Can't sleep, must tell a story.
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It was snowing on Cygnus Four. The delicate flakes of frozen oxygen and methane floated down slowly in the thin gravity of the planetoid, coating the barren hills surrounding him. The communication towers of the spaceport reached for the stars, branching out to form barren, metal trees that turned white while the snow was drifting down. Six-wheeled rocket carts taking mine...
2023-12-17 06:17:41 +0000 UTC
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Last of the four solo advisor chapters, with some re-writing.
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"Know, oh prince, that between the years when Engine made the world and the years of the rise of the Children of Typhon, there was an Age undreamed of, when shining cities lay spread across the world like blue mantles beneath the stars - Cinderstein with its hoards of gold, Wolfsburg with its Guilds, Northguard the Miserly, Silverthorne with its fair-haired women and to...
2023-12-17 00:45:33 +0000 UTC
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3rd advisor story, small changes.
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Squirmie flew at the monstrosity in front of her, intent on slicing her wings across a monstrous eye the size of her own body. Not agreeable to this plan, her adversary opened its maw until it blocked any direction that the fast-moving bug could have dodged, and the princess was swallowed whole, not stopping until she was immersed in the acid bile of her sister's stomach.
Rolly looked worried. Not tha...
2023-12-16 19:54:26 +0000 UTC
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The 2nd advisor chapter, with some minor changes.
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Ben was mildly surprised when he appeared in mid-air inside a glowing blue energy globe. The drop to the floor was almost six feet and unexpected, but he managed to make a decent landing. You never knew who was watching. He stood on a square stone platform that looked suspiciously similar to a teleport platform. Around him were six tall, metal pylons tipped with glowing crystals whose function ...
2023-12-16 19:10:51 +0000 UTC
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The first of the rewritten Advisor Chapters, with Suzette.
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The torrent of blue boxes faded away, and Suzette found herself in the ruins of what might have been a palace. A very large palace made for someone many times the height of a human. The stones making up the walls were immense, at least twenty feet on a side. Even destroyed and left to the winds and rain for centuries, there was still a grandeur to the building. A shattered throne bui...
2023-12-16 04:07:31 +0000 UTC
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This starts off the series of Advisor Chapters. I'm going to be going over those again, expanding a bit and reposting them while I work on the chapters that come after that. I'm taking tomorrow off to write since the latest malady brought home by my children comes with a sore throat and horrible cough. I don't feel that bad, but I sound terrible. :) So, three whole days to write.
As usual, apologies for the formatting since Patreon can't handle boxes. Blue boxes will be bordered by ---...
2023-12-16 02:08:04 +0000 UTC
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Some of you leave me feedback on the chapters, and a few times I reply. But everything you write, I read, and think about. Some things I won't agree with. Other times I wonder how my writing brought someone to a conclusion. Why is this liked? But not this? It all gets pondered and in may cases makes me look things over. In some cases it has changed the direction of a character. If I don't answer, or seem to disagree, your feedback is still read and thought about. Especially if I disagre...
2023-12-14 18:07:12 +0000 UTC
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"I mean, if I had known how hard it would be to run a Necropolis, I might have skipped the promotion to Grand Necromancer when the entire Circle of Despair and Corruption were burned at the stake in Veedleheim. I never understood the plan, but it obviously had some holes in it. The basics were simple: They were going to sneak into the town with a few undead and murder the unfortunates in the slums, turn them into undead, use the increased forces to kill more, and repeat the cycle as they grew...
2023-12-12 05:50:49 +0000 UTC
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I'm working on the manuscript for Butcher of Gadobhra for my publisher, Aethon Books. The early chapters aren't my best writing, being the first writing I ever published. And, frankly, had no idea people would read it. They need some work. Plus, I want the story to start with more focus on the characters. These two chapters are all new and will precede the current first chapter. Don't worry about typos. The first thing that happens is a skilled line editor from Aethon goes over all of it.
...
2023-12-11 19:30:00 +0000 UTC
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Squirmie flew at the monstrosity in front of her, intent on slicing her wings across a monstrous eye the size of her own body. Not agreeable to this plan, her adversary opened its maw until it blocked any direction that the fast-moving bug could have dodged, and the princess was swallowed whole, not stopping until she was immersed in the acid bile of her sister's stomach.
Rolly looked worried. Not that he doubted Squirmie, but a death here could mean being trapped in a loop of fighting...
