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

Affliction

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

The body breathes in dry, rattling sobs, forcing air through collapsed lungs and a desiccated throat. It lurches forward blindly, rather like a garden slug, the sheet tangling its legs and covering its sightless face. The one free arm gropes its way forward, long, bruised fingers grasping at nothing. 

Berend draws his pistol, levels the barrel at where he’s pretty sure the back of the corpse’s skull pushes against its shroud, pulls back the hammer, and fires. 

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

Song of the Week

Beth Rowley, “Wretched Body”

Happy Monday! I hope you are well this morning.

This week, I’m working on getting the newsletter out, as well as the next episode of The Well Below the Valley. The latest chapter of The Book of the New Moon Door will be here on the blog on Wednesday, and my normal posting schedule will resume next week! Thank you for being patient with me.

Keep an eye out for a newsletter signup post later this week! A lot of you are already subscribed to this site via WordPress or email, which notifies you every time I post something. The newsletter will be monthly and have more of a general overview of what I’m working on, events I’ll be attending, and publishing news. You can subscribe to either or both! (Or neither, I’m not a cop.)

Thanks for being here, and have an excellent week.

(Another) Minor Scheduling Delay

Hi everyone. I made a note about it at the end of the last chapter I posted, but I was very sick for about three days this week because my insurance made me wait to fill a prescription. I’ve got it now, and I am back to normal! It was just a dumb thing that happened because we can’t have nice things in this country, on account of the horrible old white men who can’t stand the thought of people of color occasionally receiving said nice things. (As a side note, SNRI withdrawal is no joke, and please don’t ever quit your meds cold turkey. I love you and don’t want you to experience it.)

Currently, I’m working on several things:

  • Episode 7 of The Well Below the Valley
  • The newsletter, finally
  • Alternating chapters of Journey to the Water and The Book of the New Moon Door.

Since The Well was already delayed, I want to be sure to get that out on time; the newsletter has been a long time coming as well. Those will both still be done by November 1st. Regular chapters of Journey and New Moon Door will experience a slight hiccup next week, but be back to normal within a week or two. I also plan to use NaNoWriMo to knock out a bunch of chapters and build myself a little backlog.

I’m so sorry this month has been disrupted so many times! Thank you for being patient. I appreciate you.

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).