The Cup and Dagger

I bought Sanctuary edited by Robert Lynn Asprin when I was a teen. What I found memorable was the setting of the Vulgar Unicorn. It was here that the various characters in the short stories would meet and go where ever. This was in my beginning years as an aspiring teenage writer and I also wanted to write about thieves, warriors, and wizards operating from a tavern.

About the same time I made in  woodshop a pretty cool mug. I layered several pieces of scrap cedar and then turned it on a lathe. I then took a spade drill bit and hollowed the inside. It is one of my most prized creations. Another day in wood shop I took a piece of scrap pine and using a sanding belt I was able to shape a fairly good blade. I then glued to smaller pieces on to it to form the hilt of the dagger. Imagine if I were to make that in woodshop today.

  

Sometime later I was thinking of my world of Kesselt and was inspired by my old woodshop cup and dagger. It had been sometime since I had read Sanctuary. That's when I hit upon the idea of my Kesselt stories being barroom stories told by the patrons. Along the way that idea morphed into the preludes and epilogues of my Kesselt stories beginning and ending there. I had visions of a tavern like the Vulgar Unicorn in Sanctuary. One day looking at my wooden dagger as it stuck out of the cup I had my inspiration of what the name would be. The Cup and Dagger.

 

 

I had my tavern and the name for it. I open The Greggs of Kesselt at the Cup and Dagger. I use it in the body of the story as a setting. And then the book concludes in the Cup and Dagger in the epilogue.

 

When I first published my book back in 2004 I originally wanted to call it, From the Tales of the Cup and Dagger: Thomas Monroe and the Greggs of Kesselt. Knowing that titles should not be longer than five words that would have been wordy.

 

I'm still toying with the idea of short stories from the Cup and Dagger. However, I need to concentrate what's on my project list before running off and getting distracted. You will see more of the Cup and Dagger in the future. Its such a cool place to come back for more.

 

Dragons, Monsters and Villains

When I was first shopping The Greggs of Kesselt under its former title way back in 2004 I received one rejection letter that I found humorous. The gentleman was taking issue with the fact that I have a dragon in my fantasy genre book. Okay, so he doesn't like dragons. That's cool. But how he wrote; he found it incomprehensible that a dragon would be used in any fantasy novel. Really?

I believe what he was trying to convey was that by using a dragon I could not possibly be worthy of publication because dragons are cliché.

If dragons are cliché then I guess tell that to Van Gogh about bowls of fruit or flowers.

Which brings me to my point. A good story in part, is about how the author uses the elements within, to tell the story. Having a dragon in a story is not bad its how the dragon adds to the story that matters. I will continue to have dragons in my stories.

Which brings me to my choices of monsters, villains and fantasy creatures. First you must know that I have had much exposure to Greek and European mythology. I draw from that rich source to populate my stories and Kesselt. Admittedly, I like to use different creatures from those that are most commonly written about. I do believe that some creatures are over used. By adding different creatures I think it brings fresh story elements. So the gentleman was partly correct. But I don't believe in departing totally from the norm.

I have read a number of books where the authors have departed from the norm of fantasy so much it truly wasn't enjoyable. There's avant-garde  and then there's being out right ridiculous. When I use a new creature I want it to add to or move the story along. Sometimes I write to please special people in my life.

My daughter has just as vivid of imagination as I do. When I first wrote The Greggs of Kesselt she would read along. The scene with the unicorn was added based on her suggestion that I couldn't just use dark creatures all the time. My use of the unicorn was my Grimm take on them. Unicorns haven't always been the pastel creatures of  contemporary pop culture.

For my villain race I chose Kobolds. Kobolds come from Germanic mythology. They were evil spirits from mines. I first learned of them from Dungeons and Dragons. In D&D lore they are a reptilian humanoid like race described as dog-like. On Kesselt I have transformed them into a canine humanoid like race. I understand my version is not in keeping with the German or D&D versions. My Kobolds come from a D&D campaign where the Dungeon Master used them extensively and described them as canine. I used that description when I was in need of a stock villain race for the book and my second forth coming book.

