M. Harold Page

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About M. Harold Page
Swordsman, geek parent, author. I write books where people resolve complex themes through the medium of interpersonal violence... sometimes with tanks in.
Drop by my author home page to find out what I'm up to!
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Author Updates
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Blog post“What’s Rule One for being a successful author?”
It’s a couple of years ago and I’m visiting a young offender’s institute – a prison for young people – and I’m doing one of my occasional workshops for some special category prisoners: youths who are ‘at risk’ due to bullying or psychological issues, or because they did things we’d rather not think about.
I wasn’t going to start with Rule One, but, whatever they’d done, in this context, it was hard to see them as anything but br4 years ago Read more -
Blog postA sunny day in Kurtzhau’s endless preschool years. We’re kneeling on his bedroom floor playing with his Playmobil Vikings.
The Vikings have tied up their horses and camped — that’s the set over there on the left (source) — and I’m enjoying basking in the firelight while Rosemary Sutcliff and Harold Lamb whisper stories in my ear. However, I have responsible parenting to do.
My son is a great fan of Dora the Explorer — as am I, I mean it’s basically Dungeons and Dragons —4 years ago Read more -
Blog postPlays horribly complicated strategy simulators – tell me they’re not worthwhile?
Rarely, the Internet makes me cross enough to blog. This is one of those times.
Somebody posted a link to an article offering “parenting” advice. I won’t link here, because I don’t want to feed it. The advice in a nutshell was: “Ask once, then come down like a tonne of bricks”:
My mom just asked me to take the trash out. What are my risks versus my rewards of obeying?
Well, i4 years ago Read more -
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Blog postI love the idea of trading between the stars, but mostly because of the drama it produces. Thus, for the kind of gaming I like, all the official versions of the Traveller trade system are too fiddly. True, it could be replaced by “The referee just makes stuff up.” However, I also like the way hard randomness generates narrative.
What if the economics of small free traders were different from those applying to the big players?
Perhaps the commercials lines have got a5 years ago Read more -
Blog postFlat Star Chart (click for source)
(For my alternative to 3D mapping, scroll down.)
I’ve been revisiting Traveller RPG. One thing that’s not changed over the years is that the star charts are flat. Here’s an example (right). As a kid I hated this. I’d have said that it was because it just wasn’t a proper simulation! Space is 3D, right? I actually spent — wasted — time trying to make 3D star charts.
Then a game called Space Opera came along and that did have 3D cha5 years ago Read more -
Blog post“…she gets abducted by aliens but she kills them all with a sword and then flies the spaceship home.”
11 pm Sunday night, and I find Morgenstern (9) sitting up in bed, tangled blond hair making her look like a sleepy wood elf.
She grins at me. “I couldn’t sleep, so I used my Story Cubes.”
Wonderful things those cubes. Little dice with tropes on them. They can keep one or two imaginative children happy for hours, especially if you’ve taught them how to connec5 years ago Read more -
Blog postJust in case you were confused by artistic conventions, the covers of my SWORDS VERSUS TANKS series depict the Actual Story Content! They are NOT montages.
Here’s the first book: Armoured heroes clash across the centuries!
Sir Ranulph really does take on the WWI-style mega-tank!
Sir Ranulph Dacre (left), armed with his trusty runic sword Steelcutter (shown) really does face off against a WWI-style mega-tank (right), commanded by former bohemian Colonel5 years ago Read more -
Blog postSo you’ve completed your novel. It’s a story with a beginning, middle and satisfying end. You’ve polished the prose until it shines.
However, it’s too short, or too slow-paced, or it tells rather than shows.
Argh.
Actually, don’t worry. This is quite normal.
The only mistake you’ve made is to waste time editing the text before fixing the story. Even so, you probably need to change less than you think.
Here’s how I go about it (these days I actually5 years ago Read more -
Blog postWe’re waiting for the other shoe to drop. For those of us who remotely identify with the left, tracking its trajectory is agony.
Some of us need to take time out to process and grieve, and to support to our vulnerable friends. However, when the dust settles that shoe will still be falling.
This isn’t a sim. Real world turns take months and years to play out. That shoe will be a long time falling. We must not let it clog our brains and fritter away the precious u6 years ago Read more -
Blog postOne of the stranger quirks of literary history is the collaboration between the big morose Texan pulpster and the genteel Oxford don.
To blame is a mysterious Englishman who interrupted Howard’s planned suicide by suggesting he instead seek death by volunteering in the Spanish Civil War. This in turn led to Howard being wounded and sent to convalesce in England with an Oxford-based group of left wing sympathisers.
Though he was still guilt-wracked because of the deat6 years ago Read more
Titles By M. Harold Page
Sir William the Marshal, legend in his own time, has promised to go on crusade, a vow made to his Young King as he lay dying. But when the Oliphant, legendary war horn of Roland, is stolen by the lethal Assassins, he’s charged with returning the relic in order to stop the very thing he’d vowed to undertake—a crusade; this one engineered by the thieves.
With his small band of trusted companions—Sir Baldwin, his tourney compatriot; Eustace, his squire; and Henrik, the giant Norseman—William sets out to take back the relic. But treachery abounds, and when William loses two of his companions, he discovers an unlikely ally—Da’ud, an Assassin himself, bent on taking the Oliphant from the heretic faction that has stolen it. The three fight their way across land, sea, and desert, only to find themselves facing an army…and the Oliphant within their grasp.
