A Baron with Tales to Tell!

Greetings Gentlereaders! 

In our previous post, we defined the 'cozy romantasy' as a tale in which an amorous relationship is a major feature if not central to the story. The 'cozy' prefix is to suggest the story does not contain much in the way of the bugbears of sex and violence - at least not of the graphically depicted variety. 

Now let us introduce this forthcoming cozy romantasy, due out next month.

BARON HARON TELLS HIS TALES is a tale in itself: indeed, a tale full of tales, and telling tales as a theme. A tale of tales being told, if you will! Most of all, perchance, are the tales this young Baron by title wishes not to tell. Yet, as we come to learn, they are tales worth telling as lessons for us all, and so when pressed he tells them. Follow? 

(*By now you likely have come to the conclusion of A TIME OF KINGS - the central epic of the Medieval America Trilogy - and crave more. Know now that Baron Haron is the grandson of old Prince Jack.)

Here is the nutshell: Young Haron, a Baron by birth (his father was a Duke) feels out of place in the Court setting of Chicageaux in 3095. He fancies obtaining a wife who would set him aright. Barring that success, he dreams of going on a journey, of doing mighty deeds and then returning to tell tales of those deeds. The way the world turns, Haron is thwarted in obtaining a bride and thus turns to a new friend, a common farmer named Stewt, to help him partake of the journey...a journey to find a suitable wife. Or else do deeds worthy of telling.

Yet there is no happy ending here, not only a few chapters in, oh no! Haron seeks a bride still and so encounters one slightly older washer woman with a stern heart: Nelda, a cousin of Haron's friend, Stewt. She has her own designs: to find a fit husband who would bring her out of the laundry drudge. Yet the brash young Baron is not her type. Even so, hearing the plan for a journey, she joins Haron and Stewt in travel as she seeks her own partner in wayward towns across the Ioway territory.

Thus the story is set: a journey of two accords. In the first, the seeking of a proper partner; in the second, the gathering of tales to tell. It is prime territory for adventure as this party, gathering other folks along the way, discover and confront the vast western landscape of a ravaged nation. 

For in that far future, much we know today no longer abides. Disasters, catastrophes, vain statehood and its plagues and wars, have wreaked the continent. Yet all is not lost, for as we come together we find much can be renewed, much can go on. 

And so...you are certainly wondering...will these two persons with strong determination ever come together? That is the mystery of the story, is it not? Readers should be prepared to be surprised through twist after twist - for we know not any Mary Sue nor any of her plain and simple sisters.

Most of all, the tales we tell and those tales which are passed on and on and on to each generation, are lessons for us all. What shall we do when all has been said and done but tell tales of what we've said and what we've done? 

BARON HARON TELLS HIS TALES arrives in November 2026 to conclude the Medieval America Trilogy, a trilogy by similar setting; all stand-alones that can be read in any order.

Meanwhile, work continues on the next novel, set 100 years after the end of BARON HARON. More in a future 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.

Have you a Cozy Romantasy?

Greetings Book lovers and, even more devoutly, Book readers!

It seems a while since last we posted but do not discount my repost of the 9/11 account, now upon the 25th anniversary of that awful day. It is important that events be remembered no matter how they may be full of unpleasant memories. Such events become part of our history in time and thus part of us, of our own tales: tales which we may pass along to those who were not able to experience them directly. Such is also the theme of my latest novels: tales and how they are gathered and how they are told.

For those who have been reading my massive tome of love and war in a future medieval America, A TIME OF KINGS, we also show the making of memories and how they filter down through the years, affecting and infecting each person they come into contact with. It is very much like the virus that caused the pandemic which is reported in my FLU SEASON SAGA novels. Perhaps, having come to the final page, one might think back to the beginning and ponder how we have gone through so much and been turned by each twist, each statement proffered. That is the power of the tale - the story writ large.

Given the rage of some chapters in A TIME OF KINGS, despite the downfall tumbling toward conclusion, I sought something easier on the heartstrings as my next fare. Indeed, I thought of a lighter tale of a young fellow in his twists and turns, seeking his fate, searching for the profound path to his destiny. As do we all in our youth? Thus I have taken a boy who, merely a babe in a basket on the final page of A TIME OF KINGS and let him grow to adulthood and then given him his own tale. Indeed, a tale foisted upon him! It is itself the tale of gathering tales to tell! What could possibly be amiss in such a plan? A devilish disruption, I dare say! The love trope.

