Welcome guest blogger Teel James Glenn

Welcome to my guest, Teel James Glenn. 
Let's get to know him better and check out a sneak peek of his book "Queen Morgana and the Renfairies." 

Q&A:

1-    How long have you been writing?

I always ‘thought up’ stories as a kid, did little comic strips, but the first ‘actual’ story I ‘wrote’ was when I had a summer writing course in high school. We were supposed to write a short story each week and I talked my teacher into letting me do a ‘novel- a four chapter book (which by the way I rewrote as a novella some thirty five years later and it actually saw print!)

I went to art school and between drawings sold articles to Black Belt and other martial arts magazines and some short fiction afterward. I kind of wrote ‘in between’ films and plays for years. When my daughter was born I put the writing in a drawer and concentrated on the physical stuff—sop opera work, films etc. It was almost a decade later that I pulled those books out and looked around. The publishing world had changed in the meantime and the internet and ebooks had arrived (despite what the boys in NY say).The rest- as they say- is history…or is that myth?

2-What is your favorite genre to write?

I think of everything I write is adventure; horror, romance, steampunk, thriller- I see the adventure aspect of those genres—I guess that’s why, in the end, I think of myself as a ‘pulp ‘writer. (pulp being defined by me as a ‘clear cut solution to a sentimental problem).

3-What are you working on now?

I always have two or three things going so currently I’m A) editing and re-writing a collection of my fantasy stories called “Songs of a Warrior Priest” scheduled for publication in the fall B) writing a novella for a pulp anthology I’ve been asked to contribute to and C) working on a short story for a client due yesterday (sigh)!

And I have two novels I keep coming back two between paying jobs that I want to send out to New York publishers…

4-When you start a new story do you begin with a character or plot?

My stories always start with a character or two—the theme or genre actually comes later, in fact I ‘ve had characters shift genre’s on me when they wanted (Yes I think of them as alive). And I never write about something I have not experienced or researched very deeply—my varied background in my ‘other jobs’ have helped with that.

5- Tell us about your latest/upcoming release. What inspired it?

Queen Morgana and the Renfairies grew out of a single story where I had an interaction between a Renaissance faire performer and a mysterious woman and grew to an entire worldview. I began to explore the differences and like parts of the mortal world and world of the Fae in a series of connected tales. I loved the world so much I have a second volume of short stories almost done and a separate novel sitting in the files to work on later this year.

 

Queen Morgana and the Renfairies

 by Teel James Glenn

From WhiskeyCreekPress

Buy Link

In Print or ebook.

Blurb:

Queen Morgana will not allow free passage between the realms of the Fae and Humans. Because of this both realms are dying. The only bridge between the worlds is the place where dreams live in the daylight; Renaissance Faires!

A group of humans stumble through the portal: a cocky movie make-up man who hits on the wrong woman, a Vietnam vet whose nightmares make living a chore, a private detective on the strangest case of his career, a crippled cop and a burger store manage who loves to go Larping. One of them has to show the Queen of the Fae what true love is or they will all perish in the greater dark that is growing day by day. Oh, and in the process they have to try to figure out who the strange guy in the Viking helmet is and why his is giggling 

Excerpt:

Alice Was So Right…

The Cloisters Museum was a faked up Hollywood kind of building made up of pieces of medieval buildings brought over from Europe.

If you’ve never been to a Faire, imagine a Lord of the Rings movie, a college frat party and a sleazy carnival (with better teeth) all rolled into an experience that’s decidedly more Hollywood than historical.

I met Hattie at the bottom of the hill at a playground and we walked up the granite stairs to the ‘back way’ onto the spiral road around the Cloister’s building.

I was wheezing by halfway up but, being a hearty soul, I refused to put out my cigarette. Hattie begged me to let her open the shopping bag the entire trip up the steps but I was sure she’d do a clutch-and-run with it. I was too damn winded to chase her so I’d have to pull my gun. It’s bad form to shoot your client in the ass to slow them down, especially an ass as nicely toned as hers.

I walked into Merlin’s tent a minute before the deadline with Hattie beside me. The second we were inside the door flap two goons stepped out of the shadows from behind some freestanding shelves that were loaded to the gills with medieval with brick-a-brack. The goons flipped the flap closed and stood in front of it like the two Pillars of Hercules.

Hattie made a little startled sound at the same time that a woman stepped from behind a large freestanding mirror that reminded me of the mirror in Hattie’s foyer. The woman reminded me of Hattie.

The new woman dragged a bound Mike out from behind the mirror. His hands were tied behind him and he was gagged but aside from an ugly bruise on his forehead looked in one piece.

 “Why did you bring her?” The woman holding Mike spoke again. “She forfeited that when she aligned herself with Maeb’s faction.”

It was clear that this was Vulnavia the sister of Hattie, a more severe version of her sensual sister.

“Don’t listen to her,” Hattie said, “It’s she who aligned with that Queen of Nightmares.”

“Liar!” Vulnavia yelled.

 ‘Ladies,” I said, “We have business to conduct.” I held up the shopping bag.

“Give it to me!” Vulnavia called.

“Cut Mike loose.” I kept my eyes on both of the goons who were watching Vulnavia for a cue. “And you get the toy in one piece.”

