Adventurers of Mutant World

Greetings from the End of the World!

You may recall that in our last exciting episode, I've promised to tell you more about my upcoming series, Mutant World, and even reveal the covers for the first three installments!  Well read on!

First off, credit where credit is due (and blame where blame):  What really ignited the prospect of Mutant World?  Well, it was really some artwork by Luigi Castellani, known in some circles as Artikid Arts.  He has a presence on DriveThru RPG and also on DeviantArt, where he usually does commision work for independent RPG publishers.

I saw some of the characters he's drawn over the years and I found them to be Terrific And Stylish!  More than that, they were a spark of inspiration!  So, I have arranged to use them on the covers for my stories!

I found the three figures that--in my mind--became Axel, Smogara and Biter, and almost immediately hammered out "Mistress of the Mutant Maulers".  But that wasn't enough to satisfy the idea.  It continued to grow, to evolve, to...mutate into something bigger and grander.

First off let me introduce you to my trio of heroes:

Axel is a normal (unmutated) human.  He comes from a wandering barbarian tribe called the Free Way Men, who have a nomadic lifestyle following the ruined interstates and are all named after car parts.  They are proud barbarians, and free men.  Their way is the Free Way!

As a post-apocalyptic barbarian, it may be difficult to distinguish Axel from similar characters like Thundarr or Kammandi.  But I like to think of Axel almost as an anti-Thundarr.  Axel is far more shallow and selfish and much less noble than Thundarr.  He's likely to do "the right thing" by accident by following his own self-interests.  He's also concerned with his fame, and claims he's on a quest to perform great deeds to prove to his tribe that he would make a good leader.

Smogara--pronounced smaw-GAR-uh--is a mutated human female with four arms.  Apparently she started out in life as a mutant slave, and escaped when she was young.  Her escape path took her through a radioactive swamp which made her ill.  She was rescued and given to a priestess to heal and raise her.  Eventually, she also set out on a life of adventure.

As a mutant, Smogara has some natural resistance to radiation.  She is far from immune to its adverse effects, but has a greater resistance than a normal human would.

Biter is a mutated badger.  He has a humanoid body, stands about three feet tall, wears a black leather jacket and carries a shotgun.  He has a mysterious background, but seems more competent with "ancient" machines and electronics than his companions.  

His personality seems to be a cross between Rocket Raccoon and Hannibal Smith (from the A-Team).  He is an outspoken jerk, and though he has some loyalty to his friends, I can't help but feel that he might betray them if he thought it was in his best interests.  After all, self-preservation and survival would almost certainly be your primary goals if you were stuck in a post-apocalyptic world.  

Obviously, they make a dysfunctional trio of heroes.  Now I'm sure you're wondering, if these terrible persons are supposed to be the heroes...what could the villains be like?!

Well, there are villains, of course.  And other problems, too.  But we'll wait and talk about that next time!  Until then I wish you..

Good Adventuring!
Timothy A. Sayell

My Latest Project...

Hello Explorers!  

So I think the time has come to talk about my latest project...

I am currently writing a series of stories that take place in a weird and wacky post-apocalyptic world.  Hey, what do you know, that totally ties in with my recent posts about the various post-apocalyptic movies and games that I've been writing about!  What an amazing and incredible coincidence!

I'm going to call the series Mutant World, and the series logo looks like this:

The series will follow the adventures of a post-apocalyptic human barbarian named Axel, a mutant girl with four arms named Smogara, and a humanoid badger called Biter.  

What was the great Calamity that ruined the world?  What caused all the weird mutations?  How did mankind survive?  What brought our band of adventurers together?  What are they questing for?  

I don't want to spoil too much right now, but I will be revealing more info about the story, the world, and the characters in upcoming posts.

What I can tell you right now...is that I'm planning to have a total of 9 stories in this series.  It will be available exclusively through Amazon, because I want to see how Kindle Unlimited works (from the writer's perspective).  I am expecting to have the first three installments ready and available to the public in February of 2020!

But that's not all!  Tune in next time and get a sneak peak at the cover art for the FIRST 3 stories!  So Tremble in Anxious Suspense and I'll see you next time!  Until then I wish you...

Good Adventuring!
Timothy A. Sayell

Post-Apoc-A-Rama!

Hello and Welcome Back!

In our last exciting episode we were talking about bad post-apocalyptic movies from the 80's.  So that's where we start now.


I think the first movie I ever saw that could count as post-apoc would have to be The Last Man on Earth starring Vincent Price.
Of course, this isn't an 80's movie, and isn't at all akin to the sort of cheesy flick I wanna talk about.  But it's still the first one I ever saw.

The next one must have been Damnation Alley starring George Peppard an Jan-Micheal Vincent.  This movie was cool!  First off there was the Ultimate RV, a twelve-wheeled monster of an all-terrain vehicle designed to go anywhere in a ruined world.  There were giant scorpions and man-eating cockroaches.  This was sort of a slightly more realistic future than Thundarr presented:  no magic, no super-tech.  Somehow, though, there was enough gas to run the Super Rv and a motorcycle.

The next one that really stands out in my head is the Ralph Bakshi movie, Wizards.  This movie is just haunting and disturbing, but not really in a bad way.  The narration and the still-picture slide show in the beginning I find particularly haunting.  Then there's the weird animation style.  It's cartoony, as opposed to trying to render the weird creatures and characters realistically.  Then there's the weird rotoscoping and the subject matter itself.  Weird but cool.  

There was a movie called She, it starred Sandahl Bergman (she was Conan's girlfriend Valeria in Conan the Barbarian).  It was supposedly "based" on the H.R.Haggard story She, but the only resemblance I could see were in the title.  

In a post-apoc world survivors trade goods with one another until these raiders show up and cause a ruckus for no good reason.  They kidnap this girl, so her brother and her boyfriend go to rescue her, knowing full well they'll probably die.  But instead, they hook up with She, a powerful warrior-woman and she-who-cannot-die (thanks to her "magic" sauna in a cave in her village).  Through an episodic series of weird misadventures, including an incident with a werewolf commune, a mutant bridge guard who multiplies every time you hit him, and that standard stand-by a gladiatorial arena; our heroes find the bad guys and (spoiler alert!) rescue the girl.  It was weird stuff, seemed to have a definite Gamma World vibe to me.

Like I said, Terrible And Silly!


There were a bunch of other flicks, too.  After a while they kind of blend together.  But movies like The New Barbarians, and Land of Doom show us that people wear way too much leather in the post-apocalyptic desert.

  
Battletruck and Wheels of Fire show us that there will still be plenty of gas and bullets (and yet food and water will be scarce), and that all the vehicles will get pimped up with spikes. 

 Meanwhile, films like She-Wolves of the Wasteland and Stryker show us that there will be a great abundance of hot chicks, and a few cool guys...but apparently not enough clothes to go around (at least if you're adverse to the above-mentioned black leather).  

Are you ready for the punchline?  I've NEVER seen a single Mad Max movie.  Bits and pieces, but not the whole film.  But I've seen all of these flicks, and each one has left its indelible mark on the world I've created...or ended(?)...for the stories I'm writing.

And there were a few others, too.  But my point is this:  My post-apocalyptic world is not just drab and gray.  And there are more dangers lurking about than just zombies.  

When my world suffered its great calamity, there was advanced science.  AIs, robots, weird chemical medicines, advanced tech for daily appliances, experimental prototypes.  These things still exist and are half-understood (at best) by people trying to use them and repair the damage.  Weird chemicals and radiation have cause innumerable mutant sub-races and new hybrid species.  

Wanna know more?  Of course ya do!  So come on back next time, and I'll share some more about my upcoming science fantasy post-apocalyptic adventure series:  Mutant World!  Until then, I wish you...

Good Adventuring!
Timothy A. Sayell

The End of the World As We Know It

Hey, hey and whattaya say!

How ya doing?  Great to see ya!  So glad ya stopped by!  How's the family?  How's work?  Sorry to hear that.  What's that?  What have I been working on?  Well, since ya asked...