And thus I shall introduce Haron, a Baron by his birth - his father Harroth being a Duke by birth, and his grandfather a Prince in his final years by acclamation. You know him as Jack of the Court of New Cago in the Realm of Chicageaux, at once Royal physician, then chief medical officer during the War of the Five Princes, returned to counsel the new King and witness history as keeper of tales. Fate has been unkind to Duke Harroth, leaving young Haron at the mercy of Court child caretakers. Yet he seeks his own way, caught between the Royals and the Commons. Thus he is prone to making errors - which, as he will come to know, errors make for fine tales. So let us tell the tale of his tales being told!

Originally, a tale of adventure was known as a Romance. Imagine a knight on a quest. We have someone heroic on a journey for some important task. That is at bottom the definition. Let us image further that this knight is sent to retrieve a noble lady to be his liege's bride. Perhaps on the way back to his liege's castle, there grows a state of amorosity between the knight escort and the lady escorted - and there you have the introduction of the love story between two figures as the feature of the Romance. Many examples of this turn in literature. Becoming popular over the centuries, we find the name Romance transformed into a tale of the adventure of seeking and finding one's own determined partner in relationship. 

Add the idea of this new-formed Romance to the other term, Fantasy, and you have the current genre known as Romantasy. Fantasy, as it were, dealt with the fantastic; that is, that which is not of reality. It could be a tale full of the verisimilitude of reality but for a small turn. This is known as magical realism. A predominantly realistic story but for one magical element which is essential to the story. Or it could be a tale completely contained within a realm which does not nor has ever existed in our known world. The invented landscape, thus populated with strange creatures, differing kingdoms, and imagined heroes and heroines in their own troubles. Plenty of those examples, as well. Thus we bring such a fantasy setting as foundation for a Romance and - voila! - the Romantasy is born.

What is interesting here is how this term Romantasy is newly born. Haven't most fantasies included a relationship tale? A certain aspect which involves the coming together of lovers? Furthermore, hasn't the usual Romance included some elements of fantasy - a love potion or a cupid flinging arrows? So it seems the term Romantasy is merely something clever used to foist books upon the hungry readers of the world. It has been well-documented that the Romance genre sells the most books. Romantasy, therefore, might be said to be a sub-category or even a newer preference among the readers of the genre.

Now let us consider the additional term 'cozy'. Most of us might link the term to a warm home in a cold season, fire in the hearth, hot beverage in hand, a blanket covering our modest figure all in aid of a sense of comfort. To this we may wish to add a fair tale of Romance set in a Fantasy world. Now it seems as though such readers would prefer their comfortable status not be disrupted by the turn of a page into a scene of violence or, in the alternative, the detailed recounting of a moment of passion. That is fair. To denote such a tale, the 'cozy' moniker has been coined. Thus we now often find 'cozy' attached to 'romantasy' as though horse and buggy. 

Therefore, we return to Baron Haron and his insistence on going forth to gather tales worthy of telling, and in that telling he shall become notorious. Certainly he wishes for love, as well, but that side of his passion is not so forthcoming. Thus he will set out on a quest to see what remains of the world once the Realm of Chicageaux has been put into proper order. Is it a Romance in the sense of a quest? Yes, it is. Is it a tale of love? Yes, gradually. Is it cozy? Nothing too naughty or unsettling occurs - which is not to say it is plain and uninteresting. Rather, things happen along the way which are both startling yet digestible without a disquiet outcome. I dare suggest you'll see what I mean: a tale of adventure, of love, or the power of tales told. A fitting conclusion to what I call my Medieval America Trilogy - a trilogy by setting, not by chronology although they may be read in order, as one wishes. Three stand-alones nevertheless tied together.

THE WARRIORS BAUMANN, a ribald comedy set in medieval Missouri of 2353.

A TIME OF KINGS, love and war in medieval America, centered on Chicageaux 2988-3079.

BARON HARON TELLS HIS TALES, a cozy romantasy and a journey across Iowa and parts west in 3095.