When it comes to villains I don't use them as a bad force that needs to be vanquished. I use them as obstacles for the protagonist. I have not been a fan of the perpetual villain. That's why there is no one villain in my books. In life there are always several forces that seem to always be circling causing stress. I like that concept for my books.

One of the main reasons I like the fantasy genre is because I can tell a story drawing from a palette of variety. I can mix and use different types of characters. In the end I believe it only adds to the story and satisfies the imagination.  Enjoy the dragons, there will be more.      

  

  

The Beginnings of the Book

One of my favorite authors is Edgar Rice Burroughs. Like many teenage boys his martian series totally captivated me. Who would not want to be like John Carter and win the heart of the most beautiful woman of all of Mars? Okay, so I was a little geeky at the time.

Sometime in college I thought between school, part time jobs, National Guard training and my future wife I would be able to write a book. To write five pages a day is good for me. To find time to write five pages is another story. But I tried. And I failed.

For my college years attempt I hearkened back to Burroughs. I wanted to write about a hero who is transported to another world. My story started with a bunch of teenagers going to camp on a bus. During a very bad storm the bus looses control and crashes. Some die in the crash... but then what happen? I don't know because of all my commitments I never got past the first chapter and lost interest.

A few years later I was able to finally finish a very sloppy manuscript of an interstellar war. It also sits in my writing box looking for the light of day. Then I finished a novella about a guy condemn to Hell. Its done but I'm holding onto it for now. I want to add to it and haven't gotten around to it.

One day I was wallowing in self pity when Mrs. Stidmon started scolding me. I believe the actual words were, "Your book wont write its self, make it happen." After sulking for some time because she was right. I went back to all my serious attempts at writing.

About this time I literally had a dream. In the dream there was a bunch of people and a disembodied voice from a bright shiny light said, "Find me and you win." Unlike most dreams that quickly fade away. The images to this day are still very vivid.

Between the bus story line and this one dream, I had my beginning. I had from a couple of decades of writing and playing Dungeons and Dragons tons of stuff about Kesselt. And so I started writing The Greggs of Kesselt to put it all together and make it happen. I not only introduce Kesselt but I have my hero story similar to Edgar Rice Burroughs. 

About Kesselt

                I like maps. For me they fill in the picture in my imagination when reading a story. I have probably spent more time looking at the maps of Middle Earth than actually reading about Bilbo and company. As I was writing my first tale of Kesselt even though it was not germane to the story I also developed this world. At first I was more concern about actual geographical layout. Then as my various attempts at completing a story of Kesselt were unsuccessful the world however was more and more fleshed out beyond the physical features. When I sat down to definitively write The Greggs of Kesselt I had a lot of back ground source material to work with. Between my imagination, past scribblings, and actual sketches this world was ready made before me. It was just a matter of placing a plot line and characters into it.
                Kesselt geographically is basically simple. There are two large continental land masses separated by a narrow sea, north and south, which make up a little more than half of the surface area of this world.  There are a couple of smaller continents or large islands opposite of the two main continents in relation on the globe. Most of my stories I have written, outlined, or scribbled about take place on the north continent.
                North Kesselt as the upper continent is called is pretty much divided by a large river running from a large mountain range in the north to the middle sea in the south.  On the eastern side of the continent is a range of low hills and that quarter’s the continent again with a savanna like environment on the eastern quarter. The western side of the continent is forest with smaller mountain ranges and hill countries. There is in the far northwest of the continent a large peninsula steppe tundra where my first real attempt at writing took place.
                The rest of Kesselt I have vaguely written about and is still open for completion. South Kesselt is dominated by a dessert that turns into another great savanna. Of the islands I spoke of I featured one as tropical and the other as more temperate.
                The back story of Kesselt is that two deities fought over control of this world. As a result of the battle the world suffered a worldwide cataclysm that destroyed most life and people. As a last act of mercy the Kesselt god put in motion to heal the world and bring life to it from other worlds. The other evil aggressor god corrupted that healing process. This would explain barren or inhospitable lands, aggressive peoples, different races, and monsters. The Greggs are the guardians of Kesselt against this corruption until the god of Kesselt is healed to resume his place.
                The Greggs of Kesselt takes place about 45 years from the battle between the gods. The people, both original and those who have been brought to the world by divine magic, are basically at a dark ages level of society. Prior to the gods’ battle the world of Kesselt was an advance agrarian society that had overcome many societal failings. Kesselt had achieved the ideal societal balances. After the battle of the gods, chaos and anarchy gave way to feudal and despotism. There is mistrust between original Kesseltians and the Off-worlders. And of course there are followers of both gods who have continued the fight.
                As for how I came up with the name Kesselt. It’s a doodle name. It’s just a name I came up with when I started writing about the Greggs and the characters in the first attempts at writing.  It also turns out, that it is the name of a village in Belgium; ironically not far from where I lived as a child.
                It’s my plan to publish several set upon Kesselt. I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed writing them.

