news about the author, artist, and musician
My parents were driving around the Hocking Hills—and elsewhere in Ohio—in the early Sixties in a Rambler much like this one. I would have written one into my novel THESE REMEMBERED HILLS, set in 62, if I could have come up with any good reason to! But then, there’s always the sequel…
Considering how often we moved in those days, I guess we were a family of ramblers.
Today, July 15 2023, is the official release date for my latest fantasy novel, STONES IN THE SEA. Here are the links for print and ebook at the Arachis Press store:
PRINT: https://www.lulu.com/shop/stephen-brooke/stones-in-the-sea/paperback/product-z2mrvk.html
PDF: https://www.lulu.com/shop/stephen-brooke/stones-in-the-sea/ebook/product-z2wzrg.html
EPUB: https://www.lulu.com/shop/stephen-brooke/stones-in-the-sea/ebook/product-z2wvvz.html
I’ve posted the cover and blurb before. Go back a few pages! The book may or may not be available at retailers yet. Distribution is what it is and we live with it, but STONES is definitely available from Arachis Press. And remember to check for their discounts on print prices, typically ten or fifteen percent off during weekdays. Those are usually posted at the AP blog.
NOTE: a few months later—the ebooks are no longer for sale. I have decided to give them away and will put up links here and elsewhere, as I get around to it.
The desert-lost city of Hirstel, in which opens my novel ‘The Ways of Wizardry,’ undoubtedly owes a debt to the Xuthal of R.E. Howard’s Conan story, ‘Xuthal of the Dusk.’ As it has been at least forty years since I last read that story, it should not be surprising I had completely forgotten it. I have been reading through all Howard’s Conan tales—the originals, none of the pastiche of Carter or DeCamp—and had reached Xuthal.
So there are similarities and there are differences. I used Hirstel only as a starting point for the ‘Wizardry’ adventure, lingering for a few opening chapters. The dreaming citizens of both eventually come to unhappy ends; different ends, to be sure, yet there is a shared madness perhaps.
The concept was not completely novel with Howard, but I do suspect it was his story, buried somewhere in my subconscious, that gave birth to Hirstel. I have referenced the city in some other stories and may well do so again. We’ll have to see about that.
Stephen Brooke 