Forty Years
They told me I would die when I was forty.
Writer
Fiction
Petrolandia – A Mighty Combination
“I am on a mighty combination of heroin and speed,” the kid said, licking his lips as an older guy walked in past him and made a beeline for the coffee. “And I need Prime Time.” Prime Time was a cheap brand of flavored cigarillos …
Petrolandia – The Job Description
I’d been writing freelance for film and television before the crash. It was a gray market job, the sort of thing that anyone with a lick of sense would have avoided, but I was young and foolish then, not like the old and foolish person …
Petrolandia – A Man and His Son
It was one thirty in the morning when they came in. It’d been a quiet night and I’d fallen into the lull, letting my guard down after too many hours where nothing had happened. I glanced up from my laptop as they entered – the …
Night and Tree
“You’ve been following me.” The words were said in a careful neutral tone. He looked up from his book and into her eyes, sighing and noting the page before putting it aside. To her ears he seemed more annoyed than ashamed, breath swollen with words …
Considering Star Trek
Video – the final frontier. This is a think piece about Star Trek. The franchise mission – to present thoughtful, nuanced explorations of science philosophy, to inspire a better future for all living peoples, to boldly hope for a world better than this one. Or, …
The Broken World – Hooves
Centaurs. He did not know where he had heard the word, but he knew it from somewhere. Horses whose heads had been replaced with the torsos, arms, and heads of men or women. These atrocities, though, were not headed by men and women but by …
THE BROKEN WORLD – Thunder
The forest stretched on as far as Avaescent could see – twisted branches beseeching the heavens, clouds heaving like waves in a storm. Gale winds whipped his face with leaves and twigs, rainwater pressing like glass slivers against his cheeks. The first bolt of lightning …
The Broken World – Run
Avaescent ran through the dark and the rain. Lightning curled into the clouds above him, sparking white through the twisting canopy and allowing droplets carried by howling winds to paint his flesh. The flashing light did not harry him, the dark hiding nothing from his …
God of Comics – Rose #7
Rose #7 (Image Comics) Ooo… fantasy trifecta. We’ve gone from a reconstruction of fantasy tropes with an eye towards gender identity and politics to a deconstruction of the cost of prophecy in both urban and classic fantasy worlds and come all the way to this, …
The Broken World – Awakening
The cold water raked across his bare flesh like a lover’s fingernails, drawing shaking breath from tired lungs. His eyes blinked back tears as he curled into himself, the muck and shattered masonry below him seething against his skin. He opened his eyes, kept them …
Capture – Always Faithful
The firelight flickers, a solitary figure huddled near it on the mountainside. The storm shatters the mountaintop, unknown powers unleashed above, but the figure does not look towards the breaking stone; instead, he cares for the shelter he has cobbled together and the fire it …
Capture – Twilight Kingdoms
“I’m looking for Ja Dathi,” the newcomer said. She was trying to keep her voice steady, but the one so named heard that little quiver of fear. It was a sensible thing for her to feel. She had come to one of the cities of …
Capture – Ebony Traditions
The Traditionalist had stopped in the middle of the road, mumbling to herself. Her sister looked at her and sighed; she had not been born able to speak with spirits, but was long used to the signs of spirit-speaking. Taking her sister by the hand, …
Capture – Jagged Shield
The Traditionalist faltered and fell to her knees. The young Shield stood over her, feeling the grin that split his features as she fell, the sweat that worked its way over his musculature. He towered over her as she crawled in the dust at his …
Capture – the Gentle Consortium
“Interesting.” The doctor walked away from her patient, sitting down at her desk, turning to her notes while tapping her temple with one finger. She stared at the long thread of information, adding another line, weaving it around the nails in her wall, taking care …
Capture – Grassland Nomads
She made certain to appear unimpressed as she entered the temple. Twelve Emperors ruled the Empire of Sand and Stars and all sought hints of weakness from those they dealt with. They made slaves of those they thought weak, and she knew they thought they …
God of Comics – Jughead: The Hunger #2
