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Post by Char-Vell on Aug 19, 2019 7:46:37 GMT -5
I was thinking, what the Hyborian Age needs more of is SATYRS!! Yeah, some smol frisky goat-bois! Sounds stellar!
I'd like to see the Real Houswives of Khorshemish.
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Post by scottoden on Aug 19, 2019 9:44:50 GMT -5
Maybe Survivor: Isle of the Black Ones?
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Post by Char-Vell on Aug 19, 2019 10:02:03 GMT -5
Maybe Survivor: Isle of the Black Ones?
I'd like to see what happens on Survivor: Xapur when they vote Khosatral Khel off the island.
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Post by Deleted on May 16, 2022 14:06:04 GMT -5
Just read this great news on our Scott's blog. New Blogs Will Continue Shortly . . . Sorry for the silence, Gentle Readers! I’m hip deep in prose, at the moment, and having a blast — a thing that hasn’t happened since before the Pandemic. I’m finishing up a special project, then I’ll be making a final push on The Doom of Odin in order to get it wrapped up by the end of June. After that, Gods willing, I’ll be writing a Hyborian Age novel for Titan Books’ Conan line (NOT starring Conan, but the thief, Shevatas). And after that, well . . . I have some ideas. One is nudging the others aside, and that will probably be my first post-Grimnir original work. It will be a return to non-fantastical historical fiction. An epic worthy of that mantle. Beyond that, I’ll not talk about it, just yet. Don’t want to jinx it . . .
Until then, read my books, post reviews, and be well!
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Post by scottoden on Feb 6, 2023 11:15:21 GMT -5
UPDATE: So, I've finally finished the last book in the Grimnir Saga, The Doom of Odin, and I'm now going full-steam on the Shevatas novel for Titan. It still hinges on the question of whether they will accept it or not, but it will be written! If they decide against it (and I hope they do not!), then I'll make alternate plans for its publication. But, here's a post where I discuss how I see the character and what I mean to do with him: scottoden.wordpress.com/2023/02/06/lets-talk-about-shevatas/Onward! Scott
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Post by johnnypt on Feb 6, 2023 12:51:14 GMT -5
Sounds great, fingers crossed!
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Post by scottoden on Feb 8, 2023 13:36:21 GMT -5
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Post by Deleted on Feb 8, 2023 14:39:25 GMT -5
Thank you for the updates Scott, look forward to the upcoming book.
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Post by scottoden on Feb 8, 2023 15:02:29 GMT -5
Thanks! Hopefully, it'll be good
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Post by alexander on Feb 9, 2023 12:08:26 GMT -5
Thanks! Hopefully, it'll be good You mean it'll be terrific! we don't expect anything less from you Mr Oden (no pressure at all )
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Post by scottoden on Feb 9, 2023 12:44:18 GMT -5
Makes notes: "Must be better than good. Must rock the llama's ass . . ." Got it!
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Post by karasuthecrow on Feb 11, 2023 22:05:06 GMT -5
Shevatas and Taurus are ecellent characters for a more epanded universe, hoping for the bst.
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Post by scottoden on Jul 17, 2023 12:40:12 GMT -5
A post about the problems I'm having with Shevatas. To wit: there's no dramatic tension. REH tells us he achieves these things and does these deeds to get to the point where he can open the tomb and defeat the legendary serpent. No matter how cool the fiend-haunted swamps of Zingara might sound, we know he aced them and got what he needed. Rehashing that for the sake of "it sounds cool" bores me to tears. In the Conan tales, we know he lives, but we have no foreknowledge of if he will succeed in the story or not, even though we know he survives. With Shevatas, we have the foreknowledge of his success, his triumph, and his sudden fall. The post, and a possible work-around: soden.substack.com/p/the-problem-with-shevatas
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Post by Von K on Jul 17, 2023 19:04:57 GMT -5
From your blog: I'm only just firing off a few ideas here Scott. They might sound as naive as hell to a professional writer like yourself. If so I apologize. I am still very much an apprentice at this game.
The solution on your blog seems a way of re-framing the narrative in a way that you find more interesting and engaging to write. That's the upside and it's a good one. The downside is it removes Shevatas himself as the protagonist/main character so it would in essence, imho, cease to be a Shevatas yarn in the direct sense.
Imho, you don't necessarily need to follow or cover Shevatas' whole life story from beginning to end or include all the classic incidents from his life story mentioned by REH. As you know many pastichers of Conan have written new adventures of him from fresh cloth. So - as long as it's not inconsistent with the events REH has already written - you could do the same with Shevatas.
My own suggestion would be to imagine, perhaps, some previously unchronicled iconic high stakes enterprise Shevatas was involved with that fits neatly between events in REH's established canon. 90k words is no breeze nor no sneeze and, being S+S you could write it as four 20 - 25k sequential novellas that combine into one great narrative - a four part novel length structure like Michael Moorcock's Stormbringer, perhaps.
That approach incidentally leaves the potential of your mentor yarn still open. Both are possible.
Just my 2c anyhow.
You're welcome to PM me on the forum here Scott if you ever need anyone to pitch ideas to, or bounce ideas around with.
Btw, when Homer wrote the Illiad most of his audience were familiar with the salient events including all the tragic deaths etc. Homer actually played on his audiences knowledge to build up a sense of dread or doom and used anticipation as opposed to suspense. MM penned many an Elric yarn after Elric died in Stormbringer. That didn't stop his fans enjoying them.
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Post by scottoden on Jul 17, 2023 21:31:09 GMT -5
Thanks for the feedback, VonK! I have tried several of the avenues you describe and ended up at the same brick wall: it doesn't engage me (and I have to be engaged, first and foremost, before I can write an engaging story). Part of *my* problem is I'm not a crime-sort of writer, so the details of criminal enterprise bore me, so I could never grok a epic-enough crime (though at one point I had him stealing the Serpent Ring of Set from Thoth-amon, but the timeline didn't make sense). I tried to reframe Shevatas as a sinister Indiana Jones, more of a tomb-robbing scholar than a criminal, then as sort of a Hyborian Age Belloq. I first decided, when I pitched the idea to Perilous Worlds, to go back and tell his backstory. But, I recalled most REH characters had backstories that could be dispensed with in a paragraph. It did not feel authentic to the character.
This is a strange idea in that it removes Shevatas physically from play, but has him looming over the things like some specter. He appears physically in 5 separate chapters that tell the tale of his last night, his thoughts going on parchment as part of his testament; each part of the testament then presages what's going on in the chapters to follow. He's the inciting incident, but not the protagonist. And it's a bit more unique in voice, which is something Titan has said they're looking for. Regardless, we'll see how it goes. It'll either be a steaming pile of bull-pucky, or a different look at the death of a thief among thieves -- and the aftermath of the events described in "Black Colossus".
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