tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-54246031167551522342024-03-13T07:31:59.450-04:00Punch the RabbitHome of the Detachment 1039 book series, where supernatural soldiers battle evil around the globe.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger313125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5424603116755152234.post-1059494495832589652020-03-31T22:11:00.001-04:002020-03-31T22:11:28.755-04:00Arthur's Other Sword?<div style="text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: large;">Arthur's Other Sword?</span></div>
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When many people hear the term "Legendary Weapon" they probably think of one of the most famous of all Legendary (ie, possibly real) weapons of all time: <i>Excalibur</i>, the sword of King Arthur. But was that the son of Uther Pendragon's only famous sword?</div>
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There are many, many different versions of the story of King Arthur. Each has the King wielding a magical sword, but other versions include a second, or rather, first sword: the sword in the stone.</div>
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In his story <i>Merlin</i>, Robert de Boron has Arthur taking the throne after pulling a sword from an anvil, sitting atop a stone, from a churchyard--on Christmas Eve. This version of events later becomes the more familiar tale of Arthur pulling the sword from a stone itself and securing the throne. In most tales, Arthur is later given his magical sword by the Lady of the Lake, a Fae entity interested in seeing Arthur continue his rule over the land. When Arthur is dying he then wishes to return the sword (in some tales) and enlists assistance in throwing it back into the lake from which it came--the Lady catching it and carrying it into the depths.</div>
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While mostly known by the name Excalibur today, Arthur's famous sword has also been called <i>Caledfwlch</i> in Welsh; <i>Calesvol</i> in Cornish (in Modern Cornish: <i>Kalesvolgh</i>), <i>Kaledvoulc'h</i> in Breton; and <i>Caliburnus</i> in Latin (which may mean cut through steel, in French). Generally speaking, the magical bade was unbreakable, a sword of unparalleled might. </div>
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Chrétien de Troyes' late 12th-century Old French tale, <i>Perceval</i>, has Sir Gawain carrying <i>Escalibor</i>, a sword said to be able to "slice through iron as through wood". That may sound like a tall tale, but Damascus Steel blades, made in Syria from Indian wootz steel, from the 3rd to 18th centuries, were often said to be able to slice through rock and lesser steel. German scientists in 2006 reported finding "nanowires and carbon nanotubes" in a blade forged from Damascus steel--possibly accounting for the legendary properties of such blades. </div>
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And speaking of a sword in stone, at the Rotonda at Montesiepi, near the ruins of the Abbey of Saint Galgano, the handle of a sword said to have belonged to San Galgano, protrudes from stone. Testing of the metal confirms it is of the same type as a sword from Galgano's area. Formerly a ruthless man, Galgano repented and became a Holy man after having visions of the Archangel Michael. </div>
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As the legend goes, Galgano was told in his vision that he was to renounce material possessions. The future-Saint countered that this would be as easy as splitting a rock and thrust his sword into the ground as if to prove a point. Instead, the sword pierced the the stone easily, then became fused in place. After his death, Galgano was cannonized in 1185 and a Monastery built over where his sword still stands. </div>
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Was Excalibur really Arthur's sword? Was it his only magical weapon? </div>
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A Middle English poem, <i>Morte Arthure</i>, dating from around 1400 A.D., retells the story of Arthur, and mentions <i>Clarent</i>, a sword meant for knighting and ceremonies rather than battle, but which Mordred (Arthur's infamous nephew) stole and used to kill Arthur.</div>
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In fact, tales of magical swords possessing supernatural abilities are very common in folklore and fiction. </div>
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Whether inspired by Saint Galgano's tale, Welsh or even Nordic folklore, one thing remains certain: the legend of King Arthur and his mystical swords lives on, to the extent you can even purchase replicas on <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Marto-Excalibur-Sword/dp/B01B8JPTKM">Amazon</a>. NOTE: No one really knows what Excalibur looked like and most replicas are based on swords of the time.</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5424603116755152234.post-63544623373588490662020-03-31T21:55:00.003-04:002020-03-31T21:55:34.422-04:00A to Z Blogging Challenge 2020<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-EQmZgvYrrQY/XoP0g31eaOI/AAAAAAAACqs/pt_2_nAFcv4fOXU6F06W91Qs_yOzACbPwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/A2Z2020.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="320" data-original-width="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-EQmZgvYrrQY/XoP0g31eaOI/AAAAAAAACqs/pt_2_nAFcv4fOXU6F06W91Qs_yOzACbPwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/A2Z2020.jpg" /></a></div>
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Since 2015, Punch the Rabbit (formerly know as the Stone Soldiers blog) has annually celebrated the <a href="http://www.a-to-zchallenge.com/">A to Z Blogging challenge</a>, citing the people, places, and things of the Stone Soldiers universe. </div>
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While the series is in hiatus, possibly to return in 2020, the challenge endures. For this year, Punch the Rabbit celebrates Legendary Weapons of history--many of which have been described or featured in the Stone Soldiers series. </div>
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Check back daily for a brief description of mythical weaponry, some familiar, some all new...</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5424603116755152234.post-19047281258019225612019-04-16T20:17:00.002-04:002019-04-16T20:17:46.211-04:00Author's Notes: The Nine Worlds<i style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">For the A to Z Blogging Challenge 2019, Punch the Rabbit delves deep behind the scenes with a series of Author's Notes related to the Stone Soldiers, Spectral Ops, and Shadow Detachment series. </span></i><br />
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-20Y5g_wdHVw/XLZwoY_bnJI/AAAAAAAACfw/kJKfrBusisA_ThX5Xv1SMU-flAv-30ezgCLcBGAs/s1600/AtoZ2019N.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="320" data-original-width="320" height="200" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-20Y5g_wdHVw/XLZwoY_bnJI/AAAAAAAACfw/kJKfrBusisA_ThX5Xv1SMU-flAv-30ezgCLcBGAs/s200/AtoZ2019N.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<i style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></i>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5424603116755152234.post-12861656406377155972019-04-16T20:16:00.003-04:002019-04-16T20:16:34.024-04:00Author's Notes: Magical Prohibitions<i style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">For the A to Z Blogging Challenge 2019, Punch the Rabbit delves deep behind the scenes with a series of Author's Notes related to the Stone Soldiers, Spectral Ops, and Shadow Detachment series. </span></i><br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1E93owJCmdM/XLZwVgDToxI/AAAAAAAACfk/CmXV7et78tkK8XMK7ax_meQWga0_qeofQCLcBGAs/s1600/AtoZ2019M.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="320" data-original-width="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1E93owJCmdM/XLZwVgDToxI/AAAAAAAACfk/CmXV7et78tkK8XMK7ax_meQWga0_qeofQCLcBGAs/s1600/AtoZ2019M.jpg" /></a></div>
<i style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></i>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5424603116755152234.post-64388291057754887452019-04-16T20:15:00.003-04:002019-04-16T20:56:56.166-04:00Author's Notes: LEMs and Lunar Ruins<i style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">For the A to Z Blogging Challenge 2019, Punch the Rabbit delves deep behind the scenes with a series of Author's Notes related to the Stone Soldiers, Spectral Ops, and Shadow Detachment series. </span></i><br />
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-RRjFnXCKxzk/XLZwH_jZtFI/AAAAAAAACfg/i9j8xv5Xn6UmwJqGhyAprs-5CvlRWwKPwCLcBGAs/s1600/AtoZ2019L.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="200" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-RRjFnXCKxzk/XLZwH_jZtFI/AAAAAAAACfg/i9j8xv5Xn6UmwJqGhyAprs-5CvlRWwKPwCLcBGAs/s200/AtoZ2019L.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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On July 20, 1976, Viking 1 set down on the surface of Mars…
and a lot of us were disappointed. We weren’t sad that the USofA had landed a
probe on Mars, we were sad that there weren’t any aliens. For several years before
this momentous occasion, we had been led to believe, by Richard Hoaglund and his
“Enterprise Mission”, that not only was there a face on Mars, but several
pyramids. When Viking 1 started sending back photos of nothing but a barren,
desolate landscape, it was pretty disappointing. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Fast forward a few decades, and while reading about the
ruins anew, trying to find a way to fit them into a Stone Soldiers story, I
learned something shocking: it wasn’t just Mars that Mr. Hoaglund believed had
ancient, possibly alien ruins on it—the Moon did too!<o:p></o:p></div>
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This was pretty shocking. I remembered watching some of the
Moon landings—or at least programs about them, I was only 2 when Apollo 11 touched
down. No one had ever said anything about towers and structures on the far side
of the Moon back then. At least, not on TV. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Fast forward to the 21<sup>st</sup> Century and you can find
all kinds of crazy ideas via Google, or Yahoo—stuff Jeeves never told us about.
