Category: PARANORMAL

Ordo Lupus: who do you think they are?

This week: Grammar and Onomatopoeia and – Ordo Lupus (The Order of the Wolf): who do you think they are?

Grammar and Onomatopoeia

Grammar
I am just doing a light re-edit of the second book in the Ordo Lupus series: The Devil’s Own Dice. I have been pleasantly surprised how good it is! I occasionally go back to old books to just bring the grammar up to date. This is because, not only do my grammar skills improve as I publish more work but also there are fashions in grammar and these gradually change! Yes, it’s true!

Of course everybody knows that the meaning of a word can change over time. This field of study is called semantics. The obvious example is ‘gay’. When I was young this simply meant ‘happy’ or ‘bright and cheerful’. Now it most usually denotes someone physically attracted to the same sex.

Another word which changes meaning with time is ‘insidious’. The meaning of this word seems to actually fluctuate during cycles of about ten years. It can sometimes mean ‘subtle’ and sometimes mean ‘subtly bad’.

In two of my books, written in the mid-noughties, the phrase ‘in-control’ comes up quite a lot. People actually used said that a lot during the 80s and 90s. Now, nobody seems to use it so I take it out wherever I see it. Continue reading “Ordo Lupus: who do you think they are?” →

Romania and some of its Vampires Part 2

A great article on Romanian vampires and their names, by Mari Wells.

Abstract
”Moloi are Romanian vampire spirits. These vampires can only life if it eats human hearts. It’s created when one of its parents kills an illegitimate child. A girl is called Moloica.”

Mari Wells

Moloi

Moloi are Romanian vampire spirits. These vampires can only life if it eats human hearts. It’s created when one of its parents kills an illegitimate child. A girl is called Moloica.

Necurat

The Necurat or Orgoi means “accursed or “dishonest” in Romania. Romanians call all of their vampire creatures this. It’s believed using this name instead of a specific name will keep from calling the vampire to them.

Another name for Vampires in Romania is Baboana for females and Babon for males.

Baba Coajo

A vampire forest spirit in Romania is a bloodthirsty monster.
She’s described as half bear and half woman. Baba Coajo pronounced Baba Co-ya means the Old Woman of the Tree Bark. She’s also called “Queen of the Forest” and has total control over the evil within the woods.

She is very dangerous evil entity. She catches children who wander into the forest alone, or those…

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Blog: Witchfinder General – Lazlo Ferran

This week: Sneak Preview, Gravity’s Rainbow review, the End of Formula 1?

Sneak Preview

This week’s is from a a project provisionally entitled December Radio. Hard to say what it’s about at this point without giving it all away but you can be sure there will plenty of tension with a huge climax and even some philosophy for those that have the time. This excerpt holds the reason for this week’s blog title.

December Radio

Sarah barked at the crows, “Shut yer mouths. I ain’t got no food for you and you int a ‘having my body. Not even when I’m dead. They’s ‘ll probably burn me and if not, I will get a Chist’an burial. She spat into the puddle swilling around her filthy skirt- hem but missed and it splatted against piece of rock. She even found this funny; Sarah had a bright soul. Her long, brown and unwashed hair had fallen loose over her left eye while she had been working at the crosses and she pushed the strands back into place while humming a tune. She had made it up to go with the spell her mother had taught her so long ago: Continue reading “Blog: Witchfinder General – Lazlo Ferran” →

Carnival of Souls and Hammer Movie Review

This week: a story’s soul, Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell, Strunk & White: The Elements of Style.

A Story’s Soul
This week I have returned to another incomplete work, December Radio. The story is a sci-fi WWII whodunnit of sorts. So far I haven’t written much, although I have spent many hours thinking about it. The problem is that the story’s soul as I last envisaged it may be too obvious. The problem has been compounded by the recommendation by a friend, based on my description, to read Gravity’s Rainbow. I am on page 50, and so far I have very little idea what is going on; a British Agent is investigating V2 rockets amidst a chaotic kaleidoscope of disjointed feelings, weird characters and disparate locations. What is clear is that the main story is uncomfortably close to mine. A battle has begun for the soul of my story. Attack Hitler’s Bunker was a simple story; men fighting against immense odds for Good. Its soul was born without hiccups on page one. The Ordo Lupus series have their origins in my own private obsessions with the darker side of Religion and more specifically, Faith, God, the Devil and luck. However, both Escher’s Staircase and December Radio have been born of the nebulous (to quote William Shatner) inspiration of a relationship; they have neither a beginning or end. I think the former title has now settled into a comfortable childhood, but the latter may lack something to distinguish it from its distinguished competition. Once I have the soul, the story will tell me what to write. This probably probably sounds kinda whimsy and not a little bit pretentious, but I believe it! If a book doesn’t have a soul it can’t live. Continue reading “Carnival of Souls and Hammer Movie Review” →

Fighting a Dip in sales – 6 April Updates

Here is this week’s sneak preview – a short story provionally entitled Vampire: Beneficence, to be published as the first story in the new Short Stories Volume III along with The Jesus Monster. The punctuation may seem a little strange without the paragraphs before this excerpt but it is correct.

