# Monsters, Ghosts, and Insufferable Menservants



## D. Nathan Hilliard (Jun 5, 2010)

A solid five star novel, about a man who ran from his past and now must turn to face it.

The Ways of Khrem returns to the type of fantasy setting we enjoyed when prowling the streets of Lankhmar and Sanctuary as readers. The city of Khrem is a vast, epic metropolis of grand statues, lofty spires, dark streets, and darker secrets. The guide through this fantastical urban labyrinth is a retired master thief, now living a quiet life as Cargill the Bookseller.

Cargills peaceful retirement comes to an end when he is confronted by Wilhelm Drayton, an idealistic young captain of the City Watch, who "recruits" the bookseller into helping him solve murders in the teeming city. This is not just a Sherlock Holmes and Watson story, as the action erupts when Cargill unmasks an inhuman terror stalking across the rooftops of the city. Cargill finds himself putting his old skills back into play as he throws the rules out the window in battles with death dealing gods of vengeance, subterranean monsters, and the psychopath who murdered the one true love of his youth.

Cargill and Drayton make an odd couple of heroes, often as much at odds with each other as they are with whatever danger they face. Both are intelligent men with their own world views and agendas, and both have parts of their past they would rather not deal with.

The two operate with a rich supporting cast including Grabel, Cargill's insufferable yet indispensible manservant; Heinryk and Poole, Drayton's loyal watchmen; and Keris, Cargill's deadly ex-partner from his youth. And finally there is Khrem itself&#8230;as much a character in this story as the rest. Khrem is brought to life in both its day to day rituals and routines of its common citizens&#8230;and its darkest of places with cavernous streets, giant statues, tunnel-like alleys, and finally the deadly Undercity beneath the streets.

 

As an experiment, Pill Hill Press has agreed to drop the price to 3.99 for an unspecified amount of time!


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

Hi "D" -- or do you prefer "Nathan".  Congratulations on your book!

I know you've been here for a little while, but we do like to post this reminder in each new book thread so it's always easily found.

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Please add to your existing book thread when you have news about your book rather than start a new one, it helps the members who are trying to follow you. You may have a separate thread for each of your books. We recommend you bookmark your post so that you can find it in the future.  You may respond to all posts, but if there have been no member posts, we ask that you wait a week before "bumping" the thread by posting back-to-back posts of your own. And we ask that Amazon reviews not be repeated here as they are easy to find at your book link. Also, full reviews from other sites should not be posted here, but you may post a short blurb and a link to the full review instead. All this, and more, is included in our Forum Decorum. From time to time our site rules may change; be sure to check Forum Decorum (http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,36.0.html) for the current guidelines and rules. _


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## D. Nathan Hilliard (Jun 5, 2010)

Ann in Arlington said:


> Hi "D" -- or do you prefer "Nathan".  Congratulations on your book!


Thanks! Just call me Nate


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## intinst (Dec 23, 2008)

Well then, hello Nate! Just wanted to let you know that I thoroughly enjoyed _The Ways of Khrem_, and that I had posted a review at Amazon. I am upset with you, though. How could you not have another book or five ready for me to read, now that I have finished this one! It was that good. Will anxiously await the following books, thanks for a wonderful read.


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## D. Nathan Hilliard (Jun 5, 2010)

intinst said:


> Well then, hello Nate! Just wanted to let you know that I thoroughly enjoyed _The Ways of Khrem_, and that I had posted a review at Amazon. I am upset with you, though. How could you not have another book or five ready for me to read, now that I have finished this one! It was that good. Will anxiously await the following books, thanks for a wonderful read.


Thank you very much, intinst.

I'm glad you enjoyed it, and I'm happy to tell you that I will be writing the sequel this fall. And I'm even in the preliminary planning stages of a third one that will involve a certain little charactor introduced in The Barrow Wolf.

Thank you again for your kind words, and I will try to make sure the next one lives up to your expectations.

Nate


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## MosesSiregarIII (Jul 15, 2010)

This sounds fun. I downloaded a sample.

