Georgios Lygkas's Blog

I've created a YouTube channel where I am narrating the stories included in 'Soulflowing Fire', in English and Greek.

Check it out by clicking here.

Από τη συλλογή διηγημάτων “Ψυχορρέον Πυρ“.

I

Ξημέρωνε σε λίγο – «η γη παίρνει φωτιά» όπως είχε γράψει παλιότερα σε κάποιο ποίημα του, αιώνες πριν, μάλλον σε κάποια προηγούμενη ζωή. Τώρα πια δεν θυμόταν τον τίτλο που του είχε δώσει και ίσως να μην είχε και πραγματική σημασία. Περπατώντας μόνος του αλλά δίπλα σε τόσους άλλους ακόμα, πέτρινα πρό...

This is the final illustration I’ve used in my books so far. It is entitled ‘A Slow Fall’ and it was created by Red Tweny (@red.tweny.art). I used it after a poem titled ‘Icarus’ in the book, describing a person’s attempt to ascend higher than where they’re supposed to reach, and the inevitable fall that always comes with it, from which we learn, in order to attempt again. In the illustration, the person is sinking in what appears to be human skin (there’s a hint of female genitalia at the b...

Here’s a peek into some of my first readings and the first things that inspired me. When I was a kid in the 90s, the end of the school year in June would be marked by a weekly book bazaar, so a young version of me would ask his parents for money to buy a couple of books for the summer. Aside from stuff like Tom Sawyer or Huckleberry Finn or 20000 Leagues Under The Sea, Greek mythology and history were a must; I grew up with these tales, and the myth of Prometheus shaped my future writings in...

My final story for today is an obscure one, that very few people know about it. One of the most interesting epic metal bands to discover in the early to mid-00s were Holy Martyr (@holymartyrband ). I’d first heard of them when they released ‘Hail To Hellas’ in 2003. If you were in the metal scene during the previous decade and were actively buying or trading, you’ll know that YouTube, Discogs and Bandcamp did not exist and Paypal was unavailable in many places. You would learn of new bands t...

Here’s another original; this is the final illustration that was used in ‘Soulflowing Fire’, again made by Kain Morgenmeer (@kain_morgenmeer ). It’s titled ‘Through Fire & Iron’ and was used for the last story in the book, ‘On The Walls Of Taurmina’, which is a prologue of one of my future works. This illustration honours the destruction of the Aigeialian detachment within the city of Taurmina and commemorates their sacrifice; the white moon on the shield is a nod to the Aigeialian religious...

And here’s the original ‘Der Dunkle’ by Kain Morgenmeer (@kain_morgenmeer ) He created this back in 2016, a few months before we first spoke and started working together, and it’s one of his first illustrations that I saw, and he spoke to me about. According to his DeviantArt profile (that’s where I discovered his art) he was inspired to create this illustration by Gottfried Benn’s ‘Der Dunkle’ poem, which tells of the everlasting presence of Death within fleeting moments of life, and how it...

Here’s the original ‘Dragon of Dream’ sketch by Kim Dingwall (@kimdingwall ). As mentioned in a previous post, I initially purchased it as a coloured book cover, but I liked it so much that I wanted it inside the book as an illustration too. In the book, I used it at the end of Ghidorrak’s fifth story, entitled ‘Dreams and Beginnings’, which describes the time when Ghidorrak, as a child, saw a dragon for the first time. Ghidorrak is a very important character to me; he is the first character...

I have found that in life, being in the right place at the right time, usually applies. On the early morning hours of the 5th of July 2016, I woke up and was instinctively led to my computer to search for a cover for ‘Soulflowing Fire’. Back then I had been working on the book for a little over a year, translating it from Greek to English and editing the stories to be as good and as fluid as possible. At the time I thought that I was nearly done and all I needed was a cover. Little did I kno...

I made the mistake of starting an Instagram account fairly recently. You can find it by clicking on the image below.

Feel free to follow, as there will be some interesting posts coming soon.