Coming in November, right in time for your holiday gifting! (Note: it is quite permissible to gift yourself a book!)

More about young Baron Haron in our next 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.

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.

A TIME OF KINGS - What's it about?

UPDATE: Both editions are now LIVE! <click

I wrote this long epic tale from ideas originating when I was a teenager. I kept the idea alive all of these years waiting until I had time to devote to writing it in the manner in which it deserved. On the way I made a screenplay version, then tried to novelize it twice but failed for lack of identifying the best narrator. Such a grand project as this was supposed to occupy the remaining years of my life. Instead, filled with the Muse, I wrote it out in about six months. 

I know the story backwards and forwards, who does what and when, and what the results are. I can stand back and see the entire stage in a single glance. I can craft a blurb that hints at the content of this vast stage play. But what is it about? Really about? Aside from the setting in a future America (c. 3000) where the states we know today have become kingdoms, who are these people? What do they do?

I see A TIME OF KINGS as really being four stories. 

The first is about our narrator and how he comes into the story. A boy lost on a battlefield is adopted by the young King of Louis - and by extension also becomes a brother to Princess Cristianna and Prince Fridrick. The first part ends when our narrator, given the name Jack, goes with Cristianna when she elopes with the rugged prince of the Illini, Rodrick, who lives in New Cago - the rebuilt city beside the mounds of old Chicago - capital of the Realm of Chicageaux. (Don't get me started on the Quebecker insurgency!) Jack goes with them as a physician, trained in lieu of being eligible to be a prince. The year is 3000 - New Year's Eve. 

The second story could be said to begin with the birth of the twin princes, Nicholas and Darius - although we are not sure who came out first - causing trouble later. They grow as boys will, along with two younger brothers (Argos and Ulris) and a sister (Lira), from rough and tumble antics to sword-fighting lessons, to standing in the Court to watch their father, King Roderick, hold his audiences. In time, daughters of the Minnesot chief come to New Cago and Evina and Jillian become enamored with Nicholas and Ulris. Young love and Courtly romance ensue. They become betrothed, planning to wed in the next year. However, events at Court disrupt those plans. In the disruption, Rodrick decides it is time to divide the Realm among the four sons to rule their own provinces - and keep them away from each other. Lira will wed Duke Tristan and help rule his province.

Nicholas weds Jillian and Ulris weds Evina. All seems well with the Realm. Until evil arrives as the city of New Cago suffers destruction. The insult is personal for Nicholas. Thus begins the third story: the war. Nicholas and Argos know who is to blame: his twin brother Darius who reigns in Cinnati, the city where Jack trained as a physician. Nicholas insists on remaining civil and asks for reparations, yet Darius rebukes him. Finally Argos gets through to Nicholas that only war can settle his grief, and the army marches to Cinnati. Narrator Jack goes as the Chief Medical Officer for the army. The conflict draws in neighboring armies until the Realm is awash with troops. But the battlefield victories do not solve the problem of breaking into the walled city. In the aftermath of victory, a trial is set - trying to keep to Rodrick's system of laws. 

The fourth story could be said to begin when the army returns to New Cago and our narrator, Chief Medical Officer Jack becomes a duke for his service. He gains a wife and has a child on the way. Returning to his duties as Royal physician, Jack finds himself engaged in treating the king's melancholy. The effort troubles Jack, but he takes joy in his growing family, wife and children making demands on him. The years turn over and one day someone from the past arrives. All seems to return to the years before the war, but the new arrival instead brings menace. Jack is brought into schemes by Court ministers and prepares for his own end. As the Realm suffers, Jack does what he can to keep matters in balance. Not until the arrival of another person from the past does everything come together. 

An epilogue brings us back to the beginning of our story. Jack, reclaiming his rightful birth name of Frank Baumann (yes, of the family at the center of the FLU SEASON Saga), tells his tale to the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of the Court. It is a long and dedicated life he's lived, and he tells his kin to remember and tell the next generation all that has transpired in the Realm of Chicageaux up to that year of 3079.

