Truth glared at the forest draping itself around the Great White Mountain. It looked fine. He didn’t trust a single splinter of it. The memories of Happori Village and the deep, multilayered defenses around it were firmly lodged in his memory.
Oh, happy thought- the magic storm must be playing absolute hell with their golems and talisman defenses. He couldn’t see the evidence of that from kilometers away, but it seemed almost certain. The happy thought was replaced by an unhappy one...
2024-01-25 17:00:10 +0000 UTC
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Truth was two hours north of Nailad when the blue sky turned pink. It was the pink of a boiled shrimp, Truth thought, though he admittedly felt a bit lightheaded. There was a sudden feeling, a sudden absence of pressure, leaving him lightheaded and almost dizzy.
The carriage stopped. The power had cut out. So had the brakes, but that wasn’t as much of a problem for Truth. The car wasn’t going so fast that he couldn’t just hop out. He just let it coast to the bottom of the slope. I...
2024-01-24 17:00:09 +0000 UTC
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The trip to Nailad was blood-stoppingly dull. The checkpoint sucked, but he knew how to manage those now. After his stint in the chamber with the Snake That Eats Its Own Tail, his ability to seal up his energy had massively improved. It did make him wonder how many divinations just slid right over him. Not finding anything to latch on to.
Merkovah’s plan for him since day one had been to make a spell resistant little monster. The Exorcist knew what he was talking about. Truth watched ...
2024-01-23 17:00:05 +0000 UTC
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Truth grinned mirthlessly at the communication altar. He couldn’t see Merkovah, but he could certainly imagine the “old man” shock on his young face. Looks like he knew. Well, I wouldn’t have believed him if he denied it.
“Oh, you know me. I take an interest in people, and listen when they tell me things. Also, having eliminated all other reasonable possibilities, it’s where I landed.”
There was a long silence.
“Teacher?”
“On the one hand, ...
2024-01-22 17:00:14 +0000 UTC
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All news this time. Vol. 3 got wrapped up on Thursday. So. Hooray. And once I have regained some reasonable fraction of my usual energy, I will actually be excited about that, but what I am right now, mostly, is tired. My project for the next little while is consolidating the book into a single word doc (I write each chapter as a separate GDoc, for boring reasons) then editing.
Why do I edit before sending it to the editors over at Podium? Because the guys at Podium are looking to...
2024-01-20 13:38:40 +0000 UTC
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The laughter bubbled up in Truth from the bottom of his belly, tickling his guts and squeezing his lungs. What could he do but laugh? He wanted to fight a higher reality entity that was compounding the torture of humanity inflicted by a literal stellar eminence, all while God disdained to look on. There would be no miracles. There would be no divine intervention.
He was a guy with a sword. A thug with a spell and delusions of grandeur. A rat can bite a cat, but he needs somewhere to sta...
2024-01-19 17:00:06 +0000 UTC
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Truth wasn’t sure if he had lost yet another gear, or was integrating a new one. “The whole planet hates humanity and wants us to suffer.”
“That is how I see things, yes. Although, fair to say, the hatred has been intensifying rapidly over the last few hundred years.” The Abbot’s antlers swished through the air as they nodded.
“The whole world. All the rocks and things-”
“Benefactor, what do you think this world is? A big ball of rock with a thin s...
2024-01-18 17:00:06 +0000 UTC
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Truth gave the Abbot a hard look. Then another. The Abbot couldn’t see him, of course, but that didn’t stop the alarming chuckles coming from the giant deer head.
“I really thought I was the only one who imagined humanity as rats.” Truth grumbled.
“No chance of that. The metaphor has been around as long as humans.”
“I developed a whole system of understanding the world based on the concept of rats and slums. It has layers to it.”
“Well done!” The Ab...
2024-01-17 17:00:06 +0000 UTC
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<<Ow ow fuckity OW YOU BASTARD. I hope that memory was of you being torn apart by weevils. Billions of boiling maggots just shredding your still alive and terribly conscious flesh apart.>>
I was… a sailor.
Truth stared up at the polished wood of the ceiling, trying to come to terms with what just happened.
I don’t remember much. But I remember I was a sailor and I had talked with so many people. And one lady said that… we are all littl...
2024-01-16 17:00:06 +0000 UTC
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It was a bright, blustery day in the Downs. The anchored warships were all busy, patching, repairing, resupplying. Waiting to sail out and protect England’s budding dominions in far flung places like the Carolinas, Jamaica, or Tangiers. The echo of Dutch cannons was still loud in the ears of the Royal Navy. Nobody, at least nobody in the Royal Navy, thought it would be the last time they tried conclusions with the Dutch. A second war was coming, and soon.
Truth stood on the quarterdec...