Right now I'm working on a series of stories to post up on the Kindle Store at Amazon.  It's a science fantasy adventure series that takes place is a weird post-apocalyptic world.  What's weird about it?  Well, nowadays post-apoc is full of zombies, mine isn't.  Why not?  Well, I'm a child of the 70's and 80's, and when I was a kid, the post-apocalyptic world had more than just zombies.  Let me explain...

I think the first time I was exposed to the idea of a post-apocalyptic world was in the Saturday morning cartoon show Thundarr the Barbarian.  

Thundarr was a Conan-style barbarian in a ruined world full of mutants, magic, and super-science.  Thundarr was armed with his trusty Sun-Sword, a lightsaber knock-off.  He had two stalwart travelling companions:  Princess Ariel, an enchantress and daughter of a wizard; and Ookla the Mok, a burly cat-man mutant.  

Thundarr and his companions travel around the ruined country fighting against evil Wizards and their legions of Robots and Mutants as they try to enslave tribes of un-mutated human survivors.  

Each episode had weird mutant animals, ruins of identifiable landmarks, and machinery powered by magic.  The humans always lived in ruined buildings or primitive huts, while the evil Wizards always had a hi-tech stronghold.  There were very few guns (if any) but there were some magic wands that shot laser bolts, uh, I mean bolts of magic I guess.


The next time I encountered the concept of the post-apocalypse was in a catalog of other products by TSR Hobbies.  It was a small catalog booklet that came in my sister's D&D boxed set.  It was in this catalog that I first learned of the existence of the Gamma World Role Playing Game.  

Sadly, I never got play Gamma World.  I never even got to own any of the books,  But I learned what I could about it, it was full of mutant people, mutant animal-men, mutant animals, mutant plants, and robots galore!  Mutants; whether they were human, animal, or plant; were capable of having terrible deformities and/or weird powers.  Apparently characters start off with primitive medieval-style weapons, but through their adventures can find and use more advanced weapons, armor, vehicles, and random little appliances that you don't know how to use.  

It sounded VERY Thundarr.  I was entranced.  

Of course, today all these old supplements are available as digital downloads.  Also, there are new games, like Mutant Future, which are based and heavily inspired by the old Gamma World game.  I'm proud to say that I own an actual physical copy of Mutant Future, and that I have collected several digital files of past versions of Gamma World...and it's all I thought it was and more!  But you know what?  I still haven't played it!

But that's not all!  Like I said, I was a child of the 70's and 80's, and that means "post-apocalyptic" was an actual genre in the movies!  Thanks to this slew of cinematic treats, we all knew that a post-apocalyptic world would be Terrible And Silly!  But we'll wait and talk about that next time!  Until then I wish you...

Good Adventuring!
Timothy A. Sayell

Getting Down With It! Part Two

Greetings Fellow Explorers!

So, no doubt you've tuned in this week to find out who the other character is that died and upset me.  Well, I won't prolong the torture any more than I already have.  Here we go!

It was a Star Wars book, a collection of short stories called Tales From the Mos Eisley Cantina and it was edited by Kevin J. Anderson.  Now in case you don't know, this story is a collection of stories, each story is about a different person who happened to be in the cantina during the famous scene in the first Star Wars movie, the one nowadays called Episode Four:  A New Hope.


So There's A Story about the bartender.  There's A Story about the two thugs who bother Luke and Ben cuts them up with the lightsaber.   There's A Story about Greedo, the bounty hunter that gets shot by Han Solo. 

In the movie, when Han shoots Greedo they cut to various patrons to see their reaction.  In one of these reaction shots there is a Jawa (like the ones that sold the droids to Luke and his Uncle) sitting at a table with a little rat-alien thing.  This Jawa has a story in the book, and his name is Het N'Kik.

So apparently all the Jawas were supposed to get together and have a convention, see...I think they were calling it a swap meet.  Anyway, Het N'Kik's girlfriend was among the group that sold the droids to Luke and his Uncle, and was also killed by the Imperial Stormtroopers.  Het N'Kik found this out and declared war on the Empire single-handed!  Omg, he was like the Bruce Willis of Jawas!