Vampire: Beneficence

On a warm evening at the end of the 2010 summer, I was stalking the Vicar of St James Church in Clerkenwell. I am what is commonly called a vampire, d’you see …?
“Let me get one thing straight, though. We have been around forever. Homo Sapiens wouldn’t be Home Sapiens without us. We are the more evolved manifestation of the species. I know all this because I was once a writer, and have spent many lifetimes researching the subject. I have even visited the far-past … but that is another story … Continue reading “Fighting a Dip in sales – 6 April Updates” →

Competition – Solve Codes to Win £15!

I hope you like the new look of the blog. I have also added a permanent link to the Lazlo Ferran Merchandise on the right in the Lazlo on the Web section of links, so you will always be able to find it. The Merchandise is part of the prize in the competition.

Competition
In line with the release of my WWII thriller Attack Hitler’s Bunker! – at the end of June, I am having a competition. Ordo Lupus and the Temple Gate: Second Edition had secret codes at the beginning of each chapter, which I hoped, added some depth to the book, once they were solved. Attack Hitler’s Bunker! will also have codes – to be broken, at the beginning of each chapter. So it seemed appopriate to base the competition on breaking one of the codes in Ordo Lupus and the Temple Gate: Second Edition.

The coded cryptic puzzle in question is at the beginning of the Epilogue. These codes are used by the Ordo Lupus to conceal their secret teachings. If you feel you have what it takes to join the Illuminati, Knights Templar (if they still existed), or the legendary Priory of Sion you will have no trouble solving this coded message. Please email me with your answer at the email address at the top of this blog. Continue reading “Competition – Solve Codes to Win £15!” →

Many thoughts and projects

I have completed the penultimate edit of Iron II. It was a bit of an epic. I was determined to get it down from 104,000 words to less than 100,000. Every time I cut out chunks it still seemed the same length. I don’t know how that was possible. I cut out a whole chapter and it was still 104,000 words long. Admittedly I had to add some stuff back in to make the story flow and keep the continuity. The last 10 words took 2 hours, but it is now 99,998 words long. Hope to publish in about a month.

I have also rewritten the ending of Ordo Lupus II, and I think it’s much better. It also resulted in a story 30,000 words shorter. At 80,000 words, it could be my shortest yet. It wasn’t really the length that bothered me, but that the original climax followed by a second climax didn’t seem to work: the momentum was lost somewhere. Now, I think it works really well. Hope to publish this one later this year.

I have finally started on Iron III which will revolve totally around Jake Nanden again and have many more battles. I see Iron II now as the eye of the storm in the flow of the trilogy.

I am already making tentative steps towards writing a very serious novel which I hope will break a few boundaries. It will certainly be ‘adults only’.

I also am developing an outline for a story set in WWII and basically revolving around aircraft. In Ordo Lupus there was a raid on Holland in WWII, and I really enjoyed writing it. I had good feedback from readers who like that sort of thing, but other readers found it boring. So it would nice to try a book for those that might enjoy it. Of course there is a risk I am trying too many genres and I might lose credibility.

Iron II: Unknown Place, Unknown Universe

I am hoping to publish Iron II: Unknown Place, Unknown Universe in March/April after an extensive rewrite. I have taken out a Chapter’s equivalent in the middle of the book, added something new to the final battle (which will tie in with Book III) and generally tidied up the dialogue, adding idioms for the three youngsters to make their individual speech-patterns more distinct. It’s the first time I have written a story with three lead characters and it’s quite a challenge making speech clear without writing ‘he said’ and ‘she said’ all over the place.

I am also thinking about the plot for Iron III – which I think will take place predominantly in space, and several other stories which I have in mind.
My review in the Science Fiction and Fantasy South Africa group didn’t materialise (yet?) but I am hoping one will appear For Ordo Lupus and the Temple Gate soon on Big Al’s Blog.
Ordo Lupus and the Temple Gate Paperback is now out as a Second Edition with the same cover as the e-book.

How About Winged Serpents?

I am going to take my time to respond to Gary’s recent comment that the serpent in the Garden of Eden is depicted with wings in some cases.

Although I have never seen images like this (to my knowledge) of a serpent with wings in the Garden of Eden, it does not suprise me to see one now. We have often had little tussles Gary over the way I see themes at the core of Ordo Lupus and the Temple Gate, and the way you see them. I have referred sometimes to werewolves and warg.

The reason I can do this (and still think myself sane) is because, for me the modern concept of werewolves and vampires etc, is probably a romanticised and glamorized version of what was once, by some, seen as more real than mere myth. I see the roots of these myths and legends being far more interesting, buried as they are deep within esoteric knowledge that is hidden from most of the world. That is why the wolves in my book are not just wolves but communicate on some level with people. The main character in the book is a wolf-being in a human body (ie with the Earthly clothes of a human).
Similarly the Serpent was once a human. Continue reading “How About Winged Serpents?” →