James Osiris Baldwin

Surgery Fun Time and Project Status

Archemi 7: about 30% complete.

Brute Force 2: 15% ish, working on a big boss scene

Faith Healer: Comic in process; nearly finished the art for the first episode, but see below.

Buckle up, because this one is long and kind of personal.

I have a major surgery coming up on November 19th, if you’re wondering about the radio silence. And therein lies a story, one intimately tied to current events.

If you didn’t already know, I am both an immigrant to the United St...

Archemi 7 preview...

[SEED#: NUMBERFETCH 00-001A-TypeNew[HeraldOfMT]_PARAGON: Hector Park.]

[Agent Incident Log]: PARAGON security agent present during novel breach attempt by [FETCHERROR: NULL] versus ATHENA Cell 192018887 ‘Karalti’. Breach status unknown.]

[Agent should evaluate status of #192018887 and assess data integrity.]

[PARAGON status: D.H.D Memory expansion and entanglement stable.]

[Memory: 3.6/5 PB]

[Learning Cycle 240009-Misc: Analyze Orbital Server Infrastructure t...

Updates and News

Dungeon Crawler Carl: Season 3 is finished! If you listen to the DCC audio immersion tunnel, Seasons 2 & 3 have tons of bonus content added by me and Ben Wolf. I'm thrilled to have been able to work on Matt with this.

The Black Garden is nearly done, but I'm really unhappy with the ending. It just hasn't panned out the way I wanted it to, so I'm rethinking and rewriting those chapters. I'm sorry that this makes me slower than a number of other Indie authors, but for various reasons,...

The Black Garden: Chapter 30

Not really happy with this chapter, but I'll have to rewrite/edit once the book has rested for a while.

--------------------------------

For some reason, every personal interaction with Khememmu seemed to involve bondage. I was starting to think that was by design. To ride the wave of creeping, frigid peristalsis that was Hura, I had to let him engulf part of my body so that he could suspend me inside of a creeping ring of goo. I hung in the middle of the Hura-hoop like s...

Dungeon Crawler Carl is eating my life

Sorry I haven't updated in a while! The DCC AIT Season 3 script is in its final stages, and it is basically overriding every other production currently underway. It will be over a couple days, and then I'll edit The Black Garden Chapter 30 and post it up.

In good news... DCC Season 3 is almost done.

As Archemi #7 gets underway...

So, here's one of the more consequential polls I've ever run.

Which of the remaining Dragon Gates and the Nine are you most interested in seeing Hector, Karalti, Suri and the others engage with?

Depending on your choices, one or more species of Archemi may be genocided.

The Black Garden: Chapter 29

As the world looped and spun, I hunkered down into my composite tin can and ran through the plan. We had orbital data from the scans we now knew worked on the bunkers. We had the map Lilia had ripped from the officer’s quarters showing the entry to a hyperloop intake station down from the main barracks area where we had penned the Ravagers. There was now more evidence that it was part of a system of tubes under the ground, radiating out from the core of New Warder. Scans suggested that the ...

The Black Garden: Chapter 28

Once Teams 1 and 2 were gone, it was just me and Hura. The Earthship had been sterilized of our presence, left clean but abandoned. I ran over my final loadout while Hura waited for some confirmatory orbital data from our joint nexus. Before they had packed up the big quantum lockers, the Roaches’ logistics team had sent me a whole bunch of goodies.

First up was a set of ‘Coyote’ model c-shell armor. It was much lighter more flexible than anything an Abyssal Marine would wear. It ...

The Black Garden: Chapter 27

I'm at the point with this novel where I'm having to remind myself that this is part of a very large project that I'm still feeling out in prose, and once it's done, I can make it better. I may end up cutting this chapter in the final version; we'll see. But it does give a bit more dimension to the other characters.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Out in the field, Gaius and I kept things fairly vanilla and low-key: one of his hands...

The Black Garden: Chapter 26

We're back! C2E2 and Kansas City Comicon wiped me out. But now we're on the home stretch for this novel as I write Archemi 7. Hope you enjoy the chapter: it's a long one.

-----------------------------------

"We have a lot to cover in this brief, so dial in and listen closely." Lilia looked over our combined ranks, tired but alert. "You are all about to receive your organizationally-mandated info-dump from SEER. We have to move locations, then we’ll get twelve hours for ...

Surprise! A new Archemi Audiobook

You may recall that I wrote Fugitive Status, a novella that bridged Dragon Seed and Trial by Fire, back in 2023.

