The Power of 8: Influences

Well, here we are again. Another day, another blog post, and the pinky toe on my left foot feels like it's about to fall off (after a run-in with the threshold of the bathroom door this morning.) Yeah, it's been a fairly rough morning, but I'm still alive and (mostly) in one piece, and that means it's time to run through this Top 8 list!

First off, this idea came to me a couple of weeks ago, and I decided to get some of my fellow Writers in on it. What we'll be doing here is making a list of our Top 8 Literary Influences, and explaining a little about how each one has impacted us and helped mold the way we write. The only exception to that is my pal Sean Taylor, who already made a long list on his blog a few years ago, which I'm just going to link to here.

Now, shall we begin?



First off, John Durden, Author of Melatonin.

•         Number Eight

◦       Richard Dawkins

▪       I know that a strictly scientific author may seem a bit odd as a source of inspiration for an author as myself who writes primarily fiction, but this is my list and I intend to explain. Before I first read Dawkins, I always struggled trying to explain how I came to different conclusions, whether it be in life or on paper. Dawkins to me always over analyzed anything and everything he talked about in The Greatest Show On Earth, however, in the end I saw why he went to such great lengths to describe everything so intricately. The way he took the time to bridge his findings to the tiniest difference of an organism taught me how important it is, whether I decide to include the fully expounded thought in the final text or not, to take each and every little idea, digging into every minute possibility, and open it wide as far as my mind could fathom, before being satisfied with the final product. This has helped me develop deep, strongly plot driven material using the most minute of characters to proactively tell the story through the actions and interactions within their own lives

•        Number Seven

◦       Franz Kafka

▪       For those who have heard of Kafka, he is probably most well known for his work Metamorphosis as it was a highly popular required reading for the people of my generation. It was interesting to say the least, as the reader is faced with a man that within twenty-four hours has his life transformed quite literally. Though this giant bug of a tale has been a long time favorite, I am more a fan of his work A Report to an Academy in which the person speaking in the beginning turns out to be someone (or rather something) that you would never expect. It was this author that taught me how to take outrageously erroneous circumstances that shock the reader and compare them to the grotesque actualities of daily occurrences.

•        Number Six and Five

◦       Stephen King and Alexander Gordon Smith

▪       I read Smith well before I ever read King, which might be shocking to hear. I grew up watching various movie spinoffs of King's works and they left a lasting impression in my mind for being simply chilling. Later on I came to the conclusion that a majority of King's works dealt with highly possible real life scenarios that sought to make you uncomfortable in any way possible. It was that aspect that pulled me in and captivated my attention, specifically one of the most recent works I have read (Apt Pupil). However, before I even picked up a book by King, a friend recommend Smith to me. She had first discovered an audiobook for his first work Escape from Furnace: Lockdown, and gave a wonderful description of it, sparking my interest. I immediately went out and bought the paperback. I finished it quickly and began to devour the rest of the books in the series. What captivated me most, in this case, was not the fact that it dealt with a common day scenario, but that it dealt with a “what if?” scenario that to the modern reader is highly unlikely, but at the same time is something that many, including myself, feared as a child. The series is filled with imprisoned delinquent children, scary gas mask being armored with syringes, silver-eyed serpent men that watch your every move, and SPOILERS Nazis! This paired with the plot of Apt Pupil gave me more than enough material to dwell upon as I worked (and continue to work) on my series.

•        Number Four

◦       Dan Wells

▪       I owe my passion for fantasy to this wonderful man. It seems strange to think that I could pull fantasy from a series about a boy who constantly struggles with the reality of slowly becoming a serial killer. I never cared for fantasy growing up and being born in the late eighties I saw what could be seen as the teen years of fantasy which included works by Terry Brooks and Robert Jordan which to this day I can't stand to read. As a primarily nineties kid, I enjoyed the movement of cool cartoons like Batman: The Animated Series and short books like R.L. Stine's Goosebumps horror series. It wasn't until about three years ago that I was introduced to Wells. He has a style of writing that grabs your attention. He uses the disturbing things he knows you'll like to lure you in and stabs back with biting dialogue and inner monologue that will keep you reading for hours on end. He even manages to introduce monsters and extraterrestrial beings without being overly fanatic. This is what caught me and introduced me to the idea that there is a perfect type and amount of fantasy for all readers.

•        Number Three

◦       Christopher Moore

▪       I couldn't possibly complete this list without include a comedy writer, and a damn good one at that. He takes everyday scenarios, finds the humor in them, stretches that humor to it's limit, and throws in awkward monsters and giant sentient lizards. From Fool to Practical Demonkeeping, Moore's stories followed the lives of one pathetic character after another. His world is like no other I have ever seen before and will forever be the basis for how I judge life in California. He is a huge inspiration for my writing style, especially the dialogue that I use. My idea for the demon in my series spawned from the demon Catch that first appeared in his debut novel Practical Demonkeeping. It was his work that reignited my passion for reading and enjoying what I read, and is now what drives my ability to tell a story.

•        Number Two

◦       Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

▪       I struggled with this one and the one that I chose as the most influential person for my work. My love for mystery is built around this man and the invincible Sherlock Holmes. If anyone had critical thinking skills it was Doyle. Not only did he have to think like Holmes, he also had to NOT think like Holmes. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense at first, but when you think about it you can surely deduce the meaning. In the world he created, Sherlock was the end all be all to the story. He knew all he needed to know and if he didn't, he knew how to get the answers. Most other characters in the story aside from Watson had a single clue. They way Doyle manages to balance the differences between Sherlock and the common citizen or police force, as well as between Sherlock and Watson, astound me even to this day. His many works following the rather-not-be hero give me insight and confidence in my own writing and proper balancing of characters.

•        Number One

◦       Lois Lowery

▪       When I was younger, the last thing I wanted to do was read. To me, reading was absolutely boring and a waste of my time. Sure, I grew up with Goosebumps and was involved in my local library reading program, but eventually I grew tired of reading all those books for such stupid prizes. It was really the only reason I did it, even though, as it turns out, I actually enjoyed some of the books I read. When I grew out of the program, I saw no reason to read again until about my freshman year of high school. Our first assigned book was The Giver by Lois Lowery. I wasn't really happy about having to read anything, but the book was relatively small compared to the monstrous books I had to take home every day. It was an easy and enjoyable read nonetheless. I fell in love with the book instantly. It was that draw to something that I couldn't have that I was determined to get, regardless of the consequences. I was Jonas throughout his entire journey. I desperately wanted Rosemary to follow me, but she just couldn't got through the pain again. Defeated I took Gabriel with me, determined to make a new world. I laughed at the oddities and cried in joy when I escaped to a house at the bottom of a snowy hill, filled with the warmth and joy of Christmas Eve. It opened up my heart and unlocked my passion for reading once more. I couldn't get enough after that and ever since it has grown along with my passion for story telling.