A TIME OF KINGS is an old-fashion tale of Court life, the medieval battlefield, power and glory, schemes and vile ruses, what turns a man over and what the costs are for setting the world right. Although focused on the twin princes and their conflict, several women's roles are noteworthy: the queen herself, princesses, Court servants, city folk and even women warriors - for those who may wonder "What about the women?" As always, I have strived to create a full-fledged world on all classes and views, as complete as fifty years of rehearsal can bring to bear on a manuscript. I wish you a pleasant read and, if so moved, a review on Amazon or Goodreads or on your own site, would be gratefully appreciated.

BONUS UPDATE: Although I had scheduled the launch of A TIME OF KINGS for August 8, 2026, I inadvertently pushed the launch button early. Thus, the Kindle edition of the novel is now available. The print/paperback edition will still launch in August 8. 

Next up: The sequel to A TIME OF KINGS follows the "cozy romantasy" misadventures of Baron Haron, a grandson of Jack now grown up and seeking a worthy wife. Haron meets Nelda, a washer woman in search of a fit husband! Available by the December holidays. 

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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 Odyssey vs A TIME OF KINGS

This weekend the new Odyssey film launched to much controversy. Pre-launch buzz complained about everything from taking liberties with the plot to casting actors who didn't fit the historical characters. I could understand how many fans wanted their expectations met - expectations groomed from school readings and past films. I just wanted an epic movie. I got one, albeit different than what I'd expected. In art we like to judge the product for itself, free from other influences. At least I do. Hence, as a movie it worked well, in my opinion - if I wasn't trying to compare it to Homer's poem. It was a good three hours of entertainment regardless of what nitpicking I may wish to do.

So how does this film and its source material relate to my forthcoming novel A TIME OF KINGS? 

First, they are both stories about war and its aftermath. In the greater picture in both the movie and my novel, the war our major players go through changes them and impacts all that follows. That is a common theme in most war stories: how the event affects the men (and women) involved in it, including those not directly on the ground for the violence, those who remain back home. In the film and poem, Odysseus strives to reach home after ten years at war but is delayed by many misadventures. In A TIME OF KINGS the war is short-lived yet devastating for those involved. The travel home is less eventful or lengthy. Yet our narrator is morally wounded by what transpires.

Second, both are stories about redemption (in my humble opinion). That is: how each hero wishes to be seen - in these cases - even after all the badness they have perpetrated. We want to return home and see it like it was before - yet we have changed in the interval and so home necessarily changes by reflection. Therefore, how do we reconcile the two versions of us - the before and the after? In A TIME OF KINGS the question permeates the second half of the novel as our narrator seeks to resolve the conflicts within him.

Third, the technical issues some critics have raised regarding events, ship design, weapons and armor, scene settings, and so on. Granted, most of us wouldn't know or care what may be historically inaccurate. What is presented on screen is engaging enough to draw us through whatever technical issues may cloud the experience. 

In A TIME OF KINGS, I have pledged to be historically accurate. As a dramatic epic set in the future, I can guarantee its accuracy. For a medieval story, I need not depend on what was historically accurate in the past; it is all in the future now and subject to change as needed. Suppose after the collapse of civilization all that remained were books on King Arthur from which to draw plans for a new civilization. (This is not the case in my novel but some might speculate.)

I've spent my time this week promoting the launch next month of A TIME OF KINGS all while entertaining various opinions about The Odyssey film. I see some parallels, as I mentioned above. Mostly, the tale of Odysseus trying to get home, to find that origin point as a place of comfort, is different from what my narrator does. 

As a boy stumbling onto a battlefield and saved by the king, "Jack" has a unique perspective. He grows up in the Court of Louis, gets training as a physician, and becomes the Royal doctor in the Court of Chicageaux - named after the Quebecker insurgency of the late 2400s. At first he's a flaneur, an observer of life, then a minor player as the drama unfolds, to master of his own story after the war. "Jack" is an adopted name; he is actually descended from the Baumann family line of the FLU SEASON SAGA, especially The Warriors Baumann. Jack becomes the hero of his own tale in the second half of the epic. It is a kind of homecoming: to return to who you once were, who you always wanted to be, fresh and without sin, everything settled.

For more background on A TIME OF KINGS, including its own origin story, click here. This epic novel about the kingdoms of the Americus in 2988 to 3079 features twin princes warring against each other, Royal deceit and Court intrigue, young love and old wisdom, the vagaries of society in that future era, and most of all: how we live our lives surrounded by forces we cannot control nor hide from. Our narrator, Jack, learns those lessons well. More on the major players in the next blog post.

