Category: WEREWOLVES

The Moon, Shape-changers and Consciousness

This week: The Moon, Shape-changers and Consciousness – what is the truth?

The Moon, Shape-changers and Consciousness – what is the truth?
I recently started a discussion group around the concepts in my Ordo Lupus series. You can find the group here and I invite you to join. I am planning a pure Vampire novel as a follow up to this series and I want to try to understand further how shape-changing has become buried so deeply in our consciousness and explore whether it actually exists in humans.

Notice how I carefully say ‘humans’, for it certainly exists in other animals. Look at butterflies, moths and flies for instance. The crysalis stage is a fascinating example of metamorphosis in nature. Continue reading “The Moon, Shape-changers and Consciousness” →

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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11 May Updates – Preview of Lotus

Sneak Preview
This week’s is a unique (to date) look at a book I have been working on on and off for two years. It has no title as yet, but for the purpose of this I will call it Escher’s Staircase. It’s not easily categorized, so I think I will just give you the excerpt and let it speak for itself.

Escher’s Staircase (Later published as Lotus)
Copyright © 2012 by Lazlo Ferran
All Rights Reserved.

“I’m not fucking going down that! You gotta be crazy!”
I pulled away from the open hatch. “Don’t anybody think about pushing me either! Six hundred and eighty bloody feet! That’s … that’s like as high as a bloody sky-scraper!”
“Well, if you don’t do it, you will never get beyond Cadet Helmsman. Up to you matey!”quipped Shorty, lifting the glass bottle’s open neck to his scowling lips. Everything about Shorty was a tattoo – gaudy, colourful and in bad taste. Continue reading “11 May Updates – Preview of Lotus” →

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.

Making Savage Cuts as an Editor

Well, I have had to savage my own book – not by reviews but by cutting. The other night I had had enough of the younger readers complaining that the first 2 chapters were a bit slow so I took an axe to it and cut from 40,000 words down to just 25,000. Gone are some of my beloved sections on Bulgaria and the second world war and the childhood and wartime romances are reduced to just one line. Now the story starts with the murder of the main protagonist’s daughter. It seems a bit weird reading it back, stripped-down as it is but I think once I get used to it, it will probably be better. It certainly has producing some interesting effects. A reverie now lasts more than one chapter – unusual, but I am sure there are precedents.

Ah well, the main problem is the people who have already bought it. I have offered to send manuscripts of the new, shorter chapters to them. I also pointed out that they have read the Extended Version of the first Edition. I am also considering doing a different cover for the Kindle version.

Blog: The Taste of First Blood-updated

This week: Werewolves in Mauritius, Rewards for Reviews, Short Stirling aircraft recovery, Video Blog Tour. See end note.

Werewolves in Mauritius
I often feel like a rabbit in the headlights when it comes to blog time. I simply haven’t prepared anything much and I am so busy, yet I want to give something to my readers and fans. This week it is a little easier because I came across this article on Werewolves in Mauritius (link no longer works). Actually it’s not the original recent article I was looking for – I heard of this phenomenon back in the summer – but the frequency of reports shows just how steeped in Werewolf culture Mauritius is. So I decided to make enquiries.Werewolves – or Loup Garou – the French equivalent word – inhabit the Mauritian subconscious like the sea and sun of this gorgeous island. They are said to prowl the streets and night, rape women and appear as naked men covered in oil. They are also said to be able to vanish at will but despite having such supernatural powers, they are not averse to a little high-tech gadgetry in their lives. The most recent spate of sighting this year included several eye-witness accounts of the Loup Garou carrying mobile phones and even talking on them!

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