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  And now, a word from Anna Smith. 

"This was really difficult for me. I generally don’t follow authors—I pick what to read based on jacket copy and first line tests more than anything. Apart from that, I can’t really say what writers “made me want to write,” because I’ve literally written stories since I could write. My best shot is below.

My eight literary influences (in no particular order)"

1.      S.E. Hinton

When I was in eighth grade, The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton was on our list of required reading. It was easily the bets of the books we read that school year. We spent a lot of time that year reading books set in World War II—memoirs of Holocaust survivors, a book about a German prisoner brought to a small American town. The Outsiders was told on a much smaller scale than the rest of these books. It didn’t deal with global problems. It focused on the inequalities in one town and on personal relationships rather than international ones. And it delved into social issues without preaching.

But the big thing about the book—the thing that impressed me the most—was that S.E. Hinton wrote The Outsiders when she was sixteen. I started trying to write my first novel the day after I heard that. I mean, if she was able to do it, maybe I could?

Hinton’s writing is simple. She doesn’t bother with big words or complex sentences. She just tells the story. Whenever I feel like I’m trying too hard with a story, I flip through The Outsiders. Seeing a story told without flourish always helps me figure out where to tone back.

The other thing that sticks with me about Hinton’s writing is her ability to write relationships. I cared about what happened to the characters because she showed me how deeply the characters cared about each other. The way that Hinton wrote the characters’ relationships in The Outsiders definitely informs how I write the ways that my characters interact.

2.      Lynne Truss

Lynne Truss has written a bit of fiction—a handful of novellas, including a new one called Cat Out of Hell that I’m going to have to procure. Mostly, though, my favorite Lynne Truss writing is her non-fiction. You might have heard of a book that she wrote about punctuation called Eats, Shoots & Leaves. Truss’s writing is, above all things, smart. And not smart in an academic sense, but witty and informative. Reading Eats, Shoots & Leaves, you’ll learn about punctuation, yes, but you’ll also laugh. A lot. Lynne Truss is definitely who I shape the tone of a great deal of my nonfiction work around, and there are some characters that I write that draw on Truss’s wit.

Apart from her wit and her amusing and informative nonfiction writing, I appreciate Lynne Truss’s fiction for one important reason: she always writes about whatever the hell she wants. Publishing is a business, as writers are constantly reminded. Sometimes your fantastic book or story can’t find a home because of nebulous “market reasons.” To account for this, writers sometimes let the market decide what they write more than they do. Truss has never done this. Admittedly, she’s protected by her successful non-fiction work and her fame in journalism, but she was still willing to write a book about Alfred Lord Tennyson and Julia Margaret Cameron living it up in Victorian England (and by “living it up,” I mean being frustratingly posh). People didn’t buy it, but Truss still refers to it as her baby. The willingness to tell the story that you want to tell and not the story that the numbers tell you will sell is something that I admire as a writer and something that I strive for myself.

3.      J.K Rowling

My 90s might be showing here, but Harry Potter was a huge part of my childhood and was the series that got me into genre fiction. My next door neighbor handed me the first book when I was eleven years old and promised to lend me the second one when she finished it. After about the third book, I was one of those fans that was at the midnight release every time. I’d stay up all night reading the books—in part because those were the early days of the internet, and the phrase “spoiler alert” wasn’t really in most people’s vocabulary, but mostly because I couldn’t leave the characters or their world. Yes, the earlier books were rough around the edges, but even so, the woman knew how to hook a reader.

One of my favorite things about the Harry Potter series was that nothing was done accidentally. Things that wouldn’t be plot points until book six were worked into the narrative in book two. Someone who wouldn’t be significant until book three was mentioned a handful of times in book one. This, to me, is something of a lost art in YA series fiction. There’s a thought that these subtleties will be lost on younger readers, but I don’t think that’s the case. I know I appreciated those things—and I was always really excited when I was able to read the clues to guess a plot point.

More recently, I’ve been impressed with her writing as Robert Galbraith. I’ve always loved a good murder mystery (I blame it on all of the episodes of Matlock my mom made me sit through), and The Cuckoo’s Calling was everything I would have asked for in one. Rowling shows her versatility with this book—a versatility that I myself long for.

4.      Sylvia Plath

This is probably as dark as this list will get. Most of Plath’s work was essentially a chronicling of her own mental breakdown, and Plath ultimately took her own life in 1963. Though her ability to use her writing to cope was, admittedly, questionable, Plath was the first writer who introduced me to the notion of writing through the pain. Plath’s writing is dark and deeply personal. She didn’t write to be loved or to be famous—in fact, a reading of The Bell Jar indicates that she wasn’t really built to handle fame. But she wrote from herself. That’s her blood you’re seeing on the page—it’s her life.

While my inner demons have never been as dark or as strong as Plath’s must have been, I’ve taken a leaf from Plath’s book, as it were, and used my writing to work through my own problems and pains. Since reading The Bell Jar, I pour more of myself into what I write. My work isn’t about me, but it is the way that I negotiate my own feelings.

5.      Truman Capote

The first page of In Cold Blood is some of the best writing I’ve ever read. That book is one of my all-time favorites. It’s also the last novel Capote ever completed. What I learned from reading Capote and from researching his life is about the process of writing. It can be unforgiving. It can tear you apart from the inside. Capote was broken. But Capote was brilliant.

Apart from his beautiful prose, Capote inspires me to keep myself in check. I am a writer—but I’m more than what I write. Capote and others like him—Williams, Plath, Hemmingway—remind me that art comes at a price, but I get to determine what that price is for myself. I would love to write like Capote, but I don’t want to live like him.

6.      Harper Lee

Harper Lee only wrote one book, but she made it count. To Kill a Mockingbird is one of my favorite novels. Lee manages to recreate the racial tensions in the South and illustrates how innocent lives get destroyed by the rampant prejudice that was (and still is) the norm in our society. She only wrote the one novel, but she said some very important things with it.

I also appreciate that she was able to make such important commentary in a book that was told through the eyes of children. Every time someone says that children can’t handle serious material or that books for or about children can’t tell important stories, I come back to this book. I write YA. I also write about class conflict, the dangers of conflating “progress” with “improvement,” the failing of the mental health and correctional systems in our society. Lee reminds me that young people and serious issues don’t have to be kept separate.

