a_man_in_black

Loooong Updoots!

First off, I apologize for the lack of updates here on the patreon page. My life has, once again, gone to hell in a handbasket, and while I'm in the discord almost every day, I've been negligent in keeping the rest of yall in the loop on here. We talk so much in the discord chat that it's easy to forget that not all of my patrons hang out there.

So, I got some drama to air out, and some updates on the writing to give. Drama first, and then the good(ish) news...

It started just bef...

Updoots!

The Skybound eBook is on Amazon!

It took three years, but we made it to the end of book two. Between multiple bouts of covid, pneumonia, a diabetes diagnosis, back injuries, and just overall 2021 being an utterly HORRIBLE year, there were many setbacks. I can't put into words how grateful I am for those of you who stuck with me this whole time. Really, I literally would not have survived without all yall's supp...

Skybound - Epilogue: Choices

Kavnerrin Descroix tried, and failed, to stop his chalice of wine from spilling across the desk as the ship lurched yet again. Irritated that he would now have to rewrite the letter he had been working on, he stumbled to his feet and shrugged on his coat. They were just simple logistical reports – rewriting them a task made all the more aggravating by their tedium, as all critical information had been relayed back to the imperial headquarters by way of the nigh-irreplaceable scrying crystal...

Skybound - Chapter 27

Morgan Mackenzie was having an exciting, albeit miserable, day. Although she had blacked out after hitting the barrier, it had only been for a moment or two, because she was still falling when she awoke. Also, screaming, because while she was immune to fire, she was not immune to the pain of having most of the feathers ripped out of her still-new wings. Or exploded out; she wasn't quite sure, but whichever the case, most of them were falling around her like burning black snowflakes. ...

Skybound - Chapter 26: Of Windshields and Twisted Metal

Morgan Mackenzie was soaring above the clouds. Levels in [Windcutter], along with practice, had improved her efficiency with the ability. Less mana spent for more effect made a difference, allowing her to fly higher and faster the second day. Frantic struggles to stay airborne amidst various hostile creatures had also pushed her closer to breakthroughs with the skill. She could now imbue other elements into her feathers, granting new aspects of attack to it. Fire was the easiest for her, of c...

Skybound - Chapter 25: Clippity Cloppity

Morgan Mackenzie was flying. The nature of her flight and the effects of her newest skill, however, beggared attempts to capture them in such a spare word. Urgency compelled her to discard caution and travel under the cover of night despite the risk; the magic she had sensed, and the danger it posed to her friends, drove daggers of fear through her spine. [Soar] wasn't fast enough, and she was burning too much stamina just to maintain her pace. When no new skill suddenly revealed itself, she ...

Skybound - Chapter 24: Getting a Grip

Millie Thatcher sat on a table in the back room of the tent being used as a field hospital, with her arms held straight forward from her body and palms facing down. The [Hand of Solace] had insisted on regular check-ups to make sure the prosthetic was integrating well, and not even the Battlemaster would dare gainsay the duchess on matters of medicine. Lady Erin poked and prodded both her new arm and the old with a contemplative look on her face, and Millie could feel the mana flow from the o...

Skybound - Chapter 23: Bargain Bin Necromancy

Biggleston Percival Worthmeyer the Third was struggling to not soil his robes. His companions were rightfully fearful of the dread apparitions surrounding them, and even more wary of their skeletal mounts. They lacked a Necromancer's attuned senses and innate ability to feel the energies of life and death, however, and thus failed to comprehend even a fraction of the true danger surrounding them. Obsidian bones heaved, triggering a cascade of mundane stone and ice as creatures constructed mor...

Updoots!(actually good news this time)

my health issues are finally looking up. it took a trip to the hospital and a change in doctors, but i've got meds adjusted for blood pressure and for diabetes now. when they checked my A1C back in february when i had covid and pneumonia, it was only "slightly elevated" and i was told to cut back on sugar a bit.

i had some nasty chest pains and a severe headache and ended up in the ER on sunday, and after two days of tests and being poked and prodded continuously(seriously, that cardiac...

Updoots!

Hi!

I know I haven't been on top of the updoots lately. My health has been improving, and as i've been on my feet more i've been tackling a lot of stuff around the house and the yard that i've let grow from inconveniences to actual problems. Lots of cutting brush to clear fences, trimming trees, and trying to save my mother's flower beds from being overgrown. The biggest part of my time has actually been taken up with chickens, of all things.

