Tales of Tiberius: Backstory Blog

Did a bit of work on the Virgin and the Necromancer, the book that was supposed to be out in 2004.  You all may as well get something for the wait.  The story is still pretty sound but there are a few corrections that should be made as this is now a sequal to “Path of the Magi.”  e.g. Salina wasn’t a charcter when V&N was written.  Biggest change will be moving from first person to third person.  This allows for some cool new scenes to be added.  No timetable for when anyone will see this.  Ideally this would be about 4th on my priority list, but sometimes you just have to go with your muse.

Got the first bits of artwork recently.  Looks good.  I’ll be happy when I have something other than my scribbles to post.  : )

I was at I-Con recently.  Lots of helpful ideas for getting stories out into the e-book world.  Cleaning up word into postable stories is a bit of an art.  Who knew you couldn’t indent?  (Word’s paragraph format option does that for you apparently.)

I’m not against women soldiers.  In classical literature there are always a few woman knights around dating back to the stories of the Trojan wars.  They also have done good work on the real world battelfield, especially in long term guerrilla warfare scenarios.  I try to include woman warriors but I also try not to get carried away with this.  Historically woman warriors were not unheard of but they also were not common.  It’s also important to me to show that a woman can be strong without knowing how to use a sword.  Lady Anne is one of my favorite characters for that reason.

The New Model Legion is the military system of the Stewardship.  Colonists came to this new world starting about 1600 AD at a time when the longbow was going out of favor but was not forgotten.  When they came to the Anderheim (The new world of the Tales of Tiberius), they quickly learned guns wouldn’t work so they went back to the old Longbow armies.  As time went on and they had contact with other cultures and merged with a small Roman Colony they formed the New Model Legion dedicated to making the best pre-industrial army possible, subject to the realistic constraints of their resources.

What is historical fantasy?  The Tales of Tiberius are set in a fictional region which has been colonized by Europe much as were the American Colonies.  While some things are fantastic and magical, most of the world is a realm of historical fiction.  So while Tiberius the Magus may be able to teleport around the countryside, for the average citizien of the Stewardship, boats and horses don’t go any faster than they did back in Colonial America.  I do a lot of historical research trying to get the details right.  Hopefully we can have some fun and learn a few things kicking around some questions of history here.

This is the Blog of Richard J. Stuart, author of the Tales of Tiberius and other writings.  This blog isn’t officially open yet so if you’ve found this somehow, please be paitent patient while I get things started.  Visit the main site: www.talesoftiberius.com while you are waiting.  It’s not really open yet either but there is fun stuff there.