Exciting news! I've published another story on the site!
Sir Ashfall and the Seven Demons tells the story of seven medieval knights who journey into a dark forest. There, they are forced to confront the demonic embodiments of their own darkest flaws, testing their courage in a desperate struggle for survival.
In a fun surprise, I found out recently that this story placed on Coverfly's "Red List" as one of the top Fantasy Short Stories (Prose) in 2024!
This free fantasy story is a bit longer than the others I've posted so far, totaling just under 17,000 words. If you're wondering, that qualifies it as a "novelette," or short novel. There's plenty of action and suspense and I hope you enjoy it! You can read it here.
Now, I'll be going a little more in-depth to the background of Sir Ashfall, so if you want to read the story totally spoiler-free, go read it and come back for the extra details below!
The story of Sir Ashfall and the Seven Demons has been rattling around in my head for a few years now. I remember having the mental image riding on his horse into a deep, dark wood. At the time, I had very little idea of what would await that knight beyond the vague (though titular) "Seven Demons."
As you may have realized after reading the story, each demon represents one of the seven deadly sins from classic Catholic teaching. I was intrigued to write something where embodiments of those sins challenged our hero(es). Eventually, I decided that it would be seven knights, not just one, that would face the test, as each would have a particular sin that they struggled with.
Once I had that, the story started making sense in my head as some sort of Arthurian horror tale, with the characters one-by-one getting picked off by deceptive and terrifying creatures. But it was important to me that those knights who met their end were complicit in their demise—at least, to a certain extent. They had to retain some agency in choosing to pursue their respective sin. Each one would eventually realize their folly, but only too late to save themselves.
With this in mind, I started mapping out which knights would meet their demise and how. This might sound a little nuts, but coming up with the grim, ironic fates of knights was one of the most satisfying parts of the writing process for me. The "Wrathful Demon," the one encountered by Sir William, was the earliest creation. I liked the imagery of wrath as a fire—not a novel connection, I'll admit—but one that we can choose to stoke until it becomes uncontrollable and all-consuming.
What surprised me the most about this story were the character backgrounds that developed in the process of writing. At first, there wasn't much more to the characters than which sin they struggled with. But in time, I realized I needed to give a glimpse as to why a specific knight struggled with something. What events took place in a person's life that made them particularly susceptible to greed or envy or gluttony?
This was the other part of the process that was most satisfying for me. It made me more sympathetic to the characters as I wrote them because I could understand them in some way, whether or not the choices they made were the right ones.
Some of the most intriguing feedback I received from my beta readers was that they felt particular sadness or sympathy for certain knights. It wasn't always the same. Some of the backgrounds and reasoning connected differently for different people. I feel that certain knights are more sympathetic than others, but you may feel differently based on your personal experiences. And I think that's pretty cool.
I hope you enjoy(ed) Sir Ashfall and the Seven Demons! I'm working on more stories that I'll continue to post to the site, but let this one hold you over in the meantime!
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