elizabeth_oswald

TBK Chapter Fifteen

Kaz froze. How could she possibly know? “I don’t-” he tried. “Why would you-?”

Lianhua leaned forward, amethyst eyes intense. “In many ways,” she said, “I’m nothing special. I come from a respected clan, but we don’t seek power. I’m attractive, but there are many who are far more beautiful. I’m intelligent, but there are many who wish I was less so.” She glanced toward their camp.

Looking back at Kaz, she went on. “However, I have one exceptional skill;...

TBK Chapter Fourteen

Once they were past the janjio cavern, it was only a short distance to the next passage down. As Kaz had told the humans, it passed through four levels. It was rare for anyone to use it to reach this level, thanks to the monsters, and the lack of any nearby resources, but the next three were all occupied, and all by the same tribe.

The Graybelly tribe was the most powerful tribe in the upper levels of the mountain. They could undoubtedly have defeated one of the mid-level tribe...

TBK Chapter Thirteen

His tail impacted rock, and Kaz yelped again. His eyes snapped open, and he looked around, his hands already going to his injured appendage. Raff stood over him, a bemused expression on his face.

“I told you we were down, Blue. You all right?”

Kaz awkwardly climbed to his feet, his fingers brushing through the soft fur of his tail. It seemed to be intact, though bruised, and he managed to nod at the human. “I’m fine. I just didn’t expect the climb to take so little time....

TBK Chapter Twelve

It took the Broken Knife tribe ten long years to go from the Deep to their final home, near the very top of the mountain. At first, their ascent was slow, and sometimes they spent months in one place, before Oda grew dissatisfied and challenged a deeper tribe. Inevitably, they lost, and were forced to flee to a higher level. Over time, as their tribe lost members to beasts and battles, they were unable to keep any territory where food and water were easy to find. As a result, someone had to e...

The Broken Knife (TBK) Chapter Eleven

When he opened his eyes again, the dragon was staring at him. Its eyes were intent on his face, and there was something different about them. They still spun, but they didn’t draw him in the way they had before, and the expression in them was more thoughtful, somehow.

Kaz groaned, lifting his hand to rub at his eyes, then his nose, which was starting to hurt. The dragonling shifted aside, and as his fingers gently prodded his nose, a flickering tongue followed behind, as the hatchling...

The website is live!

I haven't made a website in *coughmumblecough* years, so I kept this bad boy SIMPLE. What am I missing? Where did I go wrong? I have no idea!

I'm not going to shout the site out for now, but I'd love any feedback you have to offer. Even if it's just "Y'know, enchanting is the wrong adjective for Cuckoo's Dream." (I know, but I didn't know what else to use. It's not like words are what I do for a... Oh, wait.)

Anyway, if you get a chance, I'd love it if you'd take a sec to look at ...

The Broken Knife - Chapter Ten

Most of the torches were out when Kaz groggily opened his eyes. At first, he wasn’t sure what, exactly, had disturbed him. Then he felt something move against his chest, and he was suddenly wide awake.

A soft, inquisitive chirping sound was followed by a faint crack, exactly like an eggshell breaking. Kaz sat bolt upright, clutching his wriggling pack, and his eyes darted around the area. He was surrounded by huts, and Raff lay nearby. The large human’s eyes were still closed, but t...

The Broken Knife - Chapter Nine

There were only fourteen members of the Broken Knife tribe left, including Kaz and Katri. Only three were females, and of those, Katri was clearly the strongest. Bik was next, but since she hadn’t undergone her own spirit hunt yet, she gratefully yielded control of the group to Kam, a female of about the same age as Oda and Rega. Kol, one of the dead pups, had been her son, and her howl was long and sad as she called the remainder of the tribe together.

“We go to the Longtooths,” ...

The Broken Knife?

I've been pondering titles, and this one seems good. It should fit this book well, though I don't know what the series should be called yet. The only problem is that this has been used.

1) It's the title of a mystery written in 1941, seems very poorly known and not popular

2) By a 2022 short novel from India with no reviews on Amazon

3) by a small band that looks like it was last active 4 years ago

Unless I'm missing something, I think it should be okay, at least unles...

