Flames of the Devil Dog and I'm Moving Announcement

    For those who have followed this blog over the past decade, I apologize for my lack of updates. I have spent the last few years, since the COVID-19 quarantine, focusing all my energy on completing my epic fantasy series. I am currently working on setting up a new website, where I'll repost much of the material from here. All blog stories and posts relevant to the new site will be transferred, and all artwork I created but never updated on this blog will be included.

    For those who haven't followed me on social media or lost track of me on Twitter or X, I am pleased to announce that I have finally published a novel.

    Flames of the Devil Dog is available in eBook and Hardcover on Amazon, and the paperback is available on numerous online bookstores, including Barnes & Noble and Waterstones. The adventure stories that I once posted here, which have since been removed, are being reintroduced on my website in different forms. As I create a space where I can share snippets of scenes from my books or post scenes that were edited out of the final version, I will reintroduce these stories at some point.

    Another thing I'll be doing is showcasing the artwork that is contained in my hardcover books. With the help of an artist close to me, we have been working on artwork for the entire series with character sketches, monsters, and maps. I'll be including all the maps from my books on the website, as well as introducing my own Tabletop Role-Playing Game that is being developed around my series.

    It's a great time to be writing. Please follow me over there when the website goes live. I plan to establish a vibrant community there one day, where we can discuss all things fantasy and history. We'll even include some content about movies and books, where I'll review things I've read or watched that inspired me to write about them.

    I'll report back here on this blog with the link to the website once it's available.

In the meantime, please consider buying my book and helping me keep the lights on!

Flames of the Devil Dog, Book 1 of Heaven's Edge

eBook on Amazon

Hardcover on Amazon with bonus illustrations throughout the book

Paperback on Amazon

Paperback on Barnes & Noble

Paperback on BAM! Books-A-Million

Paperback on Bookshop.org

paperback on Waterstones (UK)

My book was published through Shield Blade Publishing.

Devil Dogs, Hwachas, and Other Stuff

Great News for anyone who is waiting for my novel, I’ve jumped back into the final rewrite. I spent some time researching combat tactics and military lingo. Studying marine issue sniper systems and tactics was a ton of fun, but now it’s time to finish this book and get it published.

While I’m writing this book the right way this time, I’m still squeezing in some art time. The Hwacha is one of the most complex pictures I’ve done yet. I have attempted to give it a more three dimensional look than most of my other drawings, including the original drawing of the Hwacha I had done. It’s nearly complete. The only thing I have left is a little clean up around the lines after coloring it. I hope to have it up sometime later this week. I’ll post a quick update when I do.

On news for the other projects I’m doing, the whole D&D campaign and world building has completely merged into the design for a new role playing game based on the fantasy world I had designed. I have not decided what I’ll do with the game yet, but I’m really excited about the concepts that came to me the last couple of weeks. Even if I never release the game to the public, it’ll be a great structure for the continuous building of my fantasy world. I’ll focus on writing the Devil Dog series and getting those published, but there are only 5-7 books planned out for that series. In my spare time, I’ll be writing the fantasy novels as well, which has been mapped out to around 16 books, and more ideas continue to flow in as I continue to world build. 

That’s all I have this week, until the Hwacha is done. See you once that’s complete.

Update! The Aspis, the Tomahawk and Writing

Click here to check out the post for the Aspis

I have completed the art for the Aspis, it looks pretty simple, but even with an art program drawing circles are a pain. I spent more time the last couple weeks on world building than I did with anything else so I haven’t finished the Tomahawk art, or the Weapons & Warrior post that was supposed to go up this week on the Tonfa. I’ll be focusing on that this week and have it ready by Friday. I’m also going to try getting that Tomahawk drawn up and ready before then too.

Now for an update on those impossible goals I made:

Task 1: I have 108,000 words in the World building book, which is still short of the 120,000 word goal, but that’s huge progress compared to all the words I wrote last year not including the blog. I may have written 50,000 words in all of 2013. I spent the year reading and editing.

Task 2: I did not get any chapters of Devil Dog written, but I edited the first chapter a little. I’ll need to get that back on track after this coming week. I want to send it back to the editor by June. Clock is ticking!

Task 3: The D&D campaigns are waiting on my world building to reach a certain point so that I can use my own settings. I’ve also been toying with the idea of creating my own Role Playing Game game like Pathfinder did when D&D veered off into the 4th edition abyss.

