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"Chase the horizon and never stop. Keep chasing it." - N/A, 2005  After my crazy May and June so far, I have been everywhere. Which, I should say, explains my lack of a May blog post: finishing up No Tears (Reckoning), getting ready for my local renaissance festival on cast (5th year), selling 38 of my 40 books in stock since March (yahoo!!!!!), and welcoming our third child into the world (pictured above) last week. Then starting said renaissance festival last weekend, which is to last for 7 more weekends. Oh, and we spent 3 days in the hospital this week and just got home tonight. To say the least, it has been crazy busy. I know that all sounds like a lot of excuses for a lack of a May blog post. To not delay any further, the blog post is below. The memory I am about to detail is very dear to me, so I hope you walk away with as much wisdom as I did some 19 years ago. I do not remember the precise words in the above quote at the top of this blog, their lasting impact lost to the sands of time that a 20-year-old Firefighter did not write down some 19 years ago now. I was working as a Volunteer Firefighter, gaining my experience before progressing my career years later to the paid ranks, and working full-time as an EMT for a local ambulance company. It was during a routine transport call working for the ambulance company that an older patient told me the above wisdom (quote) that has stuck with me ever since. It was a defining moment in my life and one I think on every-so-often. Like our favorite Holy Bible verses we like quoting, I have more oftentimes than not left out his following words of wisdom (that I will retell below). And this will be important later on. He was a 1960s rocker, traveling the rock craze that swept through America in the 1960s. I do not believe he served in the Vietnam War or the military, because our whole conversation centered around him traveling the United States with his rock band and following other rock bands as a groupie in his 20s and 30s. He went where the winds blew and smiled at the many memories he had gained, memories that kept an older man young and happy many years later. He had no regrets, except for one (detailed below), and was unapologetic for the crazy life he lived. He was, looking back historically, the very definition of the heart of the 1960's young American; maybe not a "Hippie" as history may coin him, but a rebel. A rebel against the system riding the crazy times that were the 1960s. At any rate, the man had lived a life and unfortunately, how he put it to me, he was dying. The unrestrained indulgence of pleasures that his rebellious memories told a story of had finally caught up to him. I was going to be his last chance to impart some type of wisdom to carry on, as much for the wisdom of life contained within his words as it would be for his own memory in life in this world to carry on would be. If I remember correctly, he had a sibling (a sister I think) but no children or living parents to carry on his legacy or memory. This was it. The final green mile, the fading into---as he amply put to me---the horizon. As I do now 19 years later, I hold this moment in rare honor, a moment to not be dealt with in any way other than with deep respect. He had one regret: it was a girl. As much as the winds of adventure and rebellion called to him, this girl called to his heart. He was in love, and it would be the only love he truly loved as he told me. I remember watching his eyes fade into a distant memory, his smile of adventurous memories disappear, and a longing---a regret---fall over his face and eyes. As much as he had told me to chase the horizon, he looked to me and said, his voice distant and full of painful regret: "When you find a girl and you know she's the one to settle down with, stop. Stop chasing the horizon. I wish I would have stopped; I saw myself marrying her. We were in love." It was in that moment that he smiled, a reflection of years and of his one and only regret in a life he otherwise enjoyed to the fullest. "But I couldn't stop chasing the horizon." While my 20-year-old steel suited emotional abyss of a brain could not understand it then, I certainty (19 years later), understand the impact of those solemn words now after living my own life and nearing 40 years old. A wife, two children (now 3), and a house have all come after chasing the horizon and after fulfilling my own amazing journey of ups, downs, crazy turns, and wild decisions. While the "American Dream" of home ownership and children may be standard fair for some, it was not an outcome or a destiny that I thought was in my cards. I was so dedicated to the fire department, so dedicated to chasing that horizon, that I never slowed down (just like the rocker). While God had different plans and a back injury ended my fire service career after only 5 years---and I could spend years discussing the "horizon" and crazy memories that I had with Jesus Christ during and the years immediately after the fire department---it was