Dave Butler Writes

Witchy Eye: Himmelsbriefe

Posted on October 3, 2016 by David

At Salt Lake Comic Con this year, one of my favorite panels was on writing and roleplaying authentic magicians; fellow panelists included Paul Draper, Kevin Nielsen, Charlie Pulsipher, and others. The conversation ranged to interesting places, but I want to add some footnotes on this blog, because the subject is interesting and because it relates to my forthcoming epic fantasy novel WITCHY EYE.

A himmelsbrief is a letter from heaven. In the Pennsylvania German Christian magical tradition called braucherei, these are more or less standardized blessings that are written out beautifully by concentrating braucher and are then worn or carried by the recipient, or hung on a wall (or hidden inside the construction of a house). Their power comes from their origin: they are said in the first instance to have appeared miraculously (they are letters from heaven) and to have remained present only long enough to be copied.

There are also, natürlich, teufelsbriefe… letters from hell.

Posted in How to Write | Tagged Baen, Himmelsbriefe, Teufelsbriefe, Witchy Eye | Leave a comment

Bookshelf: 1632

Posted on September 29, 2016 by David

I’m late to the party on this one. For sure, better late than never.

In the middle of a wedding, the small West Virginia mining town of Grantville is suddenly, without explanation, and apparently permanently transported into Germany in the year 1632, in the middle of the thirty years’ war. The people of Grantville, once they get over the shock of the fact that the countryside about their town is suddenly full of raping, looting, and pillaging mercenaries with muskets, get down to recreating the United States of America — 150 years early, and on a different continent.

The novel is peopled with colorful individuals, and in particular women. My favorites are Jewish Rebecca, cosmopolitan and sophisticated enough to adapt quickly and become a TV celebrity; German Gretchen, a robust and fierce survivor of a hard life who nevertheless strikes a pragmatic romantic bargain and becomes the chooser of the living; and American Julie, the cheerleader who turns out to be a natural sniper.

But really, 1632 is the story of a community. It’s also a vision of a certain kind of America, built, maintained, and people by the non-elites, who here are given a chance to be heroic and big-hearted, singly as well as together. It’s a great story, and a fun read.

Interestingly, 1632 has some touch points with WITCHY EYE. For one thing, the Thirty Years War and its protagonists are part of WITCHY EYE’s background — Wallenstein, Richelieu, Adela Podebradas and others have significant roles in the backstory. Also, WITCHY EYE starts in Nashville, and two of its main characters are poor Appalachee… and one of them is the heir to two thrones. One of the ideas I had that drove the story from the beginning was that America was a place where anybody could be queen (or king).

I like to think the people of Grantville could applaud that idea.

Posted in Bookshelf | Tagged 1632, Baen, Eric Flint, Richelieu, Thirty Years War, Wallenstein, Witchy Eye | Leave a comment

The Kidnap Plot is a Whitney Nominee

Posted on September 27, 2016 by David

I have been informed by the Whitney Awards

that THE KIDNAP PLOT is a 2016 nominee.

Fingers crossed!

Posted in News | Tagged The Kidnap Plot, Whitney Award | 1 Comment

The Perfect Word

Posted on September 26, 2016 by David

I love finding and using in a story that perfect word, the one tiny word that communicates more than it seems. Let me give you an example from WITCHY EYE, my forthcoming epic fantasy (Baen, March 2017). From a confrontation between the Appalachee Elector “Iron” Andy Calhoun and the Imperial House Light Dragoons, the so-called Philadelphia Blues, here’s Iron Andy:

“I didn’t sign the Compact to take John Penn as my king, you ignoramus! I signed it to tell him iffen he ever got too big for his britches, we’d throw him on out and elect us someone new! As for Thomas Penn, Hell, I voted against that Chaldee numbskull!”

Andrew Calhoun calls the Emperor Thomas Penn a Chaldee; this word does triple duty.

First, it communicates Andy’s Biblical worldview (see, e.g., Genesis 11:8, in the King James translation). Second, what Andy is really calling Thomas (not unfairly, as it happens), is an astrologer. Third, rooted in Andy’s view of his own homeland as limited to the mountains of Appalachee and reflecting the fragmented nature of the Empire, Andy is tarring the Emperor as a foreigner. He’s playing to the gallery of his own kin, listening keenly as they squint down their Kentucky long rifles at the Imperials who have a warrant to take away their cousin.