So he gets a BFG (the "B" stands for "big", the "G" stands for "gun", I leave the "F" to your imagination) and goes off looking for Stormtroopers to kill.  He stops in at the cantina, gets stuck sitting with the little rat-guy.  So after Obi-Wan slices up the thugs with his lightsaber, the cops, I mean, Stormtroopers show up to look around and do absolutely nothing.  Het N'Kik follows them when they leave.  He jumps out at them from around a corner...AND THAT'S THE END OF HIS STORY!!!  Like what heck!? 

But wait there's more!
The next story is about the little rat-alien that was sitting with Het N'Kik.  He is a Ranat and his name is something like Reegesk.  While sitting with Het N'Kik, he dupes the trusting and distracted little Jawa into letting him look at the gun.  When he does, he takes the batteries out!  

At this point, you're like "What the Hell?!?!  At the end of his story, Het N'Kik jumps out of the alley and starts shooting at the Stormtroopers!  Now the book says his gun had no battery!" 

And it's true, the end of Het N'Kik's story said he kept pulling the trigger, it never said that he fired a shot.  So what the heck happened?

But wait, there's still more!
The next story is about one of the Stormtroopers who came into the cantina.  He was a disgraced AT-AT driver who dropped his AT-AT onto its front knees so somebody couldn't wrap a cable around the legs.  This was against regs so he got busted and sent to Tatooine to look for droids carrying Death Star plans.

He and his Captain (the trooper with the fancy orange pauldron) reported to the disturbance at the cantina, did nothing, and left.  They didn't realize they were followed by Het N'Kik.  Suddenly and without warning this "crazy Jawa" jumped out of an alley and started shooting at them!  Except...he didn't!  The Jawa's gun didn't fire!

So the Captain sneered, says something that basically equated Jawas to rats, and killed Het N'Kik dead with one shot!  It's, like, the only time a Stormtrooper hit what he was aiming for in all of Star Wars history!  Holy crap!  Just like that Het N'Kik was dead!  He was the coolest Jawa in the galaxy, the very Bruce Willis of Jawas and this dipstick Stormtrooper killed him like that!

This was a Thoroughly Antagonizing Situation!  Boy, was I ticked off!  In fact, I'm getting ticked off just thinking about it!

You know what?  I don't really know WHY Het N'Kik's death or Goldmoon's death got under my skin like that.  I guess that says something about the writing...but I'm not sure what.  

What about you?  Did you get mad when some character in the story you were reading got killed?  If so, who was the character and what story were they in?  Please, leave a comment down below, I think it would be interesting to hear about it!

Well, I guess that's all for now, my fine friends!  Until next time I bid you:

Good Adventuring!
Timothy A. Sayell

Getting Down With It! Part One

What Ho, my Two-Fisted Adventure Seekers!

You know, one of the basic pieces of advice "they" like to give about writing is to read.  A LOT!

I'll admit that I don't read as much as I should...but I have read a fair bit, and I'm pretty good at retaining the stuff that I read.  I read a lot of cheesy stuff, cuz I LIKE the cheesy stuff.

What kind of stuff?  Well, I read those old pulp magazine reprints, and I love those short little fantasy and sci-fi novels from the sixties and seventies.  

But I've read some more modern stuff, too.  And I'm usually pretty detatched, observing the story and making snide MST3K-style comments as I go through the book.  But there were two times when I got embroiled so much that I got mad when characters died.

The first time this happened was when I read the Dragonlance Chronicles Book 1 Dragons of Autumn Twilight by Margaret Weiss and Tray Hickman.  This series is sometimes called "the poor man's Lord of the Rings", which seems like a left-handed compliment, to me.  

Anyway, this story kicked off the Dungeons and Dragons world of Dragonlance, and is beloved by many, including me.  So it starts off with a group of adventurer friends meeting back up after five years of each one exploring on their own.  They run into these two outcast plainsmen with a magic staff that is a holy relic from ages past.  The magic staff is the Healing Staff of Mishakal, and the girl carrying it is named Goldmoon.