that back injury and God's unrelenting course correction in my life that has me where I am today. And as much as I feel that I have "settled down" and found that girl and am in the process of raising a family, I find that my book writing is as much indicative to my current walk with Jesus Christ in the context of a family (instead of a young 20's year-old man coming out of the fire department): chasing that horizon in a new way, a new context, and not slowing down. A way of chasing the horizon that maybe that 1960's rocker didn't know about or never had the opportunity to experience? A new "type" of horizon for me? I am chasing the horizon with my book writing and after doing this very seriously with research & writing since about 2018 (ish), I find the journey of chasing that horizon becoming more and more profound and deep. And yet, that 1960 rocker's wisdom holds true in yet another sense: keep the priority the priority. Maybe I don't have to "settle down" for a girl, like he did, but I need to keep my new horizon in context to what I have gained beforehand by stopping and not chasing the horizon endlessly, only seeking for the next adventure and not realizing what I already have before me. Where does my book writing go from here? Where does the horizon end? Does it end? If you would have asked me back in April of this year if I would have sold 38 out of 40 books in physical stock that I have (in less than 2 months), I would have called you a liar. Yet here we are. Could it be a short burst of excitement before the waters of reality once again overtake the fishing boat in the lake? Or should I trust in Jesus Christ, trust in the moment, and chase the horizon and see where this book writing adventure goes? Can I get to 100 books sold since 2016? Even more? What does the horizon and this journey hold for me? “Someday. But not today.”
Giovanni Salzano pg. 7; No Tears (Reckoning)
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"The hardest thing about getting started, is getting started." - Guy Kawasaki, N/A date I was beyond blessed and honored to be at my first event in Colorado Springs, Colorado as an author! While I have been taking my authorship serious since 2016/2017 and really hit the gas after 2019, I have always maintained with my wife that my book writing would never interfere with our family needs. Essentially, I have paid for my book writing and associated outputs and inputs in all cash, never going into debt. Hence, while I may get jealous (and I do sometimes!) about authors going to events all the time, I realize that everything I do is in the realm of cash and as such, my output and marketing reach is limited to that financial factor. Not to say that other authors are going into debt for such activities, but knowing that my outputs, inputs, and marketing as an author myself are inherently limited by design whereas theirs may not be.  With all of that said, back to being blessed, a friend of mine blessed me with a table for my very first event! He knew I did not have the cash on hand for any events this year----and it was even a penny-stretch getting my own inventory up for the event beforehand to be sure----so he bought a table for me to start getting the wheels in motion for bigger and better things. I will be honest, I went into the event thinking I would sell one book, maybe two if I was lucky. I saw some of the other author tables with their elaborate marketing and sales signs and table clothes compared to my little table and my heart sank like a rock, surely just one book would be a surprise even! But long behold, I went into the event with 34 books of all 3 of my current titles with 9 books reserved for future readers. So, 25 books essentially. Of the 25 books, I sold 11 books! 11 books for my first event! I was floored. Yes, yes, maybe this is small pickings for some. But for my little corner of historical fiction, man, I was excited! I tracked all my sales, both for that wonderful word of taxes but also because I wanted to see which books I sold more of. I used a variety of selling pitches---and used both cosplay and professional dress different days---the first day and really zeroed in on what worked and used that the second day. I sold one extra book the second day with---as I predicted---"A Story of the Beginning (Revised Edition)" outselling the other books. The increase in sales on "Book Zero" was intended, as I was able to pull in a lot of people who were on the fence with the smaller and cheaper book. While this is basic sales 101, Book Zero just so happens to be my personal favorite book, so it was a win-win for both the reader and me. I had one of the larger authors at the event give me some advice on card placement, where I added cards down the middle of the table in between the books the second day (instead of just the card holder by my signage). And I also traded a book-for-a-book with another author at the event.
“You cannot simply fight with your comrades. You must also enjoy the elements of life beyond that if you are to truly gain their trust.”
