Tag: Fantasy

Categories
Boltblaster Deepfire Dirty Deeds Fiction Glass Darkly Jack Scarlet (Series) Jason Cosmo (Series) Novels Short Fiction Writing

Deepfire and Other Stories

Dan McGirt holds a copy of his book Hero WantedGreetings, Loyal Readers!

Oh, and Happy New Year! We’re well into 2017. I have not posted in a while. I thought I’d give you a quick update on what I’m up to. I have been plugging away on various projects, which I will bullet below.

New Year’s Resolutions

  • In 2016 I resolved write 7 novels, 3 novellas, and 1 short story, doubling my lifetime output. It was a grand goal, and one I fell far short of. Some of that was due to unforeseen personal matters – life keeps happening. Some was due to travel and other distractions. But I like the goal, so I’m renewing it for 2017! Because I’m crazy like that.

Short Story Review

  • One resolution I did achieve was writing a short story in 2016. In fact, I wrote two. Unfortunately, due to circumstances beyond my control, neither story was published last year.
  • ‘The Red Hook Incident’, written for the Strange Arcana: The Stars Are Right anthology, sits in limbo, as the anthology was delayed until further notice. See my September 2016 post for more on that.
  • ‘Glass Darkly and the Skull in the Box’, also written for an anthology, is also in limbo. The anthology has seen production delays. Again, no firm publication date has been set.
  • You can see why I don’t usually write short stories.
  • I hope both these stories will be released at some point this year.
  • Meanwhile, I have a 2017 short story to write! Thinking ahead, I’ve already arranged to not get paid for it…

Novel Matters

  • The goal is again to write seven new books this year. Fortunately, I have several books already in progress. (It’s not that I didn’t write anything last year. I just didn’t finish any books.)
  • Jack Scarlet: Deepfire – my first full-length 21st century technopulp adventure thriller! I this very day finished a round of revisions on the manuscript. It will go into editing later this month, targeted for a Spring release.
  • Boltblaster – Long awaited, long delayed. The tale of Mercury Boltblaster’s early adventures, before he teamed up with Jason Cosmo to save the Eleven Kingdoms.  The story is plotted. The first few chapters are written. Lots of magic and mayhem to come! This should be the next book release.
  • Saving Max – This is a book I chip away at every so often between working on other things. I’ve got more than ten chapters written. You can read the first nine chapters of Saving Max at Wattpad. I don’t want to say much about this one yet – except to say things are not always as they seem!
  • Dirty Deeds – #4 in the Jason Cosmo fantasy adventure series. This will be the (fairly substantial) revision of the classic Jason Cosmo title Dirty Work. Aiming for a Fall release.
  • Threat of the Talon – A Rex Carson adventure. This is a revision and expansion of a six page handwritten story I wrote when I was 13. I dug it out of the Story Vault and it wasn’t bad! Rex Carson was my juvenile self’s Indiana Jones rip-off (with a swordcane, not a whip!) who had a harrowing adventure in the jungles of Peru (running from Hovaras, not Hovitos). Obviously, the story needed a little work. I’m treating my youthful effort as the first draft and have been quietly plugging away at a new treatment, while keeping as much of the original settings and characters as I can. It will be a fun story – again, no definite release date.
  • Two Books TBD – I’ve got a few other books in various stages of completion: A paranormal chick lit spoof. An Arthurian comedy. Another Jack Scarlet adventure. An adventure involving a group of 80s kids investigating supernatural doings that I swear I started before the producers of Stranger Things started high school! A few more. If I meet my goal, I’ll finish two of them this year, in addition to the titles listed above.

Novella Matters

  • Somewhere in there, I have to write three novellas too! We’ll talk about those later.

That’s what I’m up to right now, and my road map for the year on the writing front. Thanks for reading!

Best regards,

Dan McGirt

 

Categories
Fiction Kickstarter Short Fiction

Strange Arcana – The Stars Are Right Now – Kickstarter Project Live thru July 22

Greetings, Loyal Reader!

My short story “The Red Hook Incident” will appear in the STRANGE ARCANA: The Stars Are Right anthology from Sigil Entertainment. There is a Strange Arcana Kickstarter campaign ongoing to fund the project – and I want to share the video trailer with you. One, because it’s cool and two, because I got to write the script for it!

STRANGE ARCANA: The Stars Are Right is a mind-bending collection of eldritch horror stories set in a weird, dangerous universe, where superheroes must face immensely powerful ancient beings, crazed doomsday cultists, and a dark secret they all share.

