Fifteen – The Great Cleansing
Although regular health elixirs could heal even the most debilitating physical injuries, they did shit-all to fix aliments or long-term afflictions from Mana-based attacks. I’d learned that lesson on the second floor after contracting Sludge Lung. Jakob always traveled with a small pharmacy of advanced elixirs and curatives, but ...
2024-04-03 01:36:29 +0000 UTC View PostHey, folks!
Sorry it's been a little quite around here lately. Con season has started and things always get a little hectic. A couple of weeks ago we were manning a booth and selling books at Lexington ComicCon, and then we had a very short reprieve before GaryCon, in Lake Geneva, which happened last week/weekend.
Both were awesome, though GaryCon was amazing. I did a cou...
2024-04-01 19:34:33 +0000 UTC View PostHey, y'all! Hope you enjoy the chapter. FYI, I ended up rewriting this because the original monster was WAY more disgusting. So disgusting, in fact, that some of my early reader were offended and told me it was "too far even for the Backrooms." Eventually, we compromised with the current version. If you really want to see the OG monster description, though, I added it at the bottom of t...
2024-03-14 20:58:47 +0000 UTC View PostThirteen – Sacred Laundry Mat
“That was not nearly as fun as the slides in the Jungle Gym Jamboree,” Croc grumbled as we wrenched Jakob free from the laundry chute, which had ushered us from the bleak maintenance corridors to… somewhere else.
The metal slide had been a tight squeeze, barely large enough to accommodate my broad shoulders, and had bee...
2024-03-12 21:00:09 +0000 UTC View Post
Hey, everyone. James here. I've been playing around with audio narration a little and thought I'd practice with Discount Dan. Very doubtful that I will actually narrate the audiobook, but I might read the whole thing and post it here -- assuming that's something y'all would enjoy.
This is my first serious stab at audio narration, so please let me know what you think and what I can improve...
2024-03-04 02:48:42 +0000 UTC View PostAnd now everything is fine once again and we are 100% back on track! This is old material with only very minor changes.
Twelve – Maintenance Corridors
“One more on your left,” Jakob called out, his voice lazy. Almost bored.
I pivoted at the hips, raised one hand, and fired off a javelin of stone that skewered the last of the Baggage Hand...
2024-03-01 21:10:27 +0000 UTC View PostOkay, folks! Now we are back on track. This is Jakob's backstory, now as a stand alone chapter. I had to tweak the opening paragraph just a bit, but this chapter is mostly unchanged.
Eleven – Berliner Backstory
After eight or nine hours of shuteye followed by a couple of hot pockets to start the day off right, Jakob, Croc, and I were back at it, f...
2024-03-01 21:04:26 +0000 UTC View PostThis is ALL NEW Material as well.
Ten – Upgrades
Before the monster could decapitate me, Croc came roaring out of the master suite and pulled an epic Uno Reverse, decapitating it first.
One moment I was watching the yawning jaws of inevitable and certain death approach, and the next the creature’s whole head disappeared down the maw ...
2024-03-01 21:02:31 +0000 UTC View PostHey y'all, James Hunter here with a small update. So after reading some comments from folks asking why Dan didn't just snag a fancy hotel room with a shower, I decided that, logically, that probably is indeed something Dan should've done. So then I had to go back and add him getting a room, which was supposed to be a small, quick, tiny little e...
2024-03-01 21:00:36 +0000 UTC View PostEight – Magical Munitions
Engraver awl firmly in hand, I oh-so-carefully carved the twisting, hook-shaped rune directly into the white linoleum of the Home Décor aisle. As I finished, the Rune sank into the floor, disappearing to Croc, but remaining semi-visible to me. The fresh sigil was ghostly in appearance and glistened with a watery opal light. I tossed a pillow o...
2024-02-20 22:07:47 +0000 UTC View PostWell, y’all. I messed up. Because I’m a classed as a Pen Monkey and not a Math Wizard, I made a mistake. Apparently I can’t count to 10. As one reader pointed out, there are only 10 Titles listed in his SBR, and I was like “No… No, that can’t be right! Surely I can handle numbers that go up to 11!” But, nope, I was wrong. Oh so wrong. It seems I forgot that at the end of ...
2024-02-16 14:58:19 +0000 UTC View PostSix – A Little Favor
I was still lost in thought when Temperance finally shepherded us out of the sprawling labyrinth and right to the doorstep of the Muzzle and Mast. With a name like Ajax, I’d half-expected the place to resemble a Thunderdome-esque murder arena, where post-apocalyptic warriors battled each other for sport in front of a cheering crowd of blo...
2024-02-08 21:48:04 +0000 UTC View PostFive – Howlers Hold
“Jesus, Mary, and Joseph,” I muttered in shock as Wraith escorted me and my teammates through a set of reinforced steel gates and into Howlers Hold, which sat in the belly of an enormous indoor sports complex and gymnasium.
We strode into a broad courtyard hemmed in by stacks of towering shipping containers, which had been converted into ap...
2024-02-05 20:44:24 +0000 UTC View PostFour – Wraith’s Invitation
Even though I’d mentally prepared myself for just about anything this place could throw at me, Wraith still caught me off guard. Quite impressive, considering I’d literally just murdered a giant hermit crab using a mall kiosk as a shell. At this point, I was convinced nothing could surprise me anymore, yet somehow the Backrooms still had...
2024-02-01 19:31:55 +0000 UTC View PostThree – Franchise Opportunity
It took me and Croc most of an hour to loot the corpses, sort through the various Shards and Relics, and harvest the salvageable body parts. That last bit was the worst by far and made me feel like a ghoul. Still, as incredibly distastefulas my new ability was, it was too powerful to ignore. I could summon two Taxidermied Horrors f...
2024-01-29 16:58:55 +0000 UTC View PostTwo – Kiosk Krab
The kiosk crab scuttled toward us with a warbling screech, lashing out with a pair of enormous claws big enough to cut me in two.
Synthia 2.0’s chainsaw hand screamed as she charged with no regard for her own safety. A pincher darted toward her, but she was surprisingly nimble, and ducked the attack, before laying into one of the crab’s legs w...
2024-01-24 22:19:06 +0000 UTC View PostHey everyone, along with fancy new cover art, I also have fancy new opening chapters for Kiosk Kingdom. This is wildly different than my last attempt at book 2 and although it was a ton of work, I am WAYYYYY happier with how things have turned out. Go into it cold, and please let me know what you think in the comments!
One – Franchise Opportunit...
2024-01-22 22:00:46 +0000 UTC View Post
Hey everyone. First off, got some art to show y'all! Here is the final cover for Discount Dan 2 - Kiosk Kingdom. You'll notice I made some changes, including the addition of a new hydra head. Behold, Steamboat Willie, who (as of January 1st, 2024) is totally in the Public Domain. Is this a wild, reckless gamble that might come back to bite me in the ass? Yes. Maybe. Probably. But the cover is w...
2024-01-22 21:56:24 +0000 UTC View PostThis is the new material and the final chapter of the book. I feel like this is a better and more natural ending point for book 1 and gives me better starting options for book 2. Please let me know what you think!
Fifty-Six – Beer and Pizza
Prizes in hand, and exhausted to the bone, the four of us slowly navigated our way out of the colossal loot ...
2024-01-09 15:51:52 +0000 UTC View PostWhat's New: The final battle with Frank plays out the same way as the original, but the ending is significantly expanded and Dan and the others divvy up the loot straight away.
Fifty-Five – Just Rewards
As the die-cast Hot Wheels entered Frank’s gaping maw I yelled, “It’s Cruising Time, you no good monkey fucker!” and the car enlarged to i...