So you went with $5.00 rather than $4.99, eh? Rebel!


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## D. Nathan Hilliard (Jun 5, 2010)

MosesSiregarIII said:


> This sounds fun. I downloaded a sample.
> 
> So you went with $5.00 rather than $4.99, eh? Rebel!


Thank you. I certainly hope you enjoy it.

The 5.00 thing is a short and ridiculous story that involved DTP, publishers, and other silliness I'll write about in my memoirs someday


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## D. Nathan Hilliard (Jun 5, 2010)

This week's bump comes with the announcement I'm entering The Ways of Khrem in the competition for the EPIC eBook Awards.

Wish me luck


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## D. Nathan Hilliard (Jun 5, 2010)

Woops. It turned out my publisher didn't have the ebook version of The Ways of Khrem out until July. Too late to enter EPIC. Oh well, there's always next year.

This weeks bump is dedicated to wondering if the product description does the novel justice. Blurbs are definitely my weak point.


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## D. Nathan Hilliard (Jun 5, 2010)

In todays bump, I will announce that you can get another taste of the world of  The Ways of Khrem in the second installment of The Tales of Nur. This novelette is titled The Passage of the Coral Horn and takes place out on the Cambriatic Sea.

It's the story of a young sailor's first voyage on a light freighter, and features a monster that Cargill himself has to face in The Ways of Khrem, deep in the bowels of the Undercity.


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## MosesSiregarIII (Jul 15, 2010)

I'm reading Shades right now--half-way through and two thumbs up.


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## D. Nathan Hilliard (Jun 5, 2010)

MosesSiregarIII said:


> I'm reading Shades right now--half-way through and two thumbs up.


Thank you very much, kind sir. Here's hoping the second half lives up to the first


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## intinst (Dec 23, 2008)

I have bought _The Passage of the Coral Horn_ but am waiting to read it on my K3. Maybe this weekend!


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## D. Nathan Hilliard (Jun 5, 2010)

intinst said:


> I have bought _The Passage of the Coral Horn_ but am waiting to read it on my K3. Maybe this weekend!


I hope you enjoy it. Since you have already read The Ways of Khrem, I think you'll recognize what they're up against at a certain moment.


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## D. Nathan Hilliard (Jun 5, 2010)

My weekly Tuesday bump this time is to announce that my publisher decided to experiment and drop the price to 3.99 for an undisclosed period of time...whatever that is.

 And here is a word cloud created in celebration.


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## D. Nathan Hilliard (Jun 5, 2010)

This weeks bump is to announce a "website" for  all my works. Please drop by and take a look.


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## MosesSiregarIII (Jul 15, 2010)

As you know,  I read your Barrow Wolf short story and I thought it was great. I'm betting now that Khrem is royally freaking good.


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## D. Nathan Hilliard (Jun 5, 2010)

MosesSiregarIII said:


> As you know, I read your Barrow Wolf short story and I thought it was great. I'm betting now that Khrem is royally freaking good.


Thanks! The Ways of Khrem deals with moral issues in a similar fashion as The Barrow Wolf, although from the perspective of two different points of view. Situations aren't always as 2D as initially presented. So if you liked the moral complexity of The Barrow Wolf, I think you would like the novel as well. Charactorwise, Cargill is very different than Caleb though...so that means he is coming from a different POV.


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## MosesSiregarIII (Jul 15, 2010)

D. Nathan Hilliard said:


> Thanks! The Ways of Khrem deals with moral issues in a similar fashion as The Barrow Wolf, although from the perspective of two different points of view. Situations aren't always as 2D as initially presented. So if you liked the moral complexity of The Barrow Wolf, I think you would like the novel as well. Charactorwise, Cargill is very different than Caleb though...so that means he is coming from a different POV.


I actually love that sort of thing.


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## D. Nathan Hilliard (Jun 5, 2010)

MosesSiregarIII said:


> I actually love that sort of thing.


