I took inspiration from the Arthur/Merlin legends for Accidental Wizard. What boy doesn't want to be caught up in an adventure with knights and magic?

"And near him stood the Lady of the Lake, Who knows a subtler magic than his own- Clothed in white samite, mystic, wonderful. She gave the King his huge cross-hilted sword, Whereby to drive the heathen out: a mist Of incense curled about her, and her face Wellnigh was hidden in the minster gloom; But there was heard among the holy hymns A voice as of the waters, for she dwells Down in a deep; calm, whatsoever storms May shake the world, and when the surface rolls, Hath power to walk the waters like our Lord.

"There likewise I beheld Excalibur Before him at his crowning borne, the sword That rose from out the bosom of the lake, And Arthur rowed across and took it-rich With jewels, elfin Urim, on the hilt, Bewildering heart and eye-the blade so bright That men are blinded by it-on one side, Graven in the oldest tongue of all this world, 'Take me,' but turn the blade and ye shall see, And written in the speech ye speak yourself, 'Cast me away!' And sad was Arthur's face Taking it, but old Merlin counselled him, 'Take thou and strike! the time to cast away Is yet far-off.' So this great brand the king Took, and by this will beat his foemen down."

--From Idylls of The King by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Enough about Accidental Wizard, but it is at #10 and #11 in two categories on Amazon at the moment. I have seven or eight chapters left to write in Accidental Chessmen, the third book in the Accidental Adventures Series.

I think I've recommended it before and I'll do it again: Frontier Partisans has an interesting piece on the fate of one of Daniel Boone's sons. In Murder & Vengeance on The Appalachian Frontier. It's a quick but rewarding read.

I'm only about a third of the way through Dorothy Dunnett's The Game of Kings, but I have found some quotes to share:

"When two friends discuss money, the third friend should invariably be asleep." - p. 90

"To much intrigue, sir, and too little rape." - p. 100

"Violence in nature is one thing...but among civilized mankind, what excuse is there." - p. 158

"There's nothing wrong with that lassie's face her dowry won't correct." - p. 170

We often make fun of our English language, but it has evolved with a purpose, gathering the best and most useful expressions and mechanisms from many languages. In fact, English is the epitome of Johnny Cash's song, "One Piece at a Time."

In the introduction to Robert Graves' The Reader over your Shoulder, Patricia T. O'Conner explains, "To write English well, it is generally agreed, it is not to imitate, but to evolve a style peculiarly suited to one's own temperament, environment and purposes."

She goes on to note, "The general European view is that English is an illogical, chaotic language, unsuited for clear thinking; and it's easy to understand this view, for no other European language admits of such shoddy treatment. Yet, on the other hand, none other admits to such poetic exquisiteness, and often the apparent chaos is only the untidiness of a workshop in which a great deal of repair is in progress ... Nobody will ever succeed in annulling the natural right, which every English-speaking person can claim, of borrowing words from foreign languages, coining words, making new distinctions in sense between alternative forms of the same word, resurrecting ancient words, or using whatever grammatical oddities he may please..."

I couldn't agree more. Writing in English is to not merely an exercise in assembling prefabricated blocks of phrases, but to use hammer and forge to shape create the expressions peculiar to the circumstance. English isn't bricks and mortar, it's wood to be sawed and planed or steel to be heated, hammered and fashioned.

Check out Bader M. Elsadeqi's The Chosen Rainheart for epic fantasy with a helping of ancient curse that threatens destruction.

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