Authorpreneur Dashboard – Charles W McDonald
Black Mirrors of the Soul
Science Fiction & Fantasy
We, the seeds of Humanity, are all the descendants of hardened criminals, fighting to survive the unmaking of A Throne of Souls. Magic and technology have already met on a world far more advanced than our own only to dispense their most dangerous and hardened criminals, for magic has been outlawed. Their descendants—us, here on Earth, along with the rest of Humanity—are now left to grapple with a Creation undone at the hands of an outlaw mage whose Master Plan affects the seeds of Humanity throughout the known Universe. This outlaw—this Dark Knight of Magic—must accumulate immeasurable power to thwart the fork of consequences that brought forth the making of A Throne of Souls. This story, this execution of his Master Plan originating centuries into the past, begins and ends with a triad of pivotal relationships and evolves through his understanding of his own soul. While Black Mirrors of the Soul is the second installment in the series A Throne of Souls, it illustrates much of the beginning of the story, especially the back-story of The Cauldron of Hate that forged Damon. This is where you’ll read, see, and feel the fuel for the Fork of Consequences. This is the gut-wrenching, emotional journey that will have you screaming, crying, and cheering for more. From the Monuments of Creation to the Seeds of Humanity to the making of A Throne of Souls, there are plot-lines and clues everywhere in this intricate mosaic for you to unravel.
Book Bubbles from Black Mirrors of the Soul
The Archbishop of Canterbury
I love this chapter. I know it's not going to get a ton of play because it's kindof dwarfed by so many other chapters in BMOS and AKF, but I love it because it's the perfect nonlinear bridge between who Michael was before he was king and who he had to become after he was made king. It's the perfect nonlinear bridge to illustrate the feelings (even if very subtly done) of the old king as he sees the one true Sword of Kings for the first time. Pay attention to how he (Harold) reacts when he sees the sword--if even from a distance. There is a knowing there. There is a coming to terms (on multiple levels) for Harold that isn't captured or understood by anyone else in this scene. What I'm saying is there is a lot more to this scene than the literal text provides and that's intentional. One day, this will be brought to the screen and scenes like this will be so elevated as to bring a new meaning to the story.
The Old Us
Damon's first meeting with Evanyil--a meeting that would forever change both their destiny and ours. This is one of those moments in time that was either destined to be or manipulated to be. You'll just have to read A Throne of Souls to find out. Having said that, Evanyil provides just the right balance of chaos and radical thinking to Damon's structure and order. He provides the planning, and she the cunning. Both are ruthless to the core in combat and together they built an unassailable reputation for trouble. Everywhere on Kaleion, words of their misdeeds hath spread like a cruel and lethal virus. Yet, their relationship is...complex. There is love there--love of reliability, love of understanding, love of familiarity, and so much more. But getting inside Evanyil's head and heart is something even Damon could never master. Doubtful, Evanyil could either when it came to her own thoughts and feelings of Damon. She's an enigma and the Architect of Chaos.
The Wrong Choices
I spend inordinate amounts of time on character development and chapters like this is where it shows. I love writing intense dialogue because it just flows effortlessly from my thoughts onto the canvas of the book. And, truthfully, it's the least edited--least adulterated--text in the manuscript. Most of my editing changes are in the narrative. But, I bring this up to illustrate that if you invest the time in strong character development, it makes the flow of the story so much easier to write and to read. Here, Mira struggles with a situation where she's totally out of her element. She's always been the most beautiful, the most desired, the best of everything and yet she's left feeling inadequate when compared to the great Illirian Starfire--someone Damon has known for centuries. How could she ever compete with that? Should she even try?
Becoming Immortal
Again, back to the character development... I know many readers questioned, "How are Michelle and Lawna operating in daylight?" Well, here is your answer. You see the struggle of dealing with Rena's offer of immortality. Would you accept such an offer? What if Rena granted your biggest wish beyond that of immortality? Rena has far-reaching power and influence and there isn't much she couldn't grant you. How would you respond to her offer?
Damon and Illirian
Don't pay any attention to the trailing 'e' on surprise. That's just the Bublish reader playing tricks on my ePub. It doesn't look that way in the real book. I'd like you to just pay a moment of attention to the caring dynamic between Damon and Illirian in this chapter. Her imploring of him to stop using Damnation at all costs. She knows something he doesn't because of her position. She's not supposed to meddle, but she genuinely loves and cares for Damon and is one of the few who can see past his atrocities and misdeeds to the man (the boy even) underneath. She sees his hurt and his wounds as his incredible strength, yet she detests that part of him. If only he could be vulnerable with her the way he was with Dallia...
The Circle of Losses
One of my goals of BMOS was to illustrate the massive amount of character development that has gone into so many of these characters. Just take a few minutes to read this excerpt and you'll see what I mean. You can feel the depth of emotion and history between Rowarc and Radin (Father/Dad and Son). Many thanks to my wife for her valuable input on this chapter in particular. Her insight was--as always--spot on. Please enjoy it.
The Key to the Abyss
So, as people begin to read this I'm sure I'll get the inevitable, "Wow, that sounds pretty hellfire and brimstone preacher's boy." Yes, I was the son of a preacher. Yes, some of this will sound familiar territory if you spent time in Sunday school, but again, I warn you... Don't think this a religious piece of work. It is not! Keep reading, and you'll find an entirely unique POV of Hell. Even looking at the print cover, you can see quite a lot of unique elements. Still, I wanted some familiar elements and some new elements. But, keep in the foreground of your thoughts, "this is not about good vs evil." This is about the beginning and end of all things and the evolution of Humanity within.