In an effort to keep herself busy so s...

Skybound - Chapter 22: Free Fallin'

Morgan Mackenzie was falling. Not just falling. She was tumbling through the air, thrashing in undeniable panic as the wind tore at her feathers. All semblance of control vanished as she flapped her wings frantically. Black sky filled her vision for a brief moment as she spun head over heels, a brief glimpse of blue horizon as the turn brought the clouds below back into view. The sudden cold tore through her resistances, chilling her skin despite her magically enhanced protections. For the fi...

Updoots and info!

Covid ain't no joke, folks! Much to my shame i must admit that before my mom and i got sick, i was one of those people who were quick to claim "it's just a flu, bro!".

consider that lesson learned. one of the things i haven't seen anyone talk about is the mental effects that left my head stuffed full of cotton and my thoughts jumbled and nonsensical most of the time. although that may just be the low blood-oxygen levels, i'm not sure. either way, i've never been so sick that i was actua...

Updoots!

Happy New Years, and hopefully this one will be better than 2020. I've been sick, but i'm startin to feel better and felt like it was time to give you guys an update. The holidays knocked me on my arse. Most of my family contracted the covid after our christmas dinner, and that includes me and my mom. None of us have had to go to the hospital, but it certainly sucks worse than the regular flu. Especially with how persistent it is, normally i'm over a flu in 48 hours but right now i've been dr...

Updoots and a shameless plug!

so i passed out last night almost as soon as i got the chapter out. i'm sorry it came out a bit short, but it went through several rewrites and while what i finally shoved out the door was a bit shorter than the original, i feel like it was the appropriate place to cut the chapter. we'll open the next one with morgan learning the minimum basics of flight because her life depends on it, and then we're off to the races! will she catch up with dana and friends before disaster catches up with the...

Skybound - Chapter 21: YEET

Morgan Mackenzie was having a decidedly terrible day. She crouched on one foot, patiently waiting for her other knee to relocate and the tendons to knit themselves back into place. She tried to reach out to steady herself with a hand against the stone wall next to where she had landed, and her left wing snapped out to full extension. The force exerted flung her from the wall into the street to roll up against a fountain, the delicate crystal structure of her new appendages once again...

Updoots!

Greetings new people! and thank you to everyone else for stickin around!

i was going to have the chapter up earlier this week, but i made a serious goof with world physics. the original version was going to have morgan seeing the explosion that resulted from the skyship's encounter at the golem city. i came to my senses when i realized that since they're over 1500 miles apart, any explosion big enough to be seen that far away would be literally world ending. so the second half of the ch...

Updoots! Status and posting schedule info:)

Hey guys. I owe a lot of yall an apology, and some people have left, and that's perfectly understandable. 2020 has been a rough year for all of us, and this past month in particular for me, but that's no excuse for not talkin more about it.

I was trying to write larger chapters, get more content out, and that slowed me down some but would have been understandable if it had worked out. Instead if slowed me down, on top of home stuff throwing wrenches left and right, and i got bogged down...

Skybound - Chapter 20: Claim the Sky

Morgan Mackenzie had no words to describe her day. Shocking revelations about her father had her wracking her brain about the first time she had encountered the old witch. As angry as it made her, she realized Moghren had never stated she did not know the Titan. Everything she had said now seemed true, but vague and lacking critical context. At the time Morgan had been more concerned with learning new magics and caught up in the excitement of her growing power. The memory came unbidden, of he...

Skybound - Chapter 19: Quoth the Raven

Morgan Mackenzie was having a very nice day. Her week had not started out so nice in the beginning. A side effect of proximity to the Titan was a potent drain on ambient mana, limiting her regen and making it difficult to maintain her fire to keep the air around herself warm. It worked out for the best, however. A few days of enduring the bitter chill of the Wildlands winter led to more resistances, and by the end of a week she could endure the biting cold without spending mana t...

Audiobook pre-orders! UPDOOT!

https://www.audible.com/pd/Skyclad-Audiobook/1774244209

Presented without preamble. I'm not too keen on the price being as high as it is, but I also was not expecting the audiobook to be 21 hours long. I don't know if it's a good price point or not, but podium sets that for audible, and not me.

And with that announcement out of the way, I'm back to writan! MOAR MORGAN! HEIL LULU, LOOFAH...

Updoots! and doot ups?