A TIME OF KINGS launches on August 8, 2026 in both paperback and for Kindle.

*I would be remiss were I to not remind everyone of this modern take on the Odyssey story: After Ilium (2012).

Three thousand years ago Greek fought Trojan below the fortress of Ilium. Now it is 1993 and new college graduate Alex Parris cruises to Istanbul, seeking his own adventure at Ilium. He meets Elena, the mysterious older woman who easily draws him into an affair only to force him to fight for her. For Alex, escaping from the local jail is the first of many obstacles to returning to his lover, as the cruel odyssey across the Turkish coast tests his will to survive.

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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.

A Medieval Future in Mirth & Madness!

Greetings, weary readers! 

I hear your claims, feel your pains, and in most ways agree. You have need of summerly encounters with worthy word-hoards. You have found the fare lacking thus far. Yet fear not for the summer has yet to conclude and in the interval we may yet partake of a tome or two.

Those of you who have followed this blog may have already found a means by which to endure the summer days. I speak of the ribald comedy THE WARRIORS BAUMANN. This comic relief has been available since this past December (2025) though it is rightly a summer tale. You may read about its origins and some of its delicious content hither (part 1) and thither (part 2).

Next on our future medieval line up we have the might epic A TIME OF KINGS, which shall become available to you and yours upon the 8 of August in this summer. Much has been said about this dramatic turn, according to those responsible for and those so engaged in the War of the Five Princes. This seminal event in our future history is mentioned in my earlier written work: EPIC FANTASY *WITH DRAGONS - where it is treated with the reverence of an ancient legend. And so I have emboldened a fine descendant of the family Baumann, a Royal physician, to tell us this great tale in impressive and passionate detail.

While A TIME OF KINGS is true to its realistic nature, a brief mention of dragons is included in order to anticipate the scourge of  aerial beasts in that earlier written tome which is set much later in the timeline. While THE WARRIORS BAUMANN is set in 2353 Missouri, A TIME OF KINGS covers the range from Tulsa to Louis, from Chicageaux to Cinnati, from 2988 to 3079. This leads us to EPIC FANTASY *WITH DRAGONS set in the year 8000. 

However, behold the sacred interval! 

Between the end of A TIME OF KINGS and the start of EPIC FANTASY *WITH DRAGONS, we have a brand-new book of the kind oft called the "cozy" version of a "romantasy" (romance + fantasy; yet are not all romances actually fantasies? I ask you.). This tale sees the wayward grandson of our fine narrator in A TIME OF KINGS set out on his own quest across the remnants of the upper midwest region of the Americus. This lively tale has just concluded and should be available for the winter holiday gift-giving event. Let us title it thus: BARON HARON TELLS THE TALE OF "A POET, A PRIEST, AND A PRINCE GO INTO A TAVERN". 

It should be noted that this 93,000 word "romantasy" novel began on March 15 and the complete draft was finished on June 15. It bears some sort of a notable accounting. All this was done while awaiting beta reader feedback on the final version of A TIME OF KINGS. Now the revision and editing work begins on Baron Haron's fine tale. More details revealed soon.

And then, just as we put the final word count upon this quest/cozy/romantasy novel, we have suddenly proposed the next book in a series which had not existed only seven years ago. It should be a story of desperation, of survival of the fittest, of the extended Baumann family in, say, the year 3220. But I get ahead of myself. 

To Recap: When Polly Baumann (music professor and tuba player) takes her teen son Sandy out of the city in the sixth year of a worsening pandemic, our grand narrative is set in motion. All does not end well in each volume's entry, yet some member of the family carries on, pushes the narrative forward, and so we come episode by episode through the lawlessness, the civil war, the reconstruction of a new "Ideal Society" - only to have to escape from its tyranny to a western enclave in what many may know today as southwest Kansas. Descendants of that Kansas family hold on....

This covers the six books of the FLU SEASON SAGA. We then advance to 2353 with THE WARRIORS BAUMANN in a medieval Missouri, then to 2988-3079 with A TIME OF KINGS. You can see the pattern: try and try again yet fail and fail again to set our world aright, ever and ever, each in its interval, each in its turn, until we are at the year 8000 with dragons reigning the skies.

