I kneaded my temples slowly. There was a lot to unpack. No magic towers for the foreseeable future was a loss, but that wasn’t the only sort of artillery available to me. Nor the only sort used during the siege defense at Gradden Marche.
“Ballistae. You had a bunch of Ballistae that you made from scrap. Can we make more of those?”
My Counselors looked at each other in confusion. I wasn’t having it.
“NO! No you don’t! I know ...
2024-09-09 16:00:15 +0000 UTC
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Happy thoughts. Happy thoughts. Powder pink clouds with sparkling lights shining in those fragrant mists. Suggestive, but still safe for broadcast, hints of flesh emerging from the inexplicably dense steam rising up from every water source in frame. Mmm. Gremory. Yes. Highschool DxD generally. Mmmm…
I could feel myself drifting off to that happy, comfortable place known best to the weeb at heart. A safe place, forever welcoming. No death games. No heart shattering horror an...
2024-09-06 16:00:16 +0000 UTC
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The little gnome ducked under the counter with my orders. There was some muffled squeaking, a series of bangs, thumps and whooshes, then she popped up again, looking adorably mussed. Like… very carefully mussed to look adorable. The complicated glasses were tilted at an angle, hair pushed askew, the leather jacket hung on one shoulder, and I would swear someone had painted on dirt. Looked like cosmetics, not like she had been working.
I hate this game. How dare they besmirc...
2024-09-04 16:00:13 +0000 UTC
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The Floating Quarter of Gradden March lay on its funeral pyre, its final burst of light blinding the cowards and traitors who murdered them all those years ago. Hopefully. Maybe. If it really happened. I looked at my summons. At Versai, trying to sort through her own internal bonfire of emotions. At Osain, the greasy merchant, and Jones, the Bowman hero who looked like he was about to die with acceptable regrets. I tried not to look at Madam. I wasn’t ready to accept what had happened to he...
2024-09-02 16:00:14 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 1 rolls out at noon, because I am very creative, yes I am. I will be creating a new collection for it. No new cover as of yet, it's on the to-do list.
2024-09-02 14:16:27 +0000 UTC
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Ever wonder what the Audiobook sounds like? Here is a sample from the opening to Vol. 3. Which is out tomorrow. I hope you give it a try, Todd does an AMAZING job reading Slumrat.
2024-08-26 12:33:24 +0000 UTC
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Short one today-
Weeaboo starts rolling out here on Monday. My membership tiers at this point are a complete mess, but I'm going to do my best to figure out what works with minimal disruption.
For those with good memories, I mentioned that I was dropping the release frequency of Weeaboo to three days a week. I am, however, extending each chapter to 3k words, so that only nets out to ~1,000 words less a week. I am very smart about reducing workload, yes I am. The most smartest who...
2024-08-26 12:30:34 +0000 UTC
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The whole underground basement thing gave me some questions. Like, why did it exist? And why did everything in there seem to assume I’d be camping in the middle of nowhere? I haven’t even looked into most of the boxes, but Box #1, the very first one I was directed to by the tablet, was all camping and survival stuff. But I’m in a park, in a ruined city, with an intact hut. Camping seems dumb, even if I can’t find a toilet and they put the pump outside the hut.
I...
2024-08-26 12:22:17 +0000 UTC
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The sun rose over ruined buildings that were falling apart into dirt. Trees and mushrooms and grass were already growing over most of them. Couple more years, and you wouldn’t know a town had been here at all. Some walls were holding up okay, with murals of the trees and… farms, maybe? Or the Garden of Eden. Smiling people picking fruit.
I looked at the murals a minute longer. People on there were painted all kinds of colors. Reds and blues and pinks and yellows, all fadi...
2024-08-20 20:23:56 +0000 UTC
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I sold meth. I couldn’t stand it at McDonalds any more, so why not sell meth? Everybody’s taking something. Mitzi wasn’t the smartest of my cousins, but she was in good with some guys making crystal and they figured I was reliable enough. It’s who you know, not what you know, you know? And you gotta stand on business, or business is going to stand on you. So I got to work.
I did okay dealing. Better than McDonalds, though not by a lot. I was living with Momma so I did...
