For #SlashedandMashed Release Week, I’m sharing some book extras. Today I thought I’d post an excerpt from the lead story in the collection “Theseus and the Minotaur.”
I wrote “Theseus and the Minotaur” almost two years ago when I was prepping to start a Patreon page and wanted to front-load some of the work providing content. I love Greek mythology, so a natural place for me to start was re-imagining some classic myths and giving them a queer spin.
Patreon is actually a really fun platform for both creators and supporters. It’s super easy to use, has a very reasonable entry point (just $1 makes a difference), and I came up with some interesting ways to share my work with readers including interactive storytelling. My main goals are to raise money for editing, book design, and marketing for the short story collection I’ve been talking about here at my blog; plus I want to get my follow up to The City of Seven Gods out into the world.
I’ve always loved the story of Theseus and the Minotaur, which is credited to second century B.C.E. historian Apollodorus of Athens in Edith Hamilton’s Mythology, and Plutarch and Ovid elsewhere. It’s so imaginative, and it’s been an enduring inspiration source for artwork, fantasy, and gaming.
It can now all be revealed. The reason I haven’t posted in a while is that I’ve been up to a super sekrit project. Very soon I’ll be sharing that project far and wide.
Here’s the story: a little bit before the new year, I was puzzling to myself (does one puzzle to oneself? I don’t know. I’m going with it), anyway, I was thinking: it’s awfully hard keeping this website fresh and dynamic when I’m publishing like one, or maybe two novels per year. Those new releases are exciting (to me at least), and I’ve shared some excerpts and book extras over the years, but the truth is I don’t have a ton of creative content for visitors to get to know my writing.
A few excerpts from my recent writing exercises…
