Back to the Future in A TIME OF KINGS

Dear Gentlereaders,

If you scroll down to the bottom of this page you will see that this blog was started in 2010, a year which will live in infamy. Moreover, we have been blogging consistently for 16 years, with the rare break here and there. It is amazing how the passage of time stands firm against our proclivities and all manner of counterproduction. Perhaps that is why time, and history, fascinate me so. In my writing life, I have seldom written stories set in the past - although the book may be published later such that the story appears to be in the past. 

My FLU SEASON Saga is different in that I very much focus on history. That is to say, the unfolding of a future history. We began with THE BOOK OF MOM, written in 2020-21, which was only intended to be a one-off stand-alone novel. Being in the first lockdowns of 2020, I could imagine our everyday life falling lower month by month until life became unbearable. So I set that book six years into a longer pandemic. That was the beginning of our history which now culminates in my epic tome A TIME OF KINGS.

Let us say that THE BOOK OF MOM is set in 2026 (i.e., six years into a longer pandemic), and continues a couple years further in the next book, THE WAY OF THE SON. Then we have Book 3, DAWN OF THE DAUGHTERS, which follows Isla's life from age 2 to her death at age 79. That would take us to the year 2105. 

Maggie, granddaughter of Isla, is born in 2100. She appears in Book 4 THE BOOK OF DAD as a child and tells her own story as an adult in Book 5 THE GRANDDAUGHTER. She appears again in Book 6 THE GRANDSONS where she dies at age 85. That would be the year 2185. Maggie's grandsons live out their lives and, as families tend to do, they produce descendants. 

By 2353 the world has changed dramatically from what Maggie knew. We find that the future isn't what anyone thought it would be. The world has not grown full of technological wonders - as many tech bros dream - but fallen into regressive circumstances, especially in the western territory Maggie knew. With yet another rebuilding we achieve something at the level of a medieval society. States are now kingdoms. Cities of note have walls to protect them against the attacks of barbarians and rival cities. Outside of the cities the land is full of savagery as desperate people struggle to survive. Into this condition we find THE WARRIORS BAUMANN on a mission that takes them up the Royal Road (a.k.a. remnants of I-44) to the city of Louis, capital of the Kingdom of Missoura. Their odd episode there becomes the stuff of legend and the tale of the Red Duke is synonymous with the Wormwood catastrophe that scourges the earth, forcing survivors underground for decades.

And we build again. We follow the previous plan, often borrowing from old books: walled cities, horseback raiders, kingdoms with their kings and queens. 

The world of 2988 finds armies from Missoura, Kanza, Arkan, and Okala fighting the hordes of 'Slammers' from Tejas - which opens A TIME OF KINGS. A boy lost on the battlefield is saved by the victorious king, adopted and taken back to Louis, given the name Jack. We learn he is from the Baumann family in the Kanza territory and his true name is Frank, which he regains later.

In Chapter 2 of A TIME OF KINGS, we get an overview of this history as seen from Jack's perspective in the 2990s:

Little did I know all that had transpired before my birth. They knew, and acted on this history: all the conflicts year after year, the changing border lines, the people caught between them, the threats and challenges and treaties and travels to and from towns across a vast land that once had been a nation of states united as one. Later I saw the old maps in the Court, could see how the maps of today, what the King called the Americus, matched those of old, what were titled United American States in the early days. One Court scholar told me there were even earlier, older forms of the nation under the name America in various versions going back a thousand years.

It was a great plague that stopped a future that seemed already dissolving before their eyes. Lasted ten years, longer in some places. I heard how half of everyone died, and the other half were forced to scavenge for whatever food remained as none was grown nor taken to storage. Others became thieves and scoundrels, preying on those who were trying to survive. It was desperate times, the old scholar told me as though he had lived through it. He said his grandmother had a book – a scroll opened and pressed flat: sleeves of parchment stitched together, covered with ink-stroked words that held meaning for those who knew how to uncode the marks.

Gradually, as I was told, those good people who remained formed communities, bonding through marriages and their shared effort in gathering and growing food. They would stand together against the bad people who seemed determined to oppose everything, who might form a militia or band of marauders to raid and steal from the good people. Desperate times, the scholar told me again and again. We were supposed to be fortunate now: we had a mighty kingdom and a strong castle and an army to protect us, and plenty of food produced in the fields outside the walls.

There was a brief period, I learned, when the world grew back to the way it had been before the great plague: cities rebuilt, industry renewed. They relearned from books how to gain energy in the form of a shock that linked house to house. That left people able to see in the night, the shock causing glass bulbs to glow. In time, they made things which could capture the image of a person and save it, called camera box. These came to be used to watch everyone, to be certain they acted properly and in good faith with the government in the old capital on the east coast. Yet that old capital, and other cities on the coast were long ago destroyed by God’s holy hand, wiped away by a cleansing fire.

“It is the reason many of us ventured west,” said the old scholar.

They went as far as the mountains west of Kanza territory, then turned back. Some settled in the plains. Nothing worth searching for beyond those mountains. Here in the wooded hills and fertile river valleys they found an ideal home.

That became my home: the capital city of Louis, where I grew into my youth under the watchful eye of King Alex – until his death. I was made a member of the Court with a document given with the name of the King drawn upon the parchment. With that elegantly drawn name at the bottom of the document, I became a ward of the Court, adopted son of the King.

(Read more of what this epic novel is about in the previous blog post.)

History is downhill, it seems, from cause and action, the mainstream of our epic tale. Our narrator, Jack, is born in 2980 and dies in the year 3079. At first he is a mere flaneur observing the world he occupies. Then he is invited into the central story as a side character only to bloom into the main protagonist as his own life takes over the focus of the novel. In the epilogue, an elderly Jack tells his grandchildren and great-grandchildren the story of his life. One participant is Baby Haron, who is Jack's grandson asleep in a basket.

History will continue in the next novel, where this Haron has grown into a fine young man, bearing the title of Baron by birth. Yet he is unsettled in his life, and seeks a worthy wife to give him status. His tale is our next novel: BARON HARON TELLS HIS TALES. It is completed as I type this blog post. Look for this "cozy romantasy" by the end of this year - set mostly in the year 3095. These three novels: The Warriors Baumann, A Time of Kings, and Baron Haron Tells His Tales will constitute my "future medieval trilogy".

As always, thank you for your support. I write because I enjoy inventing interesting stories. I am pleased to share them with you. I hope you will enjoy them.

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(C) Copyright 2010-2026 by Stephen M. Swartz. All Rights Reserved. No part of this blog, whether text or image, may be used without me giving you written permission, except for brief excerpts that are accompanied by a link to this entire blog. Violators shall be written into novels as characters who are killed off. Serious violators shall be identified and dealt with according to the laws of the United States of America.