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Combined with the information I’d learned about the Moon god
al-ilah, this was clearly a story in the making—a story about a Fallen Angel
with Nephilim servants, striking at Earth from the safety of the ultimate high
ground. <o:p></o:p></div>
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If you haven’t ever heard about the Moon ruins, fear not,
Mr. Hoaglund’s <a href="http://www.enterprisemission.com/">Enterprise Mission</a> has info, and blurry pics about them!</div>
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But back to our story. Sure, there could be ruins on the Moon
no one’s ever seen—the far side of the Moon (erroneously called the “Dark Side”)
is always facing away from Earth, the rotation of the Moon matched by the time
it takes it to complete an orbit around us. The real question was to figure out
how I would get my team of Stone
Soldiers to the Moon. <o:p></o:p></div>
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As it turns out, the Apollo program was actually terminated
before the last three missions could be launched. Apollo 18, 19, and 20 were
scrubbed. Some conspiracy theorists claim it’s because the Apollo crews were
warned not to come back, but I didn’t really care why. I was excited to learn
that three Lunar Expedition Modules (landers) <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canceled_Apollo_missions">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canceled_Apollo_missions</a>
were still in existence! That’s right, there are still three vessels in the
world capable of carrying men to the Moon (if all the guts and electronics were
put back in them). <o:p></o:p></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5424603116755152234.post-35576784930598118732019-04-16T20:14:00.001-04:002019-04-16T20:46:18.475-04:00Author's Note: The Kabaa and the Magic Space Rock<i style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">For the A to Z Blogging Challenge 2019, Punch the Rabbit delves deep behind the scenes with a series of Author's Notes related to the Stone Soldiers, Spectral Ops, and Shadow Detachment series. </span></i><br />
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For those Muslims who aren’t throwing homosexuals off
rooftops, crashing planes into buildings, or tearing down ancient, pre-Islamic
historical sites, there is a pretty important part of their daily regimen,
demanded of their faith: praying to Mecca.<o:p></o:p></div>
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For years, I wondered what this was all about. What even is
Mecca? I wondered. I turned to the Internet, and first found fairly mundane
explanations for this Islamic holy site. But, Google never fails to include the
more bizarre bits of information you’ve never heard of, and I learned so much
more…<o:p></o:p></div>
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Pre-Islam, there was a Temple in Mecca, to the
fortune-telling god of divination, Hubal. When Muhammed and his followers took
over the city, they removed all signs of the false god and decided to turn the
temple into a sign of their faith: the Kabaa. Every year, Muslims from around
the world make a long pilgrimage to this site, just as the Bedouins before them
had, hoping to touch the Kabaa. On the face of it, this doesn’t seem so
unusual. Lots of cultures have replaced the meaning of former religious sites,
incorporating them into the conqueror’s religious practices. But what makes the
Kabaa so special isn’t the fact very few are allowed to be inside it, it’s the
what’s on the Eastern corner of the special building: the Black Stone. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Believed to be meteorite, the Black Stone has its part in
Islam—for one, it’s alleged to have had the power of speech, and actually spoke
to Muhammed. Yes, it’s a magic stone.
From space. <o:p></o:p></div>
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In 683, the stone’s powers of speech didn’t protect it from
physical harm—it was broken apart by another stone, fired from a catapault by
invaders attempting to seize the city. In the aftermath, the stone’s fragments
were fused back together and set in silver. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Again, a relic inspiring the Holy isn’t that unusual. But
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In 1901, archaeologist Hugo Winckler proposed that it wasn’t “Allah”
the Muslims were praying to, but rather “al-ilah” a pre-Islamic Moon god.
Today, there are many claims on he internet that the higher ups in Islam won’t
deny that al-ilah and “Allah” are one and the same, or that they are the Moon
God, looking own from on high. And recall that the flag of Islam always seems
to bear a crescent moon and a star—perhaps the falling star of the Black Stone?<o:p></o:p></div>
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This is all a pretty fantastic bunch of conspiracy theories,
but when I read them, I knew this was L Ron Hubbard-worthy fiction that I was
going to embrace and combine with some other far-out Moon mythology on Stone
Soldiers #11, <i><a href="http://amzn.com/B00WH0FVLY">One Dark Step</a></i>. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Is any of this true? Or is it right up there with the faces
of Mars? Maybe you should do some Googling, then read One Dark Step and decide for yourself…<i style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></i></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5424603116755152234.post-33091545461827389972019-04-11T12:00:00.000-04:002019-04-11T12:00:10.352-04:00Author's Notes: Jumping into Danger<i style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">For the A to Z Blogging Challenge 2019, Punch the Rabbit delves deep behind the scenes with a series of Author's Notes related to the Stone Soldiers, Spectral Ops, and Shadow Detachment series. </span></i><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Jumping into Danger</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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It was only a few months ago that I watched the movie <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Aquaman</i> for the first time. In one scene,
Arthur Curry and Princess Mera leap from an airplane flying over the desert—without
any parachute. As I watched this, I thought for sure they would pass through
some magical barrier over a sea, making it resemble a desert. But, no, they
just slammed into the ground <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">boom, boom</i>—and
were unharmed. <o:p></o:p></div>
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I’m sure a lot of people watching this movie might have
wondered about that, assuming, as so many people do, that the height of a fall
is what makes it dangerous. That is not entirely true, as I learned several years
ago when I wrote a very similar scene in Stone Soldiers #4, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Shades-War-Stone-Soldiers-4-ebook/dp/B00CVFB5HY">Shades of War</a></i>. In this scene, Detachment
1039’s most-human character, Josie Winters, finds herself thrown into free fall
without a parachute. Her grandfather, Colonel Kenslir, then dives out after
her, intent to rescue the girl—but also without a parachute. <o:p></o:p></div>
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This scene was written after a lot of research about
skydiving—not just the sport, but the military’s use of it as a way to deploy
troops onto a battlefield. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Firstly, it might surprise you to learn that the concept of
parachuting soldiers onto a battlefield was first envisioned by Benjamin
Franklin in 1784. It wasn’t until 1927, in Italy, that this idea was finally,
successfully executed. In the decades that followed, armed forces around the world
embraced the idea of Airborne troops, and innovations and practices ave
continued to be developed, such as HALO (High-Altitude, Low-Opening).<o:p></o:p></div>
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Amidst all the ever-advancing technology though, there
remains a very valid question: do you really need a parachute? Generally, the
answer is “yes”, but there have been several incidents of skydivers surviving a
jump without a working parachute (although there are far less of these
survivors than people who have died when their parachute failed to open). <o:p></o:p></div>
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As it turns out, anything falling in the earth’s atmosphere
reaches what is called <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">terminal velocity</i>.
This means that once the object (a person, pallet, or vehicle) reaches a
certain speed, it will not fall any faster—no matter how high it is dropped
from. This is in part due to wind resistance and the non-changing gravitational
pull of the Earth. For humans, terminal velocity is, in freefall position (spread-eagled,
with arms and legs extended), 120 miles per hour. <o:p></o:p></div>
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That may sound pretty fast, and in far too many cases it is.
But, as I stated above, sometimes, even at this speed, people have survived. In
many of the cases, survivors had their parachutes partially open, thereby
slowing their descent to less deadly speeds like 50 mph. It’s also important to
realize that different surfaces such a falling person strikes might play an
important part in surviving. At high speeds, even water will feel like a solid.
