Fevers, The Laundry, A Devil: A Ruga Rato Story

I think Brion Gysin had the right idea when he said that writing was 50 years behind painting. It sure felt like it took that long to write this one, albeit it's only about one tenth the length of Princess Discipline (and don't worry, this one isn't porn). Anyway, this marks the first proper appearance of Ruga Rato, a female tiefling thief I came up with for D&D, or whatever other campaign I settle on (I haven't rolled her stats yet). I've got a few notes as to her character brief, but I think a more piecemeal approach is better. See, I like epistolary literature, especially for a roleplay setting. However, one of the problems with the medium is that your characters all have to basically be closet wordsmiths. Ruga, meanwhile, has lived almost completely on her own in a town that practically left her to die, and can barely read and write. In other words, she's probably the worst person to tell her own story (though we'll hear from her more directly in another story), which reminded me of something. To put Ruga's character in analogous terms, she's what would happen if Rin from Inuyasha became Batman... and looked like Hellboy. Focusing on the Batman aspect, many of the best stories of the caped crusader's are the ones that aren't about him directly, but people who've witnessed his exploits, either firsthand or from hearsay. If you've ever seen the Bruce Timm series or Batman: Gotham Knights, you've seen this approach in action, and I think you'll agree it's very effective.

The artwork, I'll admit, isn't very good. It's a bit rushed as I'm transitioning to a new computer, and haven't quite settled in yet. I wasn't even sure how to upload this. Initially, I was going to post it as plain text here and a PDF download on Lulu for the price of "This one's on me." I'll post a journal soon about my self-publishing experiences, and what to expect in the future. As for Lulu, I'll get back to you on that as right now it's giving me grief with the cover illustration.

Last thing: I kinda rushed through proofreading (it's been an aggravating night for reasons apart from this book, but I didn't feel like putting this off), so if you see some glaring typo, feel free to let me know. Just do so in a note so that when I upload a revised version, your comment doesn't make you look the fool