Author: Madeline Crane

Fantasy writer, tabletop gamer, wearer of hats.

Journey to the Water Chapter XXII: The Tempest

Journey to the Water cover image: three evergreen trees stand on a hillside, shrouded in bluish fog. Subtitle reads: the sequel to Beyond the Frost-Cold Sea.

Table of Contents

We left the shallow seas and the sandy isles the following day, our ship heavy with provisions and our hearts light. We would sail north, Hamilcar said, and in a few short weeks we would find ourselves on the shores of a vast green country, the land that my Khalim had called home. It must have been a gentle land, I thought, one of soft rains and bountiful harvests. My homeland was harsh, and my people scratched out a living among the mountain stones and struggled with one another for everything we had, and it had made me a warrior. I feared I would be too much a stranger in a country that produced healers. 

Continue reading “Journey to the Water Chapter XXII: The Tempest” →

New Patreon Post/ The Book of the New Moon Door: Part Two, Chapter Fifteen

What are you doing, Horst? Trying to prove you’re still useful, even though the world’s falling apart? You’re going to get yourself killed. You’re going to get Isabel killed.

The Book of the New Moon Door

The newest chapter of The Book of the New Moon Door is now available on Patreon! Things are not going well for our protagonists, and they struggle with convincing the authorities that they haven’t just made up the events of the past few days.

You can read this chapter right now on Patreon, or wait until next week, when it will make its appearance here on the blog.

Song of the Week

Black Lab, “This Night”

Good morning! There was a little snow outside my window this morning, and I glared at it until it stopped. Hopefully I have staved it off a little longer.

Nothing out of the ordinary this week, besides the weather: there will be a new chapter of The Book of the New Moon Door up on Patreon tomorrow, and the latest chapter of Journey to the Water will be here on the blog on Wednesday. If you need to catch up on either of those stories, all the previous chapters are collected under the Stories tab above (inside the Menu if you’re on mobile).

This is your semi-regular reminder that blog content will always be free! Also, the ad revenue goes to WordPress and not to me, so adblock away. If you’d like to support me, you can buy a copy of Beyond the Frost-Cold Sea, buy me a coffee on Ko-fi, or become a Patron, where you can read chapters a week early and get access to exclusive projects like The Well Below the Valley. You can also tell your friends about me! In any case, I appreciate you being here and being a reader. It means more than even I have the words to express.

Have an excellent week.

The Book of the New Moon Door: Part Two, Chapter Fourteen

Trouble

The Book of the New Moon Door cover image: A book with yellowing, wrinkled pages lies open on an old wooden desk, with a sprig of lavender lying in the center.

Table of Contents

Dawn breaks over the city by the time they reach the gates. Berend is usually good at keeping track of time, always waking right before his watch is due to start, but the night seems to have passed by in just a few hours. He doesn’t like it. 

Isabel is half a step ahead of him. Though she stops once more at the gate to make sure he’s following, she says nothing. She may have been weeping, silent and stone-faced, but it’s too dark still for Berend to tell. 

We are in trouble. 

Berend doesn’t want to have to be the reasonable one between the pair of them. His hands still itch as he pictures wrapping them around Arden Geray’s ghostly neck. It feels satisfying in his imagination, even though he’s aware that dead spirits don’t work that way. Failing that, he wants to go straight to the university hospital and shake Lucian Warder awake, his injuries be damned. Isabel is supposed to be preventing him from doing that, at least until she’s explained how best to not get himself killed in the process. 

Continue reading “The Book of the New Moon Door: Part Two, Chapter Fourteen” →

New Patreon Post/ Journey to the Water Chapter XXII

Once, I had climbed the side of the great worm as it laid waste to Phyreios. With only a sword and the texture of its filthy hide to aid me, I had reached the crest of its head. If I had completed that feat, I thought, then a rope ladder would be an easy task, even in a tropical storm.

As soon as my feet left the pitching deck, I understood how wrong I had been.

Chapter XXII: The Tempest

Eske and his pirate friends find themselves caught in a storm at sea in the latest chapter! You can read it right now by becoming a Patreon subscriber, or you can wait a week for its appearance here on the blog. Either way, I appreciate you reading!

Song of the Week

Morphine, “You Look Like Rain”

Happy Monday! I hope you’re well this morning.

I’m back to my regular nonsense this week: a new chapter of Journey to the Water will be up on Patreon tomorrow, and the latest chapter of The Book of the New Moon Door will be up here on Wednesday. I’m considering making one of these my NaNoWriMo project, to get ahead and closer to the editing stage. If you have any thoughts about which one you’d like to see get done faster, let me know in the comments below!

I’m also working on a monthly newsletter (finally) and the next episode of The Well Below the Valley.

I appreciate you! Have an excellent week.

New Patreon Post/ The Book of the New Moon Door: Part Two, Chapter Fourteen

He has a growing feeling that if Isabel breaks down, so will he. One of them needs to keep their wits about them.

The Book of the New Moon Door

Hello there! Things are bad and getting worse for Berend and Isabel in the latest chapter of The Book of the New Moon Door, now available on Patreon. You can catch up on all previous chapters under the Stories tab above (in the Menu if you’re on mobile).

Song of the Week

Billie Marten, “Heavy Weather”

Good morning! It’s Monday again.

Bitchcraft Fair happened! I signed 20 books (18 of them for new readers) and handed out over 200 bookmarks. If you’re here from one of those things, welcome! It was so lovely to have the opportunity to talk about my book and meet some awesome people. My table partner, Brooke, did some great Tarot readings and sold quite a few of her beautiful cards. Here is her link.

Tomorrow, I’ll have a new chapter of The Book of the New Moon Door up on Patreon. We’ll be back to the usual posting schedule next week, and I appreciate your patience.

As always, thanks for being here, and have an excellent week.

Today’s the Day! Bitchcraft Fair Milwaukee

Come see us at the Wisconsin Center, third floor, Hall B! Brooke of the Figuratively Speaking Tarot and I will be in Booth #116! There will also be trick-or-treating, costume photos, and concessions, as well as a TON of other makers and mystics for you to meet! More info, directions, and parking can be found here.

The Tarot of the Gates, Chapter One

The Knight of Ships

A tiny clockwork timer chimes with the high, broken tone of a porcelain bell, and Selen removes her new arm from its shallow basin of water. Beneath its dripping, articulated ceramic plates, two roots of living green wood stretch out with a blind will. They find the scar where Selen’s flesh ends, two inches below her elbow on the left side. It doesn’t hurt when they constrict around the stump—some laboratorial sorcery of botanical drugs and interstellar dust—but Selen’s stomach still churns with sudden vertigo, and her nerves prickle as the roots find them and connect. Two more plates snap closed around them, hiding both roots and scars from view.

Continue reading “The Tarot of the Gates, Chapter One” →