Putting the Epic in A TIME OF KINGS

It seems we are living in heroic times, as suggested by the plethora of books and movies we encounter these days - and for the past few years. With the expansion of the fantasy genre into new, long series and the proffering of movies based on ancient classic tales, it is easy to look back and bring the past forward for our modern judgment. Or, in the alternative, invent new tales for our modern times that reflect ancient ways and wisdom for either our scrutiny or nostalgic remembrance or both. Yet, what about the future? What about our future?

Since the arrival of our dastardly pandemic days, I've sought to make sense of our lot in life - our fate. And in that effort I wrote a novel, which became a trilogy, to which I then added another trilogy - sequel by sequel. Together we lived through the lives of six generations (a few more in flashbacks) that bring us from today (or a few years back) well into the latter 2100s. Not many of us today will be around to read them in the time period in which the stories are set. So I feel fairly safe in "predicting" the turn we will take from our current America to our future America.

 

I jumped ahead a bit just to have some fun in THE WARRIORS BAUMANN (2025). I could've made it a free-standing new novel but I felt drawn to tie it back to the two trilogies of the pandemic era and after, continuing the Baumann legacy. Then, when I could've just started yet another whole new novel (one that's based on a story idea from my teen years), I chose to invent a narrator who is also of the Baumann lineage - just to keep the theme going. That solved the problem I was having in deciding who best to tell the story of these twin princes who battle each other and nearly destroy the Realm of Chicageaux in the year 3030. 

I know, I know, I know. Some of you will say "But that hasn't happened yet, so maybe it won't ever happen." Gotcha. Let me give you this: "Maybe it will happen." Who can say for sure? I know there are those who see a future of advanced technology. That's great - if you want to lean into that. (Yes, I'm looking at you, AI overlords.) But I foresee a collapse of civilization (read the FLU SEASON Saga) and in the rebuilding, again and again, we find ourselves at the level of civilization as what we would call a medieval society, with all the usual trappings such as walled cities, castles, kings and queens, fighting on horseback with spears and swords while wearing armor. America never had a medieval period . . . in the past. So perhaps we have to wait for it in the future?

How did we get here? I've answered that in previous blog posts. The quick answer is what I've just said: pandemic leading to socio-economic collapse and civil war (local warlords fighting for control of territory). That leads to a realigning of states, in essence a new nation: the Americus. Try and try as those in power might, the rebirth of a "modern" society doesn't last for long. That failure along with deadly accidents and natural disasters and we have to rebuild again. Baumann family members and others like them survive by fleeing to the wild West. Yet other forces still rise to threaten a peaceful existence. The only solution is to build walls - around towns, let them become cities, then capitals of city-states that can be called kingdoms.

In my ribald comedy THE WARRIORS BAUMANN our two brothers are first on a trek to the capital city of Louis (the former St. Louis) in the kingdom of Missouri. Arriving in the walled city, they encounter obstacles to their plans in the form of the dastardly decadence of the city and its Court. This "return" to the past brings new meaning to the idea of what goes around comes around. By then, finished with this "break" from the dire tale of Bad Bart in THE GRANDSONS, I felt finally ready to write my great tome: the masterpiece I'd been training all of my life to be able to write: A TIME OF KINGS.

The title of this epic novel comes from the title of a musical overture I played as a member of my high school band (the tuba part). At our concert, I had my mother hold a small cassette tape recorder with microphone on a cord so I would get a copy of the music. (This was the '70s.) To this day I have not been able to locate information about that piece of music - even with YouTube and the internet at my disposal. I still do not know who the composer was although I felt certain of a couple choices - but the internet said no. This overture was always a part of the story from the first time we played through it in Band class. (I also used much more similar music during the writing and revision of this epic novel.)

Epic novel! I keep calling it that for good reasons. It is a long story (525 pages). It covers the narrator's entire life (80 years). It has depth and breadth in its drama. The story is vast - it concerns an entire Realm and its fate - and I dare compare it with other "epic" stories put to the page. Tolkien, Tolstoy, Cornwell come to mind. But this is my story, completely of my own invention - absolutely no AI assistance. In keeping to this epic scope, we begin with a famous battle that has ramifications throughout the rest of the novel. Then, the core of the novel is a war between twin princes - which also has ramifications throughout the rest of the novel - the aftermath of the war, as it were. Before, during, and after this war we explore the thoughts and actions, the choices, the costs of those choices, in every action the major players undertake. 

Our narrator, at first a boy on a battlefield, is introduced as a flaneur ("observer without being a participant") who becomes a side character, then a co-player, and ultimately a protagonist of his own in the latter portion of the book - mirroring his rise in rank. Along the way, we meet other characters - including several women of note - the queen herself, fair princesses or a devious one, commoners, women warriors, tavern wenches with opinions, wives and sisters - each with richly drawn story arcs of their own. We get the whole experience of a future-medieval society from the Royal Court to the servants, from the military to the domestic precincts, from the war camp to the palace finery. And as always in a book written by me, I offer a satisfactory ending - neither sad nor happy but decidedly realistic.

A TIME OF KINGS launches on August 8, 2026 in both paperback and for Kindle. More info about the story itself and the major characters in particular in the next blog post. 

Meantime, the next novel, BARON HARON, a so-called "cozy romantasy" is finished at my beta reader as I type this. I hope to offer it by the end of the year. And work continues on a novel to follow BARON HARON - further into the dark future as I strive to meet up with my 2017 novel EPIC FANTASY *WITH DRAGONS.

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(C) Copyright 2010-2026 by Stephen M. Swartz. All Rights Reserved. No part of this blog, whether text or image, may be used without me giving you written permission, except for brief excerpts that are accompanied by a link to this entire blog. Violators shall be written into novels as characters who are killed off. Serious violators shall be identified and dealt with according to the laws of the United States of America.

The Origin Story of A TIME OF KINGS

Greetings and Salutations, my dear Readers! Have I got a story for you. (Unless you want to go for the usual March events and selected commentary - in which case, please go here: March blog post, where you will fine all you want to know about Pi Day and St. Patrick's Day.) Otherwise, let us move on into the future.

March used to be a time of Spring Break, a week of merriment and mirth serving as not only a transition between winter and spring but between the hard work of a school semester and the slow slide into summer vacation. The last time I experienced this Spring Break was in 2020, oddly when we started our famous pandemic. I've told the tale before and lived to tell it. The administrators at my university instructed us to complete the semester exclusively online once we "returned" from our week off. I did that as best I could while being caught unprepared (no camera, no mic).

Then I retired and now I cannot keep track of the days of the week, all rushing together like a rollercoaster. In my idle time, I started writing a pandemic-focused novel - but I started further along on a more extensive crisis. One book became a trilogy, extending our story a couple generations into the future. I thought I was done but new ideas pestered me into writing a "sequel" and then another "sequel" and then, yes, a so-called "conclusion" to the series. The conclusion had barely launched when I was hard at work again on a new novel set much further into the future - a future that saw further degradation of civilization to a medieval society - and it was a ribald comedy, too! 

