Today we welcome back Joe Hilliard, a prolific writer who has previously been showcased here! There’s an interview with Joe here, and a previous chopped scene from The Last Keeper here.
This time I’m sharing a deleted scene from Joe’s newest work in The Warminster Series, The Trillias Gambit.
“Don’t bite your thumb at the vermilion,
for to survive would be one in a million.”
– The Ballad of Eldwal
IT WAS MIDDAY, and King Godwin had been summoned to the walls by his guards amidst a great fanfare and ringing of bells, as was customary to greet a notable arrival to the city. Godwin saw them first from the battlements of the great castle, approaching at speed across the plains. For a brief instant, he worried that it was a military unit, but the numbers were too small and they flew the white flag of peace, as well as their own colors.
He recognized them immediately. They were flying the crimson banner of the Vermilion elves, a recluse race whose eyes and hair matched the hue of their standards. They were riding their signature horses, powder white stallions that had well-earned reputations as the finest mounts in the whole of Warminster.
Godwin was already in a sour, gruff mood from court the day before, and the sight of the Vermilion banners flying high in the wind threatened to push him over the edge. He paced the battlements for several minutes, his brow furrowed and his footsteps heavy as he retraced the same path backwards and forwards while the horsemen grew ever closer. And then, as though he’d arrived at an important and irreversible decision, he leaned over the battlements and spat on the grass far below. He hustled back inside and rang the bell for his servants before examining his surly visage in a looking glass. His face bore the telltale signs of fatigue, but it still projected the calm, regal authority for which he was known.
There was a sound and some movement from the hallway, and Godwin noted the arrival of Meeks Crowley, his personal butler. Crowley was a skinny human, standing over six feet with brown hair, brown eyes and a closely managed moustache. His bony frame was hidden by his servant’s tunic, thick boots and gloves.
“Sire?” Crowley said.
“Ah, Crowley,” Godwin replied, offhandedly. “Please arrange for a welcoming party to receive the Vermilion contingent at the gates.”
“Of course, sire.”
“Damned Vermilion.” Godwin shook his head, anticipating ill omen from them. “A visit from them is never good.”
“Quite, sire,” Crowley simpered. His eyes were watery, as though he’d just received devastating news, and he seemed to hang on to every word that the king spoke as though it was some sort of holy decree that had to be taken down for the benefit of future generations. “They rarely bother with any race, let alone humans.”
“Remind me,” King Godwin asked, “when was the last time that we had dealings with the Vermilion?”
“It’s been a generation, sire” Meeks replied. “Back when your father was on the throne. “The last time they were seen in this part of the realm, it was to help Sir Hertzog Valkeneer to prepare to defend the Bridge against a great alliance of trollborn tribes.”
“Ah, the Battle of the Bridge,” King Godwin remembered. “You’re correct, of course. The attack was repelled through an alliance between the Valkeneer and the Raven elves. We must make the Vermilion feel welcome. Go, send the welcoming party. And have my wife and the nobles summoned to court.”
“Of course, sire.”
SMART Time Investment for Business: 128 ways the best in business use their time – Kate Christie
Superminds: The Surprising Power of People and Computers Thinking Together – Thomas W. Malone
So Now You’re a Leader: 10 Precepts of Practical Leadership – Peter Stokes and John James
An interview with Jackson Simiana, author of “Starfall”
Some authors are able to pump out a novel a year and still be filled with inspiration. Is this the case for you, or do you like to let an idea percolate for a couple of years in order to get a beautiful novel?
About the book
I quite enjoyed this book and I’m giving it a solid 4 stars. It provides a refreshing take on business and entrepreneurship, shedding light on the real struggles in a down-to-earth way. The stories are cool, especially the ones about businesses hitting the skids after years of hustling – kind of a bummer but definitely eye-opening.
Considering that the book is titled “Optimist” it did not leave me feeling optimistic, as it primarily focuses on a pessimistic view of the future. While I comprehend its message, it fails to inspire motivation for future action.
Sara Hosey is the author of three young adult novels: Iphigenia Murphy, Imagining Elsewhere, and Summer People. Her short fiction been shortlisted for the Katherine Anne Porter Prize and the American Short Fiction Halifax Ranch Prize and has appeared in journals like Cordella Literary Magazine and Mudroom Magazine. She is a parent, a community college professor, and a tree enthusiast.
Dirty suburbias are working-class neighborhoods in which girls who are left to fend for themselves sometimes become predators, as well as affluent communities in which women discover that money is no protection against sexism, both their own and others’.
The way the book is set up didn’t quite click with me. The chapters and sections felt a bit all over the place, and I couldn’t really see the clear connections between them. It’s like everything just melted together without any standout points. A bunch of it was things I’ve seen and heard a million times before – nothing groundbreaking, just common sense stuff. I guess if you’re new to this kind of thing, it’s a decent overview that gets you thinking, but it doesn’t dive deep into anything and tends to repeat itself here and there.
I really enjoyed this novel because it portrays life as a polyamory thruple that isn’t just about having mind-blowing and random sex all the time! Instead, it delicately probes what it looks like to be in a committed relationship with more than two people. I was plesently surprised by the whole book.
A Q&A with 
How would you describe the characters Tim and Martie? 
As an author who has written multiple books, how did the process of writing StarPassage: The Relic compare to your past work? 
Which writers inspired you as a kid? Which writers inspire you today? 
About the book
An interview with Martin Knight, author of ‘Justice Killer’
I have to confess I cannot bring to mind any actual dragons in books I have read. I guess they would have been in childhood and now distant memories. I did gobble up the C.S. Lewis books and I think a dragon or two figured there. However, I was greatly impacted by the film Enter The Dragon back in the mid-1970s about the time I left school. It was a vehicle for martial arts supremo Bruce Lee and I assume he was the “dragon” of the title. Hero worship of Bruce spread like a wildfire among teenage boys of the era. Kung Fu Fighting a song by Carl Douglas was top of the pop charts and kids couldn’t engage with each other without spinning around and jump kicking the air above the other boy’s head. I remember vividly seeing the film and leaving the cinema full of adrenaline after. When my bus pulled up and the doors opened I leapt on emitting a high-pitched war cry like Bruce and raised my hands karate style. The driver looked at me and unflustered said: “Where to, mate?”
My favourite previous novel is Battersea Girl written some twenty years ago. It was a lightly fictionalised account of my grandmother’s 100 year life. She was born in the year Jack The Ripper committed his murders and endured two world wars and grinding poverty. Her first husband perished in the so-called Great War. Her sister and niece were killed in the second world war bombardment of London. While I tried to stick to the broad facts and the characters were real people, of course, I had to imagine conversations, feelings and some events. Much of the content was based on stories told to me by my Grandma in the last years of her long life. I was comforted to discover as the years went by and ancestry web sites burgeoned that most of those stories – some incredible – could be confirmed.
About Justice Killer