Michael Eging's Blog: The Silver Horn Echoes and Assorted Other Tales - Posts Tagged "vampires"
Inspirations
While at Awesome Con, and live author events, I have been asked what inspires some of my work.
I have been widely read in science fiction and fantasy since I was a kid growing up on a farm in Ohio. Some of my earliest favorite authors inspired my initial writing style, my topics, and work drew upon Edgar Allen Poe, Robert E. Howard, Tolkien, Michael Moorcock, and Roger Zelazny. Television, movies, and a love of history fueled my exploration of themes, characters, and situations.
Early on, I had a professor in college, "Doc" Smith, who along with other aspiring authors I interacted with in college, encouraged me through classes and work on the Leading Edge, a science fiction and fantasy magazine published by students at BYU. During this time 1985-1990, much of my short stories and poetry works were produced, including the award winning Lost Spell, Dancing with Demons , the award winning What's in a Name?, etc. This was a very productive period of my life as many of the stories were written as assignments in "Doc" Smith's short story class, as responses to religion and English classes, etc. Tales of the Lost Horizon grew from publishing the stand alone short stories in 2015 as a compilation of these works.
The poetry was also written during this earlier period. For example, Cry of the Hunt was was written to tell a story in poetic form for a college English class.
The most recent piece in the collection, Cast Iron Sights was written in 2020 for my daughter, Gwen. The inspiration to compile these stories also came from Gwen, who wanted to see work by her dad published during a time when we hadn't published anything new since late 2017, even if they were stories and poetry that she grew up remembering from her father sharing them with her. Fortunately, we found the works on both old hard drives and paper copy. We had a masterful editor; and Gwen worked with the artists to produce unique pieces for the compilation. She inspired me with her energy.
Steve and I wrote Annwyn's Blood in the early 1990's based on the short story written in the autumn of 1985 entitled One Dark Knight. That tale grew into a novel, and was shopped into the market place by the mid 1990's. At the time, many of our responses to the piece included commentary on how the vampire genre was over saturated, and yet we saw the 2000s explosion of interest in vampires and undead tales.
Paladin of Shadow Chronicles, which includes Annwyn's Blood, has drawn heavily from historical events, mythology, and imagination. I attended graduate school at the University of Maryland College Park, studying Byzantine and early Slavic history. Both Paladin of Shadow and The Silver Horn Echoes are grounded in this intellectual pursuit of understanding aspects of the late Roman and early medieval periods.
In the 2000s, I began work in writing screenplays. Of course, the story of Roland and his companions became the subject of my first optioned piece simply called Song of Roland. That was followed by Blood Money, in 2008, which grew from a story outline written by Steve and I. We completed Feast of St. Nicholas together in 2012. This was drawn from my love of old horror films, and the area where I grew up in Northeast Ohio, called the Western Reserve. So the script is steeped in the region, and the community I love so much.
Where do we go from here?
Paladin of Shadow Chronicles will tie together our exploration of the early medieval world in the final installment of that work, due out in 2025. I have begun outlining a new western screenplay entitled Son of Thunder and I intend to revisit the historical fantasy world of Roland. I continue to read primary sources from the period, and have found stories that yet need to be told. Be patient with me. I look forward to sharing them with you.
I have been widely read in science fiction and fantasy since I was a kid growing up on a farm in Ohio. Some of my earliest favorite authors inspired my initial writing style, my topics, and work drew upon Edgar Allen Poe, Robert E. Howard, Tolkien, Michael Moorcock, and Roger Zelazny. Television, movies, and a love of history fueled my exploration of themes, characters, and situations.
Early on, I had a professor in college, "Doc" Smith, who along with other aspiring authors I interacted with in college, encouraged me through classes and work on the Leading Edge, a science fiction and fantasy magazine published by students at BYU. During this time 1985-1990, much of my short stories and poetry works were produced, including the award winning Lost Spell, Dancing with Demons , the award winning What's in a Name?, etc. This was a very productive period of my life as many of the stories were written as assignments in "Doc" Smith's short story class, as responses to religion and English classes, etc. Tales of the Lost Horizon grew from publishing the stand alone short stories in 2015 as a compilation of these works.
The poetry was also written during this earlier period. For example, Cry of the Hunt was was written to tell a story in poetic form for a college English class.
The most recent piece in the collection, Cast Iron Sights was written in 2020 for my daughter, Gwen. The inspiration to compile these stories also came from Gwen, who wanted to see work by her dad published during a time when we hadn't published anything new since late 2017, even if they were stories and poetry that she grew up remembering from her father sharing them with her. Fortunately, we found the works on both old hard drives and paper copy. We had a masterful editor; and Gwen worked with the artists to produce unique pieces for the compilation. She inspired me with her energy.
Steve and I wrote Annwyn's Blood in the early 1990's based on the short story written in the autumn of 1985 entitled One Dark Knight. That tale grew into a novel, and was shopped into the market place by the mid 1990's. At the time, many of our responses to the piece included commentary on how the vampire genre was over saturated, and yet we saw the 2000s explosion of interest in vampires and undead tales.
Paladin of Shadow Chronicles, which includes Annwyn's Blood, has drawn heavily from historical events, mythology, and imagination. I attended graduate school at the University of Maryland College Park, studying Byzantine and early Slavic history. Both Paladin of Shadow and The Silver Horn Echoes are grounded in this intellectual pursuit of understanding aspects of the late Roman and early medieval periods.
In the 2000s, I began work in writing screenplays. Of course, the story of Roland and his companions became the subject of my first optioned piece simply called Song of Roland. That was followed by Blood Money, in 2008, which grew from a story outline written by Steve and I. We completed Feast of St. Nicholas together in 2012. This was drawn from my love of old horror films, and the area where I grew up in Northeast Ohio, called the Western Reserve. So the script is steeped in the region, and the community I love so much.
Where do we go from here?
Paladin of Shadow Chronicles will tie together our exploration of the early medieval world in the final installment of that work, due out in 2025. I have begun outlining a new western screenplay entitled Son of Thunder and I intend to revisit the historical fantasy world of Roland. I continue to read primary sources from the period, and have found stories that yet need to be told. Be patient with me. I look forward to sharing them with you.
The Silver Horn Echoes and Assorted Other Tales
Welcome to the world of Michael Eging! A place where time and space collide in works of fiction. Come along for the journey, but beware the dragons. They don't play in the sandbox well.
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