So now that 7 books have been written on this one timeline (trying to connect them with my previously published fantasy novel EPIC FANTASY *WITH DRAGONS (2017) or at least provide crucial background for it), I thought I was done. But those of you who know me know I'm never done. 

I had one more book in me - saved from my adolescence for a time when I could do it justice. Given the massive story and the vast scope of the drama, I had to wait until I was an experienced novelist with life maturity to bring to the epic. 

That book, as I introduced in my previous blog post, is A TIME OF KINGS.

There are two things you must know before anything else:

1. The narrator/protagonist is a Baumann descendant - although it isn't revealed until later. A hint is given at the beginning but you will forget it until later.

2. Because the story is set even further down the timeline from the FLU SEASON Saga than even THE WARRIORS BAUMANN (2025) - and given its origin story from back in my sordid youth - I will not tie it to the series in an obvious way. It is, but it isn't (wink). But it would be Book 8 if you still want to keep counting them.

The origin story of a story, hmm?

Back in my 7th grade days I tried writing stories. Stupid stories little more than copies of the sci-fi stories I read voraciously at the time. It was true for me: write the stories you want to read. And yet, somehow, an idea came to me that was so huge, so complex, I could not write it. Not at that time. It overwhelmed me. I pledged to write it later, when I retired and had the time to devote to it. And so I have. And so I did: it is finished now.

What's A TIME OF KINGS about?

Back in 7th grade, I suffered from teen angst. The world was against me. So were some other guys in my school. I transformed all of that reality into a fantasy I could control. I saw myself as the good prince beset by evil doers bent on my demise. You could fashion a book out of such themes. I scribbled a few scenes in a spiral-bound notebook with a ballpoint pen, often during classes. I thought it through. Had the whole story in my head from start to finish. But I couldn't do much with only a manual typewriter. An electric typewriter I got later did not make it easier.

Later, in college, I took a screenwriting class and I finally got the whole story down from start to finish - albeit as film instructions plus dialogue. Getting all of what I could think up into the movie made it 3 hours long. Of course, I thought that would be worth it. We see several 3-hour movies these days and nobody seems to mind. Then, from that screenplay, I tried to novelize it. But I started at the wrong place and got stuck, put it away. I tried a different novelization attempt later but again got stymied soon into the story. The problem, as I now understand, was that I started with history, too much backstory, and written in a droll voice of a minor scribe who seemed less interested in what was about to happen.

Problem solved. After writing 7 books with mostly 1st-person narration, I found the way into the epic novel. (Read it for yourself: an exciting prologue that introduces the setting and the situation of the novel.) I tried to keep to the flaneur narrator (one who describes what is seen, what happens, without being a part of it) but couldn't keep it going after a while, so gradually our narrator becomes aware to us (who he is). As the epic goes on we get to know our narrator better and gradually follow his own actions and motivations and regrets within the greater story.

So what is this greater story?

In the far future, after civilization has collapsed and survivors have rebuilt up to the level of a medieval society, we find the states of America have become kingdoms with walled cities and  armies to protect them and wage war against other "city-states". Pressures from north and south help unite the states of "the Americus" (roughly Missouri across to Ohio). Our story begins in a battlefield where a lost boy becomes the ward of the young King of Louis (St. Louis). Named Jack by this King, he grows up at Court as the adopted brother to the prince and princess only to be sent away for training as a physician so he can be useful. 

Thus begins the true story. Eventually the princess runs away with the rugged prince of the Illini who now resides in New Cago (the new city built next to the ruins of old Chicageaux). Being about to give birth, the princess insists on physician Jack accompanying them on their flight to New Cago, pursued by her angry grandfather and his regiment. They must stop, the birth imminent, as fighting ensues at a small village. The princess gives birth to twin sons - the princes who will eventually tear apart the Realm. Later two other sons and a daughter are born and the rugged prince who becomes King of the Realm tries to teach them how to be leaders. 

As boys will be boys, they pass through adolescence, youth, and young adulthood with its many trials and ladies to woo. Which brings us to the insult and the revenge at the core of the story. Justice must prevail!

A medieval society with Court intrigue and palace drama, with armies clashing in the field and a siege of the walled city of Cinnati, the aftermath of the war and all that follows and how it greatly impacts our narrator in his own personal life, as he is tasked with monitoring the King and managing the Court into his elderly years.

I have avoided almost all possible spoilers. This is a rough outline only. The enjoyment in reading is in the details. The how and why of the plot points, the turn of the story, the thoughts and feelings, motivations and regrets of our major players. I have crafted a rich story using a large cast and a fertile setting. I'm certain you will enjoy it. I will say about the conclusion of this epic drama that it is satisfying - neither a happy ending nor a tragic ending. As is usual for a book written by me, life is not so tidy. Endings are merely the end of the story, while life for the characters may continue beyond the final page. It is best, therefore, to provide an end which is perfect in its conclusive form.

A TIME OF KINGS is not a Game of Thrones clone (my idea came in 1973) nor does it draw anything from current medieval dramas (which I have not seen). It is medieval in setting but everything happens in the middle states of America. And in the future, say 3000 AD. It features a Baumann descendant as narrator/protagonist who observes, analyzes, comments on what these twin princes do in trying to destroy each other. It has romance (young princes wooing their ladies) but also warfare (a few grisly scenes). Court intrigue (ministers scheming) and palace drama (the staff and their quirks, the Royals and their proclivities). There are strong female characters: princesses, the Queen, barmaids, the doula, various wives and daughters with strong personalities. And guiding us is a youth trained as a physician becoming Chief Medical Officer in the prince's army, becoming palace doctor to the King while trying to live his own life full of regrets as the Realm crumbles around him and he is helpless to stop the fall.

A TIME OF KINGS launches later this year (2026). Perhaps as early as summer but definitely by September. And, let me whisper this, I already have ideas for the next novel.... 

More story details in the next blog post.

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(C) Copyright 2010-2026 by Stephen M. Swartz. All Rights Reserved. No part of this blog, whether text or image, may be used without me giving you written permission, except for brief excerpts that are accompanied by a link to this entire blog. Violators shall be written into novels as characters who are killed off. Serious violators shall be identified and dealt with according to the laws of the United States of America.

Love in A TIME OF KINGS

With the honoring of the Valentine saint once again, we can turn our attention to the meaning of all of it. As the years turn over, from childhood delight at receiving cute cards and cuter candy to our adolescent throes and expectations of receiving romantic cards and more expensive candy, to our young adult ambitions to only share the customs of this day with a special someone, to the truly adult situations where we may decide to simply relax and watch some romantic comedy to celebrate the day, to our later years where it is all too much trouble to put forth the effort - or else the significant other is gone - we strive to make something of this day, not so much for a long-dead priest who married couples in secret but instead for nothing but our own modern trifles. 

