Word Witch News

End of September Update

9/30/2020

This past month has been a pretty intense rollercoaster in just about every way. My orders have gone from next to nothing to nearly record-breaking days. I started the month writing new blurbs for the Joan Hudson series, trying to rework another series, to starting a new pen name, and having a strong response to the new book. I’m dizzy from it all.

About the new pen name; Penny Red Pulp. I decided to branch off my erotic series Tales of Marchand Pass to the new name. There is a downside to having a large body of genre varied work, and that’s: where does a new reader start? With almost 40 titles now, it can be not very clear. This is why I started Penny Red Pulp. When you read the titles under that name, you know what you’re getting into; erotica.

Each of the stories in the Erotic Office Series will take place in the same environment but follow different characters, similar to Tales of Marchand Pass. This way, you can start anywhere you like in the series and enjoy it without having to worry about a lot of background and lore.

Currently, I’m working on a new Tales of Marchand Pass story. The title hasn’t been finalized yet, but you can look forward to an October release. Right now, my current plan is to release a Penny Red Pulp title once per month. This may change depending on future life complications, but I’m doing my best.

As an aside on Penny Red Pulp, I added a paragraph in the author's bio that explains my outlook on writing and publishing dark erotic material.

“There is nothing shameful about sexual fantasies, and while the content of the stories Penny writes can stray into the realm of the shocking and frightful, remember, these stories are fictional. They’re not instruction manuals on how to attain or practice these fetishes in the real world; for fictional characters, the only consequences they face are also fictional. These stories are meant to be conducive towards the safe exploration of taboo sexual fantasies within the safety of words and imagination.”

Cavern of the Writhing Floor: Character Biography 2

9/5/2020

Kelsie Copper Series Book 1
Dominic Schropp: The Old Solider

Born in the capital city of Skargan in the Kingdom of Longstan, Dominic Schropp was born to a small merchant family who owned a small general store. His mother had a troubled pregnancy but was able to slowly recover in their second-floor residence above the store.

His mother raised him, and by the age of six, he was helping downstairs with his family’s business. Even as a small child, he showed a temperament to do menial work that would aid him in his life. Along with cleaning, he would also help restock light items on the lower shelves closer to the floor.

Their family life was a relatively happy one until his mother became pregnant again when he was nine years old. While his mother was relegated to the bed, more was expected of the young Dominic. It was given to him not only to clean their living space and help in the store but also to cook with verbal instructions from his mother.

While all of this was difficult for him to handle, he set about his tasks with a seriousness and dedication beyond his few years. It also gave him something to set his mind to in order to distract from the worry for his mother and watching his father sink further and further into depression and alcohol.

At the age of ten, both his mother and his would-be sister died in childbirth. This was devastating to both Dominic and his father. While Dominic suffered in silence, his father relied more on alcohol and ventured into gambling to distract him from his pain.

By the age of eleven, Dominic was working to keep the store running while trying to take care of his father. His family’s reputation suffered as customers noticed the absence of his father and heard the rumors of his shameful drunken exploits throughout the city, which caused business to dwindle.

It was in this same year that his father bet the store and lost. Now without any income or a place to live, Dominic and his father were thrown to the streets. Unable to stand the sight of his father after this final betrayal of their familial ties, he left his father to his fate and began begging and trying to find odd jobs to survive.

This continued for two years, with only a single, short reprieve when an alcoholic widow twenty years his senior took him in. While she was verbally abusive, often intoxicated, and occasionally attempted to seduce him she did provide shelter and food for his work around the house.

After two months, she sold him to a group of mercenaries. During the evening, she entertained a few of these men in her home, making Dominic cook and clean for them. After bedding each of these men in loud fits of ecstasy, and their revelry was over, she collected the gold. The men greeted Dominic, bound him after a short struggle, and took him away.

Leaving the city of Skargan, they traveled for weeks, taking Dominic far from everything he’d ever known. As he had for his family and the widow, he cooked and cleaned for this band of rough, brutal mercenaries. The hard work, however, did not deter him. Knowing he didn’t have much chance of surviving in the new lands they went to, he decided to stay rather than to run away. Over time, they also taught him how to fight and how to use a sword. Three years after having been sold into their captivity, he was allowed to participate in some of the work the mercenaries were hired for.