So, after various adventures, the group is taking her to the ruined city of Xak Tsaroth where they're supposed to find more clues on how to awaken and re-connect with the Old Gods and learn about the evil Goddess Takhisis, the Queen of Dragons, who is trying to take over the world because that's what bad guys do in these things.

Anyway, our heroes get to Xak Tsaroth and we find this black dragon who kills Goldmoon!  Boy did that tick me off!  I don't really know why, but it did!  Fortunately the Goddess Mishakal brought her back to life in the very next chapter, so it was okay.  I honestly don't know if I would have finished the trilogy if that hadn't happened.

The second time, however, didn't go so well...
But that's a Tale for Another Session, so I'll tell ya about it next week...
Until then...

Good Adventuring!
Timothy A. Sayell

The Write Time

Hi there, how ya doin'? 

One of the problems with writing is finding the time to write.  That's right, no matter how many good ideas you have for characters, settings, plot twists, covers, blurbs, or ads...you eventually have to sit down and actually WRITE the story!

Just starting out?  That makes it extra hard, on account of all the demands you already have on your time.  Trivial little annoyances like a regular job and familial duties are usually unavoidable.  This means you have to sacrifice your precious few minutes of R&R and dedicate those scant few minutes as...

Time Alotted for Scripting.

This isn't always easy to do.  I'll admit, that I usually spend my after-work hours winding down.  But sometimes I manage to overcome my own initial laziness and get a few paragraphs written.  But most of my serious writing seems to get done on my weekends.  

Like everything else, it has to be important enough to YOU to MAKE it happen!  Because, unfortunately, if ya want it done, then you have to do it yourself!  Hey!  It may be an old adage, but it's still true, dagnabbit!

That's all for now, my Totally Awesome Supporters!  I've got some other things to work on, so I can get this party started up properly!  See ya next time!

Yours Truly,
Timothy A. Sayell

Ideas At Large

Hello to one and all!  I offer you Toasts And Salutations!

So, when you're making idle chitchat with someone, and they find out you write stories, that's when the usual list of questions comes at you.  What kind of stuff do you write?  Have you been published?  Where?  

And then there's the mother of all questions:  Where do you get your ideas?

This is kind of a silly question, because ideas and inspirations are absolutely everywhere!  Sometimes I think they lay in wait to ambush you as you wander by.  You get ideas from everywhere and everything, usually when you're not actually looking for them.

I've gotten ideas from books, comic books, radio shows, and movies, video games, role playing games, pictures, songs, and toys.  Sometimes you get an idea from some random throw-away comment someone made during a conversation.  

As for stories, it could be as easy as this:  You watch a movie and at some pivotal point in the plot you wonder what the story have turned into if THIS had happened instead of THAT.  And this could drastically change the outcome of the story, perhaps the whole thing if this pivotal point occurs very early in the story.

What if Conan's tribe had defeated Thulsa Doom's thugs?  Conan the Barbarian would've been a very different film.  What if Aunt May had died instead of Uncle Ben?  What sort of a man would Peter Parker have grown into?  They actually had an issue of What If? that explored this possibility.  What if the Darth JarJar theory actually happened in the movies?

All of these stories would have been very different.

Sometimes you only get ideas for moments, or characters, and keep them on file until you find an appropriate story to use them in.  

Then there's another possibility:  suppose you insert a different character in the protagonist's place.  In theory, THIS character would act and react differently than THAT character, and these two characters should react differently when stuck in the same situation; so the story would come out differently.

The story would read much differently whether the hero was a greedy knight or a sentimental archer.  

This, of course, is the most elementary of examples.  The more little changes you make, the more differences there are from story to story.  

But the real point I'm trying to make is that ideas come from everywhere!  And I do mean EVERYWHERE!  It doesn't seem to matter where you go or what you do, inspirations are just lying in wait, ready to pounce upon the unwary creative mind.

They're on All Sides!

