Queer Fantasy and Weird Tales for the People
The old monk bleeds from lacerations on his face and arms. One side of his thick lenses shows a crack through the center. “Ondir preserve us,” he wails. “This is holy ground!”
The Book of the New Moon Door
There’s a new chapter available on Patreon! If you’re a blog reader, you’ve probably heard my Patreon spiel, but if you’ve got an extra $3 a month, I’d appreciate your support. Otherwise, keep an eye out for this chapter on this website next week.
Prodigal Son
Berend takes a sudden, involuntary breath. Pain digs into his ribs. He kicks at the bedclothes, the ache moving down his legs, and tries to sit up.
The nurse’s hands on his shoulders are firm and heavy. “Be still,” she says. “It’s all right.”
It is most assuredly not all right. At best, there’s a member of the illustrious and unscrupulous Belisia family here to threaten his life, limbs, and everyone he cares about—a dwindling number, these days, and one he can count on one hand, but still. At worst, someone is here to kill him.
“My effects,” he says. Talking moves the pain up underneath his lungs. “Where are my things?” His pistol almost certainly isn’t loaded, and there’s no chance he could lift his saber in this state, but his mysterious visitor doesn’t know that.
“They’re locked away on the lower floor,” the nurse says, pushing him into the bed. “What’s wrong?” Her hand moves to his wrist, gentle but strong as a vise.
A shadow darkens the entrance to Berend’s curtained room. He looks up, his pulse pounding in his ears and under the nurse’s fingers. At least she’s here. There will be a witness.
Continue reading “The Book of the New Moon Door: Part Two, Chapter Four”Does it feel worse to be strangled or to have your soul damaged?
The Book of the New Moon Door
There is a new chapter available on Patreon! For less than the price of a medium cup of black coffee a month, you can read spoilers before all your friends AND get access to exclusive projects.
Questions
Everything hurts.
It’s a sure sign that Berend is alive. He’s never heard of Ondir’s realm being a painful one, though he’d have to ask the Sentinel to be certain. A high, shaky note rings in both ears. Beyond it, muffled voices and footsteps move in and out of his awareness. There is light, also, pressing against the lid of his good eye.
What a beautiful day it will be, he thinks, but when he opens his eye, pain shoots through his skull. The ringing in his ears reaches an agonizing crescendo. He closes both the eye and the empty socket, squeezing them shut, and the pain subsides to a dull throb.
All he can remember is Arden Geray—serial murderer, mad sorcerer, and destroyer of souls—and how Berend shot him in the chest and cut him down. After that, something had slammed into Berend’s body, and he must have lost consciousness. The brightness tells him that it must be broad daylight now, so he’s been out for several hours, at least.
Continue reading “The Book of the New Moon Door: Part Two, Chapter Three”Berend attempts a smile. It hurts. “Tell it to me straight, love,” he says. “How bad is the face now?”
The Book of the New Moon Door
The latest chapter is now available on Patreon! Again, it’s only $3 a month, and you get all chapters a week early plus access to exclusive projects.
If that’s not in your budget, don’t worry, this chapter will be up here on the blog next week.
Fever Ray, “Mercy Street” (Peter Gabriel cover)
Hello again! It’s Monday. I’m happy you’re here.
I’ll have a new chapter of The Book of the New Moon Door up on Patreon tomorrow. I’m working on the next chapter of Journey to the Water, and I should be back on the alternating posting schedule next week! Thank you for being patient with me.
I’m doing a challenge on Instagram that focuses on a WIP (work in progress), and of my several WIPs I chose New Moon Door. I made these portraits on Artbreeder and I’m very proud of them:
I couldn’t put an eyepatch on Berend, so the half-and-half was a compromise. I might make some Beyond the Frost-Cold Sea / Journey to the Water portraits later.
I think that’s it for today. Have an excellent week, and stop by again soon!
Disbelief
Isabel shivers. The water turns cold around her, and a lattice of frost spreads out across the side of the metal tub from Geray’s ghostly hands. She draws her knees up to her chest.
“I didn’t do anything,” she says, and she’s almost sure she’s telling the truth. “You were doing unregulated, experimental black magic in an unstable space, and now you’re surprised something went wrong?”
He sneers. His teeth shine white against the black hole of his mouth. “Fix it.”
Continue reading “The Book of the New Moon Door: Part Two, Chapter Two”She sees it when she closes her eyes—the churning void, the field of stars, the empty expanse. She wonders if she’ll ever stop seeing it.
The Book of the New Moon Door
There’s a new chapter available on Patreon!
Arden Geray
Half an hour later, the constables pull Isabel out of the ruins of Arden Geray’s house. They take Berend and the professor away—to a hospital, she hopes, but her ears still ring and she can’t make out what they’re saying. Beside her, the earth churns and settles as the dead writhe in mindless rage. She can do nothing to quiet them.
The constables don’t notice the subterranean movement in the dark. They place Isabel in an uncovered carriage to take her back to the chapel on the blue field. Geray’s ghost follows.
Continue reading “The Book of the New Moon Door, Part Two: Chapter One”The constables don’t notice the subterranean movement in the dark. They place Isabel in an uncovered carriage to take her back to the chapel on the blue field. Geray’s ghost follows.
The Book of the New Moon Door, Part Two: Chapter One
The Book of the New Moon Door is back! This new chapter is available on Patreon. If you’re not a subscriber, don’t worry, you’ll be able to read this chapter here on the blog next week.
If you’d like to read spoilers before all your friends, you can become a subscriber for only $3 a month. If not, no worries. I appreciate you reading either way!
Space Whales Press 