After a year of working part-time as a mercenary, when he was seventeen, the band was hired to ransack a small settlement. The noble who hired them had informed them of the wealth they could find there but left out that the people living there were dying of a mysterious illness. After a week, only Dominic and a few others around his age were left alive.

Together, they traveled back to Skargan and joined the military. Along with the money they took from the dead mercenary band and the regular work they now had as soldiers and city guards, they were able to establish themselves, purchasing homes, and starting families.

At the age of eighteen, Dominic met and married the daughter of a widower named Emma. They found a deeper emotional connection over their shared experiences of losing their mothers at a young age and having to take care of an unappreciative and alcoholic father.

Within a year, and in the following two years, the couple had three children, all daughters. When he was twenty-three, they had their first son and final child. Although they had some difficulties adjusting to their young married life with so many children so quickly, they had a relatively happy life.

Dominic had regular work and an affectionate wife who took care of the house and their children, and Emma was devoted to a man who appreciated her and provided a comfortable life for her and their children. The future looked bright and welcoming, which was a heavy contrast to the lives they’d had up until their time together.

Work as a soldier for Longstan saw relatively little danger. Other than being sent to handle bandits or occasional skirmishes with neighboring kingdoms, there hadn’t been a full-scale war for centuries. With the power and influence of the Heimio people wandering the lands, they were able to force the many countries to remain on relatively peaceful terms.

Through the years, the group that survived the mercenary band stayed close. The holidays and children’s birthdays were celebrated together, along with weekly get-togethers for the men at their local tavern. The wives also got together often for tea, and this sense of community kept the families tightly knit together.

When he was thirty-six years old, a war on the scale none living had ever seen was declared. The western kingdoms had formed a coalition to fight an equally powerful collection of eastern kingdoms. Half a million soldiers were gathered to face off with sword and shield. Although none of these low ranking soldiers knew, all these men were gathered to fight, but not who they initially thought. As expected, the Heimio gathered in numbers rarely seen. In fact, it was roughly eighty percent of all adults of their people.

The order was given, and the powerful but few in number (comparatively to the hundreds of thousands of coalition soldiers) were targeted. The battle was nightmarish and beyond imagination for many of the commoners who’d never seen the magical prowess of the Heimio. While Dominic lost his eye, almost had the side of his face crushed, and his lower leg lost, each of his beloved friends died in battle. Each losing their life to a summoned demon and suffered a horrific death.

Dominic’s unlikely survival was followed by a lengthy recovery time. During this year, his wife and children were forced to work to support the family by any means they could. A couple of the wives of his friends had to resort to prostitution to support their own families.

Traumatized by his experiences, Dominic was a changed man. His nights were plagued by constant nightmares, seeing his body wither to monsters, and his friends torn asunder on the field of battle. Like his father before him, he turned to alcohol to cope. With drink and an unstable mental state, he began abusing his wife and children.

At the age of thirty-nine, after a night of heavy drinking, he beat and yelled at his wife and children worse than ever before. His eldest daughter, Kelly Ann, who had recently turned down another marriage proposal to continue supporting her family, took up a cooking pan and defended her family.

With the sound of sobbing from the rest of the family, she threw him out. After a month of sleeping rough and unable to convince them to take him back, he left the city and the family he’d betrayed. Once he was gone, the families of the widows and Dominic’s wife pooled their resources and lived together to better their chances for survival.

After months of wandering, Dominic came to the town of Breeches Rack. The town often hired traveling workers, and so hired him. While the work was harsh, breaking rocks in the heat of the sun or the cold of winter, he made a new lonely life for himself.

At the age of forty-three, he was drinking at the Stone Picker’s Inn, as he often did, when one of the few remaining wandering Heimio, named Kelsie Copper, showed up in the tavern.

