Joseph L. Selby

Joe's writing interests cross into every genre. Currently, his focus is on mass market fiction writing, specifically in contemporary and epic fantasy (although he has other stories in the Queue that cross genres into science fiction, literary fiction, and even some spec fic. He is currently soliciting agents to represent his first novel, Black Magic and Barbecue Sauce. He is finishing the first draft of his second novel, Wanted: Chosen One, Now Hiring. To keep his creativity and enthusiasm fresh, he often intersperses his projects with smaller pieces. Below is a description and some samples of his various works.

Novels

BLACK MAGIC AND BARBECUE SAUCE 

When Poseidon turned 33, he stopped aging and started speaking in tongues. Not just to people, everything has a voice: the cat, the rock, the ceiling, everything. He was a man, then a king, then a god, and 6000 years later, he is a man again, living anonymously as Cy Lekkas in St. Louis. Anonymous until now. Two hundred years ago, Cy stole the Bishop's Pearl from Christian Bugeau. Now Christian and a host of other Speakers have come to St. Louis to retrieve the powerful black magic fetish. If they have to use every dark art they've learned and kill everyone Cy loves to get it, so be it.       Whether one is six, sixty, or 6000 years old, he is still human. He does not know everything. He still makes mistakes. He still has regrets. And sometimes he lives life easy and comfortable rather than hard and fulfilling. The story mirrors Poseidon/Cy in ancient Carthage, Italy during the inquisition, and colonial Boston during the revolution with his life in modern-day St. Louis and his relationship with a young artist who may be old and gone in the blink of an immortal eye. How important are relationships to Cy when he's lived sixty lifetimes?       BLACK MAGIC AND BARBECUE SAUCE is a 110,000-word contemporary fantasy. I am seeking representation for this manuscript and future works. Cover design is by award winning designer, Julia Dummit. Illustration is by Aaron Acevedo, both friends of mine. Go to my Contact Me page to request details for contacting Julia or Aaron. Professional requests only, please.

WANTED: CHOSEN ONE, NOW HIRING

Nashau was just sacked after thirty years as the Baron d'Bluefield's minister of prophecy. He got the baron's son and heir killed. All across the Seven Kingdoms, prophecies are failing, chosen ones are dying, and prophets are taking the blame. If Nashau doesn't find a chosen one and fix whatever's gone wrong, he'll never find work as a prophet again.       Podome just fled his job as the Duke d'Hillsborough's minister of prophecy after getting the duke's son and heir killed. Together he and Nashau head north in search of the chosen one that can break their curse, the descendant of legendary Count Pelier. They find Bastin the Bold, notorious flimflam man and potential chosen one. Is it shenanigans or is he the heir they're looking for? They don't care enough to take the time to find out. The duke's assassins are hunting them. They need to break the curse before it's too late. If it's all a flimflam and the prophecy kills Bastin, they'll just hire another chosen one and try again until they get it right.       WANTED: CHOSEN ONE, NOW HIRING, is a 150,000-word fantasy about the anguish of losing one's job and the desperate things a person will do to get it back. Readers of Lois McMaster Bujold's CURSE OF CHALLION will enjoy this story.

MISTAKEN

SOLICIT: Ken has a good job, a good wife, and good kids. Life is wonderful and he is happy. But he can't get past that niggling feeling inside him that says things are not all right, that he's angry, that he wants to hurt someone. Tragedy throws Ken down a road with crazy homeless, prostitutes, Irish mafia, and the remains of the angels cast down from heaven where he discovers he is a victim of God's first mistake. MISTAKEN is a 120-page graphic novel.

Plays

    In 1999 I wrote a ten-minute play for entry in the KCACTF Playwriting Competition. It was selected as a finalist and performed in Sioux Falls, SD, in January 2000. Like much of my writing, I like to approach the subject from the opposite of popular opinion. As such, this play upset a number of people. Now that I'm older and more mature, there are indeed things I would do differently, but I didn't write the play now. I wrote the play then. As such, I'm posting it in its original form (although I may have diversified some of the swearing back in 2004).

"Jigsaw" The author grants permission for this play to be performed on stage in any non-commercial endeavor. For commercial performances, please contact me to discuss.

Short Stories

    While Fantasy is my preferred genre, short stories give me the opportunity to explore other genres that I might not want to commit the effort required to write a novel. Urban fantasy, science fiction, spec fic, literary fiction, mystery, sword and sorcery, and maybe some classic fantasy. Here are a couple of my most recent short stories.

"The End of Bliss" part 1, part 2, part 3

"Galileo Rocks the Baby"  (Removed for Recording)

Flash Fiction

    Beginning in June 2004, I joined the administrative staff of the Living Greyhawk RPGA Network campaign as a triad member of the Dyvers region (Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, and Iowa). Our main duty was to facilitate the release of 8 or 9 adventures per year, either by coordinating with freelance authors or writing the events ourselves. The adventures could only hold so much story and had to approach the regional plot from an adventurer's perspective. Being one of the largest metropolises in the world, it was impossible to provide a full picture of the intrigue going on all around them. Taking a page from Steinbeck (or a chapter, more appropriately), I introduced the intercalary chapter as a means of showing the players what was going on around the lives of their players. Below I have included the original introduction as presented with each chapter, an explanation of our intent and goals by releasing the chapters. And I have included all the chapters I wrote personally (another triad member, Kevin Elmore, contributed those chapters not included below).

Dyvers Intercalary Chapters

Original Introduction
Chapter 1: Status Quo
Chapter 2: Winter of Our Discontent
Chapter 3: Fals River
Chapter 4: Family Ties
Chapter 5: Ties That Bind
Chapter 6: Come Hells or High Water
Chapter 7: Drums of War
Chapter 8: Reverdie
Chapter 10: Price of Peace
Chapter 11: Resurrection
Chapter 14: Quo Vadis

 The above stories are copyright © Joseph L. Selby and cannot be reproduced without express permission from the author. Dyvers, Safeton, and Turrosh Mak are copyright Wizards of the Coast. Greyhawk is a registered trademark of Wizards of the Coast. These stories are presented here as fair use with the original text from when they were created for use in the Living Greyhawk role playing campaign.

Dungeons & Dragons Adventures

Beginning in December 2002, I was the Director of Living Kingdoms of Kalamar, an RPGA Network campaign hosted by Kenzer & Co. Following this, I became the regional administrator, a Triad, for Living Greyhawk, an RPGA Network campaign hosted by Wizards of the Coast. During the course of these two campaigns, I wrote 33 adventures. While I've been asked to post them all, that's not possible. Some of these adventures are owned by the respective companies and some are reliant on adventures written by other authors and I have not pursued receiving their permission to post their adventures (nor will I). So what I've done instead is taken one adventure I am able to post from every year I was writing for the RPGA and posted them below. (No, I will not post the ARs; the treasure summary is listed following the conclusion.)

Sample Adventures

A Comprehensive List of Adventures

Living Kingdoms of Kalamar

• LKoK #7 Burial Mounds (Story Concept)
• LKoK #10 Domino Effect
• LKoK #16 The Beast (Story Concept)
• LKoK #17 Shining Stones (Concept by Brian Patterson)
• LKoK #20 To Arms
• LKoK #27 Turn About is Foul Play
• Accountability, a mini-adventure included in the LKoK Campaign Book