Ray Strong's Blog

ZF audiobook is now available on . . .

Spotify, Appleaudobooks, Hoopla,and Libby(library affiliates).

As well as Audibleand Amazon.

And here are some Zephyr's Flight videos just for fun!

 The people of the North, the home of Diana, Richard, and Katheryn,believe that the animal spirits have things to teach humans. Here’s one ofthose stories the high-priestess of Nordes tells.

 

 

The Raven

In Lonnough, wearing a white robe, the high priestess sat ina semi-circle of cheering children as she finished telling a story of theProphet. Behind the children sat their parents and the village elders. A totempole stood behind her with carved images of animal spirits, the eagle at thetop. To both sides sat acolytes.

“What story would you like to hear next?” The priestessasked.

A child pointed to a figure on the totem just behind thepriestess. “The raven.”

“There are many stories of the raven. Which one would youlike?”

From the adults came a scratchy voice. “Our lands are fullof fighting, and the fallen fill our graveyards . . .”

The priestess turned to the voice: an old woman in awheelchair whose hands trembled as she gripped the arms. A young woman stoodbehind her with her hands on the crone’s shoulders and bit her lip.

“Tell them of death,” the old woman said.

The priestess frowned. “They’re a bit young for—”

The children shouted to hear the story, and the priestessraised her hand, closing her eyes to recast the story into one suitable forchildren. She opened her eyes and spoke.

“Hear the words of the Prophet.

“Vain Darkness was jealous of tiny black Raven because itcould fly in the Light where Darkness could not go. And the rebellious Ravenwould not follow Darkness’s orders like the shadows that moved as one whenLight passed.”

“Why?” a child asked.

The priestess nodded. “Darkness did not understand why blackRaven did not flee Light and stay in the shadows. Raven knew them both and didnot care.

“Knowing Darkness was vain, clever Raven swallowed all themirrors to protect himself from Darkness. Without the mirrors, Darkness couldnot admire himself. Enraged by the little creature’s defiance, Darkness killedRaven by breaking him into tiny pieces and scattering him in the shadows. Butthat shattered the mirrors as well, and unable to admire himself, Darknessbecame distraught.”

“And death?” the crone croaked.

“Death welcomed Raven,” the priestess said, “hoping toswallow his cleverness. But the shards of mirror sparkled with the tiny specksof Light the souls in Hel had retained, keeping Death away.

“Darkness asked Light what to do to restore the ability toadmire himself. Light told Darkness to put his anger aside and forgive Raven.‘Do not be jealous of Raven,’ Light said. ‘Black Raven brought dark into thelight. Find all the pieces of Raven and put him back together.’

“In the shadows, Darkness put Raven back together andthanked him for expanding the dark. In gratitude, Raven spat out the mirrors.The world was at peace again, and vain Darkness was content. But Raven knowsboth life and death and has more lessons to teach us.

“This is the story a shepherd, the Prophet, taught us so wewill follow Light and Grace and listen to the lessons the animal spirits teachus.”

The high priestess closed her eyes and made the arrow sign.The audience copied her, and she opened her eyes again.

“Now, what lesson does the Prophet’s story teach us?” thehigh priestess asked.

The children all spoke at once.

“Don’t be vain and let yourself be angered,” said one.

“Jealousy and envy hurt the one who feels that way,” saidanother.

“Darkness wants to take over, but we can stop him if we’reclever like Raven.”

The priestess smiled. “You called Darkness ‘him’?”

“You did.”

She smiled. “Yes, I did, but ladies can be mean too.”

A girl raised her hand. “But men have the power.”

“Women also have power when they choose to use it.”

The girl smiled and sat up straight.

With glistening eyes, the crone croaked, “What lesson doesRaven bring us of death?”

The high-priestess turned to the old woman, and the crowddisappeared as they looked into each other’s eyes. Tears traced the crone’scheeks as she took the young woman’s hand.