Posted in How to Write, Writing Sample | Tagged Iron Andy Calhoun, Witchy Eye | Leave a comment

Bookshelf: Relic

Posted on September 24, 2016 by David

I love alt-Westerns. David J. West’s COLD SLITHER is an example, a collection of pulp fiction in the vein of Manly Wade Wellman, featuring real-life mountain man and gunfighter Orrin Porter Rockwell. Another favorite is Aaron Michael Ritchey’s Juniper Wars (DANDELION IRON is book one), epic young adult fiction like Louis L’amour would write it. And my own CITY OF THE SAINTS is a western steampunk story.

So I was predisposed to like Renee Collins’s RELIC. This is the story of Maggie Davis, rescued along with her younger sister by an Apache youth named Yahn from a mysterious fire that kills the rest of their family, who finds her way to town and work in a saloon. The setting is the deserts of the American west, but in a world littered with precious bone fragments — relics — of magical creatures (dragons, sirens, yeti, griffins) who died in the Great Flood. These fragments, or “relics,” when activated by a person of talent, have magical effects depending on the species whose bone is used.

In town, Maggie soon learns that she had a strong talent in relic use. This brings her to the attention and employ of the wealthy and perhaps sinister relic magnate Alvar Castilla. As the fires continue, some of them turn out to be started by Yahn and his fellow Apache, defending the relics against Castilla, but Yahn disclaims others, and Maggie finds herself torn one way between Castilla and the Apache, and the other between Yahn and the handsome lizard-wrangler Landon.

RELIC is an engaging YA western fantasy romance, full of breaking hearts and mystery. With its cinematic scope and high action, the hot desert winds that blow through its pages are begging to be made into a movie.

Posted in Bookshelf | Tagged Aaron Michael Ritchey, City of the Saints, Cold Slither, Dandelion Iron, David J. West, Fantasy, Juniper Wars, Relic, Renee Collins, Steampunk, Western | Leave a comment

Bookshelf: The Longest Con

Posted on September 21, 2016 by David

Michaelbrent Collings has shown a great deal of versatility beyond the horror for which he’s known. Previous explorations have included epic fantasy and Arthurian middle-grade superhero; THE LONGEST CON has Collings digging into Jim Butcher’s Harry Dresden territory, with a story about a private investigator in a world of magic caught between two warring factions (vampire and werewolf, natch) and trying to solve a murder that might set off war.

The gimmick, which gives the story real originality as well as much of its humor, is that the PI noir hero in the tale is Michaelbrent himself. And the setting is a big comic con-style fan convention. And many of the secondary characters are other writers who regularly appear at such conventions, here given roles in a world in which comic cons mask regular, massive meetings of supernatural folk.

There’s Kevin J. Anderson, here cast as one of the “Dead Ones,” the community’s heavies and Michaelbrent’s employer. And Brent Casselman, a case officer / operator who knows the PI and mostly keeps him line. Orson Scott Card makes an appearance as a powerful mage and Larry Correia is a magical weapons dealer, but the best writer-character in this story is me.

In THE LONGEST CON I’m a cyborg, and I analyze clues. By licking them.

This is Michaelbrent Collings at his wisecracking, fourth wall-breaking best.

Posted in Bookshelf | Tagged Blake Casselman, D.J Butler, Harry Dresden, Jim Butcher, Kevin J. Anderson, Larry Correia, Michael R. Collings, Michaelbrent Collings, Orson Scott Card, The Longest Con | Leave a comment

Bookshelf: Racers of the Night

Posted on September 19, 2016 by David

RACERS OF THE NIGHT is Brad R. Torgersen’s second collection of short science fiction. I loved his first collection, LIGHTS IN THE DEEP, so I was excited to pick this one up at Salt Lake Comic Con this month. Brad leans a bit toward hard science fiction, a bit toward military science fiction, even maybe a bit toward writing so-called “competent men” (and women), but above all else, cracking open this volume I knew I’d get stories that were fun.

