nrsearcy

Death: Genesis - Book Three Cover Render

I just got his earlier today, and I thought I'd share it with all of you.  This is the preliminary cover for book three of Death: Genesis; it might change a little, and it still lacks the logo and everything, but it's getting really close to being done.  It took a little going back and forth with the art team, but overall, I'm very happy with the result right now.  Anyway, take a look and let me know what you think!

2023-01-12 18:41:57 +0000 UTC View Post

Chapter 220 - Loss, Gain, and Reward

Zeke stood over what was left of Carlos, unsure of how he was supposed to react. Of the former assassin, there was only a half-melted skull that, if Zeke hadn’t known what he was looking for, he never would have recognized as human. But he did know, and so, there was no mistaking the blackened and charred lump of bone for what it was.

He hadn’t really liked Carlos all that much. Certainly, they were companions, but he’d never formed a bond with the man. Not like he had with Abby, ...

Mistrunner - Chapter 55 - You Can Never Go Home Again

I’ve always known that I wouldn’t go without a fight. All I can hope is that when my life catches up to me, there won’t be too much collateral damage.

Jeremiah Braddock III

“Dead?” I muttered. “You…you’re lying…”

But I knew she wasn’t. I could see it in her eyes, in her expression. My uncle was gone. Dead. Somehow, they had gotten to him.

In the back of my mind, I considered the possibil...

Chapter 219 - A True Test

As he hammered his mace into the wrym’s snout, Zeke tried to ignore the pain coursing through his body with every minute movement. It was impossible, though, to push the agony away. His entire body was a mass of blistered flesh, and his armor, though it had mostly held up to the sheer destruction of the wyrm’s fiery breath, was on the verge of falling apart. It wouldn’t last much longer, and in that respect, wasn’t wholly different from Zeke himself.

He had misjudged the monster...

Chapter 218 - Glass Cannon

Carlos peeked out from behind the car-sized boulder, his heart pounding and his breath coming in short, quick pants of excitement and trepidation. Adrenaline coursed through his veins as Zeke’s raw and ragged voice croaked, “Everyone ready?”

“I am,” Carlos called, his voice sounding eerie within the confines of the shallow ravine that led down into the cave system from whence Zeke had just come. The man’s crimson-and-white armor was singed and smoking, and judging by Zeke’...

Mistrunner - Chapter 54 - The Journey Home

I have made so many mistakes over the course of my long life, but with Mirabelle, I feel like I’ve finally gotten something right. Only time will tell, though.

Jeremiah Braddock III

Eager to be on my way, I left that shack before dawn the next morning. Freddie hadn’t returned during the night, and I suspected that he wouldn’t be back anytime soon. As intrigued as I was, I found that I was okay with that. I wasn’t certain if he’d been telling me...

Mistrunner - Chapter 53 - The Grieving Templar

I was doomed the moment I was born. The deck was always stacked against me. A young, black man growing up in the deep south. No father. No money. Just a burning desire to escape. I turned to the Army, not because I wanted to fight, but because it was the only option open to me. And as it turned out, I was a born killer. Sometimes, I wonder if I would’ve ever discovered that if I’d have been born under different circumstances.

Jeremiah Braddock III

Af...

Weekly Check-In (1/7/23)

Well, we're officially a week into 2023, and it feels...remarkably similar to 2022 for me.  Almost like the demarcation between years is arbitrary and doesn't really change anything.  Anyway...

So, this week's been pretty cool, all things considered.  The team at Podium is back in the office, which means that I spent part of this week going over cover art for both Death: Genesis 3 and Mistrunner 1 (did I mention I finally finished editing that one?).  Obviously, the ...

Chapter 217 - Not Your Average Monster

Zeke studied the monstrous creature in the cavern before him. The cavern itself was enormous, made of the same porous rock as the rest of the cave system, but in the center was a veritable mountain. Around the peak, which was probably three- or four-hundred feet from the cavern’s floor, curled a massive, sinuous monster. When Zeke used [Inspect], he saw:

Wyrm Queen – Level 25 (M)

That made it his target. But even from such a distance, the thing loomed, looking...

Chapter 216 - Worms, Wurms, and Wyrms

“It’s always got to be underground. Why does it always have to be tunnels and caves?” Zeke muttered, staring at the smoking hole in the ground. His initial assessment that they’d reach the wyrm caves within a day had been woefully inaccurate, and it had taken them an extra three days before they finally found their destination. In that time, the forests gave way to a veritable maze of ravines, at the bottoms of which flowed steaming streams of sulfuric liquid. The smell alone was enou...