If you are not so predisposed, you might enjoy an old blog post where I ranted about the day. You can find it here - thanks is unnecessary.

When last we indulged in blogging, I concluded a four-part series on the writing of my ribald comedy set in a medieval future time titled THE WARRIORS BAUMANN. 

As the culmination of the FLU SEASON Saga, I turned toward a lighter story yet one in which serious matters still occur. First of those serious matters is why, 200 years after the conclusion of my apocalyptic Western epic THE GRANDSONS (Book 6), has the states of America devolved into rival kingdoms. The answer is multifold: social unrest, collapsing economy, and natural disasters reduce civilization to survivors who must rebuild. In our tale of two brothers on a mission, we find them on the road to Louis, the capital of the Kingdom of Missoura, a fine example of the rebuilt civilization albeit a decadent place. What happens in Louis tends to stay in Louis, of course. 

Set entirely in the year of 2353, THE WARRIORS BAUMANN has a satisfying conclusion, one which is not so obviously linked to my next novel, titled A TIME OF KINGS. Except for the exceptions. Let me explain....

Our future medieval epic opens with a battle scene in which a wounded king takes a boy found on the battlefield back to Louis, puts the boy into his family as brother to the king's own son and daughter. The adopted boy is given the name Jack, and he uses it throughout most of the book. His true name comes out later when we learn he is one of the ling line of Baumann descendants (there are earlier hints). Hence, a connection to the whole FLU SEASON Saga. However, this epic drama is not intended to draw from the earlier books any more than to recount the fall of civilization that occurs in them. There are no direct references back to those other books (unlike in THE WARRIORS BAUMANN where a stage play is performed based on an earlier character's opera, itself based on a much earlier character's notebooks recording events).

Thus, we have a wholly new story: an epic of vast scope covering the lifetime of our narrator, Jack, who becomes the Royal physician, giving him access to much Court drama, and thrusts him into the war between the twin princes. More crucially, Jack witnesses the aftermath of the war's outcome. Although the chief matters are settled, the Realm slowly succumbs to its liege's increasing melancholy despite attempts to intercede. No need to offer spoilers at this point. It is enough to offer this overview: a three-part novel - before, during, and after the great war between Chicageaux and Cinnati - with a vast scope (the kingdoms of the Americus) and a large cast of memorable characters living in the medieval society of the time. 

Background. In my early days of grandeur, around thirteen, when I thought i was on the verge of world domination, I opened a spiral-bound notebook and put Bic pen to lined page, and scribbled out the opening scenes of a big book that filled my head so full I feared drowning in the story. I didn't get far, writing by hand. Instead, I set myself to planning the story. I put some of my notes on paper using my manual typewriter. The main thing at that time was to record as much as I could of everything that happens, knowing that the scope of the epic story was too great for me to tackle in my adolescence. Also, I had yet to experience life in the way that's necessary to portray so many different people in the story with accuracy and verisimilitude.

I kept at it, held it in the back room, and in college wrote it as a screenplay - in those days where I believed I'd end up in Hollywood. At least in that format I was able to get the whole story down on paper: all the dialogue, all the twists and turns - and camera angles, fade outs, etc. From that screenplay, I began trying to novelize it - after being rejected by Hollywood. I started in the wrong place, and gave up. I gave it time and tried to write a novel version again only to run aground. In 2017 I published my only fantasy novel: EPIC FANTASY *WITH DRAGONS. In that story, the characters recount the infamous "War of the Five Princes" as a turning point in their ancient history (ancient to the characters in the far future where dragons fill the skies, but I digress...).

Then, as fate would assign it, many things happened in life and I wrote the FLU SEASON series. Then THE WARRIORS BAUMANN came along and I linked it back to the post-pandemic/collapse-of-society/rebuilding series of books. By the end of THE WARRIORS BAUMANN I knew that A TIME OF KINGS was inevitable. There are only a few minor references back to THE WARRIORS BAUMANN or the earlier books - easy to miss even if you've read those books. I intend for this newest epic novel to be a work on its own, but it's always fun to have a few ties to other works. No, this epic is completely serious (but with moments of natural humor, romance, wisdom, and so on like any good novel) and takes its subject seriously: the rivalry between twin princes that destroy the Realm in a future version of America built up from survivors' struggles to medieval kingdoms.

A TIME OF KINGS is finished. Complete. Undergoing the usual revision stage as I blog, with the cover artwork coming soon. Expected to be available in Fall 2026.

Next time: More on the plot, background in the story, and various connections. 

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(C) Copyright 2010-2026 by Stephen M. Swartz. All Rights Reserved. No part of this blog, whether text or image, may be used without me giving you written permission, except for brief excerpts that are accompanied by a link to this entire blog. Violators shall be written into novels as characters who are killed off. Serious violators shall be identified and dealt with according to the laws of the United States of America.

THE WARRIORS BAUMANN & The Writing Life, part 4

You have likely finished reading THE WARRIORS BAUMANN by now. I have described my latest book as a ribald comedy (i.e., humor often based on naughty references) set in a future-medieval age of the Americus, a collection of kingdoms mirroring the former states. Future-medieval is meant to describe a medieval society which has developed many years from our present day - into the future, not brought forward from the past. How does that happen? Well, simply put, after a great plague ravaged the population, survivors were forced to rebuild. At the time of our story, society has gradually risen from the struggle to survive to a more civilized era of a medieval society - featuring castles and kings, swords and armor, horses and hounds. They have not intentionally taken their ideas from the past but have come upon them freely as daily life became more settled.

The year is 2353 and our story focuses on two brothers on a mission (see previous posts) first on the Royal Road (what remains of Interstate 44), and the walled city of Louis with its giant silver arch - what once was Saint Louis in the state of Missouri, now the kingdom of Missoura. Life is good in Louis, especially if you are part of the Court crowd, where all manner of decadence is arrayed for your pleasures. Into this melange, our two brothers appear: the older, shorter brother believing he will wed the princess and his larger brawny brother ready to remove a dastardly duke who is in the way of nuptials.

That is our story and we have sworn to stick with it.

I have mentioned in previous posts how THE WARRIORS BAUMANN (Dec. 2025) is connected to the FLU SEASON Saga. Our two brothers are descendants of two Baumann sons in Book 6: THE GRANDSONS (2025), set in the "wild" western territory of a destroyed nation. The book ended with them settling in the north-central area of today's Oklahoma. Now, in THE WARRIORS BAUMANN, we follow mighty warrior Stanley K. Baumann as he leaves Wichita in the Kanza territory, heading east to meet up with his brother, the conniving redhead Rory Baumann. The year is 2353.