All you have to do is be in the right place at the right time to find them.  And then you have to be perceptive enough to know the good ones from the bad ones.  And then to use them when ya need them.  But getting ideas in the first place?  That's the easy part!

There's a good chance we'll talk about this some more in the future.  But that's all for now!  I've got some writing to do!

Good adventuring!

Yours Truly,
Timothy A. Sayell

I Know a Secret

Hey there, Hi there, Ho there!

So, of course, like prety much everyone else, I have man interests.  I like to write, I like to draw, I like to scratch-build models and model terrain.  I have an interest in costumes, and role-playing games, and vaudeville-type variety entertainment.  

I've delved into the history of various subjects and prominent persons in those fields.  And that, my friends, is how I learned... Bum-Bum-BU-UM... The Secret!

What is The Secret?  How did I find it?   Well, keep reading, and I'll tell ya all about it!  Here are a few examples...in chronological order!

Walt Disney.  You heard of him, right?  He's the guy that came up with Mickey Mouse.  Well, he wanted to make a feature length cartoon.  Other folks in the industry thought it was crazy.  They said that NOBODY would go and watch a feature-length cartoon.  But Walt wanted to make one, and he did!  He came out with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and it was a smash success and the beginnings of a multi-media empire!

Chuck Jones.  You heard of him, right?  Sure ya have, he made a bunch of Bugs Bunny cartoons!  Well, he became a cartoon director and studied the minute details of cartoon comedy.  How many frames a gag took up, how many to wait before the next gag to give the audience time to laugh, that sort of thing.  And ya know what?  His cartoons flopped!  His bosses told him to start making funny cartoons or he was gonna get demoted.  In frustration, he threw out all his notes and made a cartoon that HE thought was funny.  Ya know what?  Everyone else thought so, too!  

Stan Lee.  You heard of him, right?  He was the face of Marvel Comics.  Well, before that, Marvel Comics was...Timely Comics (I think) and he was only working there because his uncle had given him a job.  He hated it an wanted to quit.  Now, the story Stan tells is that his wife told him to finally write a comic book the way HE thought they should be.  What was the worst that could happen?  The boss could fire him, he was gonna quit any way!  So he wrote up the Fantastic Four, and guess what?  It was insanely popular, and people demanded more books with similar themes and tones!  Again, the start of something big!

Jim Henson.  You heard of him, he's the Muppet guy!  Well, his puppets had appeared on TV in a couple of different venues, and eventually he wanted tot make a movie.  But he wanted his puppets to exist in the real world, not just stylized studio sets.  All the movie execs he took this idea to told him he was nuts and that it wouldn't work!  Finally, he took it to Lord Grade in England, who let him try it out.  Guess what?  That one worked, too!

One last example:

George Lucas.  You must've heard of him!  That's right, the Star Wars guy!  Lucas is the only movie director I can name where I actually know one of the films he made in film school (THX-1138).  I haven't seen it, but I know it.  He made a film called American Graffiti, and it was a big hit at the time.  He used this success to make his passion project:  a cheesy retro space opera inspired by Flash Gordon.  Everyone in the industry told him not to do it, it wouldn't sell, and nobody would watch it.  But George didn't care, he WANTED to make it, and he did!  And ya know what?  It revolutionized the film industry and indelibly influenced pop culture forever!

What is the point that I'm trying to make?  Look, it doesn't matter if you're writing a book, or a comic book, or making art, or making a cartoon, or making music, or making movies.  Make the book that YOU want to read.  Or the movie that YOU want to watch.  Or whatever product it is...make the one that YOU would buy.

In my case, I'm trying o be a writer.  They say you should write about what you know.  This isn't entirely true.  You should write about what you LIKE.  Why?  Because if you like it, you will have all this enthusiasm and passion to pour into the project, other people will pick up on that and then they will like it too.  THAT, my friends, is The Secret!

I know what you're saying:

That's A Secret?!

Sure, you're right.  Everyone know it, on some level.  But how many people actually, truly, follow it?

Yours Truly,

Timothy A. Sayell

We're having an adventure--just like in "The Goonies"!