End of August Update

8/31/2020

August was a difficult month that saw very little time for writing. The beginning of the month started off slowly with mixing administrative duties along with squeaking in a few hours here and there to get some writing done.

At the time, I hadn’t had it in my head of the things I needed to do later in the month. I was working on my next release, which is a story in my greater Hadrian Empire works, but I was also working on this website and several formatting details for my kindle books.

And then, I received an email. An event I’ve exhibited at yearly for the past 8 or 9 years had been canceled, but an online version was set to go on the last weekend of August. I had known this was coming, but with everything going on, I’d forgotten about everything I needed to do to prepare for it. And it was a lot.

For my other work, I craft things, and sadly I’d neglected my online store. It took two weeks of fourteen-hour workdays to make, photograph, and list everything I made to not only prepare for the event but also to update my store. It was a huge undertaking, and I didn’t have any extra time to write through all of it, which means I’ve not been able to work on my next release.

However, over the weekend (admittedly double-timing the event), I worked on a few short projects. The first was the speculative article on Mary Ann Nichols and was followed by two more biographies on characters in Cavern of the Writhing Floor. They will be the final post-release additions to the story. The first will be a biography on the Old Soldier, one of the antagonists to Kelsie Copper. The second will be the story behind Queen Aterkarina and the Burrowing Queen Slug.

Since these are finished, I can say that the Old Solider Biography will be released on September 5th, and the Queen Aterkarina Biography will be released on October 3rd.

Today In History: Mary Nichols & What we can Learn as Writers

8/31/2020

A woman named Mary Ann Walker was born in London on the 26th of August, 1845. She wasn’t a person of societal importance until later in her life. She was a flawed woman who lived among other flawed people.

At the age of 18, she was married to a machinist named William Nichols. Together they had five children, between the years of 1866 and 1879, starting when she was 20-21 years old until she was 33-34 years old.

In early September 1880, aged 35, Mary and William separated. This was possibly due to a number of factors; her husband may have been cheating on her with the nurse who was present at the birth of her last child, or it was due to Mary having developed an addiction to alcohol. He claimed, later, that she’d abandoned the family.

From what I’ve read, it’s not known as to why she started drinking heavily. However, we can speculate as to possible reasons based on what we know of her and her environment. They weren’t well to do, having to live with Mary’s father for some years. As a woman, Mary was unable to own property or control any finances, or even have a bank account unless her husband was involved, so she had very little recourse if her husband were to cheat on her or abuse her.

They also had five children together. Keep in mind that in that era, one in 200 women died during childbirth. Even today, people who live in poverty, especially among women of color, face a much higher mortality rate in childbirth than those with more resources.

Pregnancy and childbirth are not easy on the body, and she could’ve had injuries and infections that may not have healed well. It wasn’t until the 1870’s that surgeons began washing their hands, so the conditions she may have given birth in were nothing like what we’d see today.

I could see very well why a woman might start drinking to cope with so many children, possible pain and injury from pregnancy and childbirth, and a husband that may have cheated on her.

After they separated, she worked different types of cleaning oriented jobs, because there were so few options for women to work in that age, even if she’d had much of an education. She was also a sex worker to earn money, which in of itself can be very difficult to cope with and lead to a heavier dependency on alcohol.

Sex work, even today, is seen as shameful, even though there has likely never been a time when its so common place with the tens of thousands of women who rely on different forms of sex work to either fully or partially support them financially. From women who sell nude photos of themselves on snapchat to cam models, the porn industry, all the way to full service sex work.

Along with society demonizing sex work, despite the vulnerable nature of the people who do it, they have almost zero protection. If a client becomes violent with you, you can’t go to the police. They’re more likely to arrest you, prosecute you, and put you in jail than to care what a man might’ve done to them. Making sex work illegal means you have to choose between safety and making enough money to live.

Even within the legal forms of sex work, the prejudices are very sexist to ridiculous levels. There was a case where a woman teacher had previously modeled underwear, and she was fired from her position teaching children. Similarly, elsewhere, a male teacher was found to have been an underwear model, and he was praised for being so handsome.

Police have repeatedly shown that they’ll rape sex workers in exchange for not pressing charges, and some police have been found to be running prostitution rings, exploiting vulnerable women. The police know they have power over these people and aren’t afraid to use it.

Mary Ann Nichols died 31 August 1888. She’s thought to be the first victim of the serial killer known as Jack the Ripper.

To this day, sex workers face violence and death, but all society seems capable of doing is making it less and less safe, to where there is nowhere for them to turn should things go badly. And should they try to find more societally acceptable work, their past could ruin their chances. And yet, for many, sex work is the only way for them to survive.

When, as writers, we include sex workers as characters, and especially if we make them victims, it’s important to portray them as human. I don’t believe that every sex worker needs to be portrayed in a positive light, but it’s important to not demonize them for being sex workers.

I’ve included sex workers a lot in my stories. I’ve been a sex worker for nearly ten years in the realm of BDSM, so it’s an area I’m familiar with. I’ve known sex workers who are really awful people, I’ve known some who are wonderful people, and most I’ve known fall somewhere in between because they’re human. We’re all human. We all have faults, skills, make mistakes, and show varying levels of compassion to others.

In Kindly Mrs. Roberts, I’ve portrayed a 1940’s housewife who needs to make money to assist her family financially. It’s a type of work she’s skilled at and enjoys, but this doesn’t make her a bad person.

In 8mm Model and Desperate for Divorce, I’ve portrayed a woman who became a sex worker because it opened up more avenues for financial security than fashion modeling did. In The Exchange, I portray a woman who became a sex worker to earn money for her family, so her more domestic husband could stay at home and raise their children. It gave them the ability to focus on what they were good at rather than be forced into a situation neither would have enjoyed.

In Fear of a Successor Wife, I’ve portrayed several women who are or were sex workers with different experiences in that work. I’ve included a chapter devoted to one character’s beautiful sexual experience with a client. I’ve also included another character who struggles with the trauma she faced at having to endure it to survive while growing up.

Everyone has their own reasons for becoming a sex worker, whether it’s by choice or survival, or whether it’s enjoyed or endured. As writers, we need to express the diversity of experiences of people. And if you have only ever included sex workers as sex objects rather than characters, or have only included them as victims, perhaps examine why it is you do this. Whether it's simply easy to do or having some prejudices you weren’t previously aware of. Self reflecting isn’t a bad thing. Knowing you have them and knowing why we feel something can be helpful when writing, because it helps us to understand others.

If you were to write Mary Ann Nichols as a character in your stories, how would you portray her? What challenges would she have faced? What path would have lead her to where she appears? How would you develop her story?

Fear of a Successor Wife: Behind the Story

8/1/2020

Joan Hudson Series 2 Book 1 - Hadrian Empire 241

After spending the first half of the year writing and developing books for the second Joan Hudson Series, I’d ended up with a book that, to me, was monstrous in size along with four other books to follow. To my friends, I even referred to it as my Monster Book. When I’d reached chapter 15 of 29, it carried the weight of 160,000 words.

As I mentioned in a previous Update Post, I had to make the difficult decision to split the monster book into two. I couldn’t keep track of everything using the process I’d been using. Since then, though, I’ve figured out new ways using new programs to keep everything in line, so work continues on the next, even larger book.

One of the important aspects of this book is that it’s the first published with my special and experimental Story Insight formatting. In this book, you’ll find links you can follow (but it’s not mandatory) to read further stories about certain characters in their present lives, flashbacks to what the characters have experienced, and excerpts from other books in the Greater Hadrian Empire Series.

This is the result of years of desire to tell a more world-building story. Before figuring out this format, I’d written and released several similar styled stories. The first would be Kindly Mrs. Roberts. I wanted to tell the story of how Joan effected a few characters she met in Desperate for Divorce. With Church of Flesh and Fire, I wanted to tell a concurrent story from the perspective of one of her maids, which is how Hazel Intimately came into being. There are even identical scenes in the two books told from the two characters' perspectives.

