Description
John C. Malcolm was not prepared for his new line of work. He and three others were chosen by President Lincoln to infiltrate Indian Territory in the year 1865 to simply ‘cleanse’ it. Their orders loosely followed the procedure that all agents in the Department of Indian Affairs must use to fine and evict anyone that should not be in the designated region but was vague. Caught in the middle of the Civil War, Joh
n and his companions must enforce the Indian Intercourse Act of 1835 with special badges and paperwork and nothing more. Barely a hundred miles into the territory had the dysfunctional team of agents discovered that things are not what they should be. They find small settlements and a city that should not exist and the existence of strange cults, witchcraft and monsters. Each new discovery takes John and his team into a much darker and disturbing world of secret technologies and horror that Mankind does not know about. They are eventually lead on a bloody trail to the City of Immortals where another world seems to exist in private behind mighty walls and where the privilege of living at all is a rare luxury rarely granted by the Immortal lords within.
The startling revelations found inside the city’s walls will open up new eyes for the agents and begin a long nightmarish ride to survive. John and his companions will discover a secret society that has been in an ancient secret war against the Immortal inhabitants of the mysterious city and those elsewhere in the world and must help to wage the war. While dealing with their own personal issues, the agents fight to survive and discover the meaning of life and living and what it means to be Human in the end. De Civitate Sanguino is a tough, fast paced story about the mysteries in the world and the darker side to mortality and what the living will do to remain alive.
This is part one to the series of The Silent War that will cover various moments in global history during the 19th century and beyond from a fresh Steampunk Horror perspective.
Author Biography
Born in Okeene, Oklahoma in the early seventies, Brian was quick to get interested in the arts by the age of four. The two influences were watching the Godzilla cartoon and the band KISS; both gave his imagination the needed stimulus to begin drawing. These influences somehow fed on an over active imagination until one thing led to another and by the early eighties he was drawing fantasy and Science Fiction regularly, this love for warriors, dragons and wizards was fired strongly by the fantasy/medieval rock groups strong at the time.
Even school was no obstacle to get in the way of more ideas, concepts and themes. By Junior High his goal was to become a professional artist by his twenties. Taking on a job in radio in the late eighties, the fun and sometimes stress of show business was now common-place. The greatest influence was discovering role-playing games as a hobby in the early eighties, this outlet brought Brian’s mind into new places undreamed of before.
This hobby was a means to explore many limitless genres of ideas: Sci-Fi, horror, historical and obviously fantasy. From this hobby came a catalyst to so many other outlets such as reading novels, script-writing, etc. One of the earliest attempts at writing was during this period as the multitude of ideas were almost unstoppable and had to be put to paper in some form, unfortunately these early projects never flowered. The possibilities for stories, unusual characters and settings now grew into a plethora of endless ideas due to the gaming influence. By the early nineties a friend had published a role-playing game and Brian was able to submit artwork into it making him into a professional artist as hoped.
This began a long trek of producing many works; at first strictly fantasy based but later Celtic. His artwork was shown and many times sold out at Science Fiction/Fantasy conventions across the state of Oklahoma. Brian’s interest in Celtic studies was initially started by owning a few role-playing games that shared that theme. From the early nineties on Brian’s interests became completely Celtic. This lead to curiosity about King Arthur and a life-long study in the field culminating in earning the world’s first Masters of Arthurian Studies from the University of Wales Lampeter in the summer of 2007.
The research of Celtic languages, mythologies, history, and art was now academic and by 1998 Brian illustrated and wrote the book ‘Lyver-Lywans Bukkyas Keltek’. The world’s first tri-lingual Celtic language book, though directed towards children for the sake of coloring, it was a project new to the world. He took an active part in helping the Cornish language scene in writing and participating in journals and organizations as well working towards becoming a teacher to further educate on the vast subject.
By the Fall of 2001 Brian has earned a BA in History from NWOSU and later that next spring started working at a local TV station. The six month stint at the TV station was the birthplace of his horror shows that are still going strong since 2002. Changing stations in the Fall of that year the show ‘The Mysterious Lab of Dr. Fear’ was born. Being inspired from watching the Oklahoma legend Count Gregore in his youth, now Brian and his friends and family film campy horror skits while playing old horror classics and not so classics every Saturday night for fans everywhere.
Gradually this inspired Halloween events locally and taking part in many related events from Enid to Oklahoma City. By the end of the six month stint Brian became a professor teaching the Humanities at a local college, a job that he is completely happy with and loves to this day. The TV show itself gave birth to a radio incarnation called ‘The Mysterious Hours of Dr. Fear’ which airs every Sunday night and plays the weirdest mix of horror, Halloween and Gothic music and is streamed online worldwide for all to hear now. Because of the constant exposure to all things dark and gothic along the way Brian started to look at the horror scene, in both movies and books and naturally wanted to contribute in some way more. The old writing bug struck again by the end of the nineties and Brian composed several scripts for film projects, out of that a trilogy inspired from the Celtic tales of Arthur were made. The first story is now a novel that is soon to see print after some dedicated time re-tooling it to make it worthy of publishing.
Ten years later and almost a hundred TV episodes done, the need to write returned and the present Steampunk Horror series was inspired late in the summer of 2008. This story idea was inspired partway because of his dislike of how the vampire is portrayed in the current trends of Young Adult literature, and because so many other factors brought the notion of the series together. Now after so many years doing illustrations and everything else but writing, Brian is devoting time to making sure that his thousands of ideas can see fruition in print. With many Arthurian and Steampunk Horror literature projects coming together, he also has plans on writing and publishing many serious academic works centering on Celtic studies. Shortly the process will begin of being a candidate for a PhD in Celtic Studies to round out and complete the academic journey.
The Silent War series is planned to be written so long as there are devoted readers of this unique style literature. Beginning in 1865 and ending with the end of World War II, this series will explore a ‘hidden’ history to recent world events that deals with weird sciences, conspiracies and horror but laced with plenty of gripping action. Mr. Young’s greatest literary influences are Robert E Howard and H.P Lovecraft with some Tolkien and L. Sprague D. Camp. Being a ‘nerd’ has kept Brian free from the vices and difficulties that others must deal with in life allowing him to spend time honing his craft. Though his professional life is academic, his world is one filled full of imagination and wonder and thrives on originality and innovation daily. Aside from the earlier authors as influences Brian makes it a strict rule to never read other peoples’ work if he can help it because it will taint his own original ideas. Originality and the ability to see things in a different way mean all the difference in his myriad of projects and concepts.
ISBN: 1-4415-6544-2 (Trade Paperback 6x9) ; ISBN13: 978-1-4415-6544-0 (Trade Paperback 6x9)
Pages : 224
Book Format : Trade Book 6x9 ; Subject : FICTION / Science Fiction / General
Young Prince Rhun ap Maelgwn was restless and packed up his gear and left his home for adventure. What he sought was a faraway land in distress burdened by an ever-growing enchanted forest and its rumored shining queen from the Otherworld. What he got was quickly over his head in trouble and danger having no experience in either adventure, sword-play, or acting the hero. Now he must decide the fate of many kingdoms, people and somehow win the heart of one of the two princesses along the way while managing to survive in this 6th century tale set in a mythical yet slightly historical Celtic Britain. Strange enchantments, faery-folk, high action and adventure and memorable characters set the stage in this first of many tales in the Island of the Mighty Saga.