“The light in your soul cannot be snuffed out,” thepriestess said. “Even by Death.” She closed her eyes again. “And those who livesee that light in every dawn.”

 . . .

Enjoy,

Ray

Interested in Katheryn's story?

Angel of Death will be released later this year.

 

 When dragons and Riders soar above the clouds, I'm notinventing the sights from scratch.

For years, I flew between Orange County and San Francisco.Occasionally, the weather would force us to circle through layers of clouds atsunset . . .

Sky blue above,

Darkness below, and in between,

Floating islands of orange, yellow, and red clouds.

Each circle dipped into an entirely new layer of clouds anda new experience. It remains one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen.

 

Years later, when I wrote Astria and Zephyr flying above theclouds, those memories found their way onto the page. An excerpt from Zephyr’sFlight captures part of that for me.

 

For Riders, flyingisn’t about getting somewhere. It’s about freedom.

 

(A short passage from Zephyr’s Flight …)

 

He soared again to carry her through the layers of cloudsthat shrouded the valley, first the reds and oranges that set the glaciersablaze, and above them to hazy yellow clouds. Above them all, the sun stillshone, while far below them, torches blinked in the shadows of the Spinethrough breaks in the cloud cover.

As the clouds changed from rose to dusty gray a thousandfeet above the peaks, she found peace, at one with the sky and the night. Whenthe setting sun left them in shade, moonlight from Lon and Elein lit thevalley.

In the clear air above the smoky valley rim, she was closerto the stars than to home. Within them, she found the constellation Nidhogg andher wishing star. “Thank you,” she said and hugged her dragon tighter.

She belonged here, and she would have nothing less.

“Olim willing, you will ride,” her father had said. “Andwhen you do, the world will never be the same.”

She smiled. And he wasright.

 

(end)

 

If you'd like torecreate some of the feelings I had while writing this passage, here are a fewpieces of music and imagery I return to:

·       thepicture below (or sunset vids hereor here)

·      listen to Ivan Torent’s Crimson Flight (here)

·      listen to Thomas Bergerson’s Promise (here)

 

 

Enjoy,

Ray

We are thrilled to announce that The Wounded Sky, the secondbook in The Dragons’ Warseries, has been honored by being named on the

 

! Eric Hoffer Award Grand Prize Short List !

 

The Eric Hoffer Award is the most prestigious award fornon-traditional books in the world, and we are honored to be considered for theGrand Prize.

 

Also …

Just for fun, I’ve also posted new videos about Zephyr’s Flight below. More areposted here.

 

 The Book ofChaos, the third book in the Dragons' War series, will go live next week,4/28/26, on Amazonand Audible.Here’s a sample audio…

 The whole set can be found at Atomic Shelf here.

And of course, Zephyr's Flight and the other books in the series can be found at Amazon, here

 

Each of the regions of Juro, the land where the stories of ‘TheDragons’ War’ series take place, has its own spiritual foundation. In Nordes,the northernmost state of the North, has a belief system that, in its practice,echoes the indigenous Tsimshian peoples of Alaska on Earth This belief system iscentral to the story of Katheryn in ‘The Angel of Death’ that willrelease later this year. Katheryn is the mother of Diana who stars in the ‘Bookof Chaos,’ which will release in audiobook formon April 28.

 

Cosmology of the North

This is the story of creation a shepherd, the Prophet, taughtus because humans cannot comprehend the gods. To humans, all things exist onlywith an opposite by which to distinguish them: there is no hard without soft,no dark without light, and no good without bad. And so we tell their story inour terms.

Existence began in Darkness and Chaos. Darkness createdLight and order from its right hand, for with Light, Darkness could admireitself in all its majesty as not-light. With this creation came vanity,self-centeredness, selfishness, and the duality of our universe. In our terms,Darkness was King and Light was Queen. Light appears to fauna as Helios and thethree moons, Lon, Elein, and Fures, but is present even in the smallestfirefly.