Task 4: I almost succeeded with 5 drawings a month. I got in about 3, 4 if you count the Aspis.

So that’s where I’m at, and see you next week. June is coming fast so I am going to dive right back into these tasks. Have a great week!

Writer Ramblings: Impossible Goals

After a recent conversation on Facebook with the witty Anne-Mhairi Simpson about setting goals that can’t be achieved, I am going to jump on that challenge. She already began her impossible goals, so I am going to do something similar.

Photo from Kristin Nador on WANACommons

My first impossible goal is to finish the book of notes I’m currently writing. My first intention was to just gather all my two decades worth of notes into one location so that I can pick up my old fantasy series project again. I wanted to write both the Devil Dog series, which is not a fantasy series, alongside an epic high fantasy series. Since late November, I’ve been compiling notes, trying to uniform ideas, and basically make some sense of the chaos twenty plus years of daydreaming has created. I’ve been world building. This task in itself would normally be what I call my life’s work, but I have a lot of other series, like Devil Dog, that also needs to be written. So, I’ve decided to create a “guide” to the fantasy world which describes everything from religions, cultures, races, magic, creatures, maps, history, etc. I’m currently at 30,000 words, and I’m anticipating it to reach close to 150,000 words (approximately 500 pages). The easy part of this book is it is for my own personal use as a guide to this huge fantasy world. I won’t have to edit it for grammar or anything else. It’s just massive and full of pictures. I want to finish the entire thing by March. That’s my impossible goal. That’s a month and a half away.

Writer Ramblings: What Fantasy Football Taught Me About Writing

Let me explain how I’ve learned a few things, after you’re done laughing at the concept of learning anything about writing from a game that completely revolves around numbers, watching grown men wrestle for a ball, and showboat like eight year olds after scoring a touchdown. I really have learned a few things. I didn’t post a weapons post last week because I’ve had my head buried in the new outline for Devil Dog and studying football players for the NFL, lots and lots and lots and lots of studying stats, history, updates on injuries, etc. This Friday I’ll have a weapons post up for sure.

So what does Fantasy Football have to do with writing? Something that I feel writers should take very seriously. RESEARCH. Success in fantasy football is not all luck. There is some luck, but in the leagues I play in, you can tell who is researching thorough enough. By researching everything you can and staying on top of all the latest developments, you give yourself an edge that allows you to open up the opportunity to win despite luck. The same goes for writing, even in fiction. If the writer researches to make the details he includes in the book to be accurate, then people who are familiar with whatever it is, will feel it’s authentic and respect the writer.

Fantasy Weapons Lore: Sting of the Baggins'

Today I’m going to talk about the famous Sting. I don’t mean that singer that starred in Dune and got his nickname in high school by wearing a black and yellow stripped shirt. No, the Sting I’m going to discuss will sing a different tune. A song filled with a history of blood, monsters, and hobbits. For those of you who saw the Lord of the Rings, or even better, read the books, you are already aware of this blade. You already know some of its magical nature, but do you know its origin?

Some Tolkien historians have discussed the origins of this mysterious sword. Yes Middle-Earth is deep and rich enough to have expert historians studying the thousands of documents and notes that JRR Tolkien wrote up over the years it took him to create his world. Some of these historians have thought that it was not a blade that was forged alone. It was a companion blade made alongside two other swords that were found with it in the Hobbit. The largest blade starred in the Lord of the Rings as Gandalf’s sword, Glamdring. There was another shorter version of Glamdring which is called Orcrist. I can’t tell you too much about Ocrist because that would create spoilers for The Hobbit movies still in the editing room. Glamdring and Orcrist are believed to have been made as sister blades. Orcrist was shorter than Glamdring and they were probably intended to be wielded in a similar fashion to the Samurai Daisho.

Fantasy Weapons Lore: Grond of Morgoth

Some of you have heard the name Grond. For those three people left in the world that hasn’t seen the Return of the King, then you have now met one version of the weapons known as Grond. This is the massive flaming wolf headed battering ram that Sauron’s army of orcs used to smash the magic gates once built by an ancient race of men with elven blood and long lives. That’s a mouthful. Throughout the thousands of years of history in Middle-Earth, Grond has taken a few forms that are suspected to be designs of Sauron’s masterful engineering and magic.

