Witches, angels, and reincarnation? The series I’ve been publishing the last several years has a wide range of subjects, creatures, and topics discussed and even merely mentioned, but what are the origins? Where did I find inspiration to create the world that became The Blasphemer Series? There will be a new series here on the website covering and diving deep underground into the research that went into my writing of these hauntingly beautiful tales and together we will discover where I kept true to the lore, where I went into my creativity to create something new, and even why I wrote the things the way I did on a deeper more investigative level. Did any of my creative writing predict outcomes in the world? You’d be surprised!
This series will cover the following creatures and lores:
fallen angels
demons
angels
the watchers
witches
witchcraft
vampires
nephilim
biblical tales
urban legends
dire wolves
werewolves
ancient mythology
historical mysteries
character breakdowns
This is a new specialized blog series starting March 12th, 2021.
For the love of vampires and horror, I cannot claim anything without mentioning the importance of this book. I’ve touted how important Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice has been to me many times but never had I mentioned this book. It, when I thought about it, is just as important and came into my life during a rough point of my youth. I found it in the basement dedicated to children’s books at a public library, and after reading a bit I sat between the shelves reading it.
For me it was the first book really dealing with the topics it covered I’d ever read, and at that period of my life, it really took me. When the librarian found me she suggested I take it home and did. I binged. I remember checking and re-checking this out until a librarian suggested I let someone else enjoy it too. Eventually, I got my own copy for sentimental reasons.
It is two books in one collection. It’s great for young adults or teenagers, I read it roughly 6th grade. It was the first book I read that spoke of teenagers with adult problems, like having an addiction. It isn’t like the popular Goosebumps books Stine is more famous for. I will have to re-read it now that I’m older and see how the details hit and if I have forgotten anything, but my impression and this review is recommending this to young adults and teens. It has its moments of slowness or lack of excitement, but it’s a very good book.
This review is a part of my 2020 yearlong self-challenge to read and review. I have reread some books for the purpose of reviewing them on my website whereas I have read others for the first time. Check out Book Reviews and Recommendations to find other book reviews, book recommendations, and more information about the books I’m reading, have read, or are sharing.
Have you read this book? What were your thoughts? Do you agree with me? Do you disagree? Let’s have a conversation about it.
This is undoubtably a horror classic that has spawned a ship of a thousand novels. Dracula has spawned movies, television shows, and books with romantic vampires and oceans of times. Dark, sexy, and ominous this book without hesitation made the list for reviewing and just in time for Halloween. Unlike the many books, television, and even movies it is a slow read. It grasps you and pulls you deeper into it with the formatted style of diary and journal selections. The only movie version that has ever captured the book visually for me is the 1992 film Bram Stoker’s Dracula with actors Gary Oldman, Keanu Reeves, and Winona Ryder. Of course the movie differs from the book it still captured the darkness I envisioned in my imagination from the book. Dracula is without a doubt one of my favorite reads and one of the few books I’ve ever read and re-read many times since I was young. My original copy has been gone for a long time, but I regained a copy years ago and kept it safe since. It’s a slow burn and is a book that must be read over many nights, yes at night. This is a must read during the night book as it best sets the tone of which the world is set. Maybe it’s my mind making the world of vampires and darkness romantic yet horrifying to recommend that it be read at night, but that’s how I read it. The book may not be the best to read for those that want quick action or to get deep into an adventure quickly, since its told through journal entries and letters it takes time to get into. So for that it’s not the best book for someone who can’t give the book the time it deserves to enjoy. I could easily get into the theories of where the idea for the story spawned, how the writer was considered being a homosexual writing by the inspiration of his lover or even the connection to famous female author Mary Shelley, but these are, I think for now, best reserved for another post down the road.
This review is a part of my 2020 yearlong self-challenge to read and review. I have reread some books for the purpose of reviewing them on my website whereas I have read others for the first time. Check out Book Reviews and Recommendations to find other book reviews, book recommendations, and more information about the books I’m reading, have read, or are sharing.
Have you read this book? What were your thoughts? Do you agree with me? Do you disagree? Let’s have a conversation about it.
This is not a book for everyone. It’s a romance novel with erotic aspects to it (sometimes I may write like this, but don’t often read this type of story). This is not my usual book I will grab and read, but sometimes I see something that really makes me want to read it and this was the case. This is considered a paranormal romance involving vampires. I do like a good vampire story. This is book one of another set of books, I am not reviewing those books just the first of the series, which I have been doing throughout these reviews this year.
The story itself is set in modern times with glimpses into the past through dreams of another character. You meet the vampire Don Rafael Perez who rules over Texas and Oklahoma. He meets a woman named Grania and though there is a strong attraction he tries his best not to move on this feeling as he believes he may be heading toward war. Grania dreams and often sees a knight in them, who looks like Don.
