Michael Clark

Tunnel Rat Chapter 376

The alphabet sat in a circle in the middle of the trees, discussing their situation.

"If he's a supervillain, he's doing it right. I never considered that route for us because they always live in gloomy places like hollowed-out asteroids, gloomy domes in a swamp, or old chemical plants. Milo has a small town down here."

"A small, very American town. I'm sure it hasn't been lost on you that we have scale models of Monticello and other important American homesteads lining two ...

Tunnel Rat Chapter 375

The elevator descended quickly, and each member of the alphabet estimated its speed and calculated the time and distance traveled to determine how deep in the habitat they were going. Algernon blinked as he realized they had just gone deeper than the lowest level. He looked at his siblings, who had all come to the same conclusion. He looked at Milo, who was grinning at him, but offering no explanation.

"Milo, dear brother, how deep does this elevator go?"

"Quit a ways, to be hon...

Tunnel Rat Chapter 374

More fun with the Alphabet. I have to drink so much coffee to do their chapters.
=================================
At the end of Ralph's hour, he packaged up a series of files containing all the data on a group of abused orphans and inserted them into Wally's memory next to a similar set of files he'd created for Milo. As usual, Ralph included a picture of himself on a beach, relaxing in the sun. Wally actually hesitated a nano-second before sectioning off part of himself and assigning ...

Butcher of Gadobhra Chapter 463

The long-awaited Auction House for the Genesis game opened and immediately drew a throng of players who had cash to spend in the real world but were broke in Genesis. Gamers with enough money to afford the items were ecstatic. Earning money and items in Genesis could be difficult at low levels but now they could unleash the power of bank accounts, trust funds, and credit cards.

The news that some items in the Genesis game would now be available for sale for real-world dollars was...

Tunnel Rat Chapter 373

Milo was thrilled when he saw the hostile environment suits that his siblings had made from his designs. The designs that Claw Master had licensed to Rhebus had been used to make complete body suits with detachable bubble helmets. While they hadn't gone as far as he had in designing an outer armored layer, they were still very tough and durable.

Under his ninja garb, Milo was wearing his suit. He'd had worries that the reunion might go poorly and had taken basic precautions, planning ...

Butcher of Gadobhra Chapter 462

"Well, that's certainly a pit. It lives up to its name. Be careful on the way down." Ricardo stepped carefully on the broken stones of the staircase that led down into a dark pit and ended in front of a pair of tall double doors made from bones bound in rusted iron. Two spikes jutted from each door, holding rotted skeletons in broken armor. To either side were a scattering of headstones, a testament to other players who had ventured in and failed to come out on their own.

Dandio strumm...

Butcher of Gadobhra Chapter 461

The adventuring group in this chapter, led by Ricardo appeared back in Chapter 453. Before that, we met Ricardo (who works for Vernon) back in chapter 262.
Proving that my writing and the flow of time are only tangentially related. I blame it on the busted teleport system and his group wasting time on sidequests.
======================================
"Is it just me? Or did that tavern get bigger? And wasn't the bank over there?" Ricardo was staring with bleary eyes at the tavern in ...

Tunnel Rat Chapter 372

After an exciting period of shouting, hugging, loud questions, and garbled answers, Algernon held up his hands and called for silence, speaking when he had everyone's attention: "We are going to all have heart attacks at this rate. Might I suggest that for this happy reunion, we take turns asking questions and getting answers? I've got far too much sugar rushing through my veins right now and need to calm down before I burst and you have to clean up a mess."

They all agreed, got food, ...

Butcher of Gadobhra Chapter 460

Some days, Emperor Gustavus wondered why he even bothered to go to bed. The day before had been filled with major emergencies, minor annoyances, and the trivial paperwork of running the Empire. He'd finally left court at 2 am, ate dinner, and put his head on his pillow sometime after 3 am. If he'd known that he'd be woken at 6 am when the dozens of messages marked 'Urgent, Important, and Life-Threatening' arrived, he wouldn't even have tried. It made him wish he'd taken that final, 6th level ...

Butcher of Gadobhra Chapter 459

As bleary-eyed players walked back to Sedgewick the morning after the last night of the Fairy Market, some of them noticed the changes. Not all, as for many this was their first visit and they had rushed through town to get to the market. And many were hungover or mostly still asleep.

The Master of the Market had gone to every expense to safely entertain his mortal customers with a blow-out celebration that lasted until dawn. Tables groaned under whole roasted boars and pheasants, hug...