During the time of the Return of the King, Grond was a one hundred foot battering ram that stood sixty feet tall. The head was forged from black iron. In the movie, the mouth was filled with fire, but I don’t believe Tolkien envisioned it that way. About the only use fire would have coming from the mouth is intimidation. Tolkien was an experienced military man who served during World War 1, and although the orcs are a flashy raging mass of unthinking hate, they weren’t unorganized when directed by Sauron’s generals like Gothmog. I would assume that just the sheer size would be enough to scare the Gondorians. Hauling fuel for the fire would be an unnecessary additional resource to be carried across rivers and mountains all the way from Mordor. That said, it did add some nice cinematography for the film so it got two thumbs up from me, no matter how impractical it was.

Fantasy Weapons Lore: Callandor of Rand al’Thor

One of the most powerful weapons ever imagined up is the sword called Callandor. Despite its appearance it is not actually a sword. This flashy crystal-like sword is a conduit for the male channelers of saidin (The One Power). Channeling this power and weaving it into the elements in the Wheel of Time series is how magicians cast spells. They don’t use wands and some are powerful enough to sink entire cities.

Callandor is one of the most powerful tools ever designed in this world and was molded into the shape of a sword for the man who wielded it into battle at the head of his huge armies against the Dark One's forces. It was made to allow a man to greatly increase the amount of power that he can normally channel.

This is not the same as the wands and staffs of Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings. Although those items increases a sorcerer’s power and allows the caster to cast spells at greater speeds without instant fatigue, the casters in the Wheel of Time don’t require hand movements or words to cast spells. All they have to do is learn to mentally manipulate the elements they can draw on to do what they want. Each “spell” is actually a weave of elements that is controlled through channeling the One Power.

Writers Ramblings: Reconstruction

Took this pic while sailing past Canada with my Sanyo. Your welcome.

You have probably noticed something missing from my blog today. Last night I went through the entire thing and pulled down all the pictures I had linked. I redid the “About TL Jeffcoat” page and put up new pictures that I have either made or paid for.

I happened to run across a blog post by Roni Loren yesterday that scared me. Not just a little bit either. I’m not a wealthy man, and I always thought I was safe, but after what happened to Roni, I realize some people aren’t satisfied with an apology. Although it seemed a little heartless over something that Roni had no idea she was doing illegally, the person who sued her was completely within their rights.

Many artists and photographers have expressed through Roni Loren’s blog comments that they are often more than willing to share if they are simply asked. All of that makes perfect sense. You don’t just take someone’s car to the store without asking first. I disagree with the hostility she met after she promptly complied with their demand to remove the picture, but I’m not going to rage about it. Getting mad and ranting about it wouldn’t make anything better for anyone and that’s not what my blog is about.

Fantasy Weapons Lore: Mjölnir of Thor Odinson

Marvel Comics wasn’t far off on the magical abilities of this heavy iron hammer. Marvel claimed it’s made from a fictional metal called Uru, but the myths say it is only iron. Thor’s ferocity and pride as the greatest warrior of the Norse deities was also as the legends described. Aside from Norse Myhtology descriptions of him with red hair instead of blond, the character you see watching The Avengers is much the same as the legendary god of thunder.

In the stories told in the Prose Edda, the dwarf, Brokkr, was visiting Asgard, when Loki approached him with a challenge. After showing off several treasures made by the Sons of Ivaldi that were gifts to Asgard, Loki claimed that no other dwarf could ever make anything as beautiful or useful. Brokkr was offended and bet his head for Loki’s head that his brother could make more useful treasures.

Fantasy Weapons Lore: Excalibur of Arthur Pendragon

There is some confusion on the origin of one of the most famous legendary swords in history. So let’s set things straight. There are actually two swords in the legend of King Arthur and Excalibur is the second one he wielded. Excalibur was said to have been made by an Elvish smith from the island of Avalon. It was magically imbued so that nobody could defeat its owner. To aid the sword, its scabbard was also magically enchanted so that anyone wearing it would never bleed and could heal their wounds instantly.

The other sword used by Arthur Pendragon is known as the Sword in the Stone and was nothing more than an extravagant typical broadsword that was used by his father, Uther Pendragon. When Arthur was born, Uther was slain in battle. Merlin took this sword and jammed into the rock and enchanted it so that only the true heir of Uther Pendragon could pull the sword. Arthur’s half-sister, Morgan le Fay was not the heir as long as Arthur was alive and is why she never claimed the blade of her father. This is not Excalibur, despite a lot of popular movies, books and cartoons making the blades the same.

