Behind the Sceens - the Repeater

Saga's primary weapon, the repeater, is based loosely on the real-world Smith & Wesson Model 3's Russian design (more commonly know by it's later model, the Schofield). Shown here in a replica of the Russian model produced by Uberti:

Wikipedia can, of course, do better justice to the real world specifications and history of the weapon than I can. I'd been enamored with the design long before I ever started writing, and though the self-extracting cylinder an especially interesting feature from both a technical and dramatic view. This being fiction, the repeater uses a larger and more powerful round than its counterpart can accommodate, due to the frailty of the top-break design. Though its never laid out in the text (calibers varying from design to design, arteficer to arteficer outside of the standard measurements found in Brass), I tried to describe the round as something similar to the .50 caliber Action Express round, shown here (left) with other rounds for comparison:

The cover art and background for the blog use a non-firing prop replica of the Schofield model found through Amazon, alongside a handful of .45 ACP rounds from my own supply, as I thought actual .50 caliber rounds would look over-sized next to the obviously shorter cylinder.

Special Halloween Short -Wolves of the Stillwood

 Years ago, while I was still hammering out To Walk a Road of Ruin, I wrote a very short story for Kris Straub's Ichor Falls website (a collection of Lovecraftian stories all set against the backdrop of an isolated community called Ichor Falls, including the requisite cursed/haunted forest, the Stillwood). For Halloween, I thought I'd repost it here, though its a bit of a departure from the novel. If you like it, check out Ichor Falls -it's been dormant for a while, but there's plenty stuff perfect for today there.


There are no wolves in the Stillwood.

The gray wolves of Virginia were made extinct over a hundred years ago. According to the regular surveys by the National Forestry service, no sign of any such animal has been found since 1900. The occasional reports of large predators, just after dusk or late at night - usually by the occasional hiker or party of campers in the Stillwood (residents of Lower Alethia, nearest the woods like myself, know better than to try) - receive the same tired reply from Animal Control:

“There are no wolves in the Stillwood.”

When a pet gets lost in the dark of the Stillwood and never returns… or worse is found mauled, the blame falls on the usual suspects: foxes, wild dogs or teenagers with too much time and too little compassion. A few years back, when the Bradleys, a little family brand new to the Falls, had their boy David go missing from their own backyard - never finding more than scraps of his jacket and a little blood at the edge of the forest - the official response was adamant: this was a kidnapping, not an animal attack. Old-timers like me just shook our heads and muttered to ourselves:

“There are no wolves in the Stillwood.”

So, if you want to sleep at night this close to the forest - keep your doors locked tight and your shutters closed fast, if just to buy some peace of mind, to stop you from catching a glimpse of the Stillwood late at night. And should you somehow find yourself walking near, or God forbid through, the woods some evening, head home as quick as you can. Try to ignore the sounds of the night wind, howling as it does… it will only make your imagination run wild, after all. And should you see what cannot be polychrome eyes - shining through the mists, from the underbrush or somehow in the branches above... or even through the gauze of your windows (should you be blessed enough to make it safely home), take what comfort you can in this thought:

There are no wolves in the Stillwood.

Behind the Scenes -Cover Art

New chapter coming up soon, but I thought you might enjoy seeing cover and back for the upcoming release. The cover art should be familiar -after all, it's also the background of this site, but I really like how it has come together.

Behind the Scenes -Map

     The next chapter should be up next week, but I thought I'd slip this in now. A lot of fantasy novels start with a map in the front, and when I first started writing, I scribbled out a rough outline of the areas the story took place in or referred to , so I could keep them straight in my head and how they related to each other. Eventually, I drew out something more concrete, and a few weeks ago, sat down with Photoshop and put together the final product. I know, I'm a better writer than I am an artist, but I'm pretty happy with how this turned out: