Rim Countries

Somewhere at the confluence of Anime Fan (or ‘otaku’ if you want to be pretentious about it) and Martial Arts Fan is the odd territory of Japanophile.  This is a person who is fascinated with, studies, and generally loves, all things Japan.  From its history to its culture to its myths.  There are other roads that lead to that strange land, but these two seem to be the most common.

I don’t know when my fascination with Japan began, but it definitely blossomed in my post-high school and college days (unlike many peers, I didn’t go into college straight out of high school).  And I didn’t study Japan all at once, I grew fascinated with elements of it.  The martial arts, the anime, the language, the history, the culture, back and forth.  Pieces at a time, really.  At no point would I consider myself a real Japanophile; merely focused on one aspect of Japan’s world, with a journeyman’s awareness of other corners of their world. Continue reading “Rim Countries”

Quick Update

There’s a lot going on!

When I sat down to write this update, I couldn’t figure out which direction to begin.  So how about all of them?

Rhest of the Time (Rhest for the Wicked 2) is nearing completion.  The manuscript is going through the last few edits and will be going to a copyeditor at the end of the week.  Assuming that goes well, it will be off to the presses shortly thereafter.  I don’t have a release date yet, but I expect before the summer.  Maybe even sooner? Continue reading “Quick Update”

New Short Story

To celebrate the Rhest for the Wicked Short Film Kickstarter, there’s a new Rhest short story today!  Rhest and the Polar Bear is a quick, simple smash-n-grab story for anybody curious about who this crazy street merc and what kind of a world he inhabits.  If you’re a new reader, or been following Rhest’s adventures for a while, you’ll get a kick out of it.  Check it out, in the Short & Serials section now.

Rhest and the Unknown

Rhest for the Wicked Short Film Update #10

A characteristic of Rhest for the Wicked and several of the short stories (as well as subsequent books in the continuity) is that of the unknown.  Rhest’s world was inspired by Robert Howard and similar writers from the dawn of the 20th Century.  Howard – famous for Conan among many other stories – created a very rough outline for his world but never felt beholden to it.

Rhest comes from that thinking.  Much of modern fiction today is replete with stories that are tangible, they are so realistic.  Even far-out stories of sci-fi and fantasy often have deeply developed and highly plausible systems.

That is truly masterful and inspired storytelling, but it isn’t universally necessary.  Sometimes, it’s even problematic.  I don’t care for Rhest’s stories to ever explain what a ghost is (or isn’t).  I don’t want the existence of zombies to be explained in physiologically-plausible detail.

The world needs more mystery.

As such, Rhest’s stories are often devoid of a few lines here and there that might explain the hows and whys.  That’s deliberate.  Rhest inhabits a world he doesn’t fully understand because nobody fully understands their world.  Much of what we see and interact with, we take on trust.  We focus less on the ‘why’ and the ‘how’ and worry more about the ‘what’s next’.

It’s that spirit I want to help bring back in small fashion to movies and television.  It’s that spirit, that commitment to internally-consistent-yet-narratively-ambiguous storytelling, that this film is meant to promote.

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If you’d like to contribute, please learn more about the kickstarter by going here.