2023-12-10 23:24:06 +0000 UTC
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I am getting back to the Butcher. I'll be finishing up the Advisors arc tonight or tomorrow. Rolly is almost done and then we have a chapter where the full group gets to relax and talk before being tossed into the chaos again.
Meanwhile, I want to start getting chapters up on RR again, so I started with this little chapter featuring Billy. If you remember, there were some jokes about his 'Bowling Ball' awhile back...
On a side note: The continued changes to Patreon are a chang...
2023-12-10 22:01:08 +0000 UTC
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"Oh shit, whoever that is, he brought along a sound system. That is never good."
"Shut up and shoot, idiot. It's just noise."
Except that it wasn't 'just noise.' It was a very special kind of noise. The first part of the attack was Elton John's performance at Wembley Stadium in 1984. The raw sound of the live concert added to the fury of the impending battle. The second part was more subtle, pitched at 18 megahertz, below the threshold an unaugmented human ear could detect. T...
2023-12-08 03:20:23 +0000 UTC
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Writathon is over, but I hope you don't mind if I get started on a few more chapters.
If you wonder what I was listening to while writing this chapter:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xmckWVPRaI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMVV_HsHcX0
2023-12-07 03:04:44 +0000 UTC
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Writathon ends today. I'm uploading chapters now to finish, and then getting back to writing without having to worry about it. Since I spent a lot of yesterday working to get heat in one of my stores, I took today off to replace the lost writing day. So, what is next?
Tunnel Rat: Milo got a lot of wordage lately, so chapters will slow after I put up more stuff today and get back to five ahead of Royal Road. RR will be getting one chapter a week for 3 weeks while I catch up, but I'm als...
2023-12-05 17:50:07 +0000 UTC
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Not sure what chapter this will be. It sort of spilled out of me tonight when I should be in bed.
Unedited for now. Might tweak things a bit.
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"I am at a loss for words. My client has, in good faith, offered to talk to you about things he has heard and help the law enforcement community solve long-dead cold cases. Cases which you initially asked about. And now that we have basic agreements in place and he wishes to talk to you and give details, you suddenly...
2023-12-05 06:17:36 +0000 UTC
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"We have her trapped. With teams cutting off her routes, she's boxed in and had to move into a dead end. A large factory area is on the map, and only this corridor leads to it. She'll try to hide if she can get in, but that will be tough to do in a wheelchair. We go slow, leave two men at the door, and then systematically search the factory space. And let's be very clear about what you do when you find her: You will not tackle her or overturn her wheelchair! You will not use a Taser or pull a...
2023-12-04 23:00:13 +0000 UTC
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A group of six men and women dressed in Manpower Security uniforms were on duty at the main entrance. Four of them were leaning against walls or sitting on the desk. The two new recruits stood at attention with their hands behind their backs as they'd been taught during the six-week course offered by their local Community College. Roger was large, muscled like a football player, and always smiling. Marisa lacked his confidence, rarely talking and looking worried as they stood the first shift ...
2023-12-03 18:22:10 +0000 UTC
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"Why do I feel you've never wrapped Christmas presents before?"
Milo looked up from where he was crumpling up colored aluminum foil Christmas wrapping. "I haven't. Is there some traditional method? I'm really hazy on Christmas. The physics of reindeer flying is just bonkers. They move their legs, but not like they are running. Even if we conjecture that they can run across air, why don't their legs move right? And is the sleigh anti-gravity? Why doesn't it fall? How much does a load of...
2023-12-03 03:53:23 +0000 UTC
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Not-so-funny story. My main shop, where I work, has a broken toilet that will take another two weeks to get parts (4 weeks total.) Standard commercial toilet, but somehow parts are rare. Then the heat went out. They say the part will come in "Sometime in January." Not really acceptable in this weather, and I pay 7000.00 a month in rent, which they know won't be paid if I don't have heat in the winter. So they need in early tomorrow, then again monday. I love being up at 7am on days off.
I...
2023-12-01 00:03:56 +0000 UTC
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Eric had done what he could to cover all the contingencies but knew it wouldn't go down perfectly. Nothing ever happened perfectly, especially at Manpower. It had been difficult to convince Victor that he was a loyal (and greedy) soldier, and it had taken months to gain the old criminal's trust. The only reason it worked was that Victor couldn't imagine anyone turning down the power and money Eric could have earned working for Victor once he controlled the Seimovich fortune. Victor was gettin...
2023-11-29 03:12:43 +0000 UTC
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Ozzy gets some advice. Rolly is next. This is a rough draft, doing a lot of writing today, editing tomorrow.