Greetings Fellow Adventurers!

You may (or may not) have noticed that the title of today's post is a quote by the inimitable Crow T. Robot of Mystery Science Theater 3000 (I only quote from the best!).  

So, people seem to have certain questions that they always ask when they converse with people in various jobs.  How'd you get into it?  What did you specialize in this instead of that?  What inspired you to do this?  What gave you the idea for that? 

For a writer, people usually ask "what do you write?"  If you say you write instruction manuals for electric toothbrushes, their eyes glass over and they lose interest.  But when you say you write fiction, they perk up and ask, "What kind?"

They expect you to say "Fantasy" or "Sci-Fi" or "Mystery" or "Thrillers" or something like that.  And if it's a genre they're interested in, they press for further details.

I like to say "I write adventure stuff!"  That kinda throws them off.  They ask what that means and I explain that sometimes I write fantasy, sometimes sci-fi, pulp hero, weird western...but its ALL adventure! 

So, what exactly IS "adventure"?  This is what it says on Wikipedia:  

In the Introduction to the Encyclopedia of Adventure Fiction, Critic Don D'Ammassa defines the genre as follows:

.. An adventure is an event or series of events that happens outside the course of the protagonist's ordinary life, usually accompanied by danger, often by physical action. Adventure stories almost always move quickly, and the pace of the plot is at least as important as characterization, setting and other elements of a creative work.

But hey, what does Wikipedia know, right?   No, I'm kidding, that's a very succinct definition.  The great thing about adventure is that it can be dressed up in so many ways.  

Do you like stories where the lone barbarian fights his way through the goblin horde to kill the evil wizard?  Read the one about the disgraced archaeologist who accidentally finds the lost city in the jungle and has to stop the demented chieftain from declaring war upon the outside world?  Or the one about the cloaked vigilante who stalks the city's criminal underworld and uncovers a plot by a local kingpin to swipe the prototype laser cannon from the local secret government lab?  How about stories where the planetary colonist fights his way past the martian armies to save his girlfriend from the alien warlord?    That's Adventure, Son!  

Of course, there's no question that guys like Conan, Luke Skywalker, and Indiana Jones are in adventure stories.  However, it seems like adventure IS their normal life!  This isn't always the case, of course.  There are tons of stories that show the ONE adventure this person/these people had.

There are countless Disney family films...like "The Million Dollar Duck" or "The Cat From Outer Space" or dozens of others that are stand-alone stories.  There were the kids in "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial", or the ones in "The Goonies".  Frodo had one long series of smaller adventures, but after "Lord of the Rings" never went out to find more adventures like Bilbo did.  They all seem to have had one single adventure, then went back to their normal lives.  Well, of course, this didn't work too well for Frodo.

Now, this is a little more realistic.  People mostly seem to lead dull, boring lives.  If they're lucky...or perhaps its more appropriate to say UNlucky...their lives could be touched by a small piece of adventure.  Like being at the public event when the bomb goes off, or at the bank when the masked robbers burst in.  Of course, these are traumatizing events, and "the adventure" ends for most people with the end of the incident itself.

Of course, for entertainment purposes, this is harder to market.  That's why you have A hero, or perhaps A TEAM of heroes that have adventure after adventure after adventure.  Then you have to wonder about the Hero's uncanny luck, he never seems to sustain a great deal of damage...but then, he can't!  Cuz if he did, he wouldn't be able to come back next week/month for the next exciting adventure!  But this never slowed down the Shadow, or Beretta, or Napoleon Solo.

This is most easily fixed with A TEAM of heroes.  This adventure primarily features Team Member A, though some of the others are present as secondary characters.  Next book/movie/episode uses Team Member B as the primary character, again with some of the other team members playing back up.  This could be a good set-up for a group like G. I. Joe.

So what's the point to this rambling drivel?  Did I even have one when I started?  I'm starting to wonder that, myself!

The basic point I'm trying to make is that adventure comes in all shapes and sizes.   Adventure stories can be about knights, or pirates, or spies, or cowboys, or cops.  These can all be intriguing and exciting, I like them all and see no reason to choose one over the other.  