In the case of Luke Aikins, who, in 2016, plummeted 20,000 feet to a special
safety net, and survived, uninjured. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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In <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Aquaman, </i>Arthur
Curry and friend plummet onto sand. It doesn’t seem to have the shock-absorbing
properties of a suspended net, but maybe the half-Atlantean didn’t need them,
given that earlier in the film, we see he’s bulletproof. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Think about cats. A study done on the subject of falling
cats determined a freefalling feline could survive a fall even after reaching a
velocity of 60 mph. Cats aren’t bulletproof. They aren’t even BB gun-proof. But
they can withstand falls significantly better than people can. This is clearly
due to their body mass v. density ratio—made of the same flesh and bones as
people, but weighing significantly less. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
In <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Shades of War</i> I
reached the same conclusion, and determined that Mark Kenslir, being a superhuman
(albeit not bulletproof), could withstand a fall that would kill a human. The
writers of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Aquaman</i> clearly reached a
similarly conclusion, deciding that Arthur Curry would have a similar terminal velocity
to a human, given he is the same weight and volume as a normal man, but being
made of tougher stuff. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Of course, this is all just conjecture, until a superhuman
comes along in real life that is willing to jump out of an airplane without a
parachute. <u><o:p></o:p></u></div>
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5424603116755152234.post-24265553402098586852019-04-10T20:55:00.001-04:002019-04-10T20:55:17.395-04:00Author's Notes: Ica Stones and Extant Dinosaurs<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">For the A to Z Blogging Challenge 2019, Punch the Rabbit delves deep behind the scenes with a series of Author's Notes related to the Stone Soldiers, Spectral Ops, and Shadow Detachment series. </span></i></div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-JCFSzzUk8Cg/XK6QaC10bkI/AAAAAAAACeg/P8AFB_WSf_EJdHSN6Pv6ut2eN_VTQE8XQCLcBGAs/s1600/AtoZ2019I.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="320" data-original-width="320" height="200" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-JCFSzzUk8Cg/XK6QaC10bkI/AAAAAAAACeg/P8AFB_WSf_EJdHSN6Pv6ut2eN_VTQE8XQCLcBGAs/s200/AtoZ2019I.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Ica Stones and Extant Dinosaurs</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Mkele Mbembe, the Ropen, the Kasai Rex, Nessie… these are
all <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">cryptids</i> believed to exist, and
believed to be dinosaurs that have survived into the modern era. Like Nessie, we
know of many dino-cryptids because of eyewitness reports. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In Stone Soldiers #5, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00EJWD31S">BlackKnight Down</a></i>, the Shadow Detachment finds themselves fighting ancient,
antediluvian beings who are able to create simulcrums of the ancient beasts that
walked the Earth when they did. Deciding exactly what beasts they would choose
was a challenge. The antediluvian <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Titans</i>
had been in suspended animation for millennia, missing the 29th Century, which
is when most dinosaur species’ fossils were discovered. They wouldn’t know
about T-Rex Triceratops, or the Apatosaurus… or would they?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In addition to eyewitness sightings of extant dinos, there
are a number of ancient carvings around the world that depict animals thought to
have died out long ago. These carvings are alleged to be centuries old, putting
them long after the dino extinction, but also quite a while before paleontology
became a thing. How then did the people who made these carvings know what to
carve?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The most intriguing of the dino carvings are the Ica Stones—thousands
of smooth, round stones etched with dinosaurs and people, and found in the Ica region
of Peru. The stones were first discovered (in modern times) in the 1960s by a farmer
named Basilio Uschuya. Collected by Javier Cabrera Darquea the stones were
revealed to the world and now reside in museum. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In the 1970s, Uschuya admitted in an interview he had made
many of the stones himself—but his claim is questionable for the simple fact he
couldn’t have made the thousands of stones collected by Mr. Cabrera. And for
the fact he soon after began selling stones to tourists that he did indeed
make. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If the Ica stones are really remnants from ages past, they support
a Creationist view of the Earth, where, pre-Flood, man and dinosaur lived side-by-side.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5424603116755152234.post-74896858613501751552019-04-09T12:00:00.000-04:002019-04-09T12:00:10.937-04:00Author's Notes: Haint Blue and other Colorful Superstitions<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">For the A to Z Blogging Challenge 2019, Punch the Rabbit delves deep behind the scenes with a series of Author's Notes related to the Stone Soldiers, Spectral Ops, and Shadow Detachment series. </span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></i></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-O11r5PctdQY/XKvuQs-IczI/AAAAAAAACeU/g_yWsEd03Rc2y7N7x4ozeNBsDZX90ugGQCLcBGAs/s1600/AtoZ2019H.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="320" data-original-width="320" height="200" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-O11r5PctdQY/XKvuQs-IczI/AAAAAAAACeU/g_yWsEd03Rc2y7N7x4ozeNBsDZX90ugGQCLcBGAs/s200/AtoZ2019H.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>HAINT BLUE, AND OTHER COLORFUL SUPERSTITIONS</b></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you’ve ever been to the
American South—particularly, the Carolinas—you might have noticed a lot of
white houses with a kind of sky-blue door or porch. I never paid this much
mind, assuming the light blue just went well with the other bright colors. But
recently, while researching alternative names for ghosts & spirits, I
stumbled across <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Haint Blue</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Haint blue is a color—that light,
sky-blue (as I call it) color I just mentioned. It is an official color, which
is even carried by Sherwin Williams <a href="https://www.sherwin-williams.com/architects-specifiers-designers/inspiration/styles-and-techniques/sw-article-pro-thewhysbehind">on their website<o:p></o:p></a>.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sherwin Williams even explains
the origins of the color: how Southern superstition holds that ghsts, or <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">haints</i> as they are sometimes called in
the region, are repelled by the color, mistaking it for water, which ghosts are
believed to not be able to cross. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I was rather shocked to learn
this. I’d never heard about a color repelling spirits. I’d heard how many
believe sage does the same thing. And then there’s the Old Testament story of
Passover, where the Jews in Egypt marked their doorways with lamb’s blood,
protecting them from God’s wrath when a Heavenly Host descended and unleashed
some vengeance on the land. But a bucket of latex keeping ghosts at bay? Can
ghosts even see colors? Do they even “see” in the conventional sense—they don’t
have eyeballs. How do we know they don’t use some kind of sixth sense to
navigate the world?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I set out to find any other
colorful superstitions. There are lots of meanings and symbolism behind colors,
but repelling anything? A few websites mention an old belief that the color red
could repel witches: drawing a red line around a barn to keep a witch out (the
Pennsylvania Dutch), tying a charm in a red cloth hung from the neck protects
from bewitchment (Bohemia), braided red ropes of cords hung in barns compel a
witch to stop and count the threads before harming any animals… there are a
variety of uses of the color red.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Okay, so if blue is the only
color that repels spirits, why? Is the color itself special? Maybe it is, if
one believes that until modern times, humans couldn’t even see the color.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">According to 1800s scholar
William Gladstone, Homer never used the word “blue” to describe the ocean in
the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Odyssey</i>, instead referring to it
as "wine-dark" or other hues. Lazarus Geiger also propounded this
belief, noting that the word for the color blue never appears in Icelandic,
Hindu, Chinese, Arabic, and Hebrew texts. Etymologists claim that the first use
of a word for blue came from the Egyptians, who also, coincidentally, were the
only culture able to produce blue dyes. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It might seem a stretch to
believe that blue hasn’t always been around. But, in 2006, Jules Davidoff, a
psychologist from Goldsmiths University of London, published a study detailing
work he did with the Himba tribe of Namibia. Davidoff learned that the Himba
had no word for blue, and didn’t even distinguish between green and blue. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Maybe blue actually is special.
It’s often the color used to signify royalty—probably because blue dye was so
expensive. But what about the connection with ghosts? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As it turns out, there is another
instance of blue having a correlation with spirits: Ghost Eyes. I’m not referring
to a ghost’s eyes here, but rather, the pale blue eyes of certain breeds of
dogs. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I learned about ghost eyes when
my family got an Australian-Shepherd mix dog about ten years ago. Sunnie, our
faithful canine companion, had strange, blue eyes, different from a Husky’s,
and almost white. Not all Aussies have these blue eyes, and according to
breeder websites, the term <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ghost eye</i>
comes from Native Americans who believed the dogs both sacred and to be avoided.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Coincidentally, blue eyes in
people were once very unnerving to those not familiar with them, but now
account for 8 percent of the population (green eyes are the rarest, coming in
at 2 percent of the population). Geneticists believe that everyone with blue
eyes has a common ancestor, who lived as much as 10,000 years ago. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Whether you paint your porch
blue, or get a dog with blue eyes, one thing is for sure—it’s nothing to be
blue about, unless you’re spirit.</span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5424603116755152234.post-75836476452452296632019-04-08T12:00:00.000-04:002019-04-08T12:00:12.003-04:00Author's Notes: Golems<br />
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<div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; margin: 0px;">
<i style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">For the A to Z Blogging Challenge 2019, Punch the Rabbit delves deep behind the scenes with a series of Author's Notes related to the Stone Soldiers, Spectral Ops, and Shadow Detachment series. </span></i></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-URS5HhayKTo/XKqcXWaCAFI/AAAAAAAACeI/anuTbvkMMjEBKUf1Wl2M48QYKrjSvDnngCLcBGAs/s1600/AtoZ2019G.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="320" data-original-width="320" height="200" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-URS5HhayKTo/XKqcXWaCAFI/AAAAAAAACeI/anuTbvkMMjEBKUf1Wl2M48QYKrjSvDnngCLcBGAs/s200/AtoZ2019G.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-style: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you’ve read the whole <i>Stone
Soldiers</i> series, you know there’s a former Nazi Hunter-turned-Stone Soldier
on the team: Yadid Greenberg, code-name: Golem. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-style: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-style: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Yes, it’s a little hack to call the petrified Jewish guy on the team <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Golem</i>, but this is a military series,
and political correctness or empathy is often not part of the equation. What
might seem like<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>denigrating nick name to
outsiders is often bestowed within units as a way to find<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>little humor. And let’s face it, if you were
in a military unit fighting unspeakable evil forces of darkness, you’d need a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">lot</i> of humor. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-style: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But really, what is a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Golem</i>?