Jughead: The Hunger #2 (Archie Comics) I’ve mentioned before that everyone has Archie comics somewhere. Growing up, they were unavoidable – even people that didn’t like comics had them. Even people that didn’t like comics had them. They percolated through houses and minds alike, infesting …
Capture – the Candle Cult
“Do you wanna be infected?” the man asked, pressed against the wall, his skin slick with sweat and eyes glossy. Even paces away, the boy could feel the heat radiating off the man. “Come on. You know you want to. Be another vector. Just a …
Capture – Nation of Scribes
How long had it been since she’d slept? She could no longer remember. Stacks of books towered over her, distant arched ceilings, covering the sky and making any measurement of time impossible. There was merely one scroll followed by the next, lore traced from ages …
Capture – Empire of Sand and Stars
The Emperor sat in shadows, watching the play of starlight on the floor before him. His throne was at the top of a grand temple, his throne in the black of an overhang. He glanced up at the stars, careful to avoid their light, speaking …
Capture – Web Walkers
He awoke when the spider’s legs scittered across his side. He opened his eyes a slit, staring at the large arachnid as it opened the webbing that held him, pushed itself inside and moved closer to his face. He groaned and rolled over, batting at …
World of Mercedes Ketch – Goblin King Rising
Below the homes and below the streets there is a place where vermin dream, where castoffs live and work and breathe – where nothing is what it seems. Here is where the worst go to thrive, where fever dreams are kept alive. The hidden and …
World of Mercedes Ketch – Perfect in Flaws
Persephone had long retreated into the underworld, and Everett believed that the place she entered the underworld from was Toronto. Cold and polite, the gray apple, the chill in the air seeping into people’s minds and hearts. It’s why he liked Toronto; the sense of …
Love is War 03:00:03:09
*** Read the First Chapter Read the Previous Entry *** – 03:00:03:09 – Iataad taohif aamgae. None may escape. Those were the words her House had been built upon. The very first Vanir to bear their name had looked up at the stars and pointed, …
Love is War 03:00:03:08
*** Read the First Chapter Read the Previous Entry *** – 03:00:03:08 – Figo Jera had always seen the world for its light. In his eyes, everything was beautiful. Everything had meaning. There were darker shades but they were perversions, not true things in and …
Love is War 03:00:03:07
*** Read the First Chapter Read the Previous Entry *** – 03:00:03:07 – The woman was an idiot. That was the only explanation. Veskur and Thea had been in constant communication for decades, the letters they shared so much shorter than they once had been …
Love is War 03:00:03:06
*** Read the First Chapter Read the Previous Entry *** – 03:00:03:06 – A month passed and Veskur had not yet replied to any of the messages that Endrall had sent her. Sotaas not responding to him he could kind of understand; the man was …
Love is War 03:00:03:05
*** Read the First Chapter Read the Previous Entry *** – 03:00:03:05 – Veskur Wyrd wore the very power of creation itself on her hand. The gaurn she had crafted made the world around her a loom, each thread something that she could pull at, weave, color, …
Love is War 03:00:03:04
*** Read the First Chapter Read the Previous Entry *** – 03:00:03:04 – There were moments, so many small moments, where Endrall missed Veskur. He didn’t understand why the woman just couldn’t keep her mouth shut and accept whatever treatment he chose to give her. …
Love is War 03:00:03:03
*** Read the First Chapter Read the Previous Entry *** – 03:00:03:03 – Sotaas watched as it all unfolded. There was nothing that could be hidden from him, not a moment that passed that he was unaware of. Oh, the warlords of the Coeecians thought …
Love is War 03:00:03:02
*** Read the First Chapter Read the Previous Entry *** – 03:00:03:02 – “Are you doing okay?” Risue asked, looking at the ragged woman that stood beside him. “I’m fine,” Veskur whispered. “Fine.” Risue was polite enough to say nothing. He knew all about Veskur …
Love is War 03:00:03:01
*** Read the First Chapter Read the Previous Entry *** – 03:00:03:01 – Thea had yelled and yelled at her, calling her a coward, a hypocrite, a liar. He had belittled everything she was while telling her again and again that they were meant to …
Love is War 03:00:02:09
*** Read the First Chapter Read the Previous Entry *** – 03:00:02:09 – Endrall tended to the wounded. It was what he did out on the front lines, far from where his father’s long shadow would drape over him. He worked under an assumed name …
Love is War 03:00:02:08