To Kill a Mockingbird is a classic, well-loved and respected book. It’s also, as I recall, the first “important” (in the school system’s opinion) book that I read that was written by a woman—and a woman from Alabama at that. I don’t know if other Southern writers feel this way, but hearing the way that the media tend to shit on everyone living in this particular corner of the country is sometimes hard to rise above. There are plenty of Southern writers I think of when I start feeling held back by my roots—one is mentioned above, in fact—but Harper Lee is always the first to my mind. 

7.      Christopher Moore

I like to laugh as much as the next person, but I generally find books that are explicitly comedy to be sort of lacking on the storytelling. Something in the effort to be funny takes away from weaker writers’ ability to keep the plates spinning on a story. Christopher Moore flips that trend the bird. Moore’s work is irreverent, wildly imaginative, and incredibly well research. He parodies Gaelic myth, but he demonstrates thorough knowledge of the myths and characters. He sets a fantasy farce in turn-of-the-century France, using historical figures and hits the nail on the head with their mannerisms and works.

Comedy is work. Comedy doesn’t have to mean stupid. No one does a better job of meshing storytelling, comedy, and research than Christopher Moore. I don’t know that I manage to tie those threads together too well, myself, but reading Moore’s work definitely makes me want to.

8.      Greg Rucka

Rucka is mainly a comic book writer, but he has written novelizations for a few of his comics. He’s written some of my favorite comic book characters—Huntress, Question, Wonder Woman—but he’s also created some amazing characters of his own. What I love about Greg Rucka is that every character he writes is so complete. Male protagonists are just quietly angst-ridden death machines. Female protagonists aren’t just fighting fuck toys. Each character has a complete story. Rucka reminds me with everything that he writes that it’s important to write not just strong stories, but strong characters as well. As someone who’s always hungry to see a well-written female protagonist, Rucka is an inspiration to me. He knows the secret—write strong characters, male or female.

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 And now Jonathan French, Author of The Exiled Heir, Book 1 of the Autumn's Fall Saga. And this one's in video format, for your viewing pleasure.

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Well, I guess that just leaves me. This is by no means an easy list for me to make, considering how many different writers have influenced me, literary or otherwise. That said, I'm gonna tackle this full-force, and we'll see where it goes. Now, for those of you who might have seen my Top 10 Authors of All Time list from last year, this isn't a straight repeat of that list. While I do consider that lot of Authors to be the best, not all of them have had the strongest influence on me like the ones in the list I'm making here. Now, here we go.


8. Luo Guanzhong

Guanzhong's way of taking prominent historical figures and making them larger than life had a big impact on me as a kid. Through Dynasty Warriors 4 on PS2 when I was 12 or 13, I was first introduced to Guanzhong's work. Granted, the games aren't 100% accurate, but it was my front door into the world of The Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

When I say Guanzhong's characters are larger than life, I'm not exaggerating in the least. Lu Bu, already a well-known and feared warrior in history, was turned into a practically unstoppable force on the battlefield that NO ONE could best in single combat. Then, moving on to his horse, Red Hare ... well, according to Guanzhong this horse to gallop a thousand leagues in a single day and not break a sweat. Yeah, I know, crazy....

More importantly, Guanzhong is one of the earliest writers I've found that managed to build standout characters. No two of them are the same, and it's really fun watching the way they interact with each other.

For anyone who wants to get an idea of the world, but doesn't want to dive into the dense text of Romance, you have another option. Red Cliff, a movie by John Woo, does a really good job of blending some of Guanzhong's more exaggerated scenes with the more historically accurate ones. I also recommend watching the Extended Cut, if you have 6 hours to kill. It's a cinematic masterpiece that deserves to be enjoyed fully.


7. Tad Williams

The first book I ever read by Williams was Caliban's Hour when I was around 16. I'll never forget that experience as long as I live. It took me years after to track down my own copy, and I ate up every word all over again.


Williams is more well known for his Memory, Sorrow and Thorn trilogy, and his Shadowmarch series, but Caliban is where it all started for me. Williams' way with characters and distinct voices is nothing short of amazing, and ever more mystifying is the way he managed to write a teenager in Memory, Sorrow and Thorn. Yes, other Authors have written interesting teenage characters over the years, but Williams is, so far, the only one who I've read that accurately described the thought process of a teenage boy. Which is almost nonsensical, by the way.

I could say more, but I think Jonathan already described Williams well enough in his video.


6. Peter Tomasi

A comic book writer on the list? Why yes, yes there is. And I promise you there's no other comic book writer more deserving to be on this list than Tomasi. He taught me, better than anyone, how to pace a story. He also taught me a lot about character interactions and how, sometimes, a character's tone and personality can change a bit, depending on their location and who they're talking to. Looking back now, it seems pretty obvious, but reading his Nightwing run was the first time it really dawned on me.


Even now, I consider him one of the best voices in the comic book industry. I just wish he could break away from the garbage that is DC's New 52 line. I'd like to see him do more original work like The Mighty, and if you can manage to track down those 12 issues, I highly recommend you do so. You won't be sorry.


5. Joss Whedon

Yeah, you knew he had to be on this list. Without Joss Whedon, my dialogue would be flat and uninteresting. I don't think you can find anyone in any industry right now that has a better grasp of dialogue than Joss Whedon. If you read a line of dialogue from any of his characters without any attribution, you'd still be able to tell exactly who was saying it.


In addition to that, I admire his willingness to mess with the formula. In the middle of a very serious season of Buffy, you'd come out with a fun, zany episode like Once More With Feeling. And somehow, it never felt out of place. That takes on awful amount of skill to pull off, and Joss has an amazing track record for pulling it off.


4. Neil Gaiman

Neil Gaiman is the person I have to thank for my sense of wonder. Few people can manage to instill that sort of feeling in literature without it either feeling forced or idiotic, but he nails it in everything he writes.


I was first introduced to him, like a lot of people my age, through The Sandman comics. It amazed me how he was able to transition from a straight Horror comic to a beautiful Dark Fantasy unlike anything ever written.

In recent years though, he's moved primarily out of comics and into novels and screenplays. It impresses me how easily he's able to transition from stories like Sandman and American Gods to children's stories like Coraline and The Wolves in the Walls, among others. That's a rare talent, and one I envy.


3. Stephen King

For years when I was growing up, I thought Stephen King was a dime store Horror novelist with nothing else to contribute to the literary world (yeah, I was a bit of a literary snob as a kid.) Not only have I drastically changed my mind about Horror fiction since then, but I realized that Stephen King is so much more than a scare-junkie.


