With the arrival of the reinforcements, space in Koronya was suddenly at a premium. Karalti, Suri and I got a single room to share in one of the towers. It was a bare stone hexagon with two stone beds, shutters that whistled when the wind blew, and a fireplace full of dirt and moss. The reeds on the floor were damp, the bedding musty and worn.
“Home sweet home.” I p...
2019-03-31 04:55:36 +0000 UTC View Post
The War Room at Korona was nothing like the palatial digs at Vulkan Keep. There were no fancy maps or mahogany furniture here: just chickens in the hallway outside, old boot-trodden reeds on the floor, and large solid wooden table covered in a messy jumble of maps, markers, notes, bottles and wooden cups. The cup nearest me smelled like fermenting fruit juice. There were a co...
2019-03-27 06:29:48 +0000 UTC View PostHi everyone - updates on KC are paused while I edit and work up the next batch of chapters. That shouldn't take too long to do - I will resume posting later in the week.
Last night was kind of scary. I was just finishing up writing a key boss-fight scene, complete with an ongoing tally of HP/abilities/etc, and was literally clicking the Save icon when my computer shut down due to a...
Lord Soma held his breath, taking a single step back, while Istvan cried out and nearly bolted. The nervous crowd of soldiers scattered with him as the light faded, a collective gasp went up around us.
My jaw dropped.
In human form, Karalti was small, lean and athletic, like a dancer or a gymnast: a balanced, compact ribbon of muscle and soft curves. Her skin was ...
2019-03-23 19:14:42 +0000 UTC View PostAs they emerged into the sight of the palace, Baldr frowned. He held a hand up.
“What?” Lucien pulled up beside him on his hookwing.
“Something’s not right.” Scowling, Baldr glanced over the doomed palace. Like a chandelier that fallen from the ceiling, it had pancaked and shattered in concentric rings. His eyes roamed the crooked ruins of towers, the blast zone of the cas...
2019-03-20 20:30:12 +0000 UTC View Post
When it came to reacting to accidents, years of stunt work had given me blood like ice-water. The fallen Kalxat’s talon had snagged on some part of my gear, and its dead weight was pulling us out of the sky. The solution was simple: unequip my armor.
With the wind tearing at my everything, I navigated telepathically to the equipment menu and unequipped the lot. Once I...
2019-03-20 04:21:05 +0000 UTC View PostHey guys - I revised Ch 11 while I was on vacation. Do you want to see it now, or wait for the book?
2019-03-18 22:15:51 +0000 UTC View Post
There were three main factors in aerial combat that made it radically different to ground combat: gravity, velocity and altitude. It was a bit like rock-paper-scissors. Gaining altitude meant sacrificing velocity, but having altitude gave you some key advantages. For one thing, your pointy-stabby bits – spear, dragon claws, etcetera – faced down toward the enemy when you ...
2019-03-16 16:00:02 +0000 UTC View Post
Four days later, we glimpsed Myszno for the first time.
Behind us was some of the most beautiful scenery I’d ever seen in my life. We crossed the Sathbar Plains, an endless sea of grass and soaring blue skies, sandstorms and stampedes. At the edge of the province, the Western Tashkar Range reared up over the flat grasslands like towering sentinels. The black mossy mou...
2019-03-14 16:00:02 +0000 UTC View Post
Fortunately for me, I’d been leveling Acrobatics pretty hard. With Leap of Faith kicking in, I had three seconds of time dilation to line up. I hit the ground like a parkour master: knees soft, hands down, then a high-speed roll over the shoulder. I tumbled a few more times than I expected, but carried it through to an awkward superhero crouch not too far from Ignas. His qu...
2019-03-12 23:01:23 +0000 UTC View Post
The gravity of the Volod’s words hung over us as we walked back to my rooms.
“So, what d’ya think?” Suri asked, as I unlocked the door. “About becoming landed gentry together?”
“The heart says yes. The brain says ‘woah dude, what the hell are you thinking?’” I shook my head and held the door for her. Suri strode in, while I hung my pack and wea...
2019-03-10 03:00:00 +0000 UTC View PostFrom the 10th to the 17th of March, I will be on vacation - sort of. It's a writer's retreat, so I will still be working on the book. However, I will not be able to reply to comments or emails.
I've auto-scheduled chapters of KC up to Ch 12, and will resume posting manually once I'm back from my camping trip.
I woke up to a solid pounding. On the door to my suite, that is.
“Hector!” Suri was on the other side, beating the door hard enough to rattle the solid oak in its frame. “Wake up, lover boy! It’s time to go see the King!”
I whined wordlessly. “I don’t wanna see the King.”
“Well, too bad! Are you okay in there?”
“Uhhh…” I was f...
2019-03-07 02:39:23 +0000 UTC View Post
My first stop after the hospital was the Keep’s Outer Gate, where the Castellan lived and worked. He was happy to hear about the dead Glacier Toads. I got my EXP and gold, which I handed back. I told him to donate the 300 gold olbia to the families of the guards who had been lost during the battle between Andrik and Ignas. Because I gave the money back, I got Renown instead...
