Song of the Week

Kostia Konstantinoff, “Sand and Water”

Good morning!

This album was a staple of my childhood, and based on the half-remembered image of a violin on the cover and something resembling the names of a couple of tracks, I finally found it again. The internet can be pretty great sometimes.

Normal chapter posting this week: The Book of the New Moon Door on Patreon tomorrow, and Journey to the Water here on Wednesday.

As a bonus, I’ll be posting an old short story (flash fiction, really) on Friday! I figured we could all use a break from the longer projects. Stop back again soon!

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

New Patreon Post/ Journey to the Water Chapter XXXI

Her huge, sunken eyes blinked twice as she gave me a blank stare. “The serpent provides all we need,” she said at last.

Chapter XXXI: Black Desert Night

Eske is just trying to get to the sea, but trouble finds him wherever he goes, this time in the form of a strange person remarkably unperturbed about being fed to a giant serpent. You can read this chapter right now on Patreon (a subscription is only $3 a month), or wait until next week for it to make its appearance here on the blog.

Also, if you’re enjoying what you read here, the best way to support my work, without spending any money at all, is to tell your friends about me! Word-of-mouth is still where I get all my best book recommendations.

The Book of the New Moon Door: Part Two, Chapter Twenty-Four

Barricade

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

Berend watches the window. He shouldn’t; he should be fortifying the doors, maybe figuring out some way to get Warder out of the direct path of danger. The nurse’s stockinged feet touch the ground, and she takes off running up the street. Isabel’s climb is slower, the soles of her boots scraping against the masonry wall and her arms unsteady. Berend checks the knots again. 

The younger nurse approaches the door to the hall, one hand on the pair of shears in her pocket. She puts her ear to the door and listens. 

“One of the doors is broken, but they can’t get through yet,” she says.

Her companion, a woman of about thirty with pale yellow curls escaping her cap, pushes past her and turns the latch. “Not yet. Soon, though.”

“Should we barricade the door in here?” asks the first. “What about the other patients?”

“We can’t just leave them,” argues the second. 

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

Song of the Week

Sufjan Stevens, “Casimir Pulaski Day”

Happy Monday! Sometimes you just need a good, cathartic cry, and if that’s a time you’re experiencing, please enjoy this song.

This week’s Patreon chapter of Journey to the Water will likely be a day or so late, due in equal parts to my poor time management and my husband injuring his back (he’s okay, he just needs to spend a day or so lying flat with an ice pack). The latest chapter of The Book of the New Moon Door will post here at its usual time on Wednesday.

I think that’s all for this week! Take care of yourselves.

New Patreon Post/ The Well Below the Valley, Episode 10

In this episode, Iskandar runs into some trouble for his extracurricular investigations, Kurt and Ellie prepare for a road trip, and Ernest walks into a trap. Thanks for being patient while I worked on getting this episode out! If you’re a subscriber, you can download the annotated PDF on Patreon, and if you’re still making up your mind, you can check out the free preview below the cut. Next month will be the conclusion of the murder mystery portion (Chapter One of the module), and we’ll get going on the cosmic horror. 

Continue reading “New Patreon Post/ The Well Below the Valley, Episode 10” →

Journey to the Water Chapter XXX: The Sea of Dust

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

The desert was called Shunkare in the tongue of the merchants—one I did not yet know, and was unlikely to learn, traveling alone except for my horse—and it was made of dust, fine as silk and permeable as water. Save for the few days of the year when the rains came, the air burned to breathe and carried dust into the lungs, slaying the unwise and unmasked slowly and painfully while it painted the sky in streaks of violet with each rising and setting of the sun. As I set out from the oasis, I could see for miles: endless drifts of fine sand, carved by flooding and dried in place, like a frozen white sea. 

Continue reading “Journey to the Water Chapter XXX: The Sea of Dust” →

New Patreon Post/ The Book of the New Moon Door: Part Two, Chapter Twenty-Four

He’s got nothing against the gods. He fought in one of their names for years. But they take their own sweet time to get around to helping their faithful, and he’d much rather rely on tangible things that work on schedule. Such as a firearm.

The Book of the New Moon Door

The latest chapter of The Book of the New Moon Door, featuring a desperate fight against a horde of zombies, is now available on Patreon.

Song of the Week

Vivir Quintana and Mare Advertencia, “Árboles Bajo El Mar” (from Wakanda Forever)

Good morning! I’m currently playing fetch with my cat while waiting for a huge rainstorm to pass so I can do laundry (too much water overwhelms the city sewer system). I hope you are safe and warm today.

The February edition of the newsletter is going out tomorrow! You can sign up at this link (which is also at the bottom of the blog’s home page). Be sure to check your inbox for a confirmation link after that. The mailer service wants to check if you’re very sure you want to receive the newsletter.

Also tomorrow, the next chapter of The Book of the New Moon Door will be up on Patreon, and Journey to the Water will post here on Wednesday!

The next episode of The Well Below the Valley is probably going to be late (I try to get them out on the first of each month), but I should have it up by the end of the week.

I think that’s all for today. Thanks for being here, and have an excellent week!

The Book of the New Moon Door: Part Two, Chapter Twenty-Three

Walking Dead

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

“You should have predicted this, Sentinel,” Geray muses. He hovers two feet above the floor, as though to emphasize his relative safety and removal from the horde of undead at the door. “Hundreds of thousands of wandering spirits with nowhere to go, and the god of the dead absent. If they were a living mob, they’d have torches and pitchforks. I dare say you’d fare better were that the case.”

Isabel doesn’t have the will to stop herself from putting her hands over her ears. The pressure makes a dull roar that drowns out Geray and the wet, solid blows the walking dead are doing to the whitewashed wooden door. The lock is good iron, and the door itself a single, heavy oak panel, but it won’t hold forever. 

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

New Patreon Post/ Journey to the Water Chapter XXX

As I pressed on, the voice grew louder, and its cries formed a few words I recognized: desert and full moon, sandstorm and devourer—the last a term that Kelebek had used to describe the tempest we had encountered in the southern ocean.

Chapter XXX: The Sea of Dust

Good morning! Eske is off on another adventure, and you can read about it right now on Patreon, or wait until next week when it moves over here.