Stephen King transcends a lot of genres and styles, yet anything you read by him is instantly recognizable as his. He's written Horror, Fantasy, Pulp, Drama, etc. Yes, Horror is usually his best work, but even his Horror is unlike anything else on the market. His ideas are so "out there" sometimes that it's nearly impossible to figure out how his stories are going to end until you hit the climax. And the one thing you'll find out pretty quickly is that King isn't always afraid to end on an off note. He want you to keep wondering long after you've turned the last page, and that's something I've become really attached to.




2. Amy Hennig

  While Amy's work is exclusive to video games, I consider her to be among the best writers of this generation. Not only is she a woman in what's always been considered a male-dominated field, she's easily the best writer in the video game industry, by a mile at least.

Here's a quote from the wikipedia article on Amy:

"Hennig believes that the creative direction of a script holds more importance than the graphics of the game. She has been called one of the most influential women in the video game industry by Edge magazine, and has been cited as an example of how more women are becoming involved in a previously male dominated field."

So yeah, you've got morons like Cliffy B in the industry praising their graphics and their chainsaw guns above actual story and gameplay, then you have someone like Amy, who likes to focus on the more important aspects of the game. In my old Characters post, I talked a lot about Raziel from The Legacy of Kain series. Well, my love for Raziel, and every other richly detailed character in that world, stems directly from Amy. She's the one that gave those characters their voices, and managed to craft a plot that was so engrossing that it still stand out, to this day, as the greatest vampire story ever told. But heck, even if you don't care for vampires and demons, there's still so much here to dig into. Hennig's story's are so meaty and full of life, you'll desperately devour every morsel until you reach the end, then you'll be begging for more.


Amy's sort of an oddball on this list, but she's had a huge impact on me. And I can say with confidence that she'd be number one on this list if it wasn't for....


1. Robert Jordan

Anyone who's known me for five minutes probably knew this was going to be the number one slot, and for good reason. Without Robert Jordan, I wouldn't be an Author. Are there other High Fantasy writers who've made a bigger mainstream impact? Well, yes, a lot of them in fact. Is it as marketable outside of literature as other Fantasy series? Not really. Does it have more heart than any other Epic Fantasy out there? You bet your sweet ass it does.


I still remember walking back from the library early in the week on day, a stack of books under my arm, eager to get back and crack open the first of them. You see, I was determined to branch out in my reading. At 11 I'd read The Odyssey and Hamlet for the first time, and Beowulf shortly after. Outside of Beowulf and The Odyssey, I hadn't found anything in the years after that captured my imagination quite the way those stories had. Don't get me wrong, I'd read some really god stuff, but none of it had the same magic. So at 15, I finally decided to grab a bunch of different books from different genres and see where things took me. One of those books happened to be The Eye of the World.

I'd had an odd fascination with The Wheel of Time for a good year or two at that point, but in the stores, I only ever found copies of the later books, with the cover for Book 7 really catching my eye. I can't tell you how many times I almost bought it, but with it being so late in the series, I thought I'd be too lost to get through it (and I was completely right.) So, that day at the library I saw some cover art that looked similar, picked up the book, and sure enough, it was the first book. I smirked, satisfied, and added it to my stack.

But, the tricky part came when I had to choose which book to read first. So, I decided to read the first chapters of all of them, then pick the one I liked best and go from there. I started with one of the Drizzt books, and it was good enough that I thought nothing was going to top it. But, just to be fair about it, I continued on and cracked open The Eye of the World for the first time ... and from the first page I was captivated. I carried all the other books back the next day and started ordering the next copies in the series that my library didn't have. These books were magic, with characters that I could relate to and a setting more diverse than any I'd ever read.

Another three books in, I realized that I wanted to be like Robert Jordan. I wanted a shot at giving other people the same joy he'd given me, and that day, I became a Writer. I didn't just want to write, I NEEDED to write. I needed to craft characters like Jordan's that lived, breathed and more importantly, changed as their world around them changed.

Nothing has ever captured my imagination like Jordan's work, and I doubt anything ever will.


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Well everyone, thanks to the lot of you that made it this far, and I hope you enjoyed hearing these Authors ramble on about their influences. I'd like to think that some of you either found something insightful, or you'll at least have a couple of new books to check out.

I'd also like to take a second to remind everyone that you can currently find my first book, Electus, on Amazon, in both print and ebook format. Please, feel free to check it out and leave a review. Reviews help upcoming writers more than you know.

Also, a quick thanks to everyone who participated in this post. I appreciate the time you guys put in, and I look forward to maybe sharing more posts with you in the future.

Letting Go

As I sit here, waiting another 30 minutes or so before I have to go to work, (and, by the way, I really don't wanna) I can't help but reminisce over a certain series of characters I've been writing since 2010.

It occurred to me a few months ago that, once I finish these last two projects, (one of them being a short story collection, and the other being the final part of the core trilogy) I'll be done with these characters. And, even though I'm more excited right now than I've been for this series since the beginning, I'm also sad. Once I type the last paragraph, and whoever might be left alive have their stories closed, that's it; I'll never see these guys again. I love every one of these crazy, dark, sometimes foul-mouthed, tortured people. Saying goodbye to this group is going to be the single hardest thing I've ever had to do as a writer, I think.

But, I digress. The main question I have here goes out to all my writer friends specifically: Have you ever found it so hard to let go of a cast of characters after living with them for an extended period? Maybe even to the point where you considered purposely extending your story or series so you can keep them around, even though it's past their time? And if so, why?

For me, I know I'll be able to let go of Avice, Destiny, Terrence, Nadia, Gideon, Gabriel and Vlad. But, I also know it's going to be like sacrificing my firstborn. Yes, even the sick, twisted little Gabriel is going to be missed on some level. (And yes, guys. He'll be back in book 3. Bwahahahahahahahaha!)

It's strange, this feeling of excitement for new things, coupled with a sense of loss over these good friends I've gotten to know over the last four years. I've never had this kind of attachment to the characters I've written, and maybe that's precisely why this series has gone as far as it has. I've created characters that people both love and hate, depending on who you talk to. And it's always a strong reaction on either side, never in-between, and I love that.

So, again, to my writing friends:

Have you ever had a hard time letting go of a character or setting?

Have you ever tried to draw a story or series out (or thought about doing so) just to keep your darlings around?

For you, what makes a character/setting get to that point, in your eyes?

Looking forward to seeing what sort of responses I get from this.

Melatonin (Interview with Author John Durden)

What's up, guys?

Today, I thought I'd do something a little different and jump into an interview with a local author from Alabama. I've known this guy for several years, and he just released his first book last week.

A lot of people often wonder what goes through a writer's mind when they're crafting their next big story, so here's your chance to get in on the ground floor!

So, I made what I thought to be a decent list of questions and fired away at him. For the sake of the interview,  I told him to treat the questions as if they were being asked by a random interviewer he'd never met.