Little else connects the tales. They range the gamut, including science-fiction noir (the inhouse detective of an exotic bordello featuring professionals surgically altered to resemble birds investigates the death of the brothel’s “Flamingo Girl”), a story about hexed sexist lunar racing circuits (“The Curse of Sally Tincakes,” source of the imagery for the collection’s epic cover), and a bit of military science fiction so near-future it refers to “that ancient bastard Putin” (“The Hideki Line”). True to Torgersen’s brand, these tales are essentially optimistic and humane. A Torgersen hero doesn’t always win, but he always comes away wiser, and probably carrying just a little bit more sorrow in his heart.

Posted in Bookshelf | Tagged Brad R. Torgersen, Lights in the Deep, Racers of the Night, Science Fiction, Wordfire Press | Leave a comment

Bookshelf — Triorion: Awakening

Posted on September 16, 2016 by David

Jetta, Jaeia, and Jahx are triplets. They are also telepaths, in mental contact with each other, able to read the thoughts of other sentient beings, and capable of subtle — and not-so-subtle — manipulations, as well as the borrowing of skills and knowledge from other people.

As the first book of the Triorion series opens, the children work in a mine, exploited by their uncle. Their past is mysterious, but when they score well on tests administered by Dominion agents, they are enrolled — despite their young age — in a military academy. There they must excel at a military simulation called the Endgame, or else be sent to the front lines.

It turns out their telepathic gifts make the twins very good at the Endgame, indeed. But getting out of the academy is just the beginning for these extraordinary children.

TRIORION: AWAKENING is ENDER’S GAME meets THE X-MEN. It launches a space-operatic saga with sweeping scope, ever-ratcheting stakes, multiple layers of mystery, and a tremendous amount of heart.

Posted in Bookshelf | Tagged Ender's Game, L.J. Hachmeister, Orson Scott Card, Triorion, Triorion: Awakening | Leave a comment

Bookshelf: A Tale of Red Riding

Posted on September 13, 2016 by David

We open on Red, a mouthy, motorcycle-riding orphan, driving into a dark forest in response to a letter from someone claiming to be her grandmother. In quick succession Red meets a potential boyfriend, her grandmother (the claim is true!), a goblin that tries to kill her, and then an Irishman who gives her the backstory — which is big.

A sorcerer names Ragnarok blew a chunk out of the moon many years ago, scattering magical bits of lunar rock across Wayward. These stones turned Ragnarok’s followers into werewolves, and the sorcerer was ultimately only stopped by one of the werewolves — Red Riding, the Alpha Huntress.

Now Ragnarok threatens to return from his lunar tomb. Fortunately, the spirit of Red Riding lives on — in Red. To rise to her destiny, she’ll have to gather a pack and master the wolf within.

A TALE OF RED RIDING is high-octane cinematic young adult action fun, sarcastic and sassy, that doesn’t take itself too seriously and is impossible to resist.

Posted in Bookshelf | Tagged A Tale of Red Riding, Brothers Grimm, Motorcycles, Neo Edmund, Werewolves | Leave a comment

The Glory of the Stars

Posted on September 12, 2016 by David

On the vast generation ship, the Kingdom of Heaven, President Jeremiah Black’s word is law. It is doctrine. It is the voice of God.

400 years ago, the First Families boarded the Kingdom of Heaven to leave behind a wicked Earth and find a new home where they could build Zion—on a planet they named Canaan, a place the ship wouldn’t reach for a thousand years. Only their descendants would see this new world. But after so many years, conditions on the Kingdom of Heaven are much different from what those First Families had planned.

When Nephi Packard of Telestial Deck runs afoul of President Black and his High Council, he learns the hard way why Leftovers like him don’t mingle with the Celestials. While recovering from his harsh punishment for violating the rules with Black’s own granddaughter, an archangel appears to Nephi, and a calling to restore the true gospel to the Kingdom of Heaven turns Nephi’s life upside down. Now, armed with the word of God, Nephi and his friends from Telestial Deck must bring light, truth, and freedom to the citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven without getting cast out of the ship into Outer Darkness for heresy by President Black and his Celestials.

The Glory of the Stars is a testament to faith, courage, and the power of God.

** I had the pleasure of beta-reading THE GLORY OF THE STARS, and it’s fantastic. Angie Lofthouse continues to write great science fiction that is resolutely LDS. Look for the book on November 16 of this year. **