First things first, the big announcement!
Audiobook launches August 4th!
If you've been looking forward to that, the wait is nearly over! I've been quiet about it because I'm new to everything about contracts and NDA's and whatnot, but now that it's getting closer I can actually talk about it.
As for current story news, the next chapter is a Morgan chapter, and the next main arc is morgan getting wings and then rejoining Dana and the skyship, for some shenanigans at the ...

Skybound - Chapter 18: Contagion

Matthias Holman looked around his lab with a sigh. The [Restorative Alchemist] was not dissuaded from his research, even with a siege on. If anything, that would make it all the more imperative that he continue his research. Thousands of experiments and tens of thousands of hours, and he was close. So incredibly close to his goal.

Panacea.

It was a concept that men and women had been chasing since they first realized that some compounds could restore health, ...

Skybound - Chapter 17: [Stormwrought Paladin]

Davin Tillerson was in awe.  Having led half of the available lancers on a mad charge down the road to reinforce his wife's group, he'd held them up at Jenna's signal.  From his position, he'd witnessed the tail end of the desperate fight between Calvin Descroix and the enemy commander.  When he felt the pulse of power from the Battlemaster’s awakening, he started them forward again.  The mixed group of Luparan irregulars and city guard were locked in a whir...

Skybound - Chapter 16: Indomitable

Stev Aras was in the fight of his life. He had bristled, at first, at being given orders by Davin Tillerson -- Expedition was his home, after all -- but he now understood the necessity of it. In the middle of his flight to the gap blasted into the wall by the unholy lightning storm, he was joined by Obadiah Hettle and a number of adventurers from within the city. He'd crossed paths with the axe man a few times since he was a child, and knew the wily old man to be a fears...

Updoots!

I know I've been quiet for a while, I've been truckin along at home trying to get my garden in as food prices go up with the covid stuffs, and I'm worried about havin fresh veggies available later this year. I'm even helpin my mom put in a chicken coop.

As for news, we're getting closer to the audiobook launch, and I'll be linking my facebook and patreon accounts with my amazon author profile page to get ready for podium's marketing push leading up to launch.

The next chapter is a...

Skybound - Chapter 15: Red Chain

Claire Descroix stood at the top of a hill almost a mile from the stone walls and glowing magical dome protecting Fort Expedition. Winter had arrived in wrath and fury, and snow blanketed the plains around the walled city. Patches of dull red and brown slush still marked the devastation of the enemy charge, but it was already thickening in the bitter cold that followed the snowstorm. For all the harshness of the night’s frozen tempest, the brown grasses and packed dirt around h...

Skybound - Chapter 14: Inclement Weather

Terisa Aras sat on the small bunk she shared with Foz, the gleaming, rune-etched form of Althenea spread across a sheet of linen on the desk next to the bed. Space was in short supply on the skyship, but accomodations had to be made for the sheer size of some of their people. The Ursaran in particular were simply too large to stack up in small bunks like the humans or dwarves, and especially not like the few gnomes in the group. The berthing on the skyship was actually more spaci...

Updoots! Audiobook Info!

I have not been very talkative lately. I apologize for that. Some things i can talk about, some things i can't talk about, some things i'm not sure if i can talk about them or not, so, i haz some info!

I've gotten the first iteration of concept art for the new covers for the Skyclad ebook and print versions, and for the audiobook!

these are not final, but they show the direction the illustrator is going for. podium's been pretty awesome takin my feedback and adjusting things, but ...

Skybound - Interlude: The Horse Knight

The Horse Knight wasn’t sure exactly when it became aware of itself as more than what it had once been. It knew that it had existed for eight-hundred and twenty-three days, fifteen hours, and thirteen minutes. It knew its purpose was to be Katherine’s companion and toy and protector, and that the little girl called it the Horsey Knight and sat astride his back as they pranced elegantly around the borders of the small patch of grass behind the master’s house. This was all it...

Skybound - Chapter 13: Reflections of Spirit

Rella trailed a hand through the waters of the fountain, letting the ripples wash the scene away as Jacob Ward collapsed, attended by his wife and the healers of the Black Lance. The satisfaction of his success was tempered by the weight of the lives lost in his wake; thankfully, though, more Deskren fell than did his own forces. There was one possible future, albeit an unlikely one, wherein he did not survive the charge; that fate turned on Jacob taking the bridge, and he casual...