In other news, we can now report that this grand narrative and its timeline include the largest novels I've written: EPIC FANTASY *WITH DRAGONS (233,000), DAWN OF THE DAUGHTERS (Flu Season, Book 3) (151,000), THE GRANDSONS (Flu Season, Book 6) (178,000), and A TIME OF KINGS (187,000). And yet they each read surprisingly quick; the story moves along. Sandwiched between these are a pair of thinner works of equal delight: THE WARRIORS BAUMANN (94,000) and the just-finished BARON HARON TELLS THE TALE... (93,000). 

Furthermore, I can reveal that in all 23 of my published or soon-to-be published novels I have composed collectively with 2,755,000 words. For those deeper into statistics, I can declare that the 6 books of the Flu Season Saga + The Warriors Baumann, A Time of Kings, and Baron Haron consist of 1,129,000 words in total. For those interested in my smallest books, they are AFTER ILIUM (79,000) and A GIRL CALLED WOLF (86,000).

NEXT TIME: All about A TIME OF KINGS: A Who's Who of Ne'er-do-wells!

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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.

Another 5th of the 5th of the 5th!

Dear Fifthers,

It's been a while. A while since I last posted the 5th paragraph of the 5th page of the 5th chapter as a blog post. That was in 2019 - right before I had to bow out for the illness that months later was called Covid-19. You can find that old blog post here, and read the 5th of the 5th of the 5th of my books published up to that date.

When that situation developed in March 2020, when my university switched from in-person classes to online only classes, I was about to publish my next book, a crime thriller called EXCHANGE. Due to the crisis I delayed the launch by two months - only then deciding that people stuck at home might like to read a book.

Then, still stuck at home, I worked on two novels that remained unpublished pending revisions. First was YEAR OF THE TIGER* (the last book on the older 5-5-5 blog post), the THE MASTERS' RIDDLE - the most sci-fiy of all my books as it concerns a non-human protagonist: the captured alien being who fights against his captors and tries to return home.

Then comes the FLU SEASON series. At first it was to be a stand-alone novel of a Mom and her teen son escaping from a city in chaos in the sixth year of a pandemic. The one-off became a trilogy, then another trilogy was added, then a sequel - taking our family members across a couple hundred years.

And that will bring us up to date - as I prepare to launch my next novel, a mighty epic of medieval America, A TIME OF KINGS. You can read about it here. It is not your descendant's medieval drama.

The 5th paragraph of the 5th page of the 5th chapter!

EXCHANGE (2020)

“Have a seat,” he offered, and Bill sat, pulling a worried mask over his face. These were the chairs where people got a talking-to. Angry parents, surly students, the odd Board member or two. The Griff was good at that kind of talking. “Bill,” the principal began, “I’m surprised to see you back so quick. You really need to take time off. Now, I’m no counselor but I think you could do with some counselling. You know? You’ve gone through a heckuva lot. The shock phase is just ending but there’s a long way to go to get you—”

THE MASTERS' RIDDLE (2021)

The Masters come as they choose, the shaman explained, and they take who they choose. She should not let cuts enter her heart or stones grow in her belly. Allowing that would make her as silent as those who had unexpectedly left the community of Aull, those who had vanished like the cool out-breath whenever a mind-cave collapsed. 

THE FLU SEASON SAGA

Book 1: THE BOOK OF MOM (2022)

If the towers were still active we would likely only get official announcements and out-of-service messages. No room for idle chat on private apps. They had blocked ordinary citizens, non-essential phone users before. Calling in food deliveries was allowed, but people sent a list which was quicker. Otherwise, they would be happy to collect our chats to add to their databases, to sort us into good and bad. That was how they determined who’d spread the virus, sector by sector, then sent health police to detain the bad ones and reward the good ones. Mom said it was a racket.

Book 2: THE WAY OF THE SON (2023)

“They sure can,” said Hannah and referenced a song by one of her favorite pandemic bands, Viral Dark: ‘Black Lab, under a viral sky / Breathe in deep, you’re gotta die / Cooking soup / Sneaky group / Spreading their poison all over the world’ – meaning the laboratory, not the dog.