Me too. That's part of the reason I make Drayton and Cargill such polar opposites. Both are intelligent, but have come to very different conclusions on how the ethics and morality apply to life. At times this creates conflict between them, as each tries to impose his own will to a situation.


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## MosesSiregarIII (Jul 15, 2010)

What are you working on now?


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## D. Nathan Hilliard (Jun 5, 2010)

MosesSiregarIII said:


> What are you working on now?


Right now I'm working on a novel thats pretty much the B movie I always wanted to see.

Big guns, bigger spiders, super powered ********, and a secret tribe of Native Americans all in modern Texas.


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## D. Nathan Hilliard (Jun 5, 2010)

This weeks bump comes as I'm starting to consider ways to go with the sequel. Call it "pre-plotting." Do I explore more of Cargill's past? Or maybe go a little more into Drayton or Keris? Should I have more of the Undercity? Or concentrate more on the Upperways?  Or maybe have him solve an everyday murder? What to do?


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## D. Nathan Hilliard (Jun 5, 2010)

Autumn  is upon us, and I'm getting into that Halloween mood. I think the kids are starting to enjoy the nip in the air as well. It makes it hard to concentrate on novel writing and puts me in the mood to write ghost stories instead. Ah the travails of a writer...


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## D. Nathan Hilliard (Jun 5, 2010)

Bump


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## intinst (Dec 23, 2008)

D. Nathan Hilliard said:


> This bump is to announce I've officially started work on the sequel. It's still a ways off, but the writing has begun.


Finally! Waiting with bated breath.


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## D. Nathan Hilliard (Jun 5, 2010)

Mid-October Bump for Great Justice !!!


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## D. Nathan Hilliard (Jun 5, 2010)

Here's hoping everybody out there is stocking up on sweets and spooky movies. Enjoy the season


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## D. Nathan Hilliard (Jun 5, 2010)

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Stay safe out there, folks!


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## D. Nathan Hilliard (Jun 5, 2010)

The first draft of this story was the first work I ever produced. It was shelved for over a year while I learned about writing, and practiced my skills writing short stories and novellas. Then I returned to this and rewrote it from top to bottom, and got it accepted by Pill Hill Press in January 2010.

It's full of ideas and concepts I carried about fantasy for years. It was my chance to use my own ideas about internal logic, and express my own blend of medieval realism with high fantasy. I'm very proud of it, and it will always have a special place as my first.


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## Guest (Nov 4, 2010)

D. Nathan Hilliard said:


> The first draft of this story was the first work I ever produced. It was shelved for over a year while I learned about writing, and practiced my skills writing short stories and novellas. Then I returned to this and rewrote it from top to bottom, and got it accepted by Pill Hill Press in January 2010.


This reminds me of the plot of Batman Begins, where he has to do some intense training before he can go back and take on the master. Or maybe that's Darth Vader and Obi-Wan. Either way, good luck!


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## D. Nathan Hilliard (Jun 5, 2010)

foreverjuly said:


> This reminds me of the plot of Batman Begins, where he has to do some intense training before he can go back and take on the master. Or maybe that's Darth Vader and Obi-Wan. Either way, good luck!


It was kind of like that...only without all the punching and kicking and severing of limbs


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## D. Nathan Hilliard (Jun 5, 2010)

Pre-Thanksgiving bump of November coolness. I'm loving this mild weather


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## D. Nathan Hilliard (Jun 5, 2010)

CHAPTER ONE

King Klyburn: Barius, my most trusted of servants, have you unraveled the riddle of this infernal plague that causes my limbs to shake with the ague, while my insides threaten to burst?
Count Barius: Indeed my king, I have. It was the smallest of pins, poisoned with the venom of a Hesselian Shroud Viper, and hidden in your falconers glove.
King Klyburn: Alas, treachery! And to strike a man by means of such a noble sport! What foul and twisted soul has hatched such an evil attempt on their king?
Count Barius: It is my sorrow to report that it is your wife, Your Majesty, the fair Penole.
King Klyburn: Again?!
-Allot’s Challenges of King Klyburn. 

