1980s, you’ve got this. You know the feeling of joining friends on a quest, choosing your race, be it dwarf or elf, your profession, possibly fighter or thief, gathering your gear and exploring endless dungeons. This story is a tribute to those days when life was good, music was better and days were endless.
The stand-alone fantasy novel “Dragons in the Dungeon” is now available at Amazon.
Goats have proven the grass is greener on the other side of the fence even if it is barren ground and they stand in lush pasture. Humans have a similar mentality. So, it is no surprise when Ryan McCormac, long-time player of Mediaeval Dungeon Adventures, stumbles upon a spell that transports him into a campaign that he believes life will be better.
Any guesses on how it turns out? You’re right. He discovers life is no better in the fantasy realm. Sure, the ex-girlfriend isn’t there, but neither are the friends he gamed with every Friday night. He quickly learns the world is horrible. Every day he fears for his life. The people are soulless, the landscape is colourless and the magic is nowhere to be found. The only way home is to find another like him and sacrifice them.
After five years, he’s finally found someone from his world. Now he just has to get her to the wizard who can perform the spell. Simple right? Except she’s a gatherer and before he reaches the wizard, she’s gathered several friends who plan to save her.
If you played Dungeons and Dragons in the 1980s, you’ve got this. You know the feeling of joining friends on a quest, choosing your race, be it dwarf or elf, your profession, possibly fighter or thief, gathering your gear and exploring endless dungeons. This story is a tribute to those days when life was good, music was better and days were endless.
It’s available in paperback and eBook. Hard cover coming soon.
I don’t like cinnamon rolls. However, my kids do, and they keep telling me I make very good cinnamon rolls. Others have asked me for the recipe, so here it is with the instructions on how I do it. If you don’t make your rolls this way, don’t worry. I’m sure there are more than a dozen ways to make them. This is what works for me, and since everyone who has eaten mine wants more, I might be doing something right.
1 cup of milk. I use 2% but whole will work just fine. I’m sure skim will also work.
1/2 cup of margarine. You can also use butter or shortening. They’ll turn out slightly different, but use what you have.
1/3 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon of salt. I use sea salt. The original recipe had 1 1/2 teaspoon of salt, but I thought that was a little too much.
3 teaspoons of dry yeast. That’s 1 envelope.
1 teaspoon of white sugar. This will go with the yeast and warm water.
1/2 cup of warm water
1 egg, well beaten
4 1/2 cups of white flour. I used unbleached but any regular all-purpose flour will do.
Step 1: Put milk, margarine, 1/3 cup of sugar and salt in a sauce pan and warm until the margarine is melted. Stir to mix ingredients. Then remove from heat and let cool. It’s vital that this is only lukewarm, not hot, or it will kill the yeast.
Continue reading “Recipe: Cinnamon Rolls”Around 1:00 am Friday morning, I turned off the computer and went to bed. I had stayed up late to finish the first draft of Dragons in the Dungeon. Although I had written the final scene twice, it still didn’t feel right. I had to sleep on it.
I woke six hours later and had a clearer image. I rewrote the last scene, didn’t like it and wrote it again. This version satisfied me. It’s the basic form I was searching for, and it officially completed the first draft of this stand-alone traditional fantasy novel.
The word count stands at 154,122. It’s roughly 431 pages (4 inches by 6 inches). It’s broken down into 33 chapters with almost all of them having a second scene. Each chapter has a title.
Continue reading “The First Draft for “Dragons in the Dungeon” is Complete”Join me tonight on Twitter where I’m going to add 3,000 words to the novel I’m writing, Dragons in the Dungeon. I’m online shortly after nine o’clock, after the goats are tucked in, with tea in hand, ready to write and share my thoughts.
Currently, I have 85,639 words written about the adventure taking place in Lachspeur of Yore. My goal is 88,639 by the end of the day. I first thought the novel would be only 100,000 words, but I think I’ll need 120,000 to tell the story.
Follow me on Twitter, where I share progress of my novel writing, images of castles, dragons and such, and all things fantasy. No politics. No current day events. Nothing but fantasy. It’s my fantasy realm to escape to. The modern day doesn’t exist there.
Well, I’ve gone and done it. I’ve named the world, the realm, the land my fantasy novel, Dragons in the Dungeon, takes place in.
After a great discussion on Twitter about naming places with lots of suggestions on how to create one and names to use, I reread the comments, scribbled down about 20 names, knocked off a few and thought about it some more.
The name of the fantasy land is: Lachspeur of Yore.
Thank you to everyone who participated. There were many great ideas floating around.
The next step is to draw the map.
Cormac is the first character you’ll meet in Dragons in the Dungeon. After writing more than 76,000 words, I’ve gotten to know the young man fairly well. In the spirit of Dungeons and Dragons, here’s what he rolled.
His chosen race is human. His profession is fighter, except he’s lost his confidence. Due to lack of confidence, his charisma is poor. He makes bad decisions and doesn’t learn from them. However, he is strong and has a sharp eye.
His proper name is Ryan McCormac, but he calls himself Cormac in the fantasy realm. He’s 25 years old, has brown hair that reaches his shoulders and a mixture of pale green and grey eyes.
He’s a tad selfish, looks out only for himself and avoids danger like it’s the plague undertaker.
From what I have gathered so far, Cormac started playing Dungeons and Dragons when he was 12 years old. He fell in love with the game and gravitated to the friends who also loved it. He had a tree fort out back of his house his dad had built and every chance they got, they’d play the game there.
Continue reading ““Dragons in the Dungeon” Character: Cormac”
When writing a novel, I often don’t think about which curse words to use. Most of the time, there are none. Other times, they appear often. That’s how I write my stories: as they flow naturally.
For the characters in Northern Survival, the situation and their life circumstances had them releasing the F-bomb when under stress. Needless to say, they swore. A lot.
However, there are no modern-day curse words in my fantasy novels. There’s darn and damn because I think they’re universal and span realms. I make up these worlds, so I set the rules.
That’s not to say my characters don’t curse. They just do it in their own style.
For example, when a pony spits in Bronwyn Darrow’s face in Shadows in the Stone, he says, “The orc’s curse!”
Continue reading “Curse Words in Fantasy Novels”
Diane McGyver 