I liked the dream sequences, the historical retelling of Don’s life before. It’s well-written, but at times difficult to read because of flow interruptions. Recommended for those that are into this type of genre, vampires, and love stories. There were aspects that reminded me of The SouthernVampire Mysteries by Charlaine Harris.
This review is a part of my 2020 yearlong self-challenge to read and review. I have reread some books for the purpose of reviewing them on my website whereas I have read others for the first time. Check out Book Reviews and Recommendations to find other book reviews, book recommendations, and more information about the books I’m reading, have read, or are sharing.
Have you read this book? What were your thoughts? Do you agree with me? Do you disagree? Let’s have a conversation about it.
Throughout the writing process, Maxwell Demon underwent many changes. I’ve shared that when I was back writing it I was just about finished and deleted the entire last chapter and part of the chapter before that one because it simply didn’t feel right. Along with this over time I have shared other things that have changed. This is part one of a two part post sharing some of these differences.
Some changes happened during professionally editing forever being lost for a great story and some never made it past the drafting phase. For readers, you may recognize names or scenes, but remember them differently or names being completely different from the version you read. Things change a lot during the writing process.
I hope you enjoy!
Maxwell DemonIntroduction
I had originally posted this in the group Bachman’s Blasphemers, the fan group created for fans and others that would like to stay up-to-date more regularly than the author page and the series page for the books, but for whatever reason Facebook glitched and wouldn’t allow it to be posted. I took that as an opportunity to post it on the website in a more expanded version. I always love, as a reader, hearing about an author’s process in creating a book I enjoyed or even details behind the stories that didn’t make the cut into what got published. I’m not the only one, I’m sure, so here are some behind-the-scenes and spoilers from the book, The Blasphemer Series: Maxwell Demon.
Original Beginning
The original beginning of Maxwell Demon was much different than what made the final cut and went into publication.
Raw Excerpt
Visions of wisped crimson hair across pale naked shoulders quickly burn into flames of the swords that clashed, the magic that spilled over across the field of Heaven, and blood poured like rain upon the Earth in those days. The Clash of Angels was and is still the most epic of battles. No amount of bodies upon the Earth’s soil can compare to the magnitude of loss that occurred during that great battle. Maxwell, alongside Lucifer and many others, were chained and cast from Heaven into a special pit far from the wonderful grace that is Heaven and God.
Maxwell remembered it well, the great battle and striking down his friends that had turned to the foe. As time passed, the irony of magical immortal energy beings trying to kill each other grew within him. He damned God, he damned others, but eventually he damned himself. He wasn’t alone, there were many other Fallen Angels, but he wasn’t like many of them that twisted and contorted into evil, horrible, and vile creatures punishing humankind. He and a small group took to a lighter pace of life, those like him chose to live amongst the humans they once stood up for and lost the grace of God for.
Keeping a journal, he logged every thought to pass the time. He knew he wasn’t like everyone else and he knew he was solitary in his existence amongst humankind. It was depressing to see once magnificent creatures, humans, turn against one another living with their emotions running amok and living for devious means. Greed, wrath, vanity, gluttony, and the rest were all human made creations and not of God themselves.
Night after night his heavy boots stomped the streets of New York, Tokyo, London, Paris, but he found a home in the City of Angels, another irony that wasn’t lost on him. Night after night he found himself reflecting upon his memories of better times and her, Lilith. Sitting upon the middle of the H on the Hollywood sign, his head tilted back and his eyes shut, it was exhausting prancing around the world using his energy to mask his demonic form.
“You’re thinking of her again, aren’t you Maxziel.” A low voice interrupted his rest from a black hovering mist. As the darkened mist moved closer it transformed into a human wearing a long black trench coat, jeans, boots, and a white shirt mirroring Max’s own apparel. “I’ve lost count on how long it has been, but you eventually have got to stop thinking about her. No one has heard from her in countless centuries. She just stopped existing. If she had changed planes of existence we would’ve heard something.” The man then kicked Maxwell’s boot to get his attention.
Max’s eyes finally opened and stared across from him at the other Fallen Angel, “She couldn’t have just stopped existing, that’s now it works. Perhaps her soul went elsewhere? Azriel, she’s in the world, I just don’t know where. She can’t just be simply lost to time and space. God doesn’t do that, they don’t work that way.”
The scene continued into him finding Adele, but I removed all this and started over, this isn’t unheard of for me to do. What I had written didn’t feel right and I had shelved the entire project until I decided to start over. I do like how this scene showed a love/hate of the Fallen Angels, but I didn’t like how Azriel wasn’t more aggressive. I saw him as a forceful type of being, an in your face ‘admit it’ type.