2024-01-15 17:00:12 +0000 UTC
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News: End of book grind is very real. Symptoms are similar to burnout, but I’ve been here before. It’s a reinforcing cycle of bad habits triggering off anxiety. “I need to get this thing written, but the writing is slow. I don’t have time to exercise/make good food/read something new and meaningful. OH NO! NOW MY CONCENTRATION AND WRITING SPEED IS EVEN SLOWER!” Who could possibly have foreseen, etc.
Closing in on the end of Vol. 3, and by God I will take a vac...
2024-01-13 17:16:40 +0000 UTC
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The meat hung in the cold, dark, box. The barge took them past the judges, who looked down on them and distained them. The box of meat was carried down the river, on to that place of long knives, where children learned a bloody truth- they were the least important component in a machine for pigs, and always would be. They were worth less than the meat they cut up. Meat they would be arrested and beaten for trying to eat.
The meat hung still, only juddering when some unseen crane lifted ...
2024-01-12 17:00:08 +0000 UTC
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The dorm room had gone quiet again. Truth’s alarmingly detailed explanation of just what the System was, and why the national enrollment was near suicide, had rocked her. As had the idea that all of it was just Starbrite stepping up his escape plan. Or that the Starbrite her brother had worshiped his entire life had tried to kill him.
Truth had privately connected some lines between “Shattervoid are able to move through the void between stars,” to “The System Astrologica is a hi...
2024-01-11 17:00:04 +0000 UTC
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Truth slowly blinked at Sophia.
“Could you just… walk me through that idea?”
Sophia grinned a little. “System Astrologica, the work tracking and spell delivery system for Starbrite. Starbrite employees can be found everywhere on the planet, in orbit, and even on the moon, but there is not the slightest chance in Hell they would go anywhere the System didn’t reach.”
Truth nodded along. “Yep.”
“Also, as far as I’m aware, nothing can jam it or block it...
2024-01-10 17:00:06 +0000 UTC
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Sophia didn't even blink. The asp wand flicked up and she tried to shoot from around knee high. Incisive saw it coming. Between the warning and her concrete-slow movement, he flicked it away with an outstretched foot.
“Glad to see I raised you right.” His voice was bone dry. “Why don’t you grill me on details of our childhood instead? Or ask what happened? You won’t win a fight.”
“You have no idea what I am capable of.” Her voice was deadly calm.
“Yea...
2024-01-09 17:00:04 +0000 UTC
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“The season very sickly everywhere of strange and fatal fevers.”
Truth had no idea where the words came from, or why he thought of them as the explosion drove him towards Sophia. She looked like she was ducking in slow motion, a sleepy bird in front of Truth’s terrifying reflexes. He tackled her, pinning her to the ground as the blast roared over them.
He was so used to fighting, it was a little surreal watching the people in the lab fail to react to a woman exploding. There...
2024-01-08 17:00:07 +0000 UTC
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A bit delayed and very brief-
News: Nothing of substance to report. Basically things are chugging along. I yo-yo between freaking out that there are only 116 (or whatever) reviews for Vol. 1 on Amazon and reminding myself that I was the one who wanted to write web serial progression fantasy, and most people reading that on kindle won’t go near the first volume of a book unless it’s from an author they know. And, ideally, is thick enough to stop a .50 cal. round at c...
2024-01-06 19:00:22 +0000 UTC
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Truth woke, having slept poorly. He had opted for a vacant office in a mostly empty office building. It looked like the previous tenants hadn’t even cleaned out the place when they left. All the office furniture was there. All the old files. Strange that the landlord hadn’t disposed of it either. Maybe it was tied up in a lawsuit or something. He poked around a little before bed. It seemed to have been a travel agency.
He slept in the fanciest office. It wasn’t the least bit more ...
2024-01-05 17:00:05 +0000 UTC
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Truth awoke, cold and sticky.
“The Hell?” He pulled at his fragile pants and watched them come away in a gooey mess.
There was a metaphorically pregnant pause.
“No. No way!”
<<Evidence suggests that, yes way. And once more, you have managed to overachieve in the field of disgusting behavior.>>
I have never had a wet dream before! I have only ever had one dream. This is gross.
<<Oh yes. Your vile, sticky secret...
2024-01-04 17:00:05 +0000 UTC
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Truth spent the morning doing moving cultivation. He had the space now, and just sitting around had never felt right to him. Every few hours he checked the scry- lockdown still in effect. It turned out that people were being allowed out to buy things, but you had a fixed time of day to do it at, based on your tax ID. And if that time happened to be three in the morning, too bad for you. The cops were out, and were checking. Had to be playing hell with the economy, but these days, what wasn’...