Here's what he had to say:



So, how long have you been writing, exactly?

JD: I started writing at about 10th grade in High School. So, about 10 years, give or take. I used to just sit in class and write, when I didn't have anything else to do.

Would you say you have a specific Writing Style?

JD: Well, a lot of it is Discovery-Writing. I usually have an idea about what type of story I want to do, like Horror, Parody, etc. But beyond that I just sit down, let my mind go, and let the story take care of itself.

Would you say Discovery-Writing is superior to Heavy Outlining?

JD: I wouldn't say it's superior. I know a lot of writers that use outlines for their stories and the end product is a great read. I think it really depends on the type of person you are. Some people need heavy outlines to stay on track. For me, most of my work is spur of the moment, so I don't need a heavy outline.

What writers have had the biggest influence on your style?

JD: Definitely Voltaire. He was the first person to get me interested in writing. His first work, Candide, was the first book I ever knocked out in one sitting. He helped me understand that you have to be a great reader to be a great writer. Also, a lot of my humor comes from both him, and Christopher Moore. And lately, although I thought it would never happen, Stephen King has had a rather big influence on me. The way he develops his characters is brilliant.


If you had to choose, which writer would you consider to be your mentor?

JD: When I think mentor I think on a very personal level. But, really as a mentor, I have to say Cam Crowder. I'd given up on writing for a long time before I met him. Then, one night, while we were out having drinks he looked me in the eye after I told him about an old story I'd never followed through on because of an old rejection letter and he said "You're an idiot. Go finish your damn story or you'll regret it for the rest of your life." So, without him, I wouldn't be writing at all.


What are you reading right now?

JD: I'm reading Stephen King's Different Seasons. Specifically, Apt Pupil, and I have to say it's the most psychopathic, gore-filled story I've ever read. (Think I might even use it for inspiration for my 2nd book.)


Knowing that your first book has been out for about a week now, how does that feel?

JD: Well, initially, I was excited and terrified, but so far I've gotten nothing but a lot of positive feedback. I've given out a lot of copies, had someone come up almost immediately and tell me how great it was. For awhile I didn't even want to put anything out because I was scared, so this has been kind of refreshing. I'm sort of a local celebrity right now, and it feels pretty good.


Can you give us a brief description of your first book?

JD: I think I give a different answer for that question every single time. *laughs* It's set in two different worlds, and at first you think the two main characters can't possibly be related, but they are. Then there's this demon, who happens to be my favorite character, who starts getting involved in both their lives, and you start to see how they're connected.


And this is the first in a trilogy, correct?

JD: It is. That wasn't the plan at first, but when  I wrote the last chapter, I knew I had to keep going. I'm super excited to be working on the second book, and it's coming along pretty well so far.


For those who might have already read the first book, what can they expect in book 2?

JD: They'll definitely see a lot more of Joel, and a lot more deception. You can also look forward to a lot more emotional and mental anguish, which I personally enjoy, and I hope you do, too. *grins* Oh, and if you like the old man that appears in the first book, he might be working his way back into the pages, but I can't say when or where.


Is there a message in your books that you want readers to grasp?

JD: I think the overall message is really gonna be: bad things happen, and sometimes there's no justice. Sometimes there's always going to be hell to pay. Also, don't let go of the things you cherish most, or you might never get them back.

Any advice for other writers starting out?

JD: I'll tell you what all the author interviews I watched told me: Read a lot and write a lot. Some people say they're afraid to read someone else while they write because it influences them too much. But that's OK!

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying you should plagiarize, but reading other authors sparks your imagination and opens your mind to new ideas. Everyone has their own style, and odds are you're going to have some traits of the writers you read the most, same thing with the movies you watch, but you still have your voice.

Also, writing is something that should always be fun, and if you're just in it to make money, give up now. Put your pen down and just stop, because you'll never make it. You have to focus on it because it's what you love, not just another check.

****

Girl Power (The Sequel)

For this post, I'm going to have a little help. Please welcome my lovely fiancee', Anna Smith. Say hi, sweetheart.

"Yo!"

Yes, I know, she's a conversational mastermind.

Anyway, since I had to cut the list short the other night due to it being 5am and my brain deciding to short out on me, I'm coming back to it, because I feel it deserves it.

And for those of you who want a good read, check out Anna's Blog!

Now, let's dive right in!


Mulan

C'mon, you knew she'd be on here. Admit it!

Anyway, Mulan is one of the few Disney female characters to notably hold her own, not only in combat against male characters, but in a male-dominated world altogether. The Han Dynasty era of China was, as you might have guessed, an era where women were little better than second-class citizens, so a woman being in the military was unheard of. But Mulan don't give a darn!

She starts the film showing how bad she is at being a typical girl in her society, and she's made to feel inferior for it. However, by joining the army in her father's stead, she discovers that she can find happiness without catering to the societal structure for women of her time. But, just because she picks up her dad's sword and kick Hun butt left and right doesn't mean she loses her femininity. Quite the opposite in fact. While in the army she meets Li Shang, and they later get married (but for the love of God don't suffer through the second movie like I did to figure that out). Mulan shows us that a woman doesn't have to be a "girly-girl" to be feminine.


Clair Huxtable

Clair Huxtable is a force of nature. This is a woman with five kids and a full-time job--as an attorney, no less. She enjoys the same power and prestige as her husband (which, if you look at TV families, is pretty rare). She manages an impossible balance between work and household duties (I'd use the phrase "second shift" here, but people's eyes tend to glaze over when they hear feminist phrases like that). 

Though Clair was often showed filling traditional "mom roles," it was clear that she was not second-in-command to Cliff, but she was his partner. And she made sure everyone knew it.

Like this.

Clair may not have fought off an army or defied the social scripts of her society in quite as drastic a way as Mulan, but there's no denying that Clair was strong.


Big Barda

If you're not familiar with Barda, here's a picture for reference.

Yeah, she's kinda boss. When Jack Kirby left Marvel (because they were scumbags) and created the New Gods for DC, Barda, along with her husband, Mister Miracle, became two of the fan favorites. Unlike Scott (Miracle's real name), she's not the elusive escape artist; she'd rather pound the crap out of everything in her way. That makes her really fun. She's also bigger and stronger than her husband, but neither of them seem to care. 

It's really hard to tell you just how awesome Barda is, so I'll let this next clip do the talking.

And with that, we'll go ahead and call it a night. Thanks for taking the time to follow along with the extended list, and maybe in the future we'll touch on this again.

Goodnight everybody!