2019-03-04 22:53:36 +0000 UTC View Post
A powerful wave of dizziness swept over me, and then a sense of warm fullness began to push behind my eyes and against my temples from the inside. It wasn't painful, but it was definitely not comfortable... though it was kind of awesome, too, because I literally felt my mind begin to recall words I'd heard and make connections between them and the things they referred to. The...
2019-03-01 22:33:37 +0000 UTC View PostFor those of you waiting on signed books: Amazon has shipped the new and improved paperbacks and they're on their way to me, scheduled to arrive on March 1st. As soon as they're signed, I'll ship them - so hopefully you'll recieve them in the first or second week of March.
Also, I have a question for you all regarding Kingdom Come: In Chapter 5, Hector refuses Suri's offer of a date...
2019-02-28 05:49:26 +0000 UTC View Post
Suri, Rin and I all breathed a sigh of relief once we were out of the War Room and back out under a blissfully dragon-free sky. When I touched Karalti’s mind, I got a flash of her predatory concentration. She was hunting.
“Welp. Our trip to Myszno’s looking kind of grim, isn’t it?” I remarked aloud.
“Yeah.” Suri ran her fingers through her hair, ches...
2019-02-28 01:32:00 +0000 UTC View Post
About ten minutes later, the five of us – me, Suri, Rin, Ebisa and Ignas – were gathered around a great mahogany table in the Royal War Room. The room was still laid out for the meeting he’d had with his advisors earlier in the day, and there were two maps to consider. The first was a huge seven-by-nine-foot map of Vlachia, which hung on the far wall behind Ignas’ roy...
2019-02-24 22:29:42 +0000 UTC View PostVioletta shoved Rutha forward. The unconscious woman tumbled over the blue dragon’s frosted scales, slid off his shoulder, and plummeted bonelessly toward the ground.
“Stay back!” I snapped at Karalti and sprung from her back like a cricket.
At the peak of the Jump, I triggered Shadow Dance. The two maneuvers could be chained together like a ghetto airdash. I vanished in a swi...
2019-02-22 13:23:45 +0000 UTC View Post
We heard the unearthly, bone-rattling shrieks from half a mile away, and as soon as we came within range of Vulkan Keep, we saw them. The pair of dragons – one white, one blue – were easily three times Karalti’s size. They wheeled in the sky high above Taltos, large enough to block the sun. As we crept our way along the mountainside, the blue dragon split the air with a...
2019-02-20 15:48:42 +0000 UTC View PostAfter 35 hours of work and something like 20 revisions, the new improved Dragon Seed and Trial by Fire paperbacks are ready to go.
One of the big events in Authorland this year was the closure of Createspace, which was typically where indies published their paperbacks. It was replaced by an Amazon KDP paperback publishing system integrated with the ebook platform we all use and are famili...
2019-02-20 02:59:38 +0000 UTC View PostIt's been a slog, but KC is finally at the point where I feel confident to begin posting. Updates every other day until I run out of material :)
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It was a beautiful, crisp Fall morning in Vlachia. The sun was shining, the birds were singing, and I was plummeting out of the sky on the back ...
2019-02-19 20:05:57 +0000 UTC View Post
Tomorrow night, join me for an early-evening story session where I read out (and probably edit) Chapter One of Kingdom Come. Snippet readouts will be done by request!
2019-02-05 17:52:04 +0000 UTC View PostWARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD
If you haven't read any of the draft chapters for this book, the following snippet may contain minor spoilers.
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When the Mercurion was back inside the Keep and we were alone, I spun Suri around and dipped her down. She laughed, and when she came up, she looped strong arms around my neck and looked up at me. “Hi.”
“H...
2019-01-25 00:22:43 +0000 UTC View Post Here's a special behind-the-scenes worldbuilding entry, just for Patreons:
Everyone has an opinion about the Prrupt'meew, the Cat Folk, but few Humans know them - at least on Artana. They are Archemi's oldest sentient species, the only major civilization to have survived intact through the reign of the dr...
2019-01-15 04:52:36 +0000 UTC View PostWorking my butt off on Kingdom Come. Here's some of the meta-mythos:
“Once long ago, the Solonkratsu were a learned and skillful people who built great palaces and cities across the world. The greatest of the queens was here, in Vlachia. As it is with all queens, she had one name before her first successful maiden flight, and one name for after. Her maiden title was Lahati the Whi...
2019-01-05 21:33:18 +0000 UTC View Post
I make one of these for every book. Once this baby is finished, the real writing begins.
Tonight, I am working on the third Archemi Online book, Kingdom Come, live on Twitch. If you'd like to hang out, ask questions, and listen to some great videogame tracks from Megaman, Chrono Trigger, RUINER and some other excellent and inspiring retro (or retro-style) games, click on the link below and follow my channel!
It's Kingdom Come all day every day until Archemi #3 is finish...
2018-12-09 04:53:52 +0000 UTC View Post
Finally, after many months of hard work, it's almost here!
You guys are the first to hear the dulcet tones of Justin Thomas James, Jeff Hays and Laurie Winkel narrate Dragon Seed. The Soundbooth Theater team did an incredible job, and I'm really excited to be able to share this with you guys. They composed music and everything!
