Category Archives: Prose

Writing and varied whatnot

  By Nick Ahlhelm | April 22, 2013 - 1:32 pm | ,
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So as I write this I am about 9500 words into Rosie the Ripper. I actually hoped to be done by this point in time, but the book has been slowed by research time (okay, watching MMA matches) and a heck of a lot of stops and starts due to personal issues.

rosie the ripper

That being said, the book is coming along swimmingly as I have wrote a humdinger of a fight to open the book, set up the characters in play and worked my way towards the conflicts both in and outside the ring. I enter the field of fight fiction as far more of a fan than I have ever been a writer, but so far I think the book is coming together much as I hoped it would.

While I am working on that, I actually have another fight story of a different kind slowly taking shape. I have created the character Moses Stone for an upcoming Airship 27 anthology, though Moses is a man stuck in the very criminal-influenced world of 1930s wrestling. Moses may be one of my favorite characters ever as I get to combine some of my favorite things in storytelling in one great character. But more will come about him as that story gets closer to completion as well.

I have also started the planning stages on my next two superhero projects, one a sequel and one that will set a foundation of the shared universe the majority of my fiction takes place in.

A bit on reality and writing…

  By Nick Ahlhelm | April 19, 2013 - 8:35 am |
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As I write this, one Boston bomber is dead and the other is armed, dangerous and loose as a massive citywide manhunt seems underway. I think everyone up at this hour is following the story intently.

I do know that this kind of situation sometimes makes the kind of escapist fiction I write a bit harder. I like tales of grand heroes and terrible villains, but with them come a heightening of reality that makes it easy sometimes to forget the destruction that goes along with it. I have destroyed cities, toppled mountains and set up bodycounts in the dozens over the course of years of writing now. Sometimes it is hard to continue down that vein when the daily news makes it all too clear what the toll of such devastation can be.

"Deserted" has plenty of gunplay, John Woo style.

“Deserted” has plenty of gunplay, John Woo style.

At the same time, one thing I love about New Pulp and super powered fiction is that no matter how bad the world gets around the characters of that world, a hero always exists to right the wrongs and bring justice to evil. That is the bright point of any heroic fiction I suppose, whether it be my own Living Legends or the blockbuster Avengers film franchise.

At the end of the day, I just find that sometimes the world makes it hard to write a terrible villain out to blow up a city when it seems that all too real villains are hellbent on doing something similar. Of course, that is why the world gives us multiple genres.

For example, sports pulp. On Monday, I will give everyone an update on my current project, Rosie the Ripper.

Modern Gods now available!

  By Nick Ahlhelm | March 19, 2013 - 8:12 am | ,
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If you do not follow me on Facebook or Twitter, you may not have heard the news: my latest book is now available!

Modern Gods is an anthology of stories about mythological deities as they suddenly appear in the present day. Whether as hero or villain, antagonist or protagonist, the new book offers a wide variety of tales to intrigue fans of fantasy and adventure fiction.

In addition to editing the book, I also provide the final story “Deserted” which begins a new series of short stories that will appear throughout future Modern Gods anthologies.

Click the links below to buy the book on Amazon!

Print:

Kindle:

For more details on the book, head over to Metahuman Press.

Super Powered Fiction – the book club

  By Nick Ahlhelm | March 8, 2013 - 11:29 am |
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So I have been toying with the idea of starting a book club revolving around fiction related to superheroes and super powered characters for some time now and while I am doing tons of housekeeping around my life both on and off the internet, it seemed as good a time as any to give it a go.

So, starting in April, I will establish a Super Powered Fiction book club. The goal is simple: we will read a new book every month and all of them will be novels that feature super powered figures as protagonists. Some will be books I have already read and think more folks should read, some will be novels I bought and have yet to read, some will be novels suggested by the people on this board and some will be novels I have published here at Metahuman Press.

The plan is to spend the first 21 days of any month reading the book with the last 7-10 days spent using a page to discuss the book.

What book should we start this project off with? Well, I have two choices in mind, both of which would be great places to kick things off.

Pick #1:

Van Allen Plexico’s Sentinels series is one of the most prominent franchises of modern independent super powered fiction as well as being one of the earliest. Now that the series is available through affordable ebook editions (only $2.99 each), it seems like the first book in the series Sentinels: When Strikes the Warlord would be a great starting point.

Pick #2:

Our other option would be to travel back to the eighties and one of the very first pieces of super powered fiction in the form of Wild Cards I by George R. R. Martin and company. The book started a chain of anthologies and novels spanning over a dozen books that still gets a new edition every few years (while causing Song of Ice & Fire fans to grumble that George should be writing.)

So if you are interested, let me know either in the comments below, on Facebook or on Twitter. I would like to have at least 7-12 people for our first book and would like opinions on which book to start the bandwagon off on!

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