Ned Marcus — Blog
Below are the most recent posts on NedMarcus.com.
Jul 22, 2024
The River Fleet in 1844
The River Fleet used to be a major London river. Now it's the largest subterranean river beneath London. Sadly, it's been polluted for centuries, and now it's a sewer.
But in the novel I'm writing now, the Fleet is a part of subterranean London where the poorest people, the outcasts, and the misfits live.
It's also where the re-enchantment of Britain takes an unusual turn.
Jul 20, 2024
Magic Forests
Magic forests have always been a part of fantasy and were a part of mythology before that. The attraction of the deep, mysterious forest is strong. During the day, they can be beautiful. At night, a forest can easily become a threatening place.
Forests have been places of sanctuary and danger. If you leave the path, the forests near my home are still dangerous: full of poisonous snakes and spiders.
The picture below shows the bright side.
Jul 08, 2024
Natural Magic
Natural magic involves aligning yourself with the power that pulses through the universe. It also gives the ability to call on the help of sympathetic animals and insects.
Black magic is magical coercion: forcing spirits to do as the sorcerer wills. It’s carried out for personal gain.
Because of this, natural magic is less certain, but when the universe is behind you, it’s unstoppable.
The hyena appears in Blue Prometheus.
Jul 07, 2024
Kobo Plus
A quick reminder that all my books are available on Kobo Plus—free to read if you're subscribed.
Also, Kobo has just launched Kobo Plus in Spain.
Jul 01, 2024
All My Books are On Sale on Smashwords!
All my books are for sale in the Smashwords Summer Sale!
Series starters (Blue Prometheus and Orange Storm) are free. All other books have 25% off. It's a good opportunity to try both series.
Jun 30, 2024
The Future is Indicated not Predetermined
The future is indicated not predetermined
The ancient mariner in Blue Prometheus.
Jun 26, 2024
Norwegian Fables
One of the older books in my library. A 1943 edition of Norwegian fables.
It was my father's (he spoke Norwegian and knew the author). For me it's just a beautifully bound book.
Jun 25, 2024
Ideas
Sometimes, many ideas come at once; other times, they flow more slowly. I've taken part in a flash fiction challenge, and it was a time when ideas flowed. I've outlined four stories (science fiction and fantasy). I like all of them and plan to develop them.
The one I've written is a retelling of Jack and the Beanstalk. I've taken an earlier version where one of the characters turns into a murderous basilisk. I didn't realise, but this story may date back to the Bronze Age.
Jun 10, 2024
Warriors with Sheathed Swords
Warriors with Sheathed Swords has just been published by Penumbric. Click to read for free...
The image was the inspiration for the story which I wrote as part of a flash fiction challenge.
Jun 10, 2024
One Advantage
One advantage of it often taking years to sell a short story is that you get plenty of time to edit and polish it.
May 31, 2024
Review of The Darkling Odyssey
Absolutely love these books, best I've read. Perfect fantasy books, pulls you in. Definitely worth the money. Lisa (Amazon UK)
I created the image by pasting the review into AI.
May 30, 2024
Blue Prometheus Audio Version
Would you be interested in an author audio version of Blue Prometheus?
I'm thinking of making YouTube videos of me reading Blue Prometheus. I'd use images based on parts of the story and read over them.
I'm not a professional voice actor, nor would I be using high-tech equipment, but they would be free to listen to.
Is this something you may be interested in?
Let me know in the comments!
May 25, 2024
History of Religious Ideas
I've just finished Mircea Eliade's A History of Religious Ideas Vol 1. It covers the period from the Stone Age to the Eleusinian Mysteries.
With the Stone Age, basically they're guessing. "The documentary evidence is opaque."
I'm not surprised. It goes back over 30,000 years.
The documentary evidence is bones (particularly skulls), objects found in graves, stone tools, and cave paintings. The educated guesses are still interesting.
The book covers Ancient Egypt, the old Iranian religions, the ancient Greek religions, the Old Testament days, and more.
It ends with the Eleusinian Mysteries: the story of Demeter and her daughter Persephone, who was dragged to hell, and only (partially) escaped because Demeter messed up the world's weather systems. Interesting that after the destruction of the last pagan temples in Greece (around 500AD) the ideas continued in mystery traditions and are still alive today in modern day paganism.
Books like this give me many ideas to explore in my stories.
May 13, 2024
Evil follows after wrong
"Evil follows after wrong."
Spoken by a Capuchin friar in an old alchemical text. I can't get it out of my mind.
It's a truth I can see playing out around the world. The evil may not come immediately, of course.
The idea has become a motif in my current fantasy story.
May 10, 2024
Return to the enchanted world
The re-enchantment of the world is not all it seems. The hallucinogenic drugs touted as safe are not all they seem. They call something from a realm that touches ours. At first, you see cool faces and funny things. But then it changes...
Apr 29, 2024
Our Understanding of Ourselves
I've been rereading Jung's The Undiscovered Self recently. So much that's good here, but one thing stood out was his idea that it's astounding that we (humans) have made ourselves so negligible, despite having achieved so much.