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-style: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-style: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As a youth, my full extent of knowledge of the subject
revolved around a single story of a Rabbi bestowing life on a man-shaped mass of
clay, to fight Nazis. I couldn’t even tell you where I first heard this story,
as it’s almost a trope now in fiction—even the show <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Supernatural</i> had a story with a Nazi-fighting Golem (Episode 13, Season 8). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The genesis of the Stone Soldiers idea partly came from this
modern bit of folklore—along with a dose of Marvel Comics' <i>It: The Living Colossus</i> and Benjamin
J. Grimm. But rather than imbue my stone soldiers with life, I liked better the
idea of turning soldiers to stone (thank you, Mr. Grimm). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-style: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-style: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Around the time I first decided to bestow the character of
Yadid with his team name, I realized I didn’t really know what a Golem was. I
set out to correct that and found some interesting lore. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-style: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">First off, animating the unliving isn’t just the domain of
Rabbis. Ghosts/Spirits are often attributed with this ability (apparently, it’s
<i style="font-style: normal;">Child’s Play</i>) as a kind of possession of the inanimate. What’s more, the Latin
term for <i>spirit</i>, or <i>breath of life</i>, was <i>Anima</i><i style="font-style: normal;">,
</i>or <i>animus</i><i style="font-style: normal;">—</i>as in <i>animated</i><i style="font-style: normal;">.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-style: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><br /></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-style: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Putting aside tales of any <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">homunculus </i>(small, human like objects, e.g. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Pinocchio</i>), folklore is replete with all sorts of tales of physical
objects being brought to life—kind of the opposite of Medusa’s ability to turn
the living into inanimate objects. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-style: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Talos</i> is a Greek tale of a giant <i style="font-style: normal;">automaton</i> made of metal, who protected the Island of Europa—circling
the island three times a day and driving off any hostile, would-be invaders. And
when speaking about man-created life, one mustn’t leave out <i style="font-style: normal;">Frankenstein’s
Monster</i>, a more modern telling of the inanimate being brought to life. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-style: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But what about Golems? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Some might say Adam was a Golem, created by God in the
Garden of Eden. Fashioned from clay, he was brought to life—a story mimicked in
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Pinocchio</i> and the Wonder Woman movie
of 2017. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">While there are older Jewish legends of Golems, one of the
earliest historical accounts I could find much detail on was that of Judah Loew
ben Bezalel, a 16th century Rabbi of Prague credited with creating a Golem from
clay from the river Vltava. In this story, the Golem was credited to defend the
people of the Prague ghetto (but not from Nazis, as it pre-dates that).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Other legends abound of Rabbis and Golems, and there are
countless <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golem">uses of the story in fiction</a>,
but what does the word <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Golem</i> really
mean? What about the term ties it to Judaism? What makes a living creation a
Golem, and not a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homunculus">Homunculus</a>? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The word appears once in the Bible (Psalm 139:16; <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">golmi</i>; my golem), and describes "my
light form", referring to an unfinished human. Another origin has the word
in the Mishnah, meaning <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">an uncultivated
person</i>. A more modern etymological origin from Modern Hebrew, has the term meaning
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">dumb</i> or <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">helpless</i>. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Whatever it’s origins and meanings, the term <i>golem </i>has, <a href="https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Golem">thanks to fiction</a>, come to
mean an animated being of Jewish origin. It definitely sounds better than <i>Frankenstein,</i> as well. </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5424603116755152234.post-4902231667921416152019-04-07T20:51:00.002-04:002019-04-07T20:51:56.790-04:00Author's Notes: Faeries, Ferrous metals, and frangible bullets<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">For the A to Z Blogging Challenge 2019, Punch the Rabbit delves deep behind the scenes with a series of Author's Notes related to the Stone Soldiers, Spectral Ops, and Shadow Detachment series. </span></i></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Faeires, Ferrous Metals, and Frangible Bullets</span></b></div>
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What does it take to kill a fairy? They are a supernatural creature, after all. One might expect them to be immune to mortal weapons, and only vulnerable to specific substances, like the Werewolf and silver. </div>
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Before you start to ponder this, you need to step back a moment and consider what a “fairy” is. Most people probably think of Disney’s Tinkerbell, a tiny, action-figure-sized sprite who looks like she would be easily taken out with a tennis racquet or a cricket bat. But, that version of the fairy is a fairly new one. Prior to the 1800s, the Fae folk were supernatural beings of a considerably different bent. They ranged in appearance, size and friendliness--and they didn’t like iron.</div>
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I learned this bit of folklore long before Google, thanks to Marvel Comic’s <i>Thor</i> comic books. Back in the early 1980s, Thor and the Avengers had to prevent a Dark Elf invasion of Earth. It was a lot better than the second Thor movie of recent years, but it clearly portrayed Elves as Fae and revealed their iron weakness. </div>
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As it turns out, some mythology bears out the whole Iron-allergy thing when it comes to the Fae (some folklore doesn’t, by the way).</div>
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In writing Stone Soldiers #11, <i><a href="http://amzn.com/B00WH0FVLY">One Dark Step</a></i>, where the supernatural soldiers of Detachment 1039 have to journey to the Moon to take on some Space Elves with a desire to end humanity, I had to do a lot of research into the Fae and their weaknesses. A lot of it didn’t make it into the book, but I always keep my research notes.</div>
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With the debut of the <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B074P4RR6R">Spectral Ops</a></i> sequel series to Stone Soldiers, I turned again to my notes on the supernatural and that little tidbit of folklore about iron and the Fae. As it happens, ghosts are also supposed to be allergic to iron. Some historians and folklorists will say this bit of mythology comes from the huge impact iron had on the world when mankind started to work it—that iron was a seemingly-magical metal. I suppose that works, but it’s so boring. I chose to have my series embrace iron and the Fae/Spirits the same as silver for other supernatural threats. Now, I just needed to weaponize it. </div>
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We’ve all seen silver bullets in movies before, for werewolves and other magical creatures. But what about iron bullets, I wondered one day. Well, as it turns out, the U.S. Armed Forces use steel-core ammunition for their troops (green-tipped bullets are supposed to signify a steel-core armor penetrator inside the copper-jacketed, lead bullet). But, steel isn’t pure iron. It’s iron with carbon worked into it (that was the “secret of steel” James Earl Jones’ character kept babbling about in the <i>Conan The Barbarian</i> movie). Maybe steel wouldn’t affect ghosts and Fae folk the same? </div>
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What about pure iron bullets?</div>
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In <a href="https://www.discovery.com/tv-shows/mythbusters/videos/silver-vs-lead-bullets">Episode 79 of <i>Mythbusters</i></a>, Jamie and Adam tested whether silver would make an effective metal for bullets (not just for werewolf hunting, but as the Lone Ranger’s calling cards). What they found was that silver was not a very effective metal for munitions. For one, it doesn’t deform on impact like lead, meaning it might punch through a flesh-and-blood target without losing that much of its shape or transferring all that kinetic energy into the target. A lead bullet deforms, or even breaks apart, creating a bigger wound channel in the target--it’s not only significantly cheaper, it does more damage.</div>
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Obviously, iron wouldn’t work as a solid bullet—it’s considerably tougher than silver. Even jacketed in a softer metal so it doesn’t destroy the rifling of your barrel (rifling actually scores soft metal bullets as they travel down the barrel), it will just be a low-grade armor-piercing round. Maybe great for the Fae, and maybe even an errant ghost, but what about the unintended targets that might be behind them? A standard 5.56mm NATO round, such as fired by the M-4 Carbine, will penetrate concrete blocks. A whole room full of Caspers isn't going to slow that down. Use in an area rich with civilians would no be wise. </div>
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Additionally, silver, like many other metals, shrinks when it cools. Meaning if you poured molten silver into a .45 Long Colt bullet mold, you’d end up with a smaller-diameter bullet. The rifling of the weapon it was fired out of wouldn’t be able to impart the spin on the projectile that ensures accuracy. That means a silver bullet has to be cast larger, then machined or ground down to .45 caliber diameter. </div>
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Myself and other authors have solved this problem in fiction by having silver-impregnated lead bullets—you just put slivers, flecks, or particles of silver into molten lead when you cast your ammo. When the lead cools, it stays the right size and now has pre-made silver shrapnel inside it. When the bullet breaks up in the target, it spreads the silver around. </div>
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I briefly considered iron-impregnated lead bullets for the Spectral Ops series, but to my great surprise, found there already are iron bullets <a href="https://fenixammo.com/collections/frangible">available on the consumer market</a>. </div>
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Frangible (meaning <i>brittle </i>or <i>fragile</i>) bullets are projectiles made to disintegrate on impact. These are great if you’re shooting at steel targets. Steel targets last considerably longer than paper or cardboard ones, plus they make a satisfying sound when hit. The danger with a steel target is that even fragments of soft lead (and slightly-harder copper jackets) can ricochet off the steel, traveling back toward a target shooter. Frangible rounds are made of compressed metal powders (usually copper) that explode in a spray of specks when they hit a hard surface. </div>
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This was perfect. Imagine the team is fighting a ghost army in a populated area. They fire a few shots, pushing what amounts to a plug of iron powder through the targets, disrupting them. The bullets continue on and hit a wall. Instead of puncturing the wall like a typical copper-jacketed lead round, the bullet would instead fragment apart. This would be even more effective against the Fae folk, as an iron frangible bullet would break into a lot of tiny shrapnel inside the wound. It’d be like pouring super-salt into a regular wound. </div>
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If you’re wondering why anyone would make an iron powder bullet in the real world, you needn’t worry. It’s not about a war against Fairy folk. Iron is not just non-toxic (unlike lead) but it is considerably cheaper than copper. At least, that’s the official reason given…</div>
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<i>Technical Note: Some reviewers of frangibles warn that the crumbly bullets don't feed properly in semi-automatic weapons and are better used in revolvers, breech-loaders, and the like. </i></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5424603116755152234.post-32138307904812602682019-04-05T12:00:00.000-04:002019-04-05T12:00:02.360-04:00Author's Notes: El--Discovering Superman's divinity<br />
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<i style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">For the A to Z Blogging Challenge 2019, Punch the Rabbit delves deep behind the scenes with a series of Author's Notes related to the Stone Soldiers, Spectral Ops, and Shadow Detachment series. </span></i></div>
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You don’t have to watch the CW’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Supernatural</i> to notice that a lot of
angel names end in “el”. Even the word <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Angel</i>
has an <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">el </i>in it. I never gave this
much thought, until I had to do research on fallen angel names for the main
villain of Stone Soldiers #13, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Shadow
Raiders</i>—a fallen angel ruling the alternate reality Earth of the book.<o:p></o:p></div>
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In the course of reading about
angels and those named both in the Bible and in Judiasm and Kabbalah, I
stumbled across something, really, really interesting: El.<o:p></o:p></div>
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To back up a moment, the first
time I ever heard “el” was the car-truck hybrid of the 1970s: the el camino, which
translates to “the road”. The Biblical “el” is considerably different. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Michael, Gabriel, Uriel,
Raphael.. so many angels, all with “el”. The answer is really simple: “el”, in
this context, means “of god”. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Now, not all angel names have “el”
in them; <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Samyaza, Armaros, Mastema</i> are
examples of el-less names. And then, there’s Kal-el.</div>
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Whoa, wait… what?<o:p></o:p></div>
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That’s right, the last son of
Krypton comes from the House of El, the same as his father, Jor-El.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Is this a coincidence? Well, if
we look at Superman’s creators, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, we learn that Mr.
