now writing THE RANSOM KNIGHT
I’m now writing THE RANSOM KNIGHT, the short story I’m going to give away with MASK OF SWORDS. Like the other two DEMONSOULED short stories (THE WANDERING KNIGHT and THE TOURNAMENT KNIGHT), it takes place when Mazael Cravenlock is a young knight and Gerald Roland is his squire.
They’re always fun to write because Mazael at twenty-four is a much rougher and more reckless man than he is by the end of the DEMONSOULED series – his primary interests are fighting, beautiful women, alcohol, fighting, gambling, and fighting, though he still has a moral core that Sir Nathan and Master Othar hammered into him (even if that core conflicts quite frequently with what he really wants to do). So he can get into trouble in ways that his older self would know to avoid. Of course, older Mazael still has all of his younger self’s destructive impulses, but now they’re backed up by self-restraint and a lot of battle experience, which means he can make considerable trouble for someone who challenges him. 🙂
-JM