How did this whole timeline begin? It's fair to ask, here in this year of 2026. In Book 1: THE BOOK OF MOM (Nov. 2022), our story opens in the sixth year of a pandemic. Modeled after our own pandemic experience, I extended the worst effects of it for six more years - until Mom has had enough and knows it will never get better. She takes her teen son and her tuba and flees the city for the hope of safety with relatives in the countryside. But things do not go as planned. In Book 2: THE WAY OF THE SON (May 2023), that teen son sets out on his own with wife and baby, seeking a safer place to survive. They encounter all kinds of misery, including warring factions trying to control a town. They end up hiding in the forest of a national park. In Book 3: DAWN OF THE DAUGHTERS (Sept. 2023), that baby, named Isla, has grown into a young lady as the family works with other survivors who have settled in the  national park. But marauders and militia come to disrupt what is almost an idyllic life. That teen son, now a grown man, is taken away to fight in the final civil war between north and south forces but he manages to escape. Then the mother, daughters, sisters are captured and taken away from the national park to the rebuilt city in the north where they suffer the hardships of the new society. Isla escapes and makes her way back to the national park and eventually further south to the marshes where she lives out her final days. That concludes the first trilogy of the series. 

I thought I had finished the series, a trilogy being enough work on one story idea. But there was more to contemplate. And I soon was starting a new book in the series. 

I chose to follow Isla's last son born in Book 3. In Book 4: THE BOOK OF DAD (June 2024) I let him, now a father, tell about his life in the tyrannical capital, where the first return of lost technology is pushed into surveillance and punishment of citizens. His daughter, Maggie, escapes the city for a home in the western territory. In Book 5: THE GRANDDAUGHTER (Sept. 2024), Maggie, now grown into a young lady, takes on the role of school teacher and decides what their sorry town needs is a kids' band. Her adventures eventually lead to her success as an orchestra conductor in the capital she once fled. However, she retires to her western home, content to compose music. It's a bit of a spoiler for Book 5 but her teen son insists on going on a posse with her brother the sheriff in Book 6: THE GRANDSONS (June 2025) only to never return. That story of Bart Baumann makes up the bulk of the book with a frame story in the 'present' narrated by Jake Baumann, Maggie's grown nephew, where a trial lets all the pieces of the puzzle come together. The book ends with the grandsons. Now we are surely done with the series - right?

 

You might think so but you'd be wrong. Story ideas have always come to me. In writing the FLU SEASON series, I was beginning the next book even as I was revising the current book. Each story built off what came before so it was easy to keep going. I chose the best character to tell the story and launched into a new narrative. But much of the series is dark, often violent, so I sought something lighter. I tried to tell a lighter story in Book 5 with Maggie and her friendship with musical instrument salesman Hal Hill mirroring the plot line of that old musical The Music Man, which I had enjoyed as a boy. Then the next book, THE GRANDSONS, took us back into a violent, dark epic.

I didn't need to tie THE WARRIORS BAUMANN to the FLU SEASON series, but it was fun to make some associations - and why couldn't they be descendants? Certainly after our real  pandemic experience and writing this pandemic apocalyptic saga I needed - really needed - something lighter, a fun story. In fact, writing THE WARRIORS BAUMANN was so much fun I finished it in record time. I relished the ruse as much as the potent puns and witty wiles of the decadent society in the capital city of Louis. There is normal violence and sexual references for such a setting, in that time and place, yet nothing is told in a graphic manner; thus it is suitable for even adolescent readers. I made ample use of all manner of comedic effects, going deliberately for the joke, letting ridiculous situations compound, stitched scenes together with lavish wordplay. I even employ a play within the story: the handwritten notebooks of the son in Book 1-3 that is the source material for an opera composed by Maggie in Book 5, become a theater stage-play, a somewhat mythologized telling, in this Book 7. So many connections. But it's all in good fun!

Thus, we see the real experiences of our 2020-22 pandemic era led to a series about a pandemic ravaged society which, not actually specified, goes from presumably 2026 (Book 1) to sometime in the 2190s by the end of Book 6, to a major leap to 2353 for Book 7. It has been my most productive era. Granted, I've had nothing more to do with my teaching career now that I've retired. Yet, it is the writing which keeps me going. I get depressed when a book is published and sent out into the world. Then I have nothing to do. During the writing of these 7 books, with each one starting before the previous book launched, that was not a problem. Even now, a new book has taken hold of me. In fact, I've just finished the complete draft of it and now I begin revision. 

I call it A TIME OF KINGS. It concerns twin princes battling each other for the King's throne, set in the Americus, the collection of kingdoms between Missouri and eastern Ohio. This epic is centered on the Realm of Chicageaux and in its capital of New Cago. When the twin princes and their siblings take provinces of the Realm to rule, war begins between New Cago and Cinnati, with forces from surrounding city-states joining in. The ungainly outcome of the war sweeps down through the history that follows. In this medieval epic, our narrator is a Baumann, though his identity is hidden for much of the book: starting as a boy caught in a battle in Chapter 1 to an old man in the epilogue. That roughly covers the years 2975 to 3080. Such is life. Such is the writing life. Now - finally - I have no further ideas. 

More about A TIME OF KINGS in a future blog. Thanks as always for your support. Enjoy these tales told for your entertainment and enlightenment.

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(C) Copyright 2010-2026 by Stephen M. Swartz. All Rights Reserved. No part of this blog, whether text or image, may be used without me giving you written permission, except for brief excerpts that are accompanied by a link to this entire blog. Violators shall be written into novels as characters who are killed off. Serious violators shall be identified and dealt with according to the laws of the United States of America.

THE WARRIORS BAUMANN & The Writing Life, part 2

What a happy holiday season it is whenever I have a new book out into the world!

This year that new book is THE WARRIORS BAUMANN (<click to get your copy), a ribald tale of two brothers on a mission in future-medieval Missouri. What is future-medieval? It is a genre in which the story is set in a medieval-level society but located in the future from our present day. How does that work? I'm glad you asked, because I've literally written six books to explain how a modern society can devolve into a less civilized society. I refer to the FLU SEASON Saga, a series of stand-alone novels with a shared timeline and crossover characters. Start anywhere; you get whatever info you need to understand that particular story. Hint: It begins with a 10-year pandemic, then gets worse (with some ups and downs while attempting to restore civilization), until there isn't much left but desperate people killing over food. Then, eventually, people start to rebuild, and after some time we are up to a medieval-level society.

States have turned into kingdoms and the capital cities have walls around them for protection. Kings rule. Warriors keep the roads clear. Traveling troupes of actors and minstrels ply their trade. One seeks to rise in status and join the Court crowd with all their frivolous finery and dour decadence. It is an ordered society. THE WARRIORS BAUMANN unfolds in such a setting as the clever older, shorter brother named Rory persuades his brawny younger brother Stank (Stanley K. Baumann) to join him on his plan to wed Princess Majory and thus become a duke. They are not prepared, however, for the trials of the Royal Road to the capital nor the plethora of schemes and gambits of the Court crowd. Success is fairly uncertain until the final scene.