Together, Darkness and Light created the moons, our world,and all life upon it, including the Worm of the World who embodied order andchaos to shape Juro. Vain Darkness tried to steal all the light except justenough to see itself, leaving Juro in darkness and perpetual winter. But Lightresisted and exiled Darkness to moonless nights and shadows by which light anddark distinguish each other equally.

Before retiring to heaven and turning their backs on Juro,Darkness and Light bore the demigods, the Korshas, in pairs of opposites likethemselves from which to discern vice and virtue: cruelty and kindness, slothand industriousness, … and model those virtues to humans.

The Korshas did not have the power to create worlds of theirown, and so created life on Juro that reflected their duality: male-female,good-bad, happy-sad … They created Grace and Envy, but Envy had more power fromchaos. Envy infected the Korshas until they fought each other for dominationover their limited world.

In a great basin, the pairs fought each other with fire, andmagma, and mountains, and lightning, and tempest. Darkness and Light despaired fortheir children and for the world they would destroy.

After eons of conflict, one pair of Korshas, Knowledge and Ignorance,stopped the futile fighting, and suggested they direct their energy to thelimits of the world that defined them. Together, the Korshas focused theirpowers to the gates of heaven and destroyed it, opening the heavens and thevastness of reality.

But in doing so, they banished themselves to the heavenswhere they live now as stars. They were now free to rule the universe as it is:as wide as their imaginations to the ends of the heavens.

In breaking their bounds to Juro, they freed life from theirinfluence, and their opposites were projected onto humans and the other lifethey created. And with the guidance of their mother, Light, they inspiritedanimals with the lasting virtues: the bear, the raven, the eagle, and the WhiteElk who each held part of Light to guide and warn humans.

Light gave a piece of Helios to men to create fire and keepaway the Darkness. But humans are drawn to Darkness by Light’s absence and soare prone to vice.

 

This is the story a shepherd, the Prophet, taught us so wewill follow Light and Grace and listen to the lessons the animal spirits teachus.

Name                Positionin the Pantheon

The Gods

Darkness (Chaos) and Light (Order), creators of theuniverse and the Demigods.

The Demigods (Korshas)

Pairs of opposite virtues and vices: A sample from thehundreds of Korshas are Grace and Envy, Kindness and Cruelty, Knowledge and Ignorance.Creators of life on Juro and the animal spirits.

The Animal Spirits (a sample)

·     White Elk – justice for the weak. Sometimescalled Chaucin.

·     Bear – the right path and self-knowledge. Bearsalways find water, and so the sign of the arrow expresses their belief.

o  PolarBear – steadfastness, survival in the worst of situations.

·     Beaver – industriousness. Nothing good happenswithout work.

·     Eagle – vision, focus on a goal, martial skill.

·     Lion – leadership, strength.

·     Crow – deviousness.

·     Fox – cleverness.

·     Otter – playfulness, enjoying life to thefullest.

·     Raven – death and resurrection.

·     Wolf – family and tenacity.

·     Badger – viciousness.

·     Cougar/Coyote - ambush, betrayal.

 

! News  Update ! The WoundedSky audiobook will launch next week on March 24th.

Preorders are available now on Audible and Amazon. I've included the audio teaser below.

Also, as a special incentive we are dropping the price of

Zephry’s Flight ebook to $0.99.

for launch week.

The audiobook for TheBook of Chaos, the next book in the Dragons’ War series, is coming in spring. I’ll keep youup to date.

Happy reading,

Ray

Zephyr’s Flight audiobooklaunches in 10 days (February 24) on Audibleand Amazonand is available for preorder now.

As promised, here's an audio teaser.

Audiobooks of thenext two books in The Dragons’ War series are coming. I’ll keep you up to date.

 

And if you can’twait for our new releases, here are some interesting reads for you.

Free Fantasy Reads

Magical Fantasy Giveaways

Science Fiction/Fantasy/LitPRG

Science Fiction and Fantasy

 

… and of course, ourbooks in the Dragon’s War series.