Demogorgons and Debbie

It should come as no surprise to those that read my alternate monthly blog that Stranger Things was a massive hit with me. For those who haven’t seen the smash Netflix hit of the summer, it tells the tale of mid-80s rural America and four young friends, one of whom goes missing. The story unfolds as a homage to 80s sci-fi horror a la John Carpenter and Stephen King, with a dash of Spielberg BMX riding fun to glue it together.

Image from hellogiggles.com

Now apart from the obvious nostalgia value for me (with regards the music, style and every 80s film I ever loved) you’d be wondering why a Brit growing up in Northern England (just south of the Wall) in the early 80s would relate to somewhere in the US mid-west with an alcoholic sheriff called Hopper? Well the clatter of polyhedral dice and the furious debate about whether to fireball or defend against the Demogorgon should solve that mystery as quick as Scooby Doo. Dungeons and Dragons, in all its first edition glory.

(If you haven’t watched the series yet, be wary of some minor spoilers below!)

Image from ew.com

I blogged in June about my childhood love of the hobby, and the influence it had on my writing, and indeed the writing of many others. Undoubtedly it had similar influences on the Duffer brothers who wrote and directed the eight episode story. The first five minutes of episode 1 capture much of what invigorated so many with the hobby:  the friendships, the excitement, the imagination. As a narrative device it works perfectly for the series.  The three remaining friends use their interest in fantasy and science fiction to rationalise the increasingly bizarre events of psychic powers, parallel universes (explained brilliantly), and… monsters. The repeat reference to the monster as ‘Demogorgon’ is a real nod to the 1st Edition DnD, before concern that all fantasy gamers were Satanists purged the following editions of demons and devils. In the version played in the show, Demogorgon is the Prince of all demons, in the lowest levels of the Abyss. His two mandrill heads and tentacles made for an awesome miniature, which was slammed onto the table in that epic first minute of the show, and that reappeared as a way of explaining ‘monsters’ to El in a later episode. To the players it is the ultimate monster to be conquered, and the banter between the friends is whether against such a creature it is better to defend or attack. It is this dilemma that drives the series through to its incredible finale.

Demogorgon figure: image from bustle.com

In my childhood experience of DnD I only experienced a mild amount of teasing and mockery. Our close knit group who played, both when I lived in Leeds and later Peterborough, weren’t especially ‘outcasts’ or ‘alternative.’ Perhaps at that time, the UK was more acceptant of stranger hobbies. We all collected comics, loved sci-fi, played DnD, some had computers (ZX Spectrums, Atari, VIC 20s), most of us liked music we taped off the radio. The bullying that the three friends experience in the show is only partly related to their love of DnD, in that it gives the bullies recourse to call them names and mock their close friendships.

And of course the general perception of DnD at the time in both UK and the US wasn’t entirely rosy. Much in the way that the moral majority rallied against heavy metal music, alleging its influence on the youth of America’s moral upbringing, mental stability and suicide rates, DnD came into the righteous cross-hairs. The now infamous Jack Chick comic strip, Dark Dungeons, tells the tale of Debbie whose participation in DnD games led to her involvement in a coven mainly to get her father to buy DnD books and miniatures. The DnD provoked suicide of a friend then brought Debbie back to Christianity and redemption. The strip culminates in a good old book burning, perhaps with some Harry Potter books tossed on to help the pyre (of course I’m being facetious, as Harry Potter book burning was a product of more recent enlightened times).

The unfortunate Debbie in Dark Dungeons. Image from http://www.therobotspajamas.com/dd-kills-with-the-help-of-satan/

As amusing as it seems now, there was serious anti-DnD propaganda back in the 80s, and even the famed Tom Hanks starred in the TVM Mazes and Monsters in 1982, wherein a latent psychotic illness is unlocked by the fantasy game, Mazes and Monsters, with tragic results. The film was based mainly on the sensationalism surrounding the disappearance of a student at MSU. The80s were replete with pressure groups against DnD, in some cases driven by religious sentiments and the perception of DnD as an occult phenomenon, and in some cases bereavements and tragedy. Authors jumped on the bandwagon, associating a horrific murder with the fact the perpetrator (Chris Pritchard)was a Dungeon Master (and playing down his drug and alcohol addiction, and desire to inherit $2 million).