The Death of Men
One of my biggest struggles in this story has been determining just how far God the Creator would go to cleanse, punish, and prepare Humanity for his arrival. I don't take much input from the Bible or other religious or historical references since I want this story to be entirely unique and NOT prophecy-driven as so many stories are these days. One of the massive storylines running through this epic landscape is the untold story of Creation. Again, don't think for a minute this is a religious reference. It is not! Given those parameters, I'm left to work backward from the very end of the story to this moment in time. Thus, I give the Death of Men.
The Cauldron of Hate
You don't forge a Damon with teddy bears and flowers. You forge a Damon in a Cauldron of Hate. Damon is NOT a nice man, but what and who could he have become if not for the Cauldron of Hate? The scars about his chest, neck, back and shoulders are but scars upon his very soul and thus they cannot ever Heal. Damon's evolution of his own understanding of his own soul and psyche are pivotal to his knowing how to move forward in his Master Plan. If Dallia were but alive, she might have been able to get him past these scars on his soul, but that relief was denied him so very long ago.
A Kingdom Forgotten
Science Fiction & Fantasy
We, the seeds of Humanity, are all the descendants of hardened criminals, fighting to survive the unmaking of A Throne of Souls. Magic and technology have already met on a world far more advanced than our own only to dispense their most dangerous and hardened criminals, for magic has been outlawed. Their descendants—us, here on Earth, along with the rest of Humanity—are now left to grapple with a Creation undone at the hands of an outlaw mage whose Master Plan affects the seeds of Humanity throughout the known Universe. This outlaw—this Dark Knight of Magic—must accumulate immeasurable power to thwart the fork of consequences that brought forth the making of A Throne of Souls. This story, this execution of his Master Plan originating centuries into the past, begins and ends with a triad of pivotal relationships and evolves through his understanding of his own soul. Within the Master Plan, the dichotomy between hate and hope, across a landscape far beyond epic, is illustrated through vibrant characters developed over two-and-a-half decades.
Book Bubbles from A Kingdom Forgotten
A Confluence of Events
Why include the war and military genre in this series? Well, I certainly didn't do it to make the writing easier I can tell you that! Writing like the great Tom Clancy is NO EASY TASK. However, it's impossible to tell the untold story of creation without an all-encompassing point of view, and in A Throne of Souls, one of the key themes is that the End Times isn't a global phenomenon. It's a universal phenomenon across all the Seeds of Humanity and beyond. It is literally the unmaking of Creation. Therefore, there would have to be some elements of this if it were happening in our here and now. Second reason, is that I simply love myself some Tom Clancy-style writing. Third would be that as fantastic as A Throne of Souls is at times, I want to have logic and realism strike home on nearly every page. I want to take you to the edge of the fantastic, then bring you back home to reality with the dialogue and narrative of things like this.
The Fork of Consequences
Truly one of the most significant chapters--in so far as consequential to the main threads of the story--in the entire series. This is one of the compelling events that leads Damon into creating the Master Plan in the first place. If I were to help guide you through this highly complex story a bit further, I would add that you should pay attention to the comments about the power gap (current and future state) between Banthis and the Dragon of Darkness. Think about how massive that power gap might have been long before there was Banthis and Damon together. Think about how much it might be closing with each casting of Damnation today. Damnation permanently messed with the balance of power both in and outside of Hell--in all of Creation really. Now ask yourself this question, 'who's idea was it really to create Damnation in the first place and why?'
A Working Prototype
My wife insisted on publishing this bubble. It has some of my favorite lines in the book (namely from Kellen). See if you can figure out which one I mean and ping me with your guesses/answers. I'd love to hear what you think. But what I love most about this chapter is how it humanizes the great archmage Damon. I've been told Damon comes across as too god-like, as if there are no consequences to his actions. Well...not so. This chapter illustrates he is still a flawed mortal, capable of monumental errors. The only difference being the more powerful you are, the more magnified your mistakes. That couldn't be any more the case than in A Working Prototype.
The Old Us
This is one of my favorite excerpts. Damon Evanyil = Trouble. Evanyil is the perfect counterbalance of chaos, imagination, and creative thinking to Damon's order, structure, and logic. She is the reckless abandon to his careful, thoughtful approach to life and what comes after. She is the Architect of Chaos to the Dark Knight of Magic and together they are unstoppable. Damon's reputation of ruthlessness was practically built on Evanyil's ingenuity and lethality, but he certainly had his share of building up that reputation and not correcting it either. Evanyil is a VERY special character and one I use sparingly in Book 1, but there is much more Evanyil to come. ;)
The Unspeakable Memory
A Throne of Souls now has seven critically acclaimed reviews and counting. This is your opportunity to start reading it. I was attempting to illustrate in this text the internal struggle Damon had both of this memory of his heinous deed and his foreknowledge of what was still left to come in his Master Plan. Damon is more than what he can control, more than the sum of some parts he himself aggregated over time. He's not entirely beholden, but neither is he operating fully as independent as he would wish. He can't fully be the being he desires until he casts off some manifestations of consequences of decisions made from hate so long ago. Hate has taken its toll on Damon in ways even he still struggles to understand. Know that as you read this excerpt.
Who is this patient?
A Throne of Souls now has seven critically acclaimed reviews and counting. This is a great opportunity to start reading it. I cannot stress enough the importance of this late addition to the prologue of AKF. Originally this text had been intended for book 3, but with some focus group feedback I added it to the prologue of book 1. This isn't THE beginning of the story, but it is ONE of many critical beginnings, influenced into being for a very specific reason. I'll give you a very naked clue... This goes towards WHY Damon must exist. That's all I'm going to say... Enjoy, and I hope you start piecing it together. This is just one of many pieces to the great mosaic of A Throne of Souls, but it's a really big piece.