Eventually Arthur came to the sword in the stone and retrieved it, making himself the king of Britain. Merlin gave him his support and Arthur went on to gather the people under the new banner of Pendragon. That would also involve some battles as Arthur’s father was a warmonger and not very well liked by several rulers. Many lords joined with Morgan le Fay, Arthur’s half-sister, who felt cheated out of the throne by a brother she didn’t know existed.

Fantasy Weapons Lore: The Elder Wand of Harry Potter

Believe it or not, in the hands of a trained wizard, this little dinky branch is an extremely dangerous weapon. What some people may not realize, unless they are Harry Potter fans, is that wands are partially sentient. They choose their master as much as they are chosen. The Elder Wand in the Harry Potter series is no exception, but unlike most, it is believed to be the most powerful wand ever created. The power isn’t the only thing that sets the wand apart from other wands. What makes the Elder Wand so different is its lack of loyalty. It only bonds with whichever wizard it feels is the more powerful which is proven by defeating the current master.

Then it moves on and works with the new owner without any disruption in power. This becomes tricky in the series however when Harry Potter becomes the master of the wand through a series of actions that he was not aware of. Voldemort struggled after that to discover who the true master of the wand was after he gained possession of it and killed those he thought had earned its allegiance. It wasn’t till he tried using the wand against its true master did he realize that Harry was the man all along he needed to defeat.

INHALE Flash Mob

INHALE, an urban fantasy romance by Kendall Grey, is now available in paperback and e-book for Kindle (MOBI) and Nook (EPUB). INHALE is the first book in the JUST BREATHE trilogy. Kendall is donating all profits from the sale of the trilogy to programs that educate people about whales and the challenges they face. Watch the video to find out why.

Kendall encourages interested readers to consider purchasing an e-book instead of a paperback. E-books save trees, cost considerably less, and bring in much more money for the whales.

Thank you for supporting INHALE, and most importantly, the whales that need our help.

Book Recommendation: Inhale

I wanted to recommend a book that is coming out in a month. May 1st the first book in the Just Breathe trilogy will be released on Amazon and Barnes and Noble and other sources I'm guessing. I don't do a lot of book recommendations, and I keep wanting to do more, but I always end up researching weapons instead. But here is one today. Add it to your wishlists or whatever you have (To-Read List on Goodreads) and enjoy!

Inhale by Kendall Grey

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I’m floored. I am not a big fan of romances but I am really getting into urban fantasies. This book was more than I expected it to be, and believe it or not, I had high expectations. That said, no book is for everyone, and Inhale was not my usual taste, but I thoroughly enjoyed the story. It flowed smoothly, was written very beautifully and it was obviously edited professionally. This book isn’t just a well put together novel by an Indie writer; it was well put together for a traditionally published novel. If you’ve read my reviews in the past, I don’t knock the rating down for editing, but I’ll always point it out. I had no complaints whatsoever with the editing in Inhale.

Weapons & Warriors Update

Things have been very sporadic in the early parts of the week lately and that has delayed my Monday blog two weeks in a row, so I'm going to officially announce the Weapons Weekly will now be posted every Wednesday instead.

This week I'll be returning to the Samurai. After a couple weeks of fulfilling requests for weapons I am looking into a warrior tribe in Africa where they wield some really crazy looking weapons. They have an unusual and spectacular method of executing enemies, that is flashy and bloody. Of course I will want to share that.

I have a special treat for the fantasy lovers this summer. I am planning a special series of Weapons Weekly for mythical or fantasy weapons. I am still debating whether it should be run along with the standard Weapons Weekly or if I should run it in place of it. Plenty of time to decide. Either way, it will be fun, and I'll probably look for more obscure weapons in mythology. Some are too well known, such as Excalibur, so I might not be able to tell you anything you don't already know about that. I am definitely going to do a special on Mjölnir, otherwise known as Thor's Hammer. Everyone knows the hammer by now, but most people have no idea how it came about. It is truly a unique weapon.


Alright, that's all I have for the update. Have a great week everyone and I'll have that new Weapons Weekly up Wednesday morning. 

Weapons & Warriors: The Daneaxe of the Norsemen

Art by TL Jeffcoat

Legends often describe the Norsemen wielding a huge double bladed axe and a skullcap with horns on their head. The description of that conjures terrifying berserker giants bearing down on their enemies. Although there are many records of single bladed axes as tall as a man, there is no account of a Norsemen wearing a horned helm in actual battle or of the popular double bladed battle axe.

