Title: Revelations & The Sorcerer’s Apprentice: The Merlin Chronicles
Author: Daniel Diehl
Genre: Epic Fantasy Adventure
Length: 388 pages & 342 pages
Release Date: September 2013 & May 2014
Imprint: Mythos Press
SYNOPSIS BOOK ONE:
Merlin the Magician only exists in myth and legend – at
least that’s what archaeology student Jason Carpenter thought until he discovered
the mysterious orb that had housed history’s greatest wizard for 1,600 years.
Forced into an uneasy alliance, Jason and Merlin are sucked into a web of deceit,
intrigue and murder that sends them on a chaotic race to outwit, and out run,
Merlin’s ancient nemesis, the evil sorceress Morgana le Fay, her gang of drug
smugglers and a 500 year-old Chinese necromancer. Tis a race against time to
complete their quest before an army of dragons are unleashed on a vulnerable and
unsuspecting 21st century world.
SYNOPSIS BOOK TWO:
After being accidentally thrown into the modern world
of the 21st century, the wizard, Merlin teamed up with archaeology student, Jason
Carpenter to aid him in his battle against the evil sorcerous, Morgana le Fay.
In this second book of The Merlin Chronicles, Merlin braves the mysterious
depths of Morgana's underground lair in search of the alien device with which she
communicates with the Dragon Lords.
Meanwhile, Jason is forced to battle his way across war-torn Central Africa in search
of a legendary gem that holds the key to closing the dragon gate forever. When
Merlin is captured by Morgana's thugs, Jason and Beverley, must risk their lives and
the future of mankind in a desperate effort to save their friend.
Guest Post!
Hard Fact to Fantasy: An Author’s Journey
Daniel Diehl
Lord Byron once wrote "I hate things
all fiction...there should always be some foundation of fact". As a writer who spent two decades churning
out twenty non-fiction books and more than 170 hours of documentary television
scripts I know a fair amount about the ‘foundation of fact’ part of His
Lordship’s statement. For the
non-fiction writer, research is a way of life.
But it was only when I began writing fantasy that I learned that a
factual foundation is one of the best allies a writer of fiction could ask for.
My recently released book “Revelations:
book one of The Merlin Chronicles” (GMTA/Mythos) is a marvelous case in
point. The basic plotline – which brings
Merlin the magician into the twenty-first century – is about as far removed
from anything factual as you can get, but the vast majority of people and
places which appear in the story are based on real (or at least well
established) locations and individuals and, as such, required a substantial
amount of background research.
The locations part was easy. Much of the early story takes place in the
city of York, England and since I lived near York for nearly a decade I knew
the old, medieval city pretty well. A
map and the occasional trip to Google filled in the blank spots. Similarly, locations as far flung as the
Russian/ Chinese border and the Mongolian wastes of the Gobi Desert were pretty
easy to research. This information
provided me with the physical landscape against which my fictional characters
would play-out their make believe adventures.
It was only when I started researching the characters and things got a
little weird.
My twenty-first century characters are, as
fictional characters tend to be, conglomerates of characteristics taken from
real people. This part was easy – no
research necessary. Among the remaining
characters, one is based loosely on Sax Rohmer’s marvelously evil character Dr
Fu Manchu and another was the gloriously wicked sorcerous (and half-sister to
King Arthur) Morgana le Fay. Ms Le Fay,
like many Arthurian characters, was created by the twelfth century Welsh cleric
Geoffrey on Monmouth in his Vita Merlini,
written about 1150. Then I started
working on Merlin who, I assumed, was also a complete fiction based on ancient
Welsh sagas and expanded on by everyone from Monmouth to Roger Zelazny. I mean, how many wizards are there in the
historical record?
Exercising the same frantic research
methods I used during decades of non-fiction research, I came to learn that
Merlin the magician – that most implausible of characters – was actually based
on at least one, possibly two, very real people and it is on one of these - Myrddin
Emrys ap Morfryn - that I based my own character. Although
I researched the Merlin character extensively online my best information came
the old fashioned way: out of hardcopy books.
Particularly important were ‘The Quest for Merlin’ by Nikolai Tolstoy
and ‘Chasing Merlin’ by Sarah White.
So what did I learn about Merlin and how
did it help me to create a believable fantasy character? The real Merlin, like my character, was
Welch. He lived roughly between 480 and
570 A.D. and he was either a Christian monk or a priest or one of the last of the
ancient Celtic holy men known as druids.
It would seem that he attended a battle to
give spiritual support to his liege lord and that the sight of the slaughter
drove him mad. What, precisely, he raved
about as he wandered through Wales, northwestern England and southwestern
Scotland is unknown but villagers were frightened by this half wild man and
drove him off in a hail of sticks and stones, calling him Myrddin Wyllt,
meaning Merlin the wild. Supposedly, in
his madness, Merlin gained the ability to ‘see’ or make prophecies and the
belief in his power to foretell the future brought him to the attention of many
people in high places.
Whatever it was that the old man was raving
about it seems to have hit too close to home for a petty Scottish war lord
named Rhydderich Hael (translated as Roderick the Generous, which he obviously
was not) because it appears that Hael ordered the old man’s murder.
There are numerous surviving, prophetic
writings supposedly uttered by Merlin but there is scant evidence to support
these claims. But that’s ok. The vast
amount of sound research into the origins of Merlin gave
me the foundation I needed to make him live again as a fully rounded human
being with roots deep in historical fact – and a solid basis in fact always
makes fiction a lot more believable.
About The Author :
Daniel Diehl has been an author, writer and investigative historian for
thirty-five years. For nearly twenty years Diehl has been involved in
writing for publication and documentary television production. Mr.
Diehl’s work has won awards from the Houston (Texas) Film Festival,
the National Trust for Historic Preservation (US) and the City of
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Arts Foundation. Working alone and as a part
of the multi-award winning team of Daniel Diehl and Mark Donnelly,
Diehl has produced work in two main categories; trade publication and
television documentary scripts. His canon of work includes twenty non-
fiction books (which have been translated into ten foreign languages),
one previous work of fiction and scripts for more than one hundred and
seventy hours of documentary television primarily for A&E Network,
The History Channel, History International, Biography Channel and
Discovery Network.
Merlin Chronicles Web Page: http://www.themerlinchronicles.com/
Author Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/#!/daniel.diehl.31
Twitter: @DanielDiehlBook
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