The finished book will be an 6.75 x 10.25 inch, 128-page, color volume with a collection of eight original illustrated short stories and an epic 24-page comic finale. There will also be ebook editions and related art prints available. Even a deck of cards!

All that said, I hope you enjoy the video. And if you want to get your hands on my story “The Red Hook Incident” (and, gosh, I hope you do) consider supporting the Kickstarter project, which ends July 22. You’ll get my story, plus seven more. The ebook will be out in August. The hardback edition is set for February – it will take a little longer, since it also includes a comic book story not yet written.

Best regards,

Dan McGirt

Categories
Fiction Short Fiction Uncategorized

My First Short Story Sale: The Red Hook Incident

Greetings, Loyal Readers!

My official sale of a short story! My story “The Red Hook Incident” will appear in the upcoming anthology Strange Arcana: The Stars Are Right, from Sigil Entertainment. More on that soon.

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I know what you’re thinking – Dan, you’ve published multiple novels. You’re telling me you’ve never had a professional sale of a short story before now?

Yes, that’s what I’m telling you. When I first set out to be “a writer” in my teens I wrote and submitted a couple of fantasy short stories because I thought that’s what you were supposed to do: start with shorts and work your way up to writing novels. None of my short stories sold, Jason Cosmo did, and I decided I’d stick with novels, which are much easier to write!

Continue reading “My First Short Story Sale: The Red Hook Incident”
Categories
Fiction Magicka: The Ninth Element Media Novels

Magicka: The Ninth Element (A Tale of Wizards) by Dan McGirt

Greetings, Loyal Reader!

Magicka: The Ninth Element by Dan McGirtI can finally reveal the “Secret Project” I’ve been working on all year.  Magicka: The Ninth Element is a short novel set in the world of the Paradox Interactive game Magicka.  Magicka is “an action-adventure game set in the fantasy world of Midgård, where elemental magic rules the land, goblins and trolls are perfectly harmless – well, perhaps not entirely, and all the villagers are wise-cracking smart alecks.”

Magicka is a third-person shooter style game in which one to four player control Wizard character and launch a huge variety of destructive spells at enemy necromancers, orcs, and other terrible foes.

Here is more about the game:

The story begins amidst a great crisis, and an urgent quest falls to you, Wizards of the Order of Magick. It would seem that the capital city of Hávindr is under siege! So alas, you must leave your comfortable castle filled with delicious hot dogs and fancy cheeses, and hurry to the aid of the King.

In your travels you will fight your way through 13 levels, each more fiendish than the last. You shall draw upon the aid of magickal spells, freely combined from the eight elements. As you progress, you will learn the delicate art of annihilating your enemies with the awesome powers of ancient Magicks. As if that’s not enough, you can also test your skills in the various challenge modes, and duel your friends (or enemies) in player vs player battle mode.

The game is a blast and there are several extra levels, sequels and prequels that expand and extend the original storyline and offer more opportunities for magickal mayhem.

This where I come in.

Last year, Paradox approached me about authoring a tie-in novel. Magicka‘s tongue-in-cheek tone is similar, though not quite the same, as my comical Jason Cosmo fantasy adventure series. It sounded fun, so I signed up — and soon learned writing a story set in someone else’s fictional world presents certain … challenges.  It was an enjoyable experience, yet very different than being able to write and run with whatever crazy idea pops into my head.

Trying to capture the feel of a game that is more based on action and blowing stuff up than on deep character moments (not that I would know much about that … ) was also a challenge. I experimented with things like using comic book sound effects, lean descriptions (do I really need to describe a fireball spell in detail?) and other tricks to keep things moving.

I also got to add to Magicka lore. Often the answer to my questions about some bit of in-world history or “fact” was “Make something up.” So I did! (Often getting a response of  … “Odin’s onions, no! You can’t do that!”) So I was thrilled and excited to contribute in a small way to the development of Midgård.

The result is Magicka: The Ninth Element, in which four young Wizards are sent on a quest to pursue the mysterious Purple Wizard who has stolen a powerful artifact from the Order of Magick.

Which powerful artifact? No one is quite sure (for reasons explained in the story).

What does it do? Again, unclear. But it can’t be good.

Thus our heroes Davlo, Grimnir, Fafnir and Tuonetar set out on their quest — and promptly go off the map. (I’m not even kidding. The Midgård map in the front of the book will of little use to you. But it’s pretty!)

Will they survive the dangers of the Unmapped Lands? Will they catch the Purple Wizard in time? Will they save the world? Read the book to find out!

I’ll have more to share about Magicka: The Ninth Element soon. Today I’m just pleased that Loyal Readers can finally get your hands on it!

