The Sword of Demos (pronounced dee-mohss) is a new trilogy that I actually came up with years ago. It started when my brother, Kevin, got me RPG Maker for Christmas one year. I began making a RPG entitled "Chronicles of Olympia" which was about the second coming of the Lord.
All I had done for the game back then was design a crappy title screen (using the tools provided in the game) and a brief opening sequence. Jesus Christ descended from the heavens in front of a church, where he then struck down his faithful followers. That was it. Nothing more came of the game. I believe it was earlier this year when I got the idea to turn the game into a book.
So fastforward to October of this year (2008) when I finally decided to attempt NaNoWriMo once again. It was actually late in the month when I decided to give it a go. Rather than cheat and continue working on an ongoing project, I decided to play by the rules and write a new book. I had two ideas to choose from. The first was my second choice for last year's competition - that being a novel about an energy drink manufacturer turning its consumers into zombies. I still intend to write that book one day, but it will have to wait. Instead, I went with the Sword of Demos.
During the first couple weeks of the competition, I had named the first novel, "Sword of Demos", and the trilogy, "Tribulation of Olympia". The trilogy is about the tribulation, but I never liked the name. The first book was to be about the Sword of Demos (and it is), but it took upon another direction that made more sense for the book's title. When I started writing the novel, all I had started doing was building up a history in this parallel world from our own (using Demos Christ instead of Jesus Christ) and laying down the foundation of Olympia's Christian church system. The prologue briefly explained the history of the world (which two people have said is boring and repetitive - even though it is not even that long), while chapter one sets up the return of the Lord. Outside of positions in the Church, no character is named (other than Christ). It isn't until the second chapter where the world truly comes to life and that is when I introduced the Pope.
From chapter three on, the book takes an obvious direction, and thus, I had an obvious name for the book. It just took me a couple of weeks to realize it. Book one is now known as "A Pope's Quest", and the trilogy has been renamed to "Sword of Demos". Now that I am about halfway done writing the first novel (as of Nov. 25, 2008), this just makes more sense. I now have a sense of direction for books two and three, and I definitely know the outcome of book one.
As previously mentioned, I started writing this book for the 2008 NaNoWriMo challenge. And also as of Nov. 25, 2008, I have succeeded. The goal is to write 50000 words, and I crossed that line on the 25th - 5 days ahead of the deadline. To this point, I have nearly doubled last year's effort, "No Presents for Christmas".
Below, I will be posting some samples of this work in progress. These chapters are not set in stone - in fact, they will probably go through some intensive rewrites once the first draft is complete. I am simply sharing this early work with people who want to get an early taste of what to expect from the final product. I intend to have 3-4 chapters online as samples, so come back in the future if you do not see that many below. This story is for mature audiences only.
Book One: Chapter Five (PDF 380K)