For the second time this year, I found myself in the belly of a beast. I must be a nice snack.
Richard was still out cold, which was concerning as fish ribs poked at me.
The rope caught my foot, and my team and the fish pulled against each other. Then, my lifeline tether snapped on a tooth the tug-of-war battle having sawed it in half.
Clutching Richard, I spread out my feet,...
2025-11-16 14:00:09 +0000 UTC
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I fart in your general direction! I anxiously watched as Richard cut around another tall rudist, as he let loose a less powerful sulfurous bomb at his pursuit.
Richard emerged from the cloud of his own stench and rocketed towards the bubble. He flattened his body, undulating wildly with almost thirty feet of bare sand separating him from the relative safety of the shimmering bar...
2025-11-15 14:00:11 +0000 UTC
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"Thank the Everbear those ammonites had fresh air in them." Ash’s muted voice floated through the dream.
"Young lady, we need to talk about what you did." A mildly slurred elderly voice demanded.
Sleep, Cole. Richard's weight rested against my chest. He'd taken to sleeping on me like Rags, the old barn cat. She'd lay on my chest with wheezing purrs, and snaggle toothed bad breath....
2025-11-14 14:00:19 +0000 UTC
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We were counting on the ammonites being a favorite dish of the sea.
Our entire plan hinged on it.
So, it shouldn’t have been terribly surprising when someone noticed that I was rapidly depleting the local population of sea snails. It may have been the twelfth or thirteenth mollusk I'd taken down. Honestly, I wasn't thinking too well after that point. It all gets a little fuzzy aft...
2025-11-13 15:45:49 +0000 UTC
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Alright, I've caved. I'm reading Discount Dan!
I'm not sure why I've resisted, except that I've been recommended it so many times that it triggered a core memory of me refusing to clean my childhood room. I swear I'm not this stubborn in real life.
Anyway - I'll be covering Magelight (I've got Kacey Ezell on the Author's Corner with Reck on @ChattinStats on Thursday Nov 20th), Sys...
2025-11-13 14:56:13 +0000 UTC
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I leaned against the rump of the dead ox, watching the solitary Mosas chew on an ammonite like it was a dog toy. I took a moment to make sure that I was still relatively human. No horns, tails or extra patches of fur. After Ash explained what genetic propagation was referring to, I even checked downstairs. Everything was in proper order.
I wasn't really concerned. The notification didn't ...
2025-11-12 14:00:12 +0000 UTC
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Tonight I'll be live at 8pm EST on @ChattinStats to talk about Ultimate Level 1. Shawn has written 10 books in the last 2 years, and we'll be talking about the series and his process as a writer!
Let me know if you have any questions you want me to ask. Look forward to hanging out with everyone tonight!
2025-11-11 16:36:38 +0000 UTC
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"Are you ready?" Tandy asked with a concerned waver in her voice. I couldn’t help but think of Leo. He would have clapped his hands on my shoulders and growled Are you ready to die?!?!?!!? and then pushed me in.
Tandy looked at me as though I were jumping headfirst into the mouth of a dragon.
I watched the Mosas swim behind Tandy, moving us a couple more feet towards the...
2025-11-11 06:19:31 +0000 UTC
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“We’ve got to try something.” The words hit like a wet blanket, uncomfortable and sticky.
You know what you’ve got to do. [Cheat Death has reset].
“It hasn’t been a day yet,” I muttered, checking my cooldowns only to find that [Cheat Death] was ready to use. “What have you done?” I stared at the slug numbly.
I have skills too. Just giving you a...
2025-11-07 02:22:22 +0000 UTC
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What kind of cosmic mistake is this? A water dungeon in the desert? Of all the sea slug-infested ideas, this is outrageous!
[You have discovered the [Advanced Underwater] dungeon named [Good Luck, Chump] in the Focloric Plains. This dungeon is claimed by [Hesa’s Talon] and designated faction points have been assigned to the [System] Faction. There have been [1] successful attem...