The Broken Knife Chapter Eight

Fuergar feeding tunnels were rough. The rodents didn’t care about even floors and walls, and they would leave thin spots that their small bodies easily scampered over, while heavier creatures, like humans and kobolds, broke right through. There was also no predicting how large the tunnel might be; it just depended on the size of the ore vein that had once been there.

Fortunately for Raff, this vein must have been quite large indeed. Probably copper, if Kaz were to guess, but ...

The Broken Knife Chapter Seven

The first thing he saw was his mother’s body, lying on a bed of jejing moss, just inside the entrance to the den. She wore her favorite loincloth, the only one left from the time they lived in the Deep, and her fur was neatly groomed. With her eyes closed, and her hands resting at her sides, she could have been sleeping, except that her body held none of the constant energy that had filled her when she was alive. No, this was an empty shell, laid out for all to gawk at, and the sig...

Broken Knife Chapter Six

Kaz smelled them first, and he had to force himself to continue standing tall, proud and confident. Raff’s random chatter actually helped with this, since it distracted Kaz from the scent of three - no, four - strange kobolds. By the time the red glow of the flames illuminated the Palefur males, Kaz had settled his fur and relaxed his shoulders. The steps were tall enough that he had to touch each one with a hand as he stepped up, but he kept the other one open and visibly empty at all time...

Kaz Chapter Five

Katri’s yip of surprise ended in a grunt, and Kaz ran to the opening in the stone, staring down after her. To his relief, he met his sister’s silver eyes immediately, since she lay, face up, in Raff’s arms. The male quickly dropped her, however, shaking his hands with an expression of distaste. She landed with a yelp, and scrambled to her feet, growling slightly as she reached back to feel her tail.

Kaz felt something impact his own tail, however, and lost sight of his sibling as ...

Taking a sick day 🤒

Sorry, folks, I'm sick today. I mean, I've been sick, but I kicked up a fever to go with the rest of the nastiness, and I'm flat out of spoons. Anything I write today won't be good, so please be patient, and I'll make it up as soon as I get well.

Kaz Chapter Four

The Longtooth tribe lived almost directly beneath the Broken Knives, so once they reached the right level - which was strangely devoid of janjio - they then had to return, once again skirting the territory of other kobold tribes. Though the tribes in the depths could span large parts of several levels, their territory as much vertical as horizontal, the smaller, weaker tribes of the high mountain rarely controlled more than small sections of two.

The Longtooth tribe was neither...

Kaz Chapter Three

The Longtooth tribe lived two levels deeper in the mountain than the Broken Knife tribe, and the Broken Knives lived what would have been five or six levels below the dragon’s den. Fortunately, at the very top of the mountain, only one or two of the weakest tribes remained, and they didn’t have enough members to guard the ways between levels.

Kaz and Katri were able to lead the group downwards both quickly and easily, and Kaz listened as Katri explained their tribe’s situation to ...

Kobold Chapter Two

The siblings spun, and Kaz pulled his stone knife from its sheath, stepping in front of his sister. Behind him, he could sense Katri summoning her power, and a glow of flickering light from that direction told him that she was readying an attack. Unfortunately, the light held in Katri’s hand was dwarfed by the one that hovered over the female standing before them.

She stood framed by the cave mouth, head and shoulders thrown back, a confident smile on her flat, nearly furless face. Th...

The Broken Knife Chapter One

A cold, dry wind swept around the mountain peak, tugging at the sparse leaves of a small, stunted tree stubbornly clinging to a deep but narrow crevice. The tree almost seemed to shiver in response, curling its limbs protectively around the three golden fruits that hung there. Another gust blew, but the tree hung on, as it had done for all the long years of its life.

Shadow fell, black and deep, blocking the slight warmth the sun provided the trembling branches. The tree was unused to s...

The Timeline

I had to (figure out how to) add an Author's note, Other books by, and fix a few images (Joanna's collar was funky, and Sumi needed her whole background removed) so I just finished the Timeline. I'll get you guys a copy of the epub as soon as I'm ready to publish!