I stepped across the room not liking the situation and I could see that Mike didn’t like it either, his eyes darting back and forth from the two thugs to me.

When I got within arm’s length of Vulnavia she snatched the box from me.

I pulled a pocketknife and slit the ropes behind my partner. “No!” Vulnavia screamed. She turned to look at me with wild eyes, “You opened it!”

I felt all eyes in the room turn toward me including Mike who was pulling the gag from him mouth.

“What the hell is going on?” He asked.

“You jackass, you opened it?” Hattie yelled at me.

“I-uh- I didn’t intend to. There was nothing in it,” I said, “I swear.”

Now the two sisters were standing side by side and the two goons were behind them looking at me like I’d peed in the punchbowl.

“You saw the incantation,” Vulnavia said. ”You have no idea what you’ve done!”

“You have the secret of the gateway,” Hattie said, “I must have it!” She started to step toward me but her sister stepped in front of her and mumbled something in a language I didn’t recognize.

I felt dizzy all of sudden.

Mike tried to speak but the wild-eyed Vulnavia lunged at me and, brushing him aside, shoved me straight into the mirror.

 I expected to slam into the glass and send it tumbling over in a shower of shards but when I hit it, it was like being tossed into warm Jell-O. I didn’t knock it over but rather moved into it.

There was a rushing sound, a whistling like an old cartoon bomb falling and I realized I was rolling end over end through the air. And I was no longer in the curio booth in a Northern Manhattan park but somehow falling from a great height over a green grassy field in a bright sunlit day!

“I hate family feuds!” I thought just as I slammed into the ground and the world went black.

****

The first thing I heard when I came out of la-la land sounded like Gene Kruppa playing Drum Boogie in my head.

“I must have been shot or clubbed and that was a hallucination.”

I rolled over on my back. There was no pain, no sound of cracking bones or a gush of blood so I opened my eyes a crack. There was a bright sunny sky above me with fluffy clouds and birds flying around.

I thought about moving and watched the birds for a while but as I watched they started to circle down toward me and as they did I could see they were not birds; they were women with wings and three-toed bird-like feet!!

The bird women landed about yard from me and I got a clear look at them; they had faces with homely features that looked like they had been in a tie for losers in a shovel fight. They had feathers where the hair on a normal dame would be and full fledged feathered wings instead of arms. They were completely naked and as far as I could see looked like two Vegas Chorus girls in every other detail save the wings, hair and hideous faces.

I pushed myself to sit up.

“Look, sister,” the brown feathered one said, “It’s alive.”

“Just barely, toots,’ I said, “I seem to have taken a bit of a fall.”

“I’ll say,” the other bird babe said, “We saw you come through the cloud portal. We thought you’d be pudding by the time we got to you.”

 “I love pudding,” the golden-feathered one said, “but I like raw meat just as well.” They both licked their chops and eyed me like Sunday dinner.

I shook myself to try and make the hallucination go away. I decided that I wanted to not be there at that point so I pushed down with my feet to get purchase to run and suddenly things got even stranger.

When I looked down at my feet I yelled. “Aww!” Because where my legs wrapped in conventional pants should have been were naked legs and hooves!!

Hooves! Like on horses.

I knew I was hallucinating now but it felt so damn real I wanted to scream.

So I did.

“AWWWWW!”

“Shhh!” the Golden One said, “You’ll attract the others and then there’ll be nothing for me and Celaeno!” The two bird women started to lean in toward me and when they smiled I could see pointed, sharp teeth. Suddenly I knew what these two usually had for dinner.

“Aello’s right,” the brown feathered one said with an evil laugh, “The other girls are such pigs!” She reached for me and I went for my shoulder holstered gun but felt nothing but flesh. I was naked and unarmed.

But not un-hooved!

I swung up my right hoof and connected with Goldie’s midsection so that she tumbled back on her rump.

I tried to get to my –uh- feet to run but the second one grabbed my hair and yanked me back.

Then the other bird broad was on me and was all teeth and nails. I was able to keep her away from my neck but the second Charlie’s Angel was going to be back on me in a moment. I couldn’t fight them both off.

I had never felt so guilty about eating Kentucky Fried Chicken in my life; Karma stinks!

Bio:

Teel James Glenn has traveled the world for thirty years as a stuntman, fight choreographer, swordmaster, jouster, illustrator, storyteller, bodyguard, and actor.

His stories have been printed in scores of magazines from Mad to Black Belt to Fantasy World Geographic, Blazing Adventures and Tales of Old and soon Weird Tales. He has over two dozen books and anthologies in print in many genres including Steampunk, westerns, mysteries and the best selling SF thriller series “The Exceptionals.’ One was a finalist in the EPIC book awards in 2009.

He is also the winner of the 2012 Pulp Ark Ward for Best Author.

Mr. Glenn worked regularly as an actor on Guiding Light and New York soaps alternately doing stunts or acting in over 300 episodes. He worked as an actor and stuntman (in a fight scene with Hawk) on the “Spenser for Hire TV. Series and in episodes of the Equalizer.

His most famous ‘small screen’ appearance was as Vega (and fight choreographer) in the worldwide web series “Street Fighter: The Later Years.”

He went on to serve as a principal performer in front of the camera in over 70 low budget fantasy/horror genre films, often serving in a stunt capacity as well.