2025-11-02 14:00:15 +0000 UTC
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There used to be a challenge every young teenage boy in Woodsten undertook. Sometime between ten and thirteen, you had to dive into the old well that was used for cattle and swim as deeply as possible. We called it the abyss because it was deep and cold, and once you kicked underwater a few feet, it was dark. I've never been to hell, but I earned my rite of passage by diving into the abyss.
2025-10-31 13:00:20 +0000 UTC
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One of my frequent duties as an assistant chef was to grind up deliveries from the butcher for various meals. I no longer wondered what it felt like to go through a meat grinder. The storm seemed to know I was exposed and sent every nearby leaf and stone at me and the undead ox.
"How are you still alive?" Meredeath asked as I climbed up, now shirtless, with crisscross cuts and scars slowl...
2025-10-29 13:00:12 +0000 UTC
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Blue magic shimmered around me, locking in the black dust as the tree slammed into the side of the carriage. The barrier held, but likely because the majority of the tree had missed.
"Was it aiming for us?" I coughed, not quite understanding what was going on.
It wasn't, but the dungeon was.
The black dust dissipated in the wind.
"The dungeon?" I whispered, look...
2025-10-27 14:33:26 +0000 UTC
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Let me at them! I'll chew their faces off!! I'll slime their mothers! I'll... I'll...
I tuned out Richard. I was too tired to give a shit about his antics. Larri and I had made it to the maganical carriage, but just barely. The man was old and had terrible breath. That was always a sign in our sheep that they probably would not make it through the winter.
<...
2025-10-24 13:00:15 +0000 UTC
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"About fucking time, Argin. Weren't we paying you to keep us safe?" An old man grumbled, he was wrapped in wool even in the heat. His white hair sat like a feathery fringe around the cap covering what was likely a bald top.
"Grandpa, how could they keep us safe from flying debris?" I upped grandpa’s age, since the woman holding him looked older than me. She looked resigned as they huddl...
2025-10-22 18:32:59 +0000 UTC
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I bolted to the next caravan, dodging the carcass of one of the oxen. My feet pounded against the sand in tune with my heartbeat. A pebble hit my shoulder. I tried to stay focused as three leaves splattered into the other ox. It gave a wufflely groan as it died. My heart raced.
A rock flew past my face.
As I slid across the last yard, a leaf hit my back and sliced against my shoulde...
2025-10-21 13:00:17 +0000 UTC
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Just posted Stumbling Up 2's first chapter, "Of all the Leaves." We pick up almost where we left off with [Your Mom's Party]. They're leaving the hunt, in the middle of the desert on the way back to Eddie's Mill when... disaster strikes.
I'm going to minimally keep posting W, F, Sun... but the reality is, I'd like to launch these chapters much quicker - so buckle up, you're going to get t...
2025-10-20 02:02:18 +0000 UTC
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Why do we always have to be the rearguard? I'm tired of eating dust.
I ignored the mouthy slug. He loved the heat. I, however, was covered in dust, and melting in the sun. My [Gelatinous] nature did not stand up to the dry, hot air.
A faint breeze tugged at my head wrap. I lifted my eyes, the sun beat down overhead. The morning breeze had died hours ago, and it was too earl...
2025-10-20 01:54:58 +0000 UTC
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Has it been a week already? It's been a busy couple of weeks for me, with activities ranging from the Newton Library Local Author day to meeting up with three members of the Cornucopia (Christina, Evan, and Lance), and completing a few more books for podcasts. It's been nice, needed.
I own an electric lawn mower these days, it's magic. No more uselessly yanking at the pull chain of a gas ...
2025-10-17 16:01:32 +0000 UTC
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Join Jay and I as we talk about Shattered Smile, the art of Morpheuz, and the rumors that Jay is actually an android. The podcast will be 8pm EST on www.youtube.com/@chattinstats!
2025-10-16 20:49:51 +0000 UTC
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Wow... Book One is now in your Patreon inbox.