I am ready to start writing again, which is always nerve-wracking, as well as exciting. (Will it be good? Will people want to read it? Who knows?!)

I do hope to have a chapter for you tomorrow, though! I have at...

Format schmornat!

I spent all day today figuring out how to use a book formatting app called Atticus. I tried Kindle Create and was... less than impressed. While Atticus wasn't cheap, it'll pay for itself in two or three books, and will be 100% worth it when I realize I accidentally 'corrected' Tess' to 'Test's' in half my book. (Yeah, I'm looking at you, Aria.)

Being able to fix my own files without digging through HTML and free .pdf editors or contacting the formatter and waiting on them? Pric...

Quick note

I have all the short stories edited, though I realized I need to make a timeline so people can see where they each fall. There should be enough context clues in each to figure it out, but timelines make people happy. As do maps. So, I'm going to make maps for the next series, like I should have done for LF. Look! I can learn!

*cough* ANYway, I'm working on Zoey's story now, and I'm going to tone down some of the points that people seemed to find most irritating, since I want it...

Biodiversity?

Covers are still hard! There's a lot that goes into getting each piece ready, and I really, really wish I was a proper artist. What do you think?

Lisette, Vexxx, and Zoey

I'm going to have Rouge on the cover, which is what I'll be working on tomorrow. This version of Zoey will be at the beginning of the 'novella'. 

Millie, Ned, Sumi, Wep, and William

I know you've seen William and Nekthadt before, and I may yet go in and try to do something more with them, but really, I'm pretty happy with the way they look. I did touch them both up a little. Everybody else got a whole new image. I think their images will be the headers for their stories, so eventually, they'll all have their names under them.

Surprise!

My plan for the novella is to include images of each of my narrators. (Including Zoey!) I now have the stories in chronological order, and the 'oldest' one is Joanna's, so here she is! This is, of course, how she is at the time of the short story, and how Aspen saw her the first time he opened her book.

Next week

I'll be working on editing and cover creation, as well as a little extra surprise next week. I'll try to post at least a little something every day, though. This book ended up at 102k words, which is a solid novel length, so it'll take a week or so just to edit. Add in cover and formatting, and there's even more time, so it may be 10-14 days before I get started on my new project.

I'm going to try formatting myself this time, to save a little money, and also so I'll have the files mysel...

Lisette (end)

Lisette had never been the ‘outdoorsy’ type. She had read books on herbology, botany, agriculture, horticulture, mycology, and a thousand others that referenced how to tell one growing thing from another. In general, however, on those rare occasions when she herself needed a plant for cooking or alchemy, she bought them from a grocer or herbalist.

As she wandered through the small forest within her Dungeon, however, she discovered that knowing the difference between Queen Anwyn’s ...

I need a title!

What should I call the book of short stories/novel? Since it's directly related to LF, I tried to find farming words that went with the others in the series.

• Organic farming
• Biodiversity
• Biodynamics
• Yield
• ???

Other suggestions? I admit, I'm inclined toward Yield, but Biodynamics makes me giggle. Thoughts? Votes?

Lisette Part 2

They emerged to the sound of screams. Five humans and a dwarf fought two Preying Mantis the size of horses. The mantis blocked attacks with their armored forelimbs while powerful jaws snapped incoming weapons in half, causing a warrior to swear in frustration even as another weapon appeared in his hand.

Lisette nodded. Travelers, then. While the gnomes themselves could use a bit of the spatial magic that allowed them to place large objects, such as books, into smaller storage items, the...

Lisette (Atheneum Dungeon receptionist) Part 1

Lisette slid the borrowing card back into its sleeve in the front of The Alderman’s Guide to Bacon and smiled at Linseed, who was shifting nervously from foot to foot in front of her desk. “Is there anything you’d like to tell me?” she asked, gently.

The gnomeling bit his lip. “Eh, no?”

Lifting the book, Lisette looked down the textblock. Subtle smudges marred what should have been crisp, sharp pages. Without lifting her head, she shifted her gaze to meet Lins...