[LIKE] - [COMMENT] - [SHARE] NOTE: these links point to Substack. Rain does little to conceal the horrors of men. It may wash the blood, but it cannot take the bones or the rotting flesh of the dead. This is not the first battlefield I see—nor shall it be the last—but each one pains me more than the previous. I find joy in this. For what once would have meant nothing to me, now shakes me to my soul. I pause at the thought. A soul. Perhaps that is what I lacked to be human. Do these new...
20 days ago • 24 min read
[LIKE] - [COMMENT] - [SHARE] - NOTE: these links point to Substack! Greetings from the Xen’in Universe. I posted this on Substack at the beginning of the month, so I'm running several weeks late on Kit, sorry about that! That's why you got January's story last week, and you'll get this month's next week and the February recap the following Wednesday. After that, we should be back on track. So, I mentioned last time that I’d sold a poem to a new magazine called The Hillsather Press. After a...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
[LIKE] - [COMMENT] - [SHARE] NOTE: these links point to Substack! 4 November 974 The wood creaks always, like souls scratching at the fabric of their prisons. Sometimes I hear them calling my name, wailing, and I recoil into my brother’s arms. His presence soothes me. But I only hear it—the wood—when my mind is a void... Not today. Today, I watched through the window, from the study, under the reproachful gaze of my mother, as the first snows draped the fields. Gone are the bluebells and the...
about 2 months ago • 18 min read
[LIKE] - [COMMENT] - [SHARE] - NOTE: these links point to Substack! Greetings from the Xen’in Universe—and a Happy New Year to all! I hope the festivities weren’t too rough. They weren’t exactly easy over here, as my father sadly passed away on December 22nd. He was 91, mind you, and had Alzheimer’s, so it’s not like it came as a big surprise, but the timing was terrible (the funeral was on the 30th and there were only like 6 people attending) and it’s sad to think that this man, who was in...
3 months ago • 3 min read
[LIKE] - [COMMENT] - [SHARE] NOTE: these links point to Substack! They crawled away from the light, deeper into the narrow vent. Laughter rang from below, while the scent of cinnamon cakes teased their nostrils. The two orphans had done this before. They were nimble and quiet, and quite good at going unnoticed—all qualities that made them skilled at their chosen profession. Kelle held the pendant tightly in her fist, using her knees and shoulders to push herself forward. She could see the...
4 months ago • 23 min read
[LIKE] - [COMMENT] - [SHARE] NOTE: these links point to Substack! Greetings from the Xen’in Universe! Can’t believe it’s December again already. Where does time go when we’re not looking? Wait. There’s a story there, isn’t there? I can feel it. *takes mental note* Anyway… November was a much better month word-wise than the previous, though not quite as good as September. I ended up writing 56,124 words. That included two short stories (both of which I published right here on Substack), half...
4 months ago • 5 min read
[LIKE] - [COMMENT] - [SHARE] NOTE: these links point to Substack! PREFACE: Reikk returns in this crazy adventure where he has to confront… a god? Oh boy, this is not going to end well, is it? Oh, and fair warning: the opening is a tidbit graphic! The sun-drenched valley assaulted my senses with all its gory details. A slaughter had come for a stroll—dismembered bodies sprawled across the ground, with blood soaking the earth and grass. Frightened horses neighed nearby. I dismounted from mine,...
5 months ago • 24 min read
[LIKE] - [COMMENT] - [SHARE] NOTE: these links point to Substack! Greetings from the Xen’in Universe! I have a lot of news to report this month, but let us begin with the traditional word count recap. While September was a high (76,390 words) October was a low (25,640). The main reason for this was that I spent two weeks prepping Book 2 of the Dragon Dice trilogy I’m writing for TreeShaker Books. I ran into many issues while writing Book 1 that made the process both painful and unnecessarily...
5 months ago • 4 min read
[LIKE] - [COMMENT] - [SHARE] NOTE: these links point to Substack! PREFACE: And so we return to eddo Silius. This installment is more of a transitional one. It sets up a lot of little details that will play a role later in the series. And while it should theoretically work as a standalone, this one relies a lot more on what was established previously. So I strongly encourage you to read the previous four stories before this one—and it all started here. XXX. Today, I bought a new house. It...
6 months ago • 24 min read