Lafontaine Vayssière pg. 290; No Tears (Northern Company) "Write any story that you feel like writing. Just be sure you make it a good story." - Robert Erisman, "Writer's Digest" (April, 1941) I missed February! I am so sorry; it was a very busy month between work and doctor appointments & hospital visits for the kids, that before I knew it, it was March! My deepest apologies. Now, to the business at hand. Or should I say unresolved business? I do have some good news from the busy schedule of February that I would like to begin with: I will be going to my first live event to sell my books! Nervous? Yes! However, an opportunity came across my path that I could not pass up, where two friends of mine were doing the same event and decided to surprise me with getting me a table on their dime in April. Naturally, I was both blessed and at a loss of words. While I will be attending said event with a limited supply of physical books---what I could afford to stock up with, as we have a third child on the way and all available financial resources are going towards saving up for and getting ready for the arrival day---I will nonetheless hope to at least get my name out there beyond the digital reach of the internet. If I can sell the 21 books (7 copies of each title of my books) then I will be a very blessed & happy man. Now, the name of this blog post does not sound like something to relate to the doing of business and sales. And you would be most correct! While I might have mentioned this in a prior blog post, I can now officially say I am neck-deep in the editing process of No Tears (Reckoning). Despite my best efforts and the desire to keep the book to a shorter length like No Tears (Northern Company) verses No Tears (Inheritance), I will be completing the Reckoning storyline in the next novel which, if all things go as planned, will be the final book to the No Tears series. I wanted to avoid a Part I & Part II in the Reckoning story, as I wanted to preserve the unique titling for each book and each book's stand-alone nature. Admittingly, I might reverse course on this and end up doing a Part I & Part II but---as it stands 5 chapters into editing---I will be maintaining the stand-alone titles. I think I can do it, as I had decided through my draft notes to move a story element to the next series of books that I was going to originally explore in the No Tears series. Time will tell, as the old saying goes. Now, to finally explain that blog post title. Reckoning and if there is a Part 2 of the same title, is very much a bridge book. It serves as the story vein from the first 2 books of the No Tears series and to the last book, setting up all lingering unresolved business/story plots to be correctly resolved. And that last statement (correctly resolved) brings me to the point of this blog post; while looking back at things and through several constructive reviews, I understand that I could have wrote No Tears faster. Instead of a slow burn Lord of the Rings or Wheel of Time approach, I could have written a faster story like a Mission Impossible themed approach or James Bond approach. Especially for Bond, a rich & detailed story that is nonetheless action packed and wrapped up in a few days. However, like Lord of the Rings or Wheel of Time, I was exploring an incredibly rich world with historical characters & events that, I feel, deserved as much time and detail as the title character in Giovanni Salzano did. And that brings me to my last point: I was and am telling a story about Giovanni Salzano: it is his story, his pain, his future, and his complex path that we are following through these historical characters & events, which all such things added together, will take time to write, flush out, and read. I am not trying to write books to make a living or steal people's hard-earned money with lightly detailed or fluff-added stories. Instead, I want to tell such a rich story that you can pick any character in the books---Giovanni, Margaret, William de Croy, etc.----and find both a reason to love or hate them and to follow their story more than anyone else's in the books. “There is no honorable way to fight. When you are fighting for your life, it does not matter how you fight, as long as you survive. Fight dirty, it will not matter how you ended it to the dead man."
