Curmudgeon's Lair

The story that went up on the website yesterday was originally published in a hard cover anthology titled I, Vampire: Interviews with the Undead. "Visiting the Neighbors" was the first piece of fiction I completed after a 15 year writers block.

I never stopped writing. When I could not make fiction come together for me any longer, I switched over to journalism and non-fiction. It would still be several years before writing began to come easy for me again. I am of the opinion that for many writer's block occurs in response to stresses in real life that become overwhelming.

Until last year, VtN was the only first person story I had ever written.

The following used to be on the front page of my website, but it was dropped when we revised it last March.
_____________

In the beginning, there was the Godwar...
It erupted in the night and brought a bloody dawn of burning temples, crumbling cities, and terrified people. The jihad of the Hellgod Bellocar swept across the continents of the world called Daverana with technology and magic: nuclear holocausts, biological warfare, genetic mutations, and ecological disasters. Humans and their allied races perished in the millions. Vampires and demons walked the world openly. One by one each nation that resisted fell. The Gods of Light were slain. Finally only one of them remained, Ishla the Tinkerer and she hid herself. When all appeared lost, Ishla gave forth a tremendous cry for help into the void and it was answered. One winter's solstice as the last free realm was about to fall, eight young god with their legions, their creatures, and their demi-gods as captains of their hosts emerged from the veils between the worlds.
The young gods threw back the Hellgod, slew his sons and many of his wives, hunted down his creatures and his monsters. Torundar the Storm Lord; Kalirion Sun-Lord; Tala of the moon and hunt; Davera, earthmother; Badonth, God of Aggressive Warfare and Vengeance; Aroana, The Lady of the Walled Cities; Nerindalori of the Waves, Mistress of the Depths; Willodarus, Lord of the Woodlands and Wild Creatures: they were the young gods that conquered, yet in the end were not strong enough to destroy Bellocar and so sealed him up behind walls of magic and stone, raising a tremendous escarpment to surround him.
But now Bellocar is close to getting free again and a fresh godwar threatens the world that the young gods have so lovingly rebuilt and made habitable again for refugees from countless worlds. Demi-gods and heroes stand between the minions of Bellocar and the halls of the Gods of Light.
Welcome to the fiction of Janrae Frank.