2024-01-09 15:45:38 +0000 UTC View PostFifty-Four – Choke on This
A lashing tail wrapped around my throat like a garrote, cutting off my already dwindling air supply. Seconds later, a decapitated monkey head rolled across the floor and latched onto my right bicep while another head bit down on my calf.
I struggled to get up. To pry the grasping limbs from my body. They were strong and surprisingly nimb...
2024-01-09 15:43:58 +0000 UTC View PostHey y'all! I wanted to thank everyone for taking a look at the first few chapters of the second instalment. After sifting through all the feedback, I've decided to go back and do a little doctoring/rewriting.
I don't plan to scrape the Howler ARC--I still think it's sold--but there are other changes that will make the book stronger overall. Most notably, I need to tweak the ending of book...
2024-01-08 20:57:13 +0000 UTC View Post
Hey everyone! Hope y'all have a Merry Christmas or, if you don't celebrate any particular tradition, a great Holiday in general. We're with my Mother in Law currently, helping to unpack her house after the big move, but we'll be driving back to Kentucky early tomorrow morning. It's been a good trip, though a busy one. Haven't managed to get much writing done, but I DID get this amazing rough ar...
2023-12-22 21:32:05 +0000 UTC View PostFifty-Three – Revenge of the Frank
I whistled through my teeth.
Huh, that had worked much better than I’d anticipated. Honestly, I’d seen some pretty gnarly explosions both during my time in Iraq and on demo sites, scattered across the greater Kentuckian planes, but this… This was on a whole different level.
The two monkey-filled purple barrels that Fr...
2023-12-05 20:23:28 +0000 UTC View PostFifty-Two – Barrels of Fun
I aimed my hand like a finger gun and unleashed a jet of water, blowing the purple minion barrel to pieces. In the same instant, I cut the flows of Telekinetic energy to my screwdriver and reactivated the spell, reaching outward toward the green barrel with an invisible limb of mental might. I’d practiced this same maneuver with my hammer a ...
2023-11-22 18:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostHey everyone, here is the link for the Wasteland Warlords 1 - Advanced Reader Copies! Just click there to download a free copy to your preferred reading device, courtesy of Bookfunnel. If you enjoy the story and want to support me further, please consider going to Amazon, Goodreaders, or both and leaving a short,...
2023-11-20 22:08:19 +0000 UTC View Post
Hey everyone, James here. Really excited to say that Wasteland Warlords Volume 1 is out on Amazon tomorrow, both in ebook and in audio! I'll be doing a separate post for all those Patrons at the $5 tier or higher with a bookfunnel link, so you can grab the book on the house.
Now, because this is a novella le...
2023-11-20 21:38:05 +0000 UTC View PostFifty-One – Monkey Business
“Hey,” Croc said from beside me, “Funtime Frank’s a Gorilla.”
Funtime Frank was indeed a gorilla.
Or at least, predominately gorilla shape. Frank was covered in grimy black fur, speckled with silver, and had beady, deep-set eyes that burned like hot coals. He was easily eight feet tall, four feet across the shoulders, an...
2023-11-20 18:31:18 +0000 UTC View PostFifty-One – Monkey Business
“Hey,” Croc said from beside me, “Funtime Frank’s a Gorilla.”
Funtime Frank was indeed a gorilla.
Or at least, predominately gorilla shape. Frank was covered in grimy black fur, speckled with silver, and had beady, deep-set eyes that burned like hot coals. He was easily eight feet tall, four feet across the shoulders, an...
2023-11-16 19:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostHey everyone, James here. Just wanted to say sorry for the lack of posts the past week or two. We had a big Publisher's convention in Vegas and it just sucked up like 1,000% of my brain power. But, I'm back home, my brain is functioning once again, and I've got more chapters dropping. Hope you enjoy!
Forty-Nine – Mana Hack
Instead of beelini...
2023-11-14 21:45:05 +0000 UTC View Post