Marcus Felix Brutus pg. 174; A Story of the Beginning (Revised Edition) "Devin, I've led a soldier's life, and I've never seen anything as brutally clear as this. It's as if I can actually see the blue troops in one long, bloody moment, goin' up the long slope to the stony top. As if it were already done... already a memory. An odd... set... stony quality to it. As if tomorrow has already happened and there's nothin' you can do about it. The way you sometimes feel before an ill-considered attack, knowin' it'll fail, but you cannot stop it. You must even take part, and help it fail." - General Buford, "Gettysburg" (1993) I am terribly sorry for the delayed blog post for this month and the shortness at that! In brief, since the middle of November of 2023, my wife and I have been doing necessary maintenance on our house. Not improvements, but the necessary nuts & bolts that keep the roof over our head, the heat on, and the water running. The joys of home ownership. With that said, we are just coming out of the cycle of repairs and my time will be more flexible henceforth going forward. In that vein of discussion, the irreversible course of repairs in home ownership brings me to an interesting question. Why? At the end of A Story of the Beginning (Revised Edition), we find the young Giovanni Salzano stripped of everything: his family, his home, his friends, and his wealth. Now a hunted man in an ever increasingly smaller world, the Italian was alone. As much as he could have run to Venice or to anyone of his uncle's wealthy connections, instead, he chose to fight. He became a mercenary. But instead of simply learning the "skills" he needed to find revenge against Father Saul, the Venetian seemingly threw his whole lot behind the identity, culture, and actions of a mercenary. What was Giovanni's end goal? To get his revenge and ride off into the sunset? To marry Felicia Vitali, his childhood romance, and live a life happily ever after as if nothing had happened? Live a life assuming nothing more would come of his actions once Father Saul was dead? In an isolated review of Giovanni's actions, the younger Salzano's end would be as miserable and daunting as the fate of Father Saul, no matter if Giovanni Salzano survived his fateful mission or not. The above quote from the movie Gettysburg (1993) has always been one of my favorite quotes in any movie or book. To me, as Giovanni took that first step into the life of a mercenary in Chapter 11 (Origin) of A Story of the Beginning (Revised Edition), he felt that there was no going back and no way to fix anything. Not only that and even moreover, he felt that everything that had happened previously to him had set him on a path that there was no deviation from, that in a way he had now started down a course of action that he must see the conclusion to, good or bad. In short, he saw the irreversible context of the moment and the destiny therewithin and he kept to the course, assuming there was no alternative. And maybe it was that sense of irreversible and destiny that will, in time, either vindicate or damn Giovanni Salzano. “You are a mercenary, Giovanni Salzano! It is in your blood! In your last name! You have more than vengeance left!”
Marcus Felix Brutus pg. 167; A Story of the Beginning (Revised Edition) "Though the winter night may be long and cold; wisdom beams through the old moon's soul." - Angie Welland-Crosby, N/A date First and foremost, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. I hope this festival season brings joy, health, and love to you and yours. This month's blog post will, admittedly, be short. Both because of the holidays and the simple fact that I am neck deep in the final chapters of my next book to release, No Tears (Reckoning). In that vein of thought, I should mention that the No Tears series will be coming to an end soon; not the end as in my writing of the stories following Giovanni Salzano and his adventures but, rather, that the current story arch will be coming to an end. Originally planned as a 3-book and then a 5-book series, I feel that I can confidentially wrap up the storylines set up in No Tears (Northern Company) within Reckoning and one more book after that, concluding a 4-book series. While I have the next book already planned and the next three series outlined after that (yes, three!), I do not want to overstay my welcome in the No Tears series and see a good time to exit and end on a high note, rather than try to squeeze out an extra book "just because" and ruin the much good I have accomplished thus far. With all that said, it has been snowing off-and-on in Colorado as of recently and, with winter finally settling in, more snow is on the way. With snow planned for tomorrow as I drive up north to meet up with my author mentor and good friend Joseph for lunch, I was reminded that all drafts of No Tears (Northern Company) were started with snow as the environmental backdrop. And I am, in turn, further aware that the book after No Tears (Reckoning) will begin in the snow. A fitting end, I believe, to the No Tears series: snow to snow. What is next for our Venetian mercenary, Giovanni Salzano? I have 3 series planned afterward, roughly 8 more books. This is not a solid book or series count, but I do believe it to be more or less within the ballpark I will be hitting in. Why 8 more books? As much as 4 more books seems like a lot in the No Tears series, with the various characters and stories at play since A Story of the Beginning (Revised Edition) and No Tears (Northern Company), I do believe finding a sooner ending point would be a disservice to the storylines, avoiding the necessary depth I do believe the initial and complex story & world of Giovanni Salzano deserves. “Death, Giovanni Salzano, will follow you the rest of your days. Mark my words.”