Before even the FLU SEASON Saga, a small library of various stories was written, as shown in the graphic below. Once in college, the stories compiled, many based on the science fiction I had been reading in my youth. My first long work was a rip-off of Orwell's 1984; the difference in my take being that the protagonist turns out to be a plant who works from the inside to undo the tyrannical state. Titled In Pursuit of Freedom, I eventually wrote it as a screenplay and had it optioned by a Hollywood studio for a year before they dropped the project and all rights returned to me. It remains unfinished as a novel - only as the novella I typed up during high school days.

My next longform work was YEAR OF THE TIGER, which began as a sci-fi short story I wrote in college. I took the professor's advice to reset the story on Earth rather than an alien planet. So I chose a tiger as the counterpoint to a man driven insane by dreams of himself as a tiger. That story, too, became a screenplay - the easiest way to get the full story on paper back in typewriter days. I swore to turn it into a novel and I tried several times but the complicated story stood firm. Finally, after years of revision, I thought I'd gotten it just right, and published it only in 2020, when the world was in pandemic fever and nobody was buying books. A fellow author from India read it and pronounced it a fine book (her review here).

Back to the early days. I finally sat down and wrote the great masterpiece I'd envisioned based on some wildly ridiculous tales of adventure from my youth reset on an alien world. I called it THE DREAM LAND and included a version of myself and girlfriend of the time as protagonists exploring another world through an interdimensional doorway. While almost comic-bookish at first, the story through revisions got more serious, more scientific, and darker as these two Earth people learn to function in the new society and gradually rise in status - though not without considerable problems. All right, done. I'd set it down for the record.

But what happens next? I had lingering questions so I started in immediately on Book 2 of what would become a trilogy. The first book set up all the tropes of interdimensional fiction so the second book used them straightaway, focusing on the how and why - then using a time travel/change history theme (things don't go well in the end). Then I wrote Book 3 to solve the problems encountered in Book 2 (undoing the history that was changed because it made everything worse + an approaching comet). The end of a good trilogy.

In the middle of Book 2 (Dreams of Future's Past), however, I got stopped by a plot conundrum. For the next ten years I didn't write fiction. I wrote scholarly articles, grad school papers, a non-fiction thesis, and finally a Ph.D. dissertation. While teaching English after all my education, I read a student's sci-fi story which reminded me of my unfinished book. I returned to it, suddenly knowing how to get through the plot conundrum. It wasn't from anything in the student's story; rather the act of taking some fiction into my brain unlocked it and fresh ideas flowed. So I finished that book and went straight into Book 3 (Diaspora). 

Also while working on Book 1 of THE DREAM LAND Trilogy, I went to Japan to teach English. I used my experiences living there for five years and from earlier experiences living in Hawaii (thanks, Army!) to write a romance novel, AIKO. Then my subsequent Master of Fine Arts thesis was a novel titled A BEAUTIFUL CHILL, another kind of romance (what I dubbed an 'anti-romance') set on the same college campus (Ah ha! Take that, professors and colleagues!). Still another book came while I lived in South Texas and attended the university there for a Masters of Arts in English (thinking to return to Japan and teach again). Several courses in rhetoric inspired me to write a version of The Iliad and The Odyssey - putting a modern young man touring the ruins of Troy (Ilium) with an older woman named Helen. Awkward. That book, AFTER ILIUM, although not the first written, became my first book to be published as a longish novella. Next came The Dream Land trilogy, followed by A Beautiful Chill, and Aiko. I thought I was done.

How did this wave of publishing get started? I'm glad you asked because there is an answer. You see, being busy with grad school and then teaching (back in the US), I had little time to write new books. Meanwhile, the publishing world had moved on; the process changed. Instead of mailing a box of paper to an agent or publisher with a self-address stamped envelope for a reply (they didn't return to box of paper unless you included return postage), we now used this thing they were calling e-mail: you sent a message (cover letter) via this system and attached a sample manuscript file (1 to 3 chapters). Instead of waiting 6 months to a year for a reply, you could expect a reply in 3 to 8 weeks. I sent manuscripts around using both methods. Got some nibbles, no hooks. Did have a couple agents briefly. In the end it was neither method which got me published. It was the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award competition that first got my books noticed. I entered it three years in a row but did not win. However, through the ranking process I was noticed.

I am, if nothing else, a special case. While in a hospital one day, I acknowledged to myself that if I could do anything before saying goodbye, it would be to see one of my novels published - and praised, reviewed, with movie deals, etc. in some of the dreams. So I entered the ABNA competition on that whim, got some attention, and hooked up with some small press folks. I thought at the time "this is good, this is enough" and didn't pursue more lucrative avenues. I should have tossed my hat into a wider ring. But I also thought I had no more ideas and so there was little point in trying to go big or go home. I was already home, and that was fine. Thus, I've been in the same Myrddin Publishing Group sphere of influence ever since. 

As the next book is written and the next, and the next, I keep looking back and wondering what life might have been like if I had struck out for something more traditional. Going for a Big Five publisher. As it was, I believed I wouldn't write another book so the end of my writing career, such as it was, was fine. I had done enough to satisfy my desire to see my books in print (and on Kindle). I kept on teaching.

Then I got a new idea for a book: a vampire novel.  [TO BE CONTINUED]


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(C) Copyright 2010-2025 by Stephen M. Swartz. All Rights Reserved. No part of this blog, whether text or image, may be used without me giving you written permission, except for brief excerpts that are accompanied by a link to this entire blog. Violators shall be written into novels as characters who are killed off. Serious violators shall be identified and dealt with according to the laws of the United States of America.

THE WARRIORS BAUMANN & The Writing Life

It is my pleasure to announce the launch of yet another new book from the twisted mind of me. It is a calling, a compulsion, an avocation, a truly devious deception I offer to the reading public. For is not fiction a great deception? The verisimilitude of plausible irony? Indeed, only words for one's pleasure, sentences for a semblance of scenery, and a plethora of comedy faux pas not withstanding. That said, I refer to THE WARRIORS BAUMANN, available in either paper form with a back or in plastic form under electronic duress. The choice is yours, dear gentlereader!

Here we have a ribald comedy set in a future Missouri where medieval society reigns - 200 years after the end of the previous volume in the FLU SEASON Saga (THE GRANDSONS, Book 6).  Two brothers, Baumann descendants, find themselves journeying to the capital city of Louis on a mission: Elder brother Rory intends to wed the princess and thereby make the Baumann clan into high-class folks. Rory's larger but younger brother Stank (a.k.a. Stanley K. Baumann) doubts the scheme. For one thing, there is a duke who must be removed to clear the way for Rory's courtship to proceed. With an out-of-work actor, a feisty warrior girl, and other players joining them, this tale has more twists than one of those twisted braid pastries with the pecans and frosting on it. A delight which  Princess Majory would snarf down in an instant.