Yet most studies don’t indicate that players of role playing games have any higher rates of mental illness, suicide, or depression, but such studies are often ignored in the media. Did it appeal to the geekier cross-section of society? Certainly, as back then they would have been the ones with the imaginations, and the creativity to enjoy it fully. Nowadays these would be the same children and teenagers stereotyped as gamers, the same ones unfairly mocked about hunting Pokemons by a society determined to deride anyone else’s interests and fun!

Yet it is these traits, of imagination, creativity, and ultimately comradery and friendship which are the core of the heroes in Stranger Things. It’s these characteristics that lead them to accept El, and to search for their missing friend when everyone else has given up. And that’s the message in Stranger Things, and that’s one of the keys of its success—Demogorgon or no.

(As an end-note, the series has got my kids fired up about playing old school DnD again, ironically dragging them away from the aforementioned Pokemon!!).

Brand new Interview with William Kenney

Shortly after I took up Jeremy Laszlo's invite to join the Skulldust Circle I decided the read what my fellow authors were writing. Gary's Ashenclaw work and Jeremy's Blood and Brotherhood debut were featured on my book blog, The Roaring Mouse, and so now it's William Kenney's turn.

William is one of those astonishingly talented types that you meet very so often that thrives in his creativity. As well as his great writing he also excels at artwork and muisc. In fact it was through admiring his covers that I first connected with him on Twitter, well before the Skulldust Circle formed. His covers grace the books of Gary Vanucci, as well as his own work and they evoke the superb fantasy art of the sixties and seventies which adorned the fantasy and sci-fi novels most of us grew up with,

Dreams of Storms is the first book of the 'In the Shadow of the Black Sun' series. It's a high fantasy series with a distinctly dark edge to it, not perhaps to the degree of Martin or Abercrombie, but enough to tell you it ain't for the little ones. It tells the story of Hagan, a former hero, now trying to live a life of refuge away from the lands and city that made him famous. However crisis returns to the lands and an old comrade (the awesome stone troll, Gorin) is dispatched to convince him to return. The pair set off with Hagan's younger brother, D'Pharin, in tow. On the journey to the city of Harquinn, they meet Vasparian, an Elven veteran and Windenn, a Woodwarden (kind of like a ranger-druid). But things are not quite as they expect- the evil Malhain is at large and has dispatched his sinister Inquiti after the companions.

There are all the hallmarks of good heroic fantasy in here--the quest, the interplay between human and non-human races, excellent world-building. In many ways William draws on the traditions of Tolkien, Brooks and Eddings, with the multi-skilled group and their dialogue. But what made the book for me were the more original touches-- the hostile and decaying city of Overbrook; the mystery of the seer, the Wisp; the guilt and ruminations of the troubled hero, Hagan; and the Inquitis, probably the scariest opponents since the Nazgul got drowned by Elrond's daughter. The dark atmosphere is there but it never overpowers, rather it bolsters the authenticity of the work, and makes you nervier as you're never sure that all the comapnions are going to be all right or not.


I took the chance to throw a few questions at William the other day:

Me: I was (pleasantly) surprised by how much 'dark' fantasy mixed with your traditional high fantasy story. Are you a fan of the darker end of the genre?

WK: Absolutely. I've always felt that the evil element in the story should be as dark and nasty as possible. The reader should fear them, loathe them and want them defeated. The reader is walking in the characters shoes and should feel the ultimate desperation of facing the bad guys. The good guys will only truly shine in the presence of absolute darkness, right?

Me: There's a definite feel of DnD in your work. I know our friend Gary is a big gamer, is it something you've done/do and does it influence you?

WK: I played quite a bit when I was a teenager. We had a group of guys that would play all-day marathons, sometimes getting so involved that we would forget to eat. I'm sure my mother remembers us taking over the dining table with maps and hardcover rulebooks. Eventually, a friend and I built a custom DnD table to play on. It was divided into four sections with a built-in box at the center with a lid. We kept dice and figurines in there. DnD and role-playing games in general really spark the imagination. I use to be the DM (GM now) back then and really had to think quickly while taking the others through the adventures. The DM is essentially a storyteller after all.

Me: Your covers are simply astounding. If you had to choose which one you enjoyed more- writing or painting/design- what would it be and why?

WK: Thank you very much for the compliment, Ross. That would be a difficult decision. I've done both since I was a boy and both feel very much like a piece of the same thing. To me, they are both art. I'm also a musician and treat it in the same fashion. I start with a small idea and continue to add pieces until I have a cohesive finished product that hopefully creates some sort of emotional response in people. Of course, painting is more immediate than writing, but they are both rewarding to me.