More Than Just A Scene

There was an incident a few weeks ago involving a member of the FGC (Fighting Game Community) involving a fairly prominent player, Noel Brown. And of course, right on cue, Kotaku rushed onto the scene to report on the tragic turn of events. The article, as per usual Kotaku style, was the only thing they'd posted about the community in a very long time, and of course they waited until something negative popped up.

Now, Kotaku made the argument that even sports writers inform the public when an athlete is, say, caught doing steroids. And yes, that's true, but sports writers also tell you the score to the freaking games! If Noel Brown had gone on to win the tournament that weekend, no one outside of the community would have known. Also, because of this article, people seem to think that Brown is a prominent member of the community, and therefore a reflection of the rest of the players, when in actuality, Brown hasn't won anything significant in a very long time, and in no way reflects the attitude of the rest of the community.

Kotaku is well-known for doing things like this in other communities as well, where they only cast light on the negative, so I'm not going to tear down Kotaku in this post (they do that pretty well themselves). Instead, for those of you who may not be familiar with the FGC, I'm going to tell you a little bit about my experiences with it, and give you a little insight into why I call it home.

Yeah, that's right, I'm an author, but I'm also a proud member of the FGC, and I intend to be until the day I die. I can't say I've been in the community for too long; I'm what the FGC refers to as an '09er, since I didn't start getting into the scene in any real capacity until after the fighting game revival when Street Fighter 4 hit our shores in 2009.

I've been lucky enough to become a part of the FGC in Birmingham, Alabama. It may seem like a small dot on the map (and it is) but we have some of the best talent in the country as far as I'm concerned, and I see a lot of potential for growth. We have other groups scattered across the state as well, and I've met a lot of the people in them; some I like, some I'm not particularly fond of, but that works both ways. We may not always see eye to eye, but there's a mutual love of fighting games that ties all of us together, and that's what we focus on.

I can honestly say I've never felt a more warm welcome than when I became a part of this community, so it makes me sad when I hear people who only know the Kotaku-side of it saying we're all anti-social and rude; that's just not true. Yes, just like any group you have your loudmouthed, obnoxious morons, but in my experience that's a vast minority. Most of the people I've met, after beating the crap out of me the first time we played, sat down with me later and showed me what I was doing wrong so I could hold my own next time. And that's one of the special things about the FGC: we're never complacent. Complacency is the place you hit right before you get knocked out of a tournament; you can't afford it. So, we help each other around our own strategies and tactics, and in doing so, we don't just help the other player, we help ourselves, because next time they'll know what to expect and we'll have to think on our feet.

There are a number of things to love about this community, and if I tried to list them all I'd never get done, but one of the most important is the unity we have. In each individual community, we have a sort of family, and when one of us falls, it hurts everyone, so we all keep each other strong. I can't even begin to describe how amazing it felt the first time I had almost the entire group behind me in a tournament, cheering me on. It takes everything to a whole new level, and that was the first time I truly felt like I was home.

So, don't let all the negativity fool you, because the FGC is a place of unity and family, above all else.

And, there you have it. That's all I have to say for now. I know this was a fairly brief post, and pretty rushed, but I hope I've given everyone some insight into why this community is so great. And before I sign off, I leave you with one of the most hype moments in fighting game history for your viewing pleasure: EVO moment #37.

Girl Power

In today's post, I'll be talking about a few strong female characters. If you haven't read or watched or played anything with these characters, you should fix that. I'm sure I'll overlook more than a couple on this list, so if you know of something I should've included, please let me know.

Alright, here we go...




Buffy

This first one is probably the most blatantly obvious choice, so I thought I'd get her out of the way first.

Buffy is among the most iconic female leads of all time, and for good reason. She's the stereotypical pretty, blond cheerleader you see in a ton of highschool movies even today. But, there's a little more to her than you'd catch at first glance. Yes, she's pretty and athletic, but she also kick the crap out of monsters after nightfall, keeping the world safe for the rest of us to walk around without fear of getting our blood sucked.

One of the defining features of Buffy that people tend to overlook due to her "I am woman, hear me roar" traits is that, even though she can beat monsters down all day, she's not perfect. For one, she's not the brightest bulb in the box academically, quite the opposite. The girl would probably flunk out of most of her classes if it wasn't for her good friend Willow always being on hand to tutor her when necessary (and it's necessary a lot). Put the girl in a fight, her mind works great, but put her in front of a blackboard and ask her to write out the Pythagorean theorem, you might as well be asking her to cure cancer.

Her academic shortcomings aside, Buffy had proven herself a more than capable fighter time and time again, despite overwhelming odds. She's stronger, faster, and more able-bodied than any man (or woman for that matter) in her world (until you get to the last season, but I digress). She remains one of the poster girls for strong female archetypes, and I don't see any reason why that should change.

I could go deeper into her character, but I don't really see any need to, since most of you are probably familiar with her anyway.


Death (The Sandman)

There was no way I was going to make this list without Death. When Neil Gaiman first introduced Death in Sandman #8 in the late 80's, he did something no one had ever done before: he played Death as a cute, perky Goth girl.

Death always wears a smile as she goes about her job with a smile and sunny disposition, in contrast to her brother, Dream, who tends to be all morbid and mopey 24/7. Her smile can light up a room and she just happens to have complete control over the fate of your soul. The first time you see the girl she's quoting Merry Poppins and then she takes Dream along while she goes on her route for the day. She's just so freakin' adorable!

The fact that Death always seems to be so cheerful might be because Neil Gaiman wanted to point out that death is a natural end to all things and nothing to be frightened of. This is highlighted when, in issue #8 Death says, "... Gets me down, too. Mostly they aren't too keen to see me. They fear the Sunless Lands. But they enter your realm each night without fear," to which Dream replies, "And I am far more terrible than you, sister."

Death also seems to be the one of the Endless (the seven siblings which include Dream) with the most compassion. Not only does she sometimes apologize to her charges that their time is up, but there's also a moment in the series where she berates Dream for his treatment of a young woman long ago, where he had her forever imprisoned in hell just because she wouldn't be with him. Most of the Endless don't really have much regard for humans, Death and Dream being two exceptions, but Death is more self-aware than Dream.

No matter how you look at her, Death is easily one of the most powerful female characters in literature, and how could she not be, considering she's, y'know, Death.


Moiraine Damodred 

Finally, a Wheel of Time character! And not just any WoT character, but my personal favorite in the entire series.

When we first meet Moiraine (assuming you start with book 1 and not the prequel) she's a mysterious woman who appears with a stone-faced (not literally) guard named Lan, in the small town of Two Rivers mere hours before it's attacked by a force of Trollocs. At first the group is mistrustful of her, upon learning she's Aes Sedai (you'll have to look them up), but in seeing no other alternative, they follow her anyway.