One of the main characters of Fear of a Successor wife, Carla Levant (as seen on the cover), was originally a character for a warm-up story for a different Joan Hudson book (that will be fully written and released some time in the future, not sure when). However, after writing her, I loved her so much, I worked on expanding her story. This is the story that became the monster book, which was then split into two.

The number of twists and turns involved with the first of the results being this book is astounding. One book planned, gave rise to another book, gave rise to another book, which was too massive to finish as it was, and so was split and the first of which is Fear of a Successor Wife.

Available on Kindle
Or Paperback

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End of July 2020 Update

7/31/2020

It’s difficult to admit some things sometimes when it comes to your work. You don’t want to be seen in a bad light, and have it reflected on your abilities and skills. This being said, the recent release of Fear of a Successor Wife isn’t entirely what I had intended it to be.

Whether it’s with age, the high levels of stress and anxiety due to Covid, I was struggling to keep track of every detail in the monster book I’ve mentioned before. I reached a point where I was halfway through (around 160k words) I couldn’t remember if I’d mentioned some details to reinforce an event that happened in the story. This has never happened to me before, and it was sobering to find a limitation I’d never encountered before.

I wasn’t about to let this stop me. I split the story into two books rather than struggle endlessly with trying to keep track of everything in such a long story. If you’ve read any of the Joan Hudson Series books before, you’ll know I often like to have a warm-up story in the beginning. This gets you comfortable with the lead character before getting into the meat of the story. In 8mm Model, Joan has to fulfill an assassination for the Order she works for. In Desperate for Divorce, there is the somewhat silly Piss Door Caper, where she first meets Bunny, who appears in later stories.

Each of these warm-ups is a complete story that leads to the main plot. It just so happens the warm-up for the monster book was over 60k words long. Now released under the title Fear of a Successor Wife, you get to meet and experience the wonderful Carla Levant, who is one of my favorite characters that I’ve ever written. And guess what? In the next Joan book, you’ll be seeing a lot more of her as the plot continues. It’ll take a while for it to be released because it’s still 100k words and less than half finished.

It was the difficulty in realizing this limitation, as was the decision to release them as separate stories. Since then I’ve been spending time learning some programs to help me keep better track of what information is revealed and where. I’ve already planned out the plot and subplots and Story insights using a flowchart program, and it has become a lot more approachable. Biggest lesson in all this is: Never let a chance to adapt and learn pass you by.

- Claire

Fear of a Successor Wife: Protagonist & World

7/25/2020

Joan Hudson Series 2 Book 1 - Hadrian Empire 241

Joan Hudson; a patient woman of long-suffering and a firm trigger finger.

In the 240s of the Hadrian Empire, men are the breadwinners, and the women are the homemakers. Despite being allowed to pursue degrees in some colleges, women are expected to leave the workplace once they’ve married to take care of the home and raise the children she has with her husband. To society at large, this is the expectation and ideal. Those who still need to work will find only low-level positions as anything higher is given to men.

Born Daisy Lamb, it was from a young age that she aspired to be an officer of the Brennenburg Police Department. Her father, the chief of police, had inspired her with what she saw as a heroic figure upholding the law and delivering criminals to justice. Although her mother always seemed to have a grudge against her, treating her as more a disciplinarian than a caregiver, it was mitigated by her father.

Her life held the promise and hope for a future of breaking down barriers of what women were allowed to do and pursue her own path against societal expectations.

Once Joan graduated, she forewent college to join the police academy. While unorthodox, few would raise a word against her or harass her as they might normally have due to the position of power and influence her father held. She became the first woman officer, and, a few years later, the first woman detective. Her father had paved the way for her and protected her against those who would’ve barred her, but it was her determination and effort that saw her reach these positions.

It was as an officer she also married her high school boyfriend in secret as she feared what her father would say if he knew. While perhaps forward-thinking in regards to his daughter, she worried even he would expect her to quit her position once she was married. Together, they shared a small apartment while he studied his way through school, and she continued in her career, seemingly without limitation.