All I wanted was to read my book.
  I lengthened the wick in the lantern beside my chair to better see my new copy of Allot’s, Challenges of King Klyburn. 
  I had jumped at the chance to acquire the manuscript, mainly from my curiosity about the man whose large statue crowned the hill on which I lived. After living in its shadow for the past two years, it only seemed natural to learn more about the monarch it purported to represent. Standing at a height of thirty five feet, with his broadsword resting on his shoulder, the statue looked out across the city as if contemplating the next move in a major battle. It wasn’t the largest statue in Khrem, far from it, but one of the more impressive just the same. 
  Not that today was a very good day to admire it.
  Rain gloomed the afternoon, and I contented myself with sinking into my bedroom reading chair. The air felt thick with moisture, clammy with the oncoming autumn. The smell of wet leaves, newly fallen in the recent chill, hung in the atmosphere. Rain at this time of the year tended to be a slow, drizzly affair…nothing like the savage storms which sometimes lashed the city in the early summer. No storm wraiths howled around the spires of the Upperways today. 
  The last shower ended about an hour ago, but the world outside still dripped under heavy clouds that darkened the day to twilight. The dimness made the lantern necessary, even this early in the afternoon. The soft glow of lantern light also filled the windows of houses down the hill. Most of the city was exploring the comforts of the indoors today…an activity I fully intended to join. I had gotten well into doing just that when I heard the gate bell ring downstairs. 
  Crap.
  Looking up from my book, I listened as Grabel’s footsteps approached the front door. No business had been scheduled today, and I started to grow nervous that Captain Drayton had shown up to drag me off on one of his cases. 
  The murmur of voices followed the sound of the door opening. While the words couldn’t be made out, the tone and length of the conversation were consistent with a message being delivered…a much happier circumstance than the prospect of being hauled out into the sodden gloom. After another couple minutes of low conversation, there came the sound of the door closing and the manservant’s footsteps returning to the warmth of the kitchen. 
  With a mental shrug, I returned to my reading.
Grabel would bring whatever the messenger wanted to my attention if it merited my involvement. The manservant could be snide and a pain in the nether regions, but he performed his duties with precise reliability…and he was an outstanding cook. My household rested in good hands, even if it meant putting up with the rest of him.
  Over the course of the next half hour, I warmed myself with the chapter on King Klyburn’s abduction of his future wife, Penole.  I think he should have saved himself the time and effort…especially since she spent the next ten years trying to kill him. She bore him six sons, but it seemed she spent all her free time trying to make them fatherless. Some of her efforts showed a level of creativity only barely matched by their murderous intent.
  I guess some men liked to live dangerously.
  I had just read to the part where she prepared to murder her husband with a poisoned duck when the sound of Grabel clearing his throat roused my attention. He stood at the top of the stairs with a covered tray.
  The smell of fresh pastry filled the room. My mouth watered and I reached out toward the tray.
  “They’re not for you, sir,” Grabel sniffed. “These are for you to take to the Solitos’ house, down the hill. It seems they have had a bit of misfortune.”
  “The kind they celebrate with pastries?”
  Picture me puzzled.
“Apparently,” Grabel intoned with exaggerated patience, “their young son just fell down a hole into a well or underground cistern of some sort, that had been hidden in their back garden. The latest rain must have caused the earth covering it to cave in. As of half an hour ago, they were waiting to hear word from their two servants who were trying to see if the boy could be saved.”
“That’s terrible, but what does it have to do with me and pastries?”
Grabel has the remarkable ability to roll his eyes without ever actually rolling his eyes.
“Sir, in polite society, it is customary to console a neighbor who had suffered tragedy by visiting them and bringing a tray of food. Actually, in my experience, it is customary in normal society, as well. Regardless, sir, the gesture is expected of you.”
And now we get to the other reason I keep Grabel…
While I’m now a successful seller of rare books and tomes, that has not always been the case. I was brought to an orphanage at the age of seven, a street urchin, where I received a basic education in reading and writing from a kindly acolyte. Only a few years later, I escaped back to the streets with a small band of orphans, one step ahead of slavery in the ash mines. There we grew up, sneaking, stealing and fighting to live.
Most of us didn’t make it.
Khrem is not kind to the children who live on its streets, and by the end of my twenty first year, I was alone. The streets had educated me on the fine arts of thievery of all types, and I later honed those skills to mastery.
But nothing I learned in that life had  prepared me for the nuances and unwritten rules of the upper middleclass bookseller. I now moved in a completely different jungle, and the expectations of my new peers were complete mysteries to me.
Such as bringing people pastries when their kids fell down holes.
So that is Grabel’s other job, helping me navigate the treacherous terrain of social intercourse that comes with my new life. It’s a job he does with his usual skill and efficiency…and often with his own unique brand of snobbish prickliness. 
“Could I just send you with the pastries and my regards?” I asked, without much hope.
“Yes, sir. But may I recommend, instead of pastries, you send me with a brick to drop down the hole? That way it will appear you are giving offense out of spite rather than simple ignorance.”
Okay, point taken.
  “Very well, Grabel,” I sighed as I set aside my book and stood. “No, don’t hand me the tray, you’re still coming along. I’m sure nobody will think anything of me having my manservant accompany me to carry the food. Besides, I’m sure I’ll need you along to remind me not to eat with my hands, belch too loudly or wipe my mouth on the hosts’ curtains.”
  “Indeed, sir. I will do my best.”