Captain Lafontaine Vayssière pg. 29; No Tears (Northern Company) "Before we can build the world we want to live in, we have to imagine it." - Simon Sinek, N/A date In October's blog post, we explored the foundational aspects of No Tears (Northern Company) and how that built from the original story of A Story of the Beginning (2016; out of print, still available via the Special Edition Hard Cover Edition of Northern Company). Essentially a soft reboot of both the character & story of Giovanni Salzano the Traveling Mercenary, the reboot labeled No Tears was a play on & reference to what Corradeo Salzano---Giovanni’s father---tells our main character both in the 2016 original and later in the 2022 edition, A Story of the Beginning (Revised Edition). I have included both the 2016 & 2022 versions of that touching and emotionally wrenching story segment below; for our eagle-eyed readers, they will notice the subtle writing differences, detail choices, deeper tones, and spelling & grammar differences between the 2016 & 2022 scenes play out. A Story of the Beginning, 2016 (pg. 13-14) “NOW,” Corradeo Salzano said, kneeling down in front of his eleven year-old son and holding him by the shoulders, “You are my son. And I am proud of you. Very, very proud of you. Today, you become a man.” A Story of the Beginning (Revised Edition), 2022 (pg. 9-10) “NOW,” Corradeo Salzano said, kneeling in front of his twelve-year-old son and holding him by the shoulders, “You are my son. And I am proud of you. Very, very proud of you. Today, you become a man.” If No Tears was as much as a play on and reference to Giovanni's own childhood circumstances, then equally so, it could be predicted that No Tears to be a foreshadowing element to the early and foundational challenges and events that would shape Giovanni into "The Traveling Mercenary". With the foundational and reboot aspects of our story drawn and laid out in No Tears (Northern Company), and our characters established, it was now time to dive into the lore and stories of Giovanni's world that Northern Company established. To this end, we turned to No Tears (Inheritance). To the extent that I am able to say this without sounding less civilized in my demeanor, the writing of No Tears (Inheritance) was hell. Absolute and utter hell. It was, to put it politely and not to risk my standing in such gentleman circles, an experience I wish to never, ever repeat again. Ever. And yet, at the end of it all, it could very well be one of my most beloved books as an author. Where Northern Company reintroduced us to Giovanni's world in 2021 and gave us a fresh beginning and paint job verses the 2016 original story and the Revised Edition reestablished the reboot to connect to the character's early beginnings in 2022, then Inheritance rightfully so had to go forward. It could not go backwards as in the Revised Edition or be able to establish new canon as in Northern Company, instead, Inheritance had to take both of the previous works and move the story forward. This task of simply moving forward was more complicated and difficult than I would have ever imagined. Why? Northern Company's scope was limited yet had the hallmarks of a wide-ranging story. Inheritance had to have a wide-ranging story, yet with the hallmarks of a limited story. Reversing the storytelling was difficult. Inheritance had the difficult task of having to feel deep, in both story and world, yet be flexible enough to be isolated in locale and temporal scope, and still yet still connect all the emerging and different storylines from both the Revised Edition and Northern Company. Was it successful? With different storylines and characters at play, the author manages to organize and connect these storylines, each contributing significantly to the main plot. The book was divided into three sections that focused on different parts of their journey as mercenaries. The author provided references to other series of the book and also narrated some terms and the origins of some items. This made the book easier to read. Even though this is the third book in the Mercenary series, there was no confusion. --- Online Book Club; Flourish Sunday, April 2023 You decide for yourself. As for me, personally, the writing of Part III, or the Third Act, in Inheritance was one of the most rewarding experiences thus far of being an author. It was essentially a massive rewrite of the last 1/3 of the book, spanning from December 2022 when I was originally done writing the book through to that January and early February of 2023. Without that rewrite and the, now, infamous events of Mont-Cenis Pass from page 333 through to the end of the book on page 550 (the Epilogue runs from pg. 551-556), I do not think the book would have been successful, let alone the No Tears series to continue where it is today. And it is from that deep rooted embodiment of No Tears in the Third Act of Inheritance that I truly believe we get the deep, emotional, and artistically expansive introductions of No Tears (Reckoning) in Chapters One & Two. Back to the beginning point of it being hell to write, since the previous explanation was brief in both nature and detail. Simply put, I had the structure & the foundational concepts of Giovanni's world from Northern Company and the lore behind it all from the Revised Edition. I had yet to put both of those different books and stories together into a singular series; until Inheritance, each book had---to that point---been more or less a stand-alone story on its own merits. Inheritance was the first attempt to not only bring both it and Northern Company together as part of the No Tears series, but also integrate the Revised Edition's story & events into the cornerstone and prelude to the No Tears books. As the title of his blog suggests, Inheritance took the pivotal jump from Characters & World to giving the Lore some teeth to flush everything else out set before it and pave the way going forward for both the No Tears series and future books with Giovanni Salzano the Traveling Mercenary. It was this Herculean task that Inheritance had to balance that made the writing so difficult yet, still, so rewarding especially with the final Third Act. “Death comes for us all, Lafontaine. You. Me. The peasant. The king. The slave. It spares no one and strikes with utter consistency. But what lives beyond our death is what we lived for.”
