Witches and Ray-Guns

Elementary is now available for purchase.

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• Amazon: ASIN: B0C55S1PWL
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To the one person who downloaded this one from Smashwords before I noticed a mistake: please download the new version. It has a table of contents.

I’m currently writing Elementary which is the eventual outcome of a bunch of ideas I had regarding doing science in a world with magic. It’s got hints of Thaumatology in it, but just hints. It’s been going really well, much better than Starlight did. And then I hit the last section and I can’t figure out how to finish the damn thing!

It’s not so much writer’s block. More like Lego. All the little blocks are firmly connected together and breaking through the wall is driving me nuts. I’m third-guessing myself. I am displacing. I’ll figure it out eventually, but it’s really annoying. I was so close!

At this point, I’m thinking about starting the next Death’s Handmaiden book, because I have the plot for the first section worked out, and hoping that I have a brilliant idea in a week or so.

I hate writer’s block!

Not too many this time. I actually have more characters rendered, but they got slipped to the second book after Rika took a bigger part in this one than expected.

Click on the image to go to the ArtStation collection.

Starlight is now available. This isn’t a long one, so I’ve cut the price a little.

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This is Ai. Ai is going to be appearing in my next book which is currently called Starlight. Unfortunately, due to various reasons including but not limited to catching my worst cold in over a decade (I was this close to getting a COVID test and calling off Christmas with the family!) before Christmas, Ai won’t be on your favoured reading platform until March. I was aiming for early February, but life sometimes sucks.

I know she looks sweet and innocent, but this is Ai in kickass mode…

I hope the extra wait is worth it.

Oh, and Happy New Year. All of you should be in 2023 by now. Unless I have fans in the middle of the Pacific, and even then… Or if you’re Chinese. I think Chinese new year is a few days off (yup, 22nd of Jan). But generally, I wish everyone a nicer 2023 than they had in 2022, even if you had a great 2022.

Click the image above to see the art for this book.

There’s not much there this time. I didn’t feel the need to render much for it.

Demonscourge, the second in the Fallen Goddess series, is out now. Enjoy!

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• Amazon ASIN: B0BNQZB244
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This is your chance to influence me over the next book I write!

Caveats:

• I’ll try to go with your preferences, but if I can’t make it work, I’ll switch.
• If I had a plot for the next book in an existing series, I’d be writing that, not this post. So, please don’t ask.

Okay, I have two book ideas in the works, and I can’t decide which to go with. I sort of have a preference, but I also find myself considering plot elements and world designs for both at random. Really, both are probably good, so I’ll explain them and you can let me know which you’d like to read. I know, the answer is both, but give me a push toward one or the other and it’ll get written first.

The first one is Necromance. Again. I’ve tried to get this LitRPG idea going a few times, both as pure LitRPG and isekai. I think I’ve got it worked out this time, but I’m not far into the development. Features necromancy. Is not an isekai. It’ll mostly be about what goes on in a virtual reality, online RPG, but there will be scenes in the real world with the players. It will not be heavy on the game mechanics, it’s more about actually role playing in an RPG than about becoming an uber-powered gamer.

Second one doesn’t have a name yet. Like many owners of Cyberpunk 2077, the Edgerunners anime on Netflix and then started playing the game again (too much, actually). I developed an urge to write another cyberpunk novel, but the next Tatsu plot is still eluding me, and I also wanted to do something involving a netrunner/hacker character. Tatsu is a hacker, but she has to deal with actual computer systems, not the kind of magical internet that is typical in cyberpunk. And then it struck me: why not have a magical internet? So, this is a book set in a world where there is magic of sorts, but society has developed to the point where it looks more or less like a cyberpunk/near future sort of world, rather than a classical fantasy setting. Cybernetics are replaced by what I’m currently calling golemetics; replacing body parts with artificial components, functioning through enchantment. Magic helmets let ordinary people connect to the virtual world in a way that real-world technology is probably never going to be able to manage. Real magicians are able to hack into computers powered by spirits in seconds instead of hours, and to mess with people’s golemetics in the way 2077 netrunners do with cybernetics, which is entirely unrealistic. (As an ex-programmer, I live with fantasy hacking, but it irks me. I can’t bring myself to write it. Actual magical hacking is fine, however.)

So, there you go. Which would you like to see?

Incidentally, Demonscourge, the next Fallen book will be out in December. The next one, as selected, will be available in February.

Well, it’s Halloween and I did this a couple of days ago, so here you go. What’s Halloween about a Red Riding Hood image? Check out her basket. Oh, and there’s the eyes…

The character (with a bit more hair) may be appearing in a future book, but she doesn’t usually wear this outfit. She may, at least sometimes, have those eyes.

I never did an art dump for this book. Now I have. Click on the image to see it.