Siegel was the son of Jewish immigrants who had fled Lithuania. Mr. Shuster
also came from a Jewish family. <o:p></o:p></div>
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I’ll note, at this point, that “El”
means “God”. Meaning that the House of El, is the House of God, and that
Superman, perhaps in the eyes of his creators, was a servant of God. <o:p></o:p></div>
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I’d say “Holy Moly!”, but that’s
Shazam’s line.<o:p></o:p></div>
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You can read about the Fallen Angel Aurg-El and the alternate reality Asgard in Stone Soldiers #13, <i>Shadow Raiders</i>, available now <a href="http://amzn.com/B01NBUVELA">on Kindle</a>. </div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5424603116755152234.post-92224428826406091912019-04-04T12:00:00.000-04:002019-04-04T12:00:07.847-04:00Author's Notes: The Djinn<br />
<i style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">For the A to Z Blogging Challenge 2019, Punch the Rabbit delves deep behind the scenes with a series of Author's Notes related to the Stone Soldiers, Spectral Ops, and Shadow Detachment series. </span></i><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This summer, Will Smith comes to the big screen as the jovial,
magical blue being known simply as “Genie” in Disney’s live action version of
the animated classic “Aladdin”. While it’ll most likely be a fun movie filled
with humor and big budget special effects, it isn’t exactly accurate when it
comes to Genie.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The term <i>Genie</i> actually comes from<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>much older name—<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Djinn (or Jinn</i>)—referring
to a supernatural being of the Middle East that can mean <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">spirit</i> or <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">demon</i>,
depending on the source material.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I first began researching the topic of Djinn (a singular and
plural term) several years ago when I was writing a prequel short story to the
Stone Soldiers series, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://amzn.com/B00D4XUUS2">Catching Fire</a>.</i>
The story centers around Daniel Smith, a resurrected U.S. soldier who returns to
the Middle East a new, supernatural man, to investigate reports of living fire
attacking American bases in Afghanistan. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For the story, I wanted to try and use some Arabic folklore
concerning fire elementals—<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Catching Fire</i>
was to be one of four stories pitting the supernatural soldiers of Detachment 1039
against nature spirits. What I found when I was Googling the subject was a lot
of information about the Djinn.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">First off, Djinn aren’t blue-skinned, cheerful beings
trapped in magic lamps, waiting to be set free and do the magical bidding of
humans. One explanation for the origin of the word <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Djinn</i> (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Jinn</i>) is that it comes
from the Semitic root <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">jnn</i> (Arabic: جَنّ
/ جُنّ, jann), and means "to hide" or "to conceal". Some
scholarly types have taken this to mean that the Djinn are, literally,
"beings that are concealed from the senses".<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Alternative theories are that this is a word derived from Persia—and
the word "Jaini", which was a wicked (female) spirit.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In Pre-Islamic Persia, Djinn were apparently worshipped, but
were not considered immortal, like the gods. The term was also used for a
variety of supernatural entities, including demons. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In the course of reading about the Djinn, I learned that some
folklore had there being good and bad Djinn. And that some Djinn were
invisible, while others appeared as flame, and others as thick smoke. But the
best thing I learned doing this research, was the story of Solomon’s seal.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Solomon, a Biblical King, is said to have received a special
seal from God, which he branded a demon with, making it his slave. Solomon then
ordered the demon to take the seal and go brand others of its kind, creating an
army of supernatural being all bowing down to Solomon… who made them build a
Temple to God. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now, this story immediately resonated with me. My original
concept was to have a fire elemental, or a Djinn, attacking U.S. forces. But
why would it? Would sch a being even care which humans claimed to rule the
sands of the Middle East? Probably not. But what if one of those humans, an
insurgent, had the Seal of Solomon, and used it to bend a demon/djinn to his
will? That would be a weapon that not even the U.S. Army could stand against…
at least, not the conventional forces of the Army. Enter Detachment 1039, and
their supernatural soldiers. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Once again, a simple supernatural concept for an action-packed
story seemed to almost write itself. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-cmNOE1I0iZ8/XKVMMWcDBjI/AAAAAAAACcs/yUu9X9kvcSAy-SfjKchC8KQiJWk6eW69gCLcBGAs/s1600/SS002tiny.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="375" data-original-width="234" height="200" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-cmNOE1I0iZ8/XKVMMWcDBjI/AAAAAAAACcs/yUu9X9kvcSAy-SfjKchC8KQiJWk6eW69gCLcBGAs/s200/SS002tiny.jpg" width="124" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You can find <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Stone
Soldiers: Catching Fire </i>on Kindle, or<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>in a collection of short stories entitled <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://amzn.com/B00J169E7O">Stone Soldiers: Elemental Warfare</a></i>,
available now on Kindle, and in Print <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5424603116755152234.post-40449572913102686392019-04-03T12:00:00.000-04:002019-04-03T12:00:04.621-04:00A to Z Blogging Challenge: Centauros, Father of all Centaurs?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">For the A to Z Blogging Challenge 2019, Punch the Rabbit delves deep behind the scenes with a series of Author's Notes related to the Stone Soldiers, Spectral Ops, and Shadow Detachment series. </span></i></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Lfr9MXIfSAk/XKQPkPGVQ0I/AAAAAAAACcc/PhdoDRxgPM8ZkKlK8Z-sSGSNMz1T16muQCLcBGAs/s1600/AtoZ2019C.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="320" data-original-width="320" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Lfr9MXIfSAk/XKQPkPGVQ0I/AAAAAAAACcc/PhdoDRxgPM8ZkKlK8Z-sSGSNMz1T16muQCLcBGAs/s200/AtoZ2019C.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Centauros, Father of the Centaurs</span></i></b><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
The idea was simple enough:
instead of having Death ride a pale horse, have death be a pale horse. That was
the genesis of Stone Soldiers #9, <i><a href="http://www.amzn.com/B00LLEN6QY">Pale Horseman</a></i>, a story about a centaur serial
killer set loose in the modern era. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Of course, before writing about
anything, and in particular mythology, it’s always a good idea to do research
and not just go by memory—which is often tainted by the fictional works of
others. Thus, I set out on the internet, to research centaurs—their origins,
their history, their folklore. I was very surprised at what I found.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Now, I remembered that the myth
of centaurs was purported by scholars to be the result of the first sightings
of men riding horses—the concept was so foreign, people invented stories of
half-man, half-horse creatures. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
However, it turns out that there
is another explanation for centaurs—Greek Mythology that doesn’t just explain
the race of the centaur, but that actually details the creation of the first man-horse.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
As the story goes, Ixion, King of
the Lapiths (a legendary tribe noted for their horsemanship), murdered his
father-in-law after a deal gone wrong, and was driven mad with guilt. Taking
pity on Ixion, Zeus brought him to Olympus. There, Ixion took a liking to Hera,
Zeus’ wife. Angered, Zeus then made a cloud into the form of Hera (named Nephele), and
tricked Ixion into mating with it. Their offspring was <i>Centauros</i>, a deformed man
who eventually turned to horses for companionship after being shunned by humanity, and sired the race of the
centaur. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Now, this bit of Greek mythology
is just as gross and disturbing as any other tale, but it got me thinking about
the idea of a <i>cursed</i> Centaur. What if the centaur of <i>Pale Horseman</i> wasn’t the
bloodthirsty, millennia-old serial killer of my story, but rather was a victim
of a curse?<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
What the heck, it was worth a
try, so I turned back to more Greek mythology for inspiration, and did some reading
about Charon, the traditional walking, talking skeleton associated with our
image of Death.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
In mythology, Charon is the ferryman
of the dead, an animated skeleton that takes the worthy across the river Styx.
