Short Story Posted!

Tonight, at 10:45, I finished my editing of The Last Church and have put it up for free reading on this blog.  It's approximately 5600 words, so it's a quick read-about fifteen to thirty minutes depending on how fast you read.  If you can't comment on that page, since there is often problems commenting on pages other then the main blog page, just comment here.
~Steadfast,

Fantasy, Part Six

Fantasy, Part Six, Evil Creatures

Evil creatures is much more of a category then an actual race.  There are many types of 'evil creatures', there are orcs, trolls, goblins, and many more unique species.  They all typically have the same characteristics and traits.

• Repugnant in appearance, smell, etc.
• Fighting within.  They generally don't respect each other and are constantly fighting for power or our of simple hate.
• Uncontrollable.  Unlike other species, evil creatures are disorganized and uncontrollable on the battlefield and off the battlefield alike.
• Numerous but not as skilled in battle.  The inverse is also true with other evil creatures such as trolls.
• Without conscious.  With some creatures the author-or director-makes the creatures have a conscious, however, they don't listen to it as often.  But in general they do not have discipline and virtue which often leads to the other characteristics listed.

    All evil species are horrendous.  Ugly-looking, terrible-smelling.  Just plain scary and disgusting creatures.  

    Inward struggle is a huge problem in evil creatures.  Fighting for power among themselves, or fighting out of blood-lust or anger.  Because of their almost mindless nature they are always fighting among themselves if they are not fighting other species.  A perfect example of this is in Return of the King when Frodo is taken captive by the orcs, and Shagrat and Gorbag, two orc captains and their companies fight for the spoils of their find as well as being known as the company that found the hobbit in the first place.  This inward struggle actually allowed for Sam to rescue Frodo without being spotted and taken captive as well.  Who would of known what would have happened if he was taken captive?  Probably J.R.R. Tolkien.

   These creatures are uncontrollable.  Which is part of the inward struggle problem, but more specifically, they cannot be controlled.  That wasn't worded right, they can be controlled, just not well.  Since they cannot be controlled and maintain order they often have inward struggles as mentioned.

   These creatures are have huge populations, however, they're not as skilled in battle, or anything for that matter.  The inverse of this is also true however, because creatures such as Trolls, Dragons, Balrogs, etc are much rarer and are much more skilled in battle.  These creatures can turn the tide of the battle if implemented properly.
   These creatures have no conscious.  They are often used as an allegory for the world-people who have not accepted Christ-or fallen angels who are servants of satan.  Because of this, naturally, they don't have the same virtues as the others, and, if they do have some virtues, they do not value them as highly.  For some creatures, such as trolls or goblins, they do not have a conscious at all and just have a terrible desire to kill and be be in control.
 That sums up evil creatures and beings.  It's really a huge factor in fantasy that isn't given much thought.  Think about it though, what would Lord of the Rings be without Orcs, Trolls, and Balrogs?  What would the White Lion Chronicles be without Dairne-Reih?  What would the Circle Trilogy be without the Horde or Shataiki?  Evil creatures are a key element to fantasy.  It may be very practical, but it is equally important to the story. 
This is the last installment in my series on fantasy creatures.  While I may start again on another series about fantasy, I encourage you to visit Worthy Fantasy, a Christian E-Zine about the fantasy genre.  Some great articles, interviews, book reviews, and occasional giveaways are already on the site and will be coming very soon.

~Steadfast,

A Century Turns-New Hopes, New Fears by William J. Bennett

I recently had the chance to experience the great feeling that continually happens with books.  The one where you read the entire book, and slowly close the book, thinking about the great and bad parts of the book you finished.  The books name was A Century Turns-New Hopes, New Fears written by William J. Bennett.  Before I go any further I'll give you a forewarning, this is not an easy read.  This is something that deals with real-world situations and has some mature themes.  It was not a Christian book particularly, though it wasn't against Christians by any means.  There were around three curse words in the book, mostly in quotes; so if that's something that will upset you then I suggest you do not read the book.  Without further ado here's my take on the book:

What's happened to our country?  It seemed such little time ago that there wasn't such terrible corruption in the capitol; before the war on terror began; before scandals broke out across the nation with all kind of huge figures.  What happened?  William Bennett discusses in great detail the last twenty years as a country.  

I’m not going to lie; the book was pretty boring in some places.  This is simply my opinion however.  I know people who would read this kind of book in four-hour plane ride.  Political non-fiction  simply fails to captivate me-not to say I don't enjoy it however.  Besides that, the book was great.  Bennett summarizes and explains what’s happened with precision.  He never misses a chance to give the reader something interesting to think about.

He covers all the presidential, as well as some congressional, elections with extreme detail.  Telling me everything that happened with unmatched detail since he had known many of the candidates and had talked to them before writing this book during the elections.  He also covered the war on terrorism, talking about attacks during Bush, Clinton, and again Bush’s administration.  He also discusses a few of the current issues going around with the current administration and congress. 

Overall, it was a great book.  A great addition on the bookshelf.  I would definitely recommend it.

To visit the amazon page, please click here, to view the publishers page, please click here.

Fantasy, Part Five

Fantasy, Part Five, Elders and Magical Beings
*THIS POST HAS BEEN REMOVED FOR VARIOUS REASONS... I AM SORRY FOR THE INCONVENIENCE, IF YOU WOULD LIKE ANOTHER GREAT POST ON A SIMILAR TOPIC PLEASE VISIT HERE*

Also, I have posted a few poems on one of the pages and will be posting more soon.  Look out for the imminent posting of my short story, "The Last Church"!
Until the next post,

~Seth

 

I've been interviewed!

I have been interviewed in Brayden Hirsch's Young Writer Spotlight series at Write Big!  It's a pretty awesome interview, I encourage you to go check it out.  If not for the interview for the blog itself, Brayden does a great job on his articles and tips.

In other news, I don't think I've said this before, but I should have.  Worthy Fantasy is now up in running!  A few guys and I started this up a while back and we have now published our second issue last Thursday.  It's a great site and if your a fantasy reader it's a great-I'm so unbiased when I say this of course ;)-E-Zine on the fantasy genre through the eyes of Christians.  When you get there go ahead and follow if it if you will, besides us being encouraged by the numbers it also gives us ideas for how many readers we have for topics and special events we may do in the future.  Thanks,

Seth,