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## D. Nathan Hilliard (Jun 5, 2010)

In this evening scene, Cargill and the three watchmen(Capt. Drayton, Heinryk and Poole)are sitting on Cargills upstairs patio, discussing their new case...to stop the killings by a ghostly murderess on a particular street. It's not a case that Cargill is happy to hear they recieved.

"What about an exorcism?" Poole suddenly asked.
"It's been tried twice," Heinryk replied. "The Haribbean Sun Priests tried it right after another prostitute recognized her going off in an alley with a victim, about four years after she was killed. That was when we first found out whom and what was causing the victims every autumn. The second time was about seven years later, and the Order of the Silent March spent a week ringing their bells all along the length of Candlewalk Lane. She took a victim two days after they left. After that, people kind of gave up. Smart people simply learned that you went whoring somewhere other than Candlewalk Lane between the tenth and eleventh moon in autumn-but she still gets one or two a year."
"Why, though?" Drayton addressed the stars overhead. "She has to be doing this for a reason."
"Captain, you didn't see what was done to her," Heinryk hissed through clenched teeth, "or those other girls that the same piece of filth got to."
I didn't want to hear this again. Not after all this time. I didn't want to picture it, because if I did, it would be her that I would picture.
"The City Criers called him 'The Cordwood Killer,'" Heinryk recalled. "Moonstone Maddy was his fourth victim. He either lured her into an alley off of Candlewalk Lane, or ambushed her there. And then he dismembered her. He cut off her arms and legs, cut her torso in half at the waist, and then hacked off her head. He then stacked her against a nearby wall like a bundle of firewood, with her head sitting upright on top&#8230;just like he did with the others."
"Did you guys catch him?" Poole asked softly.
"Not even close," Heinryk spat. "He killed five prostitutes on Candlewalk Lane one autumn, and then just stopped. After a couple of months, people started to forget and life went on."
"Any leads?" Drayton asked.
"Leads?" the old watchman repeated with a bitter chuckle. "Leads require some form of investigation. You know better than that, Captain. I started asking around a little, just to find out if the dead girls had any clients in common, and I got reprimanded by my Sergeant for 'poking my nose in others' private affairs while I should be out looking for the killer.' The Watch increased patrols in the area for a while, and then when it was obvious the killer was gone, things returned to normal and the Watch patted itself on the back for a job well done. To be honest&#8230;if I was Moonstone Maddy, I would be a little put out myself."
"She must have been a real hellion when she was alive to carry a grudge this far and for this long," Poole observed.
"Actually, she was rather mousey," I muttered, more to myself than anyone.
So there hadn't even been an investigation. I suppose that came as no surprise. A few dead prostitutes weren't exactly end of the world type stuff. Nobody would miss them, and investigations were something reserved for offenses against the powerful.
d*mn them all.
_"Are you going to save me, Cargy?"_
_I had intended to. I just didn't know how little time remained, and I was too late. And that question had eaten a hole in my soul for seventeen years._
"You knew Moonstone Maddy?" Poole's voice startled me back into the present.
All three watchmen were looking at me.
"Mr. Cargill," Drayton said smoothly, "why don't you unclench your fists, take a big drink of this very good cider you have provided us with, and answer Poole's question."
So much for my fabled self-control.
After a deep breath, and the deep drink the Captain suggested, I leaned forward and put my elbows on my knees. After all these years, here I sat, dwelling on it again.
"I wouldn't say I knew Moonstone Maddy, at least not well," I began. "We met and talked a few times in a tavern. Never alone or anything like that. It's just that&#8230;that&#8230;we had a friend in common."
This was hard-a lot harder than I thought it would be. This was a something central to me, something that had defined half of my entire life, if only to myself. And this hurt. It hurt a whole lot. I had never before even considered the idea of talking about it, especially with these three men. 
And now it had become one of Drayton's blasted cases.
"Go on, Mr. Cargill," Drayton encouraged softly.
There was no avoiding it now.
"Her name was Camber," I exhaled. "She and I had been friends since...well, for a very long time. She had come up on the streets with me, and had tried her hand at being a thief. Only a few rare girls are ever good enough to pull that off for any length of time, and in the end&#8230;she&#8230;in the end, she just wasn't one of them. She saw that, and she was smart enough to quit trying before it killed her. So she started doing something else&#8230;and started going by the name Midnight Adell." 
I took another long drink of my cider.
This next part was going to be the hardest to say.
"She was&#8230;" I swallowed and tried again. "She&#8230;was&#8230;"
I couldn't do it.
"She was the second victim of the Cordwood Killer," Heinryk finished.


