If nothing else, this month’s cover art – a dark portrait lit with unnatural neon colors, our standard background “frame” warped and washed in black and gray – should tip you off that there are changes afoot in the world of the Elect. From the first page of this month’s installment, “Negotiation,” or, “The Various and Sundry Businesses of Mister Jonathan Guess,” we are introduced to a man who goes by the name of Guess (at least for the time being) and lives by his wits on the mean streets of Vessena (again, for the time being). Guess is a charming rogue, a loveable scoundrel… but he has been living that life for over 30 years now, and it is all catching up to him in more ways than one. He is nearing rock bottom at the end of a downward spiral of regret, self-loathing, and addiction to a mind-altering mushroom called drefft. In other words, Guess’ life of sex, drugs and the fantasy equivalent of rock-n-roll could not be farther from Palm and Timriel’s holy quest, or See and Saren’s courtly lives at House Yesidreel, or the bucolic peace of Gelgarth and Emily Arbekka’s farm. There’s a bleak and sinister sense of humor to Guess and the stories devoted to him, and the cover art by Bella Bergolts and a design by our own Todd Sharp reflects that beautifully.
Paint It Black
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Doubling back
John Crye, , BTS, Designing The Characters, Developing The Story, News, Story, 0
Intrigued by Todd Sharp’s portrait of an angst-ridden Jonny Guess featured on the cover of Chapter 9, a friend...
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How Changing A Male Hero To Female Opened My Eyes To My Own World
John Crye, , BTS, Designing The Characters, Developing The Story, 0
One of the criticisms that I received in the first draft of the manuscript was that the genders were...
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Telos and Jessy
John Crye, , BTS, Developing The Story, Exploring The World, 0
Plato wrote about the concept of “telos” as being a “perfect paradigm” or “ultimate version” of whatever was being...
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Swords & Cowboys: Genre mash-up time!
John Crye, , BTS, Developing The Story, News, 0
This month’s cover art by Todd Sharp features the blood-red silhouettes of three men mounted on galloping horses. The...
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Parallel Lines: Past and Present
John Crye, , BTS, Developing The Story, Story, 0
Some readers expressed surprise when “The Elect Stories” made a leap of twenty years from chapter one to chapter...
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Write HOW you know.
John Crye, , BTS, Thoughts, 0
I enjoy working with other writers as a coach, editor or general sounding board. It’s something that I do...
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Coming of Middle Age
John Crye, , Announcement, Developing The Story, Thoughts, 0
When I moved from Boston to Los Angeles in 1996, the plot of what would become “The Elect Stories”...
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The Elect Stories – website launched.
John Crye, , Announcement, News, 0
Back on January 2nd, SharpCrye Publishing announced March 12 as the date that our latest venture would be unveiled...