Book 3: DAWN OF THE DAUGHTERS (2023)

My daddy taught me numbers as we cleared the area of marauder bodies. He taught me adding and subbing. We pulled one body over the slope to what he called the graveyard – where the wolves knew there would be food – so four bodies with one rolled over the ledge left three bodies, for example. He kept quizzing me and I kept giving him the right answers.

Book 4: THE BOOK OF DAD (2024)

It had been Mother’s habit to go over to her parents’ grave at the edge of the clearing, kneel and talk to them each day. She made me kneel beside her, put my hands together for prayer. She told them about her latest child: “This is Fritz,” she told them, “named for our long ago ancestor on account of him being this kind of some new beginning for us, all us, like that ancestor did long time ago, him and that tuba.” She apologized to Grandma Hannah for getting together with Frank, my father, the same man who had a daughter with Hannah: my big sister Cherie, who I’d never met because she was so much older that she was already married and lived far away before I was born.

Book 5: THE GRANDDAUGHTER (2024)

We stand on the production line, Eve across from me, as paper boxes move along in strict order. Other women, wearing aprons, stand to either side of us. Each of us places an item into the box as it moves past us. Eve’s job is to fold down the top of the box after I place the final item in: a cracker in a clear wrapper. But the lid has wings which always catch on the side walls and crumple the box. She was trained for an hour before put on the line but she gets admonished countless times by supervisors wielding slapsticks. I offer to trade tasks with her but our supervisors say they can’t allow it based on our papers. So we have to endure it.

Book 6: THE GRANDSONS (2025)

“You know I went to the dentistry college in Kanza City,” I like to remind him. “No matter that I’m Sheriff Baumann’s grandson, I made top marks in the classes there. No matter that my mama was Kanza. I’m the best of both of them.”

THE WARRIORS BAUMANN (call it Book 7 if you like) (December 2025)

He tramped along the trail. The vegetation closed on him, twigs brushing his arms and knees as he rode on. Perhaps this was the wrong trail. Wasn’t the one he and Rory had traveled going to the fort. He sensed he might be lost. Better to return the way he’d come, start again from the gate.

And, as a sneak peek, here is the fifth paragraph of the fifth page of the fifth chapter of the forthcoming A TIME OF KINGS - launching August 8, 2026.

And so the world lay as if carved into stone: the central Realm of Chicageaux, their capital New Cago, the Royal family and their kin, and allies spreading across a fair portion of the Americus, making a grand kingdom – a Realm! King Rodrick sat pleased upon his great throne in his great Hall within his great palace, growing bored upon his soft seat with the world at peace. And a steward would keep his goblet filled with beverages from across the Realm. Another of the staff would bring him reports of news from other lands. One night or another he would take his rest with the Queen.

There is another book that follows A TIME OF KINGS, with only a working title until I find the perfect name for it. And I do have the fifth chapter written already. Thus, I could include the fifth paragraph of the fifth page, but let's not rush into it. Let it go through the thorough review process and be sent to the launch pad before we subject it to blog posts.

*YEAR OF THE TIGER, although launching in 2020, was listed on the 2019 "5 of 5 of 5" post because those books were listed in chronological order of when they were written. Year of the Tiger, a dramatic story of hunters competing to kill a man-eater, has a sordid history of revision and submission and more revision and more submission before finally being perfected for 2020. 

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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.

A Medieval Trilogy . . . of a sort!

Last month I formally introduced my forthcoming epic novel A TIME OF KINGS. Its premise is a war between twin princes which tears apart the realm. The war is fought between Chicageaux and Cinnati. Simple enough, I thought. Based on a story idea I had in junior high school and fully realized as a screenplay in college, with attempts at novelization that failed, I finally have finished this labor of love and now find the great tome complete in every way. In fact, much to my satisfaction. Better than I ever could've imagined as a 13-year old who never expected to write novels in his later years. You can read more about the story and its origins in my previous blog post. In this post, I shall discuss some interesting statistics I've found.

I began The Book of Mom back in 2020 - what turned out to be the first book of the FLU SEASON Saga. That was the start of our beloved pandemic, the source of six books of family drama. Well enough. First a trilogy. Then a sequel, and another book, and a final book to complete a second trilogy. Then it got interesting when I jumped head-first into the future by a couple of centuries to offer a medieval world where two brothers, descendants of the Flu Season Saga's Baumann family, set out on a journey across Missouri to the capital city of Louis in 2353. 