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## D. Nathan Hilliard (Jun 5, 2010)

kerbump


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## D. Nathan Hilliard (Jun 5, 2010)

Happy New Years! I wish everybody success with their resolutions


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## D. Nathan Hilliard (Jun 5, 2010)

kerbump


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## D. Nathan Hilliard (Jun 5, 2010)

Head on over to  Bewitched Bookworms to read the review


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## D. Nathan Hilliard (Jun 5, 2010)

Kerbump!


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## D. Nathan Hilliard (Jun 5, 2010)

Ghosts, monsters, and men who are worse than either... the streets of Khrem are best walked with a friend.


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## D. Nathan Hilliard (Jun 5, 2010)

One of these days I'll finish my second novel and this won't be my only one


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## D. Nathan Hilliard (Jun 5, 2010)

Bump for a great day for enjoying cookouts and family!


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## D. Nathan Hilliard (Jun 5, 2010)

I hope everybody had a happy 4th of July!


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## intinst (Dec 23, 2008)

D. Nathan Hilliard said:


> One of these days I'll finish my second novel and this won't be my only one


Promise?


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## D. Nathan Hilliard (Jun 5, 2010)

intinst said:


> Promise?


Well, I'm about 80,000 words into an action/horror novel, and 40 thousand words into a zombie novel. After those two I hope to return to Khrem. I've started to finally get some ideas that would make a worthy sequel to that book. I kind of set a certain degree of "intelligence" I wanted to maintain in the world of Khrem and Tales of Nur stories, and I didn't want to write something that didn't live up to that.


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## MosesSiregarIII (Jul 15, 2010)

Good to hear that! Good to see this thread pop up, too.


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## D. Nathan Hilliard (Jun 5, 2010)

MosesSiregarIII said:


> Good to hear that! Good to see this thread pop up, too.


Thanks! It's just been a slow summer, writing wise. As soon as the kids get back into school, I imagine my pace will pick back up.