Alas, the spooky skeleton I always thought of when I heard this bit of lore isn’t
the traditional form of Charon. Instead, the ferryman appears on some art as a
humanish-looking brute. In other works, he is described as a gaunt old man or a
winged. In other words, Charon’s appearance has changed considerably from one
era o another, ending up as the water-crossing version of the Grim Reaper we
are all so familiar with today. And that gave me an idea…<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Why not make Charon a shapechanger?
Or better yet, embrace the demon portrayals, and make him able to inhabit
different hosts, reshaping their flesh to suit his needs? That actually worked
quite well and gave me an explanation for how my centaur-villain could have
survived for so long. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
So, from the initial concept of
Centaur Serial Killer, a little research online turned my nugget of an idea
into something much more complicated. And that is what always happens when you
start to look deeper into folklore and mythology.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.amzn.com/B00LLEN6QY"><img border="0" data-original-height="625" data-original-width="390" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xs7tyy9gbc4/U7r99VD0JxI/AAAAAAAAAwA/snM75THbr2025TCBysOLiHgN0HQd-3IRQCPcBGAYYCw/s200/09PH2014QTR.jpg" width="124" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<i>Pale Horseman</i> (Stone Soldiers #9)</div>
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Available now on Kindle, and in Paperback</div>
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</div>
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<br /></div>
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5424603116755152234.post-37552241245081613072019-04-02T12:00:00.000-04:002019-04-02T21:40:47.609-04:00A to Z Blogging Challenge: Bowling, KJ<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">For the A to Z Blogging Challenge
2019, Punch the Rabbit delves deep behind the scenes with a series of Author's
Notes related to the Stone Soldiers, Spectral Ops, and Shadow Detachment
series.</span></i> <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
</div>
<br />
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One of the best things about Men’s Adventure novels (a genre
the Stone Soldiers books attempt to copy, in style) is the healthy dose of
satire smooshed between bouts of intense, over-the-top action. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Sharp-eyed readers of the series may have noticed this
particular bit of satire: the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Mary Cobbler</i>
books-within-the-books. In short, the characters of the Stone Soldiers have
made references to their world’s most popular magical young adult series, about
a young witch who attends a school for witches and wizard, called <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Frogwarts</i>. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Yes, this is a parody of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">that
</i>popular real-world series about a young boy who finds out he’s something
far from ordinary. How could one <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not</i>
include a reference to the successful works of a certain British author,
particularly in a series that revolves around the supernatural and magical?<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
What readers might be surprised to learn is that there’s far
more to Mary Cobbler than an off-handed character remark here and there. In
fact, for the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Shadow Detachment </i>prequel
short story series, I had planned an entire tome dedicated to the saga of Mary
Cobbler’s author, KJ Bowling, a British author who readers would have learned
wasn’t just an imaginative writer, but a former student of a witch academy
herself!<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Entitled <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Magician of
Interest</i>, this puny story was to take place in the early 2000s, just before
the Stone Soldiers program, and was to feature KJ Bowling on the run from the
Romanian wizards she was exposing in her children’s books. Protected by Colonel
Kenslir and his A.I. sidekick MAX, the almost-witch was going to become an
asset for the U.S. Military, revealing a number of secrets about the world’s
many covens and the mysterious organization readers know as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Circle</i>. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Alas, like <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Red Magick</i>,
the story chronologically before this one, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Magician
of Interest </i>got delayed and is nothing more today than an extensive series
of notes and outlines. It’s a tale of someone hiding what they really are in a
series of books. And that is actually based on something in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">our</i> reality. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
JK Rowling’s worldwide success drew a lot of criticism when
the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Harry Potter</i> novels first started
coming out, with some overly-fervant Christian sects proclaiming the author was
intentionally promoting witchcraft. That got me thinking… what if she really
was? What if JK <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">is</i> a witch? <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Obviously, I don’t believe Ms. Rowling is anything so evil
as a bride of Satan, I do have to look to the Men’s Adventure genre, and in
particular Agent 007 and wonder… You see, Ian Fleming, the author of James Bond’s
many adventures, was indeed a spy himself. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
If you read the biography of Ian Fleming, you’ll see the
author was, beginning in 1939, a member of the British Intelligence community, serving
in the British Navy, like his character Bond, and even went on to help draft
plans to form the OSS—which, post-World War II, would become the CIA. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
In 1953, <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Casino-Royale-James-Bond-Fleming/dp/1612185436">Casino Royale</a></i> was published, and James Bond became
a part of literary history.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
There’s an old saying that authors should write what they
know. Ian Fleming did, and was highly successful. So, why not build upon that
idea and choose another popular author and delve into the possibility that a
witch could become an author, about witches…? Maybe in 2020...<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5424603116755152234.post-15470120113448587422019-04-01T21:52:00.002-04:002019-04-01T21:52:24.013-04:00A to Z Blogging Challenge: Author's Notes and the Almas<br />
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It’s April, 2019, and it’s once again time for daily,
letter-themed posts. Instead of trying to find people, places and things from
the Stone Soldiers universe, I’m going to do something different this year. I’m
going to take readers behind the scenes and share some of the cool stuff that
didn’t make it into any of the books. Most of this stuff is actually from
folklore—tidbits of this and that that I researched and studied to work into
the novels. Unfortunately, not all that research ends up making the cut, and a
lot of really interesting stuff gets left behind…<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
For today’s A-entry, I picked an easy one, the <i>Almas</i>. If you
haven’t heard of the Almas, don’t feel bad, you’d know the creature from its
more common, North American name: Bigfoot. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
That’s right, ole Harry Henderson himself is <a href="http://www.othersidepodcast.com/blog/2019/04/01/a-is-for-alma-the-many-names-of-bigfoot/">known by avariety of names from around the world</a>, including <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Alma</i> or <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Almas</i>, from the
Mongolian/Russian region, which comes from some local dialect and means “wild
man”. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
How does the Almas fit into the Stone Soldiers universe? In
2016, I was working on a series of prequel short stories that showed the history
of Detachment 1039 before the Stone Soldiers program—<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Shadow Detachment</i>. One of the last stories I was working on was to
be set in the 1981, and was to have Major Mark Kenslir going behind the Iron
Curtain to steal the Head of Medusa from the Soviets. Yes, it's a supernatural version of the classic Clint Eastwood Cold War film, <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Firefox-Alex-Lasker/dp/B003ASLJMW">Firefox</a></i>...<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
While the story, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Red
Magick</i>, was to feature the infamous Rasputin (surviving into the modern era thanks to
magic), I felt it needed something more. Looking into Soviet and Russian
folklore, I stumbled across the Almas (Bigfoot in Russia), Stalin’s experiments
to put human heads on gorilla bodies, and the Dog-faced men of Eastern Europe.