Duke Karl von Egmond pg. 179; No Tears (Northern Company) "When writing a novel a writer should create living people; people not characters. A character is a caricature." - Ernest Hemingway, N/A date In last month's blog post, I touched on the early stages of the character of Giovanni Salzano, the genesis of the character's journey, and the importance of Jane De Longh's Margaret of Austria: Regent of the Netherlands (1953) in the 2022 Revised Edition of A Story of the Beginning (Revised Edition). Correctly named A Folktale and a Duchess, the introductory blog post amply laid out that Giovanni Salzano and his story as we know it today would not be here without the historical Margaret of Austria (1480-1530). Now, we move on from the genesis of the character---both the original 2016 A Story of the Beginning and the 2022 revised edition of the same name---and to the 2021 No Tears (Northern Company). But fear not, as you can no doubt deduce by the title of this blog and its opening quote by Ernest Hemingway, I aim not to give you a highlight reel of the greatest moments of that book. Rather, I wish to expand upon the very dubious expectation of success that No Tears (Northern Company) encountered, the book being---in all intents and purposes---a soft reboot of the story and world of Giovanni Salzano that was first laid out on the 2016 original book. As I explain in the FAQ of this website, Northern Company took 5 years to write. While I would love to sit here and talk stories of daring adventure and battles between the pen, the paper, and the writer, such stories would be of greater fictional prowess than a child's imagination. And as such, the very credential of me being an author---however new or seasoned in such an endeavor I may be---would be in doubt. To say that the 2 1/2 years of research, done both consistently and in between drafts of Northern Company, was enjoyable and energizing would be a very accurate statement. I love history and exploring it and the process of that journey was my own private addiction. Conversely, to say that the writing experience in putting that historical research into a story was as equally addictive or provoking would be less than accurate; however, that is not to say I was a slave against my will working thanklessly at the task----I did find plenty of enjoyment, but at the expense of much labor I did not foresee. Northern Company was my first serious book. As I explain in the introduction of the 2022 Revised Edition, A Story of the Beginning (2016) was, "...originally a small sampling of ideas, thoughts, and many years of characterization, roleplay, and historical research brought together and refined into a story about a singular character: Giovanni Salzano the Traveling Mercenary." Given the barebones nature, both story & characters and historically, of A Story of the Beginning (2016), tackling the task of Northern Company was as much a goliath undertaking as a new author as it was an exercise in world building for the main character of Giovanni Salzano. Having the foundation of Jane De Longh and other supporting works, such as James D. Tracy (Holland Under Habsburg Rule, 1506-1566; 1990) and James C. Kennedy (A Concise History of the Netherlands; 2017), I had the cornerstone for the world of Giovanni Salzano the Traveling Mercenary. But much like a house built from the ground up, I had the framework for the structure, but I had yet to put on the walls, put in the windows, or populate the inside of the house with rooms and doors. Let alone plumbing and electricity. But even with all that work ahead of me, I had one glaring issue: I could build a world, but I needed characters to live in it. Believable characters. Taking the approach of the historical background of the Netherlands and Margaret of Austria herself, I wanted the characters to be as believable as the world they lived in. I wanted Giovanni to be as fallible as a 17 year-old man should be----given the context of the early 1500s and social expectations verses our modern society in play a course---and the non-historical characters around him to be equally so. Whereas Giovanni Salzano brought a naiveness into the larger world of No Tears he entered, Lafontaine Vayssière needed to be as morally indifferent and counter to Giovanni, but not so much as I ventured into the non-realistic Hollywood tropes of good & bad characters. As much as Klaus Wolff came off as the stereotypical large, muscled soldier of the company, I also needed him to have a dysfunctional and believable attachment to the world he inhabited, that attachment being his relationship with his brother, Lars Wolff. For as much as Giovanni needed to be the "green" mercenary of the company of soldiers, he also needed a grounding to give him a springboard emotionally and a vehicle to mature in his world beyond the shallow approach of past experiences (A Story of the Beginning) and fictional sword fighting; that springboard would be Benjamin Bakker. I could go on-and-on about the details to enrich Giovanni