I found this tag and wanted to take part so I’m doing did just that. It seems you’re supposed to be tagged for it, but I wasn’t, but the creator of this Sophie’s Corner. So she’s to be credited for my involvement despite not being tagged to do so.
The following are the questions she’s asking everyone to answer to give readers and other participatants a better idea of what you’ll be working on for the month of November.
I’m still new to blogging and the people I know taking part aren’t bloggers so I really don’t know how to tag them.
Give me a blurb!
Ely’s family has been indebted to an immortal for generations. Upon the death of his brother his niece, Temperance, comes to live with him. This places her within reach of a killer, the vampire Jacques Germain.
What’s the genre?
Horror, supernatural
Describe your MC in three words.
Ely – Broken, caring, and workaholic
Temperance – Beautiful, smart, curious
Without spoilers, describe your villain in three words.
Jacques – Sexy, dangerous, opportunist
What is your goal? (the traditional 50K? 20K? 5K? or……. 100K?)
A minimum of 50k
Is this your first draft? Second? Third?
First draft.
Are you starting a new project (or draft), or continuing an existing one?
Brand new project
What is your favourite time to write in the day?
Nighttime.
Where are you going to write?
Mostly in my office.
Computer or paper?
Computer and my notebook. I’m also using Scrivener to keep organized.
NaNoWriMo is a huge commitment!! How are you going to make time to write?
I’m dividing my time between other obligations and this event.
Are you going to participate in local or online NaNoWriMo events? (e.g. kick-off parties in your city, write-ins, virtual writing sprints…)
No. I am doing this tag. I’m also going to blog my progress weekly.
Do you write from beginning to end or skip around?
I tend to begin with the beginning working toward the end, but if I get stuck I’ll skip forward to progress on my goal and then work around until the draft is done.
Planner or pantser? (or plantser?)
This project is making me a planner. I’m usually a plantser by nature though.
What will be your go-to NaNoWriMo snack?
Not sure, probably whatever is in the pantry that’s quick.
Choice of caffeine? (or no caffeine?)
Coffee or honey infused tea.
Any rewards for milestone achievements? For finishing NaNoWriMo?
I usually reward myself when a job is completed.
Share a tip for other NaNo-ers!
All I can share is what has been shared with me.
Don’t give up.
Try your best to make your daily goals.
Don’t be too hard on yourself, so take breaks.
How are you feeling about NaNoWriMo? (Excited?! Nervous!? Terrified?!)
This book is a shameless plug, but it’s a book. Maxwell Demon is the first book in my series The Blasphemer Series. The synopsis is merely the squishing down summarizing of how deep this story goes. When writing it I cried, I laughed, and really enjoyed the process that, for most writers, is never seen, but if written right the readers can pick up emotionally. The reviews say I wrote it well, but I leave it up to you, the person that may pick up the novella, to determine if you enjoyed my writing style.
This book in my words is a story about a fallen angel that fell in love with the first woman, Lilith, and fought in the Clash of Angels, but on the wrong side. He didn’t accept his punishment, being sent to Hell and the mutilation of his wings, and found himself a way back to Earth. He learned that Lilith too was punished but with reincarnation forever to live and die until she learns why she was punished. He believes if he can find her and help her learn then he can prove redemption and forgiveness is possible, even for her.
His has found her many times, but always too late. He has seen the soulmate die many times and in many ways. This book is her last life recorded, he learns that she will be given no more lives and she will be doomed to Hell, the place for the truly unforgivable. Maxwell goes to Hell when she is kidnapped, he goes through a mythical fantasy realm full of fairies, talking trees, and mythical creatures, and Earth to help her.
It’s more of a dark fantasy story with horror elements than a horror piece. There are references to so many creatures, here’s a small list of them that are in this book and this series:
Angels
Demons
Vampires
Werewolves
Fallen Angels
Witches
Fairies
Talking Trees
Unicorns
Boogeyman
Ghosts/Spirits
Synopsis:
Maxwell, an angel who fell from Heaven for his part in the corruption of mankind walks a plane of uncertainty on Earth. He was unwilling to fully accept his damnation, so he set out on a mission to save the soul of the woman he loves, Lilith. Now, more than a millennium has passed, and this is his last chance to save her and prove that no one soul is beyond redemption. From the gates of Heaven to the fires of Hell he has traveled to save her. He is bound to her by his heart and he will face the ones he once called brothers to rescue her. He will complete this mission.
She is now known as Adele, with no remembrance of him, their love, her betrayal, and it is up to him to show her that her life is worth more than she could ever imagine. He rediscovers why he fell in love with her and along the way, wages war against Hells greatest demons to remind her.
Who is destined to die? Who is destined to live? Who is the real enemy? Is one soul worth the world?
The Official Website of L. Bachman 