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Author: Daniel J. James
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Spinning in circles
I put a lot of work into creating the Pavilion LinX stories. The art, the stories, the planning… I felt it was good. But somehow it wasn’t right. So I decided to start over. This isn’t the first time either. I’ve gone back and forth with my story telling because i was rushing myself. I wanted to jump in head first without really knowing what I was doing. I’m still trying to reconcile things within the new stories that will be coming in March. Reconcile what was, learning what it is, and dreaming what it could be. But like I’ve said before, the key to it all will be authenticity in my storytelling. Even though I let go of those stories, there were some very important things that were within them that I hope to carry over, and lessons I learned that I hope will help make them something special. While those stories may be in my archive, I still love some of the artwork that came out of that time…
-Daniel J. James-
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Saying what needs to be said…
Something I’ve been giving thought to as of late as I’m looking to move forward with my storytelling, is how to use my voice to say something meaningful. Authenticity is first and foremost in my mind as I write my stories, but also I understand that the best stories have a moral, they resonate with a voice that echoes the needs of people, and they stir the pot so that we are unsettled. When I begin sharing stories again next month, I hope that I do justice to the issues that need a voice.
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Finding time in life to live.
I just wanna wake up, make some awesome shit, eat some good food, go to sleep, wake up the next day and do the same thing, wash, rinse and repeat.
But life be lifin, and the world we chose don’t always work the way we want it.
So in between life, I try to find moments to live.
To live,
To write,
To write,
To draw,
To create.
I try to find those little bright spots that allow me to be me.
Because no matter what life throws our way, we should never lose that little light that burns in us and makes us who we are…
-Daniel J. James-
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Artwork for a Friend.
A commission I did for a friend of mine that wanted to give it as a gift to her grandson. I really like how it came out.
-Daniel J. James-
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Many Swords. A vision of things to come…
Excerpt from Pavilion Remembers: Halo Sky – A vision of Whitney Donovan, Theoarm Seer:
“I see Niel struck down by a sword, I see him victorious by sword, I see him flying. I see him in the confines of sacred space, I see him at the Citadel.
I see swords.
Three swords.
Many swords.
I see… Heroes…
Swords and monsters, and heroes fighting Syn as he was in ancient days.”
This was an early design for the sword Halo Sky I did in March of 2013. The idea was that hatches on the side would open up to release the wings in the heat of battle…
Sometime around 2015, I’d mocked up what I wanted the cover of the book to look like with Halo Sky and it’s wings open. I had every intention of using this design until…
In September 2018, as I was getting to the point of finishing some edits of the book, I decided to add some digital color to the sword, and halfway through I saw it… And when I saw it, I said these words out loud
“It’s a goddamn cow!”
I wasn’t able to not see the cow. Even to this day I can’t help but see the cow in my original design. And so, I went about making a new design. There were a few I came up with, but this one was the one I liked the best. And while I still love this design and hope to use it again some day, it still didn’t have the vibe I wanted. I was going to go ahead with this design. I was pretty much ready to do so. But…
Around the same time in February 2018 I was working on what was then, a series of unrelated stories, and I had designed this sword for one of the characters in that story. This sword was love at first sight…
I wrestled with myself for a while over this one. I didn’t think it was fair to have designed this sword for this story, and this character, and take it away and put it in another story, for another character. It was probably the right call to do so, seeing as how I scrapped those stories, and this sword design might have been lost…
So that’s how I got here, to this design and this cover. I had to change a few things in the story to line up, but this sword design better fits the original vision I had in my head than how I first wrote the sword in the book. Now I can’t really imagine another sword being Halo Sky.
As the vision foretold, there will be many swords.
There are many monsters still yet to slay.
And so, there needs to be many Heroes to slay them.
Pavilion Remembers: Black Orchid is a short story that will pick up where Pavilion Remembers: Halo Sky left off, but will take the story back to a time where two worlds collide and will diverge the Pavilion Remembers series down two different paths.
One road will take the story back to Niel and the monster hunting theoarm people as they try to rebuild what Syn and his army of monsters torn down.
And another road with follow the story of Orrin Mannox and a group of zeno, as they fight to find out who is killing their people and harvesting their supernatural powers!
Friday, March, 7th
Free to read online!!!
Jump into the continuing Pavilion Remembers Series with Pavilion Remembers: Black Orchid, a supernatural story that will see the elite theoarm monster slayer Abini as she faces a cursed being unlike anything she has ever faced before!
Also!!!
Be sure to also check out Pavilion Remembers: Halo Sky, available online at Barnes & Noble and Amazon!
ASH 9/17 