eternaldungeon: FIC: Bard of Pain (The Three Lands)

Dusk Peterson (

duskpeterson) wrote in

eternaldungeon,
@ 2006-05-18 11:27:00

Entry tags:

the three lands

FIC: Bard of Pain (The Three Lands)

Title: Bard of Pain

Series: The Three Lands, fantasy novels on friendship and betrayal in wartime. This is the first story being posted at the series site.

Summary: In the battle-weary lands of the Great Peninsula, only one fate is worse than being taken prisoner by the Lieutenant: being taken prisoner if you are the Lieutenant.

First sentence: "The beginning of the end for him (or so it seemed at the time) came in the moment that he stepped into the shadow of Capitol Mountain and was assaulted by a stranger."

Rating and tags (with minor spoilers).

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	the_dystopian 2006-06-09 01:38 pm UTC (link)
	Thank you. You seek to understand those who are often misunderstood. You don't simplify your characters' motivations, either, which is a temptation few authors can resist! Apart from the lucidity of your perceptions, there are the wonderful turns of phrase that you employ... Such as when you compare the Commander's eyes to "dark winter leaves." Exquisite. (Reply to this)

Comment on "Bard of Pain"

temari_jemz
2006-11-26 07:56 pm UTC (link)

This was a wonderful story. You take us on a journey through the darkness of a soul and show us that even the dark reaches for the light. This was a very well written and compelling story of redemption. Kudos.

I like that the religious leaders do not condemn those that do not believe exactly as they do, but leave room of the infinite paths of worship.
Many in the real world could learn for it.

I am truly surprised that you do not have more comments. This is the second story of yours that I have read. "Life Prisons" also dealt with redemption.
Is this a recurring thyme of yours? You write it wonderfully.

Well done.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

Re: Comment on "Bard of Pain"

duskpeterson
2006-11-27 03:28 am UTC (link)

Why, thank you very much. I did get a couple more comments over here--

http://community.livejournal.com/powerfic/1089.html

--but in general, my non-gay stories don't attract as much attention as my gay stories, I suppose because there are so many other non-gay stories out there for people to read. So I'm always especially pleased when someone comments on them.

"Is this a recurring thyme of yours?"

It is, yes. Not intentionally, but I suppose all writers have recurring themes in their stories, and this is one of mine. Has something to do with the type of characters I write about, I think. I'm fond of working with characters who are on the fine edge between good and evil.

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Re: Comment on "Bard of Pain"

temari_jemz
2006-11-27 05:42 am UTC (link)

I haven't read any of your Gay stories yet, but I know what you mean about them attracting more attention.

I write fan fic and as an experiment I wrote 2 stories with the same plot, the first 3 chapters were nearly identical. One was het and one was slash. The only differences were the ones I had to write due to the sex of one character. The het got less then 100 hits and no comments the slash got over 1400 hits and 96 comments.

I also have a recurring thyme of redemption in my writing, although I write about it from a different point of view then yourself. It is interesting to look at a person who is struggling to become a better person, in so doing we are better able to look at ourselves.

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Re: Comment on "Bard of Pain"

duskpeterson
2006-11-27 05:58 am UTC (link)

"I haven't read any of your Gay stories yet"

You mentioned earlier you'd read the Life Prison series - I assume you must have read "Coded Messages" (where the gay part is confined to the subplots), not the novella "Life Prison"?

"The het got less then 100 hits and no comments the slash got over 1400 hits and 96 comments."

Ouch! I'd suspected that the number of het readers was smaller than the number of slash readers, simply from the relative lack of multi-fandom het LJs in comparison to the number of multi-fandom slash LJs. But I hadn't realized the situation was that bad.

"I also have a recurring thyme of redemption in my writing"

Good-o. It's always nice to see authors working with that theme. Oh, and I'm waiting with bated breath to find what happens to that poor teddy bear. :)

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

Re: Comment on "Bard of Pain"

temari_jemz
2006-11-27 06:45 am UTC (link)

oops, I did read the novella "Life Prison" I just forgot about the lovers subplot and the sex at the end. (I don't consider the guards raping the prisoners as gay.)I was thinking more of the similarities between Merrick and Quentin.

The teddy bear chapter has been written and posted. I will send it to you. My creative writing has been at low tide for a few weeks but the tide is coming back in now so I hope to get another chapter up this week.

Thanks for reading.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

Re: Comment on "Bard of Pain"

duskpeterson
2006-11-27 06:54 am UTC (link)

I'm quite flattered you didn't think of "Life Prison" in genre terms. When my readers have to think to remember what genre a particular story fits into, that's when I know that the story has been successful.

"The teddy bear chapter has been written and posted."

Ah! I saw "Destiny" at your LJ and assumed it was part of a series, since the teddy bear disappeared after the initial, amusing warning. If there's more of it online, just let me know the link - otherwise I'll just wait for that part to be posted (though I do appreciate the kind offer of sending it to me).

(Reply to this) (Parent)

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