Salzano's world, but I believe you get the point. I could not simply make characters to highlight Giovanni and his story, I had to make people, people to grow the world beyond Giovanni but also keep the focus on the Italian mercenary without it being overbearing in its approach. Once I had the foundation, framework, and characters for the story, I had to start to color in the world of Giovanni Salzano the Traveling Mercenary. As much as the historical events and persons gave a road to follow and barriers to stay within, the fictional characters of the story had to provide the vehicle to drive on that road. It was this process that was, perhaps, the hardest. I had the historical background, the world the characters lived in, and the characters themselves to give flavor to that world. But now I had to somehow make it all work together. Threading the needle between historical accuracy and story was a challenging endeavor; having committed to being as faithful to the source material as possible, I had pigeonholed myself into a commitment I had little understanding of how much labor would be required for it. This commitment and balance with story led me to other source materials and even corrections for No Tears (Inheritance), including Geoffrey Parker (Emperor: A New Life of Charles V; 2019) and Leonie Frieda (Francis I: The Maker of Modern France; 2018). In light of this commitment and various source materials, it still came down to the characters---the people---to drive the story forward. If the character/people value failed with the story, then the historical background and historical commitments would mean little in the end. The characters had to work, both historical and fictional, in the story. For as complex and detailed the journey of No Tears (Northern Company) was to simply lay the foundation and characters, the meat of that process would be the writing. The undeniable truth of me being a new author and essentially writing his first book, coupled with the pigeonholed expectations I put on myself, created a dynamic experience. Not only did I have to take this body of historical research and characters and translate them into a story, but I also had to learn how to write professionally. If memory serves me correct, I believe I did 5 or 6 rough drafts of the story, mostly through Part I (chapters 1 through 11); these were near complete rewrites too, not surface fixes. Once I got to Part II and Part III of No Tears (Northern Company), things fell into place and both the story, and my writing, not only took off but improved greatly. By the time I got to A Story of the Beginning (Revised Edition) the following year and No Tears (Inheritance) the year after that, I felt that both the story and especially my writing was falling into place more naturally. But it took many frustrating nights, weekends, and many mistakes with Northern Company to get those more refined processes and results later on. In conclusion and looking forward, it was a dance between world building and character development in No Tears (Northern Company) that laid the foundation for No Tears (Inheritance), a book that I truly felt took all the good of Northern Company and made it better, while taking the less desirable aspects of Northern Company and bringing it to acceptable levels. “No tears, son,” Corradeo said, trying his hardest to keep his own eyes dry, “No tears.”
--- Corradeo Salzano (16th century) --- A Story of the Beginning (Revised Edition), 2022 "A folktale by the candle of a late night in many a tavern." - Jason J Albano, 2023
What is a folktale? As defined by Dictionary.com, "A tale or legend originating and traditional among a people or folk, especially one forming part of the oral tradition of the common people." Or Merriam-Webster, "A characteristically anonymous, timeless, and placeless tale circulated orally among a people." The character of "Giovanni Salzano the Traveling Mercenary" has been a constant in the life of this author since 2011. What started out as an adventure in its own right has turned into a book character. I, more than anyone else I assure you, felt the idea of making a book about a medieval/fantasy character that I created to role play out fanciful dreams to be....well, should we say immature? Not to intent offense to those of us (me included) who roleplay such characters in the real world at festivals and events, but to instead bring the concept of that roleplaying character into a professional book. To clarify, at least in my mind in 2016, there was a difference between fantasy and adventure characters in a book, characters made for a book, and a roleplaying character made for life performances that found himself in a book. Does that clarify my train of thought? I thought, well, who is going to take me seriously? In all seriousness, my first 2016 book was just a fun little story. Free of the more rigid and thorough routines that I use to ensure my books now-a-days meet both a quality and historical accuracy bar, my very first book----simply