2024-01-03 17:00:06 +0000 UTC
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Truth slept on the floor of the main room of the apartment. It was sort of like the apartment he grew up in- there was a bathroom, a bedroom, then a combination living room, diningroom and kitchen. It wasn’t large, but for a single man, it was entirely enough. It wasn’t decorated, exactly. There was an icon of St. Mechivus on the wall over the Scry ball, and a long row of empty whisky bottles along the top of the cabinets. The walls themselves were stained a yellow-brown color, matching t...
2024-01-02 17:00:12 +0000 UTC
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Truth’s eyes were glued to the Scry. They didn’t get his face exactly right, he thought. It was a drawing. Must not have caught a clean picture of him on a recording talisman. Thank you Blessing of the Silent Forest? Or maybe they just wanted people looking at the drawing instead of the picture. No idea why. Wasn’t any harder making an illusion of a recording than making a picture.
His mind was skittering away from the reality in front of him, and he knew it. He was seen. And he w...
2024-01-01 17:00:10 +0000 UTC
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So... I don't love it, but I think it gets the vibe. It won't be the book cover, so I thought I would share it with you all.
I hope you enjoyed the first five chapters of Starling. Right now, I'm aiming at a 20 chapter book, roughly 100,000 words. On the low end of average for a fantasy novel. So for an end of year treat, you got a quarter of a book!
What I would like to ask the aud...
2023-12-29 21:22:31 +0000 UTC
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News: 2023 was a year worth remembering for me. It was the year I became a professional author. I sold my books. They are a physical thing you can pick up and hold, download on a phone or tablet, even listen to in the car. It’s a mind blowing thing. Just in Slumrat Rising, since March, I have written roughly three novels worth of books. I say roughly, because I’m not quite done with Vol. 3, but Vol. 2&3 are both considerably longer than Vol. 1. So… there ...
2023-12-29 21:13:10 +0000 UTC
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I started the day as I meant to continue it- with energy and positivity. I therefore performed for [[Lavinia]] my absolutely show stopping a cappella rendition of the Hu’s Wolf Totem. The moral lessons are sound, and it’s got a wonderful sense of drive to it. Mongol heavy metal on motorcycles level drive.
I was going to follow this with their nationalist anthem Yuve Yuve Yu, but at this point [[Marti]] was waving a butcher knife around, screeching some nonsense about a hangove...
2023-12-29 17:01:00 +0000 UTC
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<<Wake up! WAKE THE FUCK UP!>> Truth could vaguely hear the System screaming at him. The crushing pressure of the serpent above made it almost impossible to focus. The sense of his body being pressed into pulp encouraged him to shift himself. He tried to sit up and almost puked from the nausea. Giving up, he began to slowly crawl towards the door. He was lucky- he hadn’t gone far into the room at all. A few steps, he had thought. It felt much further now.
Th...
2023-12-29 17:00:07 +0000 UTC
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It was a tiring but productive day. I returned to [[Marti]]'s feeling better about myself. Marti wasn’t home yet- probably boozing it up somewhere. Ah well. Can’t knock a millennia-old girl for liking to party. Wait, is that the plural for millennium? What even were the rules of grammar at this point? Barely even guidelines! Not important, not important. [[Lavinia]] was growing well, already showing the teensy-tiniest little true leaves. Just a darling little overachiever. Yes she i...
2023-12-28 17:01:01 +0000 UTC
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For I am the first and the last.
I am the honored one and the scorned one.
I am the whore and the holy one.
I am the wife and the virgin.
I am the mother and the daughter.
I am the members of my mother.
I am the barren one
and many are her sons.
The Prophet stood on a stump and chanted their favorite hymn. Truth sat on a rock and listened. Some of the other villagers had fol...
2023-12-28 17:00:04 +0000 UTC
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The night passed peaceably. It had been an active and productive day one, but I was pretty tired. [[Marti]]’s sofa was no more comfortable than I remembered, and the dreams I had were gory and dreadful, hunter and the hunted through the ancient dark woods, rutting wildly coated in the thin waste of my prey until my heart gave out. Which was also the same as last time.
I think Marti might have mold in her apartment somewhere. Or maybe some kind of spiritual gas leak.
Marti ...
2023-12-27 17:01:01 +0000 UTC
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The serpent turned, forever eating its own tail, forever grinding down, refining and returning to life- refashioned into something new. Better. Whether it wanted to be destroyed and remade or not.
Truth didn’t want to be destroyed. He had died once already. At least once. He didn’t enjoy it. But he needed to hide for a while, for as long as he could, and this was the best rathole he could find.
He threw himself into the Meditations of Valentinian, losing himself in the visuali...
2023-12-27 17:00:11 +0000 UTC
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