It all seemed to go together and I set out to finish the story… </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
...Which just kept
getting delayed and delayed. Maybe one day, I’ll finish it, but for readers of
the series who might have wondered where Bigfoot is in a supernatural series featuring
so many modern myths, have no fear—Bigfoot is out there, in multiple places
around the world. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
And while you’re waiting for the next Stone
Soldiers/Spectral Ops installment, maybe you might want to check out Rasputin,
Dog-faced men, Stalin’s super soldiers experiments, and of course, the Almas. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5424603116755152234.post-67391252565550747562018-12-29T13:56:00.003-05:002018-12-29T13:56:43.115-05:00RABBIT PUNCH: 2019After a one year hiatus, the Stone Soldiers of Detachment 1039, the <i>Shadow Detachment</i> are coming back!<br />
<br />
Coming in January 2019, the dark war against the supernatural continues with <i>Island of the Damned</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-PkGrZpRl6-s/XCfBPZ_JRuI/AAAAAAAACRI/vsbAfjg2XHc-LX3zMQEgqI_x1vM7ACwwgCLcBGAs/s1600/SO3%2BIOD%2BFull%2BCoverQTR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="638" data-original-width="825" height="247" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-PkGrZpRl6-s/XCfBPZ_JRuI/AAAAAAAACRI/vsbAfjg2XHc-LX3zMQEgqI_x1vM7ACwwgCLcBGAs/s320/SO3%2BIOD%2BFull%2BCoverQTR.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<i><br /></i>
<i><br /></i>
<i><br /></i>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
In March 2019, readers take a trip back to the early days of the Detachment, before Stone Soldiers, with a special trip behind the Iron Curtain in <i>Red Magick...</i></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i><br /></i></div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-jvt38_fsQXI/XCfDICdEZDI/AAAAAAAACRc/MrqTM9DInoYBW_9SvnJ3oZZdoO3r2rGjgCLcBGAs/s1600/SD%2B06%2BKDP.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1018" height="200" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-jvt38_fsQXI/XCfDICdEZDI/AAAAAAAACRc/MrqTM9DInoYBW_9SvnJ3oZZdoO3r2rGjgCLcBGAs/s200/SD%2B06%2BKDP.jpg" width="126" /></a></div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5424603116755152234.post-18690319691640750152018-04-09T21:18:00.001-04:002018-04-09T21:18:12.790-04:00Book of Stone: Carrie Huston<br />
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A lower-level witch cast out of
her coven, Carrie Huston turned to researching the past to find a way to exact
revenge on her peers. During the course of her studies, she stumbled across an
ancient secret of the Chrysanthemum throne: Jigoku No Shima, a prison for the
supernatural monsters of Japan. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
After months of study. Huston
managed to determine the location of the island and set out to reach it and use
the many demons imprisoned there against the witches who betrayed her.
Manipulating the flight crew of a passenger bound for Australia, Huston crashed
the plane on Jigoku No Shima, intending to use the souls of the passengers to
provide her the power she needed to enslave the demons trapped on the island. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Huston’s plans were ultimately
derailed by the magical safeguards of the island, its prisoners, and Detachment
1039. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i>Read more about Carrie Huston and Jigoku No Shima in Spectral Ops #3, </i>Island of the Damned, coming Fall 2018. </div>
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5424603116755152234.post-29620319324855728202018-04-09T20:39:00.001-04:002018-04-09T20:39:28.611-04:00Book of Stone: Gunpowder<br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">First appearing in the American
Southwest in early 1990, the drug gunpowder—so-called for its black
coloration—originated in South America. The highly potent drug proved to be
highly addictive and briefly threatened to overtake the emerging crack cocaine
in illicit sales. Gunpowder’s appearance in the United States abruptly came to
an end less than a year after it first appeared. Experts believed that the drug’s
source was eliminated by U.S. interdiction efforts, with the remaining stockpiles
smuggle din gradually used up and replaced by other more common drugs.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Behind the Scenes:</b> Gunpowder was
produced in the nation of Acre, in South America. Blended with human blood,
Gunpowder was produced by alchemical means and actually linked the user with
other users and the creator of the drug: the First Born Fell, son of Inti, Huayna
Cuyochi. Linked, users of gunpowder could be drained of their lifeforce slowly,
over time, or have their thoughts and memories read. The drug also allowed Inti
to channel lifeforce into his users, giving them superhuman strengths and resistances
to injury. Inti’s human underlings could further dilute the drug by adding
their own blood to it, allowing the to siphon the lifeforce of those below them
on the drug chain. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Gunpowder’s production was
brought to a halt when Huayna was eliminated by Detachment 1039 in 1990<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Read more about Gunpowder, Acre, and Huayna Cuyochi in </i>Dark Powder<i>, coming this Fall. </i></span></div>
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5424603116755152234.post-30975511486562396532018-04-06T20:58:00.001-04:002018-04-06T21:19:33.979-04:00Book of Stone: First Born Fell<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RYYnh79-OxA/WsgWkH9kBaI/AAAAAAAACLc/wf481AXaEWIRL-Jj9tWIg1j4_JgxCk4DwCLcBGAs/s1600/nephilim-giants.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="background-color: white; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="362" data-original-width="600" height="193" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RYYnh79-OxA/WsgWkH9kBaI/AAAAAAAACLc/wf481AXaEWIRL-Jj9tWIg1j4_JgxCk4DwCLcBGAs/s320/nephilim-giants.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">--Genesis 6:4</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">They are a race of bastard creatures, part-man, part Fallen Angel, possessing great powers and an appetite for violence. Known in the bible as the Nephilim , or giants, these supernatural beings today are officially classified by the U.S. Military as Species-2 (which also includes their offspring, the Fell), but are more commonly referred to as "First Born Fell" or simply "First Born". </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">First Born vary in appearance from individual to individual. Ancient records document man instances of twelve-fingered, twelve-toed giants, with double rows of teeth and a taste or human flesh. Less humanoid appearance have been depicted as well, including a variety of creatures from mythologies around the world. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In modern times, the earliest declassified termination of a First Born occurred in <a href="http://amzn.com/B07871K9SN">Southeast Asia in 1962</a>. At the time, the First Born was found to be bound to the service of a Chinese sorcerer aiding the Communist forces of the North Vietnamese Army. Both the sorcerer and his supernatural servant were eliminated. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Distinguishing a First Born from its Fell descendants can be particularly difficult and as yet is not clearly defined by any military standard.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Research into the First Born has revealed that the First Born have walked the Earth for millennia, interbreeding among themselves and with mortal mankind. As generations have passed, the creatures' genes have been passed on, each successive generation becoming weaker and weaker (in modern man, it is estimated nearly twelve percent of the world's population carry dormant, recessive Fell genes).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">While most known First Born have been slain during the past ten centuries, there still remain an alarming number of the creatures still at large, on and off-Earth. Even more disturbing is the discovery that First Born have bred amongst themselves, creating a super-human race whose powers are only barely diminished from generation to generation.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Study of these beings ha indicated that most of the world's pantheons of non-Christian religions were in fact headed by First Born or their direct descendants. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As the progenitors of the Fell on Earth, First Born possess great powers and a nearly unlimited stamina thanks to their inherent ability to draw etheric energy from the very fabric of the universe. First Born are considered extremely dangerous and engagement with hostile First Borns is strictly prohibited by U.S. Armed forces, with the exception of Detachment 1039. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">While considered nearly unstoppable, First Born are not unkillable. The first recorded death of a member of Species-2 occurred in the 19th Century in the American West, although the details and names of those involved in this encounter have been sealed under Presidential Order until the year 2399. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In 2016, Dr. [REDACTED] theorized that no Fallen Angel has walked the earth for the past two thousand years. This theory was based on the discovery of at least one Fallen Angel <a href="http://a.co/bTByD1w">in the Surtr solar system</a>. If Dr. [REDACTED]'s theory is true, the number of Species-2 appearing on Earth might be diminishing at an ever increasing rate and is believed to be completely extinguishable with adequate monitoring of extraterrestrial and extra dimensional travelers.</span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5424603116755152234.post-24171663228790100822018-04-05T20:46:00.001-04:002018-04-05T20:46:48.684-04:00Book of Stone: Equus<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-1EEJI8aQSXE/WsbDGgUafNI/AAAAAAAACKs/hAsBCq6dNp8YaNctVLJTaICdGmcM2r_JgCLcBGAs/s1600/Equus.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1102" data-original-width="1102" height="200" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-1EEJI8aQSXE/WsbDGgUafNI/AAAAAAAACKs/hAsBCq6dNp8YaNctVLJTaICdGmcM2r_JgCLcBGAs/s200/Equus.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span style="text-align: justify;">A prehistoric man in ancient
Greece, Equus was cursed by Zeus and transformed into</span><span style="text-align: justify;"> </span><span style="text-align: justify;">a Centaur. He roamed</span><span style="text-align: justify;"> </span><span style="text-align: justify;">the Earth, immortal, </span><span style="text-align: justify;">for centuries, until he finally challenged the riverman, </span><a href="http://stonesoldiersbooks.blogspot.com/2018/04/book-of-stone-charon.html" style="text-align: justify;">Charon</a><span style="text-align: justify;">, in hopes of dying. Instead, Charon possessed Equus and used
his body until the modern era, killing innocents</span><span style="text-align: justify;"> </span><span style="text-align: justify;">to</span><span style="text-align: justify;"> </span><span style="text-align: justify;">reap their souls, which were imprisoned in his dark weapon, a