However, it wasn’t meant to be. After a short career, a traumatic event occurred that changed the trajectory of Joan’s life. The stress of her disappearance caused her father to die of a heart attack. Her mother blamed her for his death and cut her off, and during her long recovery, her husband started an adulterous affair with another woman.

Forced to retire by the new police chief, having lost her beloved father, cut off by her mother, and without the support of her husband, Joan’s life became one of solitary hopelessness. To cope, she turned to alcohol to escape the crippling emotional trauma.

Using the money from her retirement fund and her inheritance from her father, she opened her private detective office, taking on whatever cases would come her way. Years later, the Norean Order would hire her for investigating crimes the police don’t wish to pursue and killing the worst of repeat criminals.

The once hopeful and bright future had become a stale existence in a haze of work and whiskey in a world that won’t accept her independence or otherness except when some have a use for her. Yet, she continues, putting her life on the line for a paycheck.

Available on Kindle
Or Paperback

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Cavern of the Writhing Floor: Character Biography

7/18/2020

Kelsie Copper Series Book 1

Bastion Bora: The Stone Picker's Inn Guard.

From a small town in a since conquered kingdom, the fourth and largest child was born to the farming family, the Estands. Surprised by his size, twice the size his brothers and sister were born at, they named him Bastion, having confidence he would grow to an incredible size. Some townsfolk, including his father, believed he had been blessed by the gods to be a great help to his father on fields in which they raised their crops. Others remember one in a group of mercenaries that passed through their town who stood head and shoulders above the rest.

Whatever his origin, he was a great help to his family on the farm. However, by the time he was eight years old, he was already larger than children years older than him. After returning from a trip to town to sell preserves his mother had prepared, a group of older boys beat him and mocked him. A sensitive boy, he ran from them crying and returned to his mother with a swollen eye, a busted lip, and a bloodied nose.

While his father and brothers mocked him for being weak, his mother took a more proactive stance in what her son now needed. She knew because of his size, boys, even men, would want to fight him to prove their manhood. And so, she taught him how to fight.

After months of her advice and training, she sent him once more to town. Again, the local boys attempted to repeat the beating they gave him before; however, this time, things would be different. While he cried and took injury from their fists, each one was laid out on the ground before he returned home.

By the time he was fourteen, grown men had tried to challenge him, and each of them failed. Over the years, he’d lost his tears and become hardened to the ways of the land. While many sons hated him for his size, many fathers hoped he’d one day take one of their daughters as his bride.

His mother had planned and spoke to many families hoping to gain her favor in arranging a marriage. Bastion’s family found fortune in favors and goods to win her decision. His eldest brother was already set to inherit the family farm, and so winning Bastion would win them a secure future for the survival of their family.

When Bastion was sixteen, his mother had made her decision. The eldest daughter of a wealthy family who was two years younger than Bastion was chosen. Although Bastion didn’t understand everything involved, he obeyed his mother dutifully. A marriage festival was had, they were wed, but there was a problem. When it came to the wedding bed, he found himself revulsed.

For two months, each night, he would try, but each time his stomach would turn, and his genitals would not work as intended. The family became suspicious; they accused Bastion’s family of marrying their daughter to an infertile son. Even Bastion’s mother raged at him, slapping and hitting him for not fulfilling his duty to both their families.

Having brought shame to his mother, he left the area with a traveling merchant who hired him as a guard along their travels. Although the patriarch of the merchant family was hesitant to hire a man like him when he had three young and beautiful daughters, Bastion told his story and inability despite the sorrow it brought so many.

For five years, Bastion stayed with this family and servants as they traveled. Time and again, Bastion proved his loyalty and ability and was placed as the head of their protection. The patriarch even arranged for him to wed their youngest daughter, whose health was frail and infertile, to bring him into the family, knowing she would be safe with him. Bastion left behind his surname of Estand for the Merchant family of Bora,

Although it was a happy and satisfying time of his life to see so much of the lands and travel with a group who respected him and accepted him, it all came to an end in a single night; the caravan was attacked by a large group of bandits.