The horns would have only unbalanced the helm and gotten in the way of swinging his weapons. The extra blade would have been clumsy and impractical. Norsemen trained using the axe with techniques that would have not required an extra blade anyway. They were lethal enough with one simple blade. The danger it posed to its own wielder was also a reason Norsemen did not design these fantasy based axes. If a shield was rammed into their arms while holding the axe forward, the force of the shield could push the axe against them and that extra blade suddenly becomes their own demise.

Book Recommendation: Shift

I absolutely love this series and I'm very excited that Matt Merrick takes himself seriously as a writer. After publishing Exiled and then seeing the critiques about a couple of typos, he gave Shift double the attention. Replacing his original editor and then adding a second copy editor, along with an army of beta readers, Merrick has outdone himself. Not only is the writing improved but the advanced editing is obvious and has made Shift one of the few books I would place out there as a must read for anyone who loves action and adventure fantasies. Here is my review for Goodreads, that will soon be on Amazon. Happy reading everyone. I'll be back Monday with a new weapons weekly about the Aztec culture. Have a great weekend.

Shift by M.R. Merrick

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


If you loved Exiled, you'll absolutely love Shift. This sequel to the action packed adventure Exiled takes you on another journey through dimensions and battling demons. Chase and company try to not only save the universe, but find out the truth about themselves. Merrick's writing has improved a great deal since Exiled, it's phenomenal actually. Not only has he improved his editing by far, and Exiled wasn't that badly done, but his ability to make the characters even more real has grown. The self searching and character development in this story was very well done. As expected, the story is stuffed cover to cover with adventure, drama, action, a little romance and comedy tossed in to leave no dull moments anywhere. I can't wait for the next in the series. As all serial endings, it leaves it open for another face off another day, but at the same time closes the chapter on the events of the plot. I loved this book. Someday someone in Hollywood needs to see this series, it would make awesome action movies.



View all my reviews

Writer Ramblings: The Heart Knows Your Muse

The heart is a finicky thing. It’s strong and at the same time fragile. It works all day pumping blood but a few words from someone you're close to can make it feel like it wants to stop. It may even feel like it’s bleeding or broken, and yet, it continues on until that day comes where it finally does give out or the brain stops telling it to keep going.

I was a sophomore in high school. I had written several things, a short sci-fi and started a fantasy adventure. I had written a couple poems, but I hated them. I hated all of it. I loved writing but I despised what I wrote. It was raw, untrained and hard to read, probably something like this blog. Anyway, I had spoken to this girl in one of my geometry classes several times. She was smart, had a unique style that made her stand out in the crowd, and she was beautiful. The beauty thing intimidated me greatly. I didn’t know what I felt when she was around, but one day I realized I couldn’t stop thinking about her.

Welcome To My Imagination (Cover Re-Reveal)

Illustration by Steven D Jones

Just a quick recoloring of the wording. Threw in a little light on the lettering so it doesn't blend into the rest of the darkness too much, but still looks bloody. Increased the size of my name as well so it didn't just look like crimson scribble. It's no longer a crimson I don't think, but that was probably too dark of a red for the darkness of the rest of the cover. This stands out a bit more I think.

Ok, back to revisions for this book, have a great weekend everyone! Don't hesitate to let me know if you see anything that could still use improving.

Writer Ramblings: Drums of War, er Gaming

“The sounds of the drums echo through my head on the waves of memories as I dream of war. I hear the battle cries around me and the roars of dragons as they fill the skies and rain their fire down on everything beneath them. We mount our wyvern, drakes and brooms and fly up to face the monstrosities that threaten the world. Fearless and proud, our nations unite under one banner. Thousands will perish, but nobody is worried about that, we all return with another life to rise up and battle again. The endless sky of leathery wings must be defeated or all will be lost. And when we are done with the invaders, we will return our attention to the weak Alliance who hate our Horde.”

I wrote this once while playing a game that I love very much. Since I’ve began writing in all of my spare time, I’ve deactivated my account and moved on, but recently I saw a trailer for an upcoming expansion to the game and I’ve began dreaming about it all over again. I played it for years and I even managed a couple of guilds. My favorite till this day was called Red Steel, and believe it or not, it had nothing to do with Russian tanks. The name came from a classic D&D module for a location on the world of Mystara which had a unique resource that was like a fine red dust, but if processed, it could be made as hard as steel and could take on magical properties.