Me: I'd just noticed you also write a YA series. Tell us a little about that.

WK: I created the Tales of Embremere series as a break from the In the Shadow of the Black Sun series.I was writing such a complex dark fantasy story, that I wanted to create something more relaxed for a change. I wanted shorter stories that could be read in one sitting and I plan to do more in the future. The characters in the story are teenagers living in the Under. Beneath the city of Embremere, which is constructed on an immense platform above the surface of a lake, the less fortunate have built their own city from the discarded refuse tossed away by the city-folk above. The main character, Grivvin is the last of the Wychan, the wizards of the world. During the opening of the first book, he is cast out and into the dark world of the Under.

Me: Fun question- who was your favourite author and why?

WK: I would have to say Tolkien. Reading The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings when I was young changed my life without a doubt. From there, I devoured as much fantasy as I could find. My literary diet consisted of Terry Brooks, Michael Moorcock, Stephen R. Donaldson, Robert E. Howard, etc. Fantasy created such a magical atmosphere for me that I immediately wanted to tell my own stories. I still have pieces of novels that I started when I was roughly 15 years of age. No one will ever see them, of course. Very crude, but still some interesting ideas.

Me: What are your feelings about the increasing popularity of the fantasy genre with the success of Game of Thrones and Peter Jackson's Tolkien adaptations?

WK: I love seeing so much fantasy on television and in the theaters. When I was young, it was so hard to find anything like that. Any new fantasy-related film or series was a godsend to my friends and I. I didn't care how cheesy or ridiculous it was, I would watch and re-watch it. The Sword and the Sorcerer, Krull, Hawk the Slayer, Dragonslayer, Conan the Barbarian. I loved them all. We can only hope that with the added exposure, people that have never been exposed to it, will give fantasy novels a try.

Me: How excited are you about the Hobbit?

WK: Well, I can't wait to see it. What Peter Jackson did with the trilogy was truly mind-blowing. Those are some of my favorite movies without a doubt. So much detail, it's insane. I'm hoping the magical feeling of The Hobbit, which definitely has a different atmosphere than the Lord of the Rings books, translates to the screen. I keep waiting for someone to bring a decent Elric movie to the screen or the Shannara stories.

Me: And, finally, what's the current work in progress?

WK: Currently I am writing the third book of my In the Shadow of the Black Sun series. I've just scratched the surface with it and am feeling a certain amount of pressure. I feel that the first two books in the series are great fantasy tales. I am my biggest critic and hold my stories up to a pretty high standard. I spend a lot of time thinking through different possibilities for the storyline. What if I took the story this way or that? So many ways for the tale to go. Which works best? I've got so many stories to tell, some fantasy and some not. There is simply not enough time to get them all written.

Check out William's amazing work and excerpts from stories at http://authorwilliamkenney.blogspot.co.uk/

If you wanted to check out A Dream of Storms then click here for Amazon UK and here for Amazon US

Next time on the Roaring Mouse we're going 'down under' for a date with True Blood devotee and Mistress of Mutants, Rachel Tsoumbakos.

The Tome of Inspiration +5

I blogged recently (on my random mescaline-addled blogspot) about inspirations that have guided my writing--and within that is not just my published fantasy work, but my YA sci-fi story currently lurking in a slush-pile somewhere nowhere near you. The blog noted the key influence of comics in my style, focusing particularly on the work of John Byrne.

But if I had to cite one key formative step in my writing there is no doubt that it would be role playing games, and of them all (and believe me I played almost all of them in the Eighties) it has to be Dungeons and Dragons.

This will come as no surprise to those who read Skulldust Circle, and indeed I know that at least one (if not most) of my six buddies owe allegiance to the frothing offspring of E Gary Gygax. This is the "I'm Spartacus" moment when they all concur....

[Echoes of fervent agreement as I level my Crossbow of Author Castrating +2]

I first observed the DnD phenomenon via my mate Nick Earnshaw's brothers' piles of DnD stuff. They were placed around his house, in little piles, under tables and cabinets- enticing mounds of graph paper, funny dice, rule books and modules. This was in c1981 and thus we are talking old school first edition AD&D here. I properly got into it when (a) I started on the Fighting Fantasy books and (b) got intrigued by The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. Ralph Bakshi had released a cartoon of LOTR and i recall seeing a recovered LOTR book at my mate's house (and indeed, we later played Middle Earth RPG). I started, as many did, on Basic D&D, moving onto Expert and from that, Advanced. I spent my life savings (about £30) on the Dungeon Masters Guide and the Players Handbook, doing without the Monster Manual for  year or so (creating many odd interpretations of the monsters found in that big table in the appendix of the DMG).