Well, Soundbooth Theater have recorded Fugitive Status in their customary quality and are giving it away to fans of Archemi for free!

Download an hour and change of cinematic audio from the Soundbooth Theater website and use the code KARALTI100 to get 100% off!

2025-03-18 18:40:23 +0000 UTC View Post

Brief pause for editing, and some art

I need to pause The Black Garden for a week or two while I finish writing and editing the final chapters. The first three-quarters of the manuscript has been edited into its final form (you guys have been reading the alpha draft) and now I need to wrap it all up. We even finally meet Vornn.

If you've noticed that there are some common names between Archemi and Voidhunter - such as the Khememmu species name and Sultir Khememmu of Dakhdir in Archemi, the fact MJ and Hector are both Korean...

The Black Garden: Chapter 25

Neither of us said a word, sprinting back toward the entry bulkhead. Ratty slammed the big door closed behind us. If reinforcements were coming, they would have to run an angry Abyssal drone gauntlet and unlock the door. As I scrambled back up the ladder, Ratty peeled off an explosive charge and threw it to the ground just in front of the entry anyway. Little crab-like legs caught on the floor and gripped it, the sensor on top blinking slowly as it flattened down against the gro...

The Black Garden: Chapter 24

Once a lithium fire got going, it stayed going for as long as it felt like burning. Even the Khememmu kept a safe distance from the straight pillar of flame and black smoke towering into the sky from the remains of the car, surrounded by the barbequed remains of several Hellions.

As always, Ratty and I had to wait for the others to catch up. She and I were the DWO-6 strikers, the first ones in and the last ones out. Gaius was our combat controller, responsible for tactical positioning a...

The Black Garden: Chapter 23

The combined force of Hellions and Nu-suht drones were dug in like ticks. There were only two visible Nu-suht on patrol, easily recognizable by their towering height and elegant, horse-like heads. One carried a pulse rifle perfectly capable of turning me into a fine red mist. The other carried a square antennae-festooned pack similar to Gaius’s, except I had a feeling the Nu-suht’s wasn’t specced for calling orbital support, but rather controlling the many, many drones that patrolled th...

The Black Garden: Chapter 22

I passed out on the trip back, hanging onto Gaius and the flank of one of the big Khem, and woke up in a bed I didn’t recognize. An actual bed, not a stretcher or a sleeping pad in the back of a truck somewhere. I roused to the sound of terse conversation: Lilia and Taga Actual, the big Axuma matriarch, but unconsciousness dragged me under again before I could make out what they were discussing. 

When I next opened my eyes, it was to the view of a swirling earthen roof. I had bee...

The Black Garden: Chapter 21

The Blind Mice had left the big grey sedan almost hanging off the edge of the road, one tire sunk down into the mud. Surprisingly, there was no enemy activity around the vehicle – and with a jolt, I realized that the whole confrontation in the forest had probably taken less than thirty minutes from start to finish. By the time we’d made sure the scene was clear, I was becoming increasingly aware of the load of metal in my ass and left leg. I still had enough gas in the tank to keep the pa...

The Black Garden: Chapter 20

Tsariel could sense it, and led me unerringly in the right direction. As we grew closer, I could feel it: raw waves of malevolent terror. There was no sensation like it—pure malevolence radiating from something that should not exist. It hated us, hated everything in this reality. It also desired it, all of it. To consume it, to fuck it, to destroy it.

The place where the lanterns had fallen warped and fluxed, jagged ridges of earth clawing toward the sky as the dead trees began to sin...

The Black Garden: Chapter 19

Ironically, it was their Gaussian Silencer Field that gave them away. Five lean, deadly figures, sliding through the thick under-canopy like a pack of wolves in a bubble of unnaturally perfect silence. I was a thousand feet away with my helmet on zoom, crouched in one of the trees with thermo-optic camo enabled. I sucked on a piece of candy while I watched them encircle the bike guns-first. My heat signature, respiration, numonic resonance, my connection to the Noosphere, all of it was shut d...

The Black Garden: Chapter 18

I gunned the throttle, blasting between frightened pedestrians at a crossing, running a red light. I swung the bike around at a corner and shot off at a ninety-degree turn faster than the lumbering Cadillac-sized car could ever hope to follow. Tires screeched and people screamed as it did its best anyway, fishtailing through the intersection to roar up the road behind me.

“Got ‘em tagged.” Digger shunted an AR-GPS display into my vision so that I didn’t have to, marking the purs...

The Black Garden: Chapter 17

BRRT BRRT.