For the next several books she does nothing but try to help out Rand, Perrin and Mat, but these dumb kids all suspect she's manipulating them with her "Aes Sedai wiles" and rail against her at every turn. She remains steadfast, however, and is determined to do everything in her power to keep them safe and ensure the survival of the human race during the Last Battle.

Moiraine is unique among Aes Sedai in that she is a faithful backer of Rand, knowing he's the Dragon Reborn. Unlike most of her colleagues, she knows that he can't be kept on a leash for the Tower's uses, and fights not only to keep him alive for the Last Battle, but to keep him out of the Tower's clutches.

Throughout the series she shows much patience and wisdom (and more than one instance of powerful magic displays that decimate slews of Trollocs) and without her, it's safe to say that the three blockheads from the Two Rivers wouldn't have survived even to the end of the first book. Heck, she even takes on the Forsaken (the most powerful magic users from the Age of Legends) on more than one occasion and comes out on top, even though she's not the strongest in the One Power.




And that's all I've got for tonight, folks. It's after 3am and I'm hours past exhausted. But, if there's enough interest here, and I get enough feedback I'll come back and update this post in the future. Until then, goodnight all!

Characters That Keep Us Coming Back

If you're anything like me, then once or twice in your life you've been reading a book/watching a movie/playing a video game and suddenly realize that one the characters you're following is something really special and unique. This will be a list of characters from various media that have had an impact on me for one reason or another, and I'll try my best to do them all justice and be as thorough in my analysis as possible.

Also, this is by no means a complete list. There's no way I could compile a list that extensive, so I'm going to shoot for the ones that aren't huge pop-culture icons, like Batman or Superman (and they would both be on that list).


Rand al'Thor

I decided to kick this list off with Rand because, unlike most characters, he had a span of 23 years and 14 books to grow. When we first meet him, he's just reached marrying age in his village, and has no ambitions beyond becoming a sheepherder like his father.

Rand is unique because, unlike most High Fantasy, he's not just the farmboy that discovers he's the hero of ancient prophecy destined to save the world. That's a part of who he is, but in a lot of Fantasy, we see those heroes quickly vanquish the all-devouring evil and then their story is done. In The Wheel of Time, however, we get to watch Rand grow from sheepherder to ruler long before the series ends. Instead of wondering how a simple farmer could run a kingdom of any sort, we actually get to watch all of the stupid mistakes firsthand, and that makes his struggle more compelling.

Beyond that, we watch Rand slowly turning insane from the pressure and the growing madness inside him stemming from his use of the tainted male half of the One Power (the magic of the WOT world). A lot of the time you're wondering if his use of the One Power is what's causing him to lose his sanity more rapidly, or if it's the constant pressure of having to cover his mistakes and look as strong as possible to keep his subject from turning on him in his weakness.

Another interesting note: Rand is also different in that once he achieves every child's dream of ruling the world, he quickly wants to throw it away and go back to the way things used to be. I've read too many stories where the farmboy rises to power and everything's just hunky-dory, unicorns and rainbows, and having that power is everything they dreamed it would be. The idea of a simpleton like young Rand in any form of political power is terrifying (although he stills does a better job than any politician I've ever known).


Odysseus

I mentioned Odysseus in my first post, but wasn't able to discuss my fascination with him in as much detail as I would've liked. I touched on the fact that he was, by today's standards, the "wrong" way to write a hero because he's too perfect. That's the thing that draws me.

Most heroes in today's fiction are as broken and as humanized as possible (even Superman) to make them easier to relate to. Odysseus, despite his lack in this department, transcends that and makes you care about his struggle. Here's a guy who plays dice with the gods, essentially, and manages to come out on top, despite being a mere mortal. He outsmarts gods! More than once!

Homer constantly refers to him as "resourceful Odysseus" throughout the texts.... Understatement of the century! Odysseus was MacGyver on steroids centuries before a MacGyver even existed, with a little Batman on the side! As soon as Polyphemus (the Cyclops) asks his name, Odysseus already smells a rat and tells him "Nobody", so that when he puts Polyphemus's eye out later and his brothers come running to ask him who did it, he can only tell them "Nobody did this to me! Nobody is to blame!" and they think he's lost it and ignore him.

But, despite all of that, Odysseus does have one thing that makes him truly believable (or two things, rather): Telemachus and Penelope. Referred to by Homer, respectfully, as thoughtful and wise. These two are pretty much his Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen (except Telemachus is noticeably less useless than Jimmy). Odysseus's countless struggles are all made worth it when he finally sees his family for the first time in a decade. Rather than stay on an island with Calypso (a gorgeous nymph who thinks he's the shiz) he spurns her advances because he only wants to return to his family. He's inhumanly steadfast in this and will let nothing keep him away from the people he loves.


John Wayne Cleaver

This kid is probably among the more unique on this list. He's a 14 year old sociopath who fights the urge to become a serial killer ... by only killing monsters.

We're first introduced to John in I Am Not A Serial Killer by Dan Wells. It's a first-person narrative, and John tells you from the beginning that he has to set strict rules for himself to follow so he doesn't become one of the serial killers he's fascinated by. But, when a coldblooded murderer comes to his quiet town, John finds that getting so close to the murder scenes is awakening an obsession in him that isn't healthy. By the time he finds out that this killer is actually an ageless monster (or demon as he calls it), John realized that he's in so deep that he has to kill something, and if it's a demon, that should make it acceptable.

The kid is brilliant and very good at hiding his sociopathy from his friends at school. He also works in a mortuary with his mom and aunt, which comes in handy when the murder victims come through to be embalmed. His cold, calculated analysis of each body that comes through is somewhat unsettling when contrasted with his mother's insistence that the corpse still be referred to as "he" or "she", while John argues that there's nothing there anymore and sees no problem with calling them "it".

His most interesting aspect, in my opinion, is that he actually does have a personality, even though he doesn't seem to think so. As a reader, it's easy to see his quirks while he ignores them and thinks he's slipping further and further away from his humanity.

He's a unique hero for sure, and if you haven't read any of his books, I highly recommend them.


Magik (Illyana Rasputin)

She's a character that's very underrated and infinitely appealing. She got her start in X-Men as Colossus's baby sister, then, after she fell through a portal to limbo for a split-second and was pulled back out by Kitty Pride, she was a grown teenager.

We find out later that, although it was only an instant in the normal world, she had spent years in Limbo, where a demon named Belasco took shards of her soul in an attempt to allow his lords into the mortal world to feast. Time and again, she's lost her soul and had to fight to get it back. She's the textbook definition of the tragic hero, making me fall in love with her over and over again.

