Reading Fantasy As An Antitode to 2020 …
It’s good to write fantasy fiction during a turbulent year like 2020. It helps focus the mind, knowing, however crazy the plot you’ve weaved, it gets surpassed by the news that evening. What a year we’re having! As a writer, I’m fortunate enough to squirrel away inside with the cat, penning tomes about nasty people cussing and hitting each other with sharp objects. I’ve got a few swords and swing them upon occasion, trying not to hit the ceiling fan––I find this helps with fight scenes and allows me to relax 🙂
Where is 2020 taking us? Everything is changing, not only because of the current plague––things were wild before. I don’t know about you, but I’m finding it hard to keep up. Every day spins a different yarn, each outdoing the previous. History has thrown up far worse years than 2020, but this is a strange one for sure. I sense a shifting pattern. It’s as though we are on a threshold balancing precariously between where we’ve been and the void of doubt ahead.
What does lie ahead …? More trouble and strife for sure. A change of direction? Or a shifting of mood and consciousness, resulting in a better place. We, mortals, learn through pain, the slow process–like a chrysalis evolving into a butterfly. The metaphorical sun will shine again. But until it does, dispelling the gloom is essential for one’s health. What’s your secret to lockdown social-distance survival? Yoga? Booze? The Doobie Brothers jamming in your ears? Transential meditation? Does a quick panting run around the block work for you? Or maybe it’s watching fab shows like Ozark on the telly? Perhaps it’s reading a good book? Books, like music, allow you to dream––to shift and drift far from current affairs.
That’s where Jaran Saerk comes in. He’s already survived the Blood Feud, but his arch-foe Sheega is still out there – and this time, there’s a changeling involved. There’s worse coming. A Djinn’s possessed Savarna. Thief Finvar has discovered he can fly, albeit very poorly. The result causes a deal of stress in the forthcoming second installment of The Berserker Trilogy.
Our three strays have to pit their wits and sharpen their steel against Sheega, lethal assassins like Gujun the Slayer, Jaran’s ghastly violent cousins, Calla’s invading army, Ranning the Dark Elf, and the looming threat of a Faerie army crashing through the dimensions. Jaran has to kill Sheega on the appointed hour, and he needs Savarna and Finvar with him. But Savarna’s been captured, Finvar’s hiding from himself, and Jaran has discovered the axe the god Tyho gave him tends to fall upon its user. Suffice to say; it’s getting scary out there.
The Giants’ Dance will be on sale this December – release date coming soon. The Third in the Berserker Trilogy arrives next Spring, in 2021, which I hope will be a kinder year. To view Blood Feud or any of the other books on Amazon, click this link: https://bit.ly/BerserkSlayer
To visit the author website click this one: http://jwwebbauthor.com
To visit the Tolkien Gallery and see Roger and Linda Garland’s incredible fantasy art – click this: http://bit.ly/TolkienGallery
That’s all I’ve got! Stay safe and well out there!
JWW