THE WARRIORS BAUMANN is written as a ribald comedy, the humor unhidden and often bordering on the ridiculous, with twists and turns that no reader would expect, right up to the final unlikely scene sometime in the past. Is this novel the final volume of the FLU SEASON Saga, or is it the start of a new trilogy? A trilogy with each volume set in the future medieval America where former states are now kingdoms and wars are fought with swords and arrows? Could it be so? Following THE WARRIORS BAUMANN (intro post here), we go further into the future, deeper into a medieval society that America never had but will have in the future. Like, maybe try 3000 AD - long enough for survivors of catastrophe to rebuild and eventually reach the level of a medieval society.

Hold on! Wait a minute. That's never been tried before. Stories set in a future America, sure. They tend to be full of technology, perhaps oppressive technology, the true dystopia disguised as utopia. Yet has there been a future America, with places named, which is based on a medieval society? I think not. Show me the scrolls where scribes tell it, if you can! This was my idea back in the late '70s when the Oil Crisis had me predicting we would eventually be back to riding horses. No gunpowder would force us to use swords (I was into fencing at that time). And the rest followed logically. Jump to 2020 and we have instead a convenient pandemic to crush civilization (in the FLU SEASON Saga the pandemic goes on for 10 to 14 years depending on location).

I was finalizing my apocalyptic Western, THE GRANDSONS (Book 6 of the FLU SEASON Saga) when I got the "crazy" idea for THE WARRIORS BAUMANN. I began taking notes on Sept. 10 in 2025 and made a file to begin writing the book on Oct. 14, 2025. I completed the full draft of the novel on Dec. 6, 2025 - a truly quick write. I was having so much fun the book practically wrote itself while I got credit for slapping the keyboard 2-3 hours each day. At a "slim" 290 pages, my computer notes that I spent 24 hours in total for editing it (time with the file open following the date it was first completed). The published book came to 94,000 words. As a cross-over or genre-mashing novel, it is having a hard time finding its best audience. Yet a few have come upon it (see this review from Goodreads).

While I waited for a new artist to [not] deliver the cover art (not my usual, trusty artist), I began what I had been planning to work on during my retirement years: A TIME OF KINGS. I knew it would be a bear of an epic, so I decided to wait until I had the time to devote to it completely. Fancy that! I finished this most magnificent epic in record time. I felt the story flowing through me, straight onto the page. I made the file for the manuscript on August 6, 2025 - knowing I would write it next. I came to the end of the full draft on March 7, 2026 - a few weeks ago. Again, my computer counts 340 hours of editing! Final page count is 545 with 187,000 words - an epic for sure!

The way I write is to compose new scenes each morning, then edit previous scenes. Or vice-versa. Thus, I do not write and rewrite full drafts. There is no true "second draft" and "third draft" - only when I've finished the whole thing do I go back over an already well-edited manuscript to make changes. By working constantly on revision and editing even while writing new pages, the finished manuscript is close to its final form. That's is my method, and the more I write and the more "natural" the story flows from me, the fewer changes are needed in the final reading.

Today I finished my final read-through of A TIME OF KINGS, making minor changes as needed (a changed word here, a cut sentence there, a line of dialogue added, a pesky error corrected). Now we proceed to the beta reader while I occupy myself on...what? Another new novel? Seriously? I'm like a shark: if it doesn't keep swimming it dies. If I don't keep writing, I will probably get bored and fall asleep. 

So I started a new novel, set in the same world as A TIME OF KINGS. I see it as a quest/journey story, a kind of Canterbury Tales where multiple characters appear, tell their tales, and exit while our narrator continues on. That narrator is [spoiler] the offspring of a major player in A TIME OF KINGS. Furthermore, I can say - because a certain faction of fellow authors may wish to know - this final book of my Medieval America Trilogy(tm) seems to be turning into a "Cozy Romantasy" even as I type this blog post. Pshaw! 

Just you wait and see! 

A TIME OF KINGS comes out later this year, as early as July, as late as September.

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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.