I've been working on a short Christmas story I owe my publisher, the esteemed Chrishaun Keller-Hanna, and live-streaming the writing process while I talk about pets, writing, and story craft. Come and see me on Twitch if you'd like to join.
I have only just started on Twitch, but Patreon subscribers will end up with some special perks going forward.
There will be a stream mo...
“You’ve been king less than a week. The courtly intrigue has to be in full swing.”
“It is, and I expect the Voivodes to test my patience in all sorts of ways. Fortunately, all but one of them is pleased to see me on the throne,” Ignas replied. “Andrik had minority support. Unfortunately, one of his staunch allies is one of the most powerful Count...
2018-10-16 22:16:45 +0000 UTC View Post
OMG you guys! Murder of Crows earned me my first bestseller tag on Amazon!
2018-09-15 21:52:10 +0000 UTC View Post
My artist fucking hit it out of the park with this one - here's the cover for Kingdom Come, ArchOn Book #3!
I'm working on this book as fast as I can, I swear.
Karalti's starting to look like a real dragon!
Click the link to download your copy of my newest title, Murder of Crows, which is free for all subscribing patrons. The link contains a ZIP folder with the Kindle and ePub versions of th...
2018-09-08 05:51:32 +0000 UTC View PostRin had picked herself up by the time we joined her outside, hopping from foot to foot in agitation. On seeing her, my irritation faded. Staying angry at Rin was like trying to stay angry at a little gray kitten for doing kitten shit. Like most Mercurions, Rin was an unearthly work of art. Big blue-on-blue eyes, an open, expressive face, a bob of translucent glassy hair, up-tilted nose and a slim,...
2018-09-07 12:54:04 +0000 UTC View Post
The Meewfolk of Archemi Online have a strong warrior tradition.
In their highly sex-segregated society, both men and women learn how to fight with different martial styles. Male Meewfolk are generally trained in mounted combat, spear fighting, and regimented military tactics. Almost all female Meewfolk warriors are temple-trained, where they learn to fight with two swords and their clawed hind f...
2018-08-31 11:06:55 +0000 UTC View Post
Each one of these symbols - used on the maps to delineate regions on the regional map of Artana - belongs to one of the major nations within those regions.
From top left to bottom right:
Finally - here we have a clear map of Artana, with all the major Archemi Online story locations (thus far) marked in.
Artana is the smaller of the two major continents of Archemi, with a diverse 'corridor' of climates. It is still very large, with weather ranging from Arctic (the north of the Jeun Empire and Okineva) to arid (the Shalid) and tropical (Meewhome).
Both of Archem...
2018-08-30 07:38:03 +0000 UTC View PostSometimes, you're just wrong. I have been troubled by my draft of the first chapters of Kingdom Come since I wrote them, and finally realized they're simply not up to scratch. Too cerebral, too... slow.
So I am scrapping them and starting over. The good parts will end up in other places in the book. The rest, I will archive (I don't delete my stuff).
This is part of the creative proc...
2018-08-21 15:29:38 +0000 UTC View PostWork on Archemi Online Book #3, Kingdom Come, is now in full swing, and you guys are the first to be able to read and comment!
I've put the chapters in a Google Doc so you can add comments on the text, and would really appreciate your feedback.
You can view the chapters here: 2018-08-18 08:24:45 +0000 UTC View Post
Lucien stepped around the side of his dragon’s neck, leaning out to grin down at us from above. “Well, this is quite the reception, isn’t it? How nice to see you again, Hector.”
“Hey, man. Seems like some congratulations are in order.” I fixed a beaming smile on my face and stood up on Karalti’s back, resting my spear over my shoulders. “You managed to pull your tong...
2018-08-14 11:28:43 +0000 UTC View Post
Instead of yellow police tape, the luxurious lobby of Pacific Heights was festooned in shimenawa, the sacred rice straw rope used by Japanese Shinto priests to mark out and purify contaminated ground. White strips of zig-zag paper - shide - hung from the rope at intervals, fluttering in an unseen breeze. There were no cops in here - there was ...
2018-08-04 05:23:07 +0000 UTC View PostHere is the first peek at the WIP cover art for Kingdom Come. And yes, that castle in the background is relevant.
I’d just received the biggest paycheck of my life, and by Odin’s missing eye, I was terrified.
The funds had appeared in my account at the stroke of midnight, and I gazed at the bank balance on my computer screen with that deer-in-the-headlights expression most people reserve for train crashes and terrorist events. First came the reality chec...
2018-08-02 20:09:58 +0000 UTC View Post
It's been a long, LONG time since I did any art, but the mood struck tonight.
Getting into a character's head properly generally requires me needing to draw them myself. This is the main character I've been writing for Chrishaun Keller Hanna's collaborative world, the Shaman States of America. Liz Fox - the monster hunter and mage otherwise known as Sangríðr.
Liz is half Nor...