Mistrunner - Chapter 52 - The Importance of Preparation

I know that, sooner or later, my lifestyle will catch up to me. It may happen tomorrow or a hundred years from now, but it will eventually happen. That’s one of the reasons I chose to train Mirabelle. Even when I’m dead and gone, I hope that she can be my legacy. I hope that she can be better than I’ve ever been.

Jeremiah Braddock III

A huge, red alien with a musculature that would have excited Nora to no end stepped forward and barked a rasping se...

Chapter 215 - Abandonment

“We should have stayed,” mumbled Carlos, who was trudging along a few paces behind Zeke and the rest of his companions. Abby strode beside him, Pudge was a little off the path and darting from one obstruction to another as if he sought cover in a firefight, while Talia was at Abby’s shoulder. “Those people need us.”

Zeke sighed, running his hand through his hair. It had grown out of control again, but he’d forgotten to get Abby to cut it. He said, “Nobody’s making you co...

Chapter 214 - Good Riddance

Zeke sat on the bed, his broad back bare, and his elbows on his knees as he looked out of the open door leading to his balcony. The tower – and his bedroom – were positioned just well enough that he could see the mounds of undead burning in the distance.  It had been four days since the battle, and they were still trying to clean everything up.

A hand on his back announced Abby’s presence, and she slid across the bed to drape her arms around his neck. When she did, she asked,...

Mistrunner - Chapter 51 - The Cost of Victory

Happy New Year, everyone!  Enjoy today's chapter:

Every victory comes at a price. Sometimes, that price can be paid in advance, via preparation and training. But most of the time, the true cost doesn’t present itself until we’ve already committed to the game.

Jeremiah Braddock III

I lay back, breathing hard as the giant, scaled rodent dissipated into motes of Mist which then dissolved into the too-heavy ai...

Weekly Check-In (12/31/2022)

I thought I'd scheduled this post to drop yesterday, but for whatever reason, it kind of glitched out.  Either way, better late than never, I guess...

In Death: Genesis news:

Book one has been extremely well-received, and it continues to exceed my expectations (in terms of its rankings).  I still can't see hard numbers, but the book's dipped into the top 2000 a few times, and it's holding steady between the 2000-3000 range.  Given that there are millions of books on...

Mistrunner - Chapter 50 - Delving the Rift

Sometimes, I wonder what the future will hold. Then, I remember how everything else in the world turned to shit, and I find myself dreading the calamity coming our way. We cannot win. We can only hope to survive.

Jeremiah Braddock III

I spent the next week mired in monotony as I let my wounds heal. Triage helped. As did my Regeneration ability. And my enhanced constitution as well. The result was that wounds that should�...

Chapter 213 - With a Whimper

Talia’s claws raked through what felt like her thousandth zombie, slicing its spine neatly in two. It collapsed, still moaning in unquenchable hunger and hate, only for her boot to find its head. It exploded like an overripe melon, splattering bone, rotted flesh, and black ichor in a circle all around her. She didn’t see it; instead, Talia moved on to the next monster in line, repeating her tried and true tactic of disabling, then ending it.

She had long since run out of mana, and h...

Mistrunner (Book 1) Finished!

For the last month, I've been on what feels like a continuous writing sprint.  Not only am I keeping up with my 4-5 chapters of Death: Genesis, but I've also been keeping my nose to the grindstone with Mistrunner.  My goal was to finish the first-ish draft by the end of the year, and as of last night, I accomplished that goal!  

And it turned out both longer and shorter than I expected it to.  Originally, it was supposed to clock in at around 170k words, but as I got...

Chapter 212 - Process of Extermination

The sound of a gong ringing echoed through the desert as Zeke’s mace slammed against Rumas’s hastily raised shield, but the smaller combatant used the resulting momentum of the rebound to aim a spinning, two-handed attack at the former paladin’s armored though. It landed with titanic force, adding the screeching sound of rent metal to the battle’s unique symphony. It was music to Zeke’s ears.

He kept moving, narrowly avoiding the dark paladin’s furious retort – an overhand...

Mistrunner - Chapter 49 - Resolute

I don’t know how the system came to be. Nor do I know much about the nature of Rifts. Because of the quarantine period between the Initialization and the Integration, specific information has always been thin on the ground. But what I do know is that it was all put into place by an altruistic race of beings whose planet had been ravaged by the galaxy-sized nano-cloud that we now call Mist. It has given us a chance. What we do with it is up to us. Everything I’ve ever ...

2022-12-28 14:00:02 +0000 UTC View Post