dark object that could assume multiple shapes. Equus</span><span style="text-align: justify;"> </span><span style="text-align: justify;">was</span><span style="text-align: justify;"> </span><span style="text-align: justify;">finally put to rest in 2014, <a href="http://a.co/gGSIVJt">SS09: </a></span><i style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://a.co/gGSIVJt">Pale Horseman</a></i><span style="text-align: justify;">.</span><br />
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<b>NOTES: </b></div>
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Equus-Charon marks the first instance where a true Centaur appeared in the Stone Soldiers universe. In Greek mythology, Centaurus was the father of all centaurs (also called Ixionidae). Half-man, half horse, with the torso of a man extending where the neck of a horse should be, Centaurs were said to be wild, savage, and lustful. But the man who would become Centaurus was not born a hybrid--he was cursed by the First Born Fell, Zeus. </div>
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Centaurus himself was the son of the cloud-being Nephele and the cursed Greek man Ixion--a hideous being who fled from humanity and allegedly mated with the horses of Mount Pelion. </div>
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Most historians believe that the mythology of Centaurs actually arises from the advent of horsemen in ancient times--that those who hadn't learned to master riding equines were terrified to see their new enemy approach and created the myth. </div>
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For Stone Soldiers, the Pale Horseman is a blending of the Grim Reaper and Centaur myths with the Horsemen prophecy of the Book of Revelations.</div>
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The nephilim/demon Charon further allowed for the final step in the Josie Winters story arc of the Stone Soldiers series. Possessing Josie, Charon used her body, unlocking her full psychic abilities to reap more souls--which, stored in his dark weapon, provided him a nearly limitless power source. After defeating Charon, Winters retained the memory of how to use all her psychic powers. This was foreshadowed in Stone Soldiers #5, Black Knight Down, when Jimmy Kane was also possessed by a witch who inadvertently showed him how to trigger, and control, the werewolf curse he carried, allowing Kane to become werewolf whenever he chooses. </div>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5424603116755152234.post-28850498885313634502018-04-04T20:49:00.000-04:002018-04-04T20:49:23.076-04:00Book of Stone: Draco Sapiens<div style="text-align: justify;">
Designated Species 6 by the U.S. Military, <i>draco sapiens</i> are a Fellish subspecies of man, not native to the planet Earth, and more commonly called "reptilians" by members of the civilian populace. </div>
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In 2018, it was discovered that Dracos originate from an alternate reality Earth ruled by the Fallen Angel <i>Long-El. </i>This alternate Earth, dubbed <i>Lóng shìjiè</i> ("Long Shi") by the enslaved humans lured there, is connected to Earth by means of a wyrmhole portal in Nevada. However, Dracos utilize thaumatological technology to travel back and forth between the two worlds at will, at any point on the two globes. </div>
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Dracos are bipedal beings, with to arms and legs, covered with a greenish-tinged, scaly skin that is theorized to be an advanced mutation of icthyosis all are born with. Dracos have wide set eyes and sunken nasal passages, creating the reptile-like appearance of their faces. Dracos file their teeth at puberty, similar to the tradition of African tribes. </div>
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Dracos worship and served the Fallen Angel Longshi, serving as masters, and in some cases the abductors of the slave population of humans on Perdition. </div>
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In addition to their uses of thaumatological devices, Dracos possesses advanced psychokinetic and extrasensory abilities and are capable of projecting mental images into the minds of targets. This allows the to alter the perception of humans, creating illusions or masking their appearance or presence. This ability has been used for many centuries in the abduction of humans to add to the slave population of Perdition. </div>
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<i>(Read more about he Dracos and the world of </i><i>Lóng shìjiè</i><i> in </i>Perdition's Shadow<i>, coming Winter 2018)</i></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5424603116755152234.post-24336674978565579182018-04-03T22:04:00.000-04:002018-04-03T22:04:06.921-04:00Book of Stone: Charon<br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">CHARON</span><o:p></o:p></b></div>
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A demon (First Born Fell, or <i>nephilim</i>) from prehistoric times, Charon
roamed the Earth for millennia, killing innocents and imprisoning their spirits
in his enchanted/dark weapon. Charon moved<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>from the body of champion to champion, always looking for new abilities
and powers. As such, he could shapechange into any previous form at will. In
2014, Charon was using the body of the centaur Equus and came to America (<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Pale-Horseman-Stone-Soldiers-9-ebook/dp/B00LLEN6QY">SS09: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Pale Horseman</i></a>). He eventually, briefly,
possessed Josie Winters before being pulled from her body and bound to his
staff once more without a host.<o:p></o:p></div>
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For ages, Charon's staff-weapon was his prison. He is anchored to it,
and never able<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>to move more than a<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>few feet away from it. In a mortal body--gained when someone touches the staff--Charon had<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the full range of his powers. Without a body,
he is limited and ethereal--tied to the staff and only able to move, as an non-corporeal being, a short distance from it. Charon was able to break free of his staff weapon
when it was broken by Mark Kenslir, who misunderstood the<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>weapons purpose and used his own powers to negate the binding magic of the staff. Charon was eventually rebound to the staff by Detachment 1039, and the ancient, arcane artifact was buried in the <a href="http://stonesoldiersbooks.blogspot.com/2016/04/book-of-stone-inferno.html">Inferno vault</a> in Nevada. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5424603116755152234.post-73226983057243140242018-04-02T09:00:00.000-04:002018-04-02T09:00:25.186-04:00Book of Stone: KJ Bowling<br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Mentioned by several characters in Detachment 1039, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Mary Cobbler and the Secret of Frogwarts</i>
is a popular middle-grade children's book about a twelve year old
witch-in-training who solves mysteries while attending a prestigious wizarding
school in England. What most of the Stone Soldiers world doesn’t know is that
Kristina “KJ” Bowling actually based the stories in her books on her own experiences as a
child—something that very nearly cost her life in the year 2000. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Not long after <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Mary
Cobbler</i> was released in print, the coven of witches running the Blackmoor
Academy discovered that the book contained a number of their secrets—all thinly
veiled under pseudonyms and parodies. A check of their records revealed that Bowling
had herself been a student at Blackmoor, until she was expelled. The coven and their allies set out to immediately quiet Bowling, attempting
to assassinate her on multiple occasions until they themselves were eliminated
by Detachment 1039 (see <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Magician of
Interest</i>, Shadow Detachment #11, coming Fall of 2018). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-NP6ceNwpyJs/WsGF_xJ4SLI/AAAAAAAACH0/P41N8aqgpbY0rjHezs2QQKnWB1Olotq9gCLcBGAs/s1600/BlackmoorAcademy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="262" data-original-width="424" height="197" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-NP6ceNwpyJs/WsGF_xJ4SLI/AAAAAAAACH0/P41N8aqgpbY0rjHezs2QQKnWB1Olotq9gCLcBGAs/s320/BlackmoorAcademy.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Today, Bowling lives in extreme seclusion, carefully watched
by the United States military, to whom she continues to feed secrets about Blackmoor
and the circle of covens that established it—while also continuing the adventures
of her beloved characters in a series of novels that continue to sell around
the world. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5424603116755152234.post-85096784738266677132018-04-01T20:56:00.001-04:002018-04-01T22:17:39.861-04:00Book of Stone: Acre<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-lTofPjQSX3I/WsF_Vc1hBKI/AAAAAAAACHk/HQlDt-3PyMwgmZa5su4upl77k5KDXIN1wCLcBGAs/s1600/Flag%2Bof%2BAcre.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="220" data-original-width="400" height="176" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-lTofPjQSX3I/WsF_Vc1hBKI/AAAAAAAACHk/HQlDt-3PyMwgmZa5su4upl77k5KDXIN1wCLcBGAs/s320/Flag%2Bof%2BAcre.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The tiny rainforest nation of Acre lies in the center of
South America, bordered by Brazil to the east, Peru to the west, and Bolivia to
the southeast. Since the nineteenth century, the small nation has been the
territory of all three larger nations and is today still unrecognized by its
neighbors. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">After decades of conflict, in 1909, a treaty was signed and
the territory was made part of the nation of Brazil. In 1980, Acre declared its
independence and successfully repelled Brazilian armed forces sent to quell the
latest uprising. Today, Acre remains a contested region, but somehow manages to
avoid being invaded by occupational forces from any other nation. The borders
of the tiny country are heavily patrolled and despite its small size, Acre’s semi-organized
militia forces have eliminated all smuggling into or out of the country. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Rumors from the Amazon region abound that Acre is controlled
by shamans given power by a supernatural entity that claim is none other than
the Incan god Inti. Successful drug and rubber plantations within the borders
of Acre have secured significant financial reserves for the country and it is
generally accepted the tiny nation preserves its unrecognized-yet-sovereign
status through bribes and financial manipulation of its surrounding nations. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Several financial and economic experts in academia have
pointed out the drug and rubber trade of the late 20<sup>th</sup> Century—the former
eradicated by combined United States and Bolivian armed forces—could not account
for the tremendous wealth of the tiny nation. This has led to further speculation
that the long-lost treasure of the Incan Empire was hidden in Acre and is now
used by the rebel government there to preserve the peace. As virtually no
outsider journeying into Acre ever returns, the true nature of the country
officially remains a mystery. </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Look for Acre in </i>Dark Powder<i>, Shadow Detachment #9, releasing the Summer of 2018. </i></span></div>
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