Astronomers love to show the Earth as an insignificant speck in the universe. This is one perspective, but not the only one. I think this view comes about more because of a contempt for religion than anything else.
Jung's point, however, is that we lack understanding of ourselves, which I completely agree with.
Apr 27, 2024
My Two Sleeps
I couldn't sleep, so got up at 2:30 AM this morning and began writing. Not bad. I got three hours writing in. I'm moving ahead with my new novel. But I think my sleeping patterns are strange. Perhaps I'm becoming a medieval person.
In medieval times, people used to practice segmented sleep patterns with what they called the first sleep in the evening, and a second sleep in the morning or afternoon.
One difference is that I don't have to put up with bedbugs, lice or fleas.
Apr 22, 2024
What makes you give up on a book?
For me, it's boredom, poor writing, or a story going in a direction I'm not interested in. Mostly, I'd never buy these books. Not after reading a sample. After I buy a book, I'll usually try to push on for a few more chapters, even if I'm bored. Some books, like Dune Messiah, have slow starts but become brilliant later.
If a book is loved by many people, I'll push on a bit further than I otherwise would just in case I'm missing something.
In practice, I don't often give up on books I've bought.
How about you?
Mar 22, 2024
Value of Submitting Short Stories to Magazines
Recently I had an online discussion with another writer who said that we shouldn't accept sub-par payment from fantasy and SF magazines.
I respect this writer for the help he gives other writers, and I agree the payment isn't worth the time and effort put in—not directly. But I disagree that it's therefore not worthwhile submitting short stories to magazines.
There are indirect payments that can potentially be worth much more.
First, is the practice you get writing.
Second, you're tested. And some of the comments from magazines can be quite blunt. On the other hand, when your stories start reaching the final round of consideration more often, you learn which stories are working, too.
The third benefit comes from getting your stories in front of people who would never normally see them. It's a form of marketing that may pay back in the future.
Recently, I've had a sudden increase in people visiting this website from a short story I wrote years ago—The Boatmen—that was originally published in a fantasy forum, and has since been republished as a reprint (and audio). While I don't expect anything to come from it except perhaps an extra sale or two, it's an example of the possible marketing value of submitting stories to magazines.
Mar 15, 2024
Original Blue Prometheus Cover
The original Blue Prometheus cover. Now only to be found in a handful of secondhand bookshops in Taipei.
Mar 13, 2024
All My Novels Available on Kobo Plus!
Kobo Plus has recently expanded to Taiwan and Hong Kong (this post links to the HK store). Most recently, it's expanded to South Africa and Ireland.
All my novels are there!
Mar 11, 2024
AI God
One of my fears about AI is that it will become a new god, but a god controlled by a rich elite.
Mar 07, 2024
The Intelligent Alien Species
"But, most of all, I wanted to meet the intelligent alien species that lived hidden in the great primeval forests of the planet. Of course, now I know it's the humans who are the aliens."
From Young Aina
Mar 04, 2024
Frank Herbert on AI
“Once men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free. But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them.”
Frank Herbert, Dune
Mar 03, 2024
The Flowers Glow in Greeting
In the dark forest, the flowers glowed in greeting. Britain had changed.
From The Orange Witch
Mar 03, 2024
Smashwords Read an Ebook Week
50% off The Darkling Odyssey and The Orange Witch on Smashwords for one week.
Young Aina is free!
Click over to the Smashwords store and buy at discounted prices!
Mar 01, 2024
The Orange Witch is Summoned
The Orange Witch begins in a ruined church surrounded by an alien forest that has appeared on Earth.
Feb 26, 2024
Mythical London
My current work in progress is set between two versions of London: a slightly futuristic London that's falling apart and a mythical London that coexists with it.
Both the pictures below are intended as the magical version.
Feb 23, 2024
Falling into the Depths of the Planet
They fell through the hot and sticky liquid rock, their combined magic lighting them up like a rocket shooting into the depths of the planet.
From The Darkling Odyssey
Feb 19, 2024
Into Mythic Fiction
My books are always behind me because I change faster than I can write and publish. Looking at my older novels feels like looking back into history.
The novel I'm writing now keeps transforming. Originally, contemporary fantasy, it's becoming closer to mythic fiction. There's a single sci-fi element, too.
Feb 18, 2024
Deception and Terror in the Land Where the Moon Always Shines
Deception and terror in the land where the moon always shines.
I'm playing with different prompts to see how the AI mind interprets them. This one was inspired by a short story I've written.
Feb 16, 2024
C.S. Lewis on Tolkien
I've been reading about English folklore and came across something C.S. Lewis wrote about a remark Tolkien once made to him. It's a very different way of seeing life from nowadays. And fascinating.