Despite being so grossly outnumbered, they fought ferociously. Even when the merchant family all laid dead by sword and spear, including his wife, he and the few guards left stood their ground. It was then they saw something both horrifying and grim. A Heimio couple, a man and woman with copper hair and copper eyes, brought a demonic war to the bandits.

Each one of the bandits was slain by the skill of these Heimio and their demonic companions. Bastion had heard tales of their might and magic, but no embellished story could have prepared him for what he saw that night. When all was done, he alone survived of the merchant family.

The Heimio had been following after the bandits for weeks, coming across every devastated homestead and caravan, hoping to catch up and stop them. Tonight, they finally met, but they were too late to stop the final caravan they’d attacked, but they would never bring violence to anyone else again.

After the Heimio helped him bury his friends and family of the Bora caravan, he rewarded them with whatever they wished of their goods and supplies. Once they were gone, he packed what he could and left the rest behind.

For three years he wandered, having spent the last several years nomadic with his chosen family, it felt natural to him now. Occasionally he would guard other families, other merchants as they traveled the dangerous lands.

When he was twenty-four, he’d been traveling on a trade route towards a city Bastion figured he could get new work in. One day, as he traveled the road through a dense forest, he was attacked by a wolfman, a cursed human who was forced to live in the forest as a beast.

Several times he was passed as he fought the creature, but none would help. After a lengthy fight, he was wearing out against the wolf man’s immense strength and stamina. He was injured, bleeding, and struggling to lift his sword. His salvation came in the form of a Heimio man who’d seen his struggle. He summoned a giant lizard with terrible poisoned spines and, with its help, killed the cursed wolfman.

Bastion collapsed and blacked out from his injuries, but when he awoke, he found himself in a room at an inn. For a few weeks, the Heimio named Elward nursed him back to health. He was kind, he was handsome, charming, and Bastion fell in love.

The two talked for hours as Bastion rested, and Elward tended to his injuries. When he was well enough to travel, the two were fast friends and didn’t wish to part. He would teach Bastion how to be a better fighter, how to use different weapons to suit his needs at the moment, and also taught him how to be a proper lover.

For four years, they traveled and adventured together. The dangers against beast and man they fought together, although Elward was always his better. While it was a tumultuous time, they shared it together.

It came to an end after a particularly difficult battle against a cursed man. Despite his size and strength, Bastion was but a man. Within him dwelled no magic in which to aid his battles, and the many shared battles wore on Elward. Over time, his worry over Bastion’s safety grew to be more than he could bear. He’d lost companions and lovers before, the life of a Heimio shared with anyone not to their standard always had a much greater risk of dying. Elward couldn’t bring himself to face that yet again.

Once their injuries had healed, Elward spoke to him. Despite the heartache and sorrow, they parted company. Elward would live another four years to see the War of the Betrayal, but he would die upon that field. In that time, filled with bitterness, Bastion joined a mercenary company that worked for whoever paid them, even if it meant hurting innocent people. His emotional injury became apathy, and as often does, lead to hurting others.

The mercenary company was hired to take part in the great war that was building. The western kingdoms against the eastern kingdoms, or so it seemed. When the orders came to divert their violence to the Heimio who sought to, he couldn’t bring himself to continue. He was branded as a traitor, and should any of his company see him again; they promised he would die.

Lost now, without purpose or reason, he drifted from place to place seeking work. The land seemed barren without the presence of the Heimio. There was none who would fight for the well-being of common people. Wars sprung up, and his home kingdom was ravaged and put to flame. Foreign people to that land would occupy their homes and tend their lands.

Although he’d heard no Heimio survived the battle, for years, he held out hope he would one day see his former lover. He asked any he could for information, but it only ever reaffirmed his fears. When he came to the town of Breeches Rack, he got a drink at an inn. The owner, Gorlan, had just replaced all his tables and chairs at a significant cost because a group of drunken ruffians caused a fight, and every piece of furniture was destroyed. Seeing Bastion’s great size, offered him work. Deciding it was time to settle down, Bastion took his offer.

While he would never have another love, the nomadic nature of many workers would give him an occasional, short term lover.