Tunnel Rat Chapter 371

In the deepest levels of the Rhebus-controlled sections, the Alphabet prepared for Silent Ninja Day. It would be a grueling twelve-hour competition involving gaming, cooking, intelligence tests, stealth, betrayal, and deduction. After the last event, the plans had changed significantly, and far more complex. Each person submitted their own challenges which were chosen randomly and administered by the game computer. While not intelligent, the machine had been specially designed by the Alphabet...

Happy Thanksgiving!

To those of you celebrating with turkey, have a wonderful feast. And I hope anyone who doesn't celebrate with the sacrifice of the delicious and noble bird will have an extra helping at dinner or a second breakfast. To make sure my family gains a few pounds, I barbecued pork ribs last night and dreamed of having magical smoking skills.

Because of the craziness of running a retail store and our annual Tue-Fri sale I was way to stressed to write for the last two days. Sunday and Monday ...

Tunnel Rat Chapter 370

This, and the last few chapters have been a bit raw. I'll be editing them again before they go up on RR. They are difficult chapters to write, so if the words are flowing, I just keep going. Lots of different things to take into account. Many loose threads are getting tied up. (And a few more dropped for later.)
======================
Preparations had been made and remade over the last few weeks. Every time they thought they had time, something bad happened somewhere in the world that n...

Tunnel Rat Chapter 369

While the representatives prepared the application and loan papers to facilitate Milo and Belinda's plans, they went back to the smaller room to finish their talk with John Sabbatino. Myra was allowed to stay, and in addition to Milo and Belinda, Eric Kresthammer took a seat along with Steven and Samantha Duran. Marisa took a seat as well, staying silent but watching all of the players in the room. She wasn't sure of the exact details but guessed that there were more connections to Rhebus tha...

Tunnel Rat Chapter 368

Clawmaster headquarters was a busy place on the morning that John Sabbatino, Eric Kresthammer, the head of security for Rhebus, three lawyers, a PR person, four very nervous accountants, and six bodyguards arrived for their meeting with Belinda Seimovich. John was a mess, trying to project confidence and failing.

John had never been good at multitasking. His method of dealing with the world was to focus on one problem and make the others wait for their turn. Today, he had several issu...

Butcher of Gadobhra Chapter 458

"Ok, give me the bad and annoying news first. Don't bother sorting it out. The bad news is annoying, and the annoying news always goes bad the next day." Gombindle, Master of the Market, was hoping to end the last day of the Fairy Market he had brought to Sedgewick without anything else blowing up and was taking care to fix what already had.

"The badgers, the goats, and the unicorns got into a three-way brawl over a stuffed, leather dragon toy."

Gom looked at his notes, "Yeah, I...

Tunnel Rat Chapter 367

Belinda paused the video, looking at her Mother. She looked different from the other pictures she had seen of her. The public pictures of Ekaterina Seimovich had always been of a vibrant socialite, smiling and enjoying life. Even as she grew older this didn't change.

But here, she looked different. Her eyes were dull and her face showed little emotion. Her hair was cut short and functional, uncombed. She wore no makeup, as she did in every other picture, even those taken at home. Wrin...

Butcher of Gadobhra Chapter 457

Gadobhra was empty of adventurers, all of them drawn off by the bright lights and interesting bargains of the Fairy Market. That was just fine with Billy and Layla, they had Building Points to spend. The Contract Workers had been told to take the entire day off and enjoy the fair. Notices were sent to the Bank and Collegium to beware of moving buildings and changing reality. The Bankers were happy to see the polite warning but knew nothing could penetrate the defenses of their bank. The Profe...

Tunnel Rat 366

A little Raw, but these sort of roll out with a life of their own. Hard chapters to write. Warning, a bit more trauma and some more in the next chapter.
===================
Milo was quiet as Belinda opened the storage case and loaded the data disc with the research on Batch Four. She paused for a moment before telling Rusty to start skimming through it. "Are you ok with this? I know you usually plow through all the data instead of sampling the highlights."

Milo blinked, coming up...

Butcher of Gadobhra Chapter 456

Whew, a long one. We finally return to our poor, neglected Mistress of the Sedgewick Mage Guild and her struggle to improve it. She first showed up in Chapter 174.
=================

Belerianne, Beryl to her friends, of which she had few at the moment, was torn between duty and desire. Duty insisted that she sit in the Sedgewick Mage Guild and once again fill out the paperwork to upgrade to Level 1. The upgrade would give her access to more spellbooks and equipment that she could...