Available at

Best regards,

Dan McGirt

Categories
Andrea Parnell Devil Moon Media Novels Royal Chaos Royal Crush Writing

New Projects

Greetings, Loyal Reader!

Time to check in with you again. A few things to mention. First, my mom and I were in the paper recently. We were interviewed for an article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution called “e-Books getting the words out”. The able reporter did a good job of reporting on how ebook publishing empower authors to take charge of their writing careers and connect directly with readers in ways that were not possible (or at least much more difficult) in the pre-ebook era. Whether it is re-releasing previously published books or publishing all-new works without having to wait around for Big Publishing to get a clue, this is a great time to be an author. The tools are there for those who learn how to use them–as more and more authors are each day.

As for my own authoring, my summer projects are writing a new book, Dash: Into Space! and the next Jason Cosmo book, Royal Crush (a revision of the classic Royal Chaos). I’m also editing my mother’s novel Devil Moon for reissue as an ebook. Enough to keep me busy!

I was also thrilled to be contacted by REDACTED to inquire about my interest in writing REDACTED for REDACTED. Yeah, can’t say much about it, but there may be a fun side project in the offing.

One more thing — my ebook titles are on sale at Smashwords through July 31.

Hope you’re enjoying your summer! (Or winter, south of the equator.)

Best regards,

Dan McGirt

Categories
Andrea Parnell Dark Prelude Dark Splendor Delilah's Flame Dirty Work Fiction Hero Wanted Jason Cosmo (Book) Jason Cosmo (Series) Jason Cosmo Non-Trilogy Jason Cosmo Omnibus Noble Cause Novels Royal Chaos Trove Books Whispers at Midnight

Hello (again) world!

Greetings!

So…yeah, this has been a very slow-moving project, launching DanMcGirt.com.  Slower even than I expected. Glacial?

Slower than that. Geologic is more like it.

Even so, I still have the grandest of intentions to make DanMcGirt.com my online home base and secret headquarters. But it will be a bit by bit process, as I’ve simply had to put this effort near the bottom of the priority list so far.

What have I been doing instead? Glad you asked! Here is an update:

  • The rebooted Jason Cosmo fantasy adventure series from Trove Books is at Book Two now, available as ebooks around the world. Book One, Hero Wanted, is also available as a print edition.
  • All of my fantasy novels originally published as Signet/Roc paperbacks are now available as ebooks at Amazon and elsewhere. To wit,  the classic Jason Cosmo Non-Trilogy of Jason Cosmo, Royal Chaos, and Dirty Work.  You can get them singly, or as an all-in-one omnibus ebook.
  • I’ve been working with my mother, Andrea Parnell, to publish her out-of-print romance novels as ebooks. We’ve produced three so far, plus a free novella, with more on the way. You can learn more at Mom’s website: AndreaParnell.com.

A lot of work behind writing, preparing, and publishing these titles! I’ll keep adding to this site. In the meantime, please visit my Jason Cosmo Update site or join my Facebook page.  You can also follow me on Twitter: @jasoncosmo

Thanks for reading!

Best regards,

Dan McGirt

Categories
Dark Splendor Noble Cause Uncategorized Whispers at Midnight

Hello world!

Updated: May 19, 2011

Greetings, Loyal Reader!

I am doing a bit by bit launch of DanMcGirt.com as my new home page. I have a lot of work to do on the site.  It will be a process of constant small improvements. I have lately been busy getting the original versions of my comical fantasy adventure novels Jason Cosmo, Royal Chaos, and Dirty Work formatted as ebooks. All are currently available at Smashwords and will soon debut in the Amazon Kindle Store.

I’m also working to finish writing Noble Cause, the sequel to Hero Wanted. Hero Wanted was book 1 of the relaunched Jason Cosmo series making Noble Cause … wait for it! … book 2.

And … I’m also editing several romance novels by my mother, award-winning author Andrea Parnell. We’re reviving her out-of-print romanc novels as ebooks. The first two, Dark Splendor and Whispers at Midnight, are now available as ebooks at Smashwords, the Apple iBookstore, Barnes & Noble, and will soon come to the Amazon Kindle Store.

Along the way, I’ll continue to add content to this website, as it becomes my online headquarters. For now, you’ll find much more information about my books at the Jason Cosmo Update site or my Facebook page.

You can also follow me on Twitter: @jasoncosmo

My (very) occasional newsletter/mailing list is at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/JasonCosmoUpdate/

Thanks for reading!

Best regards,

Dan McGirt