2024-08-15 02:34:22 +0000 UTC
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I'm usually a pantser, AKA, I start the story rolling and follow behind it, jotting down notes. BUT. I do like to have some idea about where it's going when I begin. So I have been outlining Weeaboo Vol 2, and scheming.
Contrary to how I originally planned it, I won't be publishing Weeaboo this month. Just seems dumb to clash with Slumrat Vol. 3's release, and Slumrat is coming out in... what, a couple of weeks? A week and a bit? Yeah, not a good plan. So Vol. 2 will drop before Vol. ...
2024-08-13 18:45:20 +0000 UTC
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He was a man with no name. His identity had been carefully excised by means practical and magical. His face shifted and bent thanks to the carefully crafted skin-masks the shadowy Mountain Hermits crafted. He had even cultivated a spell that allowed subtle adjustments to his physique. You could shake hands with him, walk around the corner, and sit down next to him again and happily chat over lunch together without the faintest idea you were talking to the same person.
The man...
2024-08-05 15:56:33 +0000 UTC
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The first chapter of Slumrat Rising posted on Royal Road on March 18 of 2023, or about a year and a quarter ago. Five volumes later, the Slumrat has risen.
There is... so much to unpack. About the story. About what it has meant to me. The difference in mentality that comes with being able to say you are a published author rather than someone who enjoys writing as a hobby or side hustle. About the things I learned researching this book. About so many things.
Part of telling a stor...
2024-07-26 16:39:26 +0000 UTC
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Truth tried to cough politely, but it didn’t seem to work in the void. Now that he wasn’t constantly moving with magic, it seemed that not much did work in the void. There was a distinct lack of air, for one thing. Could he… tap on the storage ring, or something? Maybe wave? He tried to wave. He could feel himself slowly spinning in place. It felt undignified. Worse, the Shattervoid didn’t respond.
We were one-hundred-percent willing to honor the tic...
2024-07-26 16:00:19 +0000 UTC
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Truth respected a well-organized jumping. No sense in fighting one-on-one when you and five of your nearest and dearest gang mates could kill some lost soul from ambush. There was, however, a higher art. One that took you from a nobody to a certified menace. An art completely beyond the sorry and the weak. The legendary art of Reverse Jumping.
Starbrite had most of his soul reserved burned away. He had been ambushed by dozens of the Shattervoid. He knew that Sarie...
2024-07-25 16:00:08 +0000 UTC
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“You are the hero who is saving the world. Do heroes harvest souls? Genuinely asking, I don’t know.” Truth’s mouth had run away from him. His brain could understand why- under the circumstances, none of his body parts wanted anything to do with the rest of him. They were too obsessed with their own pain to worry about the pain of others.
Starbrite nodded, a ‘cheerful’ smile on his face as he reached down and snapped Truth’s pinky finger. The bone shattered, and ...
2024-07-24 16:00:17 +0000 UTC
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It was like being hit with a storm. Like a wind lashed wildfire smashed into him. Starbrite didn’t rise from the sarcophagus- he boiled up out of it. He rose like an arsonist’s finest work. You could hear the screaming kids trapped on the sixth floor. Only faintly- it was hard to hear the screams over the roars. Starbrite had been run to ground. Forced out of hiding. His steady feed of souls had been shattered, and his servants killed. Local reality was twisting and thrashing like a spide...
2024-07-23 16:00:14 +0000 UTC
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There was a brief moment of ecstasy. The sheer joy that came with crushing the little tormenting imp was convulsive, rising from the depths of his soul and the most resentful corners of his psyche. It was all the taunting. All the “A real mage would-” crap that it spewed. The fact that it trained him, like a dog it trained him! to despise others as weaker and lesser. To ignore other humans, to avoid human companionship. To seek power for the sake of dominating others. <...
2024-07-22 16:00:17 +0000 UTC
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Hear ye, O ye children of Seth, and give ear unto the words of Sariel, the servant of GOD, who standeth before the Most High and executeth His decrees. Thus saith the Lord of Hosts:
The children of Seth come upon this world by grace, not merit.
The children of Seth think as children, act as children, despoil what is good, venerate the bad and worship false gods.
The Children of Seth do not treasure the True Path, do no...
2024-07-19 16:00:03 +0000 UTC
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Is this all the most powerful man in the world is? Jotted notes and a compulsive need to be spiritually clean?