It wouldn’t be until meeting Kelsie Copper that he felt the excitement of being in the company of a Heimio again, but it would also draw out the emotional wounds he never tried to heal from. When taking her to a place where a possible tunnel to a horrible beast like he once fought alongside his lover, he begged her to leave. She was too good to waste herself on such a place devoid of value. He planned to face the horror on his own, to either prove his worth to the memory of Elward or die and join him in the afterlife, upholding his lover’s ideals.

Kelsie would not be dissuaded. She was Heimio, like his lover. When he returned to the inn, he poured himself a glass of ale, and remembered his time with Elward and wept for the first time since he was a child.

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New Release: Fear of a Successor Wife

7/14/2020

Joan Hudson Series 2 Book 1 - Hadrian Empire 241

On a Saturday afternoon, Joan relaxes at her desk while her new secretary is out shopping. A lot has changed in her life since Penelope, a young woman with a traumatic and violent past, came to live with her. Even with the constant challenge of being embarrassed by Penny’s sexual teasing and the lack of work for the past month, Joan feels strangely satisfied with her life. Together, their dark histories seem distant and far away.

Heralded by the sound of a loud, thunderous roar of an engine, the eccentric Carla Levant arrives at the office. Arrogant, clever, and demanding, Carla makes it known that she’s a wealthy, deviant, and married woman who is certain her husband is trying to get other women pregnant. Were that to happen, a divorce would soon be on its way, and would be the end of her extravagant lifestyle. To protect her interests, she’s more than happy to pay Joan to intimidate, assault, or even kill the women her husband is cheating on her with.

Despite her fears of working for such a woman, Joan agrees to spy on her husband and take photos of his adultery should the opportunity arise. Satisfied, Carla leaves with a final heavy flirtation with Penny. What seems like a routine case, becomes dark and complex, along with Penny’s former life coming back to haunt her in Joan’s absence. The idyllic life Joan enjoyed is threatened in ways she hadn’t expected.

Throughout the story, you’ll also encounter Story Insights that tell the stories of other characters, reveal backgrounds, or contain excerpts from other books in the Hadrian Empire Series. You’ll even be able to read some of Joan’s old casefiles as Penny comes across them in Joan’s absence if you dig deep enough.

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Cavern of the Writhing Floor: Behind The Story

7/4/2020

Kelsie Copper Series Book 1

Old Kelsie Copper Covers

Cavern of the Writhing floor is a Body Horror story with a protagonist found in Kelsie Copper as she traverses a dangerous Fantasy world with monstrosities of all kinds, whether they be part of the natural world, human society, or demonic in origin.

Body Horror is a sub-genre that is devoted to exploring fear through the mutability of the human body. It's a genre that shows how our death isn’t the only danger, but our corporeal form being twisted and warped against our will as we suffer the pain and disgrace of becoming something other than what we were.

It was through this lens Cavern of the Writhing Floor was written. Having the protagonist discover, investigate, and face an enemy that perverts our body's natural processes for their needs and desires.

What I wanted for the fantasy world of Tässonaia is what I want for each of the worlds my stories take place in, and that’s for it to hold a level of realism and history that the reader can immerse themselves into. There is more behind the story than a villain or creature having a laugh at the expense of their victims. Events led to this happening, decisions were made, and the motives behind them matter to those committing them.

Kelsie Copper isn't a new character, nor is this her first story. It's not even her fifth or sixth story. These previous stories for her have been the longest-running series I've ever written, but since most of them were released so many years ago, starting in 2011, I'm hesitant to rerelease them. My approach to storytelling has changed multiple times over the years, and significantly since I'd written them.

Not wanting to be held back by the previous world and history I'd written before, I decided to reboot her. I started by creating the new world with its unique qualities before setting Kelsie Copper down into it. Then I decided what I wanted to keep from the old stories versus what I felt would be better to redevelop.

What has remained the same is her adventurous spirit. She knows she has strengths far greater than the average population and feels compelled to help in situations that exceed their abilities. However, her strengths aren't always enough. People still die, not everyone can be saved, and her body is covered in scars.

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