Tolkien once remarked to me that the feeling about home must have been quite different in the days when a family had fed on the produce of the same few miles of country for six generations, and that perhaps this was why they saw nymphs in the fountains and dryads in the woods – they were not mistaken for there was in a sense a real (not metaphorical) connection between them and the countryside. What had been earth and air and later corn, and later still bread, really was in them. We of course who live on a standardised international diet (you may have had Canadian flour, English meat, Scotch oatmeal, African oranges, & Australian wine to day) are really artificial beings and have no connection (save in sentiment) with any place on earth. We are synthetic men, uprooted. The strength of the hills is not ours.
Feb 15, 2024
More on Genres
The first choice for most readers was epic fantasy. Contemporary fantasy came second. This doesn't really surprise me. I enjoy both of these.
Since asking, I've been considering other possibilities. Some of them are very different from each other. Two such genres are historical fantasy and science fiction. I like both, but probably one of the stories I most enjoyed writing was a historical fantasy short story set in 7th century Britain.
I enjoyed the research, and the actual task of putting a fantasy story within a real historical period. The historical details, I made as accurate as I could. The fantasy is obviously fantasy, but I tamed down the magic a lot. Actually, I can't imagine writing any big magic in a historical fantasy.
Feb 12, 2024
Your Favourite Genres!
Which do you prefer: science fantasy, contemporary fantasy, epic fantasy, or planetary romance?
Or something else?
Leave a message at the bottom of this page or on my social media...
Feb 10, 2024
Blue Prometheus Reaches Top 10
Blue Prometheus has reached the Top 10 on Kobo UK for fantasy and sci-fi!
You can try it here for just £0.99!
Jan 29, 2024
Fantasy in Chinese for Language Learning
As well as journaling and using my own stories to help me learn new languages, I also like reading easy stories that I used to love as a child, but in Chinese or Spanish.
When I was a child, I absolutely loved C.S. Lewis's Narnia books. I read and reread them so many times. Using a similar approach when learning a foreign language also works well. Just as children (and sometimes adults too) love to reread their favourite stories, making them their own, so it's really useful when you want to make a new language your own.
Here are a couple of examples I've been using with my Chinese learning.
The first is a simple children's book. To be honest, the story's not too exciting for me, but it's useful as I can understand about 85% of the characters. Often, this approach is known as using comprehensible input to learn a language. Although I feel a little bored with the mummy book, it does give me useful practice.
With the Narnia book—A Horse and His Boy—my understanding drops a lot. This is a kind of 'incomprehensible' input. I open the book to a random page, and then read what I can. My understanding drops to about 15%, but I slowly recognise more characters. And, in this case, I actually do like the story, even though I'm no longer a child.
I'd love to hear if you've ever used fantasy (or SF) to learn a foreign language.
Jan 25, 2024
Language Learning with My Stories
Recently, I've been experimenting with new ways of learning languages. I've always enjoyed journaling in English, and I've begun to do the same in the two languages I'm working on at the moment.
Making another language your own is one of the best ways of learning it. I've come across people who create stories to practice the vocabulary and grammar in the language they're learning. I want to do the same in the future, but I also thought it'd be fun to translate some short stories—or parts of them—that I've written in English into other languages.
I've used Google Translate. It's quite good, but not perfect. I'll check the details later, but I'm enjoying playing the audio version. The next step will be to work on the written form.
Here's the very beginning of Young Aina in Chinese:
我很早就醒了，從床上跳了起來。 那是我十二歲生日，父親答應帶我飛越山牆，飛到下面的山谷。 我高興得幾乎要叫出來，但當妹妹在睡夢中醒來時，我及時制止了自己。
And in Spanish:
Me levanté temprano y salté de la cama. Era mi duodécimo cumpleaños y mi padre había prometido llevarme en avión más allá de la pared de la montaña y hacia el valle. Casi grité de alegría, pero me detuve justo a tiempo cuando mi hermana menor se despertó en sueños.
Do you learn or speak any other languages?
Jan 21, 2024
3 Books in Kobo Sale!
25% off The Darkling Odyssey, The Orange Witch, and the complete Blue Prometheus boxset on Kobo until the 29th January!
Add the promo code JANSALE at checkout to receive the discount.
Jan 18, 2024
Around Shiding
A walk to the shops near my house. My best ideas come when I'm taking break.
Jan 17, 2024
Kobo Sale!
25% off The Darkling Odyssey, The Orange Witch, and the Blue Prometheus boxset on Kobo from the 19th to 29th of January!
A good opportunity to buy the second book in each series, or the first series boxset.
Links to The Darkling Odyssey.
Recent Articles
-
The River Fleet in 1844
Jul 22, 24 12:41 AM
The River Fleet used to be a major London river. Now it's the largest subterranean river beneath London. Sadly, it's been polluted for centuries, and now it's a sewer. But in the novel I'm writing now… -
Magic Forests
Jul 20, 24 12:08 AM
Magic forests have always been a part of fantasy and were a part of mythology before that. The attraction of the deep, mysterious forest is strong. During the day, they can be beautiful. At night, a f… -
Natural Magic
Jul 08, 24 03:21 AM
Natural magic involves aligning yourself with the power that pulses through the universe. It also gives the ability to call on the help of sympathetic animals and insects. Black magic is magical coerc…
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