And the creativity began. We played a lot of the modules at first: The giant and the Drow ones (G1-3, D1-3, Q1) I ran with my younger brother. We played White Plume Mountain about ten times over (how cool was Black Razor? Like bloody StormBringer), Tomb of Horrors, one of the A ones (I forget which) and... as time went on, and the adventures got cooler, the UK modules and Dragonlance (and of course, Ravenloft).

But the real fun in the game was the real creativity--the writing of my own adventures, the generation of a campaign. Although through the Eighties we played dozens of other RPGs (Runequest, Traveller, Star Frontiers, Gamma World, Call of Cthulhu, Paranoia, Dr Who, Star Trek, MERPG, Toon, Judge Dredd, Bushido, Marvel Superheroes, Villians and Vigilantes, the time travel one, a gangster one too....) DnD was always my favourite. What we created changed with our tastes, or maturity and our outside influences. In the beginning it was daft, far-fetched, almost cartoonish--i recall a repeat-action crossbow that we loved in Hawk The Slayer, that half the characters had. Later we would weave together intricate campaigns, with fully realised histories.

I was never one for using TSRs campaign worlds (Greyhawk, Forgotten Realms) although when I ran a campaign in 1988-1991 i used the Fighting Fantasy sourcebook Titan as the basis for the adventures. But the story became personal, almost like a soap opera, with marriages, kids, relationships. old family feuds, arch-enemies and recurrent villains. Like a story, like a RPG should be.

Then I hit medical school, and we all moved apart in the country. Bar one or two sessions we all accepted that we'd not play again and, when wives and kids arrived, it seemed even less likely.
Around 5 years ago, bored one evening, i began to write a quick story about the characters we used to play with. I e-mailed it out to the guys and they loved it, and so I began to write a story as if we were playing the adventures again, with all the references to the characters histories.

It felt great, creating once more, breathing life into dialogue and action. The 300 pages the story ran to taught me a huge amount about writing, about structure. As it was concluding one of my mates, Ant, commented that I should tackle something brand new... something not related to our prior campaign.

So it began with a map... and now its a six book saga.

It took a while to escape the complete DnD influence. The first draft was very DnD style, with the magic derivative, and the characters almost having classes and levels! It took a bit of discipline and merciless use of the Red Pen of Sorrow +1 to tame the bias in the text.

But despite the modifications and moderations, it is unashamedly a book written by a DnD player (and Dungeon Master). I'm proud of that fact, and proud that I'm now starting a campaign with my kids (aged 10 and 8)... and White Plume Mountain awaits....

Over my next few posts I thought I'd bring it full circle. When I began playing DnD it inspired my reading of fantasy. The books I read then had a huge impact on me and I've continued my love of the fantasy classics that shaped the DnD games recently with a few books that I always meant to read. For fun I'm going to talk about them as i read them over the next six or so SkullDust posts I'm writing. Hope it'll be interesting fro gamers and fantasy buffs alike.

I believe in Magic...

In a sense. Not in the sense that I believe one can throw one's hand in the air and conjure fingers of lightning to vanquish one's foes, but in another sense entirely. I believe that words are magic. How else can you explain the wondrous ability for simple black letters on an off-white page to transport you to otherworldly places populated with the most amazing characters that you either love or despise? For a short time, your mind actually suspends its disbelief. For a time, you are there. You can hear the wind in the trees of Elfwhere, feel the soft earth under your feet as you pass beneath the great, twisting branches. You can actually feel the tremendous heat in the underground passages that lead to Harrow Isle as you travel with a group of Dwarves from the kingdom of Pahn Pirik.

Mike Haufe

For a time, the characters are alive. They become your companions as you join them on their quest or stand by their side in battle. Your mind assigns each character its own individual voice, because you want them to be alive. Can you hear the rough, gravelly voice of Gorin, the Stone Troll. I know you can. Can you hear the unnatural hiss of Mournenhile's servants, the Inquitis? It sends shivers up your spine, doesn't it?
I call that magic, my friends. For these are simple pieces of paper with letters on them. Put the letters, words, sentences and paragraphs in the right order and it's the same as that lightning spell that I spoke of. Great books create a new reality in your mind. The characters feel as if they belong to you and in a sense, they do.

Could anything be more magical?

William