I stirred groggily as my morning alarm and several message alerts purred against my inner ear. My lower back was cramped, and I grimaced as I shifted around and my hips clicked. I’d moved the hotel room armchair so that it backed the closed bathroom door and gave me a view of the bed, windows and entry to the suite. My pistol and the now-empty bottle of whiskey sat on a small side table by my elbow. I’d polished it off to help me get to sleep… and  now I h...

The Black Garden: Chapter 16

Dopamine, the primary reward hormone in humans and many other species, didn't last very long - a few minutes at most - while the cocktail of endorphins I'd been drip-feeding Mert would linger for an hour or two. After that, the withdrawals would start. Mert would spend the evening sour-mouthed and depressed. He might even wonder if I’d somehow spiked his beer. But by about ten am the next morning, his testosterone levels would be as high as those of a teenager, while his dopamine would be u...

The Black Garden: Chapter 15

Spicy! 

-----------------

The New Warder Hoffman Memorial Hospital was in one of the poorer areas of the city, close to the road that led to the zoned warehouses that served Vornn Industries’ endless need for logistical transportation. This grey graphene building mostly served the city’s ‘yellows and reds’ – laborers, cleaners, the unemployed, people with minimal or no insurance. It was a complete zoo. The ER waiting area was full of tired, coughing childre...

The Black Garden: Chapter 14

Jak left me to my own devices in the demon-haunted house, where I turned my attention to my little hellspawn friends. I had big plans for them - and no intention of staying in the Confluence residence, as I did not enjoy being murdered in my sleep. Two of the parasite jars went into the quantum locker, to be forwarded to our science corps for analysis. The third I jerry-rigged to one of the cleaning robots that periodically patrolled the house.

“Look at you, Mister Robot! Fancy hat!�...

The Black Garden: Chapter 13

The parasites were like nothing I’d seen before. Despite my need for energy, I almost forgot to eat while I studied the three surviving tadpoles in their now-separate jars. These little champions had eaten all the others, and had grown to about the size of a man’s thumb. They had unpleasant, needle-tipped maws that pulsed and sucked rhythmically as they swam around and around in the murky saline looking for siblings to murder. Their tails were still drill-like, coiling and writhing in way...

The Black Garden: Chapter 12

Jak took us up into the misty green hills, along a narrow rammed-earth driveway and into a small parking lot in front of the Confluence residence: a stunning, organic building that disrupted very little of the surrounding rainforest. A blocky, matte-black armored van crouched to the other side of the lot. Parked horizontally across the short path leading to the entry were a classic blue and white patrol car and a sleek, featureless sedan finished in matte brushed chrome.

“Euun,” I g...

The Black Garden: Chapter 12

Jak took us up into the misty green hills, along a narrow rammed-earth driveway and into a small parking lot in front of the Confluence residence: a stunning, organic building that disrupted very little of the surrounding rainforest. A blocky, matte-black armored van crouched to the other side of the lot. Parked horizontally across the short path leading to the entry were a classic blue and white patrol car and a sleek, featureless sedan finished in matte brushed chrome.

“Euun,” I g...

The Black Garden: Chapter 11

Beside me, Jak zoned in on the road with the intensity of a hunting eagle, flying past the other traffic, putting it between us and our pursuers as we tore up the chargeglass beneath our wheels. My heart sped; I grinned with raw excitement as the car wove around a motorcycle, passed a honking semi, slid between two cars to get into the far-right lane, and then took the exit at near-top speed. Jak cut the sirens there, slowing as we approached the road clearance gate for the city proper. He pu...

The Black Garden: Chapter 10

My mind worked quickly as I smiled at Peggy. "Ohhh, I see. That's just a pre-screen tick from the Medical Corps.”

"Really? Whatever does it mean?" Peggy asked, with a measure of real innocence.

I let out a pleasant warm laugh that made her blush again, even as I turned my focus inward and adjusted the parameters of my central nervous system in readiness for combat. The chemical tweaks left me calm and sharp, keeping my heart rate steady. "Just means I've gone through the backgro...

The Black Garden: Chapter 9

New Warder was a long way from Jump Base Tiamat.

My first leg was to get back on the Fetch Quest: one of CEIDR's two branchships and among the newest, built specifically for stealth in Abyss-contaminated environs. It didn’t resemble any other craft in space. Branchships didn’t dock in the traditional sense. Instead, they extruded from the Void, separated from reality by a numonic membrane so dense they resembled enormous neurons. The writhing, star-shaped mass lacked extern...