Tales of Ale and Chainmail
Volume 1
A Fantasy Anthology with stories by
Dave Deickman, Kate Longstone, Jonathan
Maloney, Alan Kent,
Thomas D Moore, Ashley Bravington, Crystal
Roles, Lucina Nyx
Eight magical objects. Eight adventurers. Eight stories.
The simplest of choices are often the most necessary.
Featuring stories from Dave Deickman, Kate Longstone, Jonathan Maloney, Alan
Kent, Thomas D Moore, Ashley Bravington, Crystal Roles, and Lucina Nyx, Tales
of Ale and Chainmail (Vol 1) explores the dungeons, temples, and societies of
the Western Shield world in pursuit of knowledge, answers, and lost family
members.
Guest Post
What’s more important than having
an idea for a story? Writing it. Doesn’t matter if it’s an ending, a beginning
or a midpoint. When writing Brewing Storm
much of my story was the result of my publisher’s advice of doing writing
sprints. Setting a clock and just writing stream of consciousness. Didn’t
matter if it was good, or if it tied in with earlier or later parts of the
story. The goal was always to get words on the page non-stop for 20 to 30
minutes. Then after a quick mental break and a change of scenery for a fresh
cup of tea or water, it was time to review what exactly just happened.
Hello I’m Ashley Bravington,
author of Brewing Storm from Tales of Ale
and Chainmail Volume 1 by SkyNation Publishing. I am an accountant in
Melbourne, Australia and I love fantasy works whether that be in novels, films
or role playing games. I came into the Tales
project after the call had been put out by Renee April for aspiring writers to
contribute. Upon being given the plot framing and the settling I decided to
write about Khamid Saltstone, a dwarven sailor and cleric. Traditional roles
for fantasy races are all well and good, but I’ve always wanted to see what would
happen to the stereotypes when they were thrown out. Dwarven sailors, orcish
merchants, a God of Death who cheers on every successful attempt at thwarting
final rest and who knows what else. What variations on stories could be made
with an interesting set of changes.
Being a part of an anthology novel
presented some unique challenges, with eight authors in a single setting, a new
one at that with no current rules I was sure we would run into issues of each
author having their own idea of what should
be. But I was pleased to say that there were very few instances of butting
heads, everyone involved was a joy to work with. Trading ideas and world
concepts, authors being able to take a saying from one author to reference in
their own story or mentioning a world-specific fruit in multiple places made
every story feel that they were set in a coherent world regardless of
everyone’s personal writing style.
One of the joys of being a part of
the Tales project has been watching
Kahid’s journey from a one scene, one dimensional character into a more fleshed
out and nuanced character, and the development of his friends. The anthology
has been a springboard for wanting to write more both about Khamid and other
characters that he interacted with during the story. Long term I would love to
expand into stories about other characters is different time periods set within
the Western Shield World.
I have thoroughly enjoyed being a
part of this project and look forward to being able to not only pursue more
writing of my own in the future, but knowing there are seven other amazing
authors and an incredible independent publishing house pushing back against the
big players doing their bit to increase competition.
Getting to know Crystal Role
Stuff about Me
My maternity
leave was up. I was a brand-new mum diving back into full-time work. I had no time to even remember my lifelong
dream to be a published author, let alone the energy to imagine it coming true!
But one thing about dreams? They have a habit of resurfacing when you least
expect them. Usually at odd, almost inconvenient times, leaving you with a
choice to either dive in, or let it pass you by.
When I was
approached to write this story I initially had a panic – would I be able to fit
it in? Would I let down my new son, my partner, my job for taking time for
myself? Was I good enough?
However,
despite the knee-jerk anxiety I can have, I also I have a long history of
diving in to things head first and knowing right down to my toes that I can
make it work. I have to make it work. Thankfully, this dream was no different.
Stuff about the Book
The Golden
Bells was a melting pot of ideas, including the nursery rhyme ‘Hickory,
Dickory, Doc’ (which gave a nice starting point for naming my girls) and the
writing prompt – what if a DnD party formed in the girls bathroom?
Initially the
story came to me in Deidre’s voice, but as I sat down to write, Doc’s emotional
state demanded way more attention. It wasn’t long until I realised; she was the
lynch pin. Have you ever had that? You
start out writing from one character’s perspective and realised it wasn’t their
story to tell? Yeah, it happens to me a bit. That’s usually how a story comes
to me, a character starts to ‘talk’ to me, then the story spins out from there.
And boy did it spin! Before long the three main characters were all weaving
their melody of a tale and I felt more like an observer than a creator.
I had thought
it was going to be a stand alone story – Doc’s origin story – but one sleepless
night and I have mapped out the next two parts to this story and I’m itching to
write more!
Stuff about Writing/Reading
As a new
parent, I realized I had to be a little more structured in how I wrote [and by
‘little more structured’ I mean ‘have any structure at all’] so I created: “The
Spreadsheet”.
1) I broke down how many words were required.
2) Worked out when my first deadline was.
3) Did some fancy math and calculated how many words I needed to write per
night to achieve the word count before that deadline.
4) I then set up a column of ‘should be written’ vs ‘actually written’
that I updated every writing session, so I knew if I was ahead/behind.
This may sound
a little intense, but in all honesty, it is what kept me on track and let me
know that little by little, I was achieving my dream.
I wrote a brief
outline of what I thought the story was about and key scenes. This worked in
two ways – linked the story together and gave me a focus point to jump off from
when I actually got the time to write.
I carved out
about 1 – 2 hours each night to focus on writing. Some nights were better than
others, but showing up, night after night, got the story out on paper rather
than mostly floating in my head, and that is the secret to being a writer. Get
the story out! Once it’s out, you can work on it, mould it, refine it. If it is
only in your head, that is where it will stay.
Skynation Publishing * Amazon * Google * Kobo * Bookbub * Goodreads
Book Links:
Skynation Publishing: https://www.skynation.info/product/Tales-of-Ale-and-Chainmail-Vol-1
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Tales-Ale-Chainmail-Vol-1-ebook/dp/B0C6HZ69MY
Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/tales-of-ale-and-chainmail-vol-1
Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/books/tales-of-ale-and-chainmail-vol-1-by-renee-april
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/62161710-tales-of-ale-and-chainmail
About the Publisher
Started in 2021, SkyNation Publishing is based in Brisbane, Australia. Specialising in fantasy fiction, SNP revels in bringing a change to traditional publishing, through different mediums, and partnering with other small businesses to add an extra spark to their title releases.
Under the sunny Queensland skies, the team works diligently to bring you not just good stories - but also, a new way of exploring the realms created by authors from around the world!
Website * Facebook * Twitter * Instagram
Author
Links
Website: https://www.skynation.info
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SkyNationPub
Twitter: https://twitter.com/SkyNationPub
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/skynationpublishing
Giveaway
Paperback copy – 5 winners, WW! ,
$20
Amazon – 1 winner
Follow
the tour HERE for special content and a giveaway!
https://www.silverdaggertours.com/sdsxx-tours/tales-of-ale-and-chainmail-book-tour-and-giveaway
The cover looks great. Looks like a good collection.
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