Truth walked through the temple, trying to find some piece of Starbrite he could grab ahold of. Everything was just guesses. Based on evidence, but still guessing. Would there be any real trace of Starbrite here? Some real, tangible thing connecting the monster and the man? Other than the man himself, of course. Assuming ‘he’ was a man.
...
2024-07-18 16:00:11 +0000 UTC
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AUTHORS NOTE- SORRY FOR THE DELAY, IT HAS BEEN ONE OF THOSE 24 HOUR PERIODS WHERE NOTHING ALL THAT BAD ACTUALLY HAPPENED, IT JUST HAPPENED IN THE MOST MAXIMALLY INCONVENIENT WAY POSSIBLE.
The bronze door was covered in neat inscriptions. That was the overwhelming sense of the door- three meters tall and somehow it was more orderly than majestic. Truth could imagine the architect and the thaumaturgist having an argument-
“It looks ugly, doesn’t fit with the en...
2024-07-17 16:38:37 +0000 UTC
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AUTHOR NOTE- YES, YES, I CHANGED THE VOL. NUMBER ON THE CHAPTER BUT NOT ON THE COLLECTION, BABY STEPS, PEOPLE, BABY STEPS.
Truth nodded slowly. He stroked his chin, and frowned thoughtfully at the wall. With deliberate emphasis he tapped his index finger against his lip. A sage glint burst from his eyes, his very shoulders screamed of insight!
I officially have no idea what that ghost was talking about. Just what the Hell is a penny?
...
2024-07-16 16:00:02 +0000 UTC
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Jank is a formidable power. It is also, regrettably, unreliable, inefficient and prone to breaking. These are known problems, and, Truth felt, entirely acceptable shortcomings provided you followed the cardinal rule of improvisation: “Whenever possible, experiment with someone else's stuff.”
The hallway was, most of the time. Sometimes, it was not. Truth struggled to hang on to some semblance of stability. It wasn’t easy. Just to the left of the door, som...
2024-07-15 16:00:14 +0000 UTC
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Note the biblically accurate angel, the historically accurate sword, and the Child Of The '80's accurate haircut! Volume 3 is coming out August 27, 2024. 2024-07-15 15:48:00 +0000 UTC
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I have no idea what I’ve just done. But I’m pretty sure it’s going to fuck up ALL KINDS of things for Starbrite. So. You know. Going to take the win. Oh, and I just saved the sibs, and myself. And my relatives, assuming any of them are still alive.
Harmony was lying very still on the concrete floor. He was short one relative. Short one Sib. But it wasn’t time to panic yet.
One more time. Cup and Knife.
Death, a...
2024-07-12 16:00:16 +0000 UTC
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Truth wasn’t a simple man, but he liked to think he was.
Confront complexity with simplicity, defeat magic with beatings. All he had to do was sort out the order of beatings.
There were dozens of active spell effects in the room, but only a few Truth actually cared about. There was the main ritual, which could be considered a strategic level threat. The curse that Mr. Red and Ms. Black just sacrificed their acolytes to power could be considered the ta...
2024-07-11 16:00:11 +0000 UTC
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Thorough preparation means swift execution. The ritualists were met in the hallway by seven costumed acolytes, each carrying a beeswax taper emitting a terrifying white light and a musky, piney gray smoke.
“Now is the hour.” Mr. Red and Ms. Black chanted.
“Now is the hour. Justice is at hand.” The acolytes chanted back.
“The stars align.”
“Darkness falls on the evildoers.”
“The s...
2024-07-10 16:00:01 +0000 UTC
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Nothing more needed to be said. Harmony was resolved. Truth could see it in his eyes. His body would break and his soul would shatter before he quit. The System had been working on Harmony for almost six years now. Truth was brainwashed near suicidal fanaticism in one. Admittedly, in both cases, Starbrite had been pushing on an open door. With that little motivational speech, Mr. Red had ensured the perfect sacrifice.
Truth flexed his fingers. Mr. Red was a superb ritualist. ...
2024-07-09 21:05:27 +0000 UTC
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Just a heads up- I will be getting the next chapter of Slumrat up today, but it will be delayed for several hours. Sorry for the inconvenience.
Warby
2024-07-09 14:58:35 +0000 UTC
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