It's been a wild ride with Cole, Richard, Tandy, Leo, and Meredeath, hasn't it? I don't think I could have imagined where this book went when I started it. How much Richard would worm his way into everyone's hearts. I've read the ending and tweaked it a dozen times at least, and it's still a gut punch.
When I started out writing this bo...
2025-10-10 15:00:08 +0000 UTC
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Our exit from the Ceaparean Drift was uneventful. No bandits bothered us on the first leg of the caravan.
Tandy and I mourned the breakup of our trio. For all my resolve that my version of an [Adventurer] was right, it still hurt that Leo had turned right when I went left at the fork in the road.
We headed back east. Maybe not to Woodsten, not without Leo. How could we have explaine...
2025-10-10 13:00:07 +0000 UTC
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The water hit hard.
It was a nightmare as the hot water rubbed us against the slot canyon walls like a washboard from hell.
I felt Richard glue himself to my shoulders. I wasn’t afraid of drowning. My [Gills] loved the hot water after days in the desert air. I could breathe, but not much else. My stamina bar was draining dramatically as I tried to fight the current.
...
2025-10-08 13:00:07 +0000 UTC
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Why am I only the ‘boss’ when things are going wrong?
Richard sent me a rudimentary image. I didn’t even know he could do that.
The Legendary Rock Mistress we'd been following joined a whole swarm of butterflies over a crystalline pool. They were beautiful, and exactly what I didn’t want Leo to see.
Shit.
“I’m not sure there’s…” I didn’t want to lie o...
2025-10-05 13:00:11 +0000 UTC
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The journey through the canyon lands was odd. The path wound in and out of different slots, with varying elevations and widths.
Sometimes the canyon walls grew tall and narrowed so much that we had to climb the walls wedged between two faces. Other times, the space between the walls would widen in a bend, frying us in the sun. The ground went from moist to frozen to baked.
Carve-out...
2025-10-03 13:00:16 +0000 UTC
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The slot canyon was unlike any landscape I'd encountered in my twenty-five years. I mean, sure, I’d never been out of the Heltenic Forest, but this was crazy.
We'd been walking on a path in the full sun of the desert, scorched and sunburnt. But here in the canyon, in the shade of its walls, twenty feet below the surface, it was cold. Maybe not cold when compared to an Ursine Wall winter...
2025-10-01 18:02:50 +0000 UTC
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I couldn’t imagine that the giant river Ash and I had fished on ran through such a dry place. As it hit the vast plains, they called it the Tigra, but here, in the canyon lands, they called it the Stonebender.
Back in Woodsten, we couldn't have imagined a river so large. Was this what the Niyat looked like before the cataclysm? People said it was the largest river in the East.
A...
2025-09-28 13:00:12 +0000 UTC
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Hope everyone has a great weekend planned!
I'm headed off this afternoon to Paracon in Caney, KS. I'll be selling books, and listening to ghost stories. Fellow friend and author A.D. Childers will be along with me - if you haven't checked out her books, and like a good mystery, try The Switch Point - a Kansas notable book award winner in 2025! (2025-09-26 16:41:48 +0000 UTC
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Richard moved forward, scrunching down as though stalking prey. I scanned the scene, identifying nothing edible by his standards. Just some dusty sage, red dirt, and a couple of cacti. Nothing vegetative that he preferred.
My yellow companion slowly inched forward, antennae stretched in front of him, as though sniffing the air. Slowly his butt lifted, wiggling like a cat's.
"Are yo...
2025-09-26 16:20:19 +0000 UTC
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"Uh..." I mechanically reeled in the line and looked down at the kid? Man? The guy had an ageless quality about him. He could have been fifty or fifteen. I twitched my wrist, trying to think of something to say.
"Nice cast!" I looked out as Richard spun through the air. I swear I could see the grin on his face from yards away as he flew end over end.
"Thanks. About your question. I'...
2025-09-24 22:55:52 +0000 UTC
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