2018-07-23 17:46:19 +0000 UTC View Post<Monster hunter Elizabeth Fox and team are assisting SWAT in arresting a Mexican Cartel middleman in his home. They hear a scream, and go down to the basement...>
The room was the size of a typical office or study. There was no ceiling, only a mess of pipes. Every wall had shelves, and every shelf flickered with hundreds of candles in glass jars. Each one of the jars had a di...
If there's one thing a Cellular Scout never wants to hear in an underwater settlement, it's nothing. Silence.
Arcologies are biospheres: frontier communities built on alien worlds for research or settlement. Sometimes they’re on land, sometimes they’re underwater, but they’re always super noisy. Arcos hum with the sounds of living things, machines, air-conditioning, water recyclers,...
2018-07-20 08:54:06 +0000 UTC View PostHere's a list of what I'm currently working on, in order of production:
- Murder of Crows (Shaman States Book 1): Urban Fantasy starring a viking sorceress who hunts monsters. I have a contract with LMBPN Press, who also publishes the Kurtherian Gambit and other runaway bestsellers.
- Kingdom Come (Archemi Online #3): This is being developed and game-tested while I write MoC, with swift ex...
2018-07-15 23:16:10 +0000 UTC View Post
God, my cover artist is amazing.
This is the cover for Ghosts of the Past, the upcoming (free~!) novella that tells the story of how Baldr becomes the Warden of Ilia and Commander of the Order of St. Grigori... in two weeks.
Hector has his work cut out for him with this guy.
Story writing has been slow due to the homelessness issue, but we are moving to a new place soon and I'll be b...
2018-07-06 05:39:32 +0000 UTC View PostThis is just a quick update to explain my lack of... well... updates.
A couple of weeks ago, my wife and I were suddenly evicted from our home over a rose bush, of all things. The short version is that my wife cut it down, our landlord didn't like that very much, and rather than talk about our gardening choices, he threw us out. This has been made much more difficult by the fact he was a lo...
For your viewing pleasure, I'm posting the super-rough first draft of the first chapter of Archemi #3, Kingdom Come. No editing, no nothing. This draft is subject to massive changes... consider it a sketch.
To be honest with you all, I lost my home a couple of days ago. I'm not going into why or how here, but it's been brutal. Still, I'm writing. Me and my wife are with friends and will be ...
Their love is so pure <3
You guys are the first to see this. This amazing artwork will soon be available on stuff!
2018-06-15 18:46:00 +0000 UTC View Post
You may have noticed that I stopped posting chapters here for a while. There are two reasons for that - first, I was finishing this book and trying not to have a breakdown, and second, I was compiling it into an ARC (Advanced Reading Copy) for all you lovely patrons!
To thank you for your patronage of me, I would like to give you the complete book at no charge. You can download it here: 2018-05-15 22:30:25 +0000 UTC View Post
“His name was Michael Pratt.” Rin was sitting beside a work table, her head resting in one of her slim silver hands. Under light, she wasn’t just adorable – she was gorgeous, a living sculpture with opalescent color dancing through her Valkyrie-like ear wings, her translucent hair, and over her lips and nails. “Ororgael was his gamer handle. Your brother would have known him… ...
2018-04-27 01:03:43 +0000 UTC View Post
“A Dev?” I didn’t drop the Spear point. “Guess that explains the gold ring.”
Rin pressed her lips together in a thin line and nodded, glancing nervously at the blood leaking down my arm. “Th-This doesn’t look very good, does it?”
“No, it really doesn’t.”
“I’m sorry... but I have a quest too.” The girl looked away from me, clutching her arm wit...
2018-04-27 01:02:38 +0000 UTC View Post
“Hold it right there, asshole!” I barked, running straight after him.
The Slayer didn’t hold anything. He barreled through the window with inhuman agility and confidence, leaping across the alley below and onto the next roof. Without slowing, he hit the tiles with a crunch, sending broken ceramic skittering to the street three stories below, and kept right on running.
Pu...
2018-04-27 01:02:05 +0000 UTC View Post
The clockwork bug Karalti held in her mouth looked something like a tarantula with a round speaker device embedded on its back. It was about the size of a large mouse, stamping and kicking with eight needle sharp legs. Karalti pranced up with it, and was about to offer it to me when it managed to jam one of its feet into her tongue. She squealed and tossed it down onto the floor, where it...
2018-04-27 01:01:19 +0000 UTC View Post
“Orban was still young. A true prodigy.” High Priest Agoston Toth was just about the least priestly-looking man I’d ever seen. Tall, wide, with a broad heavy face, a neck like a bull, and hams for fists, he seemed to take up most of the room. The small parlor where he had received us was off-side the main cathedral. It had bookshelves and plants, a jug of wine, and murals of dragons...
2018-04-27 01:00:51 +0000 UTC View Post
I’d never actually spoken to an Australian before, short of screaming ‘DIE YOU ROO-FUCKING SCUM!’ while we rained machine gun fire down on each other in the jungles of the Crescent Front. I’d been a conscript for Team USA. Australia had been part of the Pacific Alliance. We’d killed each other a lot.
“I’d like to establish something before we go any further, alright? I...
2018-04-27 01:00:05 +0000 UTC View Post