However, this is not the end of the Baumann family saga. Even now work continues on the next volume: an epic of medieval monstrosity, a most serious account - serious in ways THE WARRIORS BAUMANN is amusing - of the fantastic war between twin princes in 3030 - as mentioned by travelers in my 2017 novel EPIC FANTASY *WITH DRAGONS. We can see how the timeline is coming together. The next novel shall be titled A TIME OF KINGS, and while the focus of the story is not any Baumann descendant, the narrator of the story is yet another member of the Baumann line who participates in the war between these twin brothers.

   
How did this madness begin, you might be wondering. There is a tale as old as time, when thoughts and actions were set as words on surfaces: clay, stone, parchment, paper, electronic screens. I, too, partook of the art of invention, drawing from the stormy clouds images and sounds which I mistook for reality. Called fiction by the scribes of my locale, I found them a secret delight. Indeed, I fancied my own creations and thereby took up the paper pad and pencil and drew forth the lines that represented persons of my imagination. I circled their spoken words like bubbles over their heads so they might tell us their thoughts.

Given this ability, I sought further expansion and learned the form called paragraphs. The gathering of ideas within a single block of words proved miraculous. Being only a child at the time, I was praised for presuming too much and offering more than my size should produce. In time my scribblings made sense, drew more praise and encouragement flowed, foisting me into a light of key limes - or perhaps that, too, was mere dream. Thus I fashioned many such tales of quite unalive persons acting as I wished them to act for purposes of delighting myself and others with the many ways such persons could act. And, to our great amazement, we were entertained by such invention. 

Indeed, I grew bolder and imaged more - even as this talent grew weary for those close to me. So I tempered my enthusiasm bit by bit until nothing remained of my fictionalization urges. I slipped into the ordinary life, a world of vast emptiness, a plane of plain musings not of what invention might bring but only the facts, ma'am, only the truth - as set on the pages we read in our school lessons. But there is more truth in the pages of imagination than those scraped across our great institutions - truth of a kind. A split was due. 

As I gained entrance to a higher school, my fictionalizing also grew, became unwieldy and couldn't be contained. I wrote out stories for each and every assignment regardless of the class or its subject. All was narrative. All a protagonist's journey and an antagonist's blockade. The pattern repeated endlessly. On one fine day I ventured into a new room and found there a scholar who believed my fictioneering had merit. I accepted the praise in my usual humble manner. That said, I devoted myself to the creation of imaginary tales of made-up persons doing ordinary and interesting things, occasionally extraordinary and highly interesting things, such that greater stories were put to the page.

In that ancient era, we employed the device called the Smith-Corona manual typewriter. The device allowed a single person to push keys which imprinted characters upon an inserted sheet of paper. An amazing invention for the time. In that terse apprenticeship, I composed a story of 66 pages, in single lines, following the model of a book titled "1984" - which we had read in a class. I thought my take on the tale was totally tremendous. Passing it around to friends, who passed it to their friends, brought it to the attention of half the school by the time the stapled pages found their way back to me. I was to become a legend - if not for my musical career bursting on the horizon, sending me and my tuba to a proper university; indeed, a conservatory, to hone my skills and make something of myself, as the professors liked to say.

I continued to compose stories alongside composing music. Both became outlets for my imagination: a tale told in words or a tale told in notes. The same to me; I knew the details. Then came the time in which decisions were made. Alas, I did not become a great composer of Classical music or even film music. I allowed myself to be swept away into foreign intrigue. Only then did I realize the story side of my efforts was the true one. Oh, I could still dabble in music, enough to entertain myself. But I had to admit it was a lot easier to write a book and hand the pages to a reader than it was to gather a bunch of musicians, copy out individual parts, and perform a symphony. I did actually compose a symphony but the 3 movements were never performed all at one concert. 

So I took up the cause of the English teacher. I made myself into one of those who taught how to write. How to write all manner of texts, in all situations, employing a variety of styles and tone, incorporating information and opinion, images and links to the at-large world. It grew tedious in time. I started to scribble again on the side. Even as I worked to earn my money, I created stories which saved my soul. That is the story I'm telling. There is more to tell, however; I would call it the good parts. You be the judge. 

I shall continue this history lesson in a less haughty fashion in my next post. In the interval, I highly recommend you get started with THE WARRIORS BAUMANN, and prepare yourself to burst out laughing perhaps forty times between its covers. And please note: there will not be a test at the end of your reading, so simply enjoy the tale of our two brothers doing their best to win at life! So let it be written, so let it read! 

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(C) Copyright 2010-2025 by Stephen M. Swartz. All Rights Reserved. No part of this blog, whether text or image, may be used without me giving you written permission, except for brief excerpts that are accompanied by a link to this entire blog. Violators shall be written into novels as characters who are killed off. Serious violators shall be identified and dealt with according to the laws of the United States of America.

Exactly who are THE WARRIORS BAUMANN ?

Having a little time while waiting for Book 6 of my Flu Season Saga, THE GRANDSONS, to launch, I dove into a fresh idea I had. 

I imagined the timeline of the Flu Season series a couple hundred years further into the future, say 2353, and what descendants of the people in THE GRANDSONS might be doing. As the series has gone along, society and civilization have regressed (with a brief 20 year pause for rebuilding that ultimately failed, as recounted in Book 4: THE BOOK OF DAD). Therefore, this new story would be even more regressive than the Western drama of THE GRANDSONS. Think medieval. Think no modern conveniences, only horses and swords and cities behind walls, with the outer forests and fields free rein for vagabonds and scoundrels. 

In my overarching theory, what life would be like a couple hundred years after 2000 would be similar as life back in 1800 - with exceptions, of course. So I begin with a protagonist who is a warrior by profession with a side hustle as a sire for women wishing for children. (Many of the people are unable to conceive due to the lingering effects from the past pandemic/plague.) This warrior by the name of Stank (Stanley K. Baumann) is minding his own business when he's summoned by his elder brother. An adventure awaits! 

UPDATE: THE WARRIORS BAUMANN has launched! Get it here in paperback or ebook for Kindle: https://mybook.to/fOAbh

What is this adventure? It seems as though this older brother has a scheme. Being known as a wily fellow, Rory Baumann is full of plans. He knows Stank will help him, and he is in need of a brawny partner to complete his latest plan: to wed the princess. Thus, the two must journey across the wild Ozark land to reach the city of Louis, capital of the Kingdom of Missoura. Many adventures ensue along the way, some nearly fatal, others merely amusing. They gather a few companions - de rigueur in epic fantasy tales - and arrive in the walled city beneath the great silver arch - only to face further episodes that test their verve and cunning - and for Stank also his inner and outer strength.

