The Author: Born in country NSW, spent 60% of his life (so far) in the Country Music Capital of Tamworth and now resides on the NSW Central Coast. Has a BA in Communications, majoring in Information Management, and has been writing (creatively) for over 30 years.
Roughly twenty years ago, whilst I still had parents but very little of a social life, I would while away my hours either by watching a lot of television, reading, or by writing. First I wrote random bits of junk - song lyrics, short stories (set in 2000 AD's Judge Dredd world), and sci-fi/fantasy stuff, which I started but never actually finished, save for two novel length pieces which, well, weren't that well thought out and are extremely amateurish.
In 1993, when the only PC I had was an Aminga 500 (I used to write a lot of material by hand, and still occasionally do) I started electronically compiling some of these fantasy ramblings in what later became book one in the series. I changed the name quite a few times, but by the time I had moved to the Central Coast in 1999, I had a title for the first book - Blutmunth: A Trial by Combat. I still had a lot of hand-written material, but by then, at least I had a PC with some decent storage space.
Today, I have a whole series mapped out, from start to finish. I have developed a world, established cultures & history, and, at one point, even started writing notes for an RPG system based on the series. I really want to return to it, but have found myself horribly distracted by other things of late, including Feudball. Book one is finished (and in a seventh version), book two is half-completed, and book six is about three-quarters done.
The main character in the series is a young man in his early twenties by the name of Ceaucescu Armitage Turner. I borrowed the name from my "favourite" dictator at the time, and felt that my surname was rather suitable for a magic enhanced character. Ceau lives in large country city called Unsworth, which is in the North-West of the Shaunovan Empire, a collection of city states and fiefdoms united after centuries of warfare. Ceau has a close friend, another caster by the name of Clarion Southall, who is loosely based on a number of people I knew from my gaming days up in Tamworth. The pair, in order to obtain unemployment benefits from the state, are both Gefreiters (corporals) in the local city militia unit. Every township in the empire operates these "third tier" military units, which are used as security for large public events, as an emergency reserve police force, and, if necessary, to man military establishments, and even take charge of running prisoner-of-war camps if need be.
As for the world itself, it is in an industrial age, but is quite advanced in other areas. People still get around in horse and carts, but they have access to radio, television, mobile tele-communications, and the internet. There are no weapons of mass destruction, no automobiles, no machine guns, no artillery as we know it, and no ballistic missiles. Aeronautics is in an experimental phase. Primitive aircraft do exist, but a lot of people regard these machines as death-traps and refuse to use them. To travel over long distances, people can utilise steam powered trains, airships and large ocean going vessels.
But they have magic. A small percentage of the population is magically active. Some just have base "parlour trick" abilities, whilst others are able to summon & dispell creatures, create fire out out of air, or even heal serious life-threatening injuries. Ceau and Clarion are at the higher end of that scale.
There is also an afterlife, which could get a page all by itself. Death is not the end for people in this universe.
The first book sees the pair's abilities put to a solid test, when Unsworth is subjected to a full-scale civil revolt. During this episode, the pair meet other regular characters, such as the mysterious Bund (major) Adam Mitrehand, a Shaunovan Internal Security (SIS) agent; Physician-Colonel Moyse McClinton, who is responsible for the Unsworth districts medical and magical practitioners, as well taking care of SIS matters; Bund Avon Smiley, the commander of the local militia; and Lord Fuego, the ruler of the elemental plane of fire, and Ceau's "patron".
Sample chapters, plus a one-off short story Nightmare at Spitzlowen Keep, will be available for downloading at some point.
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