BOOKS

Created in 1978 in a short story titled 'A Night of Dark Death', Jacquelyne Van Dyne, Dark Slayer, has appeared in many college, university and comic based fanzines over the years as posters and in comic strip and story formats. Her first commercially published book was released in February 2006 published by DSC Publications.

Although a number of stories already existed about Dark Slayer the first story published commercially, The Coming of The Slayer, Book One of The Mystic Queen, is strictly the third adventure of our Heroine.

The reasons for starting the publishing at that book are many and various but in simple terms when the decison was made in 2005 to go into commercial publishing this was the book that set the scene for everything that Jacquelyne Van Dyne, The Dark Slayer is and, therefore, it seemed the best one to start with.

'A Night of Dark Death' is the first story and first saw print in 1979 in a college magazine which is its only publication to date. It is the story that tells of Jaq's revenge on the men that killed her family. At the conclusion of the story she is shocked about what she has done, what she was capable of, and vows never to use her skills in such a way again.

At the time the first story was written in 1978 and the initial concept of the character was almost as a sword wielding superhero. Fortunately she quickly evolved from that idea to become a character that the readers of J.R.R Tolkien, Robert E Howard's Conan and Burroughs Warlord of Mars among many others will find enjoyment of.

The follow up book, 'The Mystic', is set in 1983, a time when Jaq has long forgotten her past and is happy to live a normal life. This book was actually written in 1983 and, for the purists out there contains the actual weather at the time.

'The Mystic' will be published in April 2008 by DSC Publications but, prior to that, had never seen formal print. It has been read by a privileged few who have seen the one copy printed for binding in 1990.

A synopsis of 'The Mystic' is available on this site [Click 'The Mystic' link].

And so the third story in sequence is the first to see print, 'The Mystic Queen', a story started in 1978 and then spent the next 25 years, one way or another, being completed.

The story of The Mystic Queen is an epic that runs in the region of 850 000 words across six parts. Part one is titled 'The Coming of the Slayer' and is 142 000 words in length. A synopsis and some extracts are available on this site.

To read the rest - buy the books!