[click to enlarge]

I cannot say more or fabulous entries shall be revealed too soon. Suffice to say, readers will be amazed, laugh aloud, be horrified, feel ravaged and come away with a full meal deal of the range of emotions, with a satisfying though rather odd conclusion. As a "ribald comedy" there is naughtiness aplenty though none bear too graphic description for younger readers. There is violence, as would be the norm for such times, yet not too graphic in its depiction. There is plenty of witty wordplay, punctilious puns, inspiring insults, and delightful decadence among the Court riff-raff. Behold! Schemes and gambits, plots and turnabouts, twists and turns in a decidedly future-medieval manner! 

THE WARRIORS BAUMANN launches December 15 - if all goes well within the vagaries of our electronic age!

As always, many thanks, good readers, for your constant support! Enjoy reading further!

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(C) Copyright 2010-2025 by Stephen M. Swartz. All Rights Reserved. No part of this blog, whether text or image, may be used without me giving you written permission, except for brief excerpts that are accompanied by a link to this entire blog. Violators shall be written into novels as characters who are killed off. Serious violators shall be identified and dealt with according to the laws of the United States of America.

Who's on First? The Comedy of THE WARRIORS BAUMANN

Dear Humorless Vagabonds,

Allow me to entertain you with boundless comedy of a ribald nature! Behold! For I bring you a tale of the future, the future generation of the Baumann family as made famous and notorious in the FLU SEASON Saga, a series of six books detailing the survival of five generations of Baumanns. But wait! There's more! 

Let us advance a couple centuries and meet a future pair of brothers born of the same mother bearing all the traits of kin past yet by different fathers. Thus the eldest brother, Rory, is shorter than the next eldest brother, Stank. Stank is Stanley K. Baumann but he goes by Stank for reasons discussed in the pages. Rory has red hair like his ancestor Bart, and Stank has dark brown hair like his ancestor Jake. Rory is a spry, clever fellow while Stank is big and strong, a professional warrior. Together they travel to the capital city of Louis.

Louis is to the west side of the kingdom of Missoura here in the year of 2353. The brothers journey there because Rory has the idea he will wed the princess. But he needs his bigger brother to get the duke out of the way, to clear the path, as it were. Being brothers, Stank is willing to see to Rory's happiness even though Rory has had many schemes in the past that didn't work out. As is common in such epic tales, many adventures ensue along the way, and even more after they arrive in Louis.

I've dared to brand this tome as a ribald comedy. Ribald meaning a tad to the naughty side of things. Comedy meaning the humor is deliberate;  more than simply a normal day to day interaction between brothers and others they meet. This may not sit well with readers who like their comedy unforced. And yet, what's a good comedy without a full measure of ridiculous situations, witty wordplay, and double-takes as plot twists? I ask you!

Behold one such example of a comedic passage from a later chapter:

Rory had to think a moment. “I never have thought to gain only the one without the other. You make me a jest?”

“Not a jest,” said Stank, glaring at him. “Not a game, neither. I did what I had to do to bring you what you asked for.”

“What I asked for?”

“Ay, what you asked for.”

Rory glared at him. “What did I ask for?”

“You know what you asked for.”

“What was what I asked for?”

“You know you asked for what you asked for.”

“Ay, but what was it that I asked for?”

“You asked for me to confront the duke, that Lindo fellow.”

“Ay, that one. I asked for him?”

“You asked me to remove him. That’s what you asked for.”

“That’s what I asked for?” Rory threw up his hands. “That duke you were supposed to offend and get him to challenge you to a duel, then defeat him?”

“That’s what you asked for, and it’s what I attempted.”

The comedic phrase "what I asked for" is fraught with repetition; hence, amusing in its ridiculousness. Try it: read it aloud and quickly! Trippingly so. It smacks of a Who's on First routine made famous by comedians Abbott and Costello. Other such examples exist within the story.

In another sampling, from a middling chapter, we find witty wordplay, including references made innocently within the scene yet which we from our haughty past position recognize as referencing a contemporary item or instance we know all too well.

“It may not have been what King Karl wished,” Rory explained, “but he understood a way of life couldn’t easily be changed in a few days – or even a few weeks. They had a city. Rules were different in a city. Had to turncoat, wear the new rules on their sleeves.”

“So they went soft,” Stank spoke, gazing ahead along the road.

“Ay, they lost their warrior spirit,” Rory conceded.

“Happens to all in time,” said Stank, giving his warhorse a pat. “You fight for peace. You grow fat in peace. Then a new-born wolf wants what you’ve gathered but you’re too besotted to defend against the attacks.” He gave a snort. “Best build high walls while you grow old and fat, safe within your sanctuary. Train the youngers to fight.”

“Or do like people did a couple hundred years past,” said Rory, “hiding in the woods or going under the ground to wait for peace.”

Stank nodded. “They were sad days.”

“A few great-grandsons later and we have a new King Karl, who is number five or thereabouts.” Rory mugged. “He’s a softy now, as you said. Old and fat. Lives in luxurious gowns, hair grown down to his waist, all curly and adorned with ribbons. Always a hair-keeper at his becking and collaring. Not a threat to any of us – lest his hair falls into disarray and the hair-keeper cannot be found.”

“I pity the coiffeur,” Stank laughed.

The passage starts in a serious tone then little by little turns comedic as the brothers play off each other's remarks, leading us to the final declaration (of this sample), which mimics the common tag-line of the TV show The A-Team and Mr. T's famous line stating that he has 'pity for the fool'.

The misspoken phrase "turncoat, wear..." may be quite normal speech in the time of the scene but we recognize it as ill-spoken vocabulary and gain amusement from the twisted words, the turning from normalcy. We then pick up the serious discussion. Until we stumble into Rory's description of the old king and his obsession with hair style. Here the phrase "becking and collaring..." harkens back to what we know as "beck and call" - hence, the misspoken becomes comedy to readers of our present age yet would be quite proper in the time of the scene. We get what those characters apparently do not.

There is more - much more - within the misadventures of these two brothers. Puns and malapropisms, alliteration and assonance, are displayed as the proper speech pattern of the capital's Court crowd. It is not archaic language; rather we find ourselves in the future, a reborn future from the seeds of a devastated civilization. Our heroes reference the history of the Baumann family from the initial pandemic horrors through to the infamous life of outlaw Bart Baumann (Book 6). They even attend a stage play based on the opera composed by Maggie Baumann (Book 5), itself based on earlier notebooks written by Sandy Baumann (Books 1, 2, and 3). In this way, all forms of humor are allowed and presented, pushed to the forefront, even as we are thrust into the strange twists of fate our characters face page upon page and down to the final sentence!

Thou may enjoyest THE WARRIORS BAUMANN coming upon the front edge of winter. Look for it on the horizon, for it needs only a fair cover to be launched into the reading universe! 

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(C) Copyright 2010-2025 by Stephen M. Swartz. All Rights Reserved. No part of this blog, whether text or image, may be used without me giving you written permission, except for brief excerpts that are accompanied by a link to this entire blog. Violators shall be written into novels as characters who are killed off. Serious violators shall be identified and dealt with according to the laws of the United States of America.