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"Know, oh prince, that between the years when Engine made the world and the years of the rise of the Children of Typhon, there was an Age undreamed of, when shining cities lay spread across the world like blue mantles beneath the stars - Cinderstein with its hordes of gold, Wolfsburg with its Guilds, Northg...
2023-11-27 22:11:23 +0000 UTC
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"Can we watch it again? Please? The part where they open the pod is awesome! Victor looks so sad/pissed/surprised." Nina loved the video that Bork had put together. It was footage from news programs, Heathrow Security Cameras, and Interpol badgecams. He'd edited it, added his own comments, and created a soundtrack. They'd watched it four times today, made up more jokes, and suggested scenes, keeping Bork busy as he perfected his masterpiece.
Bork was happy that his work was appreciate...
2023-11-27 22:07:35 +0000 UTC
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It only took a minute for Milo to verify that what Rusty had said was correct. There was an intermittent signal coming from Belinda that could be used to track her. Milo spent a half hour reading everything he could on the technology use and concluded that he'd never be 100% sure he was blocking the signal without using so much shielding that movement became impossible. He considered an airtight metal box and a supply of oxygen hooked to the small supply in her suit. The weight was too high f...
2023-11-26 20:57:40 +0000 UTC
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It had been a long day for Bernard St. Clair. The cases that his law firm took these days mostly involved defending wealthy clients from small indiscretions and dalliances of past years. He would offer advice to the junior partners handling the cases, make public appearances to inform the world of the client's innocence, and collect his cut of the fees for doing very little work. It was his reward for being the head of the firm and five decades of work. Today's client was more work than he wa...
2023-11-25 04:28:36 +0000 UTC
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"How?" Milo had counted on Victor being fooled and giving him time to figure out what they would do next. A week would have done it, even a couple of days. But not this soon.
"The news release is sketchy. Interpol picked him up when his plane landed at Heathrow Airport outside of London. The pilot reported a mechanical failure and changed his flight plan. Victor got caught at the airport by Interpol trying to enter the UK or switch planes. He explained the pod by claiming he was taking...
2023-11-23 00:12:15 +0000 UTC
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The second of the four advisors chapters. Each is going to be a separate chapter.
This is unedited. I just finished, and I don't have the energy to fix the typos. Maybe tomorrow between work and carving turkey. My wife and I are doing the insanity of cooking dinner for 15 people Wednesday, and then I'll drive the food north to Allentown Thursday morning to reheat and help with set up at her parent's house. Meanwhile, she leaves at 4 am to travel with a dance group called Shooting Stars tha...
2023-11-22 04:16:35 +0000 UTC
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Belinda watched over Milo until she was sure he was asleep, and the pod assured her he was resting. A life of being in and out of intensive care had led to her taking online courses in medicine to have some idea of what was wrong with her and what they weren't telling her. A benefit was reading the screen on Milo's pod and knowing he was alright. Which left her alone in a mad scientist's workshop. She was amazed that he lived here. So many things were crammed into the space, and so little mad...
2023-11-20 18:01:55 +0000 UTC
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I'm not sure how many chapters this will be or if it will be one huge one.
Here's the first 2k words.
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The torrent of blue boxes faded. Suzette found herself in ruins of what might have been a palace. The stones making up the walls were immense, easily ten feet on a side. Even destroyed and left to the winds and rain for centuries, there was still a grandeur to the building. A shattered throne built for a giant was at one end of the room. Whatever king h...
2023-11-19 20:39:46 +0000 UTC
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Apologies. I lost a couple of days to the utter chaos of family stuff, then added a strained knee, and topped it off with stomach flu of some sort. Oh, and I run a retail store and it's the holidays. Worse, a game store, and we had a Magic set drop, plus new Pokemon, big Warhammer set, and Lorcana.
But Today is the Day!
I have coffee to keep me awake.
I have a cheese and polish sausage tray for munchies.
I have a handful of sharpened pencils to throw at people distracting me...
2023-11-19 17:04:22 +0000 UTC
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Belinda enjoyed telling the tale of their adventures and how they plotted to send her stepfather and Victor out of the country, and her audience sat silently as she gave them the details of the plan and what she and Milo had done. But at some point in the conversation, Milo seemed to turn off. Belinda noticed and nudged him in the ribs once, then harder. He woke up and stared at her.
She poked him in the chest. "When was the last time you drank water?"
Milo shook his head, uns...
2023-11-12 19:45:10 +0000 UTC
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