The King met the party of travelers at the border, where the Silverthorn Gates had been replaced by a simple white picket fence, notably without a gate. Oberon stood ten feet behind the fence. Five feet behind him were a row of his royal guard in enchanted plate armor with spear and shield. Four ...
2023-09-25 04:11:29 +0000 UTC View PostSomeone in an author's forum asked about books to read if they hadn't read much fantasy. This was the answer off the top of my head and includes some of my favorites.
Who fears the Devil by Manly Wade Wellman..
(A collection of his Silver John short stories of weird things happening in ...
The screams of pain subsided as the cold iron disappeared, replaced by the roar of battle and the spectacle of holy fire roaring from the skies. Finally, there was a moment of silence, where anyone with a bit of drama to their soul knew fateful words were being spoken before someone met their end...
2023-09-24 00:27:32 +0000 UTC View PostSomehow Grammarly is down, and I can't do my normal editing on this chapter. So here it is with possibly some grammar errors or needing some word tweeks.
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"LLAMA??! This is where LLAMA came from?"
When Milo and his siblings had been hacking banks and corp...
The underlying problem that the unknown engineer had was a lack of power. He'd been surrounded by ways to store power, generate power, and move energy. But he had a chicken and egg problem. To start the big diesel engines, he needed enough power to run their air compressors to build enough pressu...
2023-09-19 22:02:03 +0000 UTC View PostThe small adventuring party of one engineer, one brave Roomba scout, and a train of crawling support vehicles made their way through darkened tunnels filled with gasses unsuitable for supporting life. No one in the party seemed concerned about this, even the weakest link with biological lungs tha...
2023-09-18 04:49:00 +0000 UTC View PostPart of the fun of writing science fiction is looking at where current science is and where it's headed. At the start of Butcher, I was amazed at what a current quantum computer could do. We can't even measure how fast they are now. It was an easy step to see how an AI could generate an entire wo...
2023-09-17 18:20:26 +0000 UTC View PostRather than leave you hanging from yet another cliff, here's the next chapter a little early.
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The enraged bug flew at Midnight, intending to take off her head with a razor-sharp wing-tip, but the slash was shallow, cutting from the collarbone and along the ...
A few moments before the spiteful attack on a loyal hound...
Oberon felt the strain of controlling the myriad conflicting agendas swirling around him. What had begun as a casual lark and a chance to get out of the palace started sliding towards the chaos where things that weren't ...
"I desire flame-etched rubies, enough to fill a bathtub. Pearls of white, gold, and black from the giant oysters of the smoke. Blackened wood staves filled to the brim with Smoke and Corruption. The breath of a cyclone, the flesh of a kraken, and cutting of the strangling weed."
Ozzy looke...
Emotions ran high at the lands that divided those of the High King and Duchess Midnight. Oberon positioned his camp in the middle of the area, a stone's throw from the Silverthorn Gates. A green silk tent with golden trim covers the entirety of his camp, and a banquet hall sits in the center wher...
2023-09-13 04:00:17 +0000 UTC View PostThe road made of white paving stones stretched ahead of Ozzy, winding through green hills topped with thorn vines bearing red and purple clusters of fruit and small blue flowers. Birds circled overhead of several types. Occasionally, a bird would descend to feed, carefully landing on the bushes a...
2023-09-11 20:55:51 +0000 UTC View PostA little short, but I like where it ended. More importantly, I know exactly how it leads into 249, and starting that chapter now, and setting up for a Butcher chapter or three.
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Things were the same as when he had left. The hallways were dark and filled wit...
The trip down took Milo several hours. Shepherding two cargo haulers loaded with supplies was much slower than just running through the tunnels with several drones. The tunnel floors were rough, and even with a steep six percent grade, there was a lot of horizontal movement to get down to the lev...
2023-09-10 19:08:58 +0000 UTC View PostI meant to write all last night, but lack of sleep coupled with relief of being done with the first book resulted in an early crash. I'm writing the next Tunnel Rat chapter tonight and tomorrow, then the next Butcher chapter. Ideally, some of that gets up before Sunday. Then, Sunday will be devot...
2023-09-09 00:48:43 +0000 UTC View PostI've just sent the first volume of Tunnel Rat off to Aethon Books. There's still some time until it will head to KU, so I can post the files here for those interested. It's still the same essential story with small things changed and several awkward things removed, more foreshadowing added for ev...
2023-09-07 21:57:43 +0000 UTC View PostAs several weary travelers approached the domain of Duchess Midnight, the crowd surrounding gates parted to let them pass. Several hundred Fae Lords and Ladies were present, many bringing an entourage of knights or a small battalion of bodyguards. The Court of the High King was eventually so depl...
2023-09-04 00:51:49 +0000 UTC View PostAs he hurried through the main air duct between Section E and Section H, Milo wondered just when he had gone from being bored with all the time in the world to having no time at all and too many jobs. The nature of the buried building and its treasures weighed heavily on his mind, and he desperat...
2023-09-03 17:48:00 +0000 UTC View PostSuzette was enjoying a series of history books that the dogs had found on a lower shelf. The unknown author had spared no one from their sarcastic accounts of petty plots, revenge, and maneuvering at court. Each of the great houses had a separate chapter devoted to their transgressions, with intr...
2023-09-01 01:28:36 +0000 UTC View PostTraveling across Section E to Section H wasn't a problem. Butch and the gang had previously traveled the corridors and stairways, moving all over the section to attend swap meets for games and tournaments and just hanging out with other people their age. As long as you traveled in a group, stayed...
2023-08-29 01:45:49 +0000 UTC View PostThe Duchess quickly grew bored with her newest captive. The girl alternated between trying to put on a show of bravely ignoring her and begging for her release. But the blubbering and begging was mundane and pitiful. Any threat seemed to scare the half-breed, making threatening her not worth the ...
2023-08-28 03:52:02 +0000 UTC View PostThe simulacrum of thorns shifted, leaves and vines moving in a horrible way until it took the seeming of Duchess Midnight, posture and voice included. She stared at Alwyn.
"You have grown too bold, little lord. Did you think your arrogance and recent success would shield you from my ire? I...
The word sat on the screen, blinking. Milo stared at it. Every other part of this facility was dead, with no power, and filled with a neutral gas that couldn't be breathed. Yet this room had power and possibly a working operating system that had noticed him as he entered.
[Would you like ...
Duchess Midnight, The Graceful Lady of Silent Daggers, was roused from her brooding by a messenger. He seemed resigned to his fate as he morosely marched into the room, bowing, kneeling, and finally prostrating before her. She gestured, and barbed thorns restrained him in that position, crushing ...
2023-08-20 02:43:30 +0000 UTC View PostNothing going on this weekend except writing and walking the dog. Lots of time to write. I am working tonight on the next Butcher chapter and will follow that up with another Butcher chapter and at least one Milo chapter. Can't leave you all hanging on the edge of that cliff.
If all goes well,...
A little rough around the edges. I've had trouble writing lately. Trying to cut out bread and sugar from my diet and that puts me in a state where some days I'm tired, and the words flow like tar. I solved that tonight by cheating with two bottles of mountain dew. The sugar rush is exquisite.
After a fine meal of tacos, Milo was unsure what to do. Rather than keep playing without Belinda, he paid for a room at the inn next to where he'd just eaten and logged out of the game. He sent a message to Butch about visiting Belinda the next day and then put some time into solving a puzzle tha...
2023-08-13 22:46:09 +0000 UTC View PostHuck cursed as the pain hit, and the dogs looked up, wondering what was going on. He pulled the fork out of his aching arm and wrapped it in the gauze bandage after dousing it with alcohol. The disinfectant stung like hell as well. He couldn't feel it anymore, all the protection was gone, and the...
2023-08-13 18:22:19 +0000 UTC View PostWhile he hated the idea of going back outside, Huck needed some things. At least he could turn on the porch lights now and look out the windows first. He left the table jammed between the two doors and went out the front. Houses were close together in this part of town. A side yard was the three ...
2023-08-13 06:10:16 +0000 UTC View Post"So you can see that everything is going to depend on location. My great-grand'ther used to say, "The three most important things for a successful bridge are location, location, and location." He's been gone these last three centuries, but his words still come back to me. When I was a young briga...
2023-08-13 04:03:38 +0000 UTC View Post