Saturday, December 25, 2021

The Gauntlet Celebrates its 75,000th Page Visit Post

Welcome to the Gauntlet of Balthazar for a brief post celebrating 75,000 unique visitors to the site. 

From the meager beginnings and low traffic of the earliest posts at the end of 2016 through the boosts and subsequent "drop off" of readers based in Hong Kong, we have slowly amassed an audience that has arrived here for a wide variety of reasons. Some of you might have stumbled upon the page accidentally - never to return, while others come back regularly. Others were attracted by a social media "share" that spiked their interest in a specific post, while others "page down" over the gambit. Some people come for the political commentary, while others comb the media reviews and screenwriting observations. Some check out the music uploads, while others take in the other arts, and maybe, just maybe, there are a few of you out there who like find a new drink recipe once in a while.

Regardless of the cause, we have slowly marched on with periods of frequent uploads, and just as much, by phases defined by a relative famine of material. This has mostly been due to a variety of personal and business concerns, not the least of which has been finding the time to hammer out the sometimes very lengthy articles. But still...

There are some big reveals coming up here; such as a new full-length album, story uploads, and hopefully the trailer for a new scripting project, but it's probably better to hold off and just release them as they are completed. 

Anyway, thank you all, and I hope you continue to find some interesting fare here on the Gauntlet, and as always...till next time.

Wednesday, December 8, 2021

From the Writer's Studio: New Release Tuesday Upload Schedule

Hey out there!

As you might have noticed a few posts ago, my first still unpublished novel (at least by traditional channels) - The Forest Kingdom of Drisnia; Book One: The Spell of Forgetting (from 2008) is now in the process of being uploaded online chapter, by chapter, by chapter. Be that as it may, I thought that it might be an opportune juncture at which to take the time to blog-out a release schedule of what's gone before and what's to come. Likewise, I'd additional like to promote some other forthcoming literary outings that are also set to be hosted by Wattpad in the near future, so see those near the bottom of this post. Anyway, here's the release schedule:

Preface (September 28th, 2021)

Effluvium - Chapter I: "The Syrup Harvester" (October 5th, 2021)

Effluvium - Chapter II: "Foggad and Routhuni" (October 12th, 2021)

Effluvium - Chapter III: "The Sainonix" (October 19th, 2021)

Effluvium - Chapter IV: "In Royal Chambers" (October 26th, 2021)

The Prince and the Wizard of Doren  - Chapter I: "Departure" (November 2nd, 2021)

The Prince and the Wizard of Doren  - Chapter II: "Morning on the Aldapix" (November 9th, 2021)

The Prince and the Wizard of Doren  - Chapter III: "Lehenia and the Zhorigix" (November 16th, 2021)

The Prince and the Wizard of Doren  - Chapter IV: "Tailarechask" (November 23rd, 2021)

The Prince and the Wizard of Doren  - Chapter V: "Journey to the Mishketaan" (November 30th, 2021)

The Oracle of Sheshlu - Chapter I: "The Audience" (December 7th, 2021)

The Oracle of Sheshlu - Chapter II: "The Oracle's Bargain" (December 14th, 2021)

The Oracle of Sheshlu - Chapter III: "Keh'dadach" (December 21st, 2021)

The Oracle of Sheshlu - Chapter IV: "The Fallen of the Oroigix" (December 28th, 2021)

The Oracle of Sheshlu - Chapter V: "The Battle at Erofir" (January 4th, 2022)

The Oracle of Sheshlu - Chapter VI: "The River Rem'biokah" (January 11th, 2022)

The Vanquishing Reflection - Chapter I: "Soritir"(January 18th, 2022)

The Vanquishing Reflection - Chapter II: "The Report" (January 25th, 2022)

The Vanquishing Reflection - Chapter III: "Laguxigh" (February 1st, 2022)

The Vanquishing Reflection - Chapter IV: "Reunion" (February 8th, 2022)

The Vanquishing Reflection - Chapter V: "The Alterer and the Horseman" (February 15th, 2022)

The Vanquishing Reflection - Chapter VI: "Life and Death in the Land of Doren - Part One" (February 22nd, 2022)

The Vanquishing Reflection - Chapter VII: "Life and Death in the Land of Doren - Part Two" (March 1st, 2022)

The Vanquishing Reflection - Chapter VIII: "Aftermath" (March 8th, 2022)

Addendum / Biographic Glossary / Geographic Glossary / Linguistic Glossary (March 15th, 2022) 

As you can see it takes quite some time to put out an entire multi-hundred page book in this way, but then again, doing it like this means that the manuscript will at least benefit from yet another fresh revision before the general public lays eyes on it.

Upon completion I'm fairly certain that the first Drisnia Series novella; "The Song of Umeztad" will follow immediately after, as it was written as the abbreviated follow-up to the sizable novel and features events that pick up from where the main story-line leaves off. One of the distinguishing factors of the novella is that it features the solitary tale of a secondary character (Umeztad) coming into his own. Personally it's my favorite work in the series, and if you like very nuanced and psychological adult Epic Fantasy I urge you to give it a whirl. 

Also set to go up on Wattpad (with dates still forthcoming) will be a number of Short Stories turned Film Scripts (I think at least three), as well as an actual copy of a Nevekari Enterprises Spec Script for an Existing Series that won a minor screenwriting award. The latter script was penned as a sample episode of the then hit Sci-Fi-Tech-Crime-Thriller Series "Person of Interest", and obviously, now that the show is off-the-air it can pretty much just serve as an example of scripting prowess, or maybe high-level fan-fiction.

Anyway, I hope some of you out there click on over, and if you're more interested in the Gauntlet's take on Media, Culture, Politics, a new drink recipe, or are waiting for a new music release - never fear those are not far behind.

Till next time.