*** Read the First Chapter Read the Previous Entry *** – 03:00:02:08 – Veskur was tired, isolated, alone. She had never minded being alone before Figo had come into her life, had handled being alone quite well, but now that she was used to basking …
Love is War 03:00:02:07
*** Read the First Chapter Read the Previous Entry *** – 03:00:02:07 – It was a strangeness, to be sure. Sotaas was uncertain how he felt about it, especially at first. There was a closeness between Veskur and Endrall that he didn’t want to get …
Love is War 03:00:02:06
*** Read the First Chapter Read the Previous Entry *** – 03:00:02:06 – Every time he said Sotaas’ name, Endrall shone. Veskur watched this with amusement at first, catching Endrall in his darkest moments and mentioning the wandering Ygg noble’s name, smiling herself when the …
Love is War 03:00:02:05
*** Read the First Chapter Read the Previous Entry *** – 03:00:02:05 – Where was he? Where was his darling child, his perfect son, the weapon that he had raised so perfectly? Lately he’d been acting like a dryw and Sahr sometimes wondered whether the child was …
Love is War 03:00:02:04
*** Read the First Chapter Read the Previous Entry *** – 03:00:02:04 – Risue Nihm of House Elhaz was one of the best politicians in his family. He could talk and negotiate, carried himself with an air of confidence that often rolled right over lesser …
Love is War 03:00:02:03
*** Read the First Chapter Read the Previous Entry *** – 03:00:02:03 – The Vanir held a beauty that Veskur never would have guessed at. She had found wonder in mathematics, in ritual and form, in her countless theories and the frozen world that surrounded …
Love is War 03:00:02:02
*** Read the First Chapter Read the Previous Entry *** – 03:00:02:02 – There was so very much to learn. Sotaas Ygg was one of the greatest minds of his House, a friendly quiet sort who got on well with everyone. His House had given …
Love is War 03:00:02:01
*** Read the First Chapter Read the Previous Entry *** – 03:00:02:01 – Life was a whirlwind of passion, sensation, joy. This was a truth that Endrall Sahr had long believed and now that he was beginning to venture out from underneath his father’s shadow …
Love is War 03:00:01:09
*** Read the First Chapter Read the Previous Entry *** – 03:00:01:09 – Thea’s plan was perfect. It was going perfectly. He had spoken about it with River many times over. He would come up and live with the Lady Wyrd and she would recognize …
Love is War 03:00:01:08
*** Read the First Chapter Read the Previous Entry *** – 03:00:01:08 – “She is insane, you know,” Farrell said, lazy and smiling. “She cannot be trusted.” Farrell had returned to House Suwilo following his incarceration at the hands of the Coeecians, the same period …
Love is War 03:00:01:07
*** Read the First Chapter Read the Previous Entry *** – 03:00:01:07 – There were many warm mornings for Figo in the northern climes. He’d wake up and find Veskur nestling beside him, the madness that drove her in waking banished when fatigue finally overtook …
Love is War 03:00:01:06
*** Read the First Chapter Read the Previous Entry *** – 03:00:01:06 – Veskur Wyrd sometimes looked at other couples in love and saw that they often lived together. Her mother and father, for instance, had lived with one another for all of Veskur’s life. …
Love is War 03:00:01:05
*** Read the First Chapter Read the Previous Entry *** – 03:00:01:05 – River eased out of the carriage, straightened his jacket and slung his bow over his shoulder. The weapon was a trophy from when he had raided the Coeecians hordes as a boy. …
Love is War 03:00:01:04
*** Read the First Chapter Read the Previous Entry *** – 03:00:01:04 – Deeam Wsael, the Apparent of House Wynn, studied the ballroom around him with his usual aloof demeanor. He had made a study of contented stoicism, achieving in that air a perfection that all …
Love is War 03:00:01:03
*** Read the First Chapter Read the Previous Entry *** – 03:00:01:03 – Figo Jera vomited into the basin that Jesam had left in his chamber. The Coeecian warlord had claimed the keep that Figo had been put in charge of when he had claimed Figo, …
Love is War 03:00:01:02
Click here to read previous entry. – 03:00:01:02 – They called her the Golden Champion. Hekro Gherlid of House Gebo had lost count of the soldiers that had come to her and told her that they believed they would survive this war only because …
Love is War 03:00:01:01
– 03:00:01:01 – A storm was coming, the kiss of it cresting the horizon. Lady Veskur Wyrd watched the gathering clouds for a time, trying to remember if the storm was something she had called. She did not remember and could not think of a …