Risingshadow has the honour of publishing a guest post by Rob J. Hayes.
Having served in a hundred different offices as a keyboard monkey Rob J. Hayes finally decided to follow his lifelong passion of daydreaming. After writing a small horde's worth of short stories, he released his debut trilogy The Ties that Bind in 2013 as an indie publication and followed it up with the standalone release, The Northern Sunrise, in 2014.
Having signed a deal with Ragnarok to re-release The Ties that Bind trilogy, Rob is happy to announce his follow-up series, Best Laid Plans (set in the same world), will also be released by Ragnarok starting in 2016.
When not writing Rob is usually found either card gaming, computer gaming, board gaming, dice gaming, airsoft gaming, or pretending to be a Viking.
Rob's short story collection, The Bound Folio, was published in June 2016.
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GUEST POST: 9 Homages I've Hidden Away in The Ties that Bind by Rob J. Hayes
I'm a massive geek (not quite the shocking revelation that it used to be, is it?). There is a huge list of things that I get all fanboy-ish over and I've always been that way. I grew up watching things like Transformers and Star Trek (TNG), Willow and Labyrinth. I grew up playing things like Heroquest and D&D, Elite and Warhammer. These things helped to shape me and my imagination as much as, if not more than, the real world.
So, like a true fanboy, I've hidden little homages throughout my books. I'm fairly certain no one will ever manage to find them all (I'm not even sure I could any more). So here's 9 homages you can find in The Ties that Bind trilogy.
1. Burn the witch. We start on the very first chapter. While Arbiter Prin is setting fire to a bunch of heretics, he shouts the line “BY FIRE BE PURGED!”. This is a little reference to World of Warcraft. It's a line uttered by big bad boss, Ragnaros the Fire Lord. My WoW days may be over, but they sure left a mark.
There's also another line in the book which is (mostly intact) from another WoW boss of old. But I'm not going to tell what it is or who said it.
2. The Golden Fool. Over in Chade, Thanquil sets himself up in a tavern called the Golden Fool. It's a little nod to Robin Hobb's Farseer and Tawny Man trilogies... which if you haven't already checked out, I urge you to do right now. Actually, stop reading this blog right now and go and read them! The only books to ever make me actually cry.
3. Death by Spoon. Jez jokes about killing a man with a spoon. Thanquil then does in fact kill a man with a spoon. This one is all about Alan Rickman's line in Robin Hood Prince of Thieves: “I'm gonna cut your heart out with a spoon!”
4. Local farm boy makes good. This one isn't a specific reference, but more of a nod towards the fantasy trope of orphan farm boys discovering their destiny to beat back the big bad with a legendary weapon only they can wield. The God-Emperor of Sarth is a subversion of this trope. He is that orphan farm boy and he has certainly made good. Only you'll never see his epic quest... and in fact he never even went on it. Thanquil found the legendary weapon and handed it over. Take that, trope!
5. The Arbiter coat. Based very heavily on the Witch Hunter style coat from Warhammer. The tabletop game made me fall in love with Witch Hunters and played a big part of inspiring the creation of the Inquisition. So I based my Arbiter's coats on that iconic design.
6. Space bunnies. You might notice the phrase Righteous Indignation popping up in a couple of the books. Well it's a nod to the greatest spaceship name ever. Gotta love Captain Bucky O'Hare.
7. What's in a name? I often struggle with naming characters, sometimes they're fully fleshed out people with quirks, strengths, weaknesses, dreams, and a shady past, but still lack a name. In these situations I look to the things I love. One such instance is Arbiter Kosh, a name taken from the Vorlon ambassador in Babylon 5.
8. Everything the light touches. In The Color of Vengeance our protagonists pay a visit to a place called the Boneyard. While I was coming up with the scene I kept imagining the elephant graveyard from the Lion King... only with more blood, and people tied to stakes, and giant, man-eating buzzards overhead.
9. Saving the best 'til last. In The Price of Faith Thanquil happens across an ex-pirate made good by the name of Ianic. He's a good man in a crappy world who just wants to make enough of a living to feed and house his family. Well this one is a homage to my own father (Ian) who has undoubtedly had more of an impact upon my imagination than any one of my other fandoms. In fact, he introduced me to half of them.
So there's the list. It's not complete, there are others, but I don't want to give them all away. And the things I geek out over continue to grow with new ones appearing all the time. So as I keep writing, you can be sure that I'll keep paying homage to the things that I love.
Rob J. Hayes is the author of the acclaimed The Ties that Bind trilogy and the new collection of short stories The Bound Folio. You can find out more on his website here.