Illyana is so endearing because she's done a number of questionable things, and not because they were for the betterment of mutantkind, but because she had a personal vendetta against the people she saw as responsible for losing her childhood. Recently, she endangered the entire world simply because she wanted to strike back against the Elder Gods and fully restore her soul. This seems very selfish, but in reality, wouldn't some of us do the same thing, especially if we'd faced her hardships?

On more than one occasion I've gone back and re-read the couple of trades I have featuring Illyana, and every time I find something new that I didn't catch before, strengthening my attachment to her. Is she my favorite Marvel character? Well, no, that slot goes to Gambit, but Magik easily clenches the second slot.

I'd love to see her get more mainstream attention than she's gotten since her creation more than 30 years ago. We have a lot of tragic heroes in our culture, but noticeably few that are as strong and compelling as Illyana, and that's really a shame. She's also a female tragic hero, which is surprisingly rare.

If you'd like to get to know Illyana and don't mind old school comics, then you should check out Magik: Storm and Illyana. Or, if you don't like that style, you can go with X-Infernus; it's out of print now, but you can still find it reasonably cheap if you look in the right places. I'd say those are the two best places to start before you dive into any New Mutants stories.


Aoshi Shinomori

A character from the manga/anime Rurouni Kenshin. Since I was a young teenager this has been my absolute favorite anime, and mainly because of the title character, Kenshin Himura, but putting him on the list would have been too obvious, and everyone who's watched a single episode of the anime or read a chapter of the manga knows Kenshin's story. Aoshi is a very different animal.

When we first meet Aoshi, he's leading a band of mercenaries who've been hired by a drug lord named Kanryu Takeda and we're given the impression that he's a heartless monster, dragging a young woman named Megumi back to Kanryu so she can continue producing poison for him. But, after capturing her and taking her back up to her room to be locked away, we see our first hint that there's more to Aoshi than meets the eye. He offers Megumi a way out, by tossing her a small dagger and telling her she can end her suffering. Now, that might seem cold, but for one, he's actually going against his boss's orders at this point, and beyond that, he's a warrior, and death is a natural end to all things in his eyes, so in offering Megumi the dagger, he really is showing compassion.

After that, there's a big fight in which all of the men in his charge die protecting him from Kanryu, and we find out the their reason for their devotion to him is because, after the war, Aoshi was offered a head position in the new army, but the others were just "simple killers" who would never be able to find any other line of work. Aoshi refused to abandon his men to this fate after recruiting them, so rejected the offer and continued to lead them as mercenaries, while still using the name Oniwaban Group to be recognizable. This light on Aoshi's true nature is astounding the first time you watch the series or read the manga, because it hits you from out of nowhere almost.

We don't see anything from Aoshi for awhile after that, but we know he still has a grudge against Kenshin, and promises to come back and kill him someday. When he finally does come back, he's beaten, but takes a lot out of Kenshin in the process. This proves a problem when Kenshin goes to fight Shishio and ends up getting knocked unconscious, Aoshi blames himself for taking too much out of Kenshin and offers to fight in Kenshin's stead to buy time for him to wake up. He's well aware that he's walking into a beatdown, but his honor won't let him walk away.

He's the ultimate underdog throughout the series, even more so than Kenshin. It makes him stand out in my mind, and on some days I actually like him over Kenshin.


Raziel

OK, here we go. My single favorite video game character in  history. Heck, he's probably my favorite fictional character of all time, period.

Raziel is the lead protagonist of 3 of the 5 games in the Legacy of Kain series. OK, technically it's 2 1/2, since he shares lead with Kain in the last game. Since Soul Reaver 1 I've had nothing but love for this guy, and the way he used and manipulated at every turn makes you want to give him a puppy just to see if it can brighten his day a little.

I'll admit, I'm a sucker for a good redemption story. I've been that way all my life, and I honestly can't tell you why. But I can tell you that Raziel's story is among the best and most tragic redemption stories I've ever experienced and is probably my favorite.

When we first meet Raziel, he's telling the story of his millenium serving under Kain. Kain had by this time embraced his vampiric nature and decided to take over and raised six lieutenants to serve under him, each over their own province of the kingdom. Raziel was the first of his brothers raised to vampirism and serves as Kain's right hand.

The way vampirism works in the LoK world is that, once every X number of years Kain would enter a sort of hibernation and emerge with a new power. A few years later, his lieutenant would get the same gift, but through some bizarre turn of fate, Raziel acquired a new gift first. Check out the video below to see what happened.

That voice Raziel hears after waking up belongs to the Elder God, a creature that's willing to give Raizel the power to exact his revenge on Kain. The Elder God wants to keep his Wheel of Fate turning, and immortal beings (like, y'know, vampires and stuff) keep things from running smoothly. So, Raziel becomes a devourer of souls and sets out to exact his revenge.

At first, Raziel is simply a revenge-driven force of nature, plowing through all of his former brother, who have now devolved into monstrous bottom-feeders, just to get to Kain. But along the way he finds out that the Sarafan, and ancient order of priests dedicated to hunting vampires, are a little closer to him than he ever thought. It turns out that he and his brothers were all high-ranking Sarafan, and Kain had thought it delicious irony to turn the very people who hated and hunted him into the very thing they fought against. Raziel didn't appreciate this, as you can tell in the video below, which takes just after the end of the first game, where Kain strikes Raziel with the Soul Reaver, only to have it shatter on impact and become one with Raziel.

Throughout his next search for Kain, all the while lamenting his lost humanity, Raziel discovers new secrets about the Sarafan, proving Kain's words right. He's manipulated at every turn by the Elder God, Moebius, and of course, Kain.

Finally, his journey leads him to a confrontation with his past self, as a fanatical Sarafan. It's here that it dawn on him that he's trapped in a loop, forced to kill himself, be resurrected by Kain.

And that's not even where the story ends. There are about a zillion and seventy-three more twists and turns before the story winds down in the final game, but I've given you enough info here to prove my point.

Raziel's struggle is wrought with bitterness, vengeance, hatred, confusion and desperation. He wants nothing more than for the "powers that be" to stop playing him like a pawn. We find out later that, because Kain threw him into the abyss, Raziel is unbound from the Wheel, and therefor, the only one of them that truly has free will. Even so, because of that, Raziel is manipulated at every turn, causing him to doubt his free will.

If there's ever been a more compelling character in all of fiction, I'm not sure who it is.


Well, that's it. As always, questions and comments are welcome (and encouraged). If you have any ideas about what I should talk about next, let me know! (Also, subscribe! I want to get as many people following and discussing as possible.)