titled Giovanni Salzano the Traveling Mercenary: A Story of the Beginning---was full of raw emotion and the simplicity to tell a story about a roleplaying character in a historical setting. Was it good writing? Well....no. Not at least compared to my more recently released titles. Was it historically accurate? Compared to my more recent works, most definitely not. Was it in the right timeframe? Oh yes, a course. The "big details" were right, all the small historical details that matter the most were wrong. Looking back, although I had plans to write a follow-up book, I honestly never thought it would happen deep down inside. So, in my mind, the book would act as a stand-alone entry. Something that, to date, only ever sold 7 copies. Thank God in retrospect. So, there I was, from 2016 to 2021. Despite my ill intentions towards ever truly making a follow-up book, I picked up a copy of Margaret of Austria: Regent of the Netherlands by Jane De Longh (1953) in 2016. I vaguely remember doing some mindless research one night on wars in Europe to insert my roleplaying (now book) character into for the next story, using every serious history author and history teacher's worse dreaded word: Wikipedia. I found this little war in the Netherlands (Guelders War, 1502-1543). In the grand scheme of things to the untrained eye, a minor dust up that lasted way longer than it should have and, ultimately, of little importance when compared to The Thirty Years' War, etc. Once again, mind you, to the untrained eye. However, to the historical scholar and anyone interested in the early 1500s, one of the most important wars of the early 1500s and, surely, could be argued as the most important for a short time in context of who was directly involved for more political reasons than war reasons: the Holy Roman Emperor's daughter, Margaret of Austria. Daughter to an emperor, aunt to a future emperor, and regent during---arguably---one of the most important periods of history. Without Margaret, the Kingdom of France would rule Europe instead of the Holy Roman Empire during the 1500s. It would be the French king, Francis I, in history books we would read about, not the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V. Indeed, our own more modern history in the 20th century could look very different, even to the point of never having World War Two. Although I will leave the World War Two discussion to much more qualified individuals than myself. It would be through Longh's book that I received the first real idea of where I wanted to take Giovanni Salzano as a book character. More importantly from a roleplaying character to a book character. And it would change everything, turning this "would-be author" into "an author" and amassing my collected paperback and eBook academic collection on the Netherlands, the Guelders War, Margaret, and other closely related historical characters and events to over ten books, books from trusted academic sources and experts that I use as the historical bedrock of my storytelling. However, before we go too far into the future, we must come back to the beginning. In specific, "A Story" of a beginning. However much I lost myself in the rich history of the Netherlands, the Kingdom of France, the Holy Roman Empire, and everything and everyone else since 2016 from Longh to James D Tracy's Holland Under Habsburg Rule: 1506-1566 (1990) or Leonie Frieda's Francis I: The Maker of Modern France (2018), and Geoffrey Parker's Emperor: A New Life of Charles V (2019), I have---ultimately and after now 4 books and a 5th book on the way---maintained that "A Story of the Beginning" was about a folktale character. It was a story of raw emotion and simple tales. Did Giovanni Salzano the Traveling Mercenary really exist? A course not. But, in the character's raw spirit, can we not indulge ourselves that Giovanni Salzano saw history unfold before his very eyes? That he was there, interacting with, some of the biggest names in our history books? That, maybe, he did something to influence that history? Or was it all a story around the campfire? A desperate tale by those unlucky enough to not have riches or comfort to make-up a tale such as Robin Hood? Is Giovanni a hero? A villain? An anti-hero? Or could it simply be "A Story" of the beginning? What do folktales teach us? You decide. I hope you will join me in discovering this ancient folktale of a Giovanni Salzano, last told over 500 years ago. “He was loyal to the coin. Not much can be said of other men’s convictions. When we asked him to be a hero, he was. When we needed him to be a villain---he was that too. Sometimes, what is right and what is wrong is a hard thing. Are we God to judge a man’s actions of good or evil? Or is God the Judge and pray you, the Redeemer of men’s souls like Salzano’s?” --- Pope Clement VII (16th century) --- A Story of the Beginning (Revised Edition), 2022 |
Jason J Albano (author)A folktale by the candle of a late night in many a tavern. 
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