Tunnel Rat Chapter 365

Eric was dreaming and very comfortable in his large bed when the alarm went off. He rolled out of bed, slammed his hand on the clock, and put on his robe. Only then did he see that he was alone, but he heard noises from the small kitchen area in his apartment. Marisa walked into the room, suspiciously dressed, showed, and ready for the day at 6:45 a.m. despite a late dinner in the city, and not getting to bed until 3 a.m. This was their fifth date, and the second time she had stayed over duri...

Butcher of Gadobhra Chapter 455

Traveling home to Sedgewick was relatively easy. The workers were leaving all of the supplies behind and most of the wagons, with only Myrna's Taco Wagon coming with them. Myrna was asleep in the back, having cooked straight for two days, feeding hungry Fire Mages who needed to replenish the fire in their bellies. Alleister and Zephyr were only a little better, having dispensed healing potions and hurled fire until they exhausted their mana and hit the limit of how many dozen mana potions the...

Butcher of Gadobhra Chapter 454

It was a quietly furious Lesser God Emperor Unca Varn who manifested upon his thrown, and frankly, the priests were disappointed. He sat, thinking and mumbling to himself, cursing his friend/foe, Dammitbilly, and plotting his downfall. Minutes went by, and Unca Varn heaved himself from his throne and staggered to the feeding trough where he preferred his meals to come from. He had half filled a bowl with roasted honied hoppers and fresh grapes when he noticed the carved teakwood bowl. It was ...

Day 1 as a Published Author...and not much changes.

My first book is up on Amazon and Audible. Very exciting to see it. More volumes will follow and Butcher of Gadobhra as well, so very exciting for me. Also stressful. I thought I'd gotten over Imposter Syndrome long ago, but it hit hard this last week while waiting for the book to go up. Now I just pray that the wider world likes it as much as you fine people do.

And I could use your help. If you don't mind running over to Amazon and leaving a review or a rating, I'd be eternally grate...

Tunnel Rat Chapter 364

Warning: This is a little Dark.
==========================
In the middle of watching The Three Musketeers, Rusty paused the film, raised his hands high, and shouted, "YES!" Then immediately frowned, saying, "The deceitful cur! My honor must be satisfied!" and disappeared. Belinda looked at Yumi, who shrugged, mystified. Butch laughed, "Any bets on what Milo just did?"

Min was confused, "Why do you think Milo did something?"

Butch waved at the people watching. "We'...

Tunnel Rat Chapter 363

Hmmm...sometimes you write what you thought you were going to write, and somedays things just go entirely off the rails. All I can claim is that I thought about a situation, and knew Milo would be annoyed.
As to the rest, I blame Rusty. (This is a bit rough. I just sat down and pounded the keyboard for three hours.)
==============
The alarms came at an inconvenient time and exacted a terrible cost from Milo. He was sitting on the roof of the ex-casino with a large plate of cheesy pan...

Tunnel Rat Chapter 362

"Victory! Huzzah! The team supreme has conquered the evil and crafty Storage Disk #34!"

The cheering voice made Belinda smile. Rusty was always up for celebrating victories, whatever the game was. Sadly, they were coming very slowly as he helped her work through the treasure trove of data Milo had found in the hidden lab in the Manpower medical center. If someone made the claim that all biological research on the human species was contained in these discs, she might believe them. Ther...

Coming this week.

Thought I'd put up a post since I'm not putting up new chapters today. Exhausted from many things. Hauled a ton of paper from the 3rd floor to the first and off to a shredding event early this week. Our business had to keep 5 years of paperwork, and we had more like 14 in storage. Then a couple of large comic collections at the shop to go through, much sorting and lifting of boxes. Wrote early in the week and could feel the carpal tunnel and 'writer's elbow' coming back. Today was beautiful o...

Butcher of Gadobhra Chapter 453

Five weary travelers walked to the front gats of Wolfsburg in the early morning hours, bundled in ragged furs and heavy woolen cloaks pulled around them. This wasn't out of the ordinary for the guards on duty. The cold snap had taken everyone by surprise and wearing layers of clothing with furs on top was the new fashion style when outside the city walls. These five had the look of adventurers with heavy backpacks, bedrolls, belt pouches, potion bandoliers, and an assortment of weapons on eac...

Non-Story: How I create.

Step 1: Go to Sleep.
Step 2: Lie awake plotting chapters.
Step 3: Too tired to write the next morning.

So far, I'm about 6 chapters into Gutter Magic and have created the magic system, and experience system, and done the basic world-building. All while laying in bed at 2am.

This sums up the process: https://www.facebook.com/reel/1311574490222506