After a thousand years, the fell winter has passed. The snows have receded, and Felstad has been uncovered. Its buildings lie in ruins, overrun by undead creatures and magical constructs, the legacy of the empire's experiments. It is an evil, dangerous place. To the few hardy souls who inhabit the nearby villages, the city has acquired a new name, 'Frostgrave', and it is shunned by all right-thinking people. For those who seek power and riches, however, it is an unparalleled opportunity, a deadly maze concealing secrets of knowledge long forgotten...
This new fiction anthology collects ten stories of wizards and adventures as they venture into the ruins of the Frozen City.
Fleeing alien attack, time-travelling communists invade their own medieval past, not realising that magic works.
Sir Ranulph Dacre was supposed to die in a famous last stand. Instead, he takes up his rune-etched sword and faces off against the invaders from the future.
Meanwhile, veteran tank commander Colonel Jasmine Klimt is about to find out how well she measures up against her childhood hero.
Who will survive when the armoured warriors clash across the centuries?
Read Swords Versus Tanks Episode 1 and find out!
Ken MacLeod: "...very useful in getting from ideas etc to plot and story."
Hannu Rajaniemi: "...find myself to coming back to [this] book in the early stages. Just convinced an aspiring writer friend to buy it."
M Harold Page wrote and sold three novels in 2013, in each case starting from scratch. This handbook shares the creative outlining techniques that enabled him to speed from vision to completed novel, again and again.
• No more unfinished writing projects!
• Turn sweeping visions into viable stories, fast!
• Grow a novel out of anything no matter how vague: an opening; some characters; a story world; a philosophical idea; a theme; a map; a gaming setting...
• Conjure up conflicts and story questions to drive your plot.
• Write usable outlines "in flow".
• Ace NaNoWriMo!
• Learn to use your storyteller instinct!
• Lose yourself in creating stories for other people to lose themselves in...
A short story based on a real incident...
AD 451. The Northern Dark Ages. A barbarian Jute fostered by Romans, young Prince Hengest sets out to rescue his kidnapped sister. This means leading his father’s undisciplined warband into the middle of Attila the Hun's apocalyptic invasion of the Roman Empire. Somehow, he must keep his warriors together, overcome a murderous rival, and, ultimately, find the courage to wade through grief and mayhem, sword-in-hand, while the sky fills with Hunnish arrows and men of grim purpose decide the fate of the Empire. The shieldwall must hold!
“Some people need killing.”
Hardboiled galactic traveller “Lucky” Jim Brandistock is an ageing ex-mercenary turned archaeologist. He roams the stars on a quest for the fabled Eternal Dome of the Unknowable. However, his reputation precedes him. It’s very hard not to get involved in “local difficulties”, ones best solved with blaster and bayonet…
Jim is trying to escape Badland - a backwater mining world - before a bloody revolution kicks off. However, he’s tempted by a clue to the location of the Marissa, the ship of a famous archaeologist who disappeared in mysterious circumstances. If he can find the wreck, its contents may lead him to the mythical Eternal Dome of the Unknowable, the ultimate archaeological discovery that will more than kick start his stalled academic career.
Unfortunately, everybody on Badland assumes he’s fishing for a mercenary contract! The local prince is a murderous despot, but the revolutionary leader is a dangerous fanatic. There are bandits in the hills and two beautiful, powerful, women who need his help. Success hinges on disabling the Devastator, the mysterious alien super weapon with which Prince George dominates his capital city.
If Jim wants to fix everything before he pursues his new quest, then some people will need killing…
A novella-length old-school Space Opera adventure yarn.
Torstag doesn’t just see dead people, he is dead people: dead heroes. And they whisper to him, sharing skills, nudging him into dangerous deeds… and also binding him to the sorceress Zahna.
Escaping the living death of a monastic prison, Torstag plunges into Zahna’s life and death struggle with a particularly creepy Dark Lord.
Now there are bounty hunters and minions to defeat, insanely dangerous dungeons to delve, new cultures to negotiate, and Torstag badly needs to level up.
How much should he let the dead tell him what to do?
A LitRPG read from Level Up.
Will Ranulph and Maud recover the magic of the ancients?
How will the love triangle resolve?
Find out in the apocalyptic final instalment of Swords Versus Tanks!
Ranulph must face off against Clifford in a lethal longsword duel. Jasmine must deal with the party hacks who've taken over her army. In both cases, the results won't be pretty.
Meanwhile, the dashing biker Tom Fenland must rescue King Edward from certain death. Will their blossoming romance plunge them into further trouble?
Read Episode 4 of SWORDS VERSUS TANKS and find out!
Can Jasmine, his unwilling pilot, resist the physical charms of her hero and survive an encounter with the murderous but beautiful priestess Wisdom-at-Night?
When everything goes wrong, will the shieldwall hold long enough for Jasmine to come to the rescue? Will she want to?
Meanwhile, back in Westerland, can Tom woo the captive King Edward and protect him from Smith and Postmaster General Hamilton, without losing everything in the process?
Find out in Episode 3 of SWORDS VERSUS TANKS!
In the company of a not-entirely-stable sorceress, Sir Ranulph seeks more powerful magic in the Rune Isles.
However, Colonel Jasmine Klimt takes ship on a priest-blessed Zeppelin, part of an expedition to the same destination!
What will happen when they all meet?
And, if it comes to a fight, which will prevail: magic and cold steel, or religion and technology?
Find out in Episode 2 of SWORDS VERSUS TANKS!
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