ML Stidmon

Who are the Greggs of Kesselt?

The Greggs of Kesselt have been with me for a very long time in various carnations. As a teenager many decades ago I was very much into Dungeons and Dragons. Imagine that. During one epic adventure I developed and advanced in levels a basic wizard that I named Morgregg. He was somewhat evil and did bad things as evil wizards are want to do. The name derived from Mordred from the Arthurian legends. I love the tales of King Arthur and all of the supporting characters. I’m sure you will notice in my writing this influence. So I played the D&D character Mor Gregg till he died off from some gruesome act of karma.

 

Around this time I started to “seriously” start writing my first great fantasy novel. This was in the early 80’s. The story line was about a King who was murdered by his cold blooded oldest son who then frames his younger brother. The younger son is banished because there just wasn’t enough evidence to convict him of regicide. He goes off to the land of night and storms to fetch a mythical sword that will avenge his father and right the terrible wrong that his brother did to him. A mysterious wizard all cloaked in robes and horribly disfigured tries to stop him. The wizard was originally going to be Mor Gregg from my D&D character. As I wrote the story I changed the wizard’s name to Tor Gregg, wizard brethren to Mor Gregg.

 

That story was never completed and is on a back burner to perhaps finish it one day; if for no other reason than to satisfy my need to tidy up the mythology of Kesselt.

 

A couple of years later I had another incredibly awesome D&D character named Miles Tegorn. He was a fighter thief extraordinaire. His name obviously came from Frank Herbert’s Dune series. Also around this time the world of Kesselt was being fleshed out more in more in short stories and fits and starts to various epics I was trying to write. Miles Tegorn morphed into Borja and then into Bor Gregg during this time of trying to get it all together in the world of Kesselt. I was up to three Greggs now.

 

Through the 90’s I tried to become a more discipline writer. I would sit down and write with pen and paper. I did complete a couple of stories, but nowhere polished enough to actually submit for publication. Then things changed in 2002. I got a new job and a new outlook in life. Essentially, I decided I needed to write or give it up. Writing a few paragraphs or a few pages just wasn’t cutting it. I needed to write and be discipline about it or I might as well just give it up.

 

I went back to all of my previous writings and decided I needed to quit spinning my tires and get serious about Kesselt. The first thing was to organize my Kesselt writings from my other stuff. I like the world of Kesselt and look forward to bringing several tales to publication. In order to write those stories there needs to be some sort of beginning point. That is why I wrote The Greggs of Kesselt. I wanted to establish who the Greggs were and also the back story of Kesselt.

 

Even though The Greggs of Kesselt is mostly about the adventures of Thomas Kinkaid, it introduces the five Greggs and the world I created. I hope you all enjoy it. I look forward to completing the other tales.

Why the name

Back in the days before newspaper comment sections, blogging, or whatever social media there is now for people to express their opinions, I would write letters to the editor of our local paper. Admittedly I was hoping someone from the Washington Post or New York Times would notice me and say, "Hey here's the next (insert your favorite opinion writer here)." Silly me. After about the fifth letter, Mrs. Stidmon and I had a sit down. When we have a sit down its usually me sitting and her giving me the what for.

Basically my dreams of becoming a famous opinion writer were being over shadowed by the various calls from people with reaction to the letters. Most were in some level of agreement but a few people actually called to "disagree" with me. Some left messages on the answering machine. It were those calls that Mrs. Stidmon was talking about, especially when the little Stidmons over heard the calls and became frighten. I stopped writing to the local newspaper.

I did not stop writing though. And when I finally finished my first book back in 2004 I was faced with a dilemma. What if I became famous? Okay, stop laughing, I did not realize back then that one had a better chance at winning the PowerBall lottery versus becoming a famous writer. But hey, what if? I did not want to subject my family to the paparazzi and those pesky phone calls. (Do famous writers actually have paparazzi following them?) Anyways, I wanted to use a pen name to separate my personal, actual, life from this fantasy dream of being a mega super star author. Thus the need for a pen name.

Pen names are cool. They are a way to be someone that you aren't. And you can separate yourself from one life from another. So then the question I faced was what would mine be. That's not so easy because a pen name should be cool and author sounding such as Mark Twain or Richard Bachman or George Orwell. I did not want to totally disassociate from my surname. In a way I did not want to say, "No really I'm George Mason the super duper famous writer." Or have to explain to a dear older relative that, "yes I was on Jay Leno I was just using a different name." Then there was the issue of friends or family coming up to me and saying, "I was trying to find your book but could not find it under Slartibartfast. How do you spell that?"  Stidmon would have to stick.

Then the question became after deciding that I was going to stick with my last name, what about the first name. I could sound authoritative like Cecil B. De Mills and be Michael L. Stidmon. That would not due. For one I would probably get a lot of phone calls from people "disagreeing" with me. Besides, that's who I am to the world in my personal life. Then there was going with Mike Stidmon. Really, here I am wanting to eventually write a high epic fantasy story that Peter Jackson might salivate over wanting to make a movie trilogy from. Mike just did not sound like JRR or JK or George RR. Besides, Mike is that guy who works at the facility. You know, "Hey Mike, go do X."

Speaking of the facility where I work a day job, I have to log on to a computer and yep you guess it, my name comes up as ML Stidmon. One day after some time of pondering what name I should use as an author I was logging on at work and there it struck me. I would be ML Stidmon, hopefully super duper, incredibly famous after one book, author. That was back in 2004.

When the book Thomas Monroe and the Greggs of Kesselt was published by my former publishers I went by ML Stidmon. I have stuck to that as my pen name.

Now for something completely different. I was recently googling my self. I like to do that on occasion. I like to see what I have been up to. Sometimes the stuff on the net is more interesting than what's happening in real life. I can hardly wait to read about how I am divorcing my well known 30 something A list movie star for some up and coming graduate from kid's cable network TV starlet. Anyways, sometime ago during my Great Grandfather's day the surname went from Stedman to Stidmon. My whole life I have been fighting misspellings. So I was googling ML Stedman in case some schmuck once again misspelled name. And low and behold I found out I was a well known author from Australia who wrote a successful book titled Light Between the Oceans. And published by Simon and Schuster. (Sure, those guys wouldn't touch the equally captivating and hopefully having Peter Jackson calling to make a trilogy out of Thomas Monroe and the Greggs of Kesselt; but here they were publishing Ms. Stedman's book.)

Really? There's two of us?  Great, one day she'll be on the Graham Norton show and then to confuse the audience I'll be on it the next time. Or I could be the fill in when Ms. Stedman wont be able to join Jay, Dave, Jimmy, Cullen, or Conan.

Seriously, I wish nothing but the best for M.L. Stedman and her works. I have not read her writings but I am sure they are top notch having been published by Simon and Schuster. They are know to be a little picky on the caliber of writing from authors.

However, I was ML Stidmon first back in December of 2004. So there.

The Greggs of Kesselt is at Smashwords

I have up loaded to Smashwords the re-issue of my first book. I have included the cover here. As you can see I have shorten the title to The Greggs of Kesselt. I also have a cover of my design. Unlike my previous publisher who ignored me and design the cover without me. I like the Celtic knot for many reasons. First I think it looks cool. You don't see many Celtic knots like this one. I also like how the designer Donna Casey at DigitalDonna.com filled it in. The original knot was a wire mesh prototype. The way Donna did it makes it look like it was poured into a sand mold. I also like the subtle dragon image in the back ground. I like dragons.

I am working on A Princess of Kesselt. I am about half way through the final draft. I hope to get it it on Smashwords within a couple of months.