The enchanted creatures of legend still exist, hidden away in the secret places of the world. They take refuge from an age of camera phones and government labs, from people who won’t let them live in peace. One of these last places of safety is known as the
World Below.
Ancient powers are at work. The Lords of Faerie seek to revenge the death of Baron Finkbeiner and recover the mysterious Blade of Caro. Hidden in the shadows, they await a chance to strike. The chance arises when an old enemy escapes the splinter realm in which he is imprisoned. Anxious to settle the debt, the Faerie Lords send him to finish the Lady Elizabeth and her Champion once and for all.
After leading the revolution against the despotic ruler of the World Below, Mitch Hardy has taken the throne. He never wanted to be king. The whole idea of a government by right of combat sits poorly with him. Growing evermore uneasy with his new position, he begins laying the framework for self-rule. The enchanted peoples have known nothing but kings, but are adapting quickly to this new idea of governing their own affairs. It goes well, but Mitch’s plans are interrupted by the arrival of old enemies. Soon he is fighting for his life against a hellish enemy, the likes of which he never imagined.
Check out the
trailer for Hazard of Shadows on YouTube!
Below, author Mike Phillips gives us a guest post on All about Goblins:
Hello everyone, and thank you for reading my guest post. My name is Mike Phillips and my new
book is Hazard of Shadows. I have been asked to talk about some of the more interesting
characters in the book, the goblins.
In folklore and literature, goblins have always been evil creatures. To this day, goblins are hiding
in our closets and under our beds. They are wicked monsters that are no happier than when they
are burning fields or robbing cradles. Living on the fringes of society as they must to avoid
camera phones and governmental laboratories, goblins lead harsh lives. Once they have been
won over, goblins are the best sort of friends. They may have terrible manners, they may say
awful things, they may smell bad, but we can all be that way sometimes. In the end, my use of
goblins helps us see the best in humanity.
Writing about goblins was a riot! Goblins live on the fringes of human society. They make their
homes in junk yards, abandoned buildings, sewer systems, and anywhere else people try to
avoid. Once they find a likely spot, the get to work. Goblins are clever with tools and machinery.
They will use and repurpose anything they can get their hands on, so many of their dwellings
look like they were designed by frat-boys. Not always the best of neighbors, goblins have to take
security seriously. They construct elaborate pitfalls to keep themselves safe from enemies like
collapsing tunnels, pongee pits, and mechanical traps.
Goblins, like their human counterparts, each have a unique personality. They live in what they
call crews, a sort of family, a lot like college dorm-mates. Each goblin has a special skill. One
might be a bully (a most desirable skill in the goblin world). Another might be crafty at making
traps. Some use sorcery or poison. Others are good at machinery. Some just eat a lot (another
desirable skill). Goblins, in general, have a loose sense of morality. If it doesn’t hurt another
member of the crew, with the obvious exception of fighting, then it’s usually okay. Fighting is
always acceptable behavior, though if an enemy is around, a goblin is expected to stop fighting
the other crew member and start fighting the enemy. Common sense rules like that are the
cornerstone of goblin society.
That brings us to the topic of goblin social structure. Goblin society is feudal. They organize in
crews, bound by familial ties or friendship. These associations are loosely formed, and if a goblin
wants to go it alone, no one holds a grudge. A crew may have two or three leaders at a time. It is
not unusual for goblins to disagree, so sometimes they have no real leader at all. Though they
fight with each other like crazy, but they are deeply loyal in times of trouble and would do
anything for the other members of their crew. No female goblins appear in Hazard of Shadows,
but that is a topic for another time.
People have been asking how to make friends with goblins, so I thought I’d wrap things up by
talking about that. Goblins are monsters, after all. To begin with, don’t look like a victim. They
are predators. If you run they will chase you down. The secret to making friends with goblins is
not to treat them like animals. They won’t be trained and can’t be suckered. Think of them as
that particularly feisty aunt that always speaks her mind. So if you want to make a goblin your
friend, it’s best to start with an act of kindness. Goblins have hard lives and even a small act of
kindness means a lot to them. In the book, Mitch does a favor for a goblin without even knowing
it. In turn, the goblin rescues Mitch from a pan dimensional, man-eating dumpster. Friends like
that are hard to find!
Mike Phillips is author of
Hazard of Shadows,
The World Below,
Dawn of Ages, and
Reign of the Nightmare Prince. His short stories have appeared in
ParAbnormal Digest,
Cemetery Moon,
Sinister Tales,
Beyond Centauri,
the World of Myth,
Mystic Signals and many others. Online, his work has appeared in
Lorelei Signal,
Kzine,
Bewildering Stories,
Midnight Times, and
Fringe. He is best known for his Crow Witch and Patrick Donegal series. Please visit Mike at
mikephillipsfantasy.com.