So I dabble in all these genres...or sub-genres.  And that's why I--ever so humbly--call myself a Terrific Adventure Scribe!

And if YOU like adventure in any of its forms, you're invited to come along for the ride!  You're sure to find something you like!

Good Adventuring!

Yours Truly,
Timothy A. Sayell

Hello and Welcome!

Hey-ho and what-do-ya-know!

I see you've found your way here to my Home Base, my Head-Quarters, my Secret Lair, my Sanctum Santorum!  Which means that you must have found the clues, solved the riddles, and followed the trail less traveled; in short, you answered the Call To Adventure!

Yes, I know, right now you're saying "What is this idiot talking about?  All I did was click a link!"

And that link led you straight here, to The Adventure Site, the official online HQ of neo-pulp adventure fictioneer:  Timothy A. Sayell!  (cue kazoo fanfare)

What does all that mean?  The short version is that I'm an author.  What do I write?  Well, I write adventure stories in various genres.  I write Sword and Sorcery, Sword and Planet, High Fantasy, Space Opera, Pulp Hero, and a few weird cross-genre things that are a little harder to classify.

Yeah, but have you actually been published?  Sure I have!  I've had stories appear in webzines like Raygun Revival, Flashing Swords, and Abandoned Towers.  Some of my stories appeared in Big Pulp Magazine, and a few anthologies.  Sadly, these ezines are now defunct, but the physical magazines and anthologies are still available at Amazon and a few other places online.

So I bet you're wondering what sorts of things influence my writing.  And even if you're not, I'll tell ya anyway!  Well, to start with, there are the normal things from TV and Movies:  Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century,  Conan the Barbarian, Land of the Lost, Thundarr the Barbarian and various works by George Pal, Roger Corman, and films derived from the works of H.G. Wells and Jules Verne.   These somehow lead me backwards to the old Saturday afternoon chapter serials that used to accompany a movie and a cartoon at the local theater back in, like, the 1940's.  I'm talking things like Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, The Phantom Empire, Undersea Kingdom, and King of the Rocketmen!

But those are movies, you're supposed to be a writer!  What are your literary influences?!  My list starts off sounding like most other genre writers, I suspect.  Because it starts off with J.R.R. Tolkien, Fritz Lieber, Robert E. Howard, Leigh Brackett, Edmond Hamilton, C.L. Moore, Henry Kuttner.  I learned that most of these folks first published their stories in old Pulp Magazines, and I started learning about and collecting stories from other great authors from the Pulps.  Folks like Norvell Page, Lester Dent, Emile Tepperman, Wayne Rogers, and many, many others.

So, how did you get into writing?  I think I'll place a lot of blame and credit on role-playing games.  In my opinion, a role-playing game is sort of like a group storytelling session.  Each player controls the actions of one character in the story, the game master tells us what happens in the story as the result of the various players' actions.  I was fascinated with the prospect of Dungeons and Dragons, but for a long time I had no one willing to play it with me.  So, I studied it, made up my own situations, and eventually started to write them down.  I learned of other games, like Gamma World and Star Frontiers, but I had never even seen physical copies of these games.

Of course, I eventually did play Dungeons and Dragon...a LOT.  And it did inspire some of the stories I've written, and some I'm still working on.  Other games have sparked other ideas, and so have pulp magazines, old radio shows, and movies.

So I write the kind of stuff I like.  And what I like is fun escapist adventure!  Sometimes that means storming the castle, sometimes it means trekking across the ruined city of a post-apocalyptic earth.  Sometimes it means seeking a lost treasure in a hidden temple in the jungle, or following a masked vigilante as he tracks down the mad bomber that wants to level the city, or even zooming my starfighter past planets to engage in the epic space battle!

That's Amazing Stuff!

Ya think so?  Well so do I!  What are we waiting for?  Let's assemble the expedition, and get this safari started!  If you're after adventure, excitement, and pure pulp fun join me on the journey and together we'll answer the Call To Adventure!

Yours Truly,
Timothy A. Sayell