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## D. Nathan Hilliard (Jun 5, 2010)

One of the things I wanted to do when I wrote The Ways of Khrem, was to create a character who's main strength is his skills and intellect.

Cargill is not a physically imposing specimen, despite the fact he has survived a very harsh life in the worst parts a fantastical city. He lived by his cunning and wits, and escaped that life by subterfuge and daring. And now, in his new predicament, he relies on his smarts and experience to get him through scrapes as much as his skill with a knife. This is not a man who swings a mighty broadsword...this is a guy who tries to stay two steps ahead of his opposition.

But I still wanted action, and I still wanted monsters. So they are there...but just being handled by a guy who would cheerfully hand them off to somebody else if he had the chance.

And I wanted the situations and the world to be intellectually authentic as well. Cargill is real. His past gives him scars, and some callouses as well. He isn't exactly a bad guy...actually, he would be appalled to realize what a decent guy he really is...but he is a realist. He has little use for idealists, yet finds himself bound to one. So moral angles become issues of contention, as well as contemplation.

I hope everybody enjoys it.


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## D. Nathan Hilliard (Jun 5, 2010)

One of the things I set out to do when writing The Ways of Khrem, was to put the reader into a setting that both lived and breathed, but was also unforgettable. I was inspired by Fritz Liebers "Lankhmar", and Sanctuary of Thieves World as well. But when I developed Khrem, I wanted it not only to be a true fantasy city but a city that "worked" as well. 

It has it's own logic, and its ways are in many ways a derivation of the great cities of yore... but it's inhabited by day to day people...much like Pratchett's Ankh Morpork. The idea was to create the fantastic, but bring it down to earth.

So please, take a tour of Khrem and let me know what you think. I hope to build on it someday.


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## intinst (Dec 23, 2008)

It would be very good way to spend some time, traveling in Khrem, but watch out for some of the locals, especially at night.


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## D. Nathan Hilliard (Jun 5, 2010)

intinst said:


> It would be very good way to spend some time, traveling in Khrem, but watch out for some of the locals, especially at night.


LOL! Yes, it is far better to be about during the day, and keep your hand on your purse. And be very careful not to wander off the main paths


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## D. Nathan Hilliard (Jun 5, 2010)

Kerbump for fantasy stories that also have things that go bump in the night


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## D. Nathan Hilliard (Jun 5, 2010)

lol! Birthday bump! I hit the half century mark yesterday! I don't know if it's something to be thrilled about or not, but it sure beats the alternative


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## D. Nathan Hilliard (Jun 5, 2010)

kerbump for people who like their fantasy both smart and fast paced


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## D. Nathan Hilliard (Jun 5, 2010)

Here's hoping everybody had a Happy and Turkeyful Thanksgiving!


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## D. Nathan Hilliard (Jun 5, 2010)

But even scarier than monsters and ghosts....it's Christmas season at the mall!


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## D. Nathan Hilliard (Jun 5, 2010)

Merry Christmas folks! Stay safe out there


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## D. Nathan Hilliard (Jun 5, 2010)

Early morning bump of Monday goodness! 

(this post in no way implies that there is actually in goodness to be had in a Monday morning, but  merely wishes it upon everybody if any of the aforementioned goodness can be found. The absence of said goodness is in no way the responsibility or fault of the author of this post)


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## D. Nathan Hilliard (Jun 5, 2010)

Humpday bump of goodness (which is certainly superior to a Monday bump of goodness)


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## D. Nathan Hilliard (Jun 5, 2010)

El Bumpo


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## D. Nathan Hilliard (Jun 5, 2010)

Something goes Kerbump in the night


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## D. Nathan Hilliard (Jun 5, 2010)

Happy July the 4th!


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## D. Nathan Hilliard (Jun 5, 2010)

Autumn is in the air, and The Ways of Khrem is an autumn book.


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## D. Nathan Hilliard (Jun 5, 2010)

Welcome to a city of shadows and secrets. Happy Halloween!


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