Free audiobook serial: King Arthur’s childhood
Greetings, folks! Yesterday I started an audiobook serial novel of Book 4 of The Swithen, The Flower of Chivalry, which tells of King Arthur’s childhood until he pulls the sword from the stone. It’s on YouTube, which makes it a video audiobook [?!] but let’s not get caught up in semantics. The point is it’s free, it’s a fun ongoing thing, and you should go over there and check it out!
The deal is that there is one or more chapters uploaded every week day until it’s done. You watch soothing nature videos (shot by me) as you hear the story unfold, and I tell you any information you need to know in a short introduction to each segment.
This book is mostly light, fun and lyrical (until it turns dark and terrifying) and is kind of young adult, although there is violence and a hint of adult themes, so I tell people that although it is about a child, it is written for adults. I’ve made a separate video explaining what happens so that parents can decide if it’s appropriate for their kids. There’s also another video that will catch you up on everything that happens in the first three books, so you know what the context is. Even so, this begins the Arthur story and introduces mostly new characters, so it’s a great place to start.
Check out the first video in the series… they’re all linked from there! There’s also a playlist that will take you from one to another. Hope you like it, let me know what you think!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4_iO4yuYhA
Author Reading: Merlin Scolds Uther and Pendragon
Greetings everyone, I hope you’re well… or as well as can be. Here in Canada I thought we were managing the pandemic pretty well, but now… I kind of can’t even go into it. I hope you are doing better!
Anyway, I just put up an author reading video of a scene from Book 2 in which Merlin lays some pretty serious law down on King Pendragon and Uther (Arthur’s future father) when they doubt him.
What has happened in that this advisor to the king was shunted aside when Merlin comes in, so he’s going to try to discredit Merlin, which as you can imagine, is a pretty bad idea. His plan is to ask Merlin to predict his death, then disguise himself as someone else and ask again. When Merlin predicts one death and then a different one, the King thinks he’s been duped! In this scene the king is talking to his brother Uther about the deception when Merlin shows up and he’s pretty peeved!
This is one of my favorite scenes in the book because Merlin kicks some serious ass and has some awesome lines. Both brothers are left with some lingering issues after this, especially after what Merlin says at the end. And the guy trying to discredit Merlin, well… let’s just say things don’t end well.
So get on over there and watch that sucker! It’s 10 minutes.
In other exciting developments, I plan to put Book 4, The Flower of Chivalry, which tells the story of King Arthur’s childhood until he pulls the sword from the stone, up on YouTube in serialized audiobook form (except it’s on video… see? PARADOXES). I’ll put up one or more chapters up every weekday until we’re done.
That book is very light and fun (until it’s dark and terrifying) because it’s about childhood and learning life lessons and the carefree days before responsibility—or, in Arthur’s case, the ultimate responsibility—descend on one as an adult. I’ll let you know when it’s going up, and hopefully you’ll tune in. It’s free and fun and you know… it’s a good book. I’m proud of it.
In the meantime, why don’t you leave me a comment or hit a like button or something just to let me know that you’re out there and I am not actually hurtling alone though space in a tiny capsule while hallucinating all this.
Thanks! Scott
Greetings, sexy followers
Remember that article I just published called Excalibur: Movie vs. Legend? The one that changed your life and made you rethink how you see yourself AND your world AND your cats AND your taxes AND your car AND like… whoever those people are?
Well, now it has been edited and cleaned-up for a non-Arthurian audience and is a story at the publication FanFare on Medium, so if you would prefer to read it there, you can make the magic happen. Live the dream–make it your own!
Now did you also know that in addition to writing your favorite Arthurian book series I also write humorous reviews of mostly bad and cheesy movies AND make Spotify playlists AND generally add so much to this world that the Nobel committe is meeting regularly to discuss creating a new award in my honor? No, I suppose you didn’t. The point is, now there is one place where you can follow everything Scott Telek and that place is my Personal Page on Medium.
Not enough following? You can also follow Me/The Swithen series on Instagram and I swear, I SWEAR I will update it more than I do now! No really–I will!
Okay, I know your busy now, so… Thanks!
Excalibur: movie vs Legend!
Greetings folks! I hope you have been doing… as well as it’s possible to do at this point. I confess that I really thought we’d be pulling out of this thing by now, and my mind’s pre-conceived narrative is that we should be pulling out of this… and yet we’re not pulling out of this. All I can do is hope you’re well and wish you patience.
But hey, there is something new to read, at least! I have taken it upon myself to break down the ways in which everyone’s favorite King Arthur movie Excalibur does or does not adhere to the actual Arthurian legend, and you can read that sucker right here at: Excalibur: Movie vs. Legend!
I’ll never forget watching Excalibur on cable for the first time, which was considered a bit naughty at the time because of the fully-armored sex in the first few minutes. I then watched it again as I was first reading Le Morte D’Arthur about ten years ago, and that’s the first time I realized that it just has way too much story to tell in two hours and a bit. But it does an amazing job of capturing the tone and feel of the legends, which is an amazing and magical achievement.
Excalibur was also quite influential on my book series in two ways. The first, that the telling of the legend needs to be slowed downso that everything can have it’s impact and importance, not sped up, as we’ve decided everything else needs to be these days. The other is that the whole opening with Uther definitely influenced my decision to have three whole novels before Arthur is born… because I really liked that whole “story before the story” aspect the film has. Although as I write the novels I see that the events of the first three are far from forgotten as we get further into Arthur’s life. The past is very much present in these books.
By the way, I am 318 pages into Book 5,which covers the period between when Arthur first pulls the sword and all of his training before he is coroneted as king.
By the other way, I have a publication where I am posting movie reviews over at Medium. That requires a membership, but you can read five articles a month without paying. My site tends to cover “bad” or “cheesy” movies with a focus on horror and sci-fi, so if you feel like it, head over and check out Telekfilm on Medium.
Thanks for reading, be well and stay safe.
Why are there no good King Arthur movies?
Greetings friends! Hope you’re all well and safe and feeling okay. I’ve been a bit on the bummed side lately as I am remembering the days when I really thought this whole pandemic thing couldn’t go on through the summer… could it?
Anyway, I have a new post on the site which takes a look at why there are no good King Arthur movies. Yes, there is Excalibur–which I adore–but even that, you have to admit, is a mess and is wildly overdramatic (in the best possible way). But the piece really isn’t about the movies so much as the reasons WHY it’s so hard to turn the legend into a movie… mainly that it’s too huge, it’s too weird, and it just doesn’t chop down neatly into little, crowd-pleasing stories. You know, all the stuff that makes it great.
And yes, not ALL the King Arthur movies and TV shows are awful. Just most of them. But we’re making big, grand, sweeping statements because that’